Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Hunyadi's nephew, Mátyás Corvinus , is remembered as the Renaissance king who, to-
gether with his second wife Beatrice of Naples, lured humanists and artists from Italy to their
court. Mátyás was an enlightened despot, renowned for his fairness, but when he died in
1490, leaving no legitimate heir, the nobles took control, choosing a pliable successor and ex-
ploiting the peasantry. However in 1514 the peasants, led by GyörgyDózsa , rebelled against
the oppression. The savage repression of this revolt (over seventy thousand peasants were
killed and Dózsa was roasted alive) and subsequent laws imposing “perpetual serfdom” ali-
enated the mass of the population - a situation hardly improved by the coronation of the
9-year-old LouisII , who was barely 16 when he had to face the full might of the Turks under
Sultan Süleyman “the Magnificent”.
The Turkish conquest: Hungary divided
The Battle of Mohács in 1526 was a shattering defeat for the Hungarians - the king and half
the nobility perished, leaving Hungary leaderless. After sacking Buda, the Turks withdrew to
muster forces for their real objective, Vienna. To forestall this, Ferdinand of Habsburg pro-
claimed himself king of Hungary and occupied the western part of the country, while in Buda
the nobles put János Zápolyai on the throne. Following Zápolyai's death in 1541, Ferdinand
claimed full sovereignty, but the Sultan occupied Buda and central Hungary and made Zá-
polyai's son ruler of Transylvania, which henceforth became a semi-autonomous principality
- a tripartite division known as the Tripartium , formally recognized in 1568. Despite vari-
ous truces, warfare became a fact of life for the next 150 years, and national independence
was not to be recovered for centuries afterwards.
Turkish-occupied Hungary was ruled by a Pasha in Buda, with much of the land either
deeded to the Sultan's soldiers and officials, or run directly as a state fief. The towns,
however, enjoyed some rights and were encouraged to trade, and the Turks were largely in-
different to the sectarian bigotry practised in Habsburg-ruled Hungary. The Habsburg liber-
ation of Buda in 1686 was actually a disaster for its inhabitants, as the victors massacred
Jews, pillaged at will and reduced Buda and Pest to rubble. The city's Turkish baths and the
tomb of Gül Baba were among the few surviving buildings.
Habsburg rule
Habsburg rule was a bitter pill, which the Hungarians attempted to reject in the War of
Independence of 1703-11, led by Prince Ferenc Rákóczi II . Though it was unsuccessful,
the Habsburgs began to soften their autocracy with paternalism as a result. The revival of
towns and villages during this time owed much to settlers from all over the empire, hence the
Serb and Greek churches that remain in Pest and Szentendre. Yet while the aristocracy com-
missioned over two hundred palaces, and Baroque town centres and orchestras flourished,
the masses remained all but serfs, mired in isolated villages.
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