1122 years - for the homeland unto death
CONTENTS, PREFACE
Contents
ON ONE SIDE
FOREWORD - 1122 YEARS IN THE CARPATHIAN BASIN
PART ONE: FROM ÁRPÁD TO MOHÁCS - 630 YEARS
FOUR HUNDRED YEARS OF THE HOUSE OF ÁRPÁD
THE FIRST ONE HUNDRED YEARS
The Hungarian Conquest, 895-896
The war with the Bulgarians and the Pecheneg attack
Prince Árpád, father of all the Hungarians
Taking possession of Pannonia
The Székely people
Military planning in the settled lands
The historical significance of the pattern of settlement
The Battle at Pressburg in 907
The military and political background to the battle
The Battle of Pressburg and the Hungarian military
The war of 907 - A textbook example of early Hungarian warfare
The outcome on the Hungarian side
European expeditions of Hungarian army in tenth century
ST STEPHEN AND THE ROYAL HOUSE OF ÁRPÁD 1000-1301
King Stephen I
Wars of consolidation
German-Hungarian war
The canonisation of King Stephen (1083)
The House of Árpád and the state of Hungary
The Battle of Ménfő
The Vértes expedition
The Battle of Mogyoród
St Ladislas
The Przemysl disaster
Battle at the Leitha
The Battle of Zimun
The Fifth Crusade
The Battle of Muhi
Béla IV and the "Second Conquest" - The reconstruction of the kingdom
Béla IV
The reconstruction
Military reform
Castle-building
Reform of crown lands and land grants
Reform of crown revenues
The Decree of 1267
Noble counties
Battles at the River Morava
Primogeniture and succession in the House of Árpád
THE ANGEVIN AND SIGISMUND ERAS
The Wallachian campaign
Europe and its armies in the late Middle Ages
The Battle of Nicopolis (September 1396)
The last offensive: The Battle of Kosovo (Rigómező, 1448)
The account of the Turkish 'Anonymus'
The Battle of Nándorfehérvár
From the Chronicle of János Thuróczy
The development of Hungarian military organization (1387-1526)
MATTHIAS HUNYADI
King Matthias: Rex Invictissimus - the invincible king
From King Matthias' correspondence
To the government of the Republic of Florence
To Pope Sixtus IV
To the government of the Republic of Florence
To King Louis XI of France
To Emperor Frederick III
To a German Prince
To Emperor Mohammed II of the Turks
To Elector Ernest of Saxony
Hungary in the centre of Europe during the Renaissance
PART TWO: FROM THE BATTLE OF MOHÁCS TO 1956 - 430 YEARS
THE MILITARY HISTORY OF HUNGARY FROM THE BATTLE OF MOHÁCS TO THE BATTLE OF ZENTA: 1526-1697
The Battle of Mohács
István Brodarics: A true account of the Hungarians' battle with the Turks at Mohács
Two kings and civil war
The fight for the castles of Hungary (1543-1566)
One country, three border defence zones
The Long War (1593-1606)
War within a war: István Bocskai's uprising against the Habsburgs
The wars of the Principality of Transylvania against the Habsburgs
Prince Gábor Bethlen of Transylvania
War against the Ottomans in Transylvania and the Kingdom of Hungary
Lagging or advancing - Military transformation in Hungary in the 16th and 17th centuries
Freeing the Kingdom of Hungary of Turkish occupation
The recapture of Buda and the explusion of the Turks
From Mátyás Bél's writings
The recapture of Buda
Buda in Christian hands again
Sorrow of the Turks, joy of the Christians
Charles of Lorraine's war diary on the reoccupation of Buda,
"The people of the land are ready. All they need is a leader." - Hungary after the expulsion of the Turks
THE RÁKÓCZI WAR OF INDEPENDENCE
A brief history of the Rákóczi war of independence
Memoirs of Ferenc Rákóczi II - on 1703
"With God for the homeland and for liberty." - The military and diplomatic history of the Rákóczi War of Independence
"I am intent on the full happiness of my country." - State and social reforms during the Rákóczi War of Independence
From Ferenc Rákóczi's writings
Ferenc Rákóczi II's letter to Louis XIV
Ferenc Rákóczi II: Confessions (excerpt)
Memoirs of Ferenc Rákóczi II - on 1711
Prince Ferenc Rákóczi II
THE MILITARY HISTORY OF HUNGARY IN THE 18th-19th CENTURIES
Settlement and reconstruction in the 18th century
From rebels to saviours of the Empire - Hungarian soldiers of the 18th century
Hungary and the Napoleonic Wars
"Character, Morality, Honour equals LUDOVIKA!"
The 1848-1849 Revolution and War of Independence
The autumn 1848 Transdanubian campaign and the Battle of Pákozd
Hungary's own army
Croat-Hungarian relations - Coexistence turns to conflict
The capture of Buda
Tsar Michael I: "Hungary lies at Your Majesty's feet..."
