01.PalffyG Kingdom of Hungary 2009 Contents PpI-XVIII-libre

8/12/2019 01.PalffyG Kingdom of Hungary 2009 Contents PpI-XVIII-libre

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CHSP

HUNGARIAN STUDIES SERIES

NO. 18

EDITORSPeter Pastor

Ivan Sanders

A Joint Publication with the

Institute of Habsburg History, Budapest


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2009

Translated from the Hungarian by

THOMAS J. and HELEN D. DEKORNFELD

Social Science Monographs, Boulder, Colorado

Center for Hungarian Studies and Publications, Inc.Wayne, New Jersey

Distributed by Columbia University Press, New York

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EAST EUROPEAN MONOGRAPHSNO. DCCXXXV

. 2009 Gza Plffy 2009 by the Center for Hungarian Studies and

Publications, Inc.47 Cecilia Drive, Wayne, New Jersey074704649E-mail: [email protected]

This book is a joint publication with theInstitute of Habsburg History, Budapestwww.Habsburg.org.hu

Library of Congress Control Number 2008936732ISBN 9780880336338

Printed in the United States of America


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In loving memory of Pl Engel (19382001) andFerenc Szakly (19421999)


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CONTENTS

List of Illustrations xi

Acknowledgments xv

1. INTRODUCTION: HUNGARY AND THE HABSBURGSIN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD 1

Prejudices and Debatable Interpretations 1Turning Points in the History of the Kingdom of Hungary

and of the Habsburg Monarchy 6The Fateful but Little Known Sixteenth Century 8

The Fallacy of the Projection of the Nation-StateConcept onto the Early Modern Era 10On Sources and New Researches 13

2. BETWEEN OTTOMANS AND HABSBURGS 17A Small Composite State: The Kingdom of Hungary

in the Late Middle Ages 17A Country to be Conquered: The Ottomans and Hungary 23

A Much Coveted Throne: The Habsburgs and theKingdom of Hungary 27

3. MOHCS AND PARTITION 35The Battle that Determined Central Europes Fate 35Two Kings on the Throne of Hungary 37Civil War and Partition 41A Very Important but Dangerous Bulwark 48

4. VIENNA, THE NEW ADMINISTRATIVE CENTEROF HUNGARY 53

The Composite Monarchy of the Habsburgsin Central Europe 53


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The Political and Centralization Program of Ferdinand I 59

Vienna: Fortress, Residence, and Center of PoliticalDecision Making 65

5. HUNGARIAN ARISTOCRACY AND THE HABSBURGCOURT 71

The Joint Habsburg Court and the Virtual RoyalHungarian One 71

Difficulties with the Viennese and Prague Integration 76

The Options of the Hungarian Political Elite afterIntegration 82

Beginnings of a Supranational Aristocracy 86

6. DEFENDING THE COMPOSITE STATE 89Hungary, an Important but Largely Unknown Bulwark 89The Protective Bastion of the Monarchy: The New

Border-Defense System 94The Price of Foreign Assistance 104The Importance of a Military Career 109The Sixteenth Century Military Revolution 112

7. HUNGARYS FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THEMONARCHY 119

Hungary, a Dangerous but Wealthy Country 119Financial Administration Reforms in Hungary 121An Important Source of Revenues for the Monarchy:

The Revenues of the Kingdom of Hungary 129The Beginning of Administrative Careers in Hungary 134

8. FEEDING CENTRAL EUROPE 139In the Economic Mainstream of Europe 140A Fragmented CountryClose Economic Ties 145

The Larder of the Habsburg CourtThe Military-Industrial Market of the Monarchy 149The Flowering of Hungarian Enterprises in the

Sixteenth Century 153

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9. INSTITUTIONS OF SOVEREIGNTY 157

Sovereignty in a Composite State 157Election of a King or Acceptance of One 161The Hungarian Council and the Highest Dignitaries

of the Country 168The Principal Arena of Estate Resistance: The Diet 177Dispensing Justice, the Legal System, and Self-

Government of the Nobility 186

10. SYMBOLS OF SOVEREIGNTY 193Preservation of the Unity of St. Stephens Realm 193The Titles, Coats of Arms and Banners of the

Hungarian Rulers 194Coronations in Pozsony: A Virtual Hungarian

Royal Court 200The Kingdom of Hungary in the Dynastic

Representations of the Habsburgs:Coronations and Funerals in the Monarchy 204

11. THE HUNGARIAN ESTATES AND THE BOCSKAIUPRISING 209

Hungary in Ruins, Armed Counter-Reformation,Shaky Political Equilibrium 209

The Turkish Emigration from Transylvania, theTranstisza Haiduks and the Estates of Upper Hungary 213

Uprising, Local and Countrywide Civil War amongthe Estates 217

Rearrangement of Power in 16051608: Strength-ening of the Estates and Advances of the Lay Eliteand of the Lesser Nobility 221

