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Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary)
Encyclopedia
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
and in Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
from the 10th century until the present day.
This article only deals with the period before the Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...
of 1920. For lists of the individual counties see Administrative divisions of the Kingdom of Hungary
Administrative divisions of the Kingdom of Hungary
The following lists show the administrative divisions of the lands belonging to the Hungarian crown at selected points of time. The names are given in the main official language used in the Kingdom at the times in question....
. For counties of Hungary since 1950 see Counties of Hungary
Counties of Hungary
Hungary is subdivided administratively into 20 regions which are the 19 counties and the capital city : Budapest...
.
History
The Hungarians settled in the Carpathian Basin in 895. The first counties were probably the counties situated in present-day northern PannoniaPannonia
Pannonia was an ancient province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia....
(Transdanubia) - they arose before 1000 or around 1000. The exact time of the creation of many other counties is disputed, many of them, however, arose not later than under the rule of Stephen I of Hungary. 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 the 14th century when royal counties were transformed to noble ones. Initially, there were also some small special castle districts, which ceased in the 13th century.
Functioning
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 kingMonarch
A monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...
, the judge, and the supreme law observance supervisor on his respective territory. He collected the fees and payments in kind made by the subjects for the king, gave two thirds of them to the king and kept the rest. His castle had special fortification and was able to withstand even long-term besieges. The sources mention deputy county heads in the 12th century for the first time.
The royal county consisted of castle districts.
History
In the late 13th century, the royal counties gradually turned into noble counties. The reasons for this development were:- The arrival of new hospites (foreign settlers in the Kingdom Hungary, who were allowed to apply their own foreign law in their settlements; esp. Germans and esp. after 1242) considerably restricted the real powers of the county heads, because the hospites were outside his jurisdiction
- At the end of the 12th century, but especially in the early 13th century under King Andrew IIAndrew II of HungaryAndrew II the Jerosolimitan was King of Hungary and Croatia . He was the younger son of King Béla III of Hungary, who invested him with the government of the Principality of Halych...
, large parts of royal territory (i. e. of the kingdom) was donated to the so-called "royal servants" (in the 9th - 12th century members of certain professions, esp. craftsmen, who were settled in special villages and served the king with their respective skills). - In the 13th century, the royal servants managed to co-ordinate their activities in order to increase their own powers at the expense of those of the county heads (see e. g. The Golden Bull of Hungary of 1222) and thus became nobles - servientes regis.
As a result, by royal decrees of 1267, 1290, and 1298, the king could only confirm the fact that the royal counties 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, was accomplished at different times in the particular counties.
In the 15th century, the borders of the counties stabilised and basically remained unchanged till 1920. Between the early 16th century and the late 17th century, however, most of the counties ceased to exist, because they became part of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
(the Turks
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
) or of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
. After the final defeat of the Turks in 1718, the three southern counties Temes
Temes
Temes was the name of an administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary. Its territory is currently in southwestern Romania and northern Serbia...
iensis, Torontaliensis
Torontál
Torontál was the name of administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary. Its territory is presently in northern Serbia , western Romania and southern Hungary...
and Krassoviensis
Krassó-Szörény
Krassó-Szörény was the name of an administrative county of the historic Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently mostly located in south-western Romania, with one small part which is located in Serbia. The capital of the county was Lugoj...
created the special administrative district Banatus Temesiensis (Hungarian: Temesi Bánság). This district was dissolved again in 1779, but its southernmost part remained part of the Military Frontier
Military Frontier
The Military Frontier was a borderland of Habsburg Austria and later the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, which acted as the cordon sanitaire against incursions from the Ottoman Empire...
(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
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
, who were often the de-facto rulers of the kingdom, and with respect to the absolutistic efforts of the Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
kings.
The counties as noble institutions were abolished only in the course of the Revolution of 1848 by legal articles III - V and XVI/ 1848.
Transitory period (1785 - 1790)
In 1785, king Joseph IIJoseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...
decided to abolish the counties as entities of noble autonomy (self-governance) and introduced a new system of state administration in the Kingdom of Hungary. The kingdom including Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
and Slavonia
Slavonia
Slavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia...
was primarily divided into 10 newly created military/administrative districts (Nitra
Nitra
Nitra is a city in western Slovakia, situated at the foot of Zobor Mountain in the valley of the river Nitra. With a population of about 83,572, it is the fifth largest city in Slovakia. Nitra is also one of the oldest cities in Slovakia and the country's earliest political and cultural center...
, Banská Bystrica
Banská Bystrica
Banská Bystrica is a key city in central Slovakia located on the Hron River in a long and wide valley encircled by the mountain chains of the Low Tatras, the Veľká Fatra, and the Kremnica Mountains. With 81,281 inhabitants, Banská Bystrica is the sixth most populous municipality in Slovakia...
