Kingdom of Hungary (1526–1867)
Kingdom of Hungary Magyar Királyság ( Latin ) | |||||||||||||
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1526–1867 | |||||||||||||
Motto: Regnum Mariae Patrona Hungariae Apostolic King | | ||||||||||||
• 1526–1564 (first) | Ferdinand I | ||||||||||||
• 1848–1867 (last) | Franz Joseph I | ||||||||||||
Stephen Francis | |||||||||||||
Legislature | Royal Diet | ||||||||||||
Historical era | Early Modern | ||||||||||||
29 August 1526 | |||||||||||||
24 February 1538 | |||||||||||||
9 September – 17 October 1552 | |||||||||||||
1 August 1664 | |||||||||||||
1664–1671 | |||||||||||||
26 January 1699 | |||||||||||||
1703–1711 | |||||||||||||
1825-1848 | |||||||||||||
15 March 1848 | |||||||||||||
30 March 1867 | |||||||||||||
Currency | Forint | ||||||||||||
ISO 3166 code | HU | ||||||||||||
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History of Hungary |
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Hungary portal |
History of Slovakia | |
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1918–1938 | |
Slovak Soviet Republic | 1919 |
Slovakia during World War II | 1939–1945 |
Slovak Republic | 1939–1945 |
Slovak National Uprising | 1944 |
Slovaks in Czechoslovakia | 1948–1989 |
Slovak Socialist Republic | 1969–1990 |
Velvet Revolution | 1989 |
Post-revolution Czechoslovakia | 1989–1992 |
Dissolution of Czechoslovakia | 1993 |
The Kingdom of Hungary between 1526 and 1867 existed as a state outside the Holy Roman Empire,[a] but part of the lands of the Habsburg monarchy that became the Austrian Empire in 1804. After the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the country was ruled by two crowned kings (John I and Ferdinand I). Initially, the exact territory under Habsburg rule was disputed because both rulers claimed the whole kingdom. This unsettled period lasted until 1570 when John Sigismund Zápolya (John II) abdicated as King of Hungary in Emperor Maximilian II's favor.
In the early stages, the lands that were ruled by the Habsburg Hungarian kings were regarded as both the "Kingdom of Hungary" and "Royal Hungary".[2][3][4] Royal Hungary was the symbol of the continuity of formal law[5] after the Ottoman occupation, because it could preserve its legal traditions,[6] but in general, it was de facto a Habsburg province.[7] The Hungarian nobility forced Vienna to admit that Hungary was a special unit of the Habsburg lands and had to be ruled in conformity with its own special laws.[8] However, Hungarian historiography positioned Transylvania in a direct continuity with the medieval Kingdom of Hungary in pursuance of the advancement of Hungarian interests.[9]
Under the terms of the Treaty of Karlowitz, which ended the Great Turkish War in 1699, the Ottomans ceded nearly all of Ottoman Hungary. The new territories were united with the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary, and although its powers were mostly formal,[dubious ] the Diet of Hungary in Pressburg ruled the lands.
Two major Hungarian rebellions were the Rákóczi's War of Independence in the early 18th century and the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and marked important shifts in the evolution of the polity. The kingdom became a dual monarchy in 1867, known as Austria-Hungary.
Royal Hungary (1526–1699)
Royal Hungary (1526–1699),
Temporary territorial division between the rival rulers John I and Ferdinand I occurred only in 1538, under the Treaty of Nagyvárad,[12] when the Habsburgs got the northern and western parts of the country (Royal Hungary), with the new capital Pressburg (Pozsony, now Bratislava). John I secured the eastern part of the kingdom (known as the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom). The Habsburg monarchs needed the economic power of Hungary for the Ottoman wars. During the Ottoman wars the territory of the former Kingdom of Hungary was reduced by around 60 per cent. Despite these enormous territorial and demographic losses, the smaller and heavily war torn Royal Hungary was as important as the Austrian hereditary lands or the Lands of the Bohemian Crown in the late 16th century.[13]
The territory of present-day Slovakia and northwestern Transdanubia were parts of this polity, while control of the region of northeastern Hungary often shifted between Royal Hungary and the Principality of Transylvania. The central territories of the medieval Hungarian kingdom were annexed by the Ottoman Empire for 150 years (see Ottoman Hungary).