12. CONCLUSION: CHANGES AFTER 1526 IMPACTING

THE CENTURIES TO FOLLOW 235

Appendix A 245List of Rulers and Highest Dignitaries of Hungary 247

CONTENTS ix


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Appendix B 257

Gazetteer 259Appendix C 267

Hungarian Baronial Appointments and

Justifications for the Patents 269Abbreviations 273Notes 279Archival Collections and Published Sources 351Figures 363

Maps 375Name Index 385Place Index 397About the Author 407Books Published by CHSP 408

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

TABLES

1. The Kingdom of Hungary, the Austrian HereditaryProvinces, and the Lands of the Bohemian Crownat the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century 20

2. The Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Hungaryabout 1520 25

3. The Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy

of Ferdinand I at the End of the 1520s 454. The Kingdom of Hungary, the Austrian Hereditary

Provinces, and the Lands of the Bohemian Crownin the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century 52

5. The Sequence of Banners at the Funeral Processionof Ferdinand I in Vienna on August 6, 1565 54

6. The Districts of the Hungarian-Croatian State inthe Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 57

7. Pay for the Soldiers in the Hungarian-Croatian BorderDefense System. Annual Revenues of the Kingdomof Hungary, and Military Expenditure Estimates(15451593) 91

8. The Number of Border Fortresses and the PrescribedNumber of Soldiers in Hungary and in the Croatian-Slavonian Territory in the Second Half of theSixteenth Century 99


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9. Annual Revenues of the Kingdom of Hungary by

Chambers in the Middle of the 1570s 13010. The Revenues of the Kingdom of Hungary by Source

of Revenue in the Middle of the 1570s 131

FIGURES

1. The Family Ties of the Habsburgs at the Turn of theFifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries 364

2. The Hungarian Royal Titles of the Habsburgs in theSecond Half of the Sixteenth Century 365

3. The Marital Ties of the Hungarian Aristocracy in theHabsburg Monarchy in the Second Half of theSixteenth Century 366

4. A Steyr Knife from the Bajcsavr Excavations (LastThird of the Sixteenth Century) 367

5. An Austrian Jug from the Bajcsavr Fortress (LastThird of the Sixteenth Century) 367

6. A 1573 Nuremberg Pocket Sundial from the BajcsavrExcavations 367

7. Lead Seal of a Bale of Cloth from Nuremberg with theInitial and Coat of Arms of the German Imperial City(Bajcsavr, Last Third of the Sixteenth Century), 368

8. The Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Hungary in theSixteenth Century. The So-Called Hungarian SmallCoat of Arms 368

9. Banner of the Kingdom of Hungary Paraded in the

Funeral Procession of Ferdinand I in August 1565in Vienna 369

10. Banner of Slavonia Paraded in the Funeral Processionof Ferdinand I in August 1565 in Vienna 369

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11. Common Banner of Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and

Cumania Paraded in the Funeral Procession ofFerdinand I in August 1565 in Vienna 370

12. Insignia of the Kingdom of Hungary Paraded in theFuneral Procession of Ferdinand I in August 1565in Vienna 370

13a. Banners of the Countries of the Realm of St. StephenParaded in the Hungarian Coronation Procession of

Ferdinand II of Habsburg in July 1618 in Pozsony 37113b. Banners of the Countries of the Realm of St. Stephen

Paraded in the Hungarian Coronation Procession ofFerdinand II of Habsburg in July 1618 in Pozsony 372

14. Catafalque (castrum doloris) of Ferdinand I in August1565 in Vienna 368

15. The Administration of the Kingdom of Hungary in theLast Third of the Sixteenth Century 373

MAPS

1. The Realm of St. Stephen in the Late Middle Ages 376

2. Central Europe, c. 1520 3773. Ottoman Campaigns in Hungary (15211552) 378

4. Ottoman Campaigns in Hungary (15521606) 379

5. Development of the Principality of Transylvaniabetween 1541 and 1570 380

6. The Composite Monarchy of the Habsburgs in Central

Europe in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century 3817. Administration of the Kingdom of Hungary in the

Second Half of the Sixteenth Century 382

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii


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8. The Border Defense System in Hungary against the

Ottomans (after 1580) 3839. Foreign Trade of Hungary in the Second Half of the

Sixteenth Century 384

xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book deals with the Kingdom of Hungary, torn

into three parts after the 1526 Battle of Mohcs. It deals particularlywith the segment which became part of a new central European Habs-burg conglomerate of lands and nations and of a new Monarchy butwhich remained the direct legal descendant of the five hundred year-old Hungarian Kingdom, the realm of St. Stephen. The book focusesprimarily on the position of Hungary in the Monarchy, its integrationinto this new structure and the peculiar sovereignty it assumed in thisframework. The complex system of the relationships and the function-

ing of the kingdom are emphasized.The four centuries of Hungarian-Habsburg symbiosis were fre-quently discussed, after the middle of the nineteenth century, from theperspective of, and with the myths and prejudices of the contemporarypolicies and ideologies. Thus, the Habsburgs were frequently repre-sented as the oppressors of Hungarian independence and the Kingdomof Hungary was viewed as a colony of the Monarchy and as a bufferstate vis--vis the Ottoman Empire.

