Hungarian nobility.
The Hungarian nobility were initially a diverse body of people, but from the late 12th century only high-ranking royal officials were regarded as noble. Most claimed ancestry from chieftains of the period preceding the establishment of the kingdom around the year 1000, or were descended from western European knights who settled in Hungary. Only those who owned lands free of obligations were regarded as true noblemen. Other groups, known as conditional nobles, also existed. Under customary law, only males inherited noble estates. The poorest nobles lost their tax exemption from the mid–16th century. The ennoblement of whole groups was not unusual in the 17th century. A group of 10,000 hajdúk received nobility in 1605. After the Diet was divided into two chambers in 1608, noblemen with a hereditary title had a seat in the upper house. Reformist noblemen demanded the abolition of noble privileges from the 1790s. Noble titles were only abolished in 1947, after Hungary was proclaimed a republic.
