The
Kingdom of Hungary (short form:
Hungary), emerged in 1000, when the
Principality of Hungary, founded in
896, was recognized as a Kingdom.
The form of government was changed from
Monarchy to Republic briefly in 1918 and again in 1946, ending the
Kingdom and creating the Republic of Hungary
. During most of its history, it was a
considerable state in Central Europe, including, besides Hungary
proper and
Transylvania,
Croatia-Slavonia and a territory known as the
Military Frontier.Aldásy, Antal.
"Hungary",
The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York:
Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 17 Apr. 2009
/www.newadvent.org/cathen/07547a.htm>.
Names
In the late Middle Ages, the Latin terms "
Natio Hungarica"
and "
Hungarus" referred to all of the population, as
loyalty and patriotism towards the crown existed among all
inhabitants, regardless of ethnic origins. However, according to
István Werbőczy's
Tripartitum, the
"Natio Hungarica"
referred only to the privileged noblemen (regardless of ethnicity),
as subjects of the
Holy Crown of
Hungary
The
Latin (Regnum meaning kingdom);
Regnum Marianum (Kingdom of
St. Mary); or simply
Hungaria was the form used in
official documents from the beginning of the kingdom to the
1840s.
The
German name ( ) was used from
1849 to the 1860s, and the
Hungarian name ( ) was used in the 1840s,
and again from the 1860s to 1918.
The names in other languages of the
kingdom were: , , Croatian:
Kraljevina Ugarska, , , , Italian (for the city of Fiume
), Regno
d'Ungheria.
In
Austria-Hungary (1867-1918), the
unofficial name
Transleithania was sometimes used to
denote the regions covered by the Kingdom of Hungary. Officially,
the term
Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint
Stephen was included for the Hungarian part of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, although this term was also in use prior
to that time.
Hungary in 1190, during Béla III's
rule.
History
Early History
From
9 BC to the end of the
4th century,
Pannonia
was part of the
Roman Empire on a part
of later Hungary's area. In the final stages of the expansion of
the Roman empire, the Carpathian Basin fell for a while into the
sphere of the Mediterranean, Greco-Roman civilization - town
centers, paved roads, and written sources were all part of the
advances which the Migration of Peoples ended.
Among the first to arrive were the
Huns, who
built up a powerful empire under
Attila
the Hun. Attila was regarded as an ancestral ruler of the
Hungarians, however, this claim is
rejected today by the most scholars. After Hunnish rule faded away,
the Germanic
Ostrogoths and then the
Lombards came to Pannonia, and the
Gepids had a presence in the eastern part of the
Carpathian Basin for about 100
years. In the 560s the
Avars founded
the
Avar Khaganate, a state which
maintained supremacy in the region for more than two centuries and
had the military power to launch attacks against all its
neighbours. The Avar Khaganate was weakened by constant wars and
outside pressure and finally the Avars' 250 year rule ended when
the Khaganate was conquered by the
Franks
under
Charlemagne in the West and the
Bulgarians under
Krum
in the East. Neither of these two nor others were able to create a
lasting state in the region until the freshly unified
Hungarians led by
Árpád settled in the
Carpathian Basin starting in 895. The force
led by Árpád is estimated at about 400,000 people, consisting of
seven Hungarian tribes, one Kabar tribe, and other smaller
tribes.
The
Kingdom of Hungary consisted of present-day Hungary
, Transylvania (in present-day Romania
), Slovakia
, Carpatho
Ruthenia
(in
present-day Ukraine
), Vojvodina
(in present-day Serbia
), Burgenland
(in present-day Austria
), Slavonia
, Dalmatia (in present day
Croatia
), and other
smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's
borders.
Despite
the interruption caused by the Mongol invasion of 1241,
Transylvania evolved during the following centuries into a
distinctive autonomous unit within the Hungarian kingdom, with its
special voivode (or governor), its united, although heterogeneous,
leadership (descended from Szekler, Saxon, and Magyar colonists), and its own
constitution until 1526
when it
effectively became independent.
The Kingdom of Croatia and Kingdom of Slavonia, and later
Croatia-Slavonia had autonomy witin the Kingdom of Hungary's crown
from 1091-1918.