, Košice
Košice
Košice is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary...
, Győr
Gyor
-Climate:-Main sights:The ancient core of the city is Káptalan Hill at the confluence of three rivers: the Danube, Rába and Rábca. Püspökvár, the residence of Győr’s bishops can be easily recognised by its incomplete tower. Győr’s oldest buildings are the 13th-century dwelling tower and the...
, Pest
Pest (city)
Pest is the eastern, mostly flat part of Budapest, Hungary, comprising about two thirds of the city's territory. It is divided from Buda, the other part of Budapest, by the Danube River. Among its most notable parts are the Inner City, including the Hungarian Parliament, Heroes' Square and...
, Mukacheve
Mukacheve
Mukachevo or Mukacheve is a city located in the valley of the Latorica river in the Zakarpattia Oblast , in southwestern Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Mukachivskyi Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast...
etc.), each of which consisted of 4 to 7 counties. The territory of the counties corresponded to the traditional one, but in 1786 many of them were merged and the counties became pure units of state administration - 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 was reduced. The official language was German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
(instead of Latin). The districts were headed by a commissioner appointed by the Austrian emperor
Emperor
An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife or a woman who rules in her own right...
(who was the king of the Kingdom of Hungary at the same time). In 1790, however, forcing a strong resistance against any kind of modernisation in Hungary, the king had to cancel the entire reform and the old system was renewed.
Functioning
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 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 lord
Lord
Lord is a title with various meanings. It can denote a prince or a feudal superior . The title today is mostly used in connection with the peerage of the United Kingdom or its predecessor countries, although some users of the title do not themselves hold peerages, and use it 'by courtesy'...
s of the county. From the beginning of the 14th century, the county head was at the same time the castellan
Castellan
A castellan was the governor or captain of a castle. The word stems from the Latin Castellanus, derived from castellum "castle". Also known as a constable.-Duties:...
of the respective county castle in 13 counties. People became county heads for a limited period of time and could be recalled by the king, but a number of prelate
Prelate
A prelate is a high-ranking member of the clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin prælatus, the past participle of præferre, which means "carry before", "be set above or over" or "prefer"; hence, a prelate is one set over others.-Related...
s (from the 15th century also seculars) received the "eternal county leadership" of their diocese
Diocese
A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...
.
Note that the formal title comes was also borne by some dignitaries of the Court
Court
A court is a form of tribunal, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law...
(e. g. comes curiae) and other nobles in the Early Middle Ages
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...
, and then by other members of middle nobility in the Late Middle Ages
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th to the 16th century . The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern era ....
, and it did not mean count
Count
A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...
in these cases.
From 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 (Kingdom of Hungary)
Treasurer (Kingdom of Hungary)
The treasurer or in full title main royal treasurer was the supreme economic officer in the Kingdom of Hungary till 1848/1918.The name is derived from the Slavic word tovor The treasurer (Latin: magister tavernicorum, Hungarian: tárnok(mester), Slovak: taverník, German: Schatzmeister) or in full...
, etc.), so that they did not have much time for the management of the county. The deputy county head 's role 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
Castellan
A castellan was the governor or captain of a castle. The word stems from the Latin Castellanus, derived from castellum "castle". Also known as a constable.-Duties:...
of the castle of the county head or an economic officer (Latin: provisor) of the properties of the same. Initially, the nobles of 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 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 a number of persons appointed ad hoc
Ad hoc
Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning "for this". It generally signifies a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalizable, and not intended to be able to be adapted to other purposes. Compare A priori....
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
Court of first instance
A court of first instance is a trial court of original or primary jurisdiction.Specific courts called the Court of First Instance include:* European Court of First Instance, of the European Union* Court of First Instance...
for minor disputes of the nobles and as the appeal
Appeal
An appeal is a petition for review of a case that has been decided by a court of law. The petition is made to a higher court for the purpose of overturning the lower court's decision....
instance for village courts and patrimonial courts (sedes dominialis).
From the beginning of their existence, the noble judges were 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 squire
Squire
The English word squire is a shortened version of the word Esquire, from the Old French , itself derived from the Late Latin , in medieval or Old English a scutifer. The Classical Latin equivalent was , "arms bearer"...
s.
Later, the counties even turned to political entities representing the noble autonomy (noble self-government). This evolution started especially under 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 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 oligarch
Oligarch
Oligarch may refer to:* A member of an oligarchy, a form of government* Business oligarch* Russian oligarch...
s (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 the county, except for inhabitants of free royal towns (liberae regiae civitate), mining towns, free districts, and at the time of the Anjou
Anjou
Anjou is a former county , duchy and province centred on the city of Angers in the lower Loire Valley of western France. It corresponds largely to the present-day département of Maine-et-Loire...