In 1570, John Sigismund Zápolya abdicated as King of Hungary in Emperor Maximilian II's favor under the terms of the Treaty of Speyer.[14]
The term "Royal Hungary" fell into disuse after 1699, and the Habsburg kings referred to the newly enlarged country by the more formal term "Kingdom of Hungary".
Habsburg kings
The Habsburgs, an influential dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire, were elected Kings of Hungary.[15][16][17]
Royal Hungary became a part of the
Reformation
The
Archbishop
Kingdom of Hungary in the early modern period until 1848
18th century
As the Habsburgs' control of the Turkish possessions started to increase, the ministers of
The repression of
Leopold's successor, King Charles III (1711–40), began building a workable relationship with Hungary after the Treaty of Szatmár. Charles asked the approval of Diet for the Pragmatic Sanction, under which the Habsburg monarch was to rule Hungary not as emperor, but as a king subject to the restraints of Hungary's constitution and laws. He hoped that the Pragmatic Sanction would keep the Habsburg Empire intact if his daughter, Maria Theresa, succeeded him. The Diet approved the Pragmatic Sanction in 1723, and Hungary thus agreed to become a hereditary monarchy under the Habsburgs for as long as their dynasty existed. In practice, however, Charles and his successors governed almost autocratically, controlling Hungary's foreign affairs, defense, and finance but lacking the power to tax the nobles without their approval.
Charles organized the country under a centralized administration and in 1715 established a standing army under his command, which was entirely funded and manned by the non-noble population. This policy reduced the nobles' military obligation without abrogating their exemption from taxation. Charles also banned conversion to
Maria Theresa (1741–80) faced an immediate challenge from Prussia's Frederick II when she became head of the House of Habsburg, facing the First Silesian War. In 1741 she appeared before the Diet of Pressburg holding her newborn son and entreated Hungary's nobles to support her. They stood behind her and helped secure her rule. Maria Theresa later took measures to reinforce links with Hungary's magnates. She established special schools to attract Hungarian nobles to Vienna.
Under Charles and Maria Theresa, Hungary experienced further economic decline. Centuries of Ottoman occupation and war had reduced Hungary's population drastically, and large parts of the country's southern half were almost deserted. A labor shortage developed as landowners restored their estates. In response, the Habsburgs began to colonize Hungary with large numbers of peasants from all over Europe, especially Slovaks, Serbs, Croatians, and Germans. Many Jews also immigrated from Vienna and the empire's Polish lands near the end of the 18th century. Hungary's population more than tripled to 8 million between 1720 and 1787. However, only 39 percent of its people were Magyars, who lived mainly in the center of the country.
In the first half of the 18th century, Hungary had an agricultural economy that employed 90 percent of the population. The nobles failed to use fertilizers, roads were poor and rivers blocked, and crude storage methods caused huge losses of grain. Barter had replaced money transactions, and little trade existed between towns and the serfs. After 1760 a labor surplus developed. The serf population grew, pressure on the land increased, and the serfs' standard of living declined. Landowners began making greater demands on new tenants and began violating existing agreements. In response, Maria Theresa issued her Urbarium of 1767 to protect the serfs by restoring their freedom of movement and limiting the corvée. Despite her efforts and several periods of strong demand for grain, the situation worsened. Between 1767 and 1848, many serfs left their holdings. Most became landless farmworkers because a lack of industrial development meant few opportunities for work in the towns.
Joseph's reforms outraged nobles and clergy of Hungary, and the peasants of the country grew dissatisfied with taxes, conscription, and requisitions of supplies. Hungarians perceived Joseph's language reform as German cultural hegemony, and they reacted by insisting on the right to use their own tongue. As a result, Hungarian lesser nobles sparked a renaissance of the Hungarian language and culture, and a cult of national dance and costume flourished. The lesser nobles questioned the loyalty of the magnates, of whom less than half were ethnic Hungarians, and even those had become French- and German-speaking courtiers. The Hungarian national reawakening subsequently triggered national revivals among the Slovak, Romanian, Serbian, and Croatian minorities within Hungary and Transylvania, who felt threatened by both German and Hungarian cultural hegemony. These national revivals later blossomed into the nationalist movements of the 19th and 20th centuries that contributed to the empire's ultimate collapse.
