Personal union

A personal union is the combination by which two or more different states have the same monarch while their boundaries, their laws and their interests remain distinct.[1][2] It should not be confused with a federation which is internationally considered a single state. Nor is it to be confused with dynastic union, where the union can be under a dynasty.

Personal unions can arise for very different reasons, ranging from coincidence (a princess who is already married to a king becomes queen regnant, and their child inherits the crown of both countries) to virtual annexation (where a personal union sometimes was seen as a means of preventing uprisings). They can also be codified (i.e., the constitutions of the states clearly express that they shall share the same person as head of state) or non-codified, in which case they can easily be broken (e.g., by the death of the monarch when the two states have different succession laws).

Because presidents of republics are ordinarily chosen from within the citizens of the state in question, personal unions are almost entirely a phenomenon of monarchies, the unique exception in modern times being the Principality of Andorra in which one of the two co-princes is the President of France, while the other is a Roman Catholic bishop. Sometimes the term dual monarchy is used to signify a personal union between two monarchies.

There is a somewhat grey area between personal unions and federations, and the first has regularly grown into the second.

The only personal unions currently in existence are the partial union of France and Andorra, and the sixteen Commonwealth realms.

Contents

Andorra

Aragon, Crown of

In 1162 Alfonso II of Aragon was the first person to bear the titles of King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona, ruling what was called later Crown of Aragon. James I of Aragon later created and added the Kingdom of Majorca and the Kingdom of Valencia to the Crown. Later, Charles of Ghent — Charles I of Spain, Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire— would join Aragon and Castile in a personal union that would become Spain.

Bohemia

Brandenburg

Brazil

Commonwealth realms

The conception of a personal union was suggested to keep the Irish Free State as a Commonwealth Realm.[3]

The phrase personal union appears in some discussion about the early Commonwealth of Nations,[4] though its application to Commonwealth was rebutted by others.[5]

Congo Free State

Croatia (disputed)

Main articles: Pacta conventa (Croatia) and History of Croatia (1091-1526)

Personal union theory

According to a theory, Kingdom of Croatia[6] and Kingdom of Hungary formed a personal union of two kingdoms in 1102, united under the Hungarian king.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] In c.1102, when the Croatian dynasty died out, the Croats joined the Hungarians in a personal union, but the Croatian State kept its political individuality with its ban and its assembly.[16] King Coloman established the personal union of the Kingdom of Croatia and the Kingdom of Hungary by an agreement called Pacta conventa.[6][15] After King Coloman was crowned as a Croatian king in Biograd, Croatian nobility retained strong powers.[17] Although, the precise time and terms of Pacta Conventa later became a matter of dispute; nonetheless there was at least a non-written agreement that regulated the relations between Hungary and Croatia in approximately the same way.[18]

In the union with Hungary, institutions of separate Croatian statehood were maintained through the Sabor (an assembly of Croatian nobles) and the ban (viceroy). In addition, the Croatian nobles retained their lands and titles.[6][19] Coloman retained the institution of the Sabor and relieved the Croatians of taxes on their land.[6] Coloman's successors continued to crown themselves as Kings of Croatia separately in Biograd na Moru until the time of Bela IV.[20] In the 14th century a new term arose to describe the collection of de jure independent states under the rule of the Hungarian King: Archiregnum Hungaricum (Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen).[21]

Medieval Hungary and Croatia were (in terms of public international law) allied by means of personal union until the Battle of Mohács in 1526. On January 1, 1527, the Croatian nobles at Cetin unanimously elected Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, as their king, and confirmed the succession to him and his heirs.[22] However, officially the Hungarian-Croatian state existed until the beginning of the 20th century and the Treaty of Trianon.[13][14][15]

Hungarian occupation theory

According to another theory, Croatia was subjugated and incorporated into Hungary.[23] The alleged document of the personal union, the so-called Pacta Conventa is most likely a forgery from centuries later.[17][20][24][25][26][27][28]

