Kingdom of Hungary
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
Please see the discussion on the talk page. |
| History of Hungary |
|---|
 |
| Ancient Hungary |
| Pannonia |
| Hungary before the Magyars |
| The Middle Ages |
| Kingdom of Hungary in the Middle Ages |
| Modern Hungary |
| Ottoman Hungary |
| Principality of Transylvania |
| Royal Hungary |
| 1700 to 1919 |
| Revolutions of 1848 in Hungary |
| Austria-Hungary |
| Hungarian Soviet Republic |
| Between the Two World Wars |
| Second World War |
| Communist Hungary |
| People's Republic of Hungary |
| Hungarian Revolution of 1956 |
| Modern Hungary |
| Republic of Hungary |
| Other Topics |
| Military history of Hungary |
| History of the Jews in Hungary |
| Music history of Hungary |
| History of Transylvania |
The Kingdom of Hungary was a kingdom in Central Europe that existed from 1000 to 1918. After the Battle of Mohács in 1526 it was an autonomious part of the Habsburg Monarchy, and later Austria-Hungary. Between 1541 and 1699 it was informally called Royal Hungary with a much reduced territory. Post-Trianon Hungary in the period between 1920 and 1946 was still called the Kingdom of Hungary until the proclamation of the Hungarian Republic.
The Kingdom of Hungary arose in present-day western Hungary and subsequently spread to remaining present-day Hungary, to Transylvania (in present-day Romania), present-day Slovakia, Carpatho-Ruthenia, Vojvodina (in present-day Serbia) and other smaller nearby territories. It existed in personal union with the Kingdom of Croatia from 1102 until 1918 under the name Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen.
Contents |
[edit] Overview
The term "Kingdom of Hungary" is often used to denote this long-lasting multiethnic configuration of territories in order to draw a clear distinction with the modern Hungarian state, which is significantly smaller and more ethnically homogeneous. Prior to and in the 19th century, the term Hungarian in English and other languages often referred to any inhabitant of this state, regardless of his or her ethnicity.
The Latin terms "Natio Hungarica" and "Hungarus" referred to all noblemen of the kingdom. A Hungarus-consciousness (loyalty and patriotism above ethnic origins) existed among any inhabitant of this state, however according to István Werbőczy's Tripartitum, the "Natio Hungarica" were only the privileged noblemen, subjects of the Holy Crown regardless of ethnicity.
Due to the multiethnic nature of the Kingdom of Hungary, it had names in many languages, of which German (Königreich Ungarn), Hungarian (Magyar Királyság), and Latin (Regnum Hungariae) were official for some time in the history of the Kingdom. Other names were: Croatian: Kraljevina Ugarska, Polish: Królestwo Węgier, Romanian: Regatul Ungariei, Serbian: Kraljevina Ugarska / Краљевина Угарска, Slovak: Uhorské kráľovstvo.
[edit] History of the Kingdom of Hungary
This article focuses on the Kingdom of Hungary as a political entity, for other details, see:
- Kingdom of Hungary in the Middle Ages (896/1000 - 1526)
- Eastern Hungarian Kingdom (1526-1571) ; Royal Hungary (c. 1541 - c. 1700)
- Hungary in the 18th and 19th century
The first kings of the Kingdom were from the Árpád dynasty. In the early 14th century, this dynasty was replaced by the Angevins, and later the Jagiellonians as well as several non-dynastic rulers, notably Sigismund Luxemburg and Matthias Corvinus.
At the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Hungarian army was defeated by the forces of the Ottoman Empire, and King Louis II of Hungary ran away and was drowned in the Csele Creek. Under the Ottoman attacks the central authority collapsed and a struggle for power broke out. The majority of Hungary's ruling elite elected John Zápolya (10 November 1526). A small minority of aristocrats sided with Ferdinand of Habsburg who was Archduke of Austria and tied to Louis's family by marriage, as King of Hungary; there had been previous agreements that the Habsburgs would take the Hungarian throne if Louis died without heirs, as he did. Ferdinand was elected king by a rump diet in December 1526. On 29 February 1528, King John I of Hungary received the support of the Ottoman Sultan.
A three-sided conflict ensued as Ferdinand moved to assert his rule over as much of the Hungarian kingdom as he could. By 1529 the kingdom had been split into two parts: Habsburg Hungary and "eastern-Kingdom of Hungary". At this time there were no Ottomans on Hungarian territories, except Srem's important castles. By 1541, the fall of Buda marked a further division of Hungary, in three parts and remained so until the end of the 17th century. Although the borders were changing very frequently during this period, the three parts can be identified more or less as follows:
- Present-day Slovakia, north-western Transdanubia, Burgenland, western Croatia, and adjacent territories were under Habsburg rule. This area was referred to as Royal Hungary, and though it nominally remained a separate state, it was administered more or less as part of the Habsburgs' Austrian holdings, to which it was immediately adjacent. This was the continuation of the Kingdom of Hungary.
