LIBRARY 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 FROM THE LIBRARY 
 OF F. VON BOSCHAN
 
 UCSB LIBRARY
 
 THE STORY OF THE NATIONS 
 
 35 
 
 ALFRED J. 
 By Prof 
 
 By Prof. GEORGE 
 Prof. ARMINIUS 
 By ARTHUR GIL- 
 
 Rome. By ARTHUR OILMAN, M.A. 
 
 The Jews. By Prof. J. K. HOSMER. 
 
 Germany. By Rev. S. BARING- 
 GOULD, M.A. 
 
 Carthage. By Prof. 
 CHURCH. 
 
 Alexander's Empire. 
 J. P. MAHAFFY. 
 
 The Moors in Spain. By STANLEY 
 
 LANE-POOLE. 
 
 Ancient Egypt. 
 RAWUNSOR. 
 
 Hungary. By 
 
 VAMHERV. 
 The Saracens. 
 
 MAN. M.A. 
 Ireland. By the Hon. EMILY 
 
 LAWLESS. 
 
 Chalcea. By ZEKAIDE A RAGOZIN. 
 The Goths. By HENRY BRADLEY. 
 Assyria. By ZKNATDK A. RAGOZIN. 
 Turkey I'.y STANLEY LANK-POOLE. 
 Holland. By Prof. J. E. THOROLD 
 
 ROG MRS. 
 Mediaeval France. By GUSTAVE 
 
 MASSON. 
 
 Persia. By S. G. W. BENJAMIN. 
 Phoenicia. By Prof. G. RAWLIXEOX. 
 Media. By ZENAlDE A. RAGOZIN. 
 The Hansa Towns. Bv HELEN 
 
 ZIMMERN. 
 Early Britain. By Prof. ALFRED 
 
 J. CHURCH. 
 The Barbary Corsairs. By STANLEY 
 
 LANE-POOLE. 
 
 Russia. By W. R. MORI ILL, M.A. 
 The Jews under the Romans. By 
 
 w. D. MORRISON. 
 Scotland. By JOHN MACKINTOSH. 
 
 LL.D. 
 Switzerland. By Mrs. LINA HUG 
 
 and R. STEAD. 
 Mexico. By SUSAN HALE. 
 Portugal. By H. MORSE STEPHENS. 
 The Normans. By SARAH ORME 
 
 JEWF.TT. 
 The Byzantine Empire. By C. W. 
 
 C. OMAN. 
 Sicily : Phoenician, Greek and 
 
 Roman. By the Prof. E. A. 
 
 FREEMAN. 
 The Tuscan Republics. By BELLA 
 
 DUFKY. 
 
 Poland. By W. R. MORFIIX, M.A. 
 Parthia. By Prof. GEORGE RAW- 
 
 L1XSON. 
 
 The Australian Commonwealth. By 
 GREVILLE TREGARTHEN. 
 
 36. Spain. By H. E. WATTS. 
 
 37. Japan. By DAVID MURRAY, Ph.D. 
 
 38. South Africa. By GEORGE M. 
 
 THEAL. 
 
 39. Venice. By ALETHEA WIEL. 
 
 40. The Ciusades. By T. A. ARCHER 
 
 and C. L. KlNGSFORD. 
 
 41. Vedic India. By Z. A. RAGOZIN. 
 
 42. The West Indies and the Spanish 
 
 Main. By JAMES HODWAY. 
 
 43. Bohemia. By C. EDMUND 
 
 MAURICE. 
 
 44. The Balkans. By W. MILLER, M.A. 
 
 45. Canada. By Sir J. G. BOURINOT, 
 
 LL.U. ' 
 
 46. British India. By R. W. FRAZER, 
 
 LL.B. 
 
 47. Modern France. By ANDRE LE BON. 
 4*. The Franks. By LEWIS SERGEANT. 
 
 49. Austria. By SIDNEY WHITMAN. 
 
 50. Modern England. Before the Re- 
 
 form Bill. By JUSTIN MCCARTHY. 
 
 51. China. By Prof. R. K. DOUGLAS 
 
 52. Modern England. From the Reform 
 
 Bill to the Present Time. By 
 JUSTIN MCCARTHY. 
 
 53. Modern Spain. By MARTIN A. S. 
 
 HUMK. 
 
 54. Modern Italy. By PIETRO ORSI. 
 
 55. Korway. By H. H. BOYESEN. 
 
 56. Wales. Bv O. M. EDWARDS. 
 
 57. Mediaeval Rome. By W. MILLER, 
 
 MA. 
 
 58. The Papal Monarchy. By WILLIAM 
 
 BARRY, D.D. 
 
 59. Mediaeval India under Mohamme- 
 
 dan Rule. By STANLEY LANE- 
 POOLE. 
 
 60. Buddhist India. By Prof. T. W. 
 
 RHYS-DAVIDS. 
 
 61. Parliamentary England. By ED- 
 
 WARD JENKS. M.A. 
 
 62. Mediaeval England. By MARY 
 
 BATESON. 
 
 63. The Coming of Parliament. By L 
 
 CECIL JANE. 
 
 64. The Story of Greece. From the 
 
 Earliest Times to A.D. 14. By 
 E. S. SHUCKBURGH. 
 
 65. The Story of the Roman Empire. 
 
 (B.C. 29 to A.D. 476.) By H. 
 STUART JONES. 
 
 66. Denmark and Sweden, with Ice- 
 
 land and Finland. By JON 
 STEFANSSON, Ph.D. 
 
 67. Belgium. From the Roman Inva- 
 
 sion to the Present Dav. By 
 EMILE CAMMAERTS. 
 
 LONDON : T. FISHER UNWIN, LTD., i ADELPHI TERRACE
 
 Ajur the Pvr trait by Kaiabds. 
 
 LOUIS KOSSUTH.
 
 HUNGARY 
 
 IN ANCIENT, MEDIEVAL, AND 
 MODERN TIMES 
 
 By ARMINIUS VAMB&RY 
 
 PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BUDA-PESTH 
 WITH THE COLLABORATION OF 
 
 LOUIS HEILPRIN 
 
 EIGHTH EDITION 
 
 WITH A NEW CHAPTER ON 
 HUNGARY FROM 1867-1923 
 
 T. FISHER UN WIN LTD 
 LONDON : ADELPHI TERRACE
 
 First Impression i$88 
 
 Second 1888 
 
 Third 1889 
 
 Fourth ., 1890 
 
 Fifth 1894 
 
 Sixth 1898 
 
 Seventh *9 2 
 
 Second Edition (Eighth Impression) 1923 
 
 Copyright by T. Fisher Umi'in, iSS6 
 
 (For Great Britain) . 
 
 Cjpyright by G. P. Putnam's Sons, iSS6 
 (For the United States of America).
 
 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 THERE is but little need to explain why a new 
 edition of the present work, published in 1889, 
 in necessary. The earlier edition traced Hungary's 
 fate only till 1867, and the change Hungary under- 
 went since proved more fatal than any of her 
 previous vicissitudes. 
 
 Some readers may think it would have been 
 better to alter Chapter I., since the Treaty of 
 Trianon gave a new meaning to the name of 
 Hungary. To my mind, however, there is no reason 
 to consider the boundaries, created at Trianon, 
 as everlasting. They are but the results of an 
 atmosphere of concentrated hatred in the trail 
 of war. This hatred is likely to abate steadily 
 in time, and, in fact, it has decreased already. 
 The present boundaries strongly contradict also 
 the principles of nationality and self-determination, 
 so warmly advocated by President Wilson, and 
 accepted as the basis of the peace treaties by 
 all the Allied Powers. 
 
 One could have hardly imagined any continental 
 country forming a stricter geographic unity than 
 pre-war Hungary. The Carpathians girdle her 
 in the north and east, and the Danube in the 
 south. All her rivers flow into the Danube. 
 This natural unity has been accentuated by a 
 concentric system of highways and railways 
 following the valleys and centring at Buda- 
 Pesth. The work of nature and the human 
 achievement of more than a thousand years 
 cannot be undone by a peace treaty. 
 
 The entire area of pre-war Hungary, Croatia
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 and Slavonia excluded, was 109,000 square miles, 
 with a population of 18,264,533. Of this territory 
 about a third (35,166 square miles) and of 
 the population 7,481,954 were left to mutilated 
 Hungary. By the new borders 33-5 per cent, of 
 the Hungarians (39 -7 per cent, of the Hungarian- 
 speaking population) were severed from the 
 Hungarian block. 
 
 Of course, in mutilated Hungary the number 
 of the industrial population as well as the volume 
 of industrial production and consumption stand 
 greatly out of proportion to the natural resources 
 left to her. More than half of the factory workers 
 (55-6 per cent.) and over half of the manufacturing 
 establishments are to be found in present Hungary. 
 Nevertheless, several of her most important sources 
 of materials for industry were wholly or partly 
 cut oif. She has lost all her ores in gold, silver, 
 aluminium, copper, zinc, manganese, etc. Of her 
 beech and brushwood there is but 13*4 per cent., 
 and of her pine woods merely 2 6 per cent, remain. 
 Considering the prohibitive tariff system of the 
 newly created states, the present state of things 
 means an unintermitting economic unrest. 
 
 An artificially formed state can hardly endure 
 the vicissitudes imposed by the disregard of the 
 Conditions essential to its existence. In con- 
 sequence of this revision of Chapter I. ought to 
 be postponed till an improved edition of Hungary 
 is going to be issued by the League of Nations. 
 
 . BUDAPEST, 1923. R. VAMBfiRY.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE OF HUNGARY, 1-17 
 A bird's-eye view, i Carpathian mountains, 5 Water sys- 
 tem, 7 Climate, g Various nationalities, 13 Constitu- 
 tion, 16. 
 
 II. 
 
 HUNGARY BEFORE THE OCCUPATION BY THE MAG- 
 YARS i3-26 
 
 Prehistoric times, 18 Pannonia and Dacia, 20 The Mar- 
 comanni, 21 Huns, 23 Gepidoe, 24 Bajan, prince of the 
 Avars, 25. 
 
 III. 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF THE MAGYARS . . 27-41 
 
 Nimrod and his descendants, 27 Two kindred races, 29 
 Cradle of the Magyar race, 32 Country between the Volga 
 and Danube, 33 The seven dukes, 36 Invasion of Hun- 
 gary. 37- Defeat of Svatopluk, 39. 
 
 IV. 
 THE REIGN OF THE DUKES .... 42-52 
 
 Arpad the first duke, 42 Defeat of King Berengar, 44 
 Battle of Presburg, 45 Battle of Merseburg, 47 Melan- 
 choly Magyars, 49 Duke Geyza, 51.
 
 x THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 V. 
 
 I'AGK 
 
 THK CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY . . 53-64 
 
 Shamanism, 53 Missionaries, 55 Baptism of Stephen, 58 
 Discontent, 59 Rigorous laws, 6l Change.; in manners 
 and customs, 63 
 
 VI. 
 
 ST. STEPHEN, THE FIRST KING OK HUNGARY. 65-96 
 vSt. Stephen's Day, 66 Influence of religious ideas, 69 
 Character of Stephen, 71 Embassy to Rome, 74 St. 
 Stephen's crown, 75 Papal bull, 77 Christian church the 
 corner-stone, 79 Cathedral of Stuhhveissenburg, 81 In- 
 crease of royal authority, 83 Revenues, 85 Prosperity of 
 the country, 87 Attack of Conrad, 89 Stephen's advice to 
 his son, 91 Stephen canonized, 96. 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD . 97-150 
 Wealth of the Arpads, 98 Charter of the Golden Bull, 99 
 Vatha, 1 02 Envoys of Henry III., 103 The brothers' 
 feud, 105 Power of paganism broken, 107 Battle of Mog- 
 yorod, 109 Increase of population, in Religious move- 
 ment in Europe, 114 The "bookish " king, 115 Struggle 
 between uncle and nephew, 117 Bela's oath, 119 
 Royal chancery, 121 Battle on the Drave, 124 Andrew 
 II., 125 Complaints of the nobles, 127 " Golden Bull," 
 129 Mongol invasion, 132 Plain of Theiss, 135 Battle of 
 Muhi, 139 Bela's flight, 141 Colonization, 142 Frederic, 
 Duke of Austria, 144 Alliance of houses of Hapsburg and 
 Arpad, 145 Ladislaus IV., 147 The sun of the Arpads 
 sets, 150. 
 
 VIII. 
 THE ANJOUS IN HUNGARY . . . 151-193 
 
 The Czech party victorious, 152 Otto's march through Buda, 
 153 Charles Robert of Anjou crowned, 154 Czech depre- 
 dations, 155 Battle of Kassa, 157 Zach family condemned,
 
 CONTENTS. xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 160 Wallachian campaign, 161 Louis the Great, 164 
 Assassination of Andrew, 165 The Pope's sentence, 167 
 Successes in Servia, 1 69 Europe threatened by a new foe, 
 171 Cultivation of the arts of peace, 174 End of union 
 between Poland and Hungary, 175 Coronation of Charles, 
 177 Sigismund, ruler of Hungary, 1 79 Execution of Kont, 
 181 Approach of Bajazet, 183 Election of new king, 185 
 King of Hungary becomes Emperor of Germany, 187 
 Church of Rome, 189 Siege of Galambocz, 191 Death of 
 Sigismund, 193. 
 
 IX. 
 
 JOHN HUNYADI ; THE GREAT CHAMPION OF CHRIS- 
 TIANITY ...... 194-216 
 
 Every noble a born soldier, 195 Battle of Semendria, 196 
 Heroism of Simon Kemeny, 199 Entrance of Turkish 
 army, 201 League against the Turks, 203 Terms of peace, 
 205 Battle of Varna, 207 Defeat of the Hungarians, 209 
 Invasion of Albania, 211 John Capistrano, 213 Death of 
 Hunyadi, 215. 
 
 X. 
 
 KING MATTHIAS ..... 217-256 
 
 Personal courage, 220 Wars with the Poles and Czechs, 
 222 The Black Troop, 224 Siege of Vienna, 225 
 Severe disciplinarian, 229 Character of Matthias, 231 
 Embassy to Charles VIII., 233 Brilliant court receptions, 
 235 " An Earthly Paradise," 238 New laws, 240 King 
 Matthias the Just, 241 Critical position, 243 Wealth, 245 
 Renaissance, 247 Court dinners, 249 Library, 251 
 Palace at Buda, 253 Death of Matthias, 256. 
 
 XI. 
 
 THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE, AND THE DIS- 
 ASTROUS BATTLE OF MOHACS . . 257-289 
 
 A dark page, 257 John Corvinus, 259 Deputation of Ulad- 
 islaus, 261 Disorders of the times, 263 Stephen Szapol- 
 yai chosen king, 265 A distinguished brawl, 267 Condition 
 of the Hungarian peasants, 269 Peasant war, 271 Popular
 
 xii THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 l-AGK 
 
 feeling, 273 Indifference of the king, 275 Frivolous 
 amusements, 277 Fuggers, 279 Kalandos League, 281 
 Siege of Shabatz, 283 Louis roused from his lethargy, 285 
 Battle of Mohacs, 287 Hungarians pay a heavy penalty 
 2Sg. 
 
 XII. 
 
 THE TURKISH WORLD, AND THE RISE OK PROTFS- 
 
 TANTISM IN HUNGARY . . . 290-336 
 
 Sack of Buda, 293 A nation with two kings, 295 Ambi- 
 tious schemes of Solyman, 297 Gallant George Szondi, 299 
 Stephen Losonczy, 301 Temesvar taken by the Turks, 
 305 Depressing days, 307 Heroic defence of Erlau, 308 
 Plans of Solyman, 311 Zrinyi retreats, 318 Wearisome- 
 ness of the siege, 315 Fall of Szietgvar, 317 The poet 
 Balassa, 319 Spread of Luther's ideas, 322 Laws against 
 Lutherans, 323 Teachings of Calvin, 325 The anti-refor- 
 mation movement, 327 Nicholas Zrinyi, 329 Last great 
 campaign of the Osmanlis, 331 Rout of the Turks, 333 
 Peace of Szatmar, 335 Desolation of Hungary, 336. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 THE AUSTRIAN RULE (1526-1780) . . 337~373 
 Ferdinand elevated to the throne of Hungary, 338 Turks 
 averse to increase of Hapsburg power, 339 Vienna the seat 
 of government, 341 Obstacle to Germanizing schemes, 343 
 Rebellion, 345 Peace of Vienna, 346 Jesuits gain a 
 foothold, 347 Gabriel Bethlen, 348 Old policy of the 
 Transylvanian princes, 350 Disturbance of the "balance 
 of power," 351 Gloomy outlook for the Hungarians, 353 
 General conspiracy, 355 Kurucz-Labancz era, 357 Nego- 
 tiations begun, 358 Siege of Vienna raised, 359 Bloody 
 Tribunal of Eperjts, 360 Colonization of the Alfold, 361 
 Oppressive taxes, 362 Francis Rakoczy II., 363 New 
 rising of the people, 364 Treaty of Szatmar, 367 Inaug- 
 uration of new policy, 369 Maria Teresa's appeal, 370 
 Gratitude of the queen, 371 Social revolution, 372.
 
 CONTENTS. x 
 
 XIV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE EMPEROR JOSEPH II. THE NATIONAL RE- 
 ACTION AND THE NAPOLEONIC WARS, 374~399 
 
 A king refuses to be crowned, 375 Imbued with eighteenth- 
 century viev/s, 386 German made the official language, 379 
 Shocks the prejudices of the people, 381 Crown removed 
 to Vienna, 382 War declared against Turkey, 385 Succes- 
 sion of Leopold II., 387 Hungary declared an independent 
 country, 389 Laws securing religious liberty, 390 Arbi- 
 trary government of Francis I., 391 Hungarian Jacobins, 
 392 Echo of the French ideas, 394 Liberal leaders arrested, 
 395 Bloody executions, 396 Main functions of the diets, 
 397 Constitution ignored, 398 Levy of recruits, 399. 
 
 XV. 
 
 SZECHENYI, KOSSUTH, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR 
 
 LIBERTY IN 1848-1849 . . . 400-440 
 
 Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 400 Stephen Szechenyi, 
 402 Congress of Vienna, 404 Speaks in Hungarian, 406 
 Publication of " Credit," 409 Introduction of horse-racing, 
 410 Danube Steam Navigation Company, 411 Louis 
 Kossuth, 412 Leaders of public opinion, 414 Censorship 
 of the press, 415 Kossuth's imprisonment, 416 Pestl 
 Ilirlap, 417 Attacks on Kossuth, 418 Policy of the Vien- 
 nese government, 420 Revolutions of 1848, 421 Tnlfra 
 Magyar, 422 Reforms of the diet, 423 Hungary a modern 
 state, 424 Rebellion of Croatians, Roumanians, and Serbs, 
 426Honvcds, 427 Vote for troops and funds, 428 Death 
 of Szechenyi, 429 Invasion of Windischgratz, 430 Klapka 
 achieves his first triumph, 431 Alliance between Joseph 
 and the Czar, 432 Battle of V'ilagos, 433 Persecution of 
 the patriots, 434 Work of reconciliation, 435 Austria- 
 Hungary, 436 Ciiria-regia, 437- Pragmatic Sanction, 438 
 Pardon for political offenders, 440. 
 
 XVI 
 
 NATIONAL RISE AND COLLAPSE . . . 441-481 
 The Pact, 441 Absolute government based on the Prince, 
 442 Contract between the dynasty and the Hungarian
 
 XIV THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 aristocracy, 443 Hungary and Croatia, 443 Fiume, 445 
 Pillars of unity in the monarchy, 446 The nobility, 446 
 The Burgess class, 447 The peasantry, 448 The churches 
 and class antagonism, 449 The political parties, 450 The 
 nationalities, 452 The policy of Francis Deak, 453 Politics 
 of the county nobility, 454 Magyarization, 455 Coloman 
 Tisza, 456 The governments after C. Tisza, 457 Church 
 policy, 459 The obstruction, 460 Parties outside parlia- 
 ment, 463 The question of the nationalities, 464 The 
 workman, 464 Croatia, 465 Domestic and foreign enemies, 
 465 Decline in the inherent force of the national system, 
 466 The position of the Jew-, 467 The great landlords, 468 
 Decline of the dynasty's authority, 469 Hungarian nobility 
 and Prussia, 470 The downfall, 471 Karolyi's Regime, 472 
 Bolshevism, 474 The reaction, 477 Obstacles to Con- 
 solidation, 479. 
 
 INDEX . . 483 
 
 INDEX TO NKW CHAPTER ..... 499
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PA OK. 
 
 LOUIS KOSSUTH. After the Portrait by Barabas . Frontispiece 
 
 DANUBE FROM THE RUINS OF VISEGRAD . . .3 
 
 ICE GROTTO OF DEMENFALVA ..... 5 
 
 BORDERS OF THE DANUBE ... .7 
 
 BUDA-PESTH . . ..... II 
 
 COACHMAN . . . . . . . .12 
 
 HUNGARIAN TYPES ....... 13 
 
 CHILDREN FROM THK DISTRICT OF THE SAVE . . 15 
 
 A " KOLA "........ iy 
 
 ROMAN AND DACIANS, FROM TRAJAN'S COLUMN . 19 
 
 A ROMAN TEMPLE . . . . . . .21 
 
 HUNGARIAN SHEPHERD ... . . 31 
 
 ELECTION OF A^MOS, THE FIRST DUKE 35 
 
 ARPAD TAKES POSSESSION OF HUNGARY . -43 
 
 BAPTISM OF ST. STEPHEN ...... 57 
 
 CORONATION OF ST. STEPHEN ... -67 
 
 THE PEOPLE SEDUCED BY VATHA CLAIM THE RE- 
 ESTABLISHMENT OF PAGANISM .... IOI 
 
 DUEL BETWEEN ST. LADISLAUS AND AKUS . 113 
 
 BELA IV. RETURNS TO HIS COUNTRY, DEVASTATED 
 
 BY THE MONGOLS . ... 143 
 
 CASTLE OF ARVA .... ., 153 
 
 CATHEDRAL OF GRAN ... . 163 
 
 XV
 
 xvi THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 ^AGE 
 
 CASTLE OF BETZKO . J 73 
 
 CASTLE OF HUN Y ADI I 9^ 
 
 PRESBURG . .2ig 
 
 FORTRESS OF BUD A . .227 
 
 RUINS OF VISEGRAD . 2 37 
 
 JELLACHICH SQUARE, AGRAM . . 255 
 
 HEROIC DEFENCE OF ERLAU . 39 
 
 PASHA'S HOUSE . . 3 1 9 
 
 HUNGARIAN PEASANTS IN AN INN . 321 
 
 A CSIKOS . 339 
 
 HUNGARIAN PEASANTS . 349 
 
 PEASANT GIRL FROM THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF BUDA- 
 PESTH . : . 
 
 HUNGARIAN PEASANT 
 
 HUNGARIAN PORTER (DOOR-KEEPER) 
 
 SLOVAK WOMEN AND CHILDREN 
 
 GYPSY HUTS 
 
 OLD GYPSY WOMAN . 
 
 HALT OF GYPSiES 
 
 GYPSIES AND LADY . 
 HOUSE AT KRAPINA . . 
 HUNGARIAN GYPSY . 
 HUNGARIAN LADY . 
 WOMAN'S HEAD-DRESS 
 
 CARTS ... 
 
 BARKS ON DANUBE ... 
 
 THE HUNGARIAN PARLIAMENT DOING HOMAGE TO 
 KING FRANCIS JOSEPH AT THE CELEBRATION 
 OF THE MILLENNIAL FESTIVAL, 1896 . . 458
 
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 ft U S S / A N. POLAND A~% 
 
 " ic ,iS^ r ^Mfik^o 
 
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 HUNGARY 
 
 in Sff 3<r *ir so
 
 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE OF HUNGARY. 
 
 ALEXANDER PETOFI, the great Hungarian poet, 
 in one of his beautiful poems, sings thus of his na- 
 tive land : 
 
 " If the earth be God's crown 
 Our country is its fairest jewel." 
 
 And truly were we able to ascend the airy heights 
 and obtain a bird's-eye view of Hungary, we would 
 tain admit that it is one of the fairest and most 
 blessed spots on the face of the earth. 
 
 In the Northwest of Hungary, on the banks of the 
 Danube, begins the mountainous region known under 
 the name of the Carpathian range, which for beauty 
 is not surpassed by the Alps, and in extent fairly 
 rivals them. This mountain range, encircling like a 
 gigantic evergreen wreath one half of the country, 
 extends all along its northern boundary and, after 
 enclosing the eastern portion of it, stretches west- 
 ward to where it is intersected by the waters of the 
 Danube, not terminating there, however, but branch-
 
 2 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 ing off into the countries lying along the lower course 
 of that river. 
 
 The whole range of the Carpathians is character- 
 ized throughout its immensely long course by con- 
 siderable breadth, forming at some places quite a 
 hilly country and high plateaus, as, for instance, in 
 Transylvania which, although properly belonging to 
 Hungary, formerly enjoyed a sort of independence 
 under its own name. This territory is covered al- 
 most entirely by the Carpathians, but, of course, 
 designated here by different names. 
 
 We shall proceed now in due order. 
 
 In the Northwest, there where the Danube enters 
 Hungarian territory near Deveny, the mountain 
 chain begins, under the name of the Northwestern 
 Carpathians ; these, describing the shape of a half 
 moon, extend from Presburg (Pozsony) to the Her- 
 nad-Tarcza valley. Formerly three groups only 
 were mentioned in connection with this section : 
 namely, the Tatra, Fatra, and Matra, a representa- 
 tion of which, as well as of the four rivers, the Dan- 
 ube, Theiss, Drave, and Save, is embodied in the 
 arms of the country, whence Hungary is designated 
 as " the country of the three mountains and four 
 rivers." The Northwestern Carpathians are, how- 
 ever, a gigantic mountain mass of immense bulk, 
 subdivided into several distinct ranges. Of these 
 one, the Northwestern border mountain-range, start- 
 ing near the Danube in Presburg County and extend- 
 ing in the shape of a wide arch in a northeastern 
 direction as far as the sources of the Arva river, 
 divides Hungary from Moravia, Silesia, and Galicia.
 
 DANUBE FROM THE RUINS OF VISEGRAu.
 
 4 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 This ridge is constantly rising, and reaches the high- 
 est elevation at its northern edge. Another range is 
 the Little Krevan. which begins in Arva County, and 
 extends through the flatlands between the Vag ana 
 Nyitra rivers. East of this are the Gomor mountain- 
 range, famous for its stalactitic caves, including Agg- 
 telek; the Matra range, extending from Miskolcz 
 to Vacz ; and the loftiest of all, the High Tatra, 
 whose highest peaks are those of Jegvolgy, Gerlach- 
 falva, and Lomnicz, rising to an altitude of between 
 8,000 and 9,000 feet. The mountains belonging to 
 this group are snow-covered, and what renders them 
 peculiarly interesting are the so-called tengerssemek 
 (eyes of the sea), limpid lakes of unfathomable 
 depth, which, according to popular belief, are con- 
 nected with the sea, and about which a good many 
 old-time legendary tales are current amongst the 
 people. These lakes are met with at the height 
 of 1,900 metres above the level of the sea. 
 
 That range of mountains which extends eastward 
 from the Hernad-Tarcza valley to the southeastern 
 angle of Marmaros County is called the Northeastern 
 Carpathians. It includes the Wooded Carpathians 
 and the Eperjes-Tokay range, in the southern part 
 of which, the Hegyalja, the king of the wines, the 
 famous Tokay wine, is produced. 
 
 The southeastern chain of the Carpathians divides 
 where Marmaros County, Transylvania, and Buko- 
 vina converge into an angle, forming several main 
 lines which enclose the territory of Transylvania 
 in an almost quadrangular shape and give it the 
 character of a high plateau. The name of this group
 
 THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. 5 
 
 is the Southeastern Carpathians. Parts of it are the 
 Transylvanian northern and eastern border ranges; 
 the Hargita range, with the remarkable Mount 
 Biidos, containing several caves from which issue 
 strong gases, and the beautiful lake of St. Anna at a 
 height of 950 metres ; the southern border range, the 
 largest and most massive portion of the Carpathian 
 
 ICE-GKOTTO OF DKMENYKALVA. 
 
 mountains ; the mountain group of the Banate and 
 the mineral mountain range of the Banate, the latter 
 owing its name to the gold, silver, and other ores 
 as well as the coal abounding in it. This group 
 projects as far as the basin of the Danube and forms 
 there the passes known as the Iron Gate, which 
 greatly impede navigation. To the Transylvanian
 
 6 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Hungarian range, extending north from the Maros 
 river, belong the mineral mountains of Transylvania, 
 rich in gold and other ore, and the mountain called 
 Kiralyhag6, which marks the frontier between Hun- 
 gary and the independent Transylvania of old. 
 
 Thirty-eight passes lead from this mountain-system 
 of gigantic dimensions, partly into the countries ad- 
 jacent to Hungary, partly into the regions divided 
 by them. Of these the most important are : the 
 Jablunka pass, communicating with Silesia and the 
 valley of the Vistula ; the Vereczke pass between 
 Munkacs and Stry, supposed to be the pass through 
 which the Hungarians entered their present country ; 
 the Radna pass, leading into Bukovina ; the Ojtoz 
 pass, communicating with Moldavia ; the Toinos 
 pass, leading to Bucharest ; and the Red Tower pass, 
 leading into Little Wallachia. 
 
 Besides the Carpathian mountains Hungary also 
 contains a less considerable portion of the Alps, be- 
 longing to the so-called Noric Alps. They lie in 
 trans-Danubian Hungary, the Pannonia of old. They 
 embrace the Austro-Styrian border-range, between 
 the valleys of the Danube and Drave ; the Vertes- 
 Bakony ranges, of which the Bakony forest forms a 
 part ; and the group of the Buda mountains, pro- 
 ducing the celebrated wines of that name. 
 
 Croatia and Slavonia, which are parts of the Hun- 
 garian realm, are also traversed by mountains be- 
 longing to the Alpine system. 
 
 We perceive from the preceding account that a 
 large portion of the country is mountainous, but 
 over a third part of it is level land, and so fertile
 
 THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. 
 
 7 
 
 that it may compare to the prairies in North Amer- 
 ica. The great Hungarian plain, the so-called Alfoid 
 (Lowland), boasts of the best soil for the production 
 of wheat, and, stretching down from the offshoots 
 of the Central Carpathians to the frontiers of Servia 
 contains upward of 35,000 square miles. 
 
 V 
 
 BORDERS OF THE DANUBE. 
 
 The extent of the water system of a country and 
 its distribution is always of the first importance. In 
 this respect, too, Hungary has been blessed by nature. 
 Of the sea she has but little ; a small portion only of 
 the Adriatic washes her shores, the so-called Hun- 
 garian Sea-Coast, where Fiume, the only important 
 Hungarian seaport city, is situated. The country pos- 
 sesses also some interesting lakes ; one, Lake Balaton,
 
 8 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 forty-seven miles long and nine miles wide, has the 
 characteristics of the sea to such an extent that 
 it is called the Hungarian Sea. In this extensive 
 water is to be found the savory fogas fish, and on its 
 shores is situated Balaton-Fiired, one of the favorite 
 watering-places of Hungary, and near this place 
 is the famous echo of Tihany. Another large lake 
 is the Ferto (Neu-Siedler), eighteen miles long and 
 about five miles wide, which became perfectly dry 
 in 1863, so that even houses were built on its bed, 
 but the waters have returned to it within the last 
 few years. Several smaller lakes, besides the two 
 mentioned, are scattered throughout the country. 
 
 With rivers the country is abundantly supplied. 
 Its mightiest stream is the Danube, after the Volga, 
 the largest river in Europe. The whole of Hungary 
 belongs to its basin. Its length in Hungary is 600 
 miles, and it leaves the country at Orsova, after hav- 
 ing formed several islands in its course. The larg- 
 est among these is the Great Csalld region, which 
 contains two towns and over a hundred villages ; 
 and the most beautiful of them is Margit (Margaret) 
 Island, near Buda-Pesth quite a miniature paradise, 
 frequented by a great many strangers, who come here 
 to get the benefit of its excellent baths. Of the nu- 
 merous affluents of the Danube the Theiss is the 
 most important ; it has its sources in the country 
 and empties into the Danube on Hungarian soil, 
 near Titel. It is navigable for steamships. The 
 Save and Drave are after the Theiss the largest 
 tributaries of the Danube. All these rivers send 
 their waters, through the medium of the Danube, 
 into the Black Sea.
 
 THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. Q 
 
 Thus harmoniously is the soil of Hungary varied 
 by mountains, valleys, plains, and high plateaus, 
 and gratefully watered by rivers and lakes ; and if 
 we but add that the country lies between the forty- 
 fourth and fiftieth degrees of northern latitude, 
 that is, in the most favorable part of the temperate 
 zone, we may readily infer the superiority of the cli- 
 matic conditions prevailing there. There is, of course, 
 great variety of climate. The winter is raw and cold 
 in the Carpathian regions ; spring sets in later, winter 
 comes earlier, and the cold sometimes reaches 22 F. 
 In the hilly and level country the climate is much 
 more genial, the summers hotter, and storms of more 
 frequent occurrence. Wheat, grapes, and maize do 
 not ripen in the regions of the higher Carpathians, 
 whilst the Alfold produces the best and finest wheat, 
 and even rice. The air is most genial on the shores 
 of the Adriatic, and here are grown, the fruits of 
 Southern Europe. The climate, as a general thing, 
 is dry, especially in the Alfold, where trees are rare. 
 
 Such is the topography and climate of the country 
 which, lying in the central portion of Middle Europe, 
 stretches between Moravia, Silesia, Galicia, Bukovina, 
 Roumania, Servia, Bosnia, the Adriatic Sea, Istria, 
 Carinthia, Styria, and Austria. It covers an area of 
 125,000 square miles, and has a population of nearly 
 sixteen millions. 
 
 Politically the country is divided into three parts, 
 namely: Hungary proper (including the formerly 
 detached Transylvania), the city and territory of 
 Fiume, and Croatia and Slavonia. Dalmatia, too, 
 ought to belong under the old laws to the country,
 
 10 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 but, for a long time already, it has owned the su- 
 premacy of Austria. 
 
 Buda-Pesth is the capital of the entire kingdom. 
 Situated on both banks of the majestic Danube, 
 here spanned by three beautiful bridges, amongst 
 them the famous suspension bridge, it is one of the 
 finest cities of Europe. It has nearly 400,000 inhabi- 
 tants, and is the centre of Hungary's political, cul- 
 tural, industrial, and commercial life. Fine public 
 and private buildings, some of them beautiful speci- 
 mens of architectural art, adorn the city, and it 
 boasts of wide thoroughfares, among which the de- 
 lightful Corso along the left bank of the Danube, 
 and the Andrassy lit (Road) leading to the city 
 park, where the national exhibition of 1885 was 
 located, deserve especial mention. The finest and 
 largest cities, besides Buda-Pesth, are : Prcsburg 
 (Pozsony), on the left bank of the Danube, form- 
 erly the seat of the Hungarian Diet ; Comorn (Ko- 
 marorn), on the Danube, too, celebrated for its grand 
 fortifications ; Stuhlweissenburg (Szkesfej6rvar), 
 once the capital of Hungary ; Raab (Gyor) ; Oeden. 
 b.urg (Soprony) ; Veszprem, one of the oldest cities ; 
 Erlau (Eger), renowned for its excellent wine ; 
 Szeged, the metropolis of the Alfold and one of 
 the largest cities, which in 18/9 was almost en- 
 tirely destroyed by the overflowing of the Theiss, 
 but has since been rebuilt, more beautifully than be- 
 fore, after the latest European pattern ; Kassa, the 
 finest city in Upper Hungary; Miskolcz ; Debreczen, 
 one of the most remarkable cities of the Hungarian 
 Alfold and the scat of a considerable industry ;
 
 12 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Grosswardein (Nagy-Varad), the scene of many 
 important historical events ; Arad, Temesvar, and 
 Carlsburg (Gyulafejervar), all fortified cities memor- 
 able in history ; Klausenburg (Kolozsvar), the capital 
 of the former principality of Transylvania ; the 
 flourishing Transylvanian towns of Kronstadt 
 (Brasso)and Hermannstadt(Szebcn), inhabited for the 
 
 COACHMAN. 
 
 most part by the descendants of Saxons ; Fiume, the 
 seaport on the Adriatic ; Agram (Zagrab), the capital 
 of Croatia, a beautiful city, which, however, was 
 greatly damaged in 1880 by a terrible earthquake; 
 and Eszk, the most prominent of the Slavonian 
 towns. 
 
 The population of the country is composed of va- 
 rious nationalities. The conquering Hungarians did 
 not oppress the ancient inhabitants of the land but
 
 THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. 13 
 
 left them undisturbed in the use of their native lan- 
 guage, and, even in later days, their tolerance went 
 so far as to actually favor foreign, and, more particu- 
 larly, German immigrants, and to this exceptional 
 forbearance alone must be traced the survival of 
 so many nationalities, and the lack of assimilation, 
 after so many centuries. Classified as to languages 
 spoken by the inhabitants, the chief nationalities 
 number as follows : I, Hungarians or Magyars, 
 6,500,000 the ruling, and, so to say, the political 
 
 HUNGARIAN TYPES. 
 
 nationality of the country, their language, the 
 Magyar,* being the language of the state ; 2, Ger- 
 mans, 1,900,000; 3, Roumans, 2,400,000; 4, Slovaks, 
 
 * The language of the Hungarians, or Magyars, belongs to the Uralo- 
 Altaic stock, and must be classified with those mixed languages which 
 have sprung up from the amalgamation of different branches of the 
 said race. In the case of the Hungarian language we have before us 
 a mixture of the Finnic-Ugrian and the Turco-Tartar idioms, and the 
 question of its fundamental basis has been constantly a matter of dis- 
 pute between philologists. 
 
 Its phonetic system, as a strictly Asiatic language, being essentially
 
 14 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 1,800,000; 5, Croats and Serbs, 2,400,000; Ruthenes, 
 350,000. Besides these there are other nationali- 
 ties but in insignificant numbers. 
 
 The relative numbers of the various religious de- 
 nominations are, in round figures, as follows : Roman 
 and Greek (united) Catholics 60$; Eastern-Greek 
 (non-united), 16^; Lutherans, 7$; Calvinists, 13 %\ 
 Unitarians, \ % ; Jews, 4 %. 
 
 With respect to their cultural condition, the peo- 
 ple may be said to be abreast with the nations of 
 Western Europe in every thing but industry, com- 
 merce, and some branches of science. In recent 
 years especially a great improvement has taken 
 place in popular education, owing to the large and 
 daily increasing number of schools, and the law 
 which compels children to attend school. There 
 are, for the purpose of advancing learning and cul- 
 tivating the various branches of science, a variety of 
 conspicuous scientific institutions, literary societies, 
 reading clubs, and public and private libraries. In 
 journalistic literature the country is equal to any 
 country on the European continent. 
 
 different from that of the Indo-European or Aryan languages, we give 
 here the following rules of pronunciation to be used in this book : 
 
 Hungarian* 
 
 VOWELS : 
 English^ etc. 
 o in hot. 
 
 Hungarian 
 
 CONSONANTS : 
 
 English^ etc. 
 
 d 
 
 
 
 
 
 e in net. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i ... 
 
 
 
 
 6 .... 
 
 
 
 
 o .... 
 o .... 
 
 . eu in French meuble. 
 . cu in French deux. 
 
 ty . . . 
 
 . ty in hit you (tu in 
 tune). 
 
 u 
 
 
 
 
 a .... 
 
 ii . , . . 
 
 u in French juste. 
 . u in French dur. 
 

 
 CHILDREN FROM THE DISTRICT OF THE SAVE.
 
 16 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 The constitution of the kingdom is one of the most 
 liberal in Europe. The estates were represented at 
 the Diet up to 1848, but under the present constitu- 
 tion the government is based upon popular represen- 
 tation. The Parliament or National Assembly con- 
 sists of two Houses, the House of Representatives 
 and the Upper House, or House of Lords, and in 
 these two bodies and the king is vested the legis- 
 lative power. The national affairs are administered 
 by eight ministerial departments ; the affairs in 
 common with Austria are settled by a delegation 
 from the two Houses of Parliament which meets an 
 Austrian Parliamentary delegation once in every 
 year, and administered by three common ministerial 
 departments for foreign affairs, for the common 
 army, and for the finances, respectively. 
 
 In conclusion it may be added that the descrip- 
 tion given above of the favorable concurrence of soil 
 and climate is fully borne out by the abundance of 
 fine cattle of every description possessed by the 
 country, by a bountiful production of cereals which 
 has earned for Hungary the name of the granary of 
 Europe, by the growth of the greatest variety of 
 fruit and forest trees, and finally by the rich products 
 of the mining regions we have adverted to before. 
 
 This chapter, however, would be incomplete were 
 we not to mention the gigantic efforts made by the 
 national government in every direction during the 
 last two decades to raise Hungary from a mere 
 agricultural state to an industrial and commercial 
 state as well, by fostering her domestic industries 
 and providing good highways, a fine net of railways,
 
 THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. \J 
 
 steam and other navigation, in order to afford an 
 easy and cheap outlet to the abundance of natural 
 products with which nature has blessed her. 
 
 These patriotic efforts, considering the short space 
 of time they cover, have been attended with signal 
 success, and have culminated in the National Exhi- 
 bition of 1885, held at Buda-Pesth, which fitly 
 illustrated to its many visitors, amounting to nearly 
 a million, the extraordinary progress made by the 
 country in the last years. 
 
 *NV: 
 
 A " KOLA."
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HUNGARY BEFORE THE OCCUPATION BY THE 
 MAGYARS. 
 
 THE historic period of Hungary begins, properly 
 speaking, with the first century before our era, when 
 Pannonia, comprising the regions watered by the 
 Danube and Drave, was conquered by the victorious 
 arms of Rome. Prehistoric traces, however, may be 
 met with in abundance, which, with the aid of archaeo- 
 logical inquiry, indicate that the soil of Hungary 
 was already inhabited in the neolithic age and in that 
 of bronze by populations who, judged by the me- 
 mentoes left behind them, which were unearthed by 
 the present generation, must have stood on the same 
 level of civilization as the rest of Europe at those 
 periods. Certain articles dating from the age of 
 bronze show even such marked national peculiarities 
 as to lead to the supposition that the heterogeneous 
 tribes were all under the influence of one kind of 
 culture. The Pannonians, after a protracted strug- 
 gle, were subjugated by Tiberius, the stepson of 
 the emperor Augustus. One of the art gems of 
 antiquity, the so-called Apotheosis of Augustus, to 
 be seen in the museum of antiquities at Vienna, 
 commemorates the triumph of Tiberius. The con- 
 
 18
 
 2O THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 quering general is represented as stepping from his 
 chariot to do homage to Augustus and Livia, who 
 are seated on a throne in godlike forms. Below, 
 Roman soldiers are raising trophies, whilst the con- 
 quered leader is sitting on the ground with his arms 
 tied behind his back. The reduction of the Dacians, 
 to whose realm Transylvania belonged, took place 
 under Trajan, a century later. To this day stands 
 in Rome the pillar of Trajan, erected in memory of 
 his successful campaign in Dacia. 
 
 In Trajan's time already Pannonia differed in no 
 wise from the other Roman provinces. Under a 
 Roman administration the language of Rome soon 
 gained ground, although the legions placed there 
 were by no means Roman or even Italian, but con- 
 sisted for the most part of Romanized Spaniards, 
 Belgians, Britons, and inhabitants of the Alpine 
 provinces. The towns became municipalities and 
 colonies, and their inhabitants enjoyed the priv- 
 ilege of self-government conceded to every Roman 
 citizen. Dacia, too, became, under that name, a 
 Roman province, and the Romanizing process was 
 no less rapid there than it had been in Pannonia. 
 The blessings of Roman civilization followed, as 
 usual, in the train of Roman conquests. Cities soon 
 sprang up in the newly organized provinces, and 
 were connected with each other as well as with 
 Rome by fine highways, traces of which may be met 
 with here and there to this day. The cultivation of 
 the vine was introduced under Roman rule, and the 
 regular working of the gold and salt mines of Tran- 
 sylvania began at that period. The life in the prov-
 
 BEFORE THE CONQUEST. 21 
 
 inces was modelled after the Roman pattern, for 
 the Roman brought with him his customs, insti- 
 tutions, language, and mode of life. The newly 
 built cities boasted of public places, of amphi- 
 theatres, of public baths, the resort of pleasure- 
 seekers and idlers ; nor was the forum with its 
 
 A ROMAN TEMPLE. 
 
 statues wanting. The border towns had their cas- 
 trum, giving them a peculiar character of their own. 
 For four centuries these provinces shared the 
 destinies of the Roman empire. The enemies of 
 Rome were their enemies, too, and when, under the 
 emperor Marcus Aurelius, in the latter part of the 
 second century of our era, the German nations com- 
 bined in an attack on the Romans, the Marcomanni, 
 who were renowned for their savage bravery, made a
 
 22 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 successful inroad into Pannonia, and crossing the 
 Danube devastated the whole land. Commodus, 
 the son of Marcus Aurelius, was satisfied to maintain 
 only the integrity of the vast possessions he in- 
 herited, and was averse to new conquests in the 
 direction of the Carpathians. His policy was to 
 protect and defend the natural boundary line 
 formed by the Danube, a policy which gave the 
 legions located there an undue prominence. From 
 this time forth Rome had to be defended in Pan- 
 nonia, for already at that period the mighty revolu- 
 tion, called the migration of nations the pressing 
 forward of populations from the North and East 
 toward the civilized West and South began to be 
 felt. It was quite natural that the Pannonian legions 
 should, under the circumstances, become aware of 
 the importance of their position, and undertake to 
 direct the destinies of Rome from that distant prov- 
 ince. Roman history records that it was by the proc- 
 lamation of these legions that Septimius Severus, 
 Maximin, and Aurelian became emperors. The em- 
 perors Claudius II., Probus, and Valentinian I. were 
 of Pannonian origin. The infant son of the latter, 
 Valentinian II., was brought by the widowed em- 
 press Justina into the camp, and there the legions 
 swore allegiance to him. 
 
 The time was now approaching when the waning 
 power of the Roman empire became more and more 
 unequal to the task of defending her provinces. 
 Aurelian already had withdrawn the Roman le- 
 gions from Dacia and allowed the Goths to settle 
 there, and Probus had introduced the Goths into
 
 BEFORE THE CONQUEST. 2$ 
 
 Lower Pannonia. Roman influence and Roman 
 protection began to be of little value ; the great 
 empire, weakened by internal dissensions, by the 
 internecine wars waged against each other by im- 
 perial pretenders, torn by religious disputes, and 
 finally divided, hastened to its downfall. 
 
 At this period a new people made its appearance 
 in Europe on the shores of the Black Sea and along 
 the banks of the Danube, namely, the Huns, who 
 were pushing before them the Goths towards the 
 West. They differed in race from the Germans, 
 Slavs, and Romans, and they had in Attila a leader 
 capable of uniting under his sway the most dis> 
 cordant ethnical elements. Ostrogoths, Gepidae, 
 Vandals, Alans, Rugians, mostly Germanic popula- 
 tions, followed the banners of the foreign leader, 
 trusting in his good fortune and awed and magnetized 
 by his great personal qualities. He pushed forward 
 with an immense number of followers, gathering 
 strength as he advanced by the accession of the 
 barbarous nations, bearing down and destroying 
 every thing before him. Theodosius II. , Emperor of 
 the East, agreed to pay tribute to the king of the 
 Huns ; but in order to disguise to his subjects 
 the disgraceful transaction, he appointed Attila a 
 general of the empire, so that the tribute should 
 have the appearance of official pay. But Attila 
 was not satisfied with this, and broke the peace ; 
 overran the Balkan peninsula, pillaged the Byzantine 
 provinces, and destroyed the cities until he obtained 
 his own terms. Priscus Rhetor, who was one of the 
 embassy sent by Theodosius II. to the court of
 
 24 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Attila, describes the wooden structure in which the 
 king of the Huns dwelt on the banks of the Theiss, 
 somewhere in the vicinity of Szeged, and the feast- 
 ing there. Kings sat at the table, lords sang Attila's 
 heroic deeds, and the guests drank each other's health 
 from vessels of gold. Heathen and Christian, Roman 
 citizens and Asiatic barbarians, as well as the repre- 
 sentatives of the Germanic tribes, mixed with each 
 other and thronged his court. It was during one of 
 those feasts, in 453, as he was celebrating his nup- 
 tials, that the mighty king of the Huns was carried 
 off by a fit of apoplexy. Whilst the sons of Attila 
 were contending with each other for the posses- 
 sion of the empire, the Germanic populations fell 
 upon the divided Huns and drove them back to the 
 Black Sea. 
 
 The Gepidae remained now the masters of the 
 country east of the Danube, whilst the Ostrogoths 
 occupied the ancient Roman province. The latter, 
 however, under the lead of their king Theodoric, 
 migrated in a body to Italy, crossing the Alps, and 
 founded there, on the ruins of the Roman empire, a 
 Gothic kingdom. The Gepidae remained in conse- 
 quence the sole ruling people in Hungary ; but as 
 they proved dangerous neighbors to the Eastern 
 empire, Justinian invited the Longobards to settle in 
 Pannonia, and gave to the Avars, who now made their 
 first appearance in Europe and had asked him for 
 land to settle on, the left bank of the lower Danube. 
 About this time, too, Slavic populations came into 
 the country, crossing the Carpathian mountains and 
 peopling the deserted land. Gepidas, Longobards,
 
 BEFORE THE CONQUEST. 2$ 
 
 and Avars could not dwell long in peace together, 
 and the first collision took place between the Longo- 
 bards and the Gepidae en the banks of the Danube. 
 This was followed by another hostile outbreak, in 
 which the Longobards obtained the alliance of the 
 Avars against the Gepidae, resulting in the total over- 
 throw of the latter. Shortly afterwards the Longo- 
 bards, following an invitation from Italy, emigrated 
 thither. Thus the Avars were left in sole posses- 
 sion of the country, ruling over populations chiefly 
 Slavic. The empire they founded lasted two 
 centuries and a half. The Avars were partly rem- 
 nants of those Huns who had been the terror of 
 Europe, and their numbers were in part swelled by 
 new recruits coming from Asia. 
 
 Bajan was the first and most dreaded prince of the 
 Avars. During his reign of thirty-two years the 
 Byzantine emperor was compelled to conciliate the 
 warlike humor of the Avar prince by an annual 
 tribute of splendid presents, which, however, did 
 not prevent the latter from undertaking pillaging ex- 
 peditions, on more than one occasion, into Thrace, 
 Mcesia, and Macedonia. Although a warlike people 
 the Avars seemed to lack the necessary skill and ex- 
 perience for besieging and capturing fortified places. 
 Their rule was characterized by cruelty, want of 
 faith, and destructive propensities. In course of 
 time they became more inclined to peace ; wealth, 
 indulgence in wine, and commerce having rendered 
 them effeminate and less formidable. They were 
 finally conquered, towards the end of the eighth 
 century, by Charlemagne and his Franks, who car-
 
 26 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 ried on against them for seven years one of the most 
 cruel and desolating wars known to history. Charle- 
 magne's own historiographer tells us that one might 
 have travelled through the entire land for months, 
 after the termination of the war, without meeting 
 with a single house so utter and terrible were the 
 ruin and destruction. The downfall of the Avars 
 was irretrievable. 
 
 The rule of the Romans had lasted four hundred 
 years in Pannonia ; the Huns, Ostrogoths, Gepidae, 
 and Longobards enjoyed a span of power of a little 
 over a century taking them altogether, whilst the 
 Avars maintained their supremacy for two hundred 
 and fifty years. 
 
 A century after their downfall appeared on the 
 scene the Magyars, who founded an empire which 
 still endures, having survived the storms of a thous- 
 and years.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF THE HUNGARIANS. 
 
 THE story of the origin of the Hungarians is gen- 
 erally derived from two different sources. One, pure- 
 ly mythical or legendary, is said to have come down 
 from the forefathers to the present generation, and, 
 clad in a somewhat fanciful garb, runs as follows : 
 
 Nimrod, the man of gigantic stature, a descendant 
 of Japheth, one of the sons of Noah, migrated after 
 the confusion of languages at the building of the 
 tower of Babel to the land of Havila. There his wife, 
 Eneh, bore him two sons, Hunyorand Magyar. One 
 day as the two brothers were out hunting in the for- 
 ests of the Caucasus, they happened to fall in with 
 a doe. They at once gave chase, but on reaching 
 the moorlands of the Sea of Azov the noble animal 
 suddenly vanished before their very eyes. The 
 brothers, in pursuing the track of their game, 
 had wandered through a wide expanse of country, 
 and perceiving that the rich meadows were admira- 
 bly suited to the needs of a pastoral people, they 
 immediately returned to their father and asked his 
 consent to their departure. They obtained his con- 
 sent without difficulty, and settled with their herds 
 of cattle in those regions where grass grew luxuri- 
 antly. 
 
 27
 
 28 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 The two brothers had lived quietly for five years 
 in their new homes, when the thought occurred to 
 them, more thoroughly to investigate the surround- 
 ing country. They accordingly set out on their 
 journey, roaming along the steppes, when their ears 
 were suddenly caught by the sounds of voices sing- 
 ing, which the east wind had wafted in their direction. 
 Led on by the pleasing sounds the wanderers' eyes 
 were met by a lovely sight. Before them the daugh- 
 ters of the dwellers in the woods were disporting 
 themselves beneath their tents, celebrating the Feast 
 of the Hunting-horn, in the absence of their hus- 
 bands and brothers. Hunyor and Magyar were de- 
 lighted at this unexpected encounter and quickly 
 carried away the women to their own abode. 
 Amongst the ravished women were two maids of 
 rare beauty, the daughters of Dula, the prince of the 
 Alans. Hunyor took one, and Magyar the other, 
 for his spouse. From them sprang the kindred na- 
 tions of the Huns and Magyars, or Hungarians, both 
 of which in due course of time, grew to be mighty. 
 
 After the lapse of many years the descendants of 
 the two brothers had increased to such an extent 
 that the territory they dwelt in proved too small to 
 support them all. North of their homes lay blessed 
 Scythia, bounded on the east by the Ural mountains, 
 on the southeast by the sandsteppes, rich in salt, 
 and the Caspian Sea, and on the south by the Don 
 river. After having thoroughly reconnoitred this 
 country they drove out the inhabitants, one portion 
 of the people spreading over their newly acquired 
 home and taking possession of it, whilst the remain-
 
 THE ORIGIN OF THE HUNGARIANS. 2g 
 
 ing portion continued to occupy their former country. 
 The progeny of Hunyor settled in the northeastern 
 part of the country beyond the Volga, whilst the 
 descendants of Magyar, pushing upwards along the 
 Don, pitched their tents on the left bank of the 
 river. The latter were afterwards known by the 
 name of the Don-Magyars, and their country by 
 that of Dontumogeria that is, the Don Magyar- 
 land. 
 
 In proportion as the two kindred races increased 
 and came in contact with various other nations, 
 they began to differ from each other more and 
 more widely in their ways and manners. The 
 Huns being more exposed to the attacks of the 
 roving populations than the Magyars, who were 
 protected by the Caspian Sea and endless steppes, 
 became, in consequence, more warlike, and adopted 
 ruder manners. Twenty-two generations had passed 
 away since the death of the two brothers, who had 
 been the founders of their nations, when for reasons 
 unknown the Huns resolved to emigrate from 
 their country. Whilst the Magyars continued to 
 dwell quietly along the Don, the Huns proceeded 
 with an immense army, each tribe contributing ten 
 thousand men, against Western Europe, conquering 
 and rendering tributary, in the course of their wan- 
 derings, numerous nations, and finally settled in the 
 region of the Theiss and Danube. Later on, how- 
 ever, in the middle of the fifth century, when the 
 world-renowned Attila, "the scourge of God," came 
 into power, the Huns carried their victorious arms 
 over a great part of the western world.
 
 30 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 The immense empire, however, which had been 
 founded by King Attila, was destined to be but of 
 short duration after the death of its founder. His 
 sons Aladar and Csaba, in their contention for the 
 inheritance, resorted to arms. The war ended with 
 the utter destruction of the nation. All of the 
 followers of Aladar perished ; Csaba, however, suc- 
 ceeded in escaping from the destroying arms of the 
 neighboring nations who had fallen on the quarrel- 
 ling brothers, with but about fifteen thousand men 
 to the territories of the Greek empire. A few thou- 
 sands, who had deserted Csaba, fled to Transylvania, 
 and settled there in the eastern mountain-regions. 
 The descendants of the latter became subsequently 
 merged with the immigrating Hungarians, and formed 
 with them a homogeneous family under the name of 
 Szeklers, which continues to exist to this day. Csaba, 
 whose mother was an imperial daughter of Greece, 
 met with a friendly reception at the hands of the 
 Greek emperor, Marcianus, and remained in that 
 country for a few years. He returned afterwards 
 with the remainder of his people to the home of his 
 ancestors, on the banks of the Don, where, up to 
 the time of his death, he never tired of inciting the 
 Magyars to emigrate to Pannonia and to revenge 
 themselves on their enemies by reconquering the 
 empire of Attiia. 
 
 In turning to the second source of the history of 
 the origin of the Hungarians, we are treading upon 
 the firmer ground of scientific inquiry ; we can 
 penetrate the hazy light of remote antiquity, and 
 venture the assertion that it is far awav in the dis-
 
 HUNGARIAN SHEPHERD.
 
 32 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 tant East namely, in the Altai mountains, that we 
 may look for the cradle of the Magyar race. Here 
 was, as the reader may be aware, the coterminous 
 frontier of the three principal branches of the Uralc- 
 Altaic race namely, the Mongolians in the east, 
 the Finn-Ugrians in the north, and the Turks in 
 the south. With a population of strictly nomadic 
 habits and of eminently roaming propensities, it 
 needs scarcely to be said that the three branches 
 lived in continual feud and warfare near each other. 
 A great convulsion in the life of these nomads 
 happened, as we presume, in the second or third 
 century after Christ. The Turks, on seeing the 
 more flourishing state of things with their Finn- 
 Ugrian neighbors in the north, fell upon them sud- 
 denly, drove them from their homes in the valleys 
 of the Altai mountains, where traces of their indus- 
 try are still extant, and scattered the various tribes 
 and families, partly to the north namely, to Siberia; 
 partly to the west namely, to Southern Russia. 
 
 From that extraordinary throng and revolutionary 
 migration emerged the Voguls and Ostyaks, who 
 live at this day on both sides of the great Obi river ; 
 the Zyrians, who now live in the governments of 
 Archangel and Vologda ; farther the Votyaks and 
 Tcheremisses, a motley crowd of men who are of 
 Finn-Ugrian extraction, but strongly intermixed 
 with Turco-Tartar blood. 
 
 Now, of similar origin are the Hungarians, with 
 this difference, that with them the Turco-Tartar 
 origin forms the basis of their ethnical character, 
 and that the Finn-Ugrians who amalgamated with
 
 THE ORIGIN OF THE HUNGARIANS. 33 
 
 them afterward, being a subjugated population, re- 
 mained always in a moral inferiority, although they 
 greatly influenced the governing class. We do not 
 know precisely whether the amalgamation took place 
 in the valleys of the Altai, or farther west on the 
 Volga, at some later period, nor can we form an ac- 
 curate idea as to the part the Hungarians took in the 
 irruption of the Huns, with which event they are 
 associated in national tradition. The Huns were 
 unquestionably Turks by extraction. Their mode of 
 warfare, their religion, and social life present full evi- 
 dence of this, and admitting that they had in their 
 ranks either pure Finn-Ugrian elements or portions 
 of the above-mentioned amalgamated populations, 
 we may fairly claim that the ancestors of the Hun- 
 garians took part in the great devastating campaigns 
 which Attila carried on against Rome and the Chris- 
 tian West as far as France. In this sense, the claim 
 of the Hungarians to descent from the Huns is fully 
 justified. But, as the plan of this work excludes the 
 discussion of questions wrapped in the clouds of sci- 
 entific speculations we will turn to that portion of the 
 history of the Hungarians which is cleared up by his- 
 torical evidence, and will begin with the ninth century, 
 when they emerged from the banks of the Volga and 
 began their march toward the West, a march which 
 resulted in their occupation of Hungary. 
 
 Before entering into the details of the march of 
 the Magyars towards their present home, we must 
 try to sketch as briefly as possible the geograph- 
 ical and ethnographical conditions of the country 
 between the Volga and the Danube in the ninth
 
 34 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 century. It must be borne in mind that at that 
 time the Russians were in a considerable minority in 
 those regions. East of the Volga, as far as the Ural 
 River, and even beyond, roamed various tribes of the 
 vast Turkish race, amongst whom the Petchenegs oc- 
 cupied the foremost rank. On the lower course of 
 the Volga and further west, lived the Khazars, a 
 Turkish tribe of advanced culture, who carried on 
 a flourishing trade on the Caspian and Black seas, 
 and had embraced the Jewish religion. These Kha- 
 zars were the mightiest of the Turkish races of that 
 time, and their wars with Persia and with the rising 
 Mohammedan power became of historic importance. 
 Westward of the Khazars dwelt another fraction of 
 the Petchenegs, the frontiers of whose country ex- 
 tended across Moldavia to the borders of Transyl- 
 vania, whilst the Magyars or Hungarians, who had 
 occupied a country called Lebedia, were compelled 
 by the Petchenegs to emigrate to Etelkuzu, not re- 
 maining there, however, for any great length of 
 time. In fact the whole of Southern Russia of to- 
 day was teeming, during the ninth century, with 
 nomadic populations. These pressed upon each 
 other in the search for pasture grounds for their 
 numerous cattle. There is a great likelihood that 
 the fame of the rich plains of Hungary had remained 
 in the memory of the Magyars from the time when 
 their forefathers fought under the banners of Attila. 
 Suffice it to say that, compelled by circumstances, 
 they made up their minds to go westward, and the 
 seven dukes who stood at that time at the head of 
 the nation, and whose names were Almos, Elod.
 
 36 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Kund, Huba, Tas, Und, and Tuhutum, united in a 
 solemn league and covenant, and putting Almos, as 
 the oldest amongst them, at their head, they sealed 
 that union with the old Turkish form of oath, by 
 drinking each of the blood of all, obtained by cut- 
 ting open the veins of their arms. This form of oath 
 was for a long time a custom in Hungary. The union 
 of the Hungarians was based upon the following five 
 conditions : 
 
 1. As long as they and their progeny after them 
 shall live, their duke and ruler shall be always taken 
 from the house of Almos. 
 
 2. Whatever should be acquired by the united 
 strength of all must benefit all those who belonged 
 to them. 
 
 3. The chiefs of the people having voluntarily 
 elected Almos for their ruler, they and their descend- 
 ants shall always take part in the councils of the 
 prince, and shall have their share in the honors of 
 the empire. 
 
 4. Whenever any of their descendants shall be 
 found wanting in the fidelity due to the prince, or 
 shall foment dissensions between him and his kin- 
 dred, the blood of the guilty one shall be shed 
 even as theirs was flowing when they gave their 
 oaths of fidelity to Almos. 
 
 5. Should a successor of Almos affend against this 
 oath and covenant of the fathers, then might the 
 curse rest on him. 
 
 We have no accurate information concerning the 
 number of Hungarian warriors and of their retinues 
 who entered Hungary towards the end of the ninth
 
 THE ORIGIN OF THE HUNGARIANS. 3/ 
 
 century, nor can we point out those localities on the 
 eastern frontier of the country through which the 
 entrance was effected. As to the numbers, we do 
 not go amiss if we assume that no more than one 
 hundred and fifty thousand fighting- men formed the 
 main body of the invaders. Their ranks were 
 swelled partly by Russians who followed in their 
 track, partly by Avars, a kindred Turkish population, 
 whom they found in the country itself, and by 
 Khazars, who, preceding the Hungarians, were lead- 
 ing a nomadic life on the steppe. Regarding the 
 country itself, it must be borne in mind that in those 
 days it was very thinly populated, and the ethnical 
 conditions were somewhat as follows : In the west 
 there were Slovenes and Germans ; in the north, 
 namely, in the Carpathian mountains, lived the com- 
 pact mass of the Slovaks, whose sway extended 
 down to the banks of the Theiss. The country 
 between that river and the Danube belonged to the 
 Bulgarian prince, Zalan, whilst the region on the left 
 bank of the Theiss, as far as the river Szamos, was 
 in the possession of Marot, the prince of the Khazars. 
 The conquest of Hungary was evidently a task of no 
 great difficulty for a warlike nation like the Hun- 
 garians, whose strange physiognomy and superior 
 weapons, brought from the Caucasus, struck terror, at 
 the very outset, into the breasts of the inhabitants. 
 The invaders appeared with their small, sturdy, 
 and hardy horses, quick as lightning and strong as 
 iron. Their mode of warfare was strictly Asiatic, 
 similar to that used to this day by the Turcomans, 
 and they were animated precisely by the same spirit
 
 38 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 which led the Mongolians, under Jenghis Khan, 
 over the whole of Asia and a large portion of Europe. 
 With all this, they could not be called barbarians or 
 savages, when their social and political institutions 
 were compared with those of the inhabitants they 
 subjugated in Hungary. It was the culture of Persia 
 which extended at that time up to the banks of the 
 Volga, penetrating the minds of the motley popula- 
 tions living there, and traces of this culture are 
 clearly to be discovered in the acts of the leading 
 persons amongst the conquering Hungarians. As 
 soon as the Hungarians had taken possession of their 
 present country, under the leadership of Arpad, it 
 became their chief care to give a certain stability to 
 their internal affairs. Scattered over the extensive 
 territory, they more particularly endeavored to bring 
 order into their relations with the former inhabitants. 
 Those only who refused to lay down their arms felt 
 the weight of the conquerors ; whilst they recipro- 
 cated the friendship and confidence shown to them 
 by others. Thus it happened that many of the 
 ancient inhabitants were adopted by them for their 
 own countrymen, and that, having entered into a 
 treaty of amity with Mar6t, a treaty made firmer by 
 the betrothal of Arpad's youngest son, Zolta'n, with 
 Mardt's daughter, the territory of Bihar was added 
 to Hungary after the death of Mar6t. According to 
 the fashion of the Scythian populations, they dis- 
 turbed no one in his faith, nor did they interfere with 
 any one's mode of worship. Nomads as they were, 
 they knew how to appreciate what was still left of 
 the ancient culture in their new country, and they
 
 THE ORIGIN OF THE HUNGARIANS. 39 
 
 fostered the colonial places still surviving from the 
 Roman period, the cradles of the future city life of 
 Hungary. 
 
 There is an account in the history of the Hun- 
 garians how the different portions of the invading 
 army spread over the country, what battles they 
 fought, what alliances they entered into with the 
 reigning princes, but the account is based merely 
 upon legendary tradition. We are sadly in want of 
 details about that most interesting epoch, and sup- 
 ported by historical authority we can only state that 
 Leo the Wise, the emperor of Byzantium, asked the 
 military assistance of the Hungarians against the 
 Bulgarians, and that it was the sword of the valiant 
 nomadic warriors which averted a threatening cal- 
 amity from Constantinople. It is likewise certain 
 that Arnulph, King of Germany, encouraged by the 
 military reputation of the Magyars, asked their as- 
 sistance against Svatopluk, King of Moravia, and 
 that their first appearance in the country is con- 
 nected with this occurrence. 
 
 The conquest of Hungary occupied the period be- 
 tween 884 and 895. 
 
 Within this time falls the utter defeat and tragic 
 end of Svatopluk, the most powerful native prince 
 with whom the Hungarians had to contend. Ar- 
 nulph had already engaged him in battle when the 
 Hungarians came to the succor of the former. Their 
 timely arrival decided the fate of the battle, which 
 resulted in the complete rout and scattering of the 
 Moravians. Svatopluk, is said to have done won- 
 ders of heroism during the battle, but after its fatal
 
 40 THE STORY OF HUNGARY 
 
 termination he could nowhere be found. In vain 
 was the bloody field searched for the body of the 
 unfortunate leader, nor were the messengers sent 
 out to remoter regions to obtain news of him more 
 successful in their quest. Hungarian tradition 
 has it that in his rage and despair at the loss 
 of the battle, he rushed into the Danube, and 
 met there with a watery grave. Slavic tradition, 
 however, represents the matter in a manner more 
 in keeping with the character and reckless disposi- 
 tion of this strange barbarian, who knew but un- 
 bridled passions and sudden resolutions formed on the 
 spur of the moment. According to these traditions, 
 Svatopluk, seeing that his fortunes were hopelessly 
 wrecked, mounted a steed and, leaving the battle-field, 
 swiftly rode away into the fastnesses of the intermin- 
 able forests covering the Zobor mountain, which over- 
 looks in massive grandeur towards the east and south 
 the town and castle of Nyitra, and was then lost to 
 sight. Here in a secluded valley, amidst rocks, and pro- 
 tected by pathless woods, lived three hermits. These 
 holy men passed their lives in offering up prayers to 
 God in a chapel constructed by their own hands, and, 
 entirely absorbed by their pious exercises, they knew 
 no other nourishment but herbs and the fruit grow- 
 ing wild. These men, who did not visit the neigh- 
 boring cities, had never seen Svatopluk, and this was 
 the very reason that brought the king of the Mora- 
 vians to their hermitage. As he reached late in the 
 night a place where the forest was densest, he dis- 
 mounted, killed his horse, and, together with his royal 
 mantle and crown, buried it in a ditch, and covered
 
 THE ORIGIN OF THE HUNGARIANS. 4! 
 
 up the place of burial with earth and leaves. He 
 then tore his garments and soiled them with mud, 
 and in this guise, pretending to be a beggar, he came 
 to the three hermits and told them that, moved by 
 the Holy Spirit, he desired to pass his life with them. 
 He was cordially received by the hermits and lived 
 amongst them a great many years unknown, praying 
 as they did, partaking of the same food they ate, and 
 like them dead to all the memories of the outside 
 world. In his last moments only he told them his 
 real name, and the hermits, in their childlike aston- 
 ishment at this incredulous adventure, placed the 
 following inscription on his tombstone : " Here rests 
 Svatopluk, the king of Moravia, buried in the centre 
 of his kingdom."
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE REIGN OF THE UUKES. 
 
 ARPAD, called by the Greek writers Arpaciis, vvas 
 the first ruler of Hungary, who laid the foundations 
 of the present kingdom, and whose statesmanlike 
 sagacity may well excite admiration, considering that 
 under his lead a strictly Asiatic nation succeeded in 
 penetrating into the very interior of Christian 
 Europe and moulding a state out of the heteroge- 
 neous elements of old Pannonia. For this reason we 
 find it improper to call him a rude barbarian, as con- 
 temporary Christian writers are in the habit of do- 
 ing. He evidently was penetrated with the Persian 
 culture and his Oriental statesmanship not only 
 equalled but even surpassed the political ideas of 
 the ruling men at that time at the head of affairs 
 in Pannonia and Eastern Germany. Arriving, as 
 he did, with a restless and adventurous nomadic 
 people, he could not mitigate at once the martial 
 rudeness of the latter. Like other Turkish and 
 Mongolian masses the Hungarians, very soon after 
 the occupation of the country, rushed out into the 
 neighboring lands to gratify their lust of adventure 
 and booty. They penetrated into Germany, spread- 
 ing terror and devastation everywhere. On a larger 
 
 42
 
 44 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 scale was their inroad into Italy in 899, where King 
 Berengar was defeated on the banks of the Brenta. 
 Twenty thousand Italians were slain, the wealthy 
 cities of Milan, Pavia, and Brescia were plundered, 
 and the invaders crossed even the Po. It was only 
 by the payment of a large ransom that the Italians 
 could free themselves from the scourge of these 
 Asiatic conquerors. Encouraged by this success the 
 Hungarians, in the following year, entered Germany, 
 trying their arms with varying fortune, until a com- 
 mon decision of the chieftains arrested these incur- 
 sions. In 907 the nation was saddened by a mourn- 
 ful event. The ruler who had founded the new em- 
 pire, who for nearly twenty years had directed the 
 destinies of the nation with so much wisdom and 
 energy, and in whom the glory of great statesman- 
 ship and generalship was united, had ceased to be 
 amongst the living. His body was, according to 
 ancient custom, burned and his ashes buried near a 
 brook flowing at that time in a pebbly bed towards 
 Etzelburg, the Old-Buda of to-day. His grateful 
 descendants, after the introduction of Christianity, 
 erected on that spot a church, called the White 
 Church of the Virgin, in commemoration of the im- 
 mortal prince. He was succeeded by his son Zol- 
 tdn, who had to seize the reins at a comparatively 
 tender age, and who was therefore assisted by three 
 governors. This circumstance encouraged the neigh- 
 boring princes to fall upon Hungary in order to 
 drive the new conquerors out of the country. Luit- 
 pold, Duke of Bavaria, and Ditmar, Archbishop of 
 Salzburg, together with others, led the united army
 
 THE KEIGAT OF THE DUKE 'S. 45 
 
 in three different columns, flattering themselves with 
 the hope that, imitating the tactics of Charlemagne 
 against the Avars, they would be as successful as 
 that famous ruler of the Franks. 
 
 The Hungarians, menaced by such an imminent 
 danger, concentrated all their forces to resist the 
 onslaught. Always quick to resolve and as quick in 
 their movements, they anticipated the attack, ana 
 the two hostile armies met in 907 in the environs 
 of Presburg. The struggle on both sides was a 
 bitter one. The zeal of the Germans, on the one 
 hand, was excited by the prospect of ridding them- 
 selves and the whole Occident of the disagreeable 
 neighborhood of these dangerous intruders, whilst 
 with the Hungarians, on the other hand, it was a 
 question of self-preservation, for in case of a defeat 
 they had every thing at stake. The latter, therefore, 
 fought with the utmost vehemence, not in regular 
 battle array, after the German fashion, but with their 
 storming divisions, furious attacks, feigned retreats, 
 and renewed onslaughts, their arrows and javelins 
 descending every time like a hail-storm, they broke 
 through the serried ranks of the Germans and rode 
 down every thing that was in their way. The sun 
 rose and set three times over the heads of the fight- 
 ing armies before the great battle was decided. The 
 Germans were hopelessly defeated. Duke Luitpold 
 lost his life fighting, and with him the Archbishop of 
 Salzburg, as well as most of the bishops, abbots, and 
 counts, laid down their lives during those three fatal 
 days. 
 
 It was but natural that, encouraged by this success-
 
 46 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 ful battle, the Hungarians should eagerly continue 
 their marauding expeditions in every direction into 
 Germany and even France. Dividing into small 
 bands, just as the Turcomans used to do up to quite 
 recent times in Persia, the Hungarians infested the 
 whole of Saxony and Thuringia, and penetrated as far 
 as Bremen. They crossed the Rhine, flooded a part 
 of France, and quick as were their inroads, no less 
 promptly did they return, always laden with rich 
 booty and driving before them a long file of slaves 
 of both sexes. The entire Occident was continually 
 harassed by them, and this gave rise to those dire 
 misrepresentations of the Hungarians and to the ex- 
 ecrations against them which could be heard all over 
 the western world during the tenth century, and 
 which were faithfully copied into the chronicles of 
 that time. In these chronicles they were charged 
 with devouring the hearts of their enemies in order 
 to render themselves irresistible in battle. Signs in 
 the heavens were said to herald their approach. 
 Virgins devoted to the service of God foretold the 
 irruptions of the Hungarians and their own martyr- 
 dom. Mere human power seemed hopeless against 
 them ; the litanies of that time, therefore, abound in 
 special prayers asking for the protection of the Lord. 
 Impartial history easily recognizes in all this partly 
 exaggerations, partly outbreaks of dismay, and the 
 effects of fright, but these utterances, overdrawn as 
 they are, contribute much to our knowledge of the 
 violence of the struggle between the western Chris- 
 tians and the Asiatic Hungarians. Quite differ- 
 ently and by no means so dreadfully are the Hun-
 
 THE REIGN' OF THE DUKES. 4/ 
 
 garians described by the Byzantine historians. Their 
 reputation for ferocity, and the knowledge of the 
 terror they inspired, enhanced their valor and 
 audacity. Neglecting all precautionary measures, 
 and undervaluing their enemies, they began to meet 
 here and there with small disasters, and, as the 
 Germans on the other hand, becoming familiar with 
 their mode of warfare, and more accustomed to the 
 strange appearance of Asiatic warriors, grew bolder 
 and bolder, we may easily account for the turn which 
 gradually took place in the war fortunes of the Mag- 
 yars. It was Henry the Fowler, King of Germany, 
 who, after making preparations for nine years, inflicted 
 the first heavy loss upon the Hungarian adventurers 
 near Merseburg in 933. The Germans rushed into 
 the battle with the cry of " Kyrie eleyson," whilst 
 the Hungarians were wildly shouting " Hooy, Hooy." 
 The Saxon horsemen caught up the Hungarian 
 arrows with their shields, and in solid ranks threw 
 themselves in fierce onset upon the Hungarians. 
 The latter perceived with surprise and dismay that 
 they were opposed by a well-organized enemy. 
 During the hand-in-hand fight which now ensued 
 the Germans achieved victory by their determined 
 bravery. A great many Hungarians fell in the fight, 
 and many more were killed during their retreat. 
 The number of killed is assumed to have been 
 thirty-six thousand. The Hungarian camp with all 
 the baggage fell into the hands of the victors. 
 Henry commanded that a universal thanksgiving 
 feast should be observed throughout the whole of 
 Germany, and ordered that the tribute hitherto paid
 
 48 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 to the Hungarians should be divided between the 
 churches and the poor. 
 
 The Hungarians now refrained from entering 
 Germany in a northern direction, but the more 
 frequent and more vehement grew their irruptions 
 into Bavaria and also into the northern portion of 
 the Byzantine empire. It was the old lust of con- 
 quest and adventure, and greediness for booty which 
 spurred their activity. Duke Taksony, who suc- 
 ceeded his father Zoltan in 946, and reigned until 
 972, was animated by the same lawless spirit, and 
 the Hungarians would have continued to be the 
 scourge of the neighboring countries if the defen- 
 sive measures taken by the Germans about this 
 time had not acted as a dam against their devas- 
 tating flood. In the year 955, on the river Lech, 
 near Augsburg, King Otto the Great inflicted a ter- 
 rible defeat upon the Hungarians a defeat by which 
 nearly the whole of the Hungarian army, numbering 
 forty thousand men was annihilated. Their generals, 
 Bulcsee and Lehelwere captured; the chains of 'gold 
 they wore around their necks, as well as other trink- 
 ets of gold and silver, were taken from them, and at 
 last they were carried to Ratisbon, and were made to 
 suffer a disgraceful death by being hanged. A part 
 of their fellow captives were buried alive, whilst the 
 others were tortured to death in the most cruel man- 
 ner. The remainder of the army was destroyed in its 
 retreat by the people who had everywhere risen, and, 
 according to tradition, but seven were left to reach 
 their homes. The Magyars, a proud nation even in 
 their misfortune, were so incensed against these
 
 THE REIGN OF THE DUKES. 49 
 
 fugitives for having preferred a cowardly flight to a 
 heroic death, that they were scornfully nicknamed 
 the Melancholy Magyars, and condemned to servi- 
 tude. Even their descendants wandered about 
 through the land as despised beggars. 
 
 A tradition has survived amongst the people to 
 this day, about the death of Lehel and his reputed 
 ivory bugle-horn, upon which there are carved repre- 
 sentations of battles. It is true that archaeological 
 inquiry has proved its sculpture to be of Roman 
 workmanship and that it was a drinking-cup rather 
 than a bugle. The legend, however, as still current 
 amongst the Hungarians, deserves to be told for the 
 sake of its romantic character. 
 
 Amidst the confusion and wild disorder incident 
 upon the disastrous battle of Augsburg, Duke Lehel 
 found no time to give thought to his battle-horn. His 
 horse had been killed under him, and whilst he lay 
 buried beneath it the trusty sword was wrenched 
 from the hand of the hero before he could pierce his 
 own heart with it. Taken prisoner he was led cap- 
 tive into the presence of the victorious Otto. 
 
 Princely judges sat in judgment on the princely 
 captive and condemned him to death. This sentence 
 caused Lehel no pain ; he felt he had deserved it, not, 
 indeed, for having given battle but for losing it. Yet 
 it hurt him to the soul to see the rebel Conrad seated 
 amongst his judges, the traitor who had invited the 
 Hungarians to enter Germany, and who, by his defec- 
 tion, had caused their defeat. The success of his das- 
 tardly desertion had, however, conciliated the victors 
 
 and re-stored him to their confidence. 
 4
 
 5O THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Lehel begged but for one favor, and that was to be 
 allowed to wind the horn, his faithful and inseparable 
 friend, once more, and to sound on it his funeral 
 dirge. The horn was handed to him. He sounded 
 it for the last time ; and, as he drew from it the sad 
 strains which sounded far and wide and were mourn- 
 fully re-echoed by the distant hills, the dying warrior 
 on the field of Lech lifted up his head, eagerly listen- 
 ing to the familiar bugle, and the soul which had 
 come back to him, for one instant, took wings again as 
 soon as the sad strains died away. The dying music, 
 plaintively quivering, told the tale of an inglorious 
 death terminating an heroic life. The very henchmen 
 were listening with rapture. 
 
 At that moment Lehel broke away from his place, 
 and, seeing Conrad before him, felled him to the 
 ground, killing him with a single blow from the 
 heavy horn. " Thou shalt go before me and be 
 my servant in the other world," said Lehel. There- 
 upon he went to the place of execution. There is 
 discernible on Lehel's horn, in our days, a large in- 
 dentation which posterity attributes to the event 
 just narrated. 
 
 Not only in Germany but also in the southeast 
 of Europe the marauding Hungarians experienced 
 more than one disaster, and it may be properly said 
 that in 970, when they attacked the Byzantine em- 
 pire and were defeated near Arcadiopolis, their long 
 series of irruptions into the adjoining countries was 
 brought to a conclusion. They became convinced 
 that while they themselves were steadily decreasing 
 in numbers and wasting their strength in continu-
 
 THE REIGN OF THE DUK'ES. 51 
 
 ous wars, the neighboring nations were becoming 
 every day more formidable by dint of their unanim- 
 ity, organization, courage, and skill in warfare, and 
 that, in consequence, the Hungarian name inspired 
 no more the terror which the first successes had earned 
 for it. They saw that if they went on with their in- 
 roads, as hitherto, they would thereby but bring 
 about the dissolution of the empire from within, or 
 that they might provoke on the part of foreign na- 
 tions a united attack which they would be unable to 
 withstand. For this reason they renounced those 
 adventurous campaigns which began already seri- 
 ously to menace their existence and their future 
 in Europe. 
 
 They were strengthened in the wisdom of this 
 course by Duke Geyza, who succeeded his father in 
 972, and reigned until 997. Baptized during the life 
 of his father at Constantinople, and having married 
 Sarolta, the mild-tempered daughter of Duke Gyu- 
 la, of Transylvania, he became very early awake 
 to the necessity of refining the rude manners of his 
 people. His disposition became much more appa- 
 rent when, after the death of his first wife, he mar- 
 ried the sister of Miecislas, the prince of Poland, a 
 lady famous for her beauty, and also conspicuous for 
 her energy and masculine qualities, for she vied in 
 riding, drinking, and the chase with her chivalrous 
 husband, upon whom she really exercised an extra- 
 ordinary influence. Extremely severe in his rule, it 
 was Geyza who began to transform the manners and 
 habits of the Magyars. They began to show greater 
 toleration towards foreign religions, and were really
 
 5 ^ THE STORY Of HUNGARY. 
 
 on the cvc of changing their Asiatic manners and 
 habits into those of Europe. More than a hundred 
 years had passed since their migration from the an- 
 cestral steppes. Historical events, difference of cli- 
 mate, and, above all, the separation from their 
 Asiatic brethren had carried into oblivion very 
 many features of that political and social life 
 which, originating in Asia, could not be well con- 
 tinued in the immediate neighborhood of, and in the 
 continual contact with, the western world. The great 
 crisis in the national career appears to have arrived 
 at its culmination during the reign of Duke Geyza, 
 and to have found its ultimate solution in the con- 
 version of the Magyars to Christianity, a most im- 
 portant act in the national life of the people, which 
 deserves consideration in a separate chapter.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 The Hungarians, when entering their present 
 homes, were heathens, and professed what is called 
 Shamanism, the faith common to all the branches 
 of the vast Uralo-Altaic race, and which has survived 
 to this day amongst the populations of Southern 
 Siberia and Western Mongolia. The doctrines and 
 principles of Shamanism being generally but little 
 known, it is proper to sketch here its outlines, in 
 order to make clear the character of the Hungarian 
 religious rites and customs. 
 
 The believers in Shamanism adored one Supreme 
 Being called Isten, a word borrowed from the Per- 
 sians, who attach to it to this day the meaning of 
 God. Besides the supreme being, they adored sun- 
 dry spirits or protecting deities, such as the gods of 
 the mountains, woods, springs, rivers, fire, thunder, 
 etc. These divinities were adored either by prayers 
 or through sacrifices offered to them in the recesses 
 of woods, or near springs. What these prayers of the 
 Hungarians were we do not know ; we can form, 
 however, some idea of their character on reading the 
 prayers of the present Shaman \vorshippers, a speci- 
 men of which is here subjoined : 
 
 53
 
 54 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 " O, thou God living above, Abiash ! 
 Who hast clad the earth with grass, 
 Who hast given leaves to the tree, 
 Who hast provided the calves with flesh, 
 Who didst bring forth hair on the head, 
 Who didst create all the creatures, 
 Who prepares every thing present ! 
 Thou hast created the stars, O God ! 
 O, Alton Pi, who hast exalted the father, 
 O, Ulgen Pi, who hast exalted the mother, 
 Thou creator of all created things, 
 Thou preparer of all that is prepared, 
 O God, thou creator of the stars, 
 
 give us cattle, O God ! 
 Give food, O God ! 
 Give us a chief, O God ! 
 
 Thou preparer of all things prepared, 
 Thou creator of all things created ! 
 
 1 prayed to my Father 
 
 To bestow on me his blessing, 
 
 To give me help, 
 
 To me, in my house, 
 
 And to my cattle, in the herd ! 
 
 Before thee I bow down. 
 
 Give thy blessing, O Kudai, 
 
 Thou Creator of all things created, 
 
 Thou preparer of all things prepared ! " 
 
 The sacrifices consisted in the offering up of cattle 
 and particularly, on solemn occasions, of white 
 horses. Their priests, called Tdltos, occupied a pre- 
 eminent place, not only in the political but also in 
 the social life of the Magyars. They were a kind of 
 augurs and soothsayers, whose prophecies were based 
 either upon certain natural phenomena, or upon the 
 inspection of certain portions of slaughtered animals, 
 such as the intestines, the heart, and shoulder-blade, 
 which latter was put into the fire, good and bad
 
 THE CONVERSION' TO CHRISTIANITY, $5 
 
 auspices being prognosticated from the different 
 positions of the cracks produced. 
 
 Religious faith being always open to outside or 
 foreign influence, it was but natural that the Hun- 
 garians, in that long march from the interior of Asia 
 into Europe, should have borrowed many novel feat- 
 ures from the religious life of the countries through 
 which they passed. Thus, in the earlier faith of the 
 Magyars, we meet with many distinctive traits of the 
 Parsee religion, of that of the Khazars, and of the 
 religions of many Ugrian races, for, like other fam- 
 ilies of the Uralo-Altaic race, the Magyars were 
 conspicuous for their spirit of toleration towards 
 other believers. 
 
