March Constitution (Austria)
The March Constitution, also called Imposed March Constitution or Stadion Constitution (
Hungary
On 7 March 1849 an imperial proclamation issued in the name of emperor Francis Joseph established a united constitution for the empire. According to the proclamation, the traditional territory of the Kingdom of Hungary would be carved up and administered by five separated military districts, while the Principality of Transylvania would be reestablished.[7]
These events represented an existential threat for the Hungarian state, and contributed to the renewal of the Hungarian revolution.
Legitimacy problems of Franz Joseph in Hungary
From a legal point of view, according to the coronation oath, a crowned Hungarian King cannot abdicate the throne during his life. If the king is alive and unable to do his duty as ruler, a regent had to undertake the royal duties. Constitutionally, his uncle Ferdinand remained the legal king of Hungary. If there is no possibility to inherit the throne automatically due to the death of the predecessor king (king Ferdinand was still alive), but the monarch wants to relinquish his throne and appoint another king before his death, technically only one legal solution remained: the parliament had the power to dethrone the king and elect his successor as the new king. Due to the legal and military tensions, the Hungarian parliament did not offer that favor to Franz Joseph. This event gave an excuse to the revolt. "From this time until the collapse of the revolution, Lajos Kossuth (as elected regent-president) became the de facto and de jure ruler of Hungary."[8]
References
- ISBN 9783110176544.
- ^ Mahaffy, Robert Pentland (1908). Francis Joseph I.: His Life and Times. Covent Garden: Duckworth. p. 39.
- ISBN 9783110966299.
- ISBN 9780865164444.
- ISBN 9780880331593.
- ^ Rapport, Mike (2008). 1848: Year of Revolution. Basic Books. p. 369.
- ^ Phillips, Walter Alison (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 918.
- ^ This sentence incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Headlam, James Wycliffe (1911). "Kossuth, Lajos". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 916–918.