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VERITAS
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
SALESLALM
TUEBOR
CIRCUMERICA
STMILLI||||||||||IDHLIENT DOODLEDEKAKORTIT
SCIENTIA
HIS FENINSULAM AND NA
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Pritz Sept 6. 1851
The Wife & Daughter of Frans Pulszky
the Hungarien Tile, the
recently obtained permission
from the Emperor to visit his
rick Daughter, are both dead,
His Daughter died yesterday of
Typhus flour & his wife today

of Cholera-
amus
Puloky is Expected to amve
here Tomorrow.
CONTENTS
TO THE
FIRST VOLUM E.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
First Period.
HISTORY OF HUNGARY UNDER THE HOUSE OF ARPAD.
CASTLE SZECSENY.
Second Period.
HUNGARY UNDER KINGS FROM DIFFERENT HOUSES
(ANJOU, LUXEMBOURG, AUSTRIA, HUNYADY, JA-
GHELLO).
Third Period.
THE HUNGARIANS UNDER THE KINGS OF THE HOUSES
OF HAPSBURG AND LORRAINE
CHAPTER I.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF HUNGARY.
CHAPTER II.
PAGE
i
lviii
xcii
1
34
:
vi
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
HUNGARIAN COUNTRY LIFE
•
CHAPTER IV.
VIENNA IN THE SUMMER OF 1848
CHAPTER V.
THE INVASION OF JELLACHICH
CHAPTER VI.
THE OCTOBER INSURRECTION OF VIENNA
PAGE
71
107
145
175
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
First Period.
HISTORY OF HUNGARY UNDER THE HOUSE OF
ÁRPÁD.
Of all the nations who, leaving the heaths of Asia,
migrated to Europe, and who on the ruins of the old
world constructed new states on new foundations, pros-
pering in the breath of European air and making
its civilization their own, the Hungarians are the last.
The most ancient history of the Hungarian people is
buried in darkness, and but one thing is certain, namely,
that it belongs to the same family of nomade tribe,
which sent forth the Huns, Avares, Kumans, the Uzi,
and Polowzi. The original country of these tribes is
old Turan, that immense tract of land extending from
the lake of Aral, from the Oxus and Jaxartes to the
frontier of China and the desert of Gobi. This tract
of land is still the home of several vagrant tribes in
VOL. I.
a
ii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
the states of Khiva, Bokhara, Kashgar, Kokan, and
Yarkend.
The remark has often been made that, in the history
of mankind, the nomade nations, of all others,
are most prone, when once thoroughly impregnated
with some grand idea to exchange their clansmanhip
for a centralized monarchical or theocratical form of
government, and to establish themselves as conquerors;
but that in the course of this transition, they almost
always lose every vestige of liberty. Their independent
life as herdsmen, their half solitude, grouped as they
are in families, under the indulgent authority of the
heads of their clans, and the paternal power of
government of the latter, is the fruitful source of abso-
lute power, whenever a foreign invasion compels them
to unite, or their roving disposition induces them to go
in quest of other homes. But as their enthusiasm
cools down, which made them formidable to their
neighbours, the unbridled power which sways them,
fashions them into an agricultural people who form a
kind of national aristocracy among the original in-
habitants of the conquered country, whom they keep in
a state of subjection, more or less oppressive, as the case
may be.
Such is the history of the Jews in Palestine, of the
Arabs in Northern Africa, in Babylonia and Persia, of
the Turanian tribes in India, of the Turks in the Byzan-
tine empire, and of the Mongols in China. Some
nomade nations perished in the crisis of the transition
from conquest to agriculture; domestic dissensions, or
the sword of a league of foreign foes, dissolved and
again sent them adrift as migratory hordes, whose
fates are not historical, and who at least are lost in
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
iii
the course of years, like those terrific meteors, which
illumine the horizon in one moment and vanish in the
next. The bonds once broken which united the various
tribes, they cease to be a nation; they return to their
former state of families and clans and amalgamate with
the neighbouring nations; or with the Aborigines who
for a time were under their dominion. The last named
process occurs especially in cases in which the disso-
lution does not follow on the heels of the conquest, as
in the case of the Vandals in Africa, of the Goths in
Spain, of the Lombards in Italy, whom their defeat
deprived of their national individuality, and who were
absorbed by the original elements of the country. On
the other hand, the Huns and the Avars in Eastern
Europe, the Turkomans in Kharesm, the Mongols of
the Golden Horde in Asia and Russia (Kiptshak),
were completely and hopelessly dissolved.
Among these rudiments of nations, which were taking
shape from the commencement of the decline of the
Roman Empire down to the fifteenth century, the
Hungarians play a conspicuous and interesting part,
from the fact that they alone, of all migratory tribes,
succeeded in weathering the rocks which threatened those
most, who drifted most headlong in the current of con-
quest. They had sufficient strength to resist the
enemies, whom they stirred up by the conquest of their
new country, and by those frequent predatory expeditions
which are of common occurrence in the first historical
epoch of conquering nations, without finding them-
selves compelled to sacrifice their domestic liberty to
the arbitrary sway of one man.
The history of Hungary, from the ninth to the
twelfth century, is consequently full of interest for the
a 2
iv
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
political philosopher, In the first years of that period,
we see the Hungarian people worried by foreign ene-
mies, and hurried on by those migratory instincts which
are peculiar to nomade populations, leave their homes
in Central Asia, and proceed to the Caspian, and from
thence to the Black Sea; from thence they direct their
steps to the Danube; for a legend is rife among them of
a land of promise, belonging to the inheritance of Attila,
Prince of the Huns and kinsman to their tribe. Obe-
dient to the advice of the Chazars their neighbours,
we behold the chiefs of the clans assemble for the
election of a prince; but jealous of his influence, they
limit the extent of his power. They make a State, and
that State stands alone in history; for it originated
in a
"social contract," the provisions of which were not
only enacted but also observed. Thus united into a
nation, the Hungarian tribes proceed, towards the end
of the ninth century, to conquer their present country.
The conquest is an easy one. Fortune favours them :
they become over-bearing, and begin to devastate the
neighbouring countries. They make inroads upon
Southern Germany, Upper Italy, and the Northern
provinces of the Byzantine Empire. Some detached
parties visit even the South of France, and advance
to the walls of Constantinople, until the hero, Botond-
thus runs the Hungarian legend-breaks the gates of
that city with his club.
The people of Western Europe prayed at that time
in this litany: "Oh, Lord! preserve us from the Hun-
garians!" and dreadful rumours were current of the
Hungarian barbarians, who, it was said, delighted in
eating the hearts of their enemies. Neither the Byzan-
tine nor the German Emperors could resist their inroads ;
..
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
尊
​2
all they could do was to conciliate them with gifts.
The two Emperors did, indeed, all they could to break
the power of their new and formidable enemies; and
the manner in which they severally attempted that
object, is characteristic of the distinguishing features of
the East and West of Europe. Henry of Germany
(Henricus Auceps) bribed the Hungarians into an
armistice of nine years, and during this time he built
fortified cities and strongholds, and recruited his armies,
so that when the Hungarian hordes advanced, they suf
fered several grievous defeats. The unwarlike Prince
of Byzantium, on the other hand, purchases peace
under the same conditions as Henricus Auceps; and,
as a pledge of the good faith of the Hungarians, he
takes several of their chiefs as hostages, and conducts
them to Constantinople. Here they are converted to
the Christian religion, and when they finally return to
their country, the Byzantine Emperor sees that they
are accompanied by the Bishop Hierotheos, for he is
well aware that the Christian religion will change the
barbarous manners of the Hungarians.
Christianity thus transplanted into Hungary, had at
first but an indifferent success. It was only after two
generations, that the real conversion of the Hungarian
people took place. They adopted the forms, not of the
petrified Grecian Church, but of the Romans. Still
the reminiscences of the first Byzantine attempt at their
conversion remained in the Hungarian language. To
this day, the Grecian doctrine is called the old creed
(6 hit), and the Greek Christians are proud of the old
faith.*
* The Russians, too, call themselves " Starowerzi," i. e. old
believers, for they protest that the form of their creed is the
vi
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
While in this manner the predatory excursions
become less frequent and formidable during the tenth
century, we see the princes of Hungary intent upon
strengthening their small modicum of central power, and
defending it against the encroachment of the chiefs of
the clans. They invited foreign colonists and cavaliers
to settle in the country, and granted them the rights
and immunities enjoyed by the native chiefs. The
people meanwhile begin to settle, and to build villages
and cities: indeed, the vast numbers of prisoners
from all parts of Europe, brought from their pre-
datory excursions, the aggregate number of whom
exceeded that of their conquerors, familiarized the
latter, by degrees, with the manners and customs
of the West and the morals of the Christian
population of Europe. Prince Geiza, a grandson
of Arpád, the conqueror of Hungary, was favourably
inclined to the Christian creed. His wife, Sarolta, a
daughter of Gyula (who became a convert to Chris-
tianity at Constantinople), was a follower of the new
creed. She converts her husband, founds monasteries,
and invites Christian priests to settle in Hungary.
But in spite of all this, Geiza still continues to sacri-
fice to and adore the ancient divinities of his nation.
The sun and the elements, and the reproaches of his
wife, are met alike with the quiet assertion: "I can
afford to serve the old gods and the new ones too!"
Geiza's son, Stephen, justly denominated "the Saint,"
is the greatest man of his time. He lived and acted
for a twofold purpose. He endeavoured to introduce
Christianity into his kingdom, and to establish the royal
original form of Christianity, and that the Roman Catholic and
the Reformed Churches are cursed innovations.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
vii
A.
power on a firm basis, without curtailing the liber-
ties of the people: for with him, Christianity was the
twin sister of freedom. He cannot possibly effect
either purpose unless his reforming plans are protected
by the sacred power of religion. In furtherance of
his object, he invited the chiefs of his people to his
Court; for three years he was a zealous preacher and a
living example of the truth of the gospel. He was the
Apostle of his people. It is true that when words were
of no avail, he seized the sword and convinced his
refractory subjects by force of arms. But, to the
honour of the Hungarians, we find, that the example
and the doctrines of their prince sufficed, in almost
every instance, to open their minds to Christianity.
Having thus accomplished one of the great objects
of his life, he endeavoured firmly to
religion on the ground which he had
it;
for he was aware that paganism would not sur-
render without a struggle, and he was alarmed lest the
rapid conversion of his people might, by a natural
reaction, cause them to return to the creed of their
fathers. He knew the national character of the Hun-
garians, and he knew them to be strangers to theolo-
gical speculations and incapable of the errors of
fanaticism. Stephen resolved, consequently, to esta
blish and fortify his position, by the authority of the
He sent
Pope, the fountain of all spiritual power.
Archbishop Astricus to Rome, to inform the Pope
Sylvester (Gerbert) of the voluntary conversion of the
Hungarian people, and of their homage to the Pope as
their spiritual Prince. In return for this important ser-
vice, Stephen solicited Sylvester's blessing on the crown,
and his sanction of the ecclesiastical arrangement in
the country, and the confirmation of the bishops whom
establish his
obtained for
**
viii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
:
·
C
Stephen had appointed. The Pope was agreeably
surprised by this good news. He sent Stephen a
crown of gold and the Cross of the Patriarch, as the
symbols of royal power and of the privilege of an
ecclesiastical jurisdiction (potestas circa sacra). Besides
this, he sent him the pallium for two archbishops; for,
faithful to the system of papacy, Sylvester was unwil-
ling to let any one country remain under a single
ecclesiastical chief. To paralyze the power of a primate
and to frustrate every attempt to found a national
Church in secession from Rome, two archiepiscopal sees
were instituted in every country.
The circumstance
that Sylvester had sent the crown to Stephen, furnished
the Popes at a later period with a pretence for claim-
ing the right to dispose of the Hungarian Crown;
while, on the other hand, the Patriarch's Cross and the
title of "Apostolic King," gave the Hungarian princes
a pretence to increase the number of bishoprics, to
divide the ecclesiastical property between them, and to
control the revenues and administration of Church
lands, all of which they enforced and maintained
permanently. Indeed, these rights were exercised up
to and in the present century.
Stephen was solemnly crowned in the year 1000.
He convoked several Diets and revised the Constitution,
which had never been altered since the days of Arpád,
The influence of the Hungarian chiefs was neutralized
by the bishops and foreign courtiers; tithes were
introduced; the rights of the nobility fixed, and
the foundation laid for a system of defence and
taxation. These innovations were not carried with-
out serious opposition and even resistance. One
of the native chiefs, Kupa, the Prince of Somogy,
placed himself at the head of men who were dissatisfied
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
ix
with the new imposition of tithes and the curtail-
ment of the rights of the native chiefs, who had hitherto
considered their king in the light of primus inter
pares.' They made an impetuous and armed demand
for the restoration of their ancestral creed. They pro-
tested against the king's innovations, which tended
to undermine the principles of their political and
social institutions. Upon this, Stephen advanced at
the head of an army, composed of the foreign cava-
liers and the Christians among the Hungarians. The
insurgents were defeated. A few years later, king
Stephen suppressed with equal energy and good
fortune a Pagan insurrection which broke out in
Transylvania. Thus he continued as the apostle and
champion of constitutional liberty, to administer
justice and to civilize his country. At once king and
priest, like Melchisedek, he was the 'beau ideal' of a
mediæval sovereign.
King Stephen's private life was less fortunate than
his public career. His only son died at an early age
(1031) and his death overwhelmed King Stephen with
unceasing cares about the choice of a successor. His
nearest kindred were by no means now after his
own heart. Young Vazul, the king's cousin, was a
good-natured rake, and Andreas and Bela (the sons
of his second cousin, Ladislas) were suspected of being
favourable to paganism. Peter, the son of Stephen's
sister, Gisela (by Otto Urseoli, the Doge of Venice)
was well versed in the sciences of the West, but he
had not escaped the influence of Western vices, and he
despised the Hungarians. For a long time Stephen
was in doubt where it would be expedient to bestow
his crown.
At length he decided in favour of Vazul,
a 3
X
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
for Vazul was, after all, his nearest relative, and
heir apparent of the Hungarian throne! He was at
that time at Nyitra, whither the king had banished
him, as a punishment for some juvenile vagaries.
Before Stephen's order for his release and trium-
phant return, could be conveyed to Nyitra, Gisela,
Peter's mother, despatched some bravoes who put out
his eyes and poured molten lead into his ears, so as
to make him unfit for all purposes of government.
Vazul's misfortune, and Gisela's crime, excited the
pity and disgust of the people in an extraordinary
degree. A conspiracy was formed against the king.
The conspirators pretended that Stephen was weak
and broken by disease; that he wanted energy to
prevent crimes, and that he lacked the moral courage
which ought to have impelled him to visit his sister's
crime on her guilty head. One of the king's guard
was consequently bribed to murder him. When the
assassin approached the bed on which the king slept,
his heart failed him and his sword fell from his hand.
Stephen awoke, and turning to the dismayed assassin,
he asked him : "Why would you kill me?" The
man knelt down, and wept; confessed his crime, and
implored the king's pardon. Stephen, who had not
avenged the mutilation of Vazul, forbore to inquire
for and prosecute the conspirators; but his nephews,
Andreas and Bela, nevertheless thought proper to
consult their safety by flying from the country, and
no one of the king's family was left on Hungarian
ground, except Peter, (whose predilection for the
German nation, caused him to be nick-named the
German) and Samuel, husband to the king's second
sister; Samuel was a ruder man, and more of a
A
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xi
Pagan than of a Christian. Stephen could not there-
fore think of raising him to the throne. He resigned
his crown to Peter, and died (A.D. 1036) with the
firm conviction of the stability of his work, because
it was holy; his human reason, indeed, had sufficient
cause to doubt the continuance of institutions, which
were still in their infancy, and which he left in weak
and reluctant hands. But St. Stephen's faith-(he is
not only canonized by the Church, but to the present
day every Hungarian considers and reveres him as
the founder of the State)-St. Stephen's faith, we
say, was borne out by future facts. His institutions
conquered not only the difficulties which the dying
king's boding mind foresaw, but they stood firm and
unshaken in storms which were fatal to other nations
and countries. We are therefore justified by the
experience of centuries, in our hopes that the consti-
tution of St. Stephen will outlive the botch-work
of the German theorists, who in 1848 attempted to
overthrow the institutions of the great king, by means
of a paper charter, and who fretted themselves into
madness, because the Hungarians preferred the pro-
tecting shade of the oak, which had weathered so many
storms, to the sickly graces of a faded March
violet.
༥
Peter, the successor of Stephen the Saint, surrounded
himself with foreigners. He was not bred among the
people which he was called upon to govern; he
longed for the splendour and gaieties of the West,
and he treated the Hungarians with scorn and con-
tempt. At length the people rose against him. They
rallied around the brother-in-law of the deceased king
and expelled Peter (A.D. 1041). Samuel was wholly
ಕ
xii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
༣
different from Peter. His faults were quite as great,
but they ran in another direction. He hated the
German colonists; he detested the foreign bishops,
but he hated and detested the Hungarian chiefs
quite as much. He was the Prince and the flatterer
of the lower classes. He was a courtier to their pas-
sions. Peter, meanwhile, had made his escape to the
court of the Emperor Henry III., a potentate who
was eager to extend his power, and who greedily
seized upon the opportunity of subjugating Hungary
and reducing her to a province of his empire. He
promised to succour King Peter, who in return en-
gaged to take the country of Hungary as a fief from
the Emperor; to do homage to that potentate, and
to render to him certain domains on the other bank
of the Danube. Shortly afterwards Peter made his
appearance in Hungary, at the head of a numerous
army of German auxiliaries. Samuel, who was not
backed by the Hungarian chiefs, was defeated in the
very first encounter. He was captured and assassi-
nated (1043). Peter celebrated his restoration to the
throne with great pomp; but when the Hungarians
learnt that he had not scrupled to sacrifice the
honours of their nation to the possession of the
crown, they sent ambassadors to Red Russia, where
Andreas lived in exile, inviting him to return and
to occupy the throne. Andreas was weak and irre-
solute: he would not accept the invitation, until
his brother Bela (who had meanwhile gained a
princess and a dukedom of Pomerania by a duel with a
Pagan knight) assured him that he was prepared to
join the expedition. Shortly afterwards the two prin-
ces appeared with a few followers on the borders of
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xili
Hungary. As the news of their approach spread,
the people rose against Peter. But this revolution, too,
overshot its mark; not Peter's favourites only were ex-
pelled and murdered, but the same fate was awarded
to the bishops and the tithe proctors. The insur-
gents burnt the churches and broke the church-
bells, and the people imitating the example of their
leaders, Vatha, Bua, and Bukna, returned to paganism.
Andreas and Bela forbore to interfere with them,
because they were of opinion that the whole and
undivided power of the Hungarian nation was requisite
to resist the tempest which was drawing near. There
could be no doubt but that the German Emperor
intended either to rescue or to avenge his protégé.
He came too late to the rescue, for Peter, defeated
and blinded, died 1046; but the Emperor's revenge
was the more terrible, since he threatened his Hun-
garian courtiers, not only in the quality of an offended
lord paramount, but also as the restorer of Christi-
anity. But the condition of his own empire prevented
him up to 1059, from following his words up by
deeds. Andreas meanwhile endeavoured to heal the
wounds which his party had inflicted on the Chris-
tian church. He was crowned in the year 1047.
He confirmed the statutes against paganism; he ap-
pointed bishops and restored order in the interior
of the kingdom, while Bela provided for the defence
of the country. Twice, in two succeeding years, did
the Emperor Henry III. attempt to invade Hungary.
On each event the Hungarians retreated before the
enemy, and drew them into the hearts of their
forests and plains. They cut off their supplies, sunk
their ships, harassed them in unceasing skirmishes,
►
xiv
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
and finally drove them over the frontier. In 1053
Henry was compelled to resign his claims upon
Hungary, without battles for that country was then,
as it is now, an open grave for every invading foe;
and though often pressed, and even conquered, by
foreigners, it always regained its independence.
But in the present instance the Hungarian indepen-
dence was scarcely guaranteed, when a civil war broke
out in the country itself. At the commencement of his
government, Andreas had promised the succession to
the throne to his brother Bela, besides ceding to him
one third of the country as a dukedom, when he found
that he owed his crown to his brother's heroic devotion.
But in the meanwhile a son and heir was born to
Andreas, and the Emperor Henry sent to say that he
betrothed his daughter to the infant. Paternal affection
caused Andreas to forget the promise which he had
given his brother. In 1058 he took the boy Solomon,
and had him crowned as King. Bela felt deeply hurt,
but he conquered his feelings. The King's courtiers,
on the other hand, filled the mind of Andreas with
suspicion against the Duke, his brother, by informing
the King that Bela had left the cathedral in great
rage, when at the coronation of Solomon the choristers
sung the verse: "Be thou Lord of thy brethren.”
They insinuated, moreover, that the Duke was se-
ducing the affections and engaging the support of a
powerful party in the country. The King resolved to
try his brother's loyalty, and invited him to come to
the Castle of Várkony. When Bela arrived he found
Andreas seated on a throne. At his feet lay the crown
and the sword, the symbols of regal and ducal dignity.
He received Bela with great kindness, and told him
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
XV
that the country was not likely to recover from its
present unsettled state, unless some definite arrange-
ment were made regarding the question of the suc-
cession. He admitted that his promise compelled him
to leave his crown to Bela, but he reminded him of
the importance of the German Emperor's friendship,
which alone could avail to guarantee peace and inde-
pendence to the country, and which was bound up with
the advent to the throne of Solomon, the Emperor's
future son-in-law. In conclusion, he declared that the
fate of Hungary lay in Bela's hands, to whom he
offered the choice between the crown and sword, viz. :
between a kingdom and a dukedom, adding that his
brother's choice ought to be definitive and binding
for the future. While the King was speaking, the
Count Nicolas went past Bela and whispered to him:
"Don't take the crown if you value your life!" He
smiled, and stretching forth his hands he seized the
sword. For he remarked the lowering looks of Vid
and Erney, the King's knights, who stood by the
throne, armed, and with their swords bared. The
Duke was aware that the crown is always a prize to
him who holds the sword. Andreas, who had com-
manded his followers to rush forward and assassinate
his brother, if the latter should happen to choose the
crown, left his throne, and embracing Bela he praised
him for this voluntary and generous surrender of his
just claims. But Bela turned and left the room and the
castle.
He knew that his life was in danger. He and his
family fled to Poland. His flight terrified Andreas,
who foresaw his brother's return at the head of Polish
auxiliaries. He sent his Queen and his child to the
•
xvi
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION..
-i
=
Court of the German Emperor, and entreated his assis-
tance. A few troops of German mercenaries made
their appearance in pursuance of his request; but
when (A.D. 1060) Bela invaded Hungary, the Hunga-
rians joined his standard. Andreas and his auxiliaries
were driven across the Theiss, and Andreas himself was
killed in his flight. Bela was proclaimed King on the
field of battle.
The new warrior-king seized the reins of Govern-
ment with a strong hand. He published a general
amnesty, he reformed old abuses, limited the expendi-
ture, and gained all hearts by strict and impartial
justice. A friend of liberty, beyond the comprehension
of the eleventh century, one of his first acts was the
convocation of a general Diet at Stuhlweissenburg, for
which he arranged the elections on the broadest pro-
bable basis, for each place in the country (Quælibet
Villa) was entitled to send two deputies. But his inno-
vations did not answer his expectations. The people
remembered that in the war against Peter, the King
had not opposed Paganism, and they saw that he
extended the institutions of St. Stephen. They sent
their deputies to Weissenburg. To that city came also
John, the son of Vatha, and with him a 'posse comi-
tatus' of soothsayers and witches. John erected
hustings, and inflamed the public mind by his
speeches. The assembled crowd were unanimous in
their demand for the restoration of Paganism. They
surrounded the King's palace, threatening and riotous.
The bishops and the King's councillors trembled, but
Bela, undismayed, promised the riotous populace that
he would give them a decisive answer within three
days. In the course of that time, he ordered the garri-
1
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xvii
sons of his castles to march upon Weissenburg, and on
the third day, the rioters found themselves surrounded
by the King's troops. Still they insisted in their
demand. Bela's soldiers attacked and dispersed them.
Their leaders were captured, and John, his soothsayers
and witches, were executed. Thus ended the third and
last insurrection in favour of Paganism. Bela's victory
confirmed Christianity for all future times, though after
many years there were still some heathens found, who
sacrificed to the Gods of Nature on the forest-covered
peaks of the mountains, or in the caverns of the
rocks.
Bela displayed a restless activity in his attempts to
improve the state of the country, and to introduce the
essentials of a higher civilization. He urged the Hun-
garians to resign the vagrant tent, and to fix them-
selves in permanent homes. He appointed fairs in the
various market-towns, and insisted on their being held
on Saturdays, instead of on Sundays; he coined a
certain quantity of money, and thus created a cir-
culating medium, in the place of the old Hungarian
barter-trade. Besides these things, Bela regulated the
measures and weights, and fixed the average prices of
victuals, and of other objects of daily trade and inter-
course. The last-named measures are not, indeed,
agreeable to modern principles of political economy,
but the financial philosophers in this country will
doubtless give a free pardon to the shade of King
Bela, if they consider that to this day the whole of the
East, and indeed the people of Vienna, are not one
jot wiser in their generation, than the prince of a semi-
barbarous people in the middle of the 11th century was
in his. Indeed, the Austrian functionaries flatter them-
xviii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
selves with a belief, that nothing but their decrees about
the respective prices of bread and meat, can protect the
mass of the people against being imposed upon.
The wounds which former governments had inflicted
on the country, were healed under the auspices of Bela's
short-lived dominion. "The people were satisfied,"
writes an old historian, "for the poor became rich,
and the rich prospered in safety and peace." But
Bela came to a sudden death in 1063. Some writers
state that he lost his life by a fall with his horse, and
others assert that his regal seat broke down under him,
and crushed him in the fall. Bela's sons, Geiza, Ladis-
las, and Lampert, were heirs to their father's bravery,
while they surpassed him in zeal for the Christian religion.
They respected the rights which Solomon (Andreas
son) had obtained by his coronation. The majority
of the chiefs would have preferred Geiza to young
Solomon, who lived in Germany, and who had become
a kinsman of the German Emperor. But Geiza wished
to spare the country the distress of a foreign invasion,
and he was aware that the news of the death of his
heroic father would attract Solomon, and an army of
German auxiliaries to support his title to the crown.
To prevent this contingency, the sons of Bela sent
ambassadors to their cousin, offering to surrender
the crown if he would grant them one-third of the
kingdom, viz. the ducal domains of their late father.
Solomon accepted the offer. He came to Stuhlweissen-
burg, accompanied by his brother-in-law, the German
Emperor Henry IV. He was crowned for the second
time, and received the homage of the Estates of Hun-
gary, who, however reluctant to receive him, followed
the example of the sons of Bela.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xix
M
King Solomon had just completed his eleventh year.
A boy of his age must necessarily be under the domi-
nion of some person or persons, and Solomon was
swayed by the councils and the influences of the Count
Vid, the same who had caused the estrangement
between the brothers Andreas and Bela. By his fatal
influence the dukedom was taken away from the sons
of Bela. They escaped into Poland. Solomon opened
negotiations with Boleslas, King of the Poles, whom,
by his promises, he tried to induce to surrender the
fugitives. But Boleslas was not to be tempted into an
action which he considered as dishonourable, and even
as infamous. The three princes assembled an army,
and invaded Hungary. King Solomon retreated to the
German frontier, and there awaited their attack in a
fortified camp, at Wieselburg. But before blood was
shed on either side, the bishops interfered, and suc-
ceeded in reconciling the hostile parties. The three
princes made a formal resignation of the crown, and
were reinstated in their paternal domains: and for
the purpose of confirming this transaction solemnly
and publicly, Solomon was crowned for the third
time. The ceremony was performed by the hands of
Geiza, who, in placing the crown on his cousin's head,
recognized his royal sovereignty.
For ten years did the dukes and the king live in per-
fect harmony. They united in defending Hungary
against all foreign enemies; in the north-west against
the Sclavonian Moravians, and in the south-east
against the Kumans. In the course of these wars,
Ladislas came to be the favourite of the people, and
the hero of numberless legends, but this popularity and
the fame of his deeds caused the discord which broke
>
XX
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
out among the princes. Bissene hordes had been in
the habit of ravaging the southern provinces of
Hungary: they were protected by Nicketas, the
Grecian commander of Belgrade. At length the Hun-
garians became impatient of these frequent violations of
their territory. In the year 1022 they drove the free-
booters across the Save, and besieged Belgrade for the
purpose of punishing the Grecian garrison of that
place. For a long time the siege was fruitless, but at
last it happened that a captive Hungarian girl set fire
to the town. While the conflagration was at its height,
the besiegers stormed the walls of Belgrade. Niketas
retreated to the citadel, which he surrendered when he
saw that there was no hope of a rescue. He made the
condition, that he and his army should be allowed to
return to their country; and when he had received a
promise that this condition would be complied with, he
surrendered, not to the King, but to the Duke Geiza.
King Solomon felt offended with the preference shown
to the Duke, and his courtiers were eager to foster the
sparks of dissension between the cousins. When the
booty was divided, King Solomon seized the oppor-
tunity to have his revenge. Instead of awarding to the
Dukes one-half, he gave them one-fourth of the booty,
pretending that Niketas and the garrison of Belgrade
ought to be considered as an equivalent for the other
quarter. The Duke submitted to this imposition.
But when Michael Dukas, the Emperor of Byzantium,
sent a golden crown to Geiza, in token of his gratitude
for the humane treatment which Niketas had received at
his hands, Solomon was induced to listen to the inu-
endos of the old enemy of Bela's house. Count Vid
told the King that the Dukes were pretenders to the
.:.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xxi
crown, and from that moment Solomon endeavoured to
overpower and capture his cousins. The intrigue was
betrayed to the Dukes. Upon this the two young
princes, Ladislas and Lampert, hastened to Poland and
Red Russia to call in auxiliaries, while Solomon appealed
to Germany for help. In this instance, Solomon
again stooped to acknowledge himself the vassal of the
German Emperor. But his endeavours were as fruitless
as those of the Dukes, and the contending parties
understood at length that their safest plan was to
accept the mediation of the Hungarian chiefs. A com-
promise was effected in 1024. But the part which
Solomon acted was by no means sincere, for immediately
after the reconciliation, he made an attempt to assas-
sinate Geiza when hunting. The attempt failed, and
Geiza became convinced that there would be no peace
between him and King Solomon. Acting upon this
conviction, he again sent his brother out of the country,
to ask for help against the King of Hungary. Before
they could return to his assistance, King Solomon struck
a sudden blow against Geiza, and defeated his small
army on the banks of the Theiss. But Duke Ladislas
was approaching at the head of Moravian troops. The
courtiers of Upper Hungary joined him. On the Danube
he effected a junction with the forces of his brother
Geiza. He advanced and defeated Solomon, in a battle in
which the Count Vid, the author of the war, was found
among the slain. Solomon made his escape to Germany,
and although Geiza protested against the offer of the
crown, he was solemnly crowned amidst the cheers and
exultation of the whole nation. The new king was re-
luctant to engage in a war with Germany. He opened ne-
gociations with Solomon; for he was resolved to sur-
xxii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION,
render the crown to the exiled king, if the quiet pos-
session of the dukedom were but guaranteed to him-
self and his brethren. But the chiefs of the kingdom
and the people at large hated Solomon on account of
his predilection for the Germans, and his attempts to
degrade the kingdom of Hungary into a German fief.
The bishops alone were in his favour, and took every op-
portunity to confirm Geiza in his resolution, when his
sudden death (A.D. 1072) put a stop to the negotia-
tions. His brother and successor Ladislas (who ought
to be called "the Great," had not the Church called
him "the Saint") was, as we learn from the chronicles
of the time, the handsomest and tallest man in all
Hungary. He had proved the strength of his heroic
arm in the war against the Kumans, Bissens, and against
the King Solomon. The people considered him as
the true successor of St. Stephen, and offered him
the crown by acclamation. But Ladislas was as little
inclined as his brother Geiza had been to bear the re-
proach of having usurped the rights of another. He
would not be satisfied, until by the mediation of the
pope and the bishops he prevailed upon Solomon to
resign his rights to the crown in consideration of a
liberal annuity. Solomon entered into and ratified the
agreement four years after Ladislas's advent to power;
and it was then only that the latter accepted the crown.
No foreign war threatened his frontiers. He was
therefore left at liberty to devote all his energies to the
internal policy of his kingdom. He continued the
work which St. Stephen had begun. That sainted
King had arranged the constitution and the public
law: Ladislas introduced a code of civil and criminal
laws. Stephen had placed the constitution of the
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xxiii
country on a Christian foundation: Ladislas became
the legislator of the Hungarians, who had meanwhile
settled down into an agricultural people. St. Stephen
had protected liberty on its transition from paganism
to Christianity: Ladislas directed and arranged the
affairs of civil life, during the transition from the life
of herdsmen to agricultural occupations. These im-
portant improvements were sanctioned in the session of
the Diet of 1082. After a lapse of twelve years Ladislas
and his Diet arranged the affairs of the Church, and
this too under the reign of Gregory VII.; for Ladislas,
though a sincere and pious man, insisted on the right
of the King and people of Hungary, to be in ecclesias-
tical affairs independent of the pope, though in harmony
with the precepts of the Church. He governed
Hungary for 18 years; his subjects loved him; his neigh-
bours respected him, and his enemies feared him. When
Solomon, in spite of the terms of his resignation,
endeavoured to possess himself of the crown, Ladislas
ordered him to be seized, and confined in the tower of
Visegrad; but when King Stephen and his son Emrich
were canonized by the Pope, Ladislas liberated the
pretender; for he thought it hard that one of Stephen's
descendants should languish in captivity on such a day.
The Kumans, a pagan people of the Hungarian stock,
who lived in Moldavia and Wallachia, and who distressed
his country by frequent inroads, were repeatedly defeated
by Ladislas, who pursued them over the frontiers of
their own country, when he fought a duel with and
killed Akosh, the king of the Kumans, a man of
gigantic height. Ladislas joined Croatia to Hun-
gary, and extended the confines of the country to the
coast of the Adriatic, where his provinces were con-
xxiv
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
1
tiguous to those of the Venetian Republic. In the
North, he compelled the three princes of Halitsh and
Vladimir*, to recognize the supremacy of the Hun-
garian crown. By this act he became the founder of
that legal title to which Maria Theresa appealed, when
700 years later, she, as queen of Hungary, claimed
those provinces in the first partition of Poland. So
generally was King Ladislas's early Christian spirit
acknowledged throughout Christendom, that when
the first Crusade was resolved on in the Council of
Piacenza (A.D. 1095) the command of the expedition
was unanimously offered to King Ladislas, the most
gallant and Christian of the European kings. A
splendid embassy brought the news to Hungary. The
King accepted the offer, which did him no small
honour, but he died a few months afterwards. A
general mourning of three years followed his death.
No music was heard. There were no festivities; for
the hearts of his subjects clung to the remembrance of
their gallant King.
Ladislas, the handsome Cavalier, was succeeded
(A.D. 1095) by Coloman, the crooked and squinting
son of Geiza,—a man, not of arms, but of science,
whom the people nick-named "Book Coloman" (Köny-
ves Kalman) while they feared him as a most powerful
wizard. But Coloman's misshapen body contained a
strong mind, and though less generous than his uncle,
and less conscientious than his father, he was quick of re-
solution and firm of purpose, and well fitted to protect
the independence of the country in perilous times.
An insurrection of the Croats, who believed that the
* Red Russia, the present Gallicia and Lodomeria.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
XXV
new king was utterly ignorant of the trade of arms,
gave him an opportunity of testing his powers. He
suppressed the insurrection, completed the incorpora-
tion of Croatia, and conquered the maritime cities
which had formerly resisted the attacks of Ladislas.
He had scarcely finished his conquest, when he was
obliged to turn to the German frontier, for ever since
Peter the Hermit had preached a crusade at the
Council of Clermont, the whole of Western Europe
was infected with holy fanaticism. Large armies of
disciplined troops and countless hordes of plunderers
and marauders marched through Hungary and the
Byzantine Empire on their way to Jerusalem. Ko-
loman received them with great suspicion; for all
the reckless adventurers of Europe was amongst them,
and many of them would have undertaken the conquest
of an empire as a pioneer to the expedition to
the Holy Land. The first army of Crusaders
of 20,000 men, and led by the brave knight,
Walter Havenothing (Gauthier de Sans Avoir), were
well received by the King, who escorted them to
Semlin, when some of their marodeurs, who pillaged
the country, were cut down by the peasantry. The
second Crusading army, headed by Peter of Amiens,
and numbering 40,000 men, advanced likewise to
Semlin, without offence on either side; but when
they found the armour of Walter's crusading marodeurs
kept as trophies by the people of Semlin, they
attacked, entered and sacked the unfortunate city, and
as soon as they heard of the king's approach, escaped
across the Danube. They were followed by two troops
of 12 and 15,000 men, under Volkmar and Gottshalk,
who commenced plundering as soon as they crossed
b
VOL. I.
xxvi
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
?
•
the Hungarian frontier. In return, the people rose
and exterminated them to the last man. A similar
fate was in store for the larger armies of the Count
Emico, which in some exaggerated statements, are
quoted at 200,000 men. Emico's troops wished to
punish the Hungarians for the destruction of the
preceding armies, but the King Koloman, whom they
at first oppressed by superior numbers, surprised them
at night, drove them into the river Laytha and into the
morasses of Wieselburg, and compelled the few that re-
mained to consult their safety by returning to Germany.
At length came the main army of the Crusaders, under
the command of Geoffrey of Bouillon. They amounted
to 100,000 armed and disciplined troops. Their leader
concluded a treaty with Koloman, in which a free
passage was promised to the Crusaders, and in which
the prices of provisions were fixed, and the supplies
guaranteed. Koloman accompanied the foreign troops
with his army, after having offered them a royal en-
tertainment at Oedenburg, and the princes bade each
other adieu on the Greek frontier.
But the danger of foreign violence was scarcely over,
when still greater dangers rose out of Hungarian soil.
Almos, the King's cousin, who was Duke over one third
of the empire, intrigued to possess himself of the
crown. The King, on the other hand, was impatient
of another man's sovereignty in his country, and the
old feud of Bela with Andreas, of Geisa with Solo-
mon, of the sword with the crown, was on the point
of convulsing the kingdom. But Koloman was ener-
getic and bold. He defeated Almos' plans and
forces. Koloman very generously granted his van-
quished foe a free pardon: but when Almos rebelled for
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xxvii
the second and indeed for the third time, Koloman
surprised him in the midst of a new intrigue, made him
a prisoner, and in a fit of mad cruelty, ordered the
eyes of the Duke to be put out; nay, not only his, but
also those of his innocent son, Bela, so as to disable
both father and son from aspiring to the government.
The unfortunate Princes fled to a Convent, and the
monks spread a rumour of their death.
While the King attempted in his cruel manner to
prevent a civil war, his jealousy and violence planted
the seeds of another war; for, suspecting his wife
Queen Predzlava of being unfaithful to him, he sent
her back to her relations in Poland, where she died,
after giving birth to Boris, the future pretender to the
crown of Hungary. In spite of his fitful violence and
cruelty, Koloman was not altogether unworthy of his
predecessors. He completed the work of St. Stephen
and St. Ladislas. Under his government, the institu-
tions and laws of the country were improved by the
Diet, and, strange to say, it is the lenient spiri per-
vading them, which characterizes the statutes of Kolo-
man. The king died 1114. With him ended the
first and most important period in the existence of the
Hungarian cities. He is the last legislator of the
time of transition from Asiatic and accession to Euro-
pean civilization. The laws of Hungary, from Stephen
the Saint to Koloman, form an organic whole which
extends in three directions, viz :
The idea of Christianity pervades all their statutes in
the independence of the country, in its relations to foreign
nations, and the liberty of the people at home, and lastly
in the establishment of a strong central power. The
two last named objects were attained by encroachments
·
b 2
xxviii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
on the influence of the native chiefs, which caused the
chaos to unite, and merge into a constitution. and
monarchy.
An inquiry into the development of the Hungarian
Constitution in this epoch, and some extracts from the
statutes of our three great legislators, will give a clear
idea of the condition of the people, while it furnishes
our reader with a standard of just appreciation of the
three Kings: Stephen, Ladislas, and Koloman.
When the Hungarians were still wandering through
the heaths of Asia, between the Irtish and Wolga;
when they subjugated their neighbours, and were in
their turn subjugated by them; they lived, like the
Circassians of the present day, in a patriarchal clans-
manship. The nation was divided into seven tribes,
which were again subdivided into a number of families.
A similar heptarchy may be found among their kinsmen,
the Uzi, Kumanis, Bissenis, and Khazaris. The last
named people alone, had elected the most powerful of
their chiefs to the dignity of Khan, and this circumstance
gave them for a time a great power among their neigh-
bours. When, therefore, the Hungarians were resolved
to wander onward in quest of new homes, their seven
chiefs met, and concluded that first and original con-
tract, which up to the latest times has been considered
as the foundation of the Hungarian Constitution. Ac-
cording to an Asiatic custom, they ripped the skin of
the arm, mixed the blood with wine and resolved:
1. That they should elect Almos and his genera-
tion after him, to be their duke, that he should guide
them and lead them in war.
2. That the common booty of the field should be
fairly divided amongst them.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xxix
3. That the chiefs who, of their own free-will, had
elected Almos, should not, nor should their descend-
ants after them, be excluded from the councils of the
duke.
4. That those who break their allegiance to the
duke, or who foster dissensions between him and the
chiefs, shall find no room on the face of the earth,
and that their blood shall be shed, like the blood
which runs from the arms of the contracting parties.
5. If the duke were to break the contract, that he
shall be deposed, and cursed, and banished.
This contrat social marks the first step of the Hun-
garians into history, for it was this contract which
made them a nation. In confirmation of it, the seven
princes Almos, Elöd, Kund, Und, Tas, Huba, and
Tuhutum sacrificed the blood and wine as a libation to
the gods.
This contract made the duke in the first instance
no more than a primus inter pares. He was a leader
in war, but not a sovereign in times of peace, and
the chiefs retained an undiminished jurisdiction among
the members of their tribes. The second clause of
the contract made it possible for the duke to extend
his power.
When, on entering Hungary, Almos
resigned to his son Arpád, and Arpád conquered the
country, the territory was divided by the first Diet,
held at Puszta-Szer, in the vicinity of Szegedin. The
mutual relations between the Princes, the chiefs, and
the people were determined, and judges appointed.
Thus we find in this first period, the traces of an or-
derly Government, and of a free Constitution. In this
time too, we find the first vestiges of municipal institu-
XXX
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
!
tions, and of the military arrangements of the country.
In its administrative relations, Hungary was divided
into counties; for the purposes of war, it was divided
into baronies (Schlossbezirke). Fortified castles were
built in various places, and the territories surrounding
them were given into the hands of a number of Hun-
garian colonists, who cultivated them in common, and
the harvests were so divided, that one half fell to the
share of the colonists, who formed likewise the garrison
of the castle, while the other half was divided into three
parts. One third fell to the share of the Commander
of the Castle (Comes Castrensis) who had also a judicial
power over the vassals of the castle lands, and two
thirds were devoted to the victualling of the castle,
and providing for the want of its garrison. The castle
lands were considered to be the property of the State;
they became the foundation of the military institutions
of Hungary, for the garrisons of the castles formed the
most efficient military power of the country. The
Hungarians were, moreover, free and equal in political
rights, with the exception of the chiefs, who formed a
high aristocracy among them. Those of the original
inhabitants of the country who made a voluntary sur-
render, were received as allies and friends, but those
who had opposed the Hungarian invasion, were re-
duced to the state of serfs, and compelled to till their
former possessions for the benefit of their masters.
The predatory expeditions of the Hungarians under
the leadership of Zoltan and Taksony, the son and
grandson of Arpád filled the country with bondsmen
from all parts of Europe. These captives were likewise
employed in tilling the ground, for the Hungarians were
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xxxi
warriors when young, and herdsmen when old, and
amidst the numbers of captive bondsmen and native
serfs, they formed a national aristocracy.
The introduction of the Christian religion by St.
Stephen, caused a great political revolution, not only
because it strengthened the power of the Princes, while
it paralyzed the influence of the chiefs, (since they were
rivalled in the King's councils by the newly created
bishops, who in the Diet, stood forth as the first
Estate,) but an important change took place in the con-
dition and relations of the people. The Christian bonds-
men were suddenly emancipated, for Stephen was of
opinion, that Christianity ought to effect both the
moral and the political liberation of its adherents. The
obstinate pagans, on the other hand, were deprived of
their liberty. The number of those who preferred their
old creed to their freedom was considerable, and Thonu-
zoba, the Chief of the Bissens, set them an example,
which taught them to escape at once from servitude
and Christianity. He proceeded to Abad on the banks
of the Theiss, and dressed in full armour and sitting on
his horse, he caused himself to be buried alive, as an
expiatory sacrifice to the gods, "For he preferred,"
says the Chronicler, "death with his fathers, to eternal
life with Christ."
Stephen, who knew the character of his people, sur-
rounded himself with Chiefs and Magnates, for the
purpose of increasing the splendour of the court, which
the Bishops thronged with the ministers of spiritual
power. As for the people, he classed them off into
the high nobility (domini), Bishops and Chiefs who
led their men under their own banners; and into the
nobility or possessors of allod (nobiles, servientes regi),
xxxii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
who assembled under the King's banner; and the sol-
diers or franklins who belonged to the castle banners
(servientes castrei).
The whole united body of these formed the Diet, and
their consent was required to promote the King's de-
crees to the dignity of laws. It is but natural that the
Domini had for a length of time, an influence which
carried every thing before it. The influence of the job-
bagiones castrenses has never been exactly ascertained,
but it appears to have been less than the influence of
the nobility, of the jobbagiones or servientes regales.
But, however unequal the political rights of the Hun-
garians may have been, their rights of possession were
equal, and the words of one of their Kings: "Neque
habet quis Dominorum plus, neque servientium minus
de libertate," apply exactly to the condition of the peo-
ple under King Stephen. The judicial power of the
Chiefs of Clans declined, and the Hungarian freeman
was subject to no one, but to the King and his repre-
sentative, the Palatine. To break the dangerous influ-
ence and power of the Chiefs, the members of the clans
were emancipated from the duties they owed to their
tribe. From clansmen they became citizens of the
country.
The administration of justice was organized in an
extremely simple manner. The King, accompanied by
his Palatin, made frequent journeys through the coun-
try, and wherever he stopped on his progress, the
Bishops and Magnates of the surrounding districts
assembled under his presidency, for the purpose of hear-
ing the complaints and deciding the quarrels which
the people brought before them. In this primitive
state of jurisprudence, all justice emanated directly
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xxxiii
from the King. The Comes Castrensis had, moreover,
a constant jurisdiction over the colonists, who formed
the garrison of his castle, (jobbagiones or servientes cas-
tri), not only in matters of military discipline, but also
in all civil and criminal cases, which came to his cogni-
zance.
It is under King Stephen, too, that we meet with
the first traces of feudalism in Hungary. Grants are
not given with a full and unlimited title, they become
a kind of hereditary fiefs, and the feoffer and his de-
scendants are obliged to do military service. An escheat
takes place in the case of the family of the holder
becoming extinct, and in cases of felony, but excepting
their restrictions to an unlimited title, the feoffer has
the free disposal of his property. We find also persons
engaged in agricultural pursuits, in breeding horses and
in hunting, who hold their grant under special condi-
tions.
Besides the three large classes of Hungarian freemen,
we find in this period, a fourth class of citizens, viz.
the emancipated bondsmen, and the naturalized aliens,
(libertini, dushenici, hospites), who were not called upon
to do military service, who had no political rights, and
who paid taxes to the King, but who are not subject to
any one besides him. This class produced in the
course of time, the citizens of towns and the mass of
the people, those that are not free-men, who are sub-
ject to their Lords, who work for them, and who pay
their taxes to them.
With respect to criminal legislature, we find it
founded under King Stephen on the old Hebrew princi-
ples of retaliation-eye for eye, and tooth for tooth;
we find likewise the Germanic "Wehrgeld," the price of
b 3
xxxiv
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
1.
blood (homagium). Treason, murder, and theft (if
frequently repeated) are punished with death, but man-
slaughter is atoned for by a fine, which is paid to the
relations of the sufferer. Frequently we find the
punishment of various crimes falling under ecclesiastical
jurisdiction; churches have the right of asylum, but
this right does not protect a traitor to the King, while
the King's court, and the houses of the great func-
tionaries have likewise the right of asylum.
These laws bear the stamp of a state which has
scarcely entered upon its existence. The simple rela-
tions of vagrant life, in which collisions are scarce, and
by no means of a serious character, are sufficient to
explain why a greater share of attention is devoted to
the constitution, and less on the legislation of the
country. The Empire is growing into being, and the
very court of the King is as vagrant as the rest of the
people.
Ladislas takes a long stride in advance. His decrees
too, are founded on the establishment of Christianity as
a system; his statutes are pervaded by an ecclesiastical
spirit, but the arrangement of the Constitution is not
with him, paramount to all other considerations. He
aims at the creation of a code of laws. His object is
no longer to create the state, but to develope it. The
people have become more civilized; their vagrant habits
are on the decline, but the increase of fixed habitations
produces an increased litigation about the " meum and
tuum;" individuals are brought more frequently into
contact with one another, and the feelings which this
contact excites, are not always kind. Collisions and
complaints necessitate a fixed legislation, and a rule for
the protection of persons and properties. The statutes
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
XXXV
of Ladislas tend, therefore, to confirm Christian morals
among his people, and to establish a uniform and equi-
table standard of civil and criminal law.
King Bela had in his time, published a decree fixing
the market-day on Saturdays, instead of on Sundays.
This is a sign that the people ceased to lead a nomade
life, for among nomade populations, trade is necessarily
joined to religion. A herdsman cannot leave his flocks
at any time; he meets his neighbours chiefly for the
purpose of divine service, and having served his God,
he transacts business with his fellows. The bartering
transactions of nomadical nations, are almost always in
connexion with their religious ceremonies. To this day
we find trade and commerce in Arabia and Africa,
bound up with the annual caravans and pilgrimages.
Ladislas made a law enjoining a due observance of the
Sundays and Christian festivals; the transgressors of
this law were threatened with ecclesiastical punish-
ments, and those who utterly despised this Christian
ordinance were peremptorily exiled. Ladislas enforced
not only the confession, but also the active morals of
the Christian creed, and those who sacrifice to the
Pagan divinities are denounced in the strongest language.
As for the Jewish and Mohammedan merchants in the
kingdom, the law tolerates the Jews, but they are
bound to respect the Christian Sabbath, and to eschew
the keeping of Christian servants; while the Mahome-
tans are divided among the country people, and com-
pelled to make confession of Christianity. We learn
from the statutes of Ladislas, that the conversion of
the Hungarians was completed. They have adopted
Christianity, and the tendency of the statutes of
xxxvi
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
Ladislas is to compel them to act up to their new
creed.
In his statutes of civil law, we find thieves threatened
with severe punishment. Property is turned to account
and has come to be protected. Instant execution, with
no respect to the person of the culprit is enjoined,
when the value of the stolen goods exceeds the sum of
ten denars, nor can it be pleaded in extenuation of the
crime, that the thief has indemnified the person from
whom he stole. In petty cases of theft, an indemnifi-
cation of twelve times the value of the stolen goods was
exacted from the thief, if he was a free-man; if not, he
was mutilated, and lost his nose or one of his eyes. He
who robs his neighbour of his landed property, forfeits
his liberty and his goods. In the case of an assassina-
tion, the property of the murderer is confiscated, and
one third is given to his natural heirs, while two thirds
fall to the share of the person whom he has killed.
The administration of justice assumes a more syste-
matic aspect than it had in the times of Stephen. Two
judges are appointed in each county, and instructed to
take cognizance of and inquire into all complaints, and
to report the cases to the King or Palatine, on their
progress through the country. In token of their office,
they have a knightly seal, which they send to the defen-
dant when they summon him to make his appearance
in court. Their summons is imperative for all the in-
habitants of their district, and those that refuse to obey
it, are in the first instance subjected to a fine; and in
the second, judgment is passed against them, as if they
had made their appearance. The clergy who resorted
to the Bishops, and the Bishops and Comites, or in a
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xxxvii
word, the Domini, who could only be summoned under
the Great Seal, were dispensed from obedience to the
summons of the County-Judges. The judicial proceed-
ings are public, and under the Chapter of Evidence,
we find witnesses, oaths and ordeals (ordalia). Ap-
peal from the verdicts of the judges cannot be made
within a twelvemonth to the King or Palatine. The
statutes of Ladislas determine the limits of the juris-
diction of the various courts, so as to enable every man
to know who was his judge, and in what case; and it
was expressly provided, that each information of a
crime ought to be examined within three days, and
that in a civil suit, judgment ought to be delivered
within thirty days.
These laws bear witness of a civilized, though simple,
condition of the people. Since the time of Stephen
they have come to be more European, and the princi-
ples of the safety of persons and of property is generally
prevailing.
The laws of Koloman show more statesmanship than
those of his predecessors. The King's revenues and
the military duties, and general relations of those citi-
zens of the State who are subjects to the Duke, with
regard to those who are immediate subjects of the
King, and the principal subjects of his statutes. He
regulates the various titles of possession, he determines
the duties of the Comites Castrenses, he establishes new
Courts of Appeal, and fixes the yearly terms for the
courts often, viz. the days of St. Philip, James, and
St. Michael. On those days the Bishops, the Mag-
nates of the Empire, and the Comites, assembled and
decided on the cases of the "lords" among themselves,
Xxxviii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
[:
and on the cases between ecclesiastics and laymen.
They are compelled to take cognizance of, and decide
on all complaints of improper use of official power,
even in the case of the highest functionaries. An un-
fair decision exposes the judges to be indicted before the
Episcopal Court, or before the Palatine, and if he is found
guilty, he is bound to indemnify the aggrieved party.
But most extraordinary is Koloman's penal legisla-
tion, for in respect to them he is far in advance of his
time. He limited the ordalia, the verdict found by
means of red hot iron, and boiling water, which was so
frequent in the time of Ladislas. He decreed (in the
eleventh century) that no information should be re-
ceived against witches, because there are no witches!*
Mutilation, which is a conspicuous feature in the penal
code of Ladislas, is by Koloman commuted into fines
and other punishments; and in the case of infanticide
he decrees that the wretched mother is to be left to
the penance of the Church, and to the pangs of her
own conscience.
The financial measures of this King are most simple.
A duty of five per cent on imports and exports, a
market tax (tributum fori), direct taxes imposed on
all freemen who were not noble (denarii libertinorum),
and on the hospites (udvornici regales), served for the
maintenance of the court, and to defray the public ex-
* We ought to remark that, in spite of Koloman's statute,
proceedings against witches were of frequent occurrence from the
sixteenth to the eighteenth century. The last witch was burnt
at Szegedin, under the reign of Maria Theresa. This unfor-
tunate woman was the mother of the monk Dugoniez, who is
famous as a novel writer.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xxxix
A
penses, while one half of the proceeds of the castle-
lands remained, as before, the basis of the military
establishment.
The laws on the ecclesiastical tithes, which Stephen
had introduced, and on the due observance of Sundays
and Saints' days, were renewed; the Ismaelites were re-
strained from marrying women of their own tribe, to
prevent the doctrines of Mohammed from being handed
down in the families of those, who had been forced to
accept the Christian religion under Ladislas. The Jews
were compelled to live in episcopal towns, to afford
them an opportunity for their conversion. From a
political point of view, Koloman, though tenacious of
the rights of the Hungarian Kings, was not prone to
try too great a stress on the right of "investiture.”
He resigned it, because he was loath to offend the Pope,
at the very moment in which the whole of Western
Europe, influenced and fanaticized by the Pope, was
advancing through Hungary to the Holy Land; for he
was aware that the Crusader would, in the case of a
quarrel between himself and the Pope, turn their arms
against his country and his throne. However great
our respect for King Ladislas may be, who refused to
comply with the demands of the powerful Gregory VII.
we cannot deny that Koloman's views were just and
rational, when he preferred to resign a contested
right, rather than to risk the independence of his
country.
This short sketch of the history of the Hungarian
law and Constitution, shows the introduction of that
nation into the great Christian family of European
nations, by means of a series of energetic Kings. We
xl
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
.
see that the Western civilization of Rome and Germany
had greater influence upon them, than the Oriental cul-
ture of Byzantium; but whenever Germany attempted
to gain any influence by the sword, or whenever it
threatened the independence of Hungary, we see the
people rise, repel the invaders, and assert its own
rights. Such is the character of the first period of the
History of Hungary.