 The numerous Christian prisoners they had 
 brought with them from various parts of Europe 
 were not only left in the undisturbed practice of 
 their creeds, but were even permitted to influence to 
 a very considerable degree the faith of their con- 
 querors and masters. Under these circumstances it 
 was by no means a hazardous undertaking, on the 
 part of Duke Geyza, to. give permission to mission- 
 aries and priests to come into the country and 
 preach the gospel. A Suabian monk named Wolf- 
 gang was the first who tried to spread Christianity in 
 Hungary in 917. A greater success was achieved 
 by Pilgrin, the bishop of Passau, who, taking the 
 matter of conversion into his hands, was able to re- 
 port to the Pope in 974 that nearly five thousand 
 Hungarians had been baptized, and that " under the 
 benign influence of the miraculous grace of God 
 those heathens even who have remained in their
 
 56 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 erring ways forbid no one the baptism, nor do they 
 interfere with the priests, allowing them to go where 
 they please. Christians and heathens dwell together 
 in such harmony that here the prophecy of Isaiah 
 seems to be fulfilled : ' The wolf and the lamb shall 
 feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the 
 ox.' " 
 
 Considering the difficulty of turning inveterate 
 Asiatics to western views of life, and, particularly to 
 the totally different doctrines of the Christian re- 
 ligion, we may easily realize that the total conversion 
 of the Magyars was a work attended with many 
 struggles and difficulties. After Pilgrin we find 
 Bruno engaged in the pious undertaking ; but by 
 far the most successful of all of tne missionaries was 
 St. Adalbert, the bishop of Prague, who came to the 
 country in 993, and, remaining there for a consider- 
 able period of time, had the good fortune to baptize 
 several members of the reigning family, amongst 
 whom was the son of Duke Geyza, called Vayik, to 
 whom was given the Christian name of Stephen. 
 This conversion being regarded as one of the most 
 momentous events in the history of the Hungarians, 
 it will be worth while explaining the accompanying 
 illustration, representing this act. In the baptistry, 
 we perceive, as the principal personage, Stephen, in 
 his baptismal robes. Next to him is seen St. Adal- 
 bert, robed and adorned in keeping with his episco- 
 pal dignity and the apostolic office of conversion. 
 To the left in the foreground, as witnesses to the 
 baptism, are standing the Emperor of Germany, 
 Otto III., who was brought there by his friendship
 
 H > 
 tfl 
 
 r. W>
 
 58 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 for Geyza and his interest in the baptism of Stephen, 
 and Count Teodato, of San Severino, a knight who 
 had emigrated from Apulia, and to whom Geyza had 
 entrusted the education of his son. Behind the lat- 
 ter stands Duke Henry of Bavaria, who, attending 
 the emperor, is present as a guest. Farther in the 
 background we perceive Duke Geyza and his consort, 
 sunk in oious revery. We see Stephen after the act 
 of confessing his faith and knowledge of Christianity. 
 Already he had turned his face toward the west, 
 had renounced Satan and devoted himself to the 
 eternal war of the children of God, and then, turning 
 to the east, had vowed, with exalted enthusiasm, 
 obedience and devotion to the Law of God as re- 
 vealed through Christ. Now we see him, according 
 to the custom of the Church at that time, in the act 
 of descending into the baptismal font in order to 
 receive from the hands of the holy bishop the sign 
 of the Cross, the sacrament of spiritual regeneration. 
 Pious emotion is reflected in the countenances of 
 the attendant Magyars, although there may be dis- 
 cernible here and there the expression of a hidden 
 spirit of antagonism. And the supposition of such 
 an expression can, in no way, be called a groundless 
 one. The worship of God on the banks of rivers, in 
 woods and groves, the offering of sacrifices, and sun- 
 dry superstitions connected with the soothsaying of 
 the Shaman priests, certainly impressed more forcibly 
 the minds of the free and independent dwellers of the 
 steppes than the mass pronounced in Latin, and the 
 rites of the Catholic Church, introduced by the 
 monks and priests of the West. Conversion to
 
 THE CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY. 59 
 
 Christianity had to be unconditionally followed up 
 not only by the relinquishment of the old national 
 religion, but also by the renunciation of the ancient 
 habits and manners, to which the Hungarians clung 
 in spite of the generations that had passed since 
 their coming to the banks of the Danube and 
 Theiss. The reluctance, shown here and there, 
 must be also ascribed to the overbearing attitude 
 assumed by the foreign missionaries towards the 
 ruling race of the Magyars, upon whom these Bava- 
 rians, Suabians, Czechs, Italians, etc., looked down 
 as contemptible barbarians, a title they by no means 
 deserved, for it was only the difference in culture 
 and not the want of culture which separated the two 
 elements. Suffice it to say that traces of this dis- 
 content became visible very early, and that the 
 slumbering spark broke out in open rebellion in 997, 
 in the very year when Stephen ascended the throne, 
 made vacant through the death of his father, Geyza. 
 History records three different risings, which took 
 place with the intention of doing away with the 
 newly introduced Christian religion, together with 
 all the changed modes of life borrowed from western 
 civilization. In the first instance the movement was 
 headed by Kopan, a nobleman in the county of 
 Siimeg. His object was to drive out the foreign 
 Christian missionaries and priests, to dethrone Ste- 
 phen, and to re-establish the old pagan faith. A 
 vast multitude of discontented Hungarians gathered 
 under his banners, but Stephen was not at all afraid. 
 Collecting his army and the foreign Christian knights 
 about him, he left his regal seat Gran (Esztergom),
 
 6O THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 and marched on straight against the rebels. The 
 engagement took place in the vicinity of Veszpre'm. 
 It was a hard contested struggle, and only after a 
 bitter fight and the death of Kopan himself, did his 
 adherents lay down their arms. The happy issue of 
 the battle decided the victory of Christianity in 
 Hungary, and all that was still needed, was to 
 strengthen the new faith. The effects of this victory 
 were, nevertheless, of short duration, for in the year 
 1002, another anti-Christian movement broke out in 
 Transylvania, whose ruler, Duke Gyula, uniting with 
 the partly pagan, partly Mohammedan Petchenegs, 
 made an inroad into Hungary, carrying devastation 
 and bloodshed everywhere. Stephen now had to 
 march against this dangerous enemy, and not only 
 vanquished the Hungarian duke Gyula, but con- 
 tinued his march into the country of the Petche- 
 negs, defeated their prince, Kaan, and looting his 
 camp got possession of all the rich treasures these 
 Petchenegs had carried away from the Greek empire. 
 The third and decidedly the most dangerous ris- 
 ing took place in 1046, when a certain Vatha, a zeal- 
 ous adherent of the former pagan religion, and an 
 offspring of Duke Gyula, availing himself of the dis- 
 turbances arising from the contest for the succession 
 to the throne, incited the people against the Christian 
 religion and its institutions. They urged Andrew, 
 the pretender to the throne of the country, " to abol- 
 ish the Christian religion and its institutions ; to re- 
 establish the ancient religion and the laws brought 
 from Asia, and demanded that they should be 
 permitted to pull down the churches, and to drive
 
 THE CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY. 6 1 
 
 out the priests and the foreign immigrants." Un- 
 aware of the number and strength of the rebels the 
 prince did not venture to refuse their request. This 
 the rebels took for a tacit compliance, and, embold- 
 ened by it, they fell, with wild rage, upon the Chris- 
 tians. The Germans and Italians that were found 
 in the country, especially the bishops and priests, 
 were persecuted with most inhuman cruelty. The 
 churches and other places devoted to Christian 
 piety were destroyed, the ancient pagan religion 
 was restored, and everywhere the people resumed 
 the former mode of life according to their ancient 
 customs and heathen faith, offering up sacrifices, as 
 before, in woods and groves and near springs. Dur- 
 ing these disorders St. Gerhard, the former tutor of 
 St. Emeric, and at that time bishop of Csanad, lost 
 his life. He was on his way to Pesth, to meet 
 Andrew, when he fell into the hands of the enraged 
 populace, was killed by them on the mountain oppo- 
 site Pesth, called Gellerthegy (Mount Gerhard) to 
 this day, and his body was thrown into the Danube. 
 Utterly dangerous as the symptoms of these risings 
 were, we see, however, how deeply even at that 
 time Christianity had taken root in Hungary. It 
 very soon became apparent that the revolution was 
 not only of a religious but of a political and social 
 character. King Andrew issued rigorous laws, men- 
 acing every one who did not return to the Christian 
 religion and renounce the practice of heathenish 
 customs, with loss of life and property. The de- 
 stroyed churches were to be rebuilt, and the order 
 of things introduced by Stephen be respected again.
 
 62 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 These laws and the punishments inflicted upon some 
 of the stubborn adherents of paganism did not fail 
 to produce their effect, and, in a short time, the 
 rebellion was crushed and order and quiet gradually 
 restored throughout the country. 
 
 And, strange to say, just as the Mohammedan Turks 
 of our day ascribe the decline and downfall of their 
 power to the many innovations introduced into their 
 religious and social life, and discover the main source 
 of their ruin in the assimilation to the West, precisely 
 so spoke and argued the Hungarians of that day. 
 They laid particular stress upon the fact that the 
 nation, whilst adhering to the religion and customs 
 of its ancestors, had been independent, strong, and 
 mighty, and had even made the whole of Europe 
 tremble ; but that now, since it had adopted the 
 religion and customs of the West, the nation was 
 weakened by internal dissensions, strangers had be- 
 come her masters, foreign armies had penetrated into 
 the very heart of the country nay, Hungary had lost 
 her independence and had become the vassal of a 
 foreign power. Such representations could not fail 
 to produce their effect. It was easy to convince the 
 uncultivated Hungarians, who were not yet confirmed 
 in the Christian religion and but ill brooked its 
 severe discipline, that all those troubles and misfor- 
 tunes which had visited the country were the conse- 
 quences of the introduction of Christianity, and that 
 to achieve a splendid future for the nation, in har- 
 mony with its glorious past, this must be done upon 
 the ruins of Christianity and of the institutions in- 
 troduced by Stephen.
 
 THE CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY. 63 
 
 This great change, however repugnant it may have 
 seemed to the Hungarians, was, nevertheless, un- 
 avoidable. As previously stated, the foreign ele- 
 ments which flooded the country, owing to the very 
 large number of captives the Hungarians brought 
 with them from every part of Europe, had wrought 
 that change in the manners and habits of life in 
 spite of all the reluctance of the former Asiatic 
 nomads. These captives greatly outnumbering their 
 masters, were mostly used for agricultural purposes, 
 but their close contact with the ruling class unavoid- 
 ably produced a mitigation of the rude military 
 habits of the latter. The Hungarians eagerly lis- 
 tened to the Christian chants and prayers of their 
 subjects. They imitated them in their food and dress, 
 and, although nearly two centuries had to pass be- 
 fore the former wanderers on the Central-Asian 
 steppes could get accustomed to permanent habita- 
 tions, and, despite the aversion the proud warrior 
 felt to the plow, the ice, nevertheless, began to 
 break. The Asiatic mode of thinking had to be 
 given up, and with the tenets of Christian tradition 
 habits of Christian life were gradually introduced. 
 
 This process of transformation was greatly quick- 
 ened by the personal intercourse and family connec- 
 tions of Duke Geyza and his chieftains with the 
 court and nobility of the neighboring countries. 
 Besides the involuntary immigration caused by the 
 forays, we meet with a remarkable influx of foreign 
 noblemen who, on the invitation of Duke Geyza, 
 settled in the country, towards the end of the tenth 
 century. The brothers Hunt and Pazman came from
 
 64 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Suabia, Count Buzad from Meissen, Count Hermann 
 from Nuremberg ; the Czech knights Radovan, Bogat, 
 and Lodan came with large retinues ; many others 
 immigrated from Italy and Greece, so that the high 
 nobility of Hungary, already at the beginning of the 
 conversion of the Magyars, had a large infusion of 
 foreign blood. It may be added that the entire 
 clergy of that day was composed of Czechs, Ger- 
 mans, and Italians. The ground was, therefore, duly 
 prepared, and it wanted only the iron hand of a reso- 
 lute and wise ruler to achieve the work of conversion, 
 and to accomplish the great task of transforming a 
 formerly warlike and nomadic nation into a Chris- 
 tian and peaceful community. This ruler was King 
 Stephen I.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ST. STEPHEN, THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 
 997-1038. 
 
 KlNG STEPHEN led the Hungarian nation from 
 the darkness of paganism into the light of Chris- 
 tianity, and from the disorders of barbarism into the 
 safer path of western civilization. He induced his 
 people to abandon the fierce independence of no- 
 madic life, and assigned to them a place in the dis- 
 ciplined ranks of European society and of organized 
 states. Under him, and through his exertions, the 
 Hungarian people became a western nation. Never 
 was a change of such magnitude, and we may add 
 such a providential change, accomplished in so short 
 a time, with so little bloodshed, and with such signal 
 success as this remarkable transformation of the 
 Hungarian people. The contemporaries of this great 
 and noble man, those who assisted him in guiding 
 the destinies of the Hungarian nation, gave him 
 already full credit for the wise and patriotic course 
 pursued by him, and the Hungarian nation of the 
 present day still piously and gratefully cherishes his 
 memory. To the Hungarians of to-day, although 
 eight and a half centuries removed from St. .Ste- 
 phen, his form continues to be a living one, and 
 5 65
 
 66 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 they still fondly refer to his exalted example, his 
 acts, his opinions, and admonitions, as worthy to 
 inspire and admonish the young generations in their 
 country. 
 
 This need be no matter for surprise, for at no 
 period of Hungary's history has her political contin- 
 uity been interrupted in such a way as to make her 
 lose sight of the noble source from which its great- 
 ness sprang. No doubt a complete change has taken 
 place in the political and social order, in the course 
 of so many centuries, but the state structure, how- 
 ever modified, still rests upon the deep and sure 
 foundations laid by the wisdom of her first king. 
 One day in the year, the 2Oth of August called 
 St. Stephen's day is still hallowed to his memory. 
 On that day his embalmed right hand is carried 
 about with great pomp and solemnity, in a brilliant 
 procession, accompanied by religious ceremonies, 
 through ancient Buda, and shown to her populace. 
 The kingdom of Hungary is called the realm of St. 
 Stephen to this day, the Hungarian kings are still 
 crowned with the crown of St. Stephen, and the 
 nation acknowledges only him to be its king 
 whose temples have been touched by the sacred 
 crown. The Catholic Church in Hungary although 
 it no more occupies its former pre-eminent position 
 in the state, still retains enough of power, wealth, 
 and splendor to bear ample testimony to the lavish 
 liberality of St. Stephen. Thus the historian meets 
 everywhere with traces of his benignant activity, and 
 whilst the fame and saintliness of the great king 
 have surrounded his name with a luminous halo in
 
 68 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 the annals of his nation, that very brilliancy has pre- 
 vented from coming down to posterity such mere 
 terrestrial and every-day details as would assist in 
 drawing his portrait. The grand outlines of his 
 form detach themselves vividly and sharply from the 
 dark background of his age but there is a lack of 
 contemporary accounts which would help to fill up 
 these outlines, and the legends of the succeeding 
 generations, which make mention of him, can but 
 ill supply this want, for they regard in him the 
 saint only, and not the man. His deeds alone re- 
 main to guide us in the task of furnishing a truthful 
 picture of the founder of his country, and well may 
 we apply to him the words of Scripture, that the tree 
 shall be known by its fruit. 
 
 Stephen was born in Gran (Esztergom), the first 
 and most ancient capital of Hungary, about 969, at 
 a time when his father had not yet succeeded to the 
 exalted position of ruler over Hungary, and a mag- 
 nificent memorial chapel in the Roman style of the 
 tenth century, erected there, marks the event of his 
 birth in that place. His mother Sarolta, Geyza's 
 first wife, was the daughter of that Gyula, Duke of 
 Transylvania, who, whilst upon a mission to Con- 
 stantinople, in 943, had embraced the Christian faith 
 and subsequently endeavored to spread it at home. 
 Thus a Christian mother watched prayerfully at the 
 cradle of young Stephen, and in early childhood, 
 already, the tender mind of the boy was guided by 
 the pious Count of San Severino. Adalbert, the 
 Archbishop of Prague, who sought a martyr's death 
 and subsequently won the martyr's crown, intro-
 
 THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 69 
 
 duced him to the community of professing Chris- 
 tians. With his wife Gisella, a Bavarian princess, 
 at his side, he took his place among the Western 
 rulers as their kinsman. While his long reign 
 proved him to be true to his country and his na- 
 tion, yet the paganism of the ancient Hungarians 
 was quite foreign to his soul. 
 
 After the first half of the tenth century religious 
 ideas began to exercise a more powerful influence 
 in Europe than before. The great movement which 
 originated in the monastery of Cluny, in France, 
 held out to the world the promise of a. new sal- 
 vation. Men of extraordinary endowments began 
 again to proclaim with evangelical enthusiasm the 
 mortification of the flesh, in order to exalt the soul, 
 and the suppression of earthly desires for the pur- 
 pose of restoring the true faith to its pristine glory. 
 They insisted that the shepherd of the faithful 
 souls, the Church, should be freed from all earthly 
 fetters and interests, for, just as the soul was above 
 the body, so was the Church superior to the worldly 
 communities. The Church therefore, they taught, 
 must be raised from her humiliating position, her 
 former dependence changed into a state of the most 
 complete freedom. As a consequence, the visi- 
 ble head of the Church, the Pope, could not be al- 
 lowed to remain the servant of the head of the 
 worldly power, the emperor, for rt was the former 
 that Providence had entrusted with the care of the 
 destinies and happiness of humanity. These ideas 
 spread triumphantly and with incredible rapidity 
 throughout all Europe. They were heralded by
 
 /O 77/7? STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 a sort of prophetic frenzy ; and soul-stirring fanati- 
 cism followed in their train. The age of asceticism, 
 long past and become an object almost of con- 
 tempt, was rescued from oblivion and revived. The 
 despised body was again subjected to tortures and 
 vexations, and the purified soul longed for the 
 destruction of its own earthly existence in order to 
 soar on high freed from mundane trammels. It was 
 the miraculous age of hermits, saints, and martyrs 
 who made it resound with their wailing and weep- 
 ing, changing this home of dust into a valley of 
 tears, so that the soul transported to the regions of 
 bliss might appear in greater splendor to the dazzled 
 eyes of the earthly beholder. The popes, moreover, 
 riding high on the unchained waves, guided the 
 Church through the tempest of the newly awak- 
 ened religious passions, with a watchful eye and 
 steady persistence toward one end the exaltation 
 of the papal power over that of the emperors. At 
 the end of the tenth century Pope Sylvester II. was 
 the representative of the spirit of the age clamoring 
 for the aggrandizement of the papal power, and Otto 
 III. represented in opposition to him the imperial 
 power, undermined by the new ideas. Since the over- 
 throw of the Western Roman empire the world had 
 not been called upon to witness a contest of greater 
 import than the impending struggle between these 
 two rival powers. The great upheaval, indeed, which 
 was to shake Europe to its very centre, did not take 
 place until half a century later, but the seeds, from 
 "vhich the war of ecclesiastical investiture, the stir 
 of the crusades, and the universality of the papal
 
 THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 7 1 
 
 power were to spring, were already scattered through- 
 out the soil which had lain barren through many 
 centuries-. 
 
 This was the age which gave birth to Stephen and 
 in which he was educated, but his exalted mind 
 rejected the exaggerations, eccentricities, and errors 
 of his time and accepted only its noble sentiments 
 and ideas. His sober-mindedness was equal to his 
 religious enthusiasm, and as his innate energy ex- 
 ceeded both, he left it to religious visionaries to in- 
 dulge in ascetic dreams. He desired to be the apos- 
 tle of the promises of his faith, but not their martyr. 
 He made the maintenance, defence, and extension of 
 Christianity the task of his life, because he saw in its 
 establishment the only sure means for the safety and 
 happiness of his people. He pursued no schemes 
 looking to adventures in foreign lands, but devoted 
 all his thoughts, feelings, and energies to his own 
 nation, subordinating to her interests everybody and 
 every thing else. He defended these alike against 
 imperial attacks and papal encroachments. His eyes 
 were fixed on the Cross, but his strong right arm 
 rested on the hilt of his sword, and his apostolic zeal 
 never made him forget for a single moment his duty 
 to a people which had gone through many trials, 
 whose position amongst the European nations was 
 a very difficult one, whose destinies rested in his 
 hands, and who were yet to be called upon to play 
 a great part in the history of the world. 
 
 Stephen was about twenty-eight years old when he 
 succeeded his father in 997. He at once embarked 
 with the enthusiasm of youth, coupled with the
 
 72 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 deliberation and constancy of manhood, on his mis- 
 sion to bring to a happy conclusion the task begun 
 by his mother. In this work he was sedulously 
 assisted by Astrik and his monastic brethren, and 
 the gaze of the foreign Christian lords, who had 
 immigrated with his Bavarian wife, as well as of 
 the great number of lay and ecclesiastical persons 
 who came flocking to the country, was centred 
 upon the young royal leader, who surpassed them all 
 in zeal and enthusiasm. He spared no pains, nor 
 was he deterred by dangers ; he visited in person 
 the remotest parts of the realm, bringing light to 
 places where darkness prevailed, and imparting truth 
 where error stalked defiantly. He sought out the 
 men of distinction a,nd the mighty of the land, and 
 the hearts which were closed to the message of the 
 foreign monks freely opened to his wise and friendly 
 exhortations. Where he could not prevail by the 
 charms of his apostolic persuasion he unhesitatingly 
 threw the weight of his royal sword into the scale. 
 Whilst battling with the arms of truth he did not re- 
 coil from using violence, if necessary, in its service. 
 Fate did not spare him the cruel necessity of having 
 to proceed even against his own blood. 
 
 The more rapidly and successfully the work of 
 conversion went on, the greater became the appre- 
 hension and exasperation of those who looked upon 
 the destruction of the ancient pagan faith as danger- 
 ous and ruinous to their nation. Nor did these re- 
 coil from any hazard to maintain their faith and to 
 prevent the national ruin anticipated by them. They 
 took up arms on more than one occasion, as has
 
 THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 73 
 
 been previously mentioned, but Stephen succeeded 
 in quelling the dangerous rebellions. Assisted by 
 the foreign knights, he broke the power of pagan- 
 ism, and he showed no regard for any pretence of 
 national aspirations. Those who still harbored the 
 ancient faith in their hearts kept it secretly locked 
 up there, and for the time being at least did homage 
 to the new faith and the power of the king. The 
 possessions of the rebels were devoted to ecclesi- 
 astical uses, and the king, at the same time, be- 
 stirred himself in the organization of the triumphant 
 Church. He divided the converted territory into 
 ecclesiastical districts, providing each with a spiritual 
 chief, and placing the ecclesiastical chief of Gran 
 at the head of all and of the Church government 
 instituted by him. He caused fortified places to 
 be erected throughout the newly organized Church 
 territory for the defence of Christianity, as well as 
 for the maintenance of his own worldly power, which 
 began nearly to rival that of the other Christian 
 kings. 
 
 But in order successfully to carry into effect 
 these measures, Stephen had to obtain their con- 
 firmation by at least one of the leading powers 
 which then shared in the mastery over Europe 
 namely, imperialism and papacy. The emperors, on 
 the one hand, claimed supreme authority over all 
 the pagan populations converted to Christianity, 
 while the papal sec, on the other hand, was in- 
 clined to protect against the empire the smaller na- 
 tions, which were jealous of their independence, in 
 order to gain allies for the impending struggle of the
 
 74 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Church against the empire. Stephen was quick to 
 choose between these two. The German Church 
 except in the abortive attempt made by Bishop Pil- 
 grin had contributed but little to the conversion of 
 the Hungarian people, and it could therefore lay no 
 claim to exercise any authority over the Church of 
 Hungary. Nor had the German kings done any 
 thing to assist Geyza and Stephen in their attempts 
 at conversion. Stephen had before him the example 
 of his brother-in-law, Boleslas of Poland, who had but 
 recently applied to the papal see for the bestowal of 
 the royal crown, in order to secure the independence 
 of his position as a ruler and that of the Church in his 
 realm. The religious bent of Stephen's mind, com- 
 bined with his acute perception of the true interests 
 of his country, induced him, at last, in the spring of 
 IOOO, to send a brilliant embassy to Rome, under the 
 lead of the faithful, experienced, and indefatigable 
 Astrik. 
 
 Pope Sylvestet II., than whom no one exerted him- 
 self more strenuously to increase the papal power, 
 received the Hungarian envoys cordially, and upon 
 learning from Astrik their mission, he exclaimed : " I 
 am but apostolic, but thy master who sent thee here 
 is, in truth, the apostle of Christ himself ! " He 
 readily complied with Stephen's every request, ad- 
 ding even more signal favors. He confirmed the 
 bishoprics already established, and empowered him 
 to establish additional ones, conferring upon Ste- 
 phen, at the same time, such rights in the admin- 
 istration of the affairs of the Church of Hungary as 
 hitherto had been allowed only to the most illustrious
 
 THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. /5 
 
 princes in Christendom, the sovereigns of France and 
 Germany. He granted to Stephen and his successors 
 the right of styling themselves " apostolic kings," and 
 to have carried before them, on solemn occasions, 
 the double cross, as an emblem of their independ- 
 ent ecclesiastical authority. As a further mark of 
 his favor, the Pope presented Stephen with the 
 crown which had been destined for Boleslas of 4 Po- 
 land, in order to symbolize for all times to come the 
 blessing bestowed upon the Hungarian kingdom by 
 God's representative upon earth. The crown of to- 
 day, weighing altogether 136 ounces, is not quite 
 identical with the crown that adorned St. Stephen's 
 head. It now consists of two parts. The upper 
 and more ancient part is the crown sent by Pope 
 Sylvester, the lower one has been added at a later 
 date. The former is formed by two intersecting 
 hoops and connected at the four lower ends by a 
 border. On its top is a small globe capped by a 
 cross, which is now in an inclined position, and be- 
 neath it is seen a picture of the Saviour in sitting 
 posture, surrounded by the sun, the moon, and two 
 trees. The entire surface of the two hoops is adorned 
 with the figures of the twelve apostles, each having 
 an appropriate Latin inscription, but four of these 
 figures are covered by the lower crown. The lower 
 or newer crown is an open diadem from which pro- 
 ject, in front, representations of ruins, which termi- 
 nate in a crest alternating with semicircular bands. 
 The seams of the latter are covered with smaller- 
 sized pearls, and larger oval pearls adorn the crests- 
 Nine small drooping chains, laid out with precious
 
 76 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 stones, are attached to the lower rim. A large sap- 
 phire occupies the centre of the front of the diadem, 
 and above it, on a semicircular shield, is a represen- 
 tation of the Saviour. To the left and right of the 
 sapphire are representations of the archangels, Mi- 
 chael and Gabriel, and of the four saints, Damianus, 
 Dominic, Cosmus, and George, and, finally, of the 
 Greek emperors, Constantine Porphyrogenitus and 
 Michael Ducas, and of the Hungarian king Geyza, 
 with inscriptions. With regard to the upper crown 
 no doubt whatever is entertained as to its being the 
 one sent by Pope Sylvester, and concerning the 
 lower crown Hungarian historians state that it was 
 sent, about 1073, by the Greek emperor, Michael Du- 
 cas, to the Hungarian duke, Geyza, as a mark of grati- 
 tude for the good services rendered to him by the 
 latter. The exact date when the two crowns united 
 cannot be ascertained. This minute description of the 
 crown of Hungary may be well pardoned, considering 
 the antiquity and the high veneration in which this 
 relic of the past is held by the Hungarian people. 
 
 The legend of St. Stephen speaks thus of Astrik's 
 mission to the Eternal City : " Father Astrik hav- 
 ing accomplished his errand in Rome, and obtained 
 even more than he had asked for, returned joyfully 
 home. As he was nearing Gran the king came out to 
 meet him with great pomp, and Father Astrik 
 showed him the presents he had brought with him 
 from Rome, the royal crown and the cross. Stephen 
 offered up thanks to God, and subsequently expressed 
 his gratitude to the Pope for the presents received. 
 The great prelates, the clergy, the lords, and the peo-
 
 THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. // 
 
 pie having listened to the contents of the letter con- 
 veying the apostolic benediction, with one heart and 
 soul and with shouts of joy acclaimed Stephen their 
 king, and having been anointed with the sacred oil, 
 he was crowned on the day of Mary's ascension (i$th 
 of August) at Gran." 
 
 That highly important letter brought by Astrik 
 from Rome, which established the independent au- 
 thority of the Hungarian kings over the national 
 church, has been preserved to this day. The fol- 
 lowing lines of the papal bull may in some meas- 
 ure characterize the age in which they were written, 
 and illustrate, at the same time, the importance 
 which was ascribed to these missives during many 
 centuries : 
 
 " My glorious son," the letter proceeds to say, 
 after having in the introduction exalted Stephen's 
 apostolic zeal, " all that which thou hast desired of 
 the apostolic see, the crown, the royal title, the met- 
 ropolitan see at Gran, and the other bishoprics, we 
 joyfully allow and grant thee by the authority de- 
 rived from Almighty God and Saints Peter and Paul, 
 together with the apostolic and our own benediction. 
 The country which thou hast offered, together with 
 thy own self, to St. Peter, and the people of Hun- 
 gary, present and future, being henceforth received 
 under the protection of the Holy Roman Church, we 
 return them to thy wisdom, thy heirs, and rightful 
 successors, to possess, rule, and govern the same. 
 Thy heirs and successors, too, having been lawfully 
 elected by the magnates of the land, shall be like- 
 wise bound to testify to ourselves and our successors
 
 78 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 their obedience and respect, to prove themselves 
 subjects of the Holy Roman Church, to steadfastly 
 adhere to, and support the religion of Christ our 
 Lord and Saviour. And as thy Highness did not 
 object to undertake the apostolic office of proclaim- 
 ing and spreading the faith of Christ, we feel moved 
 to confer, besides, upon thy Excellency and out of 
 regard for thy merits, upon thy heirs and lawful suc- 
 cessors, this especial privilege : we permit, desire, 
 and request that, as thou and thy successors will be 
 crowned with the crown we sent thee, the wearing 
 of the double cross may serve thee and them as an 
 apostolic token, even so that, according to the teach- 
 ings of God's mercy, thou and they may direct and 
 order, in our and our successors' place and stead, the 
 present and future churches of thy realm. 
 We also beseech Almighty God that thou mayest 
 rule and wear the crown, and that He shall cause 
 the fruits of His truth to grow and increase; that 
 He may abundantly water with the dew of His 
 blessing the new plants of thy realm ; that He 
 may preserve unimpaired thy country for thee, 
 and thee for thy country ; that He may protect 
 thee against thy open and secret foes, and adorn 
 thee, after the vexations of thy earthly rule, with 
 the eternal crown in His heavenly kingdom." 
 
 The brilliant successes so rapidly achieved by 
 Stephen during the first years of his reign se- 
 cured the triumph of Christianity and of the royal 
 authority in the western half of the country only. 
 The adherents of the ancient faith and liberty still 
 remained in a majority in the eastern, more-thinly
 
 THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY, 79 
 
 peopled regions beyond the Theiss and in Transyl- 
 vania. Gyula, the duke of Transylvania, and the uncle 
 of Stephen, was not slow in protesting against the 
 new kingdom and the innovations coupled with it. 
 The rebellion failed, as we have already seen. Gyula 
 and his whole family were made captives by the vic- 
 tors, and neither he nor his posterity ever regained 
 their lost power. Transylvania was more closely 
 united with the mother country, and from that time, 
 during a period extending over more than five centu- 
 ries, was ruled by vayvodcs appointed by the kings. 
 Soon after Stephen opposed victoriously the Petche- 
 negs, the allies of the defeated Gyula, who were set- 
 tled beyond the Transylvanian mountains in the coun- 
 try known at present as Roumania, and having also 
 defeated Akhtum, who, trusting in the protection of 
 the Greek emperor, was disposed to act the master 
 in the region enclosed by the Danube, Theiss, and 
 Maros, there was no one in the whole land who 
 openly, at least dared to refuse homage to the 
 crown pressing the temples of Stephen and to the 
 double cross. During the twenty years succeeding 
 the events just narrated, history is entirely silent as 
 to any great martial enterprise of Stephen. It is 
 true that hostilities were frequent along the north- 
 ern and western borders against the Poles and Czechs, 
 but they were never of a character to endanger the 
 territorial integrity of the country. During those 
 years of comparative peace Stephen firmly estab- 
 lished the Hungarian Christian kingdom. 
 
 The Christian Church was the corner-stone of all 
 social and political order in the days of Stephen.
 
 80 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 The Church pointed out the principal objects of 
 human endeavor, marked out the ways leading to 
 the accomplishment of those aims, drew the bounds 
 of the liberty of action, and prescribed to mankind 
 its duties. It educated, instructed, and disciplined the 
 people in the name and in the place of the state, and 
 in doing this the Church acted for the benefit of the 
 state. Hence it was that Stephen, in organizing the 
 Hungarian Christian Church and placing it on a firmer 
 basis, consulted quite as much the interests of his 
 royal power as the promptings of his apostolic zeal. 
 Where the Christian faith gained ground, there the 
 respect for royalty also took root, and the first care 
 of royalty, when its authority had become powerful, 
 was to preserve the authority of the Church. 
 
 Immediately on his accession to the throne, 
 Stephen addressed himself to the great and arduous 
 task, and in all places where the promises of the 
 holy faith, scattered by his proselyting zeal, met 
 with a grateful soil, he established the earliest re- 
 ligious communities. Later, as the number of par- 
 ishes rapidly increased, he appointed chief prelates 
 to superintend and maintain the flocks and to keep 
 them together. The ecclesiastical dignities and of- 
 fices were conferred, in the beginning, without ex- 
 ception, upon members of the religious orders, they 
 being at that time the most faithful warriors of Chris- 
 tianity against paganism, and the most devoted ser- 
 vants of the triumphant church. Stephen took good 
 care of them, and rewarded them according to their' 
 merits. He founded four abbeys for these pious 
 monks, who all of them belonged to the religious
 
 THE FIRST KING' OF HUNGARY. 8 1 
 
 order of St. Benedict. The abbey of Pannonhalom 
 was the wealthiest and most distinguished among 
 these ; and to this day, it maintains the chief rank 
 among the greatly increased number of kindred so- 
 cieties. The first schools were connected with the 
 cathedrals and monasteries, and although their mis- 
 sion consisted mainly in propagating the new church 
 and faith, they yet cultivated the scanty learning of 
 the age. 
 
 Stephen endowed the bishoprics and monasteries 
 with a generosity truly royal. He granted them 
 large possessions in land, together with numerous 
 bondsmen inhabiting the estates. The Hungarian 
 Catholic Church has preserved the larger part of 
 these grants to this day. His munificence was dis- 
 played in the cathedral at Stuhlweissenburg (Szekes- 
 fejervar), built in honor of the Virgin Mary, of 
 whose marvels of enchantment the old chronicles 
 speak with reverential awe. The chronicler calls it 
 " the magnificent church famous for its wondrous 
 workmanship, the walls of which are adorned with 
 beautiful carvings, and whose floor is inlaid with 
 marble slabs," and then he proceeds in this strain -. 
 " Those can bear witness to the truth of my words 
 who have beheld there with their own eyes the 
 numerous chasubles, sacred utensils, and other orna- 
 ments, the many exquisite tablets wrought of pure 
 gold and inlaid with the most precious jewels about 
 the altars, the chalice of admirable workmanship 
 standing on Christ's table, and the various vessels of 
 crystal, onyx, gold, and silver with which the sa- 
 cristy was crowded." 
 6
 
 82 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Stephen's munificence was not confined to his own 
 realm, and numerous memorials of his beneficence 
 and generosity are still preserved in foreign lands. 
 As soon as Christianity had gained a firm foothold 
 in the land, and the Hungarian people felt no more 
 as strangers in the family of Christian nations, the 
 natives, either singly or in larger numbers, began to 
 journey to the revered cities of Rome, Constanti- 
 nople, and Jerusalem. Stephen took care that these 
 pilgrims should feel at home in the strange places 
 they visited. Thus, amongst other things, he had a 
 church and dwelling-house built in Rome for the 
 accommodation of twelve canons, providing it also 
 with a liospitium (inn). In Constantinople and Jeru- 
 salem also he caused a convent and church to be 
 erected, within whose hospitable walls the Hungarian 
 pilgrim might find rest for his weary body, after the 
 fatigues of the long journey, and spiritual comfort 
 for his thirsting soul. He was ever mindful of the in- 
 terests of Christianity both at home and abroad. He 
 not only founded the Hungarian Christian Church, 
 but knew how to make it universally respected, and, 
 in his own time already, the popes were in the habit 
 of referring to Hungary as the " archiregnum " that 
 is, a country superior to the others. 
 
 In establishing the Hungarian kingdom Stephen 
 necessarily shaped its institutions after the pattern 
 of the Western States, but fortunately for the nation 
 he possessed a rare discrimination which made him 
 imitate his neighbors in those things only which 
 were beneficial or unavoidable, whilst he rejected 
 their errors and refused to introduce them into his
 
 THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 83 
 
 own land. At that period feudalism, although it had 
 sadly degenerated, prevailed, England alone ex- 
 ccpted, throughout the whole West. It was a sys- 
 tem which did not permit the strengthening of the 
 central power of the state, and the countries sub- 
 jected to it were divided up into parts but loosely 
 connected, each of which acknowledged an almost 
 independent master, w r ho, although he held his county 
 or duchy from his king, and owned and governed it 
 by virtue of that tenure, was yet powerful enough to 
 defy with impunity the sovereign himself. Without 
 adverting to the pitiful dismemberment of Italy, we 
 need only mention that France was divided into 
 about fifty, and Germany into five small principali- 
 ties of this character. The kings themselves might 
 make use of their kingly title, they might bask in 
 the splendor of their own royalty, but of the pleni- 
 tude of their royal power they could but rarely and 
 then only temporarily boast. 
 
 Stephen's chief aim was to enhance the royal power 
 by rendering it as independent as he possibly could 
 of restrictions on the part of the nation, and to intro- 
 duce such institutions as would prove most efficacious 
 in the defence of the integrity and unity of nation and 
 country. He left the nobility the descendants of 
 those who had taken possession of the soil at the 
 conquest of Hungary in the undisturbed enjoy- 
 ment of their ancient privileges ; he did not restrict 
 their rights, but in turn did not allow himself to be 
 hampered by them. He only introduced an innova- 
 tion with reference to the tenure of their property, 
 which he changed from tribal to individual posses-
 
 84 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 sion, using his royal authority to protect each man 
 in the possession of the estates thus allotted to him. 
 The nobles governed themselves, administered justice 
 amongst themselves, through men of their own selec- 
 tion, and the king interfered only if he was especially 
 requested to judge between them. The nobles had 
 always free access to the king's person, not only dur- 
 ing Stephen's reign, but for many centuries after- 
 wards. The nobility was exempted from the payment 
 of any kind of taxes into the royal treasury, and 
 they joined the king's army only if the country was 
 menaced by a foreign foe, or if they chose to offer 
 their services of their own free will. 
 
 Inasmuch as the great power of the nobility had 
 its foundations on freehold possessions in land, Ste- 
 phen was careful to support the dignity of the royal 
 power by the control of large domains. The royal 
 family were already the owners of private estates of 
 large extent, and to these the king now added those 
 vast tracts of land which, scattered throughout the 
 whole realm, and more particularly extending along 
 the frontiers, were without masters, and could not 
 well pass into private hands, as the scant Hunga- 
 rian population was inadequate for their occupa- 
 tion. These domains, which, for the most part, were 
 thinly inhabited by the indigenous conquered popu- 
 lations, speaking their own languages, and the col- 
 onization of which by foreigners became a special 
 object with the kings, were now declared state prop- 
 erty, and as such taken possession of and admin- 
 istered by Stephen. He divided these possessions 
 into small domains, called in Latin comitatus, coun-
 
 THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 85 
 
 ty, and in Hungarian mcgye, eyre or circuit, and placed 
 at the head of the administration of each county a 
 royal official styled comes, count. These districts sub- 
 sequently gave rise to the county system, which was 
 destined to play such an important part in the history 
 of the country, but originally they were designed to 
 answer a twofold purpose, one financial and one mili- 
 tary. One portion of the people living on these 
 royal lands had to hand over to the royal treasury 
 a certain part of their produce, whilst another por- 
 tion was bound to military service for life. In 
 this way the royal counties furnished a sort of 
 standing army, always at the disposal of the king, 
 and supplied, at the same time, the revenues neces- 
 sary to support that army. Stephen found also other 
 means to replenish his treasury and to add to his mili- 
 tary strength. The revenues derived from the min- 
 eral and salt mines, and from the coining of money, 
 flowed into the royal coffers ; he levied, besides, a 
 thirtieth on all merchandise, market-tolls at fairs, 
 and collected tolls on the roads, and at bridges 
 and ferries. The towns and the privileged terri- 
 tories had to pay taxes, and, on a given day, to 
 send presents to the king. Stephen added, besides, 
 to his military strength by granting to individuals 
 mostly to native or foreign noblemen of reduced 
 circumstances extensive estates in fee, subject to 
 the obligation, in case of need, of joining the royal 
 army with a fixed number of armed men. The 
 Petchenegs, Szeklers, and Ruthenes settled as border 
 guards along the frontiers were also obliged to ren- 
 der military service, and even the royal cities sent
 
 86 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 their contingents of troops equipped by them. This 
 brief enumeration of the means employed by Stephen 
 to strengthen his throne, will make it evident that he 
 provided abundant resources for maintaining the royal 
 power, such as none of his neighbors, or even the 
 rulers of the countries further west, had, then, at 
 their disposal. 
 
 The royal court was the centre and faithful mirror 
 of that kingly power, and, in its ordering and con- 
 duct, Stephen was careful to imitate foreign courts, 
 not only in their main features, but at times even in 
 their most minute details. The court of his imperial 
 brother-in-law, Henry II. of Germany, especially, 
 served him as a model. Thus it was held that the 
 person of the king was sacred, and that to offend 
 against him who was the embodiment of the majesty 
 of the state, was looked upon as a crime to be pun- 
 ished with loss of life and fortune. The king stood 
 above all the living, and above the law itself. Ste- 
 phen surrounded himself with the distinguished men, 
 lay and ecclesiastical, of the realm, and, aided by their 
 counsel, administered the affairs of the country, but 
 his word and will was a law to everybody. Amongst 
 the officers of his court were a lord-palatine, a court- 
 judge, a lord of the treasury, and many others, who, 
 in part, assisted him in the government of the state 
 and, in part, ministered to the comforts of the court. 
 At a much later period only, after the lapse of centu- 
 ries, did the offices of palatine, judge, and treasurer, 
 become dignities of the realm. 
 
 The government of the country in time of peace 
 involved no great care or trouble, for only the royal
 
 THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 87 
 
 domains or counties and the royal cities possessing 
 privileges fell within the sphere of the direct power 
 of the king and court. The Church and nobility 
 governed themselves and applied to the king in 
 cases of appeal only, the royal towns conducted 
 their affairs through the agency of judges and chief 
 magistrates elected by themselves, whilst the bulk of 
 the people, composed of the various classes of bond- 
 men and servants, were completely subjected to the 
 authority and jurisdiction of the lords of the land. 
 The bondman might move about freely, but he could 
 never emancipate himself from the tutelage of the 
 landlords. The Hungarian nation was composed of 
 the same social strata which were to be met with 
 everywhere in the West, and the growth of these 
 pursued the same direction, differing, however, in 
 one particular the relation of the large landed 
 proprietors, the nobility, to their king. To these 
 exceptional relations must be attributed the fact 
 that the political changes in the country dia not 
 run in parallel grooves with those of the other 
 western states. Stephen granted no constitution, 
 all complete, to his people ; its growth was the 
 work of centuries, but the country was indebted to 
 him for having organized the state in such a man- 
 ner that, whilst there was nothing in the way of a 
 free and healthy development of its political institu- 
 tions, its inherent strength was such that it could 
 successfully resist the many and severe shocks to 
 which in the course of nearly a thousand years it 
 was subjected. 
 
 The country prospered during the long reign of
 
 88 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 King Stephen, thanks to his untiring labors and to 
 the rare moderation with which he tempered his pas- 
 sionate zeal. The nation became gradually familiar 
 with the changes wrought, and began to accept the 
 new order of things, although it could not quite for- 
 get the old ways. Old memories revived again and 
 again, and those especially who bowed down before 
 the crown and cross from compulsion and not from 
 conviction, were filled with anxiety as to the uncer- 
 tain future. Stephen thoroughly understood the 
 feelings and prejudices of his people, and he care- 
 fully avoided every act, and steered clear of every 
 complication which might tend to rouse their pas- 
 sions. He well knew that time alone could give 
 permanence and stability to the institutions created 
 by him, and that years of peace and continued ex- 
 ertions were necessary to consolidate his work. Two 
 great objects, therefore, occupied his mind con- 
 tinually, even in his old age ; in the first place, to 
 defend the realm against external dangers, and in 
 the second place, to raise a successor to himself to 
 whom he might safely entrust the continuation of 
 the work commenced by him. 
 
 But fate denied him the accomplishment of either 
 of his objects. As long as Henry II., his brother- 
 in-law, reigned there was peace between Hungary 
 and the German empire, but the death of the latter 
 in 1024 severed the bond of amity between the two 
 countries. The feelings entertained by Conrad II. 
 toward the kingdom of Hungary were very different 
 from those manifested by his predecessor, and this 
 change of sentiment was soon shown by Conrad's
 
 THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 89 
 
 laying claim, by virtue of his imperial prerogative, 
 to the sovereignty over Stephen's realm. Conrad, 
 with his ally, the Duke of Bohemia, and the united 
 forces of his vast empire, began war in 1030, and 
 overran with his armies the country on both banks 
 of the Danube, as far as the Gran and the Raab. 
 Stephen was undismayed, his courage rather rose 
 with the perils environing him. He bade the people 
 throughout the land to fast and pray, for not alone 
 his kingdom was at stake, but the independence of 
 the Hungarian Church was menaced by the imperial 
 forces. Those who looked with indifference at the 
 cause of the Hungarian crown and the cross, had 
 their enthusiasm excited by the proud satisfaction 
 of fighting in defence of the national dignity and 
 liberty. Amongst those western nations who had 
 been for so long a time harassed by the military ex- 
 peditions of the Hungarians, the German people, 
 feeling its strength, was the first to turn its arms 
 against the former assailants. But Conrad's attack 
 proved unsuccessful against the united strength of 
 the king and the nation, between whom the peril 
 from without had restored full harmony, and he was 
 compelled to leave the country in the autumn of the 
 very year in which he entered upon the war, de- 
 jectedly returning to Germany after a campaign of 
 utter failure instead of the expected triumphs. 
 Peace was concluded in the following year, and the 
 emperor acknowledged the independence of the 
 young but powerful kingdom. Conrad's son, who 
 subsequently succeeded to the imperial throne as 
 Henry III., visited Stephen at his court, in order to
 
 9O THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 draw closer the ties of amity between the two coun- 
 tries. The danger had passed for the time being, 
 but the apprehensions of Stephen were far from 
 being allayed as he pondered on the future. The 
 peace just concluded did not satisfy him ; there 
 were no guaranties for its preservation, nor had he 
 any faith in its being a permanent peace, for he well 
 knew that the German kings, as long as they wore 
 the imperial crown, would not fail to repeat their 
 attacks on the independence of the young kingdom. 
 Reflections of this sombre nature often filled his 
 soul with despondency, and then came occasions 
 when he entertained fears that the nation might not 
 be strong enough to withstand the dangers threaten- 
 ing her, or that if she triumphed she would, in the 
 intoxication of her victory, turn with exasperation 
 against those innovations which had brought the 
 foreign foes upon her. 
 
 All his hopes centred in Duke Emeric, his only 
 son, who, under the care of the pious Bishop Ger- 
 hard, grew up to be a fine youth, full of promise, 
 in whom his fond father discovered all those quali- 
 ties which he wished him to possess for the good 
 of his nation. The young prince was, indeed, very 
 zealous in his faith ; his piety amounted almost 
 to frenzy, and he turned away from the world, 
 despising its joys and harassing struggles, and seek- 
 ing the salvation of his soul in self-denial and the 
 mortification of his flesh. He was, in truth, the holy 
 child of a holy parent, but not born to rule as the 
 fit son of a great king. He preferred the cloister to 
 the royal throne, and, far from inheriting the apos-
 
 THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 9! 
 
 tolic virtues of his august father, he was rather in- 
 clined to indulge in the errors of the age he lived in. 
 But the aged king, dazzled by the lustre of his son's 
 holiness, was blind to his shortcomings. He had 
 faith in him, for in him he saw his only hope. In 
 order fitly to prepare him for his future royal mis- 
 sion, he set down for him in writing the experiences 
 of his long and beneficent rule, and the wisdom and 
 goodness treasured up in his heart and mind. These 
 admonitions addressed to his son have been spared 
 by all-devouring time, and to this day they are apt 
 to delight and instruct us as one of the most precious 
 relics of that age. The reader will surely be pleased 
 with a few specimens of these exhortations : 
 
 " I cannot refrain, my beloved son," Stephen wrote, 
 " from giving thee advice, instruction, and commands 
 whereby to guide thyself and thy subjects. * * * 
 Strive to obey sedulously the injunctions of thy 
 father, for if thou despisest these thou lovest neither 
 God nor man. Be therefore dutiful, my son ; thou 
 hast been brought up amidst delights and treasures, 
 and knowest nothing of the arduous labors of war 
 and the perils of hostile invasions by foreign nations, 
 in the midst of which nearly my whole life has been 
 passed. The time has arrived to leave behind thee 
 those pillows of luxuriousness which are apt to ren- 
 der thee weak and frivolous, to make thee waste thy 
 virtues, and to nourish in thee thy sins. Harden thy 
 soul in order that thy mind may attentively listen to 
 my counsels." 
 
 After enlarging in ten paragraphs upon the topic 
 of his counsels, he proceeds as follows : " I command.
 
 92 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 counsel, and advise thee, above all, to preserve care- 
 fully the apostolic and Catholic faith if thou wishest 
 thy kingly crown to be held in respect, and to set 
 such an example to thy subjects that the clergy 
 may justly call thee a Christian man, * for 
 
 he who does not adorn his faith with good deeds 
 the one being a dead thing without the others can- 
 not rule in honor." 
 
 Stephen then lays down rules of conduct towards 
 the magnates of the realm, the lay lords, the high 
 dignitaries, and the warriors, as follows : " They are, 
 my dear son, thy fathers, and thy brothers, neither 
 call them nor make them thy servents. Let them 
 combat for thee, but not serve thee. Rule over 
 them peaceably, humbly, and gently, without anger, 
 pride, and envy, bearing in mind that all men are 
 equal, that nothing exalts more than humility, nor 
 is there any thing more degrading than pride and 
 envy. If thou wilt be peaceable, ever}' one will love 
 thee and call thee a brave king, but if thou wilt be 
 irritable, overbearing, and envious, and look down 
 upon the lords, the might of the warriors will weaken 
 thy kingly state, and thou wilt lose thy realm. 
 Govern them with thy virtues, so that, inspired by 
 love for thee, they may adhere to thy royal dignity." 
 
 He then recommends, above all, patience and care- 
 ful inquiry in the administration of justice in these 
 words : " Whenever a capital cause or other cause of 
 great importance be brought before thee for judg- 
 ment, be not impatient, nor indulge in oaths before- 
 hand that the accused shall be brought to punish- 
 ment. Do not hasten to pronounce judgment thy-
 
 THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 93 
 
 self, lest thy royal dignity be impaired thereby, but 
 leave the cause rather in the hands of the regular 
 judges. Fear the functions of a judge, and even the 
 name of a judge, and rather rejoice in being and 
 having the name of a righteous king. Patient kings 
 rule, impatient ones oppress. If, however, there be 
 a cause which it is fit for thee to decide, judge merci- 
 fully and patiently to the enhancement of the praise 
 and glory of thy crown." 
 
 Speaking of the foreigners settled in the country, 
 he says : " The Roman empire owed its growth, and 
 its rulers their glory and power, chiefly to the nu- 
 merous wise and noble men who gathered within its 
 boundaries from every quarter of the world. * * * 
 Foreigners coming from different countries and 
 places to settle here bring with them a variety of 
 languages, customs, instructive matters, and arms, 
 which all contribute to adorn and glorify the royal 
 court, holding in check, at the same time, foreign 
 powers. A country speaking but one language, and 
 where uniform customs prevail, is weak and frail. 
 Therefore I enjoin on thee, my son, to treat and be- 
 have towards them decorously, so that they shall 
 more cheerfully abide with thee than elsewhere. For 
 if thou shouldst spoil what I have built up, and scat- 
 ter what I have gathered, thy realm would surely 
 suffer great detriment from it." 
 
 The preference of Stephen for the immigrants 
 from abroad did not degenerate into contempt for 
 ancient customs, for he thus concludes : " It is both 
 glorious and royal to respect the laws of the fore- 
 fathers and to imitate ancestors worthy of reverence.
 
 94 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 He who holds in contempt the decisions of his pre- 
 decessors will not keep the laws of God. Conform, 
 therefore, my dear son, to my institutions, and fol- 
 low without hesitation my customs, which befit the 
 royal dignity. It would be difficult for thee to 
 govern a realm of this character without following 
 the precedents laid down by those who governed 
 before thee. Adhere, therefore, to my customs, so 
 that thou shalt be deemed the first amongst thine, 
 and merit the praise of the stranger. * * * The 
 evil-minded ruler who stains himself with cruelty 
 vainly calls himself king ; he but deserves the name 
 of a tyrant. I therefore beseech and enjoin upon 
 thee, my beloved son, thou delight of my heart and 
 hope of the coming generation, be, above all, gra- 
 cious, not only to thy kinsmen, to princes, and to 
 dukes, but also to thy neighbors and subjects ; be 
 merciful and forbearing not only to the powerful 
 but to the weak; and, finally, be strong, lest good 
 fortune elate thee, and bad fortune depress thee. Be 
 humble, moderate, and gentle, be honorable and 
 modest, for these virtues are the chief ornaments of 
 the kingly crown." 
 
 But the young duke was not fated to realize the 
 hopes of his fond father. In the very year (1031), 
 and on the very day, say the chronicles, on which 
 Stephen intended to have his son annointed before 
 the nation as his successor, the mysterious edict 
 of divine Providence suddenly took him away. In 
 place of the crown of terrestrial power, his unstained 
 life, nipped in the bud, was to be rewarded by the 
 glory of everlasting salvation.
 
 THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 9$ 
 
 This sad blow prostrated the aged king, who had 
 already been ailing, throwing him on his bed,, and 
 from that moment up to the day of his death he was 
 unable to recover either his bodily or mental 
 strength. Bereft of all hope and left to himself 
 with his great sorrow and harassing doubts, he 
 looked about him irresolutely for one on whose 
 shoulders the cares of royalty should rest after his 
 departure. The descendants of his uncle Michael 
 were still living, and his choice fell upon them, they 
 being rightfully entitled to succeed to the throne. 
 But he was foiled in his intention by the opposition 
 of the court, where the foreigners rallying round 
 Queen Gisella had obtained the mastery, and where 
 they now resorted to every evil scheme to compel 
 the decrepit king to designate as his successor Duke 
 Peter, who resided at the court, and was the son of one 
 of the king's sisters, and Ottone Urseolo, the Doge 
 of Venice. He finally yielded, and by this act the 
 vessel of State which he had piloted for nearly half 
 a century with a strong arm and great circumspec- 
 tion, was drawn into a most dangerous current. 
 Stephen was the founder of the kingdom of Hun- 
 gary ; to others was left the inheritance of defending 
 and strengthening it. He died in 1038 on Mary's 
 Ascension Day, the anniversary of the same day on 
 which, thirty-eight years before, he had placed the 
 crown on his head. On the day of his death Ste- 
 phen gathered about him his courtiers and the mag- 
 nates of the land, and commended the realm to 
 their care, but, as if distrustful of them, he, in his 
 last prayer, placed both the church and the kingdom
 
 9 6 
 
 THE STOA'Y OF HUNGARY. 
 
 founded by him under the patronage of the Holy 
 Virgin Mary. Five centuries later Stephen was 
 canonized and placed upon the calendar of saints by 
 the Church of Rome, and the event of the exaltation 
 of their first king and apostle was celebrated as a 
 great national holiday by the people. Time has 
 preserved St. Stephen's right hand and the crown 
 which his piety earned for him, but the brightest and 
 noblest monument he erected to himself is the crea- 
 tion of a commonwealth whose free institutions, un- 
 impaired strength and independence have survived 
 the storms of nearly nine centuries.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 
 
 THE crown of St. Stephen remained in the dynas- 
 tic family of Arpad for three centuries. The kings 
 of this dynasty erected, upon the foundations laid by 
 the first great king of that house, the proud and en- 
 during structure of the Hungarian Church and State. 
 The liberty of the nation and the independence of the 
 country were maintained by these rulers against the 
 ever-recurring attacks of both the Eastern and West- 
 ern empires, and the paternal meddling of the popes, 
 as well as against the barbarians invading Europe 
 from the East, whose devastations menaced the 
 complete destruction of every thing that lay in their 
 path. 
 
 But while they repulsed with an ever-ready and 
 strong arm all hostile attacks from whatever quarter 
 they might come they willingly extended the right 
 hand of friendship and hospitality to those who came 
 to settle in the country with peaceful intentions, and 
 brought with them the valued seeds of Western cul- 
 ture. The Hungarians themselves could be but with 
 difficulty weaned from their ancient customs, and 
 they still continued to be the martial element of 
 the country, inured to war and laying down their 
 7 97
 
 98 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 lives on fields of battle ; but the populations which 
 had emigrated from the West, protected by royal 
 immunities, were the fathers of a busy and pros- 
 perous city-life, and laid the foundations of civili- 
 zation in Hungary. A few monumental memorials, 
 spared by the hand of time, proclaim to this day 
 the artistic taste and wealth of those remote cen- 
 turies, and the scant words to be found in ancient 
 and decayed parchments speak loudly, and with no 
 uncertain sound, of the cities of that time as busy 
 marts of industrial activity and thriving commerce. 
 From the list of the annual revenues of one of the 
 Arpads, Bela III., and those of the country in the 
 twelfth century, \vhich was submitted by him when 
 asking for the hand of the daughter of the French 
 king, the civilized West learned with amazement of 
 the enormous wealth of the king ruling near the 
 eastern confines of the Western world. The king's 
 wealth was but a reflex of the prosperity of the peo- 
 ple. During the era of the Arpads Hungary sur- 
 passed many a Western country in power and wealth, 
 and in the work of civilization either kept pace with 
 them or faithfully followed in their footsteps. These 
 three hundred years produced great kings, who, dis- 
 tinguished by their abilities, character, and achieve- 
 ments, made the country strong and flourishing ; 
 but this era produced also weak and frivolous 
 rulers, whose faults will forever darken their memory. 
 Posterity, however, cherishes the memory of all with 
 equal piety, and is accustomed to look at the entire 
 period in the light of the lustre of the great kings 
 only No wonder, therefore, if the ancient chron-
 
 THE KINGS OP THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 99 
 
 iclers, in describing the events of that era, are led by 
 their piety to weave into the text gorgeous tales and 
 legends for the purpose of enhancing the glory of 
 the great kings, and of palliating the shortcomings 
 of those kings who were weak and frail. 
 
 The history of those three centuries may be divid- 
 ed into three periods. The first, comprising the first 
 two centuries, may be called the heroic period of 
 the young kingdom, in the course of which both the 
 foreign and domestic foes were triumphantly re- 
 sisted, the attacks of the neighboring nations re- 
 pulsed, and the risings of paganism quelled. The 
 second comprises the early part of the thirteenth 
 century. During this period the royal power entered 
 upon a state of decay, and was no longer able either 
 to secure respect for the law or the execution of its 
 behests. At this time too the nobility extorted 
 from royalty a charter called the Golden Bull, con- 
 firming their immunities. During the third period 
 an oligarchy, recruited from the ranks of the nobility, 
 rose to power, and became the scourge of the nation, 
 defying the royal authority and trampling upon all 
 law. The licentiousness of this class ruined the 
 country, which was then very near becoming a prey 
 of the Mongols, who made an unexpected invasion. 
 The realm, however, was saved from utter destruc- 
 tion by the devotion of one of her great kings and 
 a happy conjuncture of circumstances. 
 
 The misgivings which filled Stephen's soul when 
 he closed his eyes in eternal sleep soon proved to 
 have been well founded. Four years had hardly 
 elapsed after his death when the armies of the Ger-
 
 IOO THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 man emperor were already marching on Hungary, 
 and in another four years paganism arose in a for- 
 midable rebellion, with the avowed purpose of de- 
 stroying the new church and kingdom. 
 
 Peter (1038-1046), Stephen's successor, who was 
 of foreign descent and of a proud and frivolous na- 
 ture, despised the rude and uncivilized Hungarians. 
 He surrounded himself with foreigners, German and 
 Italian immigrants, who divided amongst themselves 
 the chief dignities of the State, preyed upon the 
 prosperity of the country, and ruined the morals of 
 the people. The nation did not tolerate his misrule 
 very long. The fierce hatred and exasperation with 
 which they looked at every thing foreign found its 
 vent against Peter, whom they drove from the country 
 and then elected in his place one of their own nation, 
 Samuel Aba (1041-1044), the late king's brother-in- 
 law. Peter did not renounce his lost power, but 
 asked the help of the German emperor, which he 
 readily obtained. The Emperor Henry III. opened 
 with his German troops the way to the forfeited 
 throne, and Samuel Aba, who marched against him, 
 having fallen on the battlefield, Peter for the second 
 time had the crown of St. Stephen placed on his 
 brow, but this time he took the oath of fealty to the 
 German emperor. Thus did Hungary for the mo- 
 ment become a vassal state of the German empire. 
 But the vassalage was short, for hardly had the em- 
 peror withdrawn from the country when the passion- 
 ate wrath of the nation rose higher than ever against 
 Peter. This time, however, the wrath was not alone 
 against his person, but menaced destruction to every
 
 IO2 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 thing opposed to the ancient order of things, and pro- 
 duced a bitter contest against both Christianity and 
 the royal dignity. Peter would have fain escaped now 
 from his persecutors, but he was captured, thrown 
 into prison, and deprived of his sight, and then, from 
 the depth of his misery, he vainly bewailed the giddi- 
 ness which had conjured up the storm of passions 
 that had deprived him of his throne, his eyesight, 
 and liberty. 
 
 The leader of the pagan rebellion was Vatha. At 
 his command firebrands were thrown into the 
 churches and monasteries, the crosses were demol- 
 ished, and every thing proclaiming the new faith \vas 
 reduced to ruins; and by his advice ambassadors 
 were sent to the dukes of the house of Arpad, who, 
 after Stephen's death, had sought refuge in foreign 
 countries, to summon them to return to the country 
 and restore there the old order. King Andrew I. 
 (1046-1061), to whom the supreme power had been 
 offered, and who, during his exile in Russia, had 
 married the daughter of the Prince of Kiev, imme- 
 diately obeyed the su^mmons, not, however to submit 
 to the behests of paganism, but to rule in accordance 
 with the principles and in the spirit of his illustrious 
 kinsman, King Stephen. For a while, indeed, he 
 was compelled to bear with the outbreaks, massacres, 
 and devastations of paganism, but as soon as he felt 
 secure in his new power, and especially after having 
 taken up his residence in Stuhlweissenburg, then the 
 capital of the country, where he was able to collect 
 around him the Christian inhabitants of the West, 
 who lived there in large numbers, he at once turned
 
 THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 103 
 
 his arms against the pagan rebels. He dispersed 
 their armies, captured their leaders, and crushed 
 the rebellion with merciless severity. 
 
 The double cross shone out again triumphantly, but 
 the crown was still menaced by danger. After the de- 
 feat of paganism the Emperor Henry Til. sent envoys 
 to Andrew, asking satisfaction for the cruelties in- 
 flicted upon Peter and calling upon the king to renew 
 the oath of fealty to the emperor of Germany. An- 
 drew felt that unless he maintained the independence 
 of the country, and the dignity of the crown, he in- 
 curred the risk of losing the throne itself. He therefore 
 rejected Henry's claims and prepared for the defence 
 of the country. At the same time he summoned 
 home his brother Bela (Adalbert) who, during his 
 exile in Poland, had won high distinction as a 
 soldier, and had obtained, as a reward for his mili- 
 tary services, the hand of a daughter of Miecislas. 
 Andrew himself was in ill-health, and he did not 
 care to face the brewing storm single-handed. He 
 wanted to have at his side the powerful arm of his 
 brave and mighty brother, whose very appearance 
 was sufficient to inspire the distressed nation with 
 confidence and hope. He gave Bela one third of 
 the realm, and, being childless, promised him the 
 crown after his decease. Neither Andrew nor the 
 nation were disappointed in Duke Bela, who was 
 believed by the people to be irresistible. It was in 
 vain that Henry III. collected the entire armed 
 force of the empire, and three times in succession 
 (1049-1052) threw this force upon Hungary. In 
 each campaign Duke Bela succeeded in dealing deadly
 
 IO4 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 blows upon the invaders. His triumph was so com- 
 plete that the emperor was compelled to solemnly 
 proclaim peace, again acknowledging the indepen- 
 dence of the kingdom. 
 
 The nation was not permitted long to enjoy the 
 peace following her almost miraculous escape. Do- 
 mestic dissensions took the place of the dangers 
 threatening from abroad, and this time the feuds 
 did not originate with the people, but with the 
 royal family itself. All the glory of the important 
 results of the German wars, of the driving the enemy 
 from the country, and of her happy escape from the 
 besetting dangers, centred in the person of Duke 
 Bela. The nation looked with love and admiration 
 upon the knightly form of their favorite, and his 
 popularity was so great that it quite overshadowed 
 that of Andrew, notwithstanding all his kingly power. 
 Andrew's feelings were deeply hurt by the popularity 
 of his brother, nor could he help being terrified by 
 it. But it was not his brother's popularity alone 
 which troubled him. During the war a son had 
 been born to Andrew, who was christened Solomon. 
 Andrew now repented of his promise to Bela. He 
 wished his infant son to succeed to the throne, and 
 in order to insure it to him, he caused Solomon to 
 be crowned in spite of his tender age. Not satisfied 
 with this, but fearing that Bela, aggrieved by these 
 proceedings, might rise against Solomon at some 
 future time, he betrothed his little son to the 
 daughter of the recently humbled emperor, in order 
 to secure for Solomon the powerful aid of the Ger- 
 man empire against Bela's attacks. Every move-
 
 THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 10$ 
 
 ment of Andrew was dictated by fear, and he saw 
 cause for trembling in every thing. What troubled 
 him most was that Bela had never breathed a word 
 about his griefs or wrongs. Andrew would often 
 ask himself whether Bela was candid in his apparent 
 indifference, or whether, under the cover of this calm 
 repose, he was not concocting dangerous schemes 
 against him and young Solomon. He determined to 
 put Bela's candor to the proof. He had been ailing, 
 and made his feeble condition a pretext for inviting 
 his brother to the court. He received Bela with 
 kindly words, confided to him his misgivings, ap- 
 pealed to his generosity, and repeatedly assured him 
 that he did not intend to defraud him of his rights 
 by the acts done in favor of his son Solomon. An- 
 drew concluded by saying that he left it to Bela to 
 decide whether he would rather succeed to the 
 throne after his own death, or be satisfied to remain 
 at the side of young Solomon as the military chief 
 of the nation and the protector of the realm. The 
 old chronicles relate that Andrew, having finished 
 his sweet speech, caused to be placed before Bela 
 the royal crown and a sword, calling upon him to 
 choose between the two. " I take the sword," ex- 
 claimed Bela, unable to conceal his indignation, 
 " for if I coveted the crown, I could always obtain 
 it with the sword." 
 
 The feud between the two brothers became hence- 
 forth irreconcilable. The nation sided with Bla. 
 The emperor spoken of before was dead, and a boy 
 occupied the German throne. Andrew had sent his 
 queen and young son some time before to the Ger-
 
 IO6 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 man court, and now he marched against Bela, who 
 was prepared to meet him. The two brothers con- 
 fronted each other near the Theiss, and Andrew lost 
 both the battle and his life, whilst Bela was on the 
 field of battle proclaimed king of the realm. 
 
 Bela and his family occupy a conspicuous place in 
 the history of the first century of the Hungarian 
 kingdom. He himself, two of his sons, and one of 
 his grandsons were destined to successfully defend 
 the country, to pacify the nation, and, pursuing the 
 work of Stephen, to complete the creations of that 
 great, king. They were all endowed with eminent 
 qualities befitting the great task allotted to them. 
 The heroism, devotion, and wisdom of the father 
 descended to the children, in whose character the 
 inherited virtues shone out with even a brighter and 
 purer light. They were zealous guardians of their 
 kingdom and devout Christians, and they were 
 wedded, heart and soul, to their nation, which 
 beheld in its kings with feelings of delight the em- 
 bodiment of its own best qualities. The imagination 
 of the people soars towards them after the lapse of 
 so many centuries, and loves to make their lofty 
 forms the heroes of fabulous legends. Hence it is 
 that the events recorded of them in the pages of the 
 chronicles are nearly choked up by the ever-gorgeous 
 poetical creations of the imagination of the people. 
 
 The reign of B61a I. was short (1061-1063), but 
 even during this brief period he succeeded in ren- 
 dering important services to his country. While he 
 was king paganism once more reared its crest under 
 the lead of James, son of the Vatha who had been
 
 THE KINGS OF THE PI O USE OF ARPAD. TO? 
 
 put to death during Andrew's reign. James stirred 
 up the multitude against Christianity and royalty, 
 but Bela nipped the rising in the bud. This last 
 attempt of paganism having failed, its power was 
 completely broken, and it finally lost entirely its 
 hold upon the imagination and passions of the 
 people. Some there were yet who continued to 
 resort secretly to the sacred places in the groves, but 
 their persecutors traced them even to these hallowed 
 spots, until, at last, the sacred fire burning on the 
 secretly elevated and visited altars was completely 
 extinguished by the laws enacted under Kings Lad- 
 islaus and Coloman. The imperial court of Germany 
 made strenuous efforts to place Solomon, whom it 
 had received under its protection, upon the throne 
 of St. Stephen. Armies were collected and marched 
 against Hungary in the hope of being able at last 
 to assert the imperial supremacy over the kingdom 
 which had been hitherto so unsuccessfully pro- 
 claimed. The nation shrank from young Solomon, 
 who was badly brought up and frivolous, and in 
 whom they saw only the tool of the German power. 
 The voice of the people designated amongst Bela's 
 chivalrous sons either the righteous Geyza or the 
 brave and pure Ladislaus, as the princes best fitted 
 for the crown. 
 
 These generous princes, however, desiring to save 
 their country from the calamities of an attack by -the 
 Germans, abdicated their power in favor of young 
 Solomon, and gave him a friendly reception on his 
 ascending the throne, stipulating only this, that their 
 cousin should leave them undisturbed in the posses-
 
 IO8 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 sion of their paternal inheritance, which comprised 
 about one third of the realm. Solomon (1063-1074) 
 promised every thing and kept nothing. He was 
 distrustful of his cousins, perceiving that the nation 
 idolized them, and bowed down before him only 
 from compulsion. It was in vain that his royal 
 kinsmen supported him with an unselfishness al- 
 most touching, and strove hard to lend him the 
 lustre of their own popularity in order to obtain 
 favor for him in the eyes of the nation. Solomon 
 persisted in seeing in them his rivals, from whose 
 grasp his crown was not safe, and not his brothers, 
 the upholders and guardians of his royal power. The 
 foreign advisers poisoned the mind of the wavering 
 and fickle king against his young kinsmen, not be- 
 cause they doubted the unselfishness of their devo- 
 tion, but because his civil counsellors well knew that 
 the two brothers were sworn enemies of German ex- 
 pansion and supremacy. The chronicles of the coun- 
 try abound in praise of the heroic deeds performed 
 by Solomon in conjunction with his cousins 
 while he lived in harmony with them, and in ac- 
 counts of the intrigues which disturbed that harmony, 
 and finally led to their utter estrangement from each 
 other. The foreign counsellors of Solomon succeeded 
 in working upon his fears and jealousy to such an ex- 
 tent that they finally prevailed upon the king to hire 
 assassins to do away with Duke Geyza. The trap 
 was laid but the victim for whom it was destined 
 succeeded in making his escape. The feud of the 
 fathers revived in their sons, and King Solomon 
 and the dukes Geyza and Ladislaus confronted each
 
 THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 1 09 
 
 other in the same hostile spirit in which their fathers, 
 Andrew and Bela, had once stood face to face. The 
 question which the sword was to decide was not 
 merely whose should be the crown, but as to 
 whether the German power should become the 
 master of the Hungarian kingdom, or not. Fate 
 decided against Solomon. He lost the battle of 
 Mogyor6d, and with it his throne, and with his de- 
 feat vanished all hopes of establishing German su- 
 premacy over Hungary. 
 
 The vacant throne was filled first by Geyza (1074 
 1077), and, after his short reign, by his brother Ladis- 
 laus. Solomon escaped, and turned now to his impe- 
 rial brother-in-law, Henry IV., now again to the 
 adversary of the latter, Pope Gregory VII., for help, 
 moving heaven and earth to regain his lost throne. 
 It was all in vain, the mischief was done and could 
 be remedied no more. The chroniclers delight in 
 adorning the story of the erratic life and repentance 
 of the unfortunate youth. They relate of him that, 
 perceiving the utter failure of all his attempts, he 
 was filled with loathing against himself and the blind 
 passions which had made him the enemy and scourge 
 of his country, retired from the world, and became a 
 hermit in order to atone for the faults of his brief 
 youth by doing penance during the remaining years 
 of his life. A cave on the shores of the Adriatic, 
 near Pola, is pointed out to this day, in which 
 Solomon is supposed to have led the life of a her- 
 mit. The chronicle adds that he lived to a high old 
 age, became the benefactor of the inhabitants of the 
 vicinity, prayed for his nation, and that the last wish
 
 1 10 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 of his departing soul was the happiness of his 
 country. 
 
 Ladislaus (1077-1095), who succeeded his older 
 brother Gcyza, was one of the noblest, most note- 
 worthy of the kings of the royal line of the Arpacls. 
 He was great not only \\\ the light of the important 
 achievements of his reign, but by his eminent per- 
 sonal qualities. His character was a happy combina- 
 tion of strength without violence, of wisdom without 
 vacillation, of piety without fanaticism, and of lofty 
 majesty without pride. He was the hero, the model, 
 and the idol of his nation, which had never clung to 
 any of its kings with more boundless affection, greater 
 devotion, and more respect. He identified himself 
 with the nation, drew strength from her affection for 
 him, and rendered her powerful in return. He gave 
 the kingdom, founded by his illustrious ancestor, a 
 permanent peace, restored the faith in its strength, 
 and insured its development. He put an end to the 
 era of attacks from the West, and even intervened in 
 the troubles of Germany by siding with the papal 
 party against Henry IV. An ancient chronicler in- 
 forms us that he had been offered the crown of Ger- 
 many but refused to accept it, because "he wished 
 to be nothing but a Hungarian." Although he aided 
 the popes in their contest with Germany, he yet de- 
 fended the interests of the kingdom against papal 
 pretensions. Pope Gregory VII. having reminded 
 him that the Hungarian kings had obtained their 
 crown from one of his predecessors, Sylvester II., 
 and that it was fitting therefore that they should 
 submit to the supremacy of the Pope, Ladislaus re-
 
 THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. Ill 
 
 plied, in a letter sent to the Pope, that " he was ready 
 to obey with filial submission and with his whole 
 heart the holy see, as an ecclesiastical power, and his 
 holiness the Pope, as his spiritual father, but that he 
 would not subordinate the independence of his realm 
 to anybody or any thing." Nor did the king in his 
 acts deviate from his professions, and the popes 
 prized his alliance too highly to find it advisable 
 to turn his friendship into enmity by forcing upon 
 him their supremacy. 
 
 Ladislaus was not satisfied to merely defend his 
 people and country against hostile attacks ; he ex- 
 erted himself to increase the population and to add 
 to the territory. Under him Croatia was added to 
 the kingdom (1089), and, having founded a bishop- 
 ric at Agram, he spread the Christian faith 
 amongst the Croatians and organized their church. 
 About the same time, the Kuns (Cumans), having 
 invaded the country from the East, Ladislaus routed 
 them, and, making a great number of captives 
 amongst them, he colonized with these prisoners the 
 lowlands of the Theiss. Croatia is still a member of 
 the realm of St. Stephen, and the Kuns have been 
 entirely absorbed by the Hungarian element, sharing 
 the weal and woe of the latter. History has pres- 
 erved in the fragments of the laws enacted by him 
 clear proofs of the greatness of Ladislaus in the 
 affairs of peace ; a severe judge and wise leader, he 
 defended with his sword the blessed seeds planted 
 by him in time of peace. He compelled the people 
 to settle down permanently, and taught them by 
 severe penalties to respect the persons and property
 
 112 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 of others. He visited with severe punishment the 
 followers of ancient paganism, and overwhelmed the 
 Christian church with benefits. It was at his request 
 that Stephen, his son Emeric, and the martyred 
 bishop Gerhard, Duke Emeric's tutor, were canon- 
 ized and placed upon the list of saints by the Church 
 of Rome. We need not wonder, therefore, if, con- 
 fronted with such grandeur and majesty, posterity 
 abstained from applying to him human standards, 
 and loved to see in his acts the manifestations of 
 a higher and a divine power. Thus the chronicler 
 speaking of him says with deep emotion : " He was 
 rich in love, abounding in patience, cheerful in his 
 graciousness, overflowing in the gifts of grace, the 
 promoter of justice, the patron of modesty, the 
 guardian of the deserted, and the helper of the poor 
 and distressed. Divine mercy raised him in the 
 gifts of nature above the common worth of man, for 
 he was brave, strong of arm, and pleasant to the 
 sight ; his whole appearance was marked by leonine 
 strength and majesty ; he was so tall of stature that 
 his shoulders were visible above those about him, 
 and, blessed with the fulness of divine gifts, his 
 aspect proclaimed him to have been created to be a 
 king." His mortal remains lie enshrined in the 
 cathedral of Grosswardein (Nagyvarad), which was 
 built by his munificence, and the piety of the nation 
 has made of the place of his burial a miracle-working 
 resort for devout pilgrims. A pious tradition has 
 lived for centuries amongst the people, that when- 
 ever danger menaces the country the king leaves his 
 bed of stone and, followed by the invisible hosts of
 
 114 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 his departed braves, combats against the assailants 
 of his country. 
 
 Ladislaus was still living when the religious move- 
 ment which took the form of a holy warfare began 
 to agitate the west of Europe a movement which 
 was destined to maintain its hold upon the minds of 
 the inhabitants of the western world for two hun- 
 dred years. According to a tradition of the nation, 
 Ladislaus was offered, as the most chivalrous king, 
 the chief command over the western Knights and 
 crusading armies, but was prevented by death from 
 assuming the leadership. Most of the crusaders 
 went eastward by the valley of the Danube, passing 
 through Hungary, and the waves of the first expedi- 
 tion reached the country during the reign of Colo- 
 man (1095-1114), the successor of Ladislaus. It was 
 fortunate for the country that a king like Coloman 
 kept guard at this time over her frontiers ; a king who, 
 although he may have lacked the ideal qualities of 
 his predecessor, possessed both the strength and the 
 courage to protect and defend the realm. Although 
 he was well aware that his attitude would provoke 
 the anger of the popes and place him in opposition 
 to the public opinion of the whole Christian world, 
 he was not deterred from mercilessly driving away 
 from the borders of the country the first motley host 
 of unruly and lawless crusaders that approached 
 them. The only crusaders to whom he gave a 
 friendly reception, permitting them to pass through 
 the country, were the troops of Godfrey of Bouillon, 
 but even as to these, he exacted the most rigorous 
 security for their good behaviour. Coloman's firm-
 
 THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. I 15 
 
 ness alone saved the country from being engulfed 
 by the movement, and prevented its domestic peace, 
 which was not as yet firmly established, from being 
 disturbed. 
 
 But while he was thus guarding the interests of 
 the country with a watchful eye, an unmoved heart, 
 and a strong arm, he still found time and oppor- 
 tunity for increasing the territory of the realm. He 
 completed in Croatia the conquests begun by Ladis- 
 laus, and added to the new acquisition Dalmatia, 
 which he wrested from the grasp of the Venetian 
 republic. Coloman was the first Hungarian king 
 who styled himself King of Croatia and Dalmatia. 
 
 Coloman won the admiration of his contem- 
 poraries and posterity, not merely as a leader of 
 armies, but as a ruler whose great erudition and wise 
 laws served to perpetuate his memory. These quali- 
 ties obtained for him the epithet "Konyves" (bookish) 
 or learned King Coloman. The chronicles extol him 
 for putting a stop by process of law to the prosecu- 
 tion of witches, and for declaring in one of his laws : 
 "Of witches who do not exist at all no mention 
 shall be made." He bestowed great care upon the 
 administration of justice, and among his laws occurs 
 the following admirable direction given to the judges : 
 " Every thing must be so cautiously and anxiously 
 weighed on the scale of justice, that innocence, on 
 the one hand, shall not be condemned from hatred, 
 and, on the other, sin shall not be protected through 
 friendship." 
 
 The last years of Coloman's reign were embittered 
 by the ambition of his brother Almos, who coveted
 
 Il6 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 the throne. The energetic and erudite king, who 
 had spent his whole life in consolidating the glorious 
 work begun by Stephen, saw with a sorrowing heart 
 how the restless ambition of single individuals was 
 uprooting the plants he had so carefully nursed. 
 Duke Almos rose three times in rebellion against his 
 royal brother, nor did he reject, on these occasions, 
 foreign aid. Coloman defeated him each time, and 
 pardoned him each time. But seeing that the incor- 
 rigible duke could not be restrained by either his 
 power or his magnanimity, and that he was again 
 collecting an army against him, Coloman caused 
 Almos and his young son Bela to be thrown into 
 prison, where both were deprived of their sight. 
 This dark and cruel deed, the ferocity of which can 
 be palliated only by the rudeness of the age, was 
 Coloman's last act, and, in thinking of the retribu- 
 tion of the life to come, it could not fail to disturb 
 his peaceful descent into the grave. 
 
 The risings of Almos initiated that period of civil 
 strife which continued for two hundred years, until 
 the house of the Arpads became extinct, and which, 
 on the one hand, afforded the Greek emperors an 
 opportunity to meddle with the affairs of the country, 
 and to attempt the extension of their supremacy 
 over the kingdom ; and, on the other hand, under- 
 mined the authority of royalty, lifted the oligarchs 
 into power, and sapped the foundations of the insti- 
 tutions established by Stephen. 
 
 Almos, the blinded duke, planned again a rising 
 against Coloman's son and successor, Stephen II. 
 (1114-1131), but the plot having been discovered he
 
 THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. I I/ 
 
 fled to the Greek court for protection and aid. The 
 Hungarian and Greek armies were already confront- 
 ing each other on the banks of the lower Danube, 
 but the shedding of blood was prevented on this 
 occasion by the sudden death of Duke Almos. 
 
 His son Bela II. (1131-1141), who had also been 
 made blind, ascended the throne after the death of 
 Stephen II., but he gave no thought to pacifying the 
 restlessness of the people or to restoring peace to 
 the country. One feeling alone held the mastery 
 over his soul, shrouded in darkness that of vindic- 
 tiveness against those who had robbed him and his 
 father of the light of day. His revengeful feelings 
 were still more fanned by his masculine queen, Ilona, 
 the daughter of the prince of Servia, by whose 
 advice he summoned the diet to meet in Arad, on 
 the southern confines of the country, for the sole 
 purpose of avenging himself on this occasion. The 
 lords, anticipating no evil, assembled in large 
 numbers, although there were many among them 
 who might have had good reasons for dreading 
 the king's wrath. They came, however, confiding in 
 the forgiveness of Bela, which had been publicly 
 proclaimed by him. According to the information 
 gleaned from the chronicles, the diet was opened by 
 Queen Ilona herself, who, after describing in a pas, 
 sionate strain the sad fate of her blinded husband, 
 and inveighing against the crime of those who were 
 the causers of his affliction, herself gave the signal for 
 the awful work of vengeance. A dreadful struggle 
 ensued between the adherents of the king and those 
 who had been singled out by the court as victims.
 
 Il8 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Many remained dead in the hall of the diet which 
 had thus been changed into a battlefield, but many 
 others, who succeeded in escaping, took away with 
 their wounds feelings of undying hatred against 
 their king. These bloody proceedings gave the dis- 
 affected a fresh cause for placing their hopes in the 
 Greek court, and expecting from that quarter relief 
 from the tyranny which oppressed them. 
 
 But when open hostilities finally broke out be- 
 tween the two nations, Bela II. was no more among 
 the living. When the war commenced, Geyza II. 
 (1141-1161), the son of Bela, sat on the Hungarian 
 throne, which the Emperor Manuel, the most power- 
 ful of the Comneni, ruled in Constantinople. The 
 war was a protracted one, and its scene was chiefly 
 on the southern frontier, along the course of the 
 Danube and the country near the Save, but Manuel, 
 with all his power and wariness, was unable to obtain 
 an advantage over the younger and more energetic 
 neighbor. After the death of Geyza, his son Stephen 
 III. succeeded to the throne. The Greek emperor 
 refused to recognize him as the king of Hungary, 
 and attempted to place upon the throne as his vas- 
 sals, successively, the two brothers of Geyza who had 
 found a refuge at his court, but he did not succeed 
 with either of the pretenders. One of his proteges 
 died young, while the other was driven from the 
 country by the lawfully elected king, Stephen III. 
 
 Manuel, seeing all his schemes overthrown, and 
 perceiving that, as an enemy, he had utterly failed, 
 pretended now to feelings of friendship, and offered 
 peace to the Hungarians. As a further pledge of
 
 THE KINGS Of THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 119 
 
 peace he requested King Stephen III. to permit 
 his brother Bela to reside with him at Constanti- 
 nople, promising that he would adopt him as his 
 son and heir. Manuel, having no sons to whom 
 he might leave the imperial throne, in all proba- 
 bility secretly cherished the hope that his adopted 
 son would at some future day succeed to the Greek 
 throne, and would also inherit the crown of St. 
 Stephen, and that by this means the two neigh- 
 boring countries, which he did not succeed in unit- 
 ing by force of arms, would, in the course of time, 
 become one. Fate, however, seemed to have con- 
 spired to frustrate the best laid plans of the Greek 
 emperor. He carried Duke Bela with him to Con- 
 stantinople, adopted him as his son, declared him 
 his heir, and every thing appeared to point to a 
 happy realization of his ambitious dreams, when un- 
 expectedly a son was born to him, an event which 
 completely upset his calculations. It became now 
 impossible for Manuel to continue to keep the young 
 Hungarian duke at his court, unless, indeed, he wanted 
 to raise a rival to his own son ; he, therefore, deprived 
 him of all the distinctions he had heaped upon him, 
 and sent him hurriedly back to his native country, 
 where the throne had just become vacant by the 
 death of Stephen III. Manuel, however, made the 
 young duke take a solemn oath before he allowed 
 him to depart that he would never attack the Greek 
 empire, and this empty formality was all that he was 
 able to achieve in furtherance of his scheme to im- 
 pose his supremacy upon Hungary. The same duke, 
 however, who had been nurtured in the culture of
 
 120 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Greece, and became King of Hungary as Bela III., 
 completely banished Greek influence from the coun- 
 try, and secured its independence for a long time to 
 come. 
 
 Bela III. (1173-1196) was one of the most power- 
 ful and respected rulers of Hungary. He possessed 
 great kingly qualities, and his character commanded 
 universal respect. He had a great deal to contend 
 with, after his return from Constantinople, before he 
 succeeded in being firmly seated on his throne. He 
 was received with feelings of suspicion by the power- 
 ful nobility, the chief dignitaries of the church, and 
 by the queen-mother herself, who all looked upon 
 him as a partisan of the eastern despotism, and as an 
 enemy to the Roman Catholic Church, and who 
 were anxious to place his brother Geyza upon the 
 throne. Bela triumphed before long over all his 
 enemies. He had his brother thrown into prison, 
 sent his mother into exile, restrained and humiliated 
 the powerful oligarchs, and conciliated the friendship 
 of the high prelacy by his munificence and liberality 
 towards the church of the country. Having restored 
 order at home, he devoted himself to the task of ob- 
 taining again possession of the territory Manuel had 
 seized. The reconquering of the Dalmatian sea- 
 shore involved him in a war with Venice, the envious 
 rival of the Hungarian kingdom, in the course of 
 which Bela had occasion to give proof of his military 
 power on a new scene of action, where the valor of 
 his ancestors had never had an opportunity of shin- 
 ing, by achieving over the proud republic a great 
 triumph on the sea. Bela had learned a great deal
 
 THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 121 
 
 at the Greek court, but all his valuable acquirements 
 he employed for the advantage of his country. He 
 did not exactly open new avenues for the development 
 of the nation ; his chief merit consisted rather in lead- 
 ing her back to the road marked out by Stephen, 
 and successfully pursued by King Ladislaus and 
 King Coloman. His every effort tended to bring 
 the nation closer to that western civilization which 
 had fostered her tender beginnings, and the rejection 
 of which all this time would have amounted to a 
 stultification of her past, and a certain risk of her 
 future. Two things, however, were of paramount 
 necessity to enable the people to prosper by the 
 king's judicious exertions in this direction : to re- 
 store to the country the needful rest she had not now 
 enjoyed for half a century, and to reestablish order 
 within the kingdom, torn by the partisanship of the 
 last fifty years. Bela resolutely set to the task of 
 establishing peace and order. He relentlessly pur- 
 sued the thieves and robbers who rendered life and 
 property insecure and had increased to a frightful 
 extent since Coloman's time, and, in order to do it 
 more effectually, he appointed special officers in 
 every county for that purpose, establishing, at the 
 same time, a royal chancery at the court with a view 
 to giving greater effect to the government of the 
 country and the administration of justice. The 
 proceedings in important affairs of state or private 
 law-suits taken before the king which hitherto had 
 been oral now had to be carried on in writing. 
 The country, under Bela's well-ordered government, 
 became more prosperous, and the nation more
 
 122 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 polished. Bela's first wife was a Greek princess, 
 and his second a French princess. Both the queens, 
 with the retinues following them to the court, intro- 
 duced there the good taste, culture, and manners of 
 the Greeks and French, so that a German chronicler 
 happening to visit the court at that time, could not 
 find adequate words to extol its magnificent splen- 
 dors. Culture was not confined to the court ; it 
 spread to the nation itself, for we find that the uni- 
 versity, recently established in Paris, was attended 
 by a number of Hungarian youths. All the acts of 
 Bela indicate that he had selected for his model in 
 government one of his most distinguished ancestors, 
 Ladislaus, for whom, as an expression of his own 
 and the nation's piety, he had also, in 1192, secured 
 a place on the list of saints recognized by the Church 
 of Rome. 
 
 Bela, while thus advancing the interests of the 
 kingdom and the nation, did not lose sight of the 
 claims of the age upon kings and rulers to support 
 the holy wars waged by Christendom against the in- 
 fidels. He followed with sympathy the movements 
 of the crusaders, and upon Jerusalem's falling into 
 the hands of the infidels in 1187, he planned himself 
 to lead an army for the purpose of reconquering the 
 holy city. The third crusade was begun in 1 189, and 
 the German forces, under the lead of the emperor, 
 Frederic Barbarossa, passed on their way to the 
 Holy Land through Hungary. Bela received his 
 distinguished guest with royal pomp, abundantly 
 provided the German troops with every thing neces- 
 sary, but he himself did not join the crusaders.
 
 THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 123 
 
 What the circumstances were that prevented the 
 king from taking part in the crusades it would be 
 difficult now to determine, but that they must have 
 been weighty ones is amply proved by the fact that 
 he had been long preparing for a crusading campaign^ 
 and had for that purpose collected a great deal of 
 treasure. The idea was present before his mind at the 
 time of his death, for he directed that his elder son, 
 Emeric, should succeed him on the throne, and the 
 younger, Duke Andrew, should inherit the treasure 
 collected for the pious object, and employ it in the 
 carrying out of the paternal intentions. Bela's fate 
 had that in common with the fate of the most con- 
 spicuous kings of Hungary that posterity praised 
 his grand achievements, while his own children 
 failed to respect and preserve the inheritance left to 
 them by a distinguished sire. 
 
 The feud between the two brothers broke out 
 immediately after the death of Bela III. Andrew 
 collected troops for the pretended purpose of exe- 
 cuting the last will of his father, but in reality to 
 employ them against his own brother. He succeeded 
 in defeating the army of King Emeric, who was 
 taken unawares, and was, besides, vacillating and in- 
 capable, and, after occupying Croatia and Dalmatia, 
 to which he added fresh territory, he proclaimed 
 himself, in 1198, Duke of Croatia, Dalmatia, Rama, 
 and Chulmia (Bosnia and Herzegovina). Emeric 
 vainly urged Innocent III., the most powerful pope 
 since Gregory VII., to compel the rebellious duke 
 to carry out the pious vows of his father. Andrew 
 did not stir one step towards the Holy Land, but,
 
 124 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 persevering in his sinful pcrverseness, continued to 
 repeat his attacks against the lawful' king. At last, 
 during one of his outbreaks, he was overtaken by 
 an avenging Nemesis. 
 
