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# Uncertainty Following the Death of Joseph II

Appraisals of the events in Hungary and Transylvania after the Restitutionsedikt vary as widely as those of the Josephine system. There were, to be sure, attempts by the estates to reassert their political authority, but the champions of Josephinism put up a strong defence of some of the achievements of enlightened absolutism. There were even some attempts at reform that went beyond the framework of Josephinism. The powerful resurgence, in 1790, of national movements served variously to reinforce and counteract some of these other tendencies. Finally, all these developments were strongly influenced by imperial policy, which regressed from the realistic, enlightened absolutism of Leopold II to the conservative consolidation effected by Emperor Francis.

With respect to local government and the Saxon Universitas, the process of restoration was comparatively smooth. The county system that had been instituted by Joseph II disintegrated, the district commissions disappeared, and, in May 1790, the Universitas elected Michael Bruckenthal, the nephew of Samuel Bruckenthal, as Saxon count (comes). The Saxons remained loyal to the Habsburgs, nurtured good relations with Transylvania's nobility, and strove to preserve the alliance between the three 'nations'. To protect their privileges, the Saxons adopted a rigid conservatism that remained dominant until the end of the period.

The Hungarian and Székely 'nations' sought both to protect immediate interests and to find a longer-term solution to their problems. In their view, that solution lay in union with Hungary; such union would facilitate a joint defence of the estates' rights as well {2-739.} as the protection and regeneration of the Hungarian nation (in the modern sense of nationhood). The first attempt at union occurred in the diet of Hungary, and it ended in defeat. By this time, the imperial government was following Kaunitz's lead in applying the principle of divide et impera. Leopold II had himself crowned king of Hungary without settling the question of union, which he simply passed on for consideration to the Transylvanian estates.

Meanwhile, a fear that the estates would undo the Josephine reforms of villeinage was making Transylvania's villeins restive. A proclamation, drafted in Hungary and known as the 'Peasants' edict' (Parasztok dekrétuma), circulated in Transylvania as well. The unrest led the Hungarian and Székely estates to prepare for armed action, though in some places these preparations had a distinctly anti-Habsburg flavour. The Gubernium, led by György Bánffy, had to exercise a steady hand to forestall a clash.