Among the successors of Koloman (from his son
Stephen II. to Andreas II. 1114 to 1205), Hungary
is chiefly under the influence of Byzantium. That
Empire was then seized by a family of clever and
cunning Princes, the Comneni, who covered the young
states of Hungary with the net of their intrigues,
gaining its princes for their policy by marriages, by
wars, and by subsidies. Their end and aim was to
make up in the West, for their losses in the East.
The Hungarian Kings of this period are unlike
their predecessors; among them we find no great legis-
lator, no hero, and excepting Bela III. no statesman.
The Kingdom declined under the influence of the in-
trigues, and the extravagance of its rulers, who were
unequal to the task of continuing the work of Stephen,
Ladislas, and Koloman. The history of this period is
less interesting for the philosophical inquirer than that
of the former Kings. Indeed, there is nothing striking
in it, but the few romantic traits in the personal adven-
tures of some of the Kings.
Stephen II. (son to Koloman), flattered himself that
he equalled Solomon in wisdom, Samson in bravery,
and David in boldness; but he was no such thing, as
the old Chronicler most naïvely remarks. He got the
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xli
Į
•
kingdom into sundry disreputable feuds with his neigh-
bours in Austria, Red Russia, and Byzantium, and all
these feuds had no other results than that they caused
great bloodshed and misery. He had no legitimate issue,
and, therefore, he was resolved to recognize Boris, the
son of Predzlava (Koloman's divorced Queen) as his
brother and successor, when he learnt that Bela, the
son of the wretched and traitorous Duke Almas, was
still in life, though robbed of his eye-sight. Stephen
was but too happy to have an opportunity to atone for
his father's crime. He sent for Bela, and united him
to Helena, the masculine and energetic daughter of the
Servian Prince Uros. Soon afterwards King Stephen
resolved to be a monk and died (1131), sincerely la-
menting the errors of his youth and his weakness, which
in earlier years had made him a victim to the charms of
the Hungarian girls.*
Bela II. was throughout his reign influenced by his
wife. Helena was energetic, and severe even to cruelty,
while her husband was equally weak and good-natured.
The Queen wished to be revenged on those, who in
former years had assisted in the mutilation of her hus-
band; and at the Diet of Arad (1132), she made her
appearance leading her two sons by the hand. In a
pathetic speech she expatiated on the wretched condi-
tion of the King, her husband, who was deprived of
his sight, while all his subjects enjoyed the view of the
beauties of Nature. And why was he blind? Merely
because he was his father's son, and because King
* The devil was sick, the devil a monk would be,
The devil grew whole-the devil a monk was he!"
OLD PROVERB.
xlii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
Koloman's hate wanted a second victim! She con-
cluded her speech by asking for justice for the King,
and for the punishment of those, whose advice had in-
duced King Koloman to commit so heinous a crime.
Fanaticized by the Queen's speech, the Magnates rose,
and drawing their swords, killed sixty-eight friends.
and advisers of King Koloman, because they suspected
them of having been privy to the mutilation of Bela.
Others were imprisoned, exiled, and their property
was confiscated. It is but natural that this gratuitous
cruelty should have strengthened the partisans of Boris,
who, encouraged by the exiles, attempted at length to
invade the country. This invasion led to no result,
and all the other attempts of the Pretender led to
nothing, but to a repetition of the Arad butchery. For
at a meeting of the Magnates of the Kingdom, Helena
stood forth and asked them, whether they were of opi-
nion that Boris was the legitimate son of Koloman.
Those who replied in the affirmative, or who gave an
evasive answer, were arrested and executed on the spot.
Bela was fond of saying, "that misfortune is a
greater blessing than good fortune, that success makes
men reckless and overbearing; but that misery is the
parent of wisdom and perseverance." But this
charming philosophy of his was by no means mani-
fested in his measures of government. His loose and
easy character made him throw away large sums on his
favourites, to the detriment of the available funds for
the military establishment of the country. On the
other hand, the cruelty of Queen Helena strengthened
the power of the Crown. The influence of the Chiefs
was all but annihilated, and the King was almost
absolute, when Bela died in 1171, leaving his son
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xliii
The
Geza, a minor of less than ten years of age.
Diet appointed a Regency, consisting of the Palatine
Belus, Uros, the King's uncle, and the Archbishop of
Gran. They were all men of distinguished talent,
and commemorated the period of their Regency by an
important measure, fruitful of consequences. They
favoured the immigration into Hungary of Germans
from Flanders, who settled in the county of Zips and in
Transylvania, and on whom they bestowed some signal
privileges, such as a jurisdictionand municipal constitu-
tion of their own. The colonists of those days are the
ancestors of the "Saxons" in Transylvania.
The new settlers, especially those who inhabited
the Carpathian districts of Lower Hungary, devoted
themselves to the exploration of the mining resources
of the country.
They were the first miners and
manufacturers in Hungary, and their influence was
beneficially exerted in the development of the towns.
Shortly afterwards the scenes of the reign of King
Koloman were acted over again. The speeches of
Bernhard of Clairvaux fanaticized the nations of Europe,
and urged them to another expedition against the
Saracens, and the armies of the Crusaders marched
again through Hungary, without, however, imparting
their enthusiasm to its inhabitants. The Emperor
Frederic Barbarossa, with his Germans, took the lead,
and sorely was he tempted on this occasion to reduce
Hungary to the condition of a fief of his empire; and,
even without being the sovereign of the country, he
levied contributions from convents and churches. After
him came the French, under Louis VII., keeping a
severe discipline, and meeting with a better reception
xliv
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
.
than the German Emperor could boast of. But still
King Geiza thought proper to assemble his army, and
to escort his guests to the frontier. But this danger
was scarcely over, when Geiza, like Stephen II., rushed
into a variety of feuds and wars. The most important
of these wars is doubtless his expedition against Manuel,
the Emperor of Byzantium. This war led to no decisive
result; but the influence of the Greeks increased, and
when Geiza died suddenly in 1161, leaving his suc-
cessor Stephen III., a minor, Manuel interfered to a
considerable extent in the Hungarian affairs, by raising
the brothers of Geiza, Ladislas II., and after his
decease, Stephen IV. to the throne. But the Hun-
garians would not be reconciled to the Clients of the
Eastern Emperor. They were upheld only by the
armies of Manuel, and the Emperor became at last
convinced that the conquest of the country was a hope-
less undertaking. The decease of the two pretenders
enabled him to conclude a peace. He adopted Bela,
the King's brother, made him his son-in-law, and
promised to procure his succession to the throne of
Byzantium. But in the meanwhile, Manuel became
most unexpectedly father to a son. Stephen III. died
in 1173, and Bela III. of that name ascended the Hun-
garian throne instead of that of Byzantium. He was
the ablest king who had reigned since the days of
Koloman; but he was never popular in his country,
for he was a Byzantine, and not an Hungarian. He
introduced the ceremonies of the Court of Constanti-
nople, he appointed Grand Dignitaries, and at one time
he burnt all the chairs which surrounded the throne in
the Council-hall, to prevent the Magnates from sitting
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xly
down in his presence.
The management of affairs
was given to the Chancellor; petitions and remon-
strances were to be made in writing, and the royal
decision was likewise conveyed by means of ink and
parchment. But, on the other hand, the King was
eager to improve the condition of the country. Thieves
and robbers were treated with great severity; the
safety of the public highways was restored, and great
pains were taken to prevent a foreign war, and to give
the country, exhausted from its late feuds, time to
regain its ancient propriety. But among all these
multifarious objects, the King was by no means un-
mindful of his own private treasury, for he was
altogether a prince in the modern spirit of Louis-
Philippe.
He died in 1195, leaving two sons, Emrich and
Andreas, and with them the germs of a civil war, for
it might have been expected that the younger brother
would insist on having a dukedom, and afterwards a
crown, as it happened in the reigns of Andreas, Solomon,
Koloman, and Stephen III. To obviate this danger,
Bela compelled his younger son to pledge his word
that he would make a Crusade to the Holy Grave, for
which purpose the King left him the contents of his
private treasury. But Andreas had no intention what-
ever to act up to his promise; he spent his riches to
gain the good offices of a party, and at the head of that
party he made a peremptory demand for the provinces
of Croatia and Dalmatia; and when King Emrich
refused to comply with his request, he advanced, and
seized the two provinces by force. A war ensued,
which led to a peace, by which Andreas was confirmed
xlvi
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
in the possession of Croatia and Dalmatia, under the
express condition that he should make his expedition
to Palestine. He promised, but he did not keep his
word. Another war broke out in 1199, and a third in
1203; for in that year Emrich had his son, the boy
Ladislas, crowned as a King of Hungary, and by this
act he deprived Andreas of his last hope of the crown.
Andreas rebelled against his brother, and marched
against him at the head of a large army. Emrich
found that many of his supporters abandoned him,
for the profuse liberality of Andreas induced many men
of distinction and power to join his party.
The extremity of his circumstances caused Emrich
to throw all his hopes of safety upon one cast.
Dressed in his regal robes, with the crown on his head
and the sceptre in his hand, he proceeded alone to the
camp of his enemies, who were formed in order of
battle. As he approached, he cried with a voice :
'
"I am your King! Which of you dares to raise
a traitor's hand against his sovereign ?"
The men-at-arms stood aside as he passed, and thus
the King proceeded to his brother's tent, whom he
arrested in the midst of his troops. He brought him
to his own camp, imprisoned him in a fortified castle,
and sent Gertrude, Andreas' ambitious wife, to his
friends in Meran. A short time afterwards, King
Emrich was taken
was taken dangerously ill.
dangerously ill. He felt his
end approaching, and he desired to leave his crown to
the child Ladislas. He thought of gaining Andreas by
generosity. He liberated him, and made him the
guardian of Ladislas. Emrich died in 1204. He
was scarcely dead, when Andreas seized the royal
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xlvii
treasury, and excluded the Queen Dowager, Constantia,
from all influence in state affairs. It was clear, with-
out the possibility of a doubt, that he thought of making
away with his ward. Constantia and her child fled to
Austria. But the child's death saved Hungary from
a civil war, and in 1205 Andreas ascended the throne
as legitimate King of his country.
The history of the reign of Andreas II. is of the
greatest importance for Hungary. This King was
weak, extravagant, and ambitious of extending his
influence to foreign countries. He wished to gain a
throne for his second son, Koloman, and for that
purpose he made several wars, by which he at length
gained Gallicia in 1215. But as the financial and
military establishments of Hungary were intended only
for defensive, but not for aggressive wars, the King
was obliged to resort to extraordinary means to pay the
expences of his invasions of foreign countries. He
deteriorated the coin of the realm, without, however,
effecting the object he desired, beyond disarranging and
unsettling the commercial relations of the country.
High prices and fares paid in bad coin were the result
of this measure. In the second instance, he sold,
mortgaged, and did away with the castle-domains,
whose resources had hitherto served to pay the gar-
risons of the castles; and when the income of the State
grew gradually less under his hands, he fell back upon
the crown-land, without once considering that these mea-
sures were calculated to undermine the military establish-
ment and the finances of the country. The natural
consequence of these proceedings was, that the influence
of the aristocracy, who profited by the sale of the
Castle lands, increased at the same ratio, as that of the
xlviii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
Court declined, until the King wanted the power to
prevent the oppression of the lower nobility and the
people at large by a mighty oligarchy, which opposed
the Crown in every one of its measures. For the
purpose of fortifying his throne, the King surrounded
himself with foreign favourites, who were chiefly
relations of his wife, who was daughter to the Duke of
Mezan. He treated the native aristocracy with neglect,
and thus he increased the ardour of their opposition.
At length, he had no resource left to prevent an insur-
rection, but to appeal to the assistance of foreigners.
He applied to the Pope, who easily seized this oppor-
tunity to extend his power, and who, in the first in-
stance excommunicated all those who dared to oppose
the King; but soon afterwards the Pope thought
proper to threaten the King with an interdict if he
would continue to oppress his people; for when the
financial difficulties increased every day, Andreas had
no resource, but in farming out the income of the State
to the few, and to Mahometan Ismaelites, who drained
the country, and who pressed its inhabitants to become
converts to their religion.
Public indignation turned chiefly against Queen Ger-
trude, who was fond of interfering in State affairs, and
against her brothers, Berthold and Eckbert, who, in
spite of their ignorance, and the dissoluteness of their
lives, were promoted to the highest dignities, while
they did all in their power to scandalise and insult the
moral feelings of the Hungarian people. So early as
the year 1209, a conspiracy against the life of the
Queen had been discovered, and the conspirators were
punished; but five years later, she was effectually
assassinated by the Palatine, Bankban, and his friends.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xlix
Bankban committed this deed for the purpose of
avenging the honour of his house, which had been
violated by Eckbert, the Queen's brother.* Andreas
punished the murderers, but he could not allay the
prevailing discontent; and in order to conciliate at
least the favour of the Pope, and avail himself of his
spiritual weapons, he made in 1217 a Crusade to
Palestine. But to defray the expense of this foolish
expedition, he seized the treasures of the Church, and
even the private property of Constantia, the widow of
King Emrich, and the wife of the German Em-
peror, Frederick, who of course became his enemy in
return.
The expedition of King Andreas was more of a
pilgrimage than a crusade. He visited Jerusalem and
Genazareth, and after having attacked in vain the
Seljuk Turks on mount Tabor, he returned, and found
his empire in full dissolution. His son, Koloman,
had been expelled from Galicia. The discontent of
the Hungarians had reached its height. The people
were grievously oppressed. The Magnates were ex-
acting and overbearing. His treasury was empty, for
the revenue officers had embezzled the monies under
* The conspirators informed the Archbishop of Gran of their
resolution, asking his advice, which he gave in writing, to the
following purpose, and perfectly ambiguous:
<<
Reginam occidere nolite timere bonum est, si omnes consen-
serint ego non contradico," for it might be read, "Reginam
occidere nolite timere; bonum est. Si omnes consenserint, ego
non contradico." But the sentence admitted of another reading,
viz: "Reginam occidere nolite; timere bonum est. Si omnes
consenserint, ego non, contradico.
VOL. I.
с
1
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
Sat
their care, and crossed the frontier. Still the lessons of
adversity were lost upon the King, who drained the
last resources of the country for an expedition to
Galicia, for the purpose of reconquering that country
for his son. His army was defeated in 1219, and
Koloman himself fell into hopeless captivity.
This state of things could not possibly last. Bela,
the King's eldest son and successor, was called upon to
make a radical reform. He convoked the oppressed
low nobility, the Franklins of Hungary, and the garri-
sons of the castles; and backed by so formidable a force
he demanded the restoration of the old Constitution,
and the reform of the financial measures. His de-
mands were of course opposed by the high aristocracy,
who rallied round the King, and a civil war was on the
point of breaking out, when in 1222, the whole clergy
of Hungary, obedient to the Pope's commands, joined
the Reform party, and negotiated a Peace, the condi-
tions of which, known by the name of the Golden Bull
(bulla aurea), came to be the most important document
of Hungarian liberty. That bill does not indeed con-
tain any new rights for the people, but in it the King
acknowledged and confirmed the people's old and
hereditary rights, which, though long established, had
always been open to the attacks of the Kings. The
following are the chief clauses of this important docu-
ment:
"All the rights and liberties of the nobility and the
garrisons (of castles), were again confirmed. None of
them was to be attacked in his person or property,
without a legal summons, examination, and verdict;
they are not to be taxed, and he is subject to no one
but the King. Their petty differences are to be decided
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
li
in county-courts; cases of greater importance are to be
reserved to the annual sessions, to be held on the 20th
of August on St. Stephen's day, at Stuhlweissenburg,
where they are to be heard by the King and the Pala-
tine, with the co-operation and assistance of the nobi
lity. When the country is attacked, they are obliged
to do military service, but they cannot be compelled to
serve in an offensive war, and on any other than Hun-
garian territory; and if they consent to follow the King
across the frontier, the expense of the expedition is to
be borne by the King. Finally, they are entitled to
dispose of their property by will or otherwise, accord-
ing to their inclination.
"The fiscal domains which the King had alienated,
and which were in the hands of the aristocracy, were
to be restored, and for the future it was illegal to devote
them to any other purpose, than to the defraying of
the public expenditure. It was declared illegal to farm
the income of the States to Jews and Ishmaelites ;
foreigners were to be excluded from holding office
or land in Hungary, unless they had first obtained
letters of naturalization from the Privy Council.
The Magnates of the Empire, and indeed the King
with them, were forbidden to oppress the low nobility
by visiting them with their followers. The currency
and the jurisdiction of courts were regulated, and it
was provided that no man should hold two offices at
once, with the exception of the Ban of Croatia, the
Palatine, and the Lord Chief Justice (Judex Curia).'
""
The conclusion of the Golden Bull contains a clause,
which is famous in Hungarian History, and in which it
is enacted, that "if the King or his descendants should
despise the laws of the country, that then the Magnates
c 2
lii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
22
and free-men should be entitled to resist the authority
of such a King, without thereby incurring the penalties
of high treason."
The carrying of this bill was a matter of great
labour. Bela was commissioned to confiscate the
alienated state-property, but he met with an obsti-
nate resistance from the high aristocracy, who went to
the length of offering the Kingdom to the German Em-
peror Frederick, while King Andreas wanted the energy
to punish them. He preferred half measures to a bold
and determined conduct, and thus he prolonged the
crisis. At length he was compelled again to confirm
the Golden Bull at the Diet of 1231, and on this occa-
sion to extend the jurisdiction of the clergy, and to add
the clause that the Archbishop of Gran should be pri-
vileged to excommunicate any King who violated the
laws. But in spite of all their clauses and threats,
Andreas remained weak, sullen, and refractory, and
died in 1235.
Bela, the fourth of that name, who as heir appa-
rent had taken the lead of the Reform movement, re-
mained faithful to his principles when he ascended the
throne. He broke the power of the Magnates, and pro-
tected the great men of the nation against aristocratical
encroachments upon their rights, while the Magnates
exerted the last remnants of their legal power to under-
mine the King's authority. It was, therefore, a great
satisfaction to Bela, that Kuthen, King of the Kumans,
immigrated into Hungary with forty thousand of his
people (1239), and subjected himself and his fol-
lowers to Bela's authority for that Prince hoped.
to find a new source of strength in the sudden arrival
of this kindred nation. The Mongols who broke loose
:
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
lii
from the East, under the guidance of Batu Chan, had
expelled the Kumans from their settlements. These
people, though they became willing converts to Chris-
tianism, were far less civilized than the Hungarians.
They had no clear ideas about landed property, and
hence they were in perpetual conflict with the Hunga-
rians. This state of things engendered suspicion and
ill-feeling, and was finally attended with very serious
consequences. In 1241, the Mongols assembled an
army of 500,000 men, and threatened to invade Europe.
Bela invoked the assistance of the Duke of Austria,
Frederick of Babenberg, and he even promised to re-
cognize the German Emperor Frederick as his feudal
lord, if that potentate would oppose the Mongols
with the whole of his power. But the German Empe-
ror refused to assist Bela, and the Duke of Austria who
came to the rescue, was accompanied by a few knights
only. He was prepared to act as a spectator, but not
as an ally. Both the German Emperor and the Aus-
trian Duke had no objection to see Hungary humiliated
and maimed, for they anticipated that it would after-
wards be an easy prey. The Hungarian Magnates too,
were very slack in preparing for the defence: they pro-
tested, that since the King had restored the old Con-
stitution of the country, which was asserted to be suf-
ficient for any defensive war, they saw no reason why
they should put themselves to any extraordinary ex-
pense to succour him. The consequences might have
been foreseen. The Mongols defeated the Palatine's
troops in the Carpathian defiles, and their outposts
advanced to the vicinity of Pest, where the Duke of
Austria, instead of leading the Hungarians to battle,
was busy in inflaming them against the Kumans whom
น
•
"
liv
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
:
and
he represented as allies and spies of the Mongols
heading a furious mob of fanatics, he attacked and
wounded Prince Kuthen. Upon this, part of the Ku-
mans fled from the country, part of them surrendered
to the Mongols, and only a few of them remained with
the Hungarians. At length King Bela assembled his
troops, and advanced against the invaders, who re-
treated to the river Theiss, when a decisive battle was
fought at Mohi. The Hungarians were defeated, and
the Mongols had the country in their power. Kolo-
man, the King's brother, died from his wounds; and
the King sought refuge in the first instance with
Frederick of Austria, who instead of offering him
hospitality, arrested him, and only released him under
the condition of his resigning the border counties of
Hungary.
After his escape from the hands of the Austrians,
King Bela fled into Croatia, and at length, being still
pursued by the Mongols, he sought refuge on the
Dalmatian island of Veglia. The Mongols devastated
Hungary during one year and a half; they burned and
sacked villages and cities, and slaughtered their inha-
bitants; but when the news came to them, that Oktai,
the Great Chan of the Golden Tribe was dead, Batu
and his followers left the country, and returned to
Asia to vindicate Batu's rights to the succession.
King Bela returned in 1242. Hungary was a desert ;
a tabula rasa. The King was called upon to found a
new Empire. He rebuilt the cities, and gave them
ample privileges, and the most perfect self-government,
to increase their population. He renewed the title-
deeds of the landed proprietors, but in doing this he
changed the allods into feudal holdings; he encouraged
A
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
lv
4
In
the construction of mountain-fastnesses, and trans-
planted the Kumans from Bulgaria whither they had fled,
to the plains between the Theiss and the Danube.
four years the country had so far recovered, that Bela
was enabled to make an expedition of revenge against
Frederick of Austria, for the purpose of recovering the
three counties, which that Prince had forced him to
resign. Fortune favoured at first the arms of the Aus-
trian Prince; but in the battle of Wiener-Neustadt, he
fell pierced by the arrow of the Count Frangepani, a
friend of King Bela, the same who had hospitably re-
ceived him in Veglia.
In 1262, Hungary was again threatened by the
Mongols; but in this instance, they found the King
well armed, and prepared. Nogai Chan, their leader,
was driven back over the Carpathian mountains, with
a loss of fifty thousand men.
The last years of Bela's reign were the most trying
for him. His son Stephen, an ambitious and energetic
youth, fomented an insurrection against his father; a
prolonged contest with a variety of unsuccessful skir-
mishes and fruitless reconciliations, again undermined
the royal authority. The Magnates of the Empire
profited by the King's embarrassments, and struggled
to regain their ancient power; the administration of
justice was disorganized, and the progress of the coun-
try impeded. Bela died in 1220, in sullen despair of
ever attaining the object he had struggled for. He
was an able King, though severely tried by misfor-
tune.
Stephen V. reigned only two years. His early death
prevented him from displaying his undoubted energy,
and exerting it for the benefit of his country.
lvi
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
Ladislas IV. was a child of ten years when he suc-
ceeded to the throne of his father Stephen. The con-
test between Ottokar of Bohemia and Rudolph of
Hapsburg, broke out during his minority. The Hun-
garians took the part of the Hapsburgs, and assisted
them effectually in this war, and particularly in the
decisive battle of Marchegg, which first established the
power of the House of Hapsburg. When Ladislas
grew up, his hot temper was unable to resist the charms
of the Kuman and Tartar women, with whom he lived
under tents. The civilization of Hungary declined,
as the King himself set an example of a vagrant
nomade life. An insurrection broke out, but the
King, a second Alcibiades, rose from the haunts of
pleasure and defeated the insurgents, as well as at a
later period his favourites the Kumans, when they
became exacting and overbearing. At length he fell in
1290, under the murderous strokes of three Kuman
bandits, who had been hired by Edna, a beautiful
Kuman girl, whom the fickle King had abandoned, to
rove in quest of fresh beauties.
After Ladislas's death, there was but one male de-
scendant of the House of Arpad left, viz. Andreas III.
called Venetus. He was a grand-son of Andreas II.
and a son of Catharina Morosini, a native of Venice.
But as he was without male issue, a war of succession
broke out while he was still alive. The Emperor Ru-
dolph claimed the country for his son Albrecht, pre-
tending it was a fief of the German Empire. The Pope
too claimed the right of disposing of the sovereignty.
He invested Charles Martell of Anjou with the crown
of Hungary; while some of the Hungarian Magnates,
such as the Count of Güssingen, the ancestor of the
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION:
lvii
Batthyanyis, on the frontiers of Austria, the Count of
Breber in Croatia, the ancestors of the Zrinyis, Mat-
thew of Trencsin in Upper Hungary, and the Apors
in Transylvania, endeavoured to profit by the general
dissolution, and to establish their independence. They
all attempted to monopolize the power in their respec-
tive districts. Andreas had great trouble to preserve
the unity of the Kingdom, and to oppose the general
and prevailing confusion. He died of poison in the
year 1301, and with him the family of Arpad became
extinct on the throne of Hungary.
c 3
Iviii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
*
Second Period.
HUNGARY UNDER KINGS FROM DIFFERENT HOUSES
(ANJOU, LUXEMBOURG, AUSTRIA, HUNYADY, JA-
GHELLO.)
WITH the extinction of the Arpadian House, the
relations of Hungary to the rest of Europe were sub-
stantially changed. Under national kings the interests
of the country and those of the royal family had been
the same, and consequently, in this period, the firm
foundations of the Hungarian State had been laid.
The wars of this period had been of a mere defensive
character against neighbours, who had attacked the
new kingdom in order to subdue it, or bloody border
conflicts of common frequency in those days throughout
all Europe, or civil wars of succession, but none of
any influence on the general politics of Europe.
The position, on the contrary, that the Hungarians
held during the second period of their history under
princes, whose family interests reached far beyond
the limits of Hungary, partook much more of European
significance, though it will never rivet the attention of
F
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
lix
the philosopher so much, as the gradual civilization
of Hungary and the growth of her free constitution
in the first period. The European ideas of the Middle
Ages, were of course imported into the country with
its foreign rulers. The feudal laws and feudal govern-
ment, the traces of which, till now, had been scarcely
visible in Hungary, throve vigorously under the Neapo-
litan Anjous; the brilliant tournaments became fashion-
able about this time, and lent to the social circle of
the nobles a more Western colouring. Guilds, corpo-
rations and commercial monopolies exerted a great
influence on the Middle Classes in the towns. The
nation became more warlike than ever, and the military
glory of Hungary was spread over all Europe, until
this period of the Hungarian history,-the richest in
heroic achievements and romantic events,—came
a tragic close by the catastrophe of the battle of
Mohacs.
came to
The ablest and most powerful pretender to the
crown of Hungary, after the death of Andreas the
Third, was Charles Robert of Anjou, a grandson of
the King of Naples and of the daughter of Bela the
Fourth. The Hungarians, however, resisted his claims,
because he was to take the Crown from the hands
of the Pope and to recognize him as his liege lord.
They elected Wenceslaus of Bohemia and then Otto
of Bavaria, both of them descendants of the female
lineage of Arpad, their kings, but none of them was
able to maintain his ground against the oligarchical
rulers of the country. The riots and disputes, arising
from these causes, lasted till 1309, when Charles Robert
was at length elected, and crowned King of Hungary
by the Diet, but with a solemn declaration on their
!
I
I
lx
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
"
part, that he owed the Crown to their free choice
exclusively. Upper Hungary, however, still obeyed
the sway of Count Matthæus of Trencsin, who usurped
royal power with the pretence of defending the claims
of Elizabeth, the daughter of Andreas the Third, to
the throne, and who, though defeated in the same
year, near Kaschau, in the valley of Rozgony, by the
troops of Charles Robert, and chiefly by the valour
of the Germans from Zips, and of their Count, an
ancestor of the Goergeys,-never submitted to the
King and reigned unmolested in the North-west of
Hungary, till his death (1318). Though the struggle,
that Charles Robert was compelled to carry on for the
Crown, was not without success, yet his defeat in an
unjust war, undertaken against his vassal Bazarad, the
Prince of Wallachia, was the more humiliating (1330).
He saved his life with difficulty, and Bazarad became
for some time independent of Hungary. The King
was not of a pre-eminently warlike disposition, and
strove to found the greatness of his country by the
arts of peace. Notwithstanding the restoration of the
military system under Andreas and Bela, it was no
longer that of the ancient times, and Charles Robert
considered the royal castles with their hereditary
garrisons, as thoroughly insufficient. He preferred,
therefore, to introduce the feudal system into Hungary,
in consequence of which, the great landed proprietors
went to war with their banners (banderia), and enjoyed
the royal protection. In order to restore the balance
of the finances, that could not be any longer kept up
by the legal revenues from the national domains and
royal castles, a tax was raised by Charles Robert,-
but according to the feudal system only from those
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
lxi
who were no nobles, and eighteen denars were allotted
to every peasant. The growth and prosperity of towns
was favoured by liberal privileges,-commerce and
well-being returned with peace and rendered the
coinage of gold a necessity. The commercial trans-
actions under the Arpads had been so petty, that small
silver coins were more than sufficient, and where com-
merce rendered, in rare cases, greater sums necessary,
the foreign Byzantine gold florins were used.
Charles Robert was the first Hungarian King, under
whose reign gold was coined. He raised in the same
time the metallic standard of silver coins, and ex-
changed for the benefit of commerce the old silver
money for gold coins of full weight. He did not
like Diets and only once convoked the States of the
realm to get the ratification of the barbarous penal-
ties, by which he intended to exterminate the Zachs,
because Felician, the chief of that family, had taken
his revenge for the violation of his daughter Clara,
on the Queen, whose hand he maimed,-Casimir, the
debaucher, being her brother.
The King liked to meddle with foreign affairs. He
extended his influence far beyond the limits of the
kingdom, and set an example, very rare in those
times, of the possibility to avoid war by arbitration.
The Duke of Silesia had died without children in the
year 1335. Casimir, King of Poland, and John, King
of Bohemia, both claimed this rich province, which lay
between them. Charles Robert, the ally of both, ex-
erted all his efforts to prevent them from going to war,
and at length invited them, along with their next
neighbours, the Duke of Moravia and the Knights of
the Teutonic order, the rulers of Prussia in those times,
lxii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
ES
}
to Visegrad. He entertained them during eighteen
days with royal munificence; the guests swallowed,
according to the tales of the chroniclers, 4,000 loaves.
of bread and 18,000 bottles of wine a day, and in
this way a peace between the contending parties was
concluded, to the most complete satisfaction of both.
The Bohemian got Silesia by renouncing, on the
other hand, some of his Polish territories, and Charles
Robert guaranteed the treaty. Respected abroad,
more feared than loved at home in spite of his merits,
because he never became a downright Hungarian,
Charles Robert died in the year 1342, after a long
reign, under which the country had attained a consider-
able degree of prosperity.
His son, Louis the Great, was seventeen years or
age when he was crowned, amidst the thundering cheers
of the Hungarians, six days after the interment of his
father. Of Hungarian education,-beautiful, chival-
rous, and endowed with extraordinary talents, he was
the favourite of the Hungarian nobility. His military
exploits gained him the surname of the Great,-he ex-
tended the limits of Hungary to three seas,—he was a
great statesman, but his policy was more of a foreign
than of a domestic character, for the aim of his policy
was the extension and lustre of his country and not its
liberty.
His first war was adventurous. He proceeded to
Naples to revenge the murder of his brother. King
Robert of Naples, had died there without male issue,
(1343). The Crown belonged to the Hungarian branch
of the Anjous, and in order to prevent any possi-
ble dispute, Charles Robert had concluded a treaty
with his uncle Robert, in virtue of which, Andreas,
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
lxiii
the second son of Charles Robert, was to marry Jane,
Robert's grand-daughter, and share with her the royal
dignity of Naples. But the profligate Neapolita
princess despised her weak husband, Andreas, who
was no more than sixteen years old, and she would
by no means recognize him as King of Naples, but
only as Prince of Salerno. She ordered him at length
to be strangled with a silken cord, by her cousins, the
Princes of Tarento and Durazzo in Aversa. No sooner
had King Louis received these tidings than he applied
to the Pope, Clement the VIth., and demanded from
him as liege lord of Naples, the deposition of Jane,
the murderess of her husband. The Pope hesitated,
but the King conducted an Hungarian army, under a
black banner, throughout Italy. Naples surrendered,
and Jane fled to Avignon, which was an inheritance
of her family, with Louis of Tarento, whom she had
married. Charles of Durazzo was the only murderer
of the unhappy Andreas, who fell into the hands of
the King: he was executed in the same room in which
Andreas had been strangled.
Louis now took the title of King of both Sicilies,
and, after having left in Naples, a Hungarian garrison,
and Stephen Laczkovics, as viceroy, returned to Hun-
gary, without ceasing to urge the Pope to pronounce
a verdict on Jane. As the tidings reached her that
King Louis had left Naples, she sold her rights over
Avignon to the Pope, and returned to Naples, where
the small garrison of the Hungarians was pressed very
hard by an insurrection. Louis was therefore com-
pelled to proceed, 1350, a second time to Naples. He
took Canossa, Salerno, and Aversa, by storm, and
conquered the country again. Yet he was soon convinced
- : -
lxiv
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
that the Neapolitans would never willingly bear the
yoke of foreigners. In the meantime, Pope Clement
had pronounced the sentence, that Jane had been
bewitched into the murder of Andreas, and should
consequently keep the realm, and only indemnify
Louis by three hundred thousand gold florins for the
expenses of the war; Louis left Naples and forgave the
beautiful sinner the expiatory sum.
This was the result of the adventurous war ΟΙ
the Hungarians in Naples. Its immediate consequences
to Hungary were, that the King allotted for ever, to
the nobility in the Diet, of 1351, the ninth part
of the whole agricultural produce of the peasantry,
as an indemnification for the sacrifices of the nobles in
that war.
This is the origin of the Ninth, a tax
greatly injurious to industry, and abolished only so
late as the year 1848. Also Feudalism was legally
introduced n the above-mentioned Diet. The free
disposal of landed property was taken away from the
proprietor; the family was declared sole proprietor and
the individual became only usufructuary. Thus landed
property was fettered and immobilized, but feudalism
could not be carried so far as to exclude female suc-
cession; first, because the King had no sons, and willed
the crown to fall on a daughter; next, the Hunga-
rians were accustomed to female succession; the
daughter could therefore by no means be excluded
from the heirship of the land.
By the introduction of feudalism, the castle system
of baronies ceased to form the basis of the Hungarian
military system; therefore the garrison of the castle,
which besides belonged to the freemen, were ennobled
by the King. As they had but small landed property,
L
*
+
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
lxv
they became the ancestors of the later peasant nobles
(Nobiles unius Sessionis).
Louis waged many wars during his reign of forty
years, and distinguished himself by his generosity, as
well as by his bravery. He vanquished in single
combat Keystutt, Prince of Lithuania, who had invaded
Galicia during the Neapolitan war. After having
disarmed his enemy, the King released him, under
the condition, that he would accept the Christian faith.
The heathen prince pledged himself to do it, but it
was only his son who redeemed his word. In the war
against the Venetian Republic, Louis beleaguered Treviso
in Friaul. During the siege, the Doge Gradenigo died,
and Delfino, the commander of the fortress, was elected
in his stead. The Venetians requested a free retreat
for their new Duke; Louis granted the request, and
Delfino proved his gratitude by the immediate con-
clusion of a peace with the chivalrous King. The
Hungarians got by the treaty the coast of Dalmatia,
whilst the supremacy of the Republic over the Dal-
matian isle was recognized by Hungary, and commercial
privileges were ensured to the Venetian merchants.
In the East, King Louis forced Bazarad, the Prince of
Wallachia, to acknowledge again the superiority of
Hungary. After the death of Kasimir, King of
Poland, who was the uncle of Louis by the mother's
side; he was called to the throne by the Poles, and
crowned at Cracow (1370). The affairs of Hungary
forbade him to remain long in Poland; he therefore
appointed his mother Elizabeth, sister of the late King
Casimir, Regent of the country, and returned himself
to Visegrad. But the great task of his life was less
the aggrandizement of his realm, than the propagation
lxvi
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
of the Romish creed amongst his subjects. He not
only converted the heathen Kumans, but likewise
succeeded in persuading the Ruthenians of the oriental
creed, who at this period had settled in Hungary, to
submit to the authority of the Pope. His endeavours
in the same direction proved fruitless with the Wallachs
in Hungary and Transylvania. It was in vain that he
removed their oriental clergymen, and replaced them by
Catholic priests from Dalmatia; the Wallachs steadily
kept to their creed. At last, many of them could no
longer bear their oppression, and emigrated to Moldavia.
But the King pursued them even to their new country;
here too they could not escape his sway, yet he pro-
tected them against external enemies, and defeated the
Krimean Tartars between the Bug and the Dnieper,
when they extended their plundering incursion as
far as into Moldavia. Altomos, the Tartar Prince,
was killed by the King in single combat, and his
son was compelled to adopt Christianity. Louis
died in 1392; his death prevented the execution of his
great design to unite firmly the kingdoms of Poland
and Hungary; thus to create a powerful realm,
which, in the east of Europe, would occupy the same
position which France had obtained in the West, and
would take the lead of Christianity and civilization in
the East. But the misgovernment of Elizabeth made
in Poland every regency unpopular. The Poles
claimed a king for themselves. The beautiful Hedviga
daughter of King Louis, became Queen of Poland, and
yielding to political reasons, she married Uladislas
Jaghello, Prince of Lithuania, who, after having been
baptized, united his own duchy to the kingdom of his
wife.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
lxvii
In Hungary, Maria, the elder daughter of the great
Louis, was crowned queen; her royal consort, Sigis-
mund, of Luxemburg, subsequently Emperor of
Germany, and King of Bohemia, received the title of
“Guardian of the Realm." It was now, for the first
time, that a woman wore the sacred crown of St.
Stephen. But to the woe of the country, neither she,
nor her mother Elizabeth, who greatly influenced her,
was adequate to her important duties. Uladislas Ja-
ghello took possession of Galicia; Dalmatia and Croatia
revolted against the Queen, and the Ban Horváthy,
Palisna the Prior of Vrána, and Laczkovics, the valiant
companion of King Louis in his Neapolitan campaign,
invited the King of Naples, Charles Martell, "the
Little" to the throne of Hungary, as he was the
next male to King Louis. War seemed to be
unavoidable; but Sigismund, the "Guardian of
the realm" found no other means to fill the empty
Treasury than to pawn the country between the Vág
and the Danube, to his cousins Iodoc and Procop of
Moravia. By this measure he estranged the feelings
of the Hungarians to the Queen. When, therefore,
Charles Martell landed in Dalmatia (1385), he was
received enthusiastically, and advanced to Buda without
meeting with any resistance. The Queens submitted;
they went to greet him, he treated them as their
protector, and as the chief of the family. His party
proclaimed him King, and he summoned Maria to
resign the crown, too heavy for a woman. When she
had complied to this demand, he assembled a Diet at
Fejérvár on the last day of the year, for his corona-
tion. Charles required the Queens to be present at
this solemnity; they appeared, but in mourning ap-
lxviii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
parel. Notwithstanding all the respect with which
Charles distinguished them, they seemed prisoners;
whilst he was crowned at the altar, they sobbed and
prostrated themselves on the gravestone of King Louis:
compassion for the unprotected Princesses won many
a heart for Maria, yet her mother, Elizabeth, did not
wait for the natural development of this sympathy,
but preferred violent means. The Queens, after their
return to Buda, invited the newly-crowned King, to
a confidential interview in the castle. During the con-
ference, Blasius Forgács struck down the King with
his sword, in the presence of Maria, by the order of
Elizabeth, in compliance with the advice of Palatine
Gara, the devoted champion of the Queen. The
Italian garrison of Buda, small in number, was taken
by surprise and easily dispersed. Hungary again
acknowledged Maria as legal Sovereign, whilst in
Croatia, the Neapolitan party strongly pronounced itself
against her. The Queen Dowager believed, that com-
passion would here likewise act as strongly as in
Hungary in favour of the beautiful daughter of King
Louis. She therefore went with Maria to Croatia,
accompanied only by a small body of troops under the
command of Gara and Forgács. But the Croats proved
inaccessible to romantic sentimentality. The Ban
Horváthy attacked the Hungarian guards at Diakovár,
and defeated them; Gara and Forgács were, in spite of
their heroic resistance, dragged from their horses, and
beheaded under the very eyes of the Queens, who were
plundered of their royal jewels, and imprisoned in the
Dalmatian Castle of Novigrod. Palisna intended to
deliver them up to the Queen of Naples, the dowager
of the murdered Charles Martell, who was to send her-
7
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
lxix
Venice
son Ladislas to Hungary as heir to the crown.
prevented the execution of this plan; the Republic
respected the treaty with King Louis, blockaded the
coasts and beleaguered Palisna in his fortress of Novi-
grod; in spite of this, the Prior strangled the Queen
Dowager.
Whilst Croatia was wholly subjected to the Neapo-
litan party, the Hungarians too became averse to
submit any longer to the sceptre of a frail woman.
Sigismund availed himself of this disposition; he
assembled a Diet in 1387, and had himself elected
King. His first measure was, of course, the deliver-
ance of the Queen. His General Gara, the brother of
the murdered Palatine, defeated the troops of Hor-
váthy, and compelled him to a treaty, in consequence
of which Maria was set free. But danger had not
yet subsided for Sigismund. Croatia and Bosnia,
which since the reign of Louis had recognized the
supremacy of Hungary, still remained in a state of
rebellion, and opposed the Neapolitan Prince Ladislas
to King Sigismund. Jaghello, the brother-in-law of the
King, claimed at the same time the suzerainty of
Moldavia and Wallachia for the Poles, after he had
previously occupied Galicia. The greatest danger
threatened from the south; the power of the Turks
daily increased, and awakened the apprehensions of
all Europe. Sigismund, therefore, marched against
the Sultan in 1395: before Nicopolis, the tidings of
the death of Queen Maria reached him. He returned
speedily to take the reins of the Government by his
own right. His first measure was a breach of faith.
By promises of amnesty he allured to Buda thirty-
two distinguished adherents of the Neapolitan party,
lxx
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
PASKUT
amongst whom the brave Kont was the most highly
esteemed. Regardless of his pledge, and of the law, he
had them executed without trial. Meanwhile nume-
rous knights arrived with their vassals from Germany
and from France, to shield the endangered East of
Europe against the hosts of Bajazed. Sigismund led
them with a considerable Hungarian army against the
enemy in 1396. All were convinced that the Turks
could not resist, and Sigismund exclaimed at the
review of his troops: "If the firmament wavers, the
lances of this army will support it." This wantonness
was terribly punished at Nicopolis. The Christian
warriors were routed by Bajazed, and almost en-
tirely destroyed. Sigismund himself scarcely escaped
to the Danube, from whence he returned to Hungary
by the sea, Constantinople, and Dalmatia. The ad-
herents of the Neapolitan Ladislas got new strength ;
Sigismund began to negotiate with them. He in-
vited Laczkovics, the chief of this party, to the
Diet at Körös (Crisium, Kreutz), and as the old hero,
relying on the royal word, trustfully complied with
the summons, he was taken prisoner, and executed
without trial. When Sigismund had in this manner
got rid of one of his most dangerous enemies, he
deemed himself secure, and indulged in his favourite
manœuvres of diplomacy.
Without consulting the Hungarian Diet, he concluded
treaties with his brother Wenceslas, Emperor of Ger-
many and King of Bohemia, and with his cousins the
Princes of Moravia, in which they stipulated amongst
themselves mutual succession in Hungary, Bohemia,
and Moravia, for the survivor. The Hungarian Mag-
nates soon got tired of these intrigues; they took the
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
lxxi
King by surprise in his royal palace, and imprisoned
him in the castle of Siklós. They released him, how-
ever, after eighteen weeks, on his oath that in future he
would abstain from all arbitrary acts, and never would
avenge his imprisonment. In this instance he kept his
word, quite contrary to his custom.
Sigismund's reign was the longest recorded in the
Hungarian annals; he ruled for fully half a century.
During this time, he became King of Bohemia and
Emperor of Germany, travelled much about, and inter-
mixed with all European complications; but he neglected
in many respects the interests of Hungary. Always
ready to mediate peace, he took part in every contest
of middle Europe, and by his very interference
gave occasion for wars, in which he became involved
against his intention. The most important of these
struggles was no doubt the war against the Hussites.
Sigismund wanted, in the Council of Constance, to re-
establish the Peace of the Church, and had there burnt
at the stake, as a heretic, John Huss, one of the Pro-
fessors at Prague, regardless of the imperial safe-conduct
which he had granted to the great Reformer. But the
sparks of this pile set all Bohemia on fire, and spread over
a great part of Germany and the north-west of Hun-
gary, as the adherents of Huss carried on a bloody war,
which raged for many years in these countries. In
Hungary, Sigismund still was unable to subdue the
Neapolitan party, when he had at the same time to
resist Venice and the Sultan, who threatened Servia.
Lazarevics, the venerable Prince of Servia, recognized
the King of Hungary as his liege, in order to escape the
Turkish yoke. The aid of Hungary proved efficient to
him, as John Hunyady-whose name we here meet for
lxxii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
the first time-defeated the Turks at Belgrade, in
1437.
Sigismund wanted much money, no less for his diplo-
matic journeys, than to provide for his wars. Prodi-
gality was the prominent feature of his character. The
Roman Ambassador, Eneas Sylvius, tells us that the
King once, late in the evening, saw at the revisal of the
accounts that the Treasury had a surplus of forty
thousand gold florins. This disturbed his sleep, he was
accustomed to see his Treasury empty, and therefore
assembled his courtiers, and dispensed amongst them
his riches, to rest without care as to the disposal of
this money. Under such circumstances the royal autho-
rity could not fail to be injured; the Dignitaries of the
realm no longer heeded the desires of their Sovereign.
To counterbalance the influence of the Magnates the
King granted greater privileges to the towns, and gave
them representatives in the Diet, from which they had
been excluded until now, as guests (Hospites) not sub-
mitted to the Hungarian Common-law, but ruled accord-
ing to their charters by their own German or Italian
customs. Sigismund also supported the counties in the
extension of their municipal rights; the County-Con-
gregations became under him of greater importance.
To have the towns more speedily peopled, right of free
migration was guaranteed anew to the peasantry, who,
as the laws of this time evince, were then no, serfs. To
give more weight to the counties, a second army was
formed, besides the troops of the Magnates. This
army fought under the banners of the counties, every
thirty-three peasant-sessions being bound to furnish one
soldier (Insurrectio portalis). As the old castle system
of baronies had now entirely vanished, the garrisons
- * *
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
lxxiii
were finally all ennobled. No doubt these were wise
measures, but the inconsistent and prodigal King had
neither the strength nor the steadiness to carry on his
excellent designs, and to render them efficient for the
welfare of his country. He was perpetually in financial
difficulties; though he pawned the towns of Zips to
Poland, this momentary aid was of no real avail. If
he had no money to lavish, he distributed patents of
nobility, not bound to any special property, which
therefore by no means answered to the notions of the
Hungarians.
1
Sigismund left no male heir. His only daughter,
Elizabeth, was married to the Arch-Duke of Austria,
Albert. He was elected King of Hungary in 1437.
But, as the nation had experienced many difficulties
arising from the different interests of Sigismund, who
had not only been King of Hungary, but likewise of
Bohemia, and Emperor of Germany, they restrained
the power of their new sovereign. Albert was obliged
to promise not to dispose of his daughter's hand
without the consent of the Hungarian Diet, and not
to accept the Imperial Crown, if offered to him,
without the permission of the States of Hungary.
Soon afterwards Albert was elected Emperor, and
marched against Sultan Murad, who attacked Servia;
but the expedition of the King was an unfortunate one,
the Hungarians were beaten, and decimated by ravaging
sickness, were forced to retire. Albert died on his
retreat, 1437, at Neszmely.
His son, Ladislas, was born after his father's death.
Elizabeth, the Queen Dowager, was anxious to secure
the crown for the Infant. But the Hungarians required
a stronger hand to govern them; they disliked a
VOL. I.
d
lxxiv
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION ·
Regency, and therefore elected King Uladislas, of
Poland, the great-grandson of the illustrious Louis.
Elizabeth fled with the royal child, and the crown of
St. Stephen, to Vienna, entreating the protection of
her brother-in-law, Frederic III., who held sway over the
Austrian provinces in the name of the babe Ladislas.
Bohemia was ruled for the same infant, by the
Calixtine George Podiebrad. In Hungary, Elizabeth
attempted to claim the rights of her son; her general,
Giskra of Brandeis, invaded the upper parts of the
country; but the Pope at last mediated a peace (1432).
Uladislas was, by all parties, acknowledged King, that
Hungary might avail itself of its full strength against
the Turks. John Hunyady, the Hungarian chief,
had already beaten the Turks at Szent Imre, in 1441,
after they had broken into Transylvania, and had
destroyed, at the "Iron Gate," a second host of the
Grand-Vizir, who had been sent to avenge the defeat of
Szent Imre. Every one now trusted that the power of
the Turks was to be crushed. Hunyady marched,
in 1440, with 40,000 men against them; he routed,
in five months, five armies successively sent to oppose
him, took five fortresses, and, having secured the
Principalities of the Danube, he triumphantly returned
to Buda. The Sultan himself proposed a treaty, in
consequence of which, he acknowledged Prince Bran-
kovics, Sovereign of Servia, and recognized the
supremacy of Hungary over all the Danubian Princi-
palities. The Hungarian Diet accepted these propo-
sitions, the Armistice was stipulated for ten years,
Uladislas and Murat enforced it by their oaths. When,
however, the tidings spread, that an insurrection in
Asia Minor had compelled Murat to leave Europe, that
1
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
lxxv
George Castriotta (Skanderbeg), King of Epirus, was
ready to attack the Turks with 30,000 men, and that
the fleet of Genoa was blockading the Hellespont and
the Black Sea, the Cardinal Julian Cesarini called upon
the King of Hungary to take up arms and drive the
Turks from Europe. The Cardinal asserted that this
great aim sanctified the breach of the oath, from which,
besides, he gave him solemn dispensation in the name of
the Pope. Uladislas could not resist the eloquence of
the Cardinal, in spite of Hunyady's solicitations to the
contrary. Relying in the words and promises of Julian,
the King, in 1444, crossed the Danube, with no more
than 20,000 men. Expecting the aid of the Epirotes,
he proceeded over the Balkan, to Varna, and advanced
to Gallipolis. But Brankovics, the Prince whom
Hunyady had re-established in Servia, now was de-
sirous to have his sway secured by the Turks, and
therefore gave early notice to the Sultan of all the
movements of Uladislas. The Genoese, bribed by
Murat, who had succeeded in quenching the revolt in
his Asiatic dominions, transported on their fleet the
Turkish army, which suddenly appeared in sight of
the Hungarians. Murat carried before his host, as
standard, the original document of the violated treaty,
thus to excite his warriors. At Varna the armies met;
Hunyady's bravery had already driven the Turks to
flight, when the King, with youthful impetuosity, be-
gan to pursue the enemy, and saw himself surrounded
unawares; he fell. The Turks hoisted his head on
a lance, the fleeing troops rallied, the Hungarians,
horror-stricken at the death of their King, were routed.
Cardinal Julian was killed, Hunyady escaped to Wal-
lachia, where Drakul, the Voivoda of the Wallachs,
d 2
lxxvi
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
!
#5 Me
took him prisoner, probably with the aim to get a
considerable ransom either from the foes or from the
friends of the hero. Yet, notwithstanding the last
defeat of the Hungarians, still afraid of them, he set
Hunyady at liberty without delay, when summoned to
it.
Under such dangerous circumstances the Palatine
Hederváry convoked the Diet in 1445. All parties
met, and the majority resolved, that if King Uladislas
really was dead, of which many still doubted, Ladislas
Posthumus, who already as infant had been crowned-
was to be recognized King. The country meanwhile
was divided into seven districts, to which seven captains
were appointed for administration and defence. Hun-
yady of course received the district most threatened at
the time, Transylvania and the lower part of the Tisza.
A deputation then was sent to Vienna, to bring the
young King and the crown; but the Emperor Frederick,
the uncle of Ladislas, wishing to extort money from
the Hungarians, required payment for the education of
his nephew and ransom for the crown. Ulrich, Count
of Cilly, grand-uncle to the King, by the last mother's
side, was ambitious to become Regent, and therefore
tried to excite dissensions between Hunyady and the
other great men of the realm. His intrigues failed;
Hunyady was unanimously elected Governor of Hun-
gary in 1446. Royal power was given into his
hands during the King's minority, to enable him
to protect the country the more effectually. For
ten years did Hunyady sway over the destinies
of Hungary, with unshaken fidelity to his country
and his King, although the Count Ulrich Cilli, in
the King's name, persecuted him with his intri-
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
lxxvii
gues; and although Giskra went the length of
taking the field openly against him. He was re-
peatedly in danger of his life, but he foiled the
plans of his assassins, and undismayed and unin-
fluenced by enmities and persecutions, he devoted
his life to Hungary. He defended its frontier
against the Turks, against the encroachments of
the Emperor Frederick, against the Bohemian hordes
of Giskra, and against the treasonable plots of the
Servian Prince Brankowics, who, in alternate league.
with Cilli and with the Sultan, vainly attempted to
triumph over Hungary and over Hunyady. His
justice, disinterestedness and patriotism, were acknow-
ledged by the whole country; and after the battle
of Kossovopole, in which he was defeated by Murat
(1447), he was as generally popular as after his
victory at Semendria (1454). The whole of the nation
were convinced that he was his country's greatest
general and her most loyal son. But the Camarilla
which surrounded the youthful King hated Hunyady
with all the bitterness of that hate which is only
found at court; and when Ladislas commenced his
reign in the year 1483, his narrow mind could not
brook the popularity of Hunyady.
him with honours he sought his ruin.
While he loaded
In 1456 Hungary was attacked by Mohammed II.
the conqueror of Constantinople, who marched up
to Hunyady's fortress of Belgrade. In this extremity,
the King delayed the sending of an army to his rescue,
for he would have been pleased with the defeat of the
old hero. But Hunyady recruited and equipped
an army at his own expense; nor did the people
and his friends abandon him in the hour of danger.
lxxviii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
•
John Capistran, a Franciscan monk preached a cru-
sade, and brought large numbers of country-people
to the standard of Hunyady, who attacked the for-
midable and well-appointed forces of the Sultan, (14th
July). He defeated the Turks and captured three-
hundred pieces of artillery and an incredible amount
of treasure and war-stores. Hunyady, the hero, died
twenty days after this glorious victory, and after a
month, he was followed by his friend and companion-
in-arms, John Capistran, the monk.
But the Count Cilli's revengeful passions were by
no means allayed by the death of Hunyady; on the
contrary, he endeavoured to effect the ruin of the
two sons of the late governor.* The King made
a seeming reconciliation with the two young men,
and invited them to come to his court. But when
Ladislas Hunyady made his appearance at Buda, he
was arrested and forthwith executed. His brother
Matthias too was cast into jail, and there is no
knowing what his fate would have been, but for
the decease of the King, who died at Prague in
1457. The grateful people of Hungary elected
Matthias Corvinus, the second son of Hunyady, to
the vacant throne.
Matthias was at that time a minor. The govern-
ment of the country was therefore placed into the
hands of his uncle, Michael Szilagyi, (an ancestor
of the Counts Teleki), and it was stipulated that he
should convoke an annual Diet. But Matthias,
*Count Ladislas, the elder son, was to be assassinated at
Belgrade, but he escaped, and Count Cilli was killed by the
friends of the Hunyady.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
lxxix
a man
though just then entering his sixteenth year, was
in mind if not in age. He opposed
his uncle, who attempted to dispense with the laws
of the land; arrested him, and confined him for a
short time to the castle of Vilagos.
For one-and-thirty years did Matthias wear the
crown. The time of his reign was the most splen-
did period of Hungarian history. The King, great
as a statesman, great as a general, was a friend to liberty,
and for that very reason he was a severe ruler, who
punished with unflinching severity, any illegal en-
croachment of the oligarchy, and who subjected the
Crown to no other influence than the legal power of the
Diet. The position and circumstances of the country,
and his own warlike character, involved him in frequent
wars, and his talent triumphing over obstacles, he became
the parent of modern strategy. He condemned the
ancient military establishment of Hungary, but no
less did he condemn the clumsy and middle-aged
institutions of Louis and Sigismund, and of all
European sovereigns; he was the first to establish a
standing army, viz. the "Black Legion," which was
always kept under arms, and which formed the
centre of the levies which joined his standard,
when the frontiers of Hungary were threatened by a
foreign enemy.
The introduction of a standing army was necessarily
followed by a change in the manner of raising, and
in the amount of the supplies. Matthias began his
financial measures by introducing the greatest order,
and the most scrupulous regularity in the expenditure
of public monies; and in the next instance he ex-
erted his popularity and authority successfully over
J
1xxx
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
.3
the Diet, for the purpose of increasing the public
income. Not only did he prevail on the Diet to vote
the taxes which were to be levied on the Villain'
population, but he induced them to tax the Clergy
and the nobility, by voting extraordinary and volun-
tary supplies. If the system which proved so signally
successful in the case of Matthias, had been uniformly
adopted by his successors, had they imitated his
wise economy, his respect of the people's rights and
of the advice of the Diet, they would have raised
Hungary in the sixteenth century, to a proud place
among the states of Eastern Europe.