 The armies of the two brothers confronted each 
 other on the banks of the Drave. The camp ot 
 Andrew was stirring with a strong and numerous 
 army which, in anticipation of a certain victory, was 
 loudly revelling and making merry. King Emeric's 
 eyes sadly surveyed his own scant following, whose 
 devotion and determination, great as they were, did 
 not seem sufficient to make up for the deficiency in 
 numbers. The collision between the opposing armies 
 was inevitable, and the king felt that his utter dis- 
 comfiture would be the result of the battle. His 
 desperate condition inspired him with a sudden 
 resolution, and, without communicating his intention 
 to any one, he went into the enemy's camp, dressed 
 in kingly state, and, sceptre in hand, made straight 
 for his brother's tent. The revelling warriors, in 
 surprise, were struck with awe at the marvellous 
 spectacle suddenly bursting in upon their dazed eyes. 
 " I wish to see the man who will dare to raise a sin- 
 ful arm against his king and master," were the magic 
 words which opened him the way through the gaping 
 multitude. Upon arriving in his brother's tent he 
 seized the rebellious duke's hands and led him 
 captive to his own camp. The above narrative of 
 the event, as gleaned from the chronicles, may not 
 agree in every particular with the actual occurrence, 
 but Duke Andrew became the king's prisoner, and 
 remained captive until the latter called him to his
 
 THE KIXGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 12$ 
 
 deathbed, generously confiding to his care his infant 
 son, Ladislaus, who had already been crowned king. 
 
 Andrew proved as faithless a guardian as he had 
 been a false brother. He could not restrain his am- 
 bition, but deprived Ladislaus of his crown, and 
 drove him and his mother from the court. Shortly 
 afterwards, the unhappy youth died, and Andrew 
 could, at last, in 1205, ascend the throne he had so 
 long coveted, and whose possession he had at- 
 tempted to achieve by means in the choice of which 
 he never consulted his conscience. 
 
 The reign of Andrew II. (1205-1235) deserves a 
 conspicuous place in the history of Hungary, not for 
 its beneficence, but for its weakness and shortcom- 
 ings. The never-ending civil wars of the last century, 
 especially the internecine struggle between the two 
 brothers, had the effect of weakening the kingdom, 
 lowering the royal power and authority, and, as a 
 consequence of the decay of the latter, of increasing 
 the overbearing spirit of the oligarchs. Andrew II. 
 could not escape the condign punishment brought 
 upon himself by his own acts. His whole reign 
 was a series of feeble attempts to free himself from 
 the entangling web caused by his own faults and 
 the licentiousness of the oligarchy. He presented 
 the spectacle of a man whose ambition was greater 
 than his abilities, and whose levity equalled his 
 ambition. In the beginning of his reign he was 
 completely under the influence of his wife, Gertrude, 
 who was of Tyrolese descent, and who suffered the 
 country to become a prey to her foreign relations 
 and favorites. Yet when the great and powerful
 
 126 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 lords rose against the plundering foreigners, the 
 licentious court, and the tyrannical and wicked 
 queen, killing the latter in her own palace, Andrew 
 had neither the courage nor the power to exert his 
 royal authority against the rebels, but was rather 
 glad that the storm had passed over his head and 
 had not singled him out for its victim. Instead of re- 
 senting the injury done to him, he conciliated his 
 enemies by presents and gifts, and indulged in 
 schemes of a new matrimonial alliance. He was 
 fond of pomp, splendor, generous expenditure, and 
 the ostentatious display of the court, but the royal 
 revenues soon proved inadequate to pay the sums 
 thus squandered, reduced as the royal domains had 
 been by grants of entire counties. The king, in 
 order to raise the revenues, mortgaged the imposts 
 and tolls, and, by debasing the coinage, dishonestly 
 added to his resources. The din of the revels of 
 the court prevented the loud complaints of the 
 people, who were oppressed and worried in a thou- 
 sand ways by the oligarchs and the tax- and toll- 
 gatherers, from reaching the ears of the king. At 
 times his restlessness and ambition still involved 
 him in adventurous enterprises. Thus he wished 
 to elevate his son, Duke Bela, to the throne of 
 Galicia, but lacked the strength to accomplish his 
 scheme. The campaign against Galicia only added 
 to the expenditures of the country, and, indeed, it 
 happened that the king with his son and the whole 
 army were in the most imminent danger of destruc- 
 tion. His mind was also disturbed by his failure to 
 carry out the wishes of his father, and, at last, he
 
 THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. I2/ 
 
 determined, in 1217, to march an army to the Holy 
 Land. In order to raise the money necessary for the 
 campaign he plundered the churches and monas- 
 teries, and sold to Venice the city of Zara, the bul- 
 wark of the Dalmatian seashore. He finally left the 
 country with the army thus collected, but while he 
 was roaming about in the Holy Land without aim or 
 purpose, the orphaned country was reduced to the 
 brink of misery. " When we returned home from 
 our expedition," complained the king himself, in a 
 letter addressed to the holy see, " we found that 
 both the clergy and the laymen had been guilty of 
 wickedness such as surpasses all imagination. All 
 the treasure of the country we found squandered, 
 and fifteen years will not suffice to restore our land 
 to her former better condition." The condition of 
 the country must have been sad, indeed, if the state 
 the king had left her in might be called good in com- 
 parison with it, and however heavily the responsi- 
 bility of the fresh calamities rested upon the king, 
 his truthfulness in this instance cannot be doubted. 
 The gloomy rule of Andrew II. was relieved by 
 one cheering event which contained the germ of a 
 better future. The gentry, comprising in its ranks 
 the largest part of the freeholders of the country, 
 unable to bear longer the weak government of the 
 king, the violence of the oligarchy, and the scourge 
 of the army of extortionate gatherers of taxes and 
 tolls, at last lifted their heads and asked the throne 
 to listen to their complaints and to remedy their 
 wrongs. Bela himself, the king's son, whom Andrew 
 II. had caused to be crowned before going to the
 
 128 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Holy Land, was the leader and spokesman of the 
 nobility, who had stood up in defence of the sacred- 
 ness of the constitution, and who now urged the 
 return to the rule of law in the land. 
 
 Their wrongs, and the remedies enacted by the 
 gentry, were set forth in the following strain : The 
 king should not, at the expense of the patriots, be- 
 stow favors upon foreigners, nor elevate them to 
 dignities, and distribute among them the domains 
 of the country ; entire counties or dignities of state 
 should not, as a practice, be granted in pepetuity, 
 and he should not suffer avaricious nobles to grasp a 
 greater number of offices than they could efficiently 
 administer. He should guard the ancient immuni- 
 ties of the nobles, so that they might freely dispose 
 of their property, and not be molested in their per- 
 sons without lawful judgment, and should not be 
 burdened with taxes or extortionate exactions of 
 any kind. He should take care that the tax- and 
 toll-gatherers and other officials be taken from the 
 
 o 
 
 ranks of the gentry, and should remove from his ser- 
 vice the Ishmaelites and the Jews. Every thing op- 
 posed to these requirements he should at once bring 
 to an end. The county estates, granted away to the 
 injury of the land or dishonestly obtained, should be 
 taken back by the king, and he should, in pursuauce 
 of the ancient custom of the country, every year, on 
 St. Stephen's day, convoke the diet, whose duty it 
 was to act upon the complaints of the nation and to 
 defend her liberty when attacked. 
 
 The king, however, moved neither by the voice of 
 truth, nor by the misery of his people, refused to ac-
 
 THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 129 
 
 cede to these requests. In the breast of Andrew II., 
 who, during his whole reign, had utterly neglected 
 the duties coupled with his exalted station, r/tvokc 
 on the present occasion a feeling of injured royal 
 dignity. But the gentry were determined to enforce 
 their demands, and, gathering around the heir to the 
 throne, they took up arms in order to obtain by force 
 the concessions they deemed necessary for the good 
 of the country. Father and son with their armies 
 were already confronting each other, when the chief 
 prelates interfered, and prevailed upon Andrew to 
 listen to the v/ishes of the gentry. The concessions 
 were drawn up in form of a royal letter and the king 
 bound himself and his successors by oath to observe 
 the stipulations contained in it. Posterity has given 
 this royal letter the name of the Golden Bull, owing 
 to the fact that the seal appended to it by a silk 
 string rests in a box made of gold. 
 
 This remarkable document, which terminated the 
 internal strife extending over a period of a hundred 
 years, and to which for six centuries the past genera- 
 tions of Hungary were in the habit of proudly refer- 
 ring as the foundation of the constitution of the Hun- 
 garian nobility, reads, omitting passages of minor 
 importance, as follows : 
 
 " In the name of the Holy Trinity and of the indivisible Unity, 
 Andrew, by the grace of God, hereditary king of Hungary, Dalmatia, 
 Croatia, Rama, Servia, and Galicia : Whereas the nobles and others 
 in our realm have suffered detriment in many parts of their liberties, 
 as established by King St. Stephen, through the power of some kings 
 who, either from anger revenged themselves, or listened to the 
 counsels of wicked advisers, or sought their own advantage, and our 
 nobles have frequently appealed to our Majesty's and our ancestors' 
 9
 
 I3O THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 ears with petitions and complaints concerning the amelioration of our 
 land we, therefore, as in duty bound, desirous of satisfying their 
 request, grant to them as well as to the other inhabitants of our realm 
 the liberty granted by the sacred king, and we further ordain other 
 matters pertaining to the improvement of the land in this wise : We 
 ordain that we are bound annually to celebrate the day of the sacred 
 king at Stuhlweissenburg and that, if we should be prevented from 
 being present, the palatine shall be there in our place and shall hear 
 the causes as our representative, and all the nobles may freely assem- 
 ble there according to their pleasure. It is also our will, that neither 
 we nor our successors shall detain or oppress the nobles on account 
 of any powerful person, unless they be first summoned and sen- 
 tenced by due process of law. Further we shall not cause taxes to 
 be collected on the estates of the nobles or of the clergy of the Church. 
 If a noble shall die without male issue his daughter shall be entitled 
 to one fourth of his property ; as to the rest he may dispose of it as 
 he pleases, and if death should intervene before his doing so it shall de- 
 scend to his nearer relatives, and if he is absolutely without kin then 
 the inheritance shall go to the king. If the king is desirous of taking 
 troops out of the country the nobles shall not be bound to go with him 
 unless at his expense ; if, however, an army should invade the coun- 
 try all the nobles are bound to go. The palatine shall be judge over 
 all the people of our realm without distinction ; but in capital cases 
 and matters of property which concern the nobles the palatine shall 
 not decide without the king's knowledge. If foreigners come to the 
 country they shall not be elevated to dignities without the consent 
 of the council of the realm ; land shall not be given to those who 
 are strangers to the realm. The king shall not grant entire counties 
 or offices of any kind in perpetuity. Officers of the treasury, salt 
 bureaux, and customs must be nobles of our realm ; Ishmaelites and 
 Jews shall be incapable of holding such offices. Excepting these four 
 great lords, the palatine, the banus, the court judges of the king and 
 queen, no one shall have two dignities at the same time. Should, 
 however, we, or any of our successors, at any time be disposed to 
 infringe upon any of these our orders, the bishops as well as the 
 other lords and the nobles of the realm, shall be at liberty, jointly 
 or singly, by virture of this letter, to oppose and contradict us and 
 our successors, forever, without incurring the penalty of treason. 
 Given by the hand of Kletus, the chancellor of our court, in the 
 year of grace one thousand two hundred and twenty-two,"
 
 THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 131 
 
 King Andrew, who had to be compelled by force 
 to issue the Golden Bull, could, however, not be 
 coerced by any power to observe the promises he 
 had made therein. The exertions of the heir pre- 
 sumptive and the nobility as well as the wrath of the 
 pope were of no avail. Nine years later he con- 
 firmed its contents by a fresh oath^but hardly two 
 years elapsed when he incurred the curse of Rome 
 for again disregarding his oath. Struggles, extend- 
 ing over many centuries, were necessary to realize 
 the words of the Golden Bull. Time had then 
 already effaced the memory of Andrew's follies and 
 frailties, and posterity saw him only in the reflected 
 light of the great concessions made by his royal 
 missive. The estates of the diet which met at 
 Rakos in 1505 spoke of him in terms of extravagant 
 praise as the king " who had made the Hungarians 
 great and glorious, and had raised their fame to the 
 very stars." 
 
 The struggles which resulted in the issuing of the 
 Golden Bull were by no means over. The nobility 
 had obtained from royalty the concession of their 
 rights, but were lacking the power to maintain them, 
 and to secure their permanency. The very charter 
 of their liberties furnished matter for fresh disputes 
 and dissensions. In these contests, however, the 
 nobility now seldom attacked royalty, the weaken- 
 ing of which would have proved injurious to their 
 own interests, but they usually allied themselves 
 with the kings against the oligarchs, who treated 
 with contempt both law and right, having no need 
 of the protection of either, and who indulged in
 
 132 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 tyrannical violence against the throne as well as the 
 nation. The licentiousness and increasing power of 
 the oligarchs were the sore spot in the body politic 
 during the period of the last Arpads, and in a greater 
 and lesser degree, now apparently healed, now more 
 envenomed than ever, it continued to be for cen- 
 turies a disturbing element in the public life of the 
 country. 
 
 The struggle between royalty, supported by the 
 nation, and the unruly great lords had just com- 
 menced, when the storm of the Mongol invasion 
 broke loose upon the country, shaking it to its very 
 foundations. When the storm subsided only the 
 weak ones were found to have suffered, the strong 
 ones came out of the nation's calamity more power- 
 ful than ever. The national misfortunes only served 
 to advance the interests of the oligarchs, who, about 
 this time, began more frequently to surround the 
 crests of the mountains with stone walls, and, dwell- 
 ing in their rocky nests, defied royalty with increas- 
 ing boldness, and oppressed the people with greater 
 impunity than ever. The chroniclers in recalling 
 this period mourn with bitter wailing the gloom 
 which had settled upon the country, the incapacity 
 of the kings, the pride and violence of the lords, and 
 the miserable condition of the people. That the 
 power of the nation was not entirely, gone, however, 
 was shown by the cheering fact, casting a ray of 
 light into the gloom of those days, that at the very 
 time when the authority of royalty had sunk to the 
 lowest ebb, the Hungarian arms were able to cope 
 with the powerful Slavic empire ruled by Ottokar,
 
 THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 133 
 
 king of Bohemia, and to assist in establishing the 
 power of the Hapsburgs. Unfortunately the national 
 strength was for the most part divided against itself, 
 and the very triumph of the Hungarian arms against 
 Ottokar proved injurious to the nation at large, for 
 it redounded only to the glory of the oligarchy, and 
 tended to confirm their power. 
 
 After the death of Andrew II., his son, Bela IV. 
 (1235-1270), devoted himself with youthful energy 
 to the task of restoring the ascendancy of the royal 
 power and authority, of insuring respect to the laws, 
 and of humbling the pride of the oligarchy. He re- 
 moved the evil counsellors of his father, sent the 
 principal ringleaders to prison, surrounded himself 
 with good patriots, and where gentle words proved 
 inefficacious he resorted to arms in order to obtain 
 possession of the royal domains and county lands 
 which single oligarchs had contrived to acquire by 
 grant during his father's life or from his ancestors, 
 or which had been lawlessly appropriated by them. 
 The efforts made by the youthful king were, how- 
 ever, of* no avail. The very successes which attend- 
 ed here and there his policy served only to excite to 
 a higher pitch the anger and resentment of the great 
 lords, and deepened the estrangement between them 
 and the throne. The disaffected oligarchs, whose 
 selfishness was not tempered by patriotism, and 
 whose passions did not know the bridle of the law, 
 were so base as to elevate a foreign prince, Duke 
 Frederic of Austria, to the throne, in opposition 
 to their lawful king. The watchfulness of Bela 
 alone prevented the royal inheritance from passing,
 
 134 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 at that time already, from the Arpads into foreign 
 hands. Bela succeeded in driving back Frederic, 
 and in defeating the treasonable schemes of the oli- 
 garchy, but he became, at the same time, convinced 
 that until he was able to present to the opposing 
 lords a more formidable front he would have to re- 
 nounce the realization of the fond hopes of his 
 youth. 
 
 Bela looked about him for fresh resources to 
 strengthen his authority and to add to his power. 
 Pious Dominican monks, just then returning to the 
 country from the regions of the Volga, told the tale 
 that in the far east, along the banks of that river, 
 they met with that fraction of the Hungarians who, 
 during the period preceding the occupation of Hun- 
 gary, had parted from their brethren near the Black 
 Sea, where the latter continued their march west- 
 ward. These accounts suggested to Bela the scheme 
 of inviting the distant Eastern brothers to settle in 
 his realm, hoping to augment the royal power by the 
 aid of the new settlers, and to be thus enabled to 
 resume successfully his contest with the proud lords. 
 This scheme, however, failed, but the same circum- 
 stances which frustrated his plans as to his country- 
 men near the Volga, assisted him in obtaining aid 
 from another quarter. The Mongol hordes, which 
 came rushing from Central Asia toward the western 
 world, swept in their impetuous onward march the 
 Hungarians near the Volga out of existance ; but the 
 same wild current drove also the Kuns(Cumans) out 
 of their habitations near the Black Sea, and the latter, 
 after having roamed about homeless for a time, and
 
 THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 135 
 
 then reached the frontiers of Hungary, begged of 
 King Bela to allow them to come into the country and 
 to settle there. Forty thousand families were in search 
 of a new country, and forty thousand fierce warriors 
 offered their services to King Bela. The people of 
 Hungary were averse to receiving immigration on so 
 large a scale, and the great lords loudly protested 
 against the reception of the new comers, being con- 
 vinced that the latter would only enhance the king's 
 power, and become instrumental in humbling their 
 order. The king, however, considering the good 
 of the country only, braved the opposition, and ad- 
 mitting Kuthen, king of the Kuns, with his people, 
 into the land, assigned to them as their future abode 
 the plain of the Theiss. Nor did he forget to make 
 their conversion to Christianity a condition of their 
 admission. The good effects Bela had anticipated 
 from his new colony were slow in showing them- 
 selves, but the evil consequences of the recent set- 
 tlement became manifest at once. The great num- 
 bers of this rude and barbarous element, who were as 
 little disposed to live in fixed habitations as to em- 
 brace Christianity, soon disgusted the people by 
 their lawlessness, violence, unruliness, and the de- 
 vastations committed by them amongst the Hun- 
 garian population. The complaints of all classes, 
 without distinction, which reached the king's ear, 
 became daily louder. Bela was unable to come to 
 the relief of the people, for to have turned against 
 the Kuns, as he was asked to do, would have shaken 
 them in their fidelity to him. But by showing a 
 preference for the new comers he also forfeited the
 
 136 THE STORY Of HUNGARY. 
 
 affection of his old adherents, the good patriots who 
 had firmly stood by him, hitherto, in all his troubles. 
 Dissensions arose between the king, who was ani- 
 mated by the purest intentions, and his people, who 
 were unable to fathom the patriotic motives of his 
 actions ; and they were at their highest when the 
 hurricane which had swept away the Hungarians on 
 the banks of the Volga, and driven the Kuns to the 
 plains of the Theiss, reached at last the crests of the 
 Carpathian mountains. 
 
 The successors of Jenghis Khan, wishing to ex- 
 tend the frontiers of their vast Asiatic empire toward 
 the west, crossed the Volga, overran the Russian 
 steppes, and reduced Moscow to ashes in 1238. 
 Proud and beautiful Kiev was soon after, in 1240, 
 humbled by their victorious arms. The Hungarians 
 were aware of the approach of the formidable foe, 
 but their internal dissensions, and their troubles 
 with the Kuns and with their king, made them 
 forget the imminence of the danger that menaced 
 them. They indulged, besides, in the hope that 
 the mighty Carpathian mountains would arrest the 
 fierce current in its onward course. But the nation 
 was soon roused from its fancied security and awoke 
 to a dread sense of the true situation. The mourn- 
 ful fate of Kiev, the sufferings of the Polish people, 
 and the threatening language of the embassy sent by 
 Batu Khan, the general of Oktai, the Great Khan, 
 who had been the terror of the Russians, dispelled 
 the illusions of the most sanguine. 
 
 The mind of King Bela was beset with anxious 
 thoughts, but his courage did not fail him. Although
 
 THE KINGS Of TttE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 137 
 
 it was rather late for efficient military preparations, 
 he labored day and night to put the country into a 
 state of defence against the coming peril. He 
 demolished the forests, and barricaded with the 
 timber thus obtained the Carpathian passes. He in- 
 vited his adherents to take counsel with him, and 
 called to arms the ecclesiastical and lay lords, the 
 soldiery of the counties, and every man in the coun- 
 try capable of bearing arms. According to ancient 
 custom he caused the bloody sword to be carried 
 about throughout the land. His active zeal was not 
 confined to his realm alone, but, sending his ambas- 
 sadors to the western courts, he instructed them to 
 beg, admonish, and urge the rulers of the West, in 
 the name of Christianity, to come to his aid. It was 
 all in vain. The foreign courts did not stir, and the 
 Hungarian lords, in their surprise and dismay, instead 
 of devising means to meet the danger, were wildly 
 looking about them for some one to be made respon- 
 sible for the coming peril, and to serve as a victim 
 of their anger. They turned with passionate hatred 
 upon the king and the Kuns, saying that he with his 
 Kuns should defend the country, and that the king 
 need not count upon them in this emergency. The 
 spring of 1241 was already nearing, and still the 
 royal banner, floating over Pesth, proclaimed to the 
 world the absence of troops and the defencelessness 
 of the country. The Mongolian armies had, mean- 
 while, already begun to press forward. Their right 
 wing marched on Poland and Silesia, in order to 
 effect an entrance into the country from the north- 
 west ; the left wing, passing through Moldavia, ap-
 
 138 Ttt STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 preached the snowy mountains of Transylvania ; 
 whilst the army of the centre was led by Batu Khan 
 himself across the northwestern Carpathians to the 
 pass of Bereczke. Thus the two arms of the Mongol 
 armies were preparing to crush, in a deadly embrace, 
 the doomed country. 
 
 Batu Khan crossed the Carpathians on the I2th of 
 March, 1241, and, having dispersed <the troops of 
 Palatine Hedervary, at the foot of the mountains, 
 the active Mongol cavalry troops overran with such 
 suddenness the plain watered by the Theiss, that 
 four days later the smoke of the burning villages, set 
 on fire by the ruthless enemy, could be discerned 
 from the walls of Pesth. The Hungarian lords, even 
 at this critical moment, failed to arrive with their 
 contingents, and those who were under arms near 
 Pesth nursed their wrath, not against the enemy, 
 but against the hated Kun immigrants whom they 
 denounced as the spies and allies of the Mongols, 
 and as traitors to Hungary. They rushed upon 
 the unsuspecting Kuns with savage rage, massacring 
 their king, Kuthen, together with his household, at 
 his quarters in Pesth. The Kuns, incensed at this 
 treachery, were not slow to retaliate. One portion 
 of them left the country, killing, burning, and devas- 
 tating every thing before them, whilst the other 
 joined the Mongols in order to avenge more thor- 
 oughly their unjust persecution. 
 
 Towards the latter end of March, Bela, inspired by 
 despair rather than by any hope of success, led the 
 royal army which had gathered around Pesth, and 
 numbered altogether from 50,000 to 60.000 warriors,
 
 THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OP ARPAD. 139 
 
 against the Mongols. This scanty force was all that 
 the Hungarian nation, shorn of its valor and sadly 
 wanting in public spirit, opposed to the invading 
 enemy. The Mongol army retreated before Bela as 
 far as the Theiss, and there Batu Khan, falling back 
 with both wings of his army, pitched his camp in 
 the angle formed by the Sajo and the Theiss. King 
 Bela was intent upon reaching the same point, and 
 placed his forces on the plain extending along the 
 right bank of the Sajo, opposite the Mongol camp. 
 Here on the plain of Muhi took place the dreadful 
 conflict between the two armies. From the dawn 
 of day to late in the night lasted the bloody engage- 
 ment which ended with the complete annihilation of 
 the Hungarian army. On the fated battle-field per- 
 ished the chief prelates of the church, the highest 
 dignitaries of the state taken from the ranks of the 
 best patriots, thousands of the gentry, and the hope 
 and last prop of the nation, her only army. Only 
 few amongst those who did not fall amidst the shock 
 of battle could escape with their lives. The pursu- 
 ing enemy was everywhere close upon the track of 
 the fugitives. " During a march of two days," says 
 Rogerius, a contemporary writer, who had been an 
 eye-witness of these horrors, " thou couldst see 
 nothing along the roads but fallen warriors. Their 
 dead bodies were lying about like stones in a 
 quarry." 
 
 Yet, amidst all these misfortunes, there was one 
 gleam of comfort in store for the nation. Every 
 thing, indeed, was lost, but her king was saved, and 
 whilst he lived the nation still kept up her hopes and
 
 146 THE STORY OP HUNGARY. 
 
 faith in a better future. A few devoted followers 
 had rescued Bela from the perils of the bloody en- 
 gagement near the banks of the Sajo, and the fugi- 
 tive king, wandering for a while amidst the moun- 
 tains of Upper Hungary, finally arrived at the court 
 of Frederic, Duke of Austria, to whom he had pre- 
 viously sent his family and royal treasures. Here, 
 however, instead of meeting with hospitality, he was 
 made prisoner, and succeeded in regaining his free- 
 dom only by abandoning to his avaricious neighbor, 
 who turned Beta's misfortunes to his profit, his 
 treasures, his crown, and the possession of three 
 counties. Bela then sent his family to the Dalma- 
 tian sea-shore, whilst he himself hurried back to his 
 unfortunate land, to the region near the Drave, in 
 order to save what could yet be saved. The Danube 
 alone interfered with the further advance of the 
 Mongols. Two thirds of the realm had already 
 fallen a prey to the fierce rage, greed, and brutal 
 passions of the enemy. Whilst the Mongol Khan 
 was dividing one half of the country, as conquered 
 territory, into hundredths and tenths, and the people, 
 lured from their hiding-places, lowered their necks, 
 terror-stricken under the new yoke, Bela collected 
 anew an army in the western part of the realm, and 
 despatched ambassadors to the rulers of the western 
 states. But before he could yet see the results of 
 his renewed exertions, the severity of the winter, by 
 covering the Danube with ice, afforded the Mongols 
 an opportunity to penetrate into the western half of 
 the country. The places which guarded the most 
 sacred memorials of Hungarian royalty and Christi-
 
 THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 14! 
 
 anity, became a mass of smouldering ruins. The 
 waves of the Mongolian inundation closed now 
 upon the entire land. Bela was again compelled to 
 seek safety in flight, and, mistrusting the continent, 
 he sought a refuge near the sea. He retired, to- 
 gether with his family, first to Spalato, and subse- 
 quently to his fortified castle Trau, which was de- 
 fended on almost every side by the sea. But his 
 pursuers, who seemed to look upon their victories as 
 incomplete as long as the king was not in their 
 power, were on his track even there, and, devastat- 
 ing the sea-shore, as far as Ragusa, they, at last, 
 desperate with rage, laid siege to Trau. 
 
 The last hopes of the nation had centred upon the 
 sea-fortress, and now these hopes, too, seemed to 
 vanish, when suddenly, as by a miracle, the besiegers 
 ceased their hostilities, folded up their tents, and 
 departed for the East. At the command of Batu 
 Khan the whole Mongolian army, with all their fol- 
 lowers, left the razed country, the flood of the inva- 
 ders receding to the banks of the Volga, whence it 
 had come. Oktai, the Great Khan, was dead, and Batu 
 Khan hurried back to be present at the funeral feast, 
 and to make his powerful voice, emphasized by the 
 arms of his entire army, felt in the election of the 
 new ruler. 
 
 After the Mongols had withdrawn, King Bela re- 
 turned, in company of a few of his trusty followers, 
 to his desolated land. He tottered under the weight 
 of the misfortunes and woes of his people. To use 
 the words of a contemporary writer and eye-witness 
 describing the scene of desolation which vnet Bela's
 
 142 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 eyes : " Here and there a tower, half burnt and black- 
 ened by smoke, and rearing its head towards the 
 sky, like a mourning flag over a funereal monument, 
 indicated the direction in which they were to ad- 
 vance. The highways were overgrown with grass, 
 the fields white with bleaching bones, and not a liv- 
 ing soul came out to meet them. And the deeper 
 they penetrated into the land, the more terrible 
 became the sights they saw. When at last those 
 who survived crept forth from their hiding-places, 
 half of them fell victims to wild animals, starvation, 
 and pestilence. The stores laid up by the tillers of 
 the soil, the year before, had been carried away by 
 the Mongols, and the little grain they could sow af- 
 ter the departure of the enemy had hardly sprung up 
 when it was devoured by locusts. The famine as- 
 sumed such frightful proportions that starving peo- 
 ple, in their frenzy, killed each other, and it hap- 
 pened that men would bring to market human flesh 
 for sale. Since the birth of Christ no country has 
 ever been overwhelmed by such misery." 
 
 Great deeds spring up in noble souls harrowed by 
 misfortune. B61a showed himself greatest in the ex- 
 treme misery of his nation. In order to relieve the 
 wants of the people and to enable them to till the 
 soil, he caused to be imported seed for sowing and 
 draught cattle from the neigboring countries. He 
 colonized with new inhabitants the depopulated 
 regions, held out inducements to German artisans, 
 miners, and traders to settle in towns, and invited 
 again the Kuns, who were roaming in the regions of 
 the Lower Danube, to return to their former habita-
 
 144 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 tions on the rich lands of the Theiss. He bestowed 
 especial care upon the cities, founded new ones, and 
 granted additional privileges to the old ones. He 
 was also the founder of Buda, which stands to this 
 day. He ordered the larger cities to be surrounded 
 by walls, caused forts, built of stone, to be erected 
 in the neighborhood of more important roads, and 
 encouraged the great lords to build similar forts. 
 He was careful to guard the eastern frontiers, but 
 remembering that the durability of the internal or- 
 der was as powerful a support of the security of the 
 land as well defended frontiers, he was bent upon 
 making the laws respected. Hardly five years had 
 passed since Bela engaged in his arduous task, and 
 already the country recuperated to such an extent 
 that the nation could receive with composure the 
 news that the Mongols were making fresh prepara- 
 tions for a second attack, and was even, for years, 
 able to turn the weight of her whole power against 
 the Western states. 
 
 The nation which stood in such great need of 
 peace, was unfortunately doomed never to enjoy its 
 blessings. Bla himself, as soon as he had gained 
 sufficient strength, deemed it his first duty to punish 
 Frederic, the faithless Austrian duke, and to re- 
 cover the treasures retained by the latter's treach- 
 ery. The war between the two neighbors began in 
 1246. The contest in itself was of no great signifi- 
 cance but its consequences were highly important. 
 Bela achieved, with the. help of his Kun warriors, a 
 complete triumph over Frederic, who lost his life 
 on the battle-field. Frederic was the last of the
 
 THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 145 
 
 Babenberg line, and the inheritance of the Baben- 
 bergs, the Austrian principalities, were, through his 
 death, left without a master. Bela coveted for him- 
 self the masterless countries, but was opposed in 
 his schemes in that direction by Ottokar, the power- 
 ful king of Bohemia, who then already labored for 
 the realization of his ambitious dream, the founding 
 of a great Slavic empire. The Hungarian king 
 could not expose his country to the dangers in- 
 volved in the erection of such a Slavic empire 
 along the western borders, and was therefore op- 
 posed, from the beginning, to Ottokar's aspirations. 
 The contest between Hungary and Bohemia was at 
 first waged for the Babenberg possessions, but its 
 original cause was lost sight of, and the war con- 
 tinued for many years, to terminate only with the 
 overthrow of Ottokar and the ruin of his empire. 
 Bela was engaged in these wars during the last years 
 of his reign, and they were continued by his son Ste- 
 phen V., and his grandson Ladislaus IV. 
 
 These wars brought into a community of interests 
 the kings of the house of Arpad and the Haps- 
 burgs, whose first great ancestor, Rudolph, ascended 
 in 1273, the German imperial throne, the stability of 
 which was endangered by Ottokar. The latter had 
 seceded from the German empire, and was now build- 
 ing up at its expense his own great Slavic kingdom. 
 It was quite natural, therefore, that Ladislaus IV., 
 King of Hungary, and Rudolph of Hapsburg, should 
 enter into an armed alliance for the purpose of com- 
 bating the common enemy, who, confident in his 
 power, threatened both his eastern and his western
 
 146 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 neighbor. Twice they led their joint armies against 
 Ottokar, and, at last, in the course of the second 
 campaign in 1278, they completely routed the Czech 
 armies near Stillfried and Diernkrut in the plain of 
 the Morava, or March. Side by side with Rudolph's 
 ten thousand men fought forty thousand Kun warri- 
 orsa gainst Ottokar, the preponderance of the Hun- 
 garian arms securing at last the triumph of the allies. 
 Ottokar's power was overthrown and he himself fell, 
 buried beneath the ruins of his kingdom. Rudolph 
 strengthened the German throne, whose fate the 
 events of subsequent centuries closely identified with 
 that of his family, and the Austrian principalities 
 became the hereditary provinces of the Hapsburgs. 
 Hungary derived but an unequal benefit from this 
 triumph. To be sure the gratitude of the ally, freed 
 from a formidable enemy, was fervent, and his vows 
 of friendship (not always respected by his successors) 
 most earnest. Thus Rudolph writes to Ladislaus 
 IV. : " Tongue cannot tell, nor pen describe, the 
 immense joy we feel at your having risen with so 
 powerful a force to avenge our common injuries. 
 Wherefore, glorifying God, we express the greatest 
 gratitude of which we are capable to your Majesty, 
 and loudly promise that no vicissitude shall shake 
 us in the indissoluble alliance which we have vowed to 
 you." The booty, gratifying the avarice of a few 
 and the vanity of the nation, could also hardly be 
 reckoned a solid advantage. One important result 
 accrued, undoubtedly by the triumph of the allies, 
 also to Hungary, in the destruction of Ottokar's 
 Slavic kingdom. In other respects the victory
 
 THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 147 
 
 proved rather a disadvantage, for, instead of strength- 
 ening the power of the state, it relieved the minds 
 of the powerful lords in the land, who now, freed 
 from anxiety, once more indulged their self-seeking 
 propensities, and labored to ruin the country. 
 
 Ladislaus IV. (1272-1290) not only did not possess 
 the qualities which might have enabled him to oppose 
 the corruption of his age, but, by his levity, under- 
 mined even the last remnant of the royal authority 
 which had become more and more feeble in the 
 course of the last century. The king, unmindful of 
 his crown, "and indifferent to the interests of the 
 nation, deserted his ancestral court, and, pitching 
 his residence amongst the tents of the Kuns, passed 
 there his life in the society of his boon companions 
 in riotous living and revels, destructive alike of his 
 dignity as a man and king, and detrimental to the 
 hopes of the nation. The great of the land imitated 
 the example set by their king. They were led ex- 
 clusively by their insatiate self-indulgence, and 
 neither the law of the land nor the commands of the 
 Church, the voice of faith or morality, could prevail 
 upon them to respect themselves, and to have regard 
 for the rights of others. The weak became the 
 victims of the strong, and the most powerful were 
 making preparations to divide amongst themselves 
 the masterless and defenceless country. The Bre- 
 biris along the sea-shore, the Ne"metujvaris beyond 
 the Danube, the Csak family in the regions of the 
 Vag, and the Apors in Transylvania, were in reality 
 the little kings of the country. They broke off a 
 piece from the domain of St. Stephen whenever it
 
 148 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 suited them, and of the size they wanted. They let 
 their troops loose upon the people, and carried on 
 wars in their own way with one another, and with 
 the neighbors. And if any thing escaped the greed 
 of the oligarchs, it fell into the hands of the Kuns, 
 who, trusting in the protection and favor of the 
 king, plundered and devasted the land like maraud- 
 ing armies. " Then descended," says the chronicler, 
 " Hungary from the grandeur of her glory. Owing 
 to the domestic wars the cities became deserted and 
 the villages reduced to ashes, peace and harmony were 
 trampled upon, the wealthy became impoverished, 
 and the nobles, in their misery, turned peasants. It 
 was at this period that the two-wheeled cart got 
 the name of St. Ladislaus' wagon, for owing to the 
 universal plundering of the draught-cattle, the number 
 of the latter had decreased to such an extent that peo- 
 ple were compelled to draw these carts themselves." 
 The country before long, however, was free from 
 the misrule of Ladislaus, but his death did not ex- 
 tricate it from the misery into which he had plunged 
 it. A number of Kun youths, apparently from 
 motives of private vengeance, assassinated him in his 
 tent. The death of Ladislaus became a new source 
 of trouble to the country, for there was now but one 
 male descendant of the house of Arpad to ascend 
 the throne, Duke Andrew, the grandson of Andrew 
 II., the king who had given the Golden Bull to the 
 Hungarians. Stephen, the father of Duke Andrew, 
 had left Hungary early in life, and, settling in Venice, 
 married there Tomasina Morozzoni, a lady descended 
 from a distinguished patrician family.
 
 THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 149 
 
 Andrew III. (1290-1301), the last king of Hungary 
 of the Arpad line, was born in Venice, where he re- 
 ceived his education and remained until he attained 
 the age of manhood. Hitherto he had lived entirely 
 a stranger to the events which had plunged the 
 country with rapid strides into the uttermost mis- 
 ery. There were many within the land, and among 
 the neighbors abroad, who did not look upon him as 
 a genuine Hungarian and who refused to acknowl- 
 edge his right to the inheritance of the Arpads. Dur- 
 ing his brief reign he gave, nevertheless, ample 
 proofs of possessing abilities befitting an eminent 
 ruler, and no blame can attach to him for having been 
 unable with his inadequate strength and power to 
 contend against the difficulties of that period. To 
 put down the little kings in the country, and to keep 
 away from the borders those foreign powers who, 
 under the pretence of kinship and led by unblushing 
 avariciousness, announced their claims to the inheri- 
 tance at this early date, was a task to which Andrew 
 III. was not equal. But he struggled bravely and 
 manfully against the difficulties that beset his royal 
 path. He opposed to the oligarchs the gentry, 
 whose ancient immunities he confirmed, and whom 
 he attached to his person by granting them new 
 ones. Duke Albert of Austria, the son of Rudolph 
 of Hapsburg, who was the first to claim the throne, 
 was driven from the country, but the diplomacy of 
 Andrew turned him subsequently from an enemy 
 into a friend and ally. He entered upon the contest 
 with the Neapolitan Anjous, who, being the descend- 
 ants in the female line of the Arpads, were the
 
 I5O THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 most pressing and determined claimants to the 
 throne. But at the very outset of the struggle, 
 when the shock of the collision of hostile interests is 
 generally most severe, and just as Andrew was pre- 
 paring to enter upon the campaign against Charles 
 Robert of Naples, death suddenly took him in 1301. 
 The chronicles contain traces of a suspicion that he 
 died by poison administered by his Italian cook, who 
 had been hired for that foul purpose by the Neapol- 
 itan party, and that thus, the doom of the house of 
 Arpad was sealed by the wiles of an assassin. The sun 
 of the Arpads set amidst dark and storm-portending 
 clouds, and the new dynasty of Anjou inherited 
 the great task of reconciling the oligarchs with the 
 gentry, and both classes with the crown, and thus of 
 restoring the ancient power and splendor of the 
 Hungarian kingdom.
 
 CHAPTER VI.U. 
 
 THE ANJOUS IN HUNGARY. 
 
 THE male line of the house of Arpad became ex- 
 tinct by the death of Andrew III. His only daugh- 
 ter, Elizabeth, retired to a convent, and the nation 
 was once more called upon to exercise its ancient 
 right of electing a king, and three candidates, a 
 Czech, a German, and an Italian, at once came into 
 the field. Each of these claimants had a party in the 
 country, and not until the strength of the nation had 
 been wasted by internal strife and warfare during a 
 period of eight years did the Italian party succeed in 
 placing on the throne Charles Robert, who became 
 the founder of the Hungarian Anjous. It will be 
 our task now to relate how the newly elected 
 ruler, taking the reins of government into his own 
 hands, introduced into the country the glorious 
 era of chivalry. Under the reign of the Anjous we 
 shall see the culture and customs of Western Europe 
 gradually taking root in Hungarian soil, the name of 
 Hungary becoming the object of respect and admi- 
 ration abroad, the boundaries of the kingdom ex- 
 tended by a powerful hand, the crown of a brave and 
 chivalrous neighbor, the Polish nation, placed upon 
 the brows of the Hungarian king, until, at last, as 
 
 151
 
 152 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 the Hungarian poet Bajza sings, " the shores of three 
 seas formed the frontier walls of the kingdom." 
 
 At first the Czech party was victorious. Wences- 
 laus, the aged king of the Czechs, who, through the 
 female line, was related to the house of Arpad, not 
 feeling equal to the task of governing Hungary him- 
 self, offered to his party, in his place, his son and 
 namesake, who was but thirteen years old. On the 
 2/th of August, 1301, at Stuhlweissenburg the sacred 
 crown of St. Stephen was placed on the head of 
 young Wenceslaus ; but his reign was of short dura- 
 tion. The curse of the Church of Rome was pro- 
 nounced against his partisans, but the citizens of 
 Buda were little affected by this interdict, and 
 caused the curse to be hurled back on the anathe- 
 matizers by their own prelates Yet the party of the 
 boy-king grew so weak that his father deemed it ad- 
 visable to recall him home. Wenceslaus the elder 
 entered Hungary, pillaged the wealthier cathedrals, 
 and expressed but one wish concerning his son to 
 see him for once attired in the royal Hungarian robes. 
 His adherents complied with the wish of the old 
 king, and, dressed in the royal robes and bearing the 
 crown on his head, young Wenceslaus proceeded 
 homeward, surrounded by his soldiers and under the 
 protection of armed body-guards. 
 
 The Italian party, intent upon avenging this affront, 
 invaded the territory of the Czechs, and by frightful 
 massacres made the people atone for the abduction 
 of the king. The fierce Kuns, or Cumans, throwing 
 Czech children, strung together by means of holes 
 bored through the palms of their hands, across their
 
 THE AN JO US IN HUNGARY. 
 
 153 
 
 saddlebows, wildly tore through the land, devastating 
 every thing. Very soon Albert, emperor of Germany, 
 with Otto the Bavarian, came to the rescue of Wen- 
 ceslaus, who, grateful for their assistance, delivered 
 the crown to Otto. 
 
 The German party, in their turn, were now victo- 
 rious, and obtained possession of the crown of St. 
 Stephen, the most sacred relic of the nation. Otto 
 
 CASTLE OF ARVA. 
 
 marched into the country, but under the auspices of a 
 bad omen. The crown was, through some accident, 
 lost on the road, although his attendants discovered 
 it afterwards, buried in the mire. Otto, whose vanity 
 prompted him to display, marched in a procession 
 through the capital, Buda, adorned with all the 
 paraphernalia of royalty, and from that day on, every 
 king succeeding him has, after the coronation, re-
 
 154 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 peated this special pageant. Otto was as much the 
 'shadow of a king as Wenceslaus had been before 
 him. In order to consolidate his power he asked in 
 marriage the daughter of the most powerful Hunga- 
 rian lord, Ladislaus Apor, the vayvode of Transyl- 
 vania. Receiving a favorable reply, he hastened, 
 full of hope, to Transylvania, but on his arrival was 
 thrown into prison by the wily vayvode. After his 
 liberation, which took place soon afterward, he turned 
 his back for ever upon Hungary, and was satisfied 
 with the empty title of King of Hungary. The 
 crown, however, remained in the possession of the 
 vayvode. 
 
 The Italian party were now left masters of the 
 field. The most obstinate and uncontrollable oli- 
 garchs were by this time tired of the disorders pre- 
 vailing in the country, and all combined with a 
 hearty good-will to place Charles Robert, of Anjou, 
 upon the throne of Arpad. On the 2/th of August, 
 1310, Charles Robert was crowned for the fourth 
 time, but in this instance with the sacred crown, 
 which had been at length obtained from Apor. 
 Charles was now the lawful king (1309-1342), and 
 could, without interference, set about the task of 
 restoring order in the country, a work to which he 
 proved fully equal. 
 
 The king had many difficulties in his way. The 
 ruler de facto and de jure could call but a small por- 
 tion of the kingdom really his own. The endless 
 dividing up of the territory, which was characteristic 
 of Germany at the close of the last century, was to 
 be found in miniature also in Hungary. The dis-
 
 THE AN JO US IN HUNGARY. 155 
 
 orders prevailing under the rule of the last Arpad, 
 and of the two kings succeeding him, had encour- 
 aged the lawlessness of the marauding nobles. 
 Every one appropriated as much territory as he 
 could, and exercised royal or princely authority in 
 the domains thus acquired by him. While so 
 many had become the possessors of large estates, 
 the king was without any personal patrimony. 
 These little kings had to be reduced, one by one, to 
 submission, and deprived of the usurped lands. The 
 most powerful of them was Matthias Csak of Trencsen, 
 and his subjection gave the greatest trouble, and 
 consumed the most time. 
 
 The power and territory of Matthias Csak extended 
 from the Northwestern Carpathians to the Theiss and 
 Danube. The castle of Trencsen was the seat of this 
 petty king. From this fortified castle on the Vag, built 
 on a rocky eminence near the commercial road leading 
 from Silesia to Hungary, he was in the habit of send- 
 ing his marauders to devastate the neighboring coun- 
 try. He pounced like a bird of prey from his rocky 
 nest upon the unwary merchants who were passing 
 with their ships below, and the poor traders esteemed 
 themselves fortunate if they got safely off by leav- 
 ing a portion of their wares in the freebooter's 
 hands. The plunder thus got together enabled 
 h\m to display royal pomp, and such was the dazzling 
 sumptuousness and luxury exhibited at his castle 
 that, compared to it, the king's palace seemed to be 
 but a poor hut. Csak had his own palatine 
 treasurer and other officers of high rank, and when 
 he went about he was attended by an escort of
 
 I$ THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 several thousand armed men. It was only after a 
 good deal of solicitation that Csak consented to re- 
 ceive the Pope's legate, Cardinal Gentilis, and even 
 then the legate had to meet Csak at the place speci- 
 fied by the latter, who wished this church dignitary 
 to understand that he should feel highly honored 
 by being permitted to shake his hand. 
 
 In the beginning, Csak seemed to submit to 
 Charles, and, swearing fealty to the king, he consented 
 to be represented at the third coronation. In order 
 to win Csak's friendship and support, Charles made 
 him the Guardian of the Land. But this new 
 honor did not prevent him from very soon becoming 
 weary of his subordinate position, and when a law 
 had been passed ordering the restitution of the 
 royal castles and domains which had come into the 
 possession of subjects or strangers, his wish to be in- 
 dependent became even greater than before. An 
 armed contest soon ensued between the king and his 
 powerful subject. It was preceded, however, by a 
 papal excommunication of Csak and his adherents, 
 extending even to the dead, but the impious rebel 
 retorted by laying waste the lands of the neighbor- 
 ing high prelates. Csak's power stood at that time 
 at its height. He was the master of a domain con- 
 taining over thirty fortified castles, which, to this 
 day, is called by the people, after him, Matthias 
 Land, and it was quite natural that the king was re- 
 luctant to beard the lion in his own den. The 
 king's troops first entered the territory of Szepes, 
 hoping to find there the weak point of the antago- 
 nist, but they were compelled to retreat before the
 
 THE AN JO US IN HUNGARY. 157 
 
 captains of Csak. The decisive battle took place 
 in 1312, north of the town of Kassa. The engage- 
 ment was sharp and bloody, and terminated in the 
 defeat of Csak's men. The ancestors of the 
 Bathorys, Tokoly s, Drugets, and Szechenyis, who 
 were amongst the most powerful families in Hungary, 
 fought on this occasion by the side of the king. Al- 
 though humbled, Csak's power was not greatly im- 
 paired, for we find him, a few years later, strong and 
 bold enough to attack John, king of Bohemia, and 
 take from him the fortified castle of Holies. 
 
 Charles Robert then turned his attention to his 
 other rebellious subjects, reducing them to submis- 
 sion, one by one, leaving Csak to be dealt with by 
 Providence. He had not, however, to wait very long, 
 for in 1321 this great lord died. The manner of his 
 death is described to have been frightful. Worms 
 generated by his own body consumed him slowly. 
 There was no one after his death to inherit his vast 
 estates and with them his great power. Matthias 
 Land was divided up in smaller sections, and dis- 
 tributed amongst the king's favorites. The sub- 
 jects of Csak, amongst them his palatine Felician 
 Zach, submitted at once to the king. 
 
 The king's attention was too much engaged by this 
 domestic warfare to allow him, while it lasted, to dis- 
 play the energy which marked the subsequent years 
 of his reign, an energy which was destined to make 
 Hungary an influential power in Central Europe. 
 During these days of civil strife he had his seat in 
 Temesvar, and his household was so little befitting 
 royalty that its poverty frequently elicited the com-
 
 1 58 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 plaints of the higher clergy. But matters quietly 
 changed when Charles transferred his residence to 
 Visegrad, the royal palace to which cling so many 
 fond and sad national memories, and which in our 
 days still, though in ruins, looms up on the right 
 bank of the Danube as a monument of Hungary's 
 ancient power and glory. Charles was full of ambi- 
 tious schemes to raise his family to the greatest pos- 
 sible power, and the extension of the power of 
 Hungary was deemed by him to be the readiest 
 means of accomplishing this aim. First of all he 
 stood in need of money and soldiers, but his genius 
 enabled him to procure both. He exploited the rich 
 mines of the country, and raised the commerce and 
 industry of the realm to a flourishing condition, and 
 the wealth of the people increased to such an extent 
 that he felt warranted in levying direct taxes, a 
 mode of taxation which had before been entirely 
 unknown in Hungary. The manner in which he 
 created an army bears witness to his ingenuity. 
 The county system had become so loose and dis- 
 organized that no soldiers could be expected from 
 that source. He had to look for them in another 
 quarter. Charles knew, very well, the chivalrous 
 disposition of the nation, which, in the matter of 
 display, had still preserved its Oriental character ; he 
 knew, too, from history, that those who appealed 
 to the vanity of the Hungarian were never disap- 
 pointed, and he laid his plans accordingly. He 
 transplanted into Hungary one of the graceful insti- 
 tutions of Western Europe, that of chivalry. Knights 
 there were in the country, but they were not numer-
 
 THE ANJOUS IN HUNGARY. 159 
 
 ous and had not proved to be enthusiastic adherents 
 of the king. Charles understood how to win the af- 
 fections of the great lords ; he distributed coats-of- 
 arms and founded orders. In the wide courts of the 
 castle of Viscgrad, knightly tournaments became 
 frequent, and the new knights, with their fresh her- 
 aldic devices, had an opportunity of meeting each 
 other in armed combat in the presence of their for- 
 eign king. The king's court came to be the resort 
 of noble youths, and boys of noble descent became 
 the playmates of the royal princes. In order to 
 rouse the warlike spirit of his great nobles, he al- 
 lowed those of them who joined in a campaign with 
 a certain number of soldiers, to lead their men under 
 banners bearing their own armorial devices. 
 
 An event, however, of most tragic issue, which 
 has furnished a fruitful theme to Hungarian poets 
 and artists, almost overthrew the effect of the king's 
 wise policy and endangered his life. The scene of 
 the occurrence, which took place on the I /th of April, 
 1330, was the magnificent palace of Visegrad. The 
 former palatine of Csak, Felician Zach, had be- 
 come one of the king's chief councillors, and he, 
 with his daughter Clara, one of the queen's maids 
 of honor, a lady of extraordinary beauty, resided in 
 the king's palace. Casimir, the King of Poland, and 
 the queen's brother, was at the time a guest at Vise- 
 grad, and during his stay there, behaved improperly 
 towards Clara Zach. The infuriated father, on 
 learning this, broke in upon the royal family sitting 
 in the dining-hall, and intent upon avenging the 
 affront offered to his daughter, threatened every one
 
 l6o THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 in his way. He fell with sword drawn upon the 
 royal children and their parents. The children re- 
 mained unhurt, but the king was seriously wounded, 
 and the queen had four of her fingers cut off. John 
 Cselenyi, the queen's treasurer, finally rushed to the 
 rescue and felled the exasperated father with his 
 bronze pole-axe to the ground, and the alarmed ser- 
 vants, who had meanwhile hastened to the hall, gave 
 the miserable man, in presence of the royal family, 
 the coup de grace. A frightful and most cruel pun- 
 ishment was inflicted, for her father's bloody act, on 
 the unhappy Clara and all the members of the Zach 
 family. The maiden's ears, nose, lips, and hands 
 were cut off, and in this condition she was tied, to- 
 gether with her brother, to a horse's tail, and dragged 
 through the land until both died a miserable death. 
 The Zach family were exterminated to the third 
 degree, and the remoter kinspeople doomed to slavery. 
 Such a sentence upon those who had committed 
 no crime was a most vindictive and savage one, and 
 the people saw the avenging finger of God in the 
 results of the unhappy campaign of that year against 
 the Wallachians. One of the chronicles, referring to 
 the disastrous issue of the war, says: " The king had 
 hitherto sailed under favorable signs, and cut, ac- 
 cording to his heart's desire, through the stormy 
 waves with the ship of his fortune. But changeable 
 fortune had now turned her back upon him. His 
 army had been defeated, and he himself is suffering 
 tortures from his gouty hands and feet." 
 
 Ban Michael Bazarad, then the ruler of Wallachia, 
 dared to ignore his dependence on the crown of
 
 THE AN JO US JN HUNGARY. i6l 
 
 Hungary. Charles eagerly seized the opportunity to 
 punish the traitorous vassal, and hoped, at the same 
 time, that the indignation of the people against him 
 for his cruelty would subside at the news of a vic- 
 torious campaign against the Wallachians. Declin- 
 ing the offers of peace made by the repentant ban, 
 Charles boldly advanced, with his spirited knights, 
 over the impassable and unfamiliar roads of Walla- 
 chia. He had penetrated so far into the land that 
 his further advance was rendered impossible by the 
 absence of any road, and he was determined to re- 
 trace his steps. The Hungarian army was led astray 
 by the Wallachian guides, and in retreating found 
 itself quite unexpectedly hemmed in between steep 
 and towering rocks from which there was no outlet. 
 A shower of stones descended on their heads ; the 
 Wallachians who occupied the heights sent down 
 dense volleys of rocks and arrows upon the doomed 
 Hungarians. Charles himself owed his escape to 
 the generous devotion of Desiderius Szecsi, one of 
 his men, with whom he changed dresses. This 
 brave warrior sealed his devotion with his life. The 
 enraged Wallachians, mistaking him for the king, 
 attacked him from every side, and after valiantly 
 resisting, he finally fell on the battle-field. His sov- 
 ereign escaped in safety, and Wallachia maintained 
 her independence. 
 
 Charles, upon his return home, once more busied 
 himself with the carrying out of his ambitious schemes 
 for the aggrandizement of his family, and the results 
 of his efforts gave ample proof of his political 
 
 sagacity. He acquired for his family both Naples 
 11
 
 1 62 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 and Poland, although as yet on paper only. Poland 
 became only under his son Louis the undoubted 
 possession of the Hungarian king, while Naples 
 never came under his control. In 1335 Visegrad re- 
 sounded incessantly with the din of feasting and 
 merrymaking ; never before nor afterwards were so 
 many royal guests harbored within its stately walls. 
 There were Casimir, become King of Poland, the 
 last descendant of the Piast family ; John, the ad- 
 venturous King of the Czechs, who subsequently died 
 the death of a hero on the field of Crecy ; his son 
 Charles, the Margrave of Moravia, and subsequently 
 Emperor of Germany ; three knights of the first class 
 belonging to the order of German Knights ; the 
 dukes of Saxony and Liegnitz, and numerous church 
 and lay magnates. The entertainment of so many 
 distinguished guests constituted a heavy draft on the 
 royal treasury. A contemporary chronicler states 
 that " fifteen hundred loaves of bread and one hun- 
 dred and eighty flasks of wine were needed daily 
 for the court of the king of Poland." Whilst the 
 guests were feasting, Charles employed all his in- 
 genuity in shaping the destinies of Eastern Europe. 
 His negotiations with Casimir, the King of Poland, 
 resulted in an agreement that Poland should de- 
 scend, after his death, to Louis, the son of Charles. 
 Two years later Charles had the satisfaction of 
 learning that the Polish nation had confirmed the 
 private arrangement, and had acknowledged the 
 right of his son's succession to the throne of Po- 
 land. One of the finest monuments of Hunga- 
 rian mediaeval architecture, the cathedral in Kassa,
 
 164 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 owed its completion to this welcome news. Queen 
 Elizabeth ordered it to be completed in her joy at 
 the elevation of her son Louis. Charles had also 
 tried to secure Naples for his son Andrew, by having 
 him betrothed, at the age of six, to Joanna, the 
 grand-daughter and heir of the king of Naples. In 
 July, 1333, the young prince proceeded to Naples to 
 take possession of his kingdom, as his father thought, 
 but in reality, as subsequent events proved, to the 
 place of his destruction. Charles died at a not very 
 advanced age, having brought most of his plans to a 
 successful issue in his lifetime. 
 
 Six days after his death the crown of Hungary 
 was placed upon the head of his son Louis, after- 
 wards surnamed the Great, who was then seven- 
 teen years old (1342-1382). The young king im- 
 mediately proceeded on a pilgrimage to the tomb of 
 St. Ladislaus, the most popular Hungarian king, at 
 Grosswardein. There at his grave he made a sacred 
 vow to govern the Hungarian nation after the ex- 
 ample of his great predecessor. From Grosswardein 
 he proceeded to Transylvania to receive the oath of 
 fealty of the son of Michael Bazarad. Hardly re- 
 turned to his palace at Visegrad, the young king 
 received depressing news regarding his brother at 
 Naples. The young Hungarian prince was looked 
 upon with jealousy by the numerous Italian dukes 
 at the Neapolitan court, who tried by every means 
 to hinder his accession to the throne. His mother, 
 the Hungarian queen, at once hastened, laden with 
 treasure, to Naples, to rescue her son from the 
 machinations of his enemies. The Hungarian money
 
 THE AN JOU? IN HUNGARY. 165 
 
 had its due effect at the papal court, whose vassal 
 Naples was at that time. Queen Elizabeth obtained 
 the assurance that her son Andrew would be 
 crowned, but she returned to Hungary before the 
 ceremony of coronation had taken place. At her 
 departure her mind was filled with evil forebodings, 
 which were but too well justified by coming events. 
 The queen's departure was the signal for fresh in- 
 trigues at the Neapolitan court. Philip and Louis 
 of Taranto, the sons of Catharine of Valois, openly 
 insulted the young prince. Joanna wickedly turned 
 from her husband and sided with his enemies. At 
 length the day of the coronation was approaching. 
 Andrew, relying on the power he was soon to wield, 
 warned his enemies that he would avenge the affronts 
 that had been heaped upon him. His enemies were 
 seized with terror upon seeing, at the tournament 
 which took place shortly before the coronation, the 
 axe and noose depicted beneath the arms of Andrew, 
 floating on high on his banner. The imminent dan- 
 ger rendered the intriguing dukes desperate, and 
 they at once determined to put Andrew out of the 
 way. His assassination was resolved upon, and, 
 Joanna giving her assent to the nefarious plan, the 
 young prince was doomed. 
 
 On the iSth of September, 1345, the whole court, 
 and amongst them Joanna, proceeded to Aversa, to 
 indulge in the merry pastime of the chase. Andrew 
 was accompanied by his faithful Hungarian nurse, 
 Izolda, who, poor creature, little dreamed that her 
 ward was to be the object of the chase. In the 
 evening the whole company took up their quarters
 
 1 66 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 at the convent of St. Peter. Andrew had just retired 
 to his chamber when a familiar voice called him into 
 the adjoining room, in order to discuss some grave 
 questions. The unsuspecting youth, anticipating no 
 evil, left his chamber, but no sooner had he crossed 
 the threshold when the door was locked behind him 
 by his secretary. The assassins lying in waif fell 
 upon their victim at once and strangled him his 
 cries for help remaining unheeded. His dead body 
 they then dragged to the balcony and precipitated it 
 into the garden below. Whilst this bloody scene 
 was enacted, Joanna slept soundly, undisturbed by 
 the scuffle at her door, and cries of distress of her 
 husband. She afterwards gave the explanation that 
 she had been put under a spell by a witch. 
 
 There was mourning at the castle of Visegrad at 
 the sad tidings. Louis swore dire vengeance, and 
 the nation enthusiastically took up arms to support 
 him. From abroad there arrived but voices of sym- 
 pathy. The Italian princes offered his armies free 
 transit through their territories ; Louis, the excom- 
 municated German Emperor, entered into an alliance 
 with the king; Edward III., the King of England, 
 while condoling with him, spurred him on to re- 
 venge ; the Pope alone maintained an ominous 
 silence. This time, however, the desire for revenge 
 proved stronger with the king than his reverence 
 for the Pope, and in 1347 the Hungarian army was 
 ready to march. To punish a faithless woman and 
 not to conquer Italy was the object of their expe- 
 dition, and the Italian princes were glad to afford the 
 king's army every facility to reach the proposed goal.
 
 THE AN JO US IN- HUNGARY. 167 
 
 All the great lords of the realm rallied round the 
 king. A large black flag was carried in front of the 
 Hungarian army and on it was depicted the pale face 
 of Andrew. On two occasions they were led by the 
 king against Naples, and each time he was accompa- 
 nied by the most distinguished Hungarian families. 
 Michael Kont, Andrew and Stephen Laczfy, with 
 Dionysius, the son of the latter, and a host of 
 others, brought with them their armed trains, by 
 whose mighty blows both Aversa, of mournful mem 
 ory, and proud Naples were soon reduced. Queen 
 Joanna, with her second husband, Louis of Taranto, 
 escaped beyond the sea. Louis of Durazzo, one of 
 the intriguing dukes who was suspected of having 
 been an accessory to the murder, expiated his crime 
 by being killed after a gay carouse and thrown down 
 from the same balcony which had witnessed the 
 foul deed of the conspirators. Four other dukes 
 were carried to Hungary as prisoners. King Louis 
 himself was always foremost in battle and received 
 grave wounds on more than one occasion. But his 
 chief desire to punish Joanna was not gratified and 
 at length he entrusted the Pope with the sentence to 
 be pronounced against her. The Pope, however, de- 
 clared her innocent of the crime of murder, imputed 
 to her, but mulcted her in a fine of 300,000 ducats as 
 a restitution of the expenditures of the campaign. 
 The chivalrous king spurned the blood-money and 
 left the punishment of guilty Joanna to a more up- 
 right judge to Providence. And Providence dealt 
 more severely with the queenly culprit than the suc- 
 cessor to St. Peter's see had done. Charles of
 
 1 68 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Durazzo, called also Charles the Little, son of Louis 
 of Durazzo, having conquered the throne of Naples, 
 ordered Queen Joanna in 1382, thirty-seven years 
 after the commission of her crime, to be thrown into 
 prison, where she met her death by strangling. 
 
 During the Italian campaign Hungary was also 
 called upon to meet another enemy in the East. 
 Roving populations were making constant inroads on 
 the eastern border, harassing the Hungarian inhabi- 
 tants, who had by this time become accustomed to 
 the peaceful avocations of the husbandman and 
 tradesman. The victorious arms of King Louis 
 soon put an end to those lawless incursions. But 
 one of the most beautiful legends of Hungarian 
 history is connected with one of the campaigns 
 against these marauding populations. Kieystut, the 
 Prince of Lithuania, after having been defeated 
 several years before, broke into Transylvania with 
 an army considerably swelled by the accession of a 
 numerous body of Tartars. The king sent Louis 
 Laczfy, the vayvode of Transylvania, against him, 
 and the brave Szekely people followed in his train. 
 But the Hungarian army was small and the issue of 
 the battle remained for a long time doubtful. The 
 legend tells that the news of the peril threatening 
 the Hungarian arms reached Grosswardein, where 
 St. Ladislaus lay buried, and that the heroic saint, 
 leaving his grave, bestrode the bronze horse of his 
 own statue, which stood in the centre of the public 
 square, and hurried off to the relief of his distressed 
 countrymen. The Tartars were struck with the 
 apparition of a warrior " who towered over them
 
 THE AN JO US IN HUNGARY. 169 
 
 head and shoulders," and above whom was visible 
 the holy Virgin Mary, the patroness of Hungary. 
 The pagans were seized with terror at this sight, 
 and the battle ended in a brilliant victory for the 
 Hungarians. 
 
 The arms of the king were no less successful in 
 Servia where he was about " to kindle the light of 
 faith." But the most glorious of his wars was the 
 one carried on against proud Venice, which con- 
 tinued during the greater portion of his reign. Her 
 enemies, especially Genoa, willingly sided with the 
 king of Hungary, and the ultimate result was the 
 utter humiliation of the city of St. Mark. At last, 
 in 1381, one year before the king's death, peace was 
 concluded between the two belligerents, a peace of 
 which the Hungarians had every reason to be proud, 
 for by its terms Dalmatia was unconditionally annexed 
 to Hungary, and Venice herself had to send the Hun- 
 garian king, annually on St. Stephen's Day, the 2oth 
 of August, a tribute of 7,000 ducats. As an indication 
 of the high esteem in which the name of Hungary was 
 held at that time, it is interesting to learn that for- 
 eign rulers sent their children to the Hungarian 
 court to be educated, and the inference is not a 
 strained one that the court of Louis must have been 
 a centre of the European culture and refinement of 
 that day. The spouse selected by the king, 
 Elizabeth, the daughter of Stephen, the Prince of 
 Bosnia, had herself been sent to the court to be 
 trained in courtly accomplishments. At the Hun- 
 garian court also, Charles IV., the Emperor of Ger- 
 many, wooed Anna, the Duchess of Schweidnitz, his
 
 I/O THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 future empress. These two rulers were united by 
 ties of close friendship, until the discontent of the 
 Germans with " the step-father of their country," as 
 they called Charles IV., ripened a scheme to transfer 
 the German crown to the Hungarian king. Although 
 King Louis refused to accept the crown proffered to 
 him, the sting remained, and his imperial friend be- 
 came his deadly enemy. The emperor persisted 
 in indulging in his unfounded suspicions of the 
 king's good faith, and so far forgot himself as to 
 speak insultingly of the king and his exalted mother. 
 The Hungarian ambassadors at the emperor's court, 
 incensed at the affront done to their master, chal- 
 lenged the emperor to mortal combat. But he 
 cravenly declined to accept the challenge, where- 
 upon they declared war in the name of their king. 
 Louis, who almost worshipped his mother, approved 
 of the proceedings of his ambassadors, and sent the 
 emperor an insulting letter, in which he declared that 
 nothing better might be expected from a drunkard. 
 Very soon a large army of Kuns devastated Moravia, 
 until, at length, after a warfare of several years, the 
 humiliated emperor begged for peace, obtaining the 
 Pope's intercession in his behalf. Peace was at last 
 concluded, and matrimonial alliances were to make 
 it doubly sure. Sigismund, the emperor's son, was 
 betrothed to Mary, the king's daughter. 
 
 In the latter half of the fourteenth century Chris- 
 tianity in Europe was threatened by a new foe. The 
 warlike followers of Osman had, by the capture of 
 Adrianople firmly laid the foundations of their power- 
 ful empire in Europe. Youths, forcibly taken at a
 
 THE ANyOUS IN HUNGARY. IJl 
 
 tender age from their Christian parents, and educa- 
 ted afterwards in implicit obedience to the behests of 
 the Sultan, were rigorously trained as soldiers after 
 the most approved fashion of the day, and the troops 
 thus obtained were destined to become the most 
 formidable aid in the building of the Ottoman power 
 in Europe. The Eastern empire had sunk too low, at 
 that time, to be able, single-handed, to resist such a 
 power, and she lost her strongholds, one after the 
 other. In this strait her ruler resorted to one of 
 those deceitful devices characterizing the policy of 
 the Eastern court. John Palaeologos, the Eastern em- 
 peror, proceeded to the court of the king of Hun- 
 gary, at Buda, and, promising to give in his adhesion 
 to the Western Church, he asked the aid of Louis 
 against the savage enemy. The " Banner-bearer of 
 the Church," as the king of Hungary was styled by 
 the Pope, deemed it his duty, under these circum- 
 stances, to come to the rescue of the distressed 
 emperor, and shortly afterwards the two kindred 
 nations, the Turks and the Hungarians, met in hostile 
 array on the banks of the Maritza. This was the 
 first warlike contest of the two nations. It resulted 
 in the victory of 20,000 Hungarians over a Turkish 
 army four times as large, a victory commemorated 
 to this day by the treasures and appropriate inscrip- 
 tions still to be seen at the church of Mariazell in 
 Styria. 
 
 Casimir, the last Polish king of the house of Piast, 
 died on the 5th of November, 1370. His death 
 was caused by an injury contracted in falling from 
 his horse during the chase.
 
 1 72 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 On the 1 7th of the same month Louis was 
 crowned King of Poland, at Cracow, by the Arch- 
 bishop of Gnesen. At the very moment when he 
 was about to reach the goal of the highest ambition 
 of his predecessor, and of himself, Louis seemed to 
 waver, and to doubt the expediency of accepting the 
 crown. He could not help reflecting that governing 
 two nations, which were united by no other tie ex- 
 cept his own person, and defending them against 
 their enemies, might prove a task to which one king 
 was not equal. He nevertheless accepted the crown, 
 but his sinister presentiments were fated speedily to 
 be confirmed. The Polish lords were not used to an 
 energetic rule. The nobles of Little and Great 
 Poland were eager, each for themselves, to secure 
 the offices of state, but both equally hated the queen- 
 mother sent there to rule. The country soon fell 
 a prey to internal dissensions and strife, compell- 
 ing the queen to fly from the land in which a new 
 pretender had appeared. This pretender to the 
 throne was a kinsman of the late king of Poland, 
 and had retired to a convent in France in the life- 
 time of Casimir. His ambition made him exchange 
 the cassock for armor, and a large portion of the 
 people of Poland very soon acknowledged him to be 
 their king. But his royalty was of short duration ; 
 the army of the adventurer was scattered by the ad- 
 herents of King Louis. 
 
 The Lithuanians, whom we have before mentioned 
 as being driven back by Andrew Laczfy, now took 
 advantage of the disorders prevailing in Poland, and 
 succeeded in securing such a foothold in that coun-
 
 1/4 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 try that one of their dukes, Jagello, who was con- 
 verted to Christianity, and subsequently married 
 Hedvig, the daughter of King Louis, became in the 
 course of a few years the founder of a new Polish 
 dynasty, the Jagellons, a dynasty of mournful mem- 
 ory in the history of Hungary. 
 
 The last days of Louis were embittered by the 
 disorders in Poland. He who had succeeded every- 
 where else failed there. Disappointment shortened 
 his life; upon returning to Tyrnau on the nth 
 of September, 1382, from attending the Polish 
 diet convened in Hungary, he was taken ill, and 
 breathed there his last. The Hungarian nation lost 
 in him one of their greatest kings. His reign was 
 stormy but glorious. The Hungarian banner floated 
 always victoriously on his numerous battle-fields, 
 and he humbled the enemies of the nation. In spite 
 of his many wars, Louis found leisure to devote his 
 time to the cultivation of the arts of peace. He gave 
 laws to his country, which secured her permanance, 
 and remained in force up to the most recent ages. 
 He brought order into the affairs of the Church, and 
 into the administration of justice. He was a zeal- 
 ous patron of learning, and established a university 
 at Funfkirchen (Pecs). His court, the seat of which 
 he fixed at Buda, was brilliant ; the Western customs, 
 brought over from Italy, prevailing there. In times 
 of peace magnificent tilts and tournaments at home 
 took the place of the bloody game of war abroad, 
 and the distribution of arms and knightly distinc- 
 tions introduced by his father continued during his 
 reign on even a larger scale. On all occasions Louis
 
 THE AN JO US IN HUNGARY. 1/5 
 
 showed himself to be a brave, wise, and pious king, 
 whose long rule is described by an eminent Hun- 
 garian historian as proving " a continued blessing " 
 for his nation. 
 
 Dark days succeeded the glorious reign of Louis. 
 The Hungarian nation was eager to testify their 
 gratitude to their great king by a concession made 
 to his dynasty notwithstanding its foreign origin, 
 which they had refused to make to the glorious dyn- 
 asty of the native Arpad family. After the king's 
 death his daughter Mary was proclaimed queen and 
 the crown conferred upon her. But the crown 
 brought little joy to Mary, for the festivities of 
 the coronation were hardly finished when she was 
 menaced by dangers coming from two sides. The 
 Poles hated Sigismund, to whom Mary was affianced, 
 and insisted also that their ruler should live amongst 
 them. Elizabeth, the queen-mother, in order to con- 
 ciliate the opposition of the Poles, and not to risk 
 the loss of Poland, offered them, as a substitute for 
 Mary, her younger daughter Hedvig. The Poles 
 agreed to this compromise, upon the condition that 
 they should select a husband for Hedvig, their queen. 
 It was a great trial for Hedvig to part from William, 
 Duke of Austria, to whom she was betrothed, but her 
 choice lay between him and the crown of Poland. 
 The allurements of the latter prevailed, and in Febru- 
 ary, 1386, the Polish nation celebrated the nuptials 
 of their queen with the Lithuanian duke, Jagello, re- 
 cently converted to Christianity, whom they had 
 chosen for her husband. This marriage put an end 
 to the union of the two countries, and Poland had 
 once more a ruler of her own.
 
 1 76 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 There was greater danger threatening Hungary 
 from the south. The nobles of Croatia were dissatis- 
 fied with female rule. There were some ambitious 
 men who were incensed to see themselves excluded 
 from the royal court, whilst a man of low descent, 
 like Garay, the palatine, took the lead there. They 
 were intent upon destroying the government in 
 order to remove the queen. In Charles of Du- 
 razzo, who owed the throne of Naples to Louis the 
 Great, they found a man who was willing to become 
 a candidate for the throne of Hungary. The traitors, 
 however, on the appearance in their midst of the 
 energetic Garay, accompanied by the queen and the 
 queen-mother Elizabeth, kept quiet for a while. 
 But no sooner had the royal party left Croatia, when 
 these men, who all owed their honors to the favor of 
 the late king, resumed their machinations, and pre- 
 vailed upon Charles of Durazzo to perjure himself 
 and to break the oath he had pledged to the late 
 king not to disturb his daughter Mary in the pos- 
 session of her throne. In 1385, undeterred by the 
 warnings of his wife, he arrived in Croatia. 
 
 Meanwhile the marriage of Mary and Sigismund 
 had taken place. The latter, in order to collect an 
 army with which he should be enabled to oppose the 
 advancing enemy and defend the rights of his royal 
 spouse, hypothecated a portion of the country to 
 raise tbe necessary funds. This ill-timed transaction 
 increased the chances of his opponent, for the na- 
 tion saw with indignation that Sigismund, in the 
 capacity of "the guardian of the realm " only, with- 
 out possessing any royal rights, began his guardian-
 
 THE AN JO US IN HUNGARY. 1/7 
 
 ship by thus disposing of Hungarian territory. Such 
 a disgraceful transaction was unknown in the his- 
 tory of the country, and it was not long before Char- 
 les could enter Buda, without let or hindrance ; dis- 
 guising, however, even then, his lawless aspirations, 
 by pretending to have only come to make peace be- 
 tween the nation and her queen. But Charles was 
 not long in showing his true designs. On the 3ist of 
 December, 1385, the cathedral of Stuhlweissenburg 
 witnessed a most moving scene. The coronation of 
 the usurper Charles was to be solemnized ; the 
 church was crowded, to its remotest corner, with 
 sumptuously dressed lords. The widowed queen 
 and her daughter Mary were also in attendance. 
 The customary question was asked of the magnates 
 of the land, by the Primate of Hungary, whether 
 they wished Charles to be their king. The enthusi- 
 astic acclamations of assent became, at the Primate's 
 third appeal, feebler and feebler as the piteous 
 sobs of the two queens, who had sunk upon their 
 father's and husband's grave, resounded in the 
 church. The coronation proceeded nevertheless, 
 and whilst the archbishop sent up his prayers of 
 grace to heaven, the widowed queen was silently 
 vowing desperate vengeance at the grave of her 
 husband. Bad omens followed the pageant ; dur- 
 ing the solemn procession the banner of St. Stephen 
 split into pieces, and as the new king entered the 
 gates of his palace at Buda, its walls were shaken to 
 its very foundations by a tremendous thunder-storm. 
 Charles had occupied the throne thirty-nine days 
 only, when he was summoned by the widowed queen.
 
 178 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 residing under one roof with him, into her presence 
 to settle some grave matters of state. The king 
 obeyed the summons, and was humbly received by 
 Garay the palatine, Blasius Forgach the lord cup- 
 bearer, Thomas Szent-Gyorgyi, the ban of Croatia, 
 and the other lords present. The council had hardly 
 commenced when, at a hint from the palatine, For- 
 gach got behind the king and struck him on the 
 head with his pole-axe. The blow inflicted a mor. 
 tal wound and the king fainted away. The assassins 
 had made careful preparations for the bloody event. 
 Whilst Forgach was doing away with the king in the 
 council-chamber, his Italian soldiers, in the palace, 
 were disarmed by Garay's men. Charles was taken 
 to Visegrad, where he was thrown into prison and 
 afterwards strangled. 
 
 The news of the king's assassination stirred up 
 fresh discontents in Croatia, where his party had 
 been most numerous. Garay imagined he could 
 quell the rebellion again by appearing amongst 
 them. The two queens approved of his scheme, 
 and proceeded, in his company, to Croatia. This 
 time, however, their going to Croatia was to prove 
 fatal to them. The queens, travelling with a small 
 escort, were surprised by John Horvathy, one of the 
 rebels, near Diakovar, and a mortal struggle ensued 
 between the rebels and the queen's escort. Garay 
 and Forgach fought with exasperation in defence of 
 the queens. Garay, pierced by arrows, set his back 
 against the coach, valiantly selling his life, and not 
 allowing the enemy to approach his royal charges 
 except across his dead body. All this heroism was
 
 THE AN JO US IN HUNGARY. 179 
 
 wasted in the face of the overpowering number of 
 the rebels, and the dreadful spectacle was soon pre- 
 sented to the queens of having the heads of their 
 faithful defenders cut off before their very eyes. 
 The queens themselves were placed in confinement 
 at Novigrad, on the sea-shore. The long series of 
 deaths by violence, which appeared to persecute the 
 Anjou race like a curse, was destined to have one 
 more added to it at Novigrad. The widow of Louis 
 the Great was, after a short imprisonment, strangled 
 by one of the rebels before the eyes of her unfor- 
 tunate daughter. 
 
 The disorders had now reached their climax; one 
 of the crowned rulers of Hungary > Charles, had been 
 assassinated, the other, Mary, was a prisoner at 
 Diakovar. The rebels were preparing to bring the 
 son of the usurper Charles into the country, while 
 another party had cast their eyes upon Ladislaus 
 Jagello, the husband of Hedvig, as an available 
 aspirant to royal honors. The Prince of Servia was 
 arming to attack Hungary from the. south, and 
 Poland was preparing to invade the country from 
 the northeast, whilst the princes of Wallachia and 
 Moldavia, vassals of Hungary, declared their inde- 
 pendence. So many disasters demanded a prompt 
 remedy, and the nation, in their distress, decided to 
 accept as their ruler Sigismund, the queen's husband. 
 He was acknowledged as king, and the crown of St. 
 Stephen was placed on his head by Benedek, the 
 bishop of Veszpre'm, in March, 1387, and his reign 
 lasted until 1437. To these melancholy circum- 
 stances did Sigismund, of the house of Luxemburg,
 
 ISO THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 owe his elevation to the throne of Hungary. It was 
 a heavy burden that he had taken upon his shoul- 
 ders, the task of bringing order into the affairs of 
 the distracted country. His first and foremost duty 
 was to liberate his august wife from her imprison- 
 ment, but it must be reluctantly admitted that he 
 exhibited little zeal in the accomplishment of this. 
 While he was travelling leisurely from place to place 
 without seemingly heeding the danger of delay, 
 Venice came to the rescue. The statesmen of the 
 city of St. Mark had watched with jealousy the 
 union of Naples and Hungary in the hands of one 
 ruler, and to obviate this danger to their own city, 
 they sought the friendship of Sigismund, and sent 
 vessels of war against his rebellious subjects. John 
 Palisna, in whose charge the imprisoned queen had 
 been placed, readily delivered her up to John Barba- 
 dico, the captain of the republic, stipulating only for 
 himself the right of leaving without molestation. In 
 July, 1388, husband and wife met near Agram (Za- 
 grab), and Sigismund made up for his former laxity 
 by sumptuously rewarding the Venetians who had 
 liberated his queen. 
 
 The newly elected king had on the very threshold 
 of his reign a twofold difficulty to face. He had to 
 quell the rebellion, which in the southern part of his 
 dominions was still active, and to arrest the en- 
 croachments of the Turkish power. He succeeded 
 in putting down the rebellion. He marched into 
 Croatia and Bosnia, pursuing the rebels to their 
 mountain fastnesses, and after many years of varying 
 fortunes of war he reduced them to obedience. The
 
 THE AN JO US IN HUNGARY. l8l 
 
 survivors of the scattered rebels sought refuge in the 
 wild forests of Syrmia. A small band of thirty men 
 rallied round Stephen Kont of Hedervar, the son of 
 the famous palatine Michael, a man noted for his 
 bravery. Sigismund charged Vajdafy, one of his 
 trusty men, with the reduction of this band. He 
 found it, however, impossible to get near them, and 
 finally resorted to a stratagem. Vajdafy promised 
 them a free pardon from Sigismund if they sur- 
 rendered and came up to Buda with him. The 
 thirty-one warriors accepted, this proposal, but on 
 their way the treacherous Vajdafy ordered them to 
 be placed in chains. They were so incensed at this 
 disgraceful treatment, that they determined not to do 
 homage to the king when brought into his presence. 
 They refused to bend their knees before him. The 
 king did not reflect long, but ordered the thirty-one 
 gallants to be taken to St. George's Place in Buda, 
 where they met their death at the hands of the exe- 
 cutioner. Kont was the last to lay his head on the 
 block. His faithful page Csdka burst into tears at 
 the bloody sight. Sigismund comforted the youth, 
 telling him he would be a better master to him than 
 Kont was. " I shall never serve thee, Czech hog," 
 was the boy's reply, a reply which cost him his life, 
 for he was immediately executed. This barbarous 
 and illegal act of the king would no doubt have pro- 
 voked, in ordinary times, a rebellion in the country, 
 but the general attention was just then absorbed by 
 the encroachments of the Turks. 
 
 Servia had already become a vassal state of the 
 Turks, and was compelled to swell with her army
 
 1 82 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 the power of the mightiest foe to Christianity. The 
 last victory won by the Servians over the Turks was 
 in 1387, when they mowed down two thirds of the 
 Turkish army, numbering 20,000 men. Sultan Murad 
 invaded Servia in 1389 to avenge the disgrace of 
 defeat. He was met in June by Lazarus, the last 
 independent Prince of Servia, on the Kosovo (black- 
 bird) field, called in Hungarian the Rigomezo. The 
 engagement was a bloody one, and disastrous to the 
 rulers on both sides. Sultan Murad received his 
 death wound from the dagger of a Servian soldier, 
 whilst Prince Lazarus was delivered by his own son- 
 in-law, Vuk Brankovitch, into the hands of the Turks 
 and into the jaws of certain death. With Lazarus 
 was lost the independence of Servia, and his scat- 
 tered army fled in dismay from the ill-fated battle- 
 field. This victory had brought the Turks one step 
 nearer to the borders of Hungary, and added further 
 to the fear of their victorious arms in that Bajazet, 
 the successor of Murad, surnamed the " Lightning," 
 was known to be eager for new conquests. Two 
 years after the battle of Kosovo we find the Turks 
 already on Hungarian soil. Sigismund tried, at first, 
 negotiations. Viddin, Nicopolis, and Silistria, which 
 belonged to Hungary under Louis the Great, had 
 recently fallen into the hands of the Turks. Sigis- 
 mund sent an embassy to Bajazet calling upon him 
 to surrender these cities to their rightful owner. 
 The sultan received the embassy at Brussa, and, con- 
 ducting them into a hall ornamented with arms and 
 weapons of every description, he pointed at these, 
 saying : " Go back and tell your king that, as you
 
 THE AN JO US IN HUNGARY. 183 
 
 see for yourself, I have a good enough title to these 
 lands." Sigismund rightly understood this to be a 
 declaration of war. He at once summoned the 
 chivalry of Europe to take part in a crusade against 
 the infidels, and entered into an alliance with Manuel 
 II., the Emperor of the East. Many knights from 
 England, France, and Italy responded to the call. 
 
 Meanwhile, Mary, the wife of Sigismund, died in 
 1395. It was to her that Sigismund owed his throne, 
 and now that she was no more, there was nothing to 
 keep up the ties of affection between the people and 
 their restless and inconstant king. Sigismund hoped 
 to dazzle the nation by the glory of a successful war. 
 In 1396 he marched the assembled crusaders to 
 Nicopolis against the Turks. The king, surrounded 
 by the chief captains of the army, was merrily feasting 
 when the news was brought that Bajazet, the " Light- 
 ning," was approaching. Both armies were eager for 
 the contest. The French knights, in spite of Sigis- 
 mund's protests, claimed the privilege of the first 
 attack. Ignorant of the Turkish system of fighting, 
 which consisted in sending the weakest and least- 
 disciplined troops to the fore, to bear the brunt of 
 the first attack, the French rushed with their united 
 strength upon the enemy. The attack, as usual, was 
 favorable to the French arms, but hardly had they 
 dispersed the inferior troops when they found them- 
 selves face to face with the serried ranks of the Spahis 
 and Janissaries. The hot-blooded Frenchmen were 
 no match for these incomparable soldiers, and a large 
 portion of them fell on the battle-field while the re- 
 mainder were taken prisoners. This discomfiture had
 
 1 84 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 a depressing effect on the other crusaders, and their 
 army scattered in disorderly flight. Sigismund, him- 
 self, escaped only with great difficulty, and took 
 refuge on a ship on the Danube which brought him 
 to Constantinople. 
 
 This unlucky campaign proved a fresh source of 
 trouble to the country, for the king, keenly feeling 
 the disgrace of his defeat, stayed away from Hun- 
 gary for over half a year. The southern part of 
 Hungary was again in rebellion and many, believing 
 in the false report of the king's death, were desirous 
 of proceeding to the election of a successor. The 
 king, apprehensive of losing his throne, came back 
 and, in his own fashion, rewarded his friends and 
 punished his opponents. 
 
 In order to add to the number of his adherents he 
 distributed amongst them, in defiance of an ancient 
 law, the crown-lands. He filled the highest positions 
 in the state with foreigners. This was more than 
 the Hungarian lords would submit to, especially 
 after the disgraceful defeat the king had just suffered 
 on the battle-field. The impatient magnates, weary 
 of his inglorious rule, entered upon a conspiracy to 
 overthrow the king. On the 28th of April, 1401, a 
 number of the great lords of the land assembled at 
 Buda and requested the attendance of the king, 
 in order to take counsel on affairs of state. The 
 Garays, the unflinching adherents of the king, knew 
 what was going to happen, but did not dare to 
 divulge or oppose the plans of the conspirators. 
 Sigismund appeared among the assembled mag- 
 nates, but only to find out, too late, that he was, in
 
 THE AN JO US IN HUNGARY. 185 
 
 fact, their prisoner. He was taken to Visegrad and 
 confined in its castle. Another king had now to be 
 elected. Three claimants were on the field Lad- 
 islaus Jagello, William of Austria, and Ladislaus, 
 the son of Charles the Little. It was fortunate, 
 however, for the king that no election could be 
 agreed upon ; and, while the magnates were taking 
 counsel with each other, the Garays succeeded in 
 liberating the king and took him to Siklos, one of 
 their own fortified castles. His followers, mean- 
 while, took up arms in his cause and succeeded in 
 placing him again on the throne, after he had been 
 a prisoner for four months. But before doing so 
 they obtained his promise not to punish or molest 
 the conspirators. Michael Garay was generously re- 
 warded for his exertions on behalf of Sigismund ; he 
 received annually a pension of one thousand ducats, 
 and was appointed to the dignity of a palatine. The 
 severe lesson was of benefit to the king. He ap- 
 peared totally changed after his experience in prison. 
 He faithfully kept the promise he had given, and 
 did not molest the rebellious lords, but rather sought 
 their friendship, and, making union with them, seri- 
 ously endeavored by legal means to improve the 
 government of the country. 
 
 He had hardly seized the reins of government 
 with firm hands, when the cry of battle called him 
 again away. Having no son, Sigismund tried to 
 secure the throne for his daughter Elizabeth. She 
 was affianced to Albert of Austria, and the king pre- 
 vailed upon one hundred and ten lords to sign a 
 document by which his daughter's husband would,
 
 1 86 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 after the king's demise, become entitled to wear the 
 crown of St. Stephen. The Neapolitan party was 
 roused into rebellion by this arrangement, and Lad- 
 islaus of Naples penetrated into the interior of the 
 country. The primate of the realm, the archbishop 
 of Gran, sided with the rebels and placed the crown 
 of Hungary upon the head of the invading for- 
 eigner. Sigismund, who was just then amongst the 
 Czechs, whose crown he coveted, hastened home upon 
 learning the peril with which he was menaced. The 
 followers of Ladislaus were soon put down, and, 
 being assured of the king's pardon, they all gave in 
 their submission. Ladislaus, fearful lest the fate of 
 his father, Charles the Little, should overtake him, 
 left the country, and henceforth dared not to ques- 
 tion the right of Sigismund to. the crown. In the 
 course of the years that followed some wise measures 
 were introduced concerning the privileges and fran- 
 chises of the cities, and regulating the relations of 
 the Church of Hungary to the Vatican. The Pope 
 having been the most zealous partisan of Ladislaus 
 of Naples, a law was enacted putting an end to the 
 Pope's right of interference in the affairs of the 
 Hungarian Church. 
 