Matjaž Klemenčič and Mitja Žagar claim that the Pacta Conventa, the alleged document under which Croatians became vassals of Hungarians never existed, but the story about it was important for the Croatian position in the Habsburg Empire during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the Croats claimed their right for statehood on the basis of that agreement.[17] Although Croatia ceased to exist as an independent state when King Coloman of Hungary defeated the last Croatian king, the Croatian nobility retained some powers.[17]

According to the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, the Croats enjoyed their own medieval kingdom for several centuries before a long period of Hungarian rule from 1102 to 1918.[29] Most Croats lived under Hungarian kings until 1526 and under Habsburg monarchs thereafter;[29] the Croats of Bosnia and Hercegovina and Slavonia lived under Ottoman rule for several hundred years; and the Croats of Dalmatia passed from Hungarian to Venetian to Austrian rule.[29] With the help of Roman Catholic clerics, the Croats maintained a strong collective memory of their former statehood despite their centuries of foreign domination.[29]

Analysis, conclusion

The actual nature of the relationship is inexplicable in modern terms because it varied from time to time.[30] Sometimes Croatia acted as an independent agent and at other times as a vassal of Hungary.[30] However, Croatia retained a large degree of internal independence.[30] The degree of Croatian autonomy fluctuated throughout the centuries as did its borders.[31]

Denmark

Egypt

England

Finland

France

Note: The point at issue in the War of the Spanish Succession was the fear that the succession to the Spanish throne dictated by Spanish law, which would devolve on Louis, le Grand Dauphin — already heir to the throne of France — would create a personal union that would upset the European balance of power (France had the most powerful military in Europe at the time, and Spain the largest empire).

Germany

The term personal union was also used to describe the bureaucratic device used in Nazi Germany to combine high-level state positions with equivalent positions in the National Socialist Party.[32] The same bureaucratic device is also used by other governments, such as in the People's Republic of China. It is similar to the persona designata scheme by which judicial officers can be appointed to non-judicial or quasi-judicial functions under common law systems.

Great Britain

Hanover

Holy Roman Empire

Hungary

Iceland

Ireland

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Navarre

The Netherlands

Norway

Poland

Poland-Lithuania

Portugal

Romania

Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach

The duchies of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach were in personal union from 1741, when the ruling house of Saxe-Eisenach died out, until 1809, when they were merged into the single duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

Schleswig and Holstein

Duchies with peculiar rules for succession. See the Schleswig-Holstein Question.

Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen

The duchies of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen were in personal union from 1909, when Prince Günther of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt succeeded also to the throne of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, until 1918, when he (and all the other rulers of German monarchies) abdicated.