The Árpád dynasty
The first kings of the Kingdom were from the
Árpád dynasty, and the first
Christian
King was
Stephen I of Hungary who was
canonized as a
Catholic saint.
He fought
against Koppány and in 998, with
Bavarian
help, defeated him near Veszprém
.
The Roman Catholic Church received powerful support from Stephen I,
who with Christian
Hungarians and German
knights wanted a Christian kingdom established in
Central Europe. It was he who created the
Hungarian heavy cavalry as an example for Western European
powers.
After his death, a period of revolts and conflict for supremacy
ensued between the royalty and the nobles.
In 1051 armies of the
Holy Roman Empire tried to conquer
Hungary, but they were defeated at Vértes mountain.
However, they were beaten more times; the second greatest battle
was at
Pozsony in 1052. Before 1052 Peter
Orseolo, a supporter of the
Holy Roman
Empire, was overthrown by king
Samuel Aba of Hungary.
The second greatest Hungarian king, also from the Árpád dynasty,
was
Ladislaus I of Hungary,
who stabilized and strengthened the kingdom. He was also canonized
as a saint. Under his rule
Hungarians
successfully fought against the Cumans and conquered
Croatia in 1091. After
Ladislaus, the next famous king of the Árpád dynasty was
Coloman of Hungary, who conquered
Dalmatia. In 1222
Andrew II of
Hungary issued the
Golden bull which
laid down the principles of law.
Mongol invasion
In 1241,
Hungary was invaded by the Mongols and while
the first minor battles ended in Hungarian victories, the Mongols
finally destroyed the Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohi
.
The
Mongols attacked Hungary with three armies, one of them through
Poland in order to withhold possible Polish
auxiliaries,
and defeated the army of Duke Henry
II the Pious of Silesia at the Legnica. A southern army attacked
Transylvania defeating the
voivod and crushing the Transylvanian Hungarian
army. The main army led by
Khan Batu and
Subutai attacked Hungary through the
fortified Verecke Pass and annihilated the army led by the
count Palatine on
March 12,
1241..
Despite the appearance of the Mongol invasion having been a
surprise attack, the
Hungarians had
known, from various sources, that the
Mongols were coming. Notable heralds of the oncoming
invasion include the
Friar Julian
group, which warned the king about impending invasion it had
established contact with
Magna
Hungaria and saw the aftermath of the destruction of both the
Magna Hungaria and
Volga Bulgaria
earlier in the 13th century.
In 1242, after the end of the
Mongol
invasion, numerous fortresses to defend against future invasion
were erected by
Béla IV of
Hungary. In gratitude, the
Hungarians
acclaimed him as the "Second Founder of the Homeland", and the
Hungarian Kingdom again became a considerable force in Europe.
In 1260
Béla IV lost the War of Babenberg
Succession, his army was defeated at Battle of Kressenbrunn by the united
Czech troops, however after in 1278, Ladislaus IV of Hungary and Austrian
troops fully destroyed the Czech army at Battle on the
Marchfeld
.
In 1301, with the death of
Andrew
III of Hungary, the Árpád dynasty died out. The dynasty was
replaced by the
Angevins, followed by the
Jagiellonians, and then by several
non-dynastic rulers, notably
Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor
and
Matthias Corvinus.
The first Angevin king was
Charles
I of Hungary, who implemented considerable economic reforms,
and defeated the remaining opposition to royal rule by the
nobility, led by
Máté Csák.
Louis I the Great succeeded him.
Louis I met with success on the battlefield when he defended the
Hungarian Kingdom from new attacks by lesser Mongol forces in the
latter half of the 14th century.
The Hunyadi family
The Hungarian kingdom's golden age was during the reign of
Matthias Corvinus, the son of
John Hunyadi. His nickname was "Matthias the
Just", but it is only legend. He further improved the Hungarian
economy and practised astute diplomacy in place of military action
whenever possible. Matthias did undertake campaigning when
necessary. In 1485, aiming to limit the influence and meddling of
the Holy Roman Empire in Hungary's affairs, he occupied Vienna for
5 years. After his death,
Vladislaus II of Hungary of the
Jagiellonians was placed on the
Hungarian throne.