In the first ten years of his reign, Matthias
turned his arms principally against the Turks, whom
he routed in various battles. Bosnia and Servia,
Moldavia and Wallachia, acknowledged at that time
the suzereignty of Hungary; and the predatory in-
vasions of the Turks were energetically repulsed by
the King, who frequently pursued them across the
Danube.
Although Matthias most jealously protected the
power of the Crown against the encroachments of the
Holy See,* he was a zealous Roman Catholic, and he was
therefore easily induced to make war upon the Kalix-
tine, Podiebrad, whom the Bohemians had raised to
* The king declared: "Nolumus omnino in temporalibus a
sede apostolica judicari, non modo super civitatibus, et castris, sed
nec super uno fundo vel una vinea." And to the Pope he wrote
in 1481: "Certa debet esse sua Sanctitas, duplicatam illam
crucem, quæ regni nostri insigne est, gentem hungaram libentius
triplicare velle, quam in id consentire, ut beneficia vel prælaturæ
ad jus coronæ spectantes per sedem apostolicam conferantur.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
lxxxi
the throne of their country. This war was pernicious
to the interest of both parties. It had some features
of signal advantage for the Emperor Frederick of
Austria, under whom the Pope had formerly officiated
as Secretary. George Podiebrad was like Matthias
Corvinus, inasmuch as he owed his throne to his
own virtues and the confidence of his people. He
was quite as good a politician as his adversary; and
when the two princes were opposed to each other by
religious fanaticism, Frederick of Austria was a gainer
on either side, for nothing could be more advantageous
to him than that his most powerful neighbours
should lessen their forces by a protracted and unpro-
fitable conflict. Podiebrad, as well as Matthias, wished
repeatedly to negotiate a peace, but their attempts at
reconciliation were frustrated by the intrigues of the
Pope's ambassador, and the feud was still raging
when Podiebrad died. It is owing to the ill-feeling
which was engendered by this protracted war, that
the Bohemians did not offer their Crown to the ener-
getic King of Hungary, but to the weak and despicable
King of Poland, Uladislas, and this was what
Frederick of Austria desired. Matthias concluded
a peace, and the temporary dominion over Silesia and
Moravia was all he gained by a war of ten years'
duration.
The most dangerous of the King's antagonists was
the Emperor Frederick III., a tough Austrian, miserly,
vindictive and patient, ever ready when driven to
extremities, to give any promise and to break it as
readily, whenever circumstances favoured him. At
the time of Matthias' elevation to the throne, the
Austrian Emperor put forth a claim to Hungary, and
A
d 3
lxxxii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
:
when that claim was disregarded, he fomented and
fostered all domestic and foreign intrigues against the
King. The Pope, Pius II. (Æneas Sylvius) succeeded
for a long time in preventing the King from making
war against the Emperor, but a war broke out at
last. The Emperor could not withstand the onset of the
Hungarian horsemen : Matthias conquered the majority
of the Austrian cities (1472) and consented to a peace,
which was broken by the Emperor as soon as he
thought he could make resistance. Matthias renewed
the attack in 1480, and in 1485 he besieged and con-
quered the city of Vienna.
In the second half of the reign of Matthias, Hun-
gary was less frequently invaded by the Turks. The
defeats which they suffered from the King's troops,
broke their spirit of enterprise, and when they
persisted to attack the Hungarians, as for instance,
in 1479, they were severely punished by the King's
generals, Bathory and Kinizsy, 30,000 Turks were
slain in the battle of Kenyérmerö.
The greater order which Matthias introduced into
the administration of finances, enabled him to devote
part of his care and resources to the advancement of
science. He filled his Court with learned men of all
nations; he founded a University at Pressburg; and it
was under his protection that the Bishops established
Colleges at Waizen, Grosswardein, Erlau and Gran.
But the King's dearest treasure was his library, con-
taining about 50,000 books and MSS., bound in gold,
velvet and silk, and illustrated by the greatest artists
of the time.
The love of pomp and splendour of the Magnates,
whom the King instigated to extravagance, had a
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
lxxxiii
demoralising effect upon the Aristocracy, and by the
establishment of a standing army the people became
unaccustomed to the dangers and fatigues of war.
The King's energetic and centralising policy prevented
the further development of municipal institutions, and
the germs which Sigismund had planted and frivolously
neglected, could not prosper and rise under King
Matthias.
That King died at Vienna in 1490, leaving no issue.
except an illegitimate son, John Corvin, who, though
heir to all the virtues of his great father, was still
utterly void of ambition. He laid no claim to the
Crown, which could not have been placed on a worthier
head.
The Hungarian Oligarchy, long tired of Matthias's
severity and justice, received the news of his death with
exultation. The Magnates of the Empire resolved to
elect such a King only, whom they could always keep
under their hands (hujus crines continuo in manibus
tenere possent) and their choice fell upon Uladislas Ja-
ghello, the second of that name in Hungary, the same
who had followed George Podiebrad on the throne
of Bohemia. Uladislas II. was good-natured, lavish of
money, void of energy, an easy-going and easy-taking
man, who cared little for State affairs, and who was
wholly engrossed with the pleasures and cares of his
family and of hunting. He is but another instance
in the long list of kings, who were respectable in private,
but despicable in public life. At the commencement
of his reign he was called upon to make war against
the pretenders to the Crown, when John Corvin took
the new King's part and advancing against Maximi-
lian, the son of the Emperor Frederick, he defeated
Ìxxxiv
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
-1
his army at Stuhlweissenburg. Albert of Poland, a
brother of Uladislas, who likewise rose against the
King of Bohemia and Hungary, was attacked by
Zapolya, who defeated him in the battle of Kashau.
The two pretenders were happy to come to terms with
the King, who resigned the Austrian countries to
Maximilian, whom he now designated as his heir in
Hungary, if he should die without leaving issue. But
the Diet of 1492 refused to sanction a treaty which
jeopardized the independence of the country.
The reign of Uladislas (1490-1516) was a time
of hopeless distress for Hungary. The King was
unable to impose respect on the overbearing aristocracy,
who oppressed the middle classes, and the authority of
the Crown was ruined by awkward financial measures
and by the pecuniary embarrassments of the Court.
The predatory tribes of the Turks gained in boldness
as they felt that the Hungarian forces were not led
by a soldier and a hero. Still their invasions were
successfully repulsed by John Corvin and by Zinizsy,
the old companion in arms of the great Matthias; but
when they and their generation of heroes drooped
and died, there was no man left to uphold the ancient
martial glory of Hungary. Even the gallant "Black
Legion" was disbanded, for the men became mutinous
when the King's prodigality made him unequal to
the expense of their pay and maintenance,
soon divided
The Magnates of the Empire were
into two parties. The most influential among them
were, Bakats, the Bishop of Erlau; the King's
Chancellor and Zapolya, who, with his son John, the
Woiwode of Transylvania, took the lead of the Op-
position. The two Zapolyas attacked the King's
19
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
lxxxv
F
prodigality and the mis-government of Bakats. They
strove to form a strong party and to prepare for future
contingencies.
In Uladislas' reign the Diets followed one another in
quick succession, and each Diet limited the Royal
Prerogatives and refused even those taxes, which were
indispensable for the defence of the country. The Ex-
chequer was a prey to both, friends and foes, and the
King himself was at length reduced to severe distress
and in want even of the commonest necessaries of life,
especially after the death of his Queen, who had at
least maintained something like order in his house-
hold. Uladislas became a prey to dull melancholy, and
but one single care affected his mind, viz. ; what he
should do to protect and establish the future career of
his children. This end he hoped to gain by a con-
nexion of his family with that of the Emperor Maxi-
milian, and a treaty was concluded, according to
which, the King's daughter was to be married to
Archduke Ferdinand (the Emperor's grandson) while
the King's son was to be united to Ferdinand's sister,
Maria. By this arrangement, Maximilian hoped to
gain the Crown of Hungary, which had long been
coveted by the Hapsburg family. But as early as
1505, the Magnates of the kingdom had, on the
proposition of Zapolya, pledged their oaths that they
would never elect a foreigner, who was ignorant of the
language, customs, and laws of Hungary.
While intrigues were fomented on all sides; while
Bakats exerted his influence in favour of Austria;
while the King of Poland (a brother-in-law to John
Zapolya) agitated for the benefit of his sister's hus-
band; the country was suddenly convulsed by an
lxxxvi
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
NAME
awful Jaquerie. Bakats, whom the Pope had ap-
pointed as his legate throughout the East of Europe,
had already as early as 1414, consented to preach a
Crusade against the Turks. Countless crowds of
peasants flocked to his standard and assumed the red
Cross. The nobility, and especially the Magnates,
were strangers to the movement-indeed, in some
places, they showed themselves hostile to it, for the
fields remained untilled and the peasants that had
rallied round the Cross, had but scanty harvest to
look forward to. Moreover, it was assigned, and with
a good show of reason too, that Bakatsh intended to
employ his Crusaders against the Aristocracy; and
this suspicion gained still more ground, when the
King confided the command of this army, not to
one of the great chiefs of Hungary, but to George
Dózsa, a Szekler of doubtful, if not mean, extraction.
Dózsa had given some signal proofs of personal bravery
in a battle against the Turks, but he had never been
in command, and he hated the Aristocracy, for he con-
sidered that they had given him offence. When he
found himself therefore placed at the head of an
army, he led his forces not against the Turks, but
against the landed proprietors. He told his people
that the nobility must be annihilated; the Royal dig-
nity was to be abolished; equal rights and equal
duties were to be given and imposed on everybody.
Hungary was large enough to keep all her children
in plenty and ease. Such theories were highly pala-
table to the peasants, and acting up to them, they
assassinated the landed proprietors, sacked the cities,
and burned the castellated mansions of the Magnates.
This was fearful, but still more fearful was the revenge
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
lxxxvii
of the nobility, when, after recovering from their first
panic, they attacked and routed the peasant-forces at
Szegedin. The nobility were, on this occasion, led by
the Woiwode, John Zapolya. Dózsa, who became a
prisoner to Zapolya, was placed on a throne of red hot
iron and crowned with a crown of the same metal; his
captains too, were tortured and executed. And the
Diet, which assembled after the insurrection, punished
the peasantry, by condemning them to servitude,
binding them to the glebe and depriving them of all
political rights.
Uladislas II. died soon afterwards, after concluding
a treaty of mutual succession with Maximilian. The
Estates of the Kingdom declared that treaty to be
null and void. All the splendour and glory of the
Crown of Hungary had left it under the Government
of Uladislas, and though in the south, the frontiers
of the kingdom remained respected, and though
Bosnia, Servia, Moldavia, and Wallachia still acknow-
ledged the suzereignty of Hungary, the former strength
of the country was crumbling into decay and pre-
pared to fall at the first shock.
The power of the Oligarchy grew apace and
gained in strength during the minority of King Louis
II. Their party, under Zapolya, was opposed by the
partizans of the Court and the Palatine Bathory. Their
factious resistance and opposition were not likely to
stem the tide of the dissolution of the Hungarian
Empire. When the King at length seized the reins
of Government, he evinced a morbid desire but
wanted the strength to rule. He was extravagant and
frivolous; he resigned a claim of forty thousand
gold florins for the gift of a falcon; and as a natural
lxxxviii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
consequence of his waste and thoughtlessness, he
was frequently reduced to such severe distress that
Burgio, the Pope's legate, states that he often was in
want of a pair of boots (et rex non habet calceos). And
when he was forced by an empty treasury or by the
impending dangers of a Turkish invasion, to convoke
the Diet, he met the remonstrances of his Estates and
their complaints, that none of their resolutions were
executed, by expressions of grief at the inauspicious
character of circumstances, or by sacrificing a courtier
to the public indignation; but he uniformly pro-
tested against the control of a Committee, respecting
the administration of the finances. Louis II. was
married to Maria, sister to the Emperor Charles V.
Queen Maria was a woman of a masculine character,
and by her education addicted to high and arbitrary
principles of Government. She encouraged the King
in his resistance against the demands of the Diet,
and on one occasion she went to the length of seizing
a pen, drawing a line through the resolution, authorising
a Committee to inquire into the application of the
public money, and adding a marginal note: "Unus
Rex, unus princeps," she returned the document to the
Diet.
But a feud and a still more dangerous schism was
at hand. The Middle Classes rose in opposition
against the two rival factions of Bathory and Zapolya.
They were disgusted with the oppression of the
Magnates. They insisted on the expulsion of all
foreigners from the Court. They demanded the re-
moval of the State Officers, who squandered the public
money and ruined the country. They promised the
King that they would rid him of the arrogant do-
A
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
lxxxix
minion of the Magnates, that they would strengthen
his authority and take energetic measures against the
Turks. But the King refused to countenance their
movement. At the Diet of Hatvan (1525) he was
indeed compelled to yield to them and to appoint their
leader, Verbötzy, to the post of Palatine; but he was
well-pleased to see the success of the Court party,
who managed to overthrow the Palatine Verbötzy, in
spite of his endeavour to allay the enmities and
conciliate the affection of the Magnates.
But while the Court-party was at war with the
middle-classes, and while Zapolya and his followers
retired from the contest, a storm was hovering from
the South. Suleiman the Great planned an expe-
dition against Hungary. The Pope had long been
aware of the impending danger. He was more alive
to it than the Hungarians, who instead of prepar-
ing for the combat, amused themselves by making
the King responsible for any unfortunate contingency,
whilst he, in his turn, protested that, only the want
of confidence of the Estates ought to bear the
blame of any accident that might happen. The
Pope had meanwhile sent a sum of money to Hun-
gary for the purpose of assisting the Hungarian
forces, and he had given his permission to the
employment of Church-property for the defence of
the country; but in spite of the fearful danger, the
lower nobility refused to take the field, unless the
King and the Magnates were assembled and in arms.
Thus did they trifle away their time, and Suleiman
had crossed the Danube and the Drave, before the
Hungarian army was assembled. At length the King
took the field, and encamped at Mohats with a
Si
XC
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
small force of 20,000 men; but messengers had come
from Szegedin to tell him that Zapolya was advan-
cing to the rescue with 14,000 men, and that until
he prayed the King would not engage in a battle, his
force was in the field. A similar message was brought
from Christoph Frangepani, who approached from
Croatia, with 15,000 men. But the Court party would
not condescend to owe the salvation of the country to
the hated Zapolya, and they urged the King to attack
the Turks. Tomory, the Archbishop of Kaloesa who
had formerly resigned his sword for a cowl and
who had sworn to doff his pallium for the sword,
had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the King's
forces. Tomory was eager to begin the fight. Many
of the ancient officers were aware that 25,000 men
had no chance against the superior forces of the
Turks, but they all, following the impulse of the
careless haughtiness and martial resolution which
characterizes the Hungarians, joined their voices with
the clamour of those, who advised the King to
attack the Turks. Only Francis Perenyi, the Bishop
of Grossvardein remarked, that "since Bishop Bra-
darish had been Ambassador at Rome, he thought
the best plan would be to send him back to the Pope,
to entreat his Holiness to canonize the 20,000 Hun-
garian Martyrs, who were to lay down their lives
for the cause of Christendom."
The Hungarian battle-line leant on the swamps of
Mohats. Suleiman attacked them on the 29th of
August, 1526. His forlorn hopes were driven back,
and the Hungarians advancing, made an onset on
the Sultan's artillery, which consisted of two hundred
cannons. The fire of the Turks mowed them down by
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xci
rank and file; but the files in the rear advanced with
a fatal determination, and the combat came soon to a
close, because none of the Hungarians were left to
continue it. Tomory, Perenyi, and six Bishops,
George, the brother of John Zapolya, twenty-eight
bannerets, five hundred members of the aristocracy,
and twenty-two thousand soldiers were killed in this
most bloody battle. The King fled, but his horse
fell in the rivulet of Csele, and Louis II. ended
his inglorious life by being drowned when flying from
the field of battle. None escaped but the Palatine
Bathory, Peter Perenyi, Francis Batthyanyi, and the
Bishop Bradarics with three thousand of the Pope's
mercenaries.
Suleiman advanced to Buda without meeting with
any resistance. He sacked that city and devastated
the districts on the other side of the Danube; but
he returned to his Empire, carrying with him a
fabulous amount of booty, and seventy thousand
captives; and although he did not extend his dominion
across the Save and Drave, the power of the Hun-
garians was not the less effectually broken.
4
xcii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
Third Period.
THE HUNGARIANS UNDER THE KINGS OF THE HOUSES
OF HAPSBURG AND LORRAINE.
THE news of the defeat at Mohacs, and the death of
the King, spread with the swiftness of lightning; and
in the night following that bloody day, it reached the
ears of the Queen Maria. She instantly fled from Buda
to Pressburg, after first writing a letter to her brother
Ferdinand, the Archduke of Austria, in which she in-
formed him briefly and coldly of the defeat; but at the
same time declaring her views as to the means by which
Ferdinand might gain the throne. Maria-subsequently
Stadtholder of the Netherlands-had never known any
other feeling than that of ambition to witness the ag-
grandizement of her House.
When Suleiman quitted the country after his preda-
tory incursion, both Zapolya and the Queen began their
intrigues with a view to insure the election of the
King, in accordance with their purposes. Zapolya for
a moment endeavoured to reconcile their clashing inte-
rests, and offered his hand to the Queen; but the proud
Princess of the House of Hapsburg rejected the offer.
Zapolya thereupon summoned a Diet for the election of
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xciii
a King, and the estates of the realm assembled on the
9th of November at Fejèrvàr (Stuhlweissenberg, Alba
Regalis), where Zapolya interred the body of King
Louis, which he had diligently sought and found, with
becoming honours. Maria had for two full months
taken no step to this end; she was too much engaged
in her brother's interests, who on the 23rd of October,
had succeeded to the throne of Bohemia, which had
likewise become vacant upon the death of Louis, and
was now endeavouring to gain the crown of St. Stephen.
The Diet unanimously elected John Zapolya King, who
received the unqualified adhesion of the lower nobles
and the people, whilst the high oligarchs despised
him.
The powerful aristocrat who had so often defied the
Kings, became a feeble monarch, deficient in energy
and determination. His friends counselled him with-
out delay to disperse the partizans of Ferdinand by
force of arms, to invade Austria, and at the head of
the Hungarian army to win by the sword the recog
nition of his rival at the gates of Vienna. But Zapolya
answered, that he desired no shedding of blood, and
that he commended his just cause to Providence.
Meanwhile the Queen and the Palatine Bathory, had
also obtained the promise of the support of the Mag-
nates of the Kingdom; and as soon as Ferdinand had
tendered his promise in writing, that he would pre-
serve inviolate all the rights and liberties of Hungary,
even should he be obliged to attain the throne by force
of arms, they declared themselves in his favour, and
elected him King on the 16th of December, 1526.
The estates of Sclavonia paid homage to King John
Zapolya on the 18th of December, those of Croatia on
xeir
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
N
:
"
-
+
•
..
the 1st of January, 1527, to King Ferdinand. Civil
war was inevitable. But instead of cutting off at a
blow Ferdinand's partizans who were all in Western
Hungary and the frontiers of the country, Zapolya en-
deavoured to negotiate a peace. Ferdinand, who
always considered that to gain time was the greatest
gain, never rejected any offer of mediation; but as soon
as he was sufficiently strong, he broke off the negotia-
tions, hastened to Hungary with his army, surprized
Zapolya, who during the negotiations for peace had ne-
glected to make preparations for war, and defeated him.
Zapolya fled into Transylvania; the greater part of the
Hungarians deserted him, and joined Ferdinand, who
on the 3rd of November, 1527, took the oath to the
Constitution of Hungary, and was solemnly crowned.
But Ferdinand now, instead of concluding peace with
Zapolya, proscribed him and Verböczy, together with
all their adherents.
Zapolya applied for aid to the Sultan. Driven to
extremities, he could only look for deliverance to Con-
stantinople; but in doing so he sacrificed the honour of
the country, by declaring his willingness to receive
the crown of Hungary in fief from the Sultan. This
offer would have assuredly estranged from him the
hearts of all his adherents, who prized so highly the
independence of their country. But Ferdinand was in
this respect not more conscientious; it is true that he sent
ambassadors to Constantinople, who at first maintained a
lofty and dignified tone; but when the fortune of war
decided against Ferdinand, he was instantly ready to
promise a yearly tribute to the Sultan, nay even to the
proud Grand Vizir, the Albanese renegade, Ibrahim.
Suleiman entered Hungary in 1529: his army met
..
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
XCV
with no resistance. Ferdinand had indeed promised
that he would protect his new kingdom against the
Turks, with the whole power of the German Empire;
but the German Empire sent no army, and the King
mistrusted the Hungarians, and purposely neglected to
concentrate and organize the power of Hungary. The
Sultan easily reduced Buda (Ofen) and Visegrád, where
the Hungarian crown fell into his hands; Comorn and
Raab were abandoned by the German garrisons. In
September, Suleiman was under the walls of Vienna;
but the city offered a stout resistance, under the com-
mand of the brave Count Salm. When winter ap-
proached, the Sultan raised the siege, delivered over
Hungary to Zapolya, and retired within his own domi-
nions.
Scarcely were the Turks gone, when Ferdinand
again invaded Hungary, and continued to war against
John Zapolya. Distrustful as he was, he never com-
mitted the chief command of his troops to an Hunga-
rian, and sought to garrison all the fortresses with
German troops. These Germans had neither any
knowledge of, nor any affection for Hungary: they
ran riot as in an enemy's country; but Ferdinand's
generals were either cowards and traitors, like Hardek,
Kaczianer, Roggendorf, Lascano, Teufel; or bad dila-
tory commanders, like Joachim von Brandenburg; or
condottieri who fought bravely, but at the same time
pillaged the country, like Castaldo and Schwendi.
When Zapolya was again hard pressed, Suleiman a
second time entered Hungary, in 1532. The object of
this invasion was again Austria; but the little town of
Güns, defended by the Croat Jurissich, and a garrison
of seven hundred Hungarians, resisted the Sultan's
xevi
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
army for some time; every attempt to storm the place
was defeated by these heroes. Jurissich was resolved to
hold out to the last; but after having repulsed a general
assault, there being no longer any chance of safety,
as the walls were already tottering, the Sultan, who
honoured his bravery, summoned him to raise a
Turkish flag for one hour, offering to be satisfied
with this homage. The Turks, thereupon, laid waste
Austria and Styria, and again retired into their Em-
pire. Ferdinand, after many fruitless negotiations,
consented at last to the Peace of Grosswardein, in
1538. The status quo formed the basis of this peace;
John was acknowledged lawful King in the East, Fer-
dinand in the West; and the two Kings bound them-
selves to recognize the acts of their respective govern-
ments. After the death of John, the kingdom was to
fall to Ferdinand; but in case John should leave behind
him a son, the latter was to marry an Archduchess, and
come into undisturbed possession of his father's im-
mense landed property as Duke of Zipsen.
King John died in 1540, leaving behind him a child
in the cradle, Duke John Sigismund; he committed the
guardianship to the monk George Utissenich, also
named Martinuzzi, and the warrior Peter Petrovich.
Martinuzzi was a statesman of the first rank, skilful,
brave, cunning, and ambitious; Petrovich was a gallant
soldier. They resolved to send an embassy to the
Sultan-from whom the Peace of Grosswardein had
been kept secret-with presents, and the request that
he would confirm the son of King John in possession
of Hungary. Ferdinand had constantly neglected
to take any measures for the defence of Hungary,
and he was wholly unable to resist the Turks, who,
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xcvii
as soon as the East of Hungary should be delivered up
to Ferdinand, would assuredly have invaded the coun-
try. Suleiman confirmed John Sigmund as Lord of
Hungary. Ferdinand saw that the Peace of Grosswar-
dein was not adhered to, and consequently in 1540 he
ordered Ofen (Buda) to be attacked. His General
Roggendorf was easily repulsed by the Hungarians,
but Suleiman also appeared for the fourth time in
Hungary, and left Turkish garrisons in Ofen and other
Hungarian fortresses, alleging that John Sigismund was
too weak to defend them. This was the beginning of
the Turkish rule in Hungary.
Isabella, the mother of John Sigismund, who was
in his minority, very soon felt that, hemmed in between
Ferdinand and Suleiman, Transylvania could not main-
tain its independence. She felt her dependence on
Martinuzzi, and therefore opened negotiations for peace
with Austria, which were at length concluded in 1551.
Isabella, in consideration of an indemnification, re-
signed Transylvania and the eastern part of Hungary
to Ferdinand. Petrovich unwillingly delivered up the
fortresses of Temesvar, Lippa, and Lugos, to the brave
Losonczy the King's General; for he knew that soon
they would be no longer as heretofore under the nomi-
nal, but under the direct rule of the Turks : he knew
the negligence of Ferdinand, and openly said, that he
would be hostler to any one who held these fortresses
for only three years against the Turks.
Martinuzzi, on the other hand, who had been nomi-
nated Archbishop of Gran and Voivoda of Transyl-
vania, and had also received a Cardinal's hat through
the King, continued his secret negotiations with the
Turks; conscious of his genius, he aimed at being
VOL. I.
e
xcviii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
an
Before
independent Prince of Transylvania.
this time, under King John, the Italian Gritti had
entertained the same project, but before he could
accomplish it he was murdered by some of the adhe-
rents of the Austrian party. Martinuzzi likewise shared
the same fate with the consent of Ferdinand, Castaldo,
Ferdinand's General, had him assassinated.
:
Petrovich's anticipation was soon realized. In 1552,
Suleiman attacked Ferdinand's newly acquired posses-
sion, the latter having taken no measures for its
defence. Losonczy was besieged in Temesvar; his
heroic wife led an army to his relief against the camp
of the Turks, but was defeated. A revolt of the Ger-
man garrison at length compelled the hero to surrender
the fortress, on terms of free exit. The Vizirs ac-
companied him with a guard of honour through the
Turkish camp; but the Janissaries began to drag from
their horses the soldiers of the garrison one by one, and
take them prisoners.
Losonczy remained silent for a time; but when his
esquire, young Tomory, who carried his gilded armour,
was dragged from his horse at his very side, he turned
to the Spaniard Perez, and said, "This is Turkish
faith-we fall, but not unavenged." He cut down the
Turk who took the lad prisoner: a conflict ensued, and
the garrison were slain to the last man. Meanwhile,
Szondi was besieged in the rock-fortress of Dregel
by Ali Pasha. When no hope of relief longer re-
mained, the hero sent his two little sons clad in scarlet,
with presents to the Pasha, and with the request that
he would bring them up as brave warriors. But Szondi
himself burned all his treasures in the court-yard of the
castle, and at the head of the garrison made a desperate
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xcix
sally, in which, after making a bloody slaughter of the
Turks, they were all slain. Dobó and Bornemisza were
more fortunate in Erlau; with hastily assembled troops
they withstood in this fortress the repeated assaults of
the whole Turkish army. Women and old men shared
in the defence, and the Turks were obliged to raise the
siege. But all this heroism was in vain. Ferdinand,
who constantly mistrusted the Hungarians, and never
brought his Germans and Walloons into the country at
the right time, either could not or would not unite the
forces that were in Hungary: they were dispersed, and
the nation bled freely; for in spite of the heroic sacrifice
of individuals, the Sultan perpetually increased his ag-
gressions. Ferdinand died in 1564, after again deli-
vering up Transylvania, (which he could not hold) to
John Sigismund.
Maximilian, the son of Ferdinand I. is represented
in history as a noble, tolerant, and just Prince; but
the Hapsburg policy was so uniform and consistent
towards Hungary, that even the noble nature of Maxi-
milian belied itself. He gave the same assurances
as his father had given, but he kept them with no
better faith; he mistrusted the Hungarians, and he
appointed foreign commanders to every post; his
mercenary troops devastated the country, and the laws
of Hungary were continually violated. Maximilian
had even the boldness to send his demands to the
Diet in the German language. He was of course only
feebly supported by the country; he soon fell into strife
with John Sigismund, but could not conquer him,
and was obliged to conclude a peace. The Turks again
made predatory incursions into Hungary. Suleiman's
last campaign against the Hungarians in the year 1566,
e 2
с
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
might have been nearly fatal to Austria; for the Empe-
ror was again, as usual, unprepared, when the Sultan
with an immense army crossed the Danube; but Nicolas
Zrinyi arrested the advance of the Turks in Szigeth.
The Sultan besieged him here for a whole month; and
when Zrinyi saw there was no longer any hope, he
set fire to the fortress, threw himself with his garri-
son upon the Turkish camp, and closed with the enemy
in a hand-to-hand conflict. The siege of Szigeth cost
the Turks twenty thousand men, and the Emperor gained
time to collect an army; but when he heard that Sulei-
man the Great had died before Szigeth, and the Turkish
army was retiring, he likewise disbanded his forces.
John Sigismund died in Transylvania in 1571, the last
Prince of the House of the Zapolyas. He had not dis-
tinguished himself as a sovereign, and his name is
memorable in history only from his having so early as
the sixteenth century practised religious toleration to
its fullest extent, and granted to the Unitarians in
Transylvania perfect tolerance and equal rights with all
the other classes of Christians. Socinus lived in his
court. His successor was Stephen Bathory, the greatest
hero and statesman of his time, whom on this account
the Poles elected as their King, when Henry of Anjou
fled from Warsaw in 1574, leaving the throne vacant.
Maximilian had used every endeavour to bring Poland
under the dominion of his House, but his efforts were
vain; he died soon after without having done anything
for Hungary.
With Maximilian's successor, Rudolph, begins a new
phase of Hungarian history. In the battles with the
Turks, and against the Princes of Transylvania, who were
nominally the vassals of Turkey, a higher and religious
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
ci
was now added to the political interest. Even before
the battle of Mohács, Luther had gained many adherents
in Hungary, notwithstanding that in 1523 a law was
promulgated, commanding with the utmost brevity,
"Lutherani comburantur." In consequence of the death
of most of the Bishops in battle, and amid the confusion
caused by the double election of a King, the Reforma-
tion had gained ground. Ferdinand was no persecutor,
and Maximilian even favoured the new doctrines. The
greater part of the aristocracy, the Sclavonians in the
northern counties, the Germans in the towns of Hun-
gary and in the Saxonland of Transylvania, and the
Hungarians in the plains, adopted the new doctrines :
among the Wallachs, the Ruthenians, the Serbs in
Lower Hungary, and the Croats, alone the Reforma-
tion found no adherents. More than two-thirds, how-
ever, of the country had abandoned the Romish Church.
With Rudolph now begins a succession of fanatical
rulers, whose chief aim and purpose in life, was on the
one hand the extirpation of Protestantism, and on the
other, the foundation of absolutism. The wars were
henceforth wars of religion and liberty; the Princes of
Transylvania were the natural champions of religious
freedom and constitutional government; whilst the
governmental policy of the Hapsburgs was expressed
by one of their ministers in these words: "Faciam
Hungariam prius mendicam, dein Germanam, postea
Catholicam."
The history of Hungary, from 1576 to 1604, has
nothing of the grandeur of former epochs. In Tran-
sylvania various Princes of the House of Báthory ruled,
continually wavering between the Sultan and the Em-
peror, engaged in petty wars with both, and troubled
cii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
by rebellions and conspiracies, until at length Sigmund
Báthory surrendered the Principality to Rudolph, in
which Basta, the general of the Emperor behaved
as in an enemy's country. Rudolph waged a war
against the Turks, which lasted fifteen years: the
latter continually pressed onward more and more, and
the country was exhausted, as the Emperor mistrusted
the Hungarians, and relied only on Germans and Wal-
loons.
-
Illésházy, who was subsequently Palatine, gives in
his diary the following description of the army :-
"Archduke Matthias was the commanding General;
such a good-natured man, that he punished no one in
the camp, and did justice to no one; in consequence
there were innumerable rows and disturbances: not a
day passed that some Hungarian was not slain. The
camp was so full of immorality and drinking, of ban-
queting and trading, and courtly splendour, that it was
an abomination not only in the sight of God, but even
before sinful men. The chiefs sat down to table at ten
o'clock, and rose drunk at about four or five: one
went to sleep, another to take a stroll. The Archduke
did not go out for weeks together; but the soldiers
ravaged all the towns and villages for twenty or twenty-
five miles around; they drove off the cattle and the
horses of the peasants without paying for them, and
cut down the crops for fodder for their horses. But
the military councillor of war is with the Archduke,
David Ungund, the drunkard, and with him two Ger-
man Captains, who were never in battle, and have
never seen a Turk; and Ferdinandus Count of Hardekk,
the Commander of Raab."
From such a state of military affairs, no brilliant
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
ciii
result could of course be hoped for. Raab fell; Erlau
was taken by the Turks, and even the battle of Keresz-
tes, after being won in 1595, was turned into a defeat
by the insubordination which prevailed in the army.
One brilliant action alone is noticeable in the course of
this long war. Count Niklas Palffy and Adolf Schwar-
zenberg took Raab by storm in 1597, with only five
thousand men.
But the political condition of the country was also
deplorable. Rudolph remained in his castle at Prague,
shut up in his astrological study, or surrounded by his
collection of works of art: no Hungarian could come
near him, nor did he himself ever go to Hungary. In
the Diets which were frequently held under him, his
government continually demanded new requisitions for
the Turkish war, but the grievances of the country
were unheeded. Rudolph refused to allow the elec-
tion of a Palatine; all his Generals were Germans; the
complaints against the oppressions which they exercised
died away unheard. The Protestants were at the same
time systematically oppressed; the Jesuits, supported
by the German Generals, converted the people by
force; the churches were taken away from the Protes-
tants, and the clergymen driven away.
At length however, in 1604, the patience of the Hun-
garians was exhausted. The Diet had submitted
twenty-one articles of law to Rudolph for his confirma-
tion; but the latter of his own sovereign authority
added a twenty-second, in which he confirmed all the
former laws in favour of the Romish Church, forbade
any discussion in the Diet upon religious matters, and
ordered any one who should intrude such questions
civ
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
+
upon the Diet, to be punished as a pernicious re-
former.
The violation of the Constitution excited the greatest
indignation among all Hungarians, even those who
were not Protestants. In Upper Hungary the taxes
were instantly withheld. Stephen Bocskay, a distin-
guished soldier, placed himself at the head of the mal-
contents; whereupon Rudolph's Generals seized on
Bocskay's castles; but he fled to the Haiduks, who
instantly took up arms in the cause of religious freedom.
The insurrection spread with the swiftness of lightning.
Basta, the tyrannical Stadtholder of Transylvania was
defeated; the whole country joined Bocskay; his
cavalry swept through Moravia and Austria, up to the
very walls of Vienna. In this perilous extremity, the
Archduke Matthias, who conducted the affairs of
government for Hungary, turned to Illésházy, whom
Rudolph had outlawed, and who was awaiting the
course of events at Cracow. The outlaw negotiated a
peace between Rudolph and Bocskay, which was con-
cluded in 1606, and went by the name of the Religious
Peace of Vienna. Rudolph promised perfect religious
freedom, and the strict maintenance of the Hungarian
Constitution; he also acknowledged Bocskay as Prince
of Transylvania, and Lord of a portion of Hungary.
Bocskay hastened to conclude the peace, notwithstand-
ing he perceived that some Jesuitical clauses would
soon give rise to misunderstandings; but he felt that he
was poisoned, and feared that after his approaching
death, not even so much might be obtained as Rudolph
now offered. By the plenipotentiaries of the Archduke
Matthias, who had been recognized by Rudolph as
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
CV
Regent of Hungary, by those of Bocskay, and lastly of
the Sultan, a peace was at the same time concluded at
Zsitvatorok near Comorn-the first in which no tribute
was demanded by the Turks, and which properly con-
firmed and recognized the division of Hungary between
the King, the Prince of Transylvania, and the Sultan.
Bocskay died soon after the conclusion of this peace;
but Rudolph, who had grown daily more melancholy,
and gave himself entirely up to his scientific pursuits
and absolutist desires, was obliged by the alliance of
the Archdukes Matthias, Maximilian, Ferdinand and
Ernst, together with the threatening position of Hun-
gary, to resign Hungary, Austria, and Moravia to
Matthias.
Upon the abdication of Rudolph, the Hungarians
readily elected his brother Matthias King, at the Diet
of 1608, but not until he had solemnly sanctioned the
conditions of the Peace of Vienna as the law of the
realm, assented to some reforms in reference to the
Diet, and prepared others. Illésházy was chosen Pala-
tine, and Hungary hoped that peace and the Constitu-
tion would be at length re-established, and that the
country would recover from the wounds which a whole
century of misgovernment and civil war had inflicted.
The government of Matthias II. was comparatively a
tranquil one: the King indeed evidently favoured the
Roman Catholic Church, but the Protestants were not
severely persecuted. Cardinal Francis Forgács, Arch-
bishop of Gran, and his successor the famous Peter
Pázman, both converts to Catholicism, waged a resolute
war against the Protestants, but only with the weapons
of persuasion and knowledge. They erected schools and
higher educational institutions for the clergy; and at
+
e 3
cvi
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
the same time by retaining their patriotic spirit, they
succeeded in withdrawing many distinguished men
from the Reformation. But just at the time when
these remarkable men were labouring to strengthen
Catholicism anew in Hungary, Gabriel Bethlen (Beth-
len Gabor), the most distinguished defender of the
Hungarian Protestants ascended the throne in Transyl-
vania.
Gabriel Báthory, a frivolous tyrant, who had soon
rendered himself hated in Transylvania, could not
longer remain in that country; his friends forsook him,
and the Turks supported Gabriel Bethlen against him.
Báthory was slain in 1613, and Bethlen was also re-
cognized as Prince by Matthias, although the Vien-
nese councillors of the King had advised war.
Matthias had still a great task to fulfil, that of
securing the succession to the throne for the Archduke
Ferdinand, of the Styrian line; in this matter he expe-
rienced no opposition from the Diet. Ferdinand was
elected King in 1618, and was crowned as soon as the
Constitution appeared to be secured, by the election of
a Palatine, and by the guarantee of fresh promises to
hold the past inviolate.
Even before the death of Matthias, Ferdinand II.
interfered in the Government; the prudent compliance
which Cardinal Klesel, the friend and councillor of
the Emperor, had uniformly recommended as the best
policy, appeared to the new King treason against the
interests of Catholicism. He had the Cardinal im-
prisoned, and instead of conciliatory proclamations, he
sent troops against the Protestant Bohemians. Mat-
thias saw with pain the first outbreak of the Thirty
Years' War, and died in 1619, with the hopeless con-
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
cvii
viction, that his successor would destroy by inconside-
rate severity all that he had with such pains erected.
In Hungary, Matthias had been the most popular of all
the members of the House of Hapsburg, the only one
who had maintained an upright determination to fulfil
his promises conscientiously.
Ferdinand II. the pupil and friend of the Jesuits,
had in the year 1600 made a vow at Loretto, to re-
store the Romish Church to its ancient glory and
power upon the ruins of Protestantism. To this object
he subordinated every other purpose in life: with fore-
knowledge and intent he kindled the bloodiest of all
religious wars; every means was in his sight justifiable
to attain his purpose; cunning and cruelty, dissimula-
tion and open force, the sword and the scaffold. His
most faithful servant and councillor in Hungary was
Peter Pázman, first a Jesuit and afterwards Archbishop
of Gran―learned, adroit, eloquent, disinterested, the
most dangerous enemy of the Protestants, but devoted
to his native country, and more conscientious than his
master on the throne, in the choice of the means by
which he achieved his aims.
Niklas Eszterhazy soon joined Pázman, the grandson
of an insignificant nobleman, but who soon distinguished
himself by his talents, and rose step by step to the
dignity of Palatine. He understood his countrymen
perfectly; his judgment was cold and decisive; he loved
his country, and regulated his passions; but he was
especially the man of the moment, prompt to assist
in escaping from every embarrassment. Selfish as he
was, he never forgot the interests of his family, and
amassed that immense property, by which his House
was at a later period distinguished.
cviii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
Opposed to these three champions of Catholicism,
stood Gabriel Bethlen, Prince of Transylvania, as dis-
tinguished in the field as in the cabinet. A Hungarian
like Pázman, a state smanlike Eszterhazy, and a Jesuit
like Ferdinand himself, he devoted his life and his
talents to the noblest idea-the maintenance of political
and religious freedom in Hungary. It was not Protes-
tantism, but toleration, for which he struggled; he
supported Catholic churches in Transylvania, and did
not even expel the Jesuits from his principality,
although he took the field against their intrigues in
Hungary.
Even before the death of Matthias, Ferdinand came
forward openly against the Protestants; but his ordi-
nances everywhere aroused rebellion. Count Thurn
surprized him at the head of the Confederate Protes-
tant Estates of Austria, Moravia and Bohemia, in the
palace in Vienna, and was on the point of confining
him prisoner in a convent, when the Dampierre regi-
ment of cavalry, joined by the students and citizens of
Vienna, rescued him and dispersed the insurgents.
Ferdinand suppressed the Austrians, and after a short
campaign, in the battle of the White Mountain, defeated
the Bohemians, in 1620, who had declared him to have
forfeited the throne. After the victory, the work of
the executioner commenced; twenty-eight of the most
distinguished Bohemians were publicly decapitated;
thousands were thrown into prison; the property of the
Bohemian aristocracy was confiscated, and distributed
among the officers and favourites of the Emperor; the
constitution of Bohemia was abrogated, and Protestan-
tism suppressed.
In Hungary, the plans of Ferdinand were defeated
|
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
cix
!
!
by the genius of Bethlen Gabor. Here likewise the Pro-
testants rose, when Ferdinand, against religious liberty,
began to circumscribe the Vienna Peace. The arms
of Bethlen were victorious: the Prince was ever ready
for war, but not less inclined to peace. Bethlen was
elected King of Hungary at Neusohl, in 1620; but he
received this act of the Diet only as a homage rendered
to his efforts by the Hungarians, and would not be
crowned, although the crown and three-fourths of the
country were in his power. Ferdinand, in spite of his
vow at Loretto, was compelled in 1621, to conclude a
peace at Nikolsburg, which was ratified as the law of
the land in 1622. The Peace of Vienna and Religious
Freedom were again confirmed, and a part of Hungary
was ceded to Bethlen. But as Ferdinand, taking ad-
vantage of the fortune of war in Germany, neglected to
observe the articles of the Peace, Bethlen rose a second
and third time, and by his skilful conduct of the war,
won in Gyarmath and Pressburg new conditions of
peace. In these wars, in which he never lost a battle
in person, he seldom resorted to the assistance of the
Turks; and after having concluded a peace, he also
mediated the same continually between the Emperor
and the Sultan. It appears too that he had formed
the plan of uniting Moldavia, Wallachia, Transylvania,
and Eastern Hungary in one kingdom; but death over-
took him in 1629, and interrupted his efforts, by which
Transylvania was raised up anew.
Bethlen's widow, Catharina, Princess of Branden-
burg, had been secretly converted by the Jesuits to the
Romish Church, and entered upon negotiations with
Ferdinand to deliver up Transylvania to him: but upon
the discovery of her intrigues, the rich and avaricious
་།
;
CX
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
་་
.
Mind
George Rákoczy was elected Prince of Transylvania,
who soon entered into an alliance as a Protestant Prince
with Gustavus-Adolphus, King of Sweden, the cham-
pion of Protestantism. Ferdinand was obliged in 1633
to ratify the former articles of peace, and to recognize
Rákoczy as Prince of Transylvania. In Hungary, how-
ever, Ferdinand's decree, by which the exports of the
country into Austria were subjected to high duties,
created great dissatisfaction; and as the Emperor was
seeking during his own life to secure the succession to
the throne for his son, afterwards Ferdinand III. he
could not come forward here so openly against the
Protestants, as he did in Bohemia and Austria. Ferdi-
nand III. was at length elected and crowned King of
Hungary in 1636; the old King died a few months
afterwards, and his wise councillor Peter Pázman did
not long survive him.
Ferdinand III. was actuated by the same principles
as had involved his father in the interminable religious
war; but he was more moderate, and not so obstinate.
What Pázman had been to Ferdinand II. the Palatine
Niklas Eszterházy was to Ferdinand III. He exhorted
him frequently to adhere to his promises, to respect the
Hungarian Constitution, and not by continual eva-
sions to arouse the mistrust of the country. Peace
could only be maintained by yielding; for Rákoczy,
who even in Transylvania was rendered unpopular by
his avarice and mistrustful character, was only dange-
rous in Hungary when the just grievances, which were
submitted to the Diet, remained unheeded. But Ester-
házy's voice could not prevail; Rákoczy invaded Hun-
gary in 1644; the war lasted until 1645, characterized
more by skilful marches of the troops, than by san-
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
cxi
guinary battles; until at length Ferdinand, who also
earnestly desired to bring the war in Germany to a
close, yielded in Hungary, and again concluded a peace
with Rákoczy at Linz, in which the conditions of the
Peace of Vienna and Mikolsburg, were not only ratified,
but extended.
The Palatine Niklas Eszterházy, who had especially
contributed to the conclusion of this peace, died soon
afterwards. But the fulfilment of the conditions met
with many obstacles; the churches which had been
taken from the Protestants were not all given back; and
even those especially indicated by the Diet of 1647,
which ratified the peace, could in many cases only be
restored to the lawful proprietors by military force.
The Catholic party, which had hitherto always been in
the minority, began to obtain a majority in the Diet,
and the discussions on religious matters became conse-
quently more vehement, and the encroachments of the
Romish Church more frequent; nevertheless peace
was tolerably maintained. Nor did any regular war
break out, even with the Turks; from time to time
incursions into the neighbouring frontiers occurred, but
the peace was not interrupted.
Like his predecessor, Ferdinand III. endeavoured to
settle the succession to the throne during his lifetime.
The Hungarians fulfilled his wishes: first the Empe-
ror's son, Ferdinand IV. and upon his death soon after-
wards, Leopold I. were in turn chosen King. Ferdi-
nand himself died in 1657: his monument is the Peace
of Westphalia, and that of Linz, by which he termi-
nated the long war in Germany and Hungary.
The Government of Leopold I. continued for nearly
half a century, from 1657 to 1705, a period of terror
cxii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
.
and oppression to Hungary. And yet Leopold's per-
sonal character was not dissimilar from that of his
ancestors; proud, narrow-minded, upright in private
life, but in public life continually breaking every pledge
and promise, like all the sovereigns of his House who
had ruled Hungary before him. He was far less blood-
thirsty than the fanatical Jesuit Ferdinand II; but
under no King of Hungary in ancient times--not even
under Sigismund-were so many scaffolds erected, so
many distinguished Houses spoiled of their possessions,
so many patriots banished as under Leopold; and all
this because he had no Pázman, no Niklas Eszterházy
at his side, who might have taught him to respect
covenants, and to observe the oath which he had sworn
to the Constitution. His only advisers were Germans
and Bohemians-the Porzias, the Lobkoviczes, the
Hochers, the Kollonics, enemies of the Hungarians
and of all constitutional freedom. It is true that at a
later period Paul Eszterházy, a Hungarian, the first
Prince of that name, enjoyed the confidence of the
Emperor, but only because he stifled every patriotic
feeling within him, and became a willing tool of court
intrigue.
The patriots, on the other hand, Nicholas Zrinyi,
the hero of Zerinvar, Francis Wesselenyi, the Pala-
tine, George Szelepcsényi, Archbishop of Gran, Paul
Szechenyi, the Archbishop of Kalocsa, were unheeded,
estranged from the court, and neglected; whilst the
fiery and violent characters, Peter Zrinyi, Francis Na-
dasdy, Francis Frangipan, Emrich Tökölyi, and Fran-
cis Rákóczy, were systematically, as it were, goaded
on to rebellion. Leopold's Generals, whom he em-
ployed to suppress these continual risings, and to en-
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
cxiii
1.
slave Hungary, such as Armpringen, Kobb, Caraffa,
Spankau, and Heister, marked their career only by inhu-
man butcheries-their attribute was not the sword of
battle, but the sword of the executioner. On the other
hand, the Emperor had the good fortune in his war
against the Turks to have three great Generals, one
after another, who by their humanity won the hearts
of the Hungarians, Duke Charles of Lorraine, the Mar-
grave Ludwig of Baden, and Prince Eugene of Savoy.
All the lustre which brightens the tragical government
of Leopold emanates from these three names.
When Leopold ascended the throne, George II. Rá-
kóczy, Prince of Transylvania, who had just then
mingled in Polish affairs with the hope of ultimately
attaining the crown of the Piasts, had espoused the party
of the Swedish Carl Gustavus, against John Casimir,
and supported him. Leopold considered that he must
take advantage of this opportunity to attach Transyl-
vania to his House, and aided the Polish King against
George Rákóczy, whom the Sultan had also deposed
from his principality, for having as a vassal of Turkey,
meddled in a foreign war without being authorized to
do so.
Rákóczy hoped indeed to succeed in conciliating the
Porte, and consented that first his friend Rédey, and
afterwards Barcsay should be chosen Prince, upon the
latter engaging to resign his dignity as soon as George
should regain the favour of the Sultan. But when
Barcsay was acknowledged Prince, he began to
strengthen himself in his dignity, and to persecute
Rákóczy. Betrayed by his friends, attacked by the
Turks, Rákóczy developed the whole energy of de-
spair he succeeded in inducing the estates of Transyl-
:
cxiv
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
Tag
vania to elect him Prince a second time; he assembled
armies, defeated Barcsay, and finally fell in a deadly
struggle against the Turks in 1660 at Klausenburg.
After his death, Leopold seized Rákóczy's Hungarian
castles; the Turks on the other hand took Grosswar-
dein; in Transylvania, John Kemeny, Leopold's pro-
tégé, was elected Prince; whilst the Turks placed upon
the throne of Transylvania, first, Barcsay, and after-
wards Michael Apaffy, upon the former being defeated
by Kemeny, and in his third attempt to win the prin-
cipality by Turkish aid, being taken prisoner and ex-
ecuted. Leopold sent his General, Montecucculi, to the
aid of Kemeny; but he wasted his time in marches
and counter-marches, and forsook the Prince, who
eventually fell in battle against the Turks in 1662.
Transylvania was devastated in this war, and the peace,
which had lasted, with slight interruptions, for more
than half a century between the Emperor and the
Sultan, was de facto broken; every one felt that the
decisive struggle between the Cross and the Crescent
was approaching. And yet at this very time, Leopold
alienated from himself the Protestants in Hungary,
while the arrogance of his minister Porzia, and his
General Montecucculi offended the Catholic grandees of
the realm. On the other hand, Prince Apaffy already
sought the friendship of Leopold, and, notwithstanding
that he remained the protégé and ally of the Turks, he
began to form those relations with him, which even-
tually after the death of the Prince, in 1691, caused
Transylvania to submit to the dominion of Leopold.
The war with the Turks began in 1664. Niklas
Zrinyi, equally great as hero, statesman, and poet, the
grandson of the hero of Szigeth, attacked the Turks
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
CXV
during the winter, and caused them much serious loss.
But Montecucculi, the enemy of Zrinyi and the Hunga-
rians, did not support him; he traversed the country
with his army, until at length he gave the Grand Vizir
a signal defeat at St. Gotthard, whereupon the German
ambassador of the Emperor, Reuminger, in an incon-
ceivable manner, concluded an ignominious peace with
the Turks. Leopold engaged to furnish a present to
the Sultan of two hundred thousand florins, recognized
the status quo as the basis of the peace, and promised to
raze the fortress of Székelyhida.
The Hungarians were incensed at this peace, which
was concluded without their assent; but they were still
more exasperated by the extortions of Leopold's German
mercenaries, "which so exhausted the people, that
even the hated Turkish yoke seemed to be more endur-
able than the oppression of the Germans." In addition
to this, the commanders were foreigners, while the
Hungarians were everywhere neglected, and excluded
from the Government.
Niklas Zrinyi perished in a hunt; public opinion
ascribed his death to assassination. The grandees of
the kingdom, including Wesselenyi the Palatine,
Nádasdy the Judex Curiæ, Peter Zrinyi Ban of
Croatia and brother of Niklas, Francis Rákóczy son
of Prince George, at length conspired, and deter-
mined, acting upon the spirit of the clause of the
Bulla Aurea, to assemble an army, and backed by this,
to require Leopold to fulfil his coronation oath, sur-
round himself with Hungarian councillors, and send
the foreign mercenaries out of the country. It was
agreed that recourse should not be had to arms, unless
Leopold should disregard these just demands of the
cxvi
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
people. But Wesselenyi, the skilful leader of this
party, who considered only the interests of his country
and of freedom, died suddenly. Zrinyi sought to em-
ploy the conspiracy for personal objects, and succeeded
in engaging the powerful Counts Frangipani and Tat-
tenbach in his plans; but they were all betrayed, taken
prisoners, and, with a violation of all legal forms, exe-
cuted at Wiener Neustadt in 1671. Nádasdy shared
their fate, although no charge of high-treason could be
brought against him; but he was the richest Count in
Hungary, and this decided his fate. His possessions
were confiscated, and given to Paul Eszterházy, the
brother-in-law of the Count, as a reward of his loyalty.
Rákóczy purchased iminunity from all punishment with
four hundred thousand florins. After the suppression
of their first conspiracy, the work of the exceptional
tribunals began: the prisons were filled, the German
mercenaries under Spork plundered the possessions of
the compromised parties, as well as of many others.
Lobkovicz thought he could now carry out his plans
with reference to the abrogation of the Hungarian Con-
stitution; he distributed German troops over the coun-
try, and imposed heavy taxes, without summoning a
Diet.
The counties complained of these arbitrary proceed-
ings; and the Archbishops and Bishops Szelepcsényi,
Széchenyi, Pálffy, and Gubasóczy, conjured Leopold
to retract his commands, and to respect the Constitu-
tion, as the Hungarian nation prized their liberties.
more than life. But all remonstrance was vain;
Lobkovicz persisted in his plan. An insurrection raised
by the Protestants in Upper Hungary, who were now
openly persecuted, was easily suppressed by German
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
cxvii
troops, and used as a pretext formally to abrogate the
Hungarian Constitution in 1673, to appoint Gaspar
Ampringen, Grand Master of the German Order, civil
and military Governor of Hungary, and to institute
everywhere Inquisition Courts against heretics, and
Courts-martial. The German Generals now traversed
the counties in company with Jesuits, despoiled the
Protestants of their churches, expelled the clergy, and
caused those who offered any resistance to be hanged,
drawn, and quartered, the forfeiture of their property
being of course never forgotten. Three hundred Pro-
testant clergymen and schoolmasters were banished
without any legal proceedings; seventy of them would
not yield to this exceptional process, and demanded
the institution of regular proceedings, in order to prove
their innocence; they were despatched unheard to Sici-
ly, to the galleys, where they were subsequently freed
by Admiral Ruyter.
The Protestants now fled in crowds to the Turks,
who granted them protection, and practised reprisals
against the German mercenaries, who fell into their
hands. Prince Lobkovicz at this time unexpectedly
fell from power; but Hocher, who succeeded to his
place, prosecuted the projects of his predecessor all the
more zealously as, himself a roturier, he hated the
Hungarian aristocracy. This man, who could boast
neither family nor fame, and had risen merely through
obsequious flattery, respected neither freedom nor
historical rights.
Leopold indeed made an attempt to conciliate Hun-
gary; in 1676 he summoned the most influential Hun-
garians of his party to Vienna, with a view to effect an
understanding respecting the pacification of the coun-
cxviii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
try; but these men recognized as the only means to effect
this object-respect for the Constitution, the election
of the Palatine, and the removal of the German troops.
To this, however, Leopold would never consent; on
the contrary, he gave the command of the troops in
Upper Hungary, after the death of the humane Straf-
foldo, to the German tyrant Kobb. Another insur-
rection naturally followed. Emrich Tökölyi placed
himself at the head of the malcontents, and made con-
tinual advances, in spite of the frequent vicissitudes in
the fortune of war. He was ever ready to open nego-
tiations of peace, which were frequently frustrated by
Hocher: at length in 1681 there was truce. Leopold
was obliged, at least in part, to yield: he again sum-
moned a Diet, permitted the election of a Palatine,
which fell upon Count Paul Eszterházy, and abolished
the illegal taxes. He would, however, on no account
allow the grievances of the Protestants to be the subject
of debate in the Diet, and there was consequently no
prospect of peace, especially as Leopold refused his
assent to the resolutions of the Diet, that the crime of
high-treason should be accurately defined, that the
exceptional tribunals should be abolished, and that
the possessions which had been confiscated by these
courts should be restored to their owners.