 The king formed again new marriage ties, and 
 took Barbara, the daughter of Count Arminius 
 Cilley, the powerful lord of the Styrian castle of 
 Cilli, for his wife. The new queen added but lit- 
 tle to his happiness. The king established the order 
 of the dragon in commemoration of his wedding. 
 The insignia of the order were a red cross with a 
 gold dragon who twisted his tail in a circular shape
 
 THE ANJOUS IN HUNGARY. 1 87 
 
 around his own neck. The membership was confined 
 to twenty-four, who bound themselves to defend the 
 Christian faith against the Turks. The king and 
 queen were the first members of the order, the re- 
 maining members were selected from among the 
 highest dignitaries of the land. A high distinction 
 fell to the lot of the king of Hungary on the 2Oth of 
 September, 1410. Ruprecht, who had been elevated 
 to the imperial throne of Germany, after the deposi- 
 tion of Wenceslaus the drunkard (the half insane 
 brother of Sigismund), was now dead. Wenceslaus 
 was now striving to regain the lost dignity, but in this 
 he was opposed by his own brother Sigismund. The 
 electoral princes voted for the latter. This was the 
 first time that a similar distinction had been con- 
 ferred upon the wearer of the crown of St. Stephen. 
 The nation felt proud of the exaltation of their king, 
 but the nation as well as the king found subsequently 
 ample reason to regret their premature rejoicing. In- 
 deed the fears of St. Ladislaus and Louis the Great, 
 who had declined the imperial crown lest they might, 
 accepting it, be caused to neglect the affairs of Hun- 
 gary, proved but too well founded. The business of 
 the emperor required his presence elsewhere, and 
 while he was absent for years from the country, 
 matters at home visibly went to rack and ruin. 
 The emperor-king could not spare time to attend 
 to the most important duty of his reign, the driving 
 back of the Turks, and, there can be no doubt, that 
 it was owing less to the civil wars of that period 
 than the lukewarmness of Sigismund in the face of 
 the Ottoman advances during the last years of his
 
 1 88 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 reign, that it became possible for the Moslem power 
 to obtain possession, a century later, of the strong- 
 hold of Christianity. The signs of the coming life- 
 and-death struggle became already apparent and 
 once the struggle begun there was no way to de- 
 stroy the Ottoman power, nor could a favorable 
 opportunity, once missed, return again. 
 
 The fortunes of war were once more propitious to 
 the Hungarians in their war against Venice but for 
 several years afterwards history records nothing but 
 a long series of uninterrupted disasters. The war 
 with Venice was carried on to get possession of 
 the littoral islands and cities. Venice was shame- 
 fully beaten, and the peace-suing ambassadors of 
 the proud city of St. Mark had to undergo the 
 humiliation of seeing before their very eyes nine- 
 teen of their flags torn to pieces in the streets of 
 Buda. But the new banners of Venice were soon 
 destined to be victoriously planted on the Hunga- 
 rian littoral territory, and Sigismund was compelled 
 to sign a peace by which the nation lost her sea- 
 coast possessions. And while the power of Venice 
 was curtailing the country in the south, the richest 
 towns in the north were being lost through the reck- 
 lessness of Sigismund. In order to extricate himself 
 from financial embarrassments he hypothecated to 
 Ladislaus, the king of Poland, thirteen of the 
 wealthiest cities of the Szepes country, which was 
 largely settled by German merchants and tradesmen. 
 These places remained hypothecated until the first 
 partition of Poland, 1772, when Hungary was re- 
 instated in the full possession of the mortgaged
 
 THE AN JO US IN HUNGARY. 189 
 
 towns. After arranging these affairs the king went 
 abroad, where he remained for six years. During 
 his absence the country, owing to the despotic rule 
 of Barbara, his queen, became a prey to disorder. 
 It would cover pages unprofitably to give a detailed 
 account of the private affairs of the wanton queen, 
 and, passing over these, we shall accompany her 
 royal husband on his journey to the Council of 
 Constance. 
 
 The condition of the Church of Rome was at that 
 period a most lamentable one. The question of re- 
 forms within the Church became from day to day 
 more pressing. Wycliffe, the Englishman, had the 
 boldness to assume the role of a heretic. John 
 Huss, the rector of the university of Prague, soon 
 became a zealous propagator of his teachings. The 
 majority of the inhabitants of Bohemia embraced 
 the new tenets, assuming, after their leader, the 
 name of " Hussites." One of the chief objects of 
 the Council of Constance 1414-1418 was to ex- 
 tirpate heresy, and to exterminate its votaries. 
 Numerous ecclesiastical and lay lords gathered at 
 Constance to advise together under the guidance of 
 the emperor-king, who presided. The attending 
 Hungarian magnates deemed it due to their fame 
 and dignity to indulge in the most extravagant 
 luxury. The emperor-king felt constrained to eclipse 
 his subjects in sumptuous display on such an occa- 
 sion, and, in order to accomplish this, he had to sell 
 Brandenburg to Frederick of Hohenzollern, and 
 there can be no doubt that through this sale he un- 
 wittingly contributed to the future greatness of the
 
 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 present imperial dynasty in Germany. We will not 
 attempt to describe here the Council of Constance, 
 but need only mention that it was the treachery 
 and bad faith of Sigismund which caused the tragic 
 end and martyrdom of John Huss. His disciples 
 vowed vengeance, and Hungary, of all the dominions 
 of the emperor-king, was, during many years, most 
 exposed to their cruel devastations. 
 
 After an absence of six years, during which Sigis- 
 mund had visited Germany, France, Italy, and Eng- 
 land, he at length returned to Hungary. He found 
 the country unsettled, and menaced on two sides 
 by powerful enemies. Having sent his wife, the 
 cause of the internal disorders, to prison, he led an 
 army against the Turks, who were threatening the 
 southern portion of the country. Before describing 
 the events of that campaign let us cast a rapid 
 glance at the condition of the Moslem world in 
 Europe. A dreadful blow had fallen on the Otto- 
 man empire in July, 1402. Timur, the Central- 
 Asian conqueror, destroyed the Turkish army near 
 Angora, and captured the person of the redoubtable 
 Bajazet himself. The impaired power of the Otto- 
 man empire was still more weakened by the inter- 
 necine strife between Bajazet's sons. Mohammed I. 
 emerged at last as the victorious sultan, and in his 
 person the warlike qualities of his ancestors re- 
 appeared once more on the throne of the Osmanlis. 
 The rulers of Servia and Moldavia very soon ac- 
 knowledged his sovereignty. Hervoja, the Bosnian 
 boyar, followed their example. The three captains 
 of Sigismund, John Mardty, John Garay, and F<*ul
 
 THE AN JO US I AT HUNGARY. 19! 
 
 Csupor, marched against the latter. The engage- 
 ment resulted in the victory of Hervoja. Csupor 
 was taken prisoner, while his fellow-captains sought 
 safety in an ignominious flight. Csupor, years ago, 
 had scoffingly greeted Hervoja, when at the Hun- 
 garian court, by bellowing like an ox, and the victor, 
 now remembering the affront put upon him, revenged 
 himself by having the ill-fated captain sewn into an 
 ox's skin, and telling him : " Now thou canst bellow 
 as much as thou likest ; thou hast also the shape of 
 an ox." He caused him to be thrown into the water, 
 where he was drowned. 
 
 Meanwhile Stephen Lazarevitch, the Prince of 
 Servia, became weary of the Turkish alliance, and 
 with a view to securing to his nephew, George 
 Brankovitch, the succession in Servia, he sought the 
 aid of Sigismund, offering to surrender to him several 
 important fortified places along the Danube for his 
 services. The Prince of Servia died in 1428, and 
 Sigismund claimed the possession of the places 
 promised to him. The Servian commander of 
 Gab.mbocz, one of the strongest of these fortresses, 
 nowever, treacherously allowed it to pass into the 
 hands of the Turks. It was to re-possess himself of 
 this fortress, which he could not permit to remain in 
 Moslem hands, that Sigismund marched against the 
 enemy. He had nearly succeeded in capturing it, 
 when news reached him that Sultan Murad II. was 
 approaching. Sigismund did not clare to engage in 
 battle with such overpowering numbers, and having 
 stipulated for himself and his army free passage, he 
 pusillanimously gave up the siege. Yet the Hun-
 
 I9 2 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 garians were just beginning to cross the Danube, 
 when the Turks, breaking faith, attacked them. 
 Sigismund himself was in great danger, and he owed 
 his escape only to the heroism of Cecilia Rozgonyi, 
 the wife of the captain-in-chief, who facilitated his 
 flight in a galley steered by herself. This was 
 Sigismund's last armed encounter with the Turks, 
 and its issue did by no means add to his laurels. 
 
 The remaining years of Sigismund's reign were 
 taken up with the organization of the defences of the 
 country and with continual warfare against the 
 Czech Hussites in the north. Wenceslaus, the king 
 of Bohemia, died in 1419, and Sigismund endeavored 
 to obtain his brother's crown. The Czechs hated 
 the executioner of their beloved spiritual teacher, 
 and conceded to Sigismund the Bohemian crown 
 only after a hard and protracted struggle. Hungary 
 had to suffer for the ambition of her king, for, during 
 these struggles, the exasperated Czechs, on more 
 than one occasion, laid waste her territories in the 
 northwest. Sigismund, however, did not allow him- 
 self to be deterred from pursuing his aim Acting 
 upon the principle of divide et regna, he very sensibly^ 
 conciliated a portion of the Czechs by granting them 
 religious reforms, and whilst the people were desper- 
 ately fighting among themselves he succeeded in 
 securing the crown of Bohemia. 
 
 Sigismund may be said to have reached the goal 
 of all his wishes. He united on his head the crowns 
 of imperial Germany. Hungary, and Bohemia. Yet, on 
 the whole, he was not a happy man. His wife Bar- 
 bara had regained her freedom and was embittering 
 the last days of the sickly monarch. This ambitious
 
 THE ANJOUS IN HUNGARY. 193 
 
 woman coveted the crown of Hungary, and in order 
 to obtain it she was scheming, first of all, to hinder 
 the succession of Albert, the son-in-law of the em- 
 peror-king. With this view she entered into nego- 
 tiations with Ladislaus III., the king of Poland, the 
 purport of which was that he should marry her 
 after Sigismund's demise, and thus unite the domin- 
 ions of the king of Hungary with Poland. The 
 arrangement was nearly concluded when these in- 
 trigues were discovered by Sigismund. He deprived 
 his wife once more of her liberty, and hastened from 
 Bohemia to Hungary to prevail upon the Estates to 
 accept Albert's succession, and then to turn his steps 
 towards Transylvania to put down the rebellion that 
 had broken out there. The peasantry of Transyl- 
 vania, having a leaning towards the teachings of 
 Huss, were exposed to constant persecutions. They 
 were also oppressed by burdensome taxes, and finally, 
 goaded on by their unhappy condition, they rose in 
 arms against their tyrants. The massacred nobility 
 and burning villages bore witness to the exasperation 
 of the peasantry. Fate prevented Sigismund from 
 either meeting the estates or quelling the Transylva- 
 nian rising. He was overtaken by death at Znaym, 
 in Moravia, in December, 1437. His dead body and 
 the captive queen arrived in Hungary one week later. 
 His remains were conveyed from Presburg to Gross- 
 wardein to be placed there by the side of his first 
 wife, Mary, and at the feet of St. Ladislaus. It is 
 rather saddening to reflect that, after a reign of fifty 
 years, his funeral procession should have been lighted 
 by the glare from the burning villages of Transylvania, 
 
 set on fire by her own peasantry. 
 '3
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 JOHN HUNYADI (HUNIADES), THE GREAT CHAMPION 
 OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1456. 
 
 VERY little, if any thing, is known of the father of 
 John Hunyadi, or of the pedigree of his family ; in- 
 deed, the very circumstances of his birth are shroud- 
 ed in dim legendary light, and yet he looms up all at 
 once in the proud position of governor of Hungary, 
 the adored idol of his country, and the admiration 
 of all Christian Europe. It was owing to his ex- 
 ertions that his family became great, rich, and power- 
 ful, but, at the same time, he guarded Hungary 
 against the evils of domestic war, and saved her 
 from Moslem rule. He served his country in the 
 capacity of a brave soldier, an eminent general, and 
 a cautious and energetic statesman, lending her the 
 aid of his strong arm, his undaunted courage, and 
 his clear understanding. 
 
 In his time, during the fifteenth century, through 
 all Europe, and especially in Hungary, that man 
 was most respected who had earned the repute of a 
 distinguished soldier. If any one wished to become 
 conspicuous amongst his countrymen he had to be, 
 first of all, an able general and a military hero. Ac- 
 
 194
 
 JOHN HUNYADI. 
 
 195 
 
 cording to the views of that day, only he was looked 
 upon as a true man who was a free man, or, in the 
 nomenclature of that period, a noble man, but every 
 noble was a born soldier, and soldiering was both his 
 duty and privilege. Martial merit was recognized 
 as the only real merit, and military service as the 
 only honorable occupation. By this means every 
 
 HUNYAl) CASTLE. 
 
 man had the chance of becoming the possessor of 
 land, and of acquiring nobility, for bravery was re- 
 warded by the king with a - grant of lands, and with 
 the rank of a noble. As a consequence wars were 
 longed for by many. The common man (or as he 
 was then styled, the bondman) hoped to acquire 
 land and to be created a noble, the noble to add to
 
 196 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 his landed estate, and to rise in rank. The more 
 land a noble owned, and the greater the number of 
 his bondmen, the larger the number of the soldiers 
 he was able to equip, and the greater the military 
 power wielded by him, the better his prospects of 
 promotion to a higher position in the state, in soci- 
 ety, and about the person of his king. The first 
 games of childhood were martial games, and the 
 first tasks of youth were military tasks. 
 
 Such, no doubt, had also been the early training 
 of John Hunyadi ; by such means he rose, acquired 
 a large fortune, and was able to support a great 
 army. In truth, however, there is no information 
 whatever extant as to his early education, for when 
 he first entered upon the stage of war, in 1437, he 
 was already an accomplished general. In this year 
 the Turkish sultan, who was constantly attacking, 
 harassing, and laying waste the vassal states of Hun- 
 gary, Bosnia, Servia, Wallachia, and Bulgaria, turned 
 his arms against Servia. The general of the Hun- 
 garian king met the enemy near the fortress of 
 Semendria, where the decisive battle was to be fought. 
 During this engagement a knight with a coat of 
 arms, familiar to no one, made his appearance. A 
 black raven, holding a gold ring in his beak, was 
 painted on his shield. Never before had they wit- 
 nessed fighting as gallant as that of the Raven 
 Knight at the head of his small troop. He was 
 seen now in one place, now in another, but wherever 
 he showed himself the enemy either fled before him 
 or was slain. To the Hungarians it seemed as if the 
 god of war himself had descended to fight under
 
 JOHN HUN Y ADI. 1 97 
 
 their banners, and they were seized with wild enthu- 
 siasm. The Turkish general, with the remnant of 
 his army, fled in dismay, and from this day forward 
 the name of the raven knight continued to be the 
 terror of Turkish warriors. This mysterious knight 
 was John Hunyadi. To be sure, men like Pongracz, 
 Szentmiklossy, Thalloczy, or Mardthy, had before 
 this day proved themselves heroes in the many 
 struggles against the Turks. After this memorable 
 battle, however, the splendor of Hunyadi's name 
 dimmed the glory of all. With the people, whose 
 chief delight was martial exploits, and in whose 
 eyes the Turks were the most dreadful enemy of 
 their country, his prestige increased from year to 
 year. For Hunyadi, like his powerful antagonist 
 the Turk, never knew what it was to rest. No other 
 enemy was like this one he had to cope with. The 
 Turkish state was so organized that it could not ex- 
 ist without fresh conquests and incessant wars. The 
 Janissaries wanted occupation and glory, the mounted 
 Spahis new lands, the immense hordes which 
 marched at the distance of a day's walk in advance 
 of the Turkish army were hungry after booty, and 
 the sultans themselves longed to win fresh con- 
 quests and military glory against the infidels, as the 
 followers of the cross were styled by them. 
 
 An enemy like this was a most dangerous neighbor . 
 It is true that Hungary was divided from the Turkish 
 empire by her vassal states, Bulgaria, Wallachia, 
 Servia, and Bosnia, but the Turkish sultans already 
 looked upon these territories as their own, and were 
 constantly organizing inroads into Hungary from
 
 198 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 them. Hunyadi had passed his early life near the 
 border ; and, accustomed to the perpetual fighting 
 going on there, he was also familiarized with the 
 magnitude of the danger. With an iron will he 
 determined to devote his whole strength to the 
 struggle against the Turks. By his gallantry he 
 gradually acquired the fortune necessary for this 
 purpose, for the kings were lavish in granting to 
 him again and again large estates as a compensation 
 for his bravery. Nor was he wanting in opportuni- 
 ties against the Turks, for, having been successively 
 created Count of Temes, ban of Szorny, and vay- 
 vode of Transylvania, it became his duty to defend 
 the border with the money and army placed in his 
 hands. If the Turks appeared at any point on a 
 marauding expedition, or to provoke hostilities, 
 Hunyadi was quick to meet them at once, and did 
 not rest until he had achieved victory. 
 
 In one such expedition, Ishak, the pasha of Semen- 
 dria, fared badly. This overbearing Turk, issued 
 from the fortress of Semendria, and, having overrun 
 the country, left behind him nothing but desolation 
 and the tears of widows and orphans. Hunyadi, 
 with a small troop, started in his pursuit, and, coming 
 .up with him, he took away from him the prisoners 
 and the booty he had captured, and drove him and 
 his army back to the very walls of Semendria. The 
 sultan, upon hearing the news of this defeat, at once 
 despatched Mezid Bey with an army of 80,000 men 
 against Hunyadi. Orders were issued to destroy every 
 thing property and human life alike ; neither the 
 young nor the old nor the women were to be spared.
 
 JOHN HUNYADI. 199 
 
 Hunyadi was well informed as to the enemy's move- 
 ments. He knew that in this campaign the special 
 aim would be to kill or capture him, for his person 
 stood almost alone in the way of the Sultan's 
 conquests and glory. The Turkish commander 
 offered, on the eve of the battle, an enormous re- 
 ward to the soldier who would succeed in capturing 
 Hunyadi. This critical occasion showed not only 
 the importance attributed to Hunyadi's person by 
 the Turks, but also the great love with which he was 
 surrounded and the degree to which he was idolized 
 by his soldiers and comrades. One of the latter, 
 Simon Keme"ny, who knew of the intentions of the 
 enemy, urgently begged his leader to exchange with 
 him horses and accoutrements. Hunyadi at first 
 refused, but finally yielded to Kemeny's entreaties 
 and handed him over his military equipments. 
 
 But he built his plan of battle upon this ruse : He 
 ordered five hundred distinguished soldiers to be 
 stationed near the person of the devoted officer, and 
 he himself withdrew with his reserve and took up a 
 position in a remoter spot. The following day the 
 two armies engaged in battle. Every Turkish warrior 
 sought the famous Hungarian hero ; all were eager for 
 the glory of capturing and killing him, and anxious 
 to secure the prize set on his head. They all knew 
 his face which strikingly resembled that of Simon 
 Kemeny and his accoutrements, which had been 
 minutely described to them by their comrades. They 
 at once made a rush on Kemeny, the pretended 
 Hunyadi. This gallant hero, with his five hundred 
 men, stood the brunt of the onslaught with super-
 
 2OO THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 human courage ; the enemy were literally mowed 
 down by their swords, but, at last, they had to 
 give way to superior numbers, and their brave 
 leader laid down his life on the battle-field. The 
 Turkish soldiers precipitated themselves eagerly 
 and with shouts of triumph upon his inanimate body, 
 when suddenly Hunyadi broke upon them the real 
 and living Hunyadi whom the enemy had already 
 thought dead. At this sight, the enemy, who, a few 
 moments ago, felt sure of their victory, were seized 
 with a panic, and sought safety in flight. Their 
 leader, Mezid Bey himself, and his son lay lifeless, 
 with battered skulls, on the field of battle. 
 
 The entire Turkish camp, with immense treasures 
 and its military stores, as well as numerous prisoners, 
 fell into the hands of the victorious Hungarians. 
 Many a brave Hungarian warrior, it is true, had lost 
 his life, and the devoted Simon Kemeny had found 
 the death he expected, but the country was saved, 
 and the Hungarian losses were as nothing compared 
 with the losses of the Turks. The devout Hun- 
 yadi afterwards caused a chapel to be erected from 
 the proceeds of the Turkish booty in memory of his 
 martyred comrades. 
 
 The news of the ignominious defeat reached Sul- 
 tan Murat at Adrianople ; he was greatly incensed, 
 and swore dire vengeance against the Hungarians. 
 He summoned before him his brother-in-law, en- 
 trusted to his command eighty thousand men, and 
 ordered him to invade Hungary, to lay every thing 
 waste with fire and steel, and to annihilate Hunyadi 
 and his army. The Turkish commander, letting
 
 JOHN HUNYADI. 2OI 
 
 loose his Tartars, entered Hungary quite suddenly 
 through Wallachia. The frontier is here formed by 
 gigantic mountains, and but narrow passes lead from 
 one country into the other. Through one of these 
 passes, the Vaskapu (Iron Gate), the Turkish army 
 passed into Hungary. The invaders had hardly 
 time to rest from their fatigues, when Hunyadi with 
 his army appeared before the unsuspecting enemy, 
 ready to give battle. Abedin was surprised and dis- 
 concerted ; he thought the Hungarians would fly 
 before him, and they were facing him. Hunyadi 
 entrenched his foot soldiery in a wagon-camp, whilst 
 he himself with his horse attacked the Spahis (Turk- 
 ish cavalry). After scattering the latter, he turned 
 against the Turkish infantry, the Janissaries, in the 
 rear, but the attack was only a feigned one. As if 
 fearful of being surrounded, he suddenly began to 
 retreat with his army to that portion of the valley 
 where the wagon-camp was stationed. The Janis- 
 saries, leaving their protected positions, started with 
 wild exultation in pursuit of the Hungarians. 
 
 Hunyadi, having taken up his position at the for- 
 tified place in the narrow valley, directed a side 
 attack against the Turkish horse and drove them 
 back upon the fighting Janissaries, whose storming 
 of the wagon fortress was attended with as little 
 success as that of the waves beating against the 
 solid rock. The Turkish army could not display its 
 strength, and confusion and wild disorder soon seized 
 the troops. Their commander, perceiving that it 
 was impossible to save his army, mounted his horse 
 and galloped away. Fifteen thousand Hungarians
 
 2O2 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 were opposed, on that occasion, to eighty thousand 
 Turks, inured to war, well trained, and accustomed 
 to victory. The Turkish Janissaries, whose impene- 
 trable line never broke, were annihilated ; the cav- 
 alry, the far-famed Spahis, were scattered ; and the 
 whole Turkish army was in part massacred and in 
 part put to disorderly flight. The meanest portion 
 only saved themselves by running away ; the best of 
 the warriors perished, for the Turkish troops were 
 by no means lacking in personal courage. The 
 principal difference between the opponents was that 
 the Turkish army was usually too confident of vic- 
 tory, and was often led by incompetent generals, 
 while among the Hungarians discipline prevailed. 
 Hunyadi, furthermore, not only gave battle accord- 
 ing to plans concerted by his military genius, but 
 understood also, during the tumult and confusion of 
 the battle, how to execute with his troops rapid and 
 precise movements. These qualities had decided 
 the present battle, and were also the secret of his 
 future triumphs. 
 
 All Europe hailed with joy and admiration the 
 splendid victories of the Hungarian arms, for the 
 whole Christian world had witnessed with alarm the 
 extension of the power of the dreaded Osmanlis. 
 Not only Hunyadi himself, but all his companions in 
 arms, felt that, in inflicting such heavy losses upon the 
 Turks, they were not defending Hungary alone, but 
 saving all Christendom from that Turkish rule which 
 had exhibited a boundless appetite for continental 
 extension. Aware of this state of things, Hunyadi 
 initiated a policy exceeding in boldness the one
 
 JOHN HUNYADI. 2O3 
 
 hitherto pursued by him. He appealed to all the 
 rulers of Europe to some personally, to others 
 through the king and the pontiff of Rome to lend 
 him their aid, and he declared that, if they re- 
 sponded to his appeal, he was ready to begin an 
 offensive war against the Turks. 
 
 All Europe received with satisfaction both his 
 plan and request, but all he could obtain was gra- 
 cious words and fair promises ; aid in any tangible 
 shape was flowing in but thinly. The Poles (the 
 Hungarian king Uladislaus being also their king) 
 sent a tolerably large contingent ; in Germany, 
 France, and Bohemia, too, there were many ready 
 to enlist in a holy war against the unbelieving Turks, 
 as had been formerly done in the time of the cru- 
 saders, and these joined Hunyadi's camp. The 
 southern vassal states sent also some forces. The 
 principal army, however, was still composed of 
 Hunyadi's Hungarians, which was joined by the 
 king's own troops. They may have numbered alto- 
 gether forty thousand men. The king himself joined 
 in the offensive campaign (in July, 1443) and placed 
 himself at the head of the motley army. His leader- 
 ship proved an injury rather than an advantage, for 
 the discipline would have been far more perfect in 
 the army if Hunyadi in person, with his own men, 
 had taken the lead. The Hungarian general, never- 
 theless, defeated the Turks in their own country in 
 four smaller engagements and in two larger battles. 
 When the Hungarian army approached the Balkans 
 the heart of the Turkish empire in Europe they 
 were already wading in snow. They nevertheless
 
 2O4 THE STOKY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 marched on, undaunted by the enormous mountains 
 and the impracticable and narrow passes. But the 
 Turks had already taken up their positions along 
 the difficult passes, on the mountain tops, and in the 
 passes themselves, in such a manner that they had 
 made sure of every advantage. Hunyadi quickly 
 perceived that the position of the sultan behind 
 such entrenchments and bulwarks was impregnable, 
 Being, therefore, foiled in his desire to aim an offen- 
 sive blow at the enemy, he endeavored to entice him 
 into the plain. In this he succeeded. As he was 
 retreating from the Balkan passes, slowly and cau- 
 tiously tracing his way back, the Turkish army 
 quickly started in his pursuit. The sultan reasoned 
 that the Hungarian army was, by this time, ex- 
 hausted with cold, the fatigues, and the extraordi- 
 nary exertions, and that it would be an easy matter 
 to catch them now in their own trap. But he 
 counted without Hunyadi. When the latter thought 
 the time had come for it, he turned and faced the 
 enemy. He selected a vantage-ground where the 
 Turkish army could at no time bring all their forces 
 into play, and must therefore offer to the Hungari- 
 ans a chance of beating them in detachments. The 
 struggle was protracted, for the Turks could afford 
 to wait. As soon as one of their generals was de- 
 feated, the sultan had him strangled on the spot, and 
 despatched in his place another general and another 
 army. The contest went desperately on by the 
 light of the moon. Every one took part in it ; King 
 Uladislaus himself was wounded. The exasperated 
 Turks, after their ranks had been broken up, did
 
 JOHN HUNYADI. 2O5 
 
 not attempt to fly, but perished fighting. The 
 commander-in-chief of the sultan's army was taken 
 captive. 
 
 The Hungarian army returned in triumph to 
 Buda. Close upon their heels followed the sultan's 
 envoy, begging for peace. All he now asked for 
 was to be let alone in his own country, and he in 
 turn would not molest Hungary. This was an im- 
 portant concession, for the faith of the sultans had 
 heretofore been held to forbid them to enter into a 
 parley with, and still less to entreat peace of, the 
 infidel Christians. But the sultan had just now a 
 special reason for peace. Half of his empire had 
 risen in arms against him the Albanians in Europe 
 and Mohammedan rebels in Asia. As usual with 
 states based upon violence, the discontented rose on 
 all sides at the news of the first lost battle. This 
 was the effect of Hunyadi's campaign. 
 
 The terms of peace offered by the sultan were of 
 the most flattering and tempting nature. He prom- 
 ised a great deal of money, territory, mines, and 
 captives. Hunyadiwas now in favor of peace ; he felt 
 that he must gather strength. Peace was therefore 
 concluded, the king swearing by the Gospel and the 
 sultan by the Koran. The ambassadors of the sultan 
 had hardly left Hungary when Cardinal Julian, the 
 pope's nuncio, arrived in the country and declared, 
 in the pontiff's name, the oath of Uladislaus, the 
 Hungarian king, to be null and void, adjuring him, 
 at the same time, by all the saints, to hasten and 
 make use of this opportunity to annihilate the Turks, 
 and insisting that one so favorable would never
 
 2O6 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 occur again. All Europe's eyes were upon them, 
 he added, and all Europe wished to take part in the 
 struggle. And, indeed, the Christian princes hasten- 
 ed to protest against the peace, and offered money 
 and soldiers in abundance to continue the war. 
 
 Meanwhile news arrived that the Italian naval 
 squadron had appeared in the Turkish waters to 
 intercept the sultan's crossing over from Asia to 
 Europe. It was urged that now had come the time 
 to fall upon the Turkish empire, which was without a 
 master. The papal nuncio summoned all his elo- 
 quence to prove that the peace concluded with the 
 Turk was not valid, for the word given to an unbe- 
 liever was not binding, and God did not listen to an 
 oath deposited into pagan hands. "All Europe," 
 he continued, " scoffed at this peace, and the honor 
 and martial glory of the Hungarian nation will be 
 like naught if she persisted in keeping it. It will 
 disgrace her heroic name." 
 
 There was no occasion for adding more ; the Hun- 
 garians had no wish to be thought cowards, and to 
 this they preferred perjury. They enthusiastically 
 resolved upon war. Hunyadi alone remained cold; 
 he had no faith in big words and promises. But he 
 was compelled to obey the commands of his king. 
 He collected about 20,000 men, and with these he 
 again marched into the Turkish empire. The fa- 
 mous European contribution had dwindled down to a 
 few hundred soldiers and a few thousand florins, but 
 it was hoped that many of the discontented would 
 join them on their march. And, indeed, the vayvode 
 of Wallachia joined them with about 10,000 men,
 
 JOHN HUNYADI. 2O7 
 
 but he could not help remarking to the king with 
 regard to the forces of Sultan Mura, that the latter 
 was in the habit of surrounding himself when on a 
 hunting expedition with a retinue more numerous 
 than the entire Hungarian army. It was, however, 
 too late to think of drawing back. 
 
 And now bad news came crowding in ; it seemed 
 as if good fortune had altogether deserted the Hun- 
 garians. The Prince of Servia refused to join them. 
 The Albanians failed in their attempt to cut their 
 way to the Hungarians, and what seemed most in- 
 credible of all, the Italian naval squadron, whose 
 task it was to have been to hinder the sultan's cross- 
 ing over to Europe, had itself carried over the Turk 
 for good money. The Hungarians were left alone 
 and forsaken in the foreign country. There was 
 reason enough now for retreating, and there were 
 some who counselled retreat. It was Hunyadi's 
 turn now to interfere. He declared that he did not 
 fear the Turks under any circumstances, and if they 
 had got so far they were bound to engage them in 
 battle by beginning the attack themselves. As soon 
 as Hunyadi came to the fore, confidence was at once 
 restored ; his person inspired the army with courage, 
 and they continued their march against the Turks. 
 The two opposing armies met near Varna, on the 
 loth of November, 1444. The sultan had pitched 
 his tent on the top of a hill, and near it he had the 
 document, upon which the treaty of peace was writ- 
 ten, hoisted on a pole. He had with him more than 
 100,000 men ready for the fray. But the order of 
 battle of the Hungarian army was again most ad-
 
 2O8 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 mirable, such as could only be suggested by the 
 lofty genius of Hunyadi. To every man was as- 
 signed his part and place, nor was any exception 
 made in this respect in favor of the king. He ob- 
 tained a post where no danger could reach him, and 
 Hunyadi solemnly engaged him not to leave his 
 place until he himself would call upon him to do 
 so. 
 
 The battle now commenced. Hunyadi with his 
 reserve horse-troop went wherever there was most 
 danger, assisting, encouraging, and commanding. 
 The first set-to took place between the cavalry. The 
 struggle did not last long ; the brilliant Turkish cav- 
 alry was put to flight in disorder. At this desperate 
 sight the sultan put spurs to his horse, and turning 
 its head was about to leave the battle-field, but the 
 commanders near him seized the bridle of his horse, 
 and menaced him with death if he did not go on 
 with the battle. The sultan, taking courage again, 
 ordered fresh troops into the fight, and the battle be- 
 gan to rage with renewed fury. In the midst of the 
 sanguinary contest the two hostile leaders met face 
 to face. Karafi Bey, his eyes sparkling, fell upon 
 Hunyadi, and lifted his sword, but before he could 
 strike a blow he slid from his horse pierced to the 
 heart. The fall of their leader was the signal for the 
 wild flight of the Turkish horse. 
 
 The Polish banner-bearers, surrounding the king, 
 were envious witnesses of Hunyadi's victory, and 
 urged Uladislaus, who was hardly able to restrain his 
 youthful ardor, to participate in the engagement, by 
 representing to him that victory was already assured,
 
 JOHN HUNYADI. 209 
 
 that he should not leave all the glory to Hunyadi, 
 and that he should, at least, draw his sword and 
 show himself a hero worthy of the double crown. 
 
 The king, forgetting his promise, accompanied by 
 the banner of the country, made straight for the 
 Janissaries, who had, as yet, hardly been in the fight. 
 Hunyadi immediately saw the king's movement, and 
 followed him as swiftly as he could. Upon this the 
 king penetrated more deeply still into the ranks of 
 the Janissaries, Hunyadi being unable now to cut 
 his way to his sovereign. The king's companions 
 succumbed one after the other. At last a Janissary 
 succeeded in creeping up close to the king's horse, 
 and striking at the horse's feet with his sword, he 
 brought it down. Horse and rider fell, and the king 
 was instantly despatched. The mad fray lasted a few 
 minutes longer, when suddenly the pale head of the 
 king, in his silver helmet, stuck on a pike, became 
 visible. At this sight the Hungarian army and their 
 leaders lost their senses, and the campaign came to a 
 sudden end. The victorious Hungarians became 
 fugitives, and Hunyadi himself returned to his home 
 a lonely wanderer. The sultan, in surveying the 
 bloody battle-field, exclaimed : " I. wish my enemies 
 only a victory like this." The Turks were not in a 
 condition to pursue the defeated Hungarians. 
 
 The discomfited army crept back to their country, 
 bringing with them the news that Hungary was with- 
 out a king. The uppermost question now was who 
 should be elected king. The plight of Hungary at 
 that time was a sorry one, indeed. The king had 
 left no children behind him, and yet there was an
 
 2IO THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 heir to the throne. When Albert of Hapsburg, the 
 predecessor of Uladislaus, died, in 1439, ms widow 
 was enceinte, and she afterwards gave birth to a boy. 
 The partisans of the late queen caused this her son, 
 Ladislaus, to be crowned at once. The great ma- 
 jority, however, and Hunyadi with them, wanted 
 on the throne a man who would be able to be their 
 leader in the struggle against the Turks. The result 
 was the election of Uladislaus, the Polish king, in 
 1440. The widowed queen with her son repaired to 
 the court of the Duke of Austria, and from there she 
 caused Hungary to be devastated by the Bohemian, 
 John Ziska. 
 
 It was quite natural that after the death of 
 Uladislaus the whole nation should look to the child 
 Ladislaus as the future king. But the Austrian duke 
 claimed a large sum under the title of the expenses 
 of education of the young prince, a sum which the 
 Hungarians were neither able nor willing to pay. 
 Whilst this matter was being discussed, Hunyadi, 
 being the captain-general of the country, was tem- 
 porarily entrusted with the conduct of the principal 
 affairs of state. Two years later he was elected 
 governor of the country, with powers that but little 
 differed from those of royalty. 
 
 As governor he deemed it his paramount duty to 
 resume hostilities against the Turks. His mind was 
 busy again with the plan to which he had devoted 
 his life and fortune namely, to attack the Turks 
 and to drive them from Europe. In 1448 the sultan, 
 at the head of an army of 150,00x5 men, invaded 
 Albania, a country with which Hungary, owing to
 
 JOHN HUNYADl. 211 
 
 their community of interests, deeply sympathized. 
 Hunyadi thought this an opportune moment to 
 carry out his plan. From abroad he received again 
 assurances of aid, but in the end they turned out to 
 be, as before, empty promises. Putting his trust in 
 God and himself, he started with 24,000 men. It 
 was his purpose to unite his forces with those of 
 Scanderbeg, the commander-in-chief of the Al- 
 banians. But as soon as the news of Hunyadi's ad- 
 vance reached the sultan, he left the Albanians and 
 marched against his old and most implacable enemy. 
 He offered him peace, but Hunyadi replied by draw- 
 ing up his army in battle array. The battle was 
 fought with great desperation, the fight continuing 
 for days, and although the Turkish army outnum- 
 bered five times the Hungarians, the strategy ,of 
 Hunyadi rendered the issue doubtful for some time. 
 At the last moment, however, it was decided in favor 
 of the Turks. Treason had turned the scale ; the 
 Wallachian vayvode, losing confidence in the wearied 
 troops of Hunyadi, deserted with 8,000 men and 
 joined the sultan. When the Hungarians saw this, 
 they refused to listen any further to their comman- 
 ders, and, scattering, they fled. Hunyadi himself 
 escaped with great difficulty only. Whilst wander- 
 ing towards his country on foot, unarmed, and 
 through impassable roads, he fell into the hands of 
 two Turkish marauders. They little knew what a 
 distinguished person they had captured, but there 
 was no mistake about the golden cross on his breast. 
 Luckily for Hunyadi they both coveted the cross 
 and began quarrelling over it, and finally fell to fisti-
 
 212 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 cuffs. During their fight Hunyacli suddenly drew 
 the sword of one of them, slaying him with it ; the 
 other, on seeing this, took to his heels. He had 
 hardly escaped one danger, when another was in 
 store for him. On his way he had hired a guide, 
 who, instead of taking him to his own country, 
 brought him to Brankovitch, the Servian prince, the 
 man who, since the campaign of 1443, had been con- 
 stantly crossing his plans. The treacherous Servian, 
 who was licking now the hands of the Hungarians, 
 now of the Turks, entered into negotiations with the 
 Turkish sultan concerning Hunyadi's head. The 
 latter, however, esteemed, even in his enemy, the 
 pure-minded hero, and refused to entertain so base 
 an offer. 
 
 Hunyadi returned to Hungary, and hastened to 
 forget the injury done to him by the Servian 
 prince ; but the Turks he did not forget. In his 
 most desperate straits he steadily kept before his 
 eyes the main object of his life the ruin of the 
 Turks. In 1453, the child-king, Ladislaus V., began 
 his reign ; but, although Hunyadi then relinquished 
 his position as governor of Hungary, he still re- 
 mained the captain-general of the country, the com- 
 mander-in-chief of the army, and as such he missed 
 no opportunity to injure his arch-enemy. 
 
 This same year, 1453, witnessed a most remark- 
 able event in the history of Europe. Mohammed 
 II., the new sultan, took Constantinople, the capital 
 of the Greek empire and the gate of Europe, and 
 made it the capital of his empire. " There is one 
 God in heaven, and one Lord on earth, and I am
 
 JOHN HUNYADT. 21$ 
 
 that Lord ! " exclaimed the sultan on entering Con- 
 stantinople. All Europe trembled; Hunyadi alone 
 remained calm and prepared for war. After a few 
 minor engagements, Turks and Hungarians stood 
 face to face again near Belgrade in 1456. This for- 
 tress was the gate of Hungary, and the great sultan 
 wanted to get possession of it. For this purpose he 
 determined to make a supreme effort, feeling that 
 the seizure of this fortified place would decide the 
 fate of generations to come. He led over 150,00x3 
 men under the walls of that famous fortress, and 
 hastened to station his ships on the Danube, on 
 which Belgrade lies, in order to cut off the communi- 
 cation between the Hungarian army and the garri- 
 son, and thus to isolate the latter. The Hungarian 
 army itself did not number, even now, over 15,000 
 men, hardly more than those whom Hunyadi had 
 been able to collect by his own exertions. Only this 
 time, however, the great captain did not stand alone, 
 but received great help from another quarter. A 
 monk of magic eloquence, John Capistrano, who was 
 sent by the pope to the country to preach a crusade, 
 had, by the irresistible power of his appeals, collected 
 60,000 crusaders to assist Hunyadi. These men were 
 armed with scythes and pole-axes only, and were led 
 by the sound of bells instead of words of military 
 command ; but their fanaticism was quite equal to 
 that of the Mohammedan Turk. 
 
 With an army composed of such warriors Hunyadi 
 engaged in the great contest. His first effort was 
 directed to the river, in order to relieve the garrison 
 of the fortress. After an engagement of five hours,
 
 214 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 the great naval squadron of the Turks was scattered 
 by the small galleys which had been the objects of 
 the enemy's ridicule, but which were led to the at- 
 tack by fanatic crusaders under the captaincy of 
 Hunyadi. This restored the communication of the 
 Hungarian army with the Hungarian garrison. Still 
 Mohammed looked with scorn at the rabble collected 
 on the opposite bank, the leaders of whom were 
 largely monks, and he swore an oath that in two 
 months' time, he would plant the proud crescent on 
 the walls of Buda, the capital of Hungary. For 
 eight days and eight nights the Turkish guns roared 
 against Belgrade, and on the ninth day Mohammed 
 ordered a general assault. The assault was renewed 
 three times, and three times were the Turks repulsed. 
 At the last moment, when the strength of the be- 
 sieged seemed ready to give way, the Hungarian 
 commander ordered the fascines soaked with oil and 
 pitch, which were piled up in the ditches, to be set 
 on fire and to be hurled at the storming men. Con- 
 fusion seized the assailants, and each sought safety 
 for himself, for he who did not escape met with a 
 miserable death in the flames. Meanwhile the de- 
 fence was rapidly changing into an attack along the 
 whole line ; the crusaders, mad with the excitement 
 of the struggle, rushed forward, while Hunyadi 
 directed an orderly attack against the Turkish camp. 
 The engagement now became general, and the sul- 
 tan himself received a wound. Dismayed, he took to 
 flight, his troops following. Nothing could keep 
 them longer together ; the immense army was scat- 
 tered to the winds, leaving behind them, under the
 
 JOHN HUN Y ADI. 215 
 
 walls of the famous fortress, 40,000 killed and 300 
 cannon. 
 
 At that most glorious moment of Hunyadi's life, 
 when the Turks were put to flight by the bare men- 
 tion of his name, this Christian hero, suddenly and 
 without any premonition, breathed his last. He did 
 not live to hear the panegyrics and felicitations of 
 all Europe, the grateful recognition of his services 
 by his own nation. His mighty frame sank under 
 the weight of the fatigue of war, and, after a brief 
 agony, he expired. His inveterate enemy, the great 
 sultan himself, expressed grief at the news of his 
 death, pronouncing him to be the ablest general in 
 Europe. 
 
 Many there were, however, who rejoiced at his 
 death. For, like all great men, he too had enemies 
 against whom he was engaged in a life-and-death 
 struggle as much as against the Turks. He had his 
 envious rivals from the moment he had struggled 
 into fame and had acquired a fortune. These men 
 cared little to remember that he was indebted for 
 both to his talents and courage. Some of the great 
 lords, who were able to trace back their pedigrees to 
 past centuries, looked upon him, the son of a simple 
 noble, as an upstart. When he afterwards became 
 captain-general and governor, they refused to obey 
 him, but he made them obey by force of his arms. 
 They were only silenced, however; in their inner- 
 most hearts they both hated and feared him. Among 
 these were Garay, Brankovics, and Czilley, all of them 
 connections of the royal house. The latter, Ulric 
 Czilley, a wily and base man, who, though a for-
 
 2l6 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 eigner, had pushed himself into the first place near 
 the minor King Ladislaus V., was unremitting in his 
 intrigues against him. He and his companions made 
 the shallow-minded young king believe that Hunyadi 
 and his two sons, who were growing into manhood, 
 were ambitious of the crown, and, under this pretext, 
 but without the king's knowledge, they laid traps for 
 him. The fearless hero faced all such base machina- 
 tions with the loftiness of a truly martial spirit. 
 The secret attacks he met with caution and straight- 
 forwardness, and the slanderous insinuation that he 
 coveted the throne he refuted by the simplicity of 
 his life. Rich enough to have at any moment ten 
 thousand men at his back, he was always as modest 
 and unselfish as a monk. His detractors reflected 
 on his great wealth, forgetting that his entire income 
 was spent in armaments against the Turks. 
 
 He lived and died like a true knight, and in Hun- 
 garian history he will live forever as their grandest 
 hero. If he did not achieve his most ardent wish, 
 the expulsion of the Turks from Europe, his will 
 always remain the merit of having made the arms of 
 Hungary respected and feared by the Turks, and they 
 no longer dared to look upon his country as an easy 
 conquest. Over sixty years elapsed before a Turkish 
 sultan again ventured to threaten Belgrade.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 KING MATTHIAS. 
 
 1458-1490. 
 
 MATTHIAS, the son of Hunyadi, was indebted for 
 his elevation to the throne to the prestige of his 
 father, who was the idol of the nation, but it was 
 through his own genius alone that he strengthened 
 the throne and became famous, mighty, and, per- 
 haps, the greatest king of whom his country could 
 boast. He excelled alike as a soldier and leader of 
 armies, as a statesman and diplomatist, and as a man 
 delighting in science and art. In those warlike days 
 it would not have been possible for him to become 
 conspicuous among his contemporaries and to be- 
 come a powerful king, unless he had, in the first 
 place, shown ability as a soldier. Matthias inherited 
 the courage and soldierly qualities of his great father, 
 and, following in his footsteps, became the foremost 
 general of his age, combining rare personal gallantry 
 with a remarkable capacity for military organization. 
 The splendid example of his father had been before 
 his eyes since his most tender years ; it was his father 
 who initiated him into the skilful handling of arms 
 and into the secrets of strategy, and both his father 
 and his famous mother, Elizabeth Szilagyi, vied with 
 each other in inuring his body and mind to the strug- 
 
 217
 
 2l8 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 gles and dangers of which, since his earliest childhood, 
 so large a share had been his lot. 
 
 Trained amid warlike games, he very soon had to 
 face serious struggles, for the men who had looked 
 upon John Hunyadi with envy and jealousy ex- 
 tended their ill feeling to his two handsome boys, 
 Matthias and his elder brother, Ladislaus. No 
 secret was made before the youths of the dangers 
 that surrounded them ; they were taught rather 
 to brave than to avoid them. Ladislaus, less fortu- 
 nate than his brother, soon fell a victim to the 
 machinations directed against both. Ladislaus was 
 threatened with assassination in his own castle at the 
 hands of Czilley, who was a foreigner and the guar- 
 dian and friend of the boy-king. His men, attracted 
 by the noise of the scuffle which ensued, rushed in 
 and killed the would-be murderer. The king vowed 
 that he would not molest Ladislaus for this act of 
 self-defence, but he had him afterwards seized, 
 thrown into prison, and executed without warrant 
 of law or judicial sentence. This was the work 
 of the enemies of the house of Hunyadi, but very 
 soon they had to pay the penalty of their iniquity. 
 The mass of the nation was roused, and upon the 
 sudden death of Ladislaus V. in his other kingdom, 
 amongst the Czechs, Matthias, the surviving son of 
 Hunyadi, was proclaimed king of Hungary. 
 
 Although but fifteen years old when he ascend- 
 ed the throne, he both knew and was accustomed to 
 the dangers that lurked around him, and it was not 
 long before he proved that he could cope with them. 
 Indeed his natural disposition and early training
 
 22O THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 rather led him to seek danger. From his earliest 
 childhood he worshipped heroes, and nothing de- 
 lighted him more than the ballads, legends, and 
 heroic songs glorifying the gallant deeds and won- 
 derful performances of such leaders of men, as Attila, 
 Alexander the Great, Roland, the French Knight, or 
 his own father. He could listen to these stories all 
 day long, forgetting both hunger and thirst. As he 
 grew to manhood and became king, he had oppor- 
 tunity himself to perform the great deeds he had 
 admired in others. His personal courage knew no 
 limits, and his reckless daring frequently confounded 
 his own men, who, not without cause, feared for his 
 life. 
 
 There was one remarkable trait which particularly 
 characterized his valorous deeds as well as his other 
 acts, and that was his love of justice. To this might 
 be traced, in most cases, his boldest actions. Nothing 
 afforded him greater pleasure than to unmask the 
 hypocrite, and to shame the bully and braggart. On 
 occasions like these he would often risk his life to 
 make the truth triumph. Many an instance of this 
 kind is related of him. On one occasion, a German 
 knight, by the name of Holubar, came to Buda, the 
 capital of Hungary. He paraded everywhere his 
 gigantic frame and extraordinary strength, and was 
 indeed thought to be invincible in the tournaments 
 where mounted knights rushed at each other, lance 
 in hand, for he invariably precipitated his adversary 
 to the ground. King Matthias, anxious to measure 
 arms with the big-bodied German, challenged him. 
 The latter declined the challenge, fearing lest he
 
 KING MATTHIAS. 221 
 
 might do some harm to the king, and be in conse- 
 quence exposed to ill treatment. But the king in- 
 sisted, and Holubar finally consented. He was de- 
 termined, however, to slide from his saddle at the 
 slightest thrust from the king. Somehow the king 
 heard of his determination, and immediately caused 
 him to be summoned to his presence. He there 
 vowed, by all the saints, that if he perceived Holu- 
 bar doing this, he would have him executed, and at 
 the same time made him swear that he would fight 
 with him as if he were the knight's mortal enemy. 
 The contest took place in the presence of many 
 thousands, and many doubted the king's success, 
 comparing the German giant with the middle-sized 
 Matthias. The two combatants rushed at each other 
 with tremendous thrusts ; the steeled muscles of the 
 king proved superior to the heavy bulk of his ad- 
 versary, who reeled from his horse, struck by a heavy 
 blow on the forehead, and lay with his arm broken 
 and fainting on the ground. The king, too, stag- 
 gered by his adversary's thrust, had to slide off the 
 saddle holding on by his horse's bridle. The king, 
 having humiliated the bragging foreigner, sent him 
 away with presents of horses, splendid dresses, and a 
 large purse of money. This happened shortly after 
 his elevation to the throne, showing that he then 
 already was a practical master in the use of arms. 
 Matthias was of middle size, but the trunk of his 
 body tall in comparison with his legs, which were 
 rather short, and it was owing to this freak of nature 
 that when on horseback he always overtopped his 
 fellow-riders. He was broad-shouldered, deep-chest-
 
 222 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 ed, and his limbs were as hardened as steel. On this 
 solid frame rested a massive yet finely cut head, and 
 his eyes were as sharp as those of the falcon. He 
 was able to concentrate his strength and will on one 
 point, never losing his self-confidence, never waver- 
 ing, and full of endurance. He never vacillated, and- 
 sure of the present and of the coming moment, was 
 always ready for action. He possessed an even na- 
 ture, and was equally unruffled and steady in single 
 combat and on the battle-field, in his private and his 
 public life. He at all times produced the impression 
 of a man full of power and determination, and of a 
 mind of large culture and many-sidedness. 
 
 We shall now speak of him as the soldier, for he 
 will appear before us during most of his career in 
 wars and battles. He waged war, on several occa- 
 sions, against his neighbors on the north, the Poles 
 and Czechs, defeating them often, and finally becom- 
 ing the king of the Czechs. On the south he fought 
 numerous smaller battles, but almost without cessa- 
 tion, against the sultan. His most inveterate enemy, 
 however, was Frederic, the envious and avaricious 
 emperor of Germany, his western neighbor, who in- 
 cessantly harassed him. Matthias was engaged in four 
 great wars against him, and finally captured, in 1485, 
 Frederic's capital, Vienna, compelling the German 
 emperor to go begging from convent to convent, 
 seated on a wagon drawn by oxen. 
 
 Hungary Avas, at that period, beset by many 
 troubles and enemies, but her name was honored and 
 respected everywhere. The sword was in everybody's 
 hand, and it almost seemed as if men were born
 
 KING MATTHIAS. 223 
 
 [with it. It was the prevailing characteristic of 
 European society, in that age, that all men went 
 about armed, and were ready to draw their swords 
 on the least provocation, and in Hungary especially, 
 where fighting against the neighbors was constantly 
 going on, this fashion was more prevalent than else- 
 Avhere. King Matthias was well aware that the 
 rash, passionate, hot-headed, free, and soldier-nation 
 he ruled over would but reluctantly submit to re- 
 straint. He was, nevertheless, determined to intro- 
 duce discipline amongst his soldiers. It was an ex- 
 ceedingly difficult task, considering that the armies 
 of Europe in general were, in those days, undisci- 
 plined, loosely organized, composed of motley ele- 
 ments, and not subjected to uniform military train- 
 ing. But Matthias was not at a loss for a remedy, 
 being a man to inquire, to observe, to learn from 
 others, and to put to use what he had learned. He 
 remembered the example of his father, who had 
 drilled his own soldiers, the lessons derived from the 
 study of ancient Roman generalship and from con- 
 versations with the most renowned contemporary 
 captains, and finally he did not spurn to profit by 
 the example of his enemies, the Turks. The Turk- 
 ish Janissaries, the most famous foot-soldiery in the 
 world, were well-disciplined troops, forming a perma- 
 nent and standing nucleus for the Turkish forces. 
 
 A similar standing body of soldiers was now or- 
 ganized by King Matthias. He employed his genius 
 in their training, kept them together, supported them 
 by his own means, and established discipline amongst 
 them by the force of his character. This was the
 
 224 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 famous black troop, one of the corner-stones of his 
 power, and, next to the French, the earliest standing 
 army in Europe. These soldiers he attached to his 
 person by the strongest ties. He lavishly bestowed 
 upon them both pay and booty, and made them shar- 
 ers of his triumphs. But it was, above all, the rare 
 charm of his personal qualities which won for him their 
 affections. They were not only faithfully devoted to 
 him during his life, but fondly cherished his memory 
 after his death. He himself trained and instructed 
 them, sparing neither time nor trouble to accomplish 
 his purpose. He set them a bright example in all sol- 
 dierly duties. He shared with his soldiers all the hard- 
 ships of war; suffered with them cold, hunger, and 
 thirst, and the fatigues of forced marches. He did 
 not shrink from the most exposed position on the 
 battle-field whenever his presence was needed. At 
 sieges, he was often seen walking to and fro amidst 
 a hail of bullets and arrows, a recklessness to which 
 numerous lesser and larger wounds on his body 
 abundantly bore witness. He paid particular atten- 
 tion to the ferreting out of the weak points of fort- 
 resses. He employed clever spies for that purpose, 
 paying them liberally, but never placed implicit 
 trust in them, for he himself was a cleverer spy than 
 any of them. It particularly gratified him to hood- 
 wink an enemy by discovering his plans, even at the 
 risk of his life, and thus frustrating them. 
 
 In 1475 he laid siege to Shabatz, situated on the 
 southern border of the country. He was exceeding- 
 ly anxious to take the place, but knowing nothing 
 about its defences, he undertook in person the spy-
 
 KING MATTHIAS. 22 5 
 
 ing out of the plan of the fortifications. At night 
 he got into a boat in company with a trusty attend- 
 ant and an oarsman, who was to row him around the 
 walls. They were hardly half way, when the Turks 
 discovered them, and hailed them with a volley of 
 shots, which, in spite of the darkness, struck his at- 
 tendant. The king, defying death, contined his in- 
 vestigations, undaunted by the heavy fire, until he 
 had finished the inspection of the fortress. The 
 bold venture, moreover, was not thrown away, for 
 shortly after the place was captured. Some of his 
 expeditions were more amusing, but not less danger- 
 ous. 
 
 At the siege of Vienna, in 1485, he frequently 
 walked all around the walls, unattended, or, at most, 
 followed by a page. On one occasion, he stole 
 into the city in disguise. Dressed in the shabby 
 dress of a country boor, with a basket containing 
 butter and eggs on his back, he traversed the city 
 in every direction, selling his wares, and at the same 
 time spying out the condition of the fortifications. 
 He lounged about in the market-place, listening to 
 what the people talked about, and what they were 
 planning. He made his escape in safety, and, making 
 good use of what he had seen and heard, the city 
 shortly afterward fell into his hands. 
 
 Upon another occasion, his forces being stationed 
 opposite the Turkish camp, he assumed the disguise 
 of a Turk, and mixing with the country people who 
 entered the camp to sell their provisions, he suc- 
 ceeded in passing in with them. Once there, he 
 had the hardihood to seek out the sultan's tent, and,
 
 226 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 settling down near it, he went on selling provisions 
 and spying all day long. Upon his return to the 
 Hungarian camp, he sent, on the following day, a 
 letter to the sultan, conceived in these terms : 
 " Thou guardest thy camp badly, emperor, and thou 
 art thyself badly guarded. For yesterday I sat, 
 even from morn until night, near thy tent, selling 
 provisions. And lest thou doubtest my words, I 
 will tell thee now what was served on thy table." 
 The sultan, upon reading this letter, became 
 frightened, and, together with his army, noiselessly 
 left the neighborhood. 
 
 The king was particularly rigorous in the ordering 
 of the sentry service. He used to rise at night and 
 inspect the sentinels, to see if they were awake, 
 and in their places. He was especially active during 
 sieges, being constantly on his feet. He was never 
 satisfied with reports alone, but was bound to look 
 after every thing in person. Everybody marvelled at 
 his incessant watchfulness. He awoke at the slight- 
 est sound, at the merest whisper. At the same 
 time, he was famed for his sound slumbers amidst 
 the din of battle. Upon such occasions, the shouts 
 of the men, the roaring of the cannon, and the re- 
 ports of the musketry seemed to lull him to sleep. 
 
 He was self-willed when it came to action. He 
 would, it is true, call a council of war, and listen to 
 the opinions of his captains, but in the end he near- 
 ly always acted on his own views. He was admir- 
 able in distinguishing idle reports from the truth, 
 being as indefatigable and clear-headed in his in- 
 vestigations as he was quick and fertile in the con
 
 228 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 certing of plans. During the intervals of rest, he 
 liked to mingle with his soldiers. He would joke 
 and be full of mischief with them, and, especially in 
 his younger days, would often eat and drink with 
 them. He always had a kind word for the men in 
 the ranks, just as, in civil life, he was anxious to 
 impress people that he held the great lord, the poor 
 noble, and the peasant in equal esteem, as long as 
 they proved themselves worthy of it. This was 
 truly a rare princely virtue in his age. Always 
 gracious and affable, he loved to discover merit, and 
 to reward it. He sought out the wounded, often 
 even on the battle-field, inquired into their circum- 
 stances, comforted them in their troubles, and re- 
 assured and nursed those who were low in spirits. 
 
 He made it a point that his soldiers should be 
 regularly and punctually paid, and rather than get 
 into arrears with their pay, he would borrow or levy 
 heavy taxes. On one occasion, however, during the 
 Czech wars, he was completely out of funds. He 
 had been just pondering how to raise money for his 
 soldiers, when he was called upon by his captains to 
 join them in a game of dice. The playing was kept 
 up all night, and the king hardly threw any other 
 numbers than those indicated by him beforehand. 
 It was easy for him, with fortune thus in his favor, 
 to win 10,000 florins, a sum which he at onde dis- 
 tributed amongst his soldiers in the morning. 
 
 Full of sympathy for his soldiers, and princely in 
 his rewards, he yet rigidly exacted discipline, es- 
 pecially in times of peril ; and well might he do so, 
 as he himself was amongst the first to submit to it.
 
 MATTHIAS. 2 29 
 
 A comrade to his soldiers during the hours of rest, 
 he became a most severe commander in war, and 
 during the military exercises and drills. Disregard 
 of discipline and disobedience were punished with 
 death. At the tournaments, he often challenged (as 
 was customary in Europe during the middle ages) 
 his captains to combat, rigorously enjoining upon 
 them not to spare his person, but the very per- 
 son whom he thus distinguished was mercilessly 
 punished if he offended against military discipline. 
 At a tournament, he met in single combat, in sight 
 of the whole country, Szvela, one of his captains ; 
 yet, but a short time afterwards, he sent both him 
 and his companions to the gallows for breaches of 
 discipline and mutinous conduct. He was, however, 
 never cruel to his soldiers, and readily forgave offen- 
 ces if he was convinced that they sprang, not from 
 ill-will, but from awkwardness and lack of experi- 
 ence. 
 
 During the campaign against Frederic, the em- 
 peror of Germany, he sent against him one of 
 his generals by the name of Simon Nagy. Nagy, 
 otherwise a brave captain, was defeated, and re- 
 turned home filled with shame at his disgrace. The 
 king received him with a cheerful countenance, 
 well knowing that the gallant captain had done all 
 he could, and sent him back again at the head of an 
 army to resume the campaign. The brave soldier, 
 animated by his king's confidence and magnanimity, 
 achieved such a triumphant victory that from that 
 time Frederic never again ventured to send an 
 army against Matthias. He was happy in the selec-
 
 23O THE STORY Of HUNGARY. 
 
 tion of his generals, and did not object to raising a 
 man of merit, although of low degree, to the most 
 exalted position. Kinizsy, his most distinguished 
 captain, a man of mean fortunes, owed his elevation 
 to the king. This man had been, in his youth, a 
 plain miller-boy, endowed by nature with gigantic 
 strength. As a miller, he was capable of lifting with 
 one hand the heaviest mill-stone, and, on becoming 
 a leader of armies, he rushed upon his enemy with 
 a ponderous sword in each hand. Such was his 
 enoromous strength that, at a great feast held on the 
 battle-field to celebrate his most renowned victory, 
 near Kenyrmezo, he, the triumphant Kinizsy him- 
 self, stood up before the merry-making crowd, and, 
 holding the dead body of a full-grown Turk in his 
 right hand, another in his left, and a third between 
 his teeth, tripped the national dance. Captains like 
 these contributed to the military prestige of the 
 king, but he owed still more to his own royal quali- 
 ties. 
 
 The impression made by these qualities upon his 
 soldiers remained unchanged, for he continually 
 demonstrated his soldierly virtues, his affability, his 
 liberality, .and generosity by deeds. Anecdotes in 
 which the king always played a pleasant part went 
 all the time -from mouth to mouth. An old 
 chronicler says of him : " Never was prince more 
 beloved and respected by his people and his soldiers 
 than he, but, at the same time, everybody feared 
 Mm as they would a savage lion." At the sound of 
 the drums and the blowing of the horns, every one 
 stood instantly ready for the engagement, and will-
 
 KING MATTHIAS. 2$l 
 
 ing to meet death for his king. During the mili- 
 tary drills, every eye was fixed on his person, and 
 every ear listened to the sound of his voice only; he 
 alone was the magnet that attracted and riveted the 
 general attention of his soldiers. In this respect, 
 Hungary stood alone amongst the nations of Europe, 
 and it was with men like these only that he was en- 
 abled to achieve his wonderfully rapid and well- 
 planned strategetic movements. At a time when 
 the armies of Europe were generally noted for their 
 unwieldiness, this mobility constituted one of the 
 chief advantages of the king's army, and to it he 
 owed his most conspicuous military achievements. 
 
 The king, in his turn, placed the fullest confidence 
 in his soldiers. In the camp and on the battle-field, 
 as we have seen, he went about unattended, or, at 
 the most, accompanied by one or two of his men. 
 He bestowed no care upon the guarding of his per- 
 son, although at that period immense sums were 
 lavished by the rulers to insure their personal safety 
 by surrounding themselves with a body-guard com- 
 posed of picked men. He did not feel the necessity 
 of imitating his royal neighbors in this particular; 
 the love and respect of his soldiers proved a more 
 powerful protection than any troop of body-guards 
 he could have organized. 
 
 In summing up all we have said about Matthias as 
 a soldier, we obtain an interesting, attractive, and by 
 no means commonplace picture of him. Severe to 
 others, he was no less severe to himself ; active, en- 
 ergetic, enterprising, and crafty, he was most happy 
 when actively engaged. Versed in military matters,
 
 232 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 he at times exhibited a knowledge of military science 
 which reminds us of a modern tactician. 
 
 The general historian, as well as the chronicler of 
 his own country, will always assign to him a con- 
 spicuous place, not only as a ruler and statesman 
 distinguished in his own age, but also as an illustri- 
 ous example for the world of royal power, dignity, 
 and magnanimity. He entertained a high opinion 
 of the functions of a ruler. Being ambitious and 
 proud, he liked to give to the world the spectacle of 
 a throne occupied by a king dignified, powerful, and 
 splendid, who, nevertheless, paid tribute to all that 
 was noble and virtuous in humanity. His mind was 
 always busy with great affairs and bold schemes, and 
 he was unwearying in seeking the means of accom- 
 plishing them. He never shrank from any task, nor 
 was any task too trifling for him to engage in if there 
 was a pressing occasion for it. He was as inde- 
 fatigable in his study attending to diplomatic affairs 
 as on the battle-field, unflagging in his activity, and 
 thoroughly informed about every thing. 
 
 There was a great deal of work to be done, for 
 Matthias took a large part in the political mazes of 
 Europe. He kept up connections with all Europe, 
 with a view to maintaining and increasing his power 
 a system which was at that time pursued by no 
 other European ruler. The intercourse with the 
 foreign countries was now of a friendly now of a 
 hostile nature, but it never ceased. As soon as the 
 campaign was at an end on the batttle-field, the dip- 
 lomatic contest was resumed and continued in the 
 study. As the king grew older and more powerful.
 
 KING MATTHIAS. 233 
 
 his troubles with the neighbors increased, for, owing 
 to the enhanced weight of his word, more and more 
 people sought him out and entered into relations with 
 him. Foreign ambassadors were continually either 
 arriving or departing from his court, while his own 
 emissaries were either leaving on, or returning from, 
 missions of lesser or greater importance concerning 
 affairs of state or family. Upon such occasions, es- 
 pecially in the case of missions of greater importance, 
 he felt the whole dignity of the royal position and 
 spared neither pains nor money to surround it with 
 stateliness. The ordinary embassies usually num- 
 bered from fifty to sixty members ; the more brilliant 
 embassies were frequently attended by as many as 
 a hundred servants. 
 
 In 1487 Matthias sent a splendid embassy to the 
 court of Charles VIII., king of France, a description 
 of which will give an idea of the pomp displayed by 
 the Hungarian king. He caused three hundred horses 
 of uniform color to be selected, on each of which sat 
 a youth clad in purple velvet. These youths all 
 wore long gold chains on their sides, and upon enter- 
 ing a city each placed a braidwork mounted with 
 pearls on his head. The contemporary chronicles 
 speak with ecstasy of the beauty of the men, of the 
 splendor of their dress, and of the rich harnesses of 
 their horses, embossed with precious stones. The 
 presents sent to the French king on that occasion, 
 consisting of costly horses, horses' trappings, splen- 
 did robes, vessels and ornaments of gold and silver, 
 amounted to a sum of no less than half a million 
 of florins of the currency of our days.
 
 234 THE STORY Of HUNGARY, 
 
 The embassy sent by Matthias in 1476 to the king 
 of Naples whose daughter, Beatrice, became sub- 
 sequently his wife exceeded the last named in 
 numbers, if not in splendor. It was composed of 
 church and lay magnates, scholars, prelates, soldiers 
 of high rank, nobles, knights, relatives of the king, 
 his intimates and councillors. These again were at- 
 tended by their secretaries, chamberlains, pages, 
 grooms and forerunners. It was a wonderfully 
 variegated sight, rich in coloring, this mounted 
 army of men dressed in costly robes of various and 
 glaring colors. The great lords were dressed from 
 head to foot in gala costumes, brilliant with gold 
 and silver and jewels, the nobles and knights in cos- 
 tumes of colored velvet, the pages and courtiers in 
 colored satin all of them mounted on high-mettled 
 steeds. In their train followed the numerous jesters 
 or fools, whom it was customary at that time for 
 every great lord to have by his side, to make sport, 
 or to tell the truth ; musicians, especially, according 
 to the fashion of the day, trumpeters, drummers, 
 and harpists ; and, finally, players and buffoons, all 
 of them attired and bedizened in motley, parti- 
 colored and tawdry costumes. 
 
 The horses' keep alone cost tnis embassy a million 
 of florins, present currency. But not satisfied with 
 carrying on their backs half of the current wealth of 
 the country they came to represent, the members of 
 the embassy had brought with them, besides, vessels 
 of gold and silver, and jewelry of all kind, to be dis- 
 tributed as presents, or to be paraded about. Os- 
 tentation was the fashion of the day ; objects of
 
 KING MATTHIAS. 235 
 
 luxury were still a sort of novelty, and those posses- 
 sing them were anxious to have the pleasure of their 
 display. There was another feature about the pa- 
 geant of this mission which made it almost unique ; 
 and with which Matthias created the greatest sensa- 
 tion. This was a band of Turkish prisoners of high 
 rank, clad in costly caftans with golden turbans on 
 their heads, who preceded the brilliant Hungarian 
 procession upon their entering the Italian cities. 
 These prisoners had just been captured by the king 
 near Shabatz, and they were to serve as an evidence 
 of Hungarian prowess. At that time half Europe 
 stood in awe of the powerful Turks, particularly the 
 Italians, who, although excelling in art and science, 
 were wretched and pusillanimous soldiers. Both 
 Matthias and his father, John Hunyadi, were known 
 to the Italians as the most powerful and successful 
 foes of the dreaded Turks, and the prestige of the 
 names of these two warriors won greater respect for 
 the embassy than all the wealth and luxury dis- 
 played by it. 
 
 Brilliant as were the embassies sent by Matthias 
 to foreign courts, he was no less gratified by the ar- 
 rival of missions to his own, which were looked upon 
 as a sort of holiday event. The king himself was 
 inclined to be liberal if he wished to do honor to 
 any one. There were, besides, gathered about his 
 person a motley crowd of Hungarian, German, and 
 Czech magnates, prelates and nobles, attentive to 
 every command of his. Then there were the court 
 attendants amounting to many hundreds, and all 
 these persons required but a nod from the king to
 
 236 Tti STORY Of HUNGARY. 
 
 devote themselves to the preparation of a brilliant 
 reception. They were quick to don their sumptuous 
 and costly dresses, they brandished their weapons 
 inlaid with precious stones, they pranced on their 
 steeds caparisoned in colored silk and velvet, and, 
 attended by an army of courtiers and servants, clad 
 in garments representing all the colors of the rain- 
 bow, the procession went out amid the blast of horns, 
 to meet the ambassador and to escort him to the 
 court. In 1487, John Valentini, the envoy from the 
 court of Ferrara, in Italy, and in 1488, Melchior 
 Russ, the Swiss envoy, were honored by receptions 
 of this kind. In December, 1479, John Anagarini, 
 the papal cardinal ambassador, was received with 
 the greatest imaginable pomp, by the king in person, 
 who, attended by his church and lay dignitaries, 
 came out to meet him at three o'clock in the morn- 
 ing. Thousands of wax torches shed a light as 
 broad as day over the dark and wintry scene. Three 
 days after the arrival of the cardinal the solemn 
 audience took place. The king appeared in his 
 royal robes, surrounded by the highest dignitaries of 
 the court, and by the church and lay magnates, all 
 sumptuously dressed. The king well understood the 
 art of astonishing and dazzling his visitors by the 
 dignity of his presence and by the display of lavish 
 pomp. 
 
 Upon one occasion he was staying at Visegrad, his 
 splendid palace a short distance from Buda, when 
 the sultan's ambassador arrived. It gratified the 
 pride of Matthias to dazzle the eyes of the Turkish 
 envoy, who was accustomed to the brilliant surround-
 
 238 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 ings of the sultan, with the splendor of his own 
 court. Visegrad, which was called by the contempo- 
 raries " an earthly paradise," fully suited his pur- 
 pose. The envoy and his train were brought from 
 their city quarters to the royal castle, in order to be 
 admitted to the solemn audience with the king. As 
 the gates of the castle were thrown open a gorgeous 
 spectacle met their eyes. The king stood on an em- 
 inence of one of his hanging gardens. Around him, 
 above and below him, were grouped the great of 
 the land and his courtiers, clad in silk, velvet, gold, 
 and silver robes, with shining arms. At this unex- 
 pected sight the envoy was struck with awe. In 
 confusion he drew nearer, but as his eyes met the 
 proud look of the king he became so embarrassed 
 that he lost the command of his voice, and was only 
 able to stammer out, after a pause : " The paclishah 
 greets you, the padishah greets you." The king, 
 perceiving his painful hesitation, had him led back 
 to his quarters. After the lapse of a few days he' 
 was conducted again into the king's presence, who, 
 after having bestowed upon the envoy rich presents, 
 sent him back to his master with the proud message 
 to " send another time an ambassador who, at least, 
 can speak." 
 
 Of such a nature were the audiences granted to 
 foreign envoys. The audiences granted to his own 
 subjects lacked, of course, the pomp and pageant of 
 the former, but the king was particularly careful and 
 painstaking in the treatment of the matters thus 
 brought before him. This was more especially the 
 case during the beginning of his reign. His first
 
 KING MATTHIAS. 239 
 
 wife, the daughter of the Czech king, whom he had 
 married in 1458, died a few years afterwards, leaving 
 him a widower, and the ceremonial of the court, in 
 the absence of a queen, admitted of an unrestrained 
 intercourse with his people. But he married again 
 in 1476 the daughter of the king of Naples, Princess 
 Beatrice. With her presence Italian etiquette and 
 formality began to prevail in the royal court, and 
 free access to the king's person became more and 
 more difficult. In his youth the business of his 
 doorkeepers was but scant, for the doors stood wide 
 open for the petitioners, who were kindly received 
 by the young king. Nor was the number of these 
 small, for the king's fame as a friend to justice had 
 spread all over the country. A whole army of peti- 
 tioners, from the great lord to the simple peasant, 
 frequently besieged the doors of the audience hall, 
 for Matthias was known to treat them all with uni- 
 form affability. He attentively listened to and 
 duly weighed the petitions and complaints of all. 
 This was a matter of great importance at a time 
 when a privileged class, the nobles, were the masters 
 of the property of the numerous peasantry, and fre- 
 quently held control even of their lives. The laws 
 at that period were both loose and defective, and 
 the judges could, with impunity, either misinterpret 
 or distort their meaning to the injury of the suitor. 
 Besides, in that age nearly every noble had a train 
 amounting to a small army, and the temptation 
 proved frequently irresistible to be his own judge 
 and to treat the weaker party as he pleased. Such 
 was then the condition of things all over Europe,
 
 240 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 The most efficacious remedy for these evils was a 
 king just and strong, who was not loth to inquire 
 into abuses and was ready to lend the weight of 
 his kingly command and of armed force against the 
 recalcitrant. Matthias was a ruler equal to such a 
 task. Many excellent laws were introduced during 
 his reign, and he had both the sense of justice and 
 the power to enforce them. The very knowledge of 
 the existence of such a final appeal greatly improved 
 the administration of justice, for every one was aware 
 that the king was a man of his word, and that his 
 threats were not empty utterances, but were sure to 
 be followed by swift and severe punishment. He 
 was as quick in disposing of the matters submitted 
 to him as he was careful in their consideration. If 
 he ever delayed affairs they were mostly connected 
 with important questions of state, diplomacy, and 
 finances, requiring caution in their management. 
 On such occasions he was master in the art of keep- 
 ing silent, and might have excited the envy of the 
 craftiest Italian diplomatist by his wariness. His mind 
 was not easily open to extraneous influences ; he 
 liked to get at the bottom of all complaints and ac- 
 cusations by personal investigation. He brought 
 into. the management of civil affairs the habits ex- 
 hibited by him on the battle-field ; he was always 
 inspecting and investigating. It was a matter of 
 frequent occurrence with the king to go among the 
 people in disguise in order to study their characters 
 and dispositions, to learn their complaints and 
 troubles, and, if possible, to give at once a helping- 
 hand. During these expeditions he strayed unknown
 
 KING MATTHIAS. 24! 
 
 into the villages, exposing himself frequently to the 
 overbearing treatment of a village judge, a landed 
 noble, or a constable, and even to occasional blows, 
 but if he afterwards got hold of the guilty parties he 
 showed them on his part no mercy. In his disguise 
 he was indifferent to the scoffs and gibes levelled at 
 him ; he rather enjoyed the incongruous and comical 
 plights he often found himself in, but at the same 
 time he was apt to give and to take a joke. Of 
 course the king always laughed last, when the dis- 
 graced culprits, after being punished, ruefully slunk 
 away. He was, as a general thing, very fond of 
 good-natured intrigues, and liked to season even 
 graver matters with a bit of pleasantry. 
 
 To the secret denunciations of eavesdroppers the 
 king, unlike many of his royal contemporaries, never 
 listened, preferring to trust to his own eyes and ears 
 only. This manly straightforwardness inspired all 
 his actions, and was instrumental in causing him 
 to arrive at the truth and to do justice, and obtained 
 for him among the people, even in his lifetime, the 
 name of " the just." The memory of his fame for 
 justice has survived to this day in the current 
 popular saying: " King Matthias is dead, justice has 
 fled ! " Although as a soldier and statesman crafty 
 and full of expedients, and even loving disguise in 
 contact with his people, he never was treacherous 
 and deceitful. Poisoning and assassination did not 
 enter into his catalogue of expedients as it did into 
 the policy and practice of his contemporary, the 
 French king, Louis XI., or the Italian princes, the 
 
 Estes, Sforzas, the Borgias, and the popes them- 
 16
 
 242 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 selves, who employed both as a favorite means for 
 accomplishing political objects. All unclean means 
 were repugnant to his frank and knightly nature, as 
 was evinced by the following instance. While he was 
 engaged in war, in 1463, against George Podiebrad, 
 the Czech king, he was approached by a man who 
 offered to take George's life in armed combat for a 
 reward of five thousand florins. The king, knowing 
 the difficulties of the enterprise, at once consented, 
 promising even a larger amount in case of success. 
 This man, after lurking for a long while about the 
 person of King George, despaired of being able to 
 carry out his fell design, for the king was surrounded 
 by the finest soldiers of the period, and to attack 
 him, under those circumstances, would have been 
 equivalent to forfeiting his own life. He therefore 
 proposed to King Matthias to remove the Czech 
 king by poison. The king indignantly refused to 
 profit by the assassin's offer, proudly exclaiming: 
 " We are in the habit of fighting with arms and not 
 with poison ! " At the same time he sent a message 
 to the Czech king putting him on his guard against 
 the attempt to take his life by poison, and caution- 
 ing him not to partake of any food or drink unless it 
 was first tested by one of his trusty men. 
 
 With views like these it was natural that King 
 Matthias should not be accessible to any fear of 
 poison or assassination. It was secretly intimated 
 to him at one time that his courtiers intended .mix- 
 ing poison with his food. Upon hearing this he ex- 
 claimed : " Let no king ruling justly and lawfully 
 {ear the poison and assassin's dagger of his subjects."
 
 KING MATTHIAS. 243 
 
 His capacity for government was particularly shown 
 in the right selection and thorough appreciation of 
 men, and in the independence which he always main- 
 tained. This trait of character became at once evi- 
 dent on his ascent to the throne. Being only fif- 
 teen years of age he was deemed too young for the 
 burden of government, and a governor and state- 
 councillors were placed by his side. But he felt 
 equal to the duties of his royal office, and deter- 
 mined to take the reins of government in his own 
 hands. In this scheme, however, he saw both his 
 friends and his enemies arrayed against him. The 
 former, the adherents of old Hunyadi, to whose ser- 
 vices he owed his throne, wished to superintend his 
 education, to guard him against dangers, and to 
 maintain at the same time their influence over him. 
 His enemies, on the other hand, true to the instincts 
 of their inveterate hostility to the Hunyadi family, 
 after having first opposed his aspirations to the 
 throne and afterwards intrigued against him, were 
 glad of an opportunity to balk him in his wishes, 
 and therefore they now sided against him, and soon 
 after openly declared for Frederic, the German em- 
 peror. 
 
 The position of the young king was an exceed- 
 ingly critical one ; his foreign enemies, too, the 
 Turks, Germans, and Czechs, began open opposition 
 and, what was most discouraging of all, the treasury 
 was empty. But he surprised everybody by the 
 independence and circumspect conduct with which 
 he met both friends and foes, and also the difficul- 
 ties threatening from abroad. His astute questions
 
 244 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 and ready replies in conversation were the theme 
 of universal admiration. It was thought that, being 
 a youth, he would busy himself with empty trifles, 
 and give little thought to his royal responsibilities. 
 His partisans had hoped to be called upon to in- 
 struct him in the art of government, whilst his ene- 
 mies had anticipated that, unmindful of his kingly 
 duties, he would very soon be ruined. But he dis- 
 appointed both. In the council chamber he listened 
 attentively when any of the lords spoke, but as soon 
 as their views diverged and threatened to degenerate 
 into a heated discussion, it was he, the youth, whom 
 they had met to advise, who admonished them to be 
 calm and to agree. His enemies saw that the youth 
 was thoroughly conscious of the exaltedness of his 
 position, which placed him above his adherents as 
 well as his enemies, and they now tried every means 
 to create dissensions between him and his partisans. 
 In this they failed, for the king was on his guard. 
 Knowing his difficult position, he took pains to con- 
 ciliate his friends. In the treatment of them he was 
 both determined and smooth. In conversation he 
 first ascertained the views of those to whom he 
 spoke, and then shaped his own remarks accordingly. 
 He had the talent of persuading his antagonists 
 without seeming to do so, and of getting them to 
 share his views, and as he was quick to discover the 
 opinions of others, he was not liable to being im- 
 posed upon. By slow degrees all opposition to him 
 died out and both friend and foe were silenced. 
 
 After disposing of his domestic antagonists, he 
 turned his attention to his enemies abroad, and, by
 
 KING MATTHIAS. 245 
 
 dint of an active mind, knowledge of men, polished 
 manner, and generosity, where it was needed, he 
 soon succeeded in strengthening his throne against 
 all enemies. One by one, the proud princes and oli- 
 garchs, who had only reluctantly and disdainfully 
 accepted the sovereignty of the upstart, were con- 
 ciliated by his royal qualities, and under the rule of 
 Matthias, the son of Hunyadi, Hungary secured a 
 wider influence and a higher degree of power than 
 she had ever attained beneath the sceptres of the 
 descendants of the ancient kings. 
 
 An account has been previously given of the 
 splendor which the king's embassies displayed 
 abroad, and we may add that Matthias was the 
 wealthiest and most luxurious ruler in all Europe. 
 He had enormous wealth at his disposal, composed 
 in part of his own private fortune, and in part of the 
 royal revenues. At that time there was generally 
 no distinction made between the revenues of the 
 king and those of the state. The king disposed of 
 all the sums flowing into the royal treasury, whether 
 derived from the state taxes or from any other 
 sources. King Matthias was quite proficient in the 
 art of turning to the fullest use these sources of 
 income, and of adding fresh ones, in case of need. 
 He introduced a more punctual and rigorous admin- 
 istration of the finances with most admirable results. 
 He was himself also the possessor of a vast private 
 fortune, inherited from his father. His domains ex- 
 tended for many miles, and he was the owner of mines 
 of gold and silver, of great productiveness, in the rich- 
 est mineral region of the country. None of his sub-
 
 246 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 jects could compare with him as to the extent of 
 their private estates, although there were many 
 amongst the church and lay magnates who could 
 boast of immense wealth. 
 
 In his reign the royal revenues increased upon an 
 unprecedented scale. The aggregate annual income 
 of the Hungarian treasury amounted under King 
 Ladislaus V. to only about 120,000 florins. Under 
 Matthias it increased, on an average, tenfold. His 
 yearly income very soon exceeded one million, and 
 not unfrequently reached even two million florins, 
 and this at a period when the French king, who was 
 supposed to be the richest sovereign, was unable to 
 make his income reach one million. It is true Mat- 
 thias stood always in need of a great deal of money 
 to carry out his vast schemes, his soldiers and wars 
 swallowing up enormous sums ; while it may be said 
 he was also prone to indulge in all the luxuries 
 of life. 
 
 The time had passed when men's whole lives were 
 divided between war and prayer only. Until now 
 these had been the essential characteristics of the 
 middle ages. But all this was suddenly changed ; 
 people awoke to the consciousness of their wealth, 
 and there were several countries in Europe offering a 
 long list of varied enjoyments fit to tempt the most 
 fastidious. The arts, painting, sculpture, and skilful 
 working in precious metals, as well as the sciences, 
 began to flourish ; and people began to read books, 
 books written by hand in elaborate manuscripts and 
 richly ornamented with gold and silver and the 
 most varied illuminated work. The classic authors
 
 KING MATTHIAS. 247 
 
 of ancient Greece and Rome long lost sight of 
 had been rediscovered, and scattered memorials of 
 ancient art came to light, and were cherished by the 
 finders with the fresh delight of childhood enjoying 
 new playthings. 
 
 In this movement Italy occupied the front rank. 
 From his early youth Matthias was drawn by all the 
 fibres of his heart towards the awakening culture, the 
 motto of which was to enjoy the beautiful. How 
 thoroughly he entered into the spirit of the rising 
 glory of the new civilization, is best shown by the 
 fact that his Italian contemporaries praised him to 
 the skies as the whole-souled patron of science and 
 art. In the magnificence and the splendor with 
 which he surrounded himself, Matthias certainly ex- 
 ceeded all his contemporaries, not even excepting 
 the Italian princes, who were famous for their sump- 
 tuousness and their appreciation of works of art, 
 and of whom Matthias had, undoubtedly, learned a 
 good deal. The example set by the king influenced 
 his subjects, the chief prelates of the church, who 
 had obtained immense endowments from the first 
 kings of Hungary, and the proud and rich great 
 lords. But none of them could approach the king 
 in magnificence or in refined luxury. His court was 
 the gathering place of scholars and artists not only 
 from Hungary and Italy but from all Europe. To 
 them he assigned the highest places in the state, 
 in the church, and in the schools. From these 
 scholars he selected his chancellors and vice-chan- 
 cellors, his treasurers and sub-treasurers, the royal 
 councillors, his son's tutor, men employed to read to
 
 248 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 him, his librarians, court historiographers and secre- 
 taries, all of whom were munificently rewarded for 
 their services. 
 
 Nor was it necessary for a scholar to have a fixed 
 position at court in order to secure a rich income : 
 his very presence at court was supposed to give him 
 a valid title to a compensation. Theologians, philoso- 
 phers, poets, orators, jurists, physicians, and astrono- 
 mers came to admire the renowned court, and re- 
 mained there to add to its brilliancy, to amuse the 
 king, and to be the recipients of his munificence. 
 These men w r ere treated by the king as his friends 
 and companions and led a comfortable, and, fre- 
 quently, a luxurious life. They had their abundant 
 share in the good cheer of the table, and in the pas- 
 times and honors. The frequent discussions of sci- 
 entific and literary questions, which arose in such 
 a circle, produced, especially when peaceful seasons 
 intervened for a time, a busy scholarly life at court, 
 of which the king, who was fond of taking part in 
 the conversations, was the bright centre. He was 
 himself proficient in the lore of his age. It is true 
 that his youthful education had not been completed, 
 for he had been left an orphan at a tender age, and 
 had soon been compelled to exchange the games of 
 youth for the cares of government, but his great 
 talents, his quickness, and the keen interest he took 
 in every thing, greatly contributed to make up for 
 any deficiency in precision of knowledge. He had a 
 retentive memory and rarely forgot what he heard in 
 conversation, and probably a large part of what he 
 learned came in this way. It was also the fashion at
 
 KTNG MATTHIAS. 249 
 
 that time for scholars to prolong their discussions, 
 after the fashion of the Greek gymnasiums, from 
 morn until night, and to appoint special meetings 
 for special subjects. The subject under discussion 
 was pursued everywhere at the table, during the 
 sports, in the reception room, the garden, and the 
 fields. The subjects were principally classical. Some- 
 times lectures were delivered in the presence of the 
 king or queen, as in the instance of Bonafini, who 
 visited the court in 1487. In order to get better 
 acquainted with him and to present him to the 
 court, the king, who subsequently appointed him 
 his court historiographer, ordered him to deliver a 
 lecture at his palace, in Vienna, where he then hap- 
 pened to hold his court. The whole court, together 
 with the foreign ambassadors, appeared on this inter- 
 esting occasion. At the conclusion of the lecture 
 the writings of Bonafini were brought in and dis- 
 tributed amongst the chief prelates and the mag- 
 nates. 
 
 The court dinners afforded favorable opportunities 
 for scholarly discussions and conversations. A great 
 number of guests had a permanent invitation to the 
 king's table. Such were his near relatives, soldiers 
 of high rank, dignitaries of Church and State, foreign 
 ambassadors, and, especially, the scholars residing at 
 his court. In an atmosphere like this it was quite 
 natural that the discourse should take a lively turn, 
 and include in its range both serious and amusing 
 subjects. The king himself enjoyed a world- wide 
 fame for his ready wit and attractive talk. He 
 liked to propound riddles to his learned friends,
 
 250 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 and at times would give them a great deal of trouble 
 by his cleverly-contrived oracular questions, particu- 
 larly if he wished to confound some braggart. He 
 delighted in disputes, in which he was seldom 
 worsted, because he kept his temper to the last. 
 But in most cases the discussion was begun by his 
 guests the king only joining in afterwards, and very 
 frequently giving the decision. Some of his puns 
 and anecdotes are remembered to this day. The 
 theme of one of these was decidedly of a convivial 
 nature. The discourse ran on eating, and the ques- 
 tion was mooted as to which was the best dish. The 
 king quoted the Hungarian proverb: "Nothing is 
 worse than cheese " (Habcrc nihil est pejus caseo). 
 This, of course, was denied by many, who main- 
 tained that cucumbers, apricots, and many varieties 
 of fish were far worse than cheese. Evey one was 
 amused when the king explained the double mean- 
 ing of the saying that " Nothing is worse than 
 cheese" being equivalent to "Cheese is better than 
 nothing." It happened, however, often enough that 
 grave scientific propositions or Scriptural themes 
 were under discussion, and, on such occasions, the 
 king would send to his library for books calculated 
 to support the soundness of his statements or argu- 
 ment. 
 
 This library was the king's chief glory and pride. 
 It contained on his accession to the throne but a few 
 volumes, but in the course of time it so increased 
 in the number of books as well as their value, that it 
 brought to the king even greater fame than his suc- 
 cesses on the battle-field not only in the age he
 
 KING MATTHIAS. 251 
 
 lived in, but during the ages that followed. Over 
 a hundred specimens of those books are still in ex- 
 istence, and from these we can form an adequate 
 idea of its magnificence and richness. The library 
 was in the castle of Buda, and the place assigned 
 to it comprised two large halls, provided with win- 
 dows of artistically stained glass, opening into each 
 other. The entrance consisted of a semicircular hall 
 commanding a magnificent view of the Danube. Both 
 halls were provided with rich furniture. One of them 
 contained the king's couch, covered with tapestry em- 
 broidered with pearls, upon which he spent his leisure 
 hours reading. Tripod-shaped chairs covered with 
 carpet were placed about, recalling the Delphian 
 Apollo. Richly-carved shelves ran along the walls 
 and were curtained with purple-velvet tapestry, inter- 
 woven with gold. It would be difficult to describe 
 properly the magnificence of the books themselves. 
 They were all written on white vellum and bound in 
 colored skins, ornamented with rose-diamonds and 
 precious stones and with the king's portrait or his 
 arms. The pages are illuminated with miniature 
 paintings and ornaments, vying with each other in 
 excellence, and the work of some of the most fa 
 mous illuminators of the age. At the time of the 
 king's death there were over 10,000 such volumes in 
 the library. 
 