- The Great Alföld (i.e. most of present-day Hungary, incl. south-eastern Transdanubia and the Banat), partly without north-eastern present-day Hungary, became part of the Ottoman Empire (see Ottoman Hungary).
- The remaining territory became the newly independent principality of Transylvania, under Zápolya's family. Transylvania was a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire.
After a failed Ottoman invasion of Austria in 1683, the Habsburgs went on the offensive against the Turks; by the end of the 17th century, they had managed to conquer the remainder of the historical Kingdom of Hungary and the principality of Transylvania. At this point, the Royal Hungary terminology was dropped, and the area was once again referred to as the Kingdom of Hungary, although it was still administered as a part of the Habsburg realm. In the 18th century, the Kingdom of Hungary had its own Diet (parliament) and constitution, but the members of the Governor's Council (Helytartótanács, the office of the palatine) were appointed by the Habsburg monarch, and the superior economic institution, the Hungarian Chamber, was directly subordinated to the Court Chamber in Vienna. The official language of the Kingdom of Hungary remained Latin until 1844, it was Hungarian from 1867.
[edit] Austria-Hungary
In 1867, following the Ausgleich, the Habsburg Empire became the so-called "dual monarchy" of Austria-Hungary. The historic lands of the Hungarian Crown (the Kingdom of Hungary proper, to which Transylvania was soon incorporated, and Croatia-Slavonia, which maintained a distinct identity and a certain internal autonomy) was granted equal status with the rest of the Habsburg monarchy; the two states comprising Austria-Hungary each had considerable independence, with certain institutions and matters (notably the reigning house, defence, foreign affairs, and finances for common expenditures) remaining joint. This arrangement was to last until 1918, when the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary was divided between Hungary and other new or neighbouring states (Austria, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) as the Central Powers went down in defeat in World War I. The new borders were fixed in 1920 by the Treaty of Trianon. This is generally seen as the end of the state that is referred to as the Kingdom of Hungary.
[edit] After the first World War
It should be noted that Kingdom of Hungary was also the formal name of the Hungarian state that existed approximately on the territory of present-day 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.
[edit] Continuity issue
 |
| Part of the series on Slovak History |
|---|
| Samo's Empire |
| Principality of Nitra |
| Great Moravia |
| Kingdom of Hungary |
| Royal Hungary |
| History of Czechoslovakia |
| Slovaks in Czechoslovakia (1918–1938) |
| Slovak Republic (1939–1945) |
| Slovak National Uprising (1944) |
| Slovaks in Czechoslovakia (1960–1990) |
|
|
Hungarians tend to emphasise the continuity of the Hungarian state and consider the Kingdom of Hungary one phase of its historical development. The continuity is reflected in national symbols and holidays, official language, capital city, and in the official commemoration of the millennium of the Hungarian statehood in 2000. According to their point of view, the Kingdom of Hungary was primarily a country of the Hungarian people, not denying the presence and importance of other nationalities.
In contrast, according to the point of view of the other nationalities living on the territory of the former Kingdom of Hungary, such continuity is shared among successor nations because the Kingdom of Hungary was a common state of several peoples since its formation, and therefore it is not identical to modern Hungary, which is a nation state of the Hungarians. In the Croatian, Serbian and Slovak languages, there are different names for modern Hungary (hr/sr: Mađarska, sl: Maďarsko) and the Kingdom of Hungary (hr/sr: Ugarska, sl: Uhorsko).
[edit] See also
- List of Hungarian rulers
- Nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary
- Administrative divisions of the Kingdom of Hungary
- Demographics of the Kingdom of Hungary
- Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary)
- History of Hungary
- Croatia in the union with Hungary
- History of Slovakia
- Transylvania
[edit] External links
| ← Principality of Hungary (896-1000) |
 |
Habsburg Hungary → (1526-1571) Eastern Hungarian Kingdom → (1526-1571)
|
| Kingdom of Hungary |
|
|
|
Categories: NPOV disputes | Articles lacking sources from March 2007 | All articles lacking sources | History of Slovakia | History of Croatia | History of Hungary | History of Serbia | History of Vojvodina | History of Slovenia | History of Austria | History of Romania | History of Ukraine | Former countries in Europe | Former countries in the Balkans | Former monarchies of Europe | 1000 establishments | 1918 disestablishments