The war began anew in 1683; the Turks advanced
against Vienna, which was heroically defended by
Günther von Starhemberg, and delivered by King
Sobiesky and his Poles and Charles of Lorraine, with
German infantry and Hungarian Hussars, who defeated
the Grand Vizir. An amnesty which Leopold granted,
began to quiet the public mind. Tökölyi himself
desired to enter into negotiations, but Leopold sent his
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
cxix
proposals to the Turks, who dragged the unfortunate
man as a traitor in chains to Adrianople. Still, Helena
Zrinyi, the daughter of the beheaded Peter, who after
the death of her first husband Francis Rákóczy, had
married Count Tökölyi, defended the rock-fortress of
Munkács for two years. When at length she sur-
rendered the castle to the troops of Leopold, the latter
shut her up in a nunnery. She, however, succeeded in
making her escape in disguise, and joined her husband,
who was kept prisoner in Turkey; but her children
were detained, and educated under strict surveillance
by the Jesuits.
After the relief of Vienna followed a brilliant suc-
cession of victories against the Turks. The armies of
Leopold, in which, after the amnesty, many of Tökö-
lyi's former officers served, stormed the fortress of
Buda in 1686, under Charles of Lorraine; totally de-
feated the Turks at Mohács in the following year, cap-
tured Esseg and Peterwardein, and went to Transylva-
nia, where Prince Apaffy, under the protection of
Leopold, maintained the shadow of a government from
this time until his death. But the glory which these
victories shed upon the government of Leopold, was
darkened by the barbarity with which the Imperial
General Caraffa in Eperies, treated the principal Pro-
testants in Upper Hungary, condemning them to be
tried by exceptional tribunals, and to be put to death
with the most horrible tortures. The brave Ludwig,
Margrave of Baden, one of the heroes in the Turkish
war, at length interceded for these persecuted people,
and Leopold closed the bloody Tribunal of Eperies,
which is famed in history under the name of " Lanie-
na Eperjessiensis."
CXX
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
Leopold at length saw that this exceptional state of
affairs in Hungary could not continue, and he now sought
to attain his ends by legal means. In 1687 he summoned
a Diet, the principal task of which was to abrogate the
right of armed resistance in the clause of the. Bulla
Aurea, to abolish the right of electing a King, and to
settle the succession to the throne on the male line of
the House of Hapsburg, according to the law of primo-
geniture. The Diet accepted the royal propositions ;
whereupon Leopold granted a full amnesty, from which
Tökölyi was alone excepted, and conceded the right to
the Magnates of instituting the succession of primogeni-
ture. The Palatine Count Paul Eszterházy, who contri-
buted greatly to these measures, was nominated Prince,
and Joseph the son of Leopold was crowned as the
first hereditary King; a reconciliation was re-established
between the Court and the Hungarians. Nevertheless
this was not complete; the religious grievances of the
Protestants increased daily, and Leopold would not
abandon his system of persecution against them. His
Generals meanwhile gained new and brilliant victories;
the Margrave of Baden advanced up to the limits of
Albania; Transylvania, after the death of Apaffy,
yielded homage to Leopold, upon his promising to main-
tain the Constitution; and Prince Eugene of Savoy, the
valiant hero and friend of the Hungarians, annihilated
at Zentha in 1697 the army of the Grand Vizir. But
in order to achieve this victory, he had acted contrary
to the command of the council of war in Vienna; and he
was therefore obliged to repair to Vienna, to justify him-
self. When called upon to deliver up his sword, he did
so with these words, "It is still red with the enemy's
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
сххі
blood." But, however pedantically Leopold adhered
to forms, it was too repugnant a measure, even to his
prejudices, that the greatest General of his time should
be brought to account for a victory: he invested the
Prince anew with the chief command. By the mediation
of England and Holland, the Peace of Carlowicz was now
concluded with the Sultan, in which the Turks re-
nounced all dominion in Hungary and Transylvania,
and only retained the so-named Banat.
Encouraged by the brilliant issue of the war, the
absolutist court-party resumed their plans with regard
to Hungary; the Constitution was repeatedly violated,
no Diet was assembled, new taxes were imposed, the
country was inundated with German troops, and the
Protestants were incessantly persecuted. The people
were ripe for insurrection; a leader only was wanting-
it was the false policy of Leopold himself, that placed
one at the head of the malcontents. Francis II.,
Rákóczy, the step-son of Tökölyi, grandson of the
beheaded Peter Zrinyi, and great-grandson of the
Prince George I. Rákóczy, who had concluded the
Peace of Linz, resided at Vienna, dressed in the German
fashion, and kept aloof from the Hungarians. He was
surrounded by traitors, who took advantage of every
accidental word, every wish, every complaint he uttered
at his unhappy position, to bring suspicion upon him;
he was purposely irritated, his letters were intercepted,
and when it was thought that sufficient facts against
him were collected, he was arraigned before a commis-
sion as guilty of high-treason. After remaining six
months in prison, he succeeded in effecting his escape:
persecution had made him a rebel against his will.
When in 1703 he first raised the standard of rebellion,
f
VOL. I.
cxxii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
·
this movement was despised at Vienna; the Hungarians
were incessantly oppressed. Alexander Károlyi, who
had gained some advantage over Rákóczy, was badly
treated, because he insisted upon the Emperor's respect-
ing the Constitution, and he was eventually placed
under arrest at Karschau. He escaped, and joined
Rákóczy. The whole of Upper Hungary rose; a part
of Transylvania declared for Rákóczy, who, although a
Catholic, fought like Bethlen Gabor in the cause of
religious and political liberty. Leopold, taken by sur-
prize, sought to open negotiations: the Archbishop of
Kalocsa, Paul Széchenyi, well known as a liberal-
minded patriot, was selected for this purpose, but only
until General Heister with his plundering German mer-
cenaries entered the country. The frightful extortions
of these hordes alienated the Hungarians still more;
in spite of the advantages which Heister had obtained,
Károlyi's hussars advanced up to the walls of Vienna.
Leopold was again obliged to treat for peace, and again
he promised to respect the constitution; but he was no
longer believed.
He died in 1705, and the curse of
the Hungarians followed him to the grave: he had
ruled forty-eight years, and yet had not attained his
object-the Hungarian Constitution survived him.
Joseph I., the son and successor of Leopold, was a
noble prince, who endeavoured with sincerity and ear-
nestness to repair the faults of his father; no sooner
had he ascended the throne than he proclaimed an
amnesty, recalled the proud and cruel Heister, and
sent a proclamation to the insurgents, which bore the
full stamp of his amiable character. Rákóczy, an
equally noble and high-minded man as Joseph, was
also desirous of peace; but he considered himself only
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
cxxiii
as the head of the confederate Hungarians; and the
latter, who had been so often and so cruelly deceived
by the House of Hapsburg, would no longer listen to
any terms of accommodation. Counts Alexander
Károlyi, Daniel and Antony Eszterházy, Simon Forgách,
and Niklas Bercsenyi, persuaded him to enter into their
views. Joseph now accepted the mediation of England
and Holland which had been offered previously; in
1708 he assembled a Diet at Pressburg, and was
ready to conclude an honourable peace. The negotia-
tions failed chiefly from this cause, that Rákóczy's
party demanded independence, the free election of
the Prince for Transylvania, and the guarantee of
the European Powers for the liberties of Hungary.
The war was therefore continued; Rákóczy suffered
several defeats in 1709, and Count John Pálffy, the
patriotic Ban of Croatia, renewed the offers of peace on
the part of Joseph. Rákóczy did not accept these,
but his general Károlyi did, and a peace was con-
cluded in 1711 at Szathmár, with the co-operation of
the ambassadors of England and Holland. The con-
ditions were a general amnesty, even for Rákóczy, (pro-
vided within three weeks he, either personally or by
proxy, tendered the oath of allegiance),-the strict main-
tenance of the laws affecting religion and the Hungarian
and Transylvanian Constitution,-and the restoration of
the confiscated estates.
Rákóczy did not fail to recognize the magnanimity of
Joseph, who as a conqueror concluded a peace so advan-
tageous for the vanquished; nevertheless he declined
to accept the conditions offered: accompanied by a few
friends, he repaired first to France, and afterwards to
Turkey, where he lived at Rodosto until 1735, in the
f 2
exxiv
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
enjoyment of princely honour. Joseph himself did not
live to see the conclusion of the peace; he died in 1711.
His noble nature and his humane policy were not inhe-
rited by his brother, who reigned in Hungary as
Charles III., and as Emperor under the title of
Charles VI. The latter indeed confirmed the peace
of Szathmár, but Leopold's desire of absolutism con-
tinually rose within him. As, however, he had no
son, and desired to transfer the crown to his daughter,
Maria Theresia, the good-will of the Hungarian nation
was too important to allow him to follow the counsels
of his Vienna Ministry, and to violate the Constitution
of Hungary.
The Constitution of Hungary was modified in an
important manner by the three Diets which were held
during his government. In the warlike period of the
last two centuries no organic laws, with the exception
of the laws affecting religion, had been introduced;
now when peace was concluded, the institutions of the
country had to be adapted to the new times. The
changes were effected in the spirit of the eighteenth
century. In the first place, the rights and liberties of
Hungary were ratified anew, and boards were insti-
tuted, in the place of the independent dignitaries of
state, who now presided over these boards. The
Hungarian Board of Chancery was established in
Vienna, since it was regarded as a fait accompli that
the monarch, in spite of all his promises, should not
reside in Hungary. In the country the Consilium
Locumtenentiale Hungaricum was instituted, which was
to carry on the government: four district courts in
Hungary, and one in Croatia, were in future to decide
the most important civil causes: the Royal Table in
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
CXXV
Hungary, and the Banal Table in Croatia, were appointed
courts of appeal for civil and criminal cases, which
were invested with the power not only of judging
according to strict formal right, but also of taking
cognizance of matters in equity. But the most im-
portant point was the introduction of a standing army,
and with this naturally of a new system of taxation.
The nobility refused direct taxation; the peasants had
alone to bear the taxes, which could not be raised
high, and the Court, to indemnify itself, recruited its
revenues by an oppressive system of imposts between
Hungary and the Austrian provinces, thereby stifling
the industry of the former country. The injustice
of the nobles met with its reward; from this time the
country was isolated, and naturally remained behind
in cultivation and industry.
In the year 1723 Charles attained in Hungary the
object of his efforts, the acceptance of the so-called
Pragmatic Sanction, or the recognition of the law of
female inheritance, first for his line, then for that of
his elder brother Joseph, and lastly for all the des-
cendants of Leopold I. The Hungarians accepted
these royal proposals without opposition, but at the
same time re-asserted of course the rights and liberties
of Hungary. The crime of high-treason was now more
accurately defined, and an end was put by law to
On
arbitrary arrests upon suspicion of high-treason.
this occasion also the permission was granted to the
untitled nobles to institute the succession of primo-
geniture; but neither these nor the magnates, who had
possessed this right ever since the time of Leopold I.,
made any frequent use of the privilege: equal partition
cxxvi
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
was more adapted to the customs and usages of the
nobles.
Whilst all these reforms were carried out in the
interior, Charles, in the year 1716, renewed the war
against the Turks. Prince Eugene, and his friend
John Palffy, defeated the latter at Peterwardein and
Temesvar, and in the following year at Belgrade; he
took Servia, and Wallachia Minor as far as the Aluta,
and sought to unite again the ancient dependencies of
the Hungarian kingdom with these. But the peace of
Passarovicz (Posárovacz) arrested his victorious career.
Charles was a dry, practical Prince, who had a horror
of any grand projects; he contented himself with
having completely driven the Turks out of Hungary,
and with possessing in Belgrade the key of Turkey.
But he effected much in the way of internal ameliora-
tion; he constructed roads to the coast of Hungary,
repaired the harbour of Porto Re, and granted to Fiume
the privileges of a free port; for at that period, it was not
yet known that a free port, where prohibitions exist,
favours only smuggling, and not commerce, and forms
but a very weak corrective for the prohibitive system. In
the last few years of the government of Charles a war
broke out anew with Turkey; but Charles had not the
courage to entrust the command of the army to an Hun-
garian, although John Pálffy was generally considered the
best general of the school of Prince Eugene. The inca-
pacity of the Generals Königseck, Wallis, Suckow, and
the diplomatist Neiperg, lost all the advantages which
the sword of Eugene had won, and the peace of 1739
restored to the Turks Bosnia, Servia, with the im-
portant fortress of Belgrade, and Wallachia Minor.
Scarcely had Maria Theresia, the beautiful and clever
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
cxxvii
daughter of Charles, ascended the throne in 1740, than
all the continental Powers of Europe stood forth against
her, and contested her right of inheritance in the
German provinces. The enthusiasm and devotion of
the Hungarians saved her throne. The Queen, with
true womanly tact, took advantage of the vanity of the
nation by readily carrying out all their wishes. She
appointed Hungarians to the most important posts,
she never neglected to mention with gratitude the
sacrifices and valour of the nation, and by manifest-
ing confidence, she awakened a mutual confidence ;
thus during her government of thirty years she suc-
ceeded in those objects which the bloodthirsty tyranny
of her grandfather had been unable to effect. The
constitutional instincts of the Hungarians were gra-
dually lulled asleep; Protestantism was weakened by
frequent conversions to the Romish Church, German
manners were introduced into Hungary, the high aris-
tocracy became fixedly attached to the court, and yet
all the while Maria Theresia remained the universally
loved and adored Queen of the Hungarians. For Diets
she had no affection; under her the constitution of the
country was maintained outside the walls of the Diet.
She ordered the decrees of the highest courts to be
collected and confirmed by a commission which consisted
of the members of the highest court; and these judg-
ments had thenceforth the validity of law. Further, when
in 1764 the Diet refused to introduce a bill for the regu-
lation of the relation of the peasant to the landowner,
which should distinctly define his rights and duties, she
introduced by an absolute decree her "Urbarium" into
Hungary, which in spite of great faults and defects, was
yet very liberal for that period, and contained many
elements of progress; indeed, on this account, notwith-
J
C
cxxviii
-:
$
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
standing the illegal mode of its introduction, it was
repeatedly recognized provisionally by subsequent Diets.
But Maria Theresia did not again summon any Diet,
and the dignified office of the Palatine, the guardian of
the constitution, was not again filled up; yet, notwith-
standing all this, the nation retained their attachment
to her. She was the most statesmanlike sovereign of
the House of Hapsburg.
Her son and successor, the celebrated Emperor
Joseph II, the first ruler of the House of Lorraine,
had not these qualities. He was a perfect specimen of
a German philosopher,-imperious, intolerant of oppo-
sition, respecting no historical rights, boldly overturning
the ancient order of things, but not possessing the
energy necessary to carry into effect his doctrinaire
schemes, and consequently spreading confusion and
disaffection throughout the land. He would have been
an ornament to any professor's chair, but for this very
reason he was not the man to occupy a throne.
Nevertheless these very peculiarities gave him a great
name among the unpractical German men of letters :
they extolled him and admired his principles, with-
out considering how petty and pernicious were the
results of his government. As soon as Joseph, in
1770, attained to power upon the death of his mother,
he quitted the path of government which Maria
Theresia had so successfully pursued. He refused to
be crowned King in Hungary, or to recognize the
constitution, and he introduced a German administra-
tion into the country. All the county congregations,
all the courts and government colleges protested against
this contempt of the fundamental pacts between the
King and the Hungarians, and reminded him of the
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
cxxix
promises, the kingly oaths, and conditions of peace
which his forefathers had made and observed. But
Joseph had no inclination for historical rights; his
want of public morality had already shown itself in the
partition of Poland. In vain therefore he proclaimed
toleration, in vain he studied to govern according to
the principles of the law of reason: his ordinances
were not respected, because he had shaken the public
rights to their foundation: the municipal authorities
everywhere resisted him. To maintain his consistency,
Joseph thought himself compelled to abolish the mu-
nicipal institutions, and to introduce a system of cen-
tralization; but he found no tools ready to forward
his aims, none of the upright patriots served him in
Hungary: his officials were foreigners, or men of no note
or authority, and the administration was despised. To
this failure were added his reverses in the war with
Turkey, which he had commenced in the most incon-
siderate manner : an armed insurrection had broken
out in Belgium, and one threatened likewise in Hun-
gary. Joseph, broken down in spirit and bodily.
health, saw at length, after a government of ten
years, that all his efforts were vain: upon his
death-bed he retracted all the ordinances which he
had issued, with the single exception of the Toleration
Act. When the news of his death, in 1790, was
spread abroad, bonfires and illuminations were kindled
from one end of the country to the other: his officials
were compelled to fly, and his ordinances (even the
wisest, as, for instance, that relating to the measure-
ment of the land) were burnt.
Joseph's brother, Leopold II., under whose wise
administration Tuscany had risen to a flourishing state,
CXXX
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
!
succeeded the philosopher on the throne. The ideas
of the French Revolution had excited people's minds
throughout Europe, and were shaking thrones. But Leo-
pold, in this crisis, attached the Hungarians more
firmly than ever to his House. His first act of
government was, to assemble the Diet, to recognize
the Constitution of Hungary, the freedom of the
country, and its independence of every other state or
people, also to assign the right of introducing, abrogating,
and interpreting the laws exclusively to the Diet and
the assent of the King: the country was never to be
governed by imperial patents; the King himself was
not allowed to interfere in the administration of justice,
nor, in cases of high-treason, to arraign the accused
before any other court than the royal Table. Lastly,
the edict of toleration issued by Joseph, which was
indeed more limited than the Peace of Vienna, of Nikols-
burg, and of Linz, which did not prevent Charles and
Maria Theresia from enforcing frequent encroachments
by the Romish Church, was made the law of the land.
Leopld was received and crowned in Hungary with
enthusiasm; his son Alexander was elected Palatine;
everything augured a brilliant future, when he sud-
denly died, in 1792, probably by poison-the effect
of female jealousy.
Francis I., the son of Leopold, was a selfish, narrow-
minded, distrustful prince, an enemy of science and
knowledge, and so vulgar in his tastes that he would
not even learn to speak correct German. But his very
Viennese dialect, and his coarse sallies against edu-
cation, made him popular with the lower classes in
Vienna. In Hungary he could not gain the attach-
ment which had followed his father.
At the very
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
cxxxi
beginning of his government, and after the mysterious
death of his brother, the popular Palatine Alexander,
who lost his life at an exhibition of fireworks in Laxem-
burg, numerous arrests took place. The Abbot Mar-
tinovics, Count Sigray, Messrs. Laczkovics, Szent
Mariay, and Hajnóczy, were executed for high treason:
others were sentenced to long imprisonment, and
among them the most distinguished authors, upon
the allegation that they had been implicated in a great
conspiracy. The sentences alone were made known;
the proceedings against these conspirators were carried
on with locked doors, and regarded as State secrets.
As long as the French war lasted, Francis regularly
held Diets in Hungary, which continually voted sub-
sidies of men and money; but when the Estates, in
1807, raised their voice against the profligate adminis-
tration of the finances, and declared in favour of the
principles of free trade,-when they further, in 1812,
refused to sanction by their assent the State bank-
ruptcy of Austria,-they became troublesome to the
Vienna Ministry; and after the formation of the Holy
Alliance, Francis sought, like his ancestors, to get rid
of the inconvenient Hungarian Constitution. He had
soon forgotten the loyalty with which the Hungarians
remained faithful to his throne, and how, when Napo-
leon, in 1809, promised them separation from Austria
and a King for themselves, the Hungarians tore in pieces
the proclamation, and did not listen to the French.
In the first place, no more Diets were summoned ;
the regular elections in the counties were no longer
permitted; the Lord-Lieutenants filled up the vacan-
cies in the municipal administration by provisional
nominations ; in 1816, a voluntary subsidy was
cxxxii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
demanded from the nobles. The nobles in most of the
county congregations refused this; but notwithstand-
ing, at the close of the year 1822, when Constitu-
tionalism was also attacked in Italy and Spain, the
taxes were raised without the consent of the Diet, and
a levy of recruits was ordered. All the counties pro-
tested; they saw clearly that it was not a question
of taxation, but one of principle; and as the right of
granting taxes alone constituted the guarantee of the
constitution, this measure excited the bitterest indig-
nation. Francis at first endeavoured to execute his
will by force of arms, but his attempts were frustrated
by the passive resistance of the counties. He there-
fore again summoned the Diet in 1825, reconfirmed
the constitution, and thenceforth ruled with more
careful respect for the legal forms: yet he remained
hostile to any reform ; in his mind the words
progress, education, and revolution were completely
synonymous. But the spirit of the times will not
admit of being resisted for any long continuance: in
1832, a reform Diet, the first for a century, began
to revise the single parts of the Hungarian Constitution.
The majority of the Deputies were liberal, but the
majority of the magnates and the government obsti-
nately opposed any amelioration of the condition of
the peasants, and any change or reform in the feudal
institutions. Francis died during the session of this
Diet, unlamented by his people, to whom he be-
queathed, as a remembrance of his government, a
considerable state-debt, notwithstanding that Austria
had made three national bankruptcies under the Em-
peror Francis, which were especially ruinous to the
middle classes.
2
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
cxxxiii
After 1835, the stubborn, narrow-minded Archduke
Louis and the Doctrinaire of absolutism Prince Metter-
nich, governed in the name of the imbecile Ferdinand.
Louis believed that the art of ruling consisted in
postponing the solution of every important question;
and Metternich felt too well that he was not in a
position to govern strong nations; his main object
therefore was to keep down and repress the national
development, or, where this was no longer possible, to
incite one people against another, favouring and
persecuting each party in turn, in order to destroy the
strength of the people by continual party struggles.
The third statesman who exercised an important
influence upon the government of Hungary, was the
Palatine Archduke Joseph, a man of great cleverness,
a penetrating understanding, and with remarkable
power of dissimulation. He entertained a true love
for Hungary, which he looked upon as his native
country, and was the man of quiet progress, but
not possessed of the energy to make his counsels listened
to in Vienna.
The Diet which assembled in 1832, and continued
its session uninterruptedly till 1836, fulfilled with
difficulty its task of revising the Urbarium of Maria
Theresia, and determining the rights and duties of
the peasants. The court opposed all propositions re-
lating to a full emancipation of the peasant, and would
not consent to any attack upon the feudal institutions.
The Chancellor, Count Reviczky, who was an ardent
friend to the Hungarian nationality, but only a half-
liberal in his principles, was replaced by the re-
actionary Count Fidel Pálffy, a man without talent,
who did not even understand Hungarian. He imme-
cxxxiv
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
diately caused arrests to be made, and political lawsuits
to be instituted. B. Wesselényi, Kossuth, Ujhazy,
Balogh, Madarasz, and Count Ráday, were among the
number of the prosecuted. Those highest courts forgot
their position and dignity so far as to allow the viola-
tion of the legal forms in reference to the defence;
when, therefore, the sentence of Wesselényi, Kossuth,
and some young men, found guilty of high treason,
was published, the indignation of the whole country
was excited against the Government and the highest
courts. Count Pálffy, Count Cziráky, and Mr. Soms-
sich, the Chancellor, and the Presidents of the highest
courts, had not the courage to await the assembling of
the Diet: they entered the German-Austrian State
Service. Count Antony Mailath was made Chancellor,
—pliant, liberal, eloquent, and full of promises. His
administration lasted from 1839 until 1844, and was
rendered important by an amnesty in Hungary, the
introduction of the statute laws concerning bills of
exchange, and the recognition of religious equality.
At this time the differences between Croatia and
Hungary began to grow bitter: the Croatians wanted
in future to keep the Protestants out of their country;
and their Deputies, who in society constantly spoke
Hungarian, demanded never to speak any language
but Latin in the public sessions. Moreover they did
not at that time strive as yet for the use of the
Croatian language, but for the maintenance of the
Latin: it was the last flicker of the conservatism
favoured by the court, which was naturally obliged very
soon to yield to a national movement.
Count Mailath was overthrown by intrigues: in his
place succeeded Count Apponyi-young, proud, and
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
CXXXV
obstinate, from want of experience yielding to Met-
ternich, attached to centralization, and on that
account opposed to the Archduke Joseph, who de-
fended the municipal institutions of Hungary. The
Archduke died after having been Palatine just fifty
years his son Stephen was appointed Statholder in
Hungary. Enthusiastically received by the nation, he
had the best intentions and desire to reconcile the interests
of his native country with those of his family. In No-
vember, 1847, he was elected Palatine. In the Diet, the
Opposition in the House of Representatives, under the
leadership of Kossuth obtained a majority: the Mag-
nates were almost equally divided, but the greatest
share of talent was evidently on the side of the Oppo-
sition, who were headed in the House of Magnates
by Count Louis Batthyanyi. A general reform of the
Hungarian Constitution was in progress: the immunity
from taxation enjoyed. by the nobles was abolished,
and the municipal institutions and representation of
the towns was in course of revision, when the news
arrived that the French Revolution had broken out, and
France had become a Republic.
FRANCIS PULSZKY.
MEMOIRS
OF A
HUNGARIAN LADY.
CHAPTER I.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF HUNGARY.
A VIENNESE by education, I knew very little
about Hungary, before I went there in the year
1845, for in my childhood I heard of it only in
the lessons I received in geography; if any trace
of it occurred in my historical studies, this was
so slight as not to strike the memory.
At school, where I spent ten years, there chanced
to be several Hungarian pupils; the other children
considered them proud, for they kept apart and
sometimes evaded the rule, which imposed the
French language on all of us, by addressing one
another in their native tongue. We listened with
mixed feelings of distrust and ridicule, as we
fancied that this strange dialect could not have
VOL. I.
B
1.
2
MEMOIRS OF
..
"
•;
any real meaning, and was only to be understood
by conventional signs, or some kind of intuitive
knowledge.
When I entered society I occasionally met Hun-
garians; but they were almost always ladies who
had been educated in Vienna, and gentlemen who
had resided there for years. They were distin-
guished by no peculiarity, unless perhaps the
latter by their mustachios, which they never gave
up, even in the time when the imperial Francis,
the grandfather of the present Emperor, prohibited
all kinds of beards to persons in civil office. The
Hungarians alone were privileged by Spanish eti-
quette itself to preserve that masculine appendage,
at all times and occasions.
We frequented several Hungarian families who
had their home in Vienna. Amongst them there
predominated more hospitality with less ostenta-
tious display, than existed in most houses where
company was received; their balls offered far more
amusement, the young men danced with gayer
spirits, conversed in a more agreeable manner, and
behaved with more courtesy to the young ladies
than the gentlemen in other drawing-rooms, who
generally considered that they were conferring a
great favour on their partners when they languidly
walked a quadrille.
I recollect, as a child, having seen the Hungarian
į
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
3
deputation who came to congratulate the Emperor
Francis on his having reached the fortieth anni-
versary of his reign, and likewise the Hungarian
noble guard, and the maids of honour who appeared
in full costume on the occasion of the marriage of
King Ferdinand V* with the Princess of Sardinia.
Afterwards, when I read the Thousand and One
Nights, the beautiful Hungarians in their brilliant
magnificence appeared to me to embody the gallant
Arabian champions, and splendid oriental dames.
At the annual festival on Corpus-Christi Day,†
the manly countenances of the Hungarian noble-
men, as they were proudly borne by their richly
caparisoned horses, might have been distinguished
at a considerable distance.
These radiant pictures soon passed from my
imagination. I seldom went to admire such sights,
and I may say, that for years my thoughts had
* The late Emperor, Ferdinand I. of Austria, King Ferdi-
nand V. in Hungary, had been crowned King of Hungary in
1830, during the lifetime of his father Francis. This had been
determined in Vienna as a matter of precaution, to prevent the
discussion of any other political subject under the European
influence of the revolution in France, which had happened some
weeks before the opening of the Diet at Presburg.
+ On this day the dazzling procession in Vienna is headed by
the Emperor and the Empress, who are followed by the Arch-
dukes and Archduchesses, by the dignitaries, the clergy, and the
garrison, all in full attire.
·
B 2
4
MEMOIRS OF
quite as little to do with Hungary as those of any
Viennese. Though but at a few hours' distance
from the frontier, that country very seldom formed
the topic of conversation in fashionable circles; and
when this chanced to happen, it was referred to in
no more definite terms than were applied to those
unknown Chinese realms, which are severed by in-
surmountable walls from the rest of the world.
It was not until the year 1845 that my attention
was particularly drawn towards Hungary, by fre-
quent discussions around me, which were then
carried on with uncommon vivacity. These contro-
versies, quite unusual in a drawing-room, were
called forth by polemic articles in the Augsburg
Gazette on the Védegylet, literally translated:
Association for Protection. I inquired from a
person who took an active part in the animated
conversation what that meant? and was answered,
“A ridiculous demonstration against Austria! The
Hungarians want to wear their own manufactures,
and as they fabricate as yet nothing but blue cotton
stuffs, the ladies attire themselves in such mate-
rials for parties, although they always before ap-
peared in Viennese velvet and silks.*
*Later I learnt the cause of this assertion. Some ladies of
the rich aristocracy had occasionally worn cotton dresses, when
´the silk manufactures which really existed in Hungary, could not
sufficiently supply the increasing demands for them.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
5
This seemed a strange fancy; but I could not
understand why it was mentioned in Vienna
with such passionate animosity, and considered a
crime.
I sought to solve this riddle, and read some of
the articles in question. The champion of the
Hungarians expressed himself with more calm
dignity than his adversary, who did not refrain
from personal attacks directed against his oppo-
nent.
From the whole I made out, that the aim of the
accused association was to compel the Austrian
Government by indirect means, as the direct ones
of reiterated remonstrance from the Diet had
failed, to alter the regulations of the tariff, which
were extremely prejudicial to Hungarian trade, as
they prevented the export of national productions
to Austria by the imposition of severe duties on
some, for example, on joiner's work 100 per cent,
and by the total proscription of others. In the
latter case was wrought iron, so that the inhabitants
of Galicia were obliged to get their scythes from
Styria, instead of buying them in their own neigh-
bourhood, in the county of Gömör, where quantities
of them were produced.
In direct contrast to this intolerance, the Aus-
trian manufactures were freely imported into the
kingdom of Hungary, where English and French
6
MEMOIRS OF
2.
:
¦
commodities had very little circulation, on account
of the high import duties put upon them.
The Hungarians claimed a fair application either
of the principles of free trade, or of those of pro-
tection; and protested against a system, which at
the same time stopped the foreign markets, and
was oppressive to national industry.
I understood nothing about political economy,
but this reasoning seemed no algebraic problem.
What I most wondered at, was to hear about
manufactures in Hungary; where I had been told,
that uncultivated plains spread in all directions of
this unpeopled land, in which only here and there
forlorn mortals wandered, covered with sheep's-
skin, where only single towns arose like oases in
the deserts;—a land of hidden treasures, jealously
kept by the fiend of barbarism, which the civilizing
German could redeem for mankind, only by
driving the Hungarians back to the borders of
the Theiss, the Mississippi of European civiliza-
tion.*
-
My curiosity was not less excited when a gen-
tleman asked my mother permission to introduce
the Hungarian writer of the above-mentioned
articles to our house; "But," said he, "you
*This is the assertion of the renowned German political eco-
→
nomist, F. List.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
must excuse the very coarse cloth of my pas-
sionately rigid Magyar." Can there be a Hun-
garian, thought I, who writes German so well,
and is so fanatic! He cannot be young to have
acquired so perfect a style, in a language not his
own, and he must be very whimsical to retain such
extravagant fancies.
The portrait of the individual I sketched was of
course elderly, haggard, yellow, and, with his patriotic
costume, very bear-like indeed. I found it bore
no resemblance to the youthful, fresh-complexioned
original, who soon afterwards appeared before me
in a black evening dress, as civilized as any
disciple of French fashion. Some months subse-
quently this gentleman became my husband.
In spite of the brighter colours with which my
feelings depicted the country that soon was to be
my home, I had viewed it but in the vague twilight
of distant acquaintanceship; and was hence de-
lighted and astonished when crossing its threshold,
it burst upon me in the unexpected magnificence of
its radiant morning.
Probably but few of my readers are unac-
quainted with the Rhine from Düsseldorf to
Mayence. There is no traveller who does not gladly
remember the beautiful German river, fringed by
hills richly covered with green vines, and grey
remnants of ancient castles, and by gay little
8
MEMOIRS OF
ما
towns with sombre gothic cathedrals.. A pecu-
liar charm of poetry illustrates these river banks,
and every poet, whose way leads through these
scenes, is anxious to add a fresh laurel to the
glorious wreath of the Rhine.
So much is the Rhine celebrated; yet but little
attention granted to the Danube, which from the
heights of Passau down to the plains of Hungary is
still more romantic and varied with splendid scenery
than the favourite of tourists. But the poetry and
romance that form the main attractions of the
feudal ruins of the Rhine-land, and engrave their
memories so deeply in our minds, are, in the
countries of the grandest stream in Europe, buried
in dead silence.
:
Poets have not yet attempted to stir the trea-
sures of historical recollections, which repose in
the waves that wind their course from Donau-
Eschingen to the Black Sea. The straitening
cords with which Austrian censorship pinions
the wings of genius, [to disable it from flight,]
prevent the free movements of the poet and
the historian. The Rhine re-echoes with innu-
merable lays; the Danube resounds with no such
melodies.
More than once I had followed the course of this
river, from Ratisbonne to Vienna, and had been
highly pleased with the surrounding garlands of
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
9
dark pines, varied by the cheerful beech and grace-
ful vine. The sumptuous and venerable Dome of
Ratisbonne, the Walhalla, a monument of modern
eccentricity; the shattered Castle of Dürrenstein,
where the imprisoned Richard Coeur de Lion re-
cognized the voice of his minstrel, Blondell,-the
princely monasteries of Mölk and Göttwei,-the
boisterous boiling of the waves of the Danube break-
ing there, through and over invisible rocks, called
the Strudel and Wirbl, the attractive town of Linz;
all these formed in my mind, a wonderful picture
illustrative of the Lay of the Nibelungen, the
latter part of which refers to this very scenery.
But on the other side of Vienna I thought
every interest was exhausted, and every beauty
effaced. When the vision of Hungary rose, it
always was the fertile, treeless, untracked, un-
civilized plain, through which the Danube streamed,
like the Volga through the Asiatic wastes. What
was, therefore, my astonishment, when, swiftly
carried by the steamboat from Vienna to Pest, we
hardly had time to mark all the traces of events
connected with the borders, which so transiently
passed our eyes.
My husband, who, in common with most
Hungarians, had passionately studied history,
was far better acquainted with the banks of the
Danube than were the fashionables of Vienna, for
.
B 3
10
MEMOIRS OF
whom, according to the Austrian system of edu-
cation, the book of history was closed.
After the Praterau (meadows of the Prater),
which is the finest park in Vienna-had disap-
peared from our glance, my husband called my
attention to Kaiserebersdorf, a village, once the
head-quarters of the Hungarian King Matthias Cor-
vinus, during his expedition against Austria, when
he took Vienna, and made it for several years the
capital of his realm. Later, in 1809, it became
the head-quarters of the Emperor Napoleon, pre-
viously to the eventful battles of Aspern and
Wagram, in which the honour of the day was due
to the Hungarian regiments.
Who could then have believed that, after a few
years, but one English mile from this spot, near
the villages of Mannswörth and Schwechat, the
steeples of which we could perceive, Austrians
would be sent to fight against Hungarians!
Farther down, in the borough of Petronell, Count
Traun's stately castle stands in the midst of his
park. This was once the site of the Roman Car-
nuntum, one of the main stations of the Roman
fleet on the Danube, a post important to keep the
Markomans in check, and a favourite abode of the
philosophical Emperor Marcus Aurelius. On the
column of Antoninus in Rome, we still see this
Roman plantation represented with remarkable
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
11
colonnades extending to the river's margin, with
temples and warm baths; and above them the
theatre, and the stream enlivened by vessels.
But the Roman chefs-d'œuvre are destroyed.
One highly vaulted arch, popularly designated as the
Heidenthor (the gate of the Heathens), and several
single anticaglias of bronze, discovered sometimes
by the plough, are the only remnants of ancient
splendour. Save the passing of the daily steam-
boat, the river is forlorn, owing to the Austro-
Hungarian custom-line, which some miles lower
down, stops every attempt at commercial inter-
course on the Danube, between the frontiers of
Austria and Hungary. No vessel coming from
Hungary, not even the steamboat, is permitted to
land passengers in any places, except Hainburg or
Vienna, where the custom-houses are. When
Count Traun travels home from his estates in
Hungary, he may not descend from the steamboat
to his castle, but is obliged to go by land, or to
submit to the circuit by Vienna.
At a small distance from Petronell, a high
tumulus reminds the traveller of the mighty do-
minion of the Huns and their King Attila, whom
the modern writers treat merely as a destructive
Asiatic chief, though tradition, from the remotest
north throughout all German nations, invests him
with the noblest generosity and the most praise-
12
MEMOIRS OF
•
worthy forbearance, as well as with that in-
vincible bravery which the French and Italians
ascribe to Charlemagne, and the Welsh to King
Arthur.
Doubtless, Attila is the father of telegraphic
communication in Europe. From both his resi-
dences, from his moveable tent on the Theiss and
the imposing Etzelburg; Acquincum in bygone
ages, now Bude on the Danube ;) he had placed in
all directions, as far as his sway extended, watchful
guards, who communicated with one another by
signs, and thus conveyed tidings with the utmost
celerity, to Attila's residence. The tumulus, near
Petronell, is one of these observatories mentioned
by annalists.
Farther down, on a steep ascent raised over the
Danube, we see the ruin of the Castle of Hainburg,
once the Austrian border-fortress against Hungary;
and on the opposite side on the perpendicular rock,
under which the March disembogues into the
Danube, we behold the shattered remnants of the
hill-fort of Theben, the border-fortress of Hungary.
The ruin of the Castle of Hainburg, forms at
present the park of an estate, which twenty years
ago belonged to Countess Lipona, the unfortunate
Queen Caroline, well known as the widow of
Murat, the chivalrous and ill-fated King of
Naples.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
13
Close to the Danube stands the small manu-
facturing town of Hainburg. Its middle-age
feudal walls now serve as barriers against
smuggling, Hainburg being the largest establish-
ment of the Austrian Treasury's tobacco fabrication,
where the Hungarian leaf is artificially prepared for
the consumption of the imperial provinces. It is
macerated so as to receive a particularly dis-
agreeable smell, by which it infallibly may be
distinguished from the unspoiled tobacco; so
that through the whole empire every custom-
house officer, blessed with a keen sense of
smell, may directly detect those who venture to
smoke contraband tobacco, and is thus enabled
to apprehend the culprits, if they should not
happen to justify themselves by means of a few
shillings.
The stronghold of Dévény (Theben) was far more
picturesque previously to 1809, when the greatest
part of this fine ruin was wantonly blown up by the
French. A little octangular tower, on the extreme
pitch of the rock, however, was spared, and grace-
fully decorates the brilliant landscape.
.
According to tradition, Dévény was, in the times
of the Slavonic King Swatopluk, (before the Hun-
garians possessed the country,) the palace of his
daughter Devojna, who dwelt there as one of a band
of Amazon virgins, and who, when forced to marriage
14
MEMOIRS OF
··
by the will of her father, threw herself from the
tower into a watery grave.*
In the period of the religious wars in Hungary,
Botskay, the leader of the Protestants, had occupied
Dévény in 1606; and when the Austrians, under
cover of night, sent to Posony (Pressburg) a small
fleet with troops, it was set on fire from the height
of Theben. The imperial army found its grave in the
waves, and instead of numerous forces, the deserted
flaming ships testified that King Rodolf's attempt
to raise his banner over the March had failed.
About four English miles from these, on the
right bank of the Danube, rests the decaying tower
of Wolfsthal, where Ferdinand of Austria was
welcomed by the solemn deputation of the party
that elected him King of Hungary, A. D. 1526, and
received from him the sacred promise, to uphold
the constitution and the rights of the kingdom.
Mountains drawn in soft lines, and covered
with woods and vineyards, present themselves to the
view between Theben and Pressburg, which extends
from the descents of the Schlossberg to the levels
of the Danube. The town has no classical style
of architecture to boast of; but the romantic at-
tractions of its situation and its neighbourhood
claim attention, as well as the historical remi-
* Amazon Princesses are a peculiar feature of Slavonic tradi-
tion,-Libussa, Wanda, Wlasta, Devojna.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
15
niscences with which it is connected. It is the
town where the sovereigns of Hungary are crowned,
-where the King, coming with the festival pro-
cession from the coronation, swears to the Constitu-
tion in the market-place, in the face of Heaven and
in the presence of the assembled Diet and the people.
On the outskirts of the town is the petty ar-
tificial elevation in sight of the Danube, where the
King on horseback swings the sword of St. Stephen
towards the four regions, thus to express sym-
bolically, that he would for ever defend the
integrity of the country from whatever side it
might be attacked. At Pressburg too the Diet
used to meet. There, likewise happened the remark-
able incident so illustrative of Hungarian loyalty,
when Marie Therese in September, 1741, pressed
by the greater part of Europe, turned to Hungary
for protection.
ܝ
The Bavarians were already in Linz,-the Prus-
sians in Silesia,-Prague, the capital of Bohemia,
just about to join the enemy,—when the youthful
Queen betook herself to the assembled repre-
sentatives, described her position with deep elo-
quence, and spoke her full conviction that her
*
* The Queen spoke Latin. From the remotest periods to
the year 1836, both the Latin and the Hungarian tongues were
used by the representatives. It was during the diets of 1796,
1802, 1807, and 1811, that in courtesy to the Palatine Archduke
Joseph, whose knowledge of Hungarian was imperfect, the house
16
MEMOIRS OF
safety rested on the fidelity and gallantry of the
Hungarians.
Amongst the assembled peers and deputies were
several who, under Rákóczy, had fought against
the House of Austria, besides a considerable number
of sons and grandsons of patriots who had been
persecuted in the times of the cruel Leopold I.
At this moment, however, every one forgot past
wrongs, and all exclaimed unanimously: "Our life
and blood for our Queen Marie Therese !"
Universal Hungary rose in arms, and met the
enemy.
This grand scene of valiant enthusiasm so highly
gratified her Majesty, that she regretted her
princely consort had not been a witness to it,
and therefore, it was to be exhibited again in
presence of the Archduke Francis and the foreign
ambassadors. To give a sufficient cause for this
repetition, the Queen took in her arms her infant
son, the Archduke Joseph, and commended him
to the assembled diet. Once more the "vitam
et sanguinem" thundered through the hall, but
it was no more the first burst of feeling-it was
a political performance got up for the occasion.
of peers spoke Latin. In 1836, the law decided that henceforth
the Hungarian should be the language of the diet, granting an
exception only to the Croatian Deputies who continued to speak
Latin. In 1844 the law decreed, that in the diet the Croatian
members should likewise use the Hungarian tongue, but should
be allowed six years more to learn it.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
17
The Queen's Hungarian troops and generals
saved the throne for her and for her successor,—the
infant she had commended to the diet; but after
he possessed the imperial diadem, his policy aimed
to destroy the Hungarian constitution, and to en-
force a central Austria. Therefore in Hungary a
feeling of bitterness is connected with the memory
of the grand scene of 1741, from this ungrateful
requital of Joseph II.
Below Pressburg, the borders of the Danube
exhibit a considerable depression; on both sides
the small Hungarian plain is visible, with fertile
pasture-grounds and arable land, frequently inter-
sected by branches of the mighty river.
Proceeding for several hours, we distinguished
in the distance on the Szent Marton, Mons Pannoniæ,
the Benedictine Abbey, founded by St. Stephen;
in the Middle Ages the centre of theological learn-
ing in Hungary.
Hence it was that Arpád, the Duke of the
nomadic Hungarians, after he had conquered Sva-
topluk, surveyed the whole country and found the
wide plain, commanded by the mountain so
agreeable, the pasture so rich, and the water of
the Danube so sapid, that he resolved to settle
here, and to prepare a new dominion. In re-
membrance of this, the mountain is still named
Mons Pannoniæ.
In the abbey church, the marble seat of the
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--
.
18
MEMOIRS OF
King of Hungary, St. Stephen, is still shown,
and the people ascribe to it wonderful sanative
powers. On the 20th of August, a multitude
of catholic pilgrims meet there, and after having
confessed and heard mass, they succeed one
another in the seat, in the firm conviction that
by this they shall be healed of rheumatism and
sciatica. Sometimes the procession is so numerous,
that more than one of the patients must wait
two or three days, till his turn comes to enjoy
the red marble seat.
We rapidly passed the town and the fortress of
Komárom (Komorn). Its low position does not in
the least convey the notion of its being impregnable.
Never has this fortress been subdued by arms, and
full in sight stands on its wall, on the west side,
the statue of a virgin clenching her hand to the foe,
in contemptuous defiance.
On the left bank we soon reached Zsitvatorok.
There, under the reign of Leopold I., the first
favourable treaty of peace was made with the
Turks. On the right lie the vineyards of Almás
and Neszmély. In this latter place, known by
its excellent vines, died King Albrecht, the first
Archduke of Austria, who by his marriage with
the Queen Elizabeth, 1337,* received the crown
of Hungary. He could not accustom himself to
* Elizabeth was the daughter of Sigismund, King of Hungary
and Bohemia, and Emperor of Germany.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
19
the Hungarian climate, and died of an indigestion,
caused by his intemperate partiality for water-
melons. It seems that the Austrian Princes, up to
our days, dread this fate of their ancestor; for,
regardless of the pledge reiterated by all the sove-
reigns of Hungary to spend a part of every year
in the kingdom, not a single one of them has
kept that promise for these last three hundred
years.
The Vértes Mountains (Shield Mountains) touched
our horizon. In their neighbourhood, the Hun-
garians so severely routed the troops of the German
Emperor, Henry III., that these, flying into the
mountains, threw away their shields to facilitate
their speedy escape, and it is to this incident the
Shield Mountains owe their appellation.*
Below Neszmély begin the extensive quarries
of red marble, on the margins of the Danube.
In the village of Piszke every door-post, every
threshold is marble; but this does not prevent the
place retaining a wretchedly poor aspect.
Soon again the banks become elevated, and from
a steep height the newly-erected cathedral of Eszter-
gom (Gran) commands the view of the surrounding
* This event took place in the year 1050, when the Emperor
wanted to constrain the Hungarians to accept St. Stephen's
nephew, Peter, (called the Germans) as their king, and to yield
Hungary as a fief to the German Empire.
20
MEMOIRS OF
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country. It is an immense building, in which the
whole population of the small town of Gran might
comfortably reside, and a stupendous cupola crowns
the whole. The structure of this, the largest of
all Hungarian churches, is a perfectly original one,
which may a good deal puzzle the student of the
history of art. On the whole expanse of the globe,
there are but two monuments of architecture that
belong to the same style-the National Gallery
in Trafalgar Square, and the pointed steeple at
the end of Regent Street. Possibly this is a
particular Sclavonic specimen of a future art, but
certainly the founder of the Cathedral of Gran,
the Prince Primate, Alexander Rudnay, has not
furnished the world with a specimen of classical
discernment.
According to the original plan, a splendid palace
for the Archbishop and a seminary should have
been added to this ungracefully fantastic temple,
and on each side should have been ranged resi-
dences for twenty-four canons; but the enormous
revenues of the archbishopric did not suffice even
for the achievement of the dome. Judging from
this, as well as from the effects of recent com-
motions, little chance remains of our seeing this
primitive conception completed, and the admirers
of the beautiful, who travel down the Danube, will
be spared further mortification. It must, however,
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
21
→
!
in justice be admitted, that from a convenient
distance, the cupola, with the golden cross glittering
in the boundless space, has a good effect.
Close to Gran, St. Stephen in the year 1000,
conquered the Duke of Sümegh Kupa, the chief of
those Hungarians, who, in fight with Christianity
and royalty, wielded their swords in defence of
their inherited heathen faith, and their ancient
institutions. St. Stephen's triumph made the
Hungarians a European people, and incorporated
them into the family of nations united in Western
civilization.
Previously to the battle, the king was girded as
a knight, in observance of the customs of the
west, by the leader of his army, the German
Knight Wencelin, of Wasserburg. It was not only
Christianity, but with it feelings of chivalrous
honour, and ideas of Western civilization which
St. Stephen adopted, in contrast to the Russians,
who accepted indeed Christianity, but remained
strangers to the notions of European honour, to
zeal in the research after truth, and to the
struggle for not material possessions only, but
moral interests.
The bridges of boats form a peculiar feature in
the country of the Danube. At Pressburg, Komorn
and Gran we see such bridges the only means of
communication between the opposite banks, for
I
22
MEMOIRS OF
nine months of the year. During three months,
one may walk over the ice, or when the frost is
not hard, try one's fortune, by tottering on un-
certain boats through flakes of ice.
The majestic stream did not pass under any
yoke from Vienna down to the sea; Trajan's
Bridge, on the Servian frontier, could not resist
the wild impetuosity of the waves. Recently, the
Hungarian spirit of enterprise, assisted by English
ability and German capital, joined Bude to Pest by
the erection of the suspension-bridge, a wonderful
masterpiece, which comprehends the largest width
ever compassed by an arch.
From Gran to Pest the landscape around is
radiant with beauty.
Trachyt cones, overgrown with bushes, rise to a
considerable height perpendicularly over the surface
of the waters, which struggle in manifold windings
through their bed, straitened by the mountains,
and lead with every change of direction to a
newly striking view. Sometimes we behold the
stream enframed with a mountain scenery; at other
times our eyes may follow its course to a long
distance; the mountains recede and give way to
expanded dales.
The finest ornament, however, of these parts, are
the ruins of the Castle of Vissegrad. Like Theben,
it is one of those fortified places built by the
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
23
Slavonians before the Hungarians came into the
country.
In the first epoch of our kings descended from
Arpád, Vissegrád is only known, as the prison of
King Solomon, a frivolous tyrant, detained by his
illustrious cousin, St. Ladislas. Tradition says, that
the King, from above the tower where he was
secluded, cursed the people that had forsaken him,
and gave them up to eternal discord.
But in the 14th century, under the reign of
the brilliant Anjous, Vissegrád was the royal resi-
dence. The soil at present sterile, which from the
summit of the rock, extends downwards, was in
those days a blooming garden. On the
On the upper flat
of the height magnificent tournaments were held;
and the now silent ruins were the abode of the most
exalted monarch of his period. Louis of Anjou,
was King of Poland and Hungary, Sovereign of
the Principalities of the Danube, ruler and suze-
rain of Naples; his dominion spread from the
Baltic to the Adriatic and the Black Sea; his
influence to the Strait of Messina.
At the Court of Charles Robert, the first of the
*
* Charles Robert's father, was Charles Martell, the friend
of Dante, immortalized by this stern poet of eternity in the
Paradiso, under the name of the King of Hungary, although he
was only a pretender to this crown, and never received it in
reality.
24
MEMOIRS OF
Anjous, who bore the sceptre of Hungary, Visse-
grád was the scene of a dreadful tragedy. Clara,
maid of honour to the Queen and daughter of
Felician Zach, one of the most influential Barons
and high dignitaries of the realm, fell a victim to
the profligacy of Casimir, Prince of Poland, brother
of the Queen, who, blinded by affection for her
relative, was an accomplice to this atrocious crime.
When Felician became aware of the terrible
truth, he hurried into the royal hall, to avenge
with blood the honour of his daughter; but
Casimir had already fled; the Queen was alone at
her banquet, with her little son on her knees.
Felician rushed towards her with his sword; she
had instinctively lifted up her arm to protect the
child against the blow; thus her head escaped, but
her hand was mutilated. The Prince's tutor,
Poháros of Kapivár, "the hero of the goblet"
(probably a surname) disarmed the raving father.
Charles Robert punished this act of despair in
the most horrid manner. Felician was cruelly
executed; the unhappy Clara, with all her relatives
to the fourth degree, were also dragged to the
slaughter; and the remaining members of the
family of Zach were robbed of their estates, and
exiled from the land of their ancestors.
The Diet was assembled and called upon to
confirm this punishment; but in spite of the formal
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
25
す
​sanction, given to these horrors, the beautiful
Clara still survives in the memory of the people
as the innocent victim of the vindictiveness of
Charles Robert, whose wise commercial regulations,
no less than his active solicitude for the welfare
of the community are, in Hungary, now only re-
membered by the historian.
Certainly there is no error in the observation of
a German poet-that the recollection of alarm
and cruelty lasts much longer than the remem-
brance of benefits; the tree retains the name that
has been engraved with sharp iron in its stem, but
does not tell the name of him who has planted and
watched it with tender care.
At every step which we advance towards the
capital of the country,-the united towns of Bude
and Pest-recollections multiply, which lead us back
to the era of the Turks,-of the civil wars,-with the
cruelties and devastations committed in Hungary by
German generals, and their cowardice in the Turkish
battles. Prince Eugene of Savoy, Prince Charles
of Lorraine, Schwarzenberg (the ancestor of the
present Austrian minister), and the Margrave of
Baden, are the only illustrious exceptions to the
above-mentioned ravagers.
Close to the metropolis, we again find mighty
remains of Roman genius in the aqueducts of Acquin-
cum, which likewise formed a station of the Roman
VOL. I.
C
26
MEMOIRS OF
t
fleet, on the Danube. It was situated at one English
mile above the present dock-yard, belonging to the
Danube Steam-boat Association. In former ages,
Attila's castle stood there, highly renowned in the
tales of the North as the scene of the last catastrophe
in the Nibelungenlied-lay of the Niebelungen—
the most primitive and powerful epic of Teutonic
genius.
The dragon's conqueror, Siegfried, King of Bur-
gundy, who, like the Greek Achilles, is invulnerable,
except at one particular spot of his body, is mur-
dered on the Rhine, by the command of his brother-
in-law; and his incalculable treasure, to which a
curse is attached, is plunged into the waves. His
widow, the beautiful Krimhild, then marries Attila,
and asks her brother to a festival on the Danube.
They come down to the Etzelburg, where, during
the royal banquet, at Krimhild's instigation, a
contest arises; Attila's brother, Blödel, is killed, the
Princes of the Rhine and their retinue are attacked;
they defend themselves heroically, and all perish at
last under the ruins of the hall, then being con-
sumed by flames; but Krimhild, who jeers one of
the dying men (the murderer of Siegfried) likewise
falls by his hand.
This is Krimhild's dreadful vengeance; a tradi-
tion which we meet under various shapes, through-
out all the German races, from Iceland to the Alps.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
27
.
But in Hungary every trace of this tale is effaced,
or may be has never existed. The Hungarian Attila
is totally different from the Etzel of northern tales;
yet there is no doubt that both historical traditions.
spring from the same root.
At a small distance from the height on which the
Etzelburg stood, and where at present we see the
military hospital Kleinzell, a rivulet disembogues
into the Danube; there, in the dale, according to
the chronicler, is the burying-place of Arpád, the
first of the Hungarian Dukes, who had reared his
tent, as the nomades used to do, on the isle of Csepel,
where his horses grazed.
The situation of the united towns of Bude and
Pesth, opposite to each other, on both banks of the
wide stream, is one of the most picturesque
imaginable.
On the interminable sand-plain, to the left, we
see the busy mercantile Pest, spreading daily in
every direction. Elegant palaces form a border to the
Danube; but the lack of steeples and buildings of
the Middle Age is characteristic. It is a wholly
modern, not a monumental town. The other side
is commanded from the summit of a steep ascent,
by the fortress-town of Bude, with several irregular
streets and many churches, which cause it to pre-
sent a striking contrast to its successful rival and
neighbour.
c 2
28
MEMOIRS OF
The fortress-height is surrounded by other hills,
below which rest quietly the more modest parts
of the city, overlooked by villas and gardens—
the summer abodes of the wealthier citizens of
Pesth.
We get a view of Vissegrád, where was the seat
of the brilliant Anjous; next we behold Bude,
resplendent once, in the glory of Matthias Corvinus.
His court in the latter end of the fifteenth century,
greatly outshone all other royal residences in
Europe. Heroes and scholars were honoured with
particular distinction by the King, who corres-
ponded with the pride of Italian learning, and for
years granted his hospitality to Martius Galeotti,
remembered by the English reader as the astrologer
in Sir Walter Scott's "Quentin Durward." This man
was highly prized at the Hungarian court; not as
in France at a subsequent period, for his astrological
pretensions, but for his profound knowledge of the
Roman classics. He bitterly regretted having
exchanged Bude for the dreary atmosphere of the
Galeotti's work,
sternly superstitious Louis XI.
"De Dictis Gestisque Matthiæ" is a rich mine of
character, drawn from the romantic life of the great
Hungarian sovereign.
The whole of Europe recognized in him the
most powerful support and guardian of Chris-
tianity against the Mohammedans, and his western
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
29
neighbours, Podiebrad of Bohemia, and the
German Emperor, Frederic of Austria, who expe-
rienced the ill consequence of offending the King
of Hungary.
In the history of that realm, the sandy plain
around Pest, designated as the Rákos, is of the
most critical importance. For centuries it was the
habitual place of meeting of the Diet; the lower
nobility and the representatives of the towns
encamped there in tents; whilst the high nobility
deliberated with the monarch in the Castle of
Bude. With these localities innumerable tales are
naturally connected; but there are especially two
of them that are ever alive in the memory of the
people the execution of Ladislas Hunyady, and the
election to royalty of his brother Matthias.
