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It is the spring of 1241. The first sentries of
dreaded Mongol forces appear at the north and north-eastern passes of the
Carpathians. They are riding tiny, long-haired horses, and are wearing
iron-plated armoury made of leather straps. After provoking and harassing the
defending forces with feigned attacks, Batu Khan's forces concentrate their
power and irrupt into Hungary
through the Verecke pass, the route used by the Magyars at the time of the
Conquest. The commander of the defending forces, the Palatine of Hungary,
flees wounded from the scene of the battle. He just escapes death. The
assailants first swoop down upon the northern part of the country, looting
and massacring as the proceed forward. Later they come to grips with the main
Magyar forces, led by Béla IV, in the valley of the river Sajó. During the
night, the Tartars secretly cross the river and set fire to the Magyar camp.
The greatest part of the besieged Magyar army, suffering an attack from the
rear, is annihilated. The survivors flee towards the west and south. Soon the
northern part of the country is completely under the assailants grip. When
winter sets in, the Mongol forces cross the ice of the frozen Danube with
ease and the whole of Transdanubia, the land west of Danube,
is at their mercy. Only a few fortresses protected by stone walls hold out
and, in fact, succeed in repelling the attack. The rest of the region up to
its western border is occupied by the Mongols. From the western border, the
Austrian Prince Friedrich mounts an attack, not against the Tartars, but
against the surviving Magyar towns, and occupies Sopron and, for a short time, Győr. He
imprisons Béla IV, who had fled to his court, and releases him only for a
heavy ransom. The Tartars pursue the king, who is trying to organize
resistance, and search for him everywhere. They follow his trail to Zagreb and Dalmatia. He
finally takes refuge in Trogir. To quote a German chronicler: "After
three hundred years, Hungaria was no more."
Source: Putzgers,
F.W., Historischer Schul-Atlas, Bielefeld,
1929
Click on the map
for better resolution
In fact, it did appear as though Hungary
had been annihilated by the Mongol invasion. However, internal dynastic
conflicts erupted within the Mongol Empire, resulting in the withdrawal of the
Mongol hordes from the country in the summer of 1242. Hungaria
survived the apparently fatal devastation. Its population decimated, its
towns reduced to ashes, and its villages razed to dust, the country survived.
Béla IV began the reconstruction of the country, building castles and
fortified towns to forestall the threat of another Mongol invasion. He
invited German, Walloon and Italian settlers, and by granting them special
privileges, promoted urban development. The king, who was called "the second
founder of the state", planned the construction of Buda
Castle, raised the settlements of
Buda and Pest to the rank of towns, and founded the Dominican convent on Margaret Island. On this island, which lies
between Buda and Pest, his daughter Margaret
- who was later canonized - lived as a nun. The Mongol invasion proved to be
a turning point in more ways than one. The country's survival was proof of
the strength of the people. However, the manner of reconstruction - though
necessary under the circumstances - became the source of further internal
strife and feudal anarchy. The king, fearing another Mongol invasion,
encouraged feudal lords to build strongholds. These new strongholds, however,
became a basis of a power in which the role of the king became more and more
insignificant. At the same time, a growing number of lesser nobles were
forced into positions of dependence by the greater lords as soldiers in their
private armies. The stormy and glorious reign of Béla IV (1235-1270) was
followed be renewed struggles over succession and battles between opposing
factions. Later, with the death of king Andrew III, the male line of the
House of Árpád became extinct, and thus, the right of inheritance through the
female line became a possibility.
In the early 1970s, the fragment of a
Trecento-style statue was unearthed during archaeological excavations in one
of the courtyards of Buda
Castle. Further
excavations uncovered over forty statues and fragments, a veritable graveyard
of statues. In all probability, they had adorned the Friss (New) Palace of Sigismund of Luxemburg, later Holy
Roman Emperor.
The statues of ladies, knights, court
musicians, servants and guardsmen mark not only the turn of the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries, but also the beginning of a new age. Dressed in
full-length gowns, richly gathered cloaks, pointed shoes and daring hats,
they are an unexpected reminder of a flourishing, almost decadent Hungarian Trecento,
whose mere existence was no more than a conjecture before the miraculous
appearance of the archaeological foundings at Buda Castle.