At the time of the initial Ottoman encroachment, the Hungarians
successfully resisted conquest.
John
Hunyadi was leader of the
Long
Campaign in which the
Hungarians
tried to expel the Turks from the Balkans; early on it was
successful, but finally they had to withdraw. In 1456
John Hunyadi, the father of Matthias Corvinus,
delivered a crushing defeat on the Ottomans at the
Siege of Belgrade. The
Noon bell commemorates the fallen Christian
warriors. In the 15th century, the
Black Army of Hungary was a formidable
modern mercenary army, with the
hussars the
most skilled troops of the
Hungarian
cavalry.
In 1479, under the leadership of Pál Kinizsi, the Hungarian army destroyed
the Ottoman and Wallachian troops at the Battle of
Breadfield
. The Army of Hungary destroyed its enemies
almost every time when Matthias was the king.
In 1526,
at the Battle of
Mohács
, the forces of the Ottoman Empire annihilated the Hungarian
army, and in trying to escape Louis
II of Hungary drowned in the Csele Creek. The leader of
the Hungarian army,
Pál Tomori, also
died in the battle.
Ottoman occupation
Due to Ottoman pressure, central authority collapsed and a struggle
for power broke out. The majority of Hungary's ruling elite elected
János Szapolyai (10 November
1526).
A
small minority of aristocrats sided with Ferdinand I, Holy Roman
Emperor, who was Archduke of Austria, and was related to Louis by marriage. Due
to previous agreements that the
Habsburgs would take the Hungarian throne
if Louis died without heirs, 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 the
"eastern-Kingdom of Hungary". At this time there were no Ottomans
on Hungarian territories, except Srem's important castles.
In 1532,
Nikola Jurišić defended
Kőszeg
and stopped
a powerful Ottoman army. By 1541, the fall of Buda
marked a
further division of Hungary into three areas. Even with a
decisive 1552 victory over the Ottomans at the
Siege of Eger, which raised the hopes of the
Hungarians, the country remained divided
until the end of the 17th century. The heroes' memory continues to
live in a famous poem written by
Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos,
Summáját írom Eger várának ("I am writing the history of
Eger's castle").
Although the borders shifted frequently during this period, the
three parts can be identified, more or less, as follows:
- Royal Hungary, which consisted of
northern and western territories where Ferdinand I was recognized
as king of Hungary. This part is viewed as defining the continuity
of the Kingdom of Hungary. The territory along with Ottoman Hungary
suffered greatly from the nearly constant wars taking place.
Map of the counties in the Kingdom of
Hungary around 1880
- Ottoman Hungary The Great Alföld (i.e. most of present-day
Hungary, including south-eastern Transdanubia and the Banat), partly without north-eastern present-day
Hungary.
In the following centuries there were numerous attempts to push
back the
Ottoman forces, such as the
Long War or Thirteen Years' War (July 29,
1593 - 1604/November 11, 1606) led by a coalition of Christian
forces.
In 1644 the Winter Campaign by Miklós Zrínyi burnt the crucial Suleiman
Bridge of Osijek
in eastern
Slavonia, interrupting a Turkish supply line in Hungary.
At the
Battle of
Saint Gotthard 
, Austrians and Hungarians defeated the Turkish
army.
After the Ottoman invasion of Austria failed in 1683, the Habsburgs
went on the offensive against the Turks. By the end of the 17th
century, they managed to conquer the remainder of the historical
Kingdom of Hungary and the principality of Transylvania. For a
while in 1686, the capital
Buda was again free,
with European help.
After the departure of the Ottomans, the Habsburgs dominated the
Hungarian Kingdom. The Hungarians' renewed desire for freedom led
to
Rákóczi's
War for Independence. The most important reasons of the war
were the new and higher taxes and a renewed Protestant movement.
Rákóczi was a Hungarian nobleman, son of the legendary heroine
Ilona Zrínyi, who was a
Ruler of Transylvania
and spent a part of his youth in Austrian captivity. The
Kurucs were troops of Rákóczi. Initially, the
Kuruc army attained several important victories due to
their superior light cavalry. Their weapons were mostly pistols,
light sabre and
fokos. At the
Battle of Saint
Gotthard ,
János Bottyán
decisively defeated the Austrian army. The famous Hungarian colonel
Ádám Balogh nearly captured
Joseph I, the King of Hungary and Emperor
of Austria.
