A county ( Hungarian : vármegye or megye ; the earlier refers to the counties of the Kingdom of Hungary ) is the name of a type of administrative unit in Hungary .
76-716: Győr county (in Hungarian: Győr (vár)megye ) was an administrative county ( comitatus ) of the Kingdom of Hungary , situated mostly on the right (south) side of the Danube river. Its territory is now part of Hungary , except seven villages on the left side of the Danube which belong to Slovakia . The capital of the county was the city of Győr . Győr county shared borders with the counties Moson , Pozsony , Komárom , Veszprém and Sopron . The rivers Danube, and Rába run through
152-405: A few castles had already existed in the last quarter of the 10th century, implying that the new system of local administration was set up in the reign of Stephen I's father, Grand Prince Géza ( c. 972–997). The monarch appointed a royal official styled comes in contemporary documents at the head of each fortress. A comes was the chief administrator of royal estates attached to
228-419: A number of persons appointed ad hoc from among the present nobles. From the 15th century onwards, permanent jurors were elected from among the nobles of the county. The sedria served as the court of first instance for minor disputes of the nobles and as the appeal instance for village courts and patrimonial courts ( sedes dominialis ). From the beginning of their existence, the noble judges were
304-427: A result, by royal decrees of 1267, 1290, and 1298, the king could only confirm that the royal counties had turned into noble ones. Nobles (mostly former royal servant families) became quasi-rulers in the counties. The change from a royal to a noble county, however, took place at different times in each county. In the 15th century, the borders of the counties stabilised and basically remained unchanged until 1920. Between
380-412: A series of wars against the "oligarchs" lasting up to the 1320s. The monarch also succeeded in both acquiring a number of castles and increasing the territory of the royal domain, thus a new network of castle districts emerged. Most of the counties and the castle districts were distributed among the great officers of the realm in the following period as honours attached to their dignity. For instance,
456-590: Is first attested as a proper name from 1269, and as a title from around 1282. The Hungarian word ispán is connected with the term župan ('head of a župa ' ) in the Croatian and modern Slovak , and to the synonymous Old Church Slavonic expression, županъ . Accordingly, the title seems to be a Slavic loanword in Hungarian. However, Dorota Dolovai sees a direct borrowing problematic from phonological perspective and also András Róna-Tas says that
532-803: Is sometimes used in English. Latin: processus / reambulatio , Hungarian: (szolgabírói) járás , Slovak: slúžnovský obvod/slúžnovský okres , German: Stuhlbezirk A Typical county in Hungary are made up of several districts. The headquarters of the districts were usually located in small towns. Latin: comes (supremus) , Hungarian: főispán , Slovak: hlavný župan , German: Obergespan Latin: congregatio generali , Hungarian: közgyűlés , Slovak: generálna kongregácia / stoličné zhromaždenie , German: Komitatsgeneralversammlung Its decrees and decisions are binding on all county officials. The county regulations were enacted by
608-578: Is still used in present-day Slavic languages, i.e. in Slovak (as medza ), in Slovenian (as meja ), in Serbo-Croatian (as međa , међа ), in a similar sense, and seems to have meant, initially, the border of a county in the Hungarian language. Hungarian has another word ( mezsgye ) of the same origin meaning borderland. The Hungarian word ispán (county head) is derived from
684-488: The bans , the highest-ranking royal officials in that province. The earliest "perpetual ispánates " emerged around the same time: the voivodes were also the ispáns of Fehér County from around 1200, the vice- palatines were the heads of Pest County from the 1230s, and the archbishops of Esztergom held the office of ispán of Esztergom County from 1270. Large territories of the Kingdom of Hungary were put under
760-585: The Austrian Habsburgs established a military dictatorship in the Kingdom of Hungary and the counties were turned into simple state administration entities and authorities. A provisional centralised administration started to be created by the Austrians in February 1849, Alexander Bach issued a decree on provisional organisation of the Kingdom of Hungary in early August 1849 and a regulation on
836-585: The Carpathian Basin in 895. The first counties were probably the counties situated in present-day northern Pannonia (Transdanubia); they arose before or around 1000. The exact time of the creation of many other counties is disputed, many of them, however, arose not later than during the rule of King Stephen I (1000/01–1038). Initially there were also several small frontier counties (Latin: marchiae ), established for military purposes only (e. g. comitatus of Bolondus), which however ceased to exist in
