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From Fidelity to the Habsburgs to Loyalty to the Nation: The Changing Role of the Hungarian Aristocracy before 18481

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2009

George Barany
George Barany
Affiliation:
Professor of Histroy at theUniversity of Denver, Denver, CO 80208.
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Extract

Recalling the medieval pageantry of the coronation of the future emperor Joseph II as King of the Romans in Frankfurt in 1764, the sexagenarian Johann Wolfgang von Goethe mentions among the names of the special ambassadors attending the solemn occasion Prince Esterházy, the Bohemian envoy, [who] was not tall, though well built, vivacious, and at the same time of noble respectability, yet neither proud nor cold. I had a special liking for him, because he reminded me of the Marshall de Broglio.

Type
Articles
Information
Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 23 , January 1992 , pp. 36 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 1992

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References

2 Goethe, J. W. von, Poetry and Truth, from My Own Life. A revised translation by Smith, Minna Steele with an introduction and bibliography by Breul, Karl, 2 vols. (London: G. Bell, 1911), 1:159, 182–84Google Scholar. (I made a few adjustments on the basis of the 1955 edition of Dichtung und Wahrheit. Mit einem Nachwort von Ernst Reutler [Frankfurt A.M., Büchergilde Gutenberg], in Goethes Werke in Einzelausgaben, 166, 188–90.)

3 Barany, George, “Hoping Against Hope: The Enlightened Age in Hungary,” American Historical Review, 76 (1971): 352CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Hóman, Bálint and Szekffü, Gyula, Magyar törteénet (Hungarian history), 7th ed., 5 vols. (Budapest: Magyar Királyi Egyetemi Nyomda, 1941–43), 4:502–7Google Scholar.

5 Marczali, Henry, Hungary in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910), 112–13Google Scholar. The Esterházys owned nearly a million acres of land including over one hundred villages, forty towns, and thirty castles or palaces in Hungary and Austria. Deák, István, Beyond Nationalism (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), 156Google Scholar.

6 Macartney, C. A., Hungary (London: Ernest Benn, 1934), 171Google Scholar. In a more recent work, The Habsburg Empire, 1790–1918 (New York: Macmillan, 1969), 52–57Google Scholar, Macartney analyzes on a comparative basis wealth, status, and stratification of the nobility in the Habsburg Monarchy.

7 Werbõczi, Tripartitum, I, 2, quoted fully by Marczali, Hungary in the Eighteenth Century, 109, n. 2.

8 Post-Coronation Act I of 1608, article 1. It is noteworthy that the term barones begins to appear in Hungarian documents as early as the twelfth century as a reference to high officials of the kingdom. Likewise early is the use of the Latin equivalents of the titles prince (princeps, dux) and count (comes) in Hungarian sources. The granting of these titles to individuals with the right to perpetuate them in their families comes much later. See the articles by Schiller, Bódog in Márkus, Dezsõ, ed., Magyar jogi lexikon (Hungarian legal lexicon), 6 vols. (Budapest: Pallas, 1898–1907), 1:643–46; 2:789–92; 4:136–38Google Scholar. But by the eighteenth century, nearly all members of the titled nobility had titles granted by the Habsburg dynasty: of the 108 aristocratic families in 1778, less than a dozen could trace their origin to pre-Turkish times. The princely titles of the Esterházy and Grassalkovics were also imperial titles. Marczali, Hungary in the Eighteenth Century, 123, n. 1; Király, Béla K., Hungary in the Late Eighteenth Century (New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1969), 25Google Scholar, n. 7.

