Kingdom of Hungary

The Kingdom of Hungary was a kingdom in Central Europe that existed from 1000 to 1918. After the Battle of Mohács in 1526 it was an autonomous part of the Habsburg Monarchy, and later Austria-Hungary. Between 1541 and 1699 it was informally called Royal Hungary with a much reduced territory. Post-Trianon Hungary in the period between 1920 and 1946 was still called the Kingdom of Hungary until the proclamation of the Hungarian Republic.

The Kingdom of Hungary arose in present-day western Hungary and subsequently spread to remaining present-day Hungary, to Transylvania (in present-day Romania), present-day Slovakia, Carpatho-Ruthenia, Vojvodina (in present-day Serbia) and other smaller nearby territories. It existed in personal union with the Kingdom of Croatia from 1102 until 1918 under the name Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen.

Overview

The term "Kingdom of Hungary" is often used to denote this long-lasting multiethnic configuration of territories in order to draw a clear distinction with the modern Hungarian state, which is significantly smaller and more ethnically homogeneous. Prior to and in the 19th century, the term Hungarian in English and other languages often referred to any inhabitant of this state, regardless of his or her ethnicity.

The Latin terms "Natio Hungarica" and "Hungarus" referred to all noblemen of the kingdom. A Hungarus-consciousness (loyalty and patriotism above ethnic origins) existed among any inhabitant of this state, however according to István Werbőczy's Tripartitum, the "Natio Hungarica" were only the privileged noblemen, subjects of the Holy Crown regardless of ethnicity.

Due to the multiethnic nature of the Kingdom of Hungary, it had names in many languages, and at different times in history different ones have been official at the supreme level. The Latin name (Regnum Hungariae) was official from the beginning of the kingdom to the 1840s, the German name (Königreich Ungarn) from 1849 to the 1860s and the Hungarian name (Magyar Királyság) in the 1840s and from the 1860's to 1918. The names in other languages of the kingdom were: Croatian: Kraljevina Ugarska, Polish: Królestwo Węgier, Romanian: Regatul Ungariei, [Kraljevina Ugarska / Краљевина Угарска] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help), Slovak: Uhorské kráľovstvo.

File:Saint Stephen Crown.jpg

The crown of Saint Stephen.

History of the Kingdom of Hungary

This article focuses on the Kingdom of Hungary as a political entity, for other details, see:

• Kingdom of Hungary in the Middle Ages (896/1000 - 1526)
• Eastern Hungarian Kingdom (1526-1571) ; Royal Hungary (c. 1541 - c. 1700)
• Hungary in the 18th and 19th century

Hungary was established as a Christian kingdom under Stephen I of Hungary, who was crowned in December 1000 AD in the capital, Esztergom. He was the son of Géza and thus a descendant of Árpád. By 1006, Stephen had solidified his power, eliminating all rivals who either wanted to follow the old pagan traditions or wanted an alliance with the orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire. Then he started sweeping reforms to convert Hungary into a feudal state, complete with forced Christianisation.

The first kings of the Kingdom were from the Árpád dynasty. In the early 14th century, this dynasty was replaced by the Angevins, and later the Jagiellonians as well as several non-dynastic rulers, notably Sigismund Luxemburg and Matthias Corvinus.

At the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Hungarian army was defeated by the forces of the Ottoman Empire, and King Louis II of Hungary ran away and was drowned in the Csele Creek. Under the Ottoman attacks the central authority collapsed and a struggle for power broke out. The majority of Hungary's ruling elite elected John Zápolya (10 November 1526). A small minority of aristocrats sided with Ferdinand of Habsburg who was Archduke of Austria and tied to Louis's family by marriage, as King of Hungary; there had been previous agreements that the Habsburgs would take the Hungarian throne if Louis died without heirs, as he did. Ferdinand was elected king by a rump diet in December 1526. On 29 February 1528, King John I of Hungary received the support of the Ottoman Sultan.

A three-sided conflict ensued as Ferdinand moved to assert his rule over as much of the Hungarian kingdom as he could. By 1529 the kingdom had been split into two parts: Habsburg Hungary and "eastern-Kingdom of Hungary". At this time there were no Ottomans on Hungarian territories, except Srem's important castles. By 1541, the fall of Buda marked a further division of Hungary, in three parts and remained so until the end of the 17th century. Although the borders were changing very frequently during this period, the three parts can be identified more or less as follows:

• Present-day Slovakia, north-western Transdanubia, Burgenland, western Croatia, and adjacent territories were under Habsburg rule. This area was referred to as Royal Hungary, and though it nominally remained a separate state, it was administered more or less as part of the Habsburgs' Austrian holdings, to which it was immediately adjacent. This was the continuation of the Kingdom of Hungary.

Map of the counties in the Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen (the Kingdom of Hungary proper and Croatia-Slavonia) around 1880

• The Great Alföld (i.e. most of present-day Hungary, incl. south-eastern Transdanubia and the Banat), partly without north-eastern present-day Hungary, became part of the Ottoman Empire (see Ottoman Hungary).
• The remaining territory became the newly independent principality of Transylvania, under Zápolya's family. Transylvania was a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire.