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#1732802403392912-465: The noble judges (see below), and the courts of the servientes regis - the so-called sedes iudiciaria or sedria - developed into the county court (the Latin name remained sedria ). The sedria meetings were led by the county head, later de facto by his deputy (see below). Until the 15th century, the county head's co-judges were his deputy county head , the (usually four) noble judges , and
988-490: The vice-ispáns ( Hungarian : alispán , Latin : vicecomes and Slovak : podžupan ) from the 13th century. Although the vice- ispáns took over more and more functions from their principals, the ispáns or rather, according to their new title, the lord-lieutenants of counties ( Hungarian : főispán , Latin : supremus comes ) remained the leading officials of county administration. The heads of two counties, Pozsony and Temes were even included among
1064-423: The "barons of the realm", along with the palatine and other dignitaries. On the other hand, some of these high-ranking officials and some of the prelates were ex officio ispáns of certain counties, including Esztergom , Fehér and Pest until the 18th or 19th centuries. Between the middle of the 15th century and the 18th century, neither was unusual. Another type of perpetual ispánate , namely
1140-418: The 13th-14th century onwards, the deputy county heads , and not the county head himself, were the real administrators of the county. This development was emphasised by the fact that the county heads were also higher dignitaries of the state or of the court at the same time ( palatine , treasurer , etc.), so that they did not have much time for the management of the county. The deputy county head ' s role
1216-436: The 14th century when royal counties were transformed into noble ones. Initially, there were also some small special castle districts, which ceased to exist in the 13th century. Each county was the responsibility of a county head , whose seat was a castle – a quasi-capital of the county. The county head was the representative of the king , the judge, and the chief law enforcement officer in his respective territory. He collected
1292-402: The 1840s (with an exception in 1785-1790), the official language of county administration was Latin . In 1840, the deputy county head ( alispán , Ger. Vicegespann or Vizegespan ) was described as "the personage of the most importance in the county", having duties similar to an English sheriff but also presiding over the county court of justice. (The Obergespann , theoretically his superior,
1368-538: The 1870 Act, and other types of territorial municipalities (3 in Hungary proper and 18 in Transylvania), including privileged districts, the so-called seats of the Székely Land and Transylvanian Saxons and others. Thus, the total number of municipal entities was 175 under direct control of the central Hungarian government, of which about a third was a county. The main effect of the 1870 Municipalities Act
1444-497: The Kingdom of Hungary proper, and the town and district of Rijeka declared autonomous. In 1869, the counties lost the jurisdiction powers (the courts) as royal courts were organized. Modernization of the counties was then realized in two steps. First, an 1870 act of parliament unified the legal status and internal administrative structures of the various municipal (self-governing) administrative units, abolishing almost all historical privileges. However, this Municipalities Act retained
1520-630: The Ottomans captured the city Győr, however an Habsburg-Hungarian army reconquered it in 1598. The other parts of Győr County were liberated from Ottoman rule in the 1680s. In 1920 the Treaty of Trianon assigned a very small part of the territory of the county to Czechoslovakia . The rest stayed in Hungary and merged with the eastern part of Moson county and a very small part of Pozsony county to form Győr-Moson-Pozsony county in 1923. The county became abolished after World War II and Győr-Moson county
1596-598: The Southern Slavic word župan ( жупан ), which was used by the Slavs living in the Carpathian Basin before the arrival of the Hungarians and stood for the head of various territorial units. Title župan was also used as a ruling title in medieval Serbia. For centuries, the official written language of the Kingdom of Hungary was Latin. The Latin word for the English and Hungarian county, comitatus ,