In 1708, the Habsburgs finally defeated the main Hungarian army at
Battle of Trencsén, and this
diminished the further effectiveness of the Kuruc army. While the
Hungarians were exhausted by the fights,
the
Austrians defeated the French army in
the
War of the Spanish
Succession.
They could send more troops to Hungary against the
rebels. Transylvania became part of Hungary again
starting at the end of the 17th century, and was led by
governors.
History between 1711 and 1920
The next
ruler of Hungary was the
Austrian Emperor Charles
VI. From this time on, the designation
Royal
Hungary was abandoned, and the area was once again referred to
as the
Kingdom of Hungary.
Throughout 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
Hungarian Language reform started under reign of
Joseph II.
The reform age of Hungary was started
by István Széchenyi a
Hungarian noble, who built one of the greatest bridges of Hungary, the
Széchenyi
Chain Bridge
.
The
official language remained
Latin until 1844. Then, between 1844 and 1849,
and from 1867,
Hungarian became
the official language.
The European revolutions of 1848 swept Hungary as well. The
Hungarian Revolution of
1848 sought to redress the long suppressed desire for political
change, namely independence. The
Hungarian National Guard was
created by young Hungarian patriots in 1848. In literature, this
was best expressed by the greatest poet of the Revolution,
Sándor Petőfi. One of the most
famous battles was in 1848 September 29, at the
Battle of Pákozd. When Serbs attacked
the
Hungarians in the south in 1848, a
great general called Ernő Kiss stopped a three Serbian regiments
with only 72 hussar.
As war broke out with Austria, Hungarian military successes, which
included the brilliant campaigns of the great Hungarian general,
Artúr Görgey, forced the
Austrians on the defensive. Fearing defeat, the Austrians pleaded
for Russian help, which, combined with Austrian forces, quelled the
revolution. The desired political changes of 1848 were again
suppressed until
Austro-Hungarian Compromise
of 1867.
Following the
Austro-Hungarian Compromise
of 1867, the Habsburg Empire became the "dual monarchy" of
Austria-Hungary.
The Austro-Hungarian economy changed dramatically during the
existence of the Dual Monarchy. Technological change accelerated
industrialization and urbanization. The capitalist way of
production spread throughout the Empire during its fifty-year
existence and obsolete medieval institutions continued to
disappear. By the early 20th century, most of the Empire began to
experience rapid economic growth. The GNP per capita grew roughly
1.45% per year from 1870 to 1913. That level of growth compared
very favorably to that of other European nations such as Britain
(1.00%), France (1.06%), and Germany (1.51%).
The Kingdom of Hungary (into which Transylvania was fully
incorporated, while Croatia-Slavonia maintained a distinct identity
and a certain internal autonomy within the Kingdom of Hungary), was
granted equal status with the rest of the Habsburg monarchy. Each
of the two states comprising Austria-Hungary exercised considerable
independence, with certain institutions, notably the reigning
house, defence, foreign affairs, and finances for common
expenditures, remaining under joint management. This arrangement
lasted until 1918, when the
Central
Powers went down in defeat in
World War
I.
The new borders set in 1920 by the
Treaty of Trianon ceded 72% of the
historically Hungarian territory of the Kingdom of Hungary to the
neighbouring states.
The beneficiaries were Romania, the newly formed states of
Czechoslovakia
, and the Kingdom of
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
.This left more than 3.5 million ethnic
Hungarians outside the new borders,
contrary to the terms laid out by US President
Woodrow Wilson's
Fourteen Points, which were intended to
honour the ethnic makeup of the territories.
