A 18. század végi és a reformkori hatalmi elit rokoni kapcsolati hálózata
The Kinship Network of the Hungarian Elite in Power between the End of the Eighteenth Century and the Hungarian Reform Era in the Early Nineteenth Century

Summary/Abstract: The study examines the kinship network of the highest echelons of the Hungarian elite in the last two decades of the eighteenth century and in the Reform Era until the mid-nineteenth century, that is, the lay dignitaries of real national influence and power, including judges royal, chamberlains (magister tavarnicorum), court chancellors, and chief justices (personalis regiae). In order to generate comparable and analysable data, the author used a network analysis software to quantify the family relationships connecting the dignitaries of the period. The data was then analysed to reconstruct general tendencies and flag interesting and unusual individual cases.The study differentiated between newcomers and those who came from the traditional stock of the powerful elite. It reveals that the elite in power had a tightly knit core whose members always came from the latter group. At the end of the eighteenth century, members of this core were somewhat more closely interrelated with one another than those in the Reform Era. In addition, the study also demonstrates that the number of newly established members of the elite was higher than that in the Reform Era.About half of the newcomers at the end of the eighteenth century were closely related to one another but had loose ties with the aforementioned core group. It is thus justifiable to suggest that they used their family ties already in the process of their upward mobility. The family ties among themselves, however, were not sufficient to establish stronger bonds with the networks of the old elite, which meant that they were unable to integrate into the existing web of power in the long run. At the same time, the rest of the newcomers, both at the end of the eighteenth century and in the Reform Era, entertained closer ties only to the core group coming from the traditional stock. These relationships were often forged after the newcomers’ arrival to the scene and they were only related to one another through their shared connections with the core group. From one generation to another, these individuals – those who rose to their elite positions without the help of family ties – were more successful in establishing strong bonds with members of the old elite and eventually managed to establish their families as integral parts of the traditional core.

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