Editing Franz Joseph I of Austria (section)

====Constitutional and legitimacy problems in Hungary====

On 7 December 1848, the [[Diet of Hungary]] formally refused to acknowledge the title of the new king, "as without the knowledge and consent of the diet no one could sit on the Hungarian throne", and called the nation to arms.<ref name=phillips/> While in most Western European countries (like France and the United Kingdom) the monarch's reign [[The king is dead, long live the king!|began immediately upon the death of their predecessor]], in Hungary the coronation was indispensable; if it were not properly executed, the kingdom remained "[[interregnum|orphaned]]".

Even during the long personal union between the Kingdom of Hungary and other Habsburg ruled areas, the Habsburg monarchs had to be crowned as [[King of Hungary]] in order to promulgate laws there or exercise royal prerogatives in the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary.<ref>{{cite book|last=Yonge|first=Charlotte|title=A Book of Golden Deeds Of all Times and all Lands|publisher=Blackie and Son|location=London, Glasgow and Bombay|year=1867|chapter=The Crown of St. Stephen|chapter-url=http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/yonge/deeds/crown.html|access-date=21 August 2008}}</ref><ref name="review1">{{cite web|url=http://www.ce-review.org/00/1/nemes1.html|title=Central Europe Review&nbsp;– Hungary: The Holy Crown|last=Nemes|first=Paul|date=10 January 2000|access-date=26 September 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517110819/http://www.ce-review.org/00/1/nemes1.html|archive-date=17 May 2019|url-status=usurped}}</ref><ref>An account of this service, written by Count Miklos Banffy, a witness, may be read at [http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/royalcello/vpost?id=2646769&trail=15 The Last Habsburg Coronation: Budapest, 1916]. From [http://www.royaltymonarchy.com/ Theodore's Royalty and Monarchy Website].</ref> From a legal point of view, according to the coronation oath, a crowned Hungarian king could not relinquish the Hungarian throne during his life; if the king was alive and unable to do his duty as ruler, a governor (or regent, as they would be called in English) had to assume the royal duties. Constitutionally, Franz Joseph's uncle Ferdinand was still the legal [[king of Hungary]]. If there was no possibility to inherit the throne automatically due to the death of the predecessor king (since King Ferdinand was still alive), but the monarch wanted 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 a new king. Due to the legal and military tensions, the Hungarian parliament did not grant Franz Joseph that favour. This event gave to the revolt an excuse of legality. Actually, 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.<ref name=phillips/>