According to the Hungarian statistician Fényes's estimate, out of Hungary's total population of just under 11.2 million (not including Transylvania) in 1840, more than 544,000 belonged to the nobility. Of these, there were four princely and eighty-four baronial families, and seventy-nine had the right to the title count. In addition, the entitled nobility included thirty-eight foreign-born estate owners who received Hungarian citizenship (indigenae). Fényes, Elek, Magyarország statistikája (Hungary in statistics), 3 vols. (Pest: Trattner-Károlyi, 1842–1843), 1:117–20Google Scholar. The untitled or common nobility, greatly diversified economically, socially, religiously, and even linguistically (there were Croatian-, Romanian-, and Slovak-speaking noblemen), tended to play a dominating role in the political life of the autonomous counties from the second quarter of the nineteenth century. For its political role and way of life, see Macartney's chapter “The Gentry,” 180–98, in Macartney, Hungary, Marczali's and Király's books, 127–48 and 32–42, respectively. See also Deák, István, The Lawful Revolution (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979), 4–7Google Scholar, and Barany, George, Stephen Széchenyi and the Awakening of Hungarian Nationalism, 1791–1841, with a preface by Shafer, Boyd C. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1968), 25, 149–56Google Scholar.

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10 Horváth, Mihály, Kisebb történelmi munkái (Minor historical works), 4 vols. (Pest: Ráth Mór, 1868) 3:435–41Google Scholar.

11 Fényes, Magyarország statistikája, 2:61.

12 For the Diet of 1839–40, see Barany, Stephen Széchenyi, 348 passim; for 1848 and Kossuth Deák, The Lawful Revolution; on Eötvös, , Bödy, Paul, Joseph Eötvös and the Modernization of Hungary (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1972)Google Scholar; on Széchenyi, , Spira, György, A Hungarian Count in the Revolution of 1848 (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1974)Google Scholar; on Teleki, , Horváth, Zoltán, Teleki László, 2 vols. (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1964)Google Scholar; on Batthyány, Louis, Urbán, Aladár, Batthyány Lajos miniszterelnöksége (The prime ministership of Louis Batthyány) (Budapest: Magvetö Könyvkiadó, 1986)Google Scholar.

13 Barany, George, “The Liberal Challenge and Its Limitations: The Religious Question at the Diet of 1843–1844,” in Ránki, György and Pók, Attila, eds., Hungary and European Civilization, vol. 3 of Indiana University Studies on Hungary (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1989), 31–61Google Scholar.

14 Barany, Stephen Széchenyi, 140.

15 Viszota, ed., Széchenyi és Kossuth, 1:513–16.

16 Zichy, Antal, ed., Gróf Széchenyi lstván beszédei (Count Stephen Széchenyi's speeches) (Budapest: Athenaeum, 1887), 356–62Google Scholar; Viszota, Gyula, ed., Gróf Széchenyi István naplói (Diaries of Count Stephen Széchenyi), 6 vols. (Budapest: Királyi Magyar Egyetemi Nyomda, 1925–39), 6:108Google Scholar. Cited hereafter as Viszota, ed., Sz.N.

17 November 22, 1841, in Viszota, ed., Sz.N., 5:517: ”In Athaeneum [leading literary journal] wird die Aristocr[atie] besudelt … Macht mich ausnehmend traurig. The base Hungarian!” and n. 6, ibid. See also Széchenyi's draft of a contemplated, but never published, polemical article against Francis Deák from 1841 re the alleged intention of the opposition to introduce extreme forms of democracy in Hungary and the identification of a democrat with a hater of Magnates: ”Manchmal guckt der Democrat, der Niveleur, besonders aber der Magnaten Hasser heraus.” Viszota, ed., Széchenyi és Kossuth, 1:749–51.

18 Andics, Erzsébet, ed., A nagybirtokos arisztokrácia ellenforradalmi szerepe 1848–49-ben (The counterrevolutionary role of the great landowning aristocracy in 1848–49), 3 vols. (Budapest: Akadėmiai Kiad⊙, 1952–81), 1:22–23Google Scholar, quoting Count Emil Dessewffy, editor of the conservative paper, Budapest! Hiradó (Courier of Budapest), June 19, 1846, and January 1, 1847. Count Emil was the brother of Aurel Dessewffy, mentioned above.

