lemn compact was entered into, which, in addition to other
and less important stipulations, contained the following. It was agreed
that the order of succession to the throne should be hereditary; that
the male line should have the preference; the female not being
excluded; but that the inalienable right of the people to elect their
own sovereign, should never be called in question. Accordingly, in
cases where there is no break in the chain, and the son mounts the
throne which the father has bequeathed to him, certain forms are
enjoined, of which it cannot be said that they are mere idle
ceremonies. The king's title to govern must be solemnly acknowledged by
the states; and oaths are at his accession administered, any refusal to
accept which would lead to his rejection. Moreover there is an article
in this treaty which, in the event of a failure in the royal line,
secures to the nation the right of free and unrestricted choice, and
the right in question was exercised, to its fullest extent, so early as
the beginning of the twelfth century, when the house of Arpad became
extinct, and Charles of Anjou, called to the throne by the free voice
of the people, laid the foundations of a new dynasty.

While they thus consented, as a measure of prudence, to the
establishment among them of an hereditary throne, Arpad's peers were
not willing that it should be filled by an absolute monarch. They
claimed for themselves, and for their children after them, the right of
counselling the prince in every emergency. They stipulated, that
neither their persons nor their property, should be at the prince's
disposal. Military service they were, indeed, bound to pay; that is, it
was their duty to appear in the field when lawfully summoned, and to
defend the country from foreign invasion, or internal revolt. But even
military service, in the advancement of schemes of conquest, the king
could not exact from them; he had no power to lead them across the
border, except with their own consent. Then, again, within the limits
of their respective estates, each noble was independent; while all
situations of general trust and authority under the crown, were claimed
by them as their birth-right. Hence the establishment of the palatinate
in Hungary Proper, of the ban in Croatia and Slavonia, of the Vayvode
in Transylvania, and of the great functionaries, by whatever title
designated, each of whom appears to have enjoyed in his own province,
rather the priv