After a failed Ottoman invasion of Austria in 1683, the Habsburgs went on the offensive against the Turks; by the end of the 17th century, they had managed to conquer the remainder of the historical Kingdom of Hungary and the principality of Transylvania. At this point, the Royal Hungary terminology was dropped, and the area was once again referred to as the Kingdom of Hungary, although it was still administered as a part of the Habsburg realm. In the 18th century, the Kingdom of Hungary had its own Diet (parliament) and constitution, but the members of the Governor's Council (Helytartótanács, the office of the palatine) were appointed by the Habsburg monarch, and the superior economic institution, the Hungarian Chamber, was directly subordinated to the Court Chamber in Vienna. The official language of the Kingdom of Hungary remained Latin until 1844, it was Hungarian from 1867.

Austria-Hungary

In 1867, following the Ausgleich, the Habsburg Empire became the so-called "dual monarchy" of Austria-Hungary. The historic lands of the Hungarian Crown (the Kingdom of Hungary proper, to which Transylvania was soon incorporated, and Croatia-Slavonia, which maintained a distinct identity and a certain internal autonomy) was granted equal status with the rest of the Habsburg monarchy; the two states comprising Austria-Hungary each had considerable independence, with certain institutions and matters (notably the reigning house, defence, foreign affairs, and finances for common expenditures) remaining joint. This arrangement was to last until 1918, when the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary was divided between Hungary and other new or neighbouring states (Austria, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) as the Central Powers went down in defeat in World War I. The new borders were fixed in 1920 by the Treaty of Trianon. This is generally seen as the end of the state that is referred to as the Kingdom of Hungary.

Kingdom of Hungary between 1920-1944

Further information: Hungary between the two world wars

Monarchy was restored after two years and Kingdom of Hungary became the name of the country again. In January 1920, Hungarian men and women cast the first secret ballots in the country's political history. The voting was not totally democratic, because the entire left-wing either boycotted or was excluded from the voting. A large right-wing majority was elected to a unicameral assembly. In March, the parliament annulled the Compromise of 1867, and it restored the Hungarian monarchy but postponed electing a king until civil disorder had subsided. Instead, Miklos Horthy was elected Regent and was empowered, among other things, to appoint Hungary's Prime Minister, veto legislation, convene or dissolve the parliament, and command the armed forces. Horthy appointed Count Pál Teleki as Prime Minister in July 1920. His right-wing government issued a numerus clausus law, limiting admission of "political insecure elements" (these were often Jews) to universities and, in order to quiet rural discontent, took initial steps toward fulfilling a promise of major land reform by dividing about 3,850 km² from the largest estates into smallholdings. Teleki's government resigned, however, after the former emperor, Charles IV, unsuccessfully attempted to retake Hungary's throne in March 1921. King Charles's return produced split parties between conservatives who favored a Habsburg restoration and nationalist right-wing radicals who supported election of a Hungarian king. Count István Bethlen, a non-affiliated right-wing member of the parliament, took advantage of this rift forming a new Party of Unity under his leadership. Horthy then appointed Bethlen prime minister. Charles IV died soon after he failed a second time to reclaim the throne in October 1921. (For more detail on Charles's attempts to retake the throne, see Charles I of Austria's conflict with Miklós Horthy.)

Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya, Regent of Hungary

This state existed approximately on the territory of present-day Hungary from 21 March 1920 until 1938 but its borders changed multiple times in the Vienna Awards and following the Invasion of Yugoslavia. The borders were changed again following World War II, including reversing all the previous gains and an additional minor loss of territory at the northern border. This state was conceived of as a "kingdom without a king," since there was no consensus about who should take the throne of Hungary, . The kingdom was ruled in this period by Miklós Horthy, who had the title of regent. Hungary became a republic on 1 February 1946.

Continuity issue

Hungarians tend to emphasise the continuity of the Hungarian state and consider the Kingdom of Hungary one phase of its historical development. The continuity is reflected in national symbols and holidays, official language, capital city, and in the official commemoration of the millennium of the Hungarian statehood in 2000. According to their point of view, the Kingdom of Hungary was primarily a country of the Hungarian people, not denying the presence and importance of other nationalities.

In contrast, according to the point of view of the other nationalities living on the territory of the former Kingdom of Hungary, such continuity is shared among successor nations because the Kingdom of Hungary was a common state of several peoples since its formation, and therefore it is not identical to modern Hungary, which is a nation state of the Hungarians. In the Croatian, Serbian and Slovak languages, there are different names for modern Hungary (hr/sr: Mađarska, sl: Maďarsko) and the Kingdom of Hungary (hr/sr: Ugarska, sl: Uhorsko).

See also

• List of Hungarian rulers
• Nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary
• Administrative divisions of the Kingdom of Hungary
• Demographics of the Kingdom of Hungary
• Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary)
• History of Hungary
• Croatia in the union with Hungary
• History of Slovakia
• Transylvania

External links

• Hungary in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
• Atlas and gazetteer of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1914