 The king permanently employed at his court thirty 
 transcribers and book-painters, and also gave occupa- 
 tion to Florentine and Venetian copyists and paint- 
 ers, who sent the volumes when finished to Buda. 
 Although the art of printing had been already in
 
 252 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 vented, yet its productions appeared so primitive 
 when compared with these splendid works of art, that 
 the collectors preferred having their books written 
 and painted by hand. It was, to be sure, much more 
 expensive. King Matthias spent over thirty thou- 
 sand florins annually on his library, a sum equivalent 
 in present currency to considerably over half a 
 million of florins. He lavished larger sums even on 
 architects, painters, sculptors, carvers, and gold- 
 smiths. A whole army of artists were kept busy at 
 his court, especially after his second marriage. Dur- 
 ing the first years of his reign he was content with 
 the edifices and art memorials inherited from his 
 ancestors, but the arrival of the new queen entirely 
 changed the old modes of life. The habits of life 
 which had been familiar in Italy long ago, with 
 brilliancy, good taste, and wit in their train, were 
 now domesticated on the banks of the Danube. The 
 royal bride was a child of the sunny clime of Naples, 
 a city which was one of the first to foster the new 
 civilization. King Matthias had both the ambition 
 and the ability to effect such changes in the royal 
 residence, before the arrival of his bride, as would 
 make her feel at home in Buda. Long before the 
 new queen was to come, Buda presented a busy 
 scene. The royal palace was enlarged and embel- 
 lished. Its court-yards were beautified by bronze 
 statues and sculptured marble fountains, and the 
 ancient plastering gave way to porphyry and marble 
 columns. The sides of the staircases were ornamen- 
 ted with frescoes, and from the niches statues of an- 
 tique style peeped at the passer-by. Costly new
 
 KING MATTHIAS. 253 
 
 tapestry covered the walls, and splendid carpets 
 were spread on the floor of the wide vestibules, 
 stately halls, and roomy chambers, which were filled 
 with sumptuous furniture. The walls were hung 
 with paintings representing heroic events or themes 
 from ancient history or from the Scriptures. Modern 
 carved furniture took the place of the old pieces, 
 and every thing seemed to breathe a new life and to 
 be rejuvenated. 
 
 The vaults gave up their old treasures, and new 
 ones were added to the collections. Immense buffets 
 were groaning under the weight of silver and gold, 
 while antique gems, statuettes, and groups of vases 
 were displayed on small tables and in sideboards with 
 glass doors. The palace became a very museum of 
 exquisite objects of art. We can picture to our- 
 selves the vast main hall of the castle, with its pecu- 
 liar mediaeval splendor and brilliancy, in which the 
 marriage took place in December, 1476. The walls 
 of the hall were tapestried with silk interwoven with 
 gold, and strewn with pearls and precious stones, 
 and over the table of the bridal pair a tapestry of 
 sheer gold came flowing down from the ceiling. In 
 the centre of the hall, in front of the king's table, 
 stood a buffet with four faces, 'each side containing 
 eight shelves loaded down with enormous silver 
 pitchers, cans, goblets, tankards, amphores, and 
 glasses of every description. On this buffet, alone, 
 there were over five hundred vessels, besides two 
 unicorns, which ornamented the lowest shelf, and 
 which weighed seven hundred marks of silver. A 
 gigantic fountain of silver of artistic design, in the
 
 254 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 centre of the hall, spouted fiery wines. It was so 
 high that a tall man could hardly reach its top. 
 Near the fountain was a bread-basket of solid silver. 
 Further on, silver casks were suspended from the 
 ceiling dispensing various wines. The hall contained 
 eight more tables, and by each stood a buffet 
 weighed down by gold and silver vessels. Over nine 
 hundred vessels and plate of all kinds were arrayed 
 on the shelves of these buffets without being used. 
 The vessels and plate on the table of the royal couple 
 were all of pure and massive gold. Nor were the 
 other palaces or summer residences, in which the 
 court dwelt, inferior in splendor. The permanent 
 seat of the court was the castle of Buda, but it 
 was frequently shifted to Visegrad, Tata, Presburg, 
 and Vienna, everywhere displaying the same pomp 
 and sumptuousness. These royal residences ap- 
 peared like real fairy castles, with their hanging 
 gardens, fountains, fish-ponds, aviaries, game-parks, 
 small pleasure-houses, arbors, and statues. Visegrad, 
 became especially famous. One of the papal legates, 
 a man of taste and education, and a great lord, used 
 to sumptuous living, speaks of Visegrad, in a com- 
 munication to the Pope, as an earthly paradise 
 created anew by the hands of King Matthias. 
 
 Within this brilliant network of royal palaces pul- 
 sated the busy court life, with a frequent exhibition 
 of exceptional gayeties and splendid feasts. The 
 court was always thronged with the relatives of the 
 king, with captains of the highest rank, and with 
 hundreds of courtiers, from the chancellor down to 
 the humble attendant, and great lords and high
 
 KING MATTHIAS. 
 
 255 
 
 prelates, with their courtly trains, gathered around 
 the king, hoping for advancement of one kind 
 or other. The court was also a favorite resort for 
 foreign diplomatists, who came for the purpose of 
 settling questions relating to politics, church, or fam- 
 ily concerns, and delivering messages of respect and 
 homage to the king, whose strong arm was able to re- 
 
 JELLACHICH SQUARE, AGRAM. 
 
 strain and check the Turks, the Germans, and the rov- 
 ing bands of marauders. By degrees the Hungarian 
 court took on a European, or cosmopolitan air, becom- 
 ing more and more refined, gaining also the repute 
 of being a seat of classical learning and culture. 
 There was both compliment and truth in the remark 
 made to King Matthias by his antagonist, Uladis-
 
 2? 6 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 laus, the Czech king, at one of the brilliant feasts 
 given by the former: "Your Majesty, it is difficult 
 to triumph over a king who is the possessor of so 
 much treasure." 
 
 It was a great misfortune that Matthias died 
 without leaving a son to succeed him, for all the 
 accumulated splendor and culture vanished with the 
 king who had introduced and developed them. It 
 was at the zenith of his glorious career, while he 
 was pondering on far-reaching plans for the future, 
 that death surprised him. On Palm Sunday of the 
 year 1490 he attended divine service, and, on re- 
 turning from church, he was suddenly seized with 
 extreme lassitude. He at once called for figs. 
 They were brought, but on finding them mouldy, 
 he angrily rejected them. Soon after he was over- 
 come by dizziness, and a fit of an apoplectic char- 
 acter deprived him of the power of speech and 
 memory. He expired on the 6th of April, after an 
 illness prolonged for two days.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE, AND THE 
 DISASTROUS BATTLE OF MOHAcS. 
 
 WE are now approaching one of the darkest pages 
 in the history of Hungary. The nation which but 
 thirty-five years before had occupied a command- 
 ing position in the world, had, within that short 
 space of time, sunk so low as to become merely a 
 bone of contention for foreign princes. The con- 
 cluding act of that sad era was the calamitous bat- 
 tle fought on the field of Mohacs, where were ex- 
 piated the many national sins which had brought 
 about this sorrowful state of things. 
 
 The period following the death of the great king 
 was marked by feeble rulers ; by hierarchical chiefs, 
 unmindful of their duties ; by an oligarchy acknowl- 
 edging no restraints ; by a military organization rot- 
 ten to the core ; and by discontented subjects. So 
 rapidly did the fame of the nation decline that we 
 find Erasmus of Rotterdam envying their king, 
 Louis, the possession, not of his kingdom, but of 
 an eminent teacher (Jacob Piso) then living there. 
 The power of the king was even at a lower ebb than 
 that of the nation. We find, for instance, John 
 Szapolyai (or Zapolya), the head of the oligarchy, dar- 
 IT 257
 
 258 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 ing to attack King Uladislaus at the latter's own 
 palace at Buda, in order to force from him the hand 
 of Anna, his daughter. King Louis, the successor 
 of Uladislaus, was told to his face by Thomas 
 Bakacs, one of his councillors, at a meeting of the 
 National Assembly, that, unless he acted according 
 to the wishes of his councillors, and listened to their 
 advice, they would drive him from the country, 
 and elect another king in his place. These inci- 
 dents clearly denote the character of the rulers, and 
 of the leading men of the nation, whose province it 
 was to defend the country against an enemy which 
 the great Hunyadis themselves had hardly been able 
 to withstand, namely, the Turkish power, and the 
 ruinous effects of their misrule became evident soon 
 enough. In rapid succession followed one loss of 
 territory after another, coupled with loss of prestige 
 abroad, and civil strife within, and shortly after- 
 wards came the crowning disgrace of the Turkish 
 yoke. It is but right to add that this melancholy 
 period was not quite barren of good men, who both 
 knew and strove to do their duty, and it will be a 
 grateful task to make honorable mention of these 
 noteworthy exceptions. 
 
 The partisans of four hostile candidates met on 
 the 1 7th of May, 1490, on the field of Rakos, for the 
 purpose of electing a king of Hungary. The Na- 
 tional Assembly, at that period, greatly resembled 
 the popular meetings held by the conquering Hun- 
 garians under the Arpads. They gathered on horse- 
 back, numbering many thousands, on some exten- 
 sive plain, taking counsel with each other, or, rather,
 
 THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 2$() 
 
 listening to the utterances of their party leaders. 
 These assemblies continued their so-called delibera- 
 tions at times for many weeks, and their attendance 
 entailed no little expense to those taking part. Many 
 of them came with a large retinue of servants, and it 
 frequently happened that the poorer members, the 
 so-called middle, running short in provisions and 
 money, were compelled to leave for their homes be- 
 fore the deliberations were concluded. This was 
 precisely what happened on the present occasion. 
 The powerful magnates purposely wasted time by 
 delaying the deliberations, and thus compelled the 
 smaller gentry to withdraw. Before leaving, how- 
 ever, these last elected sixty members from their 
 number, who were to remain as representatives, but 
 it was of no avail, for their party was defeated, ow- 
 ing to the withdrawal of such large numbers. This 
 time the stratagem of the oligarchy proved more suc- 
 cessful than at the former election, when, as we have 
 seen, the impatient smaller gentry, who were greatly 
 in the majority, succeeded in electing their candi- 
 date, Matthias Hunyadi. 
 
 Of the several candidates, John Corvinus, the son 
 of King Matthias, had few adherents and many ene- 
 mies. It was accounted a crime in him that he was 
 not descended from a queenly mother. Beatrice, the 
 widowed queen, was especially opposed to his elec- 
 tion. She could not bear the idea of her husband's 
 son ascending the throne. She flattered herself, be- 
 sides, with the hope of being able to retain her regal 
 position by the election of a prince who would make 
 her his queen. With this view she became the parti-
 
 260 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 sail of Maximilian, the son of the emperor of Germany, 
 and advanced his interests with the passionate vehe- 
 mence characteristic of the Italian blood which ran 
 in her veins. Her partiality for the imperial prince, 
 however, soon gave way to feelings of disdain, upon 
 being addressed by him, in one of his letters, as his 
 " dear mother," and she transferred her affections to 
 Ladislaus (styled by the Hungarians, Uladislaus), 
 
 kinsf of Bohemia. Her new* favorite was descended, 
 
 a 
 
 through the female line, from the Arpads. The 
 
 wealthy and influential magnates were also on his 
 side, but with them the fact chiefly weighed in his 
 favor that he was understood to be a kind-hearted, 
 gentle, and feeble prince, whom it would be easy 
 for them to govern. Both Bathory and the oligarchy 
 wanted no king but a royal tool. Albert, the brother 
 of Uladislaus, was the fourth aspirant for royal 
 honors. 
 
 The States-General not being able to agree upon 
 any one of the candidates, they at last resolved that 
 he who should obtain the vote of Szapolyai, governor 
 of Vienna, should become king. This decision greatly 
 elated the party of John Corvinus, for as soon as 
 they learned that the election of their candidate de- 
 pended upon Szapolyai's decision, they felt assured 
 of his triumph. They could expect no less of the 
 man who, from having been twenty years ago a com- 
 mon trooper at Visegrad had been raised to his 
 present exalted position by King Matthias. Szapol- 
 yai received in Vienna the deputation which had 
 come to invite him to elect the king. In the con- 
 sciousness of his power, the proud upstart lifted up
 
 THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 26 1 
 
 his little boy, who afterwards became king of Hun- 
 gary, and placing him upon his knee, said : " Wert 
 thou, my boy, but that tall, I would make thee king 
 of Hungary." This unscrupulous man was not in- 
 clined to obey a master, and, knowing that he him- 
 self had no chance of royalty, he preferred a weak 
 king, such as he believed Uladislaus to be, and, in 
 consideration of a large reward, he sold to him the 
 throne. 
 
 The result of the election greatly disappointed and 
 surprised the middle classes. John Corvinus him- 
 self was at first at a loss how to act, but finally de- 
 termined to retire to the southern part of the country 
 and to take with him the crown of St. Stephen, 
 which was in his hands. Six thousand men ready 
 to do battle for his cause accompanied him, and an 
 occasion for the display of their zeal soon presented 
 itself through the treachery of Stephen Bathory and 
 Paul Kinizsy. These faithless favorites of the late 
 King Matthias had promised him, on his deathbed, 
 to stand by his son, and now, instead of redeeming 
 their sacred obligation, they turned traitors to the 
 cause they had vowed to defend. They were the 
 first to assail the son they had promised to sup- 
 port. They came up with him in the Bounty of 
 Tolna, scattered his troops, and not only took from 
 him the crown, but robbed him also of his personal 
 treasures. John Corvinus himself became afterward 
 reconciled to the new order of things, and, at the 
 coronation, it was he who presented the crown to 
 his more fortunate rival. A deputation was sent to 
 Uladislaus, to invite him to the throne of Hungary.
 
 262 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 He received them most graciously, kissing each of 
 them in turn, and crying with joy. In the month of 
 August the newly elected king made his triumphal 
 entry into Buda, accompanied by a gayly dressed 
 cavalcade, and no one could have anticipated that 
 the brilliant pageantry displayed on that occasion 
 would be followed so soon by a series of humiliations 
 terminating in a national tragedy. 
 
 The remaining rival candidates, however, were not 
 disposed to consider their cause as lost. Each of 
 them wanted his share of the kingdom, which was 
 now become an easy prey to its neighbors, and the 
 borders of Hungary on the east and west were sim- 
 ultaneously crossed by enemies. A few months had 
 hardly elapsed since the death of Matthias, the great 
 king, and Albert, Duke of Poland, brother to Uladis- 
 laus, was already laying waste the country to the 
 east as far as Erlau (Eger), while the horsemen of 
 Maximilian were tramping at Stuhlweissenburg over 
 the grave of Matthias, and making booty of his 
 treasures. Uladislaus remained inactive in the face 
 of these outrages committed by Maximilian. He 
 finally concluded a most humiliating peace (which 
 to him seemed advantageous), by the terms of which 
 all the former conquests of Matthias were to revert 
 to Maximilian. The true patriots blushed at the 
 news of the disgraceful treaty, and all the comfort 
 they could obtain from the king was his favorite 
 ejaculation, " Dobzse, dobzse." (It is all well, it is 
 all well.) 
 
 Whilst the country was pursuing its downward 
 course, the Czech attendants of the king were inces-
 
 THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 263 
 
 sant in their clamors against poor Hungary. They 
 complained that if they did not wish to starve they 
 would soon have to leave the country. The king 
 himself had not money enough at his disposal to 
 provide for the ordinary expenses of the royal house- 
 hold. And yet the taxes were as high, and even 
 higher, than during the reign of Matthias ; nay, the 
 chronicles of the time tell us that the people were 
 better off under that Matthias who arbitrarily im- 
 posed taxes, than now under Uladislaus. In truth, 
 the many burdens which were now weighing down 
 the people were owing to the desire of many in high 
 places to enrich themselves. The disorders of the 
 time afforded a rare opportunity of doing so with 
 impunity. It happened, though, at times, that the 
 mismanagement of such greedy men would leak out, 
 as in the case of Lukacs, bishop of Csanad, and Sig- 
 ismund Hampr, bishop of Fiinfkirchen (Pecs), who 
 were both treasurers of the realm, and whose fraudu- 
 lent transactions were discovered. But the king was 
 too weak to visit their crimes with condign punish- 
 ment, and amongst the great of the land none were 
 disposed to throw the first stone at the criminals. 
 The impotence of the king caused the decline of the 
 national strength, the ruin of the finances, and, as a 
 natural consequence, the complete disorganization of 
 the military institutions. 
 
 In this connection we have to record a strange 
 encounter which took place in 1492 in the vicinity 
 of Halas, in the county of Pesth. Paul Kinizsy, the 
 terror of the Turks, the general who had grown gray 
 on victorious battle-fields, met there, in hostile array,
 
 264 THE STOKY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 the army he himself had formerly commanded, the 
 famous " Black Guard " of Matthias. This very 
 army, with their brave old leader, had a few months 
 earlier repulsed the Turks near Szoreny. After this 
 victory the soldiers demanded the pay which had 
 long been in arrears. As usual on such occasions, 
 tumults and disorders broke out in consequence of 
 this failure to keep faith with the troops. The wis- 
 dom of the Hungarian National Assembly knew no 
 better remedy than to instruct Kinizsy to inarch 
 against the exasperated men. The old general 
 obeyed orders. Seven thousand men were massa- 
 cred, and the remainder, flying to Austria, dragged 
 out their weary lives as robbers, constantly at war 
 with the law. This cruel and impolitic measure de- 
 prived the nation, at a time when she was preparing 
 for the life-and-death struggle against the formidable 
 power of the Turks, of one of her main supports, in 
 destroying that army which alone could have saved 
 her. For Kinizsy, the former miller-boy, this was 
 the last campaign, for very soon after he was stricken 
 with paralysis and deprived of the power of speech. 
 His contemporaries saw in this a punishment decreed 
 by Providence for the part he had played on that 
 bloody occasion. 
 
 The better part of the nation soon grew restless 
 under this state of things, and a party arose which 
 was hostile to the king. Stephen Verboczy was the 
 leader of the new party. He was a thorough patriot 
 and a skilled jurist, well versed in legislation. He 
 was highly esteemed by the middle class, in whom 
 he saw the only element which would restore to his
 
 THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 265 
 
 country the universal respect she formerly enjoyed. 
 This party aspired to the government of the land, 
 and their choice of a ruler fell on Stephen Szapolyai, 
 the son of John Szapolyai. If Stephen had not 
 been, in 1490, still a child, his father would then 
 have made him king. That he should become 
 king was the highest ambition of his mother Anna, 
 Duchess of Teschen, a woman more ambitious even 
 than her son, and of whom it is said that she invari- 
 ably concluded her daily devotions with a special 
 prayer to God, asking that she might be permitted 
 to live to see her son ascend the Hungarian throne. 
 Szapolyai himself did not consider it an arduous 
 task to accomplish this, for he argued that it was a 
 precedent in his favor that Matthias, who was of no 
 more exalted origin than himself, had become king. 
 His partisans first tried to attain their end by mar- 
 riage, and with this view Szapolyai asked of Uladis- 
 laus the hand of the young Duchess Anna. Uladis- 
 laus refused to accede to his request, and sought pro- 
 tection against the vaulting ambition of the national 
 candidate in an alliance with the emperor Maxi- 
 milian. The idea of a treaty of marriage between 
 the two reigning dynasties was broached. The 
 national party answered by convoking the National 
 Assembly on the field of Rakos and passing the 
 important law that, in case of the extinction of the 
 male branch of the dynasty, they would elect a 
 native king only. In the meanwhile Szapolyai re- 
 newed his wooing, and he was all the more confident 
 of accomplishing his object, as Uladislaus was then 
 seriously sick and still remained without any male
 
 266 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 issue. But Uladislaus could not be moved to recon- 
 sider his refusal. He told Szapolyai that he trusted 
 to God that he would recover his health, and that a 
 male child might yet be born to him. Nor was he 
 disappointed in his hopes. He regained his health, 
 and shortly afterwards his queen bore him a boy 
 who reigned, at a subsequent date, under the title of 
 Louis II. 
 
 Uladislaus now perceived the bearing of the Rakos 
 resolution and, in consequence, entered into a new 
 treaty with Maximilian. Under its terms Ferdinand, 
 a grandson of Maximilian, was to marry Uladislaus' 
 daughter Anna, whilst another grandchild of Maxi 
 milian, Mary, was betrothed to Louis, the boy just 
 born. By virtue of this treaty Ferdinand, Archduke 
 of Austria, took possession of the throne of Hungary 
 after the fatal day of Mohacs. This new alliance, 
 however, did not deter Szapolyai from his bold pur- 
 pose. Twice again he tried to gain Anna's hand, 
 forcing his way into the presence of Uladislaus, but it 
 was all in vain. His partisans now began to medi- 
 tate the policy pursued by them later on, namely, 
 to resort to Turkish friendship for assistance. The 
 present state of things had become so intolerable, 
 that the national party recoiled from no measures, 
 however extreme, to bring about a change. One 
 day a wicked hand sped two balls into the palace of 
 Uladislaus ; the king escaped, but to this day the 
 suspicion of the foul deed rests on the adherents of 
 Szapolyai. 
 
 The desperate contentions of the two parties gave 
 frequent rise to lawlessness and stormy scenes. The
 
 THE PERIOD OF NA TIONAL DECLINE. 267 
 
 nobility laid waste each other's estates and often even 
 took unlawful possession of them. In this way many 
 a castle which John Corvinus had inherited from his 
 father passed at that time into the hands of Szapolyai. 
 Duke Ujlaky ventured even to molest the royal do- 
 mains, and upon being called to account for this by 
 the king, Ujlaky disdainfully styled him an ox. The 
 offended king, in order to avenge this affront, sent an 
 army against him under the lead of Bertalan Dragfy, 
 the vayvode of Transylvania, with the message that 
 the king's second horn was now growing, and that 
 henceforth the king would fight his unruly subjects 
 with two horns. Szapolyai, the palatine of the king- 
 dom, offered to intercede ; the intercession, however, 
 being nothing but a cloak to incite the people to 
 rebellion against Uladislaus, the latter was compelled 
 to yield, and to pardon Ujlaky. A most disgraceful 
 brawl, such as is usually witnessed only amongst the 
 drunken rabble, took place in the very presence of 
 the king in the royal council-chamber. George Szal- 
 kan, the primate of Hungary, allowed himself to be 
 carried away, during a heated discussion with Chris- 
 topher Frangepan, to such an extent as to seize the 
 latter by the beard, whereupon he was struck in the 
 face by Frangepan. The king, by personally inter- 
 fering, put an end to these most unparliamentary pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 A dangerous movement was at this time gaining 
 strength throughout Europe. The peasantry, weary 
 of the servitude in which they were held, resorted to 
 arms against their former oppressors. In Hungary, 
 especially, this movement assumed ominous propor-
 
 268 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 tions. The rebellion broke out in 1514, and was com- 
 monly called either the Kurucz rebellion, from the 
 fact that those who took part in it were originally 
 intended to be soldiers of the cross (cruciferi), or, 
 after the name of their leader, the D6zsa rebelion. 
 
 Julius II., one of the most distinguished popes, died 
 at Rome in 1513. Amongst the aspirants to the 
 papal see we find a Hungarian archbishop, Thomas 
 Bakacs. He is said to have spent fabulous sums in 
 the eternal- city to further his object. In order to 
 ingratiate himself with the populace he had his 
 horses' feet shod with silver shoes, but so loosely 
 that they were dropped on the road and picked up 
 by the people. Being unsuccessful at the papal elec- 
 tion, he begged of the new pope, Leo X., to be 
 allowed, as a solace for his disappointment, to organ- 
 ize a crusade against the Turks on his return to Hun- 
 gary. The arrival of Bakacs was the signal for a fierce 
 struggle in the ranks of the Diet. A portion of the 
 oligarchy, who hoped to derive some profit from this 
 venture, warmly advocated his scheme, while by 
 others, who were too much burdened already, it was 
 violently opposed. Stephen Telegdy, the keeper of 
 the treasure, stood at the head of the latter and 
 threw the whole weight of his authority into the 
 scale in order to prevent the passing of the law sanc- 
 tioning the crusade. He vividly pictured the misera- 
 ble condition of the peasantry, and resolutely objected 
 to providing them with arms, saying that it would be 
 equivalent to arming their own enemies. The law 
 was passed in spite of this remonstrance, and the 
 crusade was proclaimed on the i6th of July, 1514.
 
 THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 269 
 
 The condition of the Hungarian peasants at that 
 period was a most wretched one. Those who inhabited 
 the border were beggared by the incessant plundering 
 expeditions of the Turks, while the remainder fared 
 hardly better at the hands of their lords. Their 
 masters were always in need of large sums of money 
 to cover their enormous expenditures. A German 
 contemporary, who lived for some time in Hungary, 
 wrote of the landed gentry that they were in the 
 habit of spending whole nights in riotous living, and 
 passing the days with sleeping off the effects of their 
 nocturnal orgies. The money required for this mode 
 of life had to be wrung from the hard labor of the 
 poor peasant, who was also weighed down by other 
 burdens. The Hungarian nobility enjoyed privi- 
 leges only; their shoulders knew no burdens. It 
 was the peasantry who paid all the taxes, who had 
 to pay out of their hard-earned farthings tithes to 
 support the clergy ; and over and beyond all this, 
 they had to provide for their lords and masters. 
 The peasant had to till the soil if he did not wish to 
 starve, and in time of war he was compelled to ran- 
 som himself from military service. Against oppres- 
 sions on the part of his lord he had no remedy, 
 for his master was his judge. The lords' tribunal sat 
 in judgment over the peasant, and it can be easily 
 imagined what kind of justice was meted out to him. 
 
 Such was the sad condition of the peasantry when 
 the crusade was proclaimed. No wonder that the 
 oppressed peasants flocked in great numbers into 
 the camps ready to exchange the abject drudgery 
 of their daily life for the perils of crusading. A
 
 270 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 large portion of the nobility were from the first 
 arrayed against this movement, all the more so as it 
 happened during the season when there was most 
 work to do in the field, and it was very difficult for 
 them to get along without the laborers. The peasants 
 looked with indifference upon the distress of their mas- 
 ters, and deserted them in daily increasing numbers to 
 take up the holy cross. Bakacs had already provided 
 a leader for them, singling out for that position a 
 simple gentleman from Transylvania. His name was 
 George Dozsa, a name which, coupled with a doubt- 
 ful fame, will, nevertheless, continue to figure for all 
 times in the history of his country. Hungarian his- 
 torians of our days are fond of ascribing to him high 
 and patriotic schemes, and love to portray him as a 
 hero in the cause of liberty and one animated by a 
 lofty spirit. Yet, if we attentively scan his actions, 
 we are compelled to admit that he was little better 
 than a brave and desperate peasant, whose whole con- 
 duct proves him to have bitterly hated the nobility. 
 Nor was he indebted to any great qualities for the 
 distinction he had won. His chief merit consisted 
 in being a bold man, of a fine and martial appear- 
 ance, in possessing a voice fit for command, and 
 in having a few years before, in a skirmish, cleft in 
 twain a Turkish pasha. The officers placed under 
 him were for the most part poor nobles like himself, 
 together with a few citizens from Pesth, and a 
 certain Lawrence Meszaros, a priest from Czegld. 
 In a few days there were collected at the camp of 
 Pesth no less than 40,000 men, who were to be 
 marched against the Turks. But the army did not
 
 THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 2 7 1 
 
 need to go so far to find an enemy namely, their 
 old oppressors, their Hungarian masters. The more 
 hot-headed amongst the peasants were harangu- 
 ing the others with vehemence, exciting their pas- 
 sions. Their chief, D6zsa, was himself swept into 
 the new movement. Bakacs himself became terror- 
 stricken at the direction things were taking. He 
 called upon Dozsa to lead the army to their 
 place of destination, and as the latter hesitated to 
 obey, he was placed by this high church dignitary 
 under the ecclesiastical ban. Dozsa, in answer to 
 the archbishop's anathema, changed his programme, 
 and led his men against the nobility. The struggle 
 was short but bitter. It was fear rather than the 
 badly armed troops of peasants that, at first, defeated 
 the great nobles. As soon as the first shock was 
 over, every member of the nobility felt that to avoid 
 the general ruin of all, they must stand together, in a 
 well organized force. They gathered under the leader- 
 ship of Stephen Bathory, the chief Comes (count) of 
 Temes, and Nicholas Csaky, bishop of Csanad, but 
 were destined to meet with yet another defeat. The 
 cruelties then perpetrated by the blood-thirsty peas- 
 antry beggar all description. They overran the 
 whole country, burning one castle after another, and 
 massacred, by the light of the flames, all the noblemen 
 with their families who were so unfortunate as to fall 
 into their hands. Stephen Telegdy, who had so 
 vehemently opposed the crusade, himself lost his 
 life in this shocking manner, and Nicholas Csaky was 
 captured on the battle-field, and was. to the delight 
 of the whole camp, killed with torture.
 
 2/2 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Dozsa now proceeded to lay siege to Temesvar. 
 He had singled out this fortified place as the point 
 from which he would conquer the country for his 
 peasants, but at this very spot he had to learn by 
 painful experience that it was not an easy task to 
 cope with the established power, no matter how de- 
 moralized for the time it be. The factions, admon- 
 ished by the common peril, ceased for the time their 
 party strife, and the chief Comes of Temes, a parti- 
 san of the king, did not hesitate to invoke the support 
 of John Szapolyai, the vayvode of Transylvania, 
 who was the leader of the national party. The vay- 
 vode, together with a strong force of the yeomanry 
 of Transylvania, came to his assistance, and the 
 struggle soon approached its termination. At the 
 first engagement the army of Ddzsa was utterly de- 
 feated, those who survived were scattered, and the 
 leader with a few of his companions was taken cap- 
 tive. The savage work of retaliation now followed. 
 The vayvode Szapolyai was the president of the 
 tribunal. The victory he had achieved raised his 
 authority with the nobility, who looked upon the 
 late struggle as a war waged for their extermination, 
 and he thought it would add to his glory if he 
 presented to the excited nobles a harrowing spec- 
 tacle. Mercy was shown only to Gregory, the brother 
 of George Ddzsa, inasmuch as he was merely beheaded. 
 The remaining rebel leaders, including D6zsa, were 
 thrown into prison, and were not permitted to taste 
 any food for a fortnight. Nine of them still remained 
 amongst the living. Dozsa was seated on a red 
 hot iron throne, a red hot crown was placed on his
 
 THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 2?3 
 
 forehead, and a red hot sceptre forced into his hand. 
 Not a murmur of pain escaped him during this 
 dreadful torture. Only when his famished compan- 
 ions in arms rushed upon him and tore the charred 
 flesh from his body to appease their craving for food, 
 he exclaimed : "These hounds are of my own train- 
 ing." This was the end of one of the episodes of 
 this sanguinary domestic war. Four months of civil 
 strife had cost the country the lives of 50,000 men. 
 At a future period, not very distant, the nation 
 might have made a much better use of these lives, 
 but there seemed to be a fatality impelling the peo- 
 ple to become their own destroyers. The Hun- 
 garian popular feeling has always sympathized with 
 the peasantry in this bloody rebellion. Thus the 
 story is, to this day, current amongst the people, 
 that, as often as the Lord's body was raised, during 
 mass, Szapolyai became maddened for a few minutes, 
 because by his deeds he had rendered himself un- 
 worthy of beholding the sacred host. History, on 
 the other hand, still cherishes the names of John 
 Gosztonyi, bishop of Raab, and Gotthard Siikey, a 
 captain from Papa, of whom it is recorded that in 
 order to scatter the peasantry with as little bloodshed 
 as possible they loaded their guns with grass and 
 rags instead of cannon balls. The 50,000 victims, 
 however, did not suffice to appease the vindictive 
 spirit of the victors, for in their opinion the crimes 
 of the peasantry called for a sterner expiation. The 
 crime of the fathers must be visited on all genera- 
 tions to come. The Diet, which met on the i8th of 
 October, 1514, seemed to think that the peasants had
 
 274 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 been treated too mildly, and that all of them deserved 
 death. The wise fathers of the land reflected, how- 
 ever, that if all were exterminated no one would be 
 left to work for the nobles and to provide them with 
 food and drink. They therefore let mercy prevail 
 but mercy as they understood it was the most re- 
 fined cruelty. The peasants were to be allowed to 
 live, but their life should become a calamity to them. 
 The perpetual servitude of the peasantry was pro- 
 claimed, and it was ordained that they should be 
 chained down to the soil. 
 
 This iniquitous law was passed and sanctioned by 
 the king on the iQth of November, on the same day 
 that he confirmed the celebrated tripartite code com- 
 piled by Stephen Verboczy, the Chief-Justice of the 
 land. Truly a most remarkable contrast in legisla- 
 tion. On the one hand, a code which established 
 law and order in the kingdom ; on the other hand, 
 the most inhuman measure in European history 
 dictated by savage vindictiveness. Verboczy's tri- 
 partite code, or, as its title runs, " Decretum triparti- 
 tum juris consuetudinarii" is the most famous and 
 the most important work of Hungarian jurisprudence, 
 shedding also an interesting light on the social con- 
 dition of the country at a remoter period. The 
 tripartitum is a strong advocate of the privileges and 
 immunities of the nobility. It establishes equal 
 rights for all the members of the Hungarian nobility, 
 acknowledging no difference between them except 
 on grounds of personal merit. Every Hungarian 
 noble accordingly was entitled to the privileges 
 accorded to the whole body ; he could not be de-
 
 THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 275 
 
 prived of his liberty without due conviction; above 
 him there was but one lord and master, and that was 
 the king, and he was exempt from taxation. It 
 further limits the authority of the clergy over lay 
 nobles, and denies the right of the Pope to the dis- 
 posal of church benefices. After endeavoring in this 
 manner to claim for the nobles independence as to 
 those above them, the code at the same time tries 
 to enlarge their rights as to those below them. The 
 recent uprising of the peasantry offered a good op- 
 portunity for this tendency. It says : " The recent 
 rebellion, aimed, under the pretext of a crusade, 
 against the whole nobility, and led by a robber chief, 
 has, for all days to come, put the stain of faithless- 
 ness on the peasants, and they have thereby forfeited 
 their liberty and become subject to their landlords 
 in unconditional and perpetual servitude. The peas- 
 ant has no sort of right over his master's land save 
 bare compensation for his labor and such other re- 
 ward that he may obtain. Every species of property 
 belongs to the landlords, and the peasant has no 
 right to invoke justice and the law against a noble." 
 This wa* the view taken by the nobility at that 
 period, a view which they succeeded in forcing upon 
 the feeble king. 
 
 The king, indeed was indifferent to the political 
 and social changes which injured the best interests 
 of the nation. His main purpose was to secure the 
 throne to his family, and as long as he succeeded in 
 this all the rest was " dobzse" to him. He had his 
 sickly son crowned when he was but an infant of two 
 years, and obtained for him the powerful protection
 
 276 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 of the imperial family. In 1506 his queen, Anna of 
 Candal, an intelligent and energetic woman, the 
 niece of Louis XL, King of France, died. The sor- 
 row of the widowed king was boundless ; for days 
 he remained in his rooms weeping and moaning. 
 Ten years later he followed the queen he had so 
 much mourned, and his son, Louis II., succeeded 
 him. Louis was a mere boy, but ten years old, 
 when he ascended the throne, and his youth was an- 
 other misfortune to the weakened and divided coun- 
 try. The events of his reign are usually summed up 
 in one sentence: "He was prematurely born, mar- 
 ried young, ascended the throne young, and died 
 young." We shall, however, devote a larger space 
 to this kind-hearted but unfortunate youth. Louis, 
 as was stated, came prematurely into the world, and 
 it required all the skill the medical science of the 
 time afforded to keep alive the royal infant, who 
 hardly breathed when he was ushered into the world. 
 For weeks he was kept lying in the warm carcasses 
 of animals slaughtered and cut open for that pur- 
 pose, and in this manner was saved from death. 
 But little attention was paid to his education during 
 his father's life ; it is reported that at a later period 
 he blamed the latter for his neglect, and strove hard 
 by redoubled exertions to make up for lost time. 
 Although prematurely born he developed quite 
 early in life, and was a tall and strong youth at the 
 time his father died. Cardinal Thomas Bakacs, John 
 Bornemisza, the castellan of Buda, and George of 
 Brandenburg, Margrave of Anspach, were, by the 
 king's last will, appointed his guardians. George
 
 THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 277 
 
 became the ruin of the ambitious young king. The 
 good lessons taught him by Jacob Piso, his excellent 
 teacher, were set at naught by this guardian. 
 He was not actuated by sinister motives in spoiling 
 his ward ; his conduct was the effect rather of 
 a life-long habit of riotous living, of which he 
 could not divest himself, and it was no wonder that 
 the youthful king was quick to imitate the unworthy 
 example. The more serious studies soon gave way 
 to amusements of all kinds, and the boy-king spent 
 his life in riding, hunting, and feasting, as long as his 
 means would allow. Some of the frolicsome eccen- 
 tricities recorded of him best illustrate his giddiness. 
 He had among his courtiers a man named Peter 
 Korogi, whose indestructible stomach was far-famed 
 for its utter want of squeamishness. It was his great 
 delight to summon before him Korogi, and see him 
 devour living mice, cats' tails, carrion found in the 
 streets, and inkstands with the ink in them. Poor 
 Korogi lost his life afterwards at the battle of 
 Mohacs. 
 
 A glance at Louis' court and at his personal sur- 
 roundings will suffice to give us a picture of the 
 condition of the country. Uladislaus had al- 
 ready repeatedly complained that but a small 
 portion of the revenues of the state ever 
 reached his hands, and that his income dur- 
 ing three years did not amount to as much as 
 King Matthias used to spend on his clerks. Louis, 
 who, besides, had to defray the expenses of his edu- 
 cation, fared infinitely worse. He had to put off 
 from day to day his journey to Prague, the capital
 
 278 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 of his Bohemian kingdom, because he was unable 
 to procure the funds necessary for his travelling 
 expenses. Things came to such a pass that the 
 king could not provide decently for the royal 
 table, which was all the more unfortunate for him, 
 as he boasted of an excellent appetite ; his con- 
 temporaries relating of him that when his re- 
 sources permitted, seven meals were daily served at 
 his court. His penury finally reached such a point 
 that he lacked the means of paying the wages of his 
 household servants, and then it was that a certain 
 sum was set apart for royal expenses, to be paid into 
 the hands of the treasurer and not of the king, a 
 contrivance which was of little avail, the treasurers 
 themselves being untrustworthy. King Louis re- 
 mained as poor as he was before, and we read that 
 at a reception given to the ambassadors of foreign 
 powers, where the most brilliant display would have 
 been in place, the young king sat on his throne in 
 dilapidated boots. In spite of his poverty Louis 
 found a way to indulge in pastimes and to squander 
 money. At a time when they write of him that he 
 could not call a sound pair of boots his own, he re- 
 mitted to one of his courtiers a debt of 40,000 ducats 
 in exchange for a trained falcon. George of Branden- 
 burg wrote on one occasion that although the court 
 was dreadfully poor, yet they managed to carouse 
 all the time. These entertainments were marked by 
 scenes and occurrences which but ill comport with 
 the dignity of a court. The king was excessively 
 fond of amusements, and on one occasion he wrote 
 three months before the carnival : " Wherever we
 
 THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 279 
 
 shall happen to be, even on a journey, we intend to 
 make merry and to pass gayly our days." The ca- 
 rousing at the court, however, was not confined to the 
 carnival season, for we read that on the very eve of 
 the battle of Mohacs, the king and queen were en- 
 joying themselves right royally. The queen, too, 
 was fond of gayeties. No one would have foretold 
 of her that she should ever become so versed in 
 matters of state. The difference between Mary 
 the queen and Mary the widow might well elicit 
 universal surprise. The eventful battle of Mohacs 
 sobered her. While her husband lived she so freely 
 entered into the pastimes and frolics of the king that 
 the partisans of the king himself were compelled to re- 
 mind her more than once of the rules of decency and 
 propriety. 
 
 A fierce struggle ensued between the oligarchical 
 and the national party as to who should be selected 
 for the royal council. This rivalry sprang by no 
 means from patriotic motives, or from a desire to 
 serve the country in the royal councils, but from the 
 more sordid aim of making use of the royal authority 
 to extend and increase their personal power and influ- 
 ence. The party leaders were still the same. Szapol- 
 yai and Verboczy stood at the head of the middle- 
 class party, whilst the royal party, led by Bathory, 
 made common cause with the Fuggers. The Fug, 
 gers were the Rothschilds of the sixteenth century , 
 they had amassed immense wealth in Hungary by 
 advancing at first an inconsiderable sum to the king, 
 and obtaining for it the privilege of working the 
 mines. They fraudulently exported from the land
 
 28O THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 all the gold and silver obtained from the mines, 
 while of the money advanced by them but very little 
 got into the king's hands, as it had first to pass the 
 hands of middle-men, who managed to keep large 
 portions. In this way can it be accounted for that 
 Thomas Bakacs' household was far more lavish and 
 brilliant than that of the king himself, and that Count 
 Alexius Thurzo, being in collusion with the Fug- 
 gers, was enabled at one time to advance to the king 
 32,000 florins. Emeric Szerencs' name figures most 
 conspicuously amongst these money manipulators. 
 He was a converted Jew, occupying a prominent 
 position, and who subsequently became treasurer of 
 the state. While he was never able to procure 
 money for the treasury, he succeeded in constantly 
 adding immense sums to his own fortune. The peo- 
 ple at last rose against the unscrupulous treasurer, 
 and attacked Szerencs in his own palace. He saved 
 himself only with great difficulty from the fury of 
 the populace by escaping through a window to which 
 a rope ladder was attached. 
 
 The party of the nobility was at last victorious. 
 At the Diet assembled at Hatvan 14,000 nobles as- 
 sumed such a menacing attitude towards the gov- 
 ernment that all its members were compelled to 
 give in their resignations, and Stephen Verboczy 
 was elected by the triumphant party palatine of 
 the kingdom. John Szapolyai became treasurer. 
 To what extent the treasury was better managed 
 under his direction it would be difficult to deter- 
 mine, for the sad fact remained that the treasury 
 still remained empty, and that the new treasurer was
 
 THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 28 1 
 
 constantly adding to the number of his estates and 
 increasing his domain. The magnates as well as the 
 burghers clearly saw that nothing had been gained 
 by the change effected in the administration. They 
 therefore combined to restore the former govern- 
 ment, and were headed by the great nobles who 
 had been deprived of their offices Bathory, the 
 late palatine, and Alexius Thurzd. The league is 
 known in Hungarian history under the name of the 
 "K,alandos " Society the word " kalandos " having in 
 the Magyar language the meaning of " adventurous," 
 btit in truth the word was derived from the "Kalends" 
 the society being in the habit of meeting on the " Kal- 
 ends," or first of each month. This patriotic band 
 of would-be saviors of their country went on with 
 their intrigues even after the news had arrived of an- 
 other Turkish inroad threatening the country. The 
 league at last succeeded. At the Diet convoked in 
 Buda they reinstated their party in power. Verboczy 
 himself was not slow in perceiving that he had been 
 used by Szapolyai merely as a tool, and, refusing to be 
 an instrument in his hands, he resigned the dignity of 
 which he had been already deprived by the Diet. In 
 order to save his life he fled to Transylvania, but he 
 could not prevent the Diet from declaring him to be 
 an enemy to his country. 
 
 Bathory occupied again his former position of a 
 palatine, and announced his programme in these 
 brief words : " We are not the cause of the ruin of 
 the country " a very strange assurance on the part 
 of the councillors and leading statesmen of Louis II., 
 coming too at a time when they were menaced on all
 
 282 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 sides by approaching perils. This conduct occasioned 
 the papal nuncio's remark that " they were playing 
 comedy with their mutual protests." 
 
 The Reformation added a new complication to the 
 many dividing the nation, being a fresh source of 
 discord amongst the people. This mighty religious 
 movement spread as far as Hungary about the same 
 time that it had won a large territory for itself in 
 Germany. Here as there its adherents met with 
 persecutions at the hand of the Roman Catholic 
 Church. The new faith, although it had not gained 
 large numbers, soon found its martyrs in the coun- 
 try. Both of the political factions were equally guilty 
 of these persecutions, and we find a telling proof of 
 this in the fact that Verboczy as well as Bathory, 
 the respective palatines of the hostile parties, each 
 had his share in the executions of the Protestants 
 who laid down their lives for their faith. While 
 Hungarian blood was thus shed by the Hungarians 
 themselves, their proud neighbor, Sultan Selim, the 
 mighty ruler of the Turkish empire, had registered 
 a vow before Allah, in case he would vouchsafe vic- 
 tory to his armies over Persia, to build for his wor- 
 ship three magnificent mosques one in Jerusalem, 
 another in Buda, and a third in Rome. The sultan 
 vanquished the Persians, but was prevented by death 
 from fulfilling his vow. In Hungary they made 
 merry, drinking death to the Turks, and little 
 dreaming that the new sultan was destined to in- 
 flict upon them soon a most deadly blow. 
 
 Solyman the Magnificent succeeded the fierce Se- 
 lim. He combined in his person the talents of a
 
 THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 283 
 
 great warrior, a great legislator, and a great theo- 
 logian. It was not long before the Hungarians them- 
 selves offered him an excuse for waging war against 
 them. On his accession to the throne he had sent 
 an ambassador to Louis II. for the purpose of pro- 
 longing the peace between them. The overbearing 
 Hungarian nobles did not so much as enter into a 
 parley with the envoy, but threw him into prison, 
 dragged him with them all over the country, and 
 finally, after cutting off his nose and ears, sent him 
 back to his master. This dire offence against the 
 law of nations, and the unprovoked insult to the sul- 
 tan in the person of his representative, could not 
 be left unpunished. Solyman swore he would be 
 avenged for this affront, and vowed he would get 
 possession of that Belgrade which at one time had 
 maintained its independence against the warlike 
 genius of a Mohammed II. He attacked simultan- 
 eously two of the strongest border fortresses Sha- 
 batz and Belgrade. The king was just then too 
 busy with his wedding with the Austrian princess 
 Mary to allow himself to be disturbed by the hos- 
 tile inroad, nor did his chief councillors take any heed 
 of it. Bathory, the palatine of the kingdom, was 
 also celebrating his nuptials, whilst Chancellor Szal- 
 kay's attention was entirely absorbed by the admin- 
 istration of the bishopric of Erlau that had been re- 
 cently bestowed upon him. 
 
 Shabatz stood under the command of Simon Lo- 
 gody and Andrew Torma, both men of great hero- 
 ism and rare courage. They shone out as conspicu- 
 ous exceptions in this corrupt age. They preferred
 
 284 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 to face certain death rather than save themselves by 
 deserting the fortress entrusted to their care, and 
 solemnly swore to be true to the cause of the coun- 
 try unto death. They and their brave garrison kept 
 their oaths faithfully ; of five hundred men, but sixty 
 were left on the i6th day of the siege. These sixty 
 men were drawn up in soldierly array on the public 
 square of the fort to receive the last assault of 
 the Turkish army, and not one of them escaped 
 with his life. Six weeks later Belgrade, the famous 
 scene of Hungarian heroism, was taken by the 
 Turks, and it is not often that an enemy achieved 
 as easy a victory over such a stronghold as this 
 border fortress as the Turks secured on the 2gth of 
 August, 1521. Francis Hedervari and young Valen- 
 tine Torok had been entrusted with the defence of 
 Belgrade. These selfish nobles, unmindful of their 
 sacred duties, left Belgrade and proceeded to Buda, 
 in order to obtain from the government repayment 
 for the expenses already incurred by them for the 
 maintenance of the fortress. Failing in their errand, 
 they did not return to their trust, but left the gar- 
 rison, numbering seven thousand men, to themselves, 
 under the command of their subordinate officers, the 
 brave Blasius Olah, and the treacherous Michael 
 More. Their desertion sealed the fate of this fort- 
 ress. Mor became a traitor to the cause of his 
 country ; he deserted to the enemy's camp, and, be- 
 traying to the Turks the weak points of the strong- 
 hold, he endeavored, at the same time, to prevail 
 upon Olah to aid him in his wicked designs. The 
 patriotism of the latter, however, was proof against
 
 THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 285 
 
 all the allurements of the tempter. The fall of the 
 fortress was, nevertheless, unavoidable. The number 
 of the garrison had dwindled down to seventy-two 
 men, when a squabble ensued between those of them 
 who were Hungarians and those who were Servians, 
 which ended in their compelling Olah to surrender 
 the fortress. By the terms of the surrender the gar- 
 rison was allowed to leave the fortress unmolested, 
 but the Turks interpreted this clause in their own 
 way. They were permitted to march into the Turk- 
 ish camp, but on their wishing to leave the camp 
 they were all of them massacred. 
 
 The fall of Belgrade spread terror all over the 
 country all the more as it was entirely unexpected, 
 and certainly might have been prevented. Bathory, 
 the palatine, and John Szapolyai stood, each with 
 a great army, not very far from Belgrade ; but these 
 noblemen, obeying only the dictates of their mutual 
 hatred, would not join their armies, and truly 
 says the poet Charles Kisfaludy, that the deepest 
 wounds inflicted upon the poor country were " no, 
 not by her enemies, but by her own sons." Louis 
 himself was roused from his lethargy upon hearing 
 the sad news. He upbraided his councillors for 
 neglecting to warn him of the dangers menacing the 
 country, and for not having taken measures to avert 
 them ; nay, in his exasperation, as we are informed 
 by his chaplain, he struck one of his councillors, 
 Bishop Szalkay, in the face. Repentance was now 
 too late, and the impending catastrophe seemed un- 
 avoidable. It is true that the Hungarians achieved 
 one more victory in the Hungarian Lowlands. Paul
 
 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Tomory, the newly appointed archiepiscopal captain- 
 in-chief of that section, defeated Ferhat Pasha on the 
 field of Nagy-Olasz, in Syrmia. But the passing 
 glow of this success left no permanent effects ; three 
 years later the Turks were more formidable than 
 ever to Hungary. 
 
 While the Hungarian Diet was the scene of fierce 
 discussions, Francis I., King of the French, smarting 
 under the defeat he had suffered at the hands of the 
 Emperor Charles V., stirred up Solyman against 
 Hungary and the Hapsburg crown-lands, in order to 
 effect a division of the imperial army. In this 
 scheme Francis I. succeeded so well that in the 
 month of August, 1526, an army exceeding 300,000 
 men, with 300 cannon, under the lead of Solyman, 
 was invading Hungary. 
 
 The news of Solyman's approach found the coun- 
 try unprepared. The treasury did not contain money 
 enough to pay the messengers, still less to organize 
 an army. A requisition of the gold and silver plate 
 and vessels of the church was of little avail, for what 
 little could be collected, owing to the resistance of 
 the clergy, was appropriated again by the nobles, 
 who were charged with the duty of coining them 
 into money. Caspar Seredy owed his wealth to such 
 transactions. 
 
 In soldiers they were even poorer than in money. 
 The sultan was already crossing the southern frontier, 
 and not a soldier was near King Louis. The cities 
 bought their exemption from military service with 
 money, and the great nobles were dilatory. The 
 king finally marched alone against the enemy. The
 
 THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 28/ 
 
 p-uiity were seized with shame at this noble example, 
 and about the beginning of August four thousand 
 men had already rallied round him. He was steadily 
 proceeding southward and reached Mohacs in the 
 latter part of August. The army had swelled by this 
 time to twenty-five thousand men, but it wanted a 
 commander, and there was not in the whole country 
 a single general capable of wielding large forces. The 
 king, under these circumstances, had no other choice 
 but to appoint, as commander-in-chief, Paul Tomory, 
 whose victory achieved over the Turks was still fresh 
 in memory. Shortly afterwards the Turkish army, 
 which had occupied Peterwardein (Petervarad) a few 
 days before, made its appearance. A serious discus- 
 sion arose now whether the Hungarians should stand 
 a battle, or, retreating first, join the army of Christo- 
 pher Frangepan, coming from Slavonia, and that 
 of John Szapolyai, marching from Transylvania. 
 Tomory was in favor of accepting battle at once, and 
 was sustained by the king. Francis Perenyi, the witty 
 bishop of Grosswardein, on seeing that Tomory 's 
 counsels had prevailed, is reported to have said : 
 " The Hungarian nation will have twenty thousand 
 martyrs on the day of battle, and it would be well to 
 have them canonized by the pope." The battle 
 took place on the 2Qth of August, on a fine summer's 
 day. The Hungarians formed in battle array early 
 in the morning. The king, surrounded by his lay 
 and ecclesiastical magnates, occupied the centre. A 
 thousand mailed horsemen were around the king, 
 and in their midst John Dragfy, the Chief-Justice of 
 the land, waving high up in the air the national
 
 288 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 banner. Seated on a white horse, he wore no spi"-s, 
 according to the ancient custom, implying that flight 
 to him was impossible. 
 
 Bathory, afflicted with the gout, rode with the 
 king along the line of each troop, addressing words 
 of encouragement to the men. The whole army im- 
 patiently looked forward to the moment when the 
 battle should begin, and, finally, at five o'clock in 
 the afternoon the Turks advanced. It was remarked 
 that the king, on the silver helmet being placed on 
 his head, became deathly pale, as if in anticipation 
 of the near danger, but while it shocked the attend- 
 ants, it by no means disheartened them. 
 
 The first onslaught came from the Hungarian 
 horse, who rushed upon the enemy in front of them 
 and drove them back. The Turkish troops thus at- 
 tacked retreated without offering any resistance to 
 the body of the army. The Hungarians, shouting 
 victory, pressed on in hot pursuit, little dreaming 
 that they were running into the jaws of sure destruc- 
 tion. The retreat was but a feint, for when the 
 Hungarian army had been drawn on near enough to 
 the Turkish centre, the retreating troops opened 
 their ranks, and, through the gap left open, three 
 hundred cannon and several thousand Janissaries 
 poured a murderous fire on the advancing troops. 
 The slaughter was dreadful ; a large portion of the 
 troops, including their commander and their stand- 
 ard bearer, fell at the first fire. The rest fled in 
 every direction, but were greatly impeded in their 
 retreat by a violent shower of rain which suddenly 
 burst on the fugitives, among whom was also the
 
 THE PERIOD OF NA T1ONAL DECLINE. 289 
 
 youthful king. As he was trying to cross the Csele, 
 a small brook, swollen by the rain, the horse, after 
 reaching the opposite bank, stumbled backward into 
 the waters below, and buried his rider under him. 
 
 The prophecy of Perenyi was fulfilled. Twenty 
 thousand martyrs ; strewed the field of Mohacs, and 
 among them was the witty prophet himself. The 
 Hungarians paid the heavy penalty of thirty-six 
 years' misrule and disorder, but the worst was yet to 
 come. On the loth of September there passed 
 again a brilliant procession through the gates of 
 Buda. This time it was not the crowned king of 
 Hungary who made his entry into the fortress, but 
 Solyman, who delivered it up for pillage to his 
 soldiers. On this occasion was destroyed the famous 
 library of Matthias.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE TURKISH WORLD AND THE RISE OF PROTES- 
 TANTISM IN HUNGARY. 
 
 WHILE Islam was rapidly losing ground, and hur- 
 rying to irretrievable destruction on the peninsula 
 south of the Pyrenees, it obtained a fresh foot- 
 hold on another southern peninsula of Europe, in 
 the regions of the Balkan washed by the Mediter- 
 ranean Sea, and became there so powerful as to 
 influence, for nearly five centuries, the political 
 destinies of the Western world. At the same time 
 that the power and culture of the Moorish state was 
 declining in Spain, Europe found itself assailed by 
 another Mohammedan nation, the Turks, who, tak- 
 ing up the standard of the crescent, attempted to 
 force upon the Christian world their new ideas, 
 religious, political, and social. On the first appear- 
 ance of the Turks on the Balkan peninsula, they were 
 met by the two states which opposed their further 
 advance, and the struggle with these began at once. 
 The first, the Byzantine empire, was, however, at this 
 time already an effete and tottering organization, 
 an ancient and venerable ruin, and it was able to 
 make but a feeble resistance. It retreated step by 
 step before the Asiatic conquerors, who got posses- 
 
 290
 
 THE TURKISH WORLD. 29! 
 
 sion, first, of its entire outlying territory, and finally 
 captured (in 1453) the seat of government, Byzan- 
 tium, the renowned city of Constantine. The sec- 
 ond opponent which withstood the advance of the 
 Turks was Hungary, a state which, though still 
 young, had shown a sturdy national vitality, and 
 successively reduced to vassalage the countries of 
 the Balkan, and was steadily engaged in extending 
 its influence and authority towards the East. The 
 Turks could not dispose of Hungary as easily and 
 quickly as of the enfeebled Byzantine empire. 
 More than a century of nearly constant conflict 
 had to elapse before the Hungarian supremacy in 
 the regions of the Balkan was put an end to, and 
 the Turks were able to penetrate as far as Mohacs, 
 and there to inflict a mortal blow on the indepen- 
 dence of Hungary. During this struggle of a century 
 and a half the name and fame of Hungary were 
 perpetuated by many a brilliant feat of war, and by 
 many glorious victories, and when John Hunyadi, 
 the most formidable foe of the Turks, died, all 
 Europe mourned his death as the loss of the great 
 champion of Christianity. His son, Matthias the 
 Just, one of the greatest kings of Hungary, whose 
 memory is held in pious reverence by the Hun- 
 garian people to this day, following in the foot-steps 
 of his illustrious father, through his many triumphs, 
 made his own name, too, hardly less formidable 
 to the Turks. But Hungary, as the offspring of 
 the Western Church, the Church of Rome, turned 
 her looks, at that time, to the West rather than 
 f .o the East, and Hungarian statesmanship was
 
 292 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 far more intent upon humiliating the emperor of what 
 was then known as the Roman empire, than upon 
 breaking down the power of the Turks. King Mat- 
 thias captured Vienna, and made large conquests at 
 the expense of the German empire, but he chastised the 
 Turks only now and then, and never seriously thought 
 of endeavoring to thoroughly crush the Turkish 
 power. Under his feeble successors, the Turks, who 
 easily recuperated from the losses of single battles, 
 grew into a formidable power, which soon brought 
 Hungary to the verge of ruin. We have described, in 
 the preceding pages, the fatal battle of Mohacs, fought 
 on the 29th of August, 1526, in which the youthful 
 King Louis II. opposed an army of hardly 25,000 
 men to Solyman's 300,000, to be swept away by 
 the torrent of overwhelming numbers. To give an 
 adequate idea, however, of this awful catastrophe 
 in the annals of Hungary, we will add here that 
 seven bishops and archbishops, thirteen lords of the 
 banner, five hundred magnates, and many thousand 
 nobles laid down the-ir lives on the bloody battle- 
 field. 
 
 The nation was seized with indescribable ter- 
 ror on learning the details of this dreadful calamity; 
 entire villages were deserted by their inhabitants, 
 who scattered in every direction. The widowed 
 queen, finding herself utterly deserted in Buda, 
 fled to Presburg, and the capital of Hungary, one of 
 the finest cities of Christendom, which but a little 
 more than a generation before had been made one of 
 the chief centres of European learning and culture, 
 passed, in less than two weeks after the fatal day of
 
 THE TURKISH WORLD. 2QJ 
 
 Mohacs, without any resistance, into the hands of the 
 victorious Solyman. The Turks sacked and set fire to 
 the beautiful city, and all its magnificent buildings, 
 save the royal palace, were destroyed by the flames. 
 The victorious enemy met with as little opposition in 
 ravaging and massacring in the country as they had 
 encountered at the capital. There was no one to 
 stay their devastations. The miserable peasantry 
 still made some feeble attempts at defence ; here and 
 there a few thousand men collected at some fortified 
 position to protect themselves and their families. 
 Thus some 20,000 men retreated into the Vertes 
 mountains, and, under the leadership of Michael 
 Dobozy, entrenched themselves near the village of 
 Marot, in a camp fortified by a barricade constructed 
 of wagons. But the Turks had their guns carried up 
 to the nearest eminence, and opened a fire on the 
 occupants of the improvised wall. The peasants 
 were struck with terror, and the undisciplined boors, 
 the wailing women and children, deserted their shel- 
 tering wagons in despair. Dobozy, seeing that all 
 was lost, mounted his gallant steed, and placing his 
 young wife on the saddle before him, he sought 
 safety in flight. The elated Turks fell upon the fly- 
 ing Hungarians, frightfully massacring their ranks. 
 Among the fugitives, Dobozy especially attracted 
 the enemy's attention, owing to the superior- 
 ity of his armor, indicative of gentle blood, and 
 more particularly because of the young woman he 
 carried in his arms. They pursued him like blood- 
 hounds. The distance between the pursuers and 
 pursued gradually diminished, and Dobozy's horse
 
 294 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 began to show signs of exhaustion under the double 
 burden. Wife and husband saw the fierce forms, 
 eager for prey, draw nearer and nearer. Still there 
 was a gleam of hope for them if they could reach the 
 near brook, cross the bridge, and destroy it before 
 their pursuers came up with them. They succeeded 
 in gaining the bridge, but, alas, the flying peasants 
 had already broken it off, and there was no other 
 thoroughfare to the opposite bank. 
 
 All was lost now. Dobozy told his wife to fly by 
 herself, whilst he would remain and stay with his 
 own breast the progress of their pursuers. But the 
 young spouse would not part from her loving hus- 
 band, not even in death, and besought him to kill 
 her rather than to expose her to the chance of falling 
 into the hands of the pagan enemy. The desperate 
 husband, seeing the Turks quite near to them, 
 stabbed his youthful wife with his own dagger, and 
 then, turning upon his adversaries, dearly sold his 
 life. The spot where Dobozy and his faithful wife 
 lost their lives is, to this day, called Basaharcz 
 (the Pasha struggle). 
 
 The immense Turkish army spread all over the 
 country, everywhere plundering, ravaging, and de- 
 stroying defenseless lives, and reducing, in a war of 
 a few months' duration, the population of the coun- 
 try by nearly 200,000 souls. The capital in ruins, 
 hundreds of other places deserted and laid waste, 
 the country without a king, the church without any 
 higher clergy, the greater part of the nobility, used 
 to arms, killed such was the condition in which 
 Hungary was left by the Turks at the departure of
 
 THE TURKISH WORLD. 295 
 
 Sultan Solyman. In October, 1526, he left the 
 doomed country, having first laden his ships, sailing 
 for Constantinople, with the treasures of the palace 
 of King Matthias its rare curiosities, its bronze 
 statues, and a portion of the famous Corvinian 
 library. 
 
 The fatal day of Mohacs had entirely overturned 
 the order in the state, and amongst the magnates 
 who survived it party strife soon broke out. One 
 party, acting upon the conviction that enfeebled 
 Hungary was unable to resist, unsupported, the over- 
 whelming power of the Turks, elected a Hapsburg 
 archduke, Ferdinand of Austria, a brother of Charles 
 V., the Roman emperor, king of Hungary, and since 
 that time the royal crown has, in fact, remained in 
 possession of the Hapsburgs. It was through this 
 dynasty that the Hungarian people endeavored to 
 secure the aid of the German empire against the 
 Osmanlis. But another party amongst the great lords 
 pursued an opposite course. In their opinion a native 
 dynasty and peaceful relations with the invincible 
 Turks were the means of rescuing the country from 
 her pitiable plight. These patriots, therefore, elected 
 as king of Hungary, John Szapolyai, the vayvode of 
 Transylvania, and the most powerful lord in the coun- 
 try, and thus the nation had now two kings in the 
 place of the one who had fallen at Mohacs. 
 
 But neither of these parties nor their royal repre- 
 sentatives could save the country from the Turks ; 
 on the contrary, the continual rivalries between the 
 two kings not only demoralized public virtue and 
 upset all law and authority within the kingdom, but
 
 296 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 they assisted not a little the foreign enemy in getting 
 into their possession, by slow degrees, the larger part 
 of Hungary, and enabled the Turks, within a brief 
 period, to float their crescent on the towers of Buda, 
 and there, to the ruin of the nation, and to the per- 
 petual terror of the Christian world, it continued to 
 wave for nearly one hundred and fifty years. The 
 history of the Hungarian nation during this entire 
 period is sad in the extreme a tragedy, the scenes 
 of which are supplied by an uninterrupted series of 
 trials and sufferings. Owing to the incapacity of the 
 leading statesmen and generals, the ruin of the coun- 
 try became more and more irretrievable. Yet, how- 
 ever dark and forlorn this period may seem, the na- 
 tional sufferings of those days are relieved and bright- 
 ened by the glorious heroism and patriotism dis- 
 played by the people. The Hungarians, although 
 menaced, in their very existence, by many enemies, 
 by party strife, and religious dissensions, exhibited 
 such rare moral courage, heroism, devotion, self- 
 denial, and manliness, that the memory of the gen- 
 erations of that melancholy era will remain forever 
 hallowed. Heroes arose on every side, and the 
 struggle, sustained by the nation for nearly a cen- 
 tury and a half against the oppressive power of the 
 Turks, reminds one, in many of its features, of the 
 protracted contest between the Spaniards and the 
 Moors, and, like it, abounds in poetry, romance, and 
 those noble examples of patriotism and loftiness of 
 soul which kindle the human heart, arouse the sym- 
 pathies of the poet, and are treasured up by the 
 piety of after-ages as glorious relics of the past.
 
 THE TURKISH WORLD. 297 
 
 Soiyman's ambitious schemes looked for still wider 
 fields of conquest, and in 1529 he marched towards 
 Vienna, in order to attack King Ferdinand in his 
 own capital. The city, however, was successfully 
 defended. In 1532 Solyman advanced again upon 
 Vienna. The sultan's progress was unopposed until 
 he reached Koszeg (German, Guns), in the neighbor- 
 hood of the Austrian frontier. The keys of sixteen 
 fortresses and fortified cities lay at his feet ; Koszeg 
 alone refused to do homage, and arrested the sultan's 
 triumphal inarch. Michael Juricsics was its com- 
 mander; he was just about to remove his small 
 garrison, consisting of twenty-eight hussars and 
 ten cuirassiers, to Vienna, for whose defence all 
 the available forces were being called in, when the 
 Turks appeared beneath the walls of Koszeg. On 
 beholding the approach of the immense Turkish 
 army, Juricsics took a bold and noble resolution. 
 He determined to hold the fortress, and to die rather 
 than surrender it to the enemy. He immediately 
 took measures to defend the place ; he repaired the 
 walls and bastions, armed seven hundred peasants 
 who had sought refuge in the city, and purchased 
 with his own money gunpowder and provisions. 
 The Turkish army arrived under the walls of Koszeg 
 on the 5th of August, 1532; a few days later the 
 sultan himself joined them, and the siege was prose- 
 cuted at once with the utmost energy. The outer 
 fortifications had already fallen into the hands of the 
 enemy, the guns and mines had effected a breach 
 sixteen yards wide in the main wall of the citadel, of 
 its seven hundred defenders half had fallen, and on
 
 298 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 the 24th of August Juricsics had but one hundred 
 weight of gunpowder left. Yet the plucky reply he 
 gave to the sultan's summons to surrender was: "As 
 long as I live I will not surrender." The Turks there- 
 upon directed a fresh assault upon the citadel, and 
 the garrison again lost many lives, while Juricsics 
 himself was wounded. The Turks pressed into the 
 city, but the inhabitants, at their approach, broke 
 out into such dreadful howling and wailing that the 
 frightened assailants retreated, and the city was 
 once more miraculously spared. But Juricsics him- 
 self saw now the impossibility of further resistance ; 
 he had no more gunpowder, and most of the gar- 
 rison were like himself wounded. For the purpose, 
 therefore, of sparing the lives of the remaining in- 
 habitants, he finally permitted the Turkish flag to be 
 hoisted over the city. Solyman, seeing the Turkish 
 flag floating over Koszeg, thought he had captured 
 the citadel, and retired from under the walls on the 
 3 ist of August. But it was not towards Vienna that 
 he directed his steps, but homeward. He had been- 
 delayed nearly four weeks near Koszeg, and during 
 this time a powerful army had been collected in 
 Vienna which the sultan had not the courage to 
 face. Juricsics had thus, by his heroism, saved 
 Vienna from a siege, the issue of which might have 
 been calamitous to that renowned city of Chris- 
 tendom. 
 
 Many were still found in other parts of the country 
 to follow the stirring example set by Juricsics, but 
 unfortunately success but rarely attended their devo- 
 tion. Most of them were fated only to be martyrs to
 
 THE TURKISH WORLD. 299 
 
 the sacred cause, shedding their blood on the altar 
 of their tottering country. The farther the Turkish 
 conquests extended the more precarious and peri- 
 lous became the position of the isolated commanders 
 of the Hungarian border fortresses. The safety of a 
 whole territory or country often depended upon the 
 possession of one of these strongholds. Thus were 
 the wealthy mining tpwns and the entire Hungarian 
 mining region protected by the fortified place of 
 Dregel, and it naturally attracted the attention of 
 the Turks, always thirsting for plunder, who hast- 
 ened to lay siege to it, hoping, by its possession, to 
 open the road to the mines. Gallant George Szondi, 
 the commandant of the fortress of Dregel, was a de- 
 termined and magnanimous man who, fully con- 
 scious of the great importance of the place, was 
 ready to defend it with his life. The fortress itself 
 was not one of the first order, and was guarded only 
 by a small garrison. 
 
 In July, 1552, a Turkish army numbering about 
 10,000 appeared under the walls. Ali, the Pasha 
 of Buda, himself a chivalrous and noble-minded 
 soldier, stood at the head of the besiegers, and, 
 under the fire of his guns, the bastions crumbled to 
 dust in the course of a few days. When the great 
 tower too, was but a heap of ruins, and the walls 
 were showing wide gaps everywhere, and all hope 
 of being able to continue the defence seemed to 
 have vanished, Ali sent a message to the com- 
 mandant of Dregel. He employed a clergyman 
 by the name of Marton, the parish priest of a 
 neighboring village, to go to Szondi and to tell
 
 3OO THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 him that : " Ali reverently bowed before Szondi's 
 bravery and determined spirit, the report of which 
 had reached him long ago, and of which he had 
 had good occasion to convince himself during the 
 present siege, but as the position could be held 
 no longer, Szondi ought to preserve his heroic 
 life and to surrender the crumbling fortress, and 
 if this were done free departure should be guaran- 
 teed for himself and his people." Szondi s'-lently 
 listened to the message of Ali, whom he knew to 
 be a noble and chivalrous foe, but manfully de- 
 clined to lay down his arms. He was resolved to 
 defend the place to his last breath, and rather 
 bury himself under its ruins than negotiate with 
 the enemy. But he in turn asked now a favor of 
 Ali Pasha, not for himself, but for two youthful 
 troubadours, two young bards who were in the 
 fortress, and for whom the Hungarian hero wished 
 to provide before his death. He had the youths 
 dressed in purple velvet and sending them, under 
 the care of Father Marton, to Ali Pasha, he re- 
 quested the latter to take these youths some say 
 they were his own sons into his service, as he 
 himself would not be able to bring them up, and 
 to make brave men of them. Then summoning 
 into his presence two Turkish captives remaining 
 in the fortress, he bestowed upon them rich pres- 
 ents and allowed them to depart. 
 
 As soon as Marton had left with his youthful 
 charges Szondi felt that the supreme moment, the 
 moment of a glorious death, was near at hand. He 
 ordered his money, his clothes, and all his valu-
 
 THE TURKISH WORLD. 30 1 
 
 ables to be taken into the courtyard of the cita- 
 del, and, for fear they might fall into the hands 
 of the enemy, he himself set fire to them and saw 
 them reduced to ashes. Then he directed his 
 steps to the stables, and thrust with his own 
 hands his lance through his horses, his noble war 
 steeds. Hastening now to his few remaining sol- 
 diers he addressed to them touching words of 
 farewell. Outside, the approach of the Turks, 
 preparing for the assault and shouting Allah, was 
 already heard. Szondi, at the head of his two com- 
 panies, rushed to the citadel gate and there laid 
 down his life after heroically defending himself. A 
 ball having penetrated his foot, the dying man sank 
 on his knees and continued the fight to his last 
 breath. He was finally cut down by the Turks, who 
 surrounded him on all sides ; his head was placed on 
 a lance and carried in triumph to the victorious Ali. 
 The generous Turk was deeply moved by this noble 
 example of self-sacrifice, and, having given orders to 
 seek out Szondi's body, he caused his remains to be 
 buried with great military pomp, in a neighboring 
 hill. For a long time the spot where Szondi was 
 laid into the grave was marked by a pike and a flag. 
 One of the greatest poets of modern Hungary, John 
 Arany, has perpetuated Szondi's story in a beautiful 
 ballad, and contemporary piety has just erected 
 amidst the ruins of Dregel a chapel in memory of 
 the departed hero. 
 
 Stephen Losonczy, another Hungarian hero, who 
 shared Szondi's fate a few days later, had no such 
 noble opponent as Ali to deal with. Temesvar, the
 
 3O2 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 largest fortress in the country, was entrusted to his 
 care. Fifty thousand Turks marched on Temesvar, 
 and having quickly reduced all the smaller fortified 
 places and cities near it, they reached the fortress 
 in an over-confident mood. Losonczy immediately 
 sallied out to meet the enemy, and so intimidated 
 them that they soon gave up the siege and left the 
 neighborhood. Yet only for a short time ; they re- 
 turned in greater numbers under the leadership of 
 Ahmed Pasha. The latter at once called upon the 
 Hungarian commandant to surrender the fortress. 
 Losonczy collected in the public square the garrison 
 which numbered altogether 2,200 soldiers, of whom 
 1,300 were Hungarians and the remainder Germans, 
 Czechs, and Spaniards, and asked them if they were 
 ready to defend to death the fortress in their charge. 
 The enthusiastic shouts of the soldiers that they 
 were ready to die rather than yield up the place- 
 was the answer he received. Losonczy at once 
 swore in his men, and immediately answered the 
 summons of the Turkish pasha by a sally from the 
 fortress, driving the enemy from the vicinity of the 
 trenches. 
 
 The Turks now proceeded to lay regular siege to 
 the fortress a branch of military science in which 
 they were highly accomplished. They were masters 
 in the art of reducing fortified places, in the mining 
 works, and in the handling of the great battering guns. 
 Thirty-six guns of heavy calibre soon poured their 
 shots into the fortifications, which after a couple of 
 days exhibited such breaches that the pasha thought 
 the time for an assault had arrived. Thousands of
 
 THE TURKISH WORLD. 303 
 
 brave Janissaries rushed at the tottering walls. There, 
 however, they were met by the guard, who, themselves 
 ready to die, made a frightful havoc amongst their 
 assailants. The assault was repulsed in a few hours, 
 the trenches were filled with the Turkish dead, and 
 many a distinguished bey and officer of high rank 
 was left lifeless on the scene of the sanguinary con- 
 test. 
 
 Losonczy, however, saw that all the heroism of his 
 soldiers was thrown away if he did not receive aid 
 from abroad. He therefore applied to the com- 
 manders of the royal and Transylvanian armies for 
 soldiers, gunpowder, and other war requisites of which 
 he had run short, but could obtain nothing from them. 
 In this strait he resolved to devote his own fortune to 
 the cause of his country, and wrote to his wife, the 
 high-minded Anna Pekry, who was outside the for- 
 tress, to turn all he had into money, to mortgage his 
 estates, and, with the funds thus obtained, to hire 
 soldiers, purchase munitions, and send them into the 
 besieged fortress. The generous woman was ready 
 to bring any sacrifice to assist her husband in his ex- 
 treme distress, and, taking into her pay five hundred 
 volunteers (hayduks) whom she provided with the 
 necessary military equipments, she bade them march 
 to the relief of Temesvar. But the place was already 
 completely invested, and the small troop was unable 
 to penetrate the strong blockading cordon of the 
 Turks. The five hundred hayduks were dispersed 
 by the enemy, the gunpowder was taken away from 
 them, and now Losonczy gave up all hope of aid from 
 without.
 
 304 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Yet the gallant commander never for a moment 
 Wavered in his duty. He wrote, in one of his last 
 letters : " We are patiently looking forward to the 
 moment when we must die," and all he asked of the 
 king was to take care of his little orphans. The hour 
 was not far off, for the long siege had already ex- 
 hausted their ammunition and provisions, and the 
 Turks were constantly renewing their assaults. Al- 
 though the enemy lost at times three thousand men 
 in one assault, they returned each day in still greater 
 numbers and repeated the attack. St. Anne's Day 
 arrived, the day of the patron saint of Anna, 
 Losonczy's wife, which in brighter days he used to 
 celebrate, according to ancestral fashion, by merry 
 carousing, but it was now a melancholy day for the 
 brave commander. The provisions and ammuni- 
 tion were all exhausted, and the Turks, after immense 
 losses, had finally succeeded in occupying the large 
 entrenched tower lying between the inner citadel 
 and the town. 
 
 Hungry, without gunpowder, and with no hope of 
 relief from abroad, Losonczy's soldiers began at last 
 to mutiny, and, wishing to save their lives, they in- 
 sisted upon the surrender of the town. The Span- 
 ish soldiers the foreigners especially demanded 
 the giving up of the place, while the Hungarians 
 declared that they were still ready to follow their 
 gallant leader to death. The inhabitants of the town, 
 reflecting that by a capitulation they might save 
 their lives and property, whereas if the Turks entered 
 the city by force of arms they would be shown no 
 mercy, finally sided with the Spanish party and were
 
 THE TURKISH WORLD. 305 
 
 bent upon making terms with the enemy. At first 
 Losonczy would not hear of yielding, but when 
 Ahmed Pasha's messengers appeared at the fortress 
 and promised every one safe departure, besides the 
 right of taking with him all his movables, the Span- 
 iards compelled him to sign the capitulation. 
 
 So the brave soldier at last gave up the struggle, 
 and, troubled by sad forebodings, he withdrew from 
 the ruined fortress at the head of his decimated 
 troops, who were still fully armed. Outside the 
 gate he was received with military honors by the 
 Turkish commanders. Losonczy \vas proceeding on 
 his good horse through the ranks of the enemy which 
 were in a line drawn up on either side, when sud- 
 denly there came from the Hungarians in the rear 
 shoutings and cries. He turned back and saw that 
 the Turks, in shameful disregard of the terms of 
 capitulation, had fallen upon his pages and were pil- 
 laging them. The old warrior could not witness this 
 disgrace unmoved ; he drew his sword, once more 
 the war-trumpet sounded the attack, and he rushed 
 to the rescue of his men. The engagement became 
 general and the small band was almost entirely cut 
 down. Losonczy fearlessly braved death, and, bleed- 
 ing from numerous wounds, was finally taken by the 
 perfidious enemy, who, cutting off the hero's head, 
 sent it as a token of triumph to Stambul. Thus, in 
 1552, passed Temesvar, one of the most important 
 fortified places in Hungary, into the possession of the 
 Turks. It remained longer under the Turkish yoke 
 than any other Hungarian stronghold of importance, 
 
 for thirty years elapsed after the reconquest of Buda 
 20
 
 306 THE STORV OF HUNGARY. 
 
 before it was again restored to the possession of the 
 king of Hungary. 
 
 Szondi and Losonczy might have been spared 
 martyrdom if the commander-in-chief of the royal 
 army, who were all foreigners, had, in their vanity, 
 had the courage to attempt their rescue. They wit- 
 nessed, sunk in cowardly inactivity, the deadly throes 
 of these heroes, and looked on with indifference 
 while one fort after the other was falling into hostile 
 hands. These foreign commanders, with their armies 
 composed of foreigners, were never able to cope with 
 the Turks. If they ventured to engage in a battle 
 they were sure to lose it. In this way can it be 
 accounted for that in spite of the superhuman efforts 
 of the Hungarians who heroically battled for their 
 country, the Turkish conquests grew apace, and the 
 flat portions of the land, the rich and fertile lowlands, 
 passed under the rule of the Osmanlis. Transyl- 
 vania, the eastern portion of the country, had strug- 
 gled into a sort of independence, and severing herself 
 gradually from the mother-country, had a separate 
 state organization of her own under her native rulers, 
 so that Hungary may be said at this time to have 
 been cut up into three parts. The largest portion 
 accepted the Turkish supremacy, Transylvania as- 
 .serted its independence, and the remaining and 
 smallest division acknowledged the kings of the 
 Hapsburg dynasty, whose residence was in Vienna. 
 The German, Italian, and Spanish troops employed 
 by the latter, together with those by whom they 
 were led, so far from being instrumental in the lib- 
 eration of the country, indulged in the same licen-
 
 THE TURKlSir WORLD. 307 
 
 tious and lawless behavior as the Turks themselves. 
 They were utterly ignorant of the language, customs, 
 and institutions of the Hungarian people, and were 
 entirely indifferent to the interests of the country. 
 These irresponsible military bodies harassed and 
 plundered the native population to such an extent 
 that it was not long before the Hungarians came to 
 hate the foreign soldiery, and the Germans in gen- 
 eral, as much as they did the Turks. 
 
 But even during the most depressing days, and 
 under circumstances of a most desperate and hope- 
 less character, the spirit of heroism did not die out 
 amongst the Hungarian people. Shortly after the 
 reduction of Temesvar the immense Turkish army 
 marched against Erlau. Stephen Dob6 was the com- 
 mandant of the latter place. He knew by the sad 
 examples of Losonczy and Szondi what was in store 
 for him, and, although the royal troops were near, 
 he also knew, from experience, that he could not de- 
 pend upon any help from that quarter, and must 
 needs look to his own resources to stay the progress 
 of the overwhelming forces of the Osmanlis, " We 
 expect aid from God only, and not from men," he 
 wrote at the approach of the enemy. He immedi- 
 ately took measures to defend the place ; he laid in 
 large supplies of ammunition, sulphur, saltpetre, and 
 provisions, sent his lieutenant, Mecsey, a soldier 
 worthy of his chief, into the "djoining counties to 
 fire the hearts of the young men, and to invite them 
 to enroll themselves amongst the defenders of the 
 fortress. He made up his garrison of Hungarians 
 only, knowing, from experience, that the foreign
 
 308 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 hirelings could not be trusted. He had altogether 
 only nine guns and nine gunners, but he hurriedly 
 drilled the students and the more intelligent amongst 
 the peasants in artillery practice, and formed them 
 into a separate corps of cannoniers. Having pro- 
 vided every thing in time, and placing his trust in 
 God and his own strength, he calmly awaited the 
 enemy. 
 
 No sooner had the immense Turkish army arrived, 
 when Ahmed Pasha summoned Dobo to surrender 
 the fortress. Dobo collected about him his men and 
 publicly read to them the pasha's letter. The gal- 
 lant Hungarian garrison shouted, as with one heart, 
 that they would never surrender the place. Dobo, 
 his fellow-officers, and all the men, then took a sol- 
 emn oath to fight to the bitter end, and that, if any 
 one but breathed about the surrender, he should be 
 hanged on the pillar of the town well. As an answer 
 to Ahmed's missive, Dobo caused to be placed upon 
 one of the lofty towers of the bastion a large iron 
 coffin with two lances, one of them floating the 
 Hungarian flag, and the other the Turkish. This 
 was to convey to the enemy that on this place either 
 the Turks or the Hungarians must perish, and in 
 order to give weight to his answer he sallied forth 
 with part of his garrison that very night, and brought 
 away from the besiegers a great deal of booty. 
 
 Ahmed retorted by opening a fire on the town and 
 citadel from 120 guns, some of which sped balls of 
 fifty pounds as far as the bastion, but eighteen days 
 elapsed before the enemy could summon up suf- 
 ficient courage to try an assault. It proved ineffec-
 
 3IO THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 tual r the assailants being gallantly repulsed by the 
 Hungarians. A few days later a great calamity befell 
 the denizens of the citadel. The powder magazine, 
 struck by a hostile ball, exploded, and a portion of 
 the wall of the citadel was thrown down by the ex- 
 plosion. Taking advantage of the wild confusion 
 the explosion had created amongst the garrison, the 
 enemy directed another assault against their works, 
 but quite as ineffectually as before. They were 
 driven back ; Dobo had the wall repaired, and in the 
 cellar vaults he established a gunpowder factory, 
 which proved sufficient to furnish the necessary 
 supply. 
 
 After several unsuccessful minor attacks, the 
 Turks prepared for the great final assault. They 
 came against the fortress in overwhelming num- 
 bers on every side, and already the garrison began 
 to show symptoms of exhaustion and wavering. 
 At that moment of supreme danger, however, 
 the gallant defenders of the citadel obtained help 
 from quite an unlooked-for quarter. Wives, moth- 
 ers, and daughters armed themselves, and rushed to 
 the walls to fight by the side of their dear ones. 
 Some of these amazons robbed the dead of their 
 swords, and rushed, thus armed, where the enemy 
 was thickest ; others brought boiling water and oil, 
 and poured it upon the heads of those who at- 
 tempted to scale the walls ; and, with the help of 
 these brave women, the assault was beaten back at 
 the most dangerous points. The women of Erlau 
 had a large share in the saving of the city, and the 
 fame of their heroic devotion still survives in Hun-
 
 THE TURKISH WORLD. 311 
 
 gary. The Turks were quite panic-struck ; in one 
 day alone they lost 8,000 men : and the soldiers 
 loudly declared that God was fighting on the side of 
 the Hungarians, and who could struggle against 
 God ? After a siege of thirty-eight days, the Turk- 
 ish army at length withdrew, and Dobo and his 
 brave men were left in possession of the now ruin- 
 ous citadel, thus preserving it for their country. 
 The glory of their daring deeds has passed into a 
 common saying. Of any one accomplishing a 
 great deed, the people say : " He has won the 
 fame of Erlau." The place, nevertheless, passed 
 under Turkish rule in 1596, its Hungarian com- 
 mandant having been compelled by the foreign 
 garrison to capitulate. 
 
 In 1566 Sultan Solyman, who, though old, was still 
 full of vigor, placed himself at the head of a for- 
 midable army, and invaded Hungary for the sixth 
 time, his object being to take Erlau and, eventually, 
 to march against Vienna. On reaching, with his 
 200,000 men and 300 guns, Hungarian territory, he 
 was met by the news that Mohammed Pasha, his 
 favorite, together with his army, had been massacred 
 by the Hungarians at Szigetvar. The aged sultan 
 desired to avenge this affront at once. Szigetvar 
 and its brave commander, Nicholas Zrinyi, had long 
 since been troublesome to the Turks. Zrinyi, the 
 scion of a most ancient family, had been engaged 
 for years in constant fighting against the Moslem 
 power, during those periods even when peace was 
 officially established. His possessions and castles 
 lay in the border territory, and the fearless man
 
 312 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 was ever at war with the Osmanlis, making them 
 feel the weight of his irresistible sword. The 
 storming of Szigetvar had been attempted once 
 before, but the enemy had been beaten back with 
 great slaughter. And now the great sultan de- 
 termined himself to bring him to terms, and to 
 invest in person the small fortress. Zrinyi was 
 prepared for the worst, and calmly got ready to 
 face the formidable foe. Szigetvar was not a for- 
 tress of the first rank, but only one of the minor 
 strong places. The main feature of its strength 
 was that it lay almost entirely surrounded by lake 
 and marsh, the only road leading to the place 
 being over the bridge communicating with the 
 gate. In front of the citadel, on an island, was 
 the old town, and south of it, on another island, 
 the so-called new town. Szigetvar, therefore, con- 
 sisted, in point of fact, of three places, each for- 
 tified, but differing from each other in the strength 
 of their works of defence. The two towns were, 
 in reality, advanced fortifications of the fortress 
 itself. Without much aid from any quarter, Zrinyi 
 undertook the defence of this small place. His 
 own money purchased the necessary ammunition 
 and military supplies ; he filled the granaries with 
 provisions, produced on his own estates, and from 
 his cellar came the necessary wine. There was an 
 abundance of provisions in the place, but there 
 were not soldiers enough. When it became quite 
 certain that the sultan was marching his whole 
 army against Szigetvar, all Zrinyi could obtain 
 from the king, after repeatedly urging his want
 
 THE TURKISH WORLD. 313 
 
 of soldiers, was the permission to hire one thou- 
 sand foot-soldiers. German soldiers, it is true, 
 were offered to him, but those he did not want, 
 preferring to select his troops from amongst the 
 garrisons of his own castles, so as to have only 
 tried men by his side. All the force he could mus- 
 ter to oppose to the hundreds of thousands of 
 Solyman numbered, at the highest, 2,500 men. He 
 had 54 guns and 800 hundredweights of gunpowder, 
 and, what was worth more than all that, he and his 
 men were inspired by the sublime resolve, rather to 
 die on the- field of honor than to submit to the cruel 
 enemy, who had turned into a desert a large por- 
 tion of their beautiful country. His soldiers wor- 
 shipped their heroic leader, and enthusiastically 
 pledged their devotion by oaths of fidelity and 
 obedience. 
 
 On the 3 1st of July, 1566, the advance guard of 
 the enemy showed itself. During the first few days 
 several minor engagements took place, but the 
 siege began in real earnest on the /th of August. On 
 that day the first assault was attempted ; it was di- 
 rected against the weakest point, the new town, 
 but it met with no success. A few days later, how- 
 ever, Zrinyi himself deemed it expedient to give up 
 the defence of this advanced position, and, after hav- 
 ing set fire to the new town and reduced it to ashes, 
 he abandoned it to the enemy. The besiegers im- 
 mediately occupied it and erected their batteries, 
 protected by bags and baskets filled with earth, and 
 sacks of wool. The batteries were hardly ready 
 when the Hungarians surprised them one night
 
 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 and destroyed them all. Chance, however, now fa- 
 vored the Turks. A drought had prevailed during 
 two months, and the terrain surrounding the old 
 town had become so dry, as considerably to facilitate 
 the approach of the enemy. The besiegers attempted 
 also to drain the lake surrounding the fortress, and 
 planned to accomplish this by cutting through the 
 great dam around it, so as to provide an outlet for 
 the waters. The neighborhood of the dam became 
 the scene of fierce struggles. The position was 
 heroically defended by the Hungarians, while the 
 Turks quite as heroically again and again returned to 
 the attack. After a sanguinary contest lasting the 
 whole day, the Turks finally took the old town on 
 the igth of August, and Zrinyi with his shrunken 
 garrison entirely withdrew to the citadel, after hav- 
 ing demolished the bridge leading to the old town. 
 
 Sultan Solyman, however, now thought that lives 
 enough had been lost, and he therefore tried to get 
 possession of the fortress by peaceable means. He 
 tried Zrinyi with fair promises ; he sent him messages 
 that he would make him prince of Dalmatia, Croa- 
 tia, and Slavonia, and tempted him with treasures 
 and estates. Then he tried him with threats. The 
 enemy had captured one of the trumpeters of Zrin- 
 yi's son, George. The trumpet found in the pris- 
 oner's possession had the arms of the Zrinyi family 
 painted on it, and Solyman sent this trumpet to 
 Szigetvar as a token that Zrinyi's son had been 
 taken captive, and threatened that the prisoner 
 would be cruelly executed unless the place was sur- 
 rendered. Neither promises nor threats were of any
 
 THE TURKISH WORLD. 315 
 
 avail. Zrinyi did not for a moment waver, but was 
 steadfast in his determination to follow the dictates 
 of duty and patriotism alone. 
 
