Corpus Juris Hungarici. Magyar
Törvénytar. 1836-1868. Evitörénycikkek. Budapest: Franklin Tarsulat, 1896.
Deak, Istvan. The Lawful Revolution. Louis Kossuth and the
Hungarians, 1848-1849. New York: Columbia University
Press, 1979.
JGC revised this file
(http://www.ohiou.edu/~chastain/ac.aprilaw.htm) on Otober 14, 2004
Please E-mail comments or suggestions to chastain@www.ohiou.edu
© 1997, 2004 James Chastain.
APRIL LAWS, HUNGARIAN, 1848 The April Laws completed the
Hungarian reform era's transformation of the feudal Hungarian
kingdom into
a modern constitutional monarchy. As a consequence
of the news of the revolutions in Paris and Vienna, the Hungarian
diet at Pressburg (Bratislava) presented demands for reforms in
March 15. The same day, demonstrators in Pest printed the twelve
demands, intimidating the local civilian and military authorities
and starting the Hungarian revolution of 1848. With the consent
of the court and the state conference the April Laws were worked
out by the diet and approved by the king at Pressburg on April 11.
The April Laws abolished the feudal dependence of peasants
and emancipated serfs and the general sharing of taxation. They
created the first Hungarian constitutional government and
sanctioned Batthyany's government, whose ministers of finances
and defence, called into question the concept that the Habsburg
lands constituted a single (Gesamtmonarchie). The
April Laws reformed suffrage laws and allowed the election of the
Hungarian national assembly in Pest in the summer of 1848. The
April Laws called for liberty of press and regulated the
administration of counties and cities. It defined the national
colors of the red-white-green tricolor and re-established the
usage of the old Hungarian arms of nation. The April Laws enacted
the legal existence of the national guard, which the Pest
revolution spontaneously organized. The thirty-one articles of
the April Laws were the constitutional basis of a modern
Hungarian state, calling for a government responsible to the
parliament, independent in internal affairs within the Habsburg
monarchy, including a separate civil administration, armed forces
and judiciary. But the famous Law III, establishing the sphere
of authority of the new Hungarian government and abolishing the
vice-regal vouncil, the Viennese direction of the Hungarian
treasury and the royal Hungarian court chancellery, was silent
about the unity of the imperial royal army, although allowing the
Hungarian government control over "all military affairs." As a
result of Batthyany's determined action in Vienna the king's
decree of May 7 ordered army units stationed in Hungary to obey
the Hungarian minister of defence. This caused dissention within
the imperial army among those who feared the dissolution of the
army and even the monarchy. Opposing the Hungarian efforts to
incorporate the military border, the court circles and high ranks
in the army encouraged the newly appointed Baron Jellacic, the
Ban of Croatia against the Hungarian revolution, and opposed
Hungarian demands for independent finances and army. Those
demands got their official form in the
Staatsschrift, a memorandum of the Austrian ministry
sent by the king to Archduke Stephen, the Hungarian Palatin.
Contradicting the king's April Laws, the Hungarian national
assembly refused to obey. This caused open armed conflict
between Hungarian and Austrian forces and led to the Hungarian
war of independence.
Aladar Urban
Bibliography