The interwar period
After the pullout of occupation forces of
Romania in 1920 the country went into
civil conflict, with Hungarian
anti-communists and
monarchists purging the nation of communists,
leftists and others by whom they felt threatened.Later in 1920, a
coalition of right-wing political forces united, and reinstated
Hungary's status as a constitutional monarchy. Selection of the new
King was delayed due to civil infighting, and a regent was
appointed to represent the monarchy. Former Austro-Hungarian navy
admiral
Miklós Horthy became that
regent. New international borders separated
Hungary's industrial base from its sources of raw materials and its
former markets for agricultural and industrial products. Hungary
lost 84% of its timber resources, 43% of its arable land, and 83%
of its iron ore. Furthermore, post-Trianon Hungary possessed 90% of
the engineering and printing industry of the Kingdom, while only
11% of
timber and 16%
iron was retained. In addition, 61% of
arable land, 74% of public road, 65% of canals,
62% of
railroads, 64% of hard surface
roads, 83% of
pig iron output, 55% of
industrial plants, 100% of gold, silver, copper, mercury and salt
mines, and 67% of credit and banking institutions of the prewar
Kingdom of Hungary lay within the territory of Hungary's
neighbors.
Because most of the country's pre-war industry was concentrated
near Budapest, Hungary retained about 51% of its industrial
population, 56% of its industry. Horthy appointed Count
Pál Teleki as Prime Minister in July 1920.
His government issued a
numerus
clausus law, limiting admission of "political insecure
elements" (these were often Jews) to universities and, in order to
quiet rural discontent, took initial steps towards fulfilling a
promise of major land reform by dividing about
3,850 km
2 from the largest estates into
smallholdings. Teleki's government resigned, however, after
Charles IV unsuccessfully
attempted to retake Hungary's throne in March 1921. King Charles's
return produced split parties between conservatives who favored a
Habsburg restoration and nationalist right-wing radicals who
supported election of a Hungarian king. Count István Bethlen, a
non-affiliated right-wing member of the parliament, took advantage
of this rift forming a new Party of Unity under his leadership.
Horthy then appointed Bethlen prime minister. Charles IV died soon
after he failed a second time to reclaim the throne in October
1921. (For more detail on Charles's attempts to retake the throne,
see
Charles
IV of Hungary's conflict with Miklós Horthy.)As prime
minister, Bethlen dominated Hungarian politics between 1921 and
1931. He fashioned a political machine by amending the electoral
law, providing jobs in the expanding bureaucracy to his supporters,
and manipulating elections in rural areas. Bethlen restored order
to the country by giving the radical counterrevolutionaries payoffs
and government jobs in exchange for ceasing their campaign of
terror against Jews and leftists. In 1921, he made a deal with the
Social Democrats and trade unions (called Bethlen-Peyer Pact),
agreeing, among other things, to legalize their activities and free
political prisoners in return for their pledge to refrain from
spreading
anti-Hungarian propaganda,
calling political strikes, and organizing the peasantry.
Bethlen
brought Hungary into the League of
Nations in 1922 and out of international isolation by signing a
treaty of friendship with Italy
in
1927. The revision of the Treaty of Trianon rose to the top
of Hungary's political agenda and the strategy employed by Bethlen
consisted by strengthening the economy and building relations with
stronger nations. Revision of the treaty had such a broad backing
in Hungary that Bethlen used it, at least in part, to deflect
criticism of his economic, social, and political policies.The
Great Depression induced a drop in
the standard of living and the political mood of the country
shifted further toward the right. In 1932 Horthy appointed a new
prime-minister,
Gyula Gömbös,
who changed the course of Hungarian policy towards closer
cooperation with Germany.
Gömbös signed a trade agreement with Germany that drew Hungary's
economy out of depression but made Hungary dependent on the German
economy for both raw materials and markets. On 2 November 1938, the
First Vienna Award transferred
parts of
Southern Slovakia and
Carpathian Ruthenia to Hungary, an area amounting to
11,927 km² and a population of 869,299 (86.5% of which were
Hungarians according to the 1941 census). Between 5 November and 10
November, Hungarian armed forces peacefully occupied the newly
transferred territories. Hitler later promised to transfer all of
Slovakia to Hungary in exchange for a military alliance, but his
offer was rejected. Instead, Horthy chose to pursue a territorial
revision to be decided along ethnic lines. In March 1939, the
Czecho-Slovak Republic was dissolved,
Germany invaded it, and
the
Protectorate of
Bohemia and Moravia was established. On 14 March,
Slovakia declared itself to be
an independent state. On 15 March,
Carpatho-Ukraine declared itself to be an
independent state. Hungary rejected the independence of
Carpatho-Ukraine and, between 14 March and 18 March, Hungarian
armed forces occupied the rest of Carpathian Ruthenia and ousted
the government of
Avgustyn
Voloshyn. By contrast, Hungary recognized the nazi
puppet state of Slovakia led by the
Clerical Fascist Jozef Tiso. In September 1940, with troops
massing on both sides of the Hungarian-Romanian border, war was
averted by the
Second Vienna
Award. This award transferred the northern half of
Transylvania to Hungary, with a total area of
43,492 km² and a total population of 2,578,100 with a 53.5%
Hungarian majority according to the 1941 census. By dividing
Transylvania between Romania and Hungary, Hitler was able to ease
tensions in Hungary. In October 1940, the Germans initiated a
reciprocity policy between Romania and Hungary which was continued
until the end of World War II.
