to the Diets. The number of delegates depended of the importance of the issues to be discussed. According to a decree of the Diet which assembled in April 1571, each county and Székely seat had to send ten representatives to the following Diet where the successor of John Sigismund was to be elected. However, this was an extremely high number; sporadic data show that each autonomous community dispatched two to eight delegates to most Diets. The speaker of the Diet (or praeses) held the third most important office in the principality. The speakers and their deputies were almost always appointed by the monarchs. Gábor Haller was the only speaker who was elected by the delegates in the Diets of 1660 and 1661. In most documented cases, the heads of the royal court of justice presided over the Diets. Most speakers were also royal counselors and heads of a county or a Székely seat. Convocation The monarchs had the right to summon the Diets. If the prince was absent and during interregnums, the prince's representative (the voivode or governor) convened the assembly. The Diet could also pass a decree ordering the summon of the following Diet, but this happened only exceptionally. The prince or his deputy convened the Diet in a letter, which was in most cases also signed by the chancellor. The letter was posted 2–4 weeks before the opening of the Diet. The appearance at the Diet was obligatory: those who failed were fined 100-200 florins. More than 320 Diets were held from 1571 to 1690, but their annual number fluctuated from year to year. The delegates assembled more frequently during the periods of turmoil. For instance, the Diet was convoked more than fifty times between 1594 and 1606, and more than fifty-five times between 1657 and 1667. According to customary law, the princes were required to hold two Diets in each year. The first Diet of the year was convoked around Saint George's Day (24 April). The second or "short Diet" was customarily held around the feast of Saint Michael (29 September), but Gabriel Bethlen persuaded the Estates to cancel it in 1622. Most Diets assembled in Gyulafehérvár, especially in the 1590s and between 1613 and 1658. Although the town had customarily been the Transylvanian rulers' seat, the delegates preferred Torda, Kolozsvár and Nagyenyed (now Cluj-Napoca and Aiud in Romania), which were located in the central region of