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 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
Curia
A curia in early Roman times was a subdivision of the people, i.e. more or less a tribe, and with a metonymy it came to mean also the meeting place where the tribe discussed its affairs...
. Gradually, judicial affairs were excluded from 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
Processus (Kingdom of Hungary)
The processus was the name of the lowest-level administrative unit in the Kingdom of Hungary between the 15th century and 1918.The counties in the Kingdom of Hungary were composed of processus, till 1848 led by noble judges...
each of which 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 the 1840s (with an exception in 1785-1790), the official language of county administration was Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
. 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 susperior, 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.
State counties (1849 - 1860)
In 1849, in the course of and after the defeat of the Magyars in the 1848-1849 Revolution, the AustriaAustria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
s established a military dictatorship
Dictatorship
A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...
in the Kingdom of Hungary and the counties were turned into simple state administration entities and authorities.
1st provisional arrangement (1849 - 1850)
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 the administrative system of the Kingdom of Hungary followed on October 24. Under this regulation:- Croatia-Slavonia, the Military frontier, Voivodina and the Temes-Banate were separated from the Kingdom of Hungary (which did not include Transylvania at that time) and directly subordinated to Vienna
- the remaining territory of the Kingdom of Hungary was divided into 5 military districts (in present-day Slovakia: BratislavaBratislavaBratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
, KošiceKošiceKošice is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary...
, in the remaining territory: SopronSopronIn 1910 Sopron had 33,932 inhabitants . Religions: 64.1% Roman Catholic, 27.8% Lutheran, 6.6% Jewish, 1.2% Calvinist, 0.3% other. In 2001 the city had 56,125 inhabitants...
, PestPest (city)Pest is the eastern, mostly flat part of Budapest, Hungary, comprising about two thirds of the city's territory. It is divided from Buda, the other part of Budapest, by the Danube River. Among its most notable parts are the Inner City, including the Hungarian Parliament, Heroes' Square and...
-BudaBudaFor detailed information see: History of Buda CastleBuda is the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest on the west bank of the Danube. The name Buda takes its name from the name of Bleda the Hun ruler, whose name is also Buda in Hungarian.Buda comprises about one-third of Budapest's...
, OradeaOradeaOradea is the capital city of Bihor County, in the Crișana region of north-western Romania. The city has a population of 204,477, according to the 2009 estimates. The wider Oradea metropolitan area has a total population of 245,832.-Geography:...
) led by generals appointed by the emperor, which in turn were divided into civil districts (around 4 in each military district), the civil districts were divided into counties (with their previous borders) and the counties into districts. German became the official language.
2nd provisional arrangement (so-called Geringer Provisional Arrangement; September 13, 1850 - January 18, 1853)
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, the counties by a chairman (German:Vorstand) and the districts by noble judges (German: Stuhlrichter)."Definitive" arrangement (January 19, 1853 - October 20, 1860)
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 the management of taxes. The courts were the responsibility of other entities.Transitory period (1860 - 1867)
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.History
After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, in 1868 TransylvaniaTransylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
was definitely reunited to the Kingdom of Hungary proper, and the town and district of Rijeka
Rijeka
Rijeka is the principal seaport and the third largest city in Croatia . It is located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 128,735 inhabitants...
declared autonomous. In 1869, the counties lost the jurisdiction powers (the courts) as Royal Courts were organized. The modernization of counties was realized in two steps then.
First, in 1870 an Act of Parliament unified legal status and internal administrative structures of different municipal (self-governing) administrative units abolishing almost all historical privileges this way. However, this Municipalities Act kept historical names of municipalities and their officials 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. But counties were not the only type of municipalities. In fact, the number of counties was 49 in Hungary proper, 8 in Transylvania and 8 in Croatia, making a total of 65. Other types of territorial municipalities numbered 3 in Hungary proper and 18 in Transylvania, including privilaged districts, so called seats of the Székely Land
Székely Land
The Székely Land or Szekler Land refers to the territories inhabited mainly by the Székely, a Hungarian-speaking ethnic group from eastern Transylvania...
and Transylvanian Saxons
Transylvanian Saxons
The Transylvanian Saxons are a people of German ethnicity who settled in Transylvania from the 12th century onwards.The colonization of Transylvania by Germans was begun by King Géza II of Hungary . For decades, the main task of the German settlers was to defend the southeastern border of the...
and others. In addition, there were 89 cities with municipal rights, including historical royal privilaged towns and others, authorised by the 1870 Act. Thus the total number of municipal entities was 175 under direct control of the central Hungarian government, of which about every third was named county.
