The Diet of Hungary[1] (Hungarian: Országgyűlés) was a legislative institution in the medieval kingdom of Hungary from the 1290s,[2] and in its successor states, Royal Hungary and the Habsburg kingdom of Hungary throughout the Early Modern period. The name of the legislative body was originally "Parlamentum" during the Middle Ages, the "Diet" expression gained mostly in the Early Modern period.[3] It convened at regular intervals with interruptions during the period of 1527 to 1918, and again until 1946.
In 1608, an English style(two houses) parliament(estate's assembly) was enacted as the Royal Hungarian Diet, dividing the main board and the lower board (the board of envoys). The members of the main board ( "Upper House", similar as the " House of Lords" in England) were the high nobles and high priests (archbishops and bishops), by birth or by office. The Lower House (similar as the "House of Commons" in England) was attended by representatives of the common nobility, clergy and civil order: elected representatives of the noble county, delegates of the free royal cities and representatives of the lower Church representatives.[4]
Approximately 10% of the total voting age population could vote for the elected delegates of the lower board (5% county nobility, 5% residents of free royal cities). The election of the noble delegates (1-1 delegate from each county) took place in the county delegate elections, after a long, noisy courtier campaign, at the county hall. Delegates had issues from county assemblies about voting in exact things.
The parliament consisted of about 500 people in the 17th–18th centuries
The articles of the 1790 diet set out that the diet should meet at least once every 3 years, but, since the diet was called by the Habsburg monarchy, this promise was not kept on several occasions thereafter. As a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, it was reconstituted in 1867.
The Latin term Natio Hungarica ("Hungarian nation") was used to designate the political elite which had participation in the diet, consisting of the nobility, the Catholic clergy, and a few enfranchised burghers,[5][6] regardless of language or ethnicity.[7] Natio Hungarica was a geographic, institutional and juridico-political category.[8]
The democratic character of the Hungarian parliament was reestablished with the fall of the Iron Curtain and the end of the communist dictatorship in 1989. Today's parliament is still called the Országgyűlés, as in royal times, but is called the 'National Assembly' to distance itself from the historical royal diet.
^András Gergely, Gábor Máthé: The Hungarian state: thousand years in Europe (published in 2000)
^Elemér Hantos: The Magna Carta Of The English And Of The Hungarian Constitution (1904)
^Cecil Marcus Knatchbull-Hugessen Brabourne (4th Baron): The political evolution of the Hungarian nation: (Volume I. in 1908)
^1608. évi (k. u.) I. törvénycikk * elősorolása annak, hogy „karoknak” és „rendeknek” kiket kell nevezni és hogy a közönséges országgyüléseken kiknek legyen helye és szavazata[Article I of the Act of 1608 (k. u.) * listing who should be called "faculties" and "orders" and who should have a seat and vote in ordinary national assemblies].https://net.jogtar.hu/ezer-ev-torveny?docid=60800201.TV&searchUrl=/ezer-ev-torvenyei%3Fpagenum%3D16
^John M. Merriman, J. M. Winter, Europe 1789 to 1914: encyclopedia of the age of industry and empire, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006, p. 140, ISBN 978-0-684-31359-7
^Tadayuki Hayashi, Hiroshi Fukuda, Regions in Central and Eastern Europe: past and present, Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University, 2007, p. 158, ISBN 978-4-938637-43-9
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