 The wrath of Solyman at the wearisomeness of 
 the siege knew no bounds. He had been patiently 
 expecting day after day the reduction of the place, 
 and finally, tired of further delay, gave the order for 
 a general assault on the 2Qth of August. The super- 
 stitious sultan thought this a particularly Jucky day, 
 for it was the anniversary of the day on which he 
 had taken Belgrade and of the battle at Mohacs. 
 The aged ruler, who now but rarely showed himself 
 to his soldiers, mounted his favorite charger and ap- 
 peared amongst the Janissaries, in order to rouse and 
 encourage them. His troops rushed enthusiastically 
 into the fight, for which the artillery and the engi 
 neers conducting the siege had made every prepara- 
 tion many days before. But Zrinyi was ready and 
 wide-awake, and drove the assailants back with great 
 slaughter. Aliportug, a Portuguese renegade, who 
 was the enemy's most distinguished artillery officer 
 and military engineer, and had conducted the siege 
 of Sziget, lost his life during this engagement. The 
 Hungarians, although they too had suffered severe 
 losses, celebrated their triumph with bonfires and 
 feasting. They now fondly hoped that their heroic 
 resistance would at last induce the royal troops to 
 come to the relief of Sziget, and to attack the ex- 
 hausted troops of the sultan. Some negotiations to 
 that effect had been carried on, but the result was as 
 usual; the German commanders allowed the scanty 
 garrison to perish.
 
 3l6 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 The besiegers, after their last repulse, passed an 
 entire week without renewing the attack. They 
 employed this pause to lay unobserved a powerful 
 mine under the walls of the bastion, which was fired 
 by them on the 5th of September. The explosion 
 shattered the walls, the bastion fell down, and a ter- 
 rible gale carried the flames into the citadel in every 
 direction. All the buildings were soon on fire, and 
 the Turks too began a general assault. Hemmed in 
 by the dreadful conflagration and the storming ene- 
 my, the Hungarians finally yielded. They retired 
 from the outer fortification, and Zrinyi with his 
 men who had dwindled down to a few hundred 
 withdrew into the inner or smaller fort. Further re- 
 sistance seemed now hopeless, yet Zrinyi did not 
 think of capitulating. The cannon-balls of the ene- 
 my set on fire the smaller fort on the /th of Septem- 
 ber. Zrinyi, in this extremity, had all his valuables, 
 his thousands of gold and silver, his precious vessels 
 and plate, brought into the public square of the cita- 
 del and cast into the flames. He then divested him- 
 self of his armor and helmet, donned a dolmany (a 
 short jacket braided in front), and threw over it a 
 dark-blue velvet cloak, placing in each of his pockets 
 a hundred ducats as a reward to the man who should 
 discover his dead body. He wound a costly chain 
 of gold around his neck, in place of his helmet he 
 put on his head a kalpag (a Hungarian fur cap), orna- 
 mented with a heron's feather and diamond rosettes, 
 and, arming himself with a curved sabre and a light 
 shield, he took with him the keys of the citadel, to 
 make sure that they should pass into the enemy's
 
 THE TURKISH WORLD. 317 
 
 hands only upon his death. In this attire he ap- 
 peared before his men, who were assembled in the 
 courtyard. He addressed them in a speech full of 
 his generous spirit, " lauding them for their gallant 
 conduct, which would earn for them the respect of 
 the Christian world and of generations to come. 
 The conclusion of their heroic career," he added, 
 " ought to be worthy of their brilliant feats of the 
 past. There is but one road before us," he con- 
 tinued, " that of honor ; all the other courses arc 
 those of shame. You must either meet with death 
 here amid the flames, or must sally forth, and, dearly 
 selling your lives, die the deaths of heroes. Choose 
 between the two." The kindling words of their 
 leader did not fail of their effect. At this supreme 
 moment the people of Szigetvar, in their exalted en- 
 thusiasm, thought only of their honor. The very 
 women wished to follow the men on this their last 
 journey. Zrinyi had the bridge lowered and was the 
 first to advance upon it. Lawrence Juranics was at 
 his side carrying the large banner, and the other offi- 
 cers promptly followed. About six hundred people 
 joined the sally of their heroic leader, who, after a 
 fierce struggle, laid down his devoted life. Of his 
 companions-in-arms but few escaped.* 
 
 Thus, after a glorious resistance of over six weeks, 
 did Szigetvar fall into the hands of the Turks. Sultan 
 Solyman did not see the victorious end of the siege ; 
 he had expired a few days before in his camp. The 
 Turkish army returned home, and thus through 
 Zrinyi's noble self-sacrifice was the entire campaign 
 
 * See Frontispiece.
 
 318 77/ STOKY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 of the enemy rendered barren of results. The for- 
 midable army which had menaced the whole country 
 wasted its strength at Szigetvar, and the capture of 
 this fortress alone cost the enemy 30,000 lives. Zrinyi's 
 heroic death roused the admiration and sympathy of 
 the whole European world, and his name became 
 famous as one of the martyrs of Christianity. 
 
 Nor were the muses silent, in the midst of the 
 heroic combats which marked this sad period. 
 With so many inspiring themes presenting them- 
 selves, the poet, the successor of the mediaeval trou- 
 badour, soon appeared on the scene to perpetuate 
 in song the memory of the glorious deeds. Among 
 others was Sebastian Tin6dy, who described in verse 
 some of the most glorious of the episodes in the sad 
 chronicle of the sixteenth century. He visited the 
 scenes of the battles and engagements, sought out 
 the survivors or those who had taken a conspicuous 
 part, the captains and their brave followers, collect- 
 ing the incidents presented in his ballads. Tinody 
 did not confine himself, however, to his lyre, but 
 was also an adept in the use of arms, and often took 
 part in the contests of his time, and had more than 
 once been wounded. Another and even more in- 
 teresting figure was that of Valentine Balassa, who 
 was as gallant a soldier as he was eminent as a poet. 
 His works, consisting in part of religious poems and 
 partly of lyric songs, have been, for three centuries, 
 the favorite reading of the Hungarian people. Some 
 of his writings have, however, come down to us in 
 manuscript only, and present a most valuable example 
 of the poetic genius of the Hungarians of his time.
 
 THE TURKISH WORLD. 
 
 319 
 
 Baiassa lived a stirring, eventful and dangerous life, 
 which came to a glorious end on the field of honor. 
 At the storming of Gran, in 1597, he was among the 
 Hungarian besiegers, and the gallant poet received 
 a wound during the engagement, which soon proved 
 fatal. 
 
 In the midst of these perpetual struggles and suc- 
 
 PASHA S HOUSE. 
 
 cessive calamities closed the sixteenth century, and 
 began the seventeenth quite as inauspiciously for the 
 Hungarians. Until now they had cherished the 
 hope that the Hapsburg kings would rescue them 
 from the cruel rule of the Osmanlis. But after a 
 lapse of seventy years they not only saw their hopes 
 of liberation from the hated yoke destroyed, but had 
 the mortification of witnessing the continual spread 
 of the Turkish power. Besides, a sharp antagonism
 
 320 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 of another kind gradually arose between the nation, 
 and their king. The national spirit, in spite of the 
 sad condition of the people, asserted itself more and 
 more, and frequently came into collision with the 
 foreign royal dynasty, whose seat of government was 
 without the frontiers of the country. This antago- 
 nism was not only of a national, but also of a religious 
 character, for, while the largest part of Hungary was 
 overwhelmingly Protestant, the kings of this period 
 were among the staunchest supporters of the Church 
 of Rome. In addition to this, the kings, who were 
 at the same time emperors of Germany, had brought 
 themselves, by their autocratic actions, into direct 
 opposition to the constitution of the country and to 
 the rights and privileges guaranteed by law. As a 
 consequence a fierce constitutional contest was 
 raging, during the whole of the seventeenth century, 
 between the nation and their kings, which quite 
 overshadowed the struggle against the Turks. In 
 these contests the Hungarian people leaned for 
 support chiefly on the principality of Transylvania, 
 whose rulers, Stephen Bocskay, Gabriel Bethlen, 
 George Rakoczy I., not only made their comparatively 
 small country the bulwark of Hungarian nationality 
 and of the Protestant Church, but raised her to a posi- 
 tion of exceptional influence in European politics. 
 
 Before continuing to sketch the period of the 
 Turkish rule in Hungary, we will take a rapid glance 
 at the rise of Protestantism amongst the Hungarians. 
 
 The fall of Luther's hammer upon the door of the 
 castle-church of Wittenberg, as he nailed to it his 
 famous theses, reverberated even in Hungary, and
 
 21 
 
 HUNGARIAN PEASANTS IN AN INN, 
 321
 
 J22 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 produced an intense commotion in that distant coun- 
 try. The period of the renaissance, the revival of art 
 and literature, had prepared all active and inquiring 
 minds for changes in church and religion. The coun- 
 try had maintained an active intercourse, political, 
 commercial, and cultural, with the western nations, 
 and when Luther began the great work in Germany, 
 which was to mark a new era in the history of the 
 world, his ideas spread like wildfire all over Hungary, 
 and, especially, found favor amongst the German in- 
 habitants, who formed at that time an important 
 element of her population. The cities of Buda, 
 Oedenburg (Soprony), Presburg, the wealthy mining 
 regions in the north, the Kiralyfold in Transylvania, 
 were settled by Germans. Many of their clergy, at- 
 tracted by ties of national kinship had finished their 
 studies in Germany, and their merchants were closely 
 connected in business with those of the old father- 
 land. Owing to the intimate relations thus established 
 between the Germans of Hungary and their brethren 
 abroad, the teachings of Luther gained almost as 
 rapidly ground among them as among their country- 
 men in Germany, where the new doctrines had first 
 been promulgated. In the course of a few years the 
 new movement had assumed such formidable propor- 
 tions that it attracted the attention of the whole 
 nation. 
 
 The Catholic clergy, threatened in their supremacy, 
 were the first to take the field in defence of the 
 Church thus assailed. Round them very soon rallied 
 that class of the nation which, alone, enjoyed politi- 
 cal rights in the land, the entire nobility. In siding
 
 THE TURKISH WORLD. 323 
 
 with the Catholic clergy, in this conflict against the 
 Reformation and its followers, the Lutherans, the 
 nobility were by no means actuated by religious mo- 
 tives only. Their hostile attitude was rather owing 
 to important political considerations. The throne 
 was then occupied by Louis II., who was of Polish 
 extraction, the same youthful king who, noted 
 for his frivolous character, expiated the errors of 
 his reign upon the battle-field of Mohacs. This un- 
 fortunate ruler was personally as indifferent to religion 
 as to every thing else involving a serious turn of 
 mind. But his wife, Queen Mary, the sister of the 
 German emperor, Charles V., was all the more en- 
 thusiastic in the defence of Luther's teachings. The 
 queen and her German courtiers, by exerting a bane- 
 ful influence over the affairs of Hungary, had incurred 
 the ill-will of the nobility, which was identical with 
 the national party. This party, with a view to strik- 
 ing a blow at the German and Lutheran sympathiz- 
 ers surrounding the king, enacted from the outset 
 most rigorous laws against the Lutherans. Thus, as 
 early as 1523, a law was promulgated declaring Luth- 
 erans and their protectors (clearly indicating by the 
 latter term the German courtiers of the king) foes to 
 the Holy Virgin Mary, the patroness of Hungary, and 
 as such, punishable with death and confiscation of 
 their property. The persecutions against the adher- 
 ents of the new faith began immediately. Luther's 
 works and writings, which had been largely imported 
 into Hungary, were seized and consigned to the 
 flames. The Reformation, nevertheless, steadily 
 gained ground.
 
 324 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 In the diets which, owing to the attacks threat- 
 ening the country from abroad and troubles at home, 
 were then held three or four times annually, the 
 national party, headed by John Szapolyai, one of 
 the most powerful lords of the land, was constantly 
 urging the cause of the Catholic Church. But there 
 were other political reasons, besides their antipathy 
 to the German courtiers, which determined the 
 national party to persist in their antagonism to the 
 new faith. The Osmanlis were continually harassing 
 the southern frontiers, and the country was always 
 on the brink of a war with them. The nobility, 
 representing the nation, felt instinctively that a 
 catastrophe was near at hand, which Hungary, by 
 her unaided strength alone, would be unable to avert. 
 They had to look for foreign aid, and effective help 
 from abroad could be expected only from the two 
 most powerful rulers in Christendom, the pope and 
 the emperor of Germany, both of whom were Luther's 
 most determined opponents. They succeeded in 
 securing the good-will of the pope, who, having no 
 armies at his disposal to aid Hungary, assisted the 
 country by abundant supplies of money. In return 
 the nobility deemed it their sacred duty to keep a 
 faithful watch and ward over the interests of the 
 Catholic Church, and, in order to do so effectively, 
 they inaugurated relentless measures against the 
 Lutheran heretics. In 1525 another law was passed 
 against the votaries of the new creed, ordering their 
 extermination throughout the country, and declaring 
 that Lutherans, wherever they were found, should 
 suffer death by fire. This cruel law began its aborn-
 
 THE TURKISH WORLD. 325 
 
 inable work, and the funeral stakes soon sent forth 
 their lurid flames. The religious persecutions thus 
 inaugurated hastened the downfall of the Hungarian 
 kingdom. 
 
 The dreadful catastrophe at Mohacs, in 1 526, forced 
 Hungary into untrodden roads, not only politically, 
 but also in the matter of religion. The death of 
 her king, and the slaughter of so many prelates and 
 of thousands of nobles, on the fated battle-field, 
 gave a violent shock to the organization of both 
 state and church, and rendered easy the further ex- 
 tension of the Reformation. Many of the great lords 
 and nobles, who hitherto had been the most ardent 
 supporters of the Catholic Church, speedily became, 
 from political motives or private interest, zealous 
 apostles of the new faith, so that the doctrines of 
 Luther, before principally confined to the inhabitants 
 of the cities, now found many adherents among the 
 magnates. The bondmen, too, who, even in matters 
 of religion, were compelled to obey the behests of 
 their masters, embraced the religion of their lords. 
 As a consequence, the victory of the Reformation be- 
 came, a few decades only after the battle of Mohacs, 
 complete through the larger part of Hungary. The 
 doctrines of Luther had paved the way for the teach- 
 ings of Calvin. The latter, owing to their puritanic 
 spirit and democratic tendencies, which suited the 
 rooted predilection of the Magyar race for self-gov- 
 ernment, spread mostly over the Hungarian section 
 of the country. The religion of Calvin, or the Hel- 
 vetic confession, had such a hold upon the Hun- 
 garian-speaking population that it was soon desig-
 
 326 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 natcd by the special name of the Hungarian faith, 
 while the Lutheran tenets were held chiefly by 
 the German denizens of the cities and the Slavic 
 inhabitants of the upper country. The ancient 
 Roman Church was confined to a comparatively small 
 territory, and during the seventeenth century hardly 
 numbered one seventh of the population. 
 
 One of the most shining pages in the law records of 
 Hungary an enactment granting to the two Protes- 
 tant churches equal rights with the Catholic Church 
 is connected with the name of Stephen Bocskay. 
 Although the Catholic Church had, during the six- 
 teenth century, lost most of its followers, yet legally, 
 and owing to the circumstance that the Hapsburg 
 kii.'gs were the most zealous propagators of the 
 Roman faith, it continued to be the only recognized 
 church, and to exercise an unduly preponderating in- 
 fluence in public life, which, at that time, bore an 
 exclusively religious impress. The Hungarian mag- 
 nates and noblemen, then almost all Protestants, 
 under the leadership of Prince Stephen Bocskay, 
 took up arms against this privileged position of the 
 Catholic Church, as well as in defence of the laws of 
 the land, and succeeded in obtaining, in 1606, at the 
 peace of Vienna, a law whereby perfect equality be- 
 tween the Protestant churches and the Catholic 
 Church was established. This great victory, achiev- 
 ed by the Protestants, had the effect of rousing the 
 Catholic Church to energetic action. The anti-re- 
 formation movement began in Hungary, as it had 
 already all over Europe, and produced, under the 
 direction of Cardinal Peter Pazmany, the archbishop
 
 THE TURKISH WORLb. ^zf 
 
 of Gran, in a comparatively short time, the most 
 surprising results. In the course of a few decades, 
 the most influential and leading families of the aris- 
 tocracy returned to the fold of the Catholic Church. 
 The mass of the people, however, the nobility, the 
 inhabitants of the cities, and_ the peasantry, still re- 
 mained Protestants, and when the Transylvanian, 
 princes, Gabriel Bethlen and George Rakoczy I., were 
 about to engage in war against the Hapsburgs, they 
 readily rallied around these bearers of the standard 
 of the national faith. The peace of Linz, a confir- 
 mation of the treaty of Vienna, was concluded un- 
 der Rakoczy, again solemnly proclaiming the per- 
 fect equality of the Protestant churches with the 
 Roman Catholic Church, an equality, however, which, 
 in point of fact, was never put into practice. The 
 written law and their good right was of no use to 
 the Protestants, for the power was gradually slipping 
 from their hands. Under the patronage of the royal 
 court, the anti-reformation movement had made great 
 conquests amongst the lower classes of the people, 
 and sometimes by the use of violence, sometimes by 
 other means, whole districts and large territories 
 again became Catholic. Elated by these successes, 
 the court of Vienna for a long time ignored its 
 promise of freeing the Hungarian people from the 
 Turkish yoke, and about sixty years elapsed with- 
 out any hostilities against the sultans. The chief 
 endeavor of the court was forcibly to deprive the 
 Hungarian nation of her constitutional institutions 
 which were based upon her nationality, and to sub- 
 ject to imperial absolutism the people, jealous of
 
 328 THE STORY Of HUNGARY. 
 
 their liberties and accustomed to freedom. These 
 unconstitutional proceedings on the part of the gov- 
 ernment produced popular risings and party strife, 
 and were, in their sad consequences, fatal to thou- 
 sands of fanatics, spreading misery and poverty even 
 to those parts of the land which, from their geo- 
 graphical positions, had been exempt from the 
 ravages of the Turks. 
 
 The cessation of hostilities did not interrupt the 
 continued ravages and devastations. Officially, it is 
 true, there was, for about sixty years, peace between 
 the royal court and the sultans, but this did not pre- 
 vent the latter from constantly indulging in minor 
 military operations. In 1663, however, when Leopold 
 I., who was of an eminently peaceful disposition, 
 held the throne, the Turks, officially declared war. 
 Although it had already then become apparent 'that 
 the Turkish empire was impaired in strength, and, 
 more particularly, that her military organization had 
 degenerated, yet the Turks were eager for new bat- 
 tles, and war was determined upon in Constanti- 
 nople. Hostilities soon commenced, and at St. 
 Gotthard, in 1664, the Turks got their first repulse, 
 for Christian arms there dealt them a heavy blow. 
 Not once during the two centuries that had gone by 
 were the Turks so overwhelmingly defeated on the 
 continent as on this occasion. Enslaved Hungary 
 breathed more freely, and already thought that the 
 long-hoped-for hour of shaking off Moslem thraldom 
 had arrived. But she was doomed to disappoint- 
 ment. The brilliant triumph was not turned to 
 Hungary's advantage in Vienna. A hasty peace was
 
 THE TURKISH IVOR LI). 
 
 concluded with the terrified Turks, and thus was 
 prolonged for many decades the Turkish rule, which, 
 though enfeebled, was still ruinous to Hungary, 
 
 It was at this period, too, that a man of great 
 genius, and a true patriot, preached, with genuine 
 apostolic zeal, a crusade against the Turks. His 
 name was Nicholas Zrinyi. The namesake and great- 
 grandson of the hero of Szigetvar, he was himself a 
 gallant soldier and famous poet, and has immortal- 
 ized, in a grand Hungarian epic, the martyrdom of 
 his heroic ancestor. ' By his writings he fired the 
 hearts of his countrymen, and his life was passed on 
 bloody fields, in perpetual warfare against the Turks. 
 From his youth he had been inspired by one thought 
 only, to live and die for his country, and, although 
 a devout Catholic, he nobly proclaimed religious tol- 
 eration, at a time when the country was torn by re- 
 ligious dissensions. His educated mind led him to 
 cultivate poetry, and to study the works of classical 
 authors on history and philosophy, but his chief in- 
 terest always remained the battle-field and the strug- 
 gle against the Turks. On one of his estates he had 
 a small fortress erected, called Zerinvar, from which 
 the Hungarians were in the habit of sallying forth 
 into the neighboring Turkish territory. This little 
 place was a thorn in the side of the Turk, and the 
 main cause of the declaration of war of 1663. Zrinyi, 
 however, defended it gallantly, and beat back the 
 assault of the enemy. In the course of the war he 
 took several Turkish fortresses, and burned down 
 and destroyed the bridge across the Drave, 4,000 
 paces in length, near Eszek, which had been built
 
 330 THE STORY Of HUNGARY. 
 
 under Solyman, and which, being the main road 
 leading into the western part of the country, was de- 
 fended by trenches and other fortifications. The 
 repute made by Zrinyi's extraordinary feats of war 
 resounded in all Europe, and he was loaded down 
 with distinctions by the pope, Louis XIV. of France, 
 and by the princes of Germany and Italy, as the 
 hero of Christendom. In the zenith of his glory, he 
 lost his life by a cruel accident. While engaged in 
 the chase, a wild boar rushed upon him, and wounded 
 him mortally. He was found by his servants, lying 
 on the ground, bathed in his own blood, and ex- 
 pired shortly afterward. All Hungary and Christian 
 Europe lamented the loss of the distinguished sol- 
 dier and poet. 
 
 His devout wish, to see the Hungarian nation 
 freed from the oppressive rule of the Turks, did not 
 approach its fulfilment until twenty years after his 
 death. But even then it was not the royal court 
 which accomplished the work of liberation, for, in- 
 stead of making preparations in that direction, the 
 government initiated the most cruel persecutions 
 against the Protestants, compelling them to resort 
 to armed resistance. The struggle between the 
 Kuruczes, or the armed Hungarians, and the imperial 
 troops was at its height, when Kara Mustapha Pasha, 
 the ambitious grand-vizier of Sultan Mohammed IV., 
 saw in this intestine war a favorable opportunity to 
 conquer the remaining territory of Hungary, and 
 even to menace in his own residence, Vienna, the 
 emperor of the Romans. Leopold I., the emperor 
 of Germany and king of Hungary, did all in his power
 
 THE TURKISH WORLD. 331 
 
 to conciliate the Turks and to delay the war. But 
 Kara Mustapha remained inexorable, and boldly 
 ventured on an enterprise which was destined to be 
 fatal to him, and which, after a long and sanguinary 
 contest, finally led to the overthrow of the Turkish 
 power in Europe and the liberation of Hungary. 
 
 In the spring of 1683 the sultan and his grand- 
 vizier commenced their march at the head of a force 
 numbering 250,000 men, carrying with them 300 
 cannon. In Hungary they were joined by the so- 
 called Kurucz king, Count Emeric Tokolyi, and 
 his adherents. This tremendous army was already 
 under the walls of Vienna in July, but two months 
 of a severe siege had already elapsed and the city 
 could not be taken. The Christian forces, led by 
 John Sobieski, King of Poland, and Charles, Duke of 
 Lorraine, were meanwhile hastening to the relief 
 of the city, and on the I2th of September they suc- 
 ceeded in completely routing the Turkish army, which 
 lost 60,000 men, the remainder scattering in wild 
 flight in every direction. This was the last great 
 campaign undertaken by the Osmanlis against the 
 Western world. They could never recuperate from 
 the effects of the defeat then suffered, and the great 
 calamity which befell the Turkish power rendered it, 
 at length, possible for Hungary, the bulwark of Chris- 
 tianity, which had been the scene of continual wars 
 during a century and a half, to regain her liberty. 
 
 Leopold I., who had seen his capital menaced by 
 the Turks, now took energetic measures to continue 
 the war, and very soon his forces recaptured Gran, 
 the ancient seat of the primate of Hungary, which
 
 332 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 for a long time had owned the Turkish rule. 
 The whole line of the Danube fell into the hands of 
 the Christians, and in 1684 an attempt was made to 
 capture Buda, the once famous capital of Hungary. 
 The siege, however, failed on this occasion, in spite of 
 the heroic efforts made by the Hungarians. But they 
 were more fortunate in the case of another powerful 
 Turkish stronghold, Neuhausel (Ersekujvar), the re- 
 capture of which, a brilliant military feat, was made the 
 occasion forfeasting and merriment in many European 
 cities. At length, in 1686, Buda, too, was restored 
 to Hungary. Volunteers flocked into Hungary, 
 from every part of Europe, when the news spread 
 that Duke Charles of Lorraine, the commander-in- 
 chief, was making preparations for the recapture of 
 the ancient and famous seat of the Hungarian kings. 
 A powerful army gathered around his banners, and in 
 the middle of June the duke arrived under the 
 walls of Buda, which was defended by Abdi Pasha, 
 then seventy years old, and a garrison of 16,000 
 determined soldiers. The siege lasted seventy- 
 seven days, during which time the Turks made 
 two sallies, and the grand-vizier made three attempts 
 to come to the relief of the garrison, but the enemy 
 was each time driven back by the Christian forces. 
 The strongly fortified city, which had been heroically 
 defended, fell, at length, after five unsuccessful as- 
 saults, on the 2d of September, 1686, into the hands 
 of Duke Charles. On the afternoon of that day, 
 at four o'clock, began the sixth assault ; 9,000 Chris- 
 tian heroes resolutely stormed with fixed bayonets 
 (an arm at that time still new and here employed for
 
 THE TURKISH WORLD. 333 
 
 the first time) the walls which had been reduced to 
 ruins by the guns of the besiegers. After a sanguin- 
 ary contest lasting about one hour, a gallant Hun- 
 garian, David Petnehazy, succeeded in penetrating, 
 first, with his 800 hayduks, into Buda, whose garri- 
 son and inhabitants were almost entirely put to 
 the sword. Thus after a lapse of 145 years was 
 Buda freed from the Turkish yoke, and the whole 
 Christian world was jubilant over the glorious news. 
 Many bloody battles, however, occupying a con- 
 siderable period of time, had to be fought before the 
 Moslem oppressors were entirely swept away from 
 Hungarian territory. Duke Charles marched to 
 the southern parts of Hungary and destroyed the 
 Turkish army near Mohacs, there, where 161 years 
 before the Hungarian army had been annihilated by 
 the Moslems. Soon after, Transylvania, too, passed 
 under the supremacy of the king of Hungary. All 
 the principal fortresses and towns were successively 
 occupied by the royal troops, and when, in 1691, 
 a Turkish army numbering 100,000 men was sent 
 again to Hungary by the Sublime Porte, they were 
 completely routed near Szalankem6n. It was one 
 of the most sanguinary battles of that century ; 
 the grand-vizier himself, the aga of the Janissaries, 
 seventeen pashas, and 2O,OOO Turkish soldiers lost 
 their lives during the engagement. During a few 
 years succeeding this great battle, lesser engagements 
 only were fought, but hostilities never ceased. In 
 1697, however, Duke Eugene of Savoy, the "noble 
 knight " and illustrious general, assumed the com- 
 mandership of the royal forces. In the battle near
 
 334 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Zenta he utterly annihilated, after a contest of two 
 hours, a Turkish army led by Sultan Mustapha II., 
 inflicting frightful losses upon the enemy; 10,000 
 Turks met their death in the waters of the Theiss, 
 20,000 were killed, and among the dead were the grand- 
 vizier, 4 pashas, and 13 begler beys. These succes- 
 sive disasters and the frightful loss of men, amount- 
 ing to many hundreds of thousands in the course of 
 the fifteen years of warfare, finally prevailed upon the 
 sultan to accept the terms of peace proposed by Leo- 
 pold I. The treaty of peace was signed at Carlowitz 
 in 1699, and under its terms Transylvania and the 
 greater part of the Hungarian territory was restored 
 to the king of Hungary by the sultan, but a smaller 
 portion, lying between Transylvania and the Theiss, 
 the ancient county of Ternes, was still permitted to 
 remain in Turkish hands. The court of Vienna, in- 
 stead of attempting to regain the remaining terri- 
 tory, elated by the recent military successes, again 
 renewed its attacks upon the nationality of the Hun- 
 garians and their ancient liberties, which it had al- 
 ways looked upon with decided dislike, and the 
 complete subversion of which it now attempted. 
 The nobility, weary of the absolutism of the court, 
 combined at last with the peasantry, who had 
 suffered severely under the lawlessness and illegal 
 exactions of the soldiery, to raise the standard of re- 
 bellion, under the lead of Francis Rak6czy II. The 
 great national struggle for liberty was initiated by 
 electing Rak6czy king of Hungary and Transylvania, 
 and, very soon, the Kurucz troops roamed as far as 
 Austria. Later on, however, the fortunes of war
 
 THE TURKISH WORLD. 335 
 
 changed, and Rakoczy retired to Poland hoping 
 to obtain aid from the Russian Czar Peter the Great. 
 During his absence he entrusted one of his generals, 
 Alexander Karolyi, with the command of his army, 
 who, however, instead of continuing the struggle, 
 made his peace with the king. The peace of Szatmar, 
 in 1711, finally put an end to the period of constitu- 
 tional struggles between the nation and the king. 
 
 Now, at last, came the time for the still enslaved 
 Hungarian territory to be freed from Turkish rule. 
 The new war began in 1716. The imperial troops 
 were again commanded by Prince Eugene, who, 
 once more defeating the Turks near Peterwardein 
 wrested, at last, Temesvar and the county of Temes 
 from the Turks, in whose possession they had re- 
 mained one hundred and sixty-four years. At the 
 peace, concluded in 1718, the Sultan relinquished 
 also his claim to that part of the country, and thus 
 the entire territory belonging at the present day to 
 the crown of Hungary was at last freed from Turk- 
 ish thraldom. 
 
 There was now an end to the Islam rule in Hun- 
 gary, as there had been to the same rule in Spain. 
 But whilst the Moors had immortalized their name 
 by memorials of a grand civilization, leaving behind 
 them flourishing and wealthy cities, numerous works 
 of art, and marvels of architecture, the Turks left 
 Hungary ruined and devastated. Throughout the 
 whole territory of the reconquered country, only a 
 few miserable villages could be met with here and 
 there, population had sunk to the lowest ebb, end- 
 less swamps covered the fertile soil of the once
 
 336 
 
 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 flourishing Alfold (Lowland), and the genius of the 
 Hungarian nation had now to engage in the arduous 
 labor of subduing, by the arts of peace and civiliza- 
 tion, the sterile waste they had regained at last by 
 their bravery and endurance. The work, hard as it 
 was, was done. For a century and a half the severe 
 task of colonizing and civilizing has been going on 
 bravely, until finally that tract of land, which they 
 recovered from the Turks an uninhabited desert, has 
 grown to be populous, flourishing, and one of the. 
 richest granaries of Europe.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE AUSTRIAN RULE, 1526-1780. 
 
 THE preceding chapter gave an account of the 
 varying fortunes of that part of Hungary which, 
 although geographically appertaining to the domains 
 of the crown of St. Stephen, was virtually occupied 
 and ruled by the Turks, and this account was 
 brought down to the time when the country suc- 
 ceeded in shaking off the foreign yoke. The thrill- 
 ing episodes of that sad era deserved a place by 
 themselves. Yet in describing these tragic events 
 but little was said of the kings of the ruling dynasty 
 and the destinies of that portion of the country 
 which remained subject to their rule, or so much 
 only was touched upon in a general way as was 
 absolutely necessary for a proper understanding of 
 the occurrences related there. This hiatus will now 
 be supplied, by resuming, in a succinct form, the 
 historical narrative of the events following the disas- 
 trous battle of Mohacs. 
 
 We have already seen that at no time was the 
 Turkish power so strong as during the first half of 
 the sixteenth century, and that Hungary was never 
 so %eak as after the death of Matthias Hunyadi. 
 The innovations of Matthias had broken down the 
 22 337
 
 338 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 ancient military organization, which recruited its 
 armies from the ranks of the nobility and the armed 
 bands in their train, and established in its place a 
 standing army. But on the death of the genius 
 which had called it into existence, the standing army 
 also disappeared. We have described elsewhere the 
 sad fate of his valiant " black guard." The disas- 
 trous reverses at Belgrade and Mohacs were the con- 
 sequence, and it became evident that Hungary, 
 single-handed, could not withstand the power of the 
 Osmanlis. 
 
 Under these circumstances the nation was com- 
 pelled to look for assistance from abroad, and, in 
 searching for a powerful alliance, it was quite natural 
 that public attention should be drawn to the house 
 of Hapsburg, the great authority and influence of 
 which gave the fairest promise of effectual support 
 to the prostrate country. This dynasty occupied at 
 that time a front rank amongst the reigning families ; 
 its rule extended over Austria, Germany, the wealthy 
 Netherlands, Spain, with her American colonies and 
 dependencies, Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia an im- 
 mense domain, of which it might have been then truly 
 said that " the sun never set in it." No dynasty, since 
 the Caesars, had controlled the destinies of so mam 
 nations and of so vast a territory. Ferdinand, & scion 
 of that influential dynasty, who at this time was alsc 
 elected king of Bohemia, owed his elevation to the 
 throne of Hungary to hopes and arguments of this 
 kind. He gave the people assurances of support on 
 the part of his family ; he vowed to respect the rights 
 and liberties of the nation, and promised to live in the
 
 THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 
 
 339 
 
 country and to confide the conduct of her affairs to 
 Hungarians only. 
 
 Every thing turned out quite differently from 
 what the royal electors had hoped and expected. 
 The Turks were decidedly averse to any augmenta- 
 tion of the power of the Hapsburgs by the acquisi- 
 tion of the Hungarian throne. They desired to see 
 Hungary under a separate king of her own, and to 
 
 accomplish this the Turks shrank from no sacrifices, 
 and succeeded in embroiling the unfortunate country 
 in continual wars. Unhappy Hungary \vas placed 
 between the hammer and the anvil. The Turks 
 were unwilling to yield, and the Hapsburgs, quite as 
 reluctant to give up the country, were, nevertheless. 
 unable to defend it. The result of the cruel war, 
 waged for over thirty years, was, in the end, that 
 Hungary was torn into three parts. The' heart of
 
 34 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 the land, the Alfold, was seized by the Turks; the 
 hilly plateau of Transylvania was ruled by native 
 princes, acknowledging the suzerainty of the sultan ; 
 and the remaining portion only, the northern and 
 western part, owned the supremacy of the Hapsburgs 
 in their capacity of kings of Hungary. Thus the 
 new dynasty, so far from proving a protection to 
 the country, rather led to its dismemberment. 
 
 The condition of Transylvania was, comparatively 
 speaking, more favorable than that of either of the 
 two other sections of the country. She had to pay 
 her tribute to the Turks, but beyond that she expe- 
 rienced no interference on the part of her paramount 
 lord. She was allowed to elect her own rulers, to 
 convene her national assemblies, to keep up an army 
 of her own, and to live as before under the ancient 
 laws of Hungary. The Alfold, in the hands of the 
 Turks, was governed in Turkish fashion. The Turks 
 never settled down in the country they conquered ; 
 they only garrisoned it, as it were. The government 
 and the spahis were the new landlords, and their chief 
 care was, not to watch over the welfare of the people, 
 but to fleece them and to extort from them heavy 
 taxes and all sorts of vexatious imposts. The effects 
 of such an administration became soon visible. The 
 ancient culture perished, the population gradually 
 decreased, and the once fertile soil relapsed int<~ 
 barrenness. 
 
 Nor were the complaints fewer and less bitter in 
 the western and northern parts, ruled by the Haps- 
 burg kings of Hungary. The hope of obtaining, 
 tnrough these kings, aid from the West gradually
 
 THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 34! 
 
 vanished. The nation, besides, was quick to perceive 
 that Hungary was looked upon by the Hapsburgsas 
 an unimportant province, rather than an independent 
 country. The king did not reside in Hungary, but 
 in Vienna, which was the permanent seat of his gov- 
 ernment, and all the remonstrances coming from the 
 various diets against this state of things led only to 
 bare promises. There were numerous grievances 
 besides. After the first vacancy in the dignity of a 
 palatine no other palatine had been appointed, Ger- 
 man advisers alone were listened to in affairs con- 
 cerning Hungary, the country was flooded with 
 German officials and soldiers, and distinguished 
 Hungarian magnates were thrown into prison with- 
 out due form of law. These evils were already felt 
 under Ferdinand, the first Hapsburg king, but they 
 still increased under his successor, King Maximilian 
 (1564-1576). The latter proceeded quite openly in 
 his anti-national policy. He promised Germany for 
 himself and his successors, in return for her aid, to 
 use every endeavor to bring about the annexation 
 of Hungary to that country. The Diet of 1567, 
 in enumerating the many abuses of the govern- 
 ment, bitterly inveighed against the foreign sol- 
 diery, charging them with arbitrarily raising tolls, 
 taking the thirtieth part, imposing unlawful taxes 
 on the communes, wasting the substance of the 
 peasantry and robbing them of their last penny, 
 and, finally, selling their children into slavery to the 
 Turks. The Diet declared that, " There is no salva- 
 tion, no hope for us ; we have no other alternative 
 but to leave our native land and emigrate to foreign 
 parts."
 
 34 2 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 These complaints remained unheeded by Maxi- 
 milian, nor was his son and successor, Rudolph 
 (1576-1608), more disposed to remedy the ills com- 
 plained of. The office of the palatine still remained 
 vacant ; the affairs of Hungary were administered, 
 without consulting the Hungarians, by a court cabi- 
 net and a military council. Rudolph's reply to the 
 remonstrances of the Estates of the realm, that 
 " these things have been in practice long since," was 
 certainly a cynical apology for the continuance of 
 abuses. Thus was the continual infringement of the 
 law claimed to have become a law in itself, and in- 
 dependent Hungary became virtually subject to the 
 authority of foreigners. The temper of the diets 
 which met during the first years of Rudolph's reign 
 clearly indicated the state of irritation produced by 
 the king's presumptuous treatment of the liberties 
 of the nation ; the exasperated Estates spoke of re- 
 fusing to vote subsidies, and some of them, although 
 in the minority, threatened even to join either Po- 
 land or Turkey. Rudolph, wearied with these bois- 
 terous scenes, turned his back upon the country, and 
 the nation did not see her king for twenty-five years. 
 
 The country was compelled patiently to suffer the 
 encroachments on her ancient rights, for to no quar- 
 ter could she look for help. Alone she was too 
 weak to right herself, and the only alliances that of- 
 fered themselves were either the German or Turkish, 
 A sad alternative, indeed, for the Turks on the one 
 hand never ceased to harass and devastate the 
 country, threatening even to absorb the territory yet 
 free, and the Germans on the other utterly ignored
 
 THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 343 
 
 the constitution and liberties of Hungary, although 
 the kings on their election and coronation always 
 swore to respect and to defend both. The Turks 
 were extirpating the nation, whilst the Germans 
 were trying to rob her of her Hungarian nation- 
 ality. The Germans, being considered the lesser 
 evil, carried the day, and hopes were besides enter- 
 tained that, after all, Germany would finally rid the 
 country of the Turks. These hopes were further 
 encouraged after the death of Solyman (1566), when 
 it became apparent that the Turkish power was de- 
 clining from day to day. But the country was 
 doomed to disappointment, for the Viennese govern- 
 ment, instead of arraying itself against Turkey, was 
 on the eve of trying the patience of her people again 
 with measures and acts hostile to their nationality. 
 
 The great obstacle to the Germanizing schemes 
 had always been the Hungarian Diet and the stiff- 
 necked independence of the nobles composing it. 
 It was impossible for the government to do away 
 with the diet as it had done away with the dignity 
 of palatine and the other exalted Hungarian of- 
 fices, as the grant of taxes and soldiers required in 
 an emergency depended upon the good will of the 
 diet. If there was no diet in session, no supplies 
 of money and soldiers could be voted. The govern- 
 ment therefore determined to resort to measures 
 which would bend the majority of the diet to its 
 will. The royal free cities had at that time the priv- 
 ilege of sending members to the diet of Hungary to 
 represent them. But the influence at the diet of 
 these municipalities, of whom there were but few,
 
 344 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 and most of these with German inhabitants, was very 
 slight. A great number of private boroughs were 
 made by the government royal free cities, and an 
 attempt was made to use the new members sent by 
 these constituencies as a counterpoise to the hostile 
 nobles in the diet. But the nobility loudly protested 
 against this innovation. Some of those who protested 
 were charged with treason, but, unable to obtain their 
 conviction before a Hungarian tribunal, the govern- 
 ment had them brought to Vienna before a military 
 council, which pronounced them guilty of the charge 
 against them. One of the victims of these illegal 
 proceedings, a certain Illeshazy, a wealthy magnate, 
 saved his life by flight only. His immense estates 
 were confiscated, and an inquiry into his case fully 
 proved that the cruel sentence passed upon him was 
 not meant so much to punish his supposed crime, as 
 it was intended to be a means of getting possession 
 of his vast property. But the persecutions of the gov- 
 ernment did not stop there; the turn of the Protestants 
 soon came. Thus was one of the captains ordered to 
 take away by violence from the Protestants the cathe- 
 dral at Kassa, and to hand it over to the Catholics. 
 The city authorities of Kassa recaptured the church, 
 but it was taken from them again by force, and the city 
 was mulcted by the government in a heavy fine of 
 money. This outrage might well excite indignation 
 at a time when three fourths of the population of 
 Hungary were Protestants. It became evident that 
 the German influence was bent upon attacking the 
 people in their liberties as well as their religion, and 
 whilst the government was yet inclined to show
 
 THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 345 
 
 some indulgence to the Catholics, it was determined 
 to show no kind of mercy to the Protestants of the 
 country. 
 
 The excitement and indignation of the people, 
 throughout the whole land, at these lawless pro- 
 ceedings, were reflected in the temper of the Diet 
 which met in 1604. They protested against the ille- 
 gal persecutions, stood up for the freedom of worship, 
 and warned the government not to stir up dissen- 
 sions amongst the followers of the antagonistic 
 churches. A fresh injury, however, was added to 
 those complained of, by Rudolph's arbitrarily sup- 
 plementing the 2 ist article enacted by the Diet with 
 a 22d article, in which the Diet was enjoined from 
 discussing religious topics ; intimations were thrown 
 out at the same time that heresy was to be per- 
 secuted. 
 
 This 22d article was the spark which set ablaze all 
 the inflammable material that had accumulated in 
 the country since the time that the Hapsburgs had 
 occupied the throne of Hungary. The North 
 of Hungary, allied with Transylvania, rose in arms, 
 and the entire Upper Country was soon gathering 
 in the camp of Stephen Bocskay, the prince of 
 Transylvania. The Turks favored the insurrection 
 and proclaimed Bocskay king of Hungary, bestowing 
 upon him, at the same time, a crown of gold. The 
 insurgents aimed at the entire overthrow of the 
 Haspburgs, but the politic Bocskay opposed this, 
 being disinclined to deliver up the whole of Hun- 
 gary to the tender mercies of the Osmanlis. Bocskay 
 saw in the Germans a counterpoise to the overwean-
 
 34 6 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 ing power of the Turks and counselled a policy of 
 conciliation. The result of his counsels was the 
 peace of Vienna, concluded in 1606, in which the 
 abuses complained of were remedied, and constitu- 
 tional government and freedom of worship were 
 guaranteed for all time to come. 
 
 Remarkable as were the results of Bocskay's ris- 
 ing, they were quite eclipsed by the effects of the 
 astute policy inaugurated by him as the ruler of 
 Transylvania, a policy which he bequeathed to his 
 princely successors, enjoining upon them in his last 
 will always to adhere to it. It consisted in maintain- 
 ing, at all hazards, the independence of Transylvania, 
 in order to enable her, according to the necessities 
 of the moment, either to combine with the Turks 
 in defence of the Hungarian nationality against the 
 encroachments of Germanism, or joining the Ger- 
 mans to keep, with their aid, the Turks out of the re- 
 maining Hungarian territory. This course, marked 
 by rare political acumen and inspired by the purest 
 patriotism, was effectively aided by the mutual jeal- 
 ousies of the Turks and Germans, and enabled the 
 Transylvanian princes ultimately to achieve their 
 noble aim of saving the liberties of Hungary, their 
 common country. 
 
 The terms of the peace of Vienna were soon for- 
 gotten by the Viennese government, and its prosely- 
 ting Catholicism brought it again into collision with 
 the Hungarian Protestants. The successor of Ru- 
 dolph, Matthias (1608-1619), succeeded in restraining 
 to some extent the outbreaks of hatred by which the 
 various sectaries were animated, but hardly had the
 
 THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 347 
 
 succession to the throne of Bohemia been secured to 
 his cousin Ferdinand (II.), who had been brought 
 up by the Jesuits, and was their zealous pupil, than 
 the Czech Protestants took up arms, severed their 
 connection with the Hapsburgs, and inaugurated the 
 religious war which raged in Germany for thirty years, 
 and which stands in history unexampled for its 
 horrors (1618). 
 
 This movement could not leave Hungary indiffer- 
 ent. In Hungary, too, Romanizing was being strenu- 
 ously carried on. The Jesuits gained a foothold in 
 the country, and bringing with them their schools, 
 books, and well-organized machinery they soon suc- 
 ceeded, under the patronage of the government of 
 Vienna, in supplanting the Protestants. Peter Paz- 
 many, who, from a simple Jesuit, had risen to the 
 primacy of Hungary, was the life and soul of the 
 proselyting movement. He brought to the work of 
 Romanizing the country an irresistible eloquence, in- 
 vincible arguments in his writings, and unsurpassed 
 religious zeal. All the great powers of his master- 
 mind, and the resources of his enormous wealth 
 were employed by him to add to the Catholic fold. 
 By his own personal influence alone, thirty of the 
 most conspicuous Hungarian families returned to 
 the Catholic faith of their ancestors, families among 
 fv^hom some owned domains larger than a dozen of 
 the smaller principalities of Germany. Protestantism 
 gradually lost ground, its followers became a minor- 
 ity in the Diet, and the Catholics became daily more 
 arrogant. Under these circumstances the Protestants 
 of Hungary (where in 1618 Ferdinand was elected
 
 34 8 Tf*E STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 king, to succeed on the death or' Matthias) could not 
 look on with unconcern when their Czech brethren 
 rose in arms nor could they permit their defeat by 
 the Catholic court, for such an event was sure to hasten 
 the moment when they, in their turn, would have to 
 resist the violent measures ofcoercion practiced now 
 against the Czechs. 
 
 They therefore joined the Czechs and took up 
 arms for the defence of their liberties, for freedom 
 of worship was with the nation closely interwoven 
 with the cause of constitutional liberty. Gabriel 
 Bethlen, who had become prince of Transylvania 
 in 1613, stood at the head of the movement. On 
 his first appearance on the scene of action, Bethlen 
 is thus spoken of by a Frenchman in a report to 
 his own government : " Bethlen is a distinguished 
 soldier who has taken part, in person, in forty-three 
 engagements ; he is a man of wise judgment and 
 great eloquence * * * in short, the great Henry 
 IV. excepted, there is no king like him in the 
 world." The high expectations entertained of his 
 abilities were not disappointed. The w 7 hole Upper 
 Country as far as Presburg passed into his hands dur- 
 ing the first year of the rebellion, and in 1620 he ob- 
 tained possession of the greatest part of the territory 
 beyond the Danube. But while he was carrying on 
 hostilities with such signal success, the Czechs were 
 completely routed by Tilly near Prague, and this 
 defeat cost Bohemia her independence. Bethlen, 
 being left without allies, hastened to make terms 
 with the Viennese government, and the result was 
 the Treaty of Nikolsburg, concluded in the begin- 
 ning of 1622, based upon the peace of Vienna.
 
 HUNGARIAN PEASANTS. 
 
 349
 
 350 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Bethlen, perceiving, with his wonted judgment, 
 that the dissensions among the Protestants of Ger- 
 many augured nothing favorable for the future, en- 
 deavored to enter into amicable relations with the 
 court of Vienna. He used every means to prevail 
 upon it to abandon the persecution of the Protestants, 
 and to unite with him in a common war against the 
 Turks, in order to drive them from Hungary. But 
 the court was not disposed to listen to his overtures, 
 and seemed to consider it a matter of greater import- 
 ance to accomplish the destruction of Protestantism 
 than to free the country from the Turks. Bethlen, 
 seeing that all attempts in this direction were 
 doomed to failure, returned to the old policy of the 
 Transylvania princes. His political connections 
 reached as far as France, England, and Sweden, and, 
 upon the breaking out of the Danish war (1625), he 
 again began armed hostilities, which, however, al- 
 though crowned with victory, gave way to a new 
 treaty of peace, owing to the defeat of Bethlen's 
 allies in Germany. When Gustavus Adolphus made 
 his appearance in the West, achieving victories for 
 Protestantism, the great Transylvanian prince was 
 no more amongst the living ; he died in 1629. Beth- 
 len was, no doubt, one of the most conspicuous 
 figures in the history of Hungary. Through his ex- 
 ertions little Transylvania moved, in politics, abreast 
 of the most powerful European nations, and under 
 him she became rich, powerful, and greatly advanced 
 in culture, and a strong prop to the rest of the Hun- 
 garian nation. His premature death deprived the 
 country of the advantages which he certainly would
 
 THE AUSTRIAN- RULZ. 351 
 
 have drawn from the triumphs of Gustavus Adol- 
 phus. 
 
 Toward the close of the Thirty Years' War, the 
 prince of Transylvania, George Rakoczy I., took ad- 
 vantage of the distressed position of Ferdinand III. 
 of Hapsburg (who had succeeded his father, Ferdi- 
 nand II., on his thrones in 1637) to strike a success- 
 ful blow for the liberties of Hungary. The begin- 
 ning of the reign of the successor of Ferdinand III., 
 Leopold I. (1657-1705), witnessed the downfall of 
 Transylvania's power. 
 
 This event disturbed the balance of power be- 
 tween the Turks and Germans, and alone was 
 sufficient to bring about the great changes which 
 soon took place in the affairs of Hungary. In order 
 to account for the overthrow of the power of Tran- 
 sylvania, it must be remembered that both the 
 Turks and Germans had for a long time back looked 
 askance at the strength and influence of this little 
 principality. They were filled with apprehensions 
 of having their Hungarian territories gradually ab- 
 sorbed by Transylvania, and there was an agreement 
 between these two powers, to the effect that she 
 should not be allowed to add to her territory. It is 
 impossible to suppose that the then ruler of Transyl- 
 vania, George Rakoczy II., had no information of 
 this secret treaty, but he apparently paid no heed to 
 it. or entertained no fears as to its effects. He 
 quietly continued to extend his power, and for that 
 purpose entered into an alliance with the Swedish 
 king for the partition of Poland. In vain did the 
 Viennese court oppose this aggressive course, in vain
 
 352 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 did the Turks command him to desist from it ; the 
 Transylvanian prince crossed the Carpathians, with 
 a gallant army, in 1657. The allied forces of Sweden 
 and Transylvania were everywhere victorious, and 
 the power of Transylvania stood higher than ever. 
 It was at this conjuncture that Leopold I., who had 
 succeeded Ferdinand III., inaugurated, at once, a 
 warlike policy, parting with the peaceable traditions 
 of his predecessors. Leopold divided the attention 
 of Rakdczy's Swedish ally by setting on him his 
 ancient enemies, the Danes, and sent his own armies 
 into those Hungarian domains belonging to Rakoczy, 
 which the Transylvanian princes had extorted from the 
 Hapsburgs, in the treaties of Vienna and Nikolsburg, 
 and on other similar occasions. Nor were the Turks 
 behindhand in co-operating with the Hapsburgs. A 
 Tartar army was sent into Poland against Rakdczy, 
 and he himself was deposed from his princely office 
 as a punishment for his disobedience. Rakoczy, 
 thus left to fight his own battles, without an ally, 
 and hemmed in by Turks, Germans, and Tartars, 
 suffered defeat on every side, the flower of his army 
 fell into the hands of the Tartars, and it was only 
 by paying a large sum that he obtained peace from 
 Poland. When he returned to Transylvania in 
 August, 1657, with the wreck of his army, the prin- 
 cipality was involved in utter financial and military 
 ruin. 
 
 The Turks, however, did not pause here ; they 
 wished to get the whole of Transylvania into their 
 possession. Twice the unhappy country was devas- 
 tated by Tartar hordes, and the inhabitants repeat
 
 THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 353 
 
 edly carried away into slavery by thousands ; a 
 prince was given to her at the dictation of the 
 Turks, and part of her territory actually passed 
 under direct Turkish rule (1662). The hearts of the 
 patriotic Hungarians bled at this cruel sight, and 
 they appealed to and incessantly urged their king to 
 interfere, and not to allow the principality to perish. 
 Leopold I. turned a deaf ear to these appeals ; he 
 was not inclined to venture on a war with Turkey, 
 on behalf of Transylvania, and was, at best, careful 
 to get his share of the common plunder. It was a 
 gloomy outlook for the Hungarian nation ; the Turks, 
 on the one hand, oppressing her with their formid- 
 able forces, and their own king languidly looking on. 
 
 The Turkish successes in Transylvania only served 
 to whet the Moslem appetite for further conquests. 
 In 1663 the Turks attacked Leopold without any 
 warning, and obtained possession of the region of 
 the Upper Danube, and of the lower valley of the 
 Vag. This was a great blow to Hungary, for the 
 conquered territory was thrust like a wedge into 
 the semicircular national territory, dividing it 
 again into two new parts. Although an imperial 
 army was sent to meet the Turkish forces, no 
 efforts were made to stay the continual advances 
 of the latter as long as they were on Hungarian ter- 
 ritory, but as soon as they neared the Austrian 
 frontier they were opposed by the imperial forces. 
 This imperial army achieved at St. Gotthard, near 
 the Raab, a brilliant victory over the Turks. 
 
 This victory gave fresh courage to the despondent 
 
 Hungarians. They now hoped that the war would 
 23
 
 354 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 be successfully pushed forward, and would end only 
 with the liberation of their country, and the less 
 sanguine expected at least a peace which would re- 
 store to the possession of the king of Hungary, 
 Transylvania, and all the other territories obtained by 
 the Turks since 1657. A sad disappointment, how- 
 ever, fell upon the country. The peace concluded 
 by the victorious government left in the possession 
 of the Turks all the territory they had previously 
 taken, thus virtually leaving the country in her former 
 maimed condition. 
 
 This disgraceful peace which had been concluded 
 by the court of Vienna without consulting the Hun- 
 garians, at last shook even the faith of those Cath- 
 olic Hungarians who, until now, had been the un- 
 conditional adherents of the Hapsburgs. They had, 
 heretofore, acquiesced in the forlorn condition of 
 their country, being persuaded that the Viennese 
 government lacked the ability of rescuing her, but 
 recent events showed them that it was lack of good 
 will on the part of the government which was pre- 
 cipitating the ruin of the country. It became the 
 universal conviction that the Hapsburgs would glad- 
 ly see the country in the hands of the foreign in- 
 vader, in order to enable them, by reconquering her 
 anew, to do away with the uncomfortable trammels 
 of the national constitution. Leopold did not heed 
 the general discontent ; he pursued the great aim he 
 had proposed to himself, of uniting, after the illustri- 
 ous example of Louis XIV., all the dependencies of 
 his dynasty into one homogeneous empire. Things 
 had come to such a pass in Hungary that the most in-
 
 THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 355 
 
 veterate enemies of Turkey openly counselled amity 
 with the Turks, declaring that they preferred paying 
 a tribute to the latter rather than to see the country 
 go to ruin by the Germanizing machinations of the 
 Viennese court. 
 
 The general discontent soon budded into a con- 
 spiracy in which, this time, not only the Protestants, 
 but chiefly the Catholic population took part, who 
 were now quite as eager to rid themselves of the 
 Germans. The heads of the conspiracy were all 
 Catholics. Their leader was Wessele'nyi, the palatine 
 of the realm and the king's representative, and affili- 
 ated with him in the leadership were the largest 
 landlords in the country : Peter Zrinyi, Nadasdy, 
 Francis Rakoczy, and Frangepan. Their aim was to 
 rid the country of the Germans by the aid of the Turks, 
 or, if possible, of the French. The conspiracy, how- 
 ever, failed. Wesselenyi died, and the plot was be- 
 trayed to the government before it had ripened into 
 the intended rising. Leopold, without loss of time, 
 swooped down upon the principal conspirators. 
 Zrinyi, Nadasdy, and Frangepan were seized, and 
 without being given the benefit of the laws of their 
 country, were decapitated. Their immense estates 
 were confiscated, and Rakoczy himself could only save 
 his life and obtain mercy by paying a ruinous ransom 
 (1671). The government, however, was not satisfied 
 with the cruel punishment of the ringleaders alone ; 
 it deemed this a propitious time for the introduction 
 of various oppressive measures. Without convoking 
 the Diet, a land and corn tax was imposed upon the 
 country, excise duties were introduced, and a poll
 
 356 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 tax levied on every inhabitant, including the nobles. 
 The land was swarming with a foreign soldiery 
 brought there to restrain the rebellious Hungarians. 
 The government added injury to insult ; not satis- 
 fied with insulting the nation by entirely ignoring its 
 constitution, and keeping down the national aspira- 
 tions by quartering foreign garrisons in national 
 territory, it raised illegal taxes wherewith to pay the 
 armed oppressors. The government at Vienna threw 
 off its mask at last ; the Hungarian constitution was 
 abolished, and Hungary reduced to the condition of 
 a province of Austria (1673). 
 
 Whilst the government thus succeeded in subvert- 
 ing the constitution of the country, it showed no less 
 activity and success in the prosecution of its other 
 aim, the Romanizing of the people. There was no 
 law to protect those professing the new faith ; they 
 could be oppressed with impunity ; their churches 
 were taken away from them ; hundreds of their 
 ministers and teachers were sentenced by the tribu- 
 nal to slavery on the galleys, or were sent adrift by 
 private persecutions. It was an open secret that the 
 king himself was eager to exterminate the last 
 heretic, and just as the oath of the king to protect 
 the constitution had been forgotten, so were the 
 various treaties of peace, guaranteeing the freedom 
 of worship, doomed to oblivion, as soon as there was 
 no Transylvanian prince to recall them to royal 
 memory by force of arms. 
 
 And yet it was Transylvania, in her weakened 
 condition, that now came to the assistance of Hun- 
 gary, which had become a prey to Austrian rapacity.
 
 THE AUSTRIA A? RULE. 357 
 
 Many of those who were compelled to fly from the 
 persecutions of the sanguinary policy of the gove'rn- 
 ment sought and found a refuge in Transylvania, 
 and they were continually urging Apaffy, the prince 
 of Transylvania, and the Turks to intercede with 
 arms in behalf of the Hungarian cause. The Vien- 
 nese government assailed StamSul with letters re- 
 questing the sultan not to allow Transylvania to be 
 the place of refuge of certain " thieves," but to no 
 purpose. The Porte, indeed, so far from favorably 
 receiving these epistles, secretly promised aid against 
 the Austrians. A fresh insurrection broke out in 
 1672. The refugees flocked into the Upper Country 
 and inaugurated a warfare which, for cruelty and 
 mercilessness, stands alone in the history of Hun- 
 gary. The era of this contest, commencing in 
 1672, and covering a period of nearly ten years, is 
 called the Kurucz-Labancz era. This aimless and pur- 
 posless struggle was kept up between the Kuruczes 
 (insurgents) and Labanczes (Austrians), within the 
 limits of the territory lying between Komarom and 
 Transylvania, and there was no end of the horrors 
 the contestants were guilty of in the course of 
 their hostilities against each other. To cut tobacco 
 on the enemy's bare back, or to cut strips from his 
 quivering skin, to drive thorns or iron spikes under the 
 finger-nails, to bury him in the ground up to his head 
 and then fire at him, to skin him alive, to put a stake 
 through him, in a word, to perpetrate tortures at 
 which humanity shudders, these were the every-day 
 courtesies exchanged between the two belligerents. 
 The combatants of that day respected neither God
 
 358 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 nor man ; they acknowleged only one guide tor their 
 actions : a bitter and undying hatred of all that 
 called itself Labancz. They were the misguided crea- 
 tures of a period during which the insane policy of 
 the government had robbed the people both of their 
 religion and their teachers. 
 
 The ruling powers had thus conjured up days of 
 terror, but were utterly inadequate to the task of 
 terminating them. Indeed after several years of 
 this schemeless struggle, the rebellion became at 
 last organized and conscious of a fixed object. The 
 rebels received aid from the French and from the 
 Porte, and Transylvania, as a state, was ready to make 
 common cause with her countrymen. Tokolyi, a 
 magnate of the Upper Country, a youth only twenty- 
 one years old, but of eminent abilities, placed him- 
 self at the head of the rebels, and, now in 1678, began 
 the war in good earnest. The rebels soon became 
 masters of the Upper Country, and the government 
 which had been unable to cope with the headless 
 Kuruczes, proved quite helpless against the organized 
 rebellion, led by an able chief. Austria was, besides, 
 continually harassed by Louis XIV. in the west, 
 and, to add to her difficulties, it was rumored that 
 the Turks were preparing to invade Hungary with 
 an immense army, which, uniting with the forces 
 of Tokolyi, should drive the Austrians from the 
 country. 
 
 The government, thus driven to the wall, surren- 
 dered. Negotiations soon began, the Diet was con- 
 voked in 1681, and constitutional government and 
 freedom of worship were restored with a show of
 
 THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 359 
 
 great alacrity. The concessions came too late. The 
 rebels had no faith in the government after the cruel 
 deceptions of which it had been guilty, and placed 
 no trust in promises wrung from its necessitous con- 
 dition. They refused to submit, and Tokolyi was 
 proclaimed by the Porte king of Hungary. The 
 threatened Turkish invasion became also in 1683 
 a fact. At this moment Hungary seemed to be lost 
 forever to the Hapsburgs ; the whole country sided 
 with the Turks, the territory beyond the Danube 
 also acknowledging the authority of Tokolyi. 
 
 The destinies of Hungary, nay of all Eastern 
 Europe, hung upon the fate of besieged Vienna. 
 The siege of Vienna was raised through the victory 
 of Sobieski the Polish king; and the rapidly succeed- 
 ing victories of the Christian armies, already referred 
 to in the preceding chapter, awakened the hopes of 
 the Hungarian nation, and showed that, at last, the 
 emperor-king concerned himself in the liberation 
 from Turkish rule of Hungarian territory. The 
 decisive victories of Prince Eugene of Savoy finally 
 accomplished this, and the Turks henceforth gave up 
 all hopes of reconquering Hungary. 
 
 The liberation of the Hungarian soil, however im- 
 portant in itself, proved no immediate panacea for the 
 ills of which the country had to complain. Even while 
 the struggle was going on, many things happened 
 which pointed to troubles in the future. The Hunga- 
 rian inhabitants along the course of the Danube were 
 rudely interrogated by the soldiers of the imperial 
 army of liberation as to what faith they professed, 
 and if they were found to adhere to the new tenets
 
 360 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 they were mercilessly set adrift. In the Upper 
 Country a certain Caraffa, the military command- 
 ant of that district, committed acts cf the most cruel 
 atrocity. This bloody monster pretended to have 
 discovered a conspiracy, and obtained from the gov- 
 ernment, which was disposed to suspect the loyalty 
 of the Hungarians, full powers to deal with it and 
 to put it down. Caraffa made a terrible use of his 
 commission. He made wholesale arrests of the sus- 
 pected and loyal alike, threw into prison men of high 
 standing against whom he had a personal grudge, 
 and rich people whose property he coveted, and ex- 
 torted from them by dreadful tortures the confession 
 of crimes they had never committed. These unfor- 
 tunates were then executed upon the strength of 
 their confessions. This bloody tribunal of Eperjes, of 
 ill-fame, which inspired horror all over the land, c6n- 
 tinued its malevolent functions until the first months 
 of 1687, when it was abolished, through the interces- 
 sion of the Diet which had just been convoked. This 
 Diet, however, was in most of its work not at all anx- 
 ious to hamper the government. On the contrary, it 
 displayed a pliability which made it forget the true 
 interests of the country. Thus it substituted for 
 the ancient right of the nation to elect their kings, 
 the hereditary right of succession in the male branch 
 of the Hapsburg dynasty, and it was this Diet that 
 relinquished the time-honored right of the people, 
 guaranteed by the Golden Bull, to resist with arms 
 any illegal acts of the king, without incurring the 
 penalty of treason for so doing. There were some 
 malicious critics who pretended that this unpatri-
 
 THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 361 
 
 otic legislation was due to the pressure of imperial 
 guns pointed at the place in which the Diet met. 
 At all events the servile spirit exhibited by the 
 Diet gave color to the apprehensions of those 
 Hungarians who were of one mind with Tokolyi, 
 that Hungary must be irretrievably ruined if she 
 passed under the authority of the Austrians. 
 
 As the Turkish wars were drawing to an end, more 
 melancholy portents began to darken the horizon. 
 Hungary was re-organized by the government at 
 Vienna without the Hungarians being consulted. 
 Transylvania remained a separate " grand duchy," 
 and the district beyond the Drave was formed into 
 a separate province, and all this was done from the 
 fear lest united Hungary might become too strong 
 to suit Austria's schemes. A large portion of the 
 recovered territory was distributed amongst German 
 landowners, the southern portion of the Alfold was 
 colonized by Servians, and in other parts of the 
 land, especially in the cities, the settlement of Ger- 
 man-speaking people was encouraged, for the pur- 
 pose of tempering the hot blood of the rebellious 
 Hungarians. The fortified castles scattered through- 
 out the whole country, the property of private own- 
 ers, were blown up by the hundred, without the 
 consent of their proprietors, lest in case of a fresh 
 rising these strongholds should be used as centres of 
 a factious spirit. 
 
 The Protestants were not allowed to settle in the 
 re-conquered districts. In other places the freedom 
 of their worship was interfered with, the churches 
 were taken from them, their ministers driven away,
 
 362 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 and if any one, appealing to his constitutional rights, 
 had the courage to resist these illegalities, he was 
 thrown into prison. In a word, regular dragonnades, 
 as they flourished in France under Louis XIV., now 
 became the order of the day. 
 
 The government imposed upon the people such 
 oppressive and burdensome taxes that it almost 
 seemed as if it dreaded the prosperity of the coun- 
 try. If the people complained of the heavy burdens, 
 they were instigated against the nobles, whose ex- 
 emption from taxation was pointed out as the only 
 cause of the heavy burdens. The country was again 
 flooded by a foreign soldiery, whose chief business 
 consisted in robbing and plundering, the common 
 soldiers oppressing the common people, and the 
 officers the nobility. The honor and the property 
 of the people were at the mercy of these brutal 
 troops, and those who complained of such outrages 
 found themselves always in the wrong. This forlorn 
 condition is reflected in many of the plaintive popu- 
 lar songs of that period, but there was no means of 
 remedying these evils crying throughout the land, 
 for no Diet had been convoked since 1687. The aim 
 of the Viennese government became daily more 
 evident, to put the Austrian rule in the place of the 
 Turkish, and to ignore altogether the Hungarian 
 national aspirations. The nation herself seemed to 
 the government too much enfeebled and trodden 
 down to give any ground for apprehending any re- 
 sistance in defence of her rights, but to make assur- 
 ance doubly sure every effort was made to crush the 
 national spirit.
 
 THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 363 
 
 Yet the nation could not brook oppression, she 
 could not be kept quiet, deprived of constitutional 
 government, and as soon as she had found again a 
 leader in Francis Rakoczy II., she rose in arms. 
 The new leader was the bearer of a great name. His 
 ancestors had been princes of Transylvania. He 
 himself was the grandson of that George Rak6czy 
 II., who in 1657 invaded Poland, and subsequently 
 lost his life fighting against the Turks in defence of 
 his country and his throne. His father Francis had 
 taken part in the Wesselenyi conspiracy, and es- 
 caped the scaffold only at the cost of an immense 
 ransom. His maternal grandfather, Peter Zrinyi, 
 met with his death on the scaffold, and his only 
 great-uncle perished in prison in spite of his inno- 
 cence. His stepfather, Tokolyi, together with his 
 own mother, Ilona Zrinyi, ate the bitter bread of 
 exile in Turkey. He and his sister were, in their 
 early youth, torn from their parents, and their edu- 
 cation entrusted to Germans. In Vienna he was 
 subjected to many humiliations, and as he grew up 
 he left that city and retired to one of his estates, in- 
 tending to pass his life peacefully near his wife. 
 He was averse to action, and the bloody shades of 
 his family seemed vainly to beckon to him, who 
 alone bore yet the famous name and was the master 
 of immense possessions, to follow in their footsteps. 
 
 But all this was changed as soon as he came to 
 Hungary. He could not bear to witness the wrongs 
 perpetrated about him, and he could not move a 
 step without becoming aware that the nation ex- 
 pected from him, the descendant of a line of heroes,
 
 364 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 their salvation. Meanwhile the Spanish war of suc- 
 cession had broken out in 1701, and very soon all 
 Europe was involved in it. This appeared to Ra- 
 koczy to be a propitious time for the reconquering 
 of the liberties of the people, and, aided by the 
 French king, he hoisted in 1703 the flag of the rebel- 
 lion, bearing the inscription " pro patria et libertate," 
 for the fatherland and liberty. 
 
 The sages at Vienna would not at first credit the 
 news of the rising of the people ; they had long ago 
 made up their minds that such an event was impos- 
 sible. But when the movement spread like wild- 
 fire throughout the Upper Country, Transylvania, and 
 ultimately all Hungary, and the great majority of 
 the nation unsheathed the sword, they became 
 frightened, and resorted to negotiations and fresh 
 promises. The rebels were inclined to cease hos- 
 tilities provided their liberties were secured. But 
 mere words did not satisfy them now, having been 
 taught by sad experience the futility of royal words, 
 oaths, and solemn treaties of peace, and they there- 
 fore endeavored to obtain more substantial guar- 
 anties from the government. They exacted the in- 
 dependence of Transylvania, under a Hungarian 
 prince and the guaranty of the European powers. 
 To these propositions the government neither would 
 nor could accede, while the rebels insisted upon their 
 first proposals, declaring that it was impossible for 
 them to have any faith in Austrian or as it was 
 popularly termed in German promises. This uni- 
 versal sentiment of distrust, pervading the nation, is 
 admirably reflected in a popular song, to which that
 
 I'KASANT GIRL FROM THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF BUDA-PESTH. 
 
 365
 
 366 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 period gave birth, and of which we subjoin a transla- 
 tion : 
 
 Magyar, trust not the Germans, 
 
 No matter how or what they protest ; 
 
 Naught is the parchment they give thee, 
 
 'Though it be as large as thy round cloak, 
 
 And though they set a seal on it 
 
 As big as the brim of the moon, 
 
 Spite of all, it lacks all virttis (trustworthiness). 
 
 Confound them, Jesus Christus ! " 
 
 These overtures failed to lead to peace, and the 
 struggle continued throughout the land, giving up 
 to ruin what had been left intact by the Turkish 
 slavery of a century and a half and the sixteen 
 years' war of liberation. The government was un- 
 able either to quell or to crush the rebellion, stand- 
 ing in need of all its strength for the struggle in the 
 west. At this conjuncture Leopold I. descended 
 into his grave in 1705, and his well-intentioned son, 
 Joseph I., succeeded to the throne (1705-1711). 
 
 Joseph sincerely wished for peace, and, convinced 
 of the mistakes of the policy of his father, he did all 
 in his power to allay the apprehensions of the rebels, 
 but his constitutional sentiment failed to efface the 
 baneful effects of his predecessor's misgovernment 
 and duplicity. Nor was it possible for him, either, 
 to accept the terms of the rebels, and thus it came 
 to pass that the dynasty of Hapsburg was dethroned 
 in Hungary, during the reign of this upright mon- 
 arch, in 1707. This was a great mistake on the part 
 of the rebels, but Joseph had now the advantage of 
 being able to show his respect for the liberties of the 
 nation, under the most adverse circumstances, and
 
 THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 367 
 
 he thus, by slow degrees, won the confidence of 
 the people. The French had, meanwhile, been 
 thoroughly defeated, and Joseph was thus enabled 
 to oppose larger forces to the rebels, while the latter 
 could not secure aid from any quarter. The rebels, 
 exhausted with the protracted struggle, met with 
 repeated defeats, and, to add to their distress, the 
 black plague made its appearance and fearfully 
 thinned the ranks of their troops. The king, how- 
 ever, did not abuse his increasing power. He granted 
 an amnesty to all, without exception, who were wil- 
 ling to return to their allegiance ; he governed con- 
 stitutionally, remedied the ills inflicted upon the 
 country by his predecessors, and finally placed a 
 Hungarian commander-in-chief at the head of the 
 army. His earnest and sincere endeavors were at 
 last rewarded by peace. The issue of the various 
 negotiations was the compact of Szatmar, concluded 
 in 1 71 1, by the terms of which a general amnesty 
 was granted, and constitutional and religious liberty 
 secured. 
 
 This peace was a grateful conclusion to the sad 
 days which had been weighing down Hungary for 
 two hundred years, a period during which both 
 Turks and Austrians were compassing the ruin of 
 the country. The former were perpetually threaten- 
 ing her territorial integrity ; the latter, her political 
 liberties, and the nationality to which those liberties 
 were closely wedded. By dint of rare courage, an 
 undying love of liberty, and acute statesmanship, 
 they succeeded in preserving both their territory and 
 their liberties. The sad events of those two centu-
 
 368 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 ries had put the endurance and energies of the nation 
 to the severest test, but, in the end, she triumphantly 
 passed through the cruel ordeal. 
 
 A new era now dawned in the history of Hungary. 
 Wars no more threatened the territory of the coun- 
 try, and her liberties and nationality were no longer 
 exposed to stubborn violence. Yet the dangers to 
 her national life were not yet quite removed, for 
 what the sword and brute force had been unable to 
 accomplish during the preceding centuries, the 
 eighteenth century attempted to achieve peaceably 
 by means of the Western civilization. 
 
 Charles III. (Charles VI. as Emperor of Ger- 
 many), the brother and successor of Joseph, inaug- 
 urated this new policy, and his daughter, Maria 
 Theresa (1740-1780), continued to pursue, during 
 her long reign, with great success, the course 
 traced by her royal father. The protracted wars, 
 whilst laying waste the country and reducing her 
 population, had also retarded her culture, and it 
 became now necessary to find means to remedy both 
 evils. Attempts were made to supply the lack of 
 population by colonizing. The Alfold, the special 
 home of the Hungarian race, was particularly de- 
 populated, and there we see the work of establishing 
 new settlements most zealously carried on during the 
 whole century. The Slavs from the Upper Country, 
 the Servians from the South, and multitudes of Ger- 
 man-speaking peoples from the West, soon spread 
 over the great plain, and the numerous villages of 
 the last could be met with at every step. The 
 government was especially solicitous in promoting
 
 THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 369 
 
 German colonization, partly because these settlers 
 were industrious, and partly because this course 
 favored the Germanization of the country. But 
 soon the Hungarians, who had been crowded back 
 into the hilly regions of the country, returned to 
 their beloved Alfold, and for a while a regular hand- 
 to-hand fight ensued between them and the stran- 
 gers for the possession of the broad acres of the 
 fertile plain. Hardly one generation passed and all 
 those motley populations became Magyarized, and 
 proudly proclaimed themselves to be members of 
 the Hungarian community. Only there where the 
 foreign element had settled in compact masses, they 
 remained strangers still, but the national encroach- 
 ment on their borders went constantly on. In con- 
 nection with the colonization was also carried on 
 the work of draining the swamps and improving the 
 soil, and we see the population day by day increas- 
 ing in numbers and wealth. 
 
 Great changes, too, were effected in the country 
 by means of legislation. Successive Diets endeav- 
 ored to remedy 'the many palpable defects, and it 
 may be said that the tribunals existing up to 1848 
 originated in the time of Charles III. At this 
 period, also, was introduced the system of a standing 
 army, and with it that of permanent taxation. Both 
 soldiers and taxes are still granted by the Diet, yet, 
 not for special emergencies only, as they arise, but 
 until the next Diet is convoked. About this time 
 the relations between Hungary and the Austrian 
 provinces were more clearly defined by the Pragmatic 
 
 Sanction of 1723. By it Hungary and the Austrian 
 
 24
 
 370 THE STORY OF HUNGARY'. 
 
 provinces were declared inseparable, and the ruler of 
 both was always to be one and the same person from 
 the Hapsburg dynasty, in the regular order of suc- 
 cession in the male and female lines ; but, otherwise, 
 Hungary was to remain perfectly independent, and 
 was to be governed by her own laws. 
 
 The nation was offered an opportunity to prove 
 by her alacrity in complying with the wishes of 
 Charles in regard to a change in the order of the 
 dynastic succession, that his kind feelings towards 
 the country were fully reciprocated by the trustful- 
 ness of the people. The right of succession was thus 
 extended to the female line too of those very Haps- 
 burgs, whose dynasty the nation, not many years 
 before, had declared to have altogether forfeited their 
 right to the throne. The country was soon called 
 upon at Maria Theresa's accession to the throne to 
 prove by deeds its attachment and gratitude. The 
 young queen was attacked by all Europe, the enemy 
 being eager to rob her of the fairest portions of her 
 Austrian possessions. In this extreme danger she 
 appealed to chivalrous Hungary for protection, and 
 the nation, forgetting the old quarrels, exclaimed 
 with one voice: ' Vitaui ct sanguinem ! moriannir 
 pro rege nostro Maria Theresia I " Eighty thousand 
 soldiers went into the war to meet the queen's ene- 
 mies, who were anxious to divide the spoils of the 
 empire, and during a combat of eight years the 
 Hungarians, whilst defending their Pragmatic Sanc- 
 tion, upheld, at the same time, the integrity of the 
 Austrian possessions. The dynasty had thus won 
 in Hungary, by a spirit of conciliation, a country
 
 THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 
 
 371 
 
 upon which it could count as a trusty support in 
 case of danger from without. 
 
 Maria Theresa showed herself grateful for the 
 sacrifices and devotion of the nation. The district 
 of Temes, which had been retaken from the Turks 
 by her father, was re-annexed to the kingdom of 
 
 HUNGARIAN PEASANT. 
 
 Hungary, and it was Maria Theresa who gave Hun- 
 gary the city of Fiume, in order that the country 
 might have a seaport town to promote her com- 
 merce and industry. A great deal, too, was done 
 by her, in many ways, to improve the material con- 
 dition of the country, and still more for the advance- 
 ment of higher culture through the erection of
 
 3?2 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 churches and the foundation and organization of 
 schools. In a word, she always remained, to her 
 end, the "gracious queen" of the nation. 
 
 A great social revolution had also taken place dur- 
 ing the reigns of Charles and Maria Theresa. The 
 magnates of the country deserted in the piping times 
 of peace their eagle's nests on the rocky crests of the 
 hills and descended into the smiling valleys below, 
 building there palaces for themselves after foreign 
 patterns. Life in those rural abodes, owing to the lack 
 of pastimes and refinement, soon became dull to the 
 great lords, and, as there was no national capital to 
 offer distraction, they went abroad, and soon came 
 to like the foreign mode of life better than the law- 
 lessness of their country homes. The Viennese court 
 bade them welcome, overwhelmed them with distinc- 
 tions, and Maria Theresa, especially, understood the 
 art of fascinating them. Gradually they became for- 
 eigners in their dress and manners, and all the Hun- 
 garian that was still preserved by these absentees 
 was their names and the estates they possessed in 
 Hungary, the revenues of which they spent abroad. 
 The atmosphere and the graces of court life suc- 
 ceeded in doing what the sword and violence had 
 failed to accomplish. The great lords became es- 
 tranged from their country and thoroughly German- 
 ized. 
 
 If the great noblemen alone had still the exclusive 
 charge of defending the independence and nationality 
 of Hungary as they had done in days of old, then 
 indeed these blessed days of peace would have 
 brought ruin on both. It was fortunate, however,
 
 THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 373 
 
 for the country that there was still left the gentry, 
 numbering hundreds of thousands, who, after the 
 peace of 1711, went on in their lives as before, and 
 concerned themselves, in their old way, with the na- 
 tional affairs ; the counties, where self-government 
 reigned supreme, being the scene of their action 
 This class of nobles did not go abroad, nor was it 
 possible to subject any large numbers of them to the 
 fascinations of Viennese court life. They remained 
 at home, retained their Hungarian customs and 
 manners, their national language and dress, and 
 with these it was impossible to make them part. 
 Their counties were so many bulwarks of their na- 
 tionality and the independence of Hungary, and 
 these numerous seats of self-government furnished 
 the counterpoise to the Germanizing influences of 
 the court, which were thus destined, as far as the 
 nation as a whole was concerned, to come to naught 
 in times of peace, as they had failed before when 
 coercion was employed.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE EMPEROR JOSEPH II. THE NATIONAL REACTION 
 AND THE NAPOLEONIC WARS. 
 
 THE royal crown of Hungary has ever been, from 
 the time it encircled the brow of St. Stephen, an 
 object of jealous solicitude and almost superstitious 
 veneration with the nation. It continued to loom 
 up as a luminous and rallying point in the midst of 
 the vicissitudes and stirring events of the history of 
 the country, during all the centuries that followed 
 the coronation of the first king. The people looked 
 upon it as a hallowed relic, the glorious bequest of a 
 long line of generations past and gone, and as the 
 symbol and embodiment of the unity of the state. 
 The different countries composing Hungary were 
 known under the collective name of the Lands oftJie 
 Sacred Crown, and, at the period when the privileged 
 nobility was still enjoying exceptional immunities, 
 each noble styled himself nicmbrum sacrce coronce, a 
 member of the sacred crown. In the estimation of 
 the people it had ceased to be a religious symbol, 
 and had become a cherished national and political 
 memorial, to which the followers of every creed and 
 all the classes without distinction might equally do 
 homage. Nor was the crown an every-day orna- 
 
 374
 
 THE EMPEROR JOSEPH IT. 375 
 
 ment to be displayed by royalty on solemn occasions 
 of pageant. The king wore it only once in his life, 
 on the day of his coronation, when he was bound 
 solemnly to swear fidelity to the constitution, before 
 the high dignitaries of the state, first in church, and 
 to repeat afterwards in the open air his vow to gov- 
 ern the country within the limits of the law. Thus 
 in Hungary it has ever been the ancient custom, pre- 
 vailing to this day, that, on the king's accession to 
 the throne, it is he who, on his coronation, takes 
 the oath of fidelity to his people, instead of the latter 
 swearing fealty to the king. The right of succession 
 to the throne is hereditary, but the lawful rule of the 
 king begins with the ceremony of coronation only. 
 It requires this ceremonial, which to this day is char- 
 acterized by the attributes of mediaeval pomp and 
 splendor, to render the acts of the ruler valid and 
 binding upon the people ; without it every public 
 act of such ruler is a usurpation. 
 
 During eight centuries all the kings and queens, 
 without exception, had been eager to place the crown 
 on their heads, in order to come into the full possession 
 of their regal privileges. Joseph II., Maria Theresa's 
 son, who succeeded his mother in 1780, was the first 
 king who refused to be crowned. He felt a reluc- 
 tance to swear fidelity to the constitution, and to 
 promise, by a solemn oath, to govern the country in 
 accordance with its ancient usages and laws. The. 
 people, therefore, never called him their crowned 
 king ; he was either styled emperor by them, or 
 nicknamed the " kalapos" (hatted) king. His reign 
 was but a series of illegal and unconstitutional
 
 376 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 acts, and a succession of bitter and envenomed 
 struggles between the nation and her ruler. The 
 contest finally ended with Joseph's defeat. He re- 
 tracted on his death-bed all his arbitrary measures, 
 and conceded to the people the tardy restoration of 
 their ancient constitution. The conflict, however, 
 had left deep traces in the minds of his Hungarian 
 subjects. It roused them from the dormant state 
 into which they had been lulled by the gentle and 
 maternal absolutism of Maria Theresa. Thus Jo- 
 seph's schemes not only failed, but, in their effects, 
 they were destined to bring about the triumph of 
 ideas, fraught with important consequences, such as 
 he had hardly anticipated. The nation, waking from 
 her lethargy, gave more prominence than ever to the 
 idea of nationality, an idea which, as time advanced, 
 increased in potency and intensity. 
 
 Yet this ruler, who on ascending the throne disre- 
 garded all constitutional obligations and waged a re- 
 lentless war against the Hungarian nationality, must 
 be, nevertheless, ranked amongst the noblest charac- 
 ters of his century. Thoroughly imbued with the 
 enlightened views of the eighteenth century, and 
 those new ideas which had triumphed in the war of 
 independence across the ocean, he was ever in pur- 
 suit of generous and exalted aims. He sincerely 
 desired the welfare of the people, and in engaging 
 in this fruitless conflict he was by no means actuated 
 by sinister intentions or by a despotic disposition. 
 To introduce reforms, called for by the spirit of the 
 age, into the Church, the schools, and every depart- 
 ment of his government, was the lofty task he had
 
 HUNGARIAN PORTER. 
 
 377
 
 378 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 imposed upon himself. A champion of the op- 
 pressed, he freed the human conscience from its 
 mediaeval fetters, granted equal rights to the per- 
 secuted creeds, protected the enslaved peasantry 
 against their arbitrary masters, and enlarged the 
 liberty of the press. He endeavored to establish 
 order and honesty in every branch of the public 
 service, being mindful, at the same time, of all the 
 agencies affecting the prosperity of the people. In 
 a word, his remarkable genius embraced every prov- 
 ince of human action where progress, reforms, and 
 ameliorations were desirable. 
 
 Unhappily for his own peace of mind and for the 
 destinies of the nation he was called upon to rule, 
 he committed a fatal error in the selection of the 
 methods for accomplishing his humane and philan- 
 thropic objects. He desired to render Hungary 
 happy, yet he excluded the nation from the direction 
 of her own affairs. He wished to enact salutary laws, 
 yet he reigned as an absolute monarch, unwilling to 
 call the Diet to his aid in the great work of reforma- 
 tion, ignoring and disdaining the constitution and laws 
 of the country. He was impolitic enough to attack a 
 constitution which, thanks to the devotion of the 
 people, had withstood the shock of seven centuries. 
 He was unwise enough to suppose that the people, 
 in whose hearts the love of their ancient constitution 
 had taken deep root, for the defence of which rivers of 
 blood had been shed, could be prevailed upon to relin- 
 quish it to satisfy a theory of royalty. The old polit- 
 ical organization was eminently an outgrowth of the 
 Hungarian nationality, and all classes of the people,
 
 THE EMPEROR JOSEPH II. 37g 
 
 including the very peasantry to whom the ancient 
 constitution meant only oppression, clung to it with 
 devoted fervor. The people were as anxious for 
 reforms as Joseph himself, but they wanted them 
 by lawful methods, and with the co-operation of the 
 nation and their Diet. Joseph might have become 
 the regenerator and benefactor of Hungary if he had 
 availed himself, for the realization of his grand ob- 
 jects, of the national and lawful channels which lay 
 ready to his hand. But he, unfortunately, preferred 
 attempting to achieve his purpose out of the pleni- 
 tude of his own power, by imperial edicts and arbi- 
 trary measures, thus conjuring up a storm against 
 himself which well-nigh shook his throne, and plung- 
 ing the nation into a wild ferment of passion border- 
 ing on revolution. 
 
 The people presented a solid phalanx against Jo- 
 seph's attacks upon their nationality and language, 
 which to them were objects dearer than every thing 
 else. They little cared for the emperor's well-inten- 
 tioned endeavors to make them prosperous and hap- 
 py as long as he asked, in exchange, for the relin- 
 quishment of their nationality. And this, above all, 
 was his most ardent wish. He wanted Hungary to 
 be Hungarian no more, and wished its people to cast 
 off the distinctive marks of their individuality, and to 
 adopt the German language, instead of their own, in 
 the schools, the public administration, and in judicial 
 proceedings. In a word, he made German the offi- 
 cial language of the country, and was bent on forcing 
 it upon the people. 
 
 Henceforth every reform coming from Joseph ber
 
 380 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 came hateful to the people. The oppressed classes 
 themselves spurned relief which involved the sacrifice 
 of their sweet mother-tongue. By proclaiming equal 
 rights and equal subjection to the burdens of the 
 state, he arrayed the privileged classes against his 
 person. The Protestants and the peasantry, who had 
 hailed him in the beginning as their new Messiah, 
 and fondly saw in his innovations the dawn of 
 brighter days, also turned from him as soon as he 
 attacked them in what they prized even more than 
 liberty and justice. It was not long before the 
 whole country, without distinction of class, social 
 standing, or creed, combined to set at naught the 
 Germanizing efforts of Joseph. The hard-fought 
 struggle roused the people, hitherto divided by an- 
 tagonisms of class and creed, to a sense of national 
 solidarity. It was during the critical days of these 
 constitutional conflicts that the foundations of the 
 modern homogeneousness of the Hungarian nation 
 and society were laid down. 
 
 The privileged classes looked upon Joseph, on his 
 advent to the throne, with distrust. They foresaw 
 that he would not allow himself to be crowned, in 
 order to avoid taking the oath of fidelity to the con- 
 stitution of Hungary. The first measures of his 
 reign concerned the organization of the various 
 churches of the country. He extended the religious 
 freedom of the Protestant Church. By virtue of the 
 apostolic rights of the Hungarian kings, he intro- 
 duced signal reforms into the Catholic Church, espe- 
 cially regarding the education of the clergy, which 
 proved, in part, exceedingly salutary. He abolished
 
 THE EMPEROR JOSEPH II. 381 
 
 numerous religious orders, especially those which 
 were not engaged either in teaching or nursing the 
 sick. One hundred and forty monasteries and nun- 
 neries were closed by him in Hungary. The ample 
 property of these convents he employed for ecclesi- 
 astical and public purposes and for the advancement 
 of instruction. He exerted himself strenuously and 
 successfully in the establishment of public schools 
 and in the interest of popular education. He re- 
 moved the only university of which the country 
 could then boast from Buda to Pesth, a city which 
 was rapidly increasing, and added a theological de- 
 partment to that seat of learning. All these inno- 
 vations met with the approval of the enlightened 
 elements of the nation, whilst the privileged classes 
 and the clergy opposed them with sullen discontent. 
 The opposition was all the more successful, as the 
 emperor had contrived to insult the moral suscepti- 
 bilities of the common people by some of his meas- 
 ures. Thus, with a view to economizing the boards 
 required for coffins, he ordered the dead to be sewed 
 up in sacks, and to be buried in this apparel. This 
 uncalled-for meddling with the prejudices of the 
 lower classes had the effect of creating a great indig- 
 nation among them, and of driving them into the 
 camp of the opposition. Trifling and thoughtless 
 measures of a similar nature impaired the credit of 
 the most salutary innovations. The people looked 
 with suspicion at every change, and, heedless of the 
 lofty endeavors of the emperor, everybody, includ- 
 ing the officials themselves, rejected the entire gov- 
 ernmental system of Joseph.
 