Late in his reign, Joseph led a costly,
Joseph's successor, Leopold II (1790–92), re-introduced the bureaucratic technicality which viewed Hungary as a separate country under a Habsburg king. In 1791 the Diet passed Law X, which stressed Hungary's status as an independent kingdom ruled only by a king legally crowned according to Hungarian laws. Law X later became the basis for demands by Hungarian reformers for statehood in the period from 1825 to 1849. New laws again required approval of both the Habsburg king and the Diet, and Latin was restored as the official language. The peasant reforms remained in effect, however, and Protestants remained equal before the law. Leopold died in March 1792 just as the French Revolution was about to degenerate into the Reign of Terror and send shock waves through the royal houses of Europe.
First half of the 19th century
In 1804 Francis II, who was also the Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of the other dynastic lands of the Habsburg dynasty, founded the Austrian Empire, in which Hungary and all his other dynastic lands were included. In doing so he created a formal overarching structure for the Habsburg Monarchy, that had functioned as a composite monarchy for about three hundred years before. He himself became Francis I (Franz I.), the first Emperor of Austria (Kaiser von Österreich), ruling from 1804 to 1835, so later he was named the one and only Doppelkaiser (double emperor) in history.[26] The workings of the overarching structure and the status of the new Kaiserthum’s component lands at first stayed much as they had been under the composite monarchy that existed before 1804. This was especially demonstrated by the status of the Kingdom of Hungary, whose affairs remained to be administered by its own institutions (King and Diet) as they had been under the composite monarchy, in which it had always been considered a separate Realm. Article X of 1790, which was added to Hungary's constitution during the phase of the composite monarchy uses the Latin phrase "Regnum Independens". In the new situation, therefore, no Imperial institutions were involved in its internal government.[27][28][29]
By the start of the 19th century, the aim of Hungary's agricultural producers had shifted from subsistence farming and small-scale production for local trade to cash-generating, large-scale production for a wider market. Road and waterway improvements cut transportation costs, while urbanization in Austria, Bohemia, and Moravia and the need for supplies for the Napoleonic Wars boosted demand for foodstuffs and clothing. Hungary became a major grain and wool exporter. New lands were cleared, and yields rose as farming methods improved. Hungary did not reap the full benefit of the boom, however, because most of the profits went to the magnates, who considered them not as capital for investment but as a means of adding luxury to their lives. As expectations rose, goods such as linen and silverware, once considered luxuries, became necessities. The wealthy magnates had little trouble balancing their earnings and expenditures, but many lesser nobles, fearful of losing their social standing, went into debt to finance their spending.
Napoleon's final defeat brought recession. Grain prices collapsed as demand dropped, and debt ensnared much of Hungary's lesser nobility. Poverty forced many lesser nobles to work to earn a livelihood, and their sons entered education institutions to train for civil service or professional careers. The decline of the lesser nobility continued despite the fact that by 1820 Hungary's exports had surpassed wartime levels. As the number of lesser nobles who earned diplomas increased, the bureaucracy and professions became saturated, leaving a host of disgruntled graduates without jobs. Members of this new intelligentsia quickly became enamored of radical political ideologies emanating from Western Europe and organized themselves to effect changes in Hungary's political system.
Francis rarely called the Diet into session (usually only to request men and supplies for war) without hearing complaints. Economic hardship brought the lesser nobles' discontent to a head by 1825, when Francis finally convoked the Diet after a fourteen-year hiatus. Grievances were voiced, and open calls for reform were made, including demands for less royal interference in the nobles' affairs and for wider use of the Hungarian language.
The first great figure of the reform era came to the fore during the 1825 convocation of the Diet. Count István Széchenyi, a magnate from one of Hungary's most powerful families, shocked the Diet when he delivered the first speech in Hungarian ever uttered in the upper chamber and backed a proposal for the creation of a Hungarian academy of arts and sciences by pledging a year's income to support it. In 1831 angry nobles burned Szechenyi's book Hitel (Credit), in which he argued that the nobles' privileges were both morally indefensible and economically detrimental to the nobles themselves. Szechenyi called for an economic revolution and argued that only the magnates were capable of implementing reforms. Szechenyi favored a strong link with the Habsburg Empire and called for the abolition of entail and serfdom, taxation of landowners, financing of development with foreign capital, the establishment of a national bank, and introduction of wage labor. He inspired such projects as the construction of the Széchenyi Chain Bridge linking Buda and Pest. Szechenyi's reform initiatives ultimately failed because they were targeted at the magnates, who were not inclined to support change, and because the pace of his program was too slow to attract disgruntled lesser nobles.