Charles Robert, the descendant of the Naples
branch of the Angevin House and through his grandmother of the House of Árpád,
became king after the death of Andrew III, the last monarch of the House of
Árpád. At the height of the feudal anarchy, the barons, whose power was far
greater than that of the king, fought battles and made alliances. However, by
gradually overcoming the power of the barons, breaking the resistance of the
renegade towns and putting an end to chaos, Charles Robert, who grew up among
the modern financial and trading life of Naples and Milan, brought prosperity
to feudal Hungary. Knights, soldiers, businessmen and artists from Naples and other Italian
towns brought a new vitality. This is why the achievements of the Trecento
appeared relatively early in Hungary as compared to other European countries,
and why they formed a new kind of unity, merging local tradition and Gothic
art in the works of succeeding generations.
Source: Putzgers, F.W., Historischer Schul-Atlas, Bielefeld, 1929
Click on the map for better resolution
Charles Robert was a realist in economic
matters. He had no plans for conquest and held that his two greatest
achievements were the introduction of a new Hungarian currency, the gold forint
modelled on the Florentine design, and the meeting he arranged between
himself and the Polish and Bohemian kings at his castle in Visegrád, which
gave birth to important decisions concerning the development of foreign trade
between their countries. His son, Louis I (1342-1382), came to be known as
Louis the Great because of his dynastic and expansionist policies. His forces
advanced as far as Naples, Treviso, and the Bulgarian Viddin, and he
later acquired the Polish throne. Since he died without male issue, the
throne was assumed by Sigismund of Luxemburg, Louis the Great's son-in-law.
This fullblooded and gluttonous king, who lived for the pursuit of love and
adventure and wasted enormous amounts of money, had one great aim - winning
the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, which he
acquired in 1433. Sigismund made extensive use of the resources of Hungary
to further his aims abroad, and loans linked to mortgages on the royal
estates played a growing part in financing his ventures. This policy reached
such proportions that by the middle of the fifteenth century, the estates of
the great barons made up more than half the territory of Hungary.
Central power was finally weakened to such an extent that only Sigismund's
alliance with the powerful Czillei-Garai League could ensure his position on
the throne. Meanwhile, the expansionist Ottoman Empire was posing a direct
threat to the country, and after the resounding defeat at Nicopolis in 1396,
all Sigismund could manage was feeble resistance against repeated Turkish attacks
upon fortresses in the southern region of Hungary.
Sigismund's turbulent and stormy reign,
however, also had its positive aspects; towns grew and flourished, and the
multilingual and educated royal court exerted a favourable influence on the
development of the arts and culture in general. Large-scale building schemes
provided ample and long term work for the artists, for example, the building
of the Friss (New) Castle in Buda, the castles of Visegrád, Tata and
Várpalota. In Sigismund's court there were patrons such as Pipo Spano, a
descendant of the Scolari family of Florence,
who invited Manetto Ammanatini and Masolino da Pannicale to Hungary. Artistic frescoes were
painted, beautifully illuminated codices were produced by the royal workshop,
panel painting flourished, and so did sculpture.
When the noon-day bells chime from the church
steeples of Europe, they serve as a reminder of a historic event that took
place in 1456 under the medieval walls of Belgrade
[Nándorfehérvár], the capital of present-day Yugoslavia. The protagonists were
Murad, the sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and
János Hunyadi, the outstanding military leader of the age. Belgrade was besieged from all sides by 300
thousand Turkish soldiers. The sultan had planned to capture the great
southern stronghold and from there push into Hungary, and the west. Belgrade's defence was
led by Mihály Szilágyi, Hunyadi's brother-in-law. The fate of the fortress
was critically important for the future of Europe.
Pope Calixtus III called for a crusade and sent Giovanni Capistrano, a
Franciscan friar, later canonized, and an outstanding orator, to Hungary.
He was to help Hunyadi recruit soldiers to relieve the forces at the castle.
Before the siege of the fortress began, Pope
Calixtus III issued a bull calling for prayers for the defenders of the
fortress and ordering the ringing of the bells at noon. The peoples of the
southern region flocked to Hunyadi's army, and troops arrived from Poland, Germany,
Vienna and Bohemia, composed primarily of artisans,
students and peasants. There was a shortage of food and ammunition at the
fortress, so their position appeared hopeless. However, at the last moment,
Hunyadi arrived with his relief forces. His boats broke through the blockade
set up on the Danube by the Turkish ships
and succeeded in establishing communication with the beleaguered garrison.
