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# The Self-preserving Aristocracy

Aristocratic landowners formed a class that remained predominant in Hungary's political life from the revolution until the collapse of the monarchy. However, they were not as homogeneous, nor as united politically, as might have been suggested by their caste-like social isolation. In politics, a clear line of demarcation existed between the conservatives and those who were allied with the national-liberal, landed nobility. Moreover, the Transylvanian aristocrats were a group apart. In terms of the size of their estates, and of their political traditions, they stood closer to the landed nobility east of the Tisza River, although they exhibited greater caution in their political behaviour.

If one compares the wealth of Transylvanian magnates to that of Transdanubian aristocrats, the latter (in the indignant observation of a contemporary) tower on princely heights. The majority of aristocrats were, in fact, medium landowners. In 1900, only one Transylvanian figured among Hungary's hundred biggest landowners: Count György Bánffy, who reportedly owned 14,644 hectares. At the beginning of the period, Transylvania's aristocracy — those lords who owned over 570 hectares (1000 cadastral acres) of land — consisted of fifty magnate families. A few others, who bore a historic name, shared the magnates' prestige by virtue of tradition and 'clannishness.' The aggregate wealth of some clans was considerable, even if they had splintered into warring families. Sixty aristocrats had estates of over 1,425 hectares (2,500 cadastral acres) {3-571.} at the turn of the century. The property of ten members of the Teleki family added up to 75,240 hectares; of five members of the Bánffy family, 41,610 hectares; of seven members of the Kemény family, 29,070 hectares; of four members of the Mikes family, 27,930 hectares; of three members of the Wesselényi family, 23,940 hectares; of four members of the Jósika family, 23,370 hectares; and of seven members of the Bethlen family, 15,960 hectares. Thus 230,000 hectares of land were in the hands of the wealthiest members of these seven family clans. Forty people owned almost half the land comprised by large estates in Transylvania.

To be sure, the situation of such large estates was not altogether favourable, and even the largest of them covered less area than the fields of a prosperous peasant community in Transdanubia. Moreover, two thirds of the estates consisted of woodlands, many of which could not be profitably exploited before the turn of the century. Balázs Orbán and Bariţ both maintained that at the time of the Compromise, the most prosperous Romanian sheep-farmers in southern Transylvania were wealthier than many an aristocrat. In the aftermath of the emancipation of villeins, a few aristocrats went bankrupt but, by 1859, most of them were in better financial shape than they had been prior to 1848.

In sum, the Transylvanian magnates were far from poor, even if their wealth paled in comparison with that of their counterparts in Hungary proper. Their fearsome power, often evoked by middle-class progressives, did not rest on wealth alone; it was also a function of their traditional political role, and of the authority invested in the aristocracy of the entire Hungarian state.

The preservation of wealth and social eminence was not an easy task. The aristocracy had to strike many a compromise, and to keep all political channels open. At the start of the absolutist period, two aristocrats accepted the offer of high office, but most of them demonstratively kept their distance, even on the occasion of the emperor's visit in 1852. From the mid-1850s onwards, the aristocrats {3-572.} participated in meetings and hunting parties organized by the military governor; they did so out of self-interest, and also because the man in charge of Transylvania, Prince Schwarzenberg, was one of the empire's greatest — and wealthiest — aristocrats. Yet fewer than a dozen Transylvanian aristocrats were won as a result of the cajolery of the imperial court. A certain coherence prevailed in Transylvania's political life: After the proclamation of the October Diploma, both the conservative Baron Ferenc Kemény and the liberal Count Imre Mikó assumed high office, and both political tendencies were represented in the national resistance movement that emerged during Schmerling's administration. The elderly Count Ádám Bánffy's home in Kolozsvár, a meeting place for high society in the 1850s, was open to the governor as well as to the opposition. Transylvania's aristocrats opposed absolutism, but they did so prudently, for they depended on the Habsburg administration to preserve order and thus the continuity of their status; at the same time, they believed only the restoration of union would bring them greater prosperity and political power. They lent their names to national causes, and even provided financial support. A few, notables Imre Mikó, Zsigmond Kemény, and Domokos Teleki, actively promoted national culture, and many more participated in cultural events of the 1860s such as the scientific sessions of the Transylvanian Museum Association. These cultural activists were held up by Imre Mikó as an example to the whole aristocratic class: 'The propertied class should keep in mind that a patriot is always obligated to his country; he has a duty to repay the blessings received from it, in grateful acknowledgment of the benefits enjoy-ed.' Other aristocrats were drawn out of their indifference by the example of the great ones and by their own class instincts. Mikó threatened the recalcitrant with exclusion from civil society: 'The aristocrats who do not work with us, or for us, will not be one of us.'[17]17. Mikó, Op. cit., pp. 10, 77.

The Compromise and the restoration of union opened up new opportunities for the aristocracy. Their estates, which they had {3-573.} managed to re-equip even before the Compromise, could now be modernized. Many of them created efficient model farms and participated regularly in various exhibitions of livestock, agricultural products, and wines. The enthusiasm for such pursuits was born in earlier periods, and it largely dissipated by the end of the century; the few who sustained it appeared to be driven more by an obsession with economic development than by considerations of financial gain or prestige. The practice of leasing slowly gained ground (in 1910, there were 444 major leaseholders), but most aristocrats retained full control of their estates, which they managed with the help of their bailiffs.

