Wesselenyi conspiracy
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The Wesselényi conspiracy, also known as the Magnate conspiracy, was a 17th century attempt to throw off Habsburg and other foreign influences over Hungary. The attempted coup was caused by the unpopular Peace of Vasvár, struck between Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I and the Ottoman Empire, Hungary's neighbours. The poorly organized attempt at revolt gave the Habsburg throne reason to clamp down on religious and political freedom. It was named after Ferenc Wesselényi, a Hungarian noble (or magnate).
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[edit] Causes
- Main articles: Kingdom of Hungary, Royal Hungary
The expansion of the Ottoman Empire into Europe began in the middle of the 14th century leading to confrontation with both Serbia and the Byzantine Empire and culminating in the defeat of both nations in, respectively, the Battle of Kosovo (1389) and the Fall of Constantinople (1453). This expansionist policy eventually brought them into conflict with the Habsburgs a number of times during the 16th and 17th centuries.[1] After the 1526 Battle of Mohács, the Kingdom of Hungary was conquered; by the end of the 1500s, it was split into what has become known as the Tripartite — the Habsburg-ruled Royal Hungary to the north, the Ottoman -ruled pashaluk to the south, and Transylvania to the east. A difficult balancing act played itself out as supporters of the Habsburgs battled supporters of the Ottomans in a series of civil wars and wars of independence.[2]
By September of 1656, the stalemate between the two great powers of Eastern Europe began to shift as the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV with the aid of his Grand Vizier Köprülü Mehmed Pasha set about reforming the Ottoman military and preparing it for larger conflict. These changes made it possible for the Sultan to invade and conquer the Transylvanian-held areas of Hungary in May of 1660. The ensuing battles killed the Transylvanian ruler George II Rákóczi. Following a fairly easy victory there, the Ottomans directed their large army towards portions of Royal Hungary.
The invasion of the Transylvanian state and Habsburg territory upset the balance in the region. These moves drew in Habsburg forces under Leopold I. Although initially reticent to commit forces and cause an outright war between the Habsburgs and the Ottomans, by 1661 he had sent some 15,000 of his soldiers under his field marshal Raimondo Montecuccoli. Despite this intervention, the Ottoman invasion of Hungary had not slowed.[3] In response, by 1662 Montecuccoli had been given another 15,000 soldiers and had taken up positions in Hungary. Adding to this force was an army of native Hungarians led by a Croatian noble named Miklos Zrinyi. Montecuccoli also had additional German support thanks to the diplomatic efforts of the Hungarian magnate Ferenc Wesselényi.
By late 1663 and early 1664, this coalition had not only taken back Ottoman-conquered land, but had also cut off Ottoman supply lines and captured several Ottoman-held fortresses within Hungary. On August 1, 1664, the combined "Christian" armies of Hungary and the Habsburgs won a decisive victory against the Ottomans in the Battle of Saint Gotthard.
Following this clash, many Hungarians assumed that the combined forces would continue their offensive to fully remove the Ottomans from Hungarian lands.[4] However, Leopold was more concerned with events unfolding Habsburg Spain, and the brewing conflict that would come to be known as the War of the Spanish Succession. Leopold saw no need to continue combat on his Eastern front when he could return the region to balance and concentrate on potential conflict with France over the rights to the Spanish throne. Moreover, the Ottomans would have been able to commit more troops within the year, and a prolonged struggle with the Ottomans was a risk for Leopold. In order to end the Ottoman issue quickly, he signed what has come to be known as the Peace of Vasvár.
Despite the common victory , the treaty was largely a gain for the Ottomans. Its text, which inflamed Hungary's nobles, stated that the Habsburgs would recognize the Ottoman-controlled Michael I Apafi as ruler of Transylvania, and that Leopold would pay 200,000 German florins to the Ottomans each year for the promise of a 20 year truce. While Vasvár did allow Leopold to concentrate on the issues in Spain, it kept the Hungarians split between two empires. Moreover, it left many Hungarian magnates feeling as if the Habsburgs had pushed them aside at their one opportunity for independence and security from Ottoman advances.[5] In response, a number of nobles decided that they would physically remove foreign influence on Hungary.