:
John Hunyady, the very eminent Governor of
Hungary, during the minority of Ladislas Posthu-
mus (son of Albrecht of Austria, who died at
Neszmély), fell in the glory of victory, a few weeks
after he had relieved Belgrád, the border-fortress
of the kingdom, which had been besieged by the
Turks. His son Ladislas, a youth of twenty-four
years, remained in possession of the fortress.
This important place in the hands of the most
popular man of the country, who in spite of his
youth, had by his exploits already highly distin-
guished himself, was viewed with a jealous eye
30
MEMOIRS OF
by the King, who sought to gain possession of it
by artifice. To receive it personally from Hunyady,
he went there, accompanied by German troops, but
when he and his retinue had passed over the draw-
bridge, this was drawn up, and the German soldiers
were refused admission, in accordance with the
ancient custom, which forbade a border-fortress
to be occupied by a foreign garrison. The King
saw that Hunyady was perfectly safe in the midst
of his warriors, and therefore resolved to get rid of
him by assassination.
Owing to this, Ullrich, Count of Cilly, the
Sovereign's councillor, and his uncle by the mo-
ther's side, began an angry discussion with Ladislas
Hunyady, and as if overpowered by passion at-
tempted to strike him down. But a golden ring
on the young hero's little finger averted the blow,
and Count Ullrich was killed by Hunyady's friends,
who hastened to his rescue. Ladislas himself di-
rectly went to the King, communicated the fatal
tidings, and entreated forgiveness, which was
granted with gracious semblance; Hunyady's mo-
ther, however, the widow of the lofty governor,
knew but too well the monarch's inherited cha-
racter, and did not rest until, in sacred token of
sincere pardon, he had received the sacrament, and
divided the consecrated wafer with her son.
After several days, during which splendid tourna-
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
31
ments had celebrated the presence of the royal
visitor, he returned to Bude, where he was soon fol-
lowed by Ladislas Hunyady, who, in compliance with
the King's desire, was to be married to Mary, the
lovely daughter of the Palatine Gara-thus to end
the inveterate feud between the two mightiest fami-
lies of the country, the Hunyadys and the Garas,
who were the Hungarian Montagues and Capulets.
Magnificent festivals were to precede this mar-
riage, and both the sons of the deeeased governor
appeared at Bude, contrary to the express wish,
specially mentioned in the last will of their father,
(who was conscious that his name and popularity
would prove too dangerous a heritage), that they
should never stay together at one place.
They had hardly entered Bude with their atten-
dants, when they were arrested, by the King's
order. Matthias, the younger brother, escaped from
prison by the help of his friends, and was brought
to Bohemia to Podiebrad, who held there the same
position, which had been occupied in Hungary by
the great Hunyady; but Ladislas was, without
trial, doomed to death.
Clad in bridal garments he marched to the place
of St. George, where he was to be executed; and so
overpowering was the consternation, and the sym-
pathy for the young hero, that even the execu-
tioner's steady hand trembled, and after aiming
32
MEMOIRS OF
:
1
three blows he was still unable to sever the head
from the trunk. Ladislas concentrated his remain-
ing strength, and said, "In accordance with my
country's customs I am free. After the third
stroke, the executioner has no power over me."
The assembled people crowded to accompany him
home in triumph, but exhausted by the loss of
blood, the unfortunate youth slipped, wrapped
himself in his purple cloak, and fell to the ground,
where the cruel man, whose arm had trembled on
the scaffold, presently dispatched him.
A few months afterwards, the King died suddenly
at Prague, on the eve of the day, on which he was
to be united to a French Princess. It was the
popular belief that he had been poisoned by his
mistress, the jealous Agnes, who divided an apple
with him, cut with a knife poisoned on one side.
The throne of Hungary was vacant, and the
people met on the Rákos to elect anew their royal
liege. The high dignitaries of the realm assembled
at Bude, and the intrigues for the interests of the
neighbouring princes were zealously managed; but
a sudden frost unexpectedly restored the communi-
cation between the two banks of the Danube ;
Hunyady's adherents, forty thousand in number,
led by Szilágyi, Matthias's uncle, encamped on the
ice of the river, and when their cry of "Hurrah
for King Matthias" reached the walls of Bude, the
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
33
Barons thought it best to accede the crown to John
Hunyady's still minor son. A deputation was sent
to Bohemia to receive the youthful King; Podie-
brad, however, did not allow the departure of
Matthias, aged but fourteen, before he had seen
the princely boy married to his daughter Kunigund,
in Hungary afterwards called Catherine.
The romantic history of King Matthias can find
no place in these pages.
He became and remained
the most popular of all Hungarian Kings; and, to
the present day, the people, when pressed by
injustice, exclaim: "King Matthias is dead, and
justice with him.”
I have delayed longer on the passage from Vienna
to Pesth than may perhaps seem necessary, unless
that journey should prove gratifying to any one
acquainted with the historical soil over which I
passed. It was full of joyful interest to me, as my
first introduction to my new fatherland, in which I
have spent several years of most perfect felicity ;
and I involuntarily look back to it with all the
regret of a reluctant farewell.
c 3
34
MEMOIRS OF
•
CHAPTER II.
CASTLE SZÉCSÉNY.
THE manor, where we habitually resided, was
sixty English miles from Pest. Its castle was
situated in a fertile valley, varied by gentle slopes,
and commanded the whole country round, that
seemed to belong to the park; which was, in fact,
separated only by a deep rivulet from the adjoining
pastures, that were enlivened with groups of
cattle and extended to the borders of Ipoly (Eipel).
The river just named was crowned by a semicircle
of eight villages, whose steeples gave friendly
greeting from afar. In the back-ground arose
dark mountains, of volcanic formation, marked on
the horizon by noble outlines, in fine contrast to
the verdant dale and the gentle hills, which were
covered with golden crops and luxuriant vines.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
35.
This lovely picture impressed the eye as a
parental blessing impresses the heart; it was impos-
sible to resist its mildly exalting influence. The castle
of Szécsény, raised on the ruins of the ancient fortress
of that name, was a stately building, of the 18th
century, and stood out boldly on a terrace, shaded
by large groups of lemon-trees and roses; from
whence, by two divergent flights of steps, was the
descent into the park. We found the castle and its
dependencies and, in fact, the whole estate, which
we had only acquired in 1846-very much ne-
glected; but the chief ornament of the park, the
venerable centenary trees, elms, poplars, beeches,
oaks, and pines, still maintained their ancient
dignity, and their very shadows softly covered the
inequalities of the marshy soil around. As these
aged trees survived, we had no great difficulty in
restoring the park, in a comparatively short time,
to all its former grandeur.*
* Had the previous proprietor of the park listened to the advice
of some of his friends, who thought he should have felled the
timber, it would doubtless have been impossible to repair the da-
mage. So it seems to me, when in modern states the vigorous stems
of an ancient aristocracy are still found to exist, the true politician
will take care to preserve them. The boughs may be easily pruned,
which obstruct the open view or impede the growth of lower
trees, but when the trunks are once felled, no wisdom can create
them anew.
This we see in France and Germany. Nevertheless,
36
MEMOIRS OF
-
A cool ascent, sheltered by densely interlaced
branches, led to the entrance of a small flower-
garden, in the fragrance of which our children
frequently enjoyed themselves, vying in the fresh-
ness of health with the blossoms around.
In this attractive spot stood an elegant con-
servatory, which united the modern castle to an
old tower; one of the remnants of the ancient
stronghold occupied there by the Turks in the seven-
teenth century. Three such towers had outlasted
the ruined walls. This one had been used by
the Moslems for the performance of their reli-
gious rites, and, by its circular structure, was well
adapted to the purpose. The light falls through a
window, which opens on the magnificent landscape
without; itself an eloquent prayer of nature.
In later times that miniature mosque was con-
sidered a pleasurable retreat. We consecrated it as
a Protestant Chapel, the only one in our borough ;
for the majority of its Hungarian population was
Catholic. But on the other side of the Ipoly, there
was a Slovak colony of Protestants, who were
We
-
with such examples before their eyes, despotism and bureaucracy
are at this very moment destroying in Hungary and Sicily a
vigorous national aristocracy, under pretext of re-establishing
order, whilst in fact, they are sowing the seeds of fresh and more
terrible revolutions.
"
*
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
37
!
settled in several villages; and it was from these
that most of the people came to attend our
service.
The second tower, at the extreme end of the
park,—decorated less picturesquely than the first,
with garlands of ivy, not frequently seen in Hun-
gary, had a very different destination. It had
been the jail, where used to be confined the pri-
soners of those feudal lords, whose manorial courts
were endowed even with criminal jurisdiction. We
did not prize this privilege; and therefore, as soon
as we possessed it, surrendered it into the hands
of the County Authorities, who could detain the
culprits in the extensive establishment, (on the
principle of solitary confinement,) which the nobility
of the County had erected by voluntary contribu-
tions. To us it was a great comfort to be able
to dispense with the painful duty of sending the
transgressors of the law into our dismal dun-
geon; and we thought it much better employed as
the cellar of the poor family to whom I gave, as
an abode, the upper part of the tower, which had
been the residence of the turnkey.
The third remaining tower of the ancient fortress
was turned into a granary. It had a Middle Age
aspect, and its firm, stout walls were better adapted
for preserving the grain from damp, than the dry,
38
MEMOIRS OF
but less solid, buildings, of greater size, designed
for that purpose.
The tower, in which on holydays more than a
hundred people joined in our worship, could be
easily ascended to its very summit. There, protected
by a gallery, we could view with pleasure the wide
plains on which John Sobiesky had appeared as
a chivalrous deliverer of Austria, in the year
1686.
The castle of Szécsény had been one of those
strongholds which often lay within the circle of
contest, at the time of the Turkish wars; passing
and repassing from the hands of the unbelievers
into the possession of the Hungarians.
When Sobiesky, after his victorious relief of
Vienna, returned through Hungary, to Poland,
after several engagements, he reached the neigh-
bourhood of Szécsény, then occupied by the Turks.
The rightful proprietor was a young widow, the
Countess Forgács; who, confiding in the well-
known character of the heroic Pole, wrote a letter
to him, entreating, that on his way he would
expel the intruders from her heritage; and, as
the protector of widows and orphans, restore it
to her. This request was so perfectly adapted to
Sobiesky's romantic turn of mind, that without
delay he hastened with his army to Szécsény,
1
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
39
stormed the castle, took it after a determined resis-
tance, and restored it to its lawful owner.
To celebrate this feat, and to confer honour on
the chivalrous Prince, the young widow gave a ban-
quet and a ball in halls already half destroyed by
fiery showers. The bloody day was closed by a night
of festive gaiety, and the next morning awoke, no
longer with the roar of cannon, but with blessings
of the thousands who escorted the King on his
homeward road.
From our principal eminence we distinguish two
high-roads, one to the west, the other to the north-
east, each conducting to a considerable market-town,
of which the former is Balassa-Gyarmath, the seat of
the County-courts; the other Losoncz: neither is
at any great distance from the estate. This proved
most useful as regards the sale of the produce,
especially as Losoncz is much frequented by pur-
chasers from the mining districts-(that neighbour-
hood being the California of Hungary, and pro-
ducing considerable quantities of gold and silver)—
and from several of the northern parts of the
country, which are deficient in corn-a crop abun-
dant with us.
Behind the walls of the flower-garden rose a
well-proportioned monastery. Its exterior con-
veyed the impression of much more comfort than
could be expected from the abode of mendicant
40
MEMOIRS OF
friars, such as the Franciscans. Before the reign
of Joseph II. monastic orders were much more
numerous in Hungary. That sovereign, however,
abolished them, and confiscated their property. In
our days we find there, as the most predominant
conventual communities, Benedictines, Monks of
Prémontré, Cistercians, and Piarists (ordo schola-
rum piarum), all of whom are connected with the
Catholic institutions for instruction and education.
Next come the Misericordians, respected as atten-
dants on the sick (their cloisters are hospitals), and
lastly, we have the professional begging-friars, Fran-
ciscans and Capuchins. The Franciscans, in poorer
parishes, often have to perform curate's duties; in
other places they are the schoolmasters. They are
not allowed to have any property; they live on
alms, both occasional and regular, seeking them in
the following manner.
From every convent a monk is yearly sent, at
the periods of the harvest and vintage, to travel
about in his district, and to request support from
the lord and the peasant. Everything is received in
the name of the Order :-money, crops, wine, fowls,
and especially great numbers of geese, the pea-
sant's most customary gift; so that in autumn,
hundreds and hundreds of these birds may be
found in the convents. The goose, variously
dressed, is not without relish for the well-fed
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
41
•
monks; others are sold to the Hungarian Jews, who,
out of respect to the Mosaic law, to avoid hog's fat
and lard, substitute goose-grease. This, in part,
also takes the place of butter, which is permitted to
them only in certain combinations.
Our Franciscans were such as undertook parish
duties; yet they were not liberally provided for by
the people, who held them in no particular respect,
and rather unwillingly allowed them their scanty
tribute. This agrees so ill with the hospitable
character of the Hungarian peasant, that its causes
must be traced to the corporation itself, and its
relation to the people. In our case, I perceived
two reasons for it—the first a general, the second a
local one.
Our monks, (as is customary with the
ignorant servants of hierarchical dogmas), were, in
theory, not seldom savagely fanatic. Their ser-
mons raved about a dark gulf of unknown eternity,
only lighted up by the fires of hell, which roasted
the unbelievers, whose head and front were the
Protestants, the most dangerous of all rebels to the
"sola salvifica" Church. This fierce monk of the
pulpit, with the anathema against all outlaws of
Catholicism on his lips, on the very same Sun-
days, but a few short hours after service, showed
himself in strange contrast as a jolly friar at
our table, freely partaking of the Protestant's
meal, without any visible care as to the risk of his
42
MEMOIRS OF
1
11
soul. Though in dangerous contact with heretics, hé
was without the least apparent anxiety of Christian
zeal, to save us from irretrievable damnation. On
the contrary, he listened with obvious interest to
conversations and agreeable anecdotes, which might
do very well as pastime, but were certainly no
themes for austere reflection. Nor was it with
reluctant civility that the Franciscan gave us the
benefit of his presence; for he assured us, with
profound humility, that it was a great happiness to
him to be invited to the dwelling of the lord of the
manor. It is no individual exception of which I
speak, but simply a specimen of the whole corpo-
ration, every member of which cordially availed
himself of all repasts that were offered, in whatever
quarter, whether Lutherans, Calvinists, or Greeks.
In this respect their tolerance was boundless.
This could not fail to strike the Hungarian pea-
sant, whose hospitable and phlegmatic temper is as
little accessible to intolerance, as his common good
sense can remain unconscious of the obvious contra-
diction of the real and the ideal. They therefore
accept the assertions of their clerical instructors with
as little faith as they place in the remedies of their
doctors, to whom they apply as seldom as possible,
dreading the expensive apothecary and the bitter
medicines far more than the disease.
The local cause of indifference and even contempt
A HUNGARIAN LADY,
43
for our Franciscans, arose from one of the Order
having obviously transgressed his limits, when,
as chaplain to the former lord of the castle, he
assumed sway over the whole household, and sus-
tained it by very worldly intrigues. Not only those
under his immediate control, but everybody in the
neighbourhood, with and without any concern,
began a guerilla of indefatigable gossip against the
chaplain-steward, who was driven out of his
intrenchments, and at last surrendered at discretion,
leaving no other legacy to his brethren than an
inveterate unpopularity. Indeed, the public, (with
the instinct which gives to the vox populi vox Dei
the weight of a verdict), felt only too distinctly
the invisible bondage put upon it by monastic
association, and therefore extended to all of the
Patres its well-founded aversion to one. Such
impressions are sometimes effaced towards an indi-
vidual of the unpopular class, by personal inter-
course; but they still remain in force against the
brotherhood at large.
The broad front of the castle, aided by wings, ex-
panded upon an airy court, whieh was made cheerful
by pretty parterres, affecting an elegant exclusiveness;
for it was divided from the grounds of the adjoining
borough by lofty iron gates. These, however, chanced
to be planned on the principle of a ladder, and there-
fore could be scaled without the least trouble; as one
44
MEMOIRS OF
of our young servant-girls practically showed, for
being passionately fond of dancing, she always
managed to get out by the locked gates, with as
much ease as by the open ones, whenever the elec-
trifying sound of a fiddle struck through her ears
to her feet.
Most fortunately we never experienced the least
inconvenience from our perfect free-trade of com-
munication with all our curious neighbours, from
the friars down to the gipsies, who daily and hourly
visited, court, garden and park.
The borough, with whose inhabitants we were in
this uninterrupted contact, derived its origin from
the times when the fortress, delivered from the
Turks, had been abandoned by its garrison, who
became the nucleus of the little town. Their ma-
gistrate still bore the title of Hadnagy (lieutenant)
instead of mayor and young and old were rather
proud of their borough, and thought themselves
ill-used when short-sighted ignorance chanced to
mistake for a village what they complimented
themselves by considering a town.
The population consisted of from three to four
thousand; a fourth of these were Jews, and
about a hundred gipsies. There was a market,
which, though on a small scale, was attended by
many of the inhabitants of the surrounding vil-
lages. The place had a pleasant aspect. There were
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
45
shops of all kinds, certainly not like those in Regent-
street; indeed, with a twentieth part of a Lon-
don mizzling fog, the imperfect pavements would
have vanished not only from the sight, but like-
wise from the foot of the pedestrian; for much
less moisture than the English coachmen call
damp, sufficed to mash the loam into mud.
My Viennese silk shoes were therefore soon ex-
changed for stout leather boots, more peasant-
like than lady-like in appearance.
The majority of the traders were Jews, who were
more active in Hungary perhaps than anywhere
else, owing to the natural propensity of the Hun-
garian peasant to have some one to deal for him,
while he prefers to bask as much as may be in the
comfort of oriental ease. This, united to the good-
humoured turn of mind of the Hungarian people,
affords to the Israelites a position much preferable
to that which they are grudgingly allowed in Ger-
many, In Hungary, it is only where the German
element predominates among the merchants in the
towns, that the antipathy to the sons of Judah is
retained. The latter, when poor, are generally very
dirty; when rich, often arrogant; but always indus-
trious and religiously beneficent.
I found them so with us. Most of them were
poor, but this did not prevent their association for
the mutual support of those who most needed
46
MEMOIRS OF
•
*
assistance; and, in spite of adhering firmly in their
habits of life to their exclusive Mosaic forms, they
readily joined with Christians for the further-
ance of charitable objects. Though in constant
friendly intercourse with our people, they are still
as strikingly distinct from them there as anywhere
in the world. In their well-conducted synagogue
I involuntarily fancied myself transported back to
the Galilee of the Old Testament. Doubtless no-
thing conveys more vividly the indestructible vigour
of a nationality upheld by religion, than the histo-
rical phenomenon of the Jewish existence.
When I first came into frequent contact with our
Jews, I was greatly puzzled by their numerous
personal names. As is well known, the Jews had
in their ancient realm no family names. For their
individual designation, they only added their
father's
's name to their own; this was customary,
not only with the Israelites, but with all Shemitic
nations, and even with the Greeks; whilst the
Egyptians and Romans of a more aristocratic stamp,
prized family appellations and pedigrees. The Jews,
who have preserved most of their characteristics,
likewise inherited this indifference to family names,
and it was only the systematizing Emperor,
Joseph II, who enforced upon them that general
European custom. This was at the same time with
his attempt to establish the German as the universal
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
47
7
language in Hungary; and thus German names
were imposed on the Jews by the public authorities
of every neighbourhood, and from this date such have
been officially recognized as belonging to particular
families. But neither the Jews themselves, nor
the people took any notice of this. The former
kept to the names they received in their syna-
gogues; the latter continued to give them nick-
names, by which they are mostly known.
Apart as the Jews have kept amidst us after
centuries of degradation, and still impressed with
the stamp of their national physiognomy, they
have nevertheless become Europeans, naturalized by
the many interests and pursuits which they have
in common with those who surround them. The
case is very different with the gipsies, as they are
met with in Hungary.
These people I have seen and observed for
months, with the facility afforded by their daily
peeps into our court,-a favour which I owed to
their forward loquacity, as well as to their greedi-
ness.
Their slender shape, flowing black hair, glisten-
ing eyes, pearly teeth, and dark complexion, give
them an exotic appearance, but we cannot call
it attractive. In fact, they dwell in a realm of
filth. The growing-up sons and daughters of their
race have certainly garments of spotted rags; but
48
MEMOIRS OF
→
the children dispense with even this luxury, quite
satisfied to cover themselves with the mud in which
they delight. Some of these little urchins are beau-
tiful; their eyes so purely blue, as if the glance of
an Eastern heaven had transfused its pellucid colour
into them. This peculiarity shines the brighter, as
it presents a marked exception to the mystical bril-
liancy of the black-eyed majority.
We can trace back the tribe in Hungary to the
end of the fourteenth century. They are apparently
of Indian extraction, probably outcasts, driven by
Tamerlane from their homes, whence they wandered
farther and farther westward. In Hungary, as
perhaps even in India, they are outcasts, not on
account of their race, but owing to their unclean
habits, their laziness and bodily weakness. They
do not yet seem reconciled to the idea of fixed pro-
perty, and still keep to their roving propensities.
Every dirty work, which nobody else willingly does, is
allotted to them. As formerly did the Jews in Egypt,
they often make unburnt bricks; their women not
unfrequently assisting in their scanty labours, in
which they differ from the Jewish females, who are
decidedly averse to any kind of exertion.
Nothing, however, more clearly marks these
gipsies as outcasts, than their taste for garbage. It
is a great treat for them, when fowls, pigs, cattle,
or even horses die. Be it by distemper or by acci-
*
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
49
dent, such dainties are always welcome to their
appetite. This abnormous taste they justify by the
argument: "If the animals are good to eat when
the butcher has slaughtered them, must they not
be much better when killed by God himself?"
Unmartial in their appearance, and notorious
cowards, they differ from their brethren of the
Middle-Ages, who are said to have defied the
rack. The best of them are like the children of
Jubal :-"the father of all such as handle the harp
and the organ;" or Tubal-Cain, "an instructor of
every artificer in brass and iron.'
""
They often excel in music; being artists un-
taught in art, they form whole bands, complete
orchestras, and execute complicated performances,
most of them without the knowledge of a single
note. Like the chorus of the birds of the fields,
they blend discordant tones into strange, but
magical harmonies. With sudden transitions their
strains of wild enthusiasm modulate into plaintive
songs of the deepest melancholy. It is as if bril-
liant remembrances of a grand past flashed up from
amidst the ashes of joy and hope! The blaze ex-
tinguished, nothing remains but the feeble glimmer
of regret.
This is the impression left on the mind by the
gipsies' music,—a music perfectly adapted to the
VOL. I.
D
50
MEMOIRS OF
genius of Hungarian nationality. No Hungarian
festival pleases the fancy without the gipsies'
bands. They are as much in request at a peasant's
wedding, as at an elegant entertainment in the
County Hall. This is a public building in the
chief place of the county, where the county meet-
ings, called Congregations* are held, to which old
* In Hungary, once in every three years, the nobles of every
county were accustomed to assemble, under the presidency of
their lords-lieutenant, officers appointed by the Government for
life. At the same time the civil Corporations of each town met
under the presidency of a commissioner, especially appointed for
the purpose by the Government. In these assemblies were
elected, by acclamation-and, in case of a contest, by ballot-all
the magistrates and municipal functionaries for the three years
next ensuing. The functionaries thus chosen had the adminis-
tration of all the affairs of their county or their town, and were
obliged to give their constituents an account of their stewardship
at quarterly meetings technically called congregations. At these
congregations all the acts of the Government were submitted to
the assembled body, in order, in case of any illegality, that they
might be forwarded, as gravamina or grievances, to the Diet. In
these congregations, too, the instructions for the deputies to the
Diet were prepared; for in Hungary the members of that body
were, previously to the late reforms, literally delegates, and not
representatives. The affairs were habitually carried on in the
following mode. First the resolutions and orders of the "Can-
cellaria aulice" (Royal Chancery) of the "Consilium locum-tenen-
tiale Hungaricum" (Home Office), and the "Camera regia" (Trea-
sury) were published. If the majority thought any of these
resolutions unlawful, a committee was named, which with the
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
51
and
young come from great distances. The gipsies
are well aware of their own popularity, and make
"(
county fiscal (county attorney) was to give an opinion about the
illegality. In case of necessity, a representation was drawn up,
and submitted to the authority which was in fault, or the whole
affair was consigned as grievance" to the Diet. Then followed
the correspondence with the other counties, relative to any poli-
tical questions of the day; next came the accounts given by the
county functionaries of their administration for the last three
months; after this, the petitions of private persons, which were
put into the hands of the magistracy, or of specially appointed
deputations; and at last any complaints against the municipal
officers. Besides every member of the congregation was free to
make independent motions. The sheriff (Alispan, Vice Comes)
always opened the sessions with a statistical survey of the state of
the county, of the receipts and disbursements, of the condition of
the roads, of the prisons, of the suits pending, and processes de-
cided, of the price of provisions, &c. In the autumnal congrega-
tions the budget of the county was regularly examined, and the
necessary outlays of money for the next year were voted, for the
expenses occasioned by all municipal concerns, as, the payment of
the county functionaries, of the physicians, surgeons, and apothe-
caries for the poor, and the expense of keeping up the roads and
prisons. The whole budget was then sent to the Home Office
"Consilium locum-tenentiale Hungaricum" to be sanctioned.
To that board likewise all protocols of the congregations were
communicated, that in case one or the other resolution of the
county should be found unlawful, it could be annulled. In such
cases the points in question were by the county or by the Go-
vernment submitted to the Diet, and by this were definitively
decided.
As a result of these institutions, the Hungarian Diet was not.
liable to be overworked by the enormous mass of business, which
D 2
52
MEMOIRS OF
-.
-
..
.
the most of it on every occasion. Such of them
as are not in favour with the muse, and therefore
uncourted, avail themselves of every pretext, such as
a birth-day, baptism, convalescence, or a return
home, to torture the ear without mercy.
This I often experienced; for we had three such
bands, decidedly inferior ones, in our borough.
Not content with fiddling alternately, they often
met, and played, all at once, each in its own way
I understand, oppresses the English Parliament; for our Diet
confined itself to giving general sanction to that which the
congregations recommended in detail. Until the laws of April,
1848, things might sometimes be virtually settled by the congre-
gations themselves, who gave strict instructions to their represen-
tatives how to vote in the Diet. This was exemplified in the
year 1839, on the question whether the railroad should go on the
left or on the right bank of the Danube. But the reader must be
cautioned against being misled by the term nobility; the meaning
of that word in Hungary differs widely from that which is at-
tached to the term in England. In that country the nobles were,
in fact, all those who possessed the full and uncurtailed privileges
of citizenship, and this in right of birth, not of property; com-
prehending not only many little cultivators who tilled with their
own hands the plot of land they themselves possessed, or rented
from wealthier owners, but even many who supported themselves
by the very useful, though not very aristocratic, pursuits of
butchers, bootmakers, tailors, and grooms. These nobles, setting
aside other personal privileges which they enjoyed, were the
county electors. The whole number of voters has been estimated
at between six and seven hundred thousand persons in a popu-
lation of fourteen millions.
*.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
53
a totally different air, and did not leave off this
torture of our nerves, until ejected by the adminis-
tration of some pennies-a specific far from infal-
lible, unless accompanied by a peremptory order to
go away!
But certainly the raven's croak is as little like
the nightingale's song, as the ill-tuned noise, with
which our gipsies inconvenienced us, resembled the
tuneful harmonies of the Bunkos, Pityus, Biharys,
Marczis and Farkas of Györ. All of these were,
and some are still, leaders of their musical bands
and composers, or perhaps, more accurately, rhap-
sodists of the ancient traditional melodies of Hun-
gary. In our days no one, perhaps, has more
characteristically seized the spirit of this national
music, than the Jew of Pest, Mark Rozsavölgyi.
This man's talent delighted thousands of loud-
tongued admirers; yet, alas, he died in the misery
of destitution, almost starved to death.
The Hungarian gipsies still retain an Indian
dialect,—that of the Peninsula Cutch, I am told.
But they do not seem to possess any memory of
their Hindu worship, not even so faint a recol-
lection as to awaken those natural religious feel-
ings, the expression of which is a call of human
nature. I have seen them baptize their children
according to whatever religion the lord of the
manor chanced to profess. A month seldom passed
54
MEMOIRS OF
without my being asked to stand godmother to a
gipsy child. Many of the tribe attended the cere-
monies of our church, but without any sense of
their meaning.
If to instil their own instinct of professional
beggary into their offspring can be called edu-
cation, they fulfil this parental duty to perfec-
tion. I do not believe they have any precise
notion of home: at least their wretched hovels
bear no affinity, to what this appellation conveys
to our imagination. The gipsy quarter was of
course the worst kept in the borough, where, from
morning to night, no small portion of them
crouched, resting their elbows on their knees,
their heads inclined, their hair in wild disorder, a
picture of listless idleness, under the crumbling
roofs of their clay huts, where doors and win-
dows were supplied by holes, airy enough, no
doubt. To finish the picture, we must note the
naked infants, huddled together in clouds of dust.
I seldom remember to have seen other children
associate with these poor outcasts. In mature life
only the more intelligent of them, as horse-dealers,
come into frequent contact with the Jew and the
peasant. The peasants, however, never like them
so well in that character-not even after having
made a profitable bargain, which rarely enough
happens, as the gipsies are first-rate jockies-
►
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
55
as when he calls to the musicians: "Húzdrá
Czigány!" (Draw up, gipsy !) which means, "fiddle
merrily !" Then pour forth wild and pathetic
strains; the peasant leads his partner with solemn
courtesy, and they dance, not only with the feet,
but with the arms, the eyes, the whole features, in
fact, with their very pulses. In their Csárdás
(their national dance), they begin by meeting and
retreating, like two gallant adversaries in the lists
of a tournament; but when at last they join, they
turn together with such swiftness as if carried off
by a hurricane.
Music, tobacco, and wine, form the chief ex-
penses of ready money with our peasant. On our
estate, he was able to be very well off: he pos-
sessed from twenty to twenty-four acres of excellent
land; but, proud of being an inhabitant of a város
(borough), not of a village, he deemed himself a
citizen superior to other peasants and their labours.
He therefore kept a servant, or servants, according
to his income; and superintended their work, by
simply standing by and looking on with the pipe
in his mouth, puffing out clouds of smoke. One
business prerogative he kept to himself,—the pur-
chase and sale of his cattle and grain; nor was he
forgetful of the bottle during his trip to market;
though he was often spared that trouble by dealing
in his own house with the complaisant Jew. This
༔
1
2
56
MEMOIRS OF
•
comfortable master of a family only took care of his
household, and never went out as day labourer.
One class alone of the inhabitants of Szécsény,
namely the Zseller's (probably derived from the
German "Ansiedler," settlers) worked for daily
wages; being possessed only of a house, a garden,
and a small vineyard, which are not in themselves
sufficient for the subsistence of a family.
Our manor extended over about twenty-four thou-
sand acres, of which, twelve thousand were in the hands
of the peasants, and the other twelve thousand under
our own management-that is to say, not rented by
farmers, but cultivated by our own agents. With
this large sphere of activity, I did not practically
meddle, having manifold indoors' occupations: ne-
vertheless, I was highly interested in affairs out:
of doors. It was a recreation for me to walk about
the grounds and visit the various buildings; in
winter especially, the sheep-pens, and the place
where the oxen were fed, adjoining the distillery
of brandy.
We had six thousand sheep-not such stout ones
as graze in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens,
but delicate descendants of the Spanish Merinos
(transferred to Hungary under Marie-Thérèse) so
justly celebrated for their excellent wool, on which
account they are kept with great care. This
care they well repay, as one mázsa, or hundred
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
57
weight, of this wool is sold in the English market,
(under the name of "fine German" wool), for from
£20 to £24 sterling.
The breeding of sheep, kept only for their fine
wool, had during the last twenty years very much
improved in Hungary; Klauzál Imre, one of the best
agriculturists Hungary ever possessed, exercised
great influence on this branch of economy, so
highly important to the Hungarian proprietor, as
forming the most lucrative branch of his revenues.
In January and February, when the lambs were
born, it was a great treat to go to see them with
the children, who would gladly have joined their
gambols, but could not follow with the same
agility the bounds of the half-merry, half-fright-
ened, newly-born ones, on which the light of the
world certainly had no stunning effect.
We were
so fortunate as to suffer but little mortality among
our flocks, owing in part perhaps to the care of
the master shepherd, to whom a pecuniary profit
was given, proportioned to the number of lambs
he reared safely. This kind of premium has been
adopted in Hungary on several estates.
The brandy distillery was a large building, where,
from October to April, every twenty-four hours,
thirty quarters of potatoes, (of which a considerable
part was produced on our own soil, and the rest bought
from the peasants of the neighbourhood) were con-
D 3
58
MEMOIRS OF
-
sumed in the production of spirits. The residue of
the potatoes was used as food for the cattle, which
were fattened for sale.
All these sights and manipulations, though in-
structive and amusing inducements for a winter
walk, were soon forgotten when spring returned, and
with life-giving smiles greeted the beautiful scenes
around us. For the pleasure of roaming freely
about, I then readily left the comforts of home,
and the large warm stoves-less cheerful to the
eye than the English fireside, but from its equable
warmth more satisfactory to sensation. Below our
park, my impatient steps, to which no green spot
seemed too distant, were checked by the overflown
Ipoly; the meadows in the plain were completely
flooded, and I anxiously looked, day after day,
to see whether the young crops had not been
drowned in the turbulent inundations of that river;
which, at other seasons, was often so provokingly
dry, that the numerous watermills were stopped,
and I was obliged to wait weeks for my flour.
In this season the state of the crops raised
an anxiety about the favourable and unfavourable
weather, which I always used to call the weather-
fever. It began in spring, but in fact never ceased
till the earth sank under snowy sheets into its
winter sleep. Of this I felt the influence much
more than of that other Hungarian fever, which has
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
59
been represented as so noxious to unacclimated
persons. Not a single member of our family was
ever attacked by it; and so far as I have observed,
this evil may in a great measure be prevented,
by avoiding long exposure to the chill during
sunset, when the formation of the dew causes a
sudden fall in the temperature, which may prove
highly dangerous to unhardened constitutions. This
treacherous chill is often followed by a night of
southern mildness. Not less injurious than this
atmospherical influence, is the immoderate enjoy-
ment of melons, which grow in the fields in our
neighbourhood almost as abundantly as the poppy,
magnificently clothed with purple bloom. The
cultivation of the latter plant is not carried on to
a great extent, but sufficiently to supply the
country, where, from north to south, the poppy
seed dressed up into a pudding makos macsik is
highly relished, and forms the regular Christmas
dish. In Germany there is no Christmas without
a tree; in Hungary there is none without makos
macsik.
We often drove out to see our Puszták (farms).
My favourite one was Bátka, which was rich in
pleasant oak woods, presenting a romantic view of
the ruin of Hollókö, beautifully situated on the
top of a rock. This ruined castle was once the
60
MEMOIRS OF
abode of the lords of Hollókö, a large domain of
many estates, amongst which was Szécsény, now
its superior. In the sixteenth century, Valentin
Török was its proprietor who in 1540 victoriously
defended Bude in the interest of Isabella, widow of
John Zápolya, King of Hungary,* against Roggen-
dorf, the General of King Ferdinand I. Török
was subsequently taken prisoner by the Turks and
confined in the Seven Towers.
At the foot of the ruin, in a narrow mountain
pass, lies the village of Hollókö, entirely shut out
from the rest of the world, and almost inaccessible
in the rough season. In this seclusion live the
descendants of the feudal garrison of that ancient
stronghold, who are regarded as the best cultivators
of fruit in that neighbourhood. Nothing could be
lovelier than the fruit-trees, with their bunches
of blossoms, exhaling perfume in the midst of this
desolate spot.
The attractions of spring fade in turn, before the
splendour of summer; which is nowhere more
striking than in view of a broad, golden expanse of
wheat field, spread, as it were, interminably to
the eye, over from one to two hundred acres.
* Both John and Ferdinand were lawfully recognized Kings of
Hungary, one in the east, the other in the west.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
61
On such extensions a great many labourers must
be employed at harvest, as the heat in this period is
so intense, that if the ears are ripe the grains fall
out within a few days.
The number of hands, in our part, proved in-
sufficient to get in the corn as speedily as was
desirable. We therefore took advantage of the
peculiarity of the country-where, at the short
distance of twenty-four English miles to the north
of us, the harvest is a whole month later—and
engaged the help of the Slovaks from that region,
who readily came, accompanied by their wives, to
earn in our service provision for the winter. They
were paid, not in money, but in the produce of
their own work, receiving, for cutting and carrying
the corn, the twelfth or fourteenth part of the whole
crop, and for threshing it out, a second twelfth or
fourteenth part. Although, on several well-managed
estates in Hungary, the threshing-machine is in
use, the people steadfastly keep to the flail; and in
the lower countries, principally for wheat and bar-
ley, they retain the custom referred to in Scripture,
“Thou shalt not muzzle the ox, when he treadeth
out the corn," with the only variation, that instead
of oxen, horses are allowed this benefit.
On an open space of ground, cleared and cleaned, the
corn is heaped up in a circle; in the centre stands the
:
peasant, holding in his hands cords for bridles to
62
MEMOIRS OF
·
his horses, which are kept running round over the
corn, and in this way tread it out more completely
and quickly, than could have been done with the
flail. As long as the harvest lasts, these Slovak
reapers take up their abode in the fields. They
receive a certain quantity of corn, meat, hogs'-fat,
lard and salt, for their food: their women cook, and
all are well off, in spite of the want of shelter. In
case of very hard rain, they seldom fail to find a
good-natured soul, who will share with them a
covering roof.
On my first arrival at my husband's home, I
did not feel comfortable when, half an hour before
dinner, a whole unknown family came, with two or
three servants, I had yet no notion how to dispose
of them all, so as to make my unexpected visitors
perfectly at ease. By a woman's instinct, however,
I was aware, that confidence in oneself can alone
supply the place of knowledge; so I tried, and
was quite astonished before dinner was over to
find myself and our guests in as friendly inter-
course as if we had known one another for
years.
Cordiality, that first-born feeling of a noble heart,
which artificial politeness in vain strives to imitate,
is so predominant with the Hungarians, that it is
impossible to remain long a stranger amongst them.
Their kindness calls forth so warm an attachment,
their dignified hospitality, from the lord to the
#
"
:
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
63
peasant, is so attractive, that one unconsciously
accepts from, and offers to strangers, what in most
countries is granted only to intimate intercourse.
They never stand upon ceremony, but delight in
being visited in a friendly way, and never regard
distance, to acknowledge their satisfaction for such
attention. This I experienced in days of hap-
piness, as in long months of sorrow. One ex-
pression of hospitality alone I never relished-the
long Hungarian dinner, which is almost everywhere
equally tiresome, but never so prolonged as at the
table of Ocskay, Bishop of Kassa (Kaschau), where
thirty-six dishes were the order of the day, not
served in the time-saving manner of "courses," but
every one handed round with due precision. Ocskay,
however, was but an imperfect disciple of the late
Raffay, Bishop of Diakovár. Once when this pre-
late suffered most surprisingly from indigestion,
and his physician prescribed a severe diet, per-
mitting him only thirty dishes, the patient earnestly
complained that this was intended to starve him.
From the very first I protested in my house.
against such profusion, though the general
cheapness of provisions rendered it a much less
serious consideration, than it would have been in
any other country.*
* A pound of beef cost from a penny to two-pence; a whole
calf from sixteen shillings to a sovereign; a fattened hog from
.
Lele!
64
MEMOIRS OF
:
The famine, however, in the winter and spring of
1847, after two bad years, made an obvious change
-at least for some months-in these careless habits.
Who could pleasurably have enjoyed luxurious meals,
when thousands and thousands, accustomed to
plenty, considered scanty supply downright starva-
tion? This fearful calamity raged in some of the
mountainous districts; but with us there only was a
dearth of provisions, not absolute want. We natu-
rally followed the general impulse to assist, and
were so fortunate as to establish, during the whole
period of the most pressing need, daily distribu-
tions of soup for five hundred people. We sought
the aid, not only of all the housewives, with their
kettles and fires, but likewise of all the priests and
schoolmasters within our manor, to attend these
distributions, and everywhere found the most kindly
readiness. In our own borough everybody—friar,
clergyman, physician, surgeon, trader, peasant, and
servant-willingly assisted, not only actively, but
likewise with their purse, however poor, in the
good work. In our courtyard, one hundred and
thirty to fifty shillings; a goose from eight-pence to ten-pence;
one pound of butter, hogs'-fat, or lard, from five-pence to six-
pence; a quarter of wheat from sixteen to twenty-two shillings;
one gallon of new wine from four-pence to eight-pence; one
gallon of old wine from eight to eighteen-pence. The first-rate
wines, of course, were much more expensive.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
65
fifty persons, of all ages, met every noon at the boil-
ing-pots; and it certainly did them all credit, that
no serious altercation ever arose, though the gipsies
were in assiduous attendance.
But much more difficult than affording this help,
was it to persuade the people to help themselves.
When my husband came to the peasants' huts, and,
to induce them to work, offered them good pay
for felling wood in our forest, he found them
stretched on their benches, reluctant to speak, and
it was not without much expenditure of eloquence,
that he extorted the only answer he could get, "Ehen
vagyunk" (we are hungry). We tried to satisfy
them, and, after the meal, sent them to the woods:
several, however, thought it more wholesome to rest
after dinner, and the attempt was thus frustrated.
Not much more successful were my arguments with
the Jewish women, whom I tried to persuade
that their needles might be usefully employed, and
that the little ones creeping round them would give
them much less trouble, with a bit of bread to stop
their mouths, than while crying for food. I did, at
last, get the less inveterate idlers to quill fea-
thers, but I could never induce them to make any
greater exertion. The gipsy-women, on the con-
trary, when I once bought some sorrel (rumex
acetosa) of them, culled and brought to me so
much, that I could have fed cattle upon it.
.
v
66
MEMOIRS OF
B
At Christmas, all our servants' children hajdus
(bailiffs' and shepherds' included) from three to
six years old, flocked around me—the little boys
expecting to receive csizmák (boots) to walk into
school, the little girls handkerchiefs and ribbons to
dress them out for church. I thought it best, in
that year of need, to celebrate the day of blissful
record by dispensing to each of our hundred
and eight peasants, potatoes and maize for seed,
(the latter being much cultivated with us), upon
the stipulation that, after the harvest, when the
price would be low, they should return to me the
quantity so advanced. They all paid this debt,
with few exceptions, even without being sum-
moned.
What was my astonishment when, amongst
the men assembled to receive the loan, I re-
cognized one of our wealthiest people.
"Why,
Szenográdi," said I, "you surely don't want
support."
"But, my lady, if I have been more indus-
trious than the others, and have thus acquired a
little, should I not share with the rest?" was his
logical reply.
This man was a specimen of the class of old
peasants, who have acquired a certain opulence,
and on this very account delight in hoarding, and
allow as little to themselves as to others. Their
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
67
houses we find comfortable enough: the kitchens
glisten with tin plates and tumblers; in the cham-
bers are feather-beds piled up high; in their
gaudily-painted ládák (chests) good linen sheets,
with lace trimming. Their pantry, which consists
of an immense trunk (szúszék), is well-filled with a
stock of flour, lard, ham, and every necessary of
the kind. Their cellar is provided with wine, and
the ample tub with káposzta (pickled-cabbage), an
indispensable ingredient in every Hungarian house-
hold.
But these luxuries are rarely enjoyed by the
members of the family: they sleep on their small
and hard wooden benches; and it is not until
their lard has attained the maturity of three years,
that they can be prevailed on to indulge in it.
A wedding, a baptism, or the visit of a guest, must
occur to relax this rigid economy.
The poorer peasant has seldom this taste for
hoarding, and very rarely lays by anything. In
consequence, during the year of scarcity, in several
counties, granaries were found most useful, though
not always sufficient. Suitable buildings had been,
in the course of the last twenty years, erected and
filled with corn by voluntary contributions: under
public regulations corn was lent to the needy
peasant in the spring, with the obligation, on his
part, to repay after harvest a ninth part more than
68
MEMOIRS OF
he had received, which he could easily do, as the
prices were highest when he obtained, lowest when
he returned the loan. With this system con-
scientiously carried out, the original quantity of
corn was doubled in from fifteen to twenty years,
and the whole expense of management paid. Had
these institutions been more numerous, they would
have proved efficient blessings; but as they were
established only by gift, and thus naturally con-
fined to the more fertile parts, the destitute people
of the upper country had no such resource.
Famine was soon effaced, but not the grateful
feeling in the people's hearts: and little as benefits
should ever be conferred with the expectation of
acknowledgment, it did the heart good to meet such
a requital. Every Sunday, after church-whither
the people often walked from other villages of the
manor, at a great distance they always came
to my husband with their complaints and difficul-
ties, preferring his decision to the tediousness of an
appeal to law. In one instance, however pleasant
this confidence was, it could not be allowed. A
peasant, who believed himself to have a claim to a
piece of land, which came into our possession from
the previous proprietor of our estate, resolved to
institute a law-suit against my husband; but, in-.
stead of going to the Central-Court, he brought to
the defendant himself a whole bundle of papers, and
ܚܕ
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
69
asked him to judge! Of course, my husband ex-
plained that it was impossible in a law-suit for one
of the parties to decide in his own cause. The
peasant shook his head, and remained of opinion
that the grant of his request would have been the
wiser course.
The Catholic school, adjacent to the Franciscan
convent, was certainly little adapted to develop this,
or any other good feeling, in spite of the active
application of the rod. When this instrument was
not considered persuasive enough in the hands of
the schoolmaster, a written order was given to the
culprit, which entitled him to receive his due amount
of stripes at the Town-house, in which the executive
power of the borough resided.
Against such systematic up-rooting of every
sense of honour, I so earnestly and loudly pro-
tested, that the Guardian (Superior) of the Fran-
ciscans, who had the superintendence of that well-
regulated institution for the education of youth, at
last gave way. Anxious to make the best of this
opportunity, we proposed to give the building-
ground and materials gratuitously, for the very
necessary enlargement of the school, and to con-
tribute a fixed sum yearly to its maintenance, if the
community would complete the amount necessary
to the purpose; reserving to ourselves the right of
selecting our schoolmaster from among several indi-
:
70
MEMOIRS OF
viduals, whom the clergy and the community should
propose. The Dean, who had the superintendence
of the whole district, in clerical concerns, and in
those of instruction, highly approved the scheme,
and, at my request, brought it forward himself.
But the "Reverendi Patres," averse to any Pro-
testant influence, as they themselves explained it,
preached so cunningly on the popular topic of
no-payment, that the design failed. Thinking that
competition might prove of more avail than reason-
able offers, we took to the measure of founding a
Protestant school ourselves: and so perfect was
its success, that there were soon more pupils-not
Protestants only, but Catholics-than the room
could contain, and the teacher, our clergyman
himself, could attend to. After this, I again tried
the effect of an appeal to the brotherhood, hoping
that the dread of proselytism, as a result of their
own stubbornness-however little intended by me-
might now move them. And possibly our wish
might have been realized; but, alas! the inevitable
revolution broke up all such efforts and occupa-
tions; and I fear that Austrian centralization will
be but little disposed to carry through my bill for
the reform of public instruction at Szécsény.
S
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
71
CHAPTER III.
HUNGARIAN COUNTRY LIFE.
My mother-in-law lived in the northern part of
the country, which was very different in its features
from that which surrounded us. Her region was
exposed to the dominating influence of the Carpa-
thian chain of mountains, rough and stubborn,
many of them rearing [their] snowy summits, the
outline of which was softened only when the rising
and setting sun spread a rosy veil over their angular
brilliancy.
The wild mountains give birth to many mineral
springs possessing medicinal virtues. We find on the
Polish frontier the Baths of Bártfa (Bartfeld), which
used to be thronged at the end of the last and the
beginning of the present century. The war then
dete!
72
MEMOIRS OF
:
raging over all Germany drove the gamblers from
Baden, Spa, Wiesbaden, &c., to seek undisturbed
recreation in that remote spot, which has since been
again abandoned. Trencsin, Tapolesán (Teplitz),
and Pöstény (Pischtian), are now more frequented,
especially the latter, as one of the most powerful
medicinal springs.
.
But none of these has a situation comparable to
the highly romantic position of Schmeeks. This
Hungarian Gräfenberg excels its renowned Silesian
rival in possessing the most magnificent mountain-
scenery to be met with anywhere, and certainly
deserves to be known. Except the King of Saxony,
who was led thither in pursuit of his botanical
studies, few foreigners have as yet enjoyed the
strengthening water and the natural beauties of
this attractive place. Not far distant from it is the
Lomniczi-tetö (Lomniczer Summit), 8000 feet above
the level of the sea,—the most elevated point of the
Carpathians.
Hungary is in every direction blessed with mineral
springs of all descriptions; but few of them can
boast the privilege of fashion. Country-life is too
intimately connected with the occupation and turn
of mind of the Hungarian, the customs of hospi-
tality bring him too incessantly into contact with
his neighbours, for him to feel either the excite-
ment, so often occasioned by continental winter-
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
73
seasons in town, or the loneliness of rural se-
clusion; either of which might produce that over-
strain of the nerves and depression, which, more
than any other cause, peoples the watering-places
with habitual visitors.
The stern mountains of the counties of Trencsin
and Liptó, and the more softened heights of Hont
and several districts of Zól shelter the valleys
of the Vág and Garam (Grán), both rich in varied
pictures of lofty grandeur and smiling loveliness;
both celebrated by the bloody struggles this year
(1849), ensanguining their fields.
In the northern counties the Sclavonic population
is by far the most predominant. Amongst the
western inhabitants of Moravian race, we likewise
find descendants of the 20,000 Hussites, who, in
the fifteenth century, fought under their leader,
Giskra of Brandeis, against Uladislas I. in the
cause of Ladislas Posthumus; and subsequently
made peace with Matthias Corvinus (Matthias
Hunyady), and settled in Hungary. Their off-
spring we also find in the counties of Nográd,
Gömör and Liptó. On the church-doors of these
original Hussites is still depicted the communion-
cup, the distinctive form of Calixtins, who main-
tained the primitive mode of the sacrament against
those who withheld the lay-cup.
VOL. I.
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MEMOIRS OF
•
When in the sixteenth century the light of
the Reformation broke through the mist of Middle-
Age abuses, these Hussites, penetrated by the rays
of truth, for which they were prepared, contri-
buted in great measure to its speedy diffusion all
over the Sclavonic parts of Hungary, wherein they
likewise introduced the Bohemian translation of
the Scriptures, valued next to Luther's version
and to that of the English, being accounted
classical, not only for its faithfulness, but also for
its style. The sermons of all the northern Pro-
testant Sclavonians are delivered in the Bohemian
language, which differs essentially from their usual
dialects.
The counties of Szepes (Zipsen), Sáros, Abauy
and Zemplény are peopled by Slovaks of more
Polish extraction. More indolent than those just
referred to, they have likewise fewer schools:
a point which may justly be made the test of
vitality with all creeds in Hungary, except the
Catholic. The schools of Catholicism, which is
looked on as the State religion, are kept up
by, and depend directly upon, the Government;
whilst the Protestants, Greeks, Unitarians and
Jews have to maintain their own churches and
schools, of which they of course have the uncon-
trolled management.
4
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
75
The Government, on the other hand, insists
so strictly on its supremacy over the Catholic
institutions, that I know of several cases in which
the well-meant attempts of Protestant proprietors
were frustrated, who wanted to establish on their
estates, at their own expense, schools for their
Catholic peasants, requiring only the privilege of
appointing the schoolmaster.
These instances of rigid intolerance seemed very
odd in a country, where the right of patronage
as to Catholic churches is on many estates
vested in the proprietor, whatever his religion.
His obligation of maintaining the church has
been regarded as involving a right of appointing
the person who is to enjoy the revenues.
The Sclavonians attach many a fantastic tale
to their dark vales and rugged rocks, with many
a peculiar turn of phraseology; yet they have no
author, like Grimm and other Germans of his
school, to point out traces of their ancient faith, in
their tales, proverbs, and peculiar expressions. Here
we can only notice, that most of their stories are
connected with detached pieces of rocks in plains or
dales, (erratic blocks), and bear reference to the devil.
For instance, in a valley next to the mineral
well of Czeméte, in the neighbourhood of Eperies,
(one of the chief towns of the county of Sáros),
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MEMOIRS OF
there is a quartz-rock with a deep hole in it, which
was once gold, according to tradition.
A shepherd had sold his soul at midnight to
the devil, for the price of a hundredweight of
gold, to be paid down before dawn. Hardly,
however, had the compact been made, and Satan
taken leave, when remorse seized the unhappy
shepherd, who, in order to save his soul, hanged
his body. A few hours elapsed, and the devil
returned, balancing the gold on his forefinger.
But when, instead of the shepherd, he only saw
the dead body, and found himself cheated as to
the soul, he threw violently against the deceased
the whole mass of precious metal; which instantly
became transmuted to quartz, and still retains the
impression of the devil's forefinger.
.
The story of the Castle of Lubló, in the county
of Szepes, is still more piquant. The proprietor
wished to enlarge his castle; there was, however,
one little difficulty-he had no money. At last
he resolved to apply to the demon, and going to
the "devil's stone," called on its patron, with
whom he made over by contract all the souls that
should happen to be in the castle at the moment
when the key-stone would be inserted in the ban-
quet-hall. The devil hereupon presented him with
seven chests full of gold, and the re-building of
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77
the castle soon began on a grand scale. But not
the devil's chests alone furthered the work; to
the architect's great astonishment, the walls grew
through the night, in ratio of their increase
during the day. There could be no doubt, there-
fore, that the devil helped the work with his own
hands; and as the extensive edifice drew nearer to
its completion, anxiety pressed heavier and heavier
on the heart of the proprietor.
It was in vain that he enlarged the plan. The
castle was notwithstanding almost finished, and
the hour of payment approached. The devil's
debtor, in full despair, went down to the red
cloister (still existing) and confessed his sins to
the abbot, who naturally, before anything else
could be done, took into custody the three chests
of gold which he found to be still remaining of
the loan, intending to release them by his bless-
ing from the demon's curse, and to preserve
them for the convent.
1
į
Then he sent to the castle a consecrated bell,
with orders to ring it the very moment when the
key-stone should be inserted into the banquet hall.
Precisely at that moment, the devil was on his
way, flying through the air with an enormous
block under his arm, to crush his victims with.
But the bell rang, and its consecrated sound pa-
ralyzed the fiendish power. The block tumbled
.
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MEMOIRS OF
3.
down into the River Poprád, at the foot of the
castle, and the devil, furious at the breach of the
contract, cursed the unfaithful man and his de-
scendants; who, in consequence, have ever since
been wanting both in money and in credit.
The pecuniary embarrassment of the proprietors
of Lubló, and the impression of the fingers of the
demon in the block, witness till now, to the people
of that neighbourhood, the truth of these
legends.
Not less entertaining, is the story of the miller
at the Branyiszko (a steep mountain path), who,
when his mill had stopped, being overwhelmed
with sorrow, at the prospect of starvation for his
wife and children, plunged into the forest. There
he met a fine gentleman, with a cloven foot, a red
cloak, and a cock's feather in his hat, who pro-
mised to get him water for the mill, if he gave up
an object he possessed without knowing it.
The miller (it is not doubted) recognized the
gentleman; but, need proving more powerful
than conscience, he acquiesced to the proposition
and hastened home. There he found the mill in
full activity; and his mother-in-law met him
joyfully, with the news, that his wife had happily
borne him a son. The poor man was struck dead
on the spot with horror. The fine gentleman soon
came, and carried the baby away under his red
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79
cloak. For a long-long time, the little one's
mother heard nothing about him, and mourned for
him; till at last the tidings reached her, that her
son, owing to his eminent education, had grown a
doctor of laws and a mighty grand gentleman :
Minister of the Interior at Vienna.
As in the north-west we meet inhabitants of Mo-
ravian race; so, in the north-east we see Ruthenians,
who immigrated into Hungary from Lodomeria
(East Gallicia) in the fourteenth century, headed by
their Prince, Theodor Koriatovich. They are the
most wretched of all the Sclavonians in those parts,
as indeed the most lazy and ignorant. By creed they
are United Greeks, but their clergy are little fit to
improve them. They recognize the Pope's supre-
macy: yet they take and give the sacrament in
both forms, and (from a desire to balance between
the Eastern and Western churches) have surprisingly
confused ideas on the question, whether the Holy
Spirit proceeds from the Father alone, or from the
Father and from the Son (Filioque).
To marry once is allowed to the priests, but
second marriages are forbidden to them.