The region of Sub-Carpathia
was given special autonomous status with the
intention that (eventually) it would be self governed by the
Ruthenian minority.
During World War II 1941-1945
After being granted part of southern Czechoslovakia and
Subcarpathia by the Germans and Italians in the
First Vienna Treaty of 1938, and then
northern Transylvania in the
Second
Vienna Treaty of 1940, Hungary participated in their first
military maneuvers on the side of the Axis powers in 1941. Thus,
Hungarian army was part of the
invasion of Yugoslavia, gaining some
more territory and joining the
Axis powers in the process).
On June
22, 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union
in Operation
Barbarossa. Hungary joined the German effort and
declared war on the Soviet Union on June 26, and entered
World War II on the side of the Axis. In late
1941, the Hungarian troops on the Eastern Front experienced success
at the
Battle of Uman. By 1943, after
the
Hungarian Second Army
suffered extremely heavy losses at the river Don, the Hungarian
government sought to negotiate a surrender with the Allies. On
March 19, 1944, as a result of this duplicity, German troops
occupied Hungary in what was known as
Operation Margarethe. By then it was
clear that Hungarian politics would be suppressed according to
Hitler's intention to hold the country in the war on the side of
the Nazi Third Reich because of its strategic location. On October
15,
1944, Horthy made a token effort to
disengage Hungary from the war. The Germans launched
Operation Panzerfaust and Horthy was
replaced by a puppet government under the pro-German Prime Minister
Ferenc Szálasi, thus effectively
ending the possibility for independent actions in the war. However,
the form of Government was only changed to a republic two years
later.
Transitioning into Republic
Following
its occupation of Hungary
in 1944, the Soviet
Union imposed harsh conditions allowing it to seize
important material assets and control internal affairs.
After the
Red Army set up police organs to
persecute class enemies, the Soviets assumed that the impoverished
Hungarian populace would support the communists in the coming
elections. The communists faired poorly, receiving only 17% of the
vote, resulting in a
coalition
government under Prime Minister
Zoltán Tildy. Soviet intervention,
however, resulted in a government that disregarded Tildy, placed
communists in important ministries, and imposed restrictive and
repressive measures, including banning the victorious
Independent
Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party. In 1945, Soviet
Marshal Kliment Voroshilov forced the freely
elected Hungarian government to yield the Interior Ministry to a
nominee of the
Hungarian
Communist Party. Communist Interior Minister
László Rajk established the
ÁVH secret police, which
suppressed political opposition through intimidation, false
accusations, imprisonment and torture. In 1946 the form of
government was changed to a republic. Soon after the monarchy was
finally abolished, the Soviet Union pressed Hungarian leader
Mátyás Rákosi to take a
"line of more pronounced class struggle." What emerged was a
communist state lasting until October 1989 when the Communists
agreed to give up their monopoly on power, paving the way for
free elections in
March 1990. In today's free Republic, the Kingdom is regarded
as one long stage in the development of the state. This sense of
continuity is reflected in the republic's national symbols such as
the
Holy Crown of Hungary and
the
Coat of arms of Hungary,
which are the same as when the form of government was still a
monarchy.
