The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946. The Catholic kingdom emerged as a continuation of the Grand Principality of Hungary upon the coronation of the first king Stephen I at Esztergom around 1000;Kristó Gyula – Barta János – Gergely Jenő: Magyarország története előidőktől 2000-ig (History of Hungary from the prehistory to 2000), Pannonica Kiadó, Budapest, 2002, , pp. 37, 113, 678 ("Magyarország a 12. század második felére jelentős európai tényezővé, középhatalommá vált."/"By the 12th century Hungary became an important European factor, became a middle power.", "A Nyugat részévé vált Magyarország.../Hungary became part of the West"), pp. 616–644 his family (the Árpád dynasty) led the monarchy for 300 years. By the 12th century, the kingdom had become a European power.
Due to the Ottoman occupation of the central and southern territories of Hungary in the 16th century, the country was partitioned into three parts: the Habsburg Royal Hungary, Ottoman Hungary, and the semi-independent Principality of Transylvania. The House of Habsburg held the Hungarian throne after the Battle of Mohács in 1526 continuously until 1918 and also played a key role in the wars against the Ottoman Empire and the eventual expulsion of the Turks during and after the Great Turkish War.
The Hungarians fought many wars of independence against the Habsburgs, including in 1604–06, 1664–71, 1680–85, 1703–11, and 1848–49. From 1867, territories connected to the Hungarian crown were incorporated into Austria-Hungary under the name of Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen. The monarchy ended with the deposition of the last king Charles IV in 1918, after which Hungary became a republic. The kingdom was nominally restored during the "Regency" of 1920–46, ending under the Soviet occupation in 1946.
The Kingdom of Hungary was a multiethnic state from its inception until the Treaty of Trianon and it covered what is today Hungary, Slovakia, Transylvania and other parts of Romania, Carpathian Ruthenia (now part of Ukraine), Vojvodina (now part of Serbia), the territory of Burgenland (now part of Austria), Međimurje (now part of Croatia), Prekmurje (now part of Slovenia) and a few villages which are now part of Poland. From 1102, it also included the Kingdom of Croatia, being in personal union with it, united under the King of Hungary.
According to Hungarian demographers, about 80 percent of the population was made up of Hungarians before the Battle of Mohács, however in the mid-19th century out of a population of 14 million less than 6 million were Hungarian due to the resettlement policies and continuous immigration from neighboring countries.Leslie Konnyu, Hungarians