February Patent

The February Patent, issued in 1861, was a constitutional revision in the Habsburg monarchy that established a bicameral system. This included an empire-wide house of representatives and a house of lords, along with a separate parliamentary body for the non-Hungarian lands. This patent aimed to restore authority to the central government, but it antagonized federalists, particularly the Hungarians, leading to its eventual unworkability by 1865. The subsequent Ausgleich, or "Compromise," of 1867 reorganized the Habsburg monarchy into what became known as the Dual Monarchy, a tripartite constitutional framework that granted significant autonomy to Hungary. This compromise also influenced other national movements within the empire, though the monarch was hesitant to further decentralize.12