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"I am grateful for having been born to a tough little nation in the middle of the European continent, able to absorb the positive cultural influences of our Western neighbors, enjoying great traditions, imparting good education to its sons and daughters, home to worldrenowned talent and exhibiting resilience in the face of historical tragedy while nurturing an abiding faith in God. The greatness of a nation is measured not by its size or population, but by its talent and by the depth of its soul. In this respect, Hungary is a giant and I am a son of that nation." Quoted from my supplemental diary entitled ''Reflections”, Chapter on Original sins, - ancient virtues. Jules S. Vallay Copyright Jules S. Vallay All rights reserved File:Munkacsy honfoglalas Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS OUR HUNGARIAN HERITAGE PART I Page # Introduction 1 About this work 1 The Magyar language 2 Footnotes to the Magyar peregrinations 3 The myth of the "Csodaszarvas" (Miracle Stag) 4 History 4 King Stephen and Christianity 1000-1038 4 6 Opinion The Holy Crown Theory 6 Hungarian saints 8 THE ÁRPÁD DYNASTY 10 Peter Orseolo 1038-1041 & 1044-1046 10 Samuel Aba 1041-1044 10 Andrew I (I Endre) 1046-1060 11 Béla I 1060-1063 12 1063-1074 13 1074-1077 13 Solomon (Salamon) Géza I Ladislaus I (Szent László) 1077-1095 14 The Holy Dexter 14 Coloman (Könyves Kalman) 1095-1116 16 Oddities of royal succession 17 The 10th century 21 THE NEXT THOUSAND YEARS 23 Stephen II (II. István) 1116-1131 23 1131-1141 23 Béla II (Vak Béla) Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. Remarks 2 Géza II 1141-1162 24 Stephen Ill (Ill. István) 1162-1172 24 Usurpers of the throne 25 Ladislaus II (II. László)1162-1163 25 Stephen IV (IV. lstván) 1163-1163 26 The Court jester 27 Béla Ill 1172-1192 28 A little detour: the royal women 29 St. Margaret of Scotland 30 1196-1204 31 Ladislaus Ill (Ill. László) 1204-1205 32 Andrew II (II. Endre) 32&36 Emeric I (1. lmre) 1205-1235 The 5th crusade 33 The Golden Bull 34 St. Elizabeth of Hungary 37 Bánk bán 38 Béla IV 1235-1270 40 The Mongol invasion 41 St. Margaret of Hungary 43 1270-1272 44 Ladislaus IV (IV. László) 1272-1290 45 Andrew Ill (III. András) 47 Stephen V (V. István) 1290-1301 Ethnographical mix of historic Hungary The Cuman people 49 49 Attila's Huns 49 The Székelys 51 The Jász people 51 The 11th and 12th centuries Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 52 3 THE HOUSE OF ANJOU 54 A refresher 54 The interregnum 54 Wenceslaus III/Ladislaus V (V. László) 1305-1306 55 Otto Ill/Béla V 1305-1308 55 Charles I (Károly Róbert) 1308-1342 56 Ambition on a royal scale 56 THE ANGVIN DYNASTY 57 Louis I (Nagy Lajos) 1342-1382 58 Mary of Anjou (Mária) 1382-1395 60 1385-1386 Charles II (Kis Károly) Sigismund of Luxembourg (Zsigmond) 13871437 61 62&72 62&69 The 13th and 14th centuries 62 The Mongol menace 63 The crusades 66 Relics of Hungarian literature Halotti beszéd, Ómagyar Mária siralom 68 Social changes 68 The Habsburgs 71 The Hundred Years War 71 The situation in Hungary 72&75 Sigismund (continued) 73 The battle of Nicopolis Albert 76 1437-1439 THE JAGIELLONIAN DYNASTY Vladislaus Ill (I. Ulászló) 77 1440-1444 Ladislaus the Posthumous (V. László) 1444-1457 John Hunyadi 77 1446-1456 Nándorfehérvár Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 78 79 81 4 Matthias Corvinus (Mátyás) 1458-1490 84 The era and aura of Matthias Corvinus 84 Foreign policy & domestic matters 86 Italian Renaissance in the 15th century 88 The 15th century 91 Vladislaus II (II. Ulászlo) 1490-1516 93 The Dózsa revolt 94 Louis II (II. Lájos) 1516-1526 Continued in Part II. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 95 1 OUR HUNGARIAN HERITAGE Christmas, 2013 I began to write this compendium of facts and stories about Hungary in the mid-1970s, updating some of the information as history turned its pages. Surely, history, culture and customs of this country mean much to us, since our family's roots and heritage reside within her. Hopefully, it will also clear up some misconceptions about our roots and humbly acknowledge and confirm some missteps our forefathers (and our contemporaries) have taken. After all, as Paul Lendvai, author of "The Hungarians" (copyright 2003, Princeton University Press) wrote: "To be a Hungarian is a collective neurosis." (The subtitle of his book reads: "A Thousand Years of Victory in Defeat.") My intention is to leave this packet with my children and grandchildren for their eventual reference into their past. ABOUT THIS WORK I was working for Empire National Bank in 1976 when I read an announcement of the heart attack and sudden death on Memorial Day of my former kindly boss, Klaus Siebert. Klaus, like several of my former colleagues at Citicorp had worked for American Express as a travel executive. It was there that the idea formed in his mind to transfer his expertise inthat field and start a new chain of travel offices through the vast resources and extensive branch system of Citicorp. Word of his new enterprise reached me at a time when my own father's passing precipitated the sale of the travel agency I ran in mid-Manhattan and hastened to apply for a position as manager of one of the new Travel Selection Centers. Klaus received me with a broad smile on his face and we hit it off immediately. He was a genuine, personable man of action and vision. He hired me on the spot. As we tread our daily lives, one could be tempted to say that events just "happen" in this world. Surely, weather-related events and the passage of time are out of our control, but practically everything else, whether in our personal lives or inthe context of world-wide events, - is invented, generated and executed by men (and women) in positions of decision-making. In this view, a mere couple of thousand managers, politicians, inventors, artists, generals, doctors, sports figures and people in all kinds of situations decide and launch events which ultimately create history. Klaus Siebert was one of those men and even though his brilliant idea would not and could not achieve the goal which Klaus had in mind (because another man, a judge with higher authority had a different point of view), Klaus had written his name in the book of achievers. The failure of his creation would eventually cause the travel industry to take a different tack, and ultimately cost him his life. One might win many battles, but sometimes wars are lost. That is why, when I thought of writing about our Hungarian heritage, I decided to base it on the ultimate leaders of each segment of history: to tell the story of the leaders, the doers, the go-getters, the principals, the directors of events which caused (and keep causing) the actions of all of us on the stage of history. I had previously written about momentous chapters in Hungarian history, such as my essays on the revolutions of 1848 and 1956 and the long-reaching events subsequent to the Trianon Treaty, as well as individual movers and shakers. This work is based on the lives and times of kings. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 2 When writing about history, one cannot expect total originality. Events don't change because a writer gives it a different review. One can expect some bordering plagiarism, - although I will try to identify the source, - and some repetition, but always hoping that the reader will gain something from these pages which I am so eager to share. For the adults, whom our colorful Hungarian language pinpoints as those who "megette a kenyere javat", - have eaten the better part of their bread, - there may not be much newsworthiness here. But for the new generation just stepping on the stage, l would suggest to keep in perspective the fact that events happen because someone, perhaps someone just like you, wanted itand caused itto happen. If my small contribution helps nudging history, then I will have achieved my purpose. THE MAGYAR LANGUAGE The language originated in the deep Asian steppes and the sands of Mesopotamia a thousand years before Christ was born. It was exposed to Sumerian, Finnish, Hun and other influences in Asia and the Middle East, then traveled before the pursuit of Tartars and Pechenegs "on horseback", so to speak, to cross the Carpathian mountains into the basin of Hungary where it was further exposed to German, Turkish and Latin influence until once again the language traveled - this time hopping the ocean -with the emigrants in the 20th century to America and to many other parts of the world. Yet, we still say our prayers, count and cuss in Hungarian, even though we mix it now with English and American flavor. The Magyar language is thus a living witness to the 1,000 years of Hungarian history. It is believed that the name "Hungary" or Hungaria originated in the 7th century when Magyar tribes were part of a Bulgar alliance called On-Ogour, which inBulgar-Turkic meant Ten Arrows. ORIGINS The plain, partially surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains where today's Magyarorszag (Hungary) lies was settled perhaps as early as 80,000 years ago by ancient man. Around the first century before Christ nomadic Celts (from today's France) and Scythian tribes (from the Caucasus) settled in the area. Later it became part of the Roman Empire as the province of Pannonia. The Romans expanded their holdings into the (Hungarian) plains from about 35 years before the birth of Christ to the end of the 4th century A.D. Ruins of the Roman settlements and bones and pottery from nomadic times can still be found in Hungary today. Just outside Budapest there are extensive Roman ruins called Acquincum. The Romans withdrew in the 5th century A.D. as Attila's Huns took their place arriving in 435 A.D., followed by Avars who founded the Avar Khaganate (see the accompanying maps on migration) around 560 A.D. and ruled the area for 250 years until Charlemagne defeated them inthe early 9th century. The first wave of migrating Magyar tribes arrived in896 A.D. Evidence of archeological artifacts of Sumerian origin were found in the Carpathian basin, giving rise to the (relatively) new theory that the Hungarians are not of Finn-Ugric background, but from ancient civilizations inMesopotamia. More recent findings have come to the unshakable conclusion that the Magyar language and the Magyar people are directly descended from the Sumerians of Mesopotamia (the current Iran) as early as 3,000 B.C. From here the Sumerians and subsequently the Magyar tribes migrated via the Bosporus to the Carpathian basin while others went North through the Caucasian mountains to the Volga region. Those Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 3 who chose the Northern route were led by Chief Árpád. When Arpad and his people finally arrived in the Carpathian basin (the present Hungary) in 896 A.D., they found other Magyar or Magyar-related tribes already living in the area. Both were descendants of the Sumerians. They "understood11 each other! The clan (or tribe) of Chieftain (or Grand Prince) Arpad settled in what today is Csepel island in the Danube river. The western half of modern Budapest along the right bank of the Danube got its name from Arpad's brother, Buda. FOOTNOTES to the MAGYAR PEREGRINATIONS I am forever fascinated by the migration of early tribes of people and puzzled by their apparently haphazard decision to settle here or there on the vast and largely underpopulated landscape of Western Asia. Thanks to Constantine Porphyrogenitus (born in purple, or high-born), imperial administrator, we have a written account of the Magyar tribes in the 10th century A.D. which might give an answer to why and how the resettling of those tribes occurred. The Magyar tribes were living in the area south of the Don River and north of the lower Danube. One of their neighbors were the Pechenegs (“Bosnyak” in Hungarian), a Turkish nation which emerged in the historical records only in the 8th and 9th centuries, inhabiting the region between the Volga and Don rivers with their territory extending all the way to the Ural mountains. According to Constantine, 4 days of riding on horseback (that's about 100 miles) separated them from the Hungarians whom the writer called 11 , "Tourkias living in an area called Etelkoz. There, at Etelkoz, seven chiefs of the Magyar tribes entered 11 into a compact sealed in blood (called "verszerzodes , or blood contract) by drinking their mixed blood from the same goblet. They elected Arpad as their lead tribal chief, or Grand Prince. The Hungarian painter Mihaly Munkacsy's painting by the same title commemorates the event. As deduced from later studies, we know that those tribes had been forced from their ancestral lands in Mesopotamia, some of them crossing the Caucasian mountains to the area now called Ukraine, while the others migrated via the Balkans to the Carpathian basin. In the 9th century the Byzantine Empire became allied with the Pechenegs, using them to fend off other nomadic tribes, among them the Magyars. This was a Roman ploy called "divide ét impera” (divide and rule), playing off one enemy against the other. The Pechenegs were, in turn, threatened by other tribes, including the Khazars which drove them further westward into the Magyar territorial holdings. In 894 A.D., the Bulgarians went to war against Byzantium. The following year Emperor Leo VI the Wise invoked the help of the Magyars who sent an army under the leadership of Arpad's son, Levente, to attack Bulgaria. Bulgarian Tzar Simeon quickly concluded a treaty with the Byzantine Empire and employed the Pechenegs to eject the Hungarians from his land. The Pechenegs did that so successfully that the Hungarians were forced to find refuge beyond the Carpathian mountains, entering modern-day Hungary in 896 A.D., with the Pechenegs at their heels. Interestingly, by the 12thcentury the Pechenegs would be absorbed by other nations and disappeared from history. It is an interesting aside that one of the 7 chieftains who conquered the land with Arpad was called Horka, and one of Horka's sons was Gyula. Thus, my name (and that of my son and Vallay grandson) goes back to the very beginning of Hungarian history. The house of Arpad ruled for over 300 years and gave many notable kings to the country. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. ( This map is in Sovereign States ..,,. History of Europe ..... Year 2000 A.D . ,) .._..... Year 1900 A.D . German Year 1800 A.D . Ocean Year 1700 A.D. - Year 1600 A.D. Year 1500 A .D. Year 1400 A.D. Year 1300 A.D. ObolnOH """' \/"'" - Po.-....... d;-, llni.nn, Year 1200 A.D. Year 1100 A .D. Year 1000 A .D. Year 900 A .D. Year 800 A.D. 700 A.D. r 600 A.D. Vear 500 A.D. Year 400 A .D. Year 300 A .D. Year 200 A.D. Year 100 A.D. Year 1A .D. Explanation Map Legend Bibliography 800 .....,·, ·- .,.. Europe Main Map at the Beginning of the Year 800 (, Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. Northwest Northeast 4 THE MYTH OF THE "CSODASZARVAS' Hungarians have plentiful legends about their ancestry. Some of them may contain "a kernel of historical truth", writes Lendvai in his aforementioned book. The following is a direct quote from said book, page 14: "According to an orally transmitted legend, the brothers Hunor and Magor, sons of the Scythian kings Gog and Magog, pursuing a miraculous white stag during a hunt, arrived in the region north of the Sea of Azov.* Having lost the trail of the animal, they caught sight during a subsequent excursion of the two exquisitely beautiful daughters of Dula, King of the Alans. The brothers carried off and married the two maidens. The offspring of these marriages are said to be the ancestors of the Huns and the Magyars." • The Sea of Azov, referenced above, refers to an inland sea (Lake Maeotis in ancient Greek) situated off the southern shores of Ukraine, forming a northern extension of the Black Sea. HISTORY Much of early Hungarian history i s recorded in chronicles. One of those i s Anonymi Gesta Hungarorum by Magister P, dating to around 1200 A.D. For a hundred years the Magyar tribes ventured beyond the present borders and found their way into Western Europe, including France and Spain. Their fierce horsemanship and fighting strategy was feared all across the Continent, contemporary chroniclers labeling those nomadic "heathen barbarian" forces as the scourge of Europe. Even to this day, the text of a Litany used in Church services contains the phrase: 11From the arrows of the Hungarians save us oh Lord." (De sagittis Hungarorum libera nos, Domine.) KING STEPHEN and CHRISTIANITY 1000-1038 In 975 A.O. a son, by the name of Vajk, was born in Esztergom to tribal chief Geza and his wife Sarolta. Both the parents and their son were exposed to the teachings of Catholic missionaries, notably of the Czech Bishop Adalbert (956-997) who baptized them in the Catholic faith (see the segment on Hungarian Saints). It is interesting to note that according to some sources, Sarolta, daughter of the Transylvanian Chief Gyula, had been baptized in the Byzantine faith as a Greek-Catholic, and her husband, Geza, was a reluctant Christian, still engaged in pagan rituals. In baptism Vajk took the name Stephen. Upon the death of Grand Prince Geza his son, Stephen became king. He introduced (or more likely coerced on his countrymen) Christianity and made it the country's official religion, finally settling the tribes down. As a reward for his efforts on behalf of Christianity, in the year 1000 Stephen was given a crown, befitting a king, by Pope Sylvester II. The crown was carried from Rome by the Italian Benedictine monk Gellert who had a mountain named after him in today's Budapest. This crown was used for centuries to crown Hungarian kings and is perhaps the most treasured symbol of the Hungarian nation. As an added benefit which Christianity had brought with it was the switch from the runic-like script to the Latin alphabet which formed yet another tie with Western Europe. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 5 Stephen created an ecclesiastical organization with 10 bishoprics (regions headed by bishops, overseen by archbishops) and required each group of 10 villages to build a church. His civil administration was based on counties (megye) headed by a steward (ispan) with an armed force of freemen in a fortress (var). Those of us who would have loved to be present at the wedding of Stephen to Gizella (or Gisela), daughter of Bavarian Prince Henry, would be disappointed as the ceremony took place in Germany where Gisela was brought up in a convent. At the very tender age of 11 she got engaged to Stephen, thus solidifying the relations between the two countries. I can just imagine what kind of shock it may have been for the young bride to see this Hungarian warrior and his entourage arriving on horseback at the Scheyern Castle! The records are silent about the difference in language and customs. King Stephen brought Gisela back to Hungary in the company of several Bavarian knights and armed troops which helped to strengthen Stephen's image as the new powerful head of the Hungarians, while they kept Gisela company, providing familiar surroundings for her at the castle. Stephen's ascension to the throne did not go smoothly. Some of the tribal chieftains like Koppany, duke of Somogy county (the Lake Balaton area), claimed the rite of succession for themselves. They also rebelled against the enforced Christianization of the country. The final solution was a battle near the town of Veszprem which Stephen won with the help of knights and armed men from Bavaria. Koppany was killed in that battle, his body quartered (!) and displayed in various regions as an object lesson to warn the opposition. Yet, pockets of resistance still existed, one being in Transylvania, then ruled by the King's uncle Gyu!a. Stephen led a campaign against him in 1003 and won, incarcerating his uncle and his family. (Gyula escaped from prison and sought refuge in Poland.) The coronation ceremony, which took place either at the end of the 1st, or the beginning of the 2nd millennium, granted Stephen the legitimacy of a Christian monarch, readily accepted by his Christian neighbor rulers. Stephen's brother-in-law, Henry II, became King of Germany in 1002 and Holy Roman Emperor 9 years later. This guaranteed relative peace on Hungary's Western borders. And the fact that Stephen gave his younger sister in marriage to Otto Orseolo, Doge of Venice and an ally to the Byzantine Emperor, seems to have secured his peace with the Byzantine Empire. A troubling uncertainty in Stephen's foreign policy concerned his relations over territorial claims with Poland which resulted in a 4- year war with that country between 1014 and 1018. Also, he led his armies against the Pechenegs, who had created trouble even for Prince Arpad. Stephen conducted successful campaigns against them in Transylvania and assisted the Byzantine emperor in conquering Bulgaria. In one memorable incident in 1030, Stephen's forces were able to defend Hungary's Western borders against an invasion by the new German monarch, Conrad. They even pursued and arrested him in Vienna, but released him in exchange for new lands (now Burgenland) granted by the monarch to Hungary. Stephen and Gisela had several children, all of whom predeceased their parents in infancy, including Emeric, who was closest to the King. In desperation over the question of succession, he nominated his sister’s son, Peter Orseolo of Venice, as his heir. This act of going outside the country for a successor infuriated some of Stephen’s relatives, who then plotted several attempts on the king’s life. Significantly, Stephen transferred the seat of his kingdom from Esztergom to Szekesfehervar, where he built a cathedral, the ruins of which are still visible today. The king died on August 15, 1038, after offering his country to the Virgin Mary. Recognizing his efforts toward the conversion of his countrymen to Christianity, Pope Benedict XI canonized him in 1083, together with his son, Emeric and he is venerated as St. Stephen. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 6 When his tomb was opened, St. Stephen's body was found decomposed, except for his right hand which was intact has been preserved for all future generations to venerate. Opinion We all agree that a nomadic lifestyle is not an optimum choice for nation building. Christianity served Hungary well, settling them down, bringing Western culture into the Carpathian basin and elevating the believers to the worship of God. Nevertheless, one tends to muse on the facts which surround the conversion of Hungarians most often accompanied by violence in order to accept a faith totally foreign to them. In the 21st century such violence is viewed with disdain as Moslems aim to force their set of beliefs on their own people and their neighbors. We abhor the holy war foisted on innocents who do not share the Moslem tenets, causing much suffering and bloodshed. While we celebrate and venerate St. Stephen, one might stop to think of the horrors which resistance to Christianity had caused. Are we, indeed, using two different sets of measures here? I would think that blinding an opponent and quartering his body would not be categorized as a Christian act of faith. It may be better to use the work of gentle missionaries to accomplish the Pope's objective, even if it may not be rewarded by canonization. Sadly, the Catholic Church used deplorable tactics in spreading, then enforcing the gentle tenets for which Jesus Christ gave His life on the cross. I am sure the Arabs were surprised to see the Crusaders come to punish them for "violating" the holy places by living there. In fact, the Crusaders did the Moslems a favor by sending them to a place where 77 virgins would await them... And what kind of example did the Church provide by tying Jean d'Arc to a stake and lighting the fire under her? The Inquisition cries out for internal reforms in the Church, rather than external punishment in matters of faith! Let God be the judge of that. THE HOLY CROWN THEORY The younger generation living today would probably pay little attention to the theory surrounding St. Stephen's crown, but my generation and all the older generations held it sacred, having a major role in Hungarian history. As one writer put it: when searching for a new ruler, the Hungarians were not seeking a crown for a king, but a king for the Holy Crown. The Holy Crown Theory (Szent Korona tan) was drafted and published by the jurist Stephen Werboczy in his book Tripartium 1517, Vienna. Initiated by King Kalman (Coloman the Booklover 1095-1116), this theory holds that the utmost ruler of Hungary is not the king but the Holy Crown. Everything belongs to the Crown as if it were a legal entity. Legal verdicts were declared in the name of the Holy Crown, not the king. Territories, such as Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Serbia, Bosnia and others, which later joined Hungary were not absorbed into Hungary but became members of territories united with the Hungarian Holy Crown. (NOTE: It may have facilitated the dismemberment of Hungary following World War I in the Treaty of Trianon!) Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. Enticed by the unique nature and mystical adoration which is accorded to this national relic, let me quote (or paraphrase) some aspects from Zsuzsa Lovag’s 1978 book “The Hungarian coronation jewels” (Hungarian National Museum, Budapest). “The Holy Crown represents divine power and symbolizes the entire kingdom and the entire Hungarian nation. That is why it was so important to rescue and safeguard the crown in decisive historic periods, because if there was no Holy Crown, there was no Hungary… This is the reason why King Bela IV rescued it to the fortress of Klissa (in Croatia today) from the Tartar invasion of 1241; King Matthias brought it back from Vienna for an astronomical price in 1463; Peter Perenyi hid it in his citadel of Fuzer from the Ottoman invasion in 1526; Louis Kossuth dug it underground in an iron chest near Orsova (in Romania today) after the surrender to the Habsburgs at Vilagos in 1848; and Ferenc Szalasi, the Arrow Party leader rescued it to Austria from the invading Red Army and dug it underground in an oil barrel in 1945.” - The U.S. Army seized control of the Holy crown after WWII and stored it at Fort Knox, KY, finally returning it to Hungary then under Communist rule, in January 1978, which I had personally approved of, although others faulted President Jimmy Carter for doing so. The argument behind my stand was that the return of the Holy Crown to its rightful place in Hungary would establish a surrealistic but historic “higher power” than the existing Communist regime, thus diminishing the controlling power of the latter. And I had the opportunity to say something about that in one of the nation’s leading newspapers! In the May 7, 1998 edition of the Washington Post one of my “Letters to the Editor” got publish ed as follows: Joy Simonson’s April 13 letter, which appeared as an addendum to the March 19 Style article “Hungarian Rhapsodizing” recounted a story she had heard about how the cross on top of the Holy Crown of St. Stephen had been bent. Let me first express my dismay at Ms. Simonson’s act of sacrilege: she admits having worn the Holy Crown for some minutes in 1946 when it was in the custody of the U.S. military government in Wiesbaden, Germany. The crown is a symbol of a Christian Hungarian government based on faith and loyalty to ancient traditions. It is not a hat in the Easter parade. What kind of security did the Americans provide for the Hungarians’ holiest relic if they permitted a passerby to put it on her head? Second, the romanticized story she tells is far from the truth. Some think the Holy Crown may have been damaged while being hidden from the Turks in the 16 th century, - or from the Tartar invasion in the 13th century. The authoritative Revai Encyclopedia of 1915 states: “Following the extinction of the ruling Arpad dynasty, Wenceslas of Bohemia grabbed the symbols of royalty including the Holy Crown, in 1301. Three years later Wenceslas abdicated and passed the Crown to Otto of Bavaria, who was pursued by other princes competing for the throne of Hungary. Otto had the crown packed into a wooden crate. Regretfully, the item was lost in the hasty retreat from Prague to Bavaria and was only found following an extensive search in a swamp in the area of today’s Fischamand, Austria. The cross on top of the crown has been bent since that time.” Jules S. Vallay, Palmyra, VA. My letter was read, among others, by Lt. Gen. George Szegö of Annapolis, MD, who was obviously of Hungarian ancestry and who called me out of the blue to congratulate me on my intervention on behalf of the Holy Crown. A sort of friendship would develop between us and we visited each other’s homes, - he and his black lady friend staying overnight her at Lake Monticello, too. He kept up the correspondence even while he moved to Dover, DE. But after his marriage to the woman, which we attended, they disappeared from the horizon and he is presumed dead as he was of an advanced age even in 1998. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 8 And now a word or two about the makeup of the Holy Crown and the coronation jewel ry: The crown consists of two separate parts: the lower circular crown, called the Greek crown (corona gracea) and the upper crown called the Latin crown (corona latina). The lower circular crown was given as a gift to the Hungarian king Geza I by the Byzantine emperor Michael Dukas in 1074 A.D. Made in the goldsmith shops of the emperor's Court, the crown features enameled golden plates in alternating sequence, representing Christ in Byzantine art, with archangels and saints flanking Jesus. There are numerous precious stones and pearls decorating the crown. - It was the upper part of the crown which was sent by Pope Sylvester II to King Stephen. It, too, features Christ and his apostles. The original cross on top, which was said to be a relic holder of the cross of Jesus, was broken off, and was replaced by a similar cross. To be sure, both crowns, assembled as a unit, date back to 1166. The jewels used at a king's coronation also include the cloak, made of dark purple Byzantine embroidered with golden thread. It is authenticated by the inscription: "Casula hec operata ét ecclesiae Sanctae Mariae sitae in civitate Alba anno incarnacionis xpi MXXXI indiccione XIII a Stephano et Gisla regina." (This chasuble was made in the 1031st year of the reincarnation of Christ, in the indiction, by king Stephen and queen Gisela and was given to the Saint Mary abbey at Fehervar.) silk, data rege 13th The crystal scepter, symbolizing the authority and jurisdiction of the kingdom, the silver orb and a sword complete the coronation jewelry. Regrettably, the original of these last three items were lost but the substitutes being from around the 14th century they still represent ancient relics. HUNGARIAN SAINTS Stephen, the first king of Hungary, was born in Esztergom in the year 975 A.D. As noted above, his father, Geisa (or Geza) had already converted to Christianity, although the general Hungarian population was still pagan. When Stephen became king, he invited foreign (mostly German and Italian) priests to teach Christian ethics to his people. Stephen established 10 bishoprics under the primacy of the bishop of Esztergom in the big bend of the Danube River. Stephen encountered much resistance to the institution of Christianity, notably from Chiefs Kupa and Koppany, but Stephen used force to put down the revolt. Stephen died in 1038 A.D. and was canonized by Pope Benedict XI in 1083. He is revered as St. Stephen and his right hand, drawn into a tight first, is miraculously preserved. It is the most sacred religious treasure of the Hungarians. His feast day is August 20. Emeric (lmre) was the son of King Stephen and Queen Gisella, daughter of Kaiser Henrik (Henry the Wrangler, Duke of Bavaria). lmre was brought up and educated by priests (mostly by the Benedictine monk Gellért) and guided by his father's book of admonitions on ethics and governance {see "lntelmek"). At his father's behest he was married to a foreign princess, but both of them remained virgins until their death. lmre/Emeric is said to have died in a wild boar hunt and thus could not carry on his father's work. He was canonized together with his father, in 1083. His feast day is November 5. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 9 László, or Ladislaus, was born in Poland in 1041 A.D. the son of the Polish-Hungarian King Bela I. He became king of Hungary at the age of 36 and ruled until 1095. He devoted himself to the affirmation of the Christian faith in Hungary and founded several new bishoprics. Several miracles are connected with his name. He was nominated to be the commander of the first crusade to liberate the Holy Land, but died before taking command. He was canonized in 1198. His feast day is June 27. Elizabeth, daughter of King Andrew 11, was born in 1207 and was married to King Louis of Thuringia, the commander of the second crusade. She suffered many insults and harsh treatment at the hands of the German Court. She was known for carrying out much charitable works for the poor. Her husband's court questioned her secret missions and asked what she was carrying in her apron. Not wanting to disclose the food she carried for the poor, Elizabeth prayed to God and said she was carrying roses. When she was forced to open her apron, the King was astounded to see red roses in the middle of winter. Elizabeth died in 1231 and was canonized by Pope Gregory IX. She is still lovingly venerated. Her feast day is November 19. Margaret, daughter of King Bela IV, was born in 1243. During Bela's reign hordes of Tartars invaded Hungary and devastated it for 2 years. The queen vowed to offer her daughter to the service of God if the Tartars would withdraw. When that came to be, Margaret, at the age of 4, was sent to a convent. The king had a cloister built on the island in the Danube River where Margaret entered the life of a nun. Having lived a life of ascetism, she lived only to the age of 28 and was canonized by Pope Pius II. The island in the Danube was named after her. The Hungarian novelist Geza Gardonyi, wrote up her life in "lsten rabjai" (Captives of God), one of my favorite novels. Her feast day is January 19. Hungary had given several other men and women to the world whose exemplary life elevated them to sainthood or beatification. Among them we celebrate King Bela IV’s daughter blessed Jolanta who was St. Margaret's sister, founder of the Clarissa nuns. - St. Hedvig was the daughter of King Louis the Great of Hungary, married to the King of Poland. She is buried in Cracow and was recently canonized. Blessed Vilmos Apor, born into a Baronial family in Transylvania, he became bishop of the city of Gyor. Upon the approach of the Russian troops in WWII, he opened the bishopry to local women for protection against the marauding soldiers. A Russian officer demanded access to the women Apor was hiding. When the bishop refused, he was shot and killed. Pope John Paul II beatified Vilmos Apor in 1997. Although not of Hungarian blood, we certainly are indebted to St. Adalbert, Bishop of Prague (956-997), who spread the faith during his travels to several countries in Central Europe. On one of his visits to Hungary, he baptized Chief Geza and his son Vajk (the later St. Stephen) and was instrumental in the conversion of Hungarians to Christianity. Adalbert died suffering martyrdom in his home country and was canonized by Pope Sylvester II in 999 A.D. Special ties connect us to the Italian Benedictine monk St. Gerard Sagredo (980-1046) whom Hungarians know as St. Gellért, educator and spiritual guide to St. Emeric. He was charged with delivering Pope Sylvester's gift of the crown to King Stephen. In September, 1046 he suffered martyrdom in a pagan uprising. He was stuffed in a spiked barrel and hurled to his death off the mountain which now bears his name. He is commemorated by a statue at the foot of the Elizabeth bridge in Budapest. St. Gellert was canonized in 1083 by Pope Gregory VII and is considered one of the patron saints of Hungary. His feast day is September 24. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 10 I had written extensively about Blessed Gizella, wife of St. Stephen ("In translation", March & April 2008 issues, pages 80, 81& 84, 85). She was the daughter of Bavarian Prince Henrik, born in 984 in Regensburg. At the tender age of 11 she was betrothed to Stephen, heir to the Hungarian throne. After the death of Stephen Gizella was coerced by subsequent rulers to leave Hungary, together with her Bavarian entourage. She returned to her home country and is buried in the chapel of the Niedernburg cloister in Passau, Germany. Preliminary steps have been taken to proceed with the canonization of Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty, Hungary's Primate during the post-WWII Communist era. THE ÁRPÁD DYNASTY The House of Arpad, whose descendants included King Stephen I, ruled to the end of the 13th century. Succession to the Hungarian throne was somewhat troublesome. When King Stephen's son, Emeric, died in a hunting accident, the king's cousin Vazul, had the strongest claim to the throne. As I pointed out in my essay "Cause and Effect", dated August, 2011, in the early 11th century there was no recognized law of succession in Hungary. Oxford Professor C. A. Macartney, in his book "Hungary, a short history'',states that while the Arpad family honored the principle of "senioratus", most rulers passed over senior relatives in favor of a son, although "primogenitur'' (favoring the first-born) was not officially in vogue. But Vazul would not convert to Christianity and for his resistance he was punished by being blinded and his three sons were exiled. King Stephen's choice fell to his nephew Peter, but it was a poor choice. PETER ORSEOLO (1038-1041 & 1044-1046) King Stephen turned to a son of one of his unnamed sisters. His name was Peter, born in Venice in 1010 A.D., the only son of Otto Orseolo, Doge of Venice. When the Venetians rose up and deposed the father, Peter went to Hungary where his uncle appointed him to command the King's army. Simon of Keza wrote in "The deeds of Hungarians": Soon after being crowned the King of Hungary, "Peter threw aside every trace of the forbearance befitting a monarch's majesty and in consort with Germans and Latins raged with Teutonic fury, treating the nobles of the kingdom with contempt and devouring the wealth of the land." He introduced new taxes and seized Church revenues. In other words, he was no friend of the Hungarians and conducted a violent reign for 3 years after which he lost the throne to his rebellious subjects. Deposed, he fled to Austria and asked Bavarian ruler Emperor Henry Ill to help reinstate him on the throne. Henry attacked in two successive campaigns in 1042 and again in 1044, defeating the interim king Aba Samuel's army. Peter Orseolo was reinstated to the throne. (The decisive battle was fought near the city of Gyor in June of 1044.) SAMUEL ABA (1041-1044) Under King Stephen, Samuel Aba acted as the palatine (elector) of the Court and member of the royal council. His family was from the mountain region of Matra in the north and ruled the people of Khazar, who joined Arpad's Hungarian tribes before their arrival in the Carpathian basin. Aba is said to be a descendant of the Khazars. His origin and first name suggests.that he was born to a family which was Judaic. In conflicting historical writings, it is said that Samuel Aba converted to Christianity when he married one of King Stephen’s sisters. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 11 When Peter Orseolo was ejected from Hungary, the ruling lords elected Samuel Aba to be their king. It was not a happy selection as Aba socialized more with the peasantry than with the nobles. He introduced new taxes on the nobility while relieving the peasantry from financial burdens. The nobles resented this and plotted to kill him. The king got wind of the conspiracy and had many of the nobility executed without trial. It came in handy, then, that Emperor Henry Ill should attack Hungary in 1044 and succeed in reinstating Peter Orseolo to the throne. It is not clear whether Samuel Aba lost his life on the order of the new king,or whether he was seized and murdered by the locals. @@@ Lajos Nemeth, the well-known 2nd Avenue confectioner in New York City, passed this on to me during Mass at St. Stephen's while I was trying to keep a straight face playing the organ: Samuel Aba or Aba Samuel as the Hungarians prefer to say, kept molesting his wife in the conjugal bed. The Queen had enough of his pestering and said to the king: "Hagyd abba, Samuel!" - the equivalent of 11 leave me alone, Samuel." Obviously, this is without historical merit. @@@ Peter Orseolo’s second term was not a happy one. With Emperor Henry Ill's help he was restored to the throne in Szekesfehervar, however, he remained unpopular in wide circles in Hungary. Bishop Gerard, Bishop of Csanad, invited Vazul's children to come home after 15 years of exile. Upon their return, they asked the king to join them for a conference which was a secret plot to kill him. When Peter showed up in Szekesfehervar in 1046, he was captured and blinded in a nearby fortification where the king sought refuge. He died in the late 1050s and was buried in the Cathedral of Pecs. ANDREW (ENDRE) I (1046 -1060) St. Stephen's cousin Vazul had three sons, Andrew, Levente and Bela. They were innocent victims of a 15year exile ordered by King Stephen as punishment for their father's refusal to embrace Christianity, but also to secure the kingdom for Stephen's choice in Peter Orseolo. Their exile was spent in the Court of Duke Oldfich of Bohemia and later in Poland and even later in Russia. Bela married a daughter of their Polish host Mieszko and remained in Poland, but Andrew and Levente continued in their wanderings. Finally, they decided to return to Hungary where a pagan revolt had broken out. The pagans demanded to allow the people to live according to the rites of the pagans, to throw off the Christian faith and to worship idols (says the Illuminated Chronicle). The pagans captured and killed Bishop Gerard who had invited the brothers to return to Hungary. Andrew had married Anastasia, the daughter of the Grand Prince of Kiev and embraced Christianity. Levente, however, remained a pagan. Andrew was crowned in Szekesfehervar in 1046 and restored Christianity as the country's official faith, making it a capital crime to practice paganism. Andrew's wife, Anastasia, gave birth to a son named Solomon in 1053. Although his brother Bela (still in Poland) was his senior, Andrew wanted to secure Solomon's succession which created a constitutional crisis when Andrew suffered a paralyzing stroke in 1057. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 12 Andrew had his 4-year-old son crowned and had the child "engaged" to Judith, daughter of German Emperor Henry Ill. Bela, who had seniority continued his claim to succeed his brother. He returned from Poland to Hungary with a Polish army, while Andrew was supported by Bohemian, Bavarian and Saxon troops. The battle was lost by Andrew who was trampled by horses and wagons in the battlefield east of the river Tisza. His supporters took him to Zirc (which is where today the Abbey of the Cistercian Order is located), but died of his injuries and was buried in the Tihany Abbey, a Benedictine monastery established by King Andrew in 1055. His infant son, Solomon, and many in his entourage relocated to Germany fearing Bela's revenge. However, Bela did no harm to Solomon and to the nobles who emigrated with him. (I had the privilege of visiting King Andrew's tomb as a child as well as later as an adult returning for a visit following WWII. In my youth the echo of Tihany was a tourist attraction as people climbed the hill up to the Abbey and whatever they said or yelled to the wall in the village opposite the church echoed clearly, delighting the visitor. In later years that was no longer the case, but the memories remain.) Béla was crowned king on December 6, 1060. BÉLA I (1060 -1063) It is interesting to note that Bela's baptismal name was Adalbert. He was more than 40 years old when he returned to Hungary to claim the throne from his brother, Andrew, or Endre in Hungarian. At first, Andrew was generous to his brother by granting him large territories which nowadays lie in Slovakia and Romania. He was given the title of Duke and even had money (half-denars) printed in his name, reading Bela Dux. When Andrew fathered a son (Solomon) in 1053, and had him crowned as the future king of Hungary, the relations between the two brothers soured. To keep the peace at least outwardly, Andrew invited Bela to the manor of Tiszavarkony for a conference where he offered him a free choice between the crown or a sword. Forewarned that choosing the crown will also mean his assassination, Bela falsely chose the sword but escaped to Poland from which to return in 1060 with Polish troops to claim the throne. Bela won against his brother in the second battle fought, where Andrew died of his battle injuries. Bela became king on December 6, 1060. King Béla very astutely became a protector, not a jealous persecutor of his brother's child and his followers, which encouraged many of them to return to Hungary. Bela reformed and strengthened the currency by introducing coins of the purest silver. He also changed the weekly "piac", or market from Sundays to Saturdays and may have antagonized the Jewish merchants who observed the Sabbath. Bela also suppressed a pagan riot in Szekesfehervar in 1061. Remarkably, paganism still had adherents, some 60 years after Christianity was forcefully introduced in Hungary and had to be subdued with military force. The story of young Solomon continues, however, when German princes threatened to launch an attack on Hungary to restore Solomon to the throne. Béla, surprisingly, did not put up great resistance and contemplated to abdicate in favor of his nephew, provided he could regain his former estates or "ducatus." His plan was not carried out when, very ignominiously, his throne broke and collapsed under him at his manor at Domos. Béla suffered serious injuries of which he died in September of 1063. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 13 I would like to inject a thought about Bela's family. As pointed out earlier, while in exile, he married the daughter of King Mieszko II of Poland in 1033 and they had two sons, Geza and Ladislaus, born in Poland, who would later become kings of Hungary (in 1074 and 1077, respectively). We will come across their story later on in this review. Bela and his wife had a third son, Lampert, born in Hungary as well as 5 daughters. When Bela died of his injuries from a collapsed throne, his three sons, Geza, Ladislaus and Lampert sought refuge in Poland, while Solomon ascended to the throne. SOLOMON (Salamon) (1063-1074) As noted before, Solomon was the second child and eldest son of King Andrew I of Hungary and his wife Anastasia of Kiev. Circumstances, as outlined above, forced him initially to live in emigration, not being able to return to claim the crown from King Bela until 1063. Solomon used this occasion as well to marry Judith, the sister of Henry IV, King of Germany. Judith was 6 years his senior and troubles immediately started when the new wife and Solomon's mother, Anastasia, became the young king's chief advisers. Initially Solomon had no trouble with his cousins and conducted a few military campaigns against the Czechs and other enemies with the cousins' help, but their relationship deteriorated in the 1070s as Bela's son Geza (see two paragraphs up) became an aspirant to the throne. Solomon and Geza battled for the prize and Solomon lost the battle at Mogyorod in March, 1074, leaving him just a slice of Western Hungary (in the area of Pressburg, today's Bratislava, Slovakia). Eventually he found it necessary to abdicate in favor of his cousin Geza (see below). Solomon continued to vie for the throne and tried to seek an alliance with the Pechenegs, but he died in a raid in the Byzantine empire in 1087. And here is a little gossip about the King and Queen's relations: the marriage remained childless. In fact, both Solomon and his wife, Judith took the liberty of consorting with lovers. They separated in 1075 and Judith went back to Germany. Upon Solomon's death in Bulgaria, Judith married a Polish Duke. GEZA I (1074 -1077) Geza was the eldest son of King Bela I. (Our earlier stories relate the fact that Geza was born in Poland.) Geza's baptismal name was Magnus . Before becoming king, he was the administrator of one of his father's duchies with the right of coinage which bore his name as Dux Magnus. Other coins bore the name Panonai, as a reference to the time when Pannonia was under Roman administration. For his coronation the Emperor Michael VII Doukas sent Geza a gold and enamel diadem. According to Wikipedia, this "splendid work of art became the lower part of the Holy Crown of Hungary by the end of the 12th century". Geza was crowned with this diadem in the Spring of 1075. Geza married a niece of a close advisor to Emperor Michael VII. (He was married twice, but the ancestry of his first wife, Sophia, is unknown.) Historians, among them the respected Gyula Kristo, believe that Geza fathered 6 children and the surviving two boys were from his first wife, Sophia. As related above, Geza, at first, was supporting Solomon, but later aspired to the throne and defeated the king at Mogyorod, eventually forcing Solomon to abdicate. It seems that Hungarian royal history is full of battling for the possession of the crown rather than carrying on the business of the country. In Geza's Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 14 case all this was concentrated within 3 years of his rule. After Christmas Mass in 1076 Geza became gravely ill and eventually passed away in April of 1077, leaving the throne to his brother, Ladislaus. LADISLAUS I (Szent Lal szlo' ) (1077 -1095) He was the second son of King Bela I,born in Poland in exile. His original name was Vladislav and he was brought up as a Pole. As the pages of history turned, he returned to Hungary and eventually took the reins over from his brother, King Geza. (Although Geza had sons, they were still minors, hence the accession of Ladislaus to the throne.) After much haggling with his cousin Solomon, the former king of Hungary, Solomon finally acknowledged the legitimacy of Ladislaus in 1081. And yet, he continued undermining his rule by conspiring with the German king Henry IV. Ladislaus had enough and had Solomon arrested and imprisoned, charged with conspiracy. Yet, when St. Stephen (and St. Emeric) were canonized, Ladislaus felt compelled to set Solomon free. Very cleverly, Ladislaus made an alliance with King Henry IV's opponents which forced Solomon to give up on his plans to re-take the crown. As we read above, Solomon died in a battle in the Byzantine Empire and Ladislaus was able to consolidate his power. Ladislaus is mentioned in several Hungarian legends as a saintly ruler. In the major chronicle about Ladislaus he is said to have rescued a Christian maiden from being abducted by a Cuman or Pecheneg warrior in the battle of Kerles (now Kirales, Romania}. The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle now claims that the maiden did not really want to be rescued and had "strong carnal love" for his abductor, pleading with Ladislaus not to kill him. But after wrestling with the abductor and "unmanning him" in the process (whatever that meant), Ladislaus killed the Pecheneg and released the girl. This event is commemorated in a painting on the walls of Mathias Coronation Church in Budapest. Another legend, while Ladislaus was still just an advisor to King Geza, concerns the miraculous appearance of a white stag with many candles burning (!) between his horns. The stag ran into the woods and halted meaningfully in a clearing. Soldiers tried to shoot it with arrows, but the animal leapt into the Danube (this was near the town of Vac), never to be seen again. Ladislaus became convinced that this was a sign, an angel,sent by God to have a church built to honor the Virgin Mary. Indeed, the king agreed to have a monastery built at that spot. Having been proclaimed king, Ladislaus had two books of laws written, containing "draconian measures" to defend private property. Offenders would be hanged, or if the offender should take refuge in a church, he would be blinded. "A freeman who steals a goose or a hen shall lose one eye and shall restore what he has stolen." A year or two after accessing the throne, in 1078 or 1079, Ladislaus married Adelhaid, the daughter of Rudolf of Rheinfelden, elected by German princes against Henry IV. The Holy Dexter Ladislaus worked on the Vatican to have King Stephen I (and his son) canonized. The ceremony would be a political act to reaffirm his and the country's commitment to Christianity. The ceremony took place in 1083 under curious circumstances. Ladislaus wanted to have King Stephen's body moved from Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 15 Szekesfehervar to a Benedictine Monastery. Chronicles attest to the fact that for 3 days, no matter how they tried, they were unable to open the tomb to access Stephen's body. In the end a religious message was given to the King to release Solomon from prison as the price for lifting the stone covering Stephen's tomb. When Solomon was released from prison, it took no effort whatsoever to lift the heavy marble covering and accessing Stephen's body. (This segment was taken from Hartvic's book: Life of King Stephen of Hungary.) To everyone's consternation,the king's right hand and wrist were found intact and became known as the Szent Jobb, or Holy Dexter. The following is taken verbatim from the above-quoted book on St. Stephen: "In Bihar county an abbey was dedicated (to the veneration of the relic.) The relic was kept for centuries in the monastery with the exception of the Mongol invasion of 1241/42 when it was transferred to Ragusa (today's Dubrovnik, Croatia). The Holy Dexter was taken to Szekesfehervar around 1420. Following the occupation of the central territories of the Kingdom of Hungary by the Ottoman Turks in the middle of the 16th century, the relic was kept in many places, including Bosnia, Ragusa and Vienna. It was returned to Hungary in 1771when Queen Maria Theresa donated it to the cloister of the Sisters of Loreto in Buda. The relic was kept in the St. Sigismund Chapel in the Buda Castle between around 1900 and 1944, (then) in a cave near Salzburg in Austria in 1944 and 1945, by the sisters of Loreto in Buda between 1945 and 1950, and in the St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest since 1950." During 1950 and 1987 its celebration was forbidden by the Communist authorities. Ladislaus got involved in international affairs, too. He generously offered the assistance of 20,000 knights in the conflict between the Germans' choice of Rudolf I of Swabia against King Henry IV. (Understandably when considering that Ladislaus' wife, Adelaide, was the daughter of Duke Rudolf!) Mercifully, intervention did not become necessary. But Ladislaus took action at the request of his sister, Helen, the widow of Croatia's King Demetrius, to remedy the conflict between factions of Croatian noblemen upon the death of their kin. Ladislaus,announced his intentions of occupying "Sclavonia" in 1091 and appointed his nephew Almos (King Almos?) to administer the country. In another venture, he prevented an incursion by Ruthenians in what is now Carpathian Ukraine. Yet, no Russian chronicles refer to this military action in the Carpathian mountains. Today's advocates of the separation of church and state would be shocked to learn that Ladislaus dabbled in Vatican politics as well. First, he recognized Viktor Ill as the legitimate Pope against Clement Ill who had been elected pope on Henry IV's initiative. Later, Pope Urban II wrote that the Hungarians "left the shepherds of their salvation", meaning that the Hungarian king joined the anti-pope forces. Ladislaus opposed the Gregorian Reform of the independence of the Church and maintained that the church leaders should be obedient to the king. The king and his wife had two daughters, but no sons. Therefore, succession to the throne was I legitimately up to one of King Geza l's two sons: Coleman or Almos. The latter was already named by Ladislaus to be the king of Croatia, so Coloman was expected to take over, despite the king's preference for Almos. Ladislaus was preparing a campaign against Bohemia to advance the cause of his sister's sons, Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 16 Svatopluk and Otto. In the midst of military preparations, Ladislaus was informed that Coloman entered Hungary accompanied by Polish troops. Upon hearing the news, the elderly kind died suddenly. He was buried in the Abbey of Somogyvar. Hungarians venerate Ladislaus as a god-fearing monarch who is to be held in high esteem. Upon his death the nation mourned him officially for 3 years and prayed for him to be declared a saint. Several miracles supported this desire. When a pestilence broke out in the country, Ladislaus prayed for a remedy and shot an arrow into the air at random which hit an herb which turned out to be the antidote for the illness. Furthermore, during a military action against Pecheneg raiders, the enemy scattered gold coins to deter the pursuers from catching them. Ladislaus prayed for victory and the coins turned to stone, losing their attraction for the King's troops which caught and defeated the enemy and freed their captives. When I was a high school student in Hungary, I also heard about another legend about Ladislaus. It was said that during a military campaign his troops were very thirsty, but because of drought they could not get a drop of water anywhere. Ladislaus then prayed for a spring to satisfy the thirst of his troops. He thrust his sword against a big rock which split and lo and behold fresh water poured out of the cut which the king's sword made. Ladislaus was canonized on June 27, 1192 and is venerated as a Saint. COLOMAN (Konyves Kalman) (1095 - 1116) In Hungarian, the name is always preceded by "konyves", meaning book-lover. Coloman was King Ladislaus’ nephew, indeed, one of the most educated rulers of his age. Although he was the older son of King Geza I and should have been the first choice to succeed Ladislaus (who had no sons), nevertheless, Ladislaus wanted Almos, the younger son, to succeed him on the throne. Coloman was destined to be a bishop, hence he received an extraordinary education. He was appointed to the bishopry of Eger (or possibly Nagyvarad), but Coloman did not want to live an ecclesiastical life. When Ladislaus officially declared Almos to be his heir, Coloman escaped to Poland to the court of Duke Wladyslaw Herman who supported his claim to the Hungarian throne. When Ladislaus died, Coloman returned to Hungary followed by the support of Polish troops. This was sufficient to persuade Almos to acknowledge Coloman as the rightful heir, but in the deal he received what was called "tercia pars Regni", or a third of the kingdom to govern. A sweet deal, indeed. Coloman was crowned in the spring of 1096. Immediately he ran into a problem with the armies of the Crusaders who caused quite a disruption in the country as they transited. Additionally, much pillaging occurred by invading German troops who ravaged the northern county of Nitra and the Transdanubian (Dunantul) counties. Although Coloman was able to evict those armies, the king and the fortress of Moson was under siege for six weeks. So much for the “great" Crusaders. Coloman had to deal with two outside forces. One was led by the Holy Roman Emperor, and the other by the Pope. Coloman wanted to establish good relations with the Pope, so in the spring of 1097 he married Felicia, a daughter of Count Roger of Sicily, who was a close ally of the popes. I doubt that Felicia was too happy with this arrangement, because it is said that Coloman had an unspecified physical deformity. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 17 The Hungarian king was one of the most "learned" individuals among the leaders of Europe in his time. His Court was also the seat of higher learning and literature. Coloman led the prelates and barons in the synod of Tarcal to change some of Ladislaus' laws, making them less severe in some cases, but more severe in others. One of those laws had to do with legislation concerning the Jews and Moslems. Let us remember that a thousand years prior to Coloman's time Jews were dispersed throughout Europe and North Africa when, in 70 A.D. Jerusalem was destroyed. Jews became exiles from their homeland wherever they settled. Their religion allowed lending money and collecting interest for it, whereas it was largely forbidden and considered sinful for Christians. Money begets its own problems. Lending and trying to collect made Jews unpopular. And when the Crusaders returned from the Holy Land, Christians began to see the Jews as directly responsible for the martyrdom of Jesus. Atrocities against Jewry took place shortly thereafter. Co!oman was responsible for a long lasting relationship between Hungary and Croatia, as he had himself crowned as the King of Croatia, and later that of Dalmatia, which he seized and subdued by force. His other military ventures, such as the one against Bohemia and the siege against Przemysl in Southeastern Poland, fizzled out. Coloman continued having to deal with his brother, Almos. When Coloman had his son, Stephen crowned in 1105, Almos led an intra-family rebellion. Almos went to ask for help from the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, but the Emperor was busy dealing with his own son's rebellion against him. Almos was forced to return to Hungary and asked for Coloman's pardon. Almos traveled to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Coloman took advantage of his brother's absence and occupied the Duchy which Almos governed. Upon Almos' return from the Holy Land, he found his Duchy being incorporated into the king's domain and asked Henry V, the newly elected Holy Roman Emperor to come to his aid. Henry V laid siege to Pozsony (today's Bratislava) in Bohemia. In response, Coloman sought the help of Polish Duke Boleslav, who attacked Bohemia..Ultimately, Coloman and Almos made peace but Almos never got his duchy back. And here the story gets morbid. In 1112 Coloman married Eufemia of Kiev (no word as to what may have happened to his first wife, Felicia). Eufemia was found involved in adultery and was sent back to Kiev where she gave birth to a son named Boris, whom Coloman never acknowledged as his own son. Still worried about the succession to the throne, Coloman ordered to have Almos and his infant son, Bela, blinded in order to secure the throne for his own son, Stephen. In late 1115 the Republic of Venice attacked Coloman's precious dependency, Dalmatia, which the king was no longer able to rebuff. Coloman died on February 3, 1116, leaving the succession to the throne open for his son, Stephen. ODDITIES OF ROYAL SUCCESSION Based on what we have learned so far about early Hungarian history is that much blood was shed probably unnecessarily to defend the rights, - or presumed rights, - of the occupants of the Hungarian throne. Military campaign were conducted not only to defend (or expand) the country's borders, but also to dissuade other principal players from claiming the crown. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 18 Hungary's first king, Stephen, died without a family heir because his only surviving son died in a hunting accident. King Stephen should have rightfully passed the crown on to his closest blood relative, but since cousin Vazul was still a heathen he could not wear the Apostolic Crown. Round One: king Stephen and son Emeric dead, no direct descendent. . Stephen chose his sister's son, Peter Orseolo of Venice, who favored the foreigners entrenched in the Court rather than the Hungarian nobility. I n C o u r t , Peter behaved "with shameful and unbridled lust" (Simon Keza: The Deeds of the Hungarians) assaulting the wives and daughters of the Hungarians whenever the king was away. "No one at the time could feel certain of the chastity of his wife or daughter in the face of importunity of Peter's courtiers." That was enough to depose Peter who fled to Austria. In 1041The Hungarian nobles elected a brother-inlaw of King Stephen to be their king. Aba Samuel was the husband of King Stephen's sister, but was not even of pure Hungarian ancestry. Instead, he was a descendant of Cuman or Khazar chieftains, peoples who had joined the Magyars before their arrival in the Carpathian basin. According to historian Gyula Kristo, Samuel's Khazar origin and his first name suggest that he was of a family which adhered to Judaism. (Aba Samuel is said to have converted to Christianity before marrying Stephen's sister.) But Peter Orseolo returned in 1044 for a second term with the help of Emperor Henry Ill. Aba Samuel escaped from the battlefield near Gyor, but Peter's supporters captured and murdered him. Round Two: king Aba Samuel is dead. Peter's second rule didn't last long. In 1046 Vazul's exiled sons returned to Hungary which, in part, caused a pagan uprising which forced Peter to flee again. He was caught on the border, was blinded and killed. Round Three: king Peter is dead. The Hungarians next elected the middle son of the pagan chief Vazul by the name of Andrew (Endre) who had just returned from 15 years of exile in Bohemia, together with his older brother Bela and younger brother Levente. Andrew had converted to Christianity and dealt heavily with the pagan uprising in Hungary. Andrew suffered a stroke while in power. To ensure the continuity of succession, he had his child, Solomon, crowned and arranged Solomon's engagement to Judith, sister of the new German monarch, Henry IV. Andrew's brother, Bela, had no intention of renouncing his prime claim to the throne based on his age. He sought the military aid of Duke Boleslaus of Poland and with his support returned to Hungary to meet his brother on the battlefield. Andrew lost the battle and suffered severe wounds. Seized by Bela's troops, he was taken to Zirc, where he died of neglecting his wounds. Round Four: king Andrew is dead. His son, Solomon, was taken to Germany by German knights. Bela was crowned in 1060. Most historians agree that Bela was the son of Vazul and his concubine. Bela reigned for 3 years and planned to abdicate when German princes led an army invading Hungary in support of Andrew's son, Solomon. Sitting on his throne, the wooden structure collapsed, killing the king. Round Five: king Bela dead in an accident. The next king, Solomon, acceded to the throne with the help of German help, but had an ongoing conflict with his cousin Geza who wanted to take the crown from him. In the battle of Mogyorod in 1074 Solomon was beaten and gave up two-thirds of his country, while Geza was proclaimed king and ruled for 3 years. Solomon was first imprisoned in Visegrad, then relased on the order of his cousin Ladislaus because nobody could open the grave of St. Stephen on his canonization until Solomon was imprisoned. Solomon Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 19 fled from Hungary and joined the Cumans and Pechenegs in a battle against the Byzantine Empire where, according to one report he died, but according to another report he passed the remainder of his life in pilgrimage and prayer, dying in Pula (or Pola) on the lstrian peninsula in 1087. Round Six: King Solomon dead of physical or spiritual wounds. After only 3 years on the throne, Geza died in April of 1077. Round Six: king dead of exhaustion. His brother, Ladislaus was then proclaimed king. Ladislaus lived a good Christian life and had several miraculous events attributed to him. He added Croatia to his empire, but had disagreements with the Vatican. Since he had no sons, his nephews Coloman and Almos, sons of King Geza, expected to inherit the throne. He named Almos the king of Croatia, while Coloman recruited Polish military help to overtake the throne from Ladislaus. When Ladislaus was informed in July, 1095 that Coloman crossed the borders into Hungary at the head of Polish troops, he died suddenly. Round Seven: King Ladislaus dead of a heart attack. He was canonized in June, 1192. Coloman, the book-lover, received an education in preparation for entering the religious life. Instead, Coloman escaped to Poland and returned to claim the throne which had been promised by Ladislaus to his brother, Almos. Coleman forced Almos to accept an agreement acknowledging Coloman's right to the throne in exchange for a third of the kingdom of Hungary and financial support (appanage) from the king. To further secure the throne for his lineage, Coloman had his son, Stephen, crowned. In a dastardly act, to make sure that Stephen would accede to the throne, Coloman had Almos and his infant son, Bela, blinded. The sad part of the story is that Coloman, who ordered this atrocity, was the nephew of the saintly King Ladislaus who would eventually attain canoniization under the name of Szent Laszlo. The irony is that the blind Bela would eventually be crowned and would rule for 10 years starting in 1131. Coloman died in February of 1116 and was buried in Szekesfehervar, next to St. Stephen. Round Eight: King Coloman dead of old age and the memory of his dastardly act. There are a few more curious cases in royal succession which I cannot let pass. The story of Charles I (1310 to 1342) is equally fascinating. This period in Hungarian history is known as the "interregnum". In the first decade of the 14th century a somewhat chaotic situation existed in Hungary. Following the end ' of the Arpa d dynasty there happened to be at least two contenders for the throne, - all of them without real authority or legitimacy to govern. In 1301 two "children" competed: one was Charles Robert, the 13year-old grandson of Anjou King Charles II and the 12-year-old Vence!, or Wenceslaus, the son of Bohemian (Czech} king Wenceslaus II. The third one happened to be Mary, a daughter of King Stephen V of Hungary and sister of King Ladislaus IV of Hungary. After much haggling,Mary transferred her claim to her eldest son, Charles Martel ,heir to the Kingdom of Naples, but Charles died in 1295 and the claim was "inherited" by the child Charles Robert. . I know this gets too involved, but bear with me to sort out who is who and what i s what. Charles Robert was supported by the Papacy and the Church leadership in Hungary as his mother Maria, the Hungarian wife of the Anjou king was the daughter of King Stephen V. Vencel, or Wenceslaus, on the other hand, was the nominee of most of the Barons of the Hungarian nobility. The stakes were high,so the supporters of Charles didn't waste any time. They sent a delegation to Naples, inviting Charles to Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 20 Hungary. Upon his arrival they took him to Esztergom where the Archbishop Gregory Bicskei crowned Charles with a substitute crown since the original Holy Crown was in the possession of, and guarded by his opponent, Wenceslas. The majority of the magnates, however, did not accept Charles' rule and proclaimed Wenceslaus their king, crowning him with the true Holy Crown in Szekesfehervar by Archbishop John of Kalocsa in 1301. To further his legitimacy, Wenceslaus got engaged to Elizabeth, daughter of King Andrew Ill, the last of the Arpad dynasty and assumed the name of Ladislaus V (Laszlo). In those confusing years Hungary was split into principalities and Wenceslaus could only claim sovereignty over what today is Slovakia, Burgenland and the territory around Buda, the capital. Regrettably for him, he was not universally recognized and eventually would renounce the Hungarian throne. Not to be outdone, Charles Robert recruited military forces in Slavonia and laid siege to Buda Castle in September 1302, but he was not successful in his conquest and had to withdraw to Slavonia. - Wenceslaus feared for his throne and asked his father for help. The Bohemian king Wenceslaus II came to Hungary in the summer of 1304 at the head of a large army to provide support and credibility to his son Vencel, but soon realized that the son's position was unstable and probably untenable, to say the least. He retreated and his son followed, takin the Holy Crown with him. When the Bohemian king died in 1305 and Wenceslaus was elevated to the throne of that country, he gave up his aspirations to the Hungarian throne. Wenceslaus abdicated, offering the crown to the Bavarian Prince Otto, who was the 46-year-old grandson of King Bela IV. Otto was considered the enemy of the Austrian Habsburgs, so Otto had to disguise himself as a merchant while transiting Austria to Prague where he took possession of the Holy Crown. On his way to Hungary, Otto nearly lost the crown until it was accidentally found in the swamp near the Hungarian border (see my letter to the Editor of the Washington Post). Otto was then crowned as Bela V with the Holy Crown in Szekesfehervar in December 1305 and assumed the name Bela V. Wenceslaus broke off his engagement to Elizabeth of Hungary and married the daughter of a Polish Duke, hoping to establish his rights to the Polish throne as well. Unfortunately for him, Wenceslaus was murdered under mysterious circumstances on August 4, 1306. Otto, or Bela V reigned from 1305 to 1308, encountering much resistance from some of the powerful magnates. In June 1307 he visited Ladislaus Kan, the Voivode of Transylvania, but was arrested, leaving the throne open for Charles Robert to take. Otto was released from prison (or may have escaped) and left the country. On November 27, 1308, the assembly of nobles met in Pest and proclaimed Charles as king of Hungary, however, Ladislaus Kan would not release the crown. The Papal legate had a new crown made for Charles with which he was crowned on June 15, 1309. Pressure was put on the Kan and he finally released the crown so that on August 27, 1310, Charles could be crowned for the third time, taking the official name as Charles I of Hungary, which he governed until 1342. And with that, an unstable, dramatic and dangerous phase of Hungarian history, called "interregnum" was completed. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 21 THE TENTH CENTURY It is without a doubt that the arrival of the Hungarians in the Carpathian basin was a momentous occasion in European history. There had been other peoples, like the Avars, Khazars, the Huns and the Romans who settled in the area only to move on in time and in most cases fade out of history. The Magyars staid! This is hardly the most auspicious space for me to declare the effect and significance of our ancestors, but I am not a lone voice in the wilderness. I have taken the liberty of taking some input from such luminaries as H.G. Wells (The Outline of History) and others. For a long view, we must agree that some of the major events of the first millennium included the existence and fall of the Roman Empire, as well as the ascendency of Charlemagne some 3 centuries later. Tragic as it was, the fall of Rome in 476 A.D. in front of the Visigoth Alaric had been preceded by the moral decline of the empire. {Many historians are seeking similarities between that event and the dissipation of empires in our modern times, but let that be the subject of another treatise at another time.) Charlemagne took over the reign from his father and was the king of the Franks from 768 A.D.,expanding into territories which would eventually constitute the two major powers of Europe, i.e. France and Germany. In 799 A.D. Pope Leo Ill placed the crown on Charlemagne's head to make him Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, - a wishful extension of the "old Roman empire" as the major force to deal with, and as the defender of the Pope, the "Caesar" of the spirit of the Continent. Charlemagne died in 813 A.D. With his passing, the inevitable decline of the empire began. As H.G. Wells termed it: "In all of Europe there survived not a tithe of the speculative vigour that we find in the Athenian literature of the 5th.century B.C. There was no power to postulate a new occasion.... Europe, in a series of attempts to restore (the Roman Empire) drifted towards a dreary imitation and revival of the misconceived failures of the past." The resulting shift of power plays, the "treacheries, claims and acquisitions" are difficult to trace as lawlessness and struggle for power was everywhere. The Church itself showed great strain in adhering to the teachings of Jesus Christ. In fact, in 904 A.D. the disgraceful rule of the Popes was called "pornocracy" with the main player being Pope Sergius Ill, who, among other dastardly acts, ordered the strangulation of two of his rivals. Sergius was indebted to the Theophylact family of Tusculum, allegedly having an illicit affair with the Count's daughter, resulting in the birth of a male child who, by the year 931, became Pope John XI. Indeed, it was a dark period for the Church, when, for 60 years Popes were strongly influenced, sometimes even elected, by corrupt and powerful Roman families. This was a period of feudal violence in Europe where the Papacy was allowed to become the pawn of aristocratic rulers. Where was the Holy Spirit in those instances? The foundation of the economic and social system was feudalism. It rested on the theory that layers of society owed their existence to a higher level and for the maintenance of their existence required service from the lowest ranks to the next highest, all the way to the king (and the Pope). The service rendered by the nobles to their immediate superiors was mainly military as they were required to fight on their overlord's behalf. A serf, on the lowest level, might be a virtual slave, while freemen owned land and property but had to make themselves available to the level above them. In return, the strength and power of the overlord protected those who were dependent on him. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 22 Into such an environment came the wild tribes of the Hungarians in 895 A.D. Not accustomed to strict regulation over the grazing land for their livestock and not used to live in any one place long enough to "own it", they ventured into Western territories all the way to the Rhine and beyond, until they suffered their first defeat in 933 A.D. at the hands of Henry I at Merseburg and in 955 A.D. at Lechfeld near Augsburg by Emperor Otto. Realizing that his people would be best served by settling down, King Stephen introduced Christianity. It is simply astounding that in a mere 38 years of his reign, Stephen was able to convert the Hungarian tribes and make them into a Hungarian nation. He fashioned a nation which made its mark on world history. King Stephen was able to strengthen the ties to the West and did that from strength and respect, not from the stand of a weak or conquered nation. At the crossroads of history and historical migration, Hungary's physical location became, of necessity, the place to beat for armies and adventurers on the warpath. Hungarians never stood down to await and then serve the armadas from all directions of the compass. They stood their ground. The Carpathian basin suffered periodic incursions from the West as Austrian and German potentates came to support their appointees to the Hungarian throne. A couple of times in the country's history, the decisive blow came from the Russians who penetrated the Carpathians from the North and East to strike at the heart of the country. I n t h e c o m i n g c e n t u r i e s t he Ottoman Turks ventured well beyond their territories in the Balkans with their eyes on the wealth of Vienna. The road took them first to the fortifications in Hungary where thousands of the Magyar braves laid their lives in the path of the invaders. And when their blood ran out, they suffered 145 years of foreign occupation. Hungarians were always ready and able to defend their values, their religion, their homeland so that the West should feel more secure knowing that first to stand up to the enemy were the Hungarians. And from a larger perspective, it was in the 10th century, when the so-called Holy Roman Empire came to being, headed by the German King Otto I, in 936. It was Otto, who won a decisive battle over the marauding Hungarians in 955 near Augsburg, putting an end to their advancement westward. (That is the answer to nostalgic Hungarians, among them my wife, who remarked: "If Arpad had only ridden a few hundred miles further westward, we'd be living in Switzerland today ...!") Otto had himself crowned Emperor, which endured until Napoleon abolished it 800 years later. - Christian forces reconquered Spain in 900 and made a move against Moslems trying to expand from Africa to the European continent. The so-called British Isles were under Danish rule since the 850s, but their supremacy fell apart in the early 10th century when Edward the Elder took the title of "King of the Angles and Saxons" in 901. As yet another historian, C,A. Macartney wrote: "It must be said that Hungary was, on the whole, lucky in its kings. Several of the Arpads were men of ability and of endearing nature. Nevertheless, the endemic dynastic warfare did Hungary much harm. Not only did the fighting which accompanied it bring with it loss of blood and material devastation, but many claimants to the throne called in foreign help, - German, Polish and even Byzantine, - thus opening the way to foreign interference in the country's internal affairs, political degradation and loss of territory." If we don't learn from our past mistakes, we must repeat them. Let us now see where Hungary's leaders took the nation on its path over the next thousand years. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 23 THE NEXT THOUSAND YEARS STEPHEN II (II lstván), 1116 -1131 The elder son of King Coloman (the book-lover), who had him crowned in his childhood to ensure Stephen's success against his brother A'lmos. Stephen's coronation in 1105 (11 years before his actual reign began) caused a rebellion and warfare internally. Nevertheless, with Coloman's death, Stephen acceded to the throne at age 15 in 1116. His rule started with two military defeats. The Czechs misinterpreted Stephen's peaceful intention and the Hungarian army suffered a defeat in May; whereas in June Venetian troops occupied Dalmatia sending the Hungarian army to its defeat. Dalmatia was lost for over 5 years. Of all the strange projects Stephen got himself involved, he gave shelter to the Pechenegs at his court after they had been defeated by the Byzantine Emperor. Stephen made the Pechenegs into bodyguards which turned into a conspiracy against him, trying to return the blinded Duke Almos to the throne. The conspiracy was revealed and Almos fled to the Byzantine empire where he died in 1127. Finally, in 1129 Stephen called back to his court his cousin, the blinded Bela, son of Almos. Stephen and his troops marched against the Byzantine Empire and defeated them with the help of Duke Sobeslav of Bohemia. Stephen's rule was unpopular among the nobility because he preferred living with his concubines instead of getting married and produce an heir. He was ultimately forced to marry Cristiana, daughter of Prince Robert of Capua, in 1120, but produced no heir. Stephen designated his sister's son, Saul, to be his successor, but Saul died before his uncle. Stephen died of dysentery in 1131. BÉLA II (Vak Béla II), 1131- 1141 As we read above, in 1129 King Stephen called his cousin, the blinded Bela, the only son of Almos, to return to the Hungarian Court from his exile. Upon the death of the childless Stephen, Bela was crowned. You'll recall that King Coloman had married Eufemia, daughter of the Grand Prince Vladimir of Kiev in 1112. Eufemia, however, was soon sent packing when she was found to be promiscuous. Coloman divorced the adulterous woman, but Eufemia gave birth in Kiev to a son, Boris, and she claimed that Coloman was his father which the king vehemently denied. This boy, Boris, would create a lot of trouble after Bela II was crowned in 1131. Bela married Jelena, one of the daughters of a Serbian duke, and they produced a number of historic offspring, among them the next king-to-be, Geza II (who ruled from 1141 to 1162), and two other royal sons, Ladislaus II (1131) and Stephen IV (1133), while their daughter, Elizabeth became the wife of Duke Mieszko of Poland. Jelena had a significant role in governing the country because her husband, the king, was blind. Among other deeds, she ordered the execution of the people whom she considered responsible for her husband's blinding. She also placed her brother (a Serb, mind you!) in command of the Hungarian Army. In the meantime, Boris enlisted the help of the Polish king Boleslaus and in 1132 Polish and Russian troops entered Hungary. They were defeated, but many Hungarian nobles who refused to brand Boris a bastard, Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 24 were executed by King Bela II. In 1136 Bela regained control of Dalmatia from Venice and occupied Bosnia, making his middle son, Ladislaus, king of that country. And in a very smart political move he had his sisters Hedwig and Adelaide marry into the Austrian and Bohemian royal families, helping to form an alliance with those countries. Unfortunately, Bela became an alcoholic and died of overindulgence in 1141, making room for his son, Geza, a minor, to ascend to the throne. GEZA II (1141-1162) Geza was still a minor when he was crowned,so his mother, Helena, served as regent of the kingdom. Growing up, Geza married Euphrosyne in 1146, who was the sister of the Grand Prince of Kiev. She bore 8 children for him, two of whom would be future kings of Hungary. The aforementioned Boris, the alleged descendant of King Coloman, was still giving trouble to the Hungarian royal house, claiming rights to the Hungarian throne. Five years into the rule of Geza, Boris occupied the fortress in Pozsony (today's Bratislava in Slovakia) in 1146 with the help of the Austrian Duke Henry II. Geza was at the head of his armies when he defeated the pretender, thereby gaining respect of the Hungarian nobility. Many military campaigns, too many to be listed, are attached to Geza's name. In June of 1147 Germany's King Conrad Ill was at the head of the Crusader Army as they passed through Hungary, - without major conflicts. But Boris secretly joined another Crusade under the command of the French king Louis VII and used that as a means to sneak into Hungary. Geza protested and although Louis VII did not extradite the pretender, he had Boris escorted out of Hungary under guarded custody. Geza's troops were busy in an 1150 campaign near Przemysl in the Carpathians when Boris attacked from the South with Byzantine forces. Geza hurried to defeat the intruders and concluded a truce with the Byzantine empire. Sadly, there was an internecine incident in 1157when Geza's younger brother, Stephen conspired against him. Geza defeated the conspiracy, and Stephen fled to the court of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I. Upon Geza's intersession, Frederick refused any assistance to Stephen who then fled to Constantinople. 