Scotland

Spain

Sweden

Main article: Unions of Sweden

United Kingdom

References

  1. ^ Lalor, ed. Various authors. See Contents. Cyclopaedia of Political Science. New York: Maynard, Merrill, and Co., ed. John Joseph Lalor, 1899. online version; accessed 21 June 2008
  2. ^ Oppenheim, Lassa; Roxbrough, Ronald (2005). International Law: A Treatise. The Lawbook Exchange. ISBN 1584776099, 9781584776093. http://books.google.com/?id=vxJ1Jwmyw0EC&pg=PA154&dq=%22personal+union%22+monarch. Retrieved 2008-10-05. "At present there is no Personal Union in existence" 
  3. ^ Mansergh, Nicholas (1934). The Irish Free State - Its Government and Politics. Read Books. pp. 263. ISBN 9781406720358. http://books.google.com/?id=pla9SUe1yS0C&pg=RA1-PA263&dq=%22personal+union%22+Dominions. 
  4. ^ F. R. Scott (January 1944). "The End of Dominion Status". The American Journal of International Law (The American Journal of International Law, Vol. 38, No. 1) 38 (1): 34–49. doi:10.2307/2192530. JSTOR 2192530. "The common kinship within the British group today establishes a form of personal union" 
  5. ^ P. E. Corbett (1940). "The Status of the British Commonwealth in International Law". The University of Toronto Law Journal (The University of Toronto Law Journal, Vol. 3, No. 2) 3 (2): 348–359. doi:10.2307/824318. JSTOR 824318. 
  6. ^ a b c d e Luscombe and Riley-Smith, David and Jonathan (2004). New Cambridge Medieval History: C.1024-c.1198, Volume 4. Cambridge University Press. pp. 273–274. ISBN 0521414113, 9780521414111. 
  7. ^ Europa Publications Limited, p.271: Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, Svezak 4
  8. ^ Alain Finkielkraut, (pp. 17-18): Dispatches from the Balkan War and other writings
  9. ^ Imogen Bell, p.173: Central and South-Eastern Europe 2003
  10. ^ Mitja Velikonja p.78: Religious separation and political intolerance in Bosnia-Herzegovina
  11. ^ Piotr Stefan Wandycz, p.159: The price of freedom: a history of East Central Europe from the Middle Ages
  12. ^ Adrian Webb,Inc NetLibrary, Adrian Webb, p.218: The Routledge companion to Central and Eastern Europe since 1919
  13. ^ a b Charles W. Ingrao, p.12: The Habsburg monarchy, 1618-1815
  14. ^ a b David Raic, p. 342: Statehood and the law of self-determination
  15. ^ a b c Font, Marta: Hungarian Kingdom and Croatia in the Middle Age
  16. ^ Vauchez, Dobson, Lapidge, André, Richard Barrie, Michael (2000). Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, Svezak 1. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. pp. 384–385. ISBN 1-57958-282-6. 
  17. ^ a b c d Matjaž Klemenčič, Mitja Žagar (2004). The Former Yugoslavia's Diverse Peoples: A Reference Sourcebook. ABC-CLIO. p. 16. ISBN 9781576072943. 
  18. ^ Britannica:History of Croatia
  19. ^ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/143561/Croatia
  20. ^ a b Curta, Stephenson, p. 267
  21. ^ Ana S. Trbovich (2008). A Legal Geography of Yugoslavia's Disintegration. Oxford University Press. p. 87. ISBN 9780195333435. 
  22. ^ R. W. SETON -WATSON:The southern Slav question and the Habsburg Monarchy page 18
  23. ^ Power, Daniel (2006). The Central Middle Ages: Europe 950-1320. Oxford University Press. pp. 186. ISBN 9780199253128. 
  24. ^ Van Antwerp Fine, John (2006). When Ethnicity Did Not Matter in the Balkans: A Study of Identity in Pre-nationalist Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia in the Medieval and Early-modern Periods. University of Michigan Press. pp. 71. ISBN 9780472114146. 
  25. ^ Van Antwerp Fine, p. 70
  26. ^ Curta, Florin; Paul Stephenson (2006). Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250. Cambridge University Press. pp. 267. ISBN 9780521815390. 
  27. ^ Bellamy, Alex J. (2003). The Formation of Croatian National Identity: A Centuries-old Dream. Manchester University Press. pp. 37. ISBN 9780719065026. 
  28. ^ Molnar, Miklos; Anna Magyar (2001). A concise history of Hungary. Cambridge concise histories. Cambridge University Press. pp. 30. ISBN 9780521667364. 
  29. ^ a b c d Curtis, Glenn E. (1992). "A Country Study: Yugoslavia (Former) - The Croats and Their Territories". Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/yutoc.html. 
  30. ^ a b c Bellamy, p. 38
  31. ^ Singleton, Frederick Bernard (1985). A short history of the Yugoslav peoples. Cambridge University Press. pp. 29. ISBN 9780521274852. 
  32. ^ Steinweis, A.E. (1996). Art, Ideology, and Economics in Nazi Germany. UNC Press. p. 60. 

See also