Hungarian April Laws

The April Laws were a package of legislation that transformed Hungary's system of government, drafted under the leadership of Lajos Kossuth, passed by the Hungarian Diet in March 1848, and signed by King Ferdinand V at Bratislava on 11 April 1848. Known collectively as the Twelve Points, the laws abolished the privileges of the nobility and ended serfdom and the feudal estate system, while establishing freedom of the press, a ministry answerable to parliament, annual parliamentary sessions, civil and religious equality, and a national guard. They made Hungary the third country in continental Europe, after France and Belgium, to hold parliamentary elections on a broadly representative basis. The young Emperor Francis Joseph later revoked the laws without legal authority, a move that helped trigger the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 to 1849, and it was only with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 that the laws' provisions were effectively restored, reshaping Hungary's constitutional position within the empire. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/