The magnates were not immune to the vagaries of the market, nor free of the danger of falling into debt, in which case they would be compelled to sell a parcel of farmland or woodland. Still, at the turn of the century, their estates were generally free of heavy debt.

The modernization of the economy brought new opportunities for the aristocrats, who figured among the owners of crop-processing plants, lumber mills, glassworks, mineralwater bottling-plants, and spas, as well as among the shareholders of mines, manufactures, and financial institutions. A few of them joined the board of directors of banks, which brought some renumeration. However, none of this altered their basic attitude, which was that aristocrats should not engage directly in business and commerce; if they were interested, they would manage their estates, but otherwise they travelled, dabbled in politics, and lived it up in the capital.

The aristocrats took their appointed place in legislative and executive institutions, but they did not play a decisive role in the Compromise, nor in the country's political life thereafter. Throughout the period, one third of the lord lieutenants came from their ranks; and when it became an established custom to reserve a cabinet post for a Transylvanian, the choice commonly fell on an aristocrat. The first of these Transylvanian ministers was Imre Mikó. The succeeding ones lacked his talent and authority, although {3-574.} some, such as Baron Gábor Kemény and Baron András Bethlen, were no worse than the average minister. The first prime minister from Transylvania, Baron Dezső Bánffy — not one of the wealthiest aristocrats — owed his elevation to the stormy politics that prevailed at century's end; for want of someone better, he was chosen to lead a government that was regarded as a stopgap. Transylvania sent a number of aristocrats to the parliament. Among the Transylvanians in the upper house, there were 14 Bethlens, 14 Telekis and 6 Bánffys; but only a few remained after 1885, when a reform of the Upper House instituted a property qualification for membership. In the lower house, aristocrats accounted for between a third and a quarter of Transylvania's representatives. Some of them were elected in urban districts, and many electoral constituencies with Romanian majorities were represented by an aristocrat, the latter having obtained a mandate thanks to his respectability, influence or money. Thus Transylvania's aristocrats did not shrink from political participation, and this included the wealthiest, which distinguished them from the wealthiest aristocrats in the rest of Hungary, who tended to remain aloof from public life. In this respect as well, they behaved more like conventional, middle landowners. Never-theless, after the 1848 generation had passed from the scene, their class produced no politician of outstanding stature.

The composition of Transylvania's aristocracy, like that of the Protestant magnate class in Hungary proper, remained unchanged. They did not mingle with foreigners, and they did not adopt the 'supranational' attitude of the so-called imperial aristocracy. At the time when Vienna was pursuing a centralizing policy, the régime toyed with the idea of creating a new nobility, drawn from the ranks of civil servants, notably Romanians, loyal to the dynasty, and designed to serve as a counterweight to the Hungarian aristocracy. The plan was soon laid to rest, and the régime contented itself with ennobling Bishop Şaguna, granting a baronetcy to an army officer named Urs, and knighting Puşcariu, a civil servant. Needless to say, {3-575.} they were ignored by the aristocracy. The aristocratic class's traditionally strict endogamy was beginning to loosen. Protestant magnates still married within their faith, as did the smaller number of Catholic magnates, such as the Kornis, Teleki, and Rhédey families. However, marriages between aristocrats and nobles became more common, and the exclusive Bethlen family gained Romanian relatives when, in 1880, one of them married Lívia Mocsonyi. The loosening did no go far, and few Transylvanian aristocrats had family links even with their counterparts in the western half of Hungary. There was virtually no intermarriage with the middle class, and exceptions to this social rule were viewed as highly abnormal.

The castle or manor house was the centre of the aristocracy's everyday life. The buildings, set in a park, stood at a respectable distance from the village. From the 1850s on, aristocrats began to alter and enlarge their homes, and some new ones were erected in the first half of the period. Later, the emphasis shifted to modernization, although some of the homes continued to be lit by candles. Fathers and grandfathers passed on their attitudes and manners to their children, who were raised to be physically fit and skilful at sports; the mothers, along with relatives who were spinsters and lived in the castle, looked after the more intimate aspects of their upbringing. The children of Protestant magnates generally took their secondary education at colleges in Hungary, then studied law at university. Even those who obtained a diploma in agriculture at Magyaróvár or Hohenheim would take up law studies upon their return. Some of them then went into the diplomatic service for a spell, while others were drawn to the world of theatre, opera, or literature. Count Sándor Teleki, the crown prince's hunting partner, became famous for his African travels, in the course of which he discovered Lake Rudolph and Lake Stephanie, and gave his name to a volcano. In the early 1900s, two aristocrats of a younger generation, Ferenc Napcsa and Pál Teleki, won academic recognition, {3-576.} the first as a paleontologist, the second as a geographer. But such careers were uncommon among aristocrats. There were more who pursued a political career, starting out in a government department or as a member of parliament; few aristocrats joined the county administration, and indeed very few were invited to serve even as sub-prefects.

After completing their education, those who were not drawn to political or academic pursuits returned to the social whirl at home. This would include daredevil horse races, lasting for several weeks, in the mountains at Zsuk, the Ash Wednesday ball in Kolozsvár, hunting parties, and house parties. In their castles, the aristocrats were looked after by the household staff, servants who had traded independence for security. Further afield, the deferential local administrators protected the aristocrats' interests. The peasants' approach to the aristocrats was even more obsequious; for the most part, they only came together in the church (probably erected by one of the aristocrat's ancestors), for mass or religious service, in a weekly demonstration of religious solidarity that scarcely altered the daily reality of mutual isolation.