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#17328024033921672-499: The administrative system of the Kingdom of Hungary followed on October 24. Under this regulation: Under a regulation on provisional political administration of the Kingdom of Hungary issued on September 13, 1850, the territory was divided into the above 5 districts (called civil districts now), which in turn consisted of counties and the counties of districts. The territories of some counties changed, some counties were newly created. The districts were led by main district county heads ,
1748-540: The authority of powerful landlords by the time when King Andrew III , the last member of the Árpád dynasty died on January 14, 1301. For instance, Matthew Csák ruled over 14 counties in the wider region of the river Váh ( Hungarian : Vág , now Slovakia ), Ladislaus Kán administered Transylvania, and members of the Kőszegi family ruled in Transdanubia. Royal power was only restored by King Charles I in
1824-475: The basic administrative units of the kingdom, called counties , and from the 13th century the latter function became dominant. The ispáns were appointed and dismissed by either the monarchs or a high-ranking royal official responsible for the administration of a larger territorial unit within the kingdom. They fulfilled administrative, judicial and military functions in one or more counties. Heads of counties were often represented locally by their deputies,
1900-455: The castle and his retinue. They were grouped into units called "hundreds", each supervised by a "centurion". Centurions were always appointed by the comes from among the castle warriors. Counts were also responsible for collecting taxes, tolls and customs. They only forwarded two thirds of the income deriving from these levies to the king, the income's remaining part was due to them. The grant of castle lands to individuals began to erodate
1976-511: The castle under his command. Consequently, he was the principal of all who owned services to the head of that castle. Most comes (about 50 out of a total number of 72 by the 13th century) also had authority over the population of the wider region surrounding the castle, including those who lived in their own properties or in lands owned by other individuals or ecclesiastic bodies. Each district of this type formed an administrative unit with "well defined boundaries" (Pál Engel) known under
2052-529: The counties by a chairman (German: Vorstand ) and the districts by noble judges (German: Stuhlrichter ). Only slight changes were made to the previous arrangement. Each district was formally turned to an administrative territory of a governorship department (since July 1, 1860: administrative territory of the branche-offices of the governorship ). Some county territories were slightly modified and they were led by commissioners . The only responsibilities of these state counties were political administration and
2128-425: The counties corresponded to the traditional one, but in 1786 many of them were merged and the counties became pure units of state administration – the main county heads were abolished, the county clerks became employees of the state, the courts became the responsibility of the state etc. The capitals of the districts were chosen so as to be situated right in the middle of the district. The number of processus districts
2204-687: The county assembly constituted the county's local legislation. The county legislation was subordinate only to the laws of the parliament. Latin: iudices nobilium / iudlium , Hungarian (pl) szolgabírák , Slovak (pl) slúžni , German Schöffen / Stuhlrichter (later Stuhlrichter only) iurati assessores / iurassores , Hungarian: esküdtek , Slovak: súdni prísažní , German Geschworene Latin: viceiudex , Hungarian: alszolgabírák , Slovak: podslúžni , German: Unterstuhlrichter(?) . Hungarian: törvényhatósági jogú város , Slovak: municipálne mesto , German: Munizipalstadt/ Munizipium The Hungarians settled in
2280-419: The county could not influence the appointment of the deputy county head, but in the early 15th century, they managed to put through a rule that only a noble from the same county can become the deputy county head (see below). Initially, in the 13th century, influence of nobles made itself felt only in the judicial sphere . The judges of the servientes regis - the so-called iudices servientium - developed into
2356-404: The county head. Originally, this body was created and served only as a judicial body, which comprised the judge, the sedria members and 8 elected noble jurors , and which was usually convened once a year. At the same time, the inquisitio communis (hearing of a witness) enabled the nobles to influence the proceedings conducted at the royal curia . Gradually, judicial affairs were excluded from
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2432-456: The county was composed of the following religious communities: Total: In 1910, the county had a population of 136,295 people and was composed of the following linguistic communities: Total: According to the census of 1910, the county was composed of the following religious communities: Total: In the early 20th century, the subdivisions of Győr county were: Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary) This article deals with counties in