Their Bible and liturgy are in the ancient sacred
Sclavonic tongue, as it was written by their
Apostles, Cyrillus and Methudius, who were also
the inventors of their alphabet. The modern
priests, however, little understand what they read
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MEMOIRS OF
in those characters, and often may be seen with
the sacred books turned upside down before them,
on the pulpit. The sheep of these pastors, never
being troubled with schools, are as superstitious, as
under such circumstances is to be expected.
One of the most remarkable instances of that
superstition, is the pilgrimage of the Ruthens in the
county of Unghvár. There, over the river Latorcza,
on a steep ascent, stands a Basilit monastery, to
which every year in summer, the Ruthens come
from afar, to obtain indulgences.
·
In great processions, with standards and songs,
the different communities meet, assembling in
long file on their way to the cloister. Thus they
wander on to the top of the height, beneath
which the Latorcza streams. According to the
popular superstition, the indulgence is most plenary
for those who first bathe in that water. Like the
Greeks of Homer, they fancy that they purify
themselves thoroughly, by casting their sins into
the waves. As soon as the procession has attained
the summit of the elevation, the songs cease, and a
particular kind of steeple-chase takes place. The
whole mass of people presses down to the river;
if one of the foremost falls, dozens of those
crowding behind, tumble over his head. Screams,
shrieks, and howls, pierce the air; and men, women,
and children, in wild disorder, throw themselves
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81
It
into the stream, which fortunately is shallow.
is a scene that reminds one of paganism much more
than of a Christian ceremony-a scene that seldom
fails to occasion serious hurt or disease to some of
the pilgrims. But all feel blessed in having drowned
their sins in the Latorcza; most of all the monks,
as, after the cold bath, the people, in wet garments,
go into the convent, and there proceed from chapel
to chapel praying, and leaving everywhere, as a
pious sacrifice, small copper coins.
Different in appearance, language, creed, and
development, as the lower classes are in the upper
counties, yet the higher ranks I found there much
the same as all over Hungary; with the sole ex-
ception, that the nobility in general, though poorer,
have much more taste for ostentatious display than
anywhere else. Sáros has on this account obtained
the appellation of the Hungarian Gascogne. But
in spite of this, the predominant cordiality per-
vading these regions, forms the great charm of
social intercourse; and, not seldom, softens into
good-humoured ridicule, that which, when allied to
affected pretension, would have proved insup-
portable.
In that northern clime, wolf-hunting is no
uncommon diversion with the gentlemen, and even
the chase of the boar and of the bear is not unusual.
In winter, wolves not only sometimes pay visits to
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MEMOIRS OF
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lonely huts, but venture into the very vicinities of
towns; such an event, however, never fails to create
an immense uproar, which is not quieted until the
inquisitive intruder has fallen a victim to public
vengeance.
Sports, balls, weddings, anniversaries and impro-
vised festivities; indeed, every and anything is a
welcome pretext for incessant coming and going.
But in fact there is no necessity for a particular
cause to draw together people with whom hospitality
is a religious feeling, a fundamental principle of
their social state. No doubt, certain European
conventionalities, of recent introduction, have al-
ready extended their influence over the land; which,
however, still retains much that is characteristic
of itself; and no doubt that improvements in the
roads and means of communication in general,
pleasant as they are to tourists, and useful to trade,
are not favourable to the patriarchal customs, which
constitute the bright side of feudalism, notwith-
standing the striking oddities with which they are
often blended.
Such were still to be met with in those neigh-
bourhoods, about the commencement of our century.
As one of the last characteristic Barons of feudalism,
I may name the Baron Palocsay. On his manor
he never permitted any of the County Officers to
execute the decrees of the County; but requested to
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A HUNGARIAN LADY.
83
nave them immediately communicated to him, and
always enforced them himself most conscientiously,
even when they were against his own interest; but he
jealously refused to allow any one but himself, to rule
on his estates. As he spent immense sums on elec-
tions, and by his superb hospitality and beneficence,
had great ascendancy over the County Officers, they
often yielded to his feudal whims; as also, no less
willingly, did his numerous guests.
From time to time, especially in winter, the
castle, where the old Baron dwelt the whole of the
year, being in a lofty and bleak situation, would
chance to be without visitors. At this, his Lord-
ship felt annoyed, and in such cases, habitually
sent out in search of guests. His servants went
to the high-road that leads to Galicia and Szepes,
and when they saw a travelling-carriage, they
forced the travellers to turn to the castle, where
the Baron, without listening in the least to their
protestations, entertained them for three days in
the most princely manner, because, as he said,
"The Hungarian has a right to keep his guests for
three days: if they are willing to remain longer,
it is a great honour to the host."
This notion many Hungarians still retain, even
if they no longer enforce it as practically as the
old baron used to do. Indeed, I know of the
case of a Mr. S— who, when once he came on
!
ry
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MEMOIRS OF
a visit to a Hungarian country-gentleman, re-
mained for seven years in the house of his host
This certainly was a little eccentric, but visits for
several months are not unusual; and persons who
come with three or four children, may be heard
to apologise for not having brought with them the
rest of their family.
Baron Palocsay's castle, however, never presented
a more curious aspect, than every year in autumn,
which, in the highlands, is the general wedding
season with the peasant, who rarely enters into
this auspicious state until after the harvest, when
his most pressing labours are over.
At that season the Baron used to assemble in
his hall all peasant-girls, from sixteen to twenty
years old, and all the lads, from twenty-two to
twenty-six, belonging to his manor; which had a
Slovak population. He had them ranged opposite
to one another, sorted them pair by pair, and
said: "Thou Jancsi (John) art precisely fit for
Marcsa (Mary); and thou András (Andrew), for
Hancsa (Anne)," and so on. The couples thus
designated went to the chapel, where the chap-
lain announced their marriages, which after a
fortnight were performed, and every one of the
newly married received a cow and many other
accommodations for their establishment.
When, however, one of the lads objected to the
¿
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
85
choice made for his benefit, and mentioned his
disinclination for Hancsa, and his preference for
Ilya (Ellen), the Baron would reply that he did
not believe it, and obliged the lad, as a proof of
his love, to endure twenty-five lashes. If he
underwent this trial he was free to choose for
himself.
This specimen of feudal manners died in the
His son was
beginning of the present century.
extravagant in a different way. He was a conser-
vative of the German school, but attempted never-
theless the boldest reforms in his rural economy,
and spent a great deal in experiments. The
grandson, the present Lord of the Manor, is the
most perfect Anglomanist in Hungary, where,
however, he has in this respect many rivals. His
highest ambition is to be taken by foreigners for
an Englishman.
An original of another kind was the old Count
George Festetics, one of the wealthiest peers of
Hungary, who lived on the Balaton (Plattensee).
In his youth, while an officer of the hussars, he
signed, in 1792, with the whole of his regiment,
a parliamentary petition, which was disapproved of
by the government; on account of which, he
was for some time confined in prison. After his
release he retired to his estates, of princely extent
and management. He was not only learned, but
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86
MEMOIRS OF
also very clever; of a powerfully satirical turn,
directed against all the world, which he disguised
under the mask of politeness, united with the sem-
blance of such perfect humility, as to appear at
times awkward. It was never to be made out
whether he spoke in joke or in earnest. As he
despised mankind from the conviction that every
one had a price for which he could be bought,
it grew a mania with him to bribe every one,
without any other aim than the satisfaction of
knowing a person was under an obligation to him.
This mania went so far, that he once attempted
to bribe his king, the Emperor Francis himself.
The Emperor, on his journey to Croatia, spent
a night in the Count's castle. The political
offence had long been forgotten: Francis was
gracious: the Peer received him with festivities,
in the most splendid style. After the Emperor
had retired to rest, the Count again presented
himself before the lord chamberlain, requesting an
immediate audience of the monarch. In vain did
the chamberlain plead the impossibility of dis-
turbing his majesty. The Count asserted his
business to be of the highest importance; so that
at last the chamberlain considered it his duty to
tell the Emperor, who sent word to his host that
he could not just then see him, but would be
glad to hear what he had to communicate.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
87
The Count then began to relate, in his most
humble manner of unlimited devotion, how anxious
he had been to prepare fireworks and an illu-
mination for the reception of his illustrious guest :
that for this end he had sat aside 100,000 florins,
(according to their value in those times about
£4,000); that however, the Esküdt, (police officer
of the county), had interfered with the execution
of his design, because the thatched roofs in the
village would have been liable to catch fire. As
the 100,000 florins had been intended for fire-
works, not as presuming to astonish his sove-
reign, but solely to prove the sincerity of his
intention, he wished to request the honour of being
allowed to burn the 100,000 florins in paper-
money at his Majesty's bed-side; or rather as this
honour could not be granted to him, he entreated
the chamberlain to make it known to the Emperor,
and burn the notes in his stead.
The chamberlain utterly perplexed at this strange
demand, went to the Emperor, and gave an account
of the whole affair. Francis I, for whom money had
always a peculiar attraction, took it, and said,
smiling: "the old Count is a fool, but we will
not burn the notes." The Count had hit the
right nail.
This strange proceeding of our feudal magnate,
addressed to so exalted a personage, is certainly
88
MEMOIRS OF
..
3
刪
​very striking. It may, however, not be quite un-
interesting to note his equally original diplomacy
with his inferiors and equals.
Once he was told, that an officer of his was very
negligent, and was irregular in his superintendence
of the workmen. The Count, to convince himself
as to the accuracy of the report, drove at dawn
to the officer's abode, whom, in fact, he found still
in bed.
"I am sorry you are ill," said he with kind
consideration, "what is the matter with you?"
The man not overjoyed at the unexpected honour
of this early call, complained of head-ache. His
lord assured him that warmth would prove most
efficacious in his case, covered the patient care-
fully with a fur-cloak, and ordered camomile tea,
which he diligently pressed on his victim; and then
remained at his couch till noon, amicably talking
about rural economy, without, however, forgetting
from time to time to make kind inquiry after
the sufferer's state of health, for which, on taking
leave, he exhibited the greatest solicitude.
The officer, half-choked by the weight of the
pelisse, and quite as much by his embarrassment,
breathed freely, when relieved from this double
oppression. But the evening of that very same
day, so ominously began, brought an autograph
letter from his patron, who expressed his regret at
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
89
his officer's delicate health, that necessarily deprived
him of the satisfaction he felt in availing himself
of the eminent talents of so distinguished a manager,
and as he was unfortunately not sufficiently strong
for the fatigues of business, he dismissed him with
the sincerest wishes for his recovery.
An insinuation of the same kind, quite as tartly
administered and as delicately framed, was once
received by Count A-, the Lord-Lieutenant of
the county. To oblige this influential friend, our
peer gave him a fine estate on a very advantageous
lease. Notwithstanding this, Count Festetics found
for several years, that his interests were but little
respected in the county. The roads that led
through his estates were neglected; and the con-
sideration of his affairs deferred. He, therefore,
resolved to notify this to the Lord-Lieutenant, in his
own peculiar way.
He sent for his solicitor, and said to him: "Go
to Count A-, and tell him, we shall hencefor-
ward ourselves manage the estate he has hitherto
had on lease. Count A will certainly ask you
the cause of this change, answer evasively at first,
and own but reluctantly, that you have secret in-
structions concerning this affair. He naturally will
be desirous to know more. You will not comply,
but assert, that your existence, your whole future
welfare, depend upon no one's seeing the purport
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MEMOIRS OF
D
of your instructions.
Of course he will then pro-
mise you the fullest compensation in case of my
displeasure; after which, you will show him the
following document.”
Its contents were:-
1. "In spite of the kindness I ever have shown
to Count A, from his infancy upwards, in
spite of the estate, which simply to oblige him, I
gave him on lease, far under its value, I meet with
such ungrateful, unjust, and selfish conduct from
him, as satisfies me that he never has the least
consideration for me, disregards my most equit-
able demands on the county, and thus neglects
my business.
On account of this ungentlemanlike
behaviour, as he should either not have accepted
my kindness, or should be more attentive to my
rights, I have resolved to give him warning as
to the lease, and take the estate again under my
own administration.
2. "If my solicitor should venture to commu-
nicate this secret instruction of mine to any person
whatsoever, he shall instantly be dismissed, and
forfeit the income which I allow him."
Everything happened as Count Festetics had
foreseen. After reiterated promises of compensa-
tion to the solicitor, he delivered the desired
document to Count A-
who found its tenour
"
very different from what he had expected, but could
·
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A HUNGARIAN LADY.
91
not help laughing at Count Festetics's diplomacy,
He told the lawyer, he would settle himself every-
thing with his Lordship, and set out directly for
the castle. Festetics received him most graciously,
and when Count A inquired, why he was no
longer willing to grant the lease, Festetics replied :
"Do you want to retain it? I readily leave it with
you, I thought you were tired of it.” He never
had again cause to complain of the Lord-Lieute-
nant.
.
But the Count's irony never expressed itself
more remarkably, than when he came into contact
with a member of the Imperial family.
At the time when the Emperor Francis had given
clear indications that he did not intend to assemble
any more diets in Hungary, the Palatine Archduke
Josef called at Count Festetics's castle of Csáktornya,
where its master welcomed him most humbly and
offered to guide him through the ancient mansion,
once the Zrinyi's abode.* He exhibited several
family-portraits and historical paintings, till at
last he stopped before a large picture.
"Imperial Highness," he said, in his mildest
* Especially a favourite abode of Nicholas Zrinyi, the greatest
Hungarian hero, and the best Hungarian epic poet of the seven-
teenth century, the grand-nephew of the "Leonidas of Szigetvár.”
He met his death in the vicinity of the Castle of Csáktornya,
having been torn by a boar, while hunting.
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MEMOIRS OF
VI.
tone of unlimited submission," this is the monu-
ment most worthy of notice. Pannonia and freedom
uphold there a column, adorned by the crown of
St. Stephen. The Bohemian lion in vain strives to
upset it. In this corner is written the date, which
points out to your Imperial Highness, that the
picture refers to the glorious reign of Your High-
ness's ancestor, our never-to-be-forgotten King
Charles III. as Emperor Charles III.
.
"This is an allegory, illustrative of one of the
most striking events of that period. Your High-
ness is aware, that then also, the old scheme had
been set on foot, of amalgamating Hungary with
Austria; which at Court, was denoted by the
expression, that the Hungarians must be fitted
with Bohemian uniforms,' in remembrance of the
Emperor Rodolf's master-stroke of policy, which
in spite of all resistance, subjected the stubborn
Bohemians to the central government. It is true
that this was completely achieved, only after a
thirty-years' war. That scheme we see here
symbolized by the Bohemian lion, opposed to the
column, which is intended to represent the Hun-
garian constitution. But the two genii, that
support the column, are, as Your Highness perhaps
may have noted, portraits of those charming
friends, the Countess Strattmann-Batthyány, and
the Princess Pignatelli, to the first of whom, Prince
CON
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
93
Eugene of Savoy, to the latter his Imperial Majesty
could never refuse any request, and to whose united
entreaties the Emperor yielded, regardless of his
minister's advice, and thus remained true to the
constitution he had sworn to uphold, and saved the
country from a civil war.
در
"This picture thus immortalizes the exalted
equity of Your Imperial Highness's great-grand-
father and the well-known characteristic feature of
your illustrious family, of benignant compliance
with the wishes of graceful ladies. I do not doubt
that this picture will meet Your Highness's ap-
probation.'
The Archduke took a pinch of snuff, turned to
the window and highly admired the view of the
valley. He knew the Count quite as well, as the
Count knew him.
In Baron Palocsay and Count Festetics, we have
two remarkably different types of the old Hunga-
rian peers; of whom unfortunately none have
survived. I may say "unfortunately," as they
were not distinguished by their eccentricities alone.
In the neighbourhood of Baron Palocsay's residence,
wherever a misfortune happened, whether by disease,
fire, or murrain, the old Lord's munificence was
immediately exercised. Count Festetics still more
grandly manifested his noble generosity and supe-
rior tastes. On his estate Keszthely, he founded
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MEMOIRS OF
an institution, the Georgicon, for all branches of
rural economy.
This establishment, of first-rate
importance to an agricultural country, like Hungary,
was also highly prized in Germany. He admired,
studied, and supported science and its scholars, while
he himself was well worthy to rank amongst them.
In such a Mæcenas, peculiar whims may not only be
pardoned, but may be readily allowed as a privilege
due to genuine originality.
While commenting on specimens of by-gone
peculiarity, we have been unconsciously led from
the colder regions, southwards, to the borders of
the Balaton. We return to the north to view its
towns, which are in general better built and
include a more industrious activity, than the
village-like boroughs of the fertile south. In those
upper parts Kassa (Kaschau), is the largest and
prettiest city. It is the chief-place of the county
of Abaúj, and has a beautiful dome, finished by
Matthias Corvinus, the finest of the very few monu-
ments of Gothic architecture in Hungary.
Next to Abaúj is the County of Zemplény, rich
with verdant dales, often submerged by the Tisza,
(Theiss). With the splendid hills of the Hegyalja,
where grows the well-known Tokaj, it may be
accounted the region of the most excellent vineyards
in Hungary.
That wine has its name from the
borough, Tokaj, where the Princes of Rákoczy had
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
95
their cellars; but the very best of it is not there,
nor, as it is believed abroad, is it produced in the
Royal vineyards of those vicinities, but we find it
in Szegi, Keresztúr and Maád (small places), on the
more carefully cultivated grounds of minor pro-
prietors.
The preparation of that liquor requires and
obtains the most anxious care. The vintage does
not begin till the last days of October, as the
sweetness of the delicious beverage, wholly native
to it, depends upon the full ripeness of the grapes,
of which a part aszu szollo, (dry grapes), shrivel up
into raisins on the vinestocks themselves, and are
squeezed to a pappy substance.
In this state they
are mixed with the must at the beginning of its
fermentation, and produce the exquisite wine.
Before the kingdom of Poland was dismembered,
and still later, before the prohibitive duties were
imposed on Russian leather in Austria and Hun-
gary-in consequence of which Russia greatly
increased the duties on Hungarian wine-the vine-
yards of the Hegyalja yielded large incomes. Since
then, many of the possessors in those neighbour-
hoods have been ruined.
Máad has not only the best wines, but is also the
central point of social attraction. Placed in a
lovely dale protected by hills, its climate is so mild,
that rural festivities are there often enjoyed late in
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MEMOIRS OF
autumn. I now remember, with the softened
melancholy which is called forth by the retrospect
on bygone joys and later sorrows, our gay enter-
tainment on the height of the Király.* On the
31st of October, 1845, we sat there, enjoying the
golden splendour of the transparent grapes, the
skin of which is so thin, that they cannot be trans-
ported without being broken. The rich garlands
of vine-branches, brilliant in autumnal magni-
ficence, wonderfully contrasted with the vague
outline of the wide view before us, which, covered
with the dazzling veil of a hazy atmosphere, gave
a dream-like aspect to the boundless plains on the
opposite banks of the Tisza.
<<0.
Next to us, all was life :-the vintagers, almost
as actively eating as gathering the grapes, and but
little checked by the presence of the gentlemen,
who diligently participated in both these occupa-
tions, and smoked no less diligently all the while,—
the ladies busy with preparations for the meal, con-
verting the wine-tubs into dinner-tables by covering
them with cloths, plates, knives, forks, tumblers,
and glasses, and transforming the smaller casks
into seats: the servants bustling and tumbling
about, with furs and shawls to be used as carpets :—
the vintagers' children lighting luxurious fires,
-
* 66 Király," signifies King, the height of this name is one of
the most renowned vineyards in Máad.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
97
supplied with wood profusely enough for a hundred
fire-places. All this offered gay scenes of careless
pleasure; but it was not until the dark-featured
and silver-haired Marczi (the renowned gipsy leader)
appeared with his band, and like a conjurer in a
fairy tale, poured forth his charms in strangely
expressive sounds, that the genii of joyful merri-
ment seemed to awake.
Grapes, pipes, cigars, dishes, cloaks, furs, and
wood,—everything was forgotten, and old and
young danced around in an ecstasy of delight. But
the whole effect changed again, as if by enchant-
ment; every face grew solemn, every heart swelled
with manifold emotions, when the national Rákóezy
March proudly resounded, modulating into the
softest expressions of grief at the reminiscences of
exalted glory. At these familiar tones I saw a stern
countenance bedewed with tears, which afterwards did
not change at the roar of the cannons, by which so
many dear to that patriotic and noble heart were
destroyed. Ujházy at that time enjoyed with us
all the blessings of patriarchal well-being; he is
now an exile, driven from the country he served so
well as civil governor of Komorn, and is wandering
with his family to a transatlantic shore; not to rest
his venerable head in quiet solitude, but to earn
his daily bread by labour, and to prepare a new
sphere of life for his numerous children.
VOL. I.
F
D
98
MEMOIRS OF
1
Cheerfully as the days of the vintage were spent,
the evenings did not prove less pleasant. The
whole society met at animated balls, where the
presence of many Poles was marked by the frequent
repetitions of their graceful mazurka.
Even unfavourable weather, which is a serious
calamity to the proprietors of vineyards, could not
greatly dim the gaiety of that season.
Bad as
often were the accommodations of large families,
with an unlimited number of visitors, people moved
freely to and fro, invited one another, smoked, talked,
and dined together, and thus, if not always amused,
certainly were never dejected.
But what dinner-parties, and social meetings of
all descriptions, are on the largest scale, no one
can know, who has not been witness to congre-
gations and county-elections.
As regards the congregations (county meetings)
which generally lasted a whole week, most of the
gentlemen came from their country seats to the
chief place of the county; the ladies gladly accom-
panied them, no less to see their acquaintances,
than to listen to the debates, which certainly may
be considered as first-rate practices for young
candidates aspiring to appear on the larger forum of
the Diet.
In such congregations it was that I first was
struck by the noble elasticity of the Hungarian
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
99
language, which was quite as capable of expressing
powerful thoughts of rigid logic, as to adapt itself
to individual colouring of manifold feelings. In its
character original, in its forms oriental, it is a
mother tongue without children. Thirty years ago
it was unfashionable in the drawing-rooms of Hun-
gary; but then German was as universal an accom-
plishment as French has been, and is still in southern
Germany.
The Empress Marie-Therese certainly contributed
as much as she could to the expulsion of every
national element, and to the introduction of foreign
ones. Hungarian and Protestant feeling and
expression were equally disliked and apprehended
by her. Whenever she could, she attracted not
only Hungarian aristocracy and wealth to Vienna,
but also formed mixed marriages between Protestant
Hungarians and Catholic Austrians; on which
occasions she always used her influence to decide
that the offspring of such unions must become
Catholics. Whenever a wealthy young Protestant
nobleman, of a more or less illustrious name, came
to Vienna, he was kindly greeted at court, and, if
possible, a wife was found for him. In what manner
this was managed may be exemplified by the mar-
riage of Mr. Cs-1.
This was a young man of moderate fortune, who
came for his amusement to Vienna, where several
F 2
100
MEMOIRS OF
persons soon proposed to him to present him at
court. He naturally accepted the offer. The
Empress noticed him, and he received an invitation
to the next ball at the palace. Unacquainted with
the society, the young man sat down in a corner of
the apartment to look at the dance, in which he
took no active part. The Empress approached him,
and asked why he did not dance, pointing out to
him a pretty maid of honour, ready to be engaged
as his partner. He complied with the command,
and conversed amiably with the young lady, when
the Empress again came up, and said: "I see he is
delighted with Miss M. I am highly pleased
it is so. I must assist his timidity, and propose
for him. I shall be the bride's mother, and in
time his first child's godmother. (Marie-Therese
spoke to every body, even to her minister, Prince
Kaunitz, in the third person; a familiar way, but
wholly unused now).
The young Hungarian, taken by surprise, did
not venture upon a contradiction, and accepted the
lady. The contract of marriage was signed in the
Imperial presence, and contained the condition that
all the children of this union should be brought up
as Catholics.
The object which Marie-Therese partly attained
by female adroitness, her son, the Emperor Josef,
certainly frustrated in a great measure by the
...
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
101
·
violence, with which he attempted to overthrow the
Hungarian constitution, and to enforce on that
country the German language. No doubt this
called forth the steady resistance which marked the
Diets of 1790 and 1792, in the same way as the
attempt of Emperor Francis to destroy the Hun-
garian constitution, gave birth to the conscious-
ness of national strength, which has been so
rapidly and grandly developed in every direction
of Hungarian life within these last twenty years.
At present it is considered in Hungary, if not
a shame, at least a deficiency in a son or daughter
of that country not to speak its beautiful language,
the accents of which act so powerfully on a people
of poetical feelings and Oriental imagination. This
was obvious at the county and parliamentary elec-
tions.
When the period of the elections approached, the
whole of the nobility were in permanent agitation.
The parties were assembled by their leaders. A
ball, a sport, a birth-day, served as pretext, and
whilst the younger gentlemen amused themselves,
the elder ones sat together, calculating on the
chances and probabilities of success. The number
of votes were enumerated, to be gained by influence
or money. A calculation of the expense was made,
and a subscription opened to obtain the funds. Then
began diplomatic arrangements to unite different
102
MEMOIRS OF
1
interests, so as to satisfy the ambition of several
candidates of the same party. At last the whole
campaign was sketched in bold outline.
At dinner, where the whole party met, commonly
from one hundred to three hundred persons, the
result of the conference was published in a toast.
The health of the candidates of that party was
proposed, and the names of the members of the
leading committee read aloud, from whom all the
rest of the party had to receive directions. After
dinner, a particular district was assigned to every
influential and active young man, who was sent
thither, supplied with money, and especially with a
standard, bearing the colours of the candidate. At
the same time the distinctive colour of the party
was chosen, and put upon the hats. It was, how-
ever, habitual with one party to wear the green
branch; with their opponents the cock's feather;
or a white feather for the Liberals, a black one
for the Conservatives. At other times it was a
tri-colored ostrich feather, in contrast with a red
one, or a bunch of foliage, in contrast with the pine-
branch.
-
A task of particular consequence was to get first-
rate music-bands and well-turned verses for the
occasion. On the "Kortes," or peasant free-
holders (nobiles), who had votes equal to all other
freeholders, nothing, except plenty of excellent
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
103
MARB
wines, produced so deep an impression as good
music.
It was not a rare incident for a candidate to
lose votes in consequence of the greater talent
of the gypsies of his rival.
In all villages, where great numbers of peasant-
nobles dwelt-who certainly were not morally im-
proved by elections, the party-standard was
exhibited every Sunday and holiday. The voters
assembled, the bands fiddled, the big-bellied wine-
casks were pricked, and dancing and feasting,
intermixed with roaring "Eljen's," (hurrahs!) ac-
companied the speeches that were delivered in
honour of the candidate, commending his merits
and promises, and not without a good share of
abuse of the other party.
The candidates were usually obliged once to
make a tour through all the places, where they
expected to find voters for them. With these they
had to fraternize, by talking, drinking, smoking,
and dancing. The candidates' friends, however,
had still oftener to undergo these tributary
pleasures.
The last days, previously to the election, were
the most harassing. The money devoted to the
purpose, was almost always by that time consumed;
more was wanted, the pretensions of the voters
increased. Innumerable manœuvres were now
104
MEMOIRS OF
S
tried, to gain over the opposing voters, or at least,
to secure their neutrality by persuading them
not to come to the election. As in most counties
the number of voters amounted from 1,000 to 5,000,
it may easily be conceived on what a scale of
magnitude intrigues were carried on, and how
much money was lavished. But the head-quarters
-the candidates' own houses, or the abode of
some self-sacrificing friend,-were crowded above
all description. Visits, letters, summonses, poli-
tical inquiries, communications of assumed im-
portance, left to the temporary party-idol neither
peace nor rest. Carriages came and went all day
long, and processions of Kortes with standards and
music appeared in the court.
All these were to be provided for, to be treated
with amiable courteousness, and to be satisfied in
one way or other, without the candidate committing
himself to any one too positive promise. Dancing
was again of great moment; the ladies of the
house often could not refuse a partner in the
form of an influential Kortes leader. The whole
household was disturbed by these merry celebrations
of party-excitement; for when the gay crowd
approached, with the gipsies in their rear, there
was no keeping any one back; the cook and kitchen-
maids left the hearth, with their spits and pans.
in their hands; the housemaids, the rooms, with
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
105
the shovel and broom; the footman, the threshold,
with his master's boots; the butler, the dining-hall,
with plates and spoons; the oven-heater the chim-
ney, with the fire-tongs; and all joined with their
distinctive trophies in the general amusement. At
last came the eve of election.
The voters in carriages, or on horseback, always
headed by the leading young gentleman, filed, with
hundreds of high-flowing standards, and loud
musical and unmusical noises, to the County-House,
where the election was to be held. Adjacent to
this, covered and uncovered spaces had already
been retained for the convenience of the voters,
where the whole night through they feasted,
smoked, sang and danced. However, they were
strictly guarded by the police of each party,
anxious to prevent any such collision as might
occasion disputes or blows, and equally careful
that none should be induced to desert his ranks,
for which end no bribery was spared from the
emissaries of the enemy's camp.
On the following morning, all made their
entrance into the County-House; the Lord-Lieute-
The can-
nant's speeches were little attended to.
didates' names were proclaimed by thousands
amid the shouts of other thousands, and the poll
began. It was the custom for each party to vote
in separate courts, in order to prevent confusion
F 3
106
MEMOIRS OF
1
and possible conflicts; as a security against which,
soldiers were placed between them. Yet this
measure was always highly disapproved of by the
public, who thought it an unnecessary intrusion
to interpose a military force, though only for show,
in their civil concerns.
But exasperated as these parties often were,
before the votes were given, the passions soon
subsided, when the majority had sealed the fate
of the candidates. If but few votes decided it,
then, it is true, a bitter excitement survived for
several months, on the side of the defeated party.
Some challenges and duels too, ensued, which
however, never were dangerous, and always ended
in perfect reconciliation.
As such elections regularly took place every third
year, they naturally formed one of the most frequent
and animated topics of conversation, and were to
the young ladies and gentlemen, who were regard-
less of party-feeling, of the greatest interest, as no
other year was so brilliant with parties and amuse-
ments of all kinds, as those which were enlivened
by these contests.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
107
CHAPTER IV.
VIENNA IN THE SUMMER O 1848.
I GREW so fond of Hungarian country life, that
I seldom abandoned it to visit Pest, still more
rarely to undertake the longer journey to Vienna.
There, nevertheless, I chanced to be in the winter
of 1848, just when everybody was thunderstruck
by the tidings of the February revolution, that
had taken place at Paris.
My husband was at the time at Pressburg
with several of his friends, who were deputies in
the Diet. He returned to Vienna on the 1st of
March; I received him with the news, that a
revolution had broken out in Paris; he answered
quietly: "I know: Thiers, and Odillon Barrot
are the ministers of the regency."
!
108
MEMOIRS OF
I replied "No, a republic has been proclaimed,
and a Provisional Government established; what
do you say to this?"
He replied: "Next autumn our fields will no
more be tilled by soccage; feudal institutions will
disappear in Europe."
He spoke to the same effect with several per-
sons; but in Vienna, the reasoning was considered
eccentric.
I well remember an evening that we spent at
the house of the late governor of Galicia, with
the brother of one who has since been Minister.
The French news formed the topic of conversa-
tion. The gentlemen expressed their apprehension
that France would attack the monarchies of Europe.
My husband thought, that there was no chance of
this; that France would keep within her own
limits; but that in Germany the thrones and the
public peace were likely to be threatened. None
of the persons then present gave credit to those
words; a few days afterwards, a considerable
excitement was observable in Vienna itself. Messrs.
Schmerling and Bach, Barons Dobblhof and Stifft,
Counts Breuner and Montecucculi, Professors
Hye and Endlicher, with others who have all
since been ministers, or have held other high
places in the Government, all loudly avowed
their disapprobation of Prince Metternich's system.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
109
The Arch-Duchess Sophia, it was publicly asserted,
favoured the liberal views of an Opposition, which,
hardly noticed before, all at once appeared as a
moral power.
The recent French revolution seemed to have
dispelled all fear of the secret police; and the
moment that people dared to express their opinions,
it was obvious that the greater number of all classes
were deeply averse to Metternich's depressive
policy. Kossuth's speech in the Hungarian Diet,
on the 4th of March, in which he openly declared
that the Hungarian constitution never could be
secure from the stabs of Austrian policy, until
all the provinces of Austria should likewise enjoy
constitutional guarantees, fell like a kindling spark
into the already agitated minds of the Viennese.
Business recalled us home. We left Vienna the
9th of March, still without the least anticipation of
what the ensuing days were to bring about.
On the 17th, my husband had to settle some
affairs at Pest, relative to our estate. On the
evening of the 16th, a person coming from Pest,
spread in our borough the report of an insurrection
in Vienna, of a general agitation at Pest; mani-
fested by crowds of people carrying banners in
the streets. This was enough to hasten my hus-
band's departure. At Pest he heard of the
revolution which took place in Vienna on the
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MEMOIRS OF
13th of March; of Metternich's fall and flight;
of the deputation from the Hungarian Diet to
the Emperor, and its arrival in Vienna on the
15th; of the concessions granted in principle to
this deputation.
In Pest itself a national guard was established,
and the censorship of the press was de facto abolished,
A great political agitation reigned throughout the
whole city. A committee governed the town, and
became the medium of understanding with the autho-
rities. The national guards were actively drilled.
In every street crowds were to be seen discussing
political subjects, especially as to the emancipation
of the Jews, and whether they should be received
into the national guards. The German population
were inimical to them, but the Hungarians had
no such feeling; and, on the whole, the great
majority of the younger men were favourable to
their absolute emancipation.
This question at first created more excitement
than any other. Suddenly the public interest
took a different turn. The Diet at Presburg had
meanwhile steadily continued its labours, without
being overpowered by the all-agitating commotion.
In it the laws for the press were discussed, on
the same principles as had been proposed previous
to the revolution at Paris. It was intended to
retain the system of deposits, and allow a jury
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
111
as
1
to assess severe penalties when they seemed to be
deserved. At Pest these penalties were deemed
excessive, and the difficulties that impeded the
daily press, too numerous. And this was felt
the more, that the Austrian provisional law
of the press, which had appeared at this same
period, though certainly more liberal, had, in
Vienna, been publicly torn by the students;
upon which it was revoked by the government,
in alarm at this display of public feeling.
My husband was sent with a petition from
the inhabitants of Pest to Pressburg, where he
carried through the modification of the laws for
the press.
At the same time Count Louis
Batthyányi, (then already named Prime-Minister,
and entrusted by the Emperor with the forma-
tion of a cabinet), learned from him the particu-
lars of the agitation at Pest. In consequence of
this the Palatine* (Archduke Stephen, cousin of
* The dignity of Palatine is as old as the Hungarian constitu-
tion itself, and cannot be compared to any of the dignities
established in other countries. The Palatine is elected by the
Diet for life. He is the President of the House of Peers, Captain-
General of the country, President of the "Hétszemelycs Tabla,”
(King's Bench,) and of the "Helytartó Tanács" (Home Office),
Count and Captain of the Jazygs and Cumans, and Lord-Lieu-
tenant of the county of Pest. If a difference arose between
the king and the realm (inter regem et regnum), the Palatine
was, according to the law, the mediator. If the King was a
1
112
MEMOIRS OF
the Emperor), was led to take measures for the
maintenance of order.
In expectation of the new ministry, the old
central authorities were no longer generally attended
to: yet their successors could not actually enter
office till the King had given his sanction to
the laws which, according to precedent, was
granted only at the close of the Diet. The Pala-
tine, therefore, granted a Provisional Commission,
entrusted with civil and military power, to uphold
security over the country, till the ministry should
be constituted, and step into its place.
The Members of the Commission were: Gabriel
Klauzál, (afterwards Minister of Trade); Bertalan
Szemere (under Batthyányi, Minister of Home
Affairs; and, subsequently, when Kossuth was
governor, Prime Minister); my husband, and Paul
Nyáry. This last, however, could not act, for
as Al-Ispány, (sheriff), of the County of Pest,
he was more than sufficiently occupied in his large
district, with executing the decisions of the trustees.
minor, the Palatine was his guardian. If the King failed to
convoke the Diet, it was the Palatine's duty to do it. In short, the
"Palatine was to be the Warden of the Hungarian Constitution;
hence, as often as the Viennese Government attacked the
Constitution, it always began by leaving the dignity of Palatine
unfilled. Thus was it under Rudolf and Leopold I, thus
under Maria-Therese, under Emperor Joseph, and, behold! in
1848 again.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
113
He, nevertheless, often assisted at their meetings;
and so did Ladislas Csányi, the highly-respected
friend of all those gentlemen.
In how short a period have they all been
overtaken by misfortunes. The first, confined to
a bed of sickness, two exiled, one imprisoned;
the last, as a martyr on the gallows, dying as he
had lived, true to his fatherland and his principles.
His name, in spite of all hired caluminators, will
rank amongst the noblest sufferers for truth and
freedom.
In the month of May, my husband was appointed
Under Secretary of State in Vienna. Prince Paul
Eszterházy was his chief in the ministry, which
was appointed to mediate between the Hungarian
and Austrian ministerial councils.*
But in spite of the continual changes, both of
persons and of principles, in the Austrian ministry;
in spite of the obvious and undeniable fact, that the
Government in Vienna was subjected to numberless
influences, from the "Committee of Safety," from
the students, and from every agitator, who in turn
excited the public mind;-yet the Austrian mi-
nisters assumed a tone of high superiority toward
the ministry of Hungary. To the Hungarian com-
munications they always replied evasively. When
* See Note at the end of this chapter.
114
MEMOIRS OF
1.
CREATE T
.
a commission met, composed of members of the
two ministries, the Austrian member invariably
declared, that he had no instruction but to receive.
the Hungarian proposal, and could not decide on
anything. If, on the contrary, the Austrian mi-
nistry thought that it had any cause of complaint,
then, without any previous notification to Pest,
it had long articles on the subject inserted in its
papers, and by means of its adherents in the Diet,
who put leading questions to the ministers, it
gained opportunities of so replying, as to damage
the Hungarians. While in personal intercourse
showing prompt civility to the Hungarians, the
Austrian ministers still secretly supported the
deputations of the Serbs, Wallachs, Croats and
Transylvanian Saxons, in fact, of all who sought
to annoy or disobey the Hungarian ministry. At
first, it is true, the Court seemed to enter into
the newly adopted system, and willingly to establish
the Austrian monarchy on federative principles.
According to these, the counties belonging to the
Hungarian crown, were to have their independent
ministry, and their own separate responsibility for
Finance and War; the Austrian portion was to
be administered by Austrians, and the third di-
vision, the Italian provinces, by a national ministry
of their own.
Apparently in accordance with these principles,
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
115
Jellachich, who in April had been instigated against
the Hungarians, was in June officially disarmed.
Moreover, Archduke John himself declared to the
English Ambassador, Lord Ponsonby, that the
Emperor was ready to grant to the Lombards their
national independence, and a federative consti-
tution to the Venetians. But two things inter-
fered with this scheme, the execution of which
would probably have prevented two bloody wars,
incalculable calamities, and the moral failure of
the Austrian monarchy. The two things were—
the Austrian debt, and the esprit de corps of the
Austrian officers.
The German provinces, for which alone the
Austrian debt had been contracted, feared the whole
of its weight would fall upon them. Hungary
had always protested, through its constitutional
organs, against the reckless mismanagement of the
Imperial finances, and had not partaken in the
benefits of the loan. Never had a road, a school,
or any institution been established in Hungary,
from the funds of the Government; nor had the
Hungarian Diet ever sanctioned the Austrian loans;
on the contrary, it had repeatedly protested against
them. Lombardy also, and Venice, had shared but
little in the benefits of these loans: in fact, only in
1815 had these two provinces been joined to
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MEMOIRS OF
Austria; and, being rich themselves, they did not
want any support from the central government.
Instead of a wise attempt to settle these ques-
tions by amicable agreement, the Exchange im-
patiently pressed the Ministry to force Hungary
into union with the Central Power, and not to
abandon its sway over Milan. The high officers
of the army stuck to the interests of their position ;
well aware of the difference of their personal con-
sequence in a constitutional realm, and in an
absolute one. They wanted war, in order to re-
gain their power, and to be revenged on the
civilians, who had deposed them from a supremacy,
to which, as they deemed, they had themselves a
right.
Field-Marshal Radetzky, Chief Commander of
the Italian army, refused to obey the orders of
the Emperor to negociate an armistice. He chose
rather to expose the monarchy to dangerous chances.
in
LAL
Lay
Much the same did Jellachich, and still more de-
fyingly, from April till September, oppose himself
to the Imperial command, under the pretence of
saving the throne. But Radetzky, at Custozza,
gained the victory, not over Carlo Alberto only,
and Italian independence, but also over the unity
of Germany, over constitutionalism in Austria, and
over its tranquil growth in Hungary. From the
!.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
117
date of that victory, the tone of the Viennese Ca-
binet decidedly changed. Reaction began every-
where; and so much the more, as the monstrous
June insurrection at Paris had excited distrustful
apprehension in all Europe amongst the holders
of property. General Cavaignac, at Paris, then
set the first example of a permanent state of siege.
This suggested to the terrified Governments the
possibility of uniting despotic and exceptional
measures with constitutional forms. The disciples
have certainly far surpassed their master. We see
the theory of a state of siege now become a
practical perpetuity in Hungary. In that unhappy
country, all law, civil and criminal, is considered
void, and everything is administered according to
the arbitrary pleasure of Generals, who have con-
quered for themselves as well as for Austria.
At the moment when the fortune of the Italian
army turned, and the views of the Austrian Court
and Ministry turned with it, we were residing in
Penzing, (a borough where many Viennese have
summer abodes), in the immediate neighbourhood
of the Imperial pleasure-grounds of Schönbrunn.
I read and wrote, and the children played, until
dinner-time, in the garden adjoining our house,
whilst my husband was occupied with public busi-
ness in town, whence Penzing was distant only two
miles. At five o'clock he regularly came home,
118
MEMOIRS OF
·
3
1
A
sometimes with friends whom he had invited to
dinner. Most of these gentlemen were officers in
the Hungarian Ministry, and resident in Vienna.
Occasionally, whenever they happened to be in
Vienna, there came likewise one or other of the
Hungarian Ministers, as Count Louis Batthyányi,
Baron Eötvös and Francis Deak. The latter,
Minister of Justice, was the personification of
logical equity and dispassionate virtue. I re-
member that all these distinguished men freely
expressed the deepest sorrow that no longer could
any doubt be entertained as to the intention of
the Court and the German Ministers, not merely
to repeal the laws and reforms of the last Hun-
garian Diet, but likewise to overthrow the ancient
constitution and legal independence of Hungary.
Except the friends of my youth, we had few
German visitors. Although the very same dangers
threatened the recent institutions of Austria, which
were insidiously undermining the free Hungarian
constitution, yet the leading men of Hungary and
Vienna remained personally strange to one another.
The movement in Hungary bore a markedly distinct
character from the agitation in Vienna and the
provinces; and, in fact, the principles of the leaders
in that country decidedly differed from the ruling
notions of the Viennese.
In Hungary everything had the aspect of steady
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
119
development. The Opposition had stepped into
Government, and was pursuing the achievement of
its well-known plans, so often expressed in the
Diets, in the county meetings, and by the press.
The French Revolution had occasioned no alterations
in the programme of the Liberals. The cessation
of soccage only, and the utter abolishment of the
feudal system, were accelerated. But none of the
leaders had the least intention to overthrow the
ancient institutions of the country. No plots arose
against the House of Peers; not even did new
political personages supplant the old ones. Not-
withstanding that the elective franchise had been
greatly extended, the same men were elected as
deputies, who had previously been known as
members of Parliament, or as leaders in the Con-
gregations. In Hungary the events of March
raised into power new principles, but no new order
of society. In Austria, on
In Austria, on the contrary, all
development of political thought had been sup-
pressed under Metternich; hence, when the com-
motion broke out, there was nobody to give a
reasonable and practical direction to the enthusiasm
of the people.
The few men known in the preceding period as
Oppositionists, most of them retired civil officers;
and officers of Metternich's time-the Wessenbergs,
Pillersdorfs, Stadions, Schmerlings, Dobblhofs,
120
MEMOIRS OF
Bachs, and Stiffts-formed, in fact, no other con-
ception than that of liberal absolutism-" centraliza-
tion and the reign of a refined bureaucracy." Ere
long, they got at the helm of affairs. The kind-
heartedness of Pillersdorf and Dobblhof soon
subjected them to the sway of every public and
partial agitation. Bach and Wessenberg, however,
attached themselves to the military party, expecting
to find in the superior officers what was wanting in
the bureaucrats, depressed by Metternich's system,
namely, energy, active intelligence, and subordi-
nation. Whilst Pillersdorf, by the aid of the
theorist, Hok, was remoulding the Belgian consti-
tution, to adapt it to Austria, and Dobblhof, with
his vague optimism, had not even succeeded in
giving shape to his ideas, Bach had invented some
easily current expressions, with which he allured
the mass of the public, until the time should
come when he could unfold his real plans. The
most effectual of those expressions were: "Die
Gleichberechtigung aller Nationalitäten," (the equa-
lity of rights of all nationalities); and, "Das demo-
cratische Kaiserthum auf der breitesten Basis," (the
democratic empire on the largest basis). By the
first of these phrases, the Sclavonic, by the second the
German revolutionary party was attracted towards
the ministry; at the same time, both of these
phrases were directed against the independent
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
121
kingdom of Hungary. Prince Metternich had
already steadily tried to use the Croats as a poli-
tical counter-balance against the Hungarians. This,
added to Russian machinations, and Polish fan-
tasies, (which, though arising from different views,
yet tended to the same end), rapidly spread the
idea of "Panslavism," (the political union of all
Sclavonians). In consequence of this, when in March
the old Austrian system fell to pieces, all the Scla-
vonians, Croats as well as Bohemians, trusted that
Austria could only be reconstructed as a Sclavonic
power. They relied upon their numerical strength,
neglecting to observe that the majority of their number
were in civilization, wealth, and political consequence,
inferior to the other races, and on this account,
could not yet attain political ascendancy. The
ministry gave the most brilliant promises to Jel-
lachich and his Croats, to Rajacsics and his Serbs,
no less than to the Bohemians. All these believed
Bach and his followers to be as enthusiastic for
the Sclavonic cause as they were themselves.
It is one result of the long prostration, which, at
least in Austria and Hungary,* this manifold race
has suffered, that it has no national aristocracy.
* When I speak of the Sclavonic races in Austria and Hungary,
I never mean to include the Poles, who had developed, and have
preserved as distinct a nationality, both political and literary, as
any of the more fortunate European nations.
VOL. I.
G
122
MEMOIRS OF
In consequence, the Sclaves or Sclavonians became
the most passionate democrats. They hated aristo-
cracy, and objected to the institution of a House of
Peers, well aware that in Austria all the Peers would
necessarily be Germans. On that point they were
supported by the German democrats, whose aversion.
to aristocracy was so predominant, that it made them
forgetful of the German question itself, and also
kept them estranged from the Hungarians, because
these were not willing to destroy nobility. Under
the guidance of such notions, the Viennese Diet
presented a strange aspect. Not a single military
officer had been elected; the aristocracy occupied
hardly any place there, the Galicians alone had
sent several titled nobles; few lawyers were seen
on the parliamentary benches; some higher civil
officers, no banker, no rich merchant, and only a
few first-rate manufacturers: But for contrast,
many peasants, who neither could write nor read
from Galicia and the Bukovina, all more or less.
tools of Count Stadion.*
There were several pro-
* Count Francis Stadion had been Governor of Trieste, after-
wards of Galicia. In both places he had expressed liberal
opinions, and had opposed the policy of Prince Metternich; but
had, nevertheless, proved tenaciously bent upon the theories he
had adopted. In May, 1848, Count Stadion resigned his position
of Governor in Galicia, and was there elected deputy for the
Viennese Parliament. In November, after the Viennese Revolu-
tion, he was appointed Minister of the Interior, and planned the
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
123
fessors, a good many physicians, subordinate civil
officers, and young men who had no definite
vocation. The whole exhibited a picture of the
discordant state of the monarchy. Count Stadion
with his peasants, who did not understand Ger-
man, but voted nevertheless, attracted one by one
the ambitious members of the Assembly, as they
considered him the future minister. Rieger, a most
influential man among the Sclavonic Bohemians,
(Csech), together with his whole party, supported the
ministry, in spite of theoretical liberalism, and even
republicanism. But forms of government were with
them secondary to questions of race. Their first
aim was to turn Austria into a Sclavonic empire, in
which the ruling majorities and ruling characters
should be Sclavonic. They were joined by the Polish
factions of Prince Lubomirski and Count Potocki,
who were so absorbed in the vision of a great
Panslavic state, as utterly to forget Polish nation-
ality. On the contrary, Count Borkowski, Siera-
kowski, and their friends, wanted to remain Poles.
These were pretty good constitutionalists, but not
Constitution of the 4th of March, 1849, designed to be the basis
of centralized Austria. Subsequently he opposed the Russian
intervention (which the Minister Bach, particularly supported),
and soon afterwards became insane. The title of Minister was
still granted to him, in spite of his hopeless state, on account
of which he was conveyed to Gräfenberg.
G 2
124.
MEMOIRS OF
the best Austrians. The physician Löhner, and
the bookseller, Borrosch, were, I think, the noblest
characters in the Viennese Diet; but both, unfortu-
nately, great theorists. Never having had experience
in practical life, they proved incompetent to form a
considerable party. Disinterested enthusiasts, and
well-meaning dreamers in politics, alone rallied
around them. Schuselka afterwards joined them,
a man neither profound nor unpretending, but on
this very account rather the more influential over
his more modest friends. Before the Diet was
constituted, Drs. Fischof and Goldmark, both
physicians, and both by birth Hungarian Jews, also
a third Hungarian born, Dr. Freund, by their
eloquence and activity, were become popular names
in the Committee of Safety. The two first, how-
ever, never attained any marked authority in the
Diet, and the last was fully engrossed by the
Gemeinde-Rath (Common Council). More pro-
minent than these was Dr. Tausenau, who by his
uncommon eloquence acquired in September con-
siderable influence in Vienna.
We had acquaintance with but very few of these
gentlemen. My husband had little trust in the
stability of the Viennese affairs, and often lamented
the unpractical aims of the leading men. Tausenau
he had never seen in Vienna, but first made his
personal acquaintance in Presburg, at the end of
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
125
October. Of the others, he sometimes saw Count
Stadion, Fischof, Goldmark and Freund. Löhner
dined once with us. In spite of this, the adherents
of Bach-(when the ministry threw off the mask,
and declared their enmity to Hungary)-busily as-
serted, that my husband had originated the Viennese
Opposition. The whole fact was, that he had once
communicated to Löhner some documents, which
proved that the Austrian ministry supported the
Croats against Hungary.
If a practically energetic man had been allowed
to lead the Opposition in the Viennese Diet, they
would not have wasted months in discussing theore-
tically fundamental rights, but would have examined
forthwith the state of the finances. Hereby the
Government would have been compelled to a course,
not conducive to war and military rule, but to
peace, reform, and a sound system of economy.
But the Viennese were misled by the example of
the Frankfort parliament. Here, as there, funda-
mental rights were brought forward; the seat of
the practical legislator was turned into a professor's
chair, from which lectures were delivered, concern-
ing maxims of state, and laws of nature. The
fruit of it all has been a series of dissertations
on the rights of mankind, followed by their prac-
tical commentary,-military dictatorship, a per-
manent state of siege, and courts-martial.
126
MEMOIRS OF
+
1
Whilst we lived retired at Penzing, we but
seldom drove to evening parties in Vienna; and
there we met only our friends and acquaintances of
old date. Meanwhile, the communications between
the Hungarian and Austrian Ministers became more
and more uneasy. The language of the Austrian
Ministers daily assumed a more imperative tone.
And when my husband, by the order of the Hun-
garian ministry, renewed in August his attempts
at conciliation, Baron Dobblhof, then Minister
of the Home Affairs, told him: "that the Austrian
Ministers were just then preparing an official
document, in which they would so fully clear up
their relation to Hungary, as to enable the Diet
to form a correct view on the subject." My
husband naturally requested the communication of
this document, previous to its publication, in case
incorrect data should happen to slip in, which
it might be desirable for him to point out.
Baron Dobblhof promised to communicate it, but
kept his word as little as Baron Wessenberg,
who had promised the same to Prince Eszter-
hazy. On that occasion, the conversation naturally
turned on the relation of Hungary to Austria,
and on the basis of the future stability of the
Monarchy. Dobblhof philosophically observed :
"Hungary must be in the same relation to
Austria, as the German Austria must be to Ger-
--
:
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
127
many." My husband related to me, with a smile,
this delicate philosophy of the Home Secretary.
With the well-known honesty of Baron Dobblhof,
it was not to be presumed that he acted a diplomatic
part, with the aim of deceiving the Hungarian mi-
nistry. In fact, that could not possibly have led to
any end.
Therefore, it seems, that in August,
Baron Dobblhof was not yet initiated into the
plans formed by Bach, Latour, and Wessenberg,
aided by the military party. These three alone
were the ministers connected with the court. Baron
Dobblhof, though officially entrusted with the
Home Affairs, Mr. Schwarzer, with the Public
Works; Hornbostel, with Trade-were ministers
merely in name. They had no direct intercourse
with the Court, and the other members of the
Cabinet just used them or dropped them at plea-
sure. Baron Kraus, on the other hand, the
Minister of Finance, was so fully occupied with
the financial embarrassments, that he did not
take part in the details of the political intrigues.
At this time the Hungarian Diet had unani-
mously voted a large recruitment in the country,
and the budget for 1848 and 1849. The Diet had
been convoked so early as the 2nd of July, for the
purpose, as said by the Royal speech (which the Arch-
duke Stephen read in the King's stead) of enabling
the Government to crush the insurrection of the
128
MEMOIRS OF
Serbs in the Banat and the Bacska, and to confront
the threatening posture of Croatia. The ministers,
Count Louis Batthyányi and Francis Deák, came
in the last days of August to Vienna, with these
Bills, to get them sanctioned by the King. He
received them according to his wont, and told them
to apply to Count Latour, who would communicate
to them His Majesty's views. When they addressed
themselves to the Count, he replied, that if the
Hungarian ministers wanted anything of his Cabinet,
they should apply to Baron Wessenberg, the Prime
Minister. Count Batthyányi proudly answered,
that he wanted nothing of the Cabinet; but by the
order of the Emperor-King he had applied to Count
Latour, from whom he solicited no advice, but
simply the communication of his Majesty's views.
To this note, Count Latour made no reply what-
ever, nor did the Emperor deign any further
answer to reiterated applications. But suddenly
a courier from Fiume brought the tidings that
the Croats of Jellachich, on the 1st of September,
had occupied that town and its free-port, in the
name of the Emperor of Austria and King of
Croatia; that they had established new authorities
and had driven away the Governor, and the officers
whom the Emperor, as King of Hungary, had
himself appointed. Almost simultaneously Klauzál,
the Hungarian Minister of Trade, wrote from Pesth
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
129
to the Prime Minister, Count Louis Batthyányi,
then at Vienna; that with an autograph letter, the
Emperor had sent to the Archduke Stephen a
long official document of the Austrian Ministers,
in which they tried to prove, that the King had not
had the right to grant to the Hungarians a ministry
of their own; and at last had arrived at the con-
clusion, that the finances of Hungary, its army,
and the administration of the military frontier,
must be committed to the Austrian Ministries of
Finance and War." The Emperor observed, in
his autograph letter, that he agreed in his Austrian
ministers' opinions.
To the Archduke Stephen, a document so utterly
unconstitutional in its conception seemed embarrass-
ing. The Austrian ministers obviously had availed
themselves of the Emperor's condition of mind to
persuade him, by their partial representations, to
sign the document, without listening to the Hunga-
rian Ministers; and therefore, without understanding
the rights of the Hungarians, or the real state of
things. But what should be done with it? was
the great question. The King being personally
irresponsible, certainly cannot send to the Diet a
message not countersigned by a responsible
minister, and directly impugning the legitimate
authority of the Crown. For in this message, the
King expressed himself that "he had not had
G 3
130
MEMOIRS OF
the right to sanction the propositions of the Hun-
garian Diet!" What then is the authority, su-
perior to the constitutional King? And what right
is higher than the Constitution? Where are the
treaties subordinating the Hungarian Diet to any
other power than the Constitution? If the King
is dissatisfied with his Ministry, he may dismiss it.
In that message, however, he found no fault with
it, nor yet with the Diet; but advanced an ob-
jection, which, if valid, overthrew the whole Hun-
garian Constitution. All these questions arose in
the conferences held on the subject of this strange
message. The Diet, however, resolved to follow the
most direct line, and to send a deputation, from
both houses, to Schönbrunn, openly to ask the
King, whether he recognized the laws of 1848 as
binding or not? They were also directed to specify
the points, in regard to which some definite
assurances from his Majesty were necessary to tran-
quillize the minds of the nation.
.
