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250 István M. Szijártó
From the county offices, the careers of several members of the
Felsőbüki Nagy family lead upwards. Chapter 2 by Tamás Szemethy
(Istvan Felsébüki Nagy's scope for action) investigates the roles of
patron-client relations in this upward social mobility. The chapter
takes the relationship between Istvan Fels6biiki Nagy and Palatines
Prince Pál Esterházy and Count Miklós Pálffy as a starting point.
The palatine was the highest dignitary of the Kingdom of Hungary.
Chairman of the upper house of the diet, he was regarded as the
intermediary between the king and the nation. He was chosen by
the diet from four candidates proposed by the ruler, two of whom
had to be Catholic and two Protestant. By the eighteenth century,
the palatine’s position enjoyed only a shadow of its former power,
and yet the palatine, as president of the Council of Lieutenancy and
of the Court of Appeals (Tabula Septemviralis), remained the most
prominent of the king’s officers in Hungary. As vicepalatinus, Istvan
Felsébuki Nagy was the first among the palatine’s clients, an eminent
jurist, filling an important position both as vice chairman at the
Royal Court of Justice and vice speaker in the lower house of the diet.
Tamas Szemethy sketches the process by which the all-important
seventeenth-century relationship between the dominus and his servi¬
tor was transformed into the looser relationship between the patron
and his client in the eighteenth century. Szemethy dismisses the myth
that vicepalatinus Istvan Felsöbüki Nagy was awarded the title of a
baron, i.e. he was elevated into the aristocracy. Nevertheless, the first
great member of the Felsöbüki Nagy family proved to be successful
in securing a place for his family in the elite of Sopron county and
even among the families that could send members to serve the ruler
in Vienna. He bequeathed his unwavering loyalty, his significant
landholdings, as well as the benevolent attitude of his patrons to his
scions. All these were crucial factors in their future careers.
The next two chapters trace the careers of further members of the
Felsöbüki Nagy family through positions held in the Royal Court of
Justice (in Pest) and the Chancellery (in Vienna). But in both of these
chapters, the scope of research will be opened considerably. Chapter 3
is a fully fledged social history of the Royal Court of Justice. Richard
Sebök investigates the careers of three members of the Felsöbüki
Nagy family: vicepalatinus Istvan Felsöbüki Nagy, septemvir Pal
Felsöbüki Nagy and personalis Jözsef Felsöbüki Nagy (Members
ofthe Felsöbüki Nagy family and the Royal Court of Justice in the
eighteenth century and in the first half of the nineteenth). In this