 382 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 The emperor also wounded the national feeling of 
 piety by his action concerning the crown he had 
 spurned. According to ancient custom and law the 
 sacred crown was kept in safety in Presburg, in a 
 building provided for that purpose. In 1784 the 
 emperor ordered the crown to be removed to Vi- 
 enna, in order to be placed there in the royal treas- 
 ury side by side with the crowns of his other lands. 
 The nation revolted at this profanation of their hal- 
 lowed relic, and the highest official authorities, 
 throughout the land, protested against a measure 
 which, while it created such wide-spread ill feeling, 
 was not justified by any necessity. A dreadful storm, 
 accompanied by thunder and lightning, was raging 
 when the crown was removed to Vienna, and the 
 people saw in this a sign that nature herself rebelled 
 against the sacrilege committed by the emperor. 
 The counties continued to urge the return of the 
 crown in addresses which were sometimes humbly 
 suppliant in their tone and sometimes threatening, 
 but Joseph did not yield either to supplications or 
 menaces. 
 
 When the edict, which made German the official 
 language of the country, was published, the minds of 
 men all over the country were already greatly dis- 
 turbed. It is true, that hitherto the Latin and not 
 the Hungarian language had been the medium of 
 communication employed by the state. But the na- 
 tional spirit and the native tongue, which during the 
 first seventy years of the eighteenth century had 
 sadly degenerated, were awakening to new life dur- 
 ing Joseph's reign. The literature of the country
 
 SLOVAK WOMAN AND CHILDREN. 
 
 383
 
 STOKY Of HUNGARY. 
 
 began to be assiduously cultivated in different spheres. 
 Royal body-guards belonging to distinguished fami- 
 lies, gentlemen of refinement, clergymen of modest 
 position, and other sons of the native soil labored with 
 equal zeal and enthusiasm to foster their cherished 
 mother-tongue. It would, therefore, have been an 
 easy matter for Joseph to replace the Latin language, 
 which had become an anachronism, by the Hunga- 
 rian, and thus to restore the latter to its natural and 
 legal position in the state. He was perfectly right in 
 ridding the country of the mastery of a dead tongue, 
 but he committed a most fatal error in trying to sub- 
 stitute for it the German, an error which avenged 
 itself most bitterly. Joseph entertained a special 
 antipathy to the Hungarian tongue, a dislike which 
 betrayed him into omitting the teaching of the native 
 language from the course of public instruction, and 
 refusing to allow an academy of sciences to be estab- 
 lished which had its cultivation for its object. 
 
 The emperor's attack upon the language of the 
 nation irremediably broke the last tie between him 
 and the country, and, henceforth, the relations be- 
 tween them could be only hostile. The counties as- 
 sumed a threatening attitude, some of them refusing 
 obedience altogether. Thus most of them declined 
 to give their official co-operation to the army officers 
 who had been delegated by the emperor to take the 
 census. The count, nevertheless, proceeded, but in 
 many places the inhabitants escaped to the woods, 
 and in some there were serious riots in consequence 
 of the opposition to the commissioners of the census. 
 A rising of a different character took place amongst
 
 THE EMPEROR JOSEPH If. 385 
 
 the Wallachs, The Wallachs, smarting under abuses 
 of long standing, buoyed up by exaggerated expec- 
 tations consequent upon the emperor's innova- 
 tions, and stirred up by evil-minded agitators, took 
 to arms and perpetrated the most outrageous atroci- 
 ties against their Hungarian landlords. The ignorant 
 common people were assured by their leaders, Hora 
 and Kloska, that the emperor himself sided with 
 them. The Wallach insurgents assassinated the 
 government's commissioners sent to them, destroyed 
 60 villages and 182 gentlemen's mansions, and killed 
 4,000 Hungarians, before they could be checked in 
 their bloody work. Although they were finally 
 crushed and punished, a strong belief prevailed 
 in the country that the court of Vienna had been 
 privy to the Wallach rising. 
 
 Joseph subsequently laid down most humane rules 
 regulating the relations between the bondmen and 
 their landlords. But the country could not be ap- 
 peased by any boon, especially as the high protective 
 tariff, just then established for the benefit of the Aus- 
 trian provinces, was seriously damaging the prosper- 
 ity of the people. Joseph's foreign policy tended to 
 increase the domestic disaffection. In 1788 he de- 
 clared war against Turkey, but the campaign turned 
 out unsuccessful, and nearly terminated with the em- 
 peror's capture. The nation, emboldened by his de- 
 feat, urged now more emphatically her demands, and 
 requested the emperor to annul his illegal edicts, to 
 submit to be crowned, and to restore the ancient 
 constitution. Joseph continuing to resist her de- 
 mands, most of the counties refused to contribute 
 25
 
 386 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 in aid of the war either money or produce. In addi- 
 tion to their recalcitrant attitude, they most energet- 
 ically pressed the emperor to convoke the Diet at 
 Buda, a few counties going even so far as to insist 
 upon the Chief Justice's convoking it, if the emperor 
 failed to do so before May, 1790. 
 
 The courage of the nation rose still higher when 
 the news of the revolution in France and the revolt 
 in Belgium reached the country. The people refused 
 to furnish recruits and military aid, and the emperor 
 was compelled to use violence in order to obtain either. 
 The counties remained firm and continued to remon- 
 strate in addresses characterized by sharp and energetic 
 language. Joseph yielded at last. He was prostrated 
 by a grave illness, and feeling his end approaching 
 he wished to die in peace with the exasperated na- 
 tion he had so deeply wounded. On the 28th of 
 January, 1790, he retracted all his illegal edicts, ex- 
 cepting those that had reference to religious toleration, 
 the peasantry, and the clergy, and re-established the 
 ancient constitution of the country. Soon after he 
 sent back the crown to Buda, where its return was 
 celebrated with great pomp, amidst the enthusiastic 
 shouts of the people. Before he could yet convoke 
 the Diet death terminated the emperor's career on 
 the 2Oth of February. The world lost in him a great 
 and noble-minded man and a friend to humanity, 
 who, however, had been unable to realize all his 
 lofty intentions. The effect of his reign was to 
 rouse Hungary from the apathy into which it had 
 sunk, and at the time of Joseph's death, the minds of 
 the people were a prey to an excitement no less
 
 THE EMPEROR JOSEPH II. 387 
 
 feverish than that which had seized revolutionary 
 France at the same period. 
 
 But while in Paris democracy was victorious over 
 royalty, the latter had to yield in Hungary to the 
 privileged nobility. The restored constitution was 
 a charter of political privileges for the nobles only, 
 and as such was most jealously guarded by them. 
 This class kept a strict watch over the liberal tenden- 
 cies of the age, preventing the importation of demo- 
 cratic ideas from France from fear of harm to their 
 exclusive immunities. 
 
 Joseph was succeeded by his brother, Leopold 
 II., who until now had been Grand Duke of 
 Tuscany. The new ruler was as enlightened as 
 his predecessor, and had as much the welfare 
 of the people at heart ; but he respected, at the 
 same time, the laws and the constitution. He im- 
 mediately convoked the Diet in order to be crowned, 
 and by this act he solemnly sealed the peace with 
 the nation. The people hailed with joy this first 
 step of their new king, and there was nothing in the 
 way of their now obtaining lawfully from the good- 
 will of the king the salutary legislation which Joseph 
 had attempted to force arbitrarily upon them. But 
 the fond hopes in this direction were doomed to 
 disappointment. The national movement had not 
 helped to power those who were in favor of progress, 
 equality of rights, and democracy. No doubt there 
 were people in the country who differed from the 
 men in authority, who were sincerely attached to 
 the doctrines of the French Revolution and eager to 
 supplant the privileges of the nobles by the broader
 
 388 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 rights belonging to all humanity. The national liter- 
 ature was in the hands of men of this class. They 
 combated the reactionary spirit of the nobility, and 
 contended for the recognition of the civil and politi- 
 cal rights of by far the largest portion of the people, 
 the non-nobles. They boldly and with generous en- 
 thusiasm wielded the pen in defence of those noble 
 ideas, and indoctrinated the people with them as 
 much as the restraints placed upon the press allowed 
 it at that period. They succeeded in obtaining re- 
 cruits for their ideas from the very ranks of the 
 privileged classes, and many an enlightened magnate 
 admitted that the time had arrived for modernizing 
 the constitution of Hungary by an extension of 
 political rights. Their number was swelled also by 
 the more intelligent portion of the inhabitants of the 
 cities, and those educated patriotic people who, 
 although no gentle blood flowed in their veins, had 
 either obtained office under Joseph's reign or had 
 imbibed the political views of that monarch. But 
 all of these men combined formed but an insignifi- 
 cant fraction of the people compared to the numer- 
 ous nobility, who, after their enforced submission 
 during ten years, were eager to turn to the advantage 
 of their own class the victory they had achieved over 
 Joseph. During the initial preparations for the 
 elections to the Diet, and in the course of the elec- 
 tions, sentiments were publicly uttered and obtained 
 a majority in the county assemblies, which caused a 
 feverish commotion amongst the common people 
 and the peasantry. The latter especially now eagerly 
 clung to innovations introduced by the Emperor
 
 REACTION AND NAPOLEONIC WARS,. 389 
 
 Joseph, so beneficial as regarded their own class, and 
 were reluctant to submit to the restoration of the 
 former arbitrary landlord system. Their remon- 
 strances were answered by the counties to the effect 
 that Providence had willed it so that some men 
 should be kings, others nobles, and others again 
 bondmen. Such cruel reasoning failed to satisfy 
 the aggrieved peasantry. Symptoms of a dangerous 
 revolutionary spirit showed themselves throughout 
 a large portion of the country, and an outbreak 
 could be prevented only by the timely assurance, on 
 the part of the counties, that the matter would be 
 submitted to the Diet about to assemble. 
 
 The Diet, which had not been convened for twenty- 
 five years, opened in Buda in the beginning of June, 
 1790. The coronation soon took place. Fifty years 
 had elapsed since the last similar pageant had been 
 enacted in Hungary. After a lengthy and vehement 
 contest extending over ten months, in the course of 
 which the Diet was removed from Buda to Presburg, 
 the laws of 1790-1791, which form part of the 
 fundamental articles of the Hungarian constitution, 
 were finally passed. By them the independence of 
 Hungary as a state obtained the fullest recognition. 
 The laws, which were the result of the co-operation 
 of the crown and the Estates, declared that Hungary 
 was an independent country, subject to no other 
 country, possessing her own constitution by which 
 alone she was to be governed. Important conces- 
 sions were also made to the rights of the citizens of 
 the country. The privileges of the nobility were 
 left intact, but the extreme wing of the reactionary
 
 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 nobles had to rest satisfied with this acquiescence in 
 the former state of things, and were not allowed to 
 push the narrow-minded measures advocated by 
 them. The majority of the Diet was influenced in 
 their wise moderation, partly by the exalted views of 
 the king, and to a greater extent yet by the disaf- 
 fected spirit rife amongst the people, and especially 
 threatening amongst the Serb population of the 
 country. The laws secured the liberties of the Prot- 
 estant and the Greek united churches, remedied the 
 most urgent griefs of the peasantry, and declared 
 those who were not noble capable of holding minor 
 offices. Although the most important measures of 
 reform were put off to a future time by the diet of 
 1790-1791, several preparatory royal commissions 
 having been appointed for their consideration, yet 
 the work it accomplished was the salutary beginning 
 of a liberal legislation which culminated, not quite 
 sixty years later, in the declaration of the equal 
 rights of the people as the basis of the Hungarian 
 commonwealth. 
 
 After the meeting of this Diet, however, very little 
 was done in the direction of reforms. The good 
 work was interrupted, partly by the premature death 
 of Leopold II. (March i, 1792), and partly by the 
 warlike period, extending over twenty-five years, 
 which, in Hungary as throughout all Europe, claimed 
 public attention, and diverted the minds of the lead- 
 ers of the nation from domestic topics. Francis I., 
 the son and successor of Leopold II., caused himself 
 to be crowned in due form, and much was at first 
 hoped from his reign. But the Jacobin rule of terror
 
 REACTION AND NAPOLEONIC WARS. 39! 
 
 in Paris, and the dread of seeing the revolutionary 
 scenes repeated in his own realm, wrought a com- 
 plete change in his character and policy. He soon 
 stubbornly rejected every innovation, and gradually 
 became a pillar of strength for the European reac- 
 tion, that extravagant conservatism which expected 
 to efface the effects of the French Revolution by an 
 unquestioning adherence to the old and traditional 
 order of things. This illiberal spirit of the monarch 
 rendered impossible for the time any further reform- 
 movement in Hungary. Every question of desirable 
 change met with the most obstinate opposition on 
 the part of the king, and the reforms submitted by 
 the royal commissions were considered by every suc- 
 cessive Diet without ever becoming law. The period 
 which now followed was gloomy in the extreme, as 
 well for Hungary as for the Austrian provinces of 
 Francis I. The inhabitants of these countries were 
 constantly called upon by the king in the course of 
 the wars to make sacrifices in treasure and blood, by 
 furnishing recruits and by paying high taxes. At 
 the same time the government resorted to the most 
 absolute and arbitrary measures to prevent the peo- 
 ple from being contaminated with French ideas. 
 The press was crushed by severe penalties. Every 
 enlightened idea was banished from the schools and 
 expunged from the school-books. Only men, for 
 whose extreme reactionary spirit the police could 
 vouch, were appointed to the professorships or to 
 other offices. A system of universal spying and secret 
 information caused everybody to be suspected and 
 to suffer from private vindictiveness, whilst those
 
 39 2 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 who dared to avow liberal views were the objects of 
 cruel persecution. 
 
 The numerically few but staunch adherents of 
 democracy, being thus debarred from openly labor- 
 ing for their views, endeavored to accomplish their 
 purposes by secret combinations. A secret society was 
 formed in Pesth, the centre of the political life of the 
 country. This league of Hungarian Jacobins had 
 but a confused idea of its own aims, and of the 
 means of achieving them. They produce, at this 
 distance of time, the impression of an organization, 
 indulging in crude, exaggerated, and even thought- 
 less visions, but theirs, nevertheless, is the credit of 
 having been the first society of the kind in the 
 country, and of thus furnishing a link in the political 
 development of the public spirit in Hungary. Al- 
 though the members of the league were unable to 
 secure any tangible results, yet they deserve a place 
 in the national history as the first martyrs of univer- 
 sal freedom and human rights in Hungary, for they 
 forfeited their lives or suffered long imprisonments 
 for the holy cause. The movement was originally 
 planned by Ignatius Martinovics, a learned abbot 
 who entered into relations with the Jacobins abroad, 
 first with those of Paris, and afterwards with their 
 sympathizers in Germany and Austria. With the 
 assistance of these he intended to bring about a 
 republic of Hungary, and to establish there the 
 doctrines of equality and liberty. He organized 
 for that purpose a secret society in Pesth, after 
 the pattern of the masonic societies, which were 
 then flourishing throughout the country. There
 
 REACTION AND NAPOLEONIC WARS. 393 
 
 were in point of fact two distinct associations, one 
 called the reformers, the other styled the friends of 
 liberty and equality. The former knew nothing of 
 the designs of the latter, whilst these, occupying a 
 higher rank, were fully initiated into the secrets of 
 the reformers. The aim of both alike was to insure 
 the triumph of the principles of the French Revolu- 
 tion. The members recognized each other by secret 
 signs, and used in their correspondence a cipher de- 
 vised for the purpose. Martinovics' scheme was to 
 hoist the revolutionary flag as soon as the increased 
 number of members in both societies might render 
 such a step advisable. Meanwhile the sole business 
 of the members consisted in spreading among the 
 people a catechism conceived in a revolutionary 
 spirit. 
 
 Martinovics commenced the organization of the 
 secret society in the spring of 1794. He was assisted 
 in his work by John Laczkovics, formerly a captain 
 in the army, Joseph Hajnoczi, an eyi-alispdn (vice- 
 comes or deputy sheriff of a county), and Francis 
 Szentmarjay, a young man of distinction, who were 
 all zealously engaged in recruiting members for the 
 new association. Among the latter, however, but few 
 knew of Martinovics' ultimate object, or of his 
 French connections. Most of them thought that it 
 was his intention to secure the introduction of re- 
 forms by lawful means. As to the secret character 
 of the society, they looked upon it as a concession 
 to the fashion of the period, introduced by the free- 
 masons. During the eighteenth century a real mania 
 for secrecy of this kind prevailed all over Europe,
 
 394 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 and secret societies sprang up in every quarter for 
 purposes which, if publicly proclaimed, would have 
 met with no opposition whatever. The society of 
 the Hungarian Jacobins did not owe its existence to 
 subversionary tendencies, but to that eagerness for 
 reforms which never ceased to agitate the nation. 
 With the exception of a dozen unreflecting men who 
 dreamt of overthrowing the Hungarian monarchy 
 with the aid of the French, the rank and file were 
 entirely composed of men who believed in reforms 
 achieved by lawful methods. The leaders them- 
 selves, Martinovics, Hajnoczi, and Laczkovics, had 
 filled important offices under the Emperor Joseph, 
 and had subsequently supported King Leopold 
 in his efforts at reform. If Leopold had lived, 
 every one of them would have borne a conspicuous 
 part in public affairs. But the triumph of the re- 
 actionary spirit under the reign of King Francis 
 made them conspirators. Those of .their friends 
 who joined them were all honest and enthusiastic 
 patriots, who saw in the success of democratic ideas 
 the welfare of Hungary. But they did not look to 
 a revolution for the realization of their fond hopes. 
 They entered the society for the sole purpose of 
 preparing the minds of their countrymen for reforms 
 to be obtained by constitutional means. Almost 
 every Hungarian writer, who was not in some de- 
 pendent position, belonged to the society. Amongst 
 these was Francis Kazinczy, the regenerator of Hun- 
 garian literature, and one of the most respectable 
 members of the literary guild. The French ideas 
 found a grateful echo among the intelligent elements
 
 REACTION AND NAPOLEONIC WARS. 395 
 
 of the country. The reports of French victories 
 were hailed with joy in the capital, by the professors 
 at the university, and the students, as well as by 
 people in the country, especially in the county of 
 Zemplen, the home of Kazinczy. Liberty poles were 
 erected in several places, many hoping that the vic- 
 tories of the French would establish in Hungary the 
 reign of liberty and equality. These demonstrations, 
 however, were entirely independent, and were not 
 inspired by Martinovics. Such occurrences reflected 
 only the effect of foreign events on the public mind 
 of Hungary, which had at all times been open to 
 influences from abroad, and which did not fail, in 
 this instance, to respond to the voice of humanity 
 which then rang out through a large portion of the 
 Western world. 
 
 The secret society confined its work to procuring 
 fresh members and to a wide distribution of their 
 political catechisms. The number of the members 
 amounted altogether to seventy-five, of whom twenty- 
 seven lived in Pesth, and the remainder belonged to 
 every part of the country. Only three months had 
 elapsed after the organization of the society when 
 Martinovics was arrested in Vienna, and Laczkovics, 
 Szentmarjay, and Hajnoczy in Pesth. The Viennese 
 police had discovered the Austrian fraternity, and> 
 finding Martinovics amongst its leaders, detained 
 him at once. Martinovics while in prison made a 
 full confession of every thing, and the arrests in Hun- 
 gary were the consequence. About fifty men were 
 thrown into prison. At the time of their arrest, the 
 distribution of a few revolutionary pamphlets ex-
 
 396 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 ceptecl, no deed, subversive of the public order, 
 could be traced to the secret society of which they 
 were members. It was therefore hoped that the 
 government, in punishing them, would act with 
 moderation and humanity. King Francis disap- 
 pointed such hopes. He ordered them to be prose- 
 cuted without mercy, being determined to set a ter- 
 rifying example, and, by inaugurating a reactionary 
 reign of terror, to discourage his subjects from sym- 
 pathizing with French ideas. Eighteen prisoners 
 were sentenced to death, but Martinovics and six of 
 his companions only were executed. They lost their 
 heads by the executioner's sword on the meadow in 
 Buda, a spot called to this day the field of blood. 
 The remaining prisoners, with few exceptions, were 
 sentenced to longer and shorter terms of imprison- 
 ment, and two of the suspected escaped arrest by 
 suicide. Francis Kazinczy suffered severe imprison- 
 ment in an Austrian dungeon during eight long 
 years, and numerous other Hungarian writers were 
 similarly deprived of their liberty. 
 
 These bloody executions created widespread dis- 
 may in the country. No one felt safe, for everybody 
 was ignorant of the nature of the crimes with which 
 the unhappy victims had been charged. The coun- 
 ties remonstrated, in addresses sent to the king, 
 against these cruel proceedings, but without any 
 effect. Francis pensioned off five liberal professors 
 at the university, interdicted the teaching of Kant's 
 philosophy at that seat of learning, began to persecute 
 every enlightened man in the country, and especially 
 delighted in vexing in every possible way the intelli-
 
 REACTION AND NAPOLEONIC WARS. 397 
 
 gent element of Zemplen County. The friends of 
 liberty, the men of progress, were thoroughly fright- 
 ened. The press, too, was fettered by the govern- 
 ment, and thus, by degrees, public life in Hungary 
 became torpid and stagnant, the adherents of reform 
 were reduced to silence, and innovations had to bide 
 their time. The reactionary government achieved a 
 complete victory. It banished from the high offices 
 even the most moderate men, and filled every place 
 of importance with persons who delighted in relent- 
 lessly repressing every democratic impulse in Hun- 
 gary. 
 
 The Diets which met during this period paid no 
 attention whatever to reforms. Their main function 
 consisted in voting considerable supplies in money 
 and soldiers for the war against the French. The 
 Hungarian nation sacrificed a great deal for her king 
 during the Napoleonic wars, and, when the hostile 
 armies were approaching the border of the country, 
 every noble personally took up arms to defend the 
 throne of his crowned king with his life and blood. 
 The gentry distinguished themselves by their devo- 
 tion, especially in 1809. Napoleon made the Hun- 
 garians the most enticing offers in order to seduce 
 them from their allegiance to King Francis. He 
 called upon them by proclamation to abandon Fran- 
 cis, to elect, under the French protectorate, a king 
 of their own, and to restore Hungary to complete 
 independence. But the Hungarian nation remained 
 unshaken in their devotion to the king, and rallied 
 round him and the ancient dynasty. The French, 
 failing in their scheme, entered Hungary. The
 
 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Hungarians gallantly defended their native soil, 
 but were defeated near Raab, owing to the inca- 
 pacity of their Austrian generals. During the whole 
 Napoleonic contest, to its termination, in 1815, Hun- 
 gary made immense sacrifices for the royal throne, 
 and thousands of her sons shed their blood in its 
 defence, on the most distant battle-fields of Europe. 
 Francis but scantily rewarded the fidelity of the 
 nation. He always had words of praise for the 
 Hungarians, but constantly put off remedying the 
 evils they complained of. The long wars, paralyzing 
 commerce and trade, had fatally affected the pros- 
 perity of the country. The government, in order to 
 meet the expenses of the continuous wars, had issued 
 paper money to such an enormous extent that the 
 paper currency became completely depreciated. The 
 depreciation of one florin to one fifth of its face value 
 was subsequently officially promulgated by the gov- 
 ernment, causing thereby immense losses to the peo- 
 ple. To these miseries were added the numerous 
 illegal acts and arbitrary and unconstitutional pro- 
 ceedings of the government, which continued even 
 after Napoleon had been safely chained to the rock 
 of St. Helena and peace began anew to dawn upon 
 the world. The reign of reaction and absolutism 
 which set in in Europe in 1815 extended its baneful 
 influence also over Hungary. The constitution was 
 completely ignored by the king and no Diet was con- 
 vened. These were sad days for Hungary. There 
 was no one to promote her national interests, and 
 her advancement in culture was hampered by the 
 meddling rule of the Austrian police. And, in-
 
 REACTION AND NAPOLEONIC WARS. 399 
 
 deed, had not, about this time, the national litera- 
 ture infused a fresh and hopeful spirit into the body 
 politic, Hungary would have presented a most de- 
 plorable picture of apathy and despair. Literature, 
 science, and poetry, the cultivation of which was sad- 
 ly interrupted by the imprisonment of most of their 
 votaries in 1795, in consequence of the Martinovics 
 conspiracy, became powerful agencies in rousing the 
 nation to renewed political activity. Numerous dis- 
 tinguished writers sprang up, exerting themselves to 
 inculcate lessons of patriotism and national self-re- 
 spect into the minds of the people who had been 
 arbitrarily debarred from the most telling influences 
 of legitimate culture by the Viennese government. 
 The latter at last thought that the time had arrived 
 when the absolute government prevailing in her 
 Austrian dominions might be established with safe- 
 ty also in Hungary. The first attempt made by 
 King Francis in this direction was to levy, arbitrarily, 
 solely by his own authority and without the consent 
 of the Diet (which was necessary under the law), 
 35,000 recruits for the army. This illegal exaction 
 of the king created a tremendous commotion amongst 
 the people, and resulted in a most desperate conflict 
 between the Hungarian nation and the Viennese 
 government. The political contest which lasted 
 five years newly inflamed the national enthusiasm. 
 King Francis finally saw the error of his ways, ac- 
 knowledged the illegality of his action, and returned 
 to constitutional government. He summoned the 
 Diet, in 1825, which, continuing the work of reform 
 checked in 1791, gave the impulse to a new era of 
 modern progress in Hungary.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 SZECHENYI, KOSSUTH, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR 
 LIBERTY IN 1848-1849. 
 
 ON one of the most picturesque positions in Buda- 
 Pesth, on the left bank of the majestic Danube, stands 
 the bronze statue of Stephen Szechenyi, the greatest 
 Hungarian of this century. The piety of the nation 
 has placed it in the midst of her most conspicuous 
 creations. At its feet rolls the mighty river whose 
 regulation was commenced by Szechenyi, who made 
 it a line of communication in the commercial sys- 
 tem of Europe ; in front is seen the grand sus- 
 pension bridge, and beyond it is visible the mouth 
 of the tunnel which, piercing the castled mountain 
 of Buda, connects the dispersed parts of the city. 
 In the rear rise the palatial edifices of the Hun- 
 garian Academy of Sciences, which owes its exist- 
 ence to Szechenyi's munificence, and round about 
 stretches noisy, surging Buda-Pesth, to whose embel- 
 lishment and enlightenment no one ever devoted 
 himself so zealously as Stephen Szechenyi. Every 
 thing surrounding the statue reminds us of the tran- 
 scendent genius of Szechenyi, who raised for himself 
 by his indefatigable labors, which form a link between 
 
 400
 
 402 THE STORY OF HUNGARY, 
 
 old and modern Hungary, a monument more lasting 
 and grander than the one cast in bronze. 
 
 Stephen Szechenyi was born on the 2 1st of Sep- 
 tember, 1791. He was the scion of a family which 
 had given many distinguished men to their country, 
 and with whom patriotism was traditional. His 
 father, Count Francis, was the founder of the great- 
 est institute of Hungary, having public culture for 
 its aim, the National Museum of Buda-Pesth, which is 
 now reckoned one of the finest and richest of the 
 kind in Europe. Count Francis clung with passion- 
 ate devotion to the cause of his country. The ten- 
 der mind of his son Stephen was often puzzled to 
 see his father melancholy and lost in thought, and 
 later only, when grown to manhood, did he learn 
 that his father had been grieving over the backward- 
 ness of his country. Count Stephen inherited the 
 patriotic sentiments of his father, and never for a mo- 
 ment lost sight of the one great object of his life, to 
 revive the now decaying nation, which had acted so 
 proud a part in the past, and to secure for her a 
 better future by promoting her material and cultural 
 interests. Stephen Szechenyi became the apostle of 
 this patriotic mission ; he devoted his whole life to 
 this one lofty thought, studying for many years, re- 
 flecting, travelling, gathering knowledge, and when 
 the hour arrived to enter upon the scene of action, 
 he took the lead of the nation, aptly equipped for 
 the severe task. 
 
 He finished his studies under the roof of his father, 
 who was a man of high culture. The turmoils of 
 the Napoleonic wars, shaking all Europe and with it
 
 OLD GYI J SY WOMAN. 
 
 403
 
 404 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Hungary, allowed but scant opportunity for peaceful 
 avocations when Count Stephen had reached his 
 sixteenth year. He accordingly entered the army 
 and gallantly took part, as a young officer, in the 
 wars of the period, being present at the famous 
 battle of Leipsic. The Congress of Vienna put an 
 end to the wars which had raged in Europe for 
 twenty-five years, and during the protracted period 
 of peace following it, Szechenyi bestowed his atten- 
 tion upon the affairs of his country. Before taking 
 an active part, however, he travelled for a consider- 
 able time through Italy, France, and England, and 
 only after having become familiar with the advanced 
 civilization of foreign countries did he return to his 
 own, filled with grand ideas, with lofty, patriotic 
 feelings, his brain seething, and his soul thirsting for 
 action, in order to conquer for himself a sphere of 
 public activity. 
 
 The Diet of 1825 afforded him a fitting oppor- 
 tunity in this direction. During the thirteen years 
 preceding the convoking of this Diet the country had 
 been ruled in the most absolute manner. The govern- 
 ment ignored, during that period, the constitution, col- 
 lected by force of arms and arbitrarily illegal taxes, 
 filled, in the same despotic way, the ranks of the 
 army, fettered the liberty of the press, and deprived 
 the nation of her ancient rights. These acts of vio- 
 lence stirred up the indignation of the country, and 
 the natural reaction was still more roused and fos- 
 tered by the dawning Hungarian literature which 
 proclaimed a brighter future to the nation. Csoko- 
 nai, Francis Kazinczy, Alexander and Charles Kis-
 
 HALT OF GYPSIES. 
 
 405
 
 406 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 faludy, Michael Vorosmarty, Francis Kolcsey, and 
 other eminent writers were the fathers of a new era 
 in Hungarian literature, and by their works they 
 kindled the national feeling and roused the public 
 spirit. The nation awoke and was eager to march in 
 the footsteps of the civilization of Europe. She 
 only lacked a leader, but in the course of the delib- 
 erations of the Diet of 1825, that leader was found. 
 
 Stephen Szechenyi, being a member of the Upper 
 House by right of birth, took his seat there among 
 the aristocracy of the land. His first act was des- 
 tined to be the precursor of a new epoch in the his- 
 tory of the nation. On the 25th of October he made 
 a short speech ; his manner was embarrassed and 
 confused ; but he spoke in Hungarian, a proceeding 
 which was looked upon at that time as a revolution- 
 ary act, full of boldness, and which excited the ut- 
 most indignation of the highest circles. The Latin 
 language had until then remained, in keeping with 
 the traditions of the past, the official language of 
 the House of Magnates. Szechenyi was the first 
 magnate who dared to cut loose from the ancient 
 tradition, and, although a great portion of his fellow- 
 magnates, especially the older ones, were shocked at 
 the innovation, yet the number of Hungarian-speaking 
 great lords continually increased after this, and the 
 bold stand he took on that occasion had much to do 
 with the restoration of the national language to its 
 rightful place. 
 
 Shortly after the Lower House witnessed the tri- 
 umph achieved by him in the cause of Hungarian 
 culture. During the preliminary sessions preceding
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 40? 
 
 the plenary ones, the question had been deliberated 
 upon for several days as to the best means of foster- 
 ing the national language. Szechenyi, with several 
 of his noble friends, was present at one of these con- 
 ferences, listening and looking on. Each deputy in 
 turn stated his views on the subject. One of them, 
 Paul Nagy, a distinguished orator of the opposition, 
 declared, with an air of deep conviction, that to cul- 
 tivate the Hungarian language with a view to make 
 it successfully compete with the Germanizing ten- 
 dencies of the government, and with the Latin 
 language, it was necessary to establish a Hungarian 
 academy of sciences. To accomplish this, he added, 
 money was needed, and this could not be obtained 
 from the government, which was hostile to the 
 scheme. Let the nation furnish the money, the 
 great lords, the owners of the vast fortunes and 
 landed estates, setting first a good example to the 
 rest. The effect of these kindling words was a thril- 
 ling one. Szechenyi immediately stepped forward, 
 and, addressing the presiding officer, asked leave to 
 say a few words. Amidst the general attention of 
 those present he briefly stated that he was ready to 
 contribute one year's entire income from his es- 
 tates to a fund wherewith to found an institute 
 whose object would be the fostering of the Hun- 
 garian language. These simple words were received 
 with a storm of applause. A remarkable spectacle 
 now ensued. One man after another arose eager to 
 contribute to the fund of the future Hungarian Acad- 
 emy of Sciences, and the sum was soon swelled 
 to 154,000 florins, Szechenyi's contribution alone
 
 408 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 amounting to 60,000 florins. The institute was soon 
 established, and, thanks to the patriotic support of 
 the nation, the funds of. the Academy exceed at pres- 
 ent 2,000,000 florins. The activity of this institute 
 has proved, for the last fifty years, most beneficial 
 to the development of the Hungarian language and 
 the advancement of science in the country. 
 
 This munificent act placed Szechenyi at once in the 
 front ranks of the nation, and the very enthusiasm 
 roused by his generous patriotism was the means of 
 exciting his best energies, and of spurring him on to 
 further action. Szechenyi, although acting, on the 
 whole, with the exceedingly moderate opposition, 
 which was conservative and not unfrequently quite 
 reactionary, influenced as it was by the famous pol- 
 icy of Prince Metternich, never became a member 
 of either of the political parties. His leading idea 
 was that the first thing to be done was to im- 
 prove the material and intellectual condition of 
 the people, and to increase the prosperity and 
 culture of the country. He had founded in the 
 interest of civilization the Hungarian Academy, and 
 now he labored enthusiastically to improve the 
 commercial, industrial, and economical condition of 
 the country. In this work he had to contend with 
 all sorts of obstacles and prejudices on the part not 
 only of the higher circles, but of the very class that 
 was to be benefited by his reforms. But Szechenyi 
 did not lose heart, and, undisturbed by many a bitter 
 experience, he undeviatingly pursued his own course, 
 and carried through with an iron will every measure 
 deemed beneficial by him. His busy brain never
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 409 
 
 ceased to devise new patriotic schemes, and to make 
 them acceptable to the people. He won back the 
 estranged aristocracy of the country, and assigned to 
 them a leading position in national politics ; he 
 strove to raise the capital to a European level, and 
 advanced the national prosperity by the discovery 
 of new resources, the opening of new roads of com- 
 munication, and by the creation of many useful 
 public institutions. He had equal regard for the in- 
 terests of all classes, from the lord to the peasant, 
 and thus strove, while yet surrounded by the anti- 
 quated order of things, to awaken the people to a 
 sense of national consciousness, and to promote the 
 recognition of the solidarity of interests between all 
 the classes of the nation. His busy brain embraced 
 every public interest, and he exerted every social 
 and economical agency to ripen in the nation the 
 notions of modern European civilization. He was a 
 powerful agitator, in equal degrees master of the 
 sword and the pen, and although his whole individual- 
 ity, his character, and his habits bore the stamp of 
 the aristocratic circle in which he was born and edu- 
 cated, yet, by dint of his conspicuous and many- 
 sided labors, he in reality was the most indefatigable 
 champion and pioneer of democratic ideas in his own 
 country. 
 
 His first great literary work (a smaller one had pre- 
 ceded it), entitled "Credit," was published in 1 830, and 
 in it he treated of economical questions of the most im- 
 mediate importance to the country. It was a work 
 of great power, marked by scholarly thoroughness, 
 practical statesmanship, and poetic elevation, and
 
 410 THE STORY Of HUNGARY. 
 
 produced an extraordinary sensation throughout the 
 country, it was read everywhere, in the palaces of 
 the magnates, in the mansions of the provincial 
 gentry, and in the homes and offices of merchants 
 and tradesmen. The book was spoken of in the 
 most exalted terms by some, while others declared 
 its author to be a communist and revolutionary agi- 
 tator. The foes to progress, the defenders of the 
 decaying privileges of the nobility, burned the book, 
 while the friends of the new ideas, and especially the 
 rising generation, saw in it the gospel of a new era. 
 It was in this work that Szchenyi, addressing the 
 generation that vainly clung to the reminiscences of 
 the past, said : " Do not constantly trouble your- 
 selves with the vanished glories of the past, but 
 rather let your determined patriotism bring about 
 the prosperity of the beloved fatherland. Many there 
 are who think that Hungary has been, but for my 
 part I like to think that Hungary shall be." 
 
 Under the influence of these exalted ideas Szech- 
 enyi persevered in his practical efforts for the com- 
 mon weal. He wrote a great deal up to the time of 
 his death, and some of his works are justly ranked 
 among the gems of Hungarian literature. But more 
 precious than these are his practical creations, which 
 still, for the most part, survive, and which are des- 
 tined to perpetuate his fame for many centuries to 
 come. His busy mind attended to every variety of 
 matters of public concern. Thus it was he who in- 
 troduced horse-racing into the country, not for the 
 purpose of affording a mere gentlemanly pastime, 
 but with the object of developing horse-breeding in
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 41* 
 
 Hungary, an object which has been very success- 
 fully accomplished by the new sport. In further- 
 ance of this object he formed a society which subse- 
 quently became the National Breeding Association, 
 which flourishes to this day. In order to afford 
 to the gentry permanently a rallying and central 
 point in the country, he established the Buda-Pesth 
 National Casino, a social club of high distinction, still 
 in existence and enjoying an enviable reputation in 
 the best European circles. He took quite an active 
 part in the management of the new Academy of 
 Sciences ; zealously supported the efforts made to 
 found a permanent national theatre, efforts which 
 subsequently proved successful ; started and realized 
 the scheme for building a permanent bridge across 
 the Danube, connecting Pesth and Buda, and for the 
 construction of a tunnel under the castled mountain 
 of Buda ; conducted for years the work of regulating 
 the Danube, especially in the vicinity of the Vas- 
 kapu (Iron Gate) ; and also aided in the estab- 
 lishment of the Danube Steam Navigation Com- 
 pany, which at this day has hundreds of ships 
 engaged in the local and export trade. His most 
 glorious work, however, was the regulation of the 
 Theiss, resulting, in the course of time, in the re- 
 claiming of a marshy territory containing one hun- 
 dred and fifty square miles, and turning it into a 
 rich and fertile soil. His mind was teeming, besides, 
 with various schemes looking to the building of rail- 
 ways, and to the promotion of commerce and indus- 
 try ; but all these various undertakings were marked 
 by the same steady spirit of patriotic endeavor.
 
 412 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 For fifteen years, up to 1840, the popularity of 
 Szechenyi had gone on increasing throughout the 
 country, and his name was cherished by every good 
 patriot in the land. About this time, however, the 
 great statesman was destined to come into collision 
 with a man who was his peer in genius and abilities. 
 The two patriots were representatives of different 
 methods, and in the contest produced by the shock of 
 antagonistic tendencies Szechenyi was compelled to 
 yield to Louis Kossuth, his younger rival. Although 
 there was no material difference between their aims, 
 for both wished to see their country great, free, consti- 
 tutionally governed, prosperous, and advanced in 
 civilization, yet in the ways and means employed by 
 them to attain that aim they were diametrically 
 opposed to each other. Szechenyi, who descended 
 from a family of ancient and aristocratic lineage, 
 and presented himself to the nation with connec- 
 tions reaching up into the highest circles of the court, 
 with the lustre of his ancient name, and with his im- 
 mense fortune, wished to secure the happiness of his 
 country by quite different methods from those 
 adopted by Louis Kossuth, a child of the people, 
 who, although he was a nobleman by birth, yet be- 
 longed to that poorer class of gentry who support 
 themselves by their own exertions, and who, in Hun- 
 gary, are destined to fulfil the mission of the citizen- 
 classes of other countries. It is from these classes of 
 the gentry that are, for the most part, recruited the 
 tradespeople, the smaller land-owners, professional 
 men, writers, subordinate officials, lawyers, physicians, 
 clergymen, teachers, and professors. By virtue of
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 413 
 
 their nobility, it is true, they belonged to the priv- 
 ileged class of the country, and were not subjected 
 to the humiliations of the oppressed peasantry, yet 
 they had to earn a living by their own work, and 
 were therefore not only accessible to, but were ready 
 enthusiastically to receive, the lofty message of lib- 
 erty and equality which the French Revolution of 
 1830 began to proclaim anew throughout all Europe. 
 These doctrines formed a sharp contrast to the views 
 of Count Stephen Szechenyi, views which, owing to 
 the social position of the man who held them, were 
 not devoid of a certain aristocratic tinge, and accord- 
 ing to which the most important part in the regenera- 
 tion of the Hungarian nation was assigned to the 
 aristocracy. It was a part, however, which the Hun- 
 garian aristocracy was itself by no means disposed to 
 assume. Among its younger members, indeed, could 
 be found, here and there, enthusiastic men who were 
 devotedly attached to the person of the lordly re- 
 former, but the great majority of his class were hos- 
 tilely arrayed against Szechenyi's aims, and, obstruct- 
 ing the granting of even the most inoffensive demands 
 of the nation, supported the Viennese government, 
 which was rigidly opposed to political reforms and to 
 any changes in the public institutions of the country. 
 This attitude of the aristocracy compelled Szechenyi 
 to avoid as much as possible all questions concerning 
 constitutionality and liberty, and to confine the work 
 of reform chiefly to the sphere of internal improve- 
 ments. The only way in which he could hope to 
 obtain the support of the court of Vienna and of the 
 majority of the Upper House for his politico-econom-
 
 4H THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 ical measures, was to remain as neutral as possible in 
 politics. The idea which chiefly governed His actions 
 was that the country should be first strengthened in- 
 ternally, and that afterwards it would be easy for the 
 nation to bring about the triumph of her national 
 and political aspirations. 
 
 After 1840, however, the bulk of the nation, and 
 especially the small gentry whose preponderating 
 influence was making itself continually felt, were 
 unwilling to follow Szchenyi in his one-sided policy. 
 The reformatory work of Szechenyi during the pre- 
 ceding fifteen years had educated public opinion up 
 to new and great ideas, but the leaders of that 
 public opinion were now to be found in the House of 
 Representatives in the persons of Francis Deak and 
 Louis Kossuth. They wished to obtain for their 
 country both political liberty and material prosperity. 
 They knew the effect of political institutions upon 
 the material well-being and civilization of a nation, 
 and they no longer deemed it possible to attain 
 these objects without a modern constitutional gov- 
 ernment. Louis Kossuth, who was born in 1802, 
 was the very incarnation of the great democratic 
 ideas of his age. He was entirely a man of work 
 and entered the legal profession, after having com- 
 pleted his studies with great distinction, for the 
 purpose of supporting himself by it. Kossuth 
 was present at the Diet of 1832, when the gov- 
 ernment, which conducted itself most brutally 
 and arbitrarily towards the press, refused to allow 
 the newspapers to print reports of the deliberations 
 of the Diet in spite of the repeated urgings by
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 4! 5 
 
 the deputies for such an authorization, and it was 
 owing to his ingenuity that this prohibition was 
 evaded. The censorship was exercised on printed 
 matter only and did not extend to manuscripts. 
 Kossuth wrote out the reports of the Diet himself, 
 had numerous copies made of them in writing, and 
 circulated them, for a slight fee, in every part of the 
 country, where they were looked for with feverish 
 expectation, and, owing to the spirit of opposition 
 with which they were colored, were read with the 
 greatest eagerness. This manuscript newspaper pro- 
 duced quite a revolutionary movement amongst the 
 people, frightening even the Austrian government. 
 The latter now attempted to silence Kossuth by 
 gentle means, promising him high offices and a pen- 
 sion, but he refused the enticing offers and continued 
 his work for the benefit of the nation. Foiled in 
 the attempt to lure Kossuth from his duty, the gov- 
 ernment resorted to violence, seized the lithographic 
 apparatus by means of which Kossuth planned to 
 multiply his manuscript newspaper, and gave direc- 
 tions to the postmasters to detain and open all those 
 sealed packages which were supposed to contain the 
 reports. But these arbitrary proceedings of the 
 government could not put an end to the circulation 
 of the newspaper ; the country gentlemen, by their 
 own servants, continued to send each other single 
 copies, and the matter was given up only when the 
 Diet ceased to be in session. Then Kossuth, at the 
 urgent request of his friends and, one might say, 
 of the whole country, started a new manuscript 
 newspaper at Buda-Pesth, which reported the delib-
 
 41 6 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 erations of the county assemblies. The effect pro. 
 duced by this new paper was fraught with even 
 greater consequences than the first had created, for 
 it was instrumental in bringing the counties into 
 contact with each other, thus affording them an op- 
 portunity to combine against the government. The 
 latter, however, soon prohibited its publication, but 
 the prohibition gave rise to a storm of indignation 
 throughout the whole country. The counties in 
 solid array addressed protests to the government 
 against the illegal act and on behalf of Kossuth, 
 who continued to publish the paper in spite of the 
 inhibition. The government at last resorted to the 
 most barefaced brutality. Kossuth, the brave cham- 
 pion of liberty, its eloquent pen and herald, was 
 dragged to a damp and dark subterranean prison- 
 cell in the castle of Buda, and detained there, whilst 
 his father and mother and his family, who were 
 looking to him solely for their support, were robbed 
 of the aid of their natural protector. 
 
 Although at that period lawlessness was the order 
 of the day, yet this last cruel and illegal act of the 
 government greatly exasperated the public mind, 
 which was already in a ferment of excitement. But 
 while the excited passions raged throughout the 
 country, the government, nothing loth, caused Kos- 
 suth to be prosecuted for high treason, and, having 
 obtained his conviction, had him sentenced to an 
 imprisonment of three years. Kossuth applied 
 himself during his detention to serious studies, and 
 acquired also, while in prison, the English language 
 to such an extent that he was enabled to ad-
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 4I/ 
 
 dress in that language, during his exile, with great 
 effect and impressiveness, large audiences both in 
 England and in the United States of America. His 
 imprisonment lasted two long years, after the lapse of 
 which he obtained, in 1840, a pardon in consequence 
 of the repeated and urgent representations of the 
 Diet. 
 
 Kossuth returned to the scene of his former 
 activity as the martyr of free speech, and the victim 
 to the cause of the nation. He very soon found a 
 new field in which to labor. The government per- 
 ceived at last that violence was of little avail, and 
 that those questions which were occupying the 
 minds to such a degree could no longer be kept 
 from being publicly discussed by the press. Kossuth 
 now obtained permission to edit a political daily 
 paper. Its publication was commenced under the 
 title of Pesti Hirlap (Pesth Newspaper) in 1841, and 
 may be said to have created the political daily press 
 of Hungary. It disseminated new ideas among the 
 masses, stirred up the indifferent to feel an interest 
 in the affairs of the country and gave a purpose to 
 the national aspirations. It proclaimed democratic 
 reforms in every department ; the abolition of the 
 privileges of the nobility and of their exemption 
 from taxation, equal rights and equal burdens for 
 all the citizens of the state, and the extension of 
 public instruction, and it endeavored to restore the 
 Hungarian nationality to the place it was entitled to 
 claim in the organism of the state. 
 
 The wealth of ideas thus daily communicated to 
 
 the country appeared in the most attractive garb, for 
 
 2 7
 
 41 8 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Kossuth possessed a masterly style, and his leaa- 
 ers and shorter articles showed off to advantage 
 so many unexpected beauties of the Hungarian lan- 
 guage, that his readers were fairly enchanted and 
 carried away by them. His articles were a happy 
 compound of poetical elevation and oratorical power, 
 gratifying common-sense and the imagination at the 
 same time, appealing by their lucid exposition to the 
 reader's intelligence, and exciting and warming this 
 fancy by their fervor. Kossuth always rightly 
 guessed what questions most interested the nation, 
 and the daily press became, in his hands, a power 
 in Hungary, electrifying the masses, who were always 
 ready to give their unconditional support to his bold 
 and far-reaching schemes. 
 
 The extraordinary influence obtained by Kossuth 
 through his paper frightened Szechenyi, and, to even 
 a greater degree, those whose prejudices were shocked 
 or ancient privileges and interests were endangered 
 by the democratic agitations for reform. Kossuth 
 was attacked in books, pamphlets, and newspapers, 
 but he came out victorious from all contests. In 
 vain did Szechenyi himself, backed by his great 
 authority in the land, assail him, declaring that he 
 did not object to Kossuth's ideas, but that his man- 
 ner and his tactics were reprehensible, and that the 
 latter were sure to lead to a revolution. The great 
 mass of the people felt instinctively that revolution 
 had become a necessity and was unavoidable, if Hun- 
 gary was to pass from the old mediaeval order to the 
 establishment of modern institutions, and was to be- 
 come a state where equality before the law should
 
 420 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 be the ruling standard. The masses were strength- 
 ened in this conviction by the unreasonable, short- 
 sighted, and violent policy pursued by the gov- 
 ernment of Vienna, which obstructed the slightest 
 reforms in the ancient institutions and opposed every 
 national aspiration, and under whose protecting wing 
 the reactionary elements of the Upper House were 
 constantly paralyzing the noblest and best efforts made 
 by the Lower House for the public weal, while the 
 same government arbitrarily supported claims of the 
 Catholic clergy, in flat contradiction to the rights 
 and liberties of the various denominations inhabiting 
 the country. The government, in its antipathy to 
 the national movement, went even further. It se- 
 cretly incited the other nationalities, especially the 
 Croats, against the Hungarians, and thus planted the 
 seeds from which sprang the subsequent great civil 
 war. In observing the dangerous symptoms pre- 
 ceding the last-mentioned movement, and the bloody 
 scenes and fights provoked at every election by the 
 hirelings of the government, in order to intimidate 
 the adherents of reform, the friends of progress be- 
 came more and more convinced that the period of 
 moderation, such as preached by Szecheny i, had passed 
 by, and must give way to that resolute policy, advo- 
 cated by Kossuth, which recoiled from no conse- 
 quences. Numerous magnates, all the chief leaders 
 of the gentry, boasting of enlightenment and patriot- 
 ism, and imbued with European culture, rallied 
 around Kossuth, until finally the public opinion of 
 the country and the enthusiasm of which he was the 
 centre caused him to be returned, in 1847, together
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 421 
 
 with Count Louis Batthyanyi, as deputy from the 
 foremost county of the country, the county of Pesth. 
 
 During the first months the Diet of i847-'8, which 
 was to raise Hungary to the rank of those countries 
 that proclaimed equal rights and possessed a respon- 
 sible parliamentary government, differed very little 
 from the one preceding it. The opposition initiated, 
 as before, great reforms, but there was no one who 
 believed that their realization was near at hand. 
 Kossuth repeatedly addressed the House, and soon 
 convinced his audience that he was as irresistible an 
 orator as he had proved powerful as a writer. But 
 there was nothing to indicate that the country was 
 on the eve of a great transformation. 
 
 The revolution of February, 1848, which broke out 
 in Paris, changed, as if by magic, the relative posi- 
 tions of Austria and Hungary. Metternich's system 
 of government, which was opposed to granting liberty 
 to the people, collapsed at once. The storm of popu- 
 lar indignation swept it away like a house built of 
 cards. At the first news of the occurrences in Paris 
 Kossuth asked in the Lower House for the creation 
 of a responsible ministry. Kossuth's motion was 
 favorably received by the Lower House, but in the 
 Upper House it was rejected, the government not 
 being yet alive to the real state of affairs, and still 
 hoping by a system of negation to frustrate the 
 wishes of the people. But very soon the revolution 
 reared its head in Vienna itself, and the wishes of 
 the Hungarian people, uttered at Buda-Pesth, re- 
 ceived thereby a new and powerful advocate. 
 
 At that time the Hungarian Diet still met at
 
 422 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Presburg, but the two sister cities of Buda and 
 Pesth formed the real capital of the country, and 
 were the centre of commerce, industry, science, 
 and literature. Michael Vorosmarty, the poet laure- 
 ate of the nation, lived in Pesth, and there the twin 
 stars of literature, Alexander Petofi and Maurus 
 Jokai, shone on the national horizon. Jokai, who is 
 still living and enjoys a world-wide fame as a novelist, 
 and Petofi, the eminent poet, who was destined to 
 become the Tyrtseus of his nation, were then both 
 young men, full of enthusiasm and intrepid energy, 
 and teeming with great ideas. About these two 
 gathered the other writers and youth of the univer- 
 sity, and all of them, helping each other, contrived, 
 upon hearing the news of the sudden revolutions in 
 Paris and Vienna, to enact in Buda-Pesth the blood- 
 less revolution of the I5th of March, 1848, which 
 obtained the liberty of the press for the nation, and 
 at the same time, in a solemn manifesto, gave ex- 
 pression to the wishes of the Hungarians in the matter 
 of reform. The only act of violence these revolu- 
 tionary heroes were guilty of was the entering of a 
 printing establishment, whose proprietor, afraid of 
 the government, had refused to print the admirable 
 poem of Pet6fi, entitled Talpra Magyar (Up Mag- 
 yar), and doing the printing there themselves. The 
 first verse of this poem, which subsequently became 
 the war song of the national movement, runs in a 
 literal translation thus : 
 
 Arise, oh Magyar ! thy country calls. 
 Here is the time, now or never. 
 Shall we be slaves or free ?
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 423 
 
 That is the question choose ! 
 
 We swear by the God of the Magyars, 
 
 We swear, to be slaves no longer ! 
 
 This soul-stirring poem was improvised by Petofi 
 under the inspiration of the moment, and at the same 
 establishment where it was first printed was also 
 printed a proclamation which contained twelve ar- 
 ticles setting forth the wishes of the people. 
 
 While the capital was resounding with the rejoicings 
 and triumphant shouts of her exulting inhabitants, 
 
 HOUSE AT KRAPINA. 
 
 the proper department of the government for the 
 carrying through of these movements, the Diet, as- 
 sembled at Presburg, lost no time, and set to work 
 with great energy to reform the institutions of Hun- 
 gary, constitutionally, and to put into the form of 
 law the ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity. 
 The salutary legislation met now with no opposition, 
 either from the Upper House or from the court at 
 Vienna, and in a short time the Diet passed the cele- 
 brated acts of 1848, which, having received the royal
 
 424 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 sanction, were proclaimed as laws on the nth of 
 April, at Presburg, amidst the wildest enthusiasm, in 
 the presence of King Ferdinand V. 
 
 By these laws Hungary became a modern state, 
 possessing a constitutional government. The gov- 
 ernment was vested in a ministry responsible to 
 parliament, all the inhabitants of the country were 
 declared equal before the law, the privileges of the 
 nobility were abolished, the soil was declared free, 
 and the right of free worship accorded to all. The 
 institution of national guards was introduced, the 
 utmost liberty of the press was secured, Transyl- 
 vania became a part of the mother country in a 
 word, the national and political condition of the 
 country was reorganized, in every particular, in har- 
 mony with the spirit, the demands, and aspirations 
 of our age. At the same time the men placed at 
 the head of the government were such as possessed 
 the fullest confidence of the people. The first min- 
 istry was composed of the most distinguished patriots. 
 Count Louis Batthyanyi was the president, and acting 
 in conjunction with him were Francis Deak, as min- 
 ister of justice, Count Stephen Szechenyi, as minister 
 of home affairs, and Louis Kossuth, as minister of 
 finance. 
 
 The great mass of the people hailed with bound- 
 less enthusiasm the new government and the mag- 
 nificent reforms. The transformation, however, had 
 been so sudden and unexpected, and the old aristo- 
 cratic world, with all its institutions and its ancient or- 
 ganization, had been swept away with such vehement, 
 precipitation, that even under ordinary circumstances
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 
 
 425 
 
 in the absence of all opposition, the new ideas and 
 tendencies could have hardly entered into the political 
 life of the nation without causing no little confusion 
 and disorder. But, in addition to these natural draw- 
 backs, the new order of things had to contend with 
 certain national elements in the population, which, 
 feeling themselves injured in their real or imaginary 
 
 HUNGARIAN GYPSY. 
 
 interests, were bent on mischief, hoping to be able 
 to rob the nation, in the midst of the ensuing troubles, 
 of the great political prize she had won. Certain 
 circles of the court and classes of the people strove 
 equally hard to surround with difficulties the practi- 
 cal introduction of the constitution of 1848. The 
 ourt and the standing army, the party of the sol-
 
 426 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 dier class, feared that their commanding position 
 would be impaired by the predominating influence 
 of the people. The non-Hungarian portion of the 
 inhabitants, choosing to ignore the fact that the new 
 laws secured, without distinction of nationality, equal 
 rights to every citizen of the state, were apprehen- 
 sive lest the liberal constitution would chiefly benefit 
 the Hungarian element of the nation. They, there- 
 fore, encouraged by the secret machinations of the 
 government of Vienna, took up arms, in order to 
 drag the country, which was preparing to take pos- 
 session of her new liberties, into a civil war. The 
 Croatians, under the lead of Ban Jellachich, and the 
 Wallachs and Serbs, led by other imperial officers, 
 and yielding to their persuasions, rose in rebellion 
 against Hungary, and began to persecute, plunder, 
 and murder the Hungarians living among them. 
 Dreadful atrocities were committed in the south- 
 ern and eastern portions of Hungary, hundreds 
 and hundreds of families were massacred in cold 
 blood, and entire villages and cities were deserted 
 by their inhabitants, just as had previously happened 
 at the approach of the Turks, and thousands were 
 compelled to abandon their all to the rebels, in order 
 to escape with their bare lives. In the course of a 
 few weeks, the flames of rebellion had spread over a 
 large part of the country, and the Hungarian ele- 
 ment, instead of enjoying the liberties won for the 
 whole nation after a bitter struggle of many decades, 
 was under the sad necessity of resorting to armed 
 force in order to re-establish the internal peace. 
 The Hungarians now had to prove on the battle-field
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 427 
 
 and in bloody engagements that they were worthy 
 of liberty and capable of defending it. 
 
 The government, which, by virtue of the new laws, 
 had meanwhile transferred its seat to Buda-Pesth, 
 displayed extraordinary energy in the face of the sad 
 difficulties besetting it. As it was impossible to rely 
 upon the Austrian soldiers who were still in the 
 country, it exerted itself to create and to organize 
 a national army. A portion of the national guard en- 
 tered the national army under the name oihonveds (de- 
 fenders of the country), a name which became before 
 long famous throughout the civilized world for the 
 glorious military achievements coupled with it. The 
 Hungarian soldiers, garrisoning the Austrian princi- 
 palities, hastened home, braving the greatest dan- 
 gers, partly accompanied by their officers and partly 
 without them. The famous Hungarian hussars, es- 
 pecially, returned in great number to offer their ser- 
 vices to their imperilled country. But all this proved 
 insufficient, and as soon as the National Assembly, 
 elected under the new constitution, met, Kossuth, 
 who had been the life and soul of the government 
 during this trying and critical period, called upon the 
 nation to raise large armies for the defence of the 
 country. The session of the nth of July, during 
 which Kossuth introduced in the House of Represen- 
 tatives his motions relating to the subject, presented 
 a scene which beggars all description. Kossuth as- 
 cended the tribune pale and haggard with illness, but 
 the never-ceasing applause which greeted him after 
 the first few sentences soon gave him back his strength 
 and his marvellous oratorical power. When he had
 
 428 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 concluded his speech and submitted to the House 
 his request for 200,000 soldiers and the necessary 
 money, a momentary pause of deep silence ensued. 
 Suddenly Paul Nyary, the leader of the opposition, 
 arose, and lifting his right arm towards heaven, ex- 
 claimed : " We grant it ! " The House was in a fever 
 of patriotic excitement ; all the deputies rose from 
 their seats, shouting: " We grant it ; we grant it ! " 
 Kossuth, with tears in his eyes, bowed to the repre- 
 sentatives of the people and said : " You have risen 
 like one man, and I bow down before the greatness 
 of the nation." 
 
 These sacrifices on the part of the country had be- 
 come a matter of urgent necessity. The Serb and 
 Wallach insurrection assumed every day larger pro- 
 portions, while the Croats, under the leadership of 
 Jellachich, entered Hungarian territory with the fixed 
 determination of depriving the nation of her constitu- 
 tional liberties. But the Hungarian government was 
 already able to send an army against the Croatians, 
 who were marching on Buda-Pesth, plundering and 
 laying waste every thing before them. They were 
 surrounded by the Hungarian forces, and a portion 
 of their army, nine thousand men strong, were 
 compelled to lay down their arms, while Jellachich, 
 with his remaining forces, precipitately fled from the 
 country. The young Hungarian army had thus 
 proved itself equal to the task of repulsing the 
 attack of the Croats, but the recent events were 
 nevertheless fraught with the gravest consequences. 
 The news of the Croatian invasion filled the Hun- 
 garians with deep anxiety, and the extraordinary
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 429 
 
 excitement caused by it cast a permanent cloud 
 over the soul of that noble and great man, Count 
 Szechenyi. The mind of the great patriot who had 
 initiated the national movement gave way under 
 the strain of the frightful rumors coming from the 
 Croatian frontier. He had been ailing for some time 
 back, and his nervousness constantly increased under 
 the pressure of the great events following each 
 other in rapid succession, so that when the news 
 came that the enemy had invaded the country 
 he thought that Hungary was lost. His despair 
 darkened his mind and he sought death in the 
 waves of the Danube. His family removed him to 
 a private asylum near Vienna, where he recovered 
 his mental faculties, and even wrote several books. 
 But he was never entirely cured of his hallucina- 
 tion, and, exasperated by the vexations he was sub- 
 jected to by the Viennese government, even in the 
 asylum, the great patriot put an end to his own life 
 on the 8th of April, 1860, by a shot from a pistol. 
 Jellachich's incursion had other important political 
 consequences. The attack on Hungary had been 
 made by Jellachich in the name of the Viennese 
 government, and the intimate connection between 
 the domestic disorders and the court of Vienna 
 became more and more apparent. This state of 
 things rendered inevitable a struggle between Hun- 
 gary and the unconstitutional action of the court. 
 The Austrian forces were arming against Hungary 
 on every side. Vienna, too, rose in rebellion against 
 the court, and now the Hungarians hastened to assist 
 the revolutionists in the Austrian capital, Unfortu-
 
 43 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 nately the young national army was not ripe yet for 
 so great a military enterprise, and Prince Windisch- 
 gratz, having crushed the revolution in Vienna, in- 
 vaded Hungary. 
 
 A last attempt was now made by the Hungarians 
 to negotiate peace with the court, but it failed, 
 Windischgratz being so elated with his success that 
 nothing short of unconditional submission on the 
 part of the country would satisfy him. To accept 
 such terms would have been both cowardly and 
 suicidal, and the nation, therefore, driven to the sad 
 alternative of war, determined rather to perish glori- 
 ously than to pusillanimously submit to be enslaved 
 by the court. They followed the lead of Kossuth, 
 who was now at the head of the government, whilst 
 Gorgei was the commander-in-chief of the Hungarian 
 army. The two names of Kossuth and Gorgei soon 
 constituted the glory of the nation. Whilst these 
 two acted in harmony they achieved brilliant tri- 
 umphs, but their personal antagonism greatly con- 
 tributed, at a subsequent period, to the calamities of 
 the country. 
 
 Windischgratz took possesion of Buda in January, 
 1849, thus compelling Kossuth to transfer the seat 
 of government to Debreczen, whilst Gorgei with- 
 drew with his army to the northern part of Hungary, 
 but the national army fought victoriously against 
 the Serbs and Wallachs, and the situation of the 
 Hungarians had, in the course of the winter, become 
 more favorable all over the country. The genius of 
 Kossuth brought again and again, as if by magic, 
 fresh armies into the field, and he was indefatigable
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 43! 
 
 in organizing the defence of the country. Distin- 
 guished generals like Gorgei, Klapka, Damjanics. 
 Bern, and others transformed the raw recruits, in a 
 wonderfully short time, into properly disciplined 
 troops, who were able to hold their own and bravely 
 contend against the old and tried imperial forces 
 whom they put to flight at every point. 
 
 The fortunes of war changed in favor of the Hun- 
 garians in the latter part of January, 1849. Klapka 
 achieved the first triumph, which was followed by 
 the brilliant victory won by one of Gorgei's divisions 
 commanded by Guyon in the battle of Branyiszko, 
 and very soon the Hungarian armies acted on the 
 offensive at all points. In the course of a few weeks 
 they achieved, chiefly under Gorgei's leadership, 
 great and complete victories over the enemy near 
 Szolnok, Hatvan, Bicske, Vacz, Isaszegh, Nagy 
 Sarlo, and Komarom. Windischgratz lost both the 
 campaign and his position as commander-in-chief. 
 Towards the close of the spring of 1849, after be- 
 sieged Komarom had been relieved by the Hungari- 
 ans, and Bern had driven from Transylvania not 
 only the Austrians, but the Russians who had come 
 to their assistance, the country was almost freed 
 from her enemies, and only two cities, Buda and 
 Temesvar, remained in the hands of the Austrians. 
 The glorious efforts made by the nation were at- 
 tended at last by splendid successes, and the civilized 
 world spoke with sympathy and respect of the Hun- 
 garian people which had signally shown its ability 
 to defend its liberties, constitution, and national ex- 
 istence.
 
 432 'THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 It should have been the mission of diplomacy, at 
 this conjuncture, to turn to advantage the recent 
 military successes by negotiating an honorable peace 
 with the humbled dynasty, as had been done 
 before in the history of the country, after similar 
 military achievements by the ancient national lead- 
 ers, Bocskay and Bethlen. Gorgei, the head of the 
 army was disposed to conclude peace. But the 
 Hungarian Parliament sitting in Debreczen, led by 
 Kossuth and under the influence of the recent vic- 
 tories, were determined to pursue a different course. 
 The royal house of Hapsburg, whose dynasty had 
 ruled over Hungary for three centuries, was declared 
 to have forfeited its right to the throne by instigat- 
 ing and bringing upon the country the calamities of 
 a great war. This act had a bad effect, especially on 
 the army, tending also to heighten the personal 
 antagonism between Kossuth and Gorgei. But its 
 worst consequence was that it gave Russia a pretext 
 for armed intervention. The emperor Francis Joseph 
 entered into an alliance with the Czar of Russia, the 
 purpose of which was to reconquer seceded Hungary 
 and ultimately to crush her liberty. 
 
 One more brilliant victory was achieved by the 
 Hungarian arms before the fatal blow was aimed at 
 the country. The fortress of Buda was taken after 
 a gallant assault, in the course of which the Austrian 
 commandant bombarded the defenceless city of 
 Pesth on the opposite bank of the Danube, and thus 
 the capital, too, was restored to the country. Yet 
 after this last glorious feat of war, good fortune de- 
 serted the national banners. The grand heroic epoch
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 433 
 
 was hastening to its tragic end. Two hundred thou- 
 sand Russians crossed the borders of Hungary, and 
 were there reinforced by sixty thousand to seventy 
 thousand Austrians, whom the Viennese government 
 had succeeded in collecting for a last great effort. 
 It was easy to foresee that the exhausted Hungarian 
 army could not long resist the superior numbers op- 
 posed to them. For months they continued the 
 gallant fight, and it was in one of these engagements 
 that Petofi, the great poet of the nation, lost his 
 life, but in the month of August, the Russians had 
 already succeeded in surrounding Gorgei's army. 
 Gorgei, who was now invested with the supreme 
 power, perceiving that all further effusion of blood 
 was useless, surrendered, in the sight of the Russian 
 army, the sword he had so gloriously worn in many 
 a battle, near Vilagos, on the 13th of August, 1849. 
 The remaining Hungarian armies followed his ex- 
 ample, and either capitulated or disbanded. The 
 brave army of the lionv^ds was no more, and the gal- 
 lant struggle for liberty was put an end to by the 
 superior numbers of the Russian forces. Kossuth 
 and many other Hungarians sought refuge in Turkey. 
 Above Komarom, the largest fortress in the county, 
 alone the Hungarian colors were still floating. Gen- 
 eral Klapka, its commandant, bravely defended it, 
 and continued to hold it for six weeks after the sad 
 catastrophe of Vilagos. The brave defenders, seeing 
 at last that further resistance served no purpose, as 
 the Hungarian army had ceased to exist, and the 
 whole country had passed into the hands of the Aus- 
 trians, capitulated upon most honorable terms. This
 
 434 THE STORY OF HUNGARY, 
 
 was the concluding act of the heroic struggle of the 
 Hungarian people, the brave attitude of the garrison 
 and their commander adding another bright page to 
 the already honorable record of the military achieve- 
 ments of 1848 and 1849. 
 
 As soon as the imperialists had obtained possession 
 of Komarom, their commander-in-chief, Baron Hay- 
 nau, began to persecute the patriots, and to commit 
 the most cruel atrocities against them. Those who 
 had taken part in the national war were brought be- 
 fore a court-martial and summarily executed. The 
 bloody work of the executioner commenced on the 
 6th of October. Count Louis Batthyanyi was shot 
 at Pesth, and thirteen gallant generals, belonging 
 to Gorgei's army, met their deaths at Arad. Whole- 
 sale massacres were committed throughout the 
 country, until at last the conscience of Europe rose 
 up against these cruel butcheries, and the court itself 
 removed the sanguinary baron from the scene of his 
 inhuman exploits. The best men in the country 
 were thrown into prison, and thousands of families 
 had to mourn for dear ones who had fallen victims 
 to the implacable vindictiveness of the Austrian gov- 
 ernment. Once more the gloom of oppression settled 
 upon the unhappy country. 
 
 Many of the patriots had accompanied Kossuth 
 to Turkey, or found a refuge in other foreign coun- 
 tries, and for ten years a great number of distin- 
 guished Hungarians were compelled to taste the 
 bitterness of exile. Kossuth himself went subse- 
 quently to England, and visited also the United 
 States, In the latter country he was enthusiastically
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 
 
 435 
 
 received by the free and great American nation, who 
 took delight in his lofty eloquence. During the Cri- 
 mean war, and the war of 1859 in Italy, Kossuth and 
 the Hungarian exiles were zealously laboring to free 
 their country by foreign aid from the thraldom of op- 
 pression. At last, however, the Hungarian nation suc- 
 ceeded in reconquering, without any aid from abroad, 
 
 HUNGARIAN LADY. 
 
 by her own exertions, her national and political 
 rights, and made her peace with the ruling dynasty. 
 But the Hungarian exiles had their full share in the 
 work of reconciliation, for it was owing to their exer- 
 tions that the nations of Europe remembered that, 
 in spite of Vilagos, Hungary still existed, and that 
 again, at home, the people of Hungary were not per-
 
 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 mitted to lose their faith in a better and brighter 
 future. Kossuth, the Nestor of the struggle for 
 liberty, lives at present in retirement in Turin, and, 
 although separated from his people by diverging 
 political theories, his countrymen will forever cherish 
 in him the great genius who gave liberty to millions 
 of the oppressed peasantry, and who indelibly in- 
 scribed on the pages of the national legislation the 
 immortal principles of liberty and equality of rights. 
 
 It is proper, however, to present in their regular 
 order the chief events through which down-trodden 
 Hungary of 1849 became from a subordinate prov- 
 ince again an independent kingdom, taking part as an 
 equal partner in the great realm of Austria-Hungary. 
 
 It was not until 1854 that the state of siege inaug- 
 urated in 1849 was abolished, and only in 1856 that 
 an amnesty was proclaimed. In 1857 the emperor 
 visited Hungary, and during his stay, he decreed the 
 restoration of their confiscated estates to the late 
 political offenders. From this time the emperor 
 and the government of Vienna seemed anxious, by 
 means of concessions to the national aims, to cause 
 the Hungarians to forget the bitterness and strife of 
 1848 and 1849. I n ^58 agricultural colonists were 
 given special inducements to settle in specified dis- 
 tricts, and were allowed certain exemptions from 
 taxation. 
 
 In 1859 a most important concession was made by 
 the imperial government to the spirit of nationality. 
 By a ministerial order the language used in the 
 higher schools was for the future to be regulated ac- 
 cording to the circumstances of nationality, the pre-
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 
 
 437 
 
 dominance of German being thereby abolished. In 
 the same year was issued what was known as the 
 Protestant patent, which granted to the communes 
 the free administration of their own educational and 
 religious matters. 
 
 In 1860 the supreme court of judicature, known as 
 the curia regia, and the county assemblies were re- 
 instated, and the Magyar was recognized as the offi- 
 cial language. Later in the year the district called 
 the Banate of Temesvdr was re-annexed to Hungary. 
 
 WOMAN'S HEAD-DRESS. 
 
 In 1861 the old constitution was restored to Hun- 
 gary, including Transylvania, Croatia, and Slavonia, 
 and the Hungarian Diet reassembled in the old capital, 
 Buda, afterwards removing across the river to Pesth. 
 Within a few months, however, an address was pre- 
 sented at Vienna demanding the fullest autonomy 
 for Hungary. To this the emperor declared himself 
 unable to accede, and the Diet was dissolved. Strin- 
 gent measures were again put into force by theimpe-
 
 43 8 TttE STuRY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 rial government, and military aid was invoked to en- 
 force the collection of the taxes. 
 
 In 1865 the Diet was opened by the emperor in 
 person, and the imperial assent was given to the 
 principle of self-government for Hungary. The pro- 
 visions of the Pragmatic Sanction (of 1722) were pro- 
 posed as the basis for the settlement of the questions 
 still at issue. The Diet also demanded, however, an 
 acknowledgment of the continuity of the constitu- 
 tional rights of 1848. Before an imperial decision 
 had been reached on this point, the war of 1866 
 broke out between Austria and Prussia (allied with 
 Italy), and the Diet was prorogued. The Hungarian 
 troops formed an important contingent in the Aus- 
 trian army which faced the Prussians in Bohemia, and 
 the general in command, Marshal Benedek, was him- 
 self by birth a Hungarian. Hungarians also fought 
 in the army of the south, which, under the leader- 
 ship of the Archduke Albrecht, made a brief but 
 brilliant campaign against the Italians. In Bohemia 
 the Austrians met with a decisive defeat at Sadowa 
 (in July, 1866), and although in Italy Archduke Al- 
 brecht gained the important battle of Custozza, and 
 Admiral Tegetthoff a naval victory near Lissa (in the 
 Adriatic), the general results of the summer's cam- 
 paign were adverse to Austria, and brought about 
 material changes in its relations to Germany and 
 in its own imperial organization. 
 
 By the peace of Prague (August, 1866) the Ger- 
 man confederation was dissolved, and Austria's long 
 preeminence among the states of Germany came to 
 an end, the leadership in German affairs being trans-
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 
 
 439 
 
 ferred to Prussia. The centre of gravity of the Aus- 
 trian empire (which was thus, as it were, pushed out 
 of Germany) was thrown southward and eastward, 
 and the most important result for Hungary was the 
 constituting of the present dual monarchy of Austria- 
 Hungary, finally sanctioned in February, 1867. 
 
 Under this arrangement the constitutional, legal, 
 and administrative autonomy of 1848 was secured to 
 
 r*~~^ 'T 
 
 x' - 
 
 Hungary, while the full control of the army rested 
 with the emperor-king. The representative commit- 
 tee of the Diet, which conducted and completed the 
 new constitutional arrangements, was headed by Dedk, 
 and the presidency of the first ministry was given to 
 Count Andrassy. 
 
 In June, 1868, the emperor and empress were 
 crowned at Buda-Pesth King and Queen of Hungary,
 
 440 THE STORY OF HUNGAR'Y. 
 
 and a complete pardon was proclaimed for all politi- 
 cal offenders. It is worthy of note that twice in the 
 checkered history of Hungary has Prussia been in- 
 strumental in securing for the kingdom from its Aus- 
 trian rulers recognition and privileges which, had it 
 not been for the pressure of the Prussian attacks, 
 might long have been delayed. 
 
 In 1765, Maria Theresa, in grateful acknowledg- 
 ment of the cordially loyal support given her by her 
 "faithful Hungarians " in the bitter struggle against 
 Frederic the Great, initiated various most important 
 reforms, while just a century later, under the convinc- 
 ing influence of the second great struggle with Prussia, 
 the Austrian ruler again falls back on his Hungarian 
 subjects as the chief support of his reorganized realm, 
 and in the new dual empire of Austria-Hungary the 
 ancient kingdom of the Magyars, whose wonderfully 
 elastic national vitality had withstood so many vicissi- 
 tudes and disasters, again takes a commanding place 
 among the nations of Europe. 
 
 BARKS ON DANUBE.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 NATIONAL RISE AND COLLAPSE (1867-1923). 
 
 THE pact of 1867 was a contract, as to its form, 
 between the two parts of the monarchy. This 
 pact assured entire freedom both for Austria 
 and Hungary with the exception of foreign affairs 
 as well as financial and military questions con- 
 nected with common foreign affairs. The ratio 
 of contributing towards common expenditure was 
 settled once in every ten years. The management 
 of banks and customs tariff was also secured by 
 similar agreements from time to time. In order 
 to demonstrate the equality of the two states 
 a body called delegations had to sit alternately 
 in Vienna and Buda-Pesth. They always sat 
 separately, lest they should appear to form a 
 kind of imperial parliament. The ministers of 
 the common foreign, financial, and military affairs 
 were to be made responsible to these delegations. 
 Whenever the two delegations did not succeed in 
 coming to terms concerning some proposition (and 
 this was often the case) then the ruler had to 
 decide. 
 
 Until the war these common institutions func- 
 tioned undisturbed in both countries, in spite of 
 the frequent remonstrances experienced especially 
 in Hungary. Even the partnership in the common 
 
 441
 
 442 THE STORV OF HUNGARY, 
 
 government, bank, and tariff, though it could 
 be renounced and dissolved after every ten years, 
 was never, for a moment, in serious danger. 
 This was due to the dominant power of the prince, 
 and the whole pact was based on absolutism in 
 disguise. For the two countries would hardly 
 agree in anything without the interference of 
 the sovereign. Whenever the governments of the 
 two countries came to open conflict, the latent 
 absolutism became immediately manifest, because 
 according to the dual nature of the constitution 
 the monarch had to override. On both sides 
 the general public was aware that against the 
 pleasure or displeasure of the prince no lasting 
 resistance was possible. Francis Joseph was in 
 the habit of demanding compromise from that one 
 of the two governments which was backed by a 
 more reliable majority of its own legislature, 
 for such a government had always better chances 
 in pressing an unpopular proposition. Of course, 
 this usage was completely opposed to the principles 
 of parliamentarism. Thus the strange situation 
 arose that the stronger the Hungarian government 
 was in its own parliament the weaker it proved 
 to be towards the ruler. And the more com- 
 promises it made, the more unpopular it grew 
 in the view of the public. Since, as a rule, the 
 Austrian government was in its own legislature 
 much weaker than the Hungarian government 
 in the Hungarian legislature, in most of the cases 
 the Austrian standpoint came out victorious 
 from the conflicts with regard to common affairs.
 
 NATIONAL RISE AND COLLAPSE. 443 
 
 This was the foreign aspect of the pact. But, 
 perhaps it is still more instructive to examine 
 the domestic forces which furnished the founda- 
 tions both of this pact and of the entire dual 
 monarchy. 
 
 From the viewpoint of power the pact was a 
 contract between the dynasty and the Hungarian 
 nobility. By this contract the dynasty obtained 
 a warrant for the unlimited command of the 
 army, with a sure supply of men and money. 
 It obtained warrant also for the intact mainten- 
 ance of the common institutions of foreign affairs, 
 banking, and customs tariff. These warrants 
 were not fixed in writing or in law. Nevertheless, 
 only those statesmen were entrusted to form 
 governments whose personality was a guarantee 
 against impairing the sovereign's power. On the 
 other hand, the nobility was assured of the 
 preservation of its dominant position as against 
 those whom it was ruling before. These were 
 partly the nationalities and partly Croatia, on 
 the one hand ; the peasants and the working 
 people, on the other hand, including also that 
 group of the intellectual class which tried to 
 reduce the high-handed power of the nobility 
 by disseminating radical views in politics and 
 economics. 
 
 At the time when the pact between Austria 
 and Hungary was concluded a similar one was 
 contracted also between Hungary and Croatia. 
 On the strength of this pact the government of 
 Croatia was headed by a chief, called Ban,
 
 444 THE STORY of HUNGARY. 
 
 appointed by the king on the Hungarian premier's 
 presentation. On the side of the Croatian govern- 
 ment the " Sabor " acted as Legislature. The 
 Sabor was constituted in part only of elected 
 members. It comprised also a number of higher 
 officials, and it was expressive to but a very 
 limited extent of the will of the Croatian people. 
 The Sabor sent a certain number of its members 
 to the Hungarian legislature. There they enjoyed 
 the privilege of speaking Croatian. The home 
 rule of Croatia was confined to domestic, religious, 
 educational, and juridical affairs. Tax-collecting 
 was the duty of the Hungarian minister to the 
 exchequer. The expenses of the Croatian home 
 affairs were defrayed, from the requisite percentage 
 of the Croatian revenues. The common financial 
 questions were settled by a common Croato- 
 Hungarian legislative commission. In the Hungar- 
 ian government Croatia was represented by a 
 Croatian minister without portfolio. His relation- 
 ship to the Croatian Ban was rather obscure. 
 On the whole parliamentarism in Croatia was 
 feeble. The franchise was very limited. The 
 whole constitution was but a poorly disguised 
 absolutism. The social structure of Croatia was 
 the diminutive copy of the Hungarian. Only it 
 had still less political independence from the 
 Hungarian nation than the Hungarian from the 
 dynasty and from the representatives of the 
 common institutions. 
 
 Between Hungary and Croatia too, as between 
 the two components of the dual monarchy, there
 
 NATIONAL RISK AND COLLAPSE. 445 
 
 were always unsettled questions to feed the ever- 
 increasing fire of vexatious controversies. Accord- 
 ing to the law in Croatia the official language 
 was Croatian. Nevertheless, since finances were 
 not included in home rule, it was not clear, whether 
 the inscriptions on the edifices of financial admini- 
 stration should be put on in Hungarian, or in 
 Croatian, or in both tongues. This petty problem, 
 through protracted disputes, has incensed Croatian 
 nationalist sentiments to the utmost. It came 
 to veritable mutinies. At last the government 
 resorted to a Solomonian trick it fixed on the 
 buildings of financial administration in Croatia 
 the Hungarian coat of arms, without any inscription. 
 
 The good relationship between Hungary and 
 Croatia was disturbed also by the unsettled legal 
 standing of the port of Fiume. In 1867 Fhime 
 was recognized as autonomous territory. Its 
 official language was the Italian. It had the 
 privilege of sending a deputy both to the Hungarian, 
 and to the Croatian legislature. Among the 
 inhabitants of Fiume the Croatians and Italians 
 were about equal in number, and Fiume never 
 sent a representative to the Sabor. Since this 
 city was the only seaport of Hungary it always 
 found a ready support in Hungary for its claim to 
 be separate from Croatia. Croatia, on the other 
 hand, never renounced her title to Fiume, which 
 had a geographic connection only with Croatia 
 but none to Hungary proper. 
 
 In estimating the standing of Hungary towards 
 the dynasty we have to take into account the
 
 446 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 natural allies of the dynasty. The Austrian part 
 of the dual monarchy was of the opinion that it 
 granted too big a concession to the Hungarian 
 separatists in 1867. Therefore, in its jealousy, 
 it was always on the lookout, lest any more 
 concessions should be granted to the separatists. 
 In this they were in complete unanimity with the 
 ruler. It is likewise natural that the dynasty, 
 by its descent, tradition, culture, and language, felt 
 itself nearer to Vienna, and to the Austrian legis- 
 lature, than to Buda-Pesth and to the Hungarian 
 parliament. Moreover, against Hungarian separa- 
 tion the dynasty could always rely on two factors : 
 on the one side on the officers of the army, on 
 the other side on the powerful court nobility 
 (influencial both by wealth and tradition) as well 
 as on the officials of diplomatic service, the mere 
 mouthpiece of the high nobility 
 
 Within the Hungarian nation, as has been 
 mentioned already, the power was wielded by 
 the landed aristocracy. One component of this 
 aristocracy was the high nobility which took 
 the lead. The other was the gentry. The 
 economic power of the high nobility rested almost 
 exclusively on landed property. The gentry, a 
 far larger class than the English, did not offer 
 a homogeneous appearance. Many of this gentry 
 were landlords of estates of widely differing values. 
 Others, however, became wholly proletarians, find- 
 ing employment in civil service, first of all in local 
 administration. Though in an ever-decreasing 
 measure, still the principle of local government
 
 NATIONAL RISE AND COLLAPSE. 447 
 
 holds true until to-day. A few county families 
 were, and on the whole still are, absolute lords 
 of their estates and of the neighbouring communi- 
 ties, as in England under the manorial system. 
 The overwhelming majority of the county nobility, 
 however, were far too poor for carrying on public 
 service merely as a nobile officium. The appoint- 
 ment to a county office provided a living. Thus, 
 from the very beginning, the county officials became 
 subordinate to the powerful county families who 
 were the masters of their appointments. These 
 officials, thus suppressed, recompensed themselves 
 by the high-handed oppression of the outlawed 
 classes. This perverse spirit of local administra- 
 tion that bred cringing towards the superior, 
 and bullying of the inferior, infected also the 
 central government. In consequence also, the 
 officials, who were not of the nobility, became 
 transformed by this overbearing spirit. 
 
 The population of the towns was weak both in 
 numbers and resources. This class too was led by 
 the aristocracy through the agency of the staff of 
 officials taken from the nobility as well as from 
 the ranks of others. When the pact was concluded 
 the town dwellers were mostly foreigners, bound 
 but by few ties to Hungarian intellectual life. 
 The burgess class thus was far too weak, and 
 it is still too weak to withstand the lead of 
 the aristocracy. The German-speaking citizens 
 gladly adopted the Hungarian aristocratic ways 
 of thinking in return for their social acceptance. 
 The Jews had no political claims at the beginning,
 
 448 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 but have concentrated all their attention on 
 securing the largest possible share for themselves 
 from the growing material prosperity. The 
 Germans and Jews picked up Hungarian by and 
 by, after the pact was made, and grew stronger 
 in wealth. Nevertheless they never endangered 
 for a minute the political and social dominance of 
 the aristocracy. 
 
 The Hungarian peasants, at the outset, profited 
 but little from the new political change. In many 
 respects the Austrian absolute government was 
 friendly to the Hungarian peasants. After the 
 revolution the abolition of serfdom was carried 
 out by the Austrian government with the obvious 
 intention of weakening thereby the economic 
 power of the Hungarian nobility, and gaining 
 the favour of the huge peasant masses. 
 
 In reality, however, the pact has left the 
 peasantry at the mercy of the aristocracy. This 
 has strengthened its domination by political and 
 economic measures, such as the immense increase 
 of entailments. The Hungarian peasants were 
 almost entirely excluded from all political rights 
 by the high franchise qualifications, by open 
 voting, and by electioneering atrocities. Economi- 
 cally all the poorer classes were hard pressed by 
 the taxation policy. Down to our own days the 
 history of this whole policy is the gradual growth 
 of indirect taxes levied on commodities of general 
 consumption. In the year 1870 the revenue from 
 "direct" taxes amounted to 7*2 kronen, while 
 that of the excises to 5*3 kronen, per head, on
 
 NATIONAL RISE AND COLLAPSE. 449 
 
 an average. In 1912, against 14 '2 kronen direct 
 taxes, 31 - 2 kronen excises were levied. However 
 numerous the peasantry was, still in politics it 
 remained a latent force until recent times. 
 
 An industrial working class, worth mentioning, 
 could hardly develop, except in the capital. 
 Nevertheless as the importance of industry grew, 
 the body of industrial workers too grew both 
 in number and organization. In spite of all 
 its relative weakness, owing to the industrial 
 backwardness of Hungary, in comparison with 
 the western countries, the working class took 
 always a political standpoint diametrically opposed 
 to the aristocracy, the rule of which was never 
 recognized by the workmen. 
 
 The Hungarian nation, on the whole, was and 
 is composed of the above classes. They hardly 
 melted into any unity of sentiment. Their separa- 
 tion in social standing, and above all in feelings, 
 was incomparably greater than in the western 
 democratic countries. Such a community of 
 feelings within a people may be created also by 
 religion. The majority of Hungarians are Roman 
 Catholic, but a significant minority are Protest- 
 ant. The denominational differences^ however, 
 were responsible only to a small extent for political 
 antagonism. Tolerance between religious denomina- 
 tions was an ancient tradition in Hungary. And, 
 though religion was not entirely eliminated from 
 politics, still it had a subordinate importance. 
 Yet neither the Roman Catholic nor the Protestant 
 
 Church was able to form a real spiritual bond 
 29
 
 45<3 THE STORY of HUNGARV. 
 
 between their followers of different social and 
 economic standing. Nor did religious life reach 
 any great intensity in Hungary. The Roman 
 Catholic high clergy was wholly dependent on 
 the secular power, for the management of its 
 huge estates was subject to government control. 
 The lower clergy, on the other hand, lived a 
 worldly life, like the country landlords, and un- 
 like the German clergy in Austria. The Protestant 
 clergy, poverty stricken and backward in culture, 
 could do but little for the spiritual welfare of its 
 parishioners. 
 
 The political parties did still less than the 
 churches to do away with class antagonism. 
 In England both of the great historic parties have 
 taken a large share in establishing some bonds 
 of unity between the poor and the rich, the aristo- 
 cracy and the common people. There was nothing 
 of this in Hungary. This was due, first of all, 
 to the fact, that there is and was still less real 
 life within the parties than in the churches. The 
 activity, and even the rise, of the parties, takes 
 place immediately before the elections. After- 
 wards they live solely inside the parliament. 
 
 Parties were formed according to the standpoint 
 taken in reference to the pact of 1867. The 
 party of the majority, which was alone eligible 
 for government, accepted the pact. The opposi- 
 tional parties, on the other hand, insisted on the 
 revision or complete abolition of the pact in 
 favour of entire Hungarian independence. The 
 government party changed its name frequently.
 
 NATIONAL RISE AND COLLAPSE. 451 
 
 Nevertheless its policy remained all the time the 
 unaltered sustenance of the then existing political 
 constellation. This party relied on the dynasty, 
 and it was led by the high nobility. In return for 
 a consideration it could always command the 
 support of the high clergy, and of the Jewish 
 capitalists as well. Consequently it was never 
 popular in the eyes of the common people. It 
 had no programme nor any slogan to inspire 
 the masses. The opposition parties, headed by 
 the gentry, and including but few of the high 
 nobility, were naturally much more popular with 
 their demand for complete national independence. 
 The desire for entire national freedom was instinc- 
 tive and ineradicable. This was demonstrated 
 by the persistent revival of the " independence " 
 party, although it was repeatedly almost wholly 
 crushed by the government in ruthless election 
 campaigns. 
 