19 Barta, István, ed., Kossuth Lajos az utols⊙ rendi országgyũlėsen, 1847–48 (Louis Kossuth at the last feudal Diet, 1847–48) (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1951), 546Google Scholar; Csizmadia, Andor, A magyar választási rendszer 1848–1849-ben (The Hungarian electoral system in 1848–1849) (Budapest: Közgazdasági és Jogi Könyvkiadó, 1963), 50–51Google Scholar.

20 Deák, The Lawful Revolution, 219.

21 Wertheimer, Eduard von, Graf Julius Andrássy, 3 vols. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1910–1913)Google Scholar.

22 Kármán, Moritz v., Ungarisches Bildungswesen (Budapest: Kön. Ung. Universitätsdruckerei, 1915), 14, 20–22Google Scholar.

23 For Balassi and Zrinyi, see Jones, D. Mervyn, Five Hungarian Writers (Oxford: Clarendon, 1966), xvi, 1–61Google Scholar, and Klaniczay, Tibor, Szauder, József, and Szabolcsi, Miklóos, History of Hungarian Literature (London: Collet's, 1964), 46–49, 56–59Google Scholar.

24 A régi magyar viseletrõl (Of old Hungarian costumes), cited by Marczali, Hungary in the Eighteenth Century, 121.

25 Király, Hungary in the Late Eighteenth Century, 159. Also ibid., 30–32, and Marczali, Hungary in the Eighteenth Century, 116–27.

26 For the education of the aristocracy and its role in developing a Hungarian educational system, see Kornis, Gyula, A magyar mũvelõdés eszményei (Ideals of Hungarian culture), 2 vols. (Budapest: Királyi Magyar Egyetemi Nyomda, 1927), 1:491–510Google Scholar, and Csáky, Moritz, Von der Aufklärung zum Liberalismus (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1981), 212–20Google Scholar.

27 Kosáry, Domokos, Mũvelõdés a XVIII. századi Magyarországon (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1980), 556–60Google Scholar. Abridged English edition's title: Culture and Society in Eighteenth Century Hungary (Budapest: Corvina, 1987)Google Scholar.

28 Fraknói, Vilmos, Gróf Széchényi Ferencz (Budapest: Magyar Történelmi Társulat, 1902)Google Scholar.

29 Sági, Károly, ed., Georgikon (Budapest: Mezõgazdasági Kiadó, 1972), 7–71Google Scholar.

30 Kornis, A magyar mũvelõdés, 2:540, 561, 566–78.

31 For perceptive analyses of the literary activities of Kemény, Jósika, and Eötvös, see the concise essays in Reményi, Joseph, Hungarian Writers and Literature (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1964), 53–58, 66–71, 117–26Google Scholar.

32 Barany, George, “Ungarns Verwaltung, 1848–1918,” in Wandruszka, Adam and Urbanitsch, Peter, eds., Die Habsburgermonarchie, 1848–1918, vol. 2, Verwaltung und Rechtswesen (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1975), 361–68Google Scholar. The Old Conservative party included, in addition to George Apponyi, Counts Emil Dessewffy, George Majláth, Antony Széchen, and Transylvanian Chancellor Baron Samuel Jósika.

33 For Deák, see Király, Béla K., Ferenc Deák (Boston: Twayne, 1975)Google Scholar.

34 Barany, George, “The Magyars,” in The Immigrants' Influence on Wilson's Peace Policies, ed. O'Grady, Joseph P. (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1967), 158–61Google Scholar. For Károlyi, see also his memoirs, Faith Without Illusion, with an introduction by Taylor, A. J. P. (New York: Dutton, 1957)Google Scholar and Hajdu, Tibor, Károlyi Mihály (Budapest: Kossuth Könyvkiadó, 1978)Google Scholar.

35 Taylor, A. J. P., The Habsburg Monarchy, 1809–1918 (New York: Harper, 1965), 22–23Google Scholar, 227, and his introduction to Károlyi's Faith Without Illusion, 10.

36 For the Hungarian Jacobins, see Benda, Kálmán, ed., A magyar jakobinusok iratai (Documents on the Hungarian Jacobins), 3 vols. (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1952–1957)Google Scholar.