Erdélyi főispánok a kiegyezés után
Transylvaian Főispáns after the Compromise of 1867

Summary/Abstract: The paper makes an attempt to answer the following questions. Did the Transylvanian Hungarian elite succeed in surviving the changes that came about after 1848? To what ex-tent could they adapt to the new system after the Compromise? From what ranks were főispans elected after 1867? Can we still observe the dominance of aristocracy in their ranks? How a typical főispán career did look like? And last but not least: to what extent were főispáns locals, i.e. connected to the municipality? It is concluded that 1867 was not a watershed in the history of the Hungarian adminis-trative elite as the pre-1848 elite did manage to preserve itself, with the liberal camp gain-ing more ground. In 1861, the majority of officers were members of the latter who rose to power again in 1867. Qualification was not a requirement for promotion, but those who dreamed of an administrative or political career (even though the two was practically inse-parable) usually enrolled to some respected religious grammar school and after vocational training at the Royal Court at Marosvásárhely they got hold of a lawyer‟s degree. The officers can be divided into two main groups: the members of the first one (the less wealthy all belong here) gradually rose in the hierarchy and became officers after a longer administrative training. As this is how they made their living, they also tended to have a longer career and they needed to better adapt to political changes. The 1867 gang had strong local bonds, the majority of officers being embedded in the given municipalities through their estates and family ties. Or if not that, they came usually from the neighboring municipalities or had family ties there as well. All the officers were, without exception, Transylvanians. The role of family connections cannot be overempha-sized when it came to career at the time.

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