2508-489: The county, but more and more noblemen received the ius gladii , that is the same right in their own estates, although they "were required to deliver the convict" to the ispán' s men (Pál Engel). Furthermore, magnates were granted the right to judge noblemen living in their own household, although only with the previous authorization by the ispán in 1486. As of January 1, 2023, the Parliament of Hungary brought back
2584-471: The county, except for inhabitants of free royal towns ( liberae regiae civitate ), mining towns, free districts, and at the time of the Anjou kings also of royal castle domains. Until 1486, some members of the supreme nobility were exempt from the jurisdiction of the county, too. The most important body of self-government of the county was the congregatio generalis , i. e. the county assembly convened and led by
2660-639: The county. Its area was 1534 km around 1910. The Győr comitatus arose as one of the first comitatus of the Kingdom of Hungary . Its southern part was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1543. The Ottoman Empire meant a constant threat to the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary therefore the Habsburg kings divided the kingdom's remaining territory into captaincies . The Captaincy of Győr was located between lake Balaton and river Danube. In 1594,
2736-551: The course of the Revolution of 1848 by legal articles III–V and XVI/ 1848. In 1785, king Joseph II decided to abolish the counties as entities of noble autonomy (self-governance) and tried to introduce a new system of absolutist centralized state administration in the Kingdom of Hungary. The kingdom, including Croatia and Slavonia , was primarily divided into 10 newly created military/administrative districts, each of which consisted of four to seven counties. The territory of
2812-455: The deputy county head's appointment had to be approved by the nobles (congregatio generalis -see below), so that the deputy county head definitively became the de facto leader of the county. The county head, appointed by the king from the oligarchs (supreme nobility), was only the formal representative of the county. The county authorities were very powerful and administered all spheres of public life. They were responsible for all inhabitants of
2888-657: The early 16th century and the late 17th century, however, most of the counties ceased to exist once they became part of the Ottoman Empire (the Turks ) or of the Principality of Transylvania . After the final defeat of the Turks in 1718, the three southern counties Temesiensis , Torontaliensis and Krassoviensis created the special administrative district Banatus Temesiensis (Temeswar Banate ). This district
2964-523: The economic functions of castle districts already in the 12th century. King Andrew II (1205–1235) was the first monarch to distribute large parcels among his followers, which "undermined the social and military organisation upon which the prestige of the counts" rested (Pál Engel). Royal monopoly of holding castles was abolished under King Béla IV (1235–1270). Hundreds of new castles were built in this period by noblemen. "The [ispáns] of counties shall not render judicial sentences concerning
3040-442: The estates attached to them were important economic units. Initially, a significant part of all lands in the kingdom (maybe as much as two thirds thereof) belonged to a royal castle. However, not all parcels in the "castle lands" was part of the royal domain (the monarchs' private property). On the other hand, huge woodlands owned by the monarch and his kin remained outside of the system of castle districts. Officials responsible for
3116-495: The estates of the servientes except in cases pertaining to coinage and tithes ." Golden Bull of 1222 Counts were also entitled to render justice in their districts. Heads of a county had jurisdiction over all the inhabitants of that county, but otherwise the counts' jurisdiction only covered the commoners who lived in the estates attached to the castle. Each comes appointed his own judicial deputy to assist him. However, more and more landowners received immunity from
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3192-420: The form župan is not historically documented in the Slovak and the form used until the 15th century was exactly špán ( župan is most likely only a late borrowing introduced by the Štúr 's generation). Ondruš does not exclude the possibility of borrowing from South Slavic languages instead of Slovak , but according to Pukanec Croatian and Slovenian are less probable candidates since they preserved
