Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen |
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The historical term Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen used to denote a group of countries connected to the Kingdom of Hungary by personal union. This complex system of states is sometimes named Archiregnum Hungaricum using a medieval terminology.
Name variants
- Hungarian: Szent István Koronájának Országai – Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen, Szent Korona Országai – Lands of the Holy Crown, Magyar Korona Országai – Lands of the Hungarian Crown, Magyar Szent Korona Országai – Lands of the Hungarian Holy Crown
- Croatian: Zemlje krune Svetog Stjepana – Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen
- German: Länder der heiligen ungarischen Stephanskrone – Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of (Saint) Stephen
- Czech: Země Koruny svatoštěpánské – Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen
- Slovak: Krajiny Svätoštefanskej koruny – Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen, Krajiny uhorskej koruny – Lands of the Hungarian Crown
- Serbian: Земље круне Светoг Стефана / Zemlje krune Svetog Stefana – Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen
Characteristics
The term was widely used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to distinguish the Transleithanian part of the Habsburg Monarchy (later Austria-Hungary) from the Cisleithanian territories. It meant three countries:
- the Kingdom of Hungary (including former Principality of Transylvania)
- the Kingdom of Croatia
- Fiume and its surroundings (separatum sacrae regni coronae adnexum corpus)
While the Diet of Hungary opposed the separation of Transylvania (being an integral part of medieval Hungary), they unsuccessfully demanded to reestablish the historical connections with Dalmatia, Bosnia, and Galicia and Lodomeria. These Cisleithanian provinces were theoretically part of the Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen, according to the historical right. The Habsburg rulers occupied these teritories as "Hungarian kings" alluding to the Árpád-dynasty, but these provinces were attached to Austria not to Hungary.
After the union with Transylvania in 1848 and 1867, the term denoted only the Kingdoms of Hungary and Croatia-Slavonia.
On 29 October 1918 the Croatian Parliament declared the end of the union and joined the State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). At that point the term lost its meaning and its use ceased.