Magna Carta: A Central European perspective of our common heritage of freedom by Zbigniew Rau & Przemysław Żurawski vel Grajewski & Marek Tracz-Tryniecki

Author:Zbigniew Rau & Przemysław Żurawski vel Grajewski & Marek Tracz-Tryniecki
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Swales Willis
Published: 2016-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

The basis of absolutism in the Renewed Provincial Code – 1627/1628

Holy Roman Emperor and Bohemian King Ferdinand II of Habsburg (1617–1618, 1620–1637), after the defeat of the Bohemian Estates uprising in 1620, issued revised Provincial Code – Verneuerte Landesordnung (Bohemia 1627, Moravia 1628). This code closed the process of changes to the governmental system, restricted liberties of the Estates and stipulated an absolutist regime. The code applied as the basic constitutional law until 1848.

Edition: Hermenegild Jireček, ed., Obnovené právo a zřízení zemské dědičného Království českého 1627 (Praha, 1888), pp. 8–19, 32–5.

A.I. Concerning Inheritance of the Czech Throne

[ . . . ] The Kingdom of Bohemia and its related countries were clearly brought to sorrow and poverty by the recent uprising. The hereditary right of the royal dynasty [i.e. Habsburgs] was unjustly questioned and a new king was elected illegally.13 As follows from the aforementioned Golden Bull14 and other privileges in their original sense, the Estates and other citizens of the Kingdom of Bohemia are not entitled to elect the King if any heir of the royal dynasty is alive, whether of male or female gender, or if his or her birth is expected. The election is only allowed if the heir waives his or her right to the throne, and/or if the heir is not mentally capable to reign [ . . . ] and has no offspring or hope for any offspring. [ . . . ] And therefore we establish and order that if anybody of our subjects of any Estate, position or profession now or in the future attempts an illegal election of the sovereign [ . . . ] he or she shall be deemed an offender with the crime of insult of the royal majesty and the crime of rebellion and shall be punished with loss of honour, life and property.

A.IV. How Provincial Diets are to Be Held

Only we and our successors, the Bohemian Kings, possess the right to specify the date of the General Provincial Diet and also Regional Diets. Nobody else may try to summon a Provincial Diet in the Kingdom of Bohemia [ . . . ] without our permission or the permission of our successors [ . . . ]. Whoever attempts this shall be deemed an offender with the crime of insult of the royal majesty and shall be punished with the loss of honour, life and property.

A.VI. Only we and our royal heirs and in our absence our royal delegates (appointed by us for that purpose) shall hold the powers and the right to submit propositions to the Provincial Diet. Nobody else, despite his or her position, shall submit such proposals without our special permission and shall not present anything else, whether orally or in writing, to the Assembled Estates [ . . . ].

A.VIII. We also specifically reserve the right for ourselves and our heirs, future Bohemian Kings, to create law and order in this hereditary Kingdom of Bohemia and do other things belonging to ius legis ferendae, belonging to us as the King.

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