County and Gentry in 18th-century Hungary

Abstract

In a quantitative study, the promotion of officials in seven counties of the Kingdom of Hungary is investigated. In the 18th century, some noble office-holders of humbler origins seem to have met difficulties being elected to the office of ordinarius judex nobilium, the lowest of the really important positions, while the most elevated gentry families did not even bother to serve in the county administration – or if so, then only for that of the ordinarius vicecomes, the leading office-holder. We can even get a glimpse of signs of professionalization among the county officials. An important fact is that the gate was open for some of the leading officials the counties to be appointed by the king to offices with nationwide authority, what testifies for an important link of the central royal bureaucracy and the county administration, the two rival elites of the age.

Keywords

• gentry
• county
• office-holding
• careers
• elite
• professionalization