The deputation came to Vienna. The address.
that was to be made by the President of the Hun-
garian House of Deputies, was previously commu-
nicated to the Austrian Prime Minister, Wessenberg.
He proposed some modifications, which were ac-
cepted. Finally, he handed to the Hungarian
Ministers the reply which the King would give, and
which in spite of several evasive and unprecise ex-
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
131
pressions, was considered satisfactory, in so far as
the Sovereign once more declared, "that he would
sacredly preserve the laws he had sworn to, and the
integrity of Hungary." Thus all the deputies hoped
an understanding to be still possible.
On the 9th of September a solemn audience was
to be given them at Schönbrunn. Hundreds of
Viennese came there to see what was going on, as
the Hungarians had of course preserved silence as
to their transactions with Wessenberg. I likewise
walked over to Schönbrunn: for two days my hus-
band had almost always been absent from me. The
deputation had been appointed for eleven o'clock;
Count Batthyányi, who was to introduce it, paced
impatiently to and fro in the court of the residence.
No chamberlain appeared to lead him into the hall,
but the deputation also delayed. Not till one
o'clock did the long file of carriages arrive. But
instead of the brilliant national costume, every one
of the hundred deputies was clad in black; they all
appeared preoccupied, and agitated; for while they
were assembling in the hall of the Hungarian
Ministry to proceed to the Monarch, a newspaper
had arrived from Agram, in which Jellachich pub-
lished an autograph letter of the Emperor, dated the
4th of September, which reinstated him in all his
dignities and offices, approved his acts, and ex-
pressed the imperial satisfaction at his faithful
132
MEMOIRS OF
-
adherence to the throne. The deputation hardly
could believe this. How could the contents of this
letter be reconciled with the assurance, which in a
few moments the King was to reiterate to his
faithful Hungarians: "that he would sacredly pre-
serve the laws he had sworn to ?" So obvious a
contradiction was utterly incomprehensible. My
husband therefore instantly went with the news-
paper to Baron Wessenberg, whom he found con-
fined to bed; and asked whether this document
was authentic, and how, if it was so, it could be
reconciled with the royal answer to the deputation,
which the Baron himself had communicated to the
Hungarian ministers? Wessenberg assumed the
guise of great indignation, with such perfect ap-
pearance of truth, that it fully deceived my husband.
The Prime Minister assured him, that neither he
nor the Austrian Ministerial Council knew anything
about this autograph letter of the Emperor, that
certainly the Camarilla deceived the monarch, and
*
* On account of the well-known imbecility of the Emperor
Ferdinand, his uncle, Archduke Louis, had governed alone from
1834 until 1848; even Metternich's policy reigned only in ac-
cordance with the Archduke's views. When the Archduke was
obliged to leave Vienna in May 1848, the persons next to the
Emperor seized the reins of the Government, the more so, as all
those who surrounded him had no reliance in the Ministers
Pillersdorf, Dobblhof, &c., and likewise kept these gentlemen
distant from the Court. The Emperor's state of health was
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
133
?
would still occasion the greatest dangers to the
throne. Therefore no great importance should be
attached to the letter, which the Austrian ministry
disapproved.
always a sufficient excuse for every chamberlain to deny, even to
the Ministers, access to the Monarch. Hence, even the most
decisive measures were taken without the knowledge of the
Ministers: for example, the flight to Innspruck, on the evening
of the 16th of May, was communicated only the ensuing morning
by the First Lady of the Bedchamber to the Prime Minister,
Baron Pillersdorf. The restoration of Jellachich to all his dig-
nities was, by the voice of the public, attributed to the Arch-
duchess Sophia. That the Emperor was always in bondage to
such influences, was known by every one, and the "Camarilla"
(back-stairs cabinet) excited general disapprobation. But it
would give a false notion to imagine, that there were certain
persons, always the same, who, with definite design and conse-
quence, planned and carried through reactionary plots; on the
contrary, those who just chanced to be at Court gained influence.
The best influence was exercised by Archduke John, but he soon
left for Frankfort. When Archduke Stephen and the Hungarian
Ministers came to Court, they found compliance with their pro-
positions, although reluctantly. Jellachich, no doubt, was received
more favourably. The energy of the Archduchess Sophia certainly
acted most powerfully, and no less the idea of those, who incessantly
surrounded the Emperor, as the aides-de-camp and the chamber-
lains. The views often expressed by officers, who came from the
Italian army with despatches, likewise did not fail of effect; but
for the most part the Ministers Wessenberg and Latour, in the
last instance decided. The Empress Mariana, wife of Emperor
Ferdinand, took no part in these intrigues; pious and retired in
her manner of life, she only cared for the Emperor's health.
134
MEMOIRS OF
The Hungarians at once discerned that the
annihilation of their independence was aimed at.
This was obvious. Wessenberg had denied his
acquiescence in the document, but had not doubted
its authenticity. The reply, therefore, which the
King was presently to give to the deputation, could
only be considered as a deceitful comedy. It was
proposed by some not to go at all to Schönbrunn.
The majority however decided, that the ceremony
was to be gone through; though not one could
cherish the illusion, that it was not utterly void of
meaning.
At one o'clock the deputation went to the hall of
audience, where the Hungarian noble guard was in
attendance. The President of the Hungarian Diet,
Mr. Dionys Pázmándy, stepped forward and pro-
nounced the following speech:
"In the names of the United States of Hungary
and Transylvania, we appear before your Majesty.
With our constant loyalty, tried for centuries, we,
claim the support of our crowned King for the
inviolate preservation of the rights of the country.
same
"A Ferdinand was the first of your Majesty's
house, on whose brow Hungary placed voluntarily
its holy crown. Transylvania did the
for Leopold I. Hungary is not a conquered
province; it is a free country, whose constitu-
tional rights and independence your Majesty has
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
135
The
secured and sealed by the inaugural oath.
laws, which your Majesty on the 11th of April of
this year sanctioned with your benignant approba-
tion, only fulfilled the long-cherished wishes of the
Hungarian nation. With gratitude, and with a
vigour doubled by the extension of freedom, this
nation was ready, with unaltered attachment, to
shield the throne of your Majesty against the
dangers which from more than one side threatened
it.
"But now several parts of the kingdom are dis-
turbed by a rebellion, whose leaders plainly assert
that they rise in the interest of the reigning
house, and are rebels in your Majesty's name,
against the freedom and independence, which
your Majesty lawfully guaranteed to the Hungarian
nation.
"One part of the Hungarian army sheds its
blood in Italy, for the interests of the monarchy,
and reaps there, on every battle-field, laurels of
triumph; whilst another part of the same army is
being instigated to refuse obedience to the legal
government of the kingdom.
"This sedition in the lower parts of Hungary is
reducing peaceful villages to ashes, and causing the
massacre of innocent children and women in a more
than barbarous manner. At the same time, a
rebellion from Croatia threatens Hungary with
*
}
136
MEMOIRS OF
:
hostile invasion, and, without any cause, has
occupied the Hungarian port of Fiume, and the
Sclavonian counties. The moving power of these
seditions can be no other than the attempt of a
reactionary party to destroy the consistency and
integrity of Hungary, to annihilate the freedom of the
nation, and to cancel the laws sworn to by the ances-
tors of your Majesty and by your Majesty yourself.
"Called upon by your Majesty to provide for
the defence of the country, the Hungarian Diet
assembled two months ago. This Diet now requests
your Majesty to support it with the whole weight
of your sovereign authority in the grand task of
preserving the country unimpaired, which is identical
with the unimpaired preservation of the royal throne
itself.
"In consequence of this, we address to your
Majesty, in the name of the Hungarian nation, the
following request :
"1. That your Majesty will command all those
Hungarian regiments at present not opposed to
the enemy, to march to Hungary without delay,
there to fulfil their duty of defending the country
bravely and faithfully, according to the order of
the Hungarian ministry.
(C
2. That your Majesty will, by threatening the
forfeiture of your sovereign bounty, as also lawful
punishment, command the army which is already
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
137
in Hungary, punctually to fulfil its duty of de-
fending the country, and maintaining the rights of
the Hungarians against the seditious, whatever
standard and whatever name they may usurp.
"3. Whatever questions still remain undecided
between the Hungarian and Croatian nations con-
cerning nationality and administration, all these it
is the firm purpose of the Hungarian nation, in
this present Diet, to decide on the basis of equality,
fraternity, and freedom, as also in accordance with
the Constitution, which we possess in common.
Croatia is now subjected to military despotism, and
by this the citizens of that country are hindered
from laying their lawful desires before the Hun-
garian Diet. May your Majesty, therefore, set the
Croatian nation free from that despotism, and
command the immediate restoration of Fiume and
of the Sclavonic counties.
"4. The Hungarian nation entertains no doubt
that your Majesty will not only frustrate the
attempts of the reactionary party, which aims only
at its own personal gain, but likewise will cause
those to be punished who deserve it.
“5. The Hungarian nation further requests,
that your Majesty will sanction with your sove-
reign approbation, the Bills which the Hungarian
Diet has passed. Further, that your Majesty will
138
MEMOIRS OF
*
C
come to Buda-Pest, in the midst of your people,
to support and direct by your illustrious presence,
the measures of your Diet, and of your constitu-
tional government.
"Sire! the present moments are of so weighty
an importance to the Hungarian constitution,
that the loyal nation must dread more than ever,
the dangers of delay.
"With the loyalty of faithful subjects we there-
fore entreat your Majesty to comply with our
requests, and most especially to come to Hungary
without deferring. We entreat this, with so much
more energy, as we are deeply convinced of the
pernicious effects of delay. If our entreaties are
disregarded, the public trust will be shaken in
the Hungarian ministry of your Majesty, and
the ministry will thus be paralyzed in the appli-
cation of lawful means, to uphold order and
restore peace.
"On the immediate decision of your Majesty
it depends to avert incalculable dangers. May
your Majesty support us with the weight of your
sovereign authority, and thus assist the deliverance
of the country! and the Hungarian nation will
ever faithfully stand by the throne of your Ma-
jesty."
The Emperor thereupon, from a paper he held
?
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
139
in his hand, read his speech with faltering ac-
cents. It said :-
That he would sacredly maintain the laws he
had sworn to, and the integrity of the country;
that, if he did not sanction the Bills now offered
to him, for raising troops and money, it was
only because, in the shape in which they had been
proposed, they would not prove to the benefit
of the country; and that the delicate state of
his health did not permit him to proceed imme-
diately to Hungary, into the midst of his faithful
subjects.
When the Emperor had concluded, the depu-
tation bowed, but no Eljens (cheers) were to be
heard. In silence the representatives of the Hun-
garian nation took their leave. As they descended
the steps, the noble guards said: "As soon as
necessary, we shall all come to Hungary."
My husband, as he approached me, observed:
"This was the most lamentable leave-taking, with
which ever a monarch dismissed his supplicating
people."
We returned home, and heard, that on their
drive back to Vienna, most of the deputies had
mounted the red feather on their black hats, and
had directly proceeded to Hungary, on the steam-
boats, which awaited them in the Prater. In the
140
MENOIRS OF
•
:
distance the Hungarian tricolor-standard had dis-
appeared, and the red one alone was still to be
distinguished.*
*The Hungarian colours are those of the theological virtues :
Love, Faith, and Hope," "Red, White, and Green;" the same
as the Italian colours. The Croatian "Tricolour" is the same as
the French.
The red colour alone means war.
"L
7.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
141
As a comment on this and the following chapters, the following
list of the Austrian and Hungarian Ministers, in the course of
the years 1848 and 1849, is added.
IN VIENNA.
IN MARCH, 1848, PREVIOUS TO THE REVOLUTION.
PRINCE METTERNICH, Chancellor of State, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, and President of the Council.
COUNT KOLLOWRAT, Minister of Home Affairs.
COUNT SEDLNICZKI, Minister of Police.
BARON KÜBECK, President of the Treasury.
COUNT TAAFFE, President of the Board of Justice.
COUNT HARDEGG, President of the Board of War.
AFTER THE REVOLUTION IN MARCH.
COUNT FICQUELMONT, Foreign Affairs.
COUNT KOLLOWRAT, Home Affairs.
Baron KÜBECK, Finances.
COUNT TAAFFE, Justice.
GENERAL ZANNINI, War.
BARON PILLERSDORF, Public Instruction.
IN MAY.
-BARON WESSENBERG, Foreign Affairs.
BARON PILLERSDORF, Home Affairs.
Baron Kraus, Finances.
142
MEMOIRS OF
BARON SOMMARUGA, Justice.
COUNT LATOUR, War.
BARON DOBBLHOF, Trade.
M. BAUMGARTEN, Public Works.
Baron WesseNBERG, Foreign Affairs.
BARON DOBBLHOF, Home Affairs.
Baron Kraus, Finances.
DR. BACH, Justice.
COUNT LATOUR, War.
MR. HORNBOSTEL, Trade.
MR. SCHWARZER, Public Works.
IN JUNE.
DR. BACH, Justice.
GENERAL CORDON, War.
IN NOVEMBER.
PRINCE SCHWARZENBERG, Foreign Affairs.
COUNT STADION, Home Affairs.
Baron Kraus, Finances.
MR. BRUCK, Trade.
MR. THIENFELD, Public Works.
Baron KULMER, Croatian Minister without Portefeuille.
IN MAY, 1849.
PRINCE SHWARZENBERG, Foreign Affairs.
DR. BACH, Home Affairs.
Baron KRAUS, Finances.
MR. SCHMERLING, Justice.
COUNT GYULAY, War.
MR. BRUCK, Trade.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
143
MR. THIENFELD, Public Works.
COUNT LEO THUN, Public Instruction.
Baron KULMER, Croatian Minister without Portefeuille.
IN HUNGARY DURING THE SAME PERIOD, From MarcH TILL
SEPTEMBER, 1848.
COUNT LOUIS BATTHYANYI, Prime Minister.
BERTALAN SZEMERE, Home Affairs.
LOUIS KOSSUTH, Finances.
FRANCIS DEAK, Justice.
GENERAL Lazar Meszaros, War.
Gabor Klauzal, Trade.
COUNT STEPHEN SZÉCHENYI, Public Works.
BARON IOSEF Eötvös, Public Instruction.
PRINCE PAUL ESZTERHAZY, Minister around the person of the
King, and entrusted with the regulation of international
concerns between Hungary and the Austrian provinces, and
therefore, called Minister of Foreign Affairs.
IN SEPTEMBER.
COUNT LOUIS BATTHYANYI, alone.
FROM OCTOBER TO APRIL, 1849. THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC
DEFENCE.
KOSSUTH, President.
SZEMERE.
MÉSZAROS.
BARON SIGMUND PERÉNYI.
PAUL NYARY.
COUNT MICHAEL ESZTERHAZY.
I
144
MEMOIRS OF
BARON NICOLAS IOSIKA.
JOHN PALFFY.
FRANCIS DUSCHEK.
LADISLAS MADARASZ.
Pazmandy, Pulszky, Zsembery, and Patay were only from October
to January Members of this Committee.
IN APRIL KOSSUTH WAS ELECTED GOVEROR-PRESIDENT, AND
FORMED THE FOLLOWING CABINET:
SZEMERE, President of the Council, and Minister of Home Affairs.
COUNT CASIMir Batthyanyi, Foreign Affairs.
SABBAS VUKOVICS, Justice.
FRANCIS DUSCHEK, Finances.
LADISLAS CSANYI, Public Works.
BISHOP MICHEL HORVATH, Public Instruction.
GENERAL GÖRGEY, later GENERAL AULICH, War.
?
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
145
:
CHAPTER V.
THE INVASION OF JELLACHICH.
ON the 9th of September, at noon, the Hun-
garian deputation had received the royal assurance,
that the laws sanctioned by the King should be
sacredly maintained, and no less the integrity of
the Hungarian realm. In the night of that very
same day, the army of Jellachich, without the least
provocation on the part of Hungary, crossed the
Drave, the frontier river between Croatia and
Hungary. The proclamation of Jellachich, drawn
up in general terms, declared that he was ad-
vancing to Pest, in the interest of freedom and
of the United Monarchy. Had he then a notion of
the consequences to which this step would lead?
Could he form an image of the dreadful calamities
VOL. I.
H
i
146
MEMOIRS OF
•
.
which he was calling down upon his Croatian army,
upon Hungary, and upon the Austrian monarchy ?
Was he able to conceive that his enterprise would
be followed by the Russian intervention, by the
overthrow of the Hungarian and Croatian consti-
tution, which numbered eight hundred years, and
by the moral, political, and financial break-down
of Austria? Several letters from the Croatian head-
quarters, which were intercepted by the Hun-
garians, bore evidence of the disposition that
reigned there. The officers were setting out for
Pest, as if it were for a party of pleasure, with
the full conviction that the small Hungarian army,
-the total of which was but eight thousand regular
troops, whilst Jellachich boasted of sixty-five thou-
sand would either join Jellachich, or at least
retire before the Croatian army, and allow it to
proceed to Pest unmolested. Besides, they trusted
that at the news of the invasion, all the Sclavonic
counties would unanimously rise against the Hun-
garians; for Jellachich and his party had mistaken
the swaggering of such men as Hodscha, Hurban,
and Stur for fair truth.*
*Hodscha and Hurban had been Lutheran priests, Stur a
schoolmaster, who, instead of the peaceful blessings of the
Gospel, propagated the passionate doctrines of national excite-
ment amongst the Sclavonians in Upper Hungary. They promised
their disciples a mighty Sclavonic realm. They were supported by
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
147
;
1.
(6
The officers likewise expected a Wallachian in-
surrection, and, therefore, did not doubt their easy
success. They professed in their letters, only to
apprehend lest the Hungarian Ministers and De-
puties should fly from Pest, and thus escape the
vengeance of the Croatian army. They further
wrote: As soon as the nest of the revolution
shall be destroyed at Pest, we shall proceed to
Vienna, chastise the University and deliver the
Emperor." This was the language held by the
military party, who, by the expedition of Jellachich,
thought to retrieve the honour of the army, which,
according to their views, had been grievously
sullied, when, in spite of the troops in Vienna,
absolute monarchy had, in March, given way to
constitutional forms. The Ultra-Conservatives in
Hungary-the men who governed before March—
were no doubt wounded in their national feelings at
the attempt of a Croatian army to subdue Hun-
gary; but they hoped that the threatening danger
would compel the national party in Hungary to
a compromise, by which they themselves would
step again into power. A young man of their
number, who during their government had occu-
pied a high position, said: "We must first get
the Csechs (Sclavonic Bohemians); but in Hungary their attempts
to instigate the Sclavonians against the Hungarians utterly failed.
H 2
148
MEMOIRS OF
rid of Count Batthyányi, then of the Archduke
Stephen-everything else will be easily settled."
The views of the Viennese Ministry-which not
only approved the expedition of Jellachich, but
actively suported it with money and ammunition,
artillery and clever officers,-were soon afterwards
expressed by Count Latour to a deputy of the town
of Weisskirchen. The inhabitants of that place,
who in compliance with the Imperial order had
submitted to the Hungarian Ministry, had now,
already for the third time, been attacked by the
rebellious Serbs, and had been called upon by the
Imperial Lieutenant-Colonel, Mayerhoffer, Austrian
Consul in Belgrád, to surrender to him. The
heroic inhabitants of Weisskirchen (all of German
race) repelled likewise this third attack, but
simultaneously sent a deputation to the Austrian
Ministry of War, under whose administration they
had stood before March, and asked what they were
to understand to be their duty,-what view the
Ministry took of it,-as, in compliance with the law,
they were obeying the Hungarian Ministry, while,
regardless of the law, Austrian Officers, who pro-
fessed to be acting under Imperial order, were
heading the rebellious* Serbs, in repeated attacks
* When the Palatine opened the Hungarian Diet on the 2nd of
July, he denounced, in the King's name, the Serbian movement as
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
149
upon them. Count Latour replied evasively. "He
lamented," he said, "the fate of the inhabitants
of Weisskirchen. He could in that moment, as
long, namely, as the Hungarian Ministry kept
the path of legal right, do nothing for them; but
that they had only to wait patiently for a little while,
and steadily persevere, and they would, no doubt,
in a few days, be released from their disagreeable
position." The Austrian Ministry evidently calculated,
that the approach of Jellachich must occasion an out-
break at Pest; that the more energetic party there
would be impatient of Batthyányi's scrupulosity;
and finding his preparations against Jellachich totally
insufficient, would overpower him by force; that
then Kossuth would be proclaimed Dictator; this of
course would give a welcome pretext for putting
Hungary under martial law, and military dicta-
torship; the ancient Constitution would be abolished
and centralization established. Such were the old
schemes originated under Rudolf II. by Cardinal
Klesel, tried afresh under Ferdinand II., under
Ferdinand III., under Leopold I., under Charles
III., under the Emperor Joseph and Francis I.,
a rebellion. Indeed, the unprovoked outrages of these Serbian
murderers were afflicting to humanity. Yet they were led by im-
perial officers who bore the King's commission. Their real chief,
Mayerhoffer, has been since promoted to the rank of general, and
to the dignity of Vice-Woivod of the Serbs.
150
ول
:
MEMOIRS OF
always with ultimate failure; but now at length
the ministry made sure they would succeed. But
Providence variously disappoints human presump-
tion. The events were to belie the calculations of
the crafty statesmen.
Prince Eszterházy had felt distinctly, that since
the month of August, when the Imperial family had
returned from Innspruck to Schönbrunn,* he was
coldly received at Court; he therefore resigned his
ministerial charge in the first days of September,
before the audience given to the Hungarian
deputation. Count Louis Batthyányi, and all the
other Hungarian Ministers, did the same on their
arrival at Pest, after the 9th of September. Deák,
the Hungarian Minister of Justice, after that memo-
rable audience had had one more interview with
the Archduke, Francis Charles, brother to the Em-
peror Ferdinand. Deák had then set forth
the real state of things, and had freely said: "That
the measures of the Viennese cabinet would for
ever estrange the Hungarians from the Imperial
house; that the intrigues to undermine, and in
fact to make void, the laws, that had been consti-
tutionally voted and had been solemnly sanctioned
by the King, would greatly shake the authority of
* After the émeute of the 15th of May, at Vienna, the Imperial
family fled to Innspruck; after the battle of Custozza they returned
to Vienna.
-
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
151
""
the crown.' But the Archduke only made some
evasive observations; every warning proved too
late.
On the 13th of September, the ministerial
benches in the Hungarian Diet, were empty:
Szemere alone sat there. As Minister of the In-
terior he retained his office, until a new Ministry
could be formed. It was foreseen that the crisis
would be protracted. The excitement grew with
every hour; daily couriers arrived, with tidings
that Jellachich was advancing. The Hungarian
corps of observation, that opposed him, had receded
without a single shot; and its General had declared,
he would not fight against Jellachich and the
Croats. Jellachich had directed this General to
retire with his Hungarians to Friedberg in Styria.
In this alarming state the Diet called upon Kossuth
not to leave his post during the crisis, nor give up
the whole weight of business to the Under-Secreta-
ries of State. Kossuth immediately complied with
this desire. In the midst of enthusiastic applause,
he again took his ministerial seat, and proposed
that, in order to face the most pressing danger, as
an enemy was already in the country and marching
against the capital, the Diet should authorize him
to execute his financial plan, which had been
already approved by the Diet, and which the King
had not unconditionally declined. One of the
<
152
MEMOIRS OF
parts of this plan, was, to issue for the present,
paper-money, as a floating debt.
*
.
The party which dreaded more than anything
else, to risk every thing on the decision of the
sword, hopeless as conciliation appeared, still per-
severed in attempting it. They entreated the
Palatine, the Archduke Stephen, who, both by the
law and by an autograph letter of the King,
stood at the head of the government, instantly
to form a new Cabinet, for that otherwise the
imminence of the danger would necessarily lead
to extreme measures. And, in truth, at the news
of Jellachich's approach, volunteers kept hastening
to Pest to defend the metropolis and the Diet.
The Archduke, therefore, authorised Count Louis
Batthyányi to form a new cabinet; a commission
which the Count accepted conditionally. Kossuth
declared that he would support him with his
whole influence. At Kossuth's suggestion, the
Diet entrusted Batthyányi with the direction of all
functionaries, until his new cabinet should be
sanctioned by the monarch. By this time more
consolatory news came from the army.
•
Jellachich, who was almost wholly unprovided
with cavalry, had issued to all the regiments sta-
tioned in Hungary a proclamation, summoning
them to join him. He himself loitered about the
neighbourhood of Kanizsa (not far from the
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
153
Croatian frontier), to await the results of his pro-
clamation. The colonel of a regiment of cuiras-
siers, who with his troop was on his way to
Austria, where his Bohemians were to be exchanged
for a Hungarian regiment of hussars, refused
obedience to the Hungarian ministry, and sub-
mitted to the order of Jellachich. But on the
other hand, the officers of the Hungarian army
had disapproved the order of their General, to give
way before the Croats, and had declared their
resolution, steadily to obey the Hungarian Ministry,
under whose orders they had been placed by the
law, and by the express declaration of the King;
but, wishing to learn by what authority and com-
mand Jellachich had invaded the country, they
sent two officers, the Count Bubna and Mr. Bárc-
zay, to the head-quarters of Jellachich, begging
to see the Imperial order, which authorized him
to invade Hungary. Jellachich received the Hunga-
rian officers with ready amiability, wishing to make
friends of them. He owned that he had no po-
sitive order from the Emperor to invade Hungary;
but asserted that the Emperor was not free :-
"The Court," he said, "approved the plans of
the army; and it was the duty of every officer
to risk his life for the support of the throne,
without first inquiring for orders." He further
gave his opinion, "that the Austrian monarchy
-
– ཨཡཐཱཝཱ།་་
1
H 3
154
MEMOIRS OF
was in danger of being dismembered; that the
army was the only link which could keep it
together; that the officers were men of deeds not
of words, that it was for them to assume the
direction of affairs, and to supplant as well the
bureaucrats of the old school, as the revolutionists
of the present time." The fine words of Jellachich
failed to impress the two officers. When he had
declared that he had no direct order from the
Emperor to invade Hungary, they said that they
knew enough, and returned to the Hungarian
camp. But the Hungarian General, who had
given the order to avoid the Croats, could no
longer gain obedience from the troops.
Count Louis Batthyányi now called upon the
Archduke Stephen (who as Palatine was likewise
Captain-General of the country), to put himself
at the head of the Hungarian army. The Arch-
duke complied, and by his presence raised the
enthusiasm of these troops. They in reality were
only desirous of maintaining the honour of the Hun-
garian army; as none believed, that with their
small number they could possibly resist the sixfold-
larger forces of Jellachich.
The Hungarian Diet made one more attempt
at conciliation. It sent a deputation to the
Austrian Diet at Vienna, inviting it to settle any
differences that might exist between Hungary
-
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
155
and Austria,* by means of a commission, to be
appointed by the Hungarian and Austrian Diets
conjointly. But the Austrian assembly, by its
ministerial majority, refused to receive the Hunga-
rian deputation. The Csechs, who apprehended
that an understanding with the Hungarians would
frustrate the plans of Jellachich, for the ascen-
dency of the Sclavonians, all voted with the ministry.
Count Batthyányi had, at the same time, entreated
the Archduke to do every thing which could lead
to a conciliation. He farther desired my husband
to represent to the Emperor in Vienna, that on one
condition only was it possible for him to form
a new cabinet,† namely, if without delay the order
was issued, that Jellachich should withdraw from
Hungary, and that all questions between Croatia
and Hungary should be carried on by peaceful
arbitration. The Archduke Francis Charles, who
at that time used to answer in the Emperor's name,
* Not the differences between Hungary and Croatia, as this
country had been incorporated into Hungary since the times of
the Hungarian King Kálmán (Colomannus) in the eleventh
century and, therefore, its transactions with Hungary could
legally be settled between them without any interference from
Austria.
The names of the ministers Count Batthyányi had proposed
to the King for his Cabinet were, Count Alexander Erdödy, the
Barons Josef Eötvös, Dionys Kemény, Nicolas Vay, General
Mészáros, Colomann Ghiczy, and Maurice Szentkirályi.
156
MEMOIRS OF
5
said: "His Majesty approved of the Archduke Ste-
phen having taken the command of the Hungarian
troops, and had nothing to object to the names
which Count Batthyányi proposed for his cabinet.
As for the rest, everything that was necessary
should be provided for." But, instead of an
order commanding Jellachich to withdraw, the
Archduke Stephen received an autograph letter
from the Emperor expressing the desire that the
Archduke should avoid any conflict with the Croa-
tian army, which was marching towards Pest.
The Palatine still tried the last means of a
compromise. He requested Jellachich to come to
an interview in the midst of the Balaton, (Plat-
tensee), in view of both the armies, where the
Hungarians stood on the north-western bank, the
Croatians on the south-eastern. When, however,
the steam-boat on which the Archduke Stephen
had arrived, sent its boats to the opposite shore
to receive Jellachich and his aide-de-camp, the
Croat General asked his officers, whether he should
go on board the vessel. They, of course, wanted
no compromise: they expected to enter Pest
triumphantly, without the trouble of even un-
sheathing their swords, and therefore cried out
unanimously: "We do not permit it!" Jellachich
accordingly would not come. The Archduke then
saw no chance of deciding the awful contest ex-
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
157
•
cept by arms,-resigned his command to General
Moga, left the army and his fatherland,* and
hastened to Vienna, whence he speedily departed
to Germany. There he still lives on the estates,
which he has inherited from his mother. Before
he left Vienna, he had an interview with my
husband. To judge by what the Palatine then
expressed, he foresaw the fate of Hungary and of
the Monarchy, and deeply regretted the wounds
which, by the intrigues of ambitious individuals,
and by the military party, were piercing the
country and shattering the dynasty. He seemed
to be aware, that if the King's word is no longer
sacred, and the people cease to give firm trust
to this pledge, then the moral authority of
royalty is ruined. The Archduke appeared to be
in despair, both for Hungary and for the Austrian
monarchy.
Count Louis Batthyányi likewise did not believe
in the possibility of resisting the Croatian army.
* Archduke Stephen, the son of Archduke Joseph, and grand-
son of Emperor Leopold, was born and brought up in Hungary;
his estates were all in Hungary, and he believed and always
proclaimed himself an Hungarian. In the year 1847, he openly
quoted at a public dinner at Arad the words of the poet
Vörösmarty," So long may I live, as I can live for Hungary."
Before he assumed the command of the army, he sent the message
to the Diet" If every body forsakes Hungary, I ever remain
faithful to my fatherland.”
158
MEMOIRS OF
He did not wish his country to be crushed without
resistance; yet he ever, and above all things,
longed for reconciliation, and was ready to catch
at the faintest hopes of it. Only one man did not
despair, and had a firm belief in the victory of his
country. This man was Kossuth. He trusted in
his nation, and addressed its Oriental genius in an
eloquent appeal, affording a remarkable contrast to
the minute detail of facts and figures in the letters
and dispatches by which his instructions were con-
veyed.
After reminding his countrymen in this procla-
mation of the truth of all his former predictions,
he yields to an irresistible influence to continue
prophesying, and says:
"Hear! patriots hear!
“The eternal God doth not manifest himself in
passing wonders, but in everlasting laws.
"It is an eternal law of God's that whosoever
abandoneth himself will be of God forsaken.
"It is an eternal law that whosoever assisteth
himself him will the Lord assist.
"It is a Divine law that swearing falsely is by its
results self-chastised.
"It is a law of God's that he who resorteth to
perjury and injustice, prepareth his own shame and
the triumph of the righteous cause.
"In firm reliance upon these eternal laws-on
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
159
these laws of the universe-I aver that my pro-
phecy will be fulfilled, and I foretel that this
invasion of Jellachich's will work out Hungary's
liberation.
"In the name of that fatherland, betrayed so
basely, I charge you to believe my prophecy, and
it will be fulfilled.
"In what consists Jellachich's power?
"In a material force, seemingly mighty, of
seventy thousand followers, but of which thirty
thousand are furnished by the regulations of the
military frontier.
'But what is in the rear of this host? By what
is it supported? There is nothing to support it!
"Where is the population that cheers it with
unfeigned enthusiasm? There is none.
"Such a host may ravage our territories, but
never can subdue us.
"Batu-Chan deluged our country with his
hundreds of thousands. He devastated, but he
could not conquer.
"Jellachich's host at worst will prove a locust-
swarm, incessantly lessening in its progress till
destroyed.
"So far as he advances, so far will be diminished
the number of his followers, never destined to
behold the Drave again.
160
MEMOIRS OF
"Let us-Hungarians-be resolved, and stones
will suffice to destroy our enemy. This done, it
will be time to speak of what further shall befal.
"But every Hungarian would be unworthy the
sun's light if his first morning thought, and his last
thought at eve, did not recal the perjury and
treason with which his very banishment from the
realms of the living has been plotted.
"Thus the Hungarian people has two duties to
fulfil.
"The first, to rise in masses, and crush the foe
invading her paternal soil.
"The second, to remember!
"If the Hungarian should neglect these duties,
he will prove himself dastardly and base. His
name will be synonymous with shame and wicked-
ness.
"So base and dastardly as to have himself dis-
graced the holy memory of his forefathers-so base,
that even his Maker shall repent having created
him to dwell upon this earth-so accursed that air
shall refuse him its vivifying strength-that the
corn-field, rich in blessings, shall grow into a desert
beneath his hand that the refreshing well-bead
shall dry up at his approach! Then shall he
wander homeless about the world, imploring in
vain from compassion the dry bread of charity.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
161
The race of strangers for all alms will smite him on
the face. Thus will do that stranger-race, which
seeks in his own land to degrade him into the
outcast, whom every ruffian with impunity may
slay like the stray dog-which seeks to sink him
into the likeness of that Indian pariah, whom
men pitilessly hound their dogs upon in sport to
worry.
"For the consolations of religion he shall sigh
in vain.
"The craven spirit by which Creation has been
polluted will find no forgiveness in this world, no
pardon in the next.
"The maid to whom his eyes are raised shall
spurn him from her door like a thing unclean;
his wife shall spit contemptuously in his face;
his own child shall lisp its first word out in curses
on its father.
“Terrible! terrible! but such the malediction,”
proceeds this proclamation, "if the Hungarian race
proves so cowardly as not to disperse the Croatian
and Serbian invaders, as the wild wind disperses
the unbinded sheaves by the way-side.'
"But no, this will never be; and, therefore, I
say the freedom of Hungary will be achieved by
this invasion of Jellachich. Our duty is to triumph
first, then to remember.
162
MEMOIRS OF
"To arms! Every man to arms; and let the
women dig a deep grave between Veszprém and
Fehervar, in which to bury either the name, fame,
and nationality of Hungary, or our enemy.
"And either on this grave will rise a banner, on
which shall be inscribed, in record of our shame,
Thus God chastiseth cowardice !' or we will plant
thereon the tree of freedom everlastingly green,
and from out whose foliage shall be heard the voice
of the Most High, saying, as from the fiery bush
to Moses, 'The spot on which thou standest is holy
ground.'
"All hail! to Hungary, to her freedom, hap-
piness, and fame.
"He who has influence in a county, he who has
credit in a village, let him raise his banner. Let
there be heard upon our boundless plains no
music but the solemn strains of the Rakoczy
march. Let him collect ten, fifty, a hundred, a
thousand followers-as many as he can gather, and
marshal them to Veszprém.
"Veszprém, where, on its march to meet the
enemy, the whole Hungarian people shall assemble,
as mankind will be assembled on the Judgment
Day."
Responding to this appeal, the inhabitants of the
country streamed enthusiastically to the capital from
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
163
all sides. New battalions were formed, and as
he public distrusted the officers of the Hungarian
regiments of infantry (who for the greatest part, were
Germans and Bohemians, and did not deny their
sympathy with Jellachich), the regular soldiers also
were summoned by the young men of Pest to
leave the black and yellow standard, and to enrol
in the newly-formed battalions of the Honvéds (de-
fenders of the fatherland).
1
From Vienna, likewise, volunteers came to
Hungary. Since Jellachich had crossed the Drave,
enlistments for Hungary had publicly taken place
in Vienna, with the knowledge of the Minister of
the Interior. Baron Dobblhof looked on the Croatian
invasion of Hungary as a matter in which he was
wholly neutral. He permitted the enlistment for
the Hungarians, and simultaneously an enrolment
for Jellachich. Lads from eighteen to twenty-two
years of age were to be seen, some with the
Hungarian, others with the Croatian "tri-colour,"
drinking together at one and the same table in the
tavern, and thus spending their enlistment-money
together. These poor youths associated and joked
good-humouredly with one another; nevertheless,
they knew that their next meeting was to be in
opposite ranks, on the bloody field of battle. At
* Black and yellow are the Austrian Imperials' colours.
164
MEMOIRS OF
the same time, people were summoned to a third
enrolment, by a printed writ posted up for public
notice, for the formation of a Sclavonic corps of
volunteers, which was to stir up rebellion in the
north-western counties of Nyitra, Trencsin and
Thurócz, wholly peopled by Slovaks.
It became manifest, that in spite of the advance
of Jellachich towards Pest, the Diet and the whole
population of Hungary were not discouraged, but
would, in any case, stand the chance of a contest.
This did not suit the plan of the Court party
in Vienna; for though it did not doubt that
Jellachich would be victorious, yet it was aware,
that, in this case, the exasperation in Hungary
against Austria would be raised to the utmost.
The first hope had failed, namely, that the Hun-
garian regiments would follow the example of the
German ones, and pass over to Jellachich. The
commander of the fortress of Komárom (Komorn)
had also been summoned by the Austrian Ministry
of war to surrender to Jellachich, like the com-
mander of Eszek, who had given up this fortress
to the Croats. But, regardless of the order which
Count Latour wrote to him, the commander of
Komárom and his troops proved true to the Hun-
garian cause. His reply to Count Latour's letter
was: “that the King legally conveyed his orders
by his Hungarian ministry, and that therefore no
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
165
order could be accepted from his Majesty's Austrian
ministry."
The plan in Vienna, therefore, was altered. The
Austrian General Count Lamberg was appointed
“Commander-in-chief of all troops in Hungary," of
the Hungarian no less than of the Croatian troops,
with full power to dissolve the Diet if necessary.
The Court and military party thought by this
arrangement most easily to realize their plan of cen-
tralization, and their aim of annulling the legal in-
dependence of Hungary. It was calculated, that
probably the Hungarian army would submit to
Count Lamberg, as of course would the troops of
Jellachich; and backed by a force of at least 70,000
men in the near vicinity of the capital, Lamberg
could either get the Diet to pass every thing he de-
sired, or dissolve it without the danger of an insur-
rection, and could then provisionally organize the
country.
My husband, of course, knew all this directly in
Vienna; and as he heard that an order without any
counter-signature had been given to General Lam-
berg, he went to Count Latour, and represented,
that whatever might be the intentions of the Count,
legal formality ought in any case to be respected;
and that the order, which gave unlimited authority
to General Lamberg, could not be legal without the
counter-signature of the Hungarian prime minister,
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MEMOIRS OF
Count Batthyányi: in fact, without this, Count Lam-
berg would become, according to the Hungarian law,
guilty of high treason, as attempting to seize the
highest authority in violation of the laws.
Lieutenant Field-Marshal Latour did not accept
this view; but answered with irritation: "that
General Lamberg was provided with everything he
required, and that the counter-signature was per-
fectly unnecessary." This irritability of the Aus-
trian minister of war was easily to be accounted
for.
In the preceding days, Hungarian shepherds had
surprised a courier from Jellachich, with letters di-
rected to Count Latour, and other persons connected
with the Austrian ministry; letters which plainly
evinced the understanding that existed between the
Viennese Ministry of War and Jellachich. The
latter in his dispatch acknowledged his receipt of
military stores, requested more, and solicited his
public recognition by the Emperor, with full
authority to carry on his enterprise energetically.
These letters were, by the Hungarian government,
published without delay, and distributed even in
Vienna by hundreds and hundreds of copies. They
were the first authentic documents, which clearly
proved the duplicity of the party of the court ;
as but a short time before, Count Latour had,
on a question put to him in the Viennese Diet,
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
167
pledged his word of honour, "that he had no
official relations with Jellachich."
My husband, who personally knew, and highly
esteemed General Lamberg, now sent a person ac-
quainted with the General to Pressburg, where Lam-
berg then was, to represent to him the illegality of
his appointment, and the necessity of the counter-
signature, and, at the same time, sent a courier with
the account of all that had happened to Count Louis
Batthyányi. The Count was well aware that the
mission entrusted to General Lamberg was not a
mission for peace, but only aimed at a reaction
against the laws of 1848, probably also against the
old Hungarian constitution. Even this, however,
appeared to Batthyányi, in the present instance, less
pernicious to Hungary, than a lost battle against
Jellachich, which would deliver Pest and the whole of
Hungary, unconditionally, into the hands of the
Croatian chief. Batthyányi, therefore, determined
to counter-sign the nomination of Count Lamberg,
whenever the order should be produced to him.
i
But Batthyányi did not doubt that General Lam-
berg would hasten first to the Hungarian camp be-
fore he would venture to come to Pest, and, there-
fore, he himself likewise went on the 27th of Sep-
tember to the Hungarian army,
As Batthyányi had, since the 14th of September,
remained sole minister, (all the former cabinet
168
MEMOIRS OF
having resigned, and the newly-proposed ministers
having not yet been officially confirmed by the King,)
the Count could not uninterruptedly attend the
Sessions of the Diet. The Diet, therefore, ap-
pointed a committee, to which Count Batthyányi
was to give his instructions, and with which he was
to consult about the means of defence against Jella-
chich. This committee was the well-known "Com-
mittee of Defence" (Honvédelmi Bizottmány) which
afterwards took charge of the government, when it
was abandoned, first by the Palatine Archduke,
afterwards by the Minister, Count Batthyányi. The
despatches from Vienna were naturally communi-
cated likewise to that Committee, and by it directly
submitted to the Diet. On the evening of the 27th
the Diet, assembled in an extraordinary sitting, de-
clared the order, without counter-signature, given to
General Lamberg, to be illegal, and himself an out-
law, if he should dare to execute it.
Lamberg certainly had no conception of the ex-
citement which prevailed at Pest. A Hungarian
himself, although of German extraction, he had a
long time lived in the midst of his countrymen, and
firmly believed that the inhabitants of Pest were so
panic-struck, by the approach of the Croats, that
they would greet him as their deliverer. Instead of
proceeding to the camp, the General went to Pest.
He there called on Mailáth, who was Chief Justice
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
169
(Judex Curiæ) and also a privy-councillor, an old
acquaintance of his, to speak with him about his
own mission. He found the privy-councillor con-
fined to his bed. But his son, one of the most dis-
tinguished members of the conservative party, a
leader in the previous Diets, who was well aware of
the general excitement, entreated Count Lamberg to
leave Pest, by a back-door and bye-streets, without
the least delay, and to hasten after Count Batthyányi
to the camp, as in the town his life obviously would
be endangered. Lamberg laughed at these appre-
hensions, and drove in a hackney-coach to Buda.
Whether he really intended, before proceeding to
the army, to take possession of the fortress of Buda,
which commands Pest, cannot be decided. But
suddenly the report spread all over the capital, that
Count Lamberg had arrived, and would give up the
fortress of Buda, then occupied by National Guards,
to those very companies of Austrian soldiers, which,
on account of the public distrust against them, had
not been ordered to the Hungarian camp, but had
been left in Pest.
It was the 28th, at noon: the Diet was assembled:
Kossuth was developing in a long speech the means
to be adapted for defence against Jellachich, when a
tumult arose in the streets. The deputy Balogh
hastened down, and when he heard the people cry-
ing out, that the fortress was to be seized, he put
VOL. I.
I
170
MEMOIRS OF
ད
himself at the head of a crowd of volunteers, and
led them speedily to Buda, to occupy and secure the
gates of the fortress. Masses of people, armed with
scythes, thronged after him; but as they saw the
fortress-gates safe in the hands of determined men,
most of the crowd returned. Just when the multitude
was pressing over the bridge of boats, which unites
Buda to Pest, a fatal chance led Count Lamberg
thither. He was in a hackney-coach; a sergeant
recognized him, violently pulled him from the car-
riage, a German student and a young Hungarian
from Transylvania, struck him down in an instant.
The raving mob fancied that an act of patriotism
had been achieved, and triumphantly dragged the
body through the streets. The Diet naturally
saw this crime in another light. As soon as
the horrifying news reached the parliamentary
Hall, a resolution was passed to express the intense
sorrow of the Diet at the bloody murder, and to
command an immediate inquest, and the punish-
ment of the criminals. These instantly fled. A
courrier was despatched to the camp, to communi-
cate to Count Louis Batthyányi and the Hungarian
army the distressing tidings. Its impression on the
troops could not possibly be foreseen, as General
Lamberg had been known and beloved by the Hun-
garian soldiers. Count Batthyányi had, some hours
before the arrival of the official courier, already re-
-
•
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
171
ceived by a private courier the horrid news. In-
indignant that the sacred cause of his father-land
was polluted by murder, and without any hope of
seeing Hungary victorious, he again resigned his
place as prime minister, and hastened to Vienna, to
save for Hungary what he possibly could in the
general wreck. But on the army the murder of
General Lamberg made no impression; all were
burning to meet the enemy. Innumerable volun-
teers daily hastened to the camp; its position was
favourable, and the citizens of Pest sent thither one
vessel after another loaded with provisions, of which,
in consequence, there was great profusion. When
the deputies from the Diet anxiously detailed to the
Hussars, that the murder of General Lamberg was,
not a political, but an individual crime, at which
the Diet recoiled with horror, and that the criminals
had been pursued; an old sergeant interrupted the
speaker, and said: "All this is nonsense! If a
revolution is necessary to save the country, we like-
wise ride through it in full gallop."
Jellachich heard the same evening that General
Lamberg had been murdered, and that Count
Batthyányi had left the country. Owing to this, the
Croatian leader fully expected an utter confusion in
the Hungarian army, and the greatest anarchy in
Pest. In consequence he
he gave
orders for an
attack, the 29th in the morning, with the convic-
……….
I 2
172
MEMOIRS OF
tion of a complete and unbloody victory. He also
calculated upon the lack of gunners in the Hunga-
rian army, because the soldiers of the artillery in
Austria were all Bohemians. Jellachich had no
notion, that since the beginning of September, the
lawyers and engineers of Pest had entered the
ranks, and had been regularly drilled by the Bohe-
mian artillerymen, who could hardly have been
depended on in the field. When, therefore, close
to the vineyards of Sukoró the first cannon-shot
received him, he and his whole army evidently were
surprised. A long cannonade followed without occa-
sioning any great loss, until at last the charges of
Jellachich's cuirassiers were repulsed by the Hunga-
rian infantry, and the Croats retired in confusion.
But General Móga, the Hungarian Commander-in-
chief, with his undisciplined volunteers, and with
officers, many of whom had no knowledge of military
art, did not choose to pursue the victory. A council
of war was held. Jellachich had requested an ar-
mistice of three days. It was granted to him by
General Móga. Jellachich did not keep his position;
he availed himself of the armistice to escape in the
darkness of the night, to gain Györ (Raab) in forced
marches, and from there the Austrian frontier,
where he expected reinforcements from the Austrian
Minister of War.
The 1st of October Jellachich reached Györ, the
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
173
5th he was in Mosony (Wieselburg). He trusted
that the German and Italian garrison of Pressburg,
would join him. The National Guard in Pressburg,
however, broke up the bridge of boats, and the sol-
diers garrisoned in the neighbourhood could not
cross the Danube, but precipitately passed the Aus-
trian frontier. Some companies of the Italian
regiments put themselves at the disposal of the
Hungarians. Great as the enthusiam of the Hun-
garian army was, General Móga but slowly pursued
the Croats. He evidently was averse to destroy
them. Every evening he regularly arrived at the
place which Jellachich had left in the morning. Pro-
bably he deemed that the battle of Sukoró would
prove a sufficient warning to the Croats, and to the
party, whose tools they were, and he daily awaited
from Vienna an unbloody solution of the contest.
The flight of Jellachich (or the flank-movement,
as he himself styled it,) naturally endangered the
two corps, which had covered his communication
with Croatia. One of these, consisting of 5000 men,
under the command of Baron Albert Nugent, was,
on the 3d of October, when the news spread of the
battle of Sukoró, attacked and routed by the Na-
tional Guards of the south-western counties, headed
by Joseph Vidos, a member of the Diet. The other
Croatian corps of 12,000 men, with twelve cannons,
under the Generals Róth and Philipovich, was on the
I
'
174
5th obliged to surrender at discretion, being pressed
from all sides by the "Népfelkelés" (levy of people),
led by Csapó, Görgey, and Perczel. Csapó, the
sheriff of the county of Tolna, had consumed or wasted
all the provisions, on the roads to which the Croa-
tians were compelled. Perczel and Görgey sur-
rounded the starved troops, who, dispirited also by
the tidings of the defeat sustained by the main corps
under Jellachich, surrendered on the third day.
Sixty officers were taken prisoners. In 12 cannons,
seven standards, and 11,000 muskets, consisted the
trophies of this day, which excited in Pest the
greatest enthusiasm.
MEMOIRS OF
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
175
:
CHAPTER VI.
THE OCTOBER INSURRECTION OF VIENNA.
WHILST in Hungary the vigour of the nation so
powerfully manifested itself, in Vienna the public
opinion, through all classes of society, took a dif-
ferent turn. Until September 1848, Hungary had
attracted no sympathy among the democrats, whose
feelings still appeared to be of some weight with the
Austrian ministry, although most of the leaders had
left that party. Dr. Bach was now Minister of
Home Affairs. In March he had been a radical
lawyer; in April he was still dallying with republican
ideas; as late as June and July he talked of "the
Democratic Empire on the largest basis;" but he
had now become not only the minister, but even
the courtier, of Absolutism. Baron Dobblhof indeed
176
MEMOIRS OF
gathered students of the university into his office, as
if implying that he was a constitutionalist and
something more; but from the constant wavering of
his gentle character he had lost all power over the
people. Schwarzer, influential as a journalist, had
likewise been silenced by holding a ministerial port-
folio. Even Dr. Fischof, after being appointed
ministerial councillor, spoke no more in the Diet.
Dr. Schütte, an agitator of eminent talent, had been
expelled from Vienna. Dr. Giskra, who had like-
wise been one of the democratic leaders, went as
member to the Frankfort parliament.
Persons of inferior talent and less defined notions
conducted the newspapers and the public meetings.
In both of these fields Hungary had often been
attacked by the adherents of "exclusive Germanism,”
who, just as they had thought to incorporate Posen,
so now desired to fuse down Hungary into the grand
united German Empire-a project which they knew
the Hungarians would resist. On the other hand,
the decided democrats could not forget that the
Hungarians did not want to abolish the House of
Peers, and kept to the system of Two Houses.
The Sclavonians were enthusiastic for Jellachich.
The democratical party mainly consisted of the
students of the University of Vienna, of lawyers, of
physicians, of shopkeepers, and of the poorer classes;
in short, of the great bulk of the National Guards
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
177
But in this party likewise there were different shades
of political opinion. Some of these adhered to the
plans of the Frankfort parliament relative to a German
Empire; others cared much for democracy but little
for union; many were taken up with the notion of
a Sclavonic Austria; by all, Hungary was more or
less attacked. In opposition to these parties another
had by degrees constituted itself, which adopted the
name of Black and Yellow.* Its elements were
bankers, rich merchants, first-rate manufacturers,
and civil officers of high place. Of the people only
the cabmen belonged to it, and that because the
democrats habitually walk with umbrellas, and use
only omnibusses, seldom cabs, or hackney-coaches.
The Black and Yellow party had recovered from
the first stunning effect of the revolution, and now
aspired to influence. It of course disliked Hungary,
perfectly aware that with a national administration
that country would soon thrive, and then become
independent of the Viennese money-dealers, who had
large dealings, not seldom of an usurious kind, with
the Hungarian nobility. There existed no third
party in Vienna. The high Austrian aristocracy had
retired to their estates, and kept apart from politics.
Leaving everything to take its course, they waited
* These were the colours the Emperor Francis had chosen for
his empire, when he adopted in 1804 the title of "Emperor of
Austria.”
I 3
178
MEMOIRS OF
for the ebb in the public feeling, which they thought
was sure to follow the flood-tide of revolution.
The stately and dignified appearance of the two
Hungarian deputations, (one to the Emperor, the
other to the Austrian Diet,) which in September had
left Vienna without result, had first occasioned in
the public mind a turn favourable to the Hunga-
rians. The newspapers now took up the great ques-
tion more carefully, and some of them declared
themselves for Hungary. On the contrary, the lan-
guage of other journals daily grew more passionate
in proportion to the approach of Jellachich towards
Pest. They personally attacked Batthyányi and
Kossuth, so as to force them to bring actions for
libel before the tribunals.
However, the publication of the intercepted letters
from the Croatian head-quarters, made a great impres-
sion on the whole Constitutional party. Every one
now saw that it was not to redress the peculiar griev-
ances of Croatia-her " oppression by Hungary," so
often alleged, but never proved,-that Jellachich was
advancing towards Pest; but that he was the in-
strument of the Reaction, which designed to rescind
every law, that had been granted to the people since
March; and that his army was embattled, not against
Hungary alone, but also against the vital principle
of constitutionalism, which for a moment had been
victorious over the whole of Europe.
,
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
179
The excitement grew more and more intense to-
wards the end of September, and the movements of
the armies in Hungary were attended to with anxious
interest. More than once people met in the Odeon
-the most spacious hall in Vienna, where 10,000
people find room—and listened there to the brilliant
speeches of Dr. Tausenau, which produced great
effect.
The "Black and Yellow," and even those impar-
tial witnesses who took no direct concern in politics,
did not doubt for a moment that Jellachich must
conquer. Many of these freely declared, that "the
right indeed was with Hungary, but by the irre-
sistible law of nature, the numerically weaker race
must necessarily be subjugated by the stronger;
that the central power of a great realm, in spite of
all historical compacts, and whatever the legal
claim might be, inevitably by degrees assimilated
and melted up into one all the kingdoms which had
received one and the same monarch."
That the independence of Hungary, though
hitherto a legal and historical fact, was now to be
suppressed, and the centralizing projects of the
court-party to be realized, seemed at last a certainty,
especially as the murder of Count Lamberg had
stained the Hungarian cause.
On the 2nd of October, the tidings had been
expected in Vienna, that the Croats had entered
180
MEMOIRS OF
M
•
V
Buda. Instead of this, the mail from Pest was
missed, and from Györ the news came that the
Croatian army had arrived there. Nobody could
understand this march of Jellachich. No report
of his defeat had reached the Austrian capital; for
he stood with his army between Pest and Vienna,
and thus prevented the communication. The ex-
citement grew in proportion as the Croats advanced
towards the frontier. The impression was, that
Jellachich had threatened Pest, only to approach
Vienna with more security.
Batthyányi, indignant at the murder of Lamberg,
and despairing as to the prospects of Hungary,
had left the Hungarian camp on the 28th, in
the night. He arrived in Vienna on the 30th,
and on the 1st of October presented his second
resignation to the Emperor.
Baron Récsey, an old soldier, who had never
meddled in any way with politics, was on the
3rd of October named Hungarian Prime-Minister,
on condition of his countersigning an Imperial
order, by which Jellachich would be appointed
Civil and Military Governor of Hungary, the Diet
be dissolved, and the whole of Hungary declared
in a state of siege, until it should have been “ reor-
ganized on the basis of the equal rights of all
nationalities." Récsey had on the day before
communicated this to Count Louis Batthyányi, who
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
181
entreated the old General not to dishonour his
grey hair by countersigning this decree, which in
result annulled the whole Hungarian Constitution—
an act with which his name would ever be linked.
Baron Récsey, although moved in the first interview,
replied on the following day: "But I am a soldier:
my first duty is subordination. My Emperor com-
mands; I must obey: and the Emperor has always
been a gracious Sovereign to me. Moreover, he
is now paying my debts; and I must prove grate-
ful."
On the 4th the fatal ordinance was published,
which naturally produced in Hungary the most
pernicious effect. Jellachich-the very man, who
but three months previously, on the 10th of June,
had been declared high traitor by the King-Jel-
lachich, who without provocation had attacked
Hungary, and had been defeated-this man was
to be the ruler over life and death in the whole
kingdom, and would thus be empowered fully to
revenge himself on the nation which he hated, and
by which he had been exposed to disgrace.
But during this interval, tidings direct from
Pest had arrived at Vienna; and anxious as
the Court party was to keep the secret, it could
no longer be doubted that the Croatian army did
not advance as victors. The result of the Battle
of Sukoró was whispered abroad, and the courage
182
MEMOIRS OF
of the Viennese was raised. Simultaneously the
news came, that an incursion into the county
of Nyitra, by a Sclavonic corps under Hurban-who
aimed at exciting an insurrection, in order to divide
the forces of the Hungarians and support the
operations of Jellachich-had utterly failed. The
corps had mainly consisted of students of the
University of Prague; but they were dispersed at
Miava and Verbo by the national guards of Press-
burg, aided by a small military body which was sta-
tioned in that neighbourhood.