3268-488: The form župan . The office had already existed under Stephen I (997–1038) at the latest, who was crowned the first king of Hungary in 1000 or 1001. The new king introduced an administrative system based on fortresses. Most of the fortresses were "simple earthworks crowned by a wooden wall and surrounded by a ditch and bank" (Pál Engel) in the period. Stone castles were only erected at Esztergom , Székesfehérvár and Veszprém . Archaeological evidence shows that
3344-469: The former Kingdom of Hungary from the 10th century until the Treaty of Trianon of 1920. For lists of individual counties, see: Administrative divisions of the Kingdom of Hungary . For counties of Hungary since 1950, see: Counties of Hungary . The Latin word comitatus is derived from the word comes , which originally stood for companion or retinue member. In the Early and High Middle Ages ,
3420-536: The group of counties where the office of ispán was hereditary in noble families. Election of the vice- ispáns by the assembly of the counties was enacted in 1723, although the noblemen could only choose among four candidates presented by the lord-lieutenant. Following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 , vice- ispáns officially took over the responsibility for the management of the whole county administration, but lord-lieutenants presided
3496-538: The historical names and officials of the municipalities and did not touch their territories in general, so the territory and names of the counties still largely corresponded to those of the pre-1848 period. However, in addition to the 65 counties (49 in Hungary proper, 8 in Transylvania, and 8 in Croatia), there were 89 cities with municipal rights, including historical royal privileged towns and others, authorised by
3572-472: The jurisdiction of the comes from the monarchs. Furthermore, a rebellion of the so-called " royal servants " (in fact landowners directly subjected to the sovereign) forced King Andrew II to issue a charter known as the Golden Bull of 1222 which exempted them of the jurisdiction of the ispáns . The development of towns set further limits to the counts' authority, since at least 20 settlements received
3648-599: The king, but a number of prelates (from the 15th century also seculars ) received the "eternal county leadership" of their diocese . Note that the formal title comes was also borne by some dignitaries of the Court (e. g. comes curiae ) and other nobles in the Early Middle Ages , and then by other members of middle nobility in the Late Middle Ages , and it did not mean count in these cases. From
3724-450: The kings Charles Robert and Louis I . From 1385 onwards, the counties were sending representatives to meetings of the Diet of the Kingdom of Hungary and they played a role in the collection and setting of taxes. But only in the early 15th century, the nobles managed to put through a rule that only a noble from the same county can become the deputy county head and a co-judge. From 1504 onwards
3800-406: The link between the king and the nobility. As a rule, the county heads (from the 15th /16th century onwards called main county head ) were the supreme feudal lords of the county. From the beginning of the 14th century, the county head was at the same time the castellan of the respective county castle in 13 counties. People became county heads for a limited period of time and could be recalled by
3876-469: The management of taxes. The courts were the responsibility of other entities. The situation prevailing before 1848 was restored in October 1860, both in terms of borders and in terms of noble autonomy. In 1863, however, the noble autonomy was replaced by an absolutist system of state administration again. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 , in 1868 Transylvania was definitively reunited with
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#17328024033923952-400: The management of the forested lands, the "royal keepers" never equalled the heads of castle districts in rank, although they were also styled ispán in the 12th century. The royal woodlands developed into counties by the end of the next century. The " castle folk ", that is peasants living in a village of a castle district, provided with food, wine, weapons or other goods the comes of
4028-399: The meetings of the congregatio generalis, which thus turned from a judicial body into an administrative body. All nobles of the county participated in person in the meetings of the congregatio and the congregatio decided on all important political, military and economic affairs. As from the beginning of the 15th century, the territory of each county was divided into processus each of which
4104-429: The military of the kingdom was for centuries based on troops raised in the castle districts, each commanded by the comes under his own banner. He was assisted by the castellan and other officers recruited among the " castle warriors ". Castle warriors were commoners who owned military service to the comes as the local representative of royal power in regard to their landholding in the castle district. Castles and