Hunyadi organized the defence of the stronghold and the counterattacked,
destroying the Turkish forces. The Turkish army left Belgrade defeated and having suffered
severe losses, including the loss of its fleet. Hunyadi's victory at Belgrade was the most severe defeat the conquering
sultans had ever suffered, and for another half century, it saved Hungary
from similar attacks by the Ottoman power.
János Hunyadi's (c. 1407/9-1456) career was an
astonishing one. The youth who was descended from a family of the lesser
nobility was first a page, and later the leader a mercenary unit. In the
service of the Italian princes, including the Sforzas, he became acquainted
with the techniques of organizing a modern mercenary army and learned the
importance of the foot soldier and the artillery. His remarkable gifts as a
military commander and statesman were responsible for his meteoric rise, in
the course of which he became one of the greatest landowners in the country,
a baron, Ban of Szörény, Voivode of Transylvania and the commander of the
campaigns againts the Turks, as well as governor of the country.
The day after his victory at Belgrade, Hunyadi died a victim of the
plague which devastated the war-stricken country. It seemed for a time that
with his death the power of the Hunyadis had also come to an end. As a result
of political intrigue, his older son Ladislas was executed by the king, and
the younger son, Matthias, was taken as a hostage with him to Prague. However, in the
year of the Belgrade
victory, the neurotic king, Ladislas V, died suddenly in the Bohemian
capital. A large-scale movement launched by the lesser nobility, townsmen,
and of course, the Hunyadi faction, forced the barons participating in the
Diet held at Buda
Castle to elect
fifteen-year-old Matthias as the ruler of the country. According to the
chronicles, the resistance of the barons was broken by fifteen thousand armed
nobles, who marched over the ice of the frozen Danube
to the walls of the Castle. This action was so successfully accomplished,
that after long weeks of procrastination, the decision favouring Matthias
took only a few hours to make.
There are few figures in Hungarian history
surrounded by as many legends, anecdotes and entertaining stories, as that of
King Matthias. His image as the defender of the common people against the
arrogant barons is just as much a part of Hungarian historical folklore as
"Mátyás deák" (Student Matthias). In this characterization,
Matthias roams the country in disguise, unveils injustice, rewards virtue,
and conquers the hearts of young girls and beautiful women, who never even
suspect that the clever, goodlooking traveller they hold in their arms is the
king himself.
Obviously, tales and fables known to many
peoples have exerted influence over Hungarian folklore (e.g., attributing the
deeds of Harun-al-Rashid, memorialized in The Thousand and One Nights,
and other legendary heroes to Matthias). It is also obvious, however, that
the historical memory of a nation, as well as its nostalgia, is manifested in
the tales about Matthias; for the reign of King Matthias between 1458 and
1490 was the golden age of medieval Hungary. With astonishing strength and
political wisdom, the adolescent elected to the throne of the country broke
the resistance of the various baronial factions opposing him and, with a
series of measures, built up a centralized monarchy based on the absolute
power of the ruler. He created a highly disciplined mercenary army supplied
with modern weapons, and reformed the system of jurisdiction. This, together
with the creation of a stable centralized power and public security, provided
a solid basis for the development of industry and commerce. Matthias
encouraged the growth of towns and made Buda his royal residence, which
consequently became one of the most beautiful in Europe.
To the Gothic Friss (New) Palace in Buda Matthias added a new wing in the
Renaissance style which held his famous library, the Bibliotheca
Corviniana. The first printing press was established in Buda in 1473.
There was also an outburst of scientific activity. Hundreds of Hungarian
students made their way to the universities of Vienna,
Cracow, Padua
and Bologna, returning to Hungary to spread the influence
of the new learning. In Pozsony [now Bratislava]
the Academia Istropolitana was founded; at the court of Matthias,
Antonio Bonfini was writing his Rerum Hungaricarum Decades, and the
Italian humanist Galeotto Marzio, was also active there. Janus Pannonius, the
humanist poet famous throughout Europe,
worked in Pécs. Nor were architecture and the fine arts neglected. The royal palace of Buda,
the magnificent palace of Visegrád with its three hundred and fifty rooms and
the fortress castle
of Diósgyőr were all
embellished with works by Hungarian and Italian artists, including Benedetto
de Maiano, Verrocchio, Leonardo and others. A portrait of Matthias was
painted by Mantegna.
