, while to Ferdinand
was conceded the remaining portion, comprising Croatia-Slavonia and
the five westernmost counties. The government which Zapolya maintained
at Buda had rather the better claim to be considered the continuation
of the old Hungarian monarchy; but from 1527 onwards some portion of
Hungary, and eventually the whole, was attached regularly to the
Hapsburg crown.

In 1540 Zapolya died and the Diet at Buda elected as king his infant
son John Sigismund. On the basis of earlier pledges Ferdinand laid
claim to Zapolya's possessions, but the Sultan intervened and in 1547
there was worked out a three-fold division of the kingdom, on the
principle of _uti possedetis_, under which thirty-five counties
(including Croatia and Slavonia) were assigned to Ferdinand,
Transylvania and sixteen adjacent counties were retained by John
Sigismund, while the remaining portions of the kingdom were annexed to
the dominions of the Sultan. With frequent modifications in detail,
this three-fold division persisted through the next century and a (p. 449)
half. The period was marked by frequent wars, by political confusion,
and by the assumption on the part of the Hapsburg sovereigns of an
increasingly autocratic attitude in relation to their Hungarian
dependencies. It was brought to a close by the Peace of Karlowitz,
January 26, 1699, whereby the Hapsburg dynasty acquired dominion over
the whole of Hungary, except the banat of Tamesvar, which was acquired
nineteen years later.

*496. Austrian Encroachment: the Pragmatic Sanction.*--The immediate
effect of the termination of the Turkish wars was to enhance yet
further the despotism of the Hapsburgs in Hungary. In 1687 the Emperor
Leopold I. induced a rump diet at Pressburg to abrogate that clause of
the Golden Bull which authorized armed resistance to unconstitutional
acts of the sovereign, and likewise to declare the Hungarian crown
hereditary in the house of Hapsburg. After upwards of seven hundred
years of existence, the elective Hungarian monarchy was brought thus
to an end. In 1715 King Charles III.[648] persuaded the Diet to
consent to the establishment of a standing army, recruited and
supported under regulation of the Diet but controlled by the Austrian
council of war. By the diet of 1722 there was established a Hungarian
court of chancery at Vienna and the government of Hungary was
committed to a stadtholder at Pressburg who was made independent of
the Diet and responsibl