It is my intent to examine the sixteenth century relationshipbetween the Habsburg Monarchy and the Kingdom of Hungary with anapproach different from the previously popular anti-Habsburg or pro-Habsburg perspective or from the colony versus independence point ofview. I have endeavored to discuss the multilayered system of relation-ships from the perspective of both sides and on the basis of previouslyonly poorly understood new documentation. I map out the conflicts, thedebates, the compromises and the resignations in the various areas,

such as administration, the court, military and financial matters andmatters of sovereignty.

I hope that I was able in this volume to do away with most of the stillvery active prejudices and myths about the Habsburgs and about the


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Hungarian elite that cooperated with them. If I was successful, it was due

largely to the support of my teachers, my colleagues, and the manystaffers of a number of central European archives. First and foremost Iwish to thank my university professors. I was introduced to the historyof the Ottoman Empire, to the power-struggle between the Ottomansand the Habsburgs and the basic methods of historical research byGbor goston who is presently on the History Department of George-town University in Washington, D.C., USA. It was the recently deceasedva H. Balzs who taught me to always think in an international frame-

work and to cooperate actively with colleagues from many lands. Theappreciation of archival research was imparted to me by Lajos Gecsnyiand by the late Ferenc Szakly who always watched my work with greatinterest and a quasi paternal affection. I wish to dedicate this book to thememory of Ferenc Szakly and Pl Engel. Working with the late AndrsKubinyi, I not only learned about the history of the late medieval King-dom of Hungary and about the often ignored importance of that era butI have also become acquainted with his masterful survey, The Realm ofSt. Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 8951526, which had amajor impact on a number of chapters in this work.

The same can be said about a number of colleagues on the inter-national scene whom I got to know first from their writings and later,personally, at conferences and during archival research. They includeRobert J. W. Evans from Oxford, Jeroen Duindam from Utrecht, JeanBrenger, and Olivier Chaline from Paris, Joachim Bahlcke fromStuttgart, Anton Schindling and Mrta Fata from Tbingen, Mark Hen-gerer from Konstanz, Meinolf Arens from Munich, Vclav Bek andsome of his pupils (Josef Hrdlika, Pavel Krl, Zdenk Vybral andTom Sterneck) from esk Budjovice, Jaroslava Hausenblasov,Jaroslav Pnek and Petr Mata from Prague, Tom Knoz from Brno,Milan Kruhek, Hrvoje Petri and Nataa tefanec from Zagreb, TatianaGusarova and Olga Khavanova from Moscow, Michael Hochedlinger,Katrin Keller, Richard Perger, Peter Rauscher, Karl Vocelka and

Thomas Winkelbauer from Vienna. Winkelbauer acquainted me withthe scholars of the Habsburg Monarchy, supported my first Germanlanguage publication and always assisted me most generously. It wastheir advice, friendly cooperation, and assistance in providing me withtheir frequently hard to find work which made a major contribution

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toward enabling me to present the liaison between the Habsburg

Monarchy and the Kingdom of Hungary during the sixteenth centuryin a new light.

This work is the summary of my researches performed during thepast fifteen years in Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Germany, andthe Czech Republic. I owe my thanks to the many staff members of thevarious state, province and city archives in these countries. I am alsoindebted to the owners of the privately held family archives of theAuerspergs, Erddys, Grafeneggs, Plffys, and Trauttmansdorffs who

gave me access to their collections. Among my colleagues at thearchives I must pay particular tribute to Lajos Gecsnyi, the former andIstvn Fazekas, the present Hungarian delegate to the Austrian StateArchives. They not only provided daily guidance but also allowed meaccess to their private data and works in preparation. Without their helpand the help of my friend H. Istvn Nmeth, and two other archivistsat the Hungarian National Archives, Margit Judk, and Attila Sunk,this work would not have been possible.

I would also like to extend my thanks to my friends and colleagueswho read and reviewed the individual chapters before their publicationand offered suggestions and corrections. They include Pl cs andLajos Gecsnyi in Budapest, Pter Dominkovits in Sopron who reviewedthe entire manuscript. I am also very grateful to Ildik Horn, IstvnKenyeres, Balzs Sudr, B. Jnos Szab and Istvn Tringli in Budapest,Pter Kirly in Kaiserslautern and my students Szabolcs Varga in Pcsand Pter Andrs Szab in Budapest. Zsuzsa Teke in Budapest helpedme generously in the interpretation of old Italian material while VeraZimnyi provided enormous assistance in sharing with me her enor-mous collection of reprints.

I wish to thank the Institute of History of the Hungarian Academyof Sciences for its support for fifteen years, and the colleagues at theinstitutes Department of Early Modern Era for many years of produc-tive discussions. I am grateful to my wife, Magdolna Friedler, for

always providing me with an ideal environment for my work.Lastly, but most sincerely, I wish to thank the Institute of HabsburgHistory for supporting the publication of this work; the HungarianAwards Committee, the National Scientific Research Foundation, theBohemian, Croatian, Austrian, and Slovakian Academies of Sciences,

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xvii


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01.PalffyG Kingdom of Hungary 2009 Contents PpI-XVIII-libre