The most popular of Hungary's great reform leaders, Lajos Kossuth, addressed passionate calls for change to the lesser nobles. Kossuth was the son of a landless, lesser nobleman of Protestant background. He practiced law with his father before moving to Pest. There he published commentaries on the Diet's activities, which made him popular with young, reform-minded people. Kossuth was imprisoned in 1836 for treason. After his release in 1840, he gained quick notoriety as the editor of a liberal party newspaper. Kossuth argued that only political and economic separation from Austria would improve Hungary's plight. He called for broader parliamentary democracy, rapid industrialization, general taxation, economic expansion through exports, and the abolition of privileges (equality before the law) and serfdom. But Kossuth was also a Hungarian patriotic whose rhetoric provoked the strong resentment of Hungary's minority ethnic groups. Kossuth gained support among liberal lesser nobles, who constituted an opposition minority in the Diet. They sought reforms with increasing success after Francis's death in 1835 and the succession of Ferdinand V (1835–48). In 1844 a law was enacted making Hungarian the country's exclusive official language.
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István Széchenyi, the first great figure of the reform era
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Revolutionary flag, 1848–49
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Arms of Hungary, 1849
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Lajos Kossuth, the most popular of Hungary's great reform leaders
1848–1867
After the
Hungarian public opinion split over the country's relations with Austria. Some Hungarians held out hope for full separation from Austria; others wanted an accommodation with the Habsburgs, provided that they respected Hungary's constitution and laws.
The first crack in Franz Joseph's
In 1866 the
Demography
Ethnic groups of the Kingdom of Hungary according to Hungarian statistician Elek Fényes[30] | Number c. 1840 |
Percent |
---|---|---|
) | 4,812,759 | 37.36 % |
Slavs (Slovaks, Rusyns, Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, etc.) | 4,330,165 | 33.62 % |
Vlachs | 2,202,542 | 17.1 % |
Germans (Transylvanian Saxons, Danube Swabians, etc.) | 1,273,677 | 9.89 % |
Jews
|
244,035 | 1.89 % |
French (mostly from Lorraine and Alsace)[32] | 6,150 | 0.05 % |
Greeks | 5,680 | 0.04 % |
Armenians | 3,798 | 0.03 % |
Albanians | 1,600 | 0.01 % |
Total | 12,880,406 | 100 % |
See also
- List of Hungarian rulers
Notes
- ^ Although the Habsburgs ruled Hungary, it remained a separate country ruled in personal union with both the imperial title and the various lands within the empire (see Habsburg monarchy for details), and it was neither annexed nor incorporated into the empire.
References
- ISBN 0-86516-422-3.
- ^ Katalin Péter, Beloved Children: History of Aristocratic Childhood in Hungary in the Early Modern Age, Central European University Press, 2001, p. 22
- ^ Howell A. Lloyd, Glenn Burgess, European political thought 1450–1700: religion, law and philosophy, Yale University Press, 2007, pp. 177–189
- ^ Július Bartl, Slovak History: Chronology & Lexicon, Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2002, p. 60
- ^ Lajos Besenyei, Géza Érszegi, Maurizio Pedrazza Gorlero, De bulla aurea Andreae II regis Hungariae, 1222, Valdonega, 1999, p. 222
- ^ Hajdú, Zoltán, DISCUSSION PAPERS No. 44, Carpathian Basin and the Development of the Hungarian Landscape Theory Until 1948, CENTRE FOR REGIONAL STUDIES OF HUNGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, p. 10
- ^ a b Raphael Patai The Jews of Hungary: History, Culture, Psychology, Wayne State University Press, 1996, p. 153
- ^ Peter F. Sugar, Péter Hanák, A History of Hungary, Indiana University Press, 1994, p. 91
- ^ István Keul, Early Modern Religious Communities in East-Central Europe: Ethnic Diversity, Denominational Plurality, and Corporative Politics in the Principality of Transylvania (1526-1691), Brill, 2009, p. 253
- ^ Giambattista Vico, Statecraft: The Deeds of Antonio Carafa, Peter Lang, 2004, p. 400
- ^ "... the Estates of the realm have submitted themselves not only to His Majesty's, but also his heirs' power and rule for ever ..." (Section 5 of Article V of 1547).
