Oldal 249 [249]
The Felsőbüki Nagy family 247
West, while on the other hand, the resources of the Kingdom of
Hungary were inadeguate to attain full independence. Therefore, the
concluding Treaty of Szatmär (1711), later approved by King Charles
IH (1711-1741, as emperor Charles VI), stabilized the position of the
Hungarian estates - more and more an anachronism in the age of
absolutism. The diet, the parliament of Hungary, regained control
over taxation, and noble elites (aristocracy and gentry, in contrast
to the masses of petty nobility) did not have to pay tax, though they
might offer the ruler voluntary subsidia. The rulers of Hungary were
not any longer elected at the diet, but their coronation oath and the
diploma inaugurale issued before their coronation were a result of
bargaining with the diet, so the essential contractual nature of their
rule was conserved to a significant extent. The estates of Hungary
preserved the monopoly of regional administration as well as signifi¬
cant rights in national administration and jurisdiction throughout
the eighteenth century.
The viability of this compromise was amply demonstrated by the
War of the Austrian Succession, when, unlike Bohemia, Hungary
stayed loyal to Queen Maria Theresa (1740-1780, later empress,
1745-1780). As a consequence, Hungary was left out of the reforms
initiated by Count Haugwitz, that drew closer the ties of the Aus¬
trian and Czech provinces, and introduced regular taxation for the
nobility and the clergy. This historical Sonderweg of Hungary, its
special path within the Habsburg Monarchy, gradually deviated from
that of the western provinces, conserving an increasingly outdated
dualism of king and estates, which the estates redefined in modern
terms by the 1790s, as they came to call their rights and privileges the
‘constitution’ of Hungary.’ As we know, this Sonderweg led finally to
the establishment of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1867.
The special status of the Kingdom of Hungary among the kingdoms
and provinces of the Habsburg monarchy became more accentuated
in the second half of the eighteenth century, when, to Maria Theresa’s
growing dissatisfaction, the diet of Hungary rejected her proposals
for noble taxation. Joseph II (1780-1790) was not crowned king of
Hungary, so that he would not be bound to take a coronation oath
and sign a diploma inaugurale. Following a decade characterized by
his short-lived radical reforms, in 1790 the estates of Hungary made
an attempt to re-structure politics and acquire positions comparable
3 Szijartd 2019.