When the Hungarians in Vienna heard these
tidings, they clearly saw that their nation would
never submit to the arbitrary decree which gave
unlimited power to Jellachich; and that, in con-
sequence, war between Austria and Hungary was
unavoidable. But, in fact, all the measures of the
Court party in Vienna had for months been directed
to force Hungary into a collision, which was neces-
sarily dreaded by all those who had the welfare
of the country at heart, and were anxious for the
real interest of the Imperial house.
My husband deliberated in the Ministry with
the Hungarian Councillors of State, who had
grown old in the Monarch's service, and were once
deputies in the Hungarian Diet. They were in-
tensely grieved at the blow which had been aimed
at the Constitution; but they thought that it was
****.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
183
still the duty of the civil officers to abide in their
places as long as nothing was directly demanded
from them in opposition to the laws. Count
Batthyányi was of the same opinion, and considered
it my husband's duty not to resign, but to wait
until he should be dismissed. I remember it most
vividly; it was on the 5th of October, when we
met Count Batthyányi on the glacis. After he
had expressed his opinion relative to my husband,
the Count inquired what he himself should do?
whether he should go as volunteer to the Hun-
garian army, or should proceed to Paris, and try
to direct the attention of Europe to the contest
in Hungary, which until then had always been
misrepresented in the foreign papers. Perhaps the
voice of European opinion would prove more effective
than any representations of the Hungarians. My
husband thought so too, and advised the Count
to set out without delay, as there was no time
to lose; for the documents needful to explain the
contest would require months to gain general notice,
whilst decisive results could not be expected to
tarry. The Count fully entered into this view;
but he wanted previously to take leave of his
family, and therefore left Vienna on the very
same evening for Soprony (Oedenburg). Had
he then gone to Paris, the events, perhaps
might have taken another turn; in any case,
184
MEMOIRS OF
R
the Austrian annalists would have one dreadful
crime less to record.
When we returned home at five o'clock, an
autograph letter of the King was handed to
my husband.
Its contents were:
that my
husband's resignation as Under Secretary of
State had been accepted by his Majesty." This
letter was countersigned by Baron Récsey. We
smiled at its contents, as my husband had not
offered his resignation. In consequence of this
we took leave of our friends, intending next day
to make all necessary preparations for our return
to Hungary. The place of every patriot now
naturally was, either at the army as volunteer, or
in the government at Pest.
Our friends informed us, that the German battalion,
Richter, had been commanded to march next day
into Hungary, in aid of Jellachich; that great
public excitement was rising, now that for the
first time an unconcealed support was given to the
Croats; considering that this converted the contest,
which till then had seemed to be only a Croato-
Hungarian one, into a war between Austria
and Hungary. What made the case worse, was,
that this decisive step had been taken without
the approval of the Diet, though it was sitting
daily that such military aid to Jellachich was
considered almost to amount to declaring war against
:
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
185
C
Hungary, which might possibly lead to severe ex-
penses, and therefore, many thought, should in no
case be done without consent of the Diet.
Notwithstanding this state of things, when late
in the evening we drove from the town to Penzing,
we noticed no agitation in the streets; nothing
marked the eve of a bloody insurrection.
Dr. Tausenau had that day, it is true, delivered
in the Odeon a powerful speech on "Jellachich
before the gates of Vienna." In this he had de-
picted the Croats as the murderers of freedom,
and had called upon the Viennese to resist courage-
ously, in case Jellachich should dare to advance.
At the same time the orator remonstrated against
the unlawful proceeding of the Austrian Ministry,
which, without consulting the Diet, had conveyed
Ten thousand people ap-
support to Jellachich.
plauded this speech, but dispersed without any
disturbance of public order. Meanwhile, however,
the grenadiers in the taverns were discussing the
matter over their beer, and generally reasoned :-
"That it was unjust to send them away against the
Hungarians; that the Hungarians were in war with
Jellachich, but not with the Emperor; that they, them-
selves, had nothing to do with the quarrels of
Croats and Hungarians.
""
Such sentiments were backed and encouraged
by several students and national guards, who had
186
MEMOIRS OF
entered the taverns; and the soldiers' reluctance was
farther confirmed by the accident, that the particu-
lar battalion which had been ordered to march,
was very popular among the Viennese.
It con-
sisted of men from Upper-Austria, whom the
inhabitants of the capital were glad to see, rather
than the Galician battalion Nassau, the men of
which had frequent disputes with the citizens.
These therefore said: "if a battalion must march,
why not the Galicians, why our brethren the
Upper-Austrians ?”
In our neighbourhood at Penzing lived an attaché
of the French Embassy (afterwards French Consul
in Hayti), whom we frequently saw. The 6th of
October, in the morning, he came, as was almost
his daily custom, to walk to town with my hus-
band. We had not as yet the slightest know-
ledge that a contest had begun in the Prater.
The battalion, commanded to march into Hungary,
complied unwillingly, and arrived near the rail-road
on which it was to proceed, with cries: "The
Hungarians are our brothers, not our foes! What
have we to do with the Croats?" In company with
them walked national guards, partly without arms,
partly armed. On the embankment of the railway,
close to the Danube, still larger crowds were
assembled of national guards, students, and work-
men. Some of these broke down an arch of the
i
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
187
Tábor-bridge, and hereby hindered the departure
of the soldiers.
One of the students made a speech, in which
he appealed to General Bredi, the commander of
the troops; that, seeing the unanimous aversion of
the citizens and soldiers against the march into
Hungary, the General shonld intimate this fact to
the Minister of War, and entreat him to retract
the order. The General promised so to do ; and
the crowd believed that the Ministry would yield.
But it was only the same wavering which so often
had been visible in the Viennese Executive. Gene-
ral Bredi soon returned: the order to march had
been renewed, and several companies of fresh troops
arrived in haste to enforce obedience on the others,
if necessary.
The people crowded in masses before the soldiers,
and thus prevented their movements. The crowd
was summoned to disperse, but did not comply;
the troops fired, and several national guards were
killed.
The discharge had not the effect expected by the
Government; for the people returned the shots.
General Bredi fell dead from his horse, and the
soldiers were obliged to retreat with the loss of a
cannon. By this time the alarm had spread over
the town. A body of national guards who happened
188
MEMOIRS OF
:
to be there assembled, were inhabitants of the
suburbs and Radicals in politics. On hearing the
reports of cannons and muskets on the bank of
the Danube, they marched to the place of St.
Stephen, (Stephansplatz), and were proceeding up
to the tower to ring the alarm-bell. The "black
and yellow" guards, citizens of the inner town,
tried to prevent this, and an engagement ensued.
From a window, a shot fell on the guards of the
suburbs; the contest grew bloody; the alarm-bell
rang at one o'clock.
My husband at nine o'clock had gone to his
office in town, to get his effects there ready for our
departure; but as soon as he perceived the tumult,
and understood its cause, he hastened to Baron
Sina, a well-known banker, in close relations with
the Government; who, as a proprietor of very large
estates in Hungary, could not be indifferent to
the policy pursued towards that country. My
husband represented to him, that even now it might
not prove too late for the Ministry to change its
dangerous course;-that its support of Jellachich
and the "Reaction," was obviously everywhere
exciting civil war and insurrection; that he himself
was just on the eve of setting out for Pest, and
would gladly seize every possible means of bringing
about an understanding, to end the unhappy dissen-
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
189
sion between the Court and the Hungarian nation.
He implored the Baron to speak to the Ministers,
and make efforts for some arrangement.
But it was too late. When the Baron was
persuaded to go to the Ministers, the engagement
had already begun in the streets of the town
itself. Barricades had risen; the gates were
occupied by the guards of the suburbs. Troops
from the suburbs were not allowed to enter the
town, but single individuals could get out of it.
My husband arrived at Penzing at three o'clock, he
had hastened home, well aware that I should be
in great anxiety at this terrifying uproar. Of course
I had heard the cannons thundering and the alarm-
bell sounding. Every omnibus coming from town
brought fresh news; the general agitation in-
creased.
In anxious expectation, my husband, I, and
the old lady in whose house we lived, her niece, her
grand-daughter, and all our servants-went down
into the garden and up to the balcony, to listen
to the booming of the cannons, and the too signi-
ficant echos of the restless alarm-bell. Sometimes
it ceased; a breath-suspending silence prevailed;
then again the awful peals were all let loose,
like so many evil spirits of destructive passions.
·
At five o'clock our French neighbour came and
elated, that the people had been victorious at all
190
MEMOIRS OF
4.
points; that the troops stationed in town had
met the national guards with grape-shot on the
Hof,* the Graben and the Bogner Street, but that
the guards and the students, defying death, had
taken the cannons by storm.
In the evening, we sat with our old lady, who
occupied one wing of her house where we lived,
around the tea-table. Tidings spread from town
with the swiftness of general excitement. Every
passer-by gave accounts of what he had seen,
and with what difficulty he had escaped. We
repeatedly went to the balcony to catch the reports
thus communicated. We heard, that the Mi-
nistry, when aware that the soldiers were in
retreat, had issued orders to leave off firing, but
that this command had come too late, as the
streets already wore the face of a battle-field; that
the Diet had assembled; finally, that Count Latour,
in spite of the exertions of some members of the
Diet to save him, had been hanged by the people,
who considered him to have occasioned the terrible
bloodshed. Later rumours said, that several of the
"black and yellow," had expressed themselves with
passionate hatred against the Hungarians, whom
they represented as the exciters of the rebellion ;
and that they talked of murdering my husband,
* Hof, the place of that name, where stands the office of the
Ministry of War.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
191
as the Hungarian representative. At this he
laughed, considering it an exaggeration. I, how-
ever, was seized with inexpressible terror, and
entreated him not to put off our departure to the
next morning, but to proceed instantly to our
destination. He yielded to me; so at 10 o'clock
the very same evening, we drove in a hackney-
coach towards the Hungarian frontier. I could
not get rid of the toll of the alarm-bell. I
fancied I heard its sound through the silent night,
long after we had got beyond its reach.
.
Subsequently we learnt, that on the evening of
that day, the Viennese Diet had sent a deputation
to Schönbrunn, requesting the Emperor "to grant
full amnesty to the people, to appoint a more
popular ministry, to recal the decree by which
Jellachich had been named Dictator of Hungary;
and lastly, to return to the Imperial palace in
Vienna, which, since the insurrection in May, had
been abandoned by the Court." The Emperor
received the deputation graciously, and promised
next morning to fulfil all those requests; but during
the night he fled to Olmütz, accompanied by a
small number of troops.
We too travelled all night, but in a different direc-
tion, and reached Hungary at dawn. Some of the
villages, belonging to the estates of Prince Eszter-
házy, by which our way led, appeared to be deserted.
192
MEMOIRS OF
We were told, that all the male inhabitants had
marched with the general levy, headed by the
young Prince, Nicolas Eszterházy, to occupy the
pass between the Fertö (Neusiedler-lake) and the
mountains of the Laytha, and so oppose Jellachich
on his road to Soprony (Oedenburg), but that when
on the 5th the news had come that Jellachich was
proclaimed Dictator, the young Prince had secretly
left the people.
On the 7th of October, at ten o'clock in the
morning, we reached Kis-Marton (Eisenstadt), and
were at Soprony, in the afternoon, by four. Every-
where great excitement and enthusiasm prevailed.
In Soprony, the tidings of the 6th had already
arrived by rail. Every one rejoiced in the belief
that, with the fall of the Ministry, the power of the
"Camarilla" would likewise be broken, and that a
sincere government would succeed. The dreadful
fate of Latour was not lamented. He had been
known as the enemy of Hungary, and as the
supporter of the expedition of Jellachich; which
in spite of its pitiful issue, had been a great
disaster to the country. Where the Croats
marched, the path was marked by plunder, robbery,
and frequently by burnings. This exasperated
the Hungarian peasants so much, that they killed
in cold blood the Croatian stragglers and ma-
rauders.
1.
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
193
In Soprony we found the family of Count Louis
Batthyányi with himself. He was just setting out
as volunteer to the nearest Hungarian division;
and my husband accompanied him. The first
division with which they fell in with, was that of
the deputy Vidos, which they found to be just
disbanding. It had consisted of national guards
and volunteers, who had undertaken service for
eight weeks. In the preceding days they had at
Kanizsa courageously attacked and beaten the Croats,
but now, as the eight weeks were elapsed, no eloquence
could persuade them to remain longer with the
army; they gave up their arms and returned
home. There was nothing to be done, but instantly
to assemble the national guards of other districts,
who had not yet gone against the Croats. They
came with great readiness, were divided into com-
panies, elected their subaltern officers, and prepared
to march against the enemy. All this was achieved
in the utmost haste; as tidings had arrived, that
Jellachich, to facilitate his movements, had sent
back his 18,000 worst men-the sick and badly
armed-who were accompanied by two battalions
of choice troops, and two batteries of artillery,
under the command of his General Theodorovich.
Intending to return to Croatia, or, if this should
prove impossible, to retire into Styria, they were
coming through the very districts in which Vidos
VOL. 1.
K
•
194
MEMOIRS OF
was summoning his second levy. To bring this
news, my husband hastened to Pest. The Com-
mittee of Defence entertained but a faint hope,
that, after the flight of the Emperor to Olmütz,
matters could be settled peaceably: it could not
be blind to the probability that the Court intended
to cut every question with the sword. Never-
theless the Committee and the Diet were averse to
identify themselves heedlessly with the Viennese
insurrection. It was resolved to proceed with as
much caution as possible.
The instructions to the army were framed in the
same spirit; especially since the officers, though
willing to drive the enemy out of the country,
were not equally ready to pursue Jellachich over
the frontier; obvious though it was, that when
reinforced in Austria, he would break into Hun-
gary again. General Móga was therefore directed
to claim of the Austrian Commander-General
Auersperg, in proof of neutrality, to disarm Jellachich
and his troops, since they had touched Austrian
ground; in case this should not be complied with,
General Móga was then authorized to pursue the
Croats over the frontier. Yet, that every appearance
should be avoided of aggression upon Austria, the
General should not overstep the frontier without
a summons from the legal government of Austria.
However, as no Austrian ministry was to be found,
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
195
some of the ministers having fled, while others
accompanied the Emperor to Olmütz, and only one
of them, Baron Kraus, the Minister of Finance,
had remained in Vienna-no other authority now in
Austria could be legally recognized, than the Diet
itself, or the Executive which perhaps might be
appointed by it. At the same time my husband
was sent to Vienna, to explain to the Austrian Diet
the state of things in Hungary, and to report to
the Hungarian Committee of Defence and to the
Diet whatever might happen.
In Vienna the combat on the 6th had been pro-
tracted far into the night. The soldiers had still
defended the arsenal, which was taken by the peo-
ple quite late. In spite of this, many still believed
that, on the morrow, a decree would appear, appoint-
ing Borrosch and his friends to the ministry, and
revoking the former decree concerning Jellachich;
and that by these means all would be settled But,
on the contrary, on the 7th it came abroad that the
Court had fled in the night, and that, without a
doubt, this insurrection of the capital would not,
like the preceding ones, remain unavenged. Ac-
cordingly, most of the wealthy inhabitants of the
town left it with their most precious effects. The
multitude, still more alarmed by this, opposed their de-
parture; but the officers of the National Guard
allowed every one to pass.
K 2
196
MEMOIRS OF
The workmen got arms from the arsenal. But
when the proposal was made to attack and destroy
the 10,000 men, who, under General Auersperg,
had left the town, and encamped before its gates in
the park of Prince Schwarzenberg, it was opposed
by the leaders of the people themselves. The Com-
mon Council even sent after the soldiers all the
military effects which had been left behind in the
barracks; likewise bread and meat was brought to
the camp, and General Matauschek remained in
Vienna to keep up relations with the Diet, as well
as with the troops. All this went on, notwithstand-
ing the utter disappearance of several guards and
students, who were known to have gone to the
camp, probably in the hope of gaining over the
soldiers. Days afterwards, when the troops had
been concentrated on another point, mutilated bodies
were found in the park.
Kraus, Minister of Finance, who is still even now
in the Cabinet, had remained in Vienna; and might
daily be seen in the sittings of the Diet, and of its per-
manent Committee. The telegraph was allowed to
continue active between Olmütz and Vienna; the
wire had not been cut off, nor did the Diet seek for
any control and knowledge of that which was tele-
graphed. The railway had not been disturbed; its
service was not deranged for a moment.
Baron Récsey, in the meantime, found himself in
:
Į
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
197
the most distressing embarrassment, not knowing
what to do after the flight of the Emperor. At last
he resolved to send to the flying monarch his resig-
nation as Hungarian Prime Minister, with the
declaration, that the appointment of Jellachich to be
Dictator seemed to him to be unlawful, and he
entreated his Majesty to recal it.
In the meanwhile, Jellachich had crossed the
Austrian frontier, and straightway joined Auersperg,
aiding him to blockade the southern side of Vienna.
Engagements of outposts took place, and the first
cannon shots were fired against the town. There
the aspect of things was gloomy. The Diet, desir-
ing to bring about an agreement, sent a deputation
to the Emperor, at Olmütz, headed by Löhner.
But every day its benches were visibly thinned.
After the insurrection of the 6th of October the
Bohemians absented themselves; some days later,
Count Stadion and a part of the right were no more
seen on their seats. But the Ex-minister, Pillers-
dorf, and the Minister Kraus, were still there, and
their presence retained the deputies of the centre
and several of those belonging to the right. Be-
sides, the Commissaries of the Frankfort Parliament,
Messrs. Welker and Mosle, were expected, and much
reliance was placed on their influence.
Löhner, however, in Olmütz, got only evasive re-
plies, and Welker and Mosle failed in courage to
K 3
198
MEMOIRS OF
fulfil their mission; instead of proceeding to Vienna,
they turned to Olmütz.
In such a state of things it was not surprising,
that the Diet opposed every energetic measure which
might occasion a still greater breach with the court,
as a reconciliation was still deemed possible. The
Common Council, to which the defence of Vienna
had been entrusted by the Diet, was a timorous and
servile corporation, unable of itself to initiate any
act. It merely executed what the Committee of the
Diet desired or advised. The National Guard was
likewise undecided: it had no reliance in its com-
manders, and changed them for the third time in
five days. Messenhauser, who at last was appointed
to this place, believed it sufficient to address several
proclamations daily to the inhabitants of Vienna.
About the means of resistance he knew but little.
The barricades, formed without a plan, certainly
could not be depended upon. Amongst the guards
and the workmen great enthusiasm reigned; but no
kind of discipline. Regardless of the proclamations
of Messenhauser, they wasted much powder in use-
less shooting on the glacis, and in aimless skir-
mishes at the gates; while everybody knew that
the ammunition of Vienna was insufficient.
In this state my husband found the capital, when
he arrived there the 13th of October. He first went
to the Permanent Committee of the Diet in the Im-
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
199
perial palace. On a table covered with papers lay a
cannon-ball: several German and Galician deputies
sat around, who welcomed my husband with the
"As
question: "Will the Hungarians come ?"
soon as desired by the Austrian Diet;" was his
answer. My husband then explained, that the
Hungarian army was averse to cross the frontier,
without a definite summons from the Austrian
Diet.
Minister Kraus entered the room, and took an
animated part in the discussion which was going on.
The Austrian representatives said: "We cannot
summon the Hungarian army; for we cannot
abandon the legal path. We are representatives of
the whole empire, not of Vienna only. The defence of
Vienna belongs exclusively to the Common Council,
not to the Diet." My husband replied: "In this
case the Hungarians will not come; for they like-
wise will not abandon the legal path. Jellachich
has attacked them; they have driven him from their
country; they have no business with General
Auersperg, unless the Austrian Diet declares him an
enemy."—" General Auersperg has declared himself
an enemy;" retorted the representatives. "Here is
the first cannon-ball fired against the town. Auer-
sperg began the attack. Cannon-balls surely are no
tokens of friendship. But the Diet cannot frame a
resolution, declaring the General to be an enemy."
200
MEMOIRS OF
The representatives then requested my husband to
speak to the Common Council, as this was the legal
authority, to which the Diet had entrusted the de-
fence of Vienna. Before my husband went, Baron
Kraus questioned him upon the affairs of Hungary,
and repeatedly expressed his trust, that all could be
brought to a peaceful conclusion.
The members of the Common Council proved
more timorous still than the Committee of the Diet.
Their reply was : "That they no longer had any-
thing to do with the defence of Vienna, for which
the Commander of the National Guards had been
appointed; and any interference from the Council
could only create confusion."
My husband proceeded in the evening to the
Stallburg (a wing of the imperial palace), where
the staff of the National Guards was assembled.
Messenhauser, whom he had not known previously,
greeted him in a friendly manner, but requested
him not to speak loud, as many of the superior
officers of the guard could not be relied on.
"Black and yellow," they betrayed everything to
Jellachich and Auersperg for in spite of the daily
skirmishes, the town and the enemy's camp were
yet in manifold intercourse. My husband, there-
fore, in a low tone requested Messenhauser to send
to the Hungarians 20,000 muskets from the ar-
senal; as the Hungarians were not deficient in
:
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
201
soldiers, but in muskets, and the road by Posony
was still free. Messenhauser replied: "that this
he could not do; as the conveyance of arms would
occasion the suspicion, that he was forwarding them
to the Austrian army; for which reason he could
not even permit, that those muskets should be sent
to Hungary, which the Hungarian Ministry had
bought in Belgium :-(these, at the end of Sep-
tember, when the Austrian Ministry first prohibited
the export of arms to Hungary, had been seized in
the Custom House :)-that he personally would not
oppose the sending of arms, but the Common
Council would not allow it."
Such were the revolutionists of Vienna. Like
the Hungarians, they gladly would have accepted
any proposal of agreement, but they would not
surrender unconditionally in the very same instant,
in which they had cut with the sword the Gordian
knot of the court intrigues.
At that period General Bem came to Vienna,
meaning to proceed to Hungary, and offer his ser-
vices to the government there. On his way he was
requested to take upon himself the defence of the
Austrian capital. He complied. Of course he was
most anxious to establish an intelligence with the
Commander of the Hungarian army, which was
able to relieve Vienna. But in the city the leading
men were averse to meddle with the Hungarian
202
MEMOIRS OF
quarrel, whilst the Hungarians, who stood at the
frontier, were slow to support the democratic insur-
rection of Vienna.
My husband could hardly doubt any longer the
inevitable fate of the capital. He therefore wrote
to the Permanent Committee of the Diet: "That
he could not promise anything relative to the Hun-
garians; and that he thought the Diet would take
the best measure by appealing to Archduke John,
the Regent in Francfort, to mediate as speedily as
possible that under the present circumstances, this
might be the only way to save Vienna." Several
of the representatives were of the same opinion, but
they were all reluctant to take any decided mea-
sure, and gave themselves up to the course of
events.
:
The 17th of October, Blum, the eloquent
leader of the left in the Frankfort parliament, ar-
rived, with his colleagues, Messrs. Froebel, Hart-
mann and Trampusch. Everybody expected from
their arrival a turn in the Viennese transactions,
greater energy, more unity, less wavering politics.
But these expectations were not fulfilled: these
gentlemen too were men of word but not of deed.
They had the passive courage of opposition ora-
tors, and if necessary, of martyrs; not the active
courage of the statesman, or the hero. My hus-
band had but one conversation with Blum, and saw
A HUNGARIAN LADY.
203
that he was not the man to direct a revolution; he
therefore said to him and Messenhauser: "You are
designed for martyrs; this is a grand vocation, but
not that which I expressly seek: with half mea-
sures neither a peace nor a revolution can be
achieved. Farewell; I go to the Hungarian
army !"
In the meantime the Austrian troops took post,
also on the left bank of the Danube. Day after
day fresh battalions were conveyed on the railroad
from Galicia, Moravia, and Bohemia, and encamped
in the villages round Vienna. The town could no
longer be quitted without danger. My husband's
friends entreated him to remain, as it would be
dangerous for him, a Hungarian, to pass the Aus-
trian and Croatian outposts. But happily not
attending to these warnings, he passed out unper-
ceived, and returned to Posony.
END OF VOL. I.
JUN 4 1918
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À COMPANION TO ALL THE PEERAGES.
In 2 volumes, royal 8vo., beautifully printed in double columns, comprising more matter
than 30 ordinary volumes, price only 21. 2s. elegantly bound in gilt morocco cloth.
3
The great cost (upwards of £6000) attending the production of this
National Work, the first of its kind, induces the Publisher to hope that the
heads of all Families recorded in its pages will supply themselves with copies.
The Landed Gentry of England are so closely connected with the stirring records of its
eventful history, that some acquaintance with them is a matter of necessity with the legis-
lator, the lawyer, the historical student, the speculator in politics, and the curious in topo-
graphical and antiquarian lore; and even the very spirit of ordinary curiosity will prompt
to a desire to trace the origin and progress of those families whose influence pervades the
towns and villages of our land. This work furnishes such a mass of authentic information
in regard to all the principal families in the kingdom as has never before been attempted to
be brought together. It relates to the untitled families of rank, as the "Peerage and
Baronetage" does to the titled, and forms, in fact, a peerage of the untitled aristocracy.
It embraces the whole of the landed interest, and is indispensable to the library of every
gentleman.
"A work of this kind is of a national value. Its utility is not merely temporary, but it
will exist and be acknowledged as long as the families whose names and genealogies are
recorded in it continue to form an integral portion of the English constitution. As a
correct record of descent, no family should be without it. The untitled aristocracy have in
this great work as perfect a dictionary of their genealogical history, family connexions, and
heraldic rights, as the peerage and baronetage. It will be an enduring and trustworthy
record."-Morning Post.
"A work in which every gentleman will find a domestic interest, as it contains the
fullest account of every known family in the United Kingdom. It is a dictionary of all
names, families, and their origin,-of every man's neighbour and friend, if not of his own
relatives and immediate connexions. It cannot fail to be of the greatest utility to profes-
sional men in their researches respecting the members of different families, heirs to pro-
perty, &c. Indeed, it will become as necessary as a Directory in every office."-Bell's Mes-
senger.
4
MR. COLBURN'S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
DIARY AND CORRESPONDENCE
OF
SAMUEL PEPYS, F.R.S.,
SECRETARY TO THE ADMIRALTY IN THE REIGNS OF CHARLES II. AND JAMES II.
EDITED BY LORD BRAYBROOKE.
New and Revised Edition, with numerous Passages now restored from the Original Manu-
script, and many Additional Notes, complete in 5 vols., post 8vo., with Portraits, &c.,
price 10s. 6d. each, elegantly bound in French Morocco with gilt edges.
"These volumes of Pepys' famous Journal, in their present complete form, contain
much attractive novelty. Without making any exception in favour of any other produc-
tion of ancient or modern diarists, we unhesitatingly characterise this journal as the most
remarkable production of its kind which has ever been given to the world. Pepys paints the
Court, the Monarchs, and the times, in more vivid colours than any one else. His Diary
makes us comprehend the great historical events of the age, and the people who bore a
part in them, and gives us more clear glimpses into the true English life of the times than
all the other memorials of them that have come down to our own."-Edinburgh Review.
"The best book of its kind in the English language. The new matter is extremely
curious, and occasionally far more characteristic and entertaining than the old. The writer
is seen in a clearer light, and the reader is taken into his inmost soul. Pepys' Diary is
the ablest picture of the age in which the writer lived, and a work of standard importance
in English literature."-Athenæum.
"There is much in Pepys' Diary that throws a distinct and vivid light over the picture
of England and its government during the period succeeding the Restoration. If, quitting
the broad path of history, we look for minute information concerning ancient manners and
customs, the progress of arts and sciences, and the various branches of antiquity, we have
never seen a mine so rich as these volumes. The variety of Pepys' tastes and pursuits led
him into almost every department of life. He was a man of business, a man of informa-
tion, a man of whim, and, to a certain degree, a man of pleasure. He was a statesman,
a bel-esprit, a virtuoso, and a connoisseur. His curiosity made him an unwearied, as well
as an universal, learner, and whatever he saw found its way into his tables."-Quarterly
Review.
"We owe Pepys a debt of gratitude for the rare and curious information he has
bequeathed to us in this most amusing and interesting work. His Diary is valuable, as
depicting to us many of the most important characters of the times. Its author has
bequeathed us the records of his heart, the very reflection of his energetic mind; and his
quaint but happy narrative clears up numerous disputed points, throws light into many of
the dark corners of history, and lays bare the hidden substratum of events which
birth to, and supported the visible progress of, the nation."-Tait's Magazine.
gave
"Of all the records that have ever been published, Pepys' Diary gives us the most
vivid and trustworthy picture of the times, and the clearest view of the state of English
public affairs and of English society during the reign of Charles II. We see there, as in a
map, the vices of the Monarch, the intrigues of the Cabinet, the wanton follies of the
Court, and the many calamities to which the nation was subjected during the memo-
rable period of fire, plague, and general licentiousness. In the present edition all the
suppressed passages have been restored, and a large amount of valuable explanatory
notes have been added. Thus this third edition stands alone as the only complete one.
Lord Braybrooke has efficiently performed the duties of editor and annotator, and has
conferred a lasting favour on the public by giving them Pepys' Diary in its integrity."-
Morning Post.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY,
DIARY AND CORRESPONDENCE
OF
JOHN EVELYN, F.R.S.,
Author of the "Sylva," &c.
5
A NEW EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED WITH
NUMEROUS ADDITIONAL NOTES.
UNIFORM WITH THE NEW EDITION OF PEPYS' DIARY.
In 4 vols., post 8vo., price 10s, 6d. each, with Illustrations.
N.B.-The First Two Volumes, comprising "The Diary," are now ready.
THE Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn has long been regarded as an
invaluable record of opinions and events, as well as the most interesting expo-
sition we possess of the manners, taste, learning, and religion of this country,
during the latter half of the seventeenth century. The Diary comprises obser-
vations on the politics, literature, and science of his age, during his travels in
France and Italy; his residence in England towards the latter part of the
Protectorate, and his connexion with the Courts of Charles II. and the two
subsequent reigns, interspersed with a vast number of original anecdotes of the
most celebrated persons of that period. To the Diary is subjoined the Cor-
respondence of Evelyn with many of his distinguished contemporaries; also
Original Letters from Sir Edward Nicholas, private secretary to King Charles I.,
during some important periods of that reign, with the King's answers; and
numerous letters from Sir Edward Hyde (Lord Clarendon) to Sir Edward
Nicholas, and to Sir Richard Brown, Ambassador to France, during the exile
of the British Court.
A New Edition of this interesting work having been long demanded, the
greatest pains have been taken to render it as complete as possible, by a careful
re-examination of the original Manuscript, and by illustrating it with such
annotations as will make the reader more conversant with the numerous sub-
jects referred to by the Diarist.
"It has been justly observed that as long as Virtue and Science hold their
abode in this island, the memory of Evelyn will be held in the utmost venera-
tion. Indeed, no change of fashion, no alteration of taste, no revolution of
science, have impaired, or can impair, his celebrity. The youth who looks
forward to an inheritance which he is under no temptation to increase, will do
well to bear the example of Evelyn in his mind, as containing nothing but what
is imitable, and nothing but what is good. All persons, indeed, may find in
his character something for imitation, but for an English gentleman he is the
perfect model."—Quarterly Review.
6
MR. COLBURN'S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
1
:
ANECDOTES OF THE ARISTOCRACY,
AND
EPISODES IN ANCESTRAL STORY.
By J. BERNARD BURKE, Esq.,
Author of "The History of the Landed Gentry," "The Peerage and Baronetage," &c.
SECOND EDITION, 2 vols., post 8vo., 24s. bound.
The memoirs of our great families are replete with details of the most
striking and romantic interest, throwing light on the occurrences of public
as well as domestic life, and elucidating the causes of many important
national events. How little of the personal history of the Aristocracy is
generally known, and yet how full of amusement is the subject! Almost
every eminent family has some event connected with its rise or great-
ness, some curious tradition interwoven with its annals, or some calamity
casting a gloom over the brilliancy of its achievements, which cannot fail
to attract the attention of that sphere of society to which this work more
particularly refers, and must equally interest the general reader, with
whom, in this country, the records of the higher classes have always pos-
sessed a peculiar attraction. The anecdotes of the Aristocracy here re-
corded go far to show that there are more marvels in real life than in the
creations of fiction. Let the reader seek romance in whatever book, and
at whatever period he may, yet nought will he find to surpass the unex-
aggerated reality here unfolded.
"Mr. Burke has here given us the most curious incidents, the most stirring tales, and
the most remarkable circumstances connected with the histories, public and private, of our
noble houses and aristocratic families, and has put them into a shape which will preserve
them in the library, and render them the favourite study of those who are interested in
the romance of real life. These stories, with all the reality of established fact, read with
as much spirit as the tales of Boccacio, and are as full of strange matter for reflection and
amazement."-Britannia.
6
'66 Two of the most interesting volumes that have ever issued from the press. There are
no less than one hundred and twenty-three of the most stirring and captivating family
episodes we ever remember to have perused. The Anecdotes of the Aristocracy' will be
read from the palace to the hamlet; and no one can rise from these volumes without
deriving a useful knowledge of some chapter of family history, each connected with one or
other of the great houses of the kingdom."-British Army Despatch.
"We cannot estimate too highly the interest of Mr. Burke's entertaining and instructive
work. For the curious nature of the details, the extraordinary anecdotes related, the
strange scenes described, it would be difficult to find a parallel for it. It will be read by
every one."—Sunday Times.
1
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.
COMPLETION OF THE
LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND.
•
7
BY AGNES STRICKLAND.
DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, TO HER MAJESTY.
The ELEVENTH and TWELFTH VOLUMES, completing this interesting Work, being now
published, Purchasers are recommended to give immediate orders to their Booksellers for
the completion of their sets, to prevent disappointment.
"These volumes have the fascination of a romance united to the integrity of history.
The work is written by a lady of considerable learning, indefatigable industry, and careful
judgment. All these qualifications for a biographer and an historian she has brought to
bear upon the subject of her volumes, and from them has resulted a narrative interesting
to all, and more particularly interesting to that portion of the community to whom the
more refined researches of literature afford pleasure and instruction. The whole work
should be read, and no doubt will be read, by all who are anxious for information. It is a
lucid arrangement of facts, derived from authentic sources, exhibiting a combination of
industry, learning, judgment, and impartiality, not often met with in biographers of
crowned heads.”—Times.
"This remarkable, this truly great historical work, is now brought to a conclusion. In
this series of biographies, in which the severe truth of history takes almost the wildness of
romance, it is the singular merit of Miss Strickland that her research has enabled her to
throw new light on many doubtful passages, to bring forth fresh facts, and to render every
portion of our annals which she has described an interesting and valuable study. She has
given a most valuable contribution to the history of England, and we have no hesitation in
affirming that no one can be said to possess an accurate knowledge of the history of the
country who has not studied her 'Lives of the Queens of England."Morning Herald.
"A most valuable and entertaining work. There is certainly no lady of our day who
has devoted her pen to so beneficial a purpose as Miss Strickland. Nor is there any other
whose works possess a deeper or more enduring interest. Miss Strickland is to our mind
the first literary lady of the age."-Chronicle.
"We must pronounce Miss Strickland beyond all comparison the most entertaining
historian in the English language. She is certainly a woman of powerful and active mind,
as well as of scrupulous justice and honesty of purpose."-Morning Post.
"Miss Strickland has made a very judicious use of many authentic MS. authorities not
previously collected, and the result is a most interesting addition to our biographical
library."-Quarterly Review.
"A valuable contribution to historical knowledge. It contains a mass of every kind of
historical matter of interest, which industry and research could collect. We have derived
much entertainment and instruction from the work."-Athenæum.
انه ام
8
་ས
MR. COLBURN'S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
KING ARTHUR.
BY SIR E. BULWER LYTTON, BART.,
Author of "The New Timon.”
Second Edition, 1 vol., post 8vo., 10s. 6d. bound,
"King Arthur aims at relating one of the most fascinating of all national and chivalrous
legends. It is a valuable addition to the poetical treasures of our language, and we regard
it as not only worthy, but likely, to take its place among those fine, though not faultless
performances which will hereafter represent the poetical literature of England in the first
half of the nineteenth century. The author is, we think, right in believing this to be the
least perishable monument of his genius."-Edinburgh Review.
"This grand epic of 'King Arthur' must henceforth be ranked amongst our national
masterpieces. In it we behold the crowning achievement of the author's life. His ambi-
tion cannot rise to a greater altitude. He has accomplished that which once had its
seductions for the deathless and majestic mind of Milton. He has now assumed a place
among the kings of English poetry."-Sun.
"We see in 'King Arthur' a consummate expression of most of those higher powers of
mind and thought which have been steadily and progressively developed in Sir Bulwer
Lytton's writings. Its design is a lofty one, and through all its most varied extremes
evenly sustained. It comprises a national and a religious interest. It animates with
living truth, with forms and faces familiar to all men, the dim figures of legendary lore.
It has an earnest moral purpose, never lightly forgotten or thrown aside. It is remarkable
for the deep and extensive knowledge it displays, and for the practical lessons of life and
history which it reflects in imaginative form. We have humour and wit, often closely bor-
dering on pathos and tragedy; expo vi war, of love, and of chivalrous adventure, alter-
nate with the cheerful lightness and pleasantry of la gaie science."-Examiner.
C
"
"The great national subject of King Arthur,' which Milton for a long time hesitated
whether he should not choose in preference to that of the 'Fall of Man,' has been at last in
our own day treated in a way which we think will place King Arthur' among the most
remarkable works of genius. It will be the delight of many future generations. It is one
of the most entrancing poems we have ever read; full of great and rare ideas-conceived
in the plenary spirit of all-believing romance-strange and wonderful in incident-national
through and through-a real plant of this soil, so purely the tree of England's antiquity
that we love it for kind's sake.”—Morning Post.
THE NEW TIMON:
A POETICAL ROMANCE.
FOURTH EDITION, 1 vol., post 8vo., 6s. bound.
"One of the most remarkable poems of the present generation."-Sun.
ï
•
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.
THE REV. R. MILMAN'S
LIFE OF TASSO.
2 vols., post 8vo., 21s. bound.
"The present work, from the touching interest of its subject, is likely to be extensively
read."-Athenæum.
"Mr. Milman's biography is a very good one. The work will find a place in every
library."-Britannia.
"A most valuable addition to our literary treasures-fraught with deep and thrilling
interest."-Morning Post.
9
"Mr. Milman's Memoir of Tasso is a work of considerable interest; entering fully into
the particulars of the great poet's life, and giving a general review of his works."—John
Bull.
MEMOIR AND CORRESPONDENCE
OF
SIR ROBERT MURRAY KEITH, K.B.,
Minister Plenipotentiary at the Courts of Dresden, Copenhagen, and Vienna,
from 1769 to 1793; with
Biographical Memoirs of Queen Caroline Matilda, Sister of George III.
EDITED BY MRS. GILLESPIE SMYTH.
2 vols., post 8vo., with Portraits, 25s. bound.
Sir Robert Murray Keith, it will be recollected, was one of the ablest diplomatists of
the last century, and held the post of Ambassador at the Court of Copenhagen, when
Caroline Matilda, Queen of Denmark, the unfortunate sister of George III., was involved in
the conspiracy of Struensee, and was only saved from the severest punishment her vindic-
tive enemy the Queen Mother could inflict, by the spirited interposition of the British
Ambassador. Sir Robert Keith also for a long period represented his Sovereign at the
Courts of Dresden and Vienna; and his papers, edited by a member of his family, throw
considerable light on the diplomatic history of the reign of George III., besides conveying
many curious particulars of the great men and events of the period. Among the variety of
interesting documents comprised in these volumes, will be found-Letters from Frederick,
King of Prussia; Caroline Matilda, Queen of Denmark; Princes Ferdinand of Brunswick,
Kaunitz, and Czartoriski; the Dukes of Cumberland, York, Queensbury, Montagu, and
Newcastle; Lords Stormont, St. Asaph, Heathfield, Hardwicke, Darlington, Auckland,
Apsley, Barrington, Stair; Counts Bentinck and Rosenberg; Baron Trenck; Field-Mar-
shals Conway and Keith; Sirs Walter Scott, Joseph Yorke, Nathaniel Wraxall, John
Sebright; Dr. Robertson, Mr. Pitt, Howard, Mrs. Piozzi, Mrs. Montagu, &c., &c.
“A large portion of this important and highly interesting work consists of letters, that
we venture to say will bear a comparison for sterling wit, lively humour, entertaining gossip,
piquant personal anecdotes, and brilliant pictures of social life, in its highest phases, both at
home and abroad, with those of Horace Walpole himself."-Court Journal.
1
10
MR. COLBURN'S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
THE HISTORY OF CIVILISATION,
AND PUBLIC OPINION,
By W. A. MACKINNON, M.P., F.R.S., &c.
Third and Cheaper Edition, 2 vols. 8vo., 21s., bound.
፡
"Mr. Mackinnon's valuable History of Civilisation' is a vast repertory of knowledge
that we could wish to see universally circulated throughout the country, as tending to
convey information that is much required, and of which too many are deficient."-Morning
Herald.
REVELATIONS OF PRINCE TALLEYRAND.
Edited from the Papers of the late M. COLMACHE,
THE PRINCE'S PRIVATE SECRETARY.
Second Edition, 1 volume, post 8vo., with Portrait, 10s. 6d. bound.
"A more interesting work has not issued from the press for many years. It is in truth
a complete Boswell
Boswell sketch of the greatest diplomatist of the age."-Sunday Times.
COLBURN'S AUTHORISED TRANSLATION.
Now ready, VOLUME 9, price 7s., of
M. A. THIERS' HISTORY
OF
THE CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE.
A SEQUEL TO HIS HISTORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
Having filled at different times the high offices of Minister of the Interior, of Finance,
of Foreign Affairs, and President of the Council, M. Thiers has enjoyed facilities beyond
the reach of every other biographer of Napoleon for procuring, from exclusive and
authentic sources, the choicest materials for his present work. As guardian to the
archives of the state, he had access to diplomatic papers and other documents of the
highest importance, hitherto known only to a privileged few, and the publication of which
cannot fail to produce a great sensation. From private sources, M. Thiers, it appears, has
also derived much valuable information. Many interesting memoirs, diaries, and letters,
all hitherto unpublished, and most of them destined for political reasons to remain so,
have been placed at his disposal; while all the leading characters of the empire, who were
alive when the author undertook the present history, have supplied him with a mass of
incidents and anecdotes which have never before appeared in print, and the accuracy and
value of which may be inferred from the fact of these parties having been themselves eye-
witnesses of, or actors in, the great events of the period.

*** To prevent disappointment, the public are requested to be particular in giving their
orders for "COLBURN'S AUTHORISED TRANSLATION."
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.
11
BURKE'S PEERAGE AND BARONETAGE;
CORRECTED THROUGHOUT FROM THE PERSONAL COMMUNI-
CATIONS OF THE NOBILITY, &c.
In 1 vol. (comprising as much matter as twenty ordinary volumes), with upwards of
1500 Engravings of Arms, &c., 38s. bound.
"Mr. Burke's 'Peerage and Baronetage' is the most complete, the most convenient
and the cheapest work of the kind ever offered to the public."-Sun.
DIARY AND MEMOIRS OF SOPHIA DOROTHEA,
CONSORT OF GEORGE I.
Now first published from the Originals.
Cheaper Edition, 2 vols., 8vo., with Portrait, 21s. bound..
"A work abounding in the romance of real life."-Messenger.
"A book of marvellous revelations, establishing beyond all doubt the perfect innocence
of the beautiful, highly-gifted, and inhumanly-treated Sophia Dorothea."-Naval and
Military Gazette.
LETTERS OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.
Edited, with an Historical Introduction and Notes,
By AGNES STRICKLAND.
Cheaper Edition, with numerous Additions, uniform with Miss Strickland's "Lives of the
Queens of England." 2 vols., post 8vo., with Portrait, &c., 21s. bound.
"The best collection of authentic memorials relative to the Queen of Scots that has
ever appeared.”—Morning Chronicle.
MEMOIRS OF MADEMOISELLE DE MONTPENSIER.
Written by HERSELF.
3 volumes, post 8vo., with Portrait.
"One of the most delightful and deeply-interesting works we have read for a long
time."-Weekly Chronicle.
LADY BLESSINGTON'S JOURNAL
OF HER CONVERSATIONS WITH LORD BYRON.
Cheaper Edition, in 8vo., embellished with Portraits of Lady Blessington and Lord Byron,
price only 7s. bound.
"The best thing that has been written on Lord Byron."-Spectator.
"Universally acknowledged to be delightful.”—Athenæum.
12
MR. COLBURN'S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
1
NARRATIVE
OF
i
AN OVERLAND JOURNEY ROUND THE WORLD,
By SIR GEORGE SIMPSON,
Governor-in-Chief of the Hudson's Bay Company's Territories in
North America.
vols., 8vo., with Map, &c., 31s. 6d. bound.
"A more valuable or instructive work, or one more full of perilous adventure and
heroic enterprise, we have never met with."-John Bull.
"It deserves to be a standard work in all libraries, and it will become so."-Messenger.
"The countries of which this work gives us a new knowledge are probably destined to
act with great power on our interests, some as the rivals of our commerce, some as the
depôts of our manufactures, and some as the recipients of that overflow of population
which Europe is now pouring out from all her fields on the open wilderness of the world."
Blackwood's Magazine.
MR. ROSS' YACHT VOYAGE
ΤΟ
DENMARK, NORWAY, AND SWEDEN,
IN LORD RODNEY'S CUTTER "THE IRIS."
Second Edition, 1 vol., 10s. 6d. bound.
"There is not a sporting man in the country who could peruse these volumes without
deriving a considerable amount of pleasure and profit from their pages. No one should
think of visiting Norway, Denmark, or Sweden, without consulting them.”—Era.
FIVE YEARS IN KAFFIRLAND:
WITH SKETCHES OF
THE LATE WAR IN THAT COUNTRY.
By MRS. HARRIET WARD
(WIFE OF CAPTAIN WARD, 91ST REGIMENT).
Second Edition, 2 vols., post 8vo., with Portraits of Col. Somerset, the Kaffir Chief
Sandilla, &c., 21s. bound.
"Mrs. Ward's narrative is one of deep interest, full of exciting adventures and wild and
graphic descriptions of scenes the most extraordinary which could be presented to the eyes
of a traveller.”—Sunday Times.
"The fullest, clearest, and most impartial account of the Cape of Good Hope and of
the recent war, that has yet come before the public."-Naval and Military Gazette.
VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS;
OR,
ROMANCE AND REALITIES OF EASTERN TRAVEL.
By ELIOT B. G. WARBURTON, Esq.
SEVENTH EDITION, 2 vols., with numerous Illustrations, 21s. bound.
"Independently of its value as an original narrative, and its useful and interesting in-
formation, this work is remarkable for the colouring power and play of fancy with which
its descriptions are enlivened. Among its greatest and most lasting charms is its reverent
and serious spirit."-Quarterly Review.
13
“We could not recommend a better book as a travelling companion."-United Service
Magazine.
HOCHELAGA;
OR,
ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD.
Edited by ELIOT WARBURTON, Esq.,
Author of "The Crescent and the Cross."
THIRD EDITION, 2 vols., post 8vo., with Illustrations, 21s. bound.
"We recommend' Hochelaga' most heartily, in case any of our readers may as yet be
unacquainted with it."-Quarterly Review.
"This work has already reached a third edition. We shall be surprised if it do not go
through many. It possesses almost every qualification of a good book-grace, variety, and
vigour of style-a concentrated power of description, which has all the effect of elaborate
painting-information carefully collected and judiciously communicated-sound and en-
larged views of important questions-a hearty and generous love of country-and the
whole pervaded by a refined but sometimes caustic humour, which imparts a constant
attraction to its pages. We can cordially recommend it to our readers, as well for the
amusement of its lighter portions, the vivid brilliancy of its descriptions, and the solid
information it contains respecting Canada, and the position generally of England in the
new world.”—John Bull,
LORD LINDSAY'S LETTERS ON THE HOLY LAND.
FOURTH EDITION, revised and corrected, 1 vol., post 8vo., 7s. 6d. bound.
"Lord Lindsay has felt and recorded what he saw with the wisdom of a philosopher, and
the faith of an enlightened Christian."-Quarterly Review.
14
MR. COLBURN'S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
SIR JAMES ALEXANDER'S ACADIE;
OR, SEVEN YEARS' EXPLORATION IN CANADA, &c.
2 vols., post 8vo., with numerous Illustrations, 21s. bound.
“Replete with valuable information on Canada for the English settler, the English
soldier, and the English Government; with various charms of adventure and description
for the desultory reader."-Morning Chronicle.
"No other writer on Canada can compare with the gallant author of the present volumes
in the variety and interest of his narrative."-John Bull.
STORY OF THE PENINSULAR WAR.
A COMPANION VOLUME TO MR. GLEIG'S
"STORY OF THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO."
With six Portraits and Map, 7s. 6d. bound.
"Every page of this work is fraught with undying interest. We needed such a book as
this; one that could give to the rising generation of soldiers a clear notion of the events
which led to the expulsion of the French from the Peninsula."-United Service Gazette.
LADY LISTER KAYE'S BRITISH HOMES
AND FOREIGN WANDERINGS.
2 vols., post 8vo, 21s. bound.
"Unrivalled as these volumes are, considered as portfolios of aristocratic sketches, they
are not less interesting on account of the romantic history with which the sketches are
interwoven."-John Bull.
THE NEMESIS IN CHINA;
COMPRISING A COMPLETE
HISTORY OF THE WAR IN THAT COUNTRY;
With a Particular Account of the Colony of Hong Kong.
From Notes of Captain W. H. HALL, R.N., and Personal Observations
by Ŵ. D. BERNARD, Esq., A.M., Oxon.
CHEAPER EDITION, with a new Introduction, 1 vol., with Maps and Plates, 10s. 6d. bound.
Capt. Hall's narrative of the services of the Nemesis is full of interest, and will, we
are sure, be valuable hereafter, as affording most curious materials for the history of steam
navigation."-Quarterly Review.
"A work which will take its place beside that of Captain Cook."-Weekly Chronicle.
ADVENTURES OF A GOLDFINDER.
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.
3 vols., post 8vo.
"What is here?
Gold? yellow, glittering, precious gold?"
Timon of Athens.
MISCELLANEOUS.
MR. DISRAELI'S CONINGSBY.
CHEAP STANDARD EDITION, WITH A NEW PREFACE.
In 1 vol., with Portrait, 6s. bound.
"We are glad to see that the finest work of Disraeli has been sent out in the same shape
as those of Dickens, Bulwer, and other of our best novelists, at such a price as to place
them within the reach of the most moderate means. Coningsby has passed from the popu-
larity of a season to an enduring reputation as a standard work. It is not merely as a
novel, however, that Coningsby is interesting, but as a popular exposition of the author's
political ideas. It is a valuable contribution to popular literature."-Weekly Chronicle.
A NEW SYSTEM OF GEOLOGY.
BY THE
VERY REV. WILLIAM COCKBURN, D.D., DEAN OF YORK.
Dedicated to Professor Sedgwick.
Small 8vo., price 3s. 6d.
15
ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS.
By W. J. BRODERIP, Esq., F.R.S.
CHEAPER EDITION, 1 vol., post 8vo., 7s. 6d. bound.
"We believe we do not exaggerate in saying that, since the publication of White's
'Natural History of Selborne,' and of the Introduction to Entomology,' by Kirby and
Spence, no work in our language is better calculated than the Zoological Recreations' to
fulfil the avowed aim of its author-to furnish a hand-book which may cherish or awaken
a love for natural history.”—Quarterly Review.
THE OLD JUDGE; OR, LIFE IN A COLONY.
By the Author of "Sam Slick, the Clockmaker;" &c.
2 vols., post 8vo., 21s. bound.
"These volumes are redolent of the hearty fun and strong masculine sense of our old
friend Sam Slick. The last work of Mr. Haliburton is quite equal to the first. Every page
of the Old Judge' is alive with rapid, fresh sketches of character; droll, quaint, racy say-
ings; good-humoured practical jokes; and capitally told anecdotes.”—Morning Chronicle.
ADVENTURES OF A GREEK LADY,
THE ADOPTED DAUGHTER OF THE LATE QUEEN CAROLINE.
WRITTEN BY HERSELF. 2 vols., post 8vo., 21s. bound.
"The chief interest of this more than ordinarily interesting book lies in the notices it
furnishes of the unfortunate Queen Caroline. From the close of 1814 till Her Royal
Highness's return to England the author was never absent from her for a single day. All
is ingenuously and artlessly told, and the plain truth finds its way at once to the reader's
judgment and feelings."-Court Journal.
›
16
MR. COLBURN'S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
POPULAR NEW NOVELS AND ROMANCES.
THE WILMINGTONS.
By the
Author of "Emilia Wyndham,"
"Mordaunt Hall," &c. 3 vols.
"It argues well for the character of a people when,
in their popular literature, the good is ever found in as-
sociation with the beautiful; and we regard the
eminent success of this author's works as a very
favourable attestation of the soundness of our public
opinion. The author is indisputably a writer of true
genius and of great power, but is also one who dedi-
cates high endowments to the service of Him who has
given them. The popularity of such a writer is cre-
ditable to a people-the productions of such a writer
must necessarily exert a beneficial influence over a
people prepared to prize them. They all bear the im-
press of sterling English morality-all minister to ge-
nerous emotions, generous scorn of what is base, ge-
nerous admiration of excellence; and all inculcate
respect for principle, by which emotions ought to be
governed-all minister to the exaltation of justice.".
Dublin University Magazine.
PRIDE AND IRRESOLUTION.
By the Author of
"THE DISCIPLINE OF LIFE."
3 volumes.
LEONARD NORMANDALE ;
OR, THE THREE BROTHERS.
BY THE HON. C. STUART SAVILE.
3 volumes.
THE PETREL.
A TALE OF THE SEA.
By a Naval Officer. 3 vols.
"The best nautical novel which has appeared for a
long time. It cannot fail to remind the reader of the
best tales of Captain Marryat.”—Britannia.
"This story possesses an attraction which is all
engrossing. Admiral Fisher has proved by this tale
that he can use his pen with no contemptible skill."-
Dispatch.
"Ernest Vane' is of high merit as a production of
genius. The work is in parts, surpassing beautiful. It
is rich in imagery, almost exhaustless in observation.
It deals with passion in its intensity, and not unseldom
penetrates the darkest recesses of the human heart. Its
pages abound with brilliancy of thought and depth of
feeling."-Morning Post.
PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF
Mrs. MARGARET MAITLAND,
OF SUNNYSIDE.
Written by herself. 3 vols.
"The most gratifying work of its class since the
great delineator of Scottish manners ceased to exist."
Tait's Magazine.
SIN AND SORROW.
A TALE.
3 vols. (just ready.)
"This work has given us much pleasure. Mrs.
Maitland might claim cousinship with the Rev. Micah
Balwhidder."-Athenæum.
"Our readers will enjoy this work-its genuine na-
tionality of tone and sentiment, its refined and poetic
homeliness, and its strokes of quiet humour. The au-
thor may be described as a refined or feminine Galt.
In the pathetic element we are not unfrequently re-
minded of Wilson's 'Lights and Shadows." "—Scotsman.
THE MAID OF ORLEANS.
By the Author of "Whitefriars," "Owen
Tudor," &c. 3 vols.
te
"An excellent novel. The character of the 'Maid of
Orleans' is dr with a glow and fervour, & mintur
of elevation and simplicity, which are alike powerful
and attractive."—Athenæum.
"A romance of surpassing interest, rarely equalled
for vigour, brilliancy, pathos, and dignity of style."-
Weekly Chronicle.
The OLD WORLD and the NEW.
By MRS. TROLLOPE. 3 vols.
"In all respects one of the very cleverest and most
interesting novels of the day.”—Herald.
"A very clever novel, presenting in marked contrast
the Old World and the New' during the eventful
epoch out of which we are emerging."-Post.
"We beg to call our readers' attention to 'Rocking-
ham; or, the Younger Brother,' a book which, from in-
ternal evidence, must have been written by a person
constantly mingling in the highest English society.
The work abounds in interest, and, indeed, we should
be at a loss to name another recent novel that shows
ERNEST VANE.
BY ALEX. BAILLIE COCHRANE, M.P. anything like the same power of painting strong pas-
sion."-Quarterly Review.
2 volumes.
ROCKINGHAM;
OR, THE YOUNGER BROTHER.
Second Edition. 3 vols.
THE MIDNIGHT SUN.
Br FREDRIKA BREMER.
Translated by Mary Howitt. 1 vol. 10s. 6d.
THE HALL & THE HAMLET.
BY WILLIAM HOWITT.
Cheaper Edition. 2 vols., 12s. bound.
Filmed by Preservation 1991

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