Several holidays, the official language
Hungarian, and the capital city
Budapest
are also shared by the country as they were when
the form of government was still a monarchy, and the short form of
the country's name in Hungarian (Magyarország) is the same
as when the form of government was still a monarchy. The
millennium of Hungarian statehood was commemorated in 2000 and
codified by the Millennium Act of 2000.
Coat of Arms
The following are a few examples of the Coat of Arms, used over the
centuries:
 |
The most ancient element of the coat of arms is the double
cross. For a long time, it was thought to be the symbol of the
apostolic Kingdom of Hungary. The most accepted theory is that it
derives from Byzantine influence,
as the cross appeared around 1190 during the reign of King Béla III, who was raised in the Byzantine
court. |
 |
The red and white stripes were the symbol of the Árpáds, and they were first used in the
coat of arms in 1202 on a seal of King
Imre. This seal did not include
the double cross, only the stripes, and there were nine lion on the white stripes. |
 |
The coat of arms with the stripes on the right and the cross on
the hills on the left appeared during the reign of Lajos I of Hungary (1342-1382). The crown
above the coat of arms appeared during the reign of Ulászló I of Hungary
(1440-1444). At first it was only a non-specific diadem but on the
1464 seal of Matthias Corvinus it
resembled the Holy Crown of
Hungary more. |
 |
During the Revolution
and War of Independence in 1848-49, following the dethroning of
the Habsburg dynasty on 14 April 1849, the Holy Crown was removed from the coat of arms.
The remaining small coat of arms is usually referred to as the
"Kossuth Coat of Arms" ( ) after Lajos
Kossuth, Regent-President of Hungary. |
|
The coat of Arms of the today's Republic of Hungary, adopted in
1990 even though a Republic, the coat features the Holy Crown of Hungary, a key symbol of
Hungary. The current coat of arms of Hungary was adopted
on July 3, 1990, after
the end of the Communist
regime. The arms have been used before, both with and
without the Holy Crown of Hungary, sometimes as part of a larger,
more complex coat of arms, and many of its elements date back to
the Middle Ages. |
Kingdom of Hungary
|
Official Name
|
| en: Lands of the
Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen----hu: A magyar Szent Korona
országai----de: Die Länder
der heiligen ungarischen Stephanskrone |
See also
References
- The Avar Khaganate
- Magyar (Hungarian) migration, 9th century
- http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Ladislaus+I
- http://www.thefreedictionary.com/croatia
- http://www.csongrad-megye.hu/turizmus/szoborpark/03.htm
-
http://www.sulinet.hu/oroksegtar/data/100_falu/Feldebro/pages/003_aba.htm
- Saunders, J. J. (1971). The History of the Mongol
Conquests, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. ISBN
0-8122-1766-7
-
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/603323/Transylvania
-
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Grand+Principality+of+Transylvania
- Molnar, A Concise History of Hungary, p. 262 online
- Richard C. Frucht, Eastern Europe: An Introduction to the
People, Lands, and Culture p. 359-360 online
- Flood-light on Europe: a guide to the next war By Felix Wittmer
Published by C. Scribner's sons, 1937 Item notes: pt. 443 Original
from Indiana University Digitized Nov 13, 2008 p. 114
- History of the Hungarian Nation By Domokos G. Kosáry, Steven
Béla Várdy, Danubian Research Center Published by Danubian Press,
1969 Original from the University of California Digitized Jun 19,
2008 p. 222
- The European powers in the First World War: an encyclopedia By
Spencer Tucker, Laura Matysek Wood, Justin D. Murphy Edition:
illustrated Published by Taylor & Francis, 1996 ISBN
0815303998, 9780815303992 p.697 [1]
- Thomas, The Royal Hungarian Army in World War II, pg.
11
- Slovakia - US State Department
- Norton, Donald H. (2002). Essentials of European History:
1935 to the Present, p. 47. REA: Piscataway, New Jersey. ISBN
0-87891-711-X.
- UN General Assembly Special Committee on the Problem of
Hungary (1957)
- Text of the Millennium Act
- Peter Revay: Commentarius De Sacra Regni Hungariae
Corona, "Commentary on the Kingdom of the Holy Crown of
Hungary" 1613.
- Peter Revay: "About the state of Hungary and the Holy Hungarian
Crown( of St. Stephen)", 1613
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