The main effect of the 1870 Municipalities Act was above all that it was not only the nobles and other privileged groups anymore who led 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 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 65 counties and 21 other units. However, historical identities were highly considered, in Hungary proper only minor corrections were made. The bigger changes came to Transylvania where the Székely Land and the Saxons' Land was complitely "countified". At the same time the total number of municipal towns was reduced from 89 to 30.
After 1876 only minor corrections were made to the system which existed until 1918. The number of processus districts was steadily increasing in 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.
Functioning
The main county body was the municipal committee comprising 50% virilists (persons paying the highest direct taxes), and the other 50% elected persons fulfilling the prescribed censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
and ex officio members (deputy county head, main notary
Civil law notary
Civil-law notaries, or Latin notaries, are lawyers of noncontentious private civil law who draft, take, and record legal instruments for private parties, provide legal advice and give attendance in person, and are vested as public officers with the authentication power of the State...
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 was a very important function as well.
Origin of the name
The LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
word comitatus is derived from the word comes, which originally stood for companion or retinue member. In the Early and High Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, 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 is still used in present-day Slavic languages, i.e. in Slovak
Slovak language
Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
(as medza), in Slovenian
Slovenian language
Slovene or Slovenian is a South Slavic language spoken by approximately 2.5 million speakers worldwide, the majority of whom live in Slovenia. It is the first language of about 1.85 million people and is one of the 23 official and working languages of the European Union...
(as meja), in Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
and Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
(as međa, међа), in similar sense, and seems to have meant rather the border of a county initially in the Hungarian language, too. Hungarian has another word (mezsgye) of the same origin meaning borderland.
The Hungarian word ispán (county head) is derived from the Southern Slavic word župan
Zupan
Żupan was a long garment, always lined, worn by almost all males of the noble social class in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, typical male attire from the beginning of the 16th to half of the 18th century, still surviving as a part of the Polishnational dress.- Derivation :The name żupan has...
(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.
Comitatus vs. county
The official written language of the Kingdom of Hungary was Latin for centuries. The Latin word for the English and Hungarian county, "comitatus" is sometimes used in English.Names in various languages
County:- Royal county: LatinLatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
parochia / provincia / compagus civitatis / comitatus /mega (and other names), in later HungarianHungarian languageHungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
: vármegye/ megye / várispánság, in later SlovakSlovak languageSlovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
: (kráľovský) komitát / župa / hradské španstvo, in later GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
(Burg-)Komitat / (Burg-)Gespanschaft / (rarely) Ispanschaft. Note that some Hungarian historians distinguish between the functions of a vármegye (led by a comes comitatus) and those of a várispánság (led by a comes civitatis), usually arguing that the administrative unit called vármegye sometimes included several military units called várispánság. - Noble county and later: Latin: comitatus (no other form from the 13th century onwards), Hungarian: vármegye / megye (in the middle ages both, later mainly vármegye, from 1949 exclusively megye), Slovak: stolica / župa (modernised county župa only), German: Gespanschaft / Komitat / (rarely) Grafschaft (modernised county usually Gespanschaft), ,
Processus (district): Latin: processus / reambulatio, Hungarian: (szolgabírói) járás, Slovak: slúžnovský obvod/slúžnovský okres, German: Stuhlbezirk
County head:
- Royal county: Latin: comes parochialis / comes civitatis / comes comitatus, in later Hungarian: várispán / vármegyei ispán / megyésispán, in later Slovak: hradský špán / župan, in later German: Burggespan / Gespan
- Noble county: Latin: comes, Hungarian: ispán, Slavic languagesSlavic languagesThe Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
: župan, German: Gespan
Main county head: Latin: comes (supremus), Hungarian: főispán, Slovak: hlavný župan, German: Obergespan
Deputy county head:
- royal county: mentioned as comes castri / castellani by the then Latin sources.
- noble county and later: Latin: comes curialis / vicecomes, Hungarian: alispán / vicispán, Slovak: podžupan / vicišpán, in German: Untergespan / Vizegespan
General Assembly: Latin congregatio generalis, Hungarian: közgyűlés, Slovak: generálna kongregácia / stoličné zhromaždenie, German: Komitatsgeneralversammlung
Noble judges: Latin: iudices nobilium / iudlium, Hungarian (pl) szolgabírák, Slovak (pl) slúžni, German Schöffen / Stuhlrichter (later Stuhlrichter only)
Jurors: Latin: iurati assessores / iurassores, Hungarian: esküdtek, Slovak: súdni prísažní, German Geschworene
Deputy noble judges: Latin: viceiudex, Hungarian: alszolgabírák, Slovak: podslúžni, German: Unterstuhlrichter(?).
Municipal town: Hungarian:törvényhatósági jogú város, Slovak: municipálne mesto , German: Munizipalstadt/ Munizipium