Reformation Reunited Hungary
1683-1792









Royal Hungary, 1526-1683



In the BATTLE OF MOHACS, the Hungarian branch of the Jagiellon dynasty had ended with the death of Louis II. Hungary now was open to Ottoman raids, but also open for Emperor Ferdinand I. of Habsburg to press his claim of Hungary's crown. Hungary's diet in the meantime had elected JANOS ZAPOLYAI, the Vajda of Transylvania, king. Ferdinand's army chased him out of the country, fleeing to Poland. He submitted to Ottoman rule; an Ottoman army defeated the Habsburg forces in 1529 and laid siege to Vienna in 1529, without success.
The war lingered on; the Turks took Buda in 1541. By now it had become apparent that Hungary was partitioned in three parts - Royal Hungary in the west, under Habsburg control (with core Croatia and much of Slovakia), Ottoman Hungary in the central plains, and Transylvania in the east, largely autonomous until 1683. In 1547 and 1568, peace was agreed upon on the basis of the status quo.

Ottoman Hungary's nobility by and large emigrated into Royal Hungary or Transylvania, as did large numbers of Hungary's burghers.
In Royal Hungary, pre-1526 institutions such as the DIET continued to function. The Catholic church was in disarray, as during the reformation a significant part of the clergy and most of the populace chose a reformed confession; religious issues were to dominate politics for over a century to come. The Habsburg dynasty stuck to Catholicism and supported the Counterreformation. With Hungary's traditional political centers - Szekesfehervar, Buda, Pest - under Ottoman control, Viennese political institutions such as the Hofkriegsrat (Military Court Council, est. 1556) and the Hofkanzlei (Court Chancellery) extended their area of responsibility over Hungary. The complicated political situation favoured the Habsburg policy of centralizing the administration of their complex patchwork of territories. Another step further undermining the political power of Royal Hungary's diet was the establishment of the MILITAERGRENZE in 1553/1578.
Peace was fragile; the Habsburgs pursued plans to both reunite Hungary, to promote the Counterreformation and to continue with their policy of centralization. In 1548/1551 they failed to acquire Transylvania; in spite of religious toleration guaranteed in the TREATY OF VIENNA 1606 the Jesuits made extensive use of the inquisition in subsequent years, causing Transylvania's Prince BETHLEN GABOR to rise in arms in the cause of Hungary's protestants. He was elected King of Hungary by the diet of 1620, and only the appearance of an Ottoman force prevented a clash. The Counterreformation made progress in Hungary, as Catholics gained the majority of the country's diet, but the protestants remained very sceptical of the Habsburgs. Often protestants were involved when Hungarians conspired or rebelled against Habsburg rule, most notably in 1678-1684; this time a Turkish force appeared and again laid siege to Vienna (1683).





EXTERNAL
LINKS 		The 16th century, from A Short History of Austria-Hungary by H. Wickham-Steed, 1914
Hungary, from Catholic Encyclopedia, 1914 edition
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE Peter F. Sugar (ed.), A History of Hungary, Indiana Univ. Press 1990, 432 pp.


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on November 11th 2004

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