Kingdom of Hungary
The
Kingdom of Hungary (
Hungarian:
Magyar Királyság,
Latin:
Regnum Hungariae,
German:
Königreich Ungarn,
Slovak:
Uhorské kráľovstvo,
Polish:
Królestwo Węgier,
Croatian and
Serbian:
Kraljevina Ugarska or
Краљевина Угарска,
Romanian:
Regatul Ungariei) is the name of a kingdom that existed in Central Europe from
1000 to
1918. It arose in present-day western
Hungary and subsequently spread to remaining present-day Hungary, to
Transylvania (in present-day
Romania),
Slovakia,
Carpatho-Ukraine,
Vojvodina (in present-day
Serbia) and other smaller nearby territories. It existed in
personal union with the Kingdom of
Croatia from 1102 until 1918 under the name
Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen.
The term "Kingdom of Hungary" is often used to denote this long-lasting multiethnic configuration of territories in order to draw a clear distinction with the modern Hungarian state, which is significantly smaller and more ethnically homogeneous. Prior to and in the
19th century, the term
Hungarian in English and other languages often referred to any inhabitant of this state, regardless of his or her ethnicity.
The Latin terms
"natio Hungarica" and
"Hungarus" referred to all noblemen of the kingdom. A
Hungarus-consciousness (loyalty and patriotism above ethnic origins) existed among any inhabitant of this state, however according to
István Werbőczy's
Tripartitum Natio Hungarica or Hungarus were only the privileged noblemen, subjects of the Holy Crown regardless of ethnicity.
Magyars tend to emphasise the continuity of the Hungarian state and consider the Kingdom of Hungary one phase of its historical development. The idea of continuity is reflected in national symbols and holidays and in the official commemoration of the millennium of the Hungarian statehood in 2000. According to their point of view the Kingdom of Hungary was primarily a country of the
Magyar people not denying the presence and importance of other nationalities.
The state was ruled by the kings of Hungary, the bearers of the
Holy Crown of St. Stephen. The first kings of the Kingdom were from the
Árpád dynasty. In the early
14th century, this dynasty was replaced by the
Angevins, and later the
Jagiellonians as well as several non-dynastic rulers, notably
Sigismund Luxemburg and
Matthias Corvinus.
At the
Battle of Mohács in
1526, the Hungarian army was defeated by the forces of the
Ottoman Empire, and
King Louis II of Hungary was killed. Under the Ottoman attacks the central authority collapsed and a struggle for power broke out. The majority of Hungary's ruling elite elected
John Zápolya (10 November 1526). A small minority of aristocrats sided with
Ferdinand of Habsburg who was Archduke of
Austria and tied to Louis's family by marriage, as King of Hungary; there had been previous agreements that the Habsburgs would take the Hungarian throne if Louis died without heirs, as he did. Ferdinand was elected king by a rump diet in December 1526. On 29 February 1528, King John I of Hungary received the support of the Ottoman Sultan.
A three-sided conflict ensued as Ferdinand moved to assert his rule over as much of the Hungarian kingdom as he could. By 1529 the kingdom had been split into two parts: Habsburg Hungary and "eastern-Kingdom of Hungary". At this time there were no Ottomans on Hungarian territories, except Srem's important castles. By 1541, the fall of Buda marked a further division of Hungary, in three parts and remained so until the end of the
17th century. Although the borders were changing very frequently during this period, the three parts can be identified more or less as follows:
* Present-day
Slovakia, north-western
Transdanubia,
Burgenland, western Croatia, and adjacent territories were under Habsburg rule. This area was referred to as
Royal Hungary, and though it nominally remained a separate state, it was administered more or less as part of the Habsburgs'
Austrian holdings, to which it was immediately adjacent. This was the continuation of the Kingdom of Hungary.
|
Map of the counties in the Kingdom of Hungary around 1880 |
* The
Great Alföld (i.e. most of present-day Hungary, incl. south-eastern Transdanubia and the
Banat), partly without north-eastern present-day Hungary, became part of the
Ottoman Empire.
* The remaining territory became the newly independent principality of
Transylvania, under Zápolya's family. Transylvania was a
vassal state of the Ottoman Empire.
After a failed Ottoman invasion of Austria in
1683, the Habsburgs went on the offensive against the Turks; by the end of the 17th century, they had managed to conquer the remainder of the historical Kingdom of Hungary and the principality of Transylvania. At this point, the
Royal Hungary terminology was dropped, and the area was once again referred to as the
Kingdom of Hungary, although it was still administered as a part of the Habsburg realm. In the 18th century, the Kingdom of Hungary had its own Diet (parliament) and constitution, but the members of the Governor's Council
(Helytartótanács, the office of the
palatine) were appointed by the Habsburg monarch, and the superior economic institution, the
Hungarian Chamber, was directly subordinated to the
Court Chamber in
Vienna. The
official language of the Kingdom of Hungary remained
Latin until 1844.
See also: History of SlovakiaIn
1867, following the
Ausgleich, the Habsburg Empire became the so-called "dual monarchy" of
Austria-Hungary. The historic Kingdom of Hungary was granted considerable internal autonomy and a share in the operation of the Empire as a whole. This arrangement was to last until
1918, when on the one hand the non-Magyar peoples of the Kingdom of Hungary joined new or neighbouring states (
Czechoslovakia,
Romania, and the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes), and on the other Hungarians declared a Hungarian
republic (within the old boundaries of the kingdom) as the
Central Powers went down in defeat in
World War I. This is generally seen as the end of the state that is referred to as the
Kingdom of Hungary.
|
Location and rough map of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1914 |
Beset by a series of internal revolutions and occupied by the Entente and Romanian troops, Hungary was forced to accept the radical reduction in the territorial extent of the previous kingdom laid out by the
Treaty of Trianon in
1920. However, it should be noted that
Kingdom of Hungary was also the formal name of the Hungarian state that existed largely on the territory of present Hungary from
21 March 1920 until
21 December 1944. This state (which was also commonly referred to as the
Hungarian Kingdom) was conceived of as a "kingdom without a king," since there was no consensus on either who should take the throne of Hungary, or what form of government should replace the monarchy. The kingdom was ruled in this period by
Miklós Horthy, who had the title of
regent. Hungary became a republic on
1 February 1946.
*
List of Hungarian rulers*
Nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary*
Administrative divisions of the Kingdom of Hungary*
Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary)*
History of Hungary*
Croatia in the union with Hungary*
History of Slovakia*
Transylvania*
Hungary in the Encyclopadia Britannica (1911)*
Atlas and gazetteer of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1914