4180-532: The most important representative or supervising bodies of the counties. Both offices were abolished with the introduction of the Soviet system of local administration in Hungary in 1950. "If a warrior, scorning the just judgment of his ispán appeals to the king, seeking to prove the injustice of the ispán , he will owe ten pensae of gold to the ispán . " Laws of King Stephen I II:8 The Hungarian word
4256-405: The name of vármegye or "county". Some of the castles and accordingly the counties around them were named after their first counts. For instance, both the fortress of Hont and Hont County received the name of a knight of foreign origin , a staunch supporter of Stephen I. Each castle district served multiple purposes, accordingly their comes also fulfilled several tasks. First of all,
4332-555: The number of municipalities significantly and made counties the only territorial units by abolishing privileged districts, seats and other forms. 73 counties were organized in place of the 65 counties and 21 other units. However, historical identities were highly considered; in Hungary proper only minor corrections were made. Bigger changes came to Transylvania where the Székely Land and the Saxons' Land were completely "countified". At
4408-399: The omission of the vowel u during the procedure ( župan > špan > išpan ) suggests an intermediate (non-Slavic) language. Several Slavists have a different opinion. Slovak Slavist Šimon Ondruš explains the intermediate form špán as derived from žьpan by the extinction of Proto-Slavic ь and phonetic assimilation of the first letter. This is supported also by the fact that
4484-553: The palatines William Drugeth and Nicholas Kont were also ispáns of five counties under Kings Charles I and Louis I , respectively. In this period, all income from an honour was due to its holder. County courts were headed by the ispáns or by their deputies. First of all, ispáns were responsible for enforcing the judgements of the county courts, although in his absence the court appointed one or two noblemen to fulfill this task. Initially, county courts were only authorized to pass capital punishment against criminals caught in
4560-435: The real representatives of county autonomy. They were elected by the congregatio generalis (see below) and were not only judges, but also political administrators of their respective processus districts (see below). They formed the core of the newly arising class of squires . Later, the counties even turned to political entities representing the noble autonomy (noble self-government). This evolution started especially under
4636-472: The realm, were ex officio members of the royal council. An advisory body, laws were enacted with the consent of the royal council, as the first king emphasized. The heads of the Transylvanian counties were controlled by a great official of the realm, the voivode , instead of the monarch from the 12th century. Similarly, the ispáns of some Slavonian counties were appointed and dismissed by
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#17328024033924712-418: The right to self-government under King Béla IV (1235–1270). Counties were developing from an institute of royal administration into a body of self-government of the local noblemen in the course of the 13th century, but the ispán , "a royal appointee" (Erik Fügedi) remained their heads. Accordingly, the ispáns supervised the activities of the judges elected by the community of local noblemen with
4788-637: The same time the total number of municipal towns was reduced from 89 to 30. After 1876 only minor changes were made to the system until 1918. The number of processus districts steadily increased over the next decades, growing from around 400 up to some 450 by 1918. The powers and responsibilities of the counties were constantly decreased and were transferred to ministries in different fields of special administration, like responsibilities in terms of construction, veterinary medicine and (overall) financial management. The ministries controlled these through their own regional and local agencies. The main county body
4864-428: The self-governments of the counties was reinstated in 1790. Only the duty to support the king militarily, the territorial unit and formally also the title of county head remained from the former royal counties. The new county was a self-governing (autonomous) entity of lower gentry. It was led by the county head ( comes ), appointed by the king, and by his deputy, appointed by the county head. These two persons were
