Absztrakt

An individual’s participation in the national diet is generally viewed as an opportunity which gave a momentum to their political or professional career by allowing them to prove their skills, abilities and their loyalty to their sovereign. The study examines whether the protonotarii in attendance at the diets held between 1722 and 1792 had a steeper career curve than those who were not present at the assemblies in this period. The study concludes that the data about the career patterns of these officials do not support the prevailing view in scholarship: those protonotarii who did not participate in the diets often managed to attain higher positions than the ones in attendance. Their involvement had little or no impact on their career trajectories and thus participation in the national assembly cannot be viewed as a springboard for promotion, which suggests that most protonotarii’s advancement in the eighteenth century was determined by the organisational structure of the royal curia.