[edit] Unfolding
One of the primary leaders of the conspiracy would have been Miklos Zrinyi, the Hungarian noble who had led the native forces alongside the Habsburg commander Montecuccoli. By then, Zrinyi had begun to plan a Hungary free of outside influence and with a population protected by the state rather than used by it. He hoped to create a united army with Croatian and Transylvanian support to free Hungary.[4] However, he died within months during a struggle with a wild boar on a hunting trip; this left the revolt in the hands of Miklos Zrinyi's younger brother Peter as well as Ferenc Wesselényi.
The conspirators, led by Wesselényi, hoped to gain foreign aid in their attempts to not only free Hungary but also to overthrow the Habsburgs. The conspirators entered into secret negotiations with a number of nations — including France, Sweden, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Republic of Venice —, in an attempt to gain support. Wesselényi and his fellow magnates even made overtures to the Ottomans offering all of Hungary in return for the semblance of self-rule after the Habsburgs had been removed; nevertheless, no state wanted to intervene. The Sultan, like Leopold, had no interest in renewed conflict — in fact, his court informed Leopold of the attempts being made by the conspirators in 1666.
While the warnings from the Sultan's court cemented the matter, Leopold already suspected the Wesselényi conspiracy — the Austrians had informants inside the group of nobles, and had heard from several sources of their wide-ranging and almost desperate attempts to gain foreign and domestic aid. However, no action was taken because Wesselényi and his fellow conspirators had made little traction and were bound by inaction. Leopold seems to have considered their actions as only half-hearted schemes that were never truly serious.[5] The conspirators invented a number of plots that they never followed through with, including the November 1667 plot to kidnap Emperor Leopold that failed to materialize.
After yet another failed attempt for foreign aid from the pasha of Buda, Zrinyi and several other conspirators turned themselves in. However, Leopold was content to grant them freedom to gain support from the Hungarian people. No action was taken until 1670 when the remaining conspirators began circulating pamphlets inciting violence against the Emperor and calling for invasion by the Ottoman Empire. They also called for an uprising of the Protestant minority within Royal Hungary. When the conspiracy's ideals began to gain some support within Hungary, the official reaction was swift. In March of 1670 the leaders of the group, including Wesselényi, were arrested and executed; some 2,000 nobles were arrested as part of a mass crackdown (many of the lesser nobles had had no part in the events, but Leopold aimed to prevent similar revolts in the future).
Persecution was also inflicted on Hungarian commoners, as Habsburg soldiers moved in and secured the region. Protestant churches were burned to the ground in a show of force against any uprisings. Leopold ordered all Hungarian organic laws suspended, in retaliation for the conspiracy: the gesture caused an end to the self-government which Royal Hungary had nominally been granted, a situation which remained unchanged for the following 10 years.
[edit] Legacy
- Main article: Kuruc
In order to combat the perceived threat from Hungary's Protestants against the Roman Catholics in his lands, Leopold ordered some 60,000 forced conversions in the first two years of his reprisals for the conspiracy. In addition, 800 Protestant churches were closed down. By 1675, 41 Protestant pastors would be publicly executed after having been found guilty of inciting riots and revolts.
The crackdown caused a number of former soldiers and other Hungarian nationals to rise up against the state in a sort of guerilla warfare. These Kuruc ("Crusaders") began launching raids on the Habsburg army stationed within Hungary. For years after the crackdown, Kuruc rebels would gather en masse to combat the Habsburgs; their forces' numbers swelled to 15,000 by the summer of 1672.[6]
These Kuruc forces were far more successful than the conspiracy, and remained active against the Habsburgs up until 1711; they were also more successful in convincing foreign governments of their ability to succeed. Foreign aid came first from Transylvania (which was under Ottoman suzerainty) and later by the Ottoman Empire. This foreign recognition would eventually lead to a large-scale invasion of Habsburg domains by the Ottoman Empire and the Battle of Vienna in 1683.
[edit] References
- ^ Sugar, Peter F., Peter Hanak, and Frank Tibor, eds. A History of Hungary. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), 113
- ^ Kontler, Laszlo. A History of Hungary. (New York: Palgrave MacMillan. 2002), 142
- ^ Ingrao, Charles. The Hapsburg Monarchy; 1618–1815. 2nd. ed. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 66
- ^ a b Kontler; A History of Hungary. 177.
- ^ a b Ingrao: The Hapsburg Monarchy 1618–1815 p. 67.
- ^ Indiana Press: A History of Hungary, p. 115.