Lajos Kossuth
Kossuth's dispute with István Széchenyi
Leader of the War of Independence
In exile
The eras of Absolutism and Dualism - Dictatorship
Military affairs in the era of neoabsolutism
The history of the Hungarian Holy Crown and coronation insignia in the modern age
Hungary in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
HUNGARY IN THE 20th CENTURY WORLD WAR
The Great War
Doberdo - The Battles of Isonzo
Intermezzo
The Treaty of Trianon
Hungary reduced
The Kingdom of Hungary in the 1920s and the 1930s
On the threshold of the world war
Reception of Polish refugees
Between armed neutrality and war
Involvement in the World War
Defeat on the Don Bend
Hungarian peace feelers and the German invasion
The Jewish Holocaust in Hungary
The front reaches Hungary
Between war and ceasefire
Military operations in Hungary
The siege of Budapest 1944-45
Hungary's losses in the 20th century world war
A new statehood for Hungary
The Holy Crown of Hungary
"ALL MEANS MAY BE DEPLOYED IN HUNGARY... - 1956"
Decision to deploy the Soviet forces
The order of Soviet forces into Budapest
Formation of rebel/freedom-fighter groups and their operations in Budapest
"Crisis management" options considered by the Soviet and Hungarian political leadership
The direct political reasons for the victory of the Revolution
National Guard involving revolutionary groups
Decision on the second intervention
Fighting for Budapest after eleven years
On the wavelength of freedom
1956 in the history of the 20th century
Hungary and the world
POSTSCRIPT - Hungary in the centre of Europe after the world conflagrations
HUNGARY'S FUNDAMENTAL LAW (EXCERPTS)
Preface
Reading my people's 1122 year history in the Carpathian Basin, I am filled with both exultation and sorrow.
Exultation at our courage and our unmatched determination to struggle for freedom between 896 and 1956. Courage that is now covered by a veil, but without doubt still alive within us, as it has always been.
Sorrow at the pain and bloodshed that have attended my country and its people, and at the heroism of those who died defenceless in the basin of the Danube and the Tisza.
As I read, I discover. To discover is to know. And I know, too, because it is my story. I am also aware of the history of many other peoples. With them in mind, I quietly state that we have, for much of our history, held up a shield for Europe, with a heart of fire behind our bared breast.
The history of Hungary is the story of defending the homeland. And in the last five hundred years, the story has been above all one of wars of independence. In 907, Árpád, father of us all, fought and won a battle at Pressburg - where the city of Bratislava now stands - against the combined armies of Western Europe. Since then no power has shifted us from this land. In 1956 we fought the last of our many hopeless struggles, once again to the last drop of blood.
Árpád is our father. We have lived on his land for eleven centuries. The dynasty founded as his legacy, a dynasty of sainted kings and princesses led one of the greatest countries of Europe for four hundred years. And we have not the slightest idea where and when Árpád died. Neither do we know the resting places of his four great sons, who also died in the struggle for the homeland. Is there any other glorious nation which destroyed even the bones of its rulers? There is no trace of the conquering chieftains. Where is Árpád's grave? Was he indeed buried? Or was he cast to the elements like Attila, King of the Huns, and like Árpád's father Prince Álmos?
This mystical past is one of the forces that sustain our present. These men are HERE, with us, even they left no definite traces for us to know them by. Can the founder of a great ruling house, the conqueror of an enormous land, just disappear? No. The answer probably lies in another part of our past, the sacrifice. In the sacrifice, the body becomes a spirit. It was not in a closed vault, between stone walls that the conquering Magyars laid their great men to rest. They wove a greater plan. They recast the legacy so that it became mystical. We do not know what became of Árpád and his sons, but all we Hungarians claim him as our antecedent. He is here, in our beating hearts, and here, hovering above our homeland, stand- ing guard for us eternally.
Without this mystery, there is no understanding of the greatest Hungarian aristocrat, Prince Ferenc Rákóczi II. He accepted being a third-rank exile in Turkey, losing his family - his wife and sons born into captivity - and giving up his princely lands as booty, rather than concede to a trifling demand by imperial Habsburg court: they asked him merely to recognise that Transylvania is not part of Hungary. Indeed, by then it was not part of Hungary, Viennese imperial-royal circles had robbed from the historic kingdom half of its greatness and past. But can greatness and past be stolen?! Two hundred years later, the banished prince was resurrected, the bolts were drawn, and our hearts opened: his homecoming remains were received with devotion and humility never before seen in Hungarian history.
Without this mystery, we could not understand why we know nothing about the death of Sándor Petőfi, the "firebird of the War of Independence", the greatest Hungarian poet. Where did he fall, was he buried at all? We do not know whether so much as a handful of dirt was thrown at him when, at the age of twenty-seven, he was probably cut down by a Russian, Tartar, Cossack soldier. The mighty force on whose anvil the glowing iron of liberty glowed as never before: could any soldier's sword have cut that down? No indeed. Our past had gained new strength. The sacred spirit of freedom, spreading her wings, swept Petőfi to the heavens, and cast over us the cloak of unquenchable courage. The firebird, the Phoenix, arose from the glowing ashes, more glorious than before.
Without this mystery, we could not appreciate that Hungary, in defending the whole of Europe, could hold up its blood-spattered body first at Nándorfehérvár along the Danube in 1456, and then at another city by the same river, Budapest, in 1956, exactly 500 years later, the first time victorious, the second time left hopelessly to itself, and thereby ultimately once again victorious. Without this mystery, we could not appreciate that, as these lines are written, we are celebrating the 555th anniversary of Nándorfehérvár and the bells at noon, and the 55th anniversary of Budapest and the brutal silencing of the unsilenceable words of freedom.
Were all of the "lads of Pest" of 1956 buried somehow, at least hurriedly, at least in the mud? Was everyone accounted for? Is there an unknown voice enclosed in concrete under the asphalt which, when it lived, shouted at the expense of its owner's life, screaming Long live Hungary, long live Hungarian freedom! at the last bullet? And if we do not know where they died, do we always know why? The 20th century symbol of freedom, 16 year-old student Kata Magyar - a young girl who volunteered to help as a nurse - as she rushed along the streets to tend the wounded, why was she shot dead?
Her grave, under the undyingly beautiful arch of the rainbow, how near is it to Árpád's?
- Lajos Gubcsi