 The political fight was fought by these two 
 armies. Minor differences left out of account, 
 the two parties were opposed to each other above 
 all in constitutional law. The party of inde- 
 pendence was somewhat more democratic ex- 
 pressing mainly the sentiments of the Protestant 
 gentry. Yet it did not endeavour, save a few 
 of its outsiders, to break the domination of the 
 aristocracy. Towards the nationalities, however, 
 it showed even more hostility than the governing 
 party. The Social Democratic Party did not 
 emerge till a later period. 
 
 The nationalist groups were set against Hunga-
 
 45 2 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 rian society. Croatia excluded, the nationalities 
 numbered nearly one-half of the entire population. 
 But they were not united either in tongue or 
 in religion. According to the census of 1910 the 
 percentage of the various nationalities was as fol- 
 lows : 16 percent. Rumanians, n per cent. Slovaks, 
 10 per cent. Germans, 3 '6 percent. Southern Slavs, 
 and 2*5 percent. Ruthenians as against 54*5 
 per cent. Hungarians. Among the Hungarians, 
 about two-thirds of them were Roman Catho- 
 lics, and about one-third Protestants. Of the 
 Germans and Slovaks about three-quarters be- 
 longed to the Roman Catholic, and about one-third 
 to Protestant, churches. The majority of the 
 Rumanians and ef the Southern Slavs adhered 
 to the Greek Oriental Church. However, there 
 was among them a considerable Roman Catholic 
 minority. The Jews, 911,000 in all, professed 
 to speak the Hungarian as their mother tongue 
 in the majority, and German in the minority, 
 of cases. With the subject nationalities, their 
 intellectual and economic backwardness, as well as 
 their consequent want of national self-conscious- 
 ness, were still more important factors than their 
 linguistic and denominational incoherence to 
 impair their political weight. The truth of this 
 was fully borne out by the elections. The surest 
 districts for the government were always those 
 of the nationalities. Against violence and bribes 
 these districts have shown invariably less resistance 
 than the Hungarian districts. 
 
 The politics, introduced and personified by
 
 NATIONAL RISE AND COLLAPSE. 453 
 
 Deak, the maker of the pact, may be called, in 
 our present terminology, conservative liberalism. 
 This policy had possibilities of salutary develop- 
 ment, had it been applied in his spirit ; nor 
 would it ever have led to the catastrophe that 
 befell Hungary by her dismemberment. Deak, 
 his " nation's sage," was characterized by a 
 correct estimate of political forces, by true liberal- 
 ism and temperance. Against the dynasty and 
 Austria his demand was the return to the con- 
 stitutional laws of 1848. Nevertheless, when the 
 victory of the Italian and Prussian armies over 
 Austria afforded the opportunity to extort more 
 advantages for the benefit of Hungary, Deak 
 did not yield for a moment to this temptation. 
 Advocating the preservation of old-established 
 rights he refused to acquire for Hungary in the 
 most favourable times a position that could not 
 be kept among the most adverse circumstances. 
 Deak's policy was inspired, towards the nationali- 
 ties also, by this wise temperance. He secured 
 for them, by law, the privilege of erecting 
 elementary, and higher schools too. He assured 
 the free use of their mother tongue in political 
 administration as well as in law courts. He 
 protested against the opinion that would not 
 grant Hungarian government subsidy for any 
 work, save it was carried on in the Hungarian 
 language. 
 
 Kossuth (living in voluntary exile), as well as 
 Eotvos, and the representatives of the ideas of 
 1848, preached likewise moderation towards the
 
 454 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 nationalities. However, the nobility of the 
 counties, whose patriotism got engrossed by 
 the Austrian absolutist regime, was little inclined 
 to adopt this temperance. The Austrian suppres- 
 sion bred in it intolerance, and a craving for 
 domination. In this oppositional county nobility 
 there was nothing of Deak's sound judgment 
 concerning the resources of power. In this lack 
 of political sanity the Hungarians have slipped 
 into the swamp of a fatal policy. With their 
 old political training, perhaps, they would have 
 proved strong enough to fight the dynasty 
 successfully for the attaining of complete freedom. 
 They might also have succeeded in maintaining, 
 against the nationalities, their dominating position 
 unaltered. But they were too weak to fight 
 and win, at the same time, on two fronts. This 
 weakness was aggravated by the aristocratic 
 character of Hungarian culture, national feeling, 
 tradition, history, and social structure (as 
 distinguished, e.g., from the anti-aristocratic, bur- 
 gess nationalism of the Czechs). Hence the growing 
 democracy of the age was in contradiction with 
 the policy of these Hungarians. 
 
 The narrowness of the basis of Hungarian nation- 
 alism is conclusively proved by the steady decline 
 of Hungarian letters and sciences after the pact. 
 The former upheaval was brought about by 
 men of distinction hitherto excluded from civil 
 service. Now, as they became available for them, 
 they swarmed in the offices of central and local 
 administration ; whereas the private enterprises
 
 NATIONAL RISE AND COLLAPSE. 455 
 
 of culture, and economics, based by Stephen 
 Szechenyi before 1848 on volunteer social co- 
 operation, soon got under complete government 
 control. There is no exaggeration in affirming 
 that by the pact the Hungarian intellectual and 
 economic life became nationalized. This, of course, 
 meant the decline and crippling of initiative. 
 This inner decline did not manifest itself till after 
 the death of the old generation, when neither in 
 politics nor in literature were there any more men 
 to take the place of Szechenyi, Kossuth, Deak, 
 Petofi, Eotvos, Arany. The nationalities, on the 
 other hand, derived certain advantages from the 
 fact that their leaders were excluded from almost 
 every government employment. They got hardened 
 by the struggle. Ousted from civil service and 
 political activity, they had to find their place on 
 the field of economics and culture. The persistence 
 of forces being a principle that holds good also 
 for mental energy, with the intellectual power 
 which could not find employment in politics, banks 
 and societies were organized for the advance of 
 culture. In this work the Rumanians have set 
 the pace. 
 
 F. Deak did not accept any official appointment. 
 Count Julius Andrassy became the premier. 
 Nevertheless in the government party Deak's 
 attitude was decisive. In 1871, when, in conse- 
 quence of the Prussian victory, the minister for 
 foreign affairs, who was friendly to the French, 
 was dismissed, Andrassy became his successor in 
 Vienna. In Austria he blocked the way of Slav
 
 456 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 advance, and concluded the triple alliance with 
 Bismarck to assure the monarchy against hostile 
 attacks from abroad. This alliance was a tradi- 
 tional item in the programme of the government 
 party. Thus the fate of Hungary became chained 
 to that of Prussia. 
 
 After Andrassy's departure the vigour of the Deak 
 party began to shrink. Deak's policy, shunning 
 extremes, and coming to terms with the dynasty, 
 became more and more unpopular. Ccloman Tisza, 
 the leader of the opposition, a representative 
 man of the Protestant gentry from the east of 
 the country, took advantage of this occasion for 
 acquiring the public power. He could succeed, 
 however, only at the price of adopting the stand- 
 point of the dynasty. Thereby the Hungarian 
 opposition proved unable, even in a parliamentary 
 majority, to overcome the resistance of the dynasty 
 and of the common institutions. C. Tisza and 
 his partisans accepted the situation, without any 
 personal persuasion. As a matter of sheer necessity 
 C. Tisza took his stand on the basis of the pact of 
 1867. He was clever, tenacious, and energetic 
 enough to govern Hungary for fifteen years. 
 This rule demoralized the gentry greatly. The 
 government increased the number of offices and 
 extended the scope of favouritism, by this means 
 of controlling that part of the voters which was 
 able to withstand bribes and violence. 
 
 After C. Tisza's fifteen years' regime, down to 
 the end of the world war (1890-1918) there were, 
 altogether, eleven governments in Hungary. Of
 
 NATIONAL RISE AND COLLAPSE. 4$? 
 
 these merely one, that of Stephen Tisza (the son of 
 Coloman) endured for five years. These govern- 
 ments, on the whole, followed in the footsteps 
 of C. Tisza. They had to contend both with the 
 separatist tendency of the Hungarian opposition, 
 and of their own party, since, for the governing 
 party too, the pact was, at best, acceptable only 
 to cool reason, without ever being approved of 
 by the affection of the heart ! They recognized 
 that Hungary cannot have her own army, diplo- 
 macy, national bank, and customs territory inde- 
 pendent of Austria. Yet they never liked these 
 common institutions for themselves. On the 
 contrary, they were happy whenever in the use of 
 flags, or in any other purely formal and entirely 
 immaterial question, they succeeded in securing 
 some national concession, thereby counteracting 
 their general unpopularity in the view of the 
 public. Likewise the opposition had to exhaust all 
 its energy in a struggle barren of every chance 
 of success. This state of affairs became patent 
 as soon as the opposition got the majority after 
 a long and wearisome election contest. It was 
 not entrusted to form a government until it 
 accepted (like C. Tisza in his time) the common 
 institutions. Nevertheless a fraction remained dis- 
 satisfied with the Vienna foreign policy, and was 
 looking for the friendship of France. This fraction 
 wished to make peace with the nationalities, and 
 to extend the pale of political rights, but it could 
 not attain to any significance even within the opposi- 
 tion. Briefly, the sole decisive difference between
 
 NATIONAL RISE AND COLLAPSE, 459 
 
 the governing and opposition party was this, that 
 the government, with regard to the common 
 affairs, took the standpoint of opportunism, though 
 its feelings were with the opposition. Otherwise 
 it was impossible to find any political principle 
 for a line of demarcation between the two groups. 
 To be sure, there were deep-rooted differences oJ 
 opinion concerning the extension of political 
 rights as well as concerning the questions of nation- 
 alities, and of foreign politics. But these dif- 
 ferences did not mak.3 a split in either party. 
 Liberal and democratic opinions, expressed by 
 hopeless minorities, were free from government 
 persecution only so far as they did not endanger 
 the rule of the aristocracy. 
 
 Beyond the contest about the constitution there 
 was but one question which attracted the political 
 attention of the public. There were especially 
 two points in the church policy to stir the feeling 
 of the people. One was the promotion of the 
 Jewish Church from the status of a tolerated body 
 into the status of a received or recognized church. 
 The other was the uniform legislative regulation 
 of family and marriage law. Accordingly, every 
 lawful marriage was to be concluded exclusively 
 before a civil authority, and all the registers for 
 birth, marriage, and death were to be kept by 
 government officials. Against this second point 
 the Roman Catholic Church remonstrated the most 
 vehemently. A special Roman Catholic party, 
 the " People's Party," was formed to oppose the 
 government's church policy. This party accepted
 
 460 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 the pact. With regard to its large number of 
 non-Hungarian (Slovak and German) partisans, it 
 preached peace towards the nationalities not in 
 earnest, however, as it soon transpired. In the 
 management of Roman Catholic Church properties 
 it demanded the control of the believers, instead 
 of the government control. But above all it 
 pressed for the withdrawal of the church policy 
 bill. In respect of this latter there was some 
 discrepancy of opinion even within the govern- 
 ment party. Many wavered, whereas an important 
 group of the opposition supported the government 
 in this question. The bill was passed by the House 
 of Representatives. But the consent of the Upper 
 Chamber could be obtained by the government 
 solely through the threat of the wholesale creation 
 of peers. At the following election, in the autumn 
 of 1896, the Roman Catholic People's Party could 
 not secure more than 17 mandates. Later on 
 this number went up to 33, but it never reached 
 10 per cent, of all the seats in the parliament. 
 By and by the Roman Catholics too acknowledged 
 the government registrars, and to-day there is no 
 probability of the repeal of this act. 
 
 Excepting the above incident, all the attention 
 of the legislature was absorbed in the fight about 
 constitutional law. The opposition, feeling itself 
 backed by public opinion, resorted to obstruction, 
 whicK was accepted then all over Europe as the 
 last weapon of parliamentary contest. The govern- 
 ment claimed in the parliament the right of rule, 
 being supported by the majority of the deputies.
 
 NATIONAL RISE AND COLLAPSE. 461 
 
 The opposition, on the other hand, pointed to 
 the illegal origin of the parliamentary majority. 
 Two governments attempted in vain to disarm 
 the obstruction. Eventually S. Tisza, when he 
 became the premier, in 1904, began to experiment 
 with the legal modification of the by-laws in the 
 House of Representatives. As this move did not 
 bring about the desired result, he set up a guard 
 of parliament to maintain order in the legislature. 
 The opposition all the same frustrated every parlia- 
 mentary discussion to such an extent as to necessi- 
 tate the dissolution of the House. In the ensuing 
 election public opinion was voiced in favour of 
 the opposition with such a power that its victory 
 could not be prevented either by bribe or violence. 
 Nevertheless the sovereign was not inclined in the 
 least to submit to the will of the electors. Against 
 the dictum of the victorious opposition, threatening 
 the existence of the common institutions, the 
 prince declared that he " appeals from the hundreds 
 of thousands to the millions." This meant an 
 unexampled extension of suffrage. The threat of 
 the ruler was effective. The opposition, under the 
 lead of Francis Kossuth (the son of L. Kossuth) 
 adopted in substance, though not in form, the 
 pact of 1867. The ruler in return, gave up the 
 extension of suffrage. The constitutional struggle 
 did not abate at once, for a part of the opposition 
 kept on sticking both to the idea of complete 
 national independence and to the extension of 
 suffrage left in the lurch by the sovereign. 
 
 The oppositional coalition, while in power, lost
 
 462 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 much of its popularity by its weakness towards 
 the prince. Hence the party of 1867 got into 
 power again, with a big majority, won in June, 
 1911. But the opposition refused to recognize the 
 lawfulness of the results obtained by this election. 
 Therefore, one section of it, at least, carried on a 
 permanent obstruction. The obstructing fraction 
 of the opposition was determined to accept the 
 new by-laws of the Lower House only on condition 
 the government granted its constitutional demands, 
 and tendered a bill of universal suffrage. This 
 latter term was just as resolutely rejected by the 
 majority of the opposition as by the government 
 itself. Now the government, relying on its 
 majority, but in open defiance of the existing by- 
 laws, ventured to pass new by-laws. Thus it did 
 away with the obstruction only by means of a 
 " closure." The opposition refused to recognize 
 the new by-laws. On this the committee, on 
 the motion of the speaker, excluded the obstinate 
 members from the sittings. The excluded deputies, 
 trying to return to the legislature, were prevented 
 by the police. 
 
 In the course of the subsequent struggle the 
 decay of Hungarian parliamentarism was shown 
 by two facts. One was a deputy's shot at S. 
 Tisza. The other was a criminal process about a 
 calumny. A member of parliament charged 
 Premier Lukacs with having spent public revenues 
 on election campaign, and called him " the greatest 
 Panamist of Europe." The M.P. was sued for 
 calumny, but the court of law acquitted him,
 
 NATIONAL RISE AND COLLAPSE. 463 
 
 because he proved the truthfulness of his state- 
 ments. Scandals followed in quick succession in 
 the House of Commons. Meanwhile the braver 
 part of the opposition, under the lead of Julius 
 Justh and Michel Karolyi, demanded, with ever- 
 increasing energy, Hungarian national independ- 
 ence and universal suffrage. This was the situa- 
 tion in the Hungarian parliament at the outbreak 
 of the world war. 
 
 Characterizing the general trend of the above 
 events in the parliament it is but fair to say that 
 they show the struggle for freedom of a nation 
 which was despoiled of its enjoyment. In this 
 struggle, however, the entire population of 
 Hungary was far from being one solid body. 
 The non - Magyars did not take any share 
 in it. Also to the overwhelming majority of 
 the Magyars, that is to the masses of the 
 working people, the problems of breadwinning 
 and the extension of political rights were more 
 pressing, although they warmly desired national 
 independence too. The agricultural population 
 was not advanced enough for cherishing these 
 desires self-consciously. But the workmen of the 
 towns, through their Social Democratic Party 
 organizations, as well as through their trade 
 unions, became the political standard-bearers of 
 the poorer classes. 
 
 It must be emphasized that both the questions 
 of the nationalities and of the working men were 
 excluded from parliament by craft, and on purpose. 
 This was why they proved so exceptionally explo-
 
 464 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 sive as soon as the army, the prop on which 
 this order of the state rested, ceased to exist. 
 
 Although the nationalities made up to half of 
 the entire population, nevertheless, in the parlia- 
 ment they never numbered 10 per cent, of all 
 the members. The law of F. Deak on the rights of 
 the nationalities was never carried out. Of the 
 government officials 94 per cent., of the county 
 officials 92 per cent., of the town officials 90 per 
 cent., of the judges and attorneys 96 per cent, in 
 the national total were Magyars. The govern- 
 ment schools were all Magyar. Non-Magyar 
 language was not permitted in the instruction, 
 save at denominational and communal schools. 
 The Saxons in Transylvania had a few denomi- 
 national secondary schools (gymnasiums). The 
 Rumanians and Servians were likewise equipped 
 with some such schools. But the two millions of 
 Slovaks were left without any higher schools. 
 Indeed the government supported the schools of 
 the nationalities with a yearly grant, but it exacted 
 in return heavy sacrifices at the expense of their 
 independence. For the nationalities the main- 
 tenance of their schools was an oppressive financial 
 burden, because they had to contribute also to- 
 wards the expenses of the Hungarian government 
 schools. Another constant grievance of the nation- 
 alities was the many disadvantages they had to 
 suffer in consequence of their inability to speak 
 Hungarian at the courts of law or before civil 
 authorities. 
 
 The workmen were similarly dissatisfied with the
 
 NATIONAL RISE AND COLLAPSE. 465 
 
 state of affairs. The agrarian policy of the govern- 
 ment increased incessantly the number of entail- 
 ments, and it did so above all on the purest 
 Hungarian regions. In consequence the multitude 
 of farmless farmhands rapidly grew. The diffi- 
 culties of the landless agricultural labourers in 
 making both ends meet, as well as the spread of 
 socialism, roused the poor more than once to real 
 mutiny. Of course the government suppressed 
 them with armed force. 
 
 Against Rumania and Servia the government 
 made no secret of protecting the interests of the 
 great landlords : that is, the high price of wheat and 
 meat. Under the pretext of preventive measures 
 for veterinary sanitation the government rendered 
 practically impossible the importation of all live 
 stock from the Balkan countries. This fostered in 
 Servia a desperate animosity against the monarchy, 
 while at home it raised enormously the living 
 expenses of all the consumers who did not produce 
 for sale, and above all, it aggravated the situation 
 of the workmen in towns. 
 
 An equally desperate feeling of hostility was 
 produced in Croatia by the attitude of the govern- 
 ment. When the opposition got into government 
 there were some reasons to hope that it would 
 not pursue the hostile policy of the former govern- 
 ments, which stood on the basis of 1867. The 
 Croatian opposition hated Vienna. It had gladly 
 co-operated with the Hungarians, who could not 
 have gained anything by an anti-Croatian policy, 
 since even the most ardent Hungarians could not 
 30
 
 466 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 believe in the possibility of ever Magyarizing 
 Croatia. The opposition, however, after it took 
 possession of the public power, returned to the 
 old Hungarian policy. As a demonstration of 
 this, and without any special reason too, it dragged 
 to the front the question of the Hungarian language 
 in the service of the Croatian railways. The 
 Croatian deputies started a fight against this move 
 in the Hungarian Parliament, but they were put 
 to silence by means of violence. Hitherto Croatia 
 had cherished the hope of a change for the better 
 by its confidence in the Hungarian opposition. 
 Since the opposition now in power proved likewise 
 hostile, Croatia had to draw the conclusion, that 
 her situation could not be changed for the better, 
 except by the disruption of the entire monarchy. 
 Thus Hungary incurred the fierce hatred of the 
 Balkan countries and of Croatia. Meanwhile at 
 home the Hungarian method of government be- 
 came equally hated in the eyes of the nationalities 
 and of the workmen. It must be added that the 
 forces of all these four factors were in the ascend- 
 ancy. The Balkan States achieved great economic 
 and cultural progress during the decade before the 
 world war. Their military success against the 
 Turks swelled their self-respect exceedingly high. 
 The growth of Servia's power invigorated also 
 Croatia's national self-consciousness. The mutual 
 jealousy of the Croatians and Servians was tem- 
 pered by the hatred of the common enemy. The 
 organizations and cultural resources of the nation- 
 alities, and of the working people too, increased in
 
 NATIONAL RISE AND COLLAPSE. 467 
 
 strength menacingly. Although they were kept 
 outside of the parliament, as the franchise was not 
 extended after 1867, they were better organized 
 than the ruling classes. Their growing dissatisfac- 
 tion rebelled against their being classed as outlaws. 
 In contrast to the growing vigour of the above 
 factors, the vitality of the props in the old regime 
 relapsed. In this the direction was given by the 
 aristocracy of large estates, while the execution 
 was entrusted to the gentry, mostly landless, and 
 to the burgess class melted into the gentry. The 
 economic strength of the gentry shrank absolutely 
 too. Their estates broke into small holdings, and 
 were bought up by others. The salaries they 
 received for their badly paid civil service hardly 
 provided a living for them. They had no desire 
 whatsoever to take any important part in industrial 
 or commercial enterprise, although, after 1867, 
 the significance of industry and commerce was 
 ascending steadily in Hungary. This field was 
 taken by the Jews. And the more the importance 
 of manufacturing and of traffic grew, the greater 
 became the economic weight of the Jews. More- 
 over, the progress of the Jews proved just 
 as advancing in intellectual professions as in 
 economics. In language the Jews became 
 Hungarians. In patriotism too they assimilated 
 the ideals and feelings of the Hungarians. Never- 
 theless their social exclusiveness, whether the Jews 
 or the Christians are responsible for it, hardly 
 diminished, in spite of sundry mixed marriages 
 which have occurred within all the social strata
 
 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 from the highest aristocracy down to the destitute. 
 Externally, and officially, the Jews were reckoned 
 as completely Hungarian citizens equal in standing 
 to the other Hungarians. Inwardly, and privately 
 as social intercourse cannot be regulated by 
 legislation, and its natural basis cannot be any- 
 thing but willing co-operation the two societies 
 lived apart. A large group of the assimilated 
 Jews adopted the mentality of the Christian society. 
 Since in Hungary, as in Prussia, public office and 
 university degree raise a person in the social scale 
 incomparably higher than any business with an 
 equal income, the Jews too strove to obtain uni- 
 versity degrees and -appointments to government 
 offices. Thereby, however, the number of points of 
 friction between Jews and Christians was greatly 
 augmented. Thus a Christian-Jewish antagonism 
 came into existence. Before the war it was 
 latent, only to break out with wilder vehemence 
 afterwards. 
 
 The relative aristocratic power of the great 
 landlords was reduced by the incipient develop- 
 ment of big industrial and commercial capitalists, 
 standing on their side yet independent of them. 
 The banks, the large industrial and commercial 
 concerns were, from the beginning, mostly in the 
 hands of the Jews, and there they remained 
 yielding a much bigger income than the farms. 
 The estates of the aristocrats were left, on the 
 whole, untouched, only the productiveness of the 
 land showed little increase. The chief cause was 
 the old-fashioned method of tillage. The old way
 
 NATIONAL RISE AND COLLAPS&. 469 
 
 of farming was improved but little, owing partly 
 to want of investment, partly to lack of initiative, 
 partly to ignorance. 
 
 It must be observed that the distance between 
 the nobility and the other classes diminished too. 
 The elementary and high schools and the univers- 
 ities afforded ample opportunities also for the 
 lower classes to acquire refinement and enlighten- 
 ment. In short, the nobility lost its economic 
 and cultural monopoly. After this there was but 
 one, though potent, power left to it : the prestige 
 derived from the general respect for history and 
 from the reverence of the other classes used to 
 its lead during long ages. Experience, how r ever, 
 seems to prove that prestige, without sufficient 
 economic and cultural foundation, cannot last long. 
 
 Simultaneously with the waning of the nobility's 
 power, the power of the dynasty, the outward 
 mainstay of the regime, declined. Among all 
 the peoples of the monarchy there grew up a 
 large, intellectual generation, which had far less 
 of the self-devoting loyalty towards the dynasty 
 than the old, intensely loyal intellectuals. In 
 cases of conflict between the dynasty and their 
 own people, the old intellectuals either identified 
 themselves with the interest of the dynasty, or 
 else they were anxious to persuade themselves as 
 well as others that there was no conflict. The 
 new intellectuals, on the contrary, did not know 
 any interest superior to that of their own people. 
 A generation of well-informed men appeared on 
 the stage of events ascribing greater importance
 
 47O THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 to the welfare of the Hungarian, German, Czech, 
 and of all the other peoples than to the interests 
 of the dynasty and monarchy. It was but natural 
 that as soon as this generation took in its hands 
 the wheel of the commonweal, the fate of the 
 dynasty, and of the monarchy too, was sealed. 
 
 It was one of the basic points in the pact of 
 1867, that in Hungary the Hungarians, and in 
 Austria the Germans, should rule. But, as in 
 Austria there were living old historic nations, like 
 the Czechs and Poles, the rule of the Germans was 
 rather shaky. The position of the Hungarians 
 was much easier on account of the dispersion, 
 cultural backwardness, want of historic traditions, 
 economic weakness, and lack of social development 
 among the nationalities in Hungary, because the 
 overwhelming majority of them were poor peasants. 
 Prussian politicians looked always with sympathy 
 on the Hungarian gentry, while the Hungarian 
 gentry saw its ideal in the harsh discipline of the 
 Prussian military regime, able to adjust itself 
 with splendid success to changing economic and 
 political circumstances. Thus, when the war (the 
 causes and vicissitudes of which cannot be des- 
 cribed on these pages) broke out, the Hungarian 
 ruling classes felt themselves completely at one 
 with the interests and sentiments of the Prussians. 
 
 Stephen Tisza, who both by his relentless ener- 
 getic policy, and by his repeatedly demonstrated, 
 uncommon personal courage, proved a worthy 
 representative of the Hungarian nobility, held out 
 until the last on the side of Prussia. But, when
 
 NATIONAL RISE AND COLLAPSE. 4? I 
 
 the Bulgarians put down their arms, he was forced 
 to confess, at an exciting sitting of the House of 
 Representatives, that " we have lost the war." 
 
 After the war was lost the entire old regime 
 collapsed, like a castle of cards. The power of 
 the monarchy was based on the army. Therefore 
 so soon as the army, in the full knowledge of its 
 defeat, ceased to exist, the monarchy too dis- 
 appeared When the governments were over- 
 thrown in all the vanquished countries, then 
 at last, at the end of October, 1918, " revolu- 
 tion " arose also in Buda-Pesth. It is somewhat 
 difficult, however, to speak of revolution there, 
 when the ruler himself directed the general 
 staff to take the vote of the troops about the 
 problem of the political constitution. All that 
 happened at Buda-Pesth was the running away of 
 the responsible political factors of the old regime, 
 including the sovereign himself, or the giving 
 up of their posts, without any resistance. The 
 military headquarters too offered but a merely 
 formal resistance, just to save the " honour of 
 the flag." Since the war was lost the situation 
 was more a state of anarchy than a revolution. 
 The only political murder that occurred then, under 
 circumstances not yet cleared up, was S. Tisza's 
 assassination. The opponents of the old regime 
 did what they could to counteract the evils of 
 this anarchy. 
 
 There were three parties opposed to the old 
 method of government. Of these three there was 
 but one represented in the old parliament. This
 
 472 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 was the extreme left wing of the old constitutional 
 opposition, headed by Karolyi. This party fought 
 with equal determination both for democratic 
 national and for " pacifist international " ends. 
 The second was the Radical Party formed by the 
 dissatisfied intellectuals of the middle class. The 
 third was the Social Democratic Party of the 
 industrial workers. The National Council was 
 composed from the leaders of these three parties. 
 The National Council took charge of the govern- 
 ment readily recognized by the partisans of the 
 old regime. The king waved the oath of loyalty 
 of the Karolyi government, though just appointed 
 by himself. Soon after this, on the request of 
 a deputation, recruited from the leading men of 
 the country, the king announced formally, too, 
 the abandonment of his royal power. Both 
 Houses dissolved themselves. And the men of 
 the old era, from the members of the royal* 
 family down to the police, hastened to swear 
 their oath of loyalty to the new government. In 
 a short time the proclamation of the republic 
 followed ; with Karolyi as its president. The 
 whole nation exhibited the appearance of a unity 
 hitherto never seen. 
 
 The foundation of this unity was nothing but a 
 hope, which turned out, however, to be illusory 
 after a little while. Whatever differences of 
 opinion there were among the adherents of the old 
 and new regime, they all agreed in this that the 
 territorial integrity of the country must be pre- 
 served . at any price. The men of the new era
 
 NATIONAL RISE AND COLLAPSE. 
 
 had their trust in the Entente, thinking, that, as 
 they never sympathized with the Prussians, and 
 were always against the war, they would obtain 
 entirely different terms of peace from those the 
 men of the old regime could have obtained. They 
 were simple-minded enough to think that a nation 
 can shoulder off the consequences of a lost war 
 by changing its government. However the Entente 
 cared but little for the sort of government which 
 happened to wield the public power in Hungary. 
 The commander of the French army in the Balkans 
 showed the most humiliating rudeness in receiving 
 the peace delegation sent to him, and led by 
 Karolyi himself. Another hope too, fondly 
 cherished by many in respect of the friendly agree- 
 ment with the nationalities, proved similarly 
 illusory. A new ministry for the nationalities 
 was instituted under Oscar Jaszi, who had fought 
 already twenty years for their equal treatment. 
 But, since the war was lost, negotiation was 
 rendered useless, the subject nationalities ranging 
 themselves with the victors. 
 
 The difficulties in the situation of the new govern- 
 ment were aggravated by the discord of the three 
 amalgamated parties. None of them was qualified 
 to take the responsibility for the government of 
 the country. None of them had old reliable men 
 in sufficient numbers to perform the arduous task 
 of administration and readjustment. Indeed there 
 was no scarcity in new members. On the contrary 
 the men of the old rule were rushing in to the 
 parties of the new government through every
 
 474 THR STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 aperture. Since it was the sign of the times, that 
 the coming world would be a radical one, 
 the Social Democratic Party, considered to be 
 the most radical, became the great centre of 
 attraction. By this the party greatly swelled, but 
 lost almost all its coherent homogeneity. The 
 newly intruded members, having no political train- 
 ing whatever, pressed the leaders of the party more 
 and more to the left ; consequently the party 
 showed an ever-growing violence against the two 
 other associated parties. 
 
 Meanwhile the armies of the neighbouring 
 countries commenced to march, and penetrated 
 into Hungary deeper and deeper. The flow of 
 materials to feed industry as well as the flow 
 of food supply to feed the people in the capital 
 were blocked. Manufacturing stopped partly or 
 wholly, and famine began to spread. Owing to 
 the lost war the discipline in the workshops grew 
 slack anyhow, and the output diminished fearfully. 
 The government was compelled to distribute large 
 sums of money for the aid of the many workless. 
 Also the pay of the civil service employees had to 
 be raised. The quantity of paper money in 
 circulation swelled with leaps and bounds. Among 
 the working men, and in a part of the intellectual 
 class, Bolshevism was disseminating. The army 
 too, which, at the beginning of the new regime, 
 got under the control of the socialist party, was 
 thoroughly undermined by Bolshevism. At the 
 instigation of the Bolsheviks the multitudes of 
 the unemployed and the disabled raised repeatedly
 
 NATIONAL RISK AND COLLAPSE. 475 
 
 claims more and more impossible of satisfaction. 
 They removed the ministers of war, each after the 
 other. Then came the territorial demand of the 
 Entente through its representative, the French Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel Vix. This turn rendered the new 
 rule absolutely untenable. The Hungarian govern- 
 ment was asked to recognize the lines taken by 
 the armies of the neighbouring states and con- 
 sidered in Hungary by everyone as provisional 
 as political frontiers, until the peace conference. 
 Thus, when it became evident that the new regime 
 was unable to secure the territorial unity of the 
 country, it was doomed to fall. After the collapse 
 of both the old and the new governments there 
 was not left any political factor, save Bolshevism, 
 which was bold enough to take the responsibility 
 for the country's rule. 
 
 The whole Hungarian Bolshevik party hardly 
 counted two hundred members. The curious fact 
 that it gained the public power nevertheless can 
 be understood only by bearing in mind that all 
 the other parties were already through with their 
 respective roles. The Hungarian public, though 
 it was generally passive, showed some good will, 
 as the alliance with Bolshevik Russia opened new 
 hopes for saving the territorial integrity of Hungary. 
 Otherwise the Bolshevik rule was accompanied 
 precisely by such political and economic symp- 
 toms as in Russia. These features were terroriza- 
 tion of contrary opinions, political murders, the 
 decrease of working efficiency almost to nothing, 
 and the simultaneous decay of the entire economic
 
 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 organism. As the wages were totally independent 
 of the worker's output, nobody would work, 
 save the agriculturists who had to work to avoid 
 death by starvation. The peasants, however, 
 would not sell their provisions for a paper money 
 that would not buy anything. The Bolsheviks 
 wished to divert the attention from domestic 
 troubles by warlike foreign policy. The campaign 
 against Bohemia, which had no proper army and 
 was politically weak, began successfully. The red 
 army repelled the Czechs from the Hungarian 
 regions. But later on, since the trade unions 
 refused to fight, and to dispatch new troops, it 
 had to withdraw. This withdrawal decided the 
 doom of Bolshevism. The Rumanian war was 
 only the last desperate attempt to delay the 
 unavoidable fall. The working men were over- 
 powered by such an apathy which drowned in 
 shame the whole Rumanian enterprise. 
 
 After the Bolsheviks were defeated the Rumanian 
 army flooded Hungary. It marched into Buda- 
 Pesth, and soon spread all over the country. 
 Although this siege did not last half a year, this 
 time was long enough to inflict damages of about 
 more than a thousand million of kronen by 
 exporting machines from the factories, rolling 
 stock from the railways, agricultural implements 
 and live stock from the farms, and by seizing 
 many other goods. The fact that Rumania 
 profited but little by all that plundering, as the 
 larger part of the booty got destroyed, does not 
 diminish Hungary's damage.
 
 NATIONAL RISE AND COLLAPSE. 477 
 
 The fleeing Bolsheviks handed over the power 
 to a socialist government of the right wing. At 
 the beginning of the Rumanian siege, and with 
 Rumanian help, however, a white government 
 very soon removed, by force, this socialist govern- 
 ment. Now the work of the reaction set in. The 
 fury of revenge was directed first of all against 
 the working class, the Jews, and the intellectuals 
 of the liberal type. The persecution started in 
 full swing when the Rumanian army left, and was 
 replaced by the white army recruited at that 
 time. The men in the extreme right of the old 
 regime came now to the top. The leadership passed 
 from the hands of the more refined nobility into 
 those of the gentry, and of the lower middle 
 class just risen. Clerks and politicians, formerly 
 haranguing at suburban bars from the tops of 
 beer-barrels, advanced to the front rank. These 
 men were the makers, and instruments, of reaction. 
 They degraded Hungarian public life to a level 
 which had no precedent in the past. The elections 
 were held amidst this terror. Nominally the 
 general secret ballot, entitling also the women to 
 vote, was in vogue. In reality, however, the 
 candidates of the opposition were detained, and 
 all kinds of agitation were prohibited. The 
 socialist and liberal leaders who were not captured 
 fled abroad. The courts of law passed collective 
 sentences inflicting capital punishment, on the 
 Bolsheviks. The new legislature elected Nicolaus 
 Horthy, the commander of the white army, for 
 the governor of the country. It restored flogging
 
 478 THE STONY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 abolished in 1848. It limited the number of 
 the Jewish students permitted to register at the 
 university. The number of the interned detained 
 for years of imprisonment without judicial sentence, 
 mostly on the basis of anonymous information 
 or of the political and personal grudge of the local 
 authorities increased by thousands. The new 
 legislature had to sign, at the Trianon of Versailles, 
 the peace treaty, despoiling Hungary of two-thirds 
 of her area, and of three-fifths of her population, 
 and in addition opened the possibility of throwing 
 on Hungary burdens which she could bear still 
 less than Germany. 
 
 After two years this legislature was dissolved. 
 The suffrage for the new National Assembly was 
 modified by government order so as to exclude the 
 majority of women and a considerable part of the 
 workmen from the enjoyment of political rights. 
 Besides, the secret ballot was abrogated in the 
 country districts. Of course, the government 
 party was returned to the legislature with a large 
 majority. Nevertheless, as the electioneering terror 
 was partly milder, partly less thoroughly organized, 
 than at the former election, . the opposition too 
 could boast of a considerable success. In the 
 overwhelming majority of the districts with secret 
 ballot the opposition came out victorious. In 
 the capital, where the use of proportional election 
 for protecting the minorities appeared more advan- 
 tageous to the government, open government 
 lists of candidates were not published at all. Yet 
 the ministers, nominated mostly in districts with
 
 NATIONAL RISE AND COLLAPSE. 479 
 
 secret ballot, suffered defeat in several contests. 
 The Social Democratic Party, hitherto never repre- 
 sented in Parliament, won twenty-four districts. 
 The new assembly, compared with the old, shows 
 some advance both in its composition and activity. 
 All the same the country is still far from being 
 consolidated. The wide gulf between classes, and 
 races, cannot be bridged. The ferocity of political 
 persecution relented only, but did not cease. 
 And the military force does not yet co-operate 
 with the civil authorities as definitely as one 
 would have it. 
 
 Consolidation is hampered also by the unsettled 
 state of the constitution. Formally Hungary 
 replaced the republic again by monarchy. But 
 the royal throne is vacant. The late king, although 
 he renounced his throne, attempted twice to 
 regain it. Thereby he only aggravated Hungary's 
 grave situation, invoking the danger of inter- 
 ference on the part of her neighbours. On the 
 Entente's pressure the royal government itself had 
 to remove the king. On the second occasion this 
 was done after an armed combat. The king was 
 deported to the island of Madeira, where he died. 
 The " legitimists " look upon the son of the departed 
 king as the lawful king. Legitimists are, in the 
 first place, the families of the high aristocracy 
 whose social dignity rests on the king, the 
 highest dignity by birth and tradition. There are 
 also such royalists as do not stick to the Hapsburg 
 dynasty. They were glad to have a king, to 
 secure the friendship of a great power for Hungary.
 
 480 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Since both the Entente and the adjoining countries 
 are against the Hapsburgs, there are such formid- 
 able difficulties in the way of filling the throne 
 that Hungary is likely to remain a republic in 
 fact, if not in law for a long time to come. The 
 working class is republican, as a matter of course. 
 The peasants are wholly indifferent, and their 
 royalist sentiments are luke-warm, at best. 
 
 The most appalling impediment, however, in 
 the course of consolidation is the peace treaty, 
 by the dismemberment of Hungary. This is much 
 more than a mere national grievance. It is the 
 defiant breach of principles asserting themselves 
 with the utmost vigour in all the civilized countries. 
 Nay, the Entente powers conducted the world 
 war for the victory of these principles. The 
 inhabitants of the regions cut off from Hungary 
 had no occasion to express any opinion, whether 
 they want or do not want to join the country 
 which they must belong to at present. After all, 
 this point of view may claim appreciation, or at 
 least a hearing and understanding. There is no 
 nation on earth which would and could consider 
 its own mutilation, on whatever title, as anything 
 like fair. If the majority of the persons interested 
 would vote for the mutilation, then the force of 
 a nation's protest would be counteracted, at least 
 abroad. However, it is absolutely certain that 
 the pure Hungarian regions, like the banks of 
 the Danube (Csallokoz, Komarom) attached to 
 Czecho-Slovakia ; Nagyvarad, Arad, Szatmar, etc., 
 allotted to Rumania, and in general all the
 
 NATIONAL RISE AND COLLAPSE. 48! 
 
 Hungarian regions which are connected geographi- 
 cally too with the Magyar ethnographic area 
 are severed from Hungary against their own will. 
 It must be regarded as wholly impossible to force, 
 in our present Europe, any large masses of peoples 
 to remain for some longer period the subjects of 
 states foreign to them. 
 
 A proposition which would solve the problem 
 of the political frontiers within the old monarchy 
 to the satisfaction of all concerned cannot be 
 suggested here. Notwithstanding, it is possible to 
 advocate arrangements which would reduce the 
 significance of political boundaries almost to 
 nothing. Two things are needed for such an 
 arrangement : the effective protection of the rights 
 of minorities, and free trade. Once possessed of 
 these, surely the nation will care far less about 
 the line where their own country ends and the 
 adjoining one begins.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Abdi Pasha surrenders Buda to 
 
 Duke Charles, 332 
 Academy of Sciences at Buda- 
 
 Pesth founded, 407 
 Adalbert, St. , Bishop of Prague, 56 
 Agram, Bishopric of, founded, in 
 Ahmed Pasha, besieges Temesvar, 
 302 ; takes fortress, 305 ; be- 
 sieges Erlau, 308 ; is repulsed, 
 
 3H 
 Albert, Emperor of Germany, 
 
 comes to the assistance of Wen- 
 
 ceslaus, 153 
 Albert, King of Hungary, dies, 
 
 210 
 
 Aladar and Csaba, sons of Attila, 
 30 
 
 Albert, Duke of Poland, lays 
 waste Hungary, 262 
 
 Albrecht, Archduke, 438 
 
 Alfold (Lowland), taken by the 
 Turks, 340 ; colonized by the 
 Servians, 361 ; depopulated, 368 
 
 Ali, Pasha of Buda, besieges Dre- 
 gel, 299 ; clemency to two 
 youths, 300 ; takes Dregel, 301 ; 
 generosity to remains of Szondi, 
 301 
 
 Aliportug, 315 
 
 Almos, first duke of the Huns, 36 ; 
 oath to, 36 
 
 Almos, brother of Coloman, rebel- 
 lion of, 116; defeated 116 ; de- 
 prived of sight, 116 ; rebels 
 against Stephen II., 116 ; dies, 
 117 
 
 Altai Mountains, cradle of Magyar 
 race, 32 
 
 Anagarini, John, Papal envoy to 
 Matthias, 236 
 
 Andrassy, Count, 439 
 
 Andrew, Prince, rebellion of, 60 ; 
 made king, 6 1 ; issues rigorous 
 laws, 6l 
 
 Andrew I., King of Hungary, 
 1 02 ; victories over pagan reb- 
 els, 103 ; gives one third of his 
 realm to Bela, 103 ; son born, 
 104 ; feud with Bela, 105 ; de- 
 feated by Bela, 106 
 
 Andrew, brother of Emeric, 123 ; 
 defeats Emeric and proclaims 
 himself Duke of Croatia, Dal- 
 matia, Rama, and Chulmia, 123 ; 
 captured by Emeric, 124 ; made 
 guardian of his nephew, 125 
 
 Andrew II., ascends the throne, 
 125 ; under his wife's dominion, 
 125 ; weakness of, 126; cam- 
 paign in Galicia, 126 ; goes to 
 the Holy Land, 129; grants 
 "Golden Bull," 129; dies, 
 
 133 
 Andrew III., ascends the throne, 
 
 149 ; death, 150 
 Andrew, son of Charles of Anjou, 
 
 betrothed to Joanna of Naples, 
 
 164 ; assassinated, 166 
 Anjou, house of first king, 151 
 Anna, daughter of Uladislaus, 265; 
 
 betrothed to Ferdinand, son of 
 
 Maximilian, 266 
 Anna, Duchess of Teschen, mother 
 
 of Stephen Szapolyai, 265
 
 48 4 
 
 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Anna of Candal, wife of Uladis- 
 
 laus, dies, 276 
 Anna Pekry, wife of Losonczy, 
 
 tries to raise money for her 
 
 besieged husband, 303 
 Apaffy, Prince of Transylvania, 
 
 357 
 
 Apors, 147 
 
 Apotheosis of Augustus, 1 8 
 Arnulph, King of Germany, 39 
 Arpad, first ruler of Hungary, 42 ; 
 death, 44 ; house of, 97 ; ex- 
 tinction of, 149 
 Astrik, mission to Rome, j6 
 Attila, pushes forward, 23 ; death 
 of, 24 ; sons of, contend for 
 possession of empire, 24 ; Ala- 
 dar and Csaba, sons of, 30 
 Augsburg, victory near, 48 
 Aurelian, withdraws legions, 32 ; 
 
 allows Goths to settle, 23 
 Austrian government persecutes 
 the Protestants, 344 ; encourages 
 the Catholics, 347 ; defeated by 
 Kossuth, 431 ; declared to have 
 forfeited its right to Hungary, 
 432 
 Austria, supremacy comes to an 
 
 end, 438 
 Austria-Hungary, new kingdom 
 
 of, 440 
 
 Avars, first appearance, 24 ; con- 
 quered by the Franks, 25 
 
 B 
 
 Bajan, prince of the Avars, 25 
 
 Bajazet, on Hungarian soil, 182 ; 
 defeats Sigismund, 184 
 
 Bakacs, Thomas, archbishop, as- 
 pires to the papal see, 268 ; or- 
 ganizes crusade against the 
 Turks, 268 ; appointed guardian 
 to Louis, 276 
 
 Balassa, Valentine, 318 ; takes part 
 in the storming of Gran, 319 
 
 Balkan Peninsula, appearance of 
 Turks on, 299 
 
 Barbara, wife of Sigismund, nego- 
 giateswith Ladislaus III. of Po- 
 land, 193 ; imprisoned, 193 
 
 Bardico, John, captain of the re- 
 public of Venice, 180 
 
 Bathory, Stephen, traitor to the son 
 of Matthias, 261, 285 ; at battle 
 of Mohacs, 288 
 
 Batthyanyi, Count Louis, deputy 
 from county of Pesth, 121 ; pres- 
 ident of new ministry, 424 
 
 Batu Khan, lead* Mongolians 
 across the Carpathian range, 
 138 ; massacres Kuthen, defeats 
 Bela at Muhi, 139 ; retreats from 
 Trau, 141 
 
 Bavaria, invaded by the Hungari- 
 ans, 48 
 
 Bazarad, Ban Michael, ruler of 
 Wallachia, revolt of, 160 
 
 Beatrice, daughter of the king of 
 Naples, wife of Matthias, 234 ; 
 favors candidature of Maximill- 
 ian of Germany, 260 
 
 Bela, Adalbert, brother of Andrew, 
 103; defeats Henry III., 103; 
 popularity of, 104 ; feud with 
 Andrew, 105 ; conquers Andrew, 
 106 ; proclaimed king, 106 
 
 Bela I., rebellion against, 106 ; 
 sons of, resign claim to throne in 
 favor of Solomon, 107 
 
 Bela II., son of Almos, ascends 
 the throne, 117 ; Ilona, wife of, 
 117; vengeance of, at Arad ,117; 
 dies, 118 ; Geyza II., son of, 118 
 
 Bela III., brother of Stephen III., 
 98 ; goes to Constantinople, 119 ; 
 adopted by Manuel, 119; takes 
 oath never to attack the Greek 
 empire, 119; returns to his na- 
 tive country and ascends throne, 
 120 ; restores order, 120 ; intro- 
 duction through wives of German 
 and French manners, 122 ; Eme- 
 ric, son of, 123 ; dies, 123. 
 
 Bela IV., ascends the throne, 133 ; 
 drives back Frederic, of Austria, 
 134 ; admits Kuthen, king of the 
 Kuns, and his people into the 
 land, 135 ; defeated by the Mon- 
 golians at Muhi, 139 ; flees to 
 Spalato, then to Trau, 141 ; re-
 
 INDEX. 
 
 485 
 
 turns to Hungary, 141 ; strives to 
 revive his desolated country, 
 142 ; founds Buda,i44 ; triumphs 
 over Frederick, of Austria, 144 ; 
 dies, 145 
 
 Belgrade, Turks defeated by Hun- 
 yadi at, 214 ; taken by the Turks, 
 284 
 
 Benedek, Marshal, 438 
 
 Beni, 431 
 
 Bethlen, Gabriel, Prince of Tran- 
 sylvania, leads the Czechs and 
 Protestants of Hungary, and 
 takes Presburg,348 ; makes terms 
 with Viennese government, 348 ; 
 dies, 350 
 
 Black 'Jroop, organized by Mat- 
 thias, 224 
 
 Bocskay, Stephen, Prince of Tran- 
 sylvania, leads insurrection 
 against the Hapsburgs, 345 ; 
 proclaimed king of Hungary by 
 the Turks, 345 ; counsels a con- 
 ciliatory policy, 346 
 
 Bonafini, lectures of, at the court of 
 Matthias, 249 
 
 Brankovitch, Prince of Servia, 212 
 
 Branyiszko, 431 
 
 Brebiris the, 147 
 
 Bruno, 56 
 
 Buda, assembly of lords at, 184 ; 
 under Matthias, 252 ; founded by 
 Bela IV., 144 ; captured by Soly- 
 man the Magnificent, 289 ; re- 
 stored to Hungary, 332 ; diet at, 
 386 
 
 Buda-Pesth, 10 ; statue of Stephen 
 Szechenyi at, 400 ; national ca- 
 sino at, 411 ; newspaper started 
 at, by Kossuth, 415 ; real capital, 
 422 ; revolution in, 422 ; seat of 
 government, 428 
 
 Capistrano, John, preaches a cru- 
 sade against the Turks, 213 
 
 Caraffa, 360 
 
 Carlowitz, treaty of peace signed 
 at, 334 
 
 Carpathian range, I 
 
 Casimir, King of Poland, 159 ; ac- 
 knowledges Louis, son of Charles 
 of Anjou, his heir, 162 ; dies, 171 
 
 Census in Hungary opposed, 384 
 
 Charles Robert, of Anjou, ascends 
 the throne, 151 ; crowned the 
 fourth time, 154 ; defeats Mat- 
 thias Czak, 157 ; introduces chiv- 
 alry, 158 ; popularity, 159 ; es- 
 capes from Wallachia, 161 ; ac- 
 quires Naples and Poland, 162 ; 
 arranges with Cassius, King of 
 Poland, that Poland should" de- 
 scend to Louis, his son, 162 ; 
 death, 164 
 
 Charles of Durazzo conquers Na- 
 ples, 168 ; crowned at Stuhlweis- 
 senburg, 177 ; death, 178 
 
 Charles IV., of Germany, suspi- 
 ious of Louis of Hungary, 170 ; 
 
 Charles, Duke of Lorraine, routs 
 the Turks, 331 ; takes Buda, 
 332 ; conquers at Mohacs, 333 
 
 Charles III. of Austria and Hun- 
 gary inaugurates new policy, 368 
 
 Church of Hungary, relations with 
 the Vatican, 186 
 
 Church of Rome, condition of, 187 
 
 Christianity, victory of, 60 
 
 Cities, franchises of, 186 ; privi- 
 leges of, 343 
 
 Climate, 9 
 
 Coloman, ascends throne, 114 ; 
 drives crusaders away, 114; 
 receives Godfrey of Bouillon, 
 114; increases domains, 115; 
 styles himself King of Croa- 
 tia and Dalmatia," 115 ; called 
 Konyves, a bookish king, 115; 
 Brother Almos rebels 115 ; ad- 
 ministers justice, 115 ; Stephen, 
 son of, 116 
 
 Congress of Vienna, 404 
 
 Conrad, death of, 50 
 
 Conrad II., Emperor of Ger- 
 many, 88 ; war with Stephen, 
 89 
 
 Constantinople, capital of the 
 Turkish empire, 212
 
 486 
 
 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Constitution, 16 ; restored to Hun- 
 gary, 437 
 
 Constitutional monarchy estab- 
 lished, 424 ; enthusiasm for, 
 424 
 
 Corvinus, John, son of Matthias, 
 candidate for the throne, 259 
 
 Council of Constance, 190 
 
 County assemblies, 437 
 
 Court of Matthias, 250 
 
 Cracow, coronation of Louis of 
 Hungary at, 172 
 
 Croatia added to Hungary, in ; 
 dissatisfaction in, 176 ; old con- 
 stitution restored to, 437 
 
 Croats, incited by the Viennese 
 government against the Hun- 
 garians, 420 ; rebel, 426 ; de- 
 feated, 428 
 
 Crown, double, of Hungary re- 
 moved by Joseph IV. to Vi- 
 enna 382 ; sent back to Buda, 
 386 
 
 Crusade, 114; third, 122 ; against 
 the Turks, 213 ; proclaimed, 268 
 
 Csak, Matthias, 159; marauding 
 expeditions from the castle of 
 Trecsen, 155 ; excommunication 
 of, 156 ; defeated by Charles 
 Robert of Anjou at Kassa, 
 157 ; dies a horrible death, 157 
 
 Csak (family), 147 ; extermination 
 of, 159 
 
 Csaky, Nicholas, killed, 271 
 
 Cselenyi, John, 160 
 
 Culture, renaissance of, 247 
 
 Curia regia, supreme court of ju- 
 dicature, 437 
 
 Custozza, battle of, 438 
 
 Czechs, clamors of, against Hun- 
 gary, 203 ; routed on plain of 
 Morava, 146 ; joined by the 
 Protestants in insurrection 
 against the Hapsburgs, 348 ; 
 routed by Tilly near Prague, 
 348 
 
 D 
 
 Dacia, province of, 20 
 Damjanics, 431 
 
 Danube Steam Navigation Com- 
 pany, 411 
 
 Debruzen, seat of government, 
 430 
 
 Deak, Francis, 414 ; minister of 
 justice, 424 ; heads representa- 
 tive committee, 437 
 
 Diakovar, 179 
 
 Diet (1567) inveighs against the 
 foreign soldiery, 341 ; religious 
 discussion in, prohibited by Ru- 
 dolph, 345 ; minority of Prot- 
 estants in, 358 ; relinquishes 
 the people's right, 360 ; at Buda, 
 386389 ; removed to Presburg, 
 387 ; reforms institutions of 
 Hungary, 423 ; removed to 
 Buda-Pesth, 427 ; driven to 
 Pubreczen, 430 ; declares the 
 house of Hapsburg to have for- 
 feited its right to Hungary, 432 ; 
 dissolution of 437 ; opened by 
 the emperor, 438 
 
 Dobo, Stephen, commandant at 
 Erlau, 307 ; repulses the Turks, 
 
 3" 
 
 Dobozy, Michael, flight and death 
 of, 293 
 
 Dozsa George, made leader of cru- 
 sade, 270 ; leads his men against 
 the nobles, 271 ; besieges Tem- 
 esvar, is defeated and executed, 
 272 
 
 Dragfy, John, Chief-Justice, at the 
 battle of Mohacs, 287 
 
 Dregel, taken by the Turks under 
 Ali Pasha, 300 ; monumental 
 chapel erected at, 301 
 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew 
 III., 151 
 
 Elizabeth, wife of Charles of 
 Anjou, builds cathedral at 
 Kassa, 162 ; goes to Naples in 
 aid of her son Andrew, 162 
 
 Elizabeth, wife of Louis of Hun- 
 gary, offers to Poland her daugh-
 
 INDEX. 
 
 48; 
 
 ter Hedwig as queen, 176 ; 
 strangled, 179 
 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Sigismuncl, 
 married to Albert of Austria, 186 
 
 Emeric, son of Stephen, go ; educa- 
 tion of, 90 ; death of, 94 
 
 Emeric, son of Bela III., ascends 
 the throne, 123 ; defeated by 
 Andrew, 123 ; dies, 125. 
 
 Emperor and Pope, rivalry of, 70 
 
 Eperjes, bloody tribunal of, 360 
 
 Erlau besieged by Ahmed Pasha, 
 308 
 
 Eugene, Duke of Savoy, assumes 
 commandership of Hungarian 
 forces, 333 ; annihilates a Turk- 
 ish army, 334 ; defeats the Turks 
 near Peterwardein, 335 ; defeats 
 the Turks, 359 
 
 Europe threatened by a new foe, 
 170 
 
 Ferdinand of Austria, elected king 
 of Hungary 295 ; king of Bohe- 
 mia, 338 
 
 Ferdinand II., cousin of Matthias, 
 King of Bohemia, 347 
 
 Ferdinand V., King of Hungary, 
 
 424 
 
 Field of Blood, 396 
 
 Fiume, city of, 7 ; given to Hun- 
 gary by Maria Teresa, 371 
 
 France, revolution in, 386 
 
 Francis I., of France, stirs up Soiy- 
 man, 286 
 
 Francis I., crowned, 390 ; perse- 
 cutes enlightened men 396 ; arbi- 
 trary government, 398 ; returns 
 to constitutional government, 
 
 399 
 
 Francis, Joseph, enters into alli- 
 ance with Czar of Russia, 432 ; 
 visits Hungary, 436 
 
 Frangepan Christopher, 267 ; con- 
 spires against Leopold I., 355 ! 
 beheaded, 355 
 
 Frederic Barbarossa leads third 
 crusade, 122 
 
 Frederic, Duke of Austria, defeat- 
 ed by Bela IV., 144 ; dies, 144 
 
 French enter Hungary, 397; defeat 
 the Hungarians near Raab, 398 
 
 Fuggers, the, 279 
 
 Fi'mfkirchen (Pecs), University of, 
 174 
 
 G 
 
 Galambocz, siege of, 191 
 
 Galicia, campaign in, 126 
 
 Garay, palatine of Croatia, 176 ; 
 defends the queens and dies, 178 
 
 George of Brandenburg, appointed 
 guardian to Louis 276 
 
 Gepidse, ruling people in Hungary, 
 24 
 
 Gerhard, St., death, 61 
 
 Germans, defeat of, 44 ; victory 
 of, 48 ; in Hungary, 322 
 
 German confederation dissolved, 
 433 
 
 Gertrude, wife of Andrew II., 125 
 
 Geyza II., ascends throne, 109 ; 
 son of Bela, 1 18 ; hostilities, 118 ; 
 dies, 118 ; Stephen III., son of, 
 118 
 
 Gisella, wife of Stephen, 69 
 
 Golden Bull, 99 ; rights granted 
 by, relinquished by diet, 360 
 
 Gorgei, commander-in-chief of the 
 Hungarian army, 430 ; surren- 
 ders, 433 
 
 Gran (Esztergrom), capital of Hun- 
 gary, 68 
 
 Gregory VII., claims submission 
 from Ladislaus, no 
 
 Grosswardein, Tomb of Ladislaus, 
 112 ; Hungarian victory at, 168 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus, 350 
 
 Guyon, 431 
 
 Gyula, Duke, rebellion of, 60 ; de- 
 feated, 60 
 
 H 
 
 Hajnoczi, Joseph, 393 ; arrested, 
 
 395 
 Hapsburg, house of, rulers of 
 
 Hungary, 337 ; Rudolph of, 145 
 Hatvan, diet at, 280
 
 488 
 
 THE STORY OF HUNGARY, 
 
 Haynau, Baron, persecutes the pa- 
 triots, 434 
 
 Hedervari, Francis, deserts Bel- 
 grade, 284 
 
 Hedwig, daughter of Louis of 
 Hungary, marries Duke Jagello, 
 174 ; becomes queen of Poland, 
 
 175 
 
 Henry the Fowler, 47 
 
 Henry II. of Germany, 88 
 
 Henry III. visits Stephen, 89 
 
 Horvathy, John, attacks the two 
 queens near Diakovar, 179 
 
 Holubar, contest with Matthias, 
 229 
 
 Horse-racing introduced into Hun- 
 gary, 41 1 
 
 Hungarian Alps, 6 
 
 Hungarians (early), legends in re- 
 gard to origin, 27 ; invade Ger- 
 many, 42 ; invade Italy, 44 ; 
 incursion into Germany and 
 France, 46 ; disasters of, 56 
 
 Hungary, topography and climate, 
 I ; cities of, 16 ; conquest by fhe 
 I Inns, 39 ; invasion by Luitpold 
 andDitmar, 44; under two kings, 
 295 ; reduced to an Austrian 
 province, 356; reorganized " by 
 government of Vienna, 361 ; 
 material condition improved by 
 Maria Teresa, 372 ; German 
 made the official language, 382; 
 new laws, 423 ; recovers her 
 national rights, 456 
 
 Huns, first appearance, 23; of 
 Turkish extraction, 33 ; seven 
 dukes of, 34 ; mode of warfare, 
 37 ; conquer Hungary, 39 
 
 Hunyadi, John, 194 ; defeats the 
 Turks, 197 ; gallantry, 198 ; tri- 
 umphs in the Balkan passes, 
 205 ; victorious at Varna, 207 ; 
 defeated, 209; governor of Hun- 
 gary, 210 ; unites with the Al- 
 banians, 2ii ; defeated, 211; 
 death, 215 
 
 Hunyor, 28 ; settlement of pro- 
 geny, 29 
 
 Huss, John, 189 
 
 Illeshazy, 344 
 
 Ilona, wife of Bela II., 117; opens 
 diet at Arad, 117; orders mas- 
 sacre at Arad, 1 1 7 
 Industrial and commercial status, 
 
 16 
 
 Iron gate (Vaskapu), 5, 411 
 Ishak, pasha of Semendria, 198 
 Izolda, nurse of Andrew, 165 
 
 J 
 
 Jacobins, Hungarian league of, 392 
 
 Jagello, Duke of Lithuania, mar- 
 ries Hedvig, a daughter of Louis 
 of Hungary, 174 
 
 James, son of Vatha, leads pagan 
 rebellion against Bela I., 107; 
 defeated, 107 
 
 Jellachich, Ban, leader of the 
 Croats, 426 ; defeated, 428 
 
 Jesuits inaugurate Thirty Years' 
 War, 347 
 
 Joanna of Naples, wife of An- 
 drew, conspires against her hus- 
 band, 165 ; marries Louis of 
 Taranto, 167; sentenced by the 
 Pope, 1 68 
 
 Jokai, Maurus, 422 
 
 Joseph I., Emperor of Austria and 
 King of Hungary, 366 : grants 
 amnesty to the insurgents, 367 
 
 Joseph II., sends crown back to 
 Buda, 36 ; death, 386 
 
 Joseph II. refuses to receive the 
 crown of Hungary, 375 ; called 
 the " kalapos" king, 375 ; wages 
 war against the Hungarian na- 
 tionality, 376; reigns as absolute 
 sovereign, 278 ; hated by the 
 people, 380 ; gives religious free- 
 dom to the Protestants, 380 ; 
 shocks the religious feelings of 
 the Hungarians, 381 ; removes 
 double crown to Vienna, 382 ; 
 makes, by edict, German the 
 official language of Hungary, 
 382 ; declares war against Tur- 
 key, 385
 
 INDEX. 
 
 48 9 
 
 Julius II , 268 
 
 juranics, Lawrence, 317 ; death 
 
 at siege of Szigetvar, 317 
 Juricsies, Michael, commander of 
 
 Koszeg, 297 ; saves Austria, 298 
 
 K 
 
 Kaan, Prince, defeated by Ste- 
 phen, 60 
 
 " Kalandos " Society, 281 
 
 Karolyi, Alexander, 335 
 
 Kassa, battle of, 157 ; cathedral 
 of, 162 ; given to the Catholics, 
 
 344 
 
 Kazinczy, Francis, regenerator cf 
 Hungarian literature, 394 ; im- 
 prisonment of, 396 
 
 Kiev, fate of, 136 
 
 Kieystut, Prince of Lithuania, 168 
 
 Kinizsy, Paul, captain of Matthias, 
 230 ; traitor to the son of Mat- 
 thias, 261; massacres Hungarian 
 soldiers near Halos, 264; dies, 
 264 
 
 Kisfaludy, Charles, 285 
 
 Klapa, 431; defends Komarom, 
 
 433 
 
 Komarom, 431 ; taken by the Im- 
 perialists, 433 
 
 Kont, Stephen, of Hedervar, death, 
 181 
 
 Kopan, rebellion of, 59 ; death of, 
 60 
 
 Korogi, Peter, of the wonderful 
 stomach, 277 
 
 Kosovo, battle of, 186 
 
 Kossuth, Louis, rival of Szechenyi, 
 412 ; refuses to be bought by the 
 government, 415 ; starts news- 
 paper, 415 : imprisoned, 416 ; 
 pardoned, 417 ; obtains permis- 
 sion to edit a paper, 517; at- 
 tacked by the press, 418; deputy 
 from the county of Pesth, 421 ; 
 asks for responsible ministry, 
 421 ; Minister of Finance, 424 ; 
 introduces motions in Assembly, 
 427 ; head of the government, 
 430 ; exile, 434. 
 
 Koszeg, refuses to do homage to 
 Solyman, 297 ; siege of, 298 
 
 Krafi Bey, death of, 208 
 
 Kuns (Cumanians), routed by 
 Ladislaus, in ; under Kuthen, 
 settle in Hungary, 135 ; cruel- 
 ties,i52 ; devastate Moravia,i7o 
 
 Kurucz-Labancz era, 357 
 
 Kurucs, rebellion, 268; insurgents, 
 
 357 ; receives aid from the 
 French, Porte, and Transylvania, 
 
 358 ; led by Tokolyi, 358 ; led 
 by Francis Rakoczy II., 363 ; 
 demands of, 394 
 
 Kuthen, King of the Kuns, settles 
 in Hungary, 135 ; massacred by 
 Batu Khan, 138 
 
 L 
 
 Labancz (Austrians), 357 ; surren- 
 der, 358 
 Laczkovics, John, 393 ; arrested, 
 
 395 
 
 Ladislaus, son of Bela, 109 ; as- 
 cends throne, 109 ; character of, 
 no ; sides with Pope, no ; ex- 
 tends his kingdom, in ; routs 
 the Kuns, ill ; laws of, 112 ; 
 buried at Grosswardein, 112 ; 
 apparition of, 168 
 
 Ladislaus, son of Emeric, dies, 
 125 
 
 Ladislaus IV., 155 ; defeats Otto- 
 kar, 146 ; alliance with Rudolph, 
 147 ; death, 148 
 
 Ladislaus of Naples, penetrates 
 into the interior of Hungary, 
 186; defeated, 186 
 
 Ladislaus V., King of Hungary, 
 
 212 
 
 Ladislaus, son of Hunyadi, assas- 
 sinated, 21 8 
 
 Lands of the Sacred Crown, 374 
 Language, regulated according to 
 nationality, 436 ; Magyar recog- 
 y nized as the official language. 
 
 437 
 
 Lazarevitch, Stephen, Prince of 
 Servia, 191
 
 490 
 
 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Lehel, Duke, death of, 50 
 
 Leo the Wise, Emperor of Byzan- 
 tium, 39 
 
 Leo X., Pope, 268 
 
 Leopold I., tries to conciliate the 
 Turks, 33 [ ; defeats George 
 Rakoczy II., 352 ; defeated by 
 the Turks near Raab, 353 ; en- 
 deavors to make homogeneous 
 empire, 354 ; imposes land and 
 corn tax, 355 ; death, 366 
 
 Leopold II., ascends the throne, 
 387 ; crowned, 389 ; death, 390 
 
 Library of Matthias, 252; destroyed 
 by Solyman, 289 
 
 Linz, Peace of, 327 
 
 Lissa, naval battle at, 438 
 
 Literature, leaders in, 404 
 
 Lithuanian insurrection, 172 
 
 Logody, Simon, heroically defends 
 Shabatz, 224 
 
 Longobards, invited by Justinian 
 to settle in Pannonnia, 24 ; col- 
 lision between, and Gepidae, 25 
 
 Losonczy, Stephen, commander of 
 garrison at Temesvar, 302 ; be- 
 sieged by Ahmed Pasha, 302 ; 
 tries to raise money, 303 ; writes 
 last letters, 304 ; withdraws 
 troops, 305 ; death, 305 
 
 Louis of Taranto marries Joan- 
 na, widow of Andrew, 167 
 
 Louis Laczfy, voyvode of Tran- 
 sylvania, defeated at Gross- 
 wardein, 168 
 
 Louis, son of Charles of Anjou, 
 acknowledged heir to the throne 
 of Poland, 162 ; ascends Hun- 
 garian throne, 164 ; swears re- 
 venge for his brother's death, 
 166 ; subdues Naples, 167 ; puts 
 tn end to incursions from the 
 East, 168 ; Servian victories, 
 169 ; Venetian victories, 169 ; 
 offered the German crown, 170 ; 
 crowned king of Poland, 172 ; 
 death, 174 
 
 Louis II., son of Uladislaus, born, 
 266 ; crowned, 276 ; poverty of, 
 277 ; marries Mary of Austria, 
 
 283 ; defeated and killed at Mo- 
 hacs, 289 
 Lukacs, Bishop of Cenad, 263 
 
 M 
 
 Magyars, 28 ; rebellion against, in 
 
 997, 59 
 
 Manuel, Emperor of the East, 
 118 ; offers peace to the Hunga- 
 rians, 118 ; promises to adopt 
 Bela heir, 119 
 
 Marcomanni, the, invasion of, 21 
 
 Maria Teresa, policy of, 368 ; ap- 
 peals to the Hungarians, 370 ; 
 gives Fiume to Hungary, 371 ; 
 improves the material condition 
 of Hungary, 372 
 
 Maritza, defeat of the Turks at, 
 
 I?! 
 
 Martinovics, Ignatius, leader of 
 Hungarian Jacobins, 392 ; ar- 
 rested, 395 
 
 Marton, Father, embassy of, to Ali 
 Pasha, 300 
 
 Mary, daughter of Louis of Hun- 
 gary ; betrothed to Sigismund, 
 son of the Emperor Charles IV., 
 170 ; proclaimed queen of Hun- 
 gary, 175 ; marriage of, 176; 
 made prisoner, 179 ; dies, 183 
 
 Mary, widow of Louis I., flies to 
 Presburg, 292 
 
 Matthias, son of Hunyadi, pro- 
 claimed king, 217; chivalric 
 character of, 220 ; victories over 
 the German knight Holubar, 
 220 ; captures Vienna, 222 ; or- 
 ganizes Black Troop, 224 ; lays 
 siege to Shabatz, 224 ; anec- 
 dotes of, 226 ; campaign against 
 Frederic, 229 ; sends embassy 
 to France, 233 ; to Naples, 234 ; 
 reforms the laws, 240 ; capacity, 
 243 ; increases royal revenue, 
 246 ; dies, 256 
 
 Matthias, successor to Rudolph, 
 346 
 
 Maximilian, treaty with Uladis- 
 laus, 266
 
 INDEX. 
 
 491 
 
 Maximilian of Austria, King of 
 
 Hungary, 341 
 PJelancholy Magyars, 49 
 Merseburg, battle of, 47 
 Meszaros, Lawrence, 270 
 Metternich, Prince, 408, 421 
 Mezid Bey, dispatched by the Sul- 
 tan against the Hungarians, 198 
 Miecislas, wife ef Bela, 103 
 Mohacs, battle at, 288 ; slaughter 
 
 at, 292 
 
 Mohammed I., Sultan, 190 ; Vice- 
 roy of Hervoga, 191 
 Mohammed II. makes Constanti- 
 nople his capital, 212 
 Mongolians, invasion of, 137 ; de- 
 feat the Hungarians at Muhi, 
 139 ; retreat of, 141 
 Money (paper), issue of, 398 
 Morava or March, plain of, route 
 
 of the Czech armies, 146 
 More, Michael, treachery of, 284 
 Muhi, battle of, 139 
 Murad, Sultan, death, 182 
 Mustapha II., Sultan, defeated by 
 Duke Eugene near Zentu, 334 
 
 N 
 
 Nadasdy conspires against Leo- 
 pold, I ; seized and beheaded, 
 
 355 
 
 Nagy, Paul, 407 
 Nagy, Simon, 229 
 Napoleon endeavors to tempt the 
 Hungarians from their Austrian 
 allegiance, 397 
 National Assembly, 427 
 National Breeding Association, 411 
 National casino at Buda-Pesth, 
 
 411 
 
 National exhibition (1885), 17 
 National museum of Buda-Pesth, 
 
 402 
 
 Nicopolis, battle near, 183 
 Nickolsburg, treaty of, 328 
 Nobles arm under Bathory (Comes) 
 and Csaky, 271 ; oppose the Aus- 
 trian government, 343 ; poll-lax 
 imposed upon by Leopold I., 356 
 
 Ilonvdds, national guard, 427 
 Nyary. Paul, leader of the op- 
 position, 428 
 
 O 
 
 Olah, Blasius, 284 
 
 Ostyaks, 32 
 
 Ottakar, King of Bohemia, over- 
 thrown by Bela IV. and his 
 sons, 145 
 
 Otto the Bavarian, assists Wences- 
 laus, 153 ; decoyed by the ray- 
 vode of Transylvania, 154 
 
 Otto the Great, of Germany, 48 
 
 Palace of Matthias, 252 ; sacked 
 
 by Solyman, 295 
 Palreologos, John (Emperor of the 
 
 East), 171 ; visits Buda, 171 
 Palisna, John, delivers up Mary, 
 
 wife of Sigismund, to Venice, 
 
 180 
 
 Pannonians, 18 
 Parliament (diet), 16 ; at Arad, 
 
 117 
 
 Patriots, persecutions of, 434 
 Pazmany, Cardinal Peter, 326 ; 
 
 primate of Hungary, 347 
 Peasants, condition of, 269 ; op- 
 pressive laws for, 274 
 Peasant war, 267 ; end of, 273 
 Perenyi, Francis, Bishop of Gross- 
 
 wardein, 287 
 Persecutions, 391 
 Pesti Hirlap (Pesth newspaper), 
 
 417 
 Petchenegs, defeated by Stephen, 
 
 79 
 
 Peter, successor to Stephen, 100 , 
 asks help of the German em- 
 peror, 100 ; takes oath of fealty 
 to Germany, 100 ; rebellion 
 against, 101 ; prisoner and de- 
 prived of sight, 102 
 
 Peterwardein, 287 
 
 Petofi, Alexander, 422 ; death, 433 
 
 Philip of Taranto, son of Cather- 
 ine of Valois, at Naples, 165
 
 492 
 
 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Pilgrin, Bishop of Passau, 55 
 
 Piso, Jacob, teacher of Louis 
 
 Podrebrad, George, King of the 
 Czechs, 242 
 
 Poland, troubles in, 172 
 
 Political divisions, 9 
 
 Porte, secretly promises aid against 
 the Austrians, 357 
 
 Pragmatic Sanction, 369 
 
 Prague, root of the Czechs at, 
 348 ; peace of, 438 
 
 Press, liberty of, gained by the 
 Revolution in 1848, 422 
 
 Presburg, battle of, 45 ; taken by 
 the Turks, 293 ; taken by Beth- 
 len, 348 ; diet at, 389 
 
 Protestantism, rise of, 320 ; loses 
 ground in Hungary, 348 
 
 Protestants, laws against, 323 ; 
 persecuted, 325 ; given equal 
 rights by Stephen Bocskay, 326 ; 
 persecuted by the Austrian gov- 
 ernment, 344 ; join the Czechs 
 against the Hapsburgs, 348 ; 
 freedom of worship interfered 
 with, 361 ; receive religious 
 freedom from Joseph II., 380 
 
 R 
 
 Raab, Turkish victory at, 353 ; 
 French victory at, 398 
 
 Rakoczy, George I., Prince of 
 Transylvania, 351 
 
 Rakoczy II., George of Transyl- 
 vania, rebels against the Aus- 
 trian rule, 334 ; retires to Poland, 
 335 > victorious over the Ger- 
 mans and Turks, 352 ; defeated 
 by Leopold, 352 
 
 Rakoczy, Francis, conspires 
 against Leopold I., and estates 
 confiscated, 355 ; leads new in- 
 surrection, 363 
 
 Rakos, diet at, 258 ; meeting of 
 National assembly at, 265 
 
 Raven Knight, the, 196 
 
 Reformation, 282 ; in Hungary, 
 
 323 
 
 Religions, 14 
 Rivers and islands, 8 
 
 Roman influence, weakening of, 
 
 23 
 
 Roman emperors of Pannonian 
 origin, 22 
 
 Rozgonyi, Cecilia, heroism of, 192 
 
 Rudolph of Hapsburg, alliance 
 with Ladislaus IV., 145 ; letter 
 to Ladislaus, 146 
 
 Rudolph, son of Maximilian, King 
 of Hungary, 342 ; irritated with 
 the Hungarian diet, 342 ; 
 leaves Hungary for 25 years, 
 342 ; prohibits religious discus- 
 sion in the diet, 345 
 
 Ruprecht, Emperor of Germany, 
 dies, 187 
 
 Russ, Melchior, Swiss envoy, re- 
 ceived by Matthias, 236 
 
 S 
 
 Sadowa, battle of, 438 
 
 Sarolta, wife of Duke Geyza, 51 ; 
 mother of Stephen, 68 
 
 Selim, Sultan, vows to build mos- 
 ques in Jerusalem, Buda, and 
 Rome, 282 
 
 Semendria, fortress of, 196 
 
 Serbs, rebellion of, 426-428 
 
 Seredy, Caspar, 286 
 
 Servia, conquered by the Turks, 
 182 
 
 Shabatz, siege of, 224 ; siege of, 
 by the Turks, 283 ; taken by the 
 Turks, 284 
 
 Shamanism, 53 ; Magyars, re- 
 ligion of the, contains traces 
 of the Parsee religion, 55 
 
 Sigismund, husband of Queen 
 Mary, hypothecates the coun- 
 tries' funds, 176 ; crowned king 
 of Hungary, 179 ; marches into 
 Croatia and Bosnia, 180 ; makes 
 alliance with Manuel, Emperor 
 of the East, 183 ; defeated by 
 Bajazet, 184 ; imprisoned, 185 ; 
 marries Barbara, daughter of 
 Count Arminius Cilley, 186 ; es- 
 tablishes the Order of the Drag- 
 on, 186 ; elected e.nperor of 
 Germany, 187 ; war with Venice,
 
 INDEX. 
 
 493 
 
 1 88 ; travels of, igo ; offered 
 the crown of Bohemia, 192 ; 
 death, 193 
 
 Sigismund I lamp r, Bishop of 
 Fiinfkirchen, 263 -> 
 
 Siklos, castle of Sigismund, 185 
 
 Silistria, conquered by the Turks, 
 182 
 
 Simon Kemeny, 199 
 
 Slavonia, old constitution restored 
 to, 437 
 
 Slovaks, sway of, 37 
 
 Slovenes, 37 
 
 Sobieski, John, of Poland, routs 
 the Turks, 331 
 
 Solomon, son of Andrew, 104 ; 
 betrothal of, 104; ascends throne, 
 108 ; feud with sons of Bela, 109; 
 defeated at Mogyorod, 109; leads 
 the life of a hermit, 109 
 
 Solyman the Magnificent, 282 ; 
 sends ambassador to Louis II., 
 attacks Shabatz and Belgrade, 
 283 ; invades Hungary, 286 ; 
 defeats Louis at Mohacs and 
 enters Buda, 289 ; returns to 
 Constantinople, 295 ; marches 
 towards Vienna, 297 ; retreats 
 after siege of Koszeg, 298 ; be- 
 sieges Temesvar, 302 ; invades 
 Hungary for the sixth time, 311; 
 besieges Szigetvar 
 
 Spalato, 141 
 
 Spanish war of succession, 364 
 
 Standing army, 369 
 
 States, general meeting of, 260 
 
 Stephen, baptism of, 57 ; rebellion 
 against, 59 ; defeats Gyula and 
 Khan, 60 ; first king of Hun- 
 gary, 65 ; extinguishes the pagan 
 faith, 72; founds abbeys. 80 ; 
 munificence of, 82 ; constitu- 
 tional reforms, 84 ; war with 
 Conrad, 89 ; advice to his son, 
 91 ; chooses his successor, 95 ; 
 death of, 95 ; canonization, 96 
 
 Stephen II., son of Coloman, as- 
 cends the throne, 116 
 
 Stephen III., son of Geyza, as- 
 cends the throne, 118 ; dies, 119 
 
 Stuhlweissenburg, capital of Hun- 
 gary, 102 ; Wenceslaus crowned 
 at, 152 
 
 Svatopluk, King of Moravia, 39 ; 
 death of, 41 
 
 Sylvester II., Pope, confirms Hun- 
 garian bishoprics, 74 ; gives Ste- 
 phen title of " Apostolic King," 
 75 ; presents crown to Stephen, 
 
 , 75 , 
 Szalankemen, complete rout of 
 
 Turks at, 333 
 
 Szalkan, primate of Hungary, 267 
 
 Szalkay, Bishop, 285 
 
 Szapolyai, Governor of Vienna, 
 sells Hungarian throne to Ulad- 
 islaus of Poland, 261 
 
 Szapolyai, Stephen, aspires to the 
 throne of Hungary, 265 ; at- 
 tempts to murder Uladislaus, 
 266 
 
 Szechenyi, Stephen, statue of, 
 400 ; birth and history of, 402 ; 
 travels, 404 ; speaks in Hun- 
 garian, 406 ; founds the Acad- 
 emy of Sciences, 407 ; first lit- 
 erary work, 409; "Credit," 
 410; introduces horse -racing, 
 
 411 ; rivalry with Kossuth, 
 
 412 ; aristocratic tendencies of, 
 
 413 ; insanity and suicide, 429 
 Szecsi, Desiderius, death of, 161 
 Szerenc, Emeric, 280 
 Szigetvar besieged by Solyman, 
 
 312 ; death, 317. 
 Szondi, George, gallant defence of 
 
 Dregel, 299 ; asks favor of Ali 
 
 Pasha, 300 ; death, 301 
 Szoreny, Turks repulsed by Kin- 
 
 izsy at, 264 
 
 Talpra Magyar, poem by Petofi, 
 422 
 
 Taltos, Shamanish priests, 54 
 
 Tartars defeat Rackoczy in Po 
 land, 352 
 
 Tax, land and corn, imposed, by 
 Leopold I., 355 ; oppressive, im- 
 posed, 362; made permanent, 369
 
 494 
 
 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Tax-poll, imposed on every in- 
 habitant of Hungary, 356 
 
 Taxes, military aid invoked to 
 collect, 437 
 
 Tcheremisses, 32 
 
 Tegetthoff, Admiral, 438 
 
 Telegdy, Stephen, protests against 
 
 1 crusade, 268 ; killed, 271 
 
 Temesvar, royal seat of Charles 
 Robert of Anjou, 157 ; siege of 
 302 ; taken by Turks, 305 ; re- 
 storged to Hungary, 335 
 
 Theiss, battle of, 106 ; regulation 
 of, 411 
 
 Thirty Years' War, beginning of, 
 
 347 
 
 Throne, claimants to, 151 
 
 Thurzo, Alexius, lends money to 
 King Louis, 280 
 
 Tilly routs the Czechs near Prague, 
 348 
 
 Tinody, Sebastian, poem on siege 
 of Szigetvar, 318 
 
 Tokolyi, head of the rebels, 358 ; 
 proclaimed by the Porte king 
 of Hungary, 359 ; exiled in 
 Turkey, 363 
 
 Tomory, Paul, defeats the Turks 
 at Nagy-Olasz, 286 ; comman- 
 der-in-chief at Mohacs, 287 
 
 Torma, Andrew, heroically de- 
 fends and is killed at Shabatz, 
 284 
 
 Torok, Valentine, deserts Bel- 
 grade, 284 
 
 Trajan, campaign in Dacia, 20 
 
 Transylvania, gold and salt mines 
 of, 20 ; still asserts indepen- 
 dence, 306 ; forms a bulwark 
 against the Turks, 320 ; under 
 Bethlen, 348 ; downfall of, 
 351 ; devastated by Tartar 
 hordes, 354 ; refuge for Hun- 
 garians, 357 ; remains a sepa- 
 rate duchy, 361 ; old constitu- 
 tion .restored to, 437 
 
 Trau, castle of, 141 , siege of, 
 141 
 
 Treaty of peace signed, 334 
 
 Tripartite code, 274 
 
 Turks, defeated at Maritza, 171; 
 invade Servia, 182 ; conditio| 
 of, 190 ; a dangerous enemy, 
 197 ; defeated by Hunyadi, 200; 
 victorious, 209 ; invade Albania, 
 210 ; defeated by Hunyadi near 
 Belgrade, 214 ; repulsed near 
 Szoreny, 264 ; victorious at Mo- 
 hacs, 288 ; take Buda, 289 ; 
 take Presburg, 293 ; take Dre- 
 gel, 301 ; take Temesvar, 305 ; 
 repulsed before Erlau, 311 ; 
 take Szigetvar, 317 ; routed near 
 Vienna, 339 ; defeated at Mo- 
 hacs, 333 ; completely routed 
 near Szalankemen, 333 ; anni- 
 hilated by Duke Eugene, 334 ; 
 defeated near Peterwardein,335; 
 oppose the increase of power of 
 the house of Hapsburg, 339 ; 
 seize Alfold, 340 ; treaty with 
 the Germans, 351 ; attack Leo- 
 pold, 353 ; invade Hungary, 
 359; defeated by Prince Eugene, 
 
 359 
 
 Two kings, the rivalry between, 
 295 
 
 U 
 
 Uladislaus, elected to the throne, 
 of Hungary, 210 ; King of Hun- 
 gary and Poland, 203 ; defeated 
 by the Turks, 209 ; dies, 210 
 
 Uladislaus of Poland, elected king 
 of Hungary, 262 ; birth of son, 
 Louis, 266 ; Anna of Candal, 
 wife of Uladislaus, dies, 276 ; 
 dies, 276 
 
 Ujlaky, Duke, molests the royal 
 domains, 267 
 
 United States enthusiastic recep- 
 tion of Kossuth, 435 
 
 Vajdafy, leader of the forces of 
 
 Sigismund, 181 
 Valentine, John, envoy from Fer- 
 
 rara, received by Matthias, 236 
 Various nationalities, 12, 13 
 Varna, Hunyadi's victory at, 208
 
 INDEX. 
 
 495 
 
 Vaskapu (Iron Gate), 5, 201, 411 
 
 Vata, rebellion of, 60 
 
 Vatha, leads Pagan rebellion 
 against Peter, 102 ; defeat of, 
 103 ; James, son of, 106 
 
 Vatican, the relations with the 
 Church of Hungary, 186 
 
 Venice, humiliation of, 169; beaten 
 by the Hungarians, 188 
 
 Verboczy, Stephen, leader of party 
 hostile to Uladislaus, 264 ; tri- 
 partite code, 274 
 
 Vezprem, engagement at, 60 
 
 Viddin conquered by the Turks, 
 182 
 
 Vienna, Matthias holds court at, 
 249 ; peace of, 346 ; besieged, 
 359 ; rebellion at, 429 
 
 Vilagos, battle near, 433 
 
 Visegrad, Charles of Anjou makes 
 his residence at, 158 ; tourna- 
 ments at, 159 ; guests at, 162 ; 
 Matthias' sojourn at, 236 ; gor- 
 geousness of, 254 
 
 Voguls, 32 
 
 Volga and Danube, country be- 
 tween, 34 
 
 Votyaks, 32 
 
 Vorosmarty, Michael, 422 
 
 W 
 
 Wallachs, rising of, 385 ; led by 
 flora and Kloska, 385 ; rebel- 
 lion of, 426 
 
 Wenceslaus, King of the Czechs, 
 crowned at Stuhlweissenburg, 
 152 
 
 Wesselenyi, palatine of Hungary, 
 heads conspiracy against Leo- 
 pold I., 355 ; dies, 355 
 
 Windischgratz, Prince, invades 
 Hungary, 430 ; loses his posi- 
 tion, 431 
 
 Wolfgang, tries to spread Chris- 
 tianity, 55 
 
 Zalan, Bulgarian prince, 37 
 
 Zemplen, 395 
 
 Zenta, defeat of Turks at, 334 
 
 Zernivar, fortress of, 329 
 
 Ziska, John, of Bohemia, devas- 
 tates Hungary, 210 
 
 Zoltan, son of Arpad, 38 
 
 Zrinyi, Nicholas, commander at 
 Szigetvar, 311 ; begs aid from 
 king, 312, tempted and threat- 
 ened by Solyman, 314 ; makes 
 oration to his soldiers, 317 ; 
 death, 317, 329 ; annoys the 
 Turks from his fortress of Zer- 
 invar, 329 ; dies, 330 
 
 Zrinyi, Peter, conspires against 
 Leopold I., seized and behead- 
 ed, 355 
 
 Zyrians, 32
 
 INDEX TO NEW CHAPTER 
 
 Andra?sy, Count Julius, be- 
 comes Prime Minister and 
 afterwards Minister of 
 Foreign Affairs, 455-56 
 
 Ban, Croatia's, Prime Minister, 
 
 443-44 
 
 Bolshevism, 47475 ; comes to 
 power, 475 ; comes to fall, 
 
 477 
 
 Catholic " People's Party," 460 
 Charles, King, attempts twice 
 
 to return, 479 
 Croatia, pact with Hungary, 
 
 443-45 ; dissatisfied, 446 
 
 Deak, Francis, his moderate 
 policy, 453-54. 45 6 ; does 
 not accept any political 
 appointment, 456 
 
 Delegations, 441 
 
 Fiume, harbour of Hungary, 
 
 445 
 
 Francis Joseph, the pact of 
 1867, 442 
 
 Germans are assimilated in 
 cities, 447 
 
 Jaszi, Oscar, 473 
 
 Jews, economically important, 
 447-48, 467 ; are emanci- 
 pated, 459 ; intermarry with 
 Christians, 467-68 ; are per- 
 secuted after Bolshevism, 
 
 477-7 8 
 Justh, Julius, 463 
 
 Karolyi, Count Michel, is for 
 independence from Austria, 
 463 ; becomes President of 
 the Hungarian Republic, 472 
 
 Kossuth, Francis, the son of 
 Louis, 460 
 
 Lukacs, Prime Minister, called 
 the greatest Panamist of 
 Europe, 462 
 
 Nationalities, 452-55, 464, 470 
 
 Parties after 1867, 450-51 
 Peasants, after 1867, 448 ; are 
 dissatisfied, 465 ; are luke- 
 warm royalists, 480 
 Protestants, though in minor- 
 ity, have great political 
 influence, 449-50 
 
 Rumania is hindered to export 
 her goods, 465 ; invades 
 Hungary, 476 
 
 Sabor, Croatia's Parliament, 
 444 
 
 Servia is prohibited to export 
 her live stock, 465 ; grows 
 bitter against Hungary, 466 
 
 Social Democratic Party, 451 ; 
 grows suddenly, 474 ; wins 
 24 seats in Parliament, 479 
 
 Szechenyi, Count Stephen, for 
 social co-operation, 455 
 
 Taxes, direct and indirect, 
 448-49 
 
 Tisza, Coloman, Prime Minis- 
 ter, 456 
 
 Tisza, Count Stephen, the son 
 of Coloman, Prime Minister, 
 457 ; fights against obstruc- 
 tion, 460-61 ; attempt to 
 kill him, 462 ; announces 
 that the war is lost, 470 ; is 
 murdered, 470 
 
 Trianon of Versailles, Peace 
 Treaty, 478 
 
 Vix, a French Lieutenant- 
 Colonel, 475 
 
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