4940-471: The task to "revise existing property rights" (Pál Engel) in many counties in Transdanubia in 1267. The existence of the institution of elected "judges of the nobles" is documented in more and more counties from the 1280s. Legislation prescribed that the ispán was to pass judgement with four judges elected by the local nobility from among their number. Heads of the counties, along with the prelates of
5016-487: The taxes and payments in kind made by the subjects to the king, gave two thirds of them to the king and kept the rest. His castle had special fortifications and was able to withstand even long-term sieges. The sources mention deputy county heads in the 12th century for the first time. The royal county consisted of castle districts . In the late 13th century, the royal counties gradually turned into highly autonomous noble counties. The reasons for this development were: As
5092-422: The title comes was a noble title used in various meanings, in the Kingdom of Hungary especially (but not exclusively) in the meaning "county head". The Hungarian word megye is likely derived from Southern Slavic medja ( međa , међа ) meaning approximately territorial border. The Slavic word in turn is related to Latin medius (middle) through a common Indo-European root. The original word
5168-415: Was administered by one of the noble judges (there were therefore usually four in each county). The aim was to simplify the administration. The number of processus was increasing from the 18th century onwards, because the functions of the counties were increasing too. The processus, in turn, consisted of 2 to 6 circuits (Latin: circuli ), each of which was the responsibility of a deputy noble judge . Until
5244-439: Was also an important function. The entire article was created based on one source: Isp%C3%A1n The ispán or count ( Hungarian : ispán , Latin : comes or comes parochialis , and Slovak : župan ), deriving from title of župan , was the leader of a castle district (a fortress and the royal lands attached to it) in the Kingdom of Hungary from the early 11th century. Most of them were also heads of
5320-462: Was created instead. In 1950, Sopron county merged with Győr-Moson county to form Győr-Sopron county. This county was renamed to Győr-Moson-Sopron in 1990. The part of the county north of the river Danube is now in Slovakia, Trnava Region . In 1900, the county had a population of 126,188 people and was composed of the following linguistic communities: Total: According to the census of 1900,
5396-593: Was dissolved again in 1779, but its southernmost part remained part of the Military Frontier ( Confiniaria militaria ) till the late 19th century. The bodies of the new counties considerably helped to defend the interests of lower and middle nobility with respect to the oligarchs , who were often the de facto rulers of the kingdom, and with respect to the absolutistic efforts of the Habsburg kings. The counties as noble institutions were abolished only in
5472-466: Was reduced. The official language became German rather than Latin. The districts were headed by a commissioner appointed by the Austrian emperor , who was simultaneously also the king of Hungary . After the death of Emperor Joseph II, however, facing strong resistance against any kind of absolutist centralization in Hungary, the new king Leopold II had to repeal all the reforms and the old system of
5548-400: Was that it was no longer only the nobles and other privileged groups who could lead the municipalities (see Functioning). The system of districts (historically, in Latin, processus ) as administrative sub-divisions was affirmed in counties and extended to other areas. The second step of modernization was realized in another act of parliament in 1876. This Municipal Territories Act reduced
5624-518: Was the municipal committee , comprising 50% virilists (persons paying the highest direct taxes), and 50% elected persons fulfilling the prescribed census and ex officio members ( deputy county head , main notary and others). The county was led by the main county head , who was a government official subordinated to the Ministry of the Interior of the Kingdom of Hungary. The deputy county head
5700-407: Was to administer the county during the county head ' s absence. Originally, the deputy county head was a personal employee of the king and thus the main person through which the king exercised influence in the county. At the same time, the deputy was the castellan of the castle of the county head or an economic officer (Latin: provisor ) of the properties of the same. Initially, the nobles of
5776-567: Was usually a nobleman, who would commonly be in Vienna or Pesth and thus have little time for local affairs.) Furthermore, the Vicegespann presided over the county assembly, which had as late as 1840 a long list of powers, ranging from police regulations to tax, to improvements on bridges and roads. In 1849, in the course of and after the defeat of the Magyars in the 1848-1849 Revolution ,
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