Counties of Hungary (1000–1920)

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.

Latin: processus / reambulatio, Hungarian: (szolgabírói) járás, Slovak: slúžnovský obvod/slúžnovský okres, German: Stuhlbezirk A Typical county in Hungary are made up of several districts.

Latin: comes (supremus), Hungarian: főispán, Slovak: hlavný župan, German: Obergespan Latin: congregatio generali, Hungarian: közgyűlés, Slovak: generálna kongregácia / stoličné zhromaždenie, German: Komitatsgeneralversammlung

The county head was the representative of the king, the judge, and the chief law enforcement officer in his respective territory.

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 districts were headed by a commissioner appointed by the Austrian emperor, who was simultaneously also the king of Hungary.

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.

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.

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).

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).

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.

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 kings also of royal castle domains.

At the same time, the inquisitio communis (hearing of a witness) enabled the nobles to influence the proceedings conducted at the royal curia.

The processus, in turn, consisted of 2 to 6 circuits (Latin: circuli), each of which was the responsibility of a deputy noble judge.

[1] (The Obergespann, theoretically his superior, 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.

[2] In 1849, in the course of and after the defeat of the Magyars in the 1848-1849 Revolution, 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 the administrative system of the Kingdom of Hungary followed on 24 October.

After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, in 1868 Transylvania was definitively reunited with the Kingdom of Hungary proper, and the town and district of Rijeka declared autonomous.

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 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 system of districts (historically, in Latin, processus) as administrative sub-divisions was affirmed in counties and extended to other areas.

However, historical identities were highly considered; in Hungary proper only minor corrections were made.

The main county body 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).