1 Two years later Geza's other younger brother, Ladislaus, also conspired against Geza, but he was without success and would find refuge with Manuel I Komnenos, the Byzantine emperor. Geza died in 1162 and was buried in Szekesfehervar. STEPHEN Ill (Ill Istvan), (1162 -1172) Born in 1147, he was the elder son of his father, Geza II and he acceded to the throne at age 15 upon the king's death in 1162. Actually, Geza already named Stephen as his successor when Stephen was only 5 years old! Both of his uncles (Geza's brothers Stephen and Ladislaus) coveted the crown and enlisted the help of Byzantine Emperor Manuel I ,against whom Stephen constantly had to defend his rightful throne. Under pressure, King Stephen Ill found it necessary to escape to Pozsony (today's Bratislava) to seek the support of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I. Eventually uncle Ladislaus died, but the king's other uncle, also called Stephen, marched against the young Stephen. Fortune smiled on the king when he defeated and arrested his uncle at Szekesfehervar. Regrettably, on the mistaken advice of Archbishop Lukas, the king let the usurper flee to the Byzantine Empire. Emperor Manual though, never gave up his efforts to Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 25 enter Hungary. To ensure the sovereignty of the Southern part of Hungary, King Stephen Ill sent his younger brother Bela as a virtual ambassador to Constantinople. Interestingly, Bela already bore the title of Duke of Croatia and Dalmatia, which was given to him in his father Geza's last will. Emperor Manuel, pretending to ensure Bela's "inheritance" of the Balkan region, he launched yet another attack against Hungary in 1164. This time King Vladislaus of Bohemia and Duke Henry II of Austria came to Stephen's help and negotiated a peace agreement which, rightly or wrongly, transferred an area called the "Szeremse g" to the Byzantine Emperor. In the next 3 years, the Szeremseg changed hands three times as Stephen and Manuel kept testing each other's military fortunes, once even involving Austrian troops after Stephen married Agnes, daughter of Duke Henry II of Austria. These wars cost the Hungarians heavily. To finance them, Stephen dipped into the coffers of the Church under the right of investiture, upsetting the Church leadership. To appease the Vatican, Stephen granted large estates to the Knights Templar in Hungary. Stephen's first marriage in 1167 was to an unnamed daughter of a Slavic Prince, but the young bride was "repudiated" the following year (probably because she couldn't have children) and was sent home. As mentioned above, in 1168 Stephen married Agnes, daughter of Austrian Duke Henry II. Two little boys were born to them, but both died in infancy. In 1172 the Duke of Austria was on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and transited Hungary. King Stephen Ill met the Duke, however, he fell suddenly ill and died. I wonder if his father-in-law had anything to do with it...? Stephen was buried in Esztergom. While Stephen was the rightfully crowned king from March 1162 to March, 1172, a somewhat confusing and turbulent period ensued with two of his uncles claiming the royal title. I have taken snippets of information of this period from, among other sources, the Encyclopedia Britannica, and list the period under the title of USURPERS OF THE THRONE LADISLAUS II (II. Laszlo, May 1162 to January 1163) - unconfirmed. See note below. Upon their brother, Geza ll's death in May, 1162, both brothers, Stephen and Ladislaus, aspired to take over governing Hungary. They were prevented from accessing the throne by Geza's son, who had been named the king's successor as Stephen Ill, even though Stephen was only a minor at the time. This created bad blood in the family, causing the relations between the three brothers to fall apart. Both Stephen and Ladislaus conspired against the young king and fled to the court of Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos in Constantinople, seeking his help. As I pointed out in earlier writings, the ancient Hungarian custom of the oldest male member of the royal family took precedence over the deceased king's first-born son for the throne. Based on this custom, the titled electors preferred Ladislaus over his nephew Stephen, and sent message to Constantinople voicing their preference. Ladislaus entered Hungary with the help of the Byzantine Emperor, and was proclaimed king in Szekesfehervar. King Stephen Ill, upon hearing of the event, fled to Pozsony. But for the coronation to take place, Ladislaus needed an Arcbbishop to perform the ceremony. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 26 Since the Archbishop Lukas of Esztergom remained loyal to Stephen Ill, they had to find an alternate Church dignitary. The Archbishop Miko of Kalocsa assented to perform the ceremonial coronation in July, 1162. (The question is why didn't Stephen take the Holy Crown with him to Pozsony?!) Hungary now had two "crowned" kings in the same period: Stephen Ill and Ladislaus II. To be "fair" to Ladislaus, on the occasion of his coronation the new king granted what was known as "Tercia pars Regni", or one-third of the Kingdom of Hungary to his brother, Stephen Ill. Archbishop Lukas continued to deny the legitimacy of Ladislaus' right to the throne and excommunicated him. In response, Ladislaus had the archbishop arrested, whereupon Pope Alexander Ill intervened, forcing Ladislaus to release Lukas on Christmas, 1162. Still, Lukas refused to absolve the king. A couple of weeks later Ladislaus was found dead, having died most likely of poisoning. His rule ended on January 14, 1163. For the sake of historical accuracy, in medieval times he was only counted as an anti-king, so another Ladislaus who emerged in the 13th century, would be officially counted as Ladislaus II. STEPHEN IV (IV. Istvan, January 1163 - June 1163) As we have seen in the above segment about Ladislaus II, Stephen was one of the two brothers who conspired against their brother, King Geza II. Stephen, too, wanted to deny the ascension of Geza's son, Stephen, to the throne. When his position became untenable in Hungary, he fled first to the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I. To prevent the Emperor Frederick from giving Stephen help, King Geza II outmaneuvered him, promising troops as a bribe to fight yet another conflict with Milan. Frederick then denied support to Stephen who had to flee to the Byzantine Emperor's court in Constantinople. In time Ladislaus would be crowned king, although his nephew, as Stephen Ill, already held the title. When Ladislaus died inJanuary, 1163 of poisoning, the Hungarian electors proclaimed his brother the new king as Stephen IV. Archbishop Lucas of Esztergom once again showed his loyalty to King Stephen Il land denied his coronation. In his place, Archbishop Miko of Kalocsa performed the coronation ceremony. (The question is, where was Stephen Ill all this time; why wasn't he defending the Holy Crown?) Archbishop Lucas excommunicated King Stephen lV which got Stephen so angry, he prohibited any correspondence between the Hungarian bishops and the Vatican. The usurper king seemed on the verge of separating the Catholic Church in Hungary from Rome. Meanwhile, the Hungarian barons became indignant and finally rallied behind King Stephen Ill. Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I sent troops to assist King Stephen Ill, who led his troops against the usurper king Stephen IV, defeating him and the Byzantine troops that he had hired. Stephen IV was captured, but later released on the advice of Archbishop Lucas, opening the way for him to escape to Byzantium. This time the Emperor double-crossed Stephen and concluded peace with Stephen Ill. As compensation, he was appointed governor of a fortress from which he kept harassing Hungarian territories until Stephen Ill's troops laid siege to the fortress at Zimony. In ultimate humiliation, his own troops poisoned him before surrendering to Stephen Ill's forces. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 27 The Court Jester Many history books skip over these convoluted periods in Hungarian history and, after brief stops with Kings Solomon, St. Ladislaus and Coloman the book lover, go directly from St. Stephen (1038) to the next ruler, Bela Ill (1172) as being one of the most powerful rulers of the country. Given the many references above to poisonings to end the undesirable reign of certain kings, I would like to sidetrack history for a moment and take a breather with the Hollywood movie entitled: Court Jester, a comedy in which poisoning is one of the highlights of the film. The rather complicated but very funny plot has at its core Giacomo, "King of Jesters, Jester of Kings", played by Danny Kaye. On a mission to install a baby boy to the throne, Giacomo meets the current king's daughter who declares her love for the jester over a visiting knight her father wants her to marry. The king orders Giacomo to be knighted so he can joust the visitor and the winner be chosen to marry the princess. Giacomo, knowing nothing about jousting, takes advantage of advice from Griselda, a witch in the service of the princess, who promises to poison one of the drinks the antagonists are supposed to drink before the event. She tells the jester how to choose the safe brew: Griselda (to Giacomo): The pellet with the poison i s i n the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true! Giacomo repeats it: The pellet with the poison is in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true. Right? Griselda: Yes, but there's been a change: they broke the chalice from the palace and replaced it with a flagon. Giacomo: They broke the chalice from the palace? Griselda: Right! And replaced it with a flagon with a dragon. Giacomo: But did you put the pellet with the poison in the vessel with the pestle? Griselda: No! The pellet with the poison is in the flagon with the dragon! The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true! Giacomo: The poison with the..... The pellet with the poison is in the flagon with the dragon. The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true! The pellet with the poison..... Griselda: Just remember that! NO wonder then, that in real life complications occurred over a "simple act'' of poisoning... Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 28 BELA Ill (1172 -1196) An important player in this period was King Bela Ill who ruled from 1172 to 1192. He turned out to be the wealthiest member of the dynasty who had personal disposition over 23,000 kg (about 51,000 lbs) of pure silver, well exceeding the wealth of the kings of France and England. Bela's main contribution to history was that he rolled back the influence of the Byzantine Empire by encroaching Bosnia, Dalmatia and Serbia as well. Bela was the second son of Geza II (1141-1162) and the younger brother of Stephen Ill (1162-1172). He was brought up and educated in the Byzantine court of Emperor Manuel I. The Emperor intended for Bela to inherit Byzantium from him and marry his daughter Maria. In 1169, however, Manuel and his wife had a son, Alexius, born to them. Bela's "engagement" to Maria was cancelled, but the emperor negotiated his marriage to Agnes of Antioch. When King Stephen III died childless, Bela became his rightful heir and Bela moved to Hungary in anticipation of being crowned by the Archbishop of Esztergom. However, Lucas, the Archbishop refused to crown Bela with St. Stephen's crown because he declared that the gift, which Bela had given to the archbishop's envoy, was a bribe. Bela had to seek help from Pope Alexander III, who authorized his investiture by the Archbishop of Kalocsa. To complicate matters, the electors in Hungary would have preferred his younger brother, Prince Geza, to become king. The tension got to the point where Bela had his own brother accused of treason, forcing him to flee to Henry II of Austria and then to the court of Emperor Frederick I. He was arrested by Bohemian Duke Sobeslav and returned to King Bela Ill. He would be imprisoned until 1189 when the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I was transiting Hungary, making his crusade to the Holy Land. Upon the Emperor's request, Geza was freed and retired to Byzantium. Thanks to Bela's visionary approach to his role in history, we now know much more about his rule and his internal policies than about many of the other Hungarian rulers. By establishing the Royal Chancellery, he ordered, for example, that all issues discussed by the king had to be put down in writing. It came to light as well that the Archbishop Andrew of Kalocsa may have insulted the king which drew the king's ire. He bore pressure on Lukas, the Archbishop of Esztergom, to excommunicate the prelate Andrew and then occupied the estates of the archdiocese, gaining its wealth for the king. Pope Alexander Ill had to intervene later on to ease the tension between the king and the archbishop. He followed an expansionist strategy, but used his military power wisely. When Byzantine Emperor Manuel I died in September of 1180, Bela took advantage of the situation and reoccupied Croatia and Dalmatia. And to strengthen the ties between the two belligerents he gave his daughter, Margaret, in marriage to the new Byzantine emperor, Isaac II Angelos. After his first wife, Agnes of Antioch (I wonder how they communicated back in the royal household? ...) died in 1184, Bela first wanted to marry Theodora, one of Emperor Manuel's nieces, however, the Byzantine church forbade the marriage to take place, - I assume because of religious conflict? - Bela then turned westward and may have established a lasting connection with England. How did this happen? Bela married Marguerite of France who was the French King Philip ll's sister and the widow of Henry, the eldest son of King Henry II of England. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 29 In May, 1189, Frederick I was leading his Crusade to the Holy Land which took him through Hungary. Bela must have been impressed by the pomp and circumstance parading through his country, so he took an oath to lead another crusade to the Holy Land, which did not take place because Bela died on April 23, 1196. Bela's legacy was that he re-established Hungary's respect in Europe and his court was acknowledged to be among the most brilliant in Europe. His extraordinary height at over 2 metres (6 ft 8 inches) made it easier to identify his remains in the cathedral at Szekesfehervar, which had been ruined by the Turkish occupation. He was reinterred at the Matthias Coronation Church in Budapest, together with his first wife Agnes. Just as a side remark, let's not feel too sorry for Margaret, King Bela Ill's daughter whom he gave in marriage to Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelos. After Angelos passed away, however, she married twice more: firstly to Boniface of Thessalonica (Greece, or formerly the Roman capital of Macedonia), and secondly to Nicholas I of Saint Omer, - wherever that was. A little detour I always felt a little sorry for women in the ancient royal families. They were often sent away to a foreign country to marry a prince or king with whom they had no romantic involvement before hitting the soft matrimonial mattress. They were used as chattel to commit one or both parties to observe the terms of a treaty. Most often they did not speak the language of their new country, nor did they know much of their new husband and had to eat and digest food and customs totally foreign to them. I am sure the prospective groom was nervous, too, often not even having met, or just met briefly with the woman he was expected to spend his nights, or his entire life. Of course, the sweetener in the deal was often the dowry which accompanied the sweet young thing entering your household. In reverse, when the bride was Hungarian and she was being sent to Poland or Bohemia or Bavaria, her carriage was pulled by horses from the best of Hungarian stables, the carriage rode on wheels accustomed to the ruts in the "puszta", which was not exactly the Autobahn. We are not talking strictly about brides, mind you. When Andrew II was returning from the 5th crusade, he made a detour to arrange for a lovely young Greek thing for his son Bela from Emperor "Teddy" Laskaris of Nicaea. Did Bela, the future King Bela IV, carry with him the promise of making a Greek-Hungarian Queen, or was the promise made for monetary reasons? It is interesting to consider the historian Macartney's remarks, simply stating that "in those days Hungary was almost, not quite, the leading power in south-eastern Europe." In the case of another Bela (Bela Ill), whose second marriage was to Marguerite of France, sister of King Philip II and widow of Henry, eldest son of King Henry II of England, Bela could claim to be the brother-in-law of the King of France! The marriage document, required for the negotiations, showed that his revenues were equal to those of his English and French contemporaries and just a tad under those of the Holy Roman Emperor! And this was not only true for the female descendants of Hungarian kings, but it was also true in reverse, when the palace at Buda welcomed a foreign princess to be betrothed to a Magyar king or king -to-be. The very first queen, Giselle or Gisela of Bavaria, was betrothed to King Stephen at a very young age. She had been raised in a convent, so what did she know of the outside world? Granted, she was allowed to be accompanied by dozens of knights whom her father, Henry the Wrangler, Duke of Bavaria, gave her as a wedding present. At least she could converse in German with those folks, but what about others in her Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 30 royal entourage? She may not have been accustomed to Wiener Schnitzle served for lunch in the convent, but how did she take to "paprikas krumpli" (potatoes in paprika sauce) served in King Stephen's kitchen? Was she endeared by Stephen as "lch liebe dich?" Or was it her royal duty to unceremoniously deliver, nurture and often bury her children, the offspring of the saintly warlord, Istvan? When and how did she learn the language? Perusing some of these daunting questions, I came across an interesting situation, where a foreigner, born in Hungary, became a Scottish saint. Although the story does not fit this particular period in my storytelling, it presents a unique drama having to do with royalty. I am talking of the British princess Margaret. Due to the constraints of time and space, I am shamelessly quoting, more or less, from the Cambridge Encyclopedia as well as from Wikipedia. SAINT MARGARET OF SCOTLAND She was born in 1045 A.D. into the House of Wessex. Her father was the English prince Edward the Exile and granddaughter of Edmund Ironside, king of England. When the Danes, under the leadership of Canute, conquered the English forces in 1016, the infant Edward was exiled to the European continent, first to Sweden, then to Kiev and later, as an adult, to Hungary. He supported Andrew l's bid for the throne in 1045, which was in jeopardy not only because of a pagan uprising, but also due to Andrew's ongoing troubles with his brothers also claiming the right to the throne. Edward chose Agatha to be his wife, but her provenance could not be proved. She might have been English in Edward's entourage, or she may have been Hungarian from the local aristocracy. Their daughter, Margaret, was born in Hungary in 1045, as were her brother and her sister. The new Hungarian king, Andrew, was a devout Catholic and provided a pious environment for the English guests at his court. Our main interest in St. Margaret's life was really to explore her circumstances in Hungary, but her entire life is so interesting and involved, I will not let it pass without notice. There is no credible, detailed description of her and her family's stay in Hungary, yet they presumably were the guests of Andrew for some 12 years, when Edward was recalled to England in 1057 as a potential successor to the childless Edward the Confessor. Twelve years is a long time, which I am sure the bright English kids (and even their parents) turned to good use, learning some of the language, customs and history. Edward took his entire family back with him to England where disaster struck. Whether from natural causes or sinister circumstances, Edward met death upon landing. Margaret was settled at the English court where her brother, Edward Aetheling, was considered a possible heir to the throne. With the death of Edward the Confessor and his transitional successor Harold having died in the Norman invasion, Edgar was proclaimed King of England in 1068. His widowed mother Agatha, together with her children, fled the Normans to Northumbria in the North. From here they were to return to the European continent by ship, but a storm blew them north to Scotland. Here they sought the protection of King Malcolm Ill. Malcolm was a widower with two sons. It appears that romance blossomed soon between Malcolm and Margaret, and despite Margaret's reluctance to engage in matrimony, their wedding took place in 1070. In time, Margaret had 8 children by Malcolm, among them 4 future kings and queens. Margaret remained a dedicated Catholic, supporter of the poor and the helpless, and having civilizing influence on Malcolm. She also brought the Church of Scotland to conform to those of Rome and the Church on the Continent as she remembered itfrom her childhood, - no doubt from Hungary. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 31 Malcolm and their eldest son, Edward, were killed in a battle against the English. The life of constant austerity and fasting took their toll on Margaret's life. She died on November 16, 1093, three days after the death of her husband and son. In recognition of her personal holiness, charity and work on Church reform, she was canonized by Pope Innocent IV in 1250. She is venerated in both the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches. I must beg your indulgence for this bypass into English history but I wonder if the Hungarian King Bela IV may have been influenced in some way to name his daughter Margaret as well, based on an exiled little young lady at Buda Castle some years back. The Hungarian Margaret, as we will learn later, also lived a religious life and was canonized as one of Hungary's saints. EMERIC (lmre, 1196 - 1204) He was the first-born son of Bela Ill and Agnes of Antioch. His father, wanting to ensure his son's succession, had Emeric crowned in 1182, when he was only 8 years old, and 14 years before his reign actually began. Emeric was engaged to Agnes, the daughter of Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, but her premature death two years later prevented this promising marriage to take place. In 1198 Emeric married lnfanta Constance of Aragon and they had one son who would become the infant King Ladislaus Ill, but lived only 5 years. See the following story.) Emeric was appointed by his father to be the Duke of Croatia and Dalmatia. Bela Ill's last will left the kingdom entirely to Emeric, but gave his younger son, Andrew, a substantial amount of money so that he could fulfill his father's promise to lead yet another crusade to the Middle East. Andrew, however, used the money to secure the loyalties of the electors, hoping to gain access to the throne. He also sought the help of Leopold VI, Duke of Austria to dethrone his brother, and their combined armies were victorious over Emeric in the Battle of Mecsek (near Pecs) in December 1197. The conquest also meant that Emeric had to transfer the rule of Croatia and Dalmatia to his brother. It is upsetting that the royal offspring of Bela Ill were more concerned about personal power than about the unity and the benefit of the kingdom. Indeed, the brothers fought another battle in the summer of 1199 at Rad, where Emeric defeated his brother, forcing him to flee to Austria. With the mediation of Papal Legate Gregory, however, Duke Andrew was allowed to return to Hungary and was again granted rule over Croatia and Dalmatia. Andrew continued conspiring against his brother. Pope Innocent Ill urged Andrew to fulfill his father's wish to spend the monies on organizing another crusade. Emeric honored his part of the promise and transferred funds and property to the Archbishop of Esztergom. Emeric had to deal with military hotspots in Serbia, Bulgaria and Bosnia, in which he gained the allegiance and fidelity of Ban Kulin of Bosnia. Another troubling situation emerged in Bulgaria where the Doge of Venice took the Dalmatian city of Zara from Hungarian oversight. Pope Innocent excommunicated the Venetians and the Crusaders so the Hungarians would regain control of Zara, but Emeric's troops were Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 32 unable to reoccupy the city and gave it up by signing a peace treaty, which also separated Dalmatia from Hungary. When Andrew would again conspire against Emeric in 1203, the king led his armies against him. Realizing that he was outnumbered, Emeric confronted Andrew alone, wearing only the crown and the scepter. Andrew surrendered, however, Emeric had him arrested. As Emeric's health was failing, he had his four year old son, Ladislaus, crowned in August 1204 and reconciled with Andrew, appointing him to govern Hungary during his son's minor years. Emeric died in 1204 and was buried in the Cathedral of Eger. LADISLAUS Ill (III Laszlo - November 1204 - May 1205) Given the merciless intranecine fights among royal heirs, it is perhaps fortunate that Ladislaus Ill was the only son of King Emeric. Ladislaus was only 4 years old when his father had him crowned, - another ridiculous practice in an effort to "save" the throne for the selected heir. As we read above, Emeric made his brother, Andrew promise that he would help the young Ladislaus govern while he was a minor. As we may remember, Andrew had conspired against Emeric and should have been jailed instead of being entrusted with such a precious charge. As expected, Andrew betrayed his brother. When Emeric died, Andrew grabbed total power and made the life of the young Ladislaus and the dowager Queen miserable, so that they found it necessary to escape to Vienna to the protection of Leopold VI, Duke of Austria. The child died there in May, 1205, but was buried in Szekesfehervar. ANDREW II (II. Andras/Endre - 1205 -1235) Well, guess who would be the next king? No need to wonder any more. Of course, it was Andrew, son of King Bela Ill and younger brother of Emeric. His father, Bela Ill had given him the principality of Halych (the later Galicia on the northern edge of the Carpathian Mountains), while his brother Emeric got the crown. The fierce boyars of Halych rebelled against Andrew and expelled the Hungarian troops representing the Hungarian ruler. Andrew then turned against his brother, King Emeric who was forced to defend his crown against the young usurper by military force. Emeric lost the 1197 battle with Andrew, but won the battle in 1199, and yet felt obligated to grant him the position of Duke of Croatia and Dalmatia. Bela Ill had taken an oath to leave funds with Andrew from which to finance another crusade. Andrew misused the funds and conducted military expeditions to neighboring provinces while conspiring against his brother, King Emeric. Andrew married Gertrude, a daughter of the Duke of Merania who had great influence over Andrew, suggesting that he conspire again to overthrow Emeric. This is where a dramatic scene took place in 1203, when Emeric realized that his troops were outnumbered by Andrew's. Emeric left his troops and went to his brother's camp wearing no armor but the crown and scepter. Seeing that, Andrew surrendered and was arrested, but later managed to escape. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 33 As I pointed out earlier, Emeric's health was failing. Wanting to secure the ascension of his young son, Ladislaus, who had been crowned at the age of 5, the king appointed Andrew to govern Hungary while Ladislaus was still a minor. Emeric died in late fall of 1204. Andrew grabbed power, seizing the money on deposit on behalf of Ladislaus. The Queen dowager lnfanta Constance of Aragon was afraid for the life of her son and they fled to Austria. Andrew made preparations against Leopold IV, the Duke of Austria to bring Ladislaus back, but the child-king died in May of 1205, which opened the way for Andrew to ascend to the throne. The coronation took place in Szekesfehervar on May 29, 1205. His reign ran into immediate problems, which would remain its permanent feature. To ingratiate himself with his supporters, Andrew gave everything away, bestowing the royal estates to select noblemen. The legal document he drew up had the title of Novae institutiones, declaring that "Nothing can set bounds to the generosity of the Royal Majesty." His "generosity" led to the utter impoverishment of the treasury as he gave away money, villages and whole counties. He married Gertrude of Merania, which caused immediate grave discontent among his subject as Andrew was especially generous with his wife's German relatives. Andrew married three times. With his first wife Gertrude they had five offsprings, among them the future King Bela IV and Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. Andrew also got involved in unprofitable military adventurism, such as a campaign in 1208 to acquire the principality of Halych (the later Galicia) in the north, appointing a regent to govern the country, which he promptly lost the following year. To reinstate the child-prince Danylo to the throne of Halych, he personally led his troops to re-conquer the principality. In his absence from Buda, a group of aristocrats in his court wanted to take revenge on Andrew for his generous financial support of Gertrude, the Queen. Scandalized by the king's lavish spending, - particularly to his wife's consorts, - they offered the throne to his cousin, but Andrew got wind of the conspiracy and managed to save his throne. To protect the southeastern border against the Cumans, he granted rule of southeastern Transylvania to the Teutonic Knights, however, the knights attempted to break away from Hungary and tried to establish their own country. Andrew left Buda in the summer of 1213 to give military assistance to Prince Danylo, but had to turn back when he was informed that his wife, the Queen Gertrude, was murdered. Despite the fact that he had the leader of the conspiracy executed while forgiving the others, the conspirators showed contempt for his son, Bela, as his possible successor. To ensure Bela's future, Andrew had his 8 year old son crowned in 1214. The Fifth Crusade Andrew's troubles continued on the southern frontier. In 1214 Hungarian troops annexed Belgrade of the Bulgarian Empire. Andrew made plans for making himself King of the Byzantine Empire and married Yolanda de Courtenay, daughter of Peter I of Courtenay, and niece of Henry I, Emperor of Constantinople. But when the Emperor Henry died in 1216, Andrew's plans were foiled as the country's barons proclaimed Henry's fatherin-law, Peter of Courtenay to be their choice. Despite the depleted Hungarian treasury, Andrew decided to lead the Fifth Crusade to the Holy Land. In August 1217 the king and his troops embarked in Spalato (today's Split) in the Adriatic Sea and made arrangements using Venetian navy ships to ferry them to the Holy Land. To assure his safe return, he Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 34 appointed Pontius de Cruce, Master of the Knights of the Templars as Regent of Croatia and Dalmatia. The Crusaders landed in Cyprus in October, 1217 and from there they sailed to Acre where Andrew joined other Crusaders to attack Jerusalem. Andrew led one of the largest Crusades against the Moslems, comprising of 20,000 knights and 12,000 garrison, so hopes were high for a successful campaign. Initially, things were going well for Andrew as his troops defeated the Sultan at Bethsaida on the Jordan river. The Muslim forces were retired to their fortresses and towns. Since the catapults did not arrive in time, Andrew made fruitless frontal attacks on the fortresses of Lebanon and Mount Tabor. But Andrew's health was failing and he decided to return to Hungary in February, 1218. On his return, he negotiated marriage contracts between his younger son Andrew and Isabelle, a daughter of Armenian King Levon, as well as between his other children and the courts of Emperor Laskaris of Nicaea and Tsar Asen of Bulgaria. His reputation may have preceded him, because while staying at Nicaea, - a Hellenic city in northwestern Anatolia, - his cousins, who lived there, attempted an unsuccessful attempt to take his life. Upon his return to Hungary Andrew found the king's coffers completely empty and the country in anarchy. Even Archbishop John of Esztergom, whom he charged with the regency of the country, was forced to leave the country. To restore fiscal health to the treasury, he issued orders for new taxes and lent his income to Jews and Muslims on interest which created more ill will against the king. Let me deal, however briefly, with the practice in medieval Europe and in our case particularly of Hungarian royalty, which caused the main reason for impoverishing the leading classes and indeed the mainstay of Hungarian society. Kings, or "pretenders to the Crown" had accelerated the process, according to the historian C.A. Macartney, by buying, or rewarding supporters with grants of land. At the other extreme, many nobles sank into real poverty while preserving their political status. These "sandalled barons" (bocskoros barok) then further diminished their wealth by giving away property to pay off debts or buy influence. More circumspect rulers, like King Coloman (1095-1116), ruled that all donations enacted since St. Stephen's day, where the direct heirs no longer existed, should revert to the Crown. Also, offices of state should not be made hereditary. It is interesting to observe that the "nation" did not develop along hierarchical lines which was characteristic of societies in contemporary Western Europe. The Golden Bull To restore some semblance of order and enforce Hungarian rule to the southern part of the country, in 1220 Andrew appointed his son Bela (the future King Bela IV) as Duke of Slavonia, Dalmatia and Croatia. He also tried to force Bela to separate from his wife, Maria Laskarina of Nicaea, but was unable to break up the marriage. In other major and long-lasting legislation, Andrew issued the Golden Bull, a landmark document, the Hungarian equivalent of England's Magna Charta, limiting the power of the royalty and reaffirming the rights of lesser nobility. In this regard, mindful of the confines of space and time of this writing, I found the historian C. A. Macartney's book, Hungary, a brief history, immensely helpful. I may be paraphrasing from or referring to this book (particularly pages 27-29) while writing about King Andrew ll's Golden Bull. Up until 1222, the prerogatives of the kings were not restricted. With Andrew returning home from the Crusades and finding everything topsy-turvy, the country in shambles and the various levels of nobility in Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 35 near-revolt, he had to find a way, or at least a symbolic way, to submit to certain restrictions on his freedom to act. Totally new in concept, this was for Andrew "to concede that if he or any of his successors violated these promises, the prelates and other dignitaries and nobles of the realm should be free to resist and withstand (Jus resistendi) such violation without imputation of high treason." This remained a treasured privilege of the Hungarian nation for more than 400 years thereafter. Another provision was for the king not to appoint foreigners to office without the counsel of the royal council. One of the famous clauses of the Golden Bull dealt with the status of freemen. These were the commoners of society who did not have to do work under debt for their Lords. These segments of the population which, in the past, were required to serv in a military situation, were greatly diminished due to war casualties. The Golden Bull does not even mention the class as freemen, giving a new role to a newly emerging class, the "servientes regis" (the king's servants) who will no longer be required to answer the King's call, except in the case of foreign invasion. In the past some rulers accomplished the replenishment of national defense forces by promoting heretofore unfree elements, or importing foreign fighters. The issuance of a Charter, or Golden Bull, became necessary and unavoidable following the visit of a large number of discontent nobles, the "servientes regis" to Andrew' s court, asking for a document to outline and confirm their privileges and rights. Other main points of the document include the following: A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I. J. No nobleman may be arrested unfairly, nor can they be oppressed by the wishes of a higher power. Noblemen are declared to be exempt from the payment of taxes, nor will money be collected from their treasuries. Neither will their residences be occupied, nor their villages and these may only be visited by those who have been invited. No taxes will be levied on the Church. If any nobleman dies without a male heir, his daughter will receive a quarter of his possessions; the remainder of his property shall be given to others. But if, as a result of their deaths they cannot take possession of these properties, then these properties shall pass into the hands of their closest living relative. If this is not possible, then the King shall inherit them. If the King wishes to send his armies outside of the Kingdom, the noblemen will not be under obligation to go with him unless the monarch pays them. However, if an invading army enters in the Kingdom, all of them must serve to expel it. The Hungarian Palatine (governor) may judge everyone in the Kingdom without any differentiation, but he cannot try any nobleman without the King's approval. Hungarian properties may not be given to foreigners. No title or public charge can be inherited. No one, besides the Palatine, the governors of Croatia and Slavonia, the King and the Queen Consort can have more than one title or honor. Neither Jew, nor lsmaelite can hold a public position. The Nobles of the Chamber, those working with monies, tax collectors and toll-keepers may only be Hungarian noblemen. In order for this document to be lawful and put into use for the future, seven copies, each sealed with the Golden Seal, will be made of it. The first will be sent to the Pope, the second to the Knights of St. John, the third to the Templar Knights, the fourth to the King, the fifth to the Archbishop of Esztergom, the sixth to the Archbishop of Kalocsa and the seventh to the Hungarian Palatine so that these writings won't be falsified or confused. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 36 The Charter was made necessary by the emergence of a middle class in the nobility, which was unusual in the nation's feudal system. The two classes of nobility: hereditary and middle class, were increasingly at odds with each other. The Charter sought to take the wind out of such antipathy. In 1223 Andrew's son, Bela took back his wife despite his father's wishes and escaped to Austria, fearing Andrew's anger and reaction. With the mediation of Pope Honorius Ill, however, they came to an agreement and Bela took over the governments of Slavonia, Dalmatia and Croatia. Andrew, on the other hand, made peace with Duke Leopold VI of Austria. In an important legislative move, in 1224 Andrew issued his Diploma Andreanum which assured the Transylvanian Saxons of their special privileges, including autonomy under the King's rule as overlord. The Diploma is considered the oldest law of autonomy in the world. Andrew expelled the Teutonic Knights from Transylvania. The rest of his life was troublesome, beginning with his relations with the children. My readers may or may not recall that King Andrew II had been involved in a military campaign in Halych, later known as Galicia to assist Prince Danylo to regain the throne of that principality after having been thrown off it by internal and external enemies of the Prince. In September 1213, however, Andrew interrupted his campaign when he heard through a messenger that his troublesome wife, Gertrude of Merania (roughly today's Montenegro) had been murdered. (See the following story on Bank ban.) Upon his return to Buda Castle, Andrew ordered the execution of the leader of the conspiracy involved in his wife's murder, but forgave other members of the group. His son, Bela, resented his father's decision because he wanted revenge for his mother's murder. Even later in his life when he wanted to take revenge, it was his sister, the later St. Elizabeth, who argued against it. (For the sake of accuracy let me interject that while Andrew spared the life of most involved in the conspiracy, he had its leader, Peter, impaled on a log, and over the years confiscated the land holdings of most of the conspirators.) Just to be sure that Bela has a chance to succeed his father, Andrew had the 8-year-old Bela crowned in 1214 as King Bela IV, some 21 years before he actually stepped onto the thrown. How they "divided" governing and avoided the confusion over the two royal titles may be the root of some of the problems historians enumerate as causes for the discord within the royal family. In this connection I must mention my late mother-in-law's often-cited dictum: "Ket dudas egy csardaban nem fer meg." (There is no room for two bagpipe players in one pub.) - Let me add also that after Gertrude's murder, Andrew married Yolanda de Courtenay in 1215. She was the daughter of the Emperor of Constantinople. Andrew and Yolanda had a daughter, Violant, who would become the wife of King James I of Aragon. With Yolanda's death in 1234, Andrew married for the third time and took for his wife Beatrice d'Este who was 30 years his junior. They had a son they named Stephen, who would eventually become the father of King Andrew Ill of Hungary. Bela stepped up his campaign to regain some of the territory for the royal domains which King Andrew had granted to some of his supporters in the earlier years of his reign. Andrew was opposed to his son's policy and removed Bela's authority, making him prince over Transylvania, while his younger son, Coloman, became the governor of the provinces which Bela had formerly controlled. Once again, Andrew Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 37 II intervened in Halych when Prince Danylo expelled Andrew's son Coloman from the principality, while Frederick II, the Duke of Austria marched against the western borders of Hungary in 1230. Despite initial success on the part of Andrew II to dissuade Frederick II from further skirmishes, the attacks continued for several years until,in 1235, Andrew pushed Frederick back to Vienna and made him pay a monetary fine to secure peace between the two nations. The 4th Council of the Lateran of 1225 severely curtailed the employment of Jews and Muslims in royal households. Andrew II, in contrast with the Council's order, often employed such people in his service, drawing the anger of Pope Gregory IX on himself. Ultimately, the pope won the argument and Andrew was obligated to write a supplement to the Golden Bull prohibiting the employment of non-Christians on his properties and authorizing the Archbishop of Esztergom to punish the king who would ignore the dictum. (Indeed, Andrew was excommunicated by Bishop John of Bosnia in 1234 for breaking the Council's rule, and Andrew found himself appealing to the Pope to vacate the bishop's dictum.) In the same year another tragedy struck. Andrew's youngest son, Prince Andrew II of Halych died in a battle with Prince Danylo of Halych and with this military defeat Hungarian supremacy over the principality terminated. - Andrew and his first wife Gertrude's third child, Elisabeth, lived a life dedicated to her religion even while she was married to Landgraf Louis IV of Thuringia. On May 28, 1235 Elizabeth was canonized by Pope Gregory IX and is venerated as Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. (See the following story on St. Elizabeth.) King Andrew II died on September 21, 1235 at the age of 58. Saint Elizabeth of Hungary She was the third child and second daughter of King Andrew II and Queen Gertrud of Hungary, born in Sarospatak on the eastern part of the country in 1207 AD. At a very young age she was sent (for education, they said) to the court of the Landgrave of Thuringia and (unbelievably!) she was engaged to the Lord's infant son. When she was 14 years of age, she married Ludwig IV. They had 3 children. The court of Thuringia was a magnificent place with Wartburg castle at its center, where a lavish lifestyle was the norm which turned Elizabeth off as she would have rather done pious and charitable deeds. Ludwig and Elizabeth visited Hungary shortly after their marriage, but Ludwig was often away from Wartburg on official business for Emperor Frederick II. During one of those trips in the spring of 1226, floods and famine and pestilence devastated Thuringia. Elizabeth had a 28-bed hospital built at the foot of the castle which she visited daily, distributing medicines and food to the needy. Elizabeth's fame as an angel of mercy to the poor stems from this time in her life. Her kind and pious husband died in Sicily on the way to join a Crusade with Emperor Frederick. Elizabeth and her three children were then cruelly driven from the palace by her brother-in-law and many people whom she had helped also turned against her. The bishop of Bamberg, her maternal uncle, tried to help her, but she voluntarily renounced the grandeur into which she had been born and withdrew to a small house in the city of Marburgh. She lived there in utmost poverty, distributing to the poor the remnants of her inheritance. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 38 She is often represented in art with an apron full of roses which were transformed from loaves of bread to conceal when she was questioned as to what she was carrying in her apron. Her son gained control of the Thuringian government and asked Elisabeth to return to the Court. She died on November 19th, 1231 and was canonized by Pope Gregory IX on May 27th, 1235. Soon after her death miracles of healing began to occur at her grave in Marburgh. Bánk bán Ban (pronounced baahn) in Hungarian is an official title, much similar to a viceroy or palatine (governor). Around this particular ban, called Bank, a very powerful story was created and an opera written by famous Hungarian musician Ferenc Erkel, composer of the Hungarian National Anthem. The work uses a libretto by Beni Egressy based on a stage play by Jozsef Katona. The synopsis of the opera is on a separate sheet attached hereto. The main story is based on the assassination of Queen Gertrud, wife of King Andrew II in 1213. (The opera's premier was on March 9, 1861 and is played at the Budapest Opera on practically all the national holidays and commemorative events. I have interesting items to add to the story with which we dealt on page 36 of this booklet and I am eager to share it with you. As I pointed out earlier, Gertrude was not a particularly beloved queen in Hungarian history, mostly because the queen generously spent the royal treasury on her expatriate friends and relatives from German Merania. One of the particularly fortunate beneficiaries of the queen's prodigal spending was one of Gertrude's brothers, the 8-year-old Bertold. Although he had no ecclesiastic training and wasn't even of the proper age, but Bertold, through his sister's influence, persuaded King Andrew II to bestow on him the title and position of Archbishop of Kalocsa. Bertold was also interested in securing a lay title and through more shenanigans he obtained an appointment as "ban" of Croatia. Furthermore, the king managed to confirm Bertold's position by the Pope as well. Another shady story involved Queen Gertrude's two other brothers who were suspected of the murder of the Svabian king Phillip. The two culprits fled to Hungary where they found temporary shelter in the Queen's court. Eventually, though, they moved on, taking with them much of the Queen's treasury. Enter into this scene the character of Otto, another of Gertrud's brothers, who was most likely born in the fertile mind of the writer Katona, with a mission to create an unforgivable crime, that is to subdue and deflower the beautiful wife of the Ban Bank who was away with the King on a crusade. In this manner the rape of both the wife and the homeland could be combined in this tragic opera. Before I continue with the story and set up the scene for the opera, I want to illustrate the richness of the Hungarian language from the 16th century in the story written by the contemporary writer Gaspar Heltai. It is regrettable that many, probably most, of my readers will fail to understand and appreciate the beauty of the text, nevertheless, I feel compelled to first tell part of the story in old-Hungarian, followed by the proper English translation. Here it goes: ....."(Az kiraly) Ez idore orszagaban egy jeles ferfiut, bizonyos Bank bant hagya helytartoul. Azonkozben juta oda az kiralyunk asszonnak otsse, hogy vigasztalna nenjet, mierthogy tavol vala az ura. Vala pedig az Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 39 Bank bannak felesege ki szep szomely vala es igen jambor, azert nyajaskodik vala az kiralyne asszon igen oromest velle. Ezt igen kezde az kiralnenak az otsse szeretni. Annyira, hogy majd meghal vala miatta. Annakutana behivata az kirayne asszon az Bank ban feleseget egy rejtekhazba es ott lon a kiralne asszon otsse is. Azonkozben az kiralne asszon kijove az hazbol es tsak ketten maradanak a hazban. Mikoron az jambor Bank bannak felesege megotalmazta vona beszedekkel az o jamborsaga, vegre az kiralne asszonnak az otsse eroszakot von rajta. Elhallgata szegen a gonoszsagot. De mikoron egynehan nap mulva az Bank ban jatszadozni akarna felesegevel, sirni kezdett es azt mondja neki: Ne erj hozzam, nem a felesegedhez nyulsz! Engemet kiralne asszon melle adtal, de az engemet az otssenek ejtett tsalardsagaval. Ihol vagyok szerelmes uram! Vagy elversz, vagy megolsz, szabad vagy vele mert eroszakot ton rajtam. Bank ban nagy banataba igen nagy haragba esek...... Semmikeppen az szornyu bosszusagot nem turhetne Bank, ellenben masodnapra bemene az kiralde hazaba mintha szoltni akarna velle es kirdnta az hegyes tort es azzal attute az kiralne asszont es a veres hegyes torrel kijove es mondta az udvarbelieknek: Az Gertrud megcsalta a felesegem es az otssenek hajtotta, hogy eroszakot muveljen rajta. Am en megolem ot erette....." And the English translation of the above text: ...."During this time (the king) left an eminent man, a certain Bank ban as caretaker (of the country). In the meantime the queen's brother arrived to comfort his sister as her husband was away. The ban had a wife who was a beautiful person and very pious. The queen's brother began to love her so much that he nearly died over it. After that the queen called the ban's wife into a hidden place and the queen's brother was there, too. In the meantime the queen left the house and left the two of them in the house. When the pious wife of the ban tried to defend her honor, nevertheless the queen's brother violated her. She kept quiet about this wickedness. But when a few days later the ban tried to play with his wife, she began to cry and said to him: Do not touch me, you are not touching your wife. You left me with the queen but she deceived me with her brother. Here I am beloved master. Either beat me, or kill me, you are free to do it because he committed violence on me. In his sadness Bank ban became very angry. He could not bear this anger, but next day he entered the queen's house as if he wanted to say something to her and tore the sharp dagger and pierced her with it and with the dagger he came out and said to those standing around in the court: Gertrud deceived my wife and forced her to her brother so that he could violate her. Well, I killed her for that..." This assassination took revenge for the rape of both the innocent Melinda and the beautiful homeland. But there is an interesting segment in the opera which is not usually discussed. When I was just a young child, my parents went to attend Bank ban in the Opera. Upon their return I asked them what was particularly interesting about the opera. My parents explained to me that before these men plot to kill the queen, they decide to consult the court seer, or fortune-teller. In response to their question whether they should go ahead with their plan or not, the "witch" hands them her written out response: A KIRALYNET MEGOLNETEK NEM KELL FELNETEK JO LESZ HA MINDNYAJAN BELEEGYEZTEK EN NEM ELLENZEM. TO KILL THE QUEEN IS NOT AN ISSUE TO FEAR IT WILL BE ADVISEABLE IF YOU ALL AGREE I DO NOT OBJECT. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. Bank ban - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Setting: Hungary in the year 1213 Act 1 King Endre II, the monarch of the country, is fighting abroad while Gertrud, his queen, who is of Meranian birth, plays hostess to the leading members of the Court (in the first place foreigners) at prodigal feasts. Ban Bank, the king's deputy, is touring the poverty-ridden country while Otto, the Queen's younger brother, is trying to seduce Bank's beautiful wife Melinda. A group of angry Magyar nobles headed by Ban Petur are plotting a conspiracy against the queen, anxious for the fate of their homeland and the honour of Bank's wife. Petur has sent for Bank, hoping to recruit him for their cause. The Ban arrives, but is outraged that his old friend would dare threaten the throne. When Petur informs him of Otto's advances toward Melinda, however, Bank promises that he shall attend their meeting. Act 2 Bank, distraught, prays over his nation and his good name. On the porch of the castle of Visegrad, Tiborc, an old peasant, tells Bank about the desperate poverty of the entire country, a grave consequence of the wasteful extravagance of the foreigners, but Bank is so overcome by the tragedy of his own position that he listens only halfheartedly. Itis revealed that Tiborc, a vassal of the Ban, saved his life at a battle long ago; Bank promises his aid. Otto, encouraged by the Queen's open approval, attempts to seduce Melinda, without success. He drugs and rapes her. The desperate woman staggers to her husband half insane with shame. In his bitter grief Bank blasts a terrible curse at his own son, but then raises to himself the innocent little boy, giving solace to his wife. Finally, he asks Tiborc to escort Melinda and their little son to their home, a castle in East Hungary, beyond the River Tisza. In the throne-room Bank calls the Queen to account for plunging the country into poverty and for the honour of his betrayed wife. Gertrud counters him with contemptuous scorn and draws a dagger. Bank wrests the dagger from her hand, and in the scuffle, she is fatally stabbed. Bank laments over the actions he has been forced to take. Act 3 Tiborc reaches the bank of the Tisza River with Melinda and her little son. In a fit of insanity, Melinda throws herself into the waves together with her son, within view of the helpless old peasant. Endre II returns. Standing by his queen's funeral bier, he calls to the nobles to account for the murder, who deny having had a part in the assault on the Queen. Bank, however, admits that, convinced of her guilt which was known to all, he killed the Queen deliberately. King and Viceroy face each other with swords almost drawn when Tiborc arrives with the corpses of Melinda and the child. The sword drops from Bank's grip, and he collapses over the bodies of his wife and son. The nobles and retainers pray for the repose of all the dead. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%Alnk_b%C3%Aln Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 40 On first sight the conspirators think it means a go-ahead. On second thought they are concerned that the response contains no punctuation which could radically change its meaning: A KIRALYNET MEGOLNETEK NEM KELL. FELNETEK JO LESZ. HA MINDNYAJAN BELEEGYEZTEK, EN NEM, ELLENZEM. TO KILL THE QUEEN IS NOT AN ISSUE. TO FEAR IT WILL BE ADVISEABLE. IF YOU ALL AGREE, I DO NOT, OBJECT! Well, this is clearly an advice against the assassination. Or is it? What if the punctuation is changed: A KIRALYNET MEGOLNETEK NEM KELL FELNETEK. JO LESZ. HA MINDNYA.JAN BELEEGYEZTEK, EN NEM ELLENZEM. TO KILL THE QUEEN IS NOT AN ISSUE TO FEAR, ITWILL BE ADVISEABLE. IF YOU ALL AGREE, I DO NOT OBJECT. What to do? Well, we know from history that they went ahead and took revenge. What is even more remarkable that I must have carried this little puzzle in my head for some 70 years. And I have been very careful about punctuation ever since .... BELA IV (IV. Bela, 1235 -1270) Reviewing the story of the descendants of Arpad, King Bela IV is bound to come up. He was one of the main players in Hungarian history of the 13th century not only because of his predecessor, his father the famed King Andrew II and his grandfather King Bela Ill, but also because of the Mongolian invasion during his reign where much of the credit for rebuilding the country is due to Bela IV. As we have seen above, Bela was the oldest son of King Andrew and the Meranian Queen Gertrude. Born in 1206, he was only 7 years old when a group of conspirators killed his mother, angry at lavishly spending the royal treasury on her visiting relatives and friends. When King Andrew II punished only the instigator of the conspiracy and not the rest of party, Bela developed a deep resentment against his father which lasted for the rest of their lives. To keep him at a relative distance from the Court at Buda, King Andrew granted Bela the governorship of Slavonia. To guarantee his succession to the throne, Bela was crowned at an early age as Rex junior of Hungary. His father had led the 5th Crusade to the Holy Land and on his return arranged for the marriage of his son to Maria Laskarina, a daughter of the Emperor Theodore I Laskaris of Nicaea. The marriage took place when Bela was 14 in 1220, but two years later the king demanded that they separate. Pope Honorius Ill denied the marriage to be declared null and void, so Bela reunited with his wife and escaped to Austria, fearing his father's anger. Due to more negotiations and mediation by the Pope, Bela was again granted control over Slavonia, plus Dalmatia and Croatia. In 1226 Bela was given the governorship of Transylvania as well with the title of Duke. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 41 Bela's relationship with his father worsened during Andrew's second marriage to Yolanda de Courtenay, and after her death to Beatrice D'Este, who was 30 years the king's junior. Bela's household contained some famous people so let's deal with it. His oldest sister, Anna Maria, became the wife of Tzar Ivan Asen of Bulgaria; his younger sister, Elizabeth became the wife of Landgraf Louis IV of Thuringia and was canonized as St. Elizabeth of Hungary in 1235. His younger brother Coloman became king of Halych (later Galicia) and the youngest, Andrew, became Prince of the Halych principality. Bela's father's second marriage to Yolanda produced a child, Violant who would become the wife of King James of Aragon, while the third marriage to Beatrice D'Este produced one son, Stephen, who would be the father of Andrew Ill of Hungary (1290 to 1301), the last member of the Arpad dynasty on the paternal side. After King Andrew ll's death Bela ascended to the throne and was crowned (for the second time) in Szekesfehervar on October 14, 1235, by the Archbishop Robert of Esztergom. One of his first acts as king was to order the arrest of his father's chief advisor and Bela's young stepmother, accusing them of adultery. Anxious to restore respect for the crown, he burnt the seats in his court, forcing his advisers to stand while discussing business with him. He also confirmed the charter of major towns, among them Szekesfehervar and Esztergom. The Mongol invasion Bela sent Friar Julian to the eastern frontiers looking for Hungarians from Arpad's time. Upon his return in 1239, Friar Julian warned King Bela of an impending attack by Mongolian tribes. In response, Bela granted asylum to 40,000 Cumans, a group of people with nomadic culture from Russia later referred to as "kun", to help him fight the Mongols, but the new settlers caused much conflict with the Hungarians. The Mongolian hordes, under Batu Khan, managed to break through the Carpathian mountains on March 12, 1241 before Bela had a chance to build his defenses. Also, a typical Hungarian curse of jealousy came into play when the barons, on whom Bela counted to help him fight the Mongols, refused to mobilize without being granted more independent concessions. They demanded the expulsion of the Cumans and when that was not granted, they broke into the house where the Cuman leadership, particularly their princes, held a council. The Hungarian barons and their soldiers murdered the princes and their families which made the Cumans turn against the Hungarians and destroyed the forces of the Bishop of Csanad which were marching to help the King. Bela lost his most valuable allies in the Cumans, but still led an army of 100,000 against the Mongols. The battle took place on the plains of Mohi on April 11, 1241 and ended in the virtual annihilation of the Hungarian forces. Bela first fled to today's Bratislava and from there to Hainburg where, to top the disaster by humiliation, Duke Frederick II of Austria seized the Hungarian treasury and forced Bela to cede three western counties to Austria. Bela then fled to Zagreb and sought, through his envoys, the assistance of Emperor Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX to fight the Mongols. None from the West provided any assistance. The Mongols laid complete waste to the country, killing, burning and looting. Historical estimates claim the loss of one million, tantamount to half of the country's population. This eventually led to inviting immigrants, mostly from Germany, to resettle the devastated country. Pest, on the left bank of the Danube, was burnt and it didn't take long before the Mongols were able to cross the frozen river to devastate Buda as well. They suspected that King Bela IV was hiding in Croatia, particularly in Zagreb Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 42 which the Mongols leveled, but Bela's hideout was in the Adriatic island of Rab. As the Mongols were in hot pursuit, Bela fled to Spolato (today's Split) and from there to the well-fortified island of Trogir in Dalmatia. But by this time the Mongol leader's army was depleted and exhausted as the Croatians were better able to fight in mountainous territory than the cavalry-based Mongol forces and they did not pursue to capture the Hungarian king. Legend has it that the king offered his 9th child, Margaret, to God as a nun where she would pursue a pious life in a monastery if God would relieve Hungary of the Mongols' cursed invasion. (See following story about St. Margaret of Hungary.) Other Mongol forces were on the outskirts of Vienna, when news got to them about the death of the Grand Khan in Asia. They pulled out of Europe to elect a new Grand Khan which gave Central Europe a temporary breather. King Bela ordered the construction of hundreds of stone castles and fortresses which would eventually play a major role in standing up to the Ottoman invasion in the 15th century. The downside of this was that the cost of building the country's defenses indebted the king to the feudal landlords, thus weakening the king's power. Bela encouraged the towns to build walls around themselves for better protection against any invaders. Bela also took the offensive against Duke Frederick II of Austria and reoccupied Sopron and Koszeg, compelling the Duke to return the 3 counties he had the gall to take from Hungary during the Mongol invasion. The Duke died during the battle at the Leitha (Lajta) river. Just as an adjunct piece of information let me add that with his death the male line of the House of Babenberg became extinct and struggle commenced in Austrian politics for the rule over that country. In Hungarian politics the Arpad dynasty was inching at that point toward extinction and it will be interesting (at least for me and my readers) to follow the political struggles for the next several hundred years as the succession to St. Stephen's crown is pursued. In 1249 rumors hopped the Carpathian mountains with the news that the Mongols were preparing another European campaign. The actual attack would have to wait until 1285 when the Tatars, the so-called Golden Horde under the command of Nagai Khan invaded Hungary from the East, devastating much of the eastern provinces of the country, but withdrew soon thereafter. This attack had to do with the tragic mismanagement of international politics by King Ladislaus IV, whose story we will deal with as the timeline permits. Bela decided to intervene in the above-mentioned internal struggle in Austria. He arranged for Gertrude, the niece of the deceased Duke Frederick II to marry Roman Danylovich ,a son of Prince Danylo of Halych whose name had come up so often in the story about the northern principality. What was Bela doing in this regard is not entirely clear, but he invaded Austria in 1252 and got as far as Vienna. To complicate matters, King Ottokar II of Bohemia, whose wife was Margaret, the wife of the deceased Duke Frederick II also declared his claim in this matter of royal succession. Bela met with King Ottokar in Pressburg (today's Pozsony) and negotiated peace with the proviso that Bela would gain the Duchy of Styria and the city of Wiener Neustadt (where my parents had spent their honeymoon nearly 700 years later). With internal struggles ongoing for the control of Central European countries, Bela had his oldest son, Stephen, crowned junior king in 1246 but was reluctant to share the power with him. What a disastrous mess! Stephen recruited an army against his father (can you imagine what that cost the royal treasury?!) which persuaded Bela to cede the government of Transylvania to Stephen in 1258. That did not satisfy Stephen's hunger for more adventures and greater control under his wing. You'll recall that Bela had gained control of the Duchy of Styria as negotiated with King Ottokar of Bohemia (today's Czech republic), appointing his son Stephen as Duke. But the Styrians would have rather had Ottokar to rule over them Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 43 and rose up against the Duke. Bela was forced to come to the aid of his son and renounce control of Styria after he lost a battle with the King of Bohemia. (Ever since then the mention of Bohemia generates antipathy in the minds of Hungarians.) Bela's relationship with his son Stephen further deteriorated and they were facing a military confrontation when the Archbishop Philip of Esztergom negotiated a peace treaty between them. Bela and Stephen signed the agreement whereby Stephen would gain control of the kingdom East of the river Danube. But the animosity between father and son continued to the point where Stephen attached his mother and sister's estates to his domain, which drew Bela's ire and he sent troops against his son, capturing Stephen's wife and son (Bela's grandson) as well. Stephen managed to counter-attack and won over Bela's troops in the Battle of lsaszeg (March, 1265.) Ultimately, they signed a peace on Rabbits Island (Nyulak szigete, which played a role in daughter (Saint) Margaret's life). Still, Bela did not trust his son. As his life was fading, Bela allowed his favorite daughter, Anna, to exercise more influence over him. In his last will,Bela entrusted his family and his followers to King Ottokar II of Bohemia, because he did not trust Stephen. King Bela IV, the so-called "second founder of Hungary", died May 3, 1270 and was buried in Esztergom. This was Bela's wish while he was alive that he should be buried in that city's Franciscan church. The red marble burial site was constructed to be large enough to contain the remains of the king and his family. Construction was complete in 1269 and shortly after the King's death in 1270 his wife and his favorite son, Prince Bela, died as well. The three of them were buried together in the tomb. The Archbishop Philip had the King's remains removed and re-buried in St. Adalbert cathedral in Esztergom. A petition to re-unite the family in the original tomb was approved by the Holy See and in 1275 Bela was given his final wish to be buried with his family. As we shall see in the continuing story, Hungary suffered near-anarchy in subsequent years. In a nostalgic gesture about Bela's reign, a poem, written in Latin, was carved onto his grave, which is reproduced here, together with Laszlo Gereb's Hungarian translation as follows: Latin: Hungarian: ,,Aspice rem caram: ,,Maria-oltaron, nezd, nyugszik a sirban e harom: tres cingunt Virginis aram: Rex, Dux, Regina, quibus Bela, neje s herceg - orvendjenek ok az egeknek! adsint Gaudia Trina Oum licuit, tua dum viguit Mig lehetett, ult tronja felett a kiraly hatalomban: rex Bela, potestas, Fraus latuit, pax firma fuit, Csalfa lapult, szent beke virult, becsulet vala ottan " regnavit honestas " Saint Margaret of Hungary I was a teenager when I read Geza Grdonyi's novel about St.Margaret, entitled: "lsten rabjai", or "The captives of God." I was most impressed with the story as to how King Bela IVasked God to save Hungary from further devastation of the Tartar invasion if he would dedicate his daughter's life to the service of God in a monastery. I was also most impressed by the ceremony when they cut Margaret's long tresses and stuffed her pillowcase with it, over which Margaret shed much tears. Margaret was the 9th child (8th daughter) of King Bela IV and Maria Laskarina. She was born on January 27, 1242 in the middle of the terrible devastation brought on Hungary by the Mongol invasion which had Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 44 forced her parents to flee to the fortress of Klis in Croatia. (In those days Croatia was a part of Bela's kingdom.) With the end of the Mongol invasion her parents returned to Buda, but Margaret was entrusted at age 3 to the Dominican monastery in Veszprem in Western Hungary. At age 9 she was transferred to the Benedictine monastery, which her parents had founded, on Nyulak Szigete (Rabbit Island) situated on an island in the middle of the Danube River in today's Budapest. With her attaining fame in Hungarian history, the island was renamed Margaret island where the ruins of the monastery still exist. As a matter of fact, during two summers in the early 1940s when we didn't want to be far away from my father in case Budapest was subjected to Allied bombing raids, my mother and I spent a lovely time at the Margaret Hotel on Margaret Island. I would ride out daily on my bicycle to make my rounds among the nearby ruins shaded from the summer heat by ancient trees guarding memories of the convent. Margaret would remain at the convent until her death living a strict religious life, wearing an iron girdle, hairshirts and shoes spiked with nails. It is sometimes mentioned by historians that her father had attempted to commit her to a political marriage to King Ottokar II of Bohemia, but she refused the offer. Instead, she took solemn vows at age 18. All she knew in her short and harsh life was the service of God as a nun, fulfilling her father's promise to God on behalf of her homeland. She had plenty of good examples in front of her as she was the younger sister of St. Kunigunda (Kinga), wife of Prince Boleslaw of Poland, and blessed Yolanda (sometimes spelled Valenta) of Poland, wife of Duke Boleslaw of Greater Poland. Through her father, she was the niece of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, wife of Landgraf Louis IV of Thuringia. She died at the convent on January 18, 1271, at the age of 29. Much of what we know about her life comes from the Legend of Saint Margaret, a 14th century document written in the so-called Margaret Codex, and from a legend noted by the Dominican nun Lea Raskay around 1510. Immediately after Margaret's death seventy-four miracles were attributed to Margaret's intercession, yet her canonization didn't take place until November 19, 1943 by Pope Pius XII which was a great spiritual boost for Hungarians embroiled in the midst of World War II. Her remains were given to the Poor Clares Sisters, and later whatever was preserved was distributed between Esztergom, Gyor and Pannonhalma. STEPHEN V (V. lstvan, 1270-1272) He was the 3th child but first son of King Bela IV, born in October 1239, and crowned first in 1246 as "junior king", and after his father's death, in 1270. The significant but still pagan Cuman tribes (historians refer to them currently as the Kuns) were always shadowing the Magyar tribes but were not a part of the kingdom. To remedy the situation, Stephen's father arranged for Stephen to marry Elizabeth, daughter of the Cuman chieftain Katen, in 1253. The "junior king" was getting to be overly brazen toward his father and recruited an army for himself to force his father to divide the kingdom. Finally, in 1258, Bela IV bestowed upon his son the title of Duke and put him in charge of Transylvania, and later on as Duke of Styria as well. The latter domain rebelled against the Hungarian ruler as they preferred to be ruled by Ottokar II of Bohemia. In a battle in July 1260 the Hungarians lost Styria to Ottokar. So much blood spilled for seemingly immaterial causes! Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 45 King Bela IV had another son born to him in 1245 and he clearly favored the younger one also named Bela, who was promoted to Duke of Slavonia. Stephen once again mounted a campaign to divide the country between himself and his father and signed an agreement to govern Hungary east of the Danube river, while Bela remained in the Western part of the country. The enmity between father and son culminated in a battle in March 1265 with Bela capitulating and formally signing a peace agreement a year later at the Convent of the Blessed Virgin on Rabbits Island where the future St. Margaret would be spending herlife. The peace between father and son remained very tentative. When Bela IV died in May 1270, his most trusted daughter Anna and his favored son Bela sought refuge in the court of King Ottokar II of Bohemia, to whom Bela IV had entrusted them, simply because he couldn't trust Stephen. To be sure, Anna had taken the Hungarian royal treasury with her. In August of that year, after his second coronation, Stephen concluded an alliance with Prince Boleslaw VI of Poland against Ottokar of Bohemia, probably to dislodge his sister and brother from Ottokar's court. Stephen fortified his foreign alignments by arranging the marriage of his daughter Maria to King Charles II of Naples, and his infant son Ladislaus, born in August 1262, to Charles ll's sister Elizabeth. He also came into the possession of a sign which was considered providential of being the "Scourge of God", supposedly inscribed on a sword found by a hermit. Seeking to protect his northern borders, Stephen signed a two-year treaty with King Ottokar II of Bohemia, however, the wily Czech king didn't honor it. Leading his armies against Hungary, he defeated Stephen in May 1271. In the treaty following the confrontation with Ottokar, Stephen renounced his claim to the Hungarian royal treasury which his sister Anna had taken with her. In the summer of 1272 the king left for Dalmatia to meet the king of Sicily when he was informed that his 10-year-old son, Ladislaus, had been kidnapped by the rebellious "ban" (governor) of Slavonia. Stephen planned to raise an army to rescue his son, but died on Csepel Island on August 6, 1272. He was buried in the Dominican church on Margaret Island. LADISLAUS IV (IV. Laszlo, 1272-1290) He was the 5th child and only son of Stephen V and his Cuman (Kun) wife, Elizabeth. Born on August 5, 1262 at Sarospatak, in the course of the civil war between Kings Stephen and Bela, the senior king's troops occupied the castle where mother and child were staying and Ladislaus was taken (kidnapped?) to Bela's court. After the conclusion of a peace treaty, Ladislaus was returned to his father's court. In 1269, when he was only 7 years of age, Ladislaus was betrothed to Elizabeth of Anjou, the daughter of King Charles I of Naples. They were married a year later! Can you imagine what this had done to the childhood of these two innocent children? In 1272 Ladislaus was abducted from his father's court by Joachim Pektar (otherwise known as Gutkeled), the rebellious ban (governor) of Slavonia. King Stephen, the child's father tried in vain to rescue the child from captivity in the castle of Koprivnica, but he fell ill and died in August, 1272. Ladislaus, then just 10 years old, was then taken to Szekesfehervar, where Archbishop Philip of Esztergom crowned him with the Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 46 Crown of Thorns, awaiting the time when he would attain adulthood. Until then his Cuman mother, Elizabeth the Cuman would be making decisions for him. One of the first actions she took was to divide the major offices of the Court among her favorite people, including several people of Cuman derivation. Due to her poor governance, several "palace revolutions" occurred, including the murder of Ladislaus' cousin, Prince Bela of Macso, who held extensive properties which were then divided among the allied barons. In early 1273, to avenge the Prince's murder, King Ottokar II of Bohemia, the murdered Prince's brother-in-law, invaded Hungary and occupied Pozsony (today's Bratislava) and several counties on the northwest corner of the country. In 1274 Joachim Pektar again managed to abduct Ladislaus, who had to be liberated by Peter Csak, only to face the abduction of Ladislaus' brother, the 6-year-old Andrew, demanding the division of the country between the two brothers. In May, 1277 an assembly composed of representatives of the Church, the nobility and the Cumans declared Ladislaus of full age to govern. In one of his first acts, Ladislaus formed an alliance with King Rudolph I of Germany against Ottokar II of Bohemia. In August 1278 their joint forces defeated the Bohemians and recovered the previously lost territories. King Ottokar lost his life on the battlefield. All this time Ladislaus alienated both sides of his family and the Hungarian nobility as well by showing favoritism toward the Cumans, no doubt as a result of his mother's influence who was of Cuman stock. He did not only surround himself with pagan Cumans, wore Cuman-style clothing in his Court, but deeply hurt his wife Elizabeth, the daughter of Charles II of Naples, by keeping Cuman concubines. This shameful behavior got to the Pope's ears who sent a papal legate in 1279 to investigate the accusations against the king who, by his actions, was undermining Christianity. The king was unwilling (or unable?) to enforce the demands of the papal legate, resulting in excommunication for Ladislaus IV. To escape the Court's findings, Ladislaus escaped the hearings and joined the Cuman tribes. Together, they captured and imprisoned the legate, but Ladislaus himself was captured by the governor of Transylvania, Finta Aba. Finta, acting for the government, tried to force the Cumans to settle down in designated areas, but the Cumans revolted and had to be restrained by Ladislaus. Nevertheless, the Cuman leaders saw the futility of constant warfare and migrations, so they promised to convert to Christianity. In return, they were settled mainly in the area between the Danube and Tisza rivers. Up to this day there are countless towns and villages whose names contain the letters k-u-n, referring to their Cuman origins. Among those you'll find Kiskunhalas, my mother's birthplace. Its literary translation may refer to a place where fishing was good (halas=fishing), and the qualifier "kis" = small referring to its ties with the Kiskun (Little Cumania) versus the Nagykun (Greater Cumania). In 1281 Ladislaus replaced Finta with members of the Koszegi family who had worked with his father earlier. There were two other uprisings of the Cumans which Ladislaus was successful in suppressing. By this time Hungary was convulsing in a virtual civil war as one or the other political faction gained power over the king. On page 42 we briefly mentioned the inept handling of Ladislaus' foreign policy which resulted in the second invasion of Tartar forces in 1285. Ladislaus had sponsored the founding of the Principality of Moldavia (east of the Carpathians) as a buffer against future Tartar/Mongol attacks. The Tatars may have considered this as an intrusion into their territory and in February, 1285 crossed the Vereczke straits into Hungary. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 47 The so-called Golden Horde was led by Nogai Khan who ravaged eastern Hungary almost to the Tisza river, then withdrew. In September, 1286 Ladislaus made an attempt to separate from his wife, Elizabeth so that he could openly consort with his Cuman mistress, Edua. To this end, he arrested and imprisoned his wife. A year later he abducted his sister, who was a nun in the Marian convent where St. Margaret also served earlier, and married her against her wish to a Czech magnate called Zavis Rozenberka. I suspect he may have been Jewish. The news reached Archbishop Lodomer of Esztergom who excommunicated the king and even suggested to the Pope that he should proclaim a crusade against him. All these royal actions and the turmoil which they caused, threw Hungary into anarchy. The real power rested in the hands of a few rich and powerful families. Various parts of the country were in the hands of the Koszegi, Aba, Kan and Csak families. Duke Albert I of Germany led his troops against Hungary and occupied several counties on its western borders. Ladislaus was unable to control these families but managed to reconcile with Archbishop Lodomer and also with his wife, Elizabeth. Powerless to overrule the barons and the nobility, he openly joined the Cumans. The end came on July 10, 1290, when he was killed in his camp at Korosszeg by Cuman assassins. ANDREW Ill (Ill. Andras, 1290-1301) He was the last male in the Arpa d dynasty. His father was Stephen, the last and posthumous child of King Andrew II and his third wife, Beatrice D'Este. Born in Venice, Italy in 1265 of Tomasina Morosini, a descendant of a Venetian patrician family, he was educated in Venice. He received an invitation in 1278, at age 13, from lvan Koszegi, a wealthy aristocrat in the Transdanubian area of Hungary, while King Ladislaus IV was still in charge. Andrew claimed the Duchy of Slavonia for himself, but Ladislaus refused him. Andrew returned to Venice. His second invitation came in 1290 from lvan Koszegi and Archbishop Lodomer of Esztergom when King Ladislaus IV was excommunicated. He was offered the crown and accepted it, except that he was arrested by another Hungarian noble, Arnold Hahot, who handed him over to Duke Albert I of Austria. It is not clear what his intention was for holding Andrew hostage. Nevertheless, when news reached Andrew that Ladislaus IV had been murdered, he managed to escape from captivity in Vienna and rushed to Esztergom where Archbishop Lodomer crowned him with the Holy Crown in July, 1290, just 3 days after the death of his predecessor. Andrew was "hastily" married to the Polish Princess Fenenna of Kuyavia. They had one child, Elizabeth, who became a nun in the Dominican monastery in Toss, Switzerland. Andrew had no other issue. He faced several contenders for the throne. Furthermore, King Rudolph I of Germany believed that Hungary should be a part of the Holy Roman Empire, tried to have his son, Duke Albert, accepted as the legitimate ruler of Hungary. There were others as well, who were hoping to grab this prize. The most notable was Mary, sister of the assassinated king Ladislaus who, in April of 1291 announced her claim to the throne. When that went nowhere, she transferred the claim to her son, Charles Martel of Anjou, and when Charles died, to her grandson Charles Robert. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 48 Andrew didn't waste any time in unifying his country and defending his right to the kingdom. In the spring of 1291 he gained the approval of the assemblies of nobles in Transylvania, first in Oradea (a.k.a. Nagyvarad) and Alba Julia (a.k.a. Gyulafeherva r). In the fall of that year Andrew forced the Austrian Duke Albert to renounce his claim to the throne of Hungary. The price of that agreement was the destruction of the Koszegio family's fortresses on the border between the two countries, which angered the Koszegi, Babonics and Frangepan families, all beholden to Queen Mary of Naples. When Andrew Ill tried to offer monetary compensation to Miklos Koszegi, he was captured and had to pay a ransom so that he could walk free. Andrew could never gain their support. In 1293 the king invited his mother, Tomasina Morosini to Hungary and with her they gained more supporters and followers for the King. When the Queen, Fenenna of Kuyavia died in February of 1296, Andrew took Agnes of Austria, daughter of Duke Albert I of Austria, for his second wife. Particularly interesting about this is that when Andrew would pass, the little darling queen/consort was given Sopron County as compensation for supporting a widow. Pozsony being adjacent to Austria, Agnes of Austria would be granted Austrian administration and Hungary would lose a county (it's only a county, anyway?) to our neighbors. Sadly, a new Archbishop was appointed by Pope Benedict VIII in 1298. Archbishop Gergely Bicskei supported the claim of the Neopolitan Prince Charles Robert, despite the fact that the assembly of prelates, nobles, even the Saxons and Cumans clearly supported Andrew Ill. In August, 1300, Charles Robert landed in Split on the Adriatic, and helped by Croatian forces marched into Zagreb. - Andrew's mother died, which prevented Andrew to immediately counterattack. Moreover, he had an unspecified mortal disease which eventually killed him on January 14, 1301at Buda castle. With his death, the male line of the Arpad dynasty died out. Before we examine the history of Hungary under different future dynasties, let us look at the map from around 1300 so we can better visualize Hungary's position relative to its neighbors. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 49 Map 2 Central and S.E. Europe showing the area of Hungary during the National Kingdom Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 49 ETHNOGRAPHICAL MIX in historic Hungary The Cuman people The name "Cuman" had come up several times in our previous reading. Who were these people, where did they come from and what happened to them? The best reference I could find on this subject is that they were a Turkic nomadic people, a part of the Cuman-Kipchak confederation from the area north of the Black Sea, although originally they are from the large bend in the Yellow River in China. Their language was an early Turkic variety. They were fierce nomadic warriors who had exerted considerable influence in the Balkans, particularly in Bulgaria where they founded three successive Cuman dynasties which played an active role in Byzantium, Serbia and Hungary. The Hungarians called them "Kun", or Kunok in the plural. Etymological roots take us back to the word "Kuman" in old Turkic, meaning yellow, referring to their blond hair. They were tribal people with no central organization, but they created a powerful elite of warriors, among them the Mamluks. In their continuous migration to the west, they first came into contact with Russians in the mid-11th century when they devastated and conquered parts of Ukraine. The Hungarians, under Ladislaus I first came into contact with the Cumans in 1089 and were victorious over them despite the fact that the Cumans had as their allies a large force of Pechenegs. As the threat of the Mongol invasion increased, the Cumans asked for asylum behind the Carpathian mountains in Hungary from King Bela IV in 1229. Neither the general Hungarian population, nor the nobility were enticed by the King permitting the Cumans' entry into the country, but the Mongol threat was so great that Bela IV wanted to use them against the invaders. Regrettably, in 1240 or 41some Hungarian hotheads broke into the Cumans' camp and murdered their leadership and their families, turning the ire of the Cumans on the Hungarians. Cuman forces now joined the Mongols inthe devastation of the country in 1241/42. Following the Mongol invasion, some 80,000 Cumans remained in Hungary and formed two distinct regions between the rivers Danube and Tisza for their settlement, called Greater and Lesser Cumania (Nagykunsag & Kiskunsag). My mother's birthplace of Kiskunhalas, as I pointed out on page 46, is just one of hundreds of places which refers to the Cuman settlements. Those Cumans maintained their autonomy, their own language and customs well into modern historical times. Their integration was not an easy one as their fierce and unappealing appearance, pagan religion, attire and hairstyle set them apart from the rest of Hungarians. As time went on, however, they gained more acceptance and influence over Hungarian politics, including King Ladislaus IV (1272-1290) who had taken a Cuman wife. Today, the division between the two ethnic groups is not noticeable. Attila's Huns For many centuries historians tried to knead the Huns and the Magyars into the same ethnic mold. Recently, however, evidence has emerged which assigns distinctive differences to these entities. Tacitus, the Roman writer and historian makes mention of the Huns first as "Hunnoi" in the first century. The area east of the Volga river was known then as Scythia. The Huns were nomadic people from that Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 50 area who kept migrating from the Caucasus to Eastern Europe during the first 700 years of the first millennium. They had a language all their own of which very little has survived, especially since several different languages were spoken within the Hun Empire. Feared by everyone for their fierce military force, especially mounted archery, they contributed to the eventual collapse of the Roman Empire as well. The first accounts of Hunnic devastation is about their confrontation with peoples of the Alan Empire in the area of the Black Sea in the 4th century A.D. The Alani had occupied the territory between the Volga and Don rivers, while the Ostrogoths lived between the Don and Dniester rivers, - both of which rivers featured in news reports during World War II where members of my family had fought the Soviets. After subjugating both of these peoples, the Huns in 376 A.D. defeated the Visigoths living in the area of today's Romania. Crossing the Carpathians, they arrived in the Plains of today's Hungary, threatening the Eastern borders of the Roman Empire. The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus wrote about the Huns in the early 5th century. According to Marcellinus, the Huns knew nothing about agriculture and kept moving from pasture to pasture to satisfy the demands of their livestock. By 432 A.D. the leadership of various Hunnic groups (tribes?) appear to be centralized under king Ruga. After his death he was replaced by his nephews Bleda and Attila. They negotiated a peace treaty with the Danubian Romans for doubling their bounty, originally about 660 lbs of gold per year, but the Huns got offended when the Romans did not live up to the conditions of the treaty and launched an assault over the Romans, advancing almost to Constantinople. In or about 445 A.D. Attila is said to have murdered his brother Bleda and continued his attack on the Roman Empire, reaching Thermopylae in Greece! They financed their military adventures by extracting tributes in gold from those whom they conquered, as well as plundering and selling their prisoners back to the Romans. In 451 Attila attacked Gaul (France) but suffered his first defeat on the Catalaunian Planes (the battle of Chalons) at the hands of Roman and Visigoth forces. The following year Attila invaded northern Italy supposedly to collect on the marriage proposal of the Emperor's daughter Honoria, but famine and pestilence drove them back. Even Pope Leo I met Attila at the Po river and was instrumental in dissuading him to sack Rome. There are some unconfirmed stories about the Pope raising the crucifix to Attila which mesmerized the Hun leader and he withdrew his forces. It's fascinating to consider how these two leaders, the Pope and Attila conversed. Well, it was easier than one thinks. At age 12 Attila was exchanged for a Roman boy to learn Roman customs and learn Roman culture. It is assumed that he picked up some of the language, too. In 453 Attila died and is said to be buried in or near the Tisza river. Search for his remains and his famed sword has been ongoing for centuries. The circumstances of his death vary, some saying he died on his wedding night of a massive nosebleed in a state of inebriation. Others claim that lldiko, his beautiful Goth bride stabbed him to death. In Attila's death the Huns lost the one unifying force over them. In 455 they suffered a major defeat in Pannonia {today's Hungary) and the various groupings of Hunnic people gradually retreated and disintegrated as an ethnic group. The Magyars came from the area of the Black Sea as well, but in a different time period. The only connection between the two groups may be the Szekelys, whose origins we discuss next. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 51 The Székelys The Szekelys, or Szeklers (Latin: Siculi) were not part of the group of Magyars who settled Hungary in the 8th century. The descent of the Szekelys from the Huns does not hold water, although some scientists proposed that idea. More to the point is the recently held view that they were part of the Avar confederation from way back in the 5th century, which disintegrated with the Hungarian conquest. This ethnic group has lived more or less isolated for centuries in the Eastern Carpathian mountains and were used by Hungarian kings simply to guard the borders to the East. Their language is largely understood even by newcomers. I was a first-hand witness to it when, in June, 1943, my parents and I spent a summer vacation in the Southeastern part of Szekely land (Szekelyfold) in Kovaszna. When the landlady, from whom we rented a villa in the village, offered us "pityoka" for lunch, we had to ask what she meant. In fact, she wanted to serve us potatoes which is "krumpli" in everyday Hungarian. (The high-class word for it is "burgonya.") Szekely people have developed a mind of their own and are known for peculiar interpretation of situations. Here are a couple of examples without crossing the line of decency: The old Szekely goes out to the backyard in the night to take a leak. When he comes back into the house, his pant legs are all wet. His wife asks: "Is it raining?" The Szekely replies: "Wind is blowing." Picking fruit in the orchard a Szekely boy asks his father: "What is going to happen to all this fruit?" The father: "If your mother recovers from her illness, preserves. If she does not, brandy." Since the Trianon Treaty of 1920, all of Transylvania has been attached to Romania, except for a couple of years toward the end of WW II when Hungary reclaimed half of it for herself. (A 2011 census counted 1,237,000 ethnic Hungarians living in Romania.) Today, Szekelys live mostly in three counties of Transylvania: Harghita, Covasna and Mures. Transylvania, but especially Szekely land, has been a target of Romanianization. Numbering about 860,000 people, the Szekelys are a distinct minority group of which the European Union had taken note. Their request for an autonomous Szekely land has been denied by Romanian authorities, including restricted use of their language and even vernacular use in their religion, which flies in the face of international laws. As a child, I read several novels set in Szekely village culture, written by folklorist Elek Benedek, novelist Jozsef Nyiro and others. Blessed with unbelievably natural beauty of their land and the fierce independent spirit of its people, Szekelys are a special jewel in the extended version of St. Stephen's crown. The Jász people I have selected just one more ethnic minority, which is the Jasz people numbering about 85,000,living in a 450 square mile territory just east of Budapest, on the Hungarian Plain (Alfold). The area is called the Jaszsag, and its main town is called Jaszbereny. Many smaller villages indicate their Jassic origins, particularly Jaszkarajeno, where my mother and two of her sisters were interned during the Communist regime as punishment for my and my father's desertion from Hungary. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 52 Not to confuse the issue, but in ancient times the Jaszsag was settled by Celts and was part of the Dacian Kingdom in the first century B.C. A hundred years later a Sarmatian tribe known as the Lazyges settled in this region, but there is no evidence of a connection between the Lazyges and the Jasz people. The Jassic people are said to be of Ossetian (Iranian) origin, and their basic Ossetian dialect is extinct. Like the Szekelys, they were not a part of the original Magyar conquest led by Arpad. They are said to be a nomadic tribe which settled in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary during the 13th century. Their ancestors can be traced back the North Caucasus, now mixed with other peoples forming the present Ossetes. The Jasz people came more of less together with the Cuman people, fleeing the Mongolian invasion during King Bela IV's rule. They enjoyed Jasz regional autonomy until 1876 when the area was incorporated into a much larger county, called Jasz-Nagykun-Szolnok, which gives away its origins relative to the Cuman people. THE 11th and 12th CENTURIES With Hungary on our minds, we tend to focus on historical developments in what is known as Central Europe, while important events took place elsewhere in the world which cannot be ignored even by a treatise on Hungarian kings. Historians like to refer to the period following the dissolution of the Roman Empire in 476 A.D. as the Middle Ages followed by 1,000 years to the fall of Constantinople in 1453, when the Renaissance ushered in the "modern period". To me, being perhaps a little bit prejudiced, the Middle Ages ended with Prince Arpad's arrival in the Carpathian basin at the end of the 7th and the beginning of the 8th century. That still gave plenty of time for momentous events to fill the New Middle Ages, while Arpad and his Magyar tribes opened the "Age of the Hungarians". Surely, the old Middle Ages were still filled with Charlemagne laying the foundations of the Holy Roman Empire under the German king Otto; the Danish Vikings transitioning into the Norman conquest of England and one of their tribes, the Rus, giving their name to Russia, while Hugh, Duke of Francia with his short cape founded the Capetian dynasty as he contrived to have himself elected King of France in 987. By that time the former threat of Magyar incursions stopped with their defeat in 955 A.D. at the battle of Lechfeld near Augsburg. But the Magyar tribes who created the kingdom of Hungary ruled the calendar of events for several centuries with major outcomes in Central Europe under the Arpad dynasty from 895 to the death of King Andrew Ill in 1301. We already discussed, however briefly, the events of the 10th century on pages 21 and 22. It ended with the time when King (Saint) Stephen established the presence of the kingdom of Hungary. The 11th century, which is under our microscope today, surely started with the Christianization of Hungary under St. Stephen, crowned by the Apostolic crown sent to him by the Pope and continued in Central Europe when King St. Ladislaus and King Coloman changed the map of the Balkans with their expansionist policies. In 1002 Leif Ericsson's expedition managed to get to the shores of North America, but the focus was on how Hungary would fit into the European community. The Danish Canute, king of England (after defeating Edmund Ironside in 1016), Denmark and Norway made his mark on British history and prepared the way for William the Conqueror, first Norman king, to be crowned in Westminster Abbey in 1066. The first Crusade was launched in 1096 under the command of the Duke of Lorraine. And as a former Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 53 Cistercian student, I must not forget that the Monastery of Citeaux and the Abbey of Clairvaux was built at the end of the 11th century under the oversight of St. Bernard. It can be assumed that the Hungarian Court would know practically nothing of those happenings a thousand miles or more from the country's borders. News traveled on horseback in those days. The Hungarian kings were busy establishing themselves in a basically "foreign" environment by giving away their daughters to wed neighboring kings and princes. In many cases the tragedy was that no sooner was a peace pact signed, the agreement was broken and Hungarians had to chase the invaders back to where they came from. But all this seemed to be inevitable given the sheer location of the country where in previous times peoples of different civilizations, like the Romans, the Huns, Pechenegs, Ava rs and others came and went with the flow of times. The great migration of peoples has a mesmerizing effect on those who are involved in it. "We will find richer pastures on the other side of that hill..." Permanence to the Carpathian basin began with the resettling of Magyar tribes on the Great Plains between the Danube and Tisza rivers. And still, in centuries to come, there would be enemies who considered this territory a crossroads to Western civilization, sending their hordes of Mongols, Tartars, Khazars, Ottoman Turks and Slavs to engulf the Hungarian plains on the way to Vienna. The sole obstacle in their path were the Hungarians who shed their blood in the defense of their religion and culture to protect the West. The 12th century brought changes in the whole of Europe, the effects of which can be traced, in part, to the invention of a different kind of plough. The new, curved plough not only dug deep into the soil, but it also turned it over, creating a much more fertile environment for seeds to grow up to five times more than in previous times. This invention may have ended the population's fear of famine, yet in a few more centuries will lead to the pressures of urbanization, commerce and finance. It is interesting to consider that about 600 years later the American president Thomas Jefferson also experimented with a similar design to feed his expanding household, family, slaves and freemen building Monticello. In the middle of the century Genghis Khan founded the Mongol empire which would be a threat for a hundred years or more to peoples on this side of the Ural mountains. Within the Carpathian basin the booklover King Coloman, one of the most learned individuals among the leaders of Europe, established a splendidly appointed royal court and pushed his influence through the Balkans to the shores of the blue Adriatic sea. Several foreign armies traipsed through Hungary as part of the Crusades to liberate the Holy Land of unholy enemies. King Bela Ill's court in 1173 was considered most brilliant in Europe and helped establish the country's respect throughout the Continent. In Italy the campanile was built in 1174 at Pisa, but with time it would start to lean and provide a favorite landmark for tourists. Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria defeated the Crusaders in an 1187 battle, recapturing Jerusalem and Palestine after 88 years of foreign rule. The celebrated Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick (the Red Beard) Barbarossa led the Third Crusade against him in 1189, in which the future Saint Francis of Assisi also participated. Barbarossa died the following year of drowning. The 13th century was about to come on the horizon, with its horrendous exposure to the Mongol invasion, which we shall examine next. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. ( History of Europe Year 2000 A.O . (Jd'ffl.Zt Year 1900 A.O. 0.."am Year 1800 A.O . Year 1700 A .O. Year 1600 A.O . Year 1500 A.O. Year 1400 A.O . Year 1300 A.D. Year 1200 A.O . Year 1100 A.O. Year 1000 A.O. Year 900 A.O. Year 800 A.O. Year 700 A .O. Year 600 A.O. Year 500 A.O . Year 400 A.O. Year 300 A.O. Year 200 A.O. Year 100 A.O . Year 1A.O. Banu Explanation Map Legend Bibliography 1300 Europe Main Map at the Beginning of the Year 1300 Northwest Northeast This map is In Sovereign States nl, In to display the dependencies History of Europe Year 2000 A.O. Year 1900 A.O. Year 1800 A.O . Year 1700 A.O. Year 1600 A .O. Year 1500 A.D. Year 1400 A.O . Year 1300 A.O. Year 1200 A .O. Year 1100 A.O . Year 1000 A .O. Year 900 A.O . Year 800 A.O . Year 700 A .O. Year 600 A .O. Year 500 A.O . Year 400 A.O. Year 300 A.O. Year 200 A.O . Year 100 A.O . Year 1A.O. Explanation ( ...... Map Legend Bibliography 1500 Europe Main Map at the Beginning of the Year 1500 Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. Northwest Northeast 54 THE HOUSE OF ANJOU With the extinction of the Árpád dynasty, the ranking orders of the nobility went looking for alternate selections for the throne. The Angevin line was associated with the female descendants of Arpad. Angevin stands for the House of Anjou of Frankish origin who had had a long history in governing parts of the Holy Land. Not to belabor the point, but as I pointed out in my August, 2011writing about the 1848 Hungarian Revolution under the title: Cause and Effect, in numerous instances the zeal of attaining the throne of Hungary went from tragic to bizarre. A refresher Hungarian history, at times, becomes a bit convoluted. Therefore, I believe a little refresher would be in order as we look at the succession of the Arpad dynasty by the House of Anjou. Going back to the rule of Ladislaus IV (page 45), son of King Stephen V and his Cuman wife, Elizabeth, Ladislaus alienated not only his family but also the Hungarian nobility by showing special preference for the (largely} pagan Cumans and was even excommunicated by the Archbishop of Esztergom for his immoral ways. The country was mostly in the hands of some influential families, such as the Koszegis, Abas, Kans and Csaks, which certainly did not add to the unity needed to govern. The end came for Ladislaus IV in 1290 when he was killed in his camp by Cuman assassins. The next and last king from the Árpád dynasty was Andrew Ill, whose father was King Stephen V and his mother was Tomasina Morosini, descendant of a Venetian patrician family. Andrew III, educated in Venice, came to the Hungarian throne at the invitation of one of those influential people, lvan Koszegi, we mentioned above. Andrew and his Polish wife had one daughter who became a Dominican nun,but had no other children. When his wife died, he remarried, taking Agnes of Austria, daughter of Duke Albert I of Austria for his second wife, but they had no children. Andrew developed some kind of an unspecified mortal disease which killed him on January 14, 1301at Buda Castle. With his death, the male line of the Arpad dynasty died out. Immediately, there were several contenders for the throne. King Rudolph I of Germany believed that Hungary should be a part of the Holy Roman Empire and tried to have his son, Duke Albert, accepted as the legitimate ruler of Hungary. - The child Wenceslas of King Wenceslas II of Bohemia was engaged to Andrew Ill's daughter Elizabeth, so this seemed to be a possible solution for the kingless Hungary to acquire a king for the crown, although certainly a "stretch" for the connection. The third notable aspirant was Mary, sister of the assassinated King Ladislaus IV, married to the king of Naples. She announced her claim to the throne, first for herself, then for her son, Charles Martel of Anjou, and when Charles died, to her grandson Charles Robert, who had the support of the new Archbishop, Gergely Bicskei. This is where we pick up the story. THE INTERREGNUM We have touched on this subject on pages 17 through 20 under the title Oddities of Royal Succession, from which the following excerpts are taken. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 55 In the first decade of the 14th century a somewhat chaotic situation emerged in Hungary. Following the end of the Arpad dynasty in 1301 with the death of King Andrew Ill, there appeared to be at least two contenders for the throne, - both of them without real authority or legitimacy to govern. As we pointed out above, in 1301two "children" competed: one was Charles Robert, the 13-year-old grandson of Anjou King Charles II and the 12-year-old grandson of Bohemian (Czech) king Wenceslaus II. The third aspirant happened to be Mary, a daughter of King Stephen V of Hungary who was also the sister of King Ladislaus IV of Hungary who ultimately transferred her claim to her grandson, the underage Charles Robert. Neither had the full support of the country's electors, but since chronologically Wenceslaus came first, we will pursue his story. WENCESLAUS III/LADISLAUS V (V. Laszlo, 1305-1306) He was of the House of Premyslid, as his father, Wenceslaus II was the king of Bohemia and Poland. Born in Prague, Bohemia in 1289, in 1298, at the age of 9 Wenceslaus got engaged to Elizabeth, the only child of King Andrew II of Hungary. When Andrew Ill died, king Wenceslaus II accepted the crown on behalf of his underage son who assumed the Hungarian name of Laszlo (Wenceslaus Ill) and was crowned in 1301, still a young child at age 12, in Szekesfehervar. The country was split into principalities run by influential families. Wenceslaus was only accepted as Hungary's king by the Csak and Gussing families, governing an area corresponding to today's Slovakia, Burgenland and the territory around the capital, Buda. Soon, however, the Csak family threw its support to Charles Robert, the other aspirant to the throne, frightening the young king of losing his kingdom. He appealed to his father for help. Wenceslaus II entered Hungary with a large army and invaded Buda. Reviewing the situation, he saw that his son's situation was untenable, he withdrew, taking his son and St. Stephen's crown with him. (See the story on page 7.) When the old king died, Wenceslas Ill renounced the Hungarian crown, hoping to become the next king of Bohemia and Poland. In December of 1305 he passed the crown to Otto, Duke of Lower Bavaria. (See the following story.) Wenceslaus Ill also broke off his "engagement" to Elizabeth of Hungary. (Elizabeth then entered a convent.) Wenceslaus was murdered under mysterious circumstances in 1306 in Moravia. OTTO III (V. Bela, 1305-1308) Otto was a member of the Wittelsbach dynasty and bore the title of Duke of Lower Bavaria since 1290. His connection to the Hungarian crown was that he was the son of Henry XIII, Duke of Bavaria and Elizabeth of Hungary, granddaughter of King Bela IV. Otto was in opposition to the Habsburgs in Styria. In order to accept the Hungarian crown from Wenceslaus Ill in Prague, he disguised himself as a merchant and reached Buda in November, 1305 (see the related story on previous pages). He was then crowned in Szekesfehervar, but not with St. Stephen's Holy Crown, naming himself Bela V after his grandfather. He was not only not supported by some of the aristocracy, but vehemently and vocally opposed. The opposition took a military turn when the third aspirant to the throne, Charles of Anjou, led his forces to occupy Esztergom, and even Buda. Worse of all, when the Duke, now King Otto visited with Ladislaus Kan, the Voivode of Transylvania, he was arrested and imprisoned by the Transylvanian leader who could not accept him as a legitimate ruler without being crowned with St. Stephen's crown. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 56 After some six months in prison, the Voivode let Otto free, who then left the country and in 1308 abdicated the Hungarian throne. First married to Katharine of Habsburg in 1279, they produced twin brothers. Both children died within the year of their birth. Otto remained a widower for 23 years, then married for the second time and produced two more children. He died at age 51 in Landshut, where my Uncle KorneI Oszlanyi was imprisoned following World War II as Hungary's highest decorated military officer. His abdication and exile left the throne open for the third aspirant, as the period, called interregnum, came to a close. CHARLES I (a.k.a Karoly Robert, 1308-1342) As we discussed in the previous chapter on Hungarian history, a sad and turbulent period followed the death of King Andrew Ill. This was the period of interregnum, where sometimes multiple kings pretended they had the upper hand. In the situation at hand, the nobles reached out to the Anjou Charles II, King of Naples (1285-1309), who was married to Maria, daughter of the Hungarian King Stephen V from the Arpad dynasty. (Stephen was the son of Bela IV.) Anjou Charles sired a boy also named Charles, who became Charles I of Hungary and took the throne in 1310 finally as a legitimate contender, since he was the grandson of Stephen V. Charles I established the Angevin dynasty in Hungary. His succession to the throne, though, occurred in a strange sequence of events, which may be of interest to my readers and, therefore, is presented here. Some of it is taken from Oxford Professor C. A. Macartney's book: Hungary, a short history. The professor points out that although the Arpad family honored the principle of "senioratus", but most rulers passed over senior relatives in favor of a son even though "primogenitur" (favoring the first-born son) was not officially in vogue. Oddities of royal succession were common, I am pretty certain, not only in Hungarian history, but in the history of other nations. Specific to our past, I wrote extensively about this strange phenomenon starting on page 17. I encourage you to re-read that segment for a better understanding of the entanglement caused by ambition on a royal scale. Not counting the first leaders of the pre-Christian period from High Prince Almos to Arpad, to Zoltan, to Fajsz, Taksony and Geza, father of St. Stephen, Hungarians had the fortune (or misfortune) of having 24 kings in the Arpad dynasty. Our story goes on to examine what Fate had in store for us, their successors. AMBITION ON A ROYAL SCALE Way back in Hungarian history when Andrew I took the throne in 1047, he tried to secure the succession for his 7-year-old son, Salamon and he committed him in infancy in marriage to the daughter of Emperor Henry Ill. (Salamon made it to the throne in 1063, thanks to his father-in-law's influence over Hungarian politics.) Many of these efforts at succession culminated in violence, such as when King Kalman (Coloman) had both his brother Almos and Almos's son Bela blinded in order to eliminate them as aspirants to the throne. The sad part of the story is that Coloman, who ordered such a dastardly act, was the son of King Ladislaus who would eventually attain sainthood under the name of St. Laszlo. The irony of the story is that the blind Bela would eventually be crowned and ruled for 10 years, starting in 1131. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 57 The story of Charles I and his entanglement is equally fascinating. The stakes were high, so the supporters of Charles didn't waste any time; inviting him to Hungary they took him to Esztergom where the Archbishop Gregory Bicskei crowned him with a substitute crown, since the original Holy Crown was in the possession of and guarded by his opponents. The majority of the magnates, however, did not accept Charles' rule and proclaimed Wenceslaus their king, crowning him with the true Holy Crown in Szekesfehervar by Archbishop John of Kalocsa in 1301. To further his legitimacy, Wenceslaus was engaged to Elizabeth, daughter of King Andrew Ill, the last of the Arpad dynasty and assumed the name Ladislaus V (Laszlo). Charles Robert recruited military forces in Slavonia and laid an unsuccessful siege to Buda Castle in September, 1302 but had to withdraw to Slavonia. The Bohemian King Wenceslaus II came to Hungary in the summer of 1304 at the head of a large army to provide support and credibility to his son, but soon realized that the son's position in Hungary was unstable to say the least. He retreated and Wenceslaus followed, taking the Holy Crown with him. When the Bohemian king died and his son, Wenceslaus, was elevated to the throne of that country in 1305, he gave up his aspirations to the Hungarian throne, offering the crown to the Bavarian Prince Otto, who was the 46-year-old grandson of King Bela IV. Otto was considered the enemy of the Austrian Habsburgs, so Otto had to disguise himself as a merchant while transiting Austria to Prague where he took possession of the Holy Crown. On his way to Hungary Otto nearly lost the crown until it was accidentally found in the swamp near the Hungarian border (see my letter to the Editor of the Washington Post, above). Otto was then crowned in Szekesfehervar in December, 1305 and assumed the name Bela V. The following year Charles Robert mounted another assault on Esztergom and in 1307 occupied Buda Castle as well while Otto was visiting Transylvania, where the ruling king was arrested and was imprisoned. In October 1307 the magnates proclaimed Charles Robert king, but he had to wait for Otto to abdicate and release the Holy Crown so that he could assume the Hungarian throne. Otto abdicated and escaped in 1308 but the Crown remained in the hands of the powerful aristocrats of Transylvania. Pope Clement V had to intervene to have Charles proclaimed king. The Papal legate had a new crown made for Charles with which he was crowned on June 15, 1309 by Archbishop Tamas of Esztergom. Finally, under the threat of the Papal legate, Ladislaus Kan handed over the Holy crown and Charles was crowned for the third time with the Holy crown on August 27, 1310 by the Archbishop of Esztergom, and was known as Karoly I, or Robert Karoly. THE ANGEVIN DYNASTY Charles Robert (Charles I) (1310-1342) was a colorful and major character of the new dynasty. He restored the royal power by reforming the practice of collecting customs fees by abolishing the private customs houses, introducing newly minted gold coins (Florins) and enriching the king's treasury. Hungarian gold mines produced 3,000 lbs, or one-third of the world's total annual gold production and the king shared the taxes collected on the mines with the landowners. He also levied taxes on the revenues of the church which caused a clash with the church hierarchy. Charles formed a mutual defense union with Poland and with Bohemia, but antagonized the principalities on Hungary's southern border by promoting Catholicism among the mostly Greek-Orthodox Serbs, Bulgars Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 58 and Wallachians (today's Romanians). Even after his coronation he had to fight some of the powerful families who opposed him. In the summer of 1311, for example, the Csak family organized a siege to Charles' capital, Buda, but was unable to unseat him. The following year Charles had to assert himself against the rebels of the city of Kassa and in 1315 he re-occupied the famous Visegrad Castle from Matthew Csak, while in 1316 he battled the forces of the Koszegi family and won other battles, including Komarom. In a much later battle with Serbia, Charles was wounded by an arrow. One real threat to Hungary, which Charles had not yet realized, was the plans of Ottoman Turkish sultans Osman and Orhan to invade southeastern Europe. Charles was married three times. After the death of his first wife, Maria of Bytom, in 1318 he married Beatrix of Luxembourg, daughter of Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor as well as sister of the Queen of France. Regretfully, Beatrix died in 1319 while giving birth to a stillborn child. The following year Charles married Elizabeth of Poland with whom they had 5 children, - one of which became king of Hungary as Louis I in 1342. A potential danger to his reputation was that Charles had a mistress named Elizabeth Csak, daughter of George Csak, with whom they produced a boy who would eventually become Coloman, bishop of Gyor. - Charles died in Visegrad in 1342, but was buried at Szekesfehervar. LOUIS I (Nagy Lajos, 1342-1382) Louis I, or Louis the Great (Nagy Lajos) became king of Hungary and Croatia in 1342 and earned the title of "Great" for having reigned over the territories of Galicia, Moldavia, Wallachia, Dalmatia, Bosnia and parts of Bulgaria and Serbia as well as Poland (from 1370 till his death), a greatness which lasted well into the early part of the 20th century. Louis' father, Charles I, was married three times. Louis was born the third of five sons of Charles I and wife Elizabeth of Poland. (The first son, Charles, died in infancy, the second son, Ladislaus died at age five.) Louis was born in 1326. When he was 16, he married the underage daughter of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, but the girl died while she was still a minor. Louis then married Elizabeth, daughter of Stephen II of Bosnia and Elizabeth of Kuyavia. They had four daughters, the first dying in infancy, the second at age 8, the third, Mary would become his successor on the Hungarian throne and the fourth, Hedwig, followed him (Louis) on the throne of Poland. Louis was well educated in the seven liberal arts and by age 16 he spoke Hungarian, Latin, German and Italian. He was an excellent military leader as well who liked and practiced the military life and fought sideby-side with his soldiers. Louis was a king of the Renaissance. Through contacts with his father's Italian connections, he embraced the culture of Italy. It can be said that Charles I and Louis I brought prosperity to feudal Hungary. Louis encouraged the production of gold mines, producing 1,400 kilos (3,000 lbs) annually which represented one-third of the world's gold production as known then. The Angevin royal family owned one-third of all land in Hungary. The population climbed to 3 million, and if we include Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia as well, the number of people living under Louis's reign was 4 million. One curious fact is that the most famous epic hero of Hungarian literature, Miklos Toldi, is depicted having lived in that era, as told by the eminent novelist and poet Janos Arany. As far as royal legislature is Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 59 concerned, the Law of Entail, which held up until 1848, regulated the inheritance of the land-owning class. Louis also codified the military obligations of the nobility and recovered for the Crown land where the original owners and their descendent had died out. The novelty was that he gave a nod to the female descendants in that they would be entitled to one-fourth of the assessed value of the deceased noble, but such value had to be paid to the Crown in cash. And in Poland he forbade the introduction of new taxes by the king, except with the consent of the nobility. Louis withdrew the rights of towns and counties to judge individual cases and all local governments answered to the Crown. The Palatine and the royal High Court would deal with all legal issues. In military matters, Louis required the magnates and barons to lead a "banderium" of armed noblemen and some peasants of the royal estates in the light infantry. The tour of duty for these soldiers was 3 months within the country and 40 days on foreign campaigns. On longer campaigns in foreign countries, the king often used mercenary troops. On occasion the king also financed the Pope's wars in exchange for legates of Rome to settle issues between Hungary and other states and rulers, including Emperor Charles IV. The Popes, incidentally, recognized early the increase of the Turkish/Ottoman threat and would eventually recruit foreign troops to help the Hungarians fight the enemy. Venice and Naples During Louis' 40 year rule, there were only 3 peaceful years. Otherwise he was always engaged in wars, especially with Italy. One of his early campaigns was against Venice which had attempted to bribe generals of his army. In the clash of Louis' 100,000-men army and Venice in 1346, 7,000 men died, yet Venice remained in Venetian hands. In 1347 Europe was appalled by the news of the assassination of Louis' brother, Andrew, husband of Joan I of Naples. It seemed a realistic palace conspiracy which took the young prince, demanding retaliation, so Louis declared war on Naples. He won the battle, but had to withdraw when the feared disease, the black death, broke out. In a subsequent campaign the Pope put up his objections and Louis had to give up his ambition of controlling Naples. The enmity between Naples and Hungary lasted until the year before Louis's death, who was too ill to conduct any more campaigns. Nevertheless, he sent his nephew Charles Durazzo, to extract revenge on Queen Joan I by seizing the throne and suffocating her with pillows in retaliation for her role in Prince Andrew's assassination. An interesting and personal story emerged from Louis' third campaign against Venice, in which he obtained from Venice the relics of St. Paul the Hermit and took them to the Pauline monastery in Buda. When I was in first grade elementary school, I was chosen to serve as an altar boy in the Rock Chapel on Gellert hill, operated by Pauline fathers as the chapel of "Remete Szent Pal", or St. Paul the Hermit. I never learned about King Louis' role inthe life/death of the Saint until the time I started happily preparing for this historical review. Poland King Casimir Ill of Poland was Louis's uncle, who had appointed Louis to be his successor upon the king's death. Louis waged successful campaigns on the side of the Poles in pagan Lithuania, and won victories over the Mongol elite force called Golden Horde and conquered Galicia. Thus, the Hungarian sphere of influence extended all the way to the Dniester river. In 1345, when the Polish capital Crakow was besieged by the Bohemians, the Hungarian army got there in time to relieve the city of the military threat. Uncle Casimir died in 1370 and the Poles elected Louis King of Poland. He appointed his mother, a Polish princess, to be regent (governor), representing the king in Poland. The Poles resented the decisions of Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 69 Elizabeth and in 1375 killed 160 of her Hungarian guards in a surprise attack, forcing Elizabeth to flee Poland. Louis took revenge of the rebels and re-established his superiority over the country. The Balkans Many of his foreign wars were motivated by drawing foreign countries in the Balkans into the fold of the Roman Catholic church. In 1366 Louis had himself crowned king of Serbia and Bosnia. He also attached Moldavia as a vassal state. Louis' campaigns in the Balkans may have been military victories, but he could never win his subjects' hearts. They remained loyal to the Eastern Orthodox Church. In fact, Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Wallachia and Moldavia as vassal states of Hungary regarded their powerful northern neighbor as a menace to their national identity. They were not reliable in confronting the Turkish menace, with which Louis found himself engaged as early as 1366 in Nicapoli. The battle concluded in favor of the Hungarians, but Hungary would be facing future conflicts into the 16th century. Besides the religious angle, I have often wondered why Hungarian rulers have nearly always bore arms against their southern neighbors. I can condone and understand their interest in Venice as a commercial center and a gateway to the Adriatic. But the generally mountainous region of the Balkans didn't provide the right terrain for Hungarian warfare and provided Hungary little more than a moral victory for its king and a tentative control over their territories. Louis died in 1382. The king was buried next to his idol King Saint Ladislaus in Nagyvarad. MARY of ANJOU (1382-1395) Since Louis had no male heir, he designated one of his daughters, Maria, to succeed him. Maria was only 11at the time, betrothed since age 7 to Sigismund of Luxemburg, son of Emperor Charles IV. The Poles did not want to accept her in personal union with Hungary, nor did they like her fiance Sigismund as regent. They chose instead Maria's sister, Hedwig, as their queen. Without precedent, both Maria and Hedwig bore the title of King, not Queen, signifying the fact that they were not a queen consort, but rulers in their own right. Catherine, the older sister to Maria and Hedwig, had been betrothed to Louis of France and was expected to succeed her husband to the throne of France, as well as her father, Louis I to the throne of Hungary. That would have been an exceptional and fascinating situation, indeed. Alas, Catherine died at age seven. Although Maria succeeded her father, she was assigned her mother, Elizabeth of Bosnia, who would be regent. She was crowned in Szekesfehervar, but the Poles demanded that she live in Poland. Her mother objected to that and made the proposal, which was ultimately accepted, that Mary would remain the queen of Hungary, while the Poles would accept Hedwig as their queen/king. There remained one major problem, that is that the majority of the nobility in Hungary was not agreeable to a female monarch. Her closest agnate (a relative whose kinship is traceable exclusively through males) was King Charles Ill of Naples who would be acceptable to the Hungarian nobles. An appearance in Hungary of the presumed contender, Charles III, was expected soon. The Queen mother, Elizabeth, and the Palatine formulated a plan to keep Charles out of Hungary by forming an alliance with Charles' enemies who were from the House of Valois. By 1384, Mary was engaged to Louis of France, the same Louis who had been betrothed to Mary's late sister, Catherine. Convening a diet to see if this proposal would work, they ran into great opposition as many noblemen continued to support Sigismund. Hungary Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 61 appeared to be on the verge of a civil war. Charles Ill, however, could not move from Naples because he felt it being threatened by Louis I, Duke of Anjou. This changed dramatically, when the above-mentioned Louis I died in 1384. Charles could now claim the throne of Hungary. His supporters in Hungary, including the Bishop of Zagreb, took advantage of the situation and secretly invited him to come and assume the throne. When Charles landed in Dalmatia in September of 1385, Mary found herself and her country at war both with her former fiance, Sigismund's brother, Wenceslaus who was by now king of Bohemia, as well as with the king of Bosnia. A quick change of allegiance was decided. Mary broke up her engagement to Louis of France and arranged to marry Sigismund by October. Alas, it was too late already. Sigismund took flight to his brother's court in Prague and Mary abdicated from the throne. Charles Ill was crowned on December 3lst, 1385 with Mary and Queen Elizabeth forced to attend the coronation. I can imagine the sour faces at that ceremony! CHARLES II (Kis Karoly, 1385-1386) We cannot get too excited over the rule of this king, as it only lasted 56 days. The circumstances would make up the best tragi-comedy ever written. All we need now is to have a musician to compose music for this and present it in operatic format. At the end of his coronation ceremony, the wily old Queen Elizabeth invited the new king to visit with the former Queen/King Maria. There, at one of Maria's palaces, Charles II was fatally stabbed on February 7, 1386. He was transported to Visegrad, to the royal castle in the Danube bend, where he expired on February 24th. Maria was restored to the throne while Elizabeth retained her position as spokeswoman for the King. In April Sigismund re-appeared on the scene in the company of half-brother Wenceslaus of Bohemia and the two queens had to recognize that Sigismund would be co-ruler of Hungary and signed a treaty to that effect in the city of Gyor. In opposition, the murdered Charles' supporters claimed the right of succession for Charles' underage son, Ladislaus. Soon war broke out, initiated by Slavonia. The queen and her mother decided to personally appear to defuse the issue. On July 25, 1386, their entire retinue was ambushed on the way to Slavonia and was attacked by John Horvat's party. Maria and her mother were captured and all their entourage killed. The queen and her mother were escorted to the castle of the bishop of Zagreb. The country was left without leadership. The nobles, realizing the dire situation, agreed to convoke a diet at Szekesfehervar. They confirmed Maria's royal rights and privileges and offered a general pardon to her captors. The queens were then moved to Novigrad (Ujvidek, or today's Belgrade). Sigismund rounded up an army and in January, 1387 attempted to liberate the queens by marching into Slavonia, but remained unsuccessful. The queens' captors strangled Queen Elizabeth in sight of her daughter on the orders of their jailer, John Palisna. For a quick solution to the kingdom's lack of leadership, Sigismund was crowned on March 31, 1387. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 62 SIGISMUND of Luxemburg (Zsigmond, 1387-1437) In early June, 1378 Sigismund finally succeeded in liberating Maria with the help of the Venetian fleet. Maria retained some privileges, but overall she exercised joint authority with King Sigismund, including using her own seal until 1393, while he used his. Among others, when John Horvat was captured in later years it was the Queen who ordered him to be tortured to death. Maria was well along her pregnancy when she ventured out alone to hunt in the forests of Buda. On May 17, 1395 her horse tripped and she was thrown from the horse, with the animal falling on top of her. This traumatic incident prompted her labor and she gave birth prematurely to a son, who died there on the spot. The queen could not summon help and died of her injuries as well. They were found together in the forest. Despite her sister, Hedwig of Poland claiming the crown, Sigismund defended it and remained the sole ruler of Hungary. He was a mere 19 years of age! THE 13 t h and 14th CENTURIES It would be a mistake to delineate events of the 13th century as events totally isolated from the previous century. People living in those times probably didn't even know that they were living in what we now know as "the Middle Ages" which separated ancient times from modern times, if we may call those times truly "modern." After all, we, living in the 21st century, think of modern times starting with Henry Ford's Model A's, or better still, with the outbreak of World War I, but times seem to be passing faster, - at least for us, - than anytime previously. Based on the configuration of historians, the Middle Ages began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, encompassing a seemingly interminable period until the end of the so-called Hundred Year War in 1453. The Hungarians, who constitute our main interest for this work, obviously didn't suspect that the so-called Middle Ages are about to come to an end. But history certainly would not come to an end for the Hungarians, even though Hungarian history went through some tough times in the period under consideration. For the purposes of this exercise you should kindly consider that we cannot deal in great detail with historical events in the British Isles, nor in what I would call the "classical Europe" of Spain, France, Germany and Italy, because the Hungarians had already enough on their plate. We will concentrate on what was essential to Hungary and Central Europe. The Mongol menace One of the ongoing, or continuing events was the development of the Mongol menace which would ultimately reach Hungary and decimate its tender population in 1241. The Mongols were a group of nomadic tribes in Central Asia. Near the turn of the 12th to 13th centuries they had a leader called Temujin, later known as Genghis Khan, who united the Mongolian tribes and pursued a plan to conquer China, Siberia and Persia. His grandson, Kublai Khan had even greater ambitions. Employing his famed and feared troops called the Golden Horde, he crossed the lower Volga river and continuing through the Carpathians devastated the Hungarian nation in 1241 reaching Constantinople as well. St. Stephen's Crown was saved by the sudden withdrawal of the Tartars to Asia who stayed away from Hungary until a brief campaign in 1285 into the eastern parts of the country, followed by a permanent withdrawal. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 63 The Tatars were a tribe of the Mongols, being very aggressive and quick on horseback. The combatants carried 2 or 3 bows (ij), 3 quivers (tegezd) full of arrows (nyil), also a hatchet (szekerce) and ropes. They were familiar with Chinese warfare, using machines capable of casting rocks and smoke-making chemicals over castle walls. Horses were held in great respect, their worth sometimes higher than human lives. The main battle in Hungary took place on the plains of Mohi between the Danube and Tisza rivers, on April 11, 1241. The two camps had about 25,000 men each on either side of the Sajo river. The bridge head was defended by troops provided by King Bela IV's brother Prince Kalman and Archbishop Ugrin of Kalocsa. Having minor exchanges during the day, the Hungarians left a small guard to defend the bridge while the major force retired for the night. The Tartars took advantage of the night and crossing the bridge invaded the Hungarian camp. Fierce fighting ensued lasting all night. King Bela IV was protected by his knights and managed to escape. The rest of the Hungarian force was killed or dispersed. Elsewhere, the Tartars' scorched-earth strategy was to burn within and without the fortifications, collect and carry away the loot, killing men, women and children, having no pity on anyone. People hiding in buildings, especially churches, were raped and robbed of their personal belongings, then killed while fires were set under the building. When the Tatars withdrew to settle some internal matter within the Mongolian nation, King Bela IV prevailed upon the nobility and the towns to build fortifications, walls and castles to stave off any possible future attack. The forts and ramparts which grew up throughout the country served the Hungarians well during the Turkish wars that followed in the 16th century. The second attack of the Mongol/Tatar Golden Horde under Kublai Khan would wait until 1285 when the Tatars broke into the country from Moldavia in the East and progressed to the Tisza river before withdrawing for good. This second incursion may have been in retaliation for a foreign policy miscalculation by King Ladislaus IV of Hungary. The Crusades At the beginning of a review of the 13th and 14th centuries we mentioned that events do not separate strictly as we step from one century into another. Many events have their roots and beginnings in the previous time period. Such is an event we want to take a more extensive look at are the Crusades. They had been around since the end of the 11th century and will make their effects felt long after the 13th century. The Crusades were military campaigns sanctioned, in fact instigated by the Roman Catholic Church to make access available for Christians to the Holy Land and acted as a pilgrimage for those who participated in them. Each crusader took a vow to be fulfilled upon reaching Jerusalem, without regard as to how holy, how "unselfish or selfish", how dedicated or cruel and pointless the crusade may turn out to be, - or whether they were taking part in an aggressive attack or a defensive action against emerging Islam. In return for participation, the Crusaders received plenary indulgence for their sins. The first crusade was proclaimed by Pope Urban II in 1095. Not all subsequent campaigns, also called "crusades" were directed to the Near East as political and personal ambition led many of them in directions we would never think of today, including the Baltics, Prussia and Livonia. They may even had mercantile objectives to open up trade routes. All the crusades were led by high political and religious figures, including St. Bernard of Clairvaux and King Andrew II of Hungary. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 64 ( About 100,000 persons from France and Italy traveled by land to Constantinople and then through Anatolia. The age-old weakness in any company, association or gathering we have noted in human experience showed up even on this first crusading attempt. Namely, the King of France and Henry IV Holy Roman Emperor were in conflict with the Pope, so they stayed away. Also, when the first French crusaders crossed into Germany in 1096, thousands of Jews were massacred in an age-old hatred of those whom, to this day, are thought to be responsible for the crucifixion and death of Jesus, despite the efforts of bishops to protect them. SI ILY 1t The Byzantine Empire and the Sultanate of Rfun before the First Crusade The first battle broke out in Antioch, ending with the massacre of Muslims and the destruction of the city. The same fate befell Jerusalem when those that could still walk entered the holy city in late 1099. Both Muslims and Jews, who attempted to save the city, perished. Looking at this disaster of human suffering from the viewpoint of a crusader, the French Raymond d'Aguilers wrote: "...At the Temple of Solomon men rode in blood up to their knees. It was a just and splendid judgement of God that this place should be filled with the blood of unbelievers since it had suffered so long from their blasphemies." The second crusade was recruited by Bernard of Clairvaux in 1147. Louis VI and Conrad Ill commanding the French and German armies, respectively, marched against Jerusalem that year but failed to accomplish anything. Even a pre-emptive strike against Damascus failed. Back in Europe, however, part of the second crusade retook Lisbon, Portugal from the Muslims in 1147. The future St. Bernard was appalled at the amount of misdirected violence and slaughter. The third crusade was prompted by the Muslims, when they, unified by Saladin, retook Jerusalem from the resident Christians in 1187. Europe was shocked. Emperor Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, King Philip II of France and King Richard of England attempted to re-write history. Frederick died en route to the Holy Land; Philip returned to France while Richard captured Cyprus from the Byzantines as late as 1191. The crusaders were within sight of Jerusalem, but their supply lines failed them and had to abandon the campaign. The fourth crusade never reached the Holy Land. Pope Innocent initiated the recruitment for the crusade of 1202. The whole concept of "liberating the Holy Land" got off on the wrong foot when it came to light that no one had the funds for conducting the war. Instead, they borrowed from Venice, promising to share with them all that could be looted. Appalled at this concept, Pope Innocent excommunicated the crusaders. A secondary aim of the campaign was freeing and restoring Alexios, the nephew of the German king Philip to the throne of Byzantium. However, while the fleet was sailing down the Dardanelles, Alexios was strangled by his enemies. They had to repeat the assault in 1204, when many residents were simply butchered. As a postscript, it was in 2001 when Pope John Paul II apologized to the Archbishop of Athens for the tragic events of the 4th crusade. ( Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 65 Pope Honorius Ill called a "crusade" against heretics in Bosnia, to which only the Hungarian forces responded in 1234 and again in 1241, but had to abandon the effort because of the Mongol invasion of Hungary in 1241. The fifth crusade was to start in 1217 at the urging of the 4th Lateran Council in 1215. Hungary spearheaded this campaign under the leadership of King Andrew II, followed by other forces under Duke Leopold VI. Although their forces arrived, but their supplies did not get there in time, so after some skirmishes King Andrew II returned home. The other crusaders ventured into Egypt capturing Damietta. They were blocked from further advance in Egypt and returned home. The popes weren't kidding when they urged Europeans to stage these crusades. Emperor Frederick II had vowed to stage a crusade but failed to deliver on his promise, so Pope Gregory IX excommunicated him in 1228. Nevertheless, Frederick sailed from Brindisi in the Adriatic and stopped over at Cyprus, where he signed a peace pact with AI-Kamil, the ruler of Egypt, which gave Christian pilgrims access and rule over most of Jerusalem without a shot being fired. The seventh crusade didn't turn out so well. Al-Kamil's son stormed Jerusalem in 1244 and took it. The crusader army which sailed in 1248 under King Louis IX's command, was completely eliminated in a battle in Gaza. The king was captured and had to be ransomed free. To reflect the sentiments of one of the Templar knights, here is a quote from the man's writings: "Rage and sorrow are seated in my heart. It seems that God wishes to support the Turks to our loss.... The East will never be able to rise up again. Anyone who wishes to fight the Turks is mad, for Jesus Christ does not fight them anymore. God, who was awake sleeps now, and Mohammad waxes powerful." There were two more attempts which history numbers 8 and 9, but they accomplished practically nothing. King Louis IX attacked the Arabs in Tunis in 1270. Picking the hottest season, disease and fatigue devastated his army. King Louis IX, too, died. Baibars of the Mamluks drove the Franks in the Middle East to coastal outposts and captured, enslaved or killed every Christian in Antioch. The remainder of the army under Edward I of England returned home in 1274. Since high school texts usually deal very superficially with this subject, I think an overview of the Crusades was in order. Besides, five of the crusades took place in the 13th century and one, #5, was led by Hungarian king Andrew II. Elsewhere in the world it was the future saint Francis of Assisi who founded the Franciscan order in 1209, whereas the Inquisition commenced in 1229 when the Pope charged the Dominican order with identifying and punishing sources of heresy within the Church. The justice system of the Roman Catholic Church quickly got out of hand when those accused of heresy would be coerced to confess in response to instruments of torture. Partly in response to the great debates within and without the Church, the future saint, Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) wrote his thesis, Summa theologica in 1273. On the next page we'll examine some rare samples of Hungarian literature from that era. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 66 - ----- - --- ( There are two relics from Hungarian literature in this era which have survived. One is a fragment of a funeral oration ("Halotti beszed") from around 1192-1195, copied into the Latin codex known as the Pray Codex, whose page 136 is featured on this page. The name of the codex comes from its discoverer, the Jesuit monk, George Pray who turned over the text to others for publication in 1770. Not only does the decorative writing make this nearly illegible, but the text itself is nearly incomprehensible compared to the modern Hungarian language. Below are three versions of the beginnings of the oration: on the left is the original text as seen, the center piece is how it might have sounded originally, and the one on the right is the text in its modern version. Every high school student in my time had to know at least the first two lines. My own translation follows below. - -- ---- - --- --Eredeti szoveg Ertehnezes Egykori olvasat Latiatuc feleym zumtuchel mic vogmuc. yfa pur ef Latjatuk feleim s:ziimtiikhel, mik vogymuk: isa, por es chomuv uogmuc. Meny1 Iniloll:ben terumteve eleve homou vogymuk. Menyi milosztbcn teriimteve elevc m1v ifemucut adamut. _ ef odutta vola neki paradifumut miii isemiikot Adamot, es odutta vola neki hazoa. Ef mend parad,fumben uolov gimilcictul paradicsumot hazoa. Es mend paradicsumben valou Latjatok, feleim, szemetekkel, mik vagyunlc biza por es hamu vagyunk. Mennyi malasztban (kegyelemben) teremte eleve [Ur] mi osiinket, Adamot, es adta vala neki Paradicsomot hazava. Es mind[en] Paradicsomban valo You see, my brethren, with your own eyes what we are: mud, dust and ashes we are. In plenty of grace the Lord had created our ancestor, Adam and gave him Paradise as his house (home). The other priceless relic of early Hungarian literature is the so-called Lamentations of Mary ("O magyar Maria siralom"), the oldest extant Hungarian poem, copied around 1300 into a Latin codex similarly to the above funeral oration. It is likely a translation of a Latin text in the 13th \ century and copied into the so-called Leuven Codex of a Catholic University's library. The author of the poem is a monk called Godfrid who lived in 12th century Paris. The poem features rhyme, rhythm and rich alliterations as well. Mary, the Mother of the crucified Jesus addresses her son in the first person. She relates her own feelings of desperation, then asks for death to relieve both of them soon, accusing his torturers and offering herself in place of her son. Fragments follow below with the appropriate translation: Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. A leuveni kodex az omagyar Mariasiralommal. Original Text Volek syrolm Thudothlon Syrolmol sepedyk. Buol ozuk epedek. Pronunciation (by Dezso Pais) Volek sirolm tudotlon. Sirolmol sepedik, Buol oszuk, epedek, Modern Hungarian (by Ferenc Molnar) Nem ismertem a Siralmat, Most siralom sebez, Fajdalom gyotor, epeszt. English I did not know the lament yet, Now lament gashes, Ache lacerates, Languishes. Walasth vylagumtul Sydou fyodumtul Ezes urumemtuul Valaszt vilagumtuul Zsidou fiodumtuul Ezes urumemtuul. Elvalasztanak Vilagossagomtol Zsido fiamtol Edes oromemtol. Separate me from my Light, From my Jewish son, My sweet delight. O en eses urodum Eggen yg fyodum Syrou aniath thekunched Buabeleul kyniuhhad O en ezes urodum Egggyen-igy fiodum, Sirou anyat tekuncsed, Buabeleul kinyuhhad! En edes Uram Egyetlenegy fiam, Siro anyat tekintsed, Fajdalmabol kivonjad! O my sweet Lord, My only one son, Look at the crying, Mother, Withdraw her from her pain! Scemem kunuel arad En iunhum buol farad The werud hullothya En iunhum olelothya Szemem kunyuel arad Junhum buol farad. Te verud hullottya En junhum olelottya. Szemembol konny arad Szivem kintol farad, Te vered hullasa, Szivem alelasa From my eyes tears are flooding, My heart tires from torment, Your blood’s falling, My heart’s languishing. Vylag uilaga Viragnac uiraga Keseruan kynzathul Uos scegegkel werethul. Vilag vilaga, Viragnak viraga Keseruen kinzatul Vos szegekkel veretul Vilag vilaga, Viragnak viraga, Keservesen kinoznak, Vasszegekkel atvernek! World’s light, Flower’s flower, They torment you Bitterly, They pierce you with iron nails! Vh nequem en fyon Ezes mezuul Scegenul scepsegud Wirud hioll wyzeul. Uh nekem, en fiom, Ezes mezuul Szegyenul szepsegud Virud hioll vizeul. Jaj nekem, en fiam Edes, mint a mez, Megrutul szepseged Vizkent hull vered! Woe to me, my son, Sweet as honey, Your beauty turns to ugliness, Your blood falls like water! Syrolmom fuhazatum Therthetyk kyul En iumhumnok bel bua Qui sumha nym kyul Kyul Sirolmom, fuhaszatum Tertetik kiul En junhumnok bel bua Ki sumha nim hiul. Siralmam, Fohaszkodasom Lattatik kivul. Szivem belso fajdalma Soha nem enyhul. My lament, my prayer, Can be seen from outside, My heart’s inner ache Never abates. Wegh halal engumet Eggedum illen Maraggun urodom Kyth wylag felleyn Vegy halal engumet Eggyedun illyen Maraggyun urodom Kit vilag fellyen! Vegy halal engemet, Egyetlenem eljen, Maradjon meg Uram, Kit a gilag feljen! Take me, death, Let my only one to live, Keep him, my Lord, Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. Whom the world should fear! O for the just Simeon’s Certain word reached me, I can feel this dagger of pain, What long ago he foretold. O ygoz symeonnok Bezzeg scouuno ere En erzem ez buthuruth Kyt niha egyre. O, igoz Simeonnok Bezzeg szovo ere: En erzem ez buturut, Kit niha egire. O, az igaz Simeonnak Biztos szava elert, Erzem e fajdalom-tort Amit egykor jovendolt. Tuled ualmun De num ualallal Hul yg kynzassal Fyom halallal. Tuuled valnum; De num valallal, Hul igy kinzassal, Fiom, halallal! Ne valjak el toled, Eletben maradva, Mikor igy kinoznak Fiam, halalra! May I not be separated From you, Staying alive, When they are Tormenting you, My son, to death! Sydou myth thez Turuentelen Fyom merth hol Byuntelen Fugwa huztuzwa Wklelue kethwe ulud. Zsidou, mit tessz Turventelen, Fiom mert hol biuntelen. Fugva, husztozva, Uklelve, ketve ulud! Zsido, mit tesz, Torvenytelen! Fiam meghal, de buntelen! Megfogva, rangatva, Oklozve, megkotve Olod meg! Jew, what you do is lawless! My son died, but he is guiltless! Clenched, hitched him, Plummered, bound him, you killed him! Keguggethuk fyomnok Ne leg kegulm mogomnok Owog halal kynaal anyath ezes fyaal egembelu ullyetuk Kegyuggyetuk fiumnak, Ne legy kegyulm mogomnok! Ovogy halal kinaal anyat ezes fiaal egyembelu ullyetuk! Kegyelmezzetek meg fiamnak, Ne legyen kegyelem magamnak, Avagy halal kinjaval Anyat edes fiaval Egyutt oljetek meg! Have mercy on my son, no mercy for me, or with the torment of death the mother with her own son, Kill them together! Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 67 It is interesting to note that the Jews will always bear some responsibility for the killing of Jesus of Nazareth. A recent Pope may have apologized to the nation of Israel for persecution of the Jews throughout Europe and in the Middle East, and yet, the original theme always recurs in which the chant of the people reverberates: "Crucify him! Crucify him!" Even in the ancient poem, Lamentation of Mary, the writer puts words in the Virgin Mary's mouth which would be out of place in 21st century America. Lamentably, in 1278 two-hundred-seventy-ei ght Jews were hanged in London for clipping coins while Christians were merely fined for the same crime. And in 1306 King Philip IV expelled all Jews from France. Will there ever be tolerance in this world? Near the border of Austria/Hungary there is an ancient cathedral, finished around 1256, on the outskirts of the little village called Jak (pronounced Yaack). When, in 1992 I had the good fortune of visiting that ancient church, I was amazed at the monumental perspectives and sheer size of the building and the skill of its builders. This is no ordinary church which survived so many hundreds of years. It is a symbolic representation of the Hungarian spirit. By the year 1277 there were 30 male and 2 female cloisters in Hungary for the Dominicans in Hungary, supplemented by 43 monasteries for Franciscans in order to counter the rising heresies in Western Europe. The world became much richer in 1265 when Dante Alighieri saw daylight for the first time. Born in Florence, Dante was a major Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy is a masterpiece of world literature, published in 1307. At age twelve Dante was promised in marriage to Gemma, a daughter of the politically powerful Donati family. But Dante was in love with Beatrice Portinari, whom he first met when he was only 9. Nevertheless, Dante married Gemma, and she bore several children for him.Dante was involved in politics, loyal to the Guelphs who supported the Papacy in opposition to the Ghibellines backed by the Holy Roman Emperor. Dante accompanied a delegation of Florentines to Rome to ascertain the intentions of Pope Boniface, but was tangled up in an imbroglio between the two political factions. Dante got arrested and sentenced to two years of exile. Later pardoned but refusing to pay a heavy fine, he cut off his return to Florence. If he had returned without paying the fine, he would have been burned at the stake. Those were harsh times, indeed. In 1321 he died of malaria and was buried in Ravenna. Marco Polo was another famous personality of the 13th century. Born in 1254, he was a member of a Venetian merchant family. During his lifetime he would write accounts of his varied travels which opened up European eyes and wallets to Central Asia and China. Upon returning to Venice from one of their longdistance trips in 1269, Marco's father Niccolo and his uncle Maffeo took the young lad with them on an epic voyage, during which Marco Polo kept written records of his experiences which would in time inspire Christopher Columbus and others to embark on exploratory voyages and redesign the map of the world. As Marco's mother died young, he was raised and educated by his aunt and uncle. He learned to speak four languages. Marco, his father and uncle returned to Venice after traveling 15,000 miles in 1295, finding Venice at war with the Republic of Genoa. Marco joined the battle by arming a galley and sailing to the Eastern Mediterranean where he was captured by Genoese and imprisoned until liberated in Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 68 August, 1299. While in prison, he dictated the memoirs of his travels which became known as The travels of Marco Polo. Back home in Venice, he became a wealthy merchant and financed other expeditions, while never leaving home again. He died at home in January, 1324. His book contains fascinating stories about his travels, including a long stay with Kublai Khan at the present city of Beijing. Because of the unavailability of a printing press until the early 15th century, 150 copies in various languages exist of the early manuscript and they differ slightly. At this time no one had yet noticed that the Aztecs found a home in the plains of Mexico in 1267. We should not be surprised at this. The American continents were truly a different world and there was either no money or no interest, or both, to follow the movement of Indian tribes and nations. Their time will come later, even if many of those people will have perished by the time Europe turned an interested face upon them. Social changes in the 13th & 14th centuries After living and working in the same place for 200 years, there emerged a new phenomenon among the younger generation. Migration, however mild, is taking place. People are looking for better opportunities, better working and living conditions. Peasants with skills sell themselves to landlords who provide them with arable land to cultivate with the ownership remaining with the landed owner, who is most likely gentry. They were obliged to pay their allowance to the lesser nobility, plus taxes to the king and tithing to the Church. The average property leased to the landless peasant was about 20 "hold", or the equivalent of 28 acres which could be inherited, which meant that after a couple of generations it would get fragmented and would shrink to be only a fraction of the original. Those who acquired or purchased property paid no taxes but were obligated to serve in the military if and when so required. This is how the Hungarian lesser nobility developed, forming a new class of societal order, or "rend" in Hungarian. With Charles Robert coming into power in 1310, the royal properties grew in size as the king acquired the former properties of the nobility, granting property rights only to those who served him and shared in governing the country. Such were the "royal counselors" who advised the king. Whereas the county was still the seat of local justice, the cities developed into the economic and commercial centers of the country. Simultaneously, great differences developed between the urban and provincial populations reflecting the nature of activity in those centers. Charles Robert and his successor(s) recognized the value of fine metal which it represented to the West and pressed for developing mines which produced nearly one-third of the world's gold production. Likewise, the production of salt, an essential element of diet, was mainly concentrated in Transylvania's Szekely mines, which required special skills as it was cut and sliced, requiring skilled labor often imported from abroad. In contrast with the mining of gold, which was partially in private hands, salt production remained a royal monopoly. The Habsburgs Bearing in mind that the Habsburgs would have a major impact on Hungarian history in later years, it is interesting to consider the very beginnings of the Habsburgs' rise to power. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 69 In 1273 The German princes elected Count Rudolf Habsburg of Switzerland as their king. Ottokar, king of Bohemia was also vying for the title and considered himself a contender. A battle to settle the primacy of one or the other was inevitable. It took place on August 26, 1278. The Hungarian king Laszlo IV entered the fray on the side of Rudolf with Hungarian and Cuman fighters. In the battle Ottokar lost his life. In time, Rudolf would create Austria and the Steyr principalities, passing them down to his son. This is how a new Central European power came into existence as the Habsburg dynasty. Highlights of the 14th century The Papacy, which until the end of the 13th century exercised extraordinary powers both spiritually and militarily, came head to head with the worldly powers in France and Germany. Pope Boniface VII, elected in 1294, ran a corrupt papal administration compromising the Church's spiritual integrity. He was eventually forced to resign. Even Dante portrayed this pope in his Divine Comedy. His successor, Benedict XI died almost immediately after his election, likely from poisoning. The Church was on the verge of excommunicating France and its leaders when a Frenchman was elected to the throne by the name of Clement V. This Pope had enough of Roman supremacy and removed the papal court from Rome to Avignon in France. Seven popes reigned from Avignon until 1377 when Gregory XI returned the seat of power to Rome. This period is called the "Babylonian captivity", similarly to early history when the Jews were captives in Babylon. Somewhat associated with the above story, the so-called Great Schism did much damage to the reputation of the Catholic Church. Returning to run-down and chaotic Rome did not suit some of the Popes and Cardinals who were elected subsequently to the Babylonian captivity. They chose to return to Avignon, led by the cruel and autocratic Pope Urban V. Some of the cardinals gathered in Fondi between Rome and Naples and elected a rival pope called Clement VII, creating a division within the Church in the period now called The Great Schism. In 1409 the Council of Pisa deposed both Popes and elected Alexander V, however the anti-Popes refused to resign, thus creating a triple schism. After going through yet another two popes, the Council of Constance in 1417 elected Martin V, ending the schism. The Popes, as we have seen, meddled in affairs temporal and spiritual and often did not serve the benefit of the faithful. Such an outrage occurred when, after the first polyphonic "Mass of Tournai" was performed on the organ equipped with pedals, the Pope forbade the use of counterpoint in 1322, doing great disservice to the development of music. The beginning of the so-called 100-year-war was 1337. We shall devote a brief review of that affair because it dominated European history for nearly a century. Historians point to 1325 as the traditional year when the Aztecs founded Tenochtitlan, today's Mexico City. The English poet Geoffrey Chaucer was born in 1340 in London, who would create, among 500 other works, the Canterbury Tales in 1387. He came from a family of well-to-do vintners. Well-known in royal circles, he accompanied Edward Ill on his way to occupy France in the 100-year-war. Captured during the siege of Rheims, the king paid 16 pounds for his release. Chaucer is credited with developing the widespread use of Middle English at a time when the dominant literary languages were French and Latin. It is my pleasure to present on these pages a verse of the Canterbury Tales: Prologue. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. The Canterbury Tales ·Prologue Here bygynneth the Book of the tales of Caunterbury l: Whan that aprill with his shoures soote 2: The droghte of march hath perced to the roote, 3: And bathed every veyne in swich licour 4: Of which vertu engendred is the flour; 5: Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth 6: Inspired hath in every holt and heeth 7: Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne 8: Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne, 9: And smale foweles maken melodye, 10: That slepen al the nyght with open ye 11: (so priketh hem nature in hir corages); 12: Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, I 3: And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes, 14: To feme ha!wes, kowthe in sondry Iondes; 15: And specially from every shires ende 16: Of enge!ond to caunterbury they wende, 17: The hooly blisfui martir for to seke, 70 Here begins the Book of the Tales of Canterbury When April v.ith his showers sweet v.ith fruit The drought of March has pierced unto the root And bathed each vein with liquor that has power To generate therein and sire the flower; When Zephyr also has, with his sweet breath, Quickened again, in every holt and heath, The tender shoots and buds, and the young sun Into the Ram one half his course has run, And many little birds make melody That sleep through all the night with open eye · (So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage)Then do folk long to go on pilgrimage, And palmers to go seeking out strange strands, To distant shrines well known in sundry lands. And specially from every shire's end Of England they to Canterbury wend, The holy blessed martyr there to seek Chaucer died in 1400 and is buried in the poets' corner at Westminster Abbey. When I was writing my 430+-page work on composers and compositions entitled: The Classical Alphabet, I failed to devote sufficient space and time to the Frenchman Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377), called in his time the greatest musician. Even though it has little to do with Hungarian kings, I am captivated by this character who personifies in some ways the spirit of the 14th century. Machaut was not only a composer but a prolific poet as well, whose poetry inspired other poets : , ...,such as Geoffrey Chaucer. The Middle Ages had but a mere 150 years to go before the Renaissance would engulf them. Ahead of its time, Machaut introduced the "ars nova", the new art developing the musical forms rondeau, motet and ballade, - very much a mainstay of the "newborn" era to follow. Machaut is the composer of the Messe de Nostre Dame (Mass of Our Lady), the earliest known complete musical setting of the Ordinary of the Catholic Mass. Machaut was born near Reims in the Ardenne region of France. Somehow he managed to wiggle his way into the service of John I, king of Bohemia, as his secretary, accompanying him on military expeditions. The king died of the bubonic plague ("Black Death") which devastated much of Europe's population, but Machaut survived and wrote 400 poems, including his masterpiece "La voir dit." Many of his poems reflect courtly love and give us an insight into 14th century chivalry. His musical output, both secular and sacred, tended toward the polyphonic, including the above-mentioned Messe, a forerunner of the 15th century composer Josquin des Prez, some of whose church music I had the opportunity to conduct. Please allow me to reproduce his 18th "rondeau" entitled Puisqu'en Oub/i which, in my own mind, I can hear rolling off a French troubadour's tongue ... ---·- Puis qu'en oubli sui de vous, dous amii, Vie amoureuse etjoie a Dieu commant. Mar vi lejour que m'amour en vous mis, Puis qu'en oubli sui de vous, dous amis. Mais ce tenray queje vous aypromis, C'est queja mais n'aray nul autre amant. Puis qu'en oubli sui de vous, dous amis, Vie amoureuse etjoie a Dieu commant. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. Since Iam forgotten by you, sweet friend, Ibid farewell to a life of love and joy. Unlucky was the day Iplaced my love in you; Since Iam forgotten by you, sweet friend. But what was promised you Iwill sustain: That Ishall never have any other love. Since Iam forgotten by you, sweet friend, Ibid farewell to a life of love and joy. 71 Since we wrote above about a noted French poet, let us not forget the Italian poet and historian Francesco Petrarca, otherwise remembered as Petrarch, who was born in 1341. From his writings later generations could reconstruct the happenings in the 14th century and look back even to the times of the Roman Empire. The epidemic called "the Black Death", or bubonic plague made its appearance first in China and made its way into Europe by the middle of the 14th century. By 1347 it was doing its deadly work in France, Germany and crossed the Channel into England. Soon it was in Scandinavia and ravaged Russia in 1351, killing about 25 million people, a quarter of the European continent. There were labor shortages everywhere; wages went up, demand for laborers in both genders was great, weakening and eventually overturning the feudal system. There is just one more thing to write about those eventful times: The Hundred Year War Taken largely from History's Timeline by Jean Cook, Ann Kramer and Theodore Rowland-Entwistle (originally published in 1977 by Crescent Books, distributed by Crown Publishers, New York), I found their presentation a relatively simple way of summarizing this overwhelming subject. This was a seemingly interminable struggle between England and France originating from a claim by English kings to the French throne, based on Edward's claim through his mother, Isabella of France. . The English crown was pitted against the Valois Capetians and each side drew many allies into the war. Its roots go back to 1066, the time of William the Conqueror becoming King of England while retaining possession of the Duchy of Normandy in France. In a quirky way, the rulers of Normandy (and certain other countries on the continent) owed feudal homage to the King of France. In 1337 Edward Ill refused to pay homage to Philip VI of France, who then, in response, confiscated Edwards' lands in Aquitaine. Although one can see this is a manifestation of a dynastic conflict, this gave way to ideas of nationalism. It was costly, leading to the establishment of standing armies vs. using mostly cavalries. It was also opposed by some of the English aristocracy who lost their lands on the Continent. It also spun off limited wars, such as the War of Roses and sparked civil wars. The first period encompassed 1337-1360 when Edward had naval and land victories, securing large parts of France. The second period was 1360-1396, when after some French victories the truce was extended to 1415. In the third period Henry V revived the old English claim in 1415, married the partly insane French king Charles VI's daughter Catherine, but died in 1422 (of dysentery?), leaving a baby as his heir. In the fourth segment the peasant girl Jeanne d'Arc poured new faith and energy into the French and largely regained the integrity of French lands from the English. The war was officially ended by the treaty of Picquigny in 1475, whereby the British renounced their claim to the French throne, but retained, for a long while, the symbolic fleur-de-lis on their coat of arms. The situation in Hungary. Two main figures emerged on the Hungarian throne in the persons of King Charles I (1312-1342) and his son Louis I (1342-1382). We can confidently say that during their reign Renaissance has arrived in Hungary. The Italian connection (which started with St. Stephen obtaining his crown from the Pope) slowly encompassed the country's cultural, humanistic and commercial relations. Considering, if nothing Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 72 else, the style of dress, we see a trend toward full-length gowns, richly embroidered cloaks, pointed shoes and hats as an overflow from Italy. Charles I, who grew up familiar with Naples and Milan, was knowledgeable about their financial and trading trends which would bring eventual prosperity and vitality to feudal Hungary. Although both kings waged {and lost) military campaigns outside Hungary, the country within was kept at peace. (Taken from the Encyclopedia Britannica): "In an era where Spain was harassed by the Arabs, France was targeted by the English, Germany tormented by the rivalry of the princes, Italy was the scene of bloody conflicts among its city-states, Poland and Russia were subject to Lithuanian and Tartar attacks, Byzantine and the Balkan states subject to Turkish raids and expansion, - Hungary flourished as an island of peace." For a while only, I would say, as the Ottoman hordes were getting ready to overwhelm Hungary's defenses. SIGISMUND (1387-1437) Continued from page 62 We left the king of Hungary and Croatia at his coronation in Szekesfehervar on March 31,1387. Sigismund, son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV of Germany, had been engaged since 1374, when he was 6, and his bride, Mary, eldest daughter of the Hungarian king Louis I was 7. When Louis died in 1382, Mary was destined to be Hungary's Queen and was crowned but still too young at age 11to govern. The Queen mother, Elizabeth of Bosnia would speak for her as regent until Mary was deposed in 1385 for a brief period, then reinstated 2 months later. In the meantime Mary would marry Sigismund of Luxembourg in April, 1385 and after an adventurous period she would share the reign with her husband until he, too, was crowned on March 31, 1387 to share the crown with Mary. The pregnant queen died of a riding accident in May of 1395, leaving the throne to her husband. Sigismund, after his father's death in 1378, became Margrave of Brandenburg and was sent to the Hungarian Court to learn the language and customs of Hungary, to which he became totally devoted. In 1381 his guardian and brother Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia and Germany, sent Sigismund to Poland to learn its language and way of life. After his marriage to Mary of Hungary in 1385, Hungary became Sigismund's chief objective and concern, especially following his coronation in 1387. Sigismund expended lots of effort in keeping internal peace in Hungary which, at the time, was in the hands of powerful ruling families such as the Garais and the Horvaths, some of whom supported Ladislaus, king of Naples, son of the murdered Charles II of Hungary. It is hard to believe, but on several occasions Sigismund as king was thrown into prison by these noble families but liberated by other influential families who ruled between the rivers Drava and Sava in the Southern corridors of Hungary. The Turks, headed by Sultan Bayezid I were brewing trouble in the Balkans. They had the intention of extending their empire by reaching the banks of the Danube. In 1396 Sigismund answered Pope Bonifac IX's call to organize a crusade against the Turks. Sigismund, at the head of a 90,000-man army (that number is subject to scrutiny, - see the remarks below), including the Hungarian contingent, reinforced Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 73 { by volunteers from every part of Europe with the largest contingent from France, sailed down the Danube in a flotilla of 90 galleys to Nicopolis. Although the battle ended disastrously for Sigismund, I think it will be beneficial to review it as an example of the difficulty of commanding the armies of several nations and also as a study of human nature. It is not a pretty picture, but it may give us an insight into recent multinational commands, such as D-day in World War II, the Korean War, the Gulf war, and the Iraq war coupled with the Afghanistan war, - all of which had an American majority, but enough contributions from other nations to give its commanders worrisome moments. The battle of Nicopolis on September 25. 1396 ( The number of participants given by medieval chronicles ranges upward of 400,000 and we are told that the crusaders crossed the Danube in 8 days. One of the most credible accounts is credited to a certain Johann Schiltberger of Bavaria, who was captured by the Turks early in the war and was forced to lead the life of a slave for 30 years. During this time Schiltberger did some research and wrote an account of the battle. Accordingly, no more than 16,000 crusaders faced 20,000 Turks. (The Turks’ quote is quite the opposite, claiming that the Turkish forces totaled 60,000 facing 130,000 crusaders.) France contributed 10,000 men, including 2,000 knights, archers and foot soldiers. The chivalric code required that the knights prove their valor by leading most charges even if it were not prudent to do so. Climbing the walls of a fort certainly called for daring individual fighters more so that steel-covered knights on horseback! ( The crusaders met at Buda castle hoping to route the Turks from the Balkans and liberate Palestine and the Holy Sepulcher as well. The Venetian fleet was to blockade the Turks in the Sea of Marmara. Where Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 74 were the British? The English did not participate in this crusade because they would not submit to a French-led battle-plan after nearly 100 years of animosity between them. The only English-speaking contingent must have been limited to the Knights Hospitaller. The Italians were too involved in their violent internal struggles between the city-states to take part in another international disaster. The Duke of Milan, in fact, who had murdered his own uncle to ensure his political power, may have betrayed the crusaders by passing information on troop movements to Bayezid I. The concept of a unified command had not been worked out, which would prove disastrous for all forces present. The names of 24-year-old and inexperienced John de Nevers of Burgundy and Constable d'Eu are mentioned as leaders. They arrived a month late for the conference in Buda, having enjoyed too many parties and celebrations along the way. Hungary's king Sigismund tried to argue in favor of letting the Turks exhaust themselves on a long march through the Balkans rather than the Crusaders exhausting themselves trying to find them, but he was rejected by the French. When the armada finally took off following the Danube river, the going was slow, delayed by drunkard knights spending too many joyful nights with prostitutes along the way. As mentioned above, at Orsova in the narrow Iron Gates sector of the Danube the crusaders crossed from the left bank to the right bank on pontoons on the way to Vidin of Bulgaria, which was by then under Turkish occupation. Upon their arrival, the citizens and the occupying Turks seeing the great armada, surrendered to the Hungarians under Sigismund's command. The French, however, broke off the agreement and destroyed the town and massacred its residents. The sign of discord immediately appeared when the Hungarians considered the French action an insult to their king and the French were insulted saying the Hungarians were trying to rob them of victory. The crusaders continued to Nicopolis, a fortified town that prevented the approach to Constantinople. It was well defended and under the command of Dogan Bey. The Christian army did not bring catapults with them but tried to mount the walls using ladders which proved to be ineffective and impossible. They settled in for a blockade around the town to starve out the population. In the meantime they entertained themselves with drinking and carousing, not posting any sentries who would have noticed the approaching Turkish relief column. When a group of a thousand knights and archers decided to ambush the Turks, the French accused them of stealing the glory from John de Nevers, the chief commander. Sigismund suggested that Wallachian foot soldiers should meet the first Turkish attack, followed by the French cavalry, while the Hungarians would keep the Turkish cavalry from breaking out of the fortified city. The French, naturally, denounced this plan, saying that it would be demeaning to the knights as a "mortal insult." While the leaders were conferring, their troops got drunk over dinner and had difficulty organizing themselves to meet the fast approaching Turks. Sigismund asked the war council to hold the attack for two hours until the scouts brought back better battle intelligence. The French leader D'Eu declared his disobedience saying the Hungarians wanted to hoard the battle honors for themselves. Ignoring Sigismund's advice, they broke away and ran straight into the Turkish lines, where their horses were speared, throwing the riders off, forcing them to struggle in their heavy armor against the mobile Turks. Seeing this, the Wallachians simply abandoned the field while Sigismund and the Germans tried to fight off a massacre. A group of 1500 Serbs, fighting on the side of the Turks, overwhelmed the Hungarian force. The king managed to escape on a fishing boat to board a Venetian boat, while the remaining Hungarians surrendered. Sigismund declared: "We lost the day by the pride and vanity of the French." Even the Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 75 French chronicler admitted that this was the greatest French defeat since the Battle of Roncesvalles when all twelve peers of France were slain. John Nevers and the chief nobles were forced to watch the brutal execution of the French army, tied together in groups of four, naked in front of the Sultan. The other troops were marched 350 miles to Gallipoli, stripped of their clothing and shoes where the noble captives awaited the payment of ransom for them and the rest eventually sent home through unspeakable horrors along the way, from which many perished. French negotiators sent a final ransom of 200,000 gold florins to the Sultan in June, 1387. The military disaster at Nicopolis got some of the Hungarian nobles upset, not only because of the loss of lives but because of the reputation attached to this latest "crusade." On top of that, they still had not fully recognized the approaching Ottoman threat. The leading Hungarian families, as mentioned above, took over the bulk of governing the country, leaving very little room for Sigismund to exercise his regal powers. The king turned his attention to a crack in royal succession in Germany and Bohemia, in which he expressed great interest. He enjoyed the support of Bohemia, whose king, Wenceslaus IV happened to be Sigismund's half- brother who was childless. On Sigismund's return to Hungary at the end of his foreign adventurism in 1401,he was imprisoned and even twice deposed. The Hungarian king-makers swore allegiance to the last Anjou monarch, Ladislaus of Naples, son of the murdered Charles II. Ladislaus, however, had his own problems in Italy and was blocked militarily from furthering his plans for the Hungarian throne. Sigismund managed to hold out until 1406 when he married his dead wife Mary's cousin Barbara of German extraction. Sigismund personally founded the Order of the Dragon, a prestigious organization, which attracted many European leaders and monarchs as well. Sigismund encouraged international trade and regulated weights and measures to meet European standards. The king's many absences from the country pursuing opportunities of succession required him to turn over much of the country's governance to the office of the Palatine, or governor. Sigismund was also a somewhat ruthless leader who did not refrain from massacring the opposition, such as occurred in Croatia and Bosnia where 200 noble families were wiped out who stood in Sigismund's way. When King Rupert of Germany died in 1410 Sigismund ran in opposition to his half-brother Wenceslaus of Bohemia and won, thanks to the support of a small majority of the "electors" to the seat of Holy Roman Emperor. He was crowned in November of 1414 in Aachen, Germany. With Sigismund one could never be certain as to whether an alliance that he sanctioned would hold in reality or not. Such was the case with the Teutonic Knights against Wladyslaw Jagiello of Poland. (The name "Jagiello" would come up in later Hungarian history.) He also got involved with the Papacy at the time of the Great Schism and the Council of Constance in 1414 which deliberated the role of the Popes. Sigismund journeyed to France, England and Burgundy to steer the negotiations his way. He pardoned the Czech religious reformer, Jon Hus, yet he signed the death sentence against him, allowing the heretic to be burned at the stake while the king was absent. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 76 After the French defeat in the battle of Agincourt against the British, Sigismund shifted sides favoring England in which he signed an alliance with England's Henry V. In 1419 Wenceslaus of Bohemia died which left Sigismund the titular head of that country which the Czechs would reluctantly acknowledge 17 years later at his coronation in 1436. Nevertheless, his reign lasted officially from 1419 to 1437, with the coronation taking place in Prague in July of 1420. Sigismund was virtually powerless in governing the Czechs as they led an armed rebellion against the king for his betrayal of Jon Hus. Sigismund led three campaigns against the rebels and failed to control them in the so-called Hussite wars. His attention had to turn to Hungary, which was once again under Turkish attack. The king asked for German help against the Turks and was steadfastly refused because the German princes, among them Sigismund's former ally Frederick I of Hohenzollern, were busy firming up their authority at the expense of the king. In 1428 he led another fruitless campaign against the Turks, after which he busied himself negotiating for his coronation as Emperor. He got his wish on May 31, 1433, in Rome. Sigismund died in Moravia (now Czech Republic) on December 9, 1437 and was buried according to his wishes in Nagyvarad, Hungary (today's Oradea in Romania). His tomb is next to that of St. Ladislaus I whom Sigismund greatly venerated. The successor issue was resolved when his second wife, Barbara, gave birth to their only child, a daughter named Elizabeth of Luxembourg in 1409 in the castle of Visegrad in the Danube bend. Elizabeth would be the future Queen consort of Hungary, Bohemia and Germany. Sigismund and his wife Barbara would have no further issue, yet there are legends of the king's several dalliances, one of which is said to be John Hunyadi. As the last of the Luxembourg dynasty, Sigismund allowed his son-in-law Albert of Austria to inherit his titles. He was crowned King of Hungary on January 1, 1438 in Szekesfehervar. ALBERT (1437-1439) Albert ruled over several countries, including Hungary (1437-1439), Bohemia (1438-1439), Germany (1438-1439 but not crowned) and was Duke of Austria (1404-1439) and of Luxembourg (1404-1439). Born in Austria, he was the son of Albert IV, Archduke (foherceg) of Austria, whom he succeeded upon his father's death when he was only 7. What was his connection to Hungary? In 1422 he married Elizabeth of Luxembourg, daughter of King Sigismund of Hungary. Sigismund, as we had seen, was first married to Mary from the Angevin dynasty, his second wife Barbara of Celje was descended from the old Arpad kings of Hungary as far away as King Stephen IV (1270-1272). Sigismund's second wife Barbara was also a descendent through her grandparents from Bosnia, Slavonia and Bohemia, providing Albert with a footing in a number of kingdoms and principalities. King Sigismund designated Albert as his successor for Albert's role involved in the Hussite wars. He was crowned King of Hungary on New Year's Day, 1438. Albert was involved in defending Hungary against Turkish attacks and as "the German king of Hungary" moved his court to Buda. During his brief 2-year rule he showed his warrior side and distinguished himself on the battlefield. There was just one blemish in his reign and that had to do with the Jewish community living in Austria and in Hungary. Albert's father always managed to protect the Jews in Austria, but when he died in 1404, their situation became more precarious, culminating in someone having torched the synagogue in Vienna, followed by riots and lootings. When Albert came into power in Austria, he tried to figure out a way to pay for the Hussite wars and repeatedly imposed taxes on the Jewish community to finance those wars. In some Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 77 measure the Jews were accused of collaboration with the enemy which included illegal arms trade. Added to this was the attempt by the Church to forcibly convert the Jews to Catholicism. Those who would not convert, were sent off in boats down the Danube, stripped of their property, and the wealthy Jews were imprisoned and suffered painful death at the hands of Albert. 92 men and 120 women were burned at the stake outside the Vienna city gates. This deplorable episode was much more restrained on Hungarian soil. Albert died of dysentery in October 1439, and was buried at Szekesfehervar. He and Elizabeth of Bohemia had four children, some of whom would take active roles in Hungarian history, namely, Ladislaus V Posthumus, and Elizabeth (1438-1505) who married Casimir IV of Poland and gave birth to Vladislaus II of Bohemia and later became king of Hungary as well (1490-1516). The Jagiellonian dynasty Before we continue, let us examine briefly the Jagiellonian dynasty which carried a significant role in Hungarian history in the 15th and 16th centuries. The name comes from Jagiello, the first Grand Duke of Lithuania to become King of Poland. The dynasty was founded by Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania, who in 1386 was baptized Wladyslaw, married Queen (then called King) Jadwiga of Poland (also known .as Hedwig, daughter of King Louis I of Hungary from the Angevin dynasty). Jogaila was crowned King of Poland as Wladyslaw II of Jagiello. One Jagiellonian, with whom we shall continue this review, was Vladislaus III. VLADISLAUS lIl (I.Ulaszlo, 1440-1444) He was the first born son of Wladyslaw II of Jagiello and Sophia of Halsany. Born on October 31, 1424 in Krakow, Poland, he became Poland's king at age 10 and was offered the Crown of Hungary at age 16. He was crowned in Visegrad in 1440. You might recall that Elizabeth, widow of Hungary's previous king, was already carrying the as yet unborn child of Albert II for whom she wanted to secure the Hungarian crown. Elizabeth and Vladislaus fought over the rights of royal succession throughout the new king's brief 4- year reign. Vladislaus enjoyed the support of Pope Eugene IV for organizing a new crusade against the Turks. By launching the crusade Vladislaus actually broke a 10-year non-agression treaty with the Turks. The Pope assured the Hungarian king that the Venetian fleet will block the Turks from exiting the Dardanelles. Instead, the Venetians betrayed the Crusaders when they transported some 60,000 men across the Dardanelles from Asia to Europe. Vladislaus' 20,000 crusaders met an overwhelming Turkish force at Varna on the Black Sea on November 10, 1444. Misjudging the situation, Vladislaus led 500 Polish cavalry against the Turks whose Janissaries easily surrounded them and killed the Hungarian king by decapitating him. When his troops saw Vladislaus' head displayed on a pole, they took flight. The king's royal body armor was never found, giving rise to an interesting and unconfirmed legend. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 78 According to the legend Vladislaus managed to escape from the battle scene and surreptitiously traveled to the Holy Land where he became a knight of St. Catharine's of Mount Sinai. He then continued to Madeira where he found the support of King Alfonzo V of Portugal, from whom Vladislaus received rent- free land for the rest of his life. He married the Senorita Anes whose wedding King Alfonzo also attended. From this marriage 2 sons ensued. For the rest of his life Vladislaus wandered as a pilgrim and denied his true identity while seeking God's forgiveness because he broke the treaty with the Turks which allowed them to march against Hungary. The somewhat biased Polish chronicler Jan Dlugosz alleged that Vladislaus was hiding something unusual about his sexuality. It may have been lewd and despicable or perhaps homosexual, he did not specify. Vladislaus may have been suspect simply because during his reign he did not marry. A group of Polish monks questioned Vladislav in Madeira and certified that indeed he had been King of Hungary and Poland. LADISLAUS the POSTHUMOUS (V. Laszlo 1444-1457) On February 22nd, 1440 Elizabeth of Luxembourg brought forth a child and it was a boy! They named him Ladislaus, the only son of Albert II, king of the Germans and son of Elizabeth of Luxembourg, daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund. He was born 4 months after the death of his father. By virtue of his birth he immediately became Duke of Austria and as such the head of the House of Habsburg. Ladislaus' mother had the Holy Crown of Hungary stolen from Visegrad (the boy was born in Komarom by the Danube, on the side which today belongs to Slovakia). Elizabeth took the crown with her to Wiener Neustadt in Austria and word-of-mouth stories relate the cause of the cross on top knocked askew because of the damage it suffered in transit. The 4-year-old Ladislaus was crowned in Szekesfehervar on May 15th, 1440. This makes the story very interesting, because his predecessor, Vladislaus, or U-Laszlo I, the U standing for "Utoszulott'',or Posthumous, was crowned on the same day at Visegrad. The question remains which of the two "kings" was crowned with St. Stephen's crown? Fortunately for us, we have an answer to this question. The Holy Crown had been kept and guarded in a virtual hole in the wall in a room-size safe together with the royal treasures in the fort at Visegrad. A Mrs. John Kottaner, lady-in-waiting to the queen mother Elizabeth made copious notes about her adventure in spiriting the crown with the help of an unnamed conspirator from Visegrad to Komarom where Elizabeth was about to give birth. She managed to break the lock to the Treasury in the middle of the night on February 21st, \1440 and hid the crown in a large red velvet pillow which she claimed was necessary for her long carriage ride the next day. Ladislaus was born the next day and via torturous routes Elizabeth smuggled the crown to Szekesfehervar where she had her son crowned with it on May 15, 1440. Still without the Holy Crown, the country's king-makers proceeded to crown Vladyslaus on the same day, May 15th, with a decorative crown knocked off the case which held St. Stephen's relic. On June 29th they declared the surreptitious crowning of Elizabeth's baby null and void. Elizabeth died in Gyor on December 17, 1442 never having given up her son's claim to the throne. Just to be safe, Elizabeth placed baby Ladislaus under the guardianship of the Habsburg Frederick V. Ladislaus was held in Schloss Ort as a virtual prisoner. Ladislaus would be adequately educated and prepared for rule by the priest Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, the future Pope II Pius who wrote a book on all Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 70 the subjects Ladislaus was supposed to study, including the languages of the countries he would rule, that is German, Latin, Czech and Hungarian. Other subjects were rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music, religion and military science. Copies of some of those books are still extant today. Upon the death of Vladislaus at the Battle of Varna on November 10th, 1444, a delegation of the nobles of Hungary came to have the child surrendered to them, together with the Holy Crown. Frederick refused both requests. In the king's absence John Hunyadi, whose name was commonplace because of his victories over the Turks in the Balkans, acted as Regent for the infant Ladislaus in Hungary. Both the Hungarian and the Austrian estates were unhappy and restless with Frederick's decision. Finally, in 1452, the Slovenian magnate Ulrich II, Count of Celje and cousin of the deceased Elizabeth, forced Frederick to surrender the child to him as his new guardian. When Ladislaus Posthumus turned 13, he was finally crowned King of Bohemia in 1453. Having been the virtual king of Hungary since November 10, 1444 (when the previous king died), he preferred living in Vienna and Prague. He and his guardian, Ulrich, remained indifferent to the threat of Turkish invasion and were antagonistic toward Governor Hunyadi. When Hunyadi died on August 11,1456 having contracted a disease in the battle of Nandorfehervar (today's Belgrade), King Ladislaus replaced him with Ulrich in the same position. One of Hunyadi's sons, Ladislaus (Laszlo), was implicated in the murder of Ulrich and was beheaded on March 16, 1457. The story of the legendary Hunyadis was put to music by Hungarian composer Ferenc Erkel in the 1844 opera Hunyadi Laszlo. Erkel was also the composer of Bank ban, to which we had already referred on page 38 in connection with the 1213 story of King Andrew II. Ultimately, Erkel's name is synonymous with Hungary' national anthem which he composed. The execution of Laszlo Hunyadi raised the level of hostility against the king and he fled to live in Prague for the rest of his life. He died in Prague on November 23, 1457 unmarried and without a child. Early rumors spoke about having been poisoned, but modern medical research suspects that he was suffering from leukemia which was not recognized as a disease in his time. He is buried in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. He was only 17years old. For their next king, Hungary elected Matthias Corvinus, brother of the martyred Laszlo Hunyadi. Before we present the next king, we must spend time with John Hunyadi, one of the leading figures in Hungarian history. JOHN HUNYADI (cca 1446-1456) John Hunyadi and his father, Vajk of Romanian noble ancestry, were involved in the warring contest between the two fractions supporting either Vladislaus (Ulaszlo) or the minor Ladislaus V. The Hunyadis were on the part of Ladislaus V and won their decisive victory in January, 1441. Vajk had resettled in 1409 from what was called Havasalfold, Wallachia, in today's Romania when he received as a reward for service to King Sigismund his first fortified village called Hunyadvar, later changed to Vajdahunyad, in Transylvania. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 80 John Hunyadi acquired his military skills while fighting the Ottoman Turks on the Southern borders of Hungary. Appointed governor (voivode) of Transylvania, he assumed responsibility for defense of the southern frontiers in 1441. Those battles against the Turks didn't always go well, but Hunyadi's bravery and military skills made him stand out in Hungarian history. His early defeats at Varna in 1444 and Kosovo in 1448 were soon supplanted by successes at Nandorfehervar (today's Belgrade) against the Turks led by the Sultan himself. He was popular among the lesser nobility and was appointed as one of the 7 "Captains of the Realm" for administrative affairs. The next Diet appointed Hunyadi as the sole regent with the title of governor. He resigned from that position in 1452, by which time he became one of the wealthiest landowners in the kingdom with 2.3 million hectares of land, 28 castles, 57 towns and about 1000 villages. But he used a substantial portion of his wealth to finance Hungary's wars against the Ottomans. No doubt, in 1457 his fame contributed to the election of his son, Matthias Corvinus as Hungary's next king. Later Hungarian historians were quick to bring him down one notch. Gaspar Heltai for example, invented the story that Hunyadi was the illegitimate son of King Sigismund of Luxembourg and Elizabeth Morzsinai, a virgin noblewoman of Cuman origin. In 1432 John Hunyadi married Erzsebet Szilagyi, a Hungarian noblewoman, and they had two children, Ladislaus and Matthias Corvinus. Ladislaus would be executed on King Ladislaus V's order for the alleged murder of Ulrich II of Celje, a relative of the king. Matthias, however, was elected king on January 20, 1458 upon King Ladislaus' death. There are documents to the effect that John Hunyadi was not only held in high regard by King Sigismund, but he served also as his money lender, as Sigismund was always short of funds. A loan agreement, for example, shows that Hunyadi lent Sigismund 1200 gold florins in 1434. - He was also a trusted adviser of King Ladislaus Posthumous. For his bravery in battle he was granted the captaincy of the fortress of Nandorfehervar (today's Belgrade) which he shared with Mihaly Ujlaki, featured in the later crucial battle of that fortress. With the limited military forces at his disposal, Hunyadi could still inflict major damage in the Turkish battle lines. One memorable campaign showed Hunyadi at the head of his troops as they occupied Sofia, defeating Sultan Murad, thus breaking the Turks' dominance over Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria and Albania. Turkish envoys of Murad offered him a 10-year truce. The representative of Pope Eugene IV, Cardinal Julian Cesarini, advised the Hungarian king that swearing to a document involving the infidels was invalid, and thus the king and Hunyadi swore to and signed a traitorous truce which the king had no intention of keeping. Disaster was sure to follow as we wrote about the Battle of Varna on Page 77. Multiple circumstances would ultimately cause the loss of the November 10, 1444 battle and the death of King Vladislaus. The Venetian fleet committed a traitorous act when they transported, reportedly for one gold florin per soldier, the Turks from across the Bosporus to Europe allowing them to advance to the Black Sea port of Varna. Initially Hunyadi enjoyed full command of his troops, but the impatient king assumed command, resulting in total wipeout at the hands of the Janissaries. Displaying the king's head on a pole caused disarray among the Hungarian troops who fled or were captured. Hunyadi barely escaped, only to be captured by Vlad Dracul of Wallachia, technically Hunyadi's ally. The Palatine of Hungary threatened Dracul to have Hunyadi released or else. With Hungary teetering on the verge of anarchy, the Diet elected Hunyadi on June 5, 1446 to the post of Regni Gubernator, or regent for the whole country. As one of his first acts, he marched against Vienna to Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 81 force German king Frederick Ill to release the infant Ladislaus V. When Frederick refused, Hunyadi went on a rampage in Styria and Carinthia, threatening Vienna. His efforts to sign an agreement with Frederick failed repeatedly. The list of his political enemies included Ulrich II of Celje who accused Hunyadi of attempting to overthrow the king, who was still a virtual prisoner of Frederick with the nominal guardianship of Ulrich. In this volatile atmosphere Hunyadi relinquished his title and position as regent. Nandorfehervar The Turks never gave up on their plans to conquer Hungary and reach Vienna. Standing in their way was the stronghold of Nandorfehervar's castle-fortress (today called Belgrade in Serbia). In the March 2009 issue of my correspondence "In translation", I wrote a story entitled "For whom the bells toll" about this memorable segment in Hungarian history, which I want to reproduce here. The American writer Ernest Hemingway's novel about the Spanish Civil War bears a similar title with one bell tolling. The Hungarian historian Laszlo Simon, on whose report my story is based, chose the title to illustrate the victory of Hungarian forces over the expanding Ottoman Empire at Nandorfehervar on July 23, 1456. The city where the big battle took place surfaces in Hungarian history of St. Stephen's time, when Magyar troops occupied the Byzantine city and gave its name, which translates to Nandor's White Castle. In 1453 the Turks crossed the Bosporus and occupied Byzantium, the rich capital of the Byzantine Empire (later called Constantinople and today Istanbul), in their march against the Christian West. Emperor Constantine was so confident in the fortifications of the city that he turned down the offer made by the Transylvanian Orban to adopt his invention of new artillery. Orban then made the offer to the Turkish Sultan who armed his forces with the new field guns and was successful in destroying Byzantium. This was a major blow to Christianity and Pope Nicholas V called for a crusade against the Moslem Turks. The Southern borders of Western culture followed the lower Danube river (see the illustration above). The gigantic task fell to the Hungarian kingdom to foil the Turkish invasion. In charge of the Christian forces was the legendary John Hunyadi. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 82 A week or two before the battle, Pope Callixtus Ill ordered to have all church bells rung at noon and to say the Angelus for the success of the Crusade to recover Constantinople. Pope Alexander VI issued a papal bull in 1500 connecting the tolling of bells at noon with the victory at Nandorfehervar. Answering the Pope's call to arms, Hunyadi began preparations, - mostly at his own expense. The Hungarian nobility was jealous of Hunyadi and reluctant to help him, fearing his power more than the Ottoman threat. The Turkish leader, Mehmet II assembled a force of 100,000 and was headed for the Hungarian border at Nandorfehervar, located at the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers. The fortress is on top of a 150 foot tall hill encompassing a territory 320 meters by 175 meters (960 ft x 525 ft). Three sides of the fort fell precipitously toward the rivers, but the southern exposure had a relatively easy access. To limit the access to invaders, they constructed two stone walls on this side, separated by a deep ravine and connected by a draw bridge. Against the Turkish armada Hunyadi could only muster about 25,30,000 men. Thanks mostly to the Franciscan friar Giovanni da Capistrano, who arrived in Hungary from Italy during 1455 and preached the message of crusade effectively among the peasants, who flocked to Hunyadi's banners (although ill-equipped with slings and scythes). At the beginning of the hostilities at Nandorfehervar, Hunyadi's brother-in-law, Mihaly Szilagyi and his own son Laszlo Hunyadi had only a force of 5-7,000 men in the castle. Mehmet set up his artillery and started the siege on July 4, 1456. It is interesting to consider that 500 years separate two fateful dates. One, in 1456, to rid Christianity of the threat posed by Moslems; the other, in 1956, Hungarians' struggle to rid themselves of the oppressive Soviet forces. The 1956 revolution broke out on October 23, the feast day of Saint John Capistran which may be a coincidence. John Capistran and John Hunyadi boarded the first segment of the crusaders on five ships and sailed down the Danube toward Nandorfehervar. Hunyadi, realizing the inadequacy of his forces against the Turks, stayed clear of a frontal attack on the enemy. (Perhaps he had memories haunting him of the battle at Varna.) The Turks had put together a fleet of some 200 ships, including 64 battle galleys with 3 rows of paddlers in each, and sealed off the Danube. Hunyadi sent a message to his brother-in-law Szilagyi at the fort to make his 40-some vessels ready and sail upriver toward the Turkish blockade. Arriving with his 5 boats above the Turkish armada, Hunyadi requisitioned all local fishing boats and transferred his forces to anything that floated. Stealthily approaching the Turkish vessels, the Hungarians smashed the paddles of the enemy ships and broke the chain holding the boats together, thus breaking the naval blockade and capturing 24 vessels. The rest of the Turkish boats, free of the chained restraints, floated down the Danube, only to be met by Szilagyi's 40 boats which did major damage in the Turkish river forces. Hunyadi was able to take much-needed food and other supplies to the besieged city. Mehmet ll's heavy artillery, after a week of heavy bombardment, managed to breach the fortress walls in several places. The Hungarians lighted some tarred wood and other flammables and threw them at the invaders. Some Turkish flags with a horse's tail began appearing on the walls. When one janissary nearly managed to pin the Sultan's flag on top of a bastion, a soldier by the name of Titus Dugovics, grabbed him and together they plunged to their death from the wall. This heroic scene is forever commemorated in Hungarian paintings. For his patriotism and valor, Hunyadi's son, King Matthias elevated the Dugovics family to nobility three years later. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 83 As the sun rose on July 22nd, the defenders were at the end of their strength and resilience. The attackers at the foot of the walls, were awaiting their orders to resume the attack, when the unexpected happened. Capistrano and some of his soldiers, including a group of archers, crossed the Sava river and from the narrow strip between the two rivers heckled the Turkish cavalry on the other side of the Danube. The Turks sent one wave of cavalrymen after another, but they were cut down by the arrows. Capistrano then, sensing a divine inspiration, raised his Cardinal's cross and at the head of his troops attacked the Ottoman forces from the rear. The unexpected direction of the attack threw the Turks off balance and they panicked. The Hungarians, capturing the artillery pieces, turned them against the Turks. The Sultan himself was wounded in the battle. The enemy withdrew and under cover of darkness abandoned their camp. Nandorfehervar was a complete victory not only for Hungarians but also for Christianity. In the ensuing 70 years the Turkish Sultans did not launch an attack against the West. The fort finally fell in 1521 to Sultan Suleyman, followed by a decisive battle against Hungary in 1526 at Mohacs. In the aftermath of the victorious battle, plague broke out in the Hungarian camp in which John Hunyadi himself died three weeks later on August 11,1456. He was buried in the Roman Catholic Cathedral at Alba lulia, formerly Gyulafehervar, now in Romania, next to his younger brother, also called John. - John Capistrano retired to a Hungarian Franciscan cloister where, at age 70 he died on October 23, 1456. Miracles began happening almost immediately at his grave. Following a roster of more than 400 such cases and an interminable investigation, Capistrano was finally canonized in 1690. Sultan Mehmet II paid Hunyadi a tribute: "Although he was my enemy I feel grief over his death, because the world has never seen such a man." And Pope Callixtus Ill reminisced: "The light of the world has passed away." For him, for John Capistrano and for all the brave souls at Nandorfehervar, let the bells toll every day at noon, forever. Following the death of John Hunyadi, King Ladislaus V appointed his uncle, Ulrich of Celje to the Regent's post which Hunyadi's son, Laszlo Hunyadi also coveted. As the king, accompanied by his Regent, entered Nandorfehervar to take over the fort, Ulrich was killed on November 9, 1456 and the king himself became Laszlo Hunyadi's prisoner. A month later the king appointed Hunyadi to the Regent's post and was given free passage to Buda. Laszlo was accompanied on this journey by his younger brother, Matthias, precisely a move which the elder Hunyadi had warned about, placing both Hunyadi boys within the grasp of the king. Soon, however, the king reversed himself and betraying Laszlo he had him arrested. Tried and falsely convicted of treason, he was beheaded on March 16, 1457 under tragic circumstances. The executioner's blade could not cut through Hunyadi's thick hair. By tradition, following three attempts the king had the option of giving the prisoner his freedom. Instead, in Hunyadi's case Ladislaus V gave the order to the executioner to strike again. This time the blade hit its mark. John Hunyadi's other son, Matthias was imprisoned in the castle of the Czech governor in Prague. King Ladislaus V died of the plague on November 23, 1457 in Prague. The Hunyadi supporter and brother-in- law Mihaly Szilagyi's forces coerced the kingmaker nobility to elect Matthias as Hungary's new king and paid off the Czech governor to free him from prison. Matthias Corvinus began his reign on February 14, 1458. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. Matthias Corvinus 84 ( MATTHIAS CORVINUS (Hunyadi Matyas 1458-1490) Born on February 23, 1443 in Kolozsvar, Transylvania (now Cluj-Napoca, Romania) he became king of Hungary and Croatia when he was only 14 King of Hungary and Croatia years old. During his successful lifetime he was made King of Bohemia as well, in addition to being Duke of Austria. Matthias spoke several of the leading tongues of his time. He was a true Renaissance leader, patron of arts and sciences, holding education and law as the focus of his reign. He was the second son of John Hunyadi, famed general and governor of Hungary, in whose military campaigns Matthias participated as early as 12 years of age. He was united in a pre-arranged marriage with Elizabeth of Celje, daughter of Ulrich II of Celje, who was for a time the guardian of the underage king Ladislaus V. Regrettably, Elizabeth died at age 15 in November of 1455, before the marriage could be consummated, leaving Matthias a widower at age 12. His life started among great controversy as several parties, including his brother, Laszlo Hunyadi, were vying for the Crown. On the transparent pretext in an imaginary conspiracy against King Ladislaus V, Matthias was condemned to death by decapitation, but spared death on account of his age. In November, 1457, eight months after Laszlo Hunyadi was beheaded, King Ladislaus V died of what we now understand was leukemia, but at the time they suspected poisoning. Matthias was taken hostage by George Podebrady, governor (and later king) of Bohemia, supposedly to keep him safe in Prague and nurturing him for eventual access to Hungary's throne. While in Podebrady's custody, Matthias was forcibly engaged to his daughter, Catherine. With King Ladislaus dead, the country needed a new king. The elector barons reasoned that Matthias would be easy prey in their hands, while the nobles were against the choice. The people feared of another foreign king when the Diet met to elect a king. Matthias' uncle Mihaly Szilagyi appeared on the scene with 15,000 veterans in tow to give Matthias support. On January 20th, 1458 forty-thousand people marched up the frozen Danube and unanimously proclaimed Matthias as their king. Matthias made his entry to Buda on February 14th, 1458 and began his reign. The new king was 14 years old at the time. Such a thing could not happen in the 21st century. The era and aura of Matthias Corvinus Matthias was without dynastic ancestry, so he had to establish himself merely on the strength of his personality and the value of his judgement. To start with, he heralded in a new judiciary era, some of it observed traveling among the people in guise. He strengthened the supremacy of the Parliament (Diet) and centralized in the hands of capable, educated individuals chosen by the king, reducing the power and influence of the feudal lords. At this time the country was being threatened by the Ottomans from the South, by Emperor Frederick Ill from the West, Casimir IV of Poland from the North and internal struggles with nobles threatening from within. Matthias, already engaged to George Podebrady's daughter Catherine, married her on May ( 1, 1461. Matthias demoted some of the most influential magnates in his government, levied a new tax Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 85 enabling him to establish a mercenary military, the so-called "Fekete Sereg", or Black Legion of about 25,000 men, answerable strictly to the King. His relations stabilized with the Bohemians through his father-in-law Podebrady, (who became the country's king) giving Matthias a free hand in turning his attention to Frederick Ill, forcing the Emperor to recognize Matthias as the sovereign of Hungary and returning the Holy Crown to Matthias in April 1462 against a payment of 60,000 golden ducats. Matthias turned against the Turks and chased Ali Pasha out of Bosnia, restoring Hungary's sovereignty in that region. Returning from the war, Matthias had himself crowned with the Holy Crown on March 24, 1464. Tragedy struck when, twenty-one days later the 15-year-old Queen Catherine died in childbirth. Her child was a stillborn son. Matthias was left without a wife and the throne without an heir. Matthias applied the time-tested method of the Romans on his obstructionist barons. "Divide et impera" - divide and conquer, he beat back his internal enemies and concentrated on expanding the realm to its largest extent from the present-day Bavaria to the west, Dalmatia to the south, parts of Carpathian Ukraine to the east and southwestern Poland to the north. Nevertheless, central Europe was about to undergo turbulent years, putting great strain on the Black Legion. Matthias was fortunate in his taxation policies which did not turn the population against him, despite the new levies raised because the king's economic policies created new jobs and a certain economic prosperity especially among the peasantry. He collected taxes (called "aids") from the cities annually and even dipped into the Church coffers which did not make many friends for him in those circles. State monopolies on gold, silver and salt mining as well as customs fees raised the State's income to over 1 million golden forints per year as much as the French and English kings could account for. Besides the constant threat of the Turks against Hungary's southern borders, the country had three "most wily" (Istvan Sisa's term in "The spirit of Hungary”) adversaries to contend with. They were the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Ill, the Czech Giskra and George Podebrady, King of Bohemia. The last one was the shrewdest of them all who would sign pacts with his neighbors while signing pacts with others against the rest of them. Podebrady was a Hussite whom Pope Paul II could not tolerate. In fact, in 1465 the Pope excommunicated Podebrady and ordered his neighboring leaders to depose him. This put Matthias in a difficult position, because of his personal relations with his father-in-law, the Bohemian leader, whom he was charged by the Pope to depose. Enjoying the good advice of Bishop (later Archbishop) John Vitez, a man of exceptional diplomatic talent, Matthias held his own against all three of his adversaries. Matthias first marched against the Czechs, capturing a number of fortresses, then offering Giskra 40,000 golden florins to disband his army, which the financially strapped Giskra accepted. In 1467 Matthias marched against Moldavia and lost the battle of Baia, then in 1468 he invaded Bohemia whose Catholics elected him as their king, effectively partitioning the country. But the election was nixed by contrary preferences of both the Pope and the Emperor. Matthias hit next upon Emperor Frederick, conquering Frederick's main fortresses, forcing the Emperor to sign a peace accord paying 400,000 florins to Matthias as war indemnity. The peace treaty also specified that in case Matthias should die without a male heir, either Frederick or his heir would succeed Matthias on the throne of Hungary. This would have disastrous consequences for Hungary in the future, opening the way (and not closing it for nearly 400 years) for the Habsburgs to rule Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 86 over Hungary. Matthias never imagined that he would not produce a male heir and signed the treaty without thinking of the consequences. In an attempt to satisfy the Pope's order to depose the Hussite king Podebrady, Matthias fought an extended and difficult campaign against his father-in-law ending in the Olmutz treaty of 1469, signed by both kings. Matthias was crowned king of Bohemia, Moravia, Silezia and Lausitz. In March, 1471 Podebrady suddenly died. The Poles, taking advantage of the new king of Bohemia, invaded Bohemia with 60,000 men, but could not stand up to Matthias' military and returned home. Matthias could bask in his new crown, but his private life, having lost two wives, left a lot to be desired. Visiting Breslau, his eyes fell upon the Mayor's daughter, 20 year old Barbara Krebs. Being of commoner blood, Barbara was not an eligible choice for a queen, so Matthias took her as his mistress with her father's consent. The romance bloomed for six years. She moved in with the king in Buda, living in secluded quarters and gave birth to a boy whom they christened Janos (John). Foreign policy and domestic matters In foreign policy Matthias was yet to face a period with serious consequences. The wily old Podebrady had devised a scheme before his death. It appears that upon Podebrady's death a 15-year-old boy named Wladislas, the son of the Polish king Casimir, was appointed king of Bohemia, not Matthias. Ten years of fighting at the cost of 2 1/2 million golden forints went for nothing. He remained king of Moravia, Silezia and Lausitz, but Matthias lost the crown of Bohemia. While in Breslau, Matthias received news of a conspiracy brewing against him on the home front. Some of the old aristocracy, including Archbishop John Vitez, the poet Ianus Pannonius, Miklos Ujlaki and others wanted to dethrone Matthias and replace him with the Polish king Casimir. In fact, Casimir was already en route to Hungary at the head of his troops. Matthias traveled at incredible speed from Breslau to Buda to surprise the conspirators in the midst of negotiations. Matthias chose a peaceful means of dealing with the masterminds by inviting each to private conferences, offering them high positions or estates, asking them to rally against an impending attack on Hungary by Polish forces. He then convened the national assembly and shamed them into giving Matthias their full support. Of the conspirators, Ianus Pannonium was sentenced to house arrest, while Archbishop Vitez died shortly thereafter. King Casimir and Matthias signed a 4-year peace treaty. At the end of the summer in 1474 Casimir, the new Polish king, assembled a united Polish-Czech army of 80,000, supported by Frederick Ill and marched on Breslau which was defended only by 8,000 of Matthias' men. Casimir was counting on a battle in an open field where he would have had an advantage, however, Matthias opted to stay within the fortified city. The defenders burnt everything the enemy could have used for food, virtually starving Casimir's forces which eventually sued for peace. Matthias rightfully was in a magnanimous mood because a delegation had returned from Italy with great news. Princess Beatrix of Aragonia, daughter of the Neapolitan king Ferdinand I of Naples, had accepted Matthias's proposal of marriage. The marriage of Beatrix and Matthias Corvinus took place in 1476 when the groom was 33 years of age. The splendid ceremony in Buda Castle was followed by a reception for 400 guests for whom a banquet was prepared using pure gold place settings. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 87 This differs sharply from another piece of news which reached Matthias in Breslau. Barbara Krebs decided to enter a convent. Her son's upbringing would now be in the hands of Elizabeth Szilagyi and later his education would be at the king's Court. Let me also share with you a quirky detail in the internal workings of the "King's Court." According to an ancient Hungarian custom, in case the queen survives (outlives) her king, she may remain queen by marrying the next king (unless he is already married). Indeed, there have been a few instances when there occurred two (or more) queens in the same royal house (or castle-) hold. Queen Beatrix, apparently, was already looking beyond Matthias' death (Istvan Sisa's term). Probably even more important and more urgent events forced Matthias to turn his attention to the Turkish threat. In 1479 a huge Ottoman army was ravaging Transylvania. Matthias saw this as a good opportunity to trap the Turks in the Carpathian mountains of Transylvania, which he did at Szaszvaros (modern Orastie) and annihilated it in a series of attacks. He also drove the Ottomans from Serbia and from most of Bosnia. But the Turks had a lot of soldiers to sacrifice. In 1480 they seized Otranto in the Kingdom of Naples, which begged for the Hungarian Black Legion's help. The name of Balazs Magyar, - an appropriate name for a "Magyar'' general,- stands out in the battle which liberated the kingdom from the Turks in 1481. The same year a rare opportunity arose for the Western European nations to deliver to the Ottomans when Sultan Mehmet II died, leading to a virtual civil war between his sons Bayezid and Cem. The latter fled to the Knights of Rhodes who kept him in custody in France. Matthias claimed the rights to have custody of Cem, being the Turk's nearest neighbor. He would have used such a valuable hostage to extort concessions from Bayezid. The problem, which embittered Matthias against the Pope, was that neither the Pope, nor the French would accept such a deal. In those days the Pope and his allies over whom he held the sword of Damocles in spiritual matters, carried substantial weight in making foreign policy decisions as well. Political expediencies sometimes lead to strange bedfellows. It appears that one of Matthias' second degree cousins, Vlad the Impaler, Prince of Wallachia, better known as Dracula had had some success fighting the Ottoman Turks, yet the two leaders had substantial differences, ending in the imprisonment of Vlad in Buda. The leaders of Western countries supported the Wallachian leader for his bravery against the heathen Turks and forced Matthias to gradually restore his freedom. Eventually he would end up marrying Matthias' cousin, Ilona Szilagyi. Vlad met his Maker (or more likely meeting the devil) when he was assassinated in Wallachia in 1476. The royal court of Matthias and Beatrix reflected the king's power and standing in 15th century Hungary. The country's population had reached 4 million, the same as contemporary England. The majority of 77% were ethnic Hungarians. Austria in those days, together with Bohemia and Silesia, had 5.5 million people. Matthias' hopes for an heir remained unfulfilled. His natural son, John, was educated at the Court and given the title of Duke, - which Beatrix resented. In fact, the relations between King and Queen poisoned the atmosphere, while matters of foreign policy kept deteriorating with Frederick Ill trying to gain headway in Hungary for the Habsburg dynasty, and the Turks increasing pressure on Hungary. As mentioned above, the Turks marched into Transylvania, fighting the forces of governor (voivode) lstvan Bathory. When Matthias came to the aid of Bathory, fortunes turned around and the Turks lost 30,000 men at Kenyermezo. The hero of the victory was the Hungarian General PaI Kinizsi, a physical giant who was able to raise a millstone in one hand while sounding off his stentorian voice heard throughout the valley. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 88 In fact, Kinizsi became the terror of the Turks when he was seen riding into battle brandishing a sword in each hand. As contemporary historians chuckled to say that Kinizsi was afraid of one person, Benigna, his wife, a petite woman half his size. Matthias came close to fulfilling his dream of taking the place of Frederick Ill as Holy Roman Emperor. In a series of battles Matthias bested Frederick by taking several Austrian cities, ultimately coming to the top prize: Vienna. He marched into Vienna in great pomp and circumstance on June 1, 1485 and made that city his capital. His dream, though, would not become reality, for the Emperor designated his son Maximilian as his heir, - and the German Dukes agreed to it. Matthias was just about at the top of his game, except for the fact that he had still not been able to secure a grand position for John, his illegitimate son. Queen Beatrice fiercely opposed the idea. Matthias, having been crippled long by gout, died on April 6, 1490 at age 47 in Vienna. The Italian Renaissance in 15th century Hungary. Italian Renaissance came on the bridal coach of Queen Beatrix. The young Leonardo da Vinci met Matthias in 1485, when da Vinci painted a Madonna for the king's Summer Palace in Visegrad. Writing on the painter's visit with the Royals, da Vinci reported on the customs of the Hungarian Court. The king loved paintings and maps of the known world and loved astronomical instruments made for him by visiting scientist. His famous library, the Bibliothequa Corviniana, was only second in size to the Vatican library. Matthias was exceptionally intelligent as he was fluent in Hungarian, Italian, German, Greek, Latin, Rumanian and Bohemian. In addition, this cultured and autocratic king was the finest sportsman of his country, excelling in horsemanship and undefeated champion of the Continent in lance-thrust. I could best illustrate the presence of Italian Renaissance by referring to an article in Istvan Sisa's book (The spirit of Hungary, p. 65). The following excerpts and commentaries by Hungarian historian Geza lstvanyi describe the magnificence of Matthias' Renaissance court: "Matthias was a master at framing his Renaissance personality in suitably lavish forms. Triumphal processions and colorful ceremonies followed his victories, accompanied meetings with other leaders and his own marriage. His Court at Buda was richer than that of the Italian princelings of the day. Matthias finished the building of the Royal Palace which had been started in the time of Sigismund. The building itself was unchanged from the original plans, but the decorations showed the colors of the Renaissance. There were plenty of palmettas, dolphins, pillars and rosettes. The rooms had finely carved doors, bronze candelabras and white marble fountains. The floors were covered with Florentine carpets. A legion of artists, native and foreign found constant employment." Foreign ambassadors wrote enthusiastically of the festivals and ceremonies; Court musicians came from Italy and Burgundy and the choir in the Royal Chapel aroused the admiration of the envoy of the Holy See. But the character of the Court was given by the humanists. Great scholars often accompanied the king to battles so that he could converse with them en route. It was one of those scholars, Antonio Bonfini, who gave the king his surname of Corvinus, after which his library, containing some 500 volumes of codices, is also named. *** Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 89 Matthias was popular in spite of having raised the taxes mostly on the peasantry and they sustained the king's lavish lifestyle. His Black Army cost a lot of money, but it gained respect for the Hungarian monarch. Following the king's death, the army went marauding across the country and created a lot of conflict within the population. In 1486 Matthias introduced a new Code of justice to insure that everyone received equal justice. Matthias' favorite way of tracking public opinion was to sneak out of the Palace dressed incognito and by dawn the country would recognize him as the king who meted out immediate punishment for wrongdoing. Songs and stories attest to his evenhanded justice, which, after his death created the saying: "Meghalt Matyas kiraly, oda az igazsag!" (King Matthias has died, justice is gone). One of the most memorable folk tales about Matthias' justice is about the Sheriff of Kolozsvar. The sheriff in question was notorious for abusing his authority by forcing the poor folks to cut and saw firewood for him without paying compensation for the work. One day Matthias was walking the streets in disguise, when the sheriff spotted the stranger and ordered him to split wood in the public square. The king did just that, but carved his initials (M R = Matthias Rex) into each piece. The following day the King made an official visit to Kolozsvar on horseback. Replying to the king's question as to how things were going, the sheriff assured the king that he is conducting business according to law. The king then had the cut logs brought out and pointed to the initials to the sheriff as evidence of abusing the people. The sheriff recognized the misdeed and begged the king for mercy. Matthias had the sheriff severely punished. My personal favorite is a little-known story by the Hungarian novelist Kalman Mikszath, which reflects somewhat coquettishly on King Matthias' predilection for the feminine physique. A remnant from my high school Hungarian literature classes, the memory of this particular story came to haunt me, until Denes Szechy, dear classmate of mine from Budapest finally found itunder the title "Szelistyei Asszonyok" (Women of Szelistye). The king gets word of the exceptional qualities of the product of this village and is anxious to pass personal judgement on the visual treasure that this place is holding under cover. The Court announces a "contest" among the best-looking women of Szelistye, a Hungarian village. Szelistye is to send a delegation of three of its citizens to pass "muster" whether the village can rightfully claim the title to its product of beauty. The three representatives are selected and sent to the Court in Buda where the king reviews the offering and puts his talent at passing judgement to good use. With each one Matthias finds the right tone of voice but his eyes get caught on the third lady who has exceptionally beautiful, long hair. He leads the conversation toward his wish to touch the bounty on top of the pretty lady's head. Trying to bargain with the woman, he coaxes her to say that a couple of acres of farm land would be nice to have, but is inaccessible for her because of the cost. Matthias finds an easy solution: he would donate as much land to her as much hair, laid end-to-end, could encircle it. The woman from Szelistye, doubting the validity of the offer, wants to know how would the measuring be done? The king says we would have to count each one of her tresses. But how can we trust that the count is accurate? Matthias has an answer for that, too. He says he would do it himself, because there is no one else that she could trust, except the king. Mikszath had a unique writing style and I am truly sorry that it could not be accurately translated from flavorful Hungarian to English. But the spirit of the story is readily transparent and believable. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 90 The image of "Matthias the Just" developed on legends and stories collected in the early 16th century copied into the so-called Gyongyos Codex and in Gaspar Heltai's chronicles published in 1575, presenting Matthias as the king always on the side of the poor, the oppressed and his portrait greatly improved with the passage of time. There was, however, a different side of the king. The picture became prettier and prettier in the memory of future generations. Since Matthias and Beatrix had no natural children of their own, Matthias nominated John Corvinius, his natural-born son as his heir. There seems to be sufficient evidence to suggest that Beatrix artificially prevented her own fertilization because she was aspiring to become Queen of Hungary after Matthias's death. Additionally, there were two other aspirants to the throne: the Czech king, Wladislas Jagello II (since 1471) and Miksa Habsburg, Holy Roman Emperor since 1486. We'll recall that the agreement between Matthias and Sigismund called for the Habsburg succession in case the Hunyadi-branch died out without a male heir. The Hungarian titled families were also hoping that the Habsburgs would be better able to provide military aid against the Ottoman threat than the Jagellos. As we will find out later, however, when the Turks opened an overall attack against Hungary, the Germans showed no interest in helping the country. Matthias also declared the right for himself to adjudicate the legal and financial matters between the Hungarian State and the Holy See. In 1484 Johann Beckensloer, Archbishop of Esztergom defected from Hungary and fled to Emperor Frederick. Matthias' response was to declare the Archbishopry of Esztergom vacant, assigning it to the 17-year-old John of Aragon, brother of Queen Beatrix. Following the installation of the young product of nepotism, John of Aragon died. Beatrix then pleaded with Matthias to grant the seat to Hippolit, the merely 7-year-old Prince of Ferrara. Pope Vince VIII preferred someone else, so Matthias struck an agreement with the Vatican and had Hippolit appointed (by now being 10years old) as the fiscal administrator of the Esztergom Archbishopry. This resulted in the flow of church revenues to the family of Beatrix. Not to belabor the point, I will finish this chapter on King Matthias the Just by taking excerpts from Chapter II of historian C.A. Macartney's book, entitled: Hungary, a short history, pp 58-59. In the first years (of his reign), the nation was prepared to accept extraordinary financial burden to redeem the Holy Crown, rid Northern Hungary of the Czechs and secure its defenses against the Turks. But Matthias let himself be drawn into an ever-widening circle of campaigns in Bohemia, Austria and in pursuit of the Bohemian Crown. He succeeded in acquiring the Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia as well as having forced Frederick to cede him Lower Austria and Styria. The taxes he collected to finance these campaigns left insufficient funds for the Turks, which were lined up on Hungary's southern borders. He could count on n either the Bohemians, nor the princes of Austria. As the only source that remained was the Holy See. Soon the Hungarians saw no profit in Matthias' wars. The Turks raided the southern borders in 1474 and 1476. Some of the Hungarian leadership conspired to set the Polish king Casimir on the throne. The next year Casimir actually crossed the Carpathians at the head of an army. Although Casimir failed in achieving his objective, “it cannot be said that in his lifetime Matthias was ever beloved as Stephen I or Louis the Great had been." Matyas/Matthias, was on his way to meet with Maximilian of Austria to sign an agreement whereby he would have his illegitimate son, John, marry Maximilian's daughter; Matthias would give back Austria and Styria to Maximilian and make him recognize John as Hungary' sovereign. On May 6, 1490, Matthias died suddenly and the whole house of cards collapsed. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 91 THE 15TH CENTURY Matthias Corvinus was called Hungary's Renaissance king. It is fascinating to consider the vigor and scope with which the Renaissance movement in art, architecture, literature and music had taken over Europe. The era's beginning is customarily traced to the fall of Constantinople in 1453, which, in my view, more aptly points to the end of the Byzantine Empire rather than the beginning of the Renaissance era. The Turks gave the cultural impetus to flee from the Bosporus toward the West, with significant stops in Italy (Leonardo da Vinci being one of its greatest proponents), then on to Germany, France and Spain. But there was an intermediate cultural period which nearly bypassed Hungary and that was the Gothic period. The Goths were vandals of Germanic origin from the Baltic area who destroyed much of the classical architecture of the Romans and exhibited new designs in architecture from the late 1300s to the 16th century. The Gothic characteristic was the pointed style, the religious edifices featuring towers, spires and pinnacles, ornate interior and exterior and rose windows. In Hungary the style is manifested in the (Matthias) Coronation church in the castle area of Buda, and also in the expanded segments of the Esztergom basilica and the royal castle at Visegrad. Much of the subsequent Gothic architecture would be destroyed by the 145 year occupation by Ottoman Turks. As discussed in the chapter about King Matthias' rule, Renaissance came to Hungary with his Italian bride, Beatrix. The royal palace, started in the time of King Sigismund, was now finished featuring decorations in the colors of the Renaissance. A legion of artists, native and foreign, found constant employment beautifying Matthias' royal residence. The 15th century ushered in the early modern period, encouraging learning, education, exploration. In the third decade of the century the Hussite wars (propagated by the reformer Jan Huss) broke out in Bohemia and the Western Schism split the Roman papacy in two, eventually giving rise to the Protestant Reformation in the upcoming 16th century. With the Hundred Year War ongoing in Western Europe, the peasant girl turned military commander turned the tide with her victory at the Siege of Orleans in 1429. (The legendary Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for alleged heresy just two years later.) One of the sad results of the exploration of other continents was the establishment of the slave trade. In 1441 Portuguese navigators shipped West African slaves to Portugal. - The fate of Byzantium was saved for a while by the Mongol conqueror Tamerlane, a descendant of Genghis Khan. But in 1451 Mohammed II ascended the Turkish throne and sealed the fate of the Byzantine Empire. The seemingly unstoppable advance of the Ottomans into Europe was stopped at Nandorfehervar (today's Belgrade) in 1456 by Hungarian forces led by John Hunyadi. The Pope ordered the ringing of noontime church bells in commemoration. Matthias Corvinus was elected king of Hungary in 1458. He established his dominance on the backs of a mercenary army called the Black Legion, and captured Vienna, the ultimate prize in 1485. On the other side of the Continent a struggle was brewing between the rival York and Lancaster families of England's Edward Ill. The red and white rose badges worn by the combatants lends its name to the Wars of the Roses between 1455 and 1485. Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas in 1492. Born in Genoa, Italy in 1451, he had bold plans to reach India by sailing Westward from Spain, where he found monetary backing by Ferdinand and Isabella, co-rulers of Spain. On his first expedition on board the Santa Maria he reached the Bahamas and on Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 92 subsequent voyages he ventured into the Caribbean and the South American mainland. World maps had to be redrawn. It fell to the Portuguese Bartolomeu Dias and later to Vasco de Gama to sail around the Cape of Good Hope and reach India at the end of the century. DeGama established the trail known as the "Silk trail" for spices and goods. Other explorers of the century include John Cabot who discovered Newfoundland for England in 1497; and Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512), an Italian who sailed for Spain, exploring the east coast of South America. One of the fascinating success stories which changed the world is connected with the name of Johannes Gutenberg, German printer who is credited with the invention of the movable type. His best known work is the so-called 42- line Gutenberg Bible, printed in 1455. Although the concept of movable type was first invented in China by Bi Sheng in the 11th century, it was Johannes Gutenberg who advanced the printing press in Europe. The world of art was made richer by the Italian painter Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), and Albrecht Durer (14711528), a German whose name, translated into Hungarian (Dorer = Ajtos) gave rise to the suspicion that he was a "magyar''. Jan van Eyck, a Dutchman, was considered one of the best painters of the 15th century (died early 1441). The outstanding artistic figure of the century was Leonardo da Vinci (1452- 1519), painter, sculptor and architect who is well known and recognized for his painting of "the Last Supper'' (1498) on the refectory wall of Santa Maria delle Grazie church in Milan. He enlisted in the service of the influential Borgia family in Florence where he worked with Michelangelo. In 1504 he completed his easel painting "Mona Lisa", exhibited in the Louvre. As for music, the outstanding 15th century figure is Josquin Desprez (1440-1521), born in Northern France. He was a distinguished singer in various cathedrals in Milan and Rome, then served in the court of Louis XII of France where he composed masses and motets. One of his portraits was painted by Leonardo da Vinci. Josquin Desprez is considered to be the greatest composer of the high Renaissance. His work also appears to flow from the instrument we call the harpsichord, newly invented around 1450. There had been earlier traces of a similar instrument, such as the psaltry, which was a stringed instrument in the zither family from 1397. Reference could be found to the harpsichord in the writings of a jurist in Padua who wrote that a certain Hermann Poll claimed to have invented an instrument called the "clavicembalum" but the true inventor of this instrument remains unidentified. Since the sounding of a musical instrument with a keyboard was already in existence for the organ, the insight needed by the inventor was to pluck strings mechanically (not directly by human fingers) controlled by a keyboard. Among other notable contributions to science is the Royal Prussian (Polish) Nicolaus Copernicus (born in 1473) who stands out. It is probably too early to list him in the 15th century as a major contributor, but the effect of his theory literally changed people's minds, including that of the Catholic Church. Copernicus was a mathematician and astronomer who formulated a heliocentric model of the universe, placing the sun, rather than the earth, at its center. His definitive book "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" was published just before his death in 1543. Among the notorious notables of the time were two families: the Medicis and the Borgias. The Cambridge Paperback Encyclopedia gives the following description of the latter: Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 93 Borgia is an ancient family in the Spanish province of Valencia. Rodrigo Borgia (1431-1503) became Pope as Alexander VI (and conducted an unbecoming career}. Two of his children became especially notorious. Cesare Borgia (1476-1507} was a brilliant general and administrator serving the Papacy. He succeeded his brother whom he may have murdered. Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519} was married three times by her father, the Pope. She finally became the wife of Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara. Despite her involvement in vices, she was a patroness of learning and art. The Medicis were a banking family which virtually ruled Florence from 1434 to 1494 without holding any official duty. They would be overthrown by the republic in 1494, but ultimately became hereditary dukes of Florence. The most famous Medici was Lorenzo who was a clever statesman who lived lavishly. He was also a patron of writers, artists, scientists under whose rule Florence became one of the most beautiful and prosperous Italian cities. Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498} was a forerunner of the reformer Martin Luther. Born into a noble family he entered the Dominican order in Bologna. He was a spellbinding speaker and his sermons on sinfulness and apostasy were greatly popular. He preached against corruption in Florence, the excesses of the Medici family and even the Papacy and Pope Borgia, in particular. Savonarola succeeded in reforming Florence by repressing vice and frivolity. Gambling was outlawed and vanities of dress were looked upon as sinful. He claimed the gift of prophecy for which he was ordered to appear in Rome. Savonarola disregarded the order resulting in his excommunication and trial. Under torture he admitted some wrong, but was found guilty and hanged and burned together with two of his Dominican disciples. Elsewhere in the world, construction of the Chinese Forbidden City was completed in Beijing in 1420; Machu Picchu was constructed in the 1450s in Peru; Moldavian forces under Stephen the Great defeated the Tatars of the Golden Horde in 1470; and the Spanish Inquisition began in practice in 1481. On the American hemisphere there was quite a bit of progress made even before the arrival of the Europeans. The Aztec Indians of Mexico founded Tenochtitlan in 1325 as their capital, achieving architectural brilliance in their building technique. Their religion, however, required many human sacrifices. The Maya Indians in Central America also reached a high standard of architecture by 700 A.D. but were in decline by the 15th century. The Inca Indians of Peru established an empire in the Andes mountains and numbered about 7 million people. They, too, were fine architects and road-builders. Bridging the 14th and 15th centuries in Eastern Europe was the Jagiellon dynasty of Poland. VLADISLAUS II (II. Ulaszlo, 1490-1516} Son of Polish King Casimir IV of the Jagiellon dynasty, and his wife Elizabeth of Austria, daughter of Albert who at one time bore the crowned title to the Hungarian throne as well. Vladislaus, born in 1456, was only 15 when he was confronted by the Bohemian wars, a conflict over the Bohemian throne, and he could not control the situation. Finally, his advisers worked out a "deal" in the Peace of Olomouc, which allowed both Vladislaus and Matthias Corvinus to use the royal title by splitting the countries among them. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 94 The peace treaty also stipulated that in case of Matthias' death Vladislaus would pay 400,000 gulden for regaining power over the whole of Bohemia. However, when Vladislaus became Hungary's king he did not make such a payment. Chaos was nearly complete in Hungary when Matthias died. The nobility would not recognize his illegitimate son John, so the king-makers discovered a Hungarian line in Vladislaus' mother as the granddaughter of King Sigismund. It is to his credit, though, that Vladislaus moved to Hungary immediately after his coronation and he lived there for the rest of his life. Vladislaus was married three times. First, in 1476 when he was 20 years old, he married Barbara of Brandenburg. After she died, he married Beatrix, the widow of Matthias. After her death Vladislaus married the 18 year old Anne of Foix-Candale. By this time the king was 46 years old, but managed to have two surviving legitimate children, a daughter named Anne and a boy who would be known as Louis II of Hungary. The Queen died four years after giving a difficult birth to her son, Louis. Weighed down by tragedy, Vladislaus was a depressed man, nearly neglecting his official duties. Because he answered any request with the Polish "dobre", or "Yes", he would be called Dobzse Laszlo by all who served him. Vladislaus died shortly after his 60th birthday in March of 1516 in Buda. He had made certain that his son by his third wife Anne, would be his successor. He had the boy crowned and so, when Vladislaus died, the 10-year-old boy would step into his place as Louis II. Predictably, royal power declined under Vladislaus in favour of the Hungarian magnates. The upper classes, to their detriment and shame, used their power to curtail whatever freedoms the peasants had. This would result in the inevitable revolution led by Gyorgy Dozsa. The Dozsa revolt We had mentioned above that the king's weak and reluctant control of the nobility eventually resulted in more suffering for the peasant class, further reducing their economic and social position. The leader of a peasant revolt stemming from the bitterness of this class was a soldier of fortune, - some accounts claim that he was a nobleman from Transylvania, - by the name of Gyorgy Ddzsa. He was born in today's Romania in 1470 and died of execution in 1514. In the course of history he became a hero of the peasant class, especially during the post-WWII Communist era. When NYNEX, the company I had worked for before retirement, transferred me to Hungary in 1990-92, my office was situated on Gyorgy Dozsa Avenue in Budapest, opposite the base of the statue of Joseph Stalin which was destroyed in the 1956 Hungarian revolution. Dozsa was a recognized fighter against the Ottoman Empire. When the Holy See authorized the Hungarian chancellor, Tamas Bakocz, to launch a crusade against the Turks, Bakocz appointed Dozsa to organize the movement, partially financed by the Vatican. Dozsa went to work and within a few weeks he was able to put together an "army" of some 100,000 fighters they called "kuruc". The army consisted of adventureseekers mostly from the lower strata of society, including peasants, students and priests and friars eager to beat up on the Turks. This rag-tag army, however, was left without provisions for food and clothing while the decision to proceed with the crusade lingered. As harvest-time approached, their landlords demanded that they return to the fields to work which they refused to do. Instead, all the wrong-doings of the landed gentry came to the surface and the rebellious peasants turned with vengeance against the Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved. 95 landlords. Hundreds of manor houses and castles were burned and many gentry killed by cruel methods. Dozsa lost control of his army. The Pope got cold feet and revoked his bull to launch a crusade. King Vladislaus II issued a proclamation commanding the peasantry to return to their homes or face death. Dozsa's army managed to take the city of Arad and Vilagos (where the 1848 revolution would sadly end), but in the end the armies of John Zapolya and Istvan Bathory (names of noble men in Hungarian history) subdued the revolt, capturing Dozsa and executing him in a horrible manner by forcing him to sit on a smoldering iron throne with a hot crown on his head. His followers, including his brother, were cut up in full view of Dozsa. All together some 70,000 peasants were tortured and they would never participate as a class against the invasion of the Turks. The newly formed Diet (Parliament) under Istvan Werboczy brought new and harsher laws against the peasantry while enhancing the status of the nobility. The verbiage of the dictum reflects the bitterness between Hungarian classes as the Diet condemned the peasantry to "real and perpetual servitude." Hungary was sadly and permanently divided by these events and when the 1526 Turkish victory at Mohacs killed off the best of its nobles on the battlefield, the future of Hungary would be in doubt until the 1848 revolution which resulted in the abolition of serfdom. LOUIS II (II. Lajos, 1516-1526) Upon the death of his father, Louis II ascended the throne of Hungary and subsequently was crowned king of Bohemia and Croatia as well. His sister, Anne, who was older, was married in 1515 to Archduke Ferdinand, the future emperor Ferdinand of Austria, a grandson of Emperor Maximilian I. The reason I brought this up is historically significant for Hungary, since with the eventual death of Louis II, royal succession would percolate through her to the Habsburgs. Louis was raised by his legal guardian and cousin, George, Margrave of Brandenberg-Ansbach. In 1515, the same year that his sister married, the nine-year-old Louis was married to Mary of Austria, granddaughter of Emperor Maximilian I. When Louis stepped up to the throne, Suleiman, the Turkish sultan sent an ambassador to Buda Castle to collect a previously agreed-to annual tribute. Louis refused to pay it. Instead, he had the ambassador executed and his head sent to the Sultan while hoping that the Papal States and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, would back him up. This did not happen. Hungary's coffers were empty, his military underpaid or not paid at all, fortresses in disrepair, with no help from his neighbors, the country was defenseless when Suleiman appeared on the plains of Mohacs in southern Hungary on August 29, 1526. Copyright 2013. Jules S. Vallay. All rights reserved.