of Croatia, which was in only a personal union with Hungary). Since Fiume had to serve a similar "emporial" function for Hungary as Trieste did for the Habsburg lands, the Hungarian estates (and most probably the queen) wanted to grant the city a degree of institutional autonomy similar to that enjoyed by Trieste. According to the 1779 rescript, Fiume, as a corpus separatum, had greater autonomy than a royal free city, or comitatus. It was a territory comparable to the other partes adnexae (annexed parts) constituting the Crown of St. Stephen. Its position was thus comparable to those of the regna: as Trieste was considered to be a crown land of the Habsburg hereditary lands (Erblande) so Fiume was considered to be a parte adnexa to the Hungarian crown. After the 1779 rescript, the stage was set for all the later political confrontations that would occur in Fiume for more than a century and a half, the history that followed resulting from differing interpretations of the acts of 1776 and 1779. The acts presented a precedent for Hungarian constitutional praxis, since it was the first time that a part of the Holy Roman Empire (and a hereditary fief of the Habsburgs) was given to the Hungarian–Croatian kingdom. Therefore, since the Croatian and Hungarian estates had widely diverging interests with respect to Fiume, they interpreted the rescript differently. From that moment on the two kingdoms never ceased to argue over who should possess Fiume. The Fiumani, as a third party, gave their reading that Fiume, as a corpus separatum, was autonomous. Given the institutional instability that characterized the period from 1779 to 1848, this was more or less true. The gubernium of Fiume The Fiuman territory was to form the new comitatus of Severin, which also included all the confiscated possessions of the Frangipane and Zrinski families that surrounded Fiume. As it was to be the main Hungarian port, it was detached from the Holy Roman Empire, and a gubernium, or governorate, its governor being selected from the ranks of the Hungarian aristocracy, was established, which allowed Fiume to retain the autonomous status it enjoyed under the Habsburgs. Fiume was the only city in Hungary (Croatia included) that had such an institution. The development of the port needed large investments that only Hungary could supply. The Croatians refused to accept the Hungarian reading of the 1779 rescript – they denied that