- ^ István Keul, Early Modern Religious Communities in East-Central Europe: Ethnic Diversity, Denominational Plurality, and Corporative Politics in the Principality of Transylvania (1526–1691), BRILL, 2009, p. 40
- ISBN 9789004206830.
- ^ István Keul, Early Modern Religious Communities in East-Central Europe: Ethnic Diversity, Denominational Plurality, and Corporative Politics in the Principality of Transylvania (1526–1691) 2009, pp. 61-255
- ISBN 978-0-631-20513-5. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
- ISBN 978-0-333-64450-8. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
- ]
- ^ United States federal government. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
- ^ Dennis P. Hupchick, Conflict and chaos in Eastern Europe, Palgrave Macmillan, 1995, p. 62
- ISBN 978-9004206830.
- ^ Dr. István Kenyeres: The Financial Administrative Reforms and Revenues of Ferdinand I in Hungary, English summary at p- 92 Link1: [1] Link2: [2]
- ^ United States federal government. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
- ^ De Puy, Henry Walter (1858). "IV: Kossuth the Reformer". The History of Hungary and the Late Hungarian War: Kossuth and His Generals (First ed.). Phinney. pp. 152–153. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
The language of the Austrian ministers daily assumed a far more imperative tone. They declared ominously that they were "preparing an official document, in which they would so fully clear up their relation to Hungary, as to enable their Diet to form a correct view on the subject."
- ^ "Transylvania - Location & History". britannica.com. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- ^ Richard C. Frucht, Eastern Europe: an introduction to the people, lands, and culture / edited by Richard Frucht, Volume 1, ABC-CLIO, 2005, p. 348 [3]
- ^ Posse, Otto, ed. (1909–13). "Bey der Niederlegung der kaiserlichen Reichs-Regierung. Dekret vom 6. August 1806". Die Siegel der deutschen Kaiser und Könige von 751 bis 1806 (in German). Band 5, Beilage 3. p 256ff
- ^ " From the perspective of the Court since 1723, regnum Hungariae had been a hereditary province of the dynasty’s three main branches on both lines. From the perspective of the ország, Hungary was regnum independens, a separate Land as Article X of 1790 stipulated …….. In 1804 Emperor Franz assumed the title of Emperor of Austria for all the Erblande of the dynasty and for the other Lands, including Hungary. Thus Hungary formally became part of the Empire of Austria. The Court reassured the diet, however, that the assumption of the monarch’s new title did not in any sense affect the laws and the constitution of Hungary"Laszlo, Péter (2011), Hungary's Long Nineteenth Century: Constitutional and Democratic Traditions, Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, the Netherlands, p. 6
- ^ "Vor dem Jahr 1848 is das Kaisertum Österreich verfassungsrechtlich als ein monarchischer Einheitsstaat auf differenziert föderalistischer Grundlage zu sehen, wobei die besondere Stelung Ungarns im Rahmen dieses Gesamtstaates stets offenkundig war. Eine weitere Differenzierung der föderalistischen Grundlage erfolgte ab 1815 durch die Zugehörigkeit eines teiles des Kaisertums zum Deutschen Bund."Zeilner, Franz (2008), Verfassung, Verfassungsrecht und Lehre des Öffentlichen Rechts in Österreich bis 1848: Eine Darstellung der materiellen und formellen Verfassungssituation und der Lehre des öffentlichen Rechts, Lang, Frankfurt am Main, p. 45
- ^ József Zachar, Austerlitz, 1805. december 2. A három császár csatája – magyar szemmel[permanent dead link], In: Eszmék, forradalmak, háborúk. Vadász Sándor 80 éves, ELTE, Budapest, 2010 p. 557
- ^ (in Hungarian) Elek Fényes, Magyarország' statistikája, Pest : Trattner-Kérolyi Tulajdona, 1842 (page 33).
- ^ (in Hungarian) Elek Fényes, Magyarország' statistikája, Pest : Trattner-Kérolyi Tulajdona, 1842 (page 34).
- ^ (in French) Louis-Emile Hecht, Les colonies lorraines et alsaciennes en Hongrie, Nancy : Berger-Levrault et Cie, 1879.
External links
- Media related to Kingdom of Hungary (1526–1867) at Wikimedia Commons