Matthias pursued a vigorous and active foreign
policy. In the early years of his reign he launched an offensive attack
against the Turks. Later, he conducted an expansionist foreign policy towards
Moravia and Silesia,
and finally, against Austria.
After occupying Vienna in 1489, he transferred
his royal residence there from Buda, and it was in Vienna that he died in 1490. At the time of
his sudden death, he left behind him a flourishing country which stood at the
forefront of European development.
A contradictory and ominous political figure at
the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Tamás Bakócz had been, in
the course of his career, royal secretary and Bishop of Győr under King
Matthias's reign. Under the reign of Matthias's successor, Wladislas II, he
was royal chancellor, Archbishop of Esztergom, and later a cardinal. A master
of Machiavellian intrigue and a remarkable political strategist, trusted by Venice and mediator
between Milanese and Florentine bankers and Buda, he rose in the course of a
few decades from the son of a wheelmaking serf to the rank of the richest and
most powerful men in the country. In 1510, Bakócz set himself the greatest
objective of his life, the attainment of the vacant papal throne. He arrived
in Rome at the head of a magnificent
delegation, and for months he attempted to dazzle the Eternal City
with sumptuous festivities on which he spent enormous sums of money. As far
as the papal throne was concerned, his efforts remained fruitless, for the
conclave elected young Giovanni Medici as the head of the Church. However,
the new pope, Leo X, "consoled" Bakócz with a Bull which enabled
him to declare a crusade against the Turks. The status of the serfs had
deteriorated in the course of the preceding years due to increased
oppression, including restriction of their freedom of movement. Bakócz and a
section of the landowners were convinced that the serfs would march to the
faraway battlefields, and consequently, the tense internal situation would
become less dangerous. The majority of the barons and nobility, however,
opposed putting arms in the hands of the peasants. When men from all parts of
the country began to gather together for the holy crusade against the Turks,
many of the landowners used force to keep their serfs at home. They oppressed
the families of those who had gone, forcing them to accept the labour and
duties of those absent from home. The crusading force, formed as it was of
the dissatisfied masses, rapidly turned into an anti-feudal army. When Bakócz,
urged by the alarmed feudal lords and nobles, suspended the crusade, the
infuriated masses refused to obey his orders. György Dózsa, a Székely cavalry
officer who had already proven himself in battle against the Turks, led his
army to the Hungarian Great Plain where larger and larger groups of peasants
joined him, and the towns on the plains also sided with them. Realizing the
threat to their power, the barons and the lesser nobility temporarily set
aside their differences at this point, and the cavalry of the nobility
swooped down on the peasant army, which had laid siege to Temesvár [now Timisoara]. The peasant
forces suffered decisive defeat at the hands of the experienced and
well-armed nobility, and after the uprising had been finally crushed, ruthless
revenge was taken on the peasants. Dózsa was captured, seated on a red-hot
throne, crowned with a red-hot iron crown, and burned alive. Thousands of
peasants were executed. The Diet was convened in the autumn of 1514 proceeded
to pass a law depriving the serfs of all freedom of movement.
It was under these circumstances that the
decisive attack of the Turks took place. After occupying two of Hungary's
southern bastions, the Turkish Sultan Suleiman II (1496-1566) launched a
large-scale offensive with a well-equipped army of eighty thousand in the
summer of 1526. The Hungarian forces, led by Louis II, barely consisted of
twenty thousand men who were poorly armed in comparison to the Turkish army.
The decisive battle was fought at Mohács by the Danube
river and ended with the annihilation of the Hungarian army. Fifteen thousand
were killed in the battle, and the king himself died on the battlefield. This
event was one of the tragic turning points in Hungarian history, and its
efforts were felt for centuries to come. The territorial unity of medieval Hungary,
together with its independence, were lost.
© Zoltán Halász
English translation by Zsuzsa Béres
Translation revised by J.E. Sollosy
Bibliographic data:
Title: Hungary
(4th edition)
Authors: Zoltán Halász / András Balla (photo) / Zsuzsa Béres
(translation)
Published by Corvina, in 1998
159 pages
ISBN: 963-13-4129-1, 963-13-4727-3
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