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Personal union

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This article is about the political arrangement. For the Christian theological teaching, see Hypostatic union.

A personal union is the combination by which two or more different states are governed by the same monarch, while their boundaries, their laws and their interests remain distinct.[1] It is not to be confused with a federation, which internationally is considered as a single state. Nor is it to be confused with dynastic union, where the union can be under a dynasty.

Personal unions can arise for very different reasons, ranging from near coincidence (a princess who is already married to a king becomes queen regnant, and their child inherits the crown of both countries) to virtual annexation (where a personal union sometimes was seen as a means of preventing uprisings). They can also be codified (i.e. the constitutions of the states clearly express that they shall share the same person as head of state) or non-codified, in which case they can easily be broken (e.g. by different succession rules).

Because presidents of republics are ordinarily chosen from within the citizens of the state in question, personal unions are almost entirely a phenomenon of monarchies, and sometimes the term dual monarchy is used to signify a personal union between two monarchies.[citation needed]

Personal union was also a bureaucratic device used in Nazi Germany to combine high level state positions with equivalent positions in the National Socialist Party.[2]

There is a somewhat grey area between personal unions and federations, and the first has regularly grown into the second.

The following provides some detail of personal unions through history. The only personal unions in todays world are between the United Kingdom and sixteen Commonwealth Realms such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand.[3]

Andorra

Aragon, Crown of

On 1162 Alfonso II of Aragon was the first person to bear the titles of King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona, ruling what was called later Crown of Aragon.

Bohemia

  • Personal union with Poland 1003 - 1004 (Bohemia occupied by Poles)
  • Personal union with Poland 1300 - 1306 and Hungary 1301 - 1305 (Wenceslas II and Wenceslas III)
  • Personal union with Luxembourg 1313 - 1378 and 1383 - 1388
  • Personal union with Hungary 1419-1439 (Sigismund of Luxemburg and his son in law) and 1490 - 1526 (Jagellon dynasty)
  • Personal union with Austria and Hungary 1526 - 1918 (except years 1619 - 1620)

Brandenburg

Commonwealth realms

The conception of a personal union was suggested to keep the Irish Free State as a Commonwealth Realm.[4]

The phrase personal union appears in some discussion about the early Commonwealth of Nations [5], though its application to Commonwealth was refuted by others.[6]

Congo Free State

  • Personal union with Belgium from 1885 to 1908, when it became a Belgian colony.

Croatia

  • Personal union with Hungary from 1102 to 1918

Denmark

England

Finland

France

Note: The point at issue in the War of the Spanish Succession was the fear that the succession to the Spanish throne dictated by Spanish law, which would devolve on Louis, le Grand dauphin — already heir to the throne of France — would create a personal union that would upset the European balance of power (France had the most powerful military in Europe at the time, and Spain the largest empire).

Great Britain

Hanover

Holy Roman Empire

  • Personal union with Spain from 1519 to 1556 under Charles V.
  • Personal union with Hungary from 1526 to 1806

Hungary

  • Personal union and Real union with Croatia from 1102 to 1918.
  • Personal union with Poland and Bohemia 1301 - 1305
  • Personal union with Poland from 1370 to 1382 under the reign of Louis the Great. This period in Polish history is sometimes known as the Andegawen Poland. Louis inherited the Polish throne from his maternal uncle Casimir III. After Louis' death the Polish nobles (the szlachta) decided to end the personal union, since they didn't want to be governed from Hungary, and chose Louis' younger daughter Jadwiga as their new ruler, while Hungary was inherited by his elder daughter Mary. Personal union with Poland in the second time from 1440 to 1444.
  • Personal union with Bohemia from 1419 to 1439 and from 1490 to 1918
  • Personal union with the Holy Roman Empire from 1410 to 1439 and from 1526 to 1806 (except 1608-1612)
  • Personal union with Austria from 1867 to 1918 (the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary) under the reigns of Franz Joseph and Charles IV.

Iceland

  • Personal union with Denmark from 1918 to 1944 when the country became a republic

Ireland

Lithuania

Luxembourg

  • Personal union with Bohemia 1313 - 1378 and 1383 - 1388
  • Personal union with the Netherlands from 1815 to 1890

Navarre

  • Personal union with France from 1589 to 1620, when Navarre was formally integrated into France.

The Netherlands

Norway

Poland

Poland-Lithuania

  • Personal union with Sweden from 1592 to 1599
  • Personal union with Saxony from 1697 to 1705, 1709 to 1733 and 1733 to 1763

Portugal

Romania

Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach

The duchies of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach were in personal union from 1741, when the ruling house of Saxe-Eisenach died out, until 1809, when they were merged into the single duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

Schleswig and Holstein

Duchies with peculiar rules for succession.

  • The kings of Denmark at the same time being dukes of Schleswig and Holstein 1460-1864. (Holstein being part of the Holy Roman Empire)

Scotland

  • Personal union with France from 1559 to 1560
  • Personal union with England and Ireland from 1603 to 1707 (when England and Scotland were joined together in the Kingdom of Great Britain)
  • Personal union with the Netherlands from 1689 to 1702, with the King of Scotland, England and Ireland also serving as Stadtholder of most of the provinces of the Netherlands. The actual situation was slightly more complex with the Dutch provinces Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland and Overijssel entering into personal union in 1689 and Drenthe in 1696. Only 2 Dutch provinces never entered into the personal union: Friesland and Groningen.

Spain

Sweden

Main article: Unions of Sweden

United Kingdom

References

  1. ^ Lalor, ed. Various authors. See Contents. Cyclopaedia of Political Science. New York: Maynard, Merrill, and Co., ed. John Joseph Lalor, 1899. [Online] available from http://www.econlib.org/LIBRARY/YPDBooks/Lalor/llCy821.html; accessed 21 June 2008
  2. ^ Steinweis, A.E. (1996). Art, Ideology, and Economics in Nazi Germany. UNC Press. p. 60.
  3. ^ Oppenheim, Lassa (2005). International Law: A Treatise. The Lawbook Exchange. ISBN 1584776099, 9781584776093. Retrieved 2008-10-05. At present there is no Personal Union in existence {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ Mansergh, Nicholas (1934). The Irish Free State - Its Government and Politics. Read Books. p. 263.
  5. ^ F. R. Scott (January 1944). "The End of Dominion Status". The American Journal of International Law. 38 (1): 34–49. doi:10.2307/2192530. The common kinship within the British group today establishes a form of personal union
  6. ^ P. E. Corbett (1940). "The Status of the British Commonwealth in International Law". The University of Toronto Law Journal. 3 (2): 348–359. doi:10.2307/824318. {{cite journal}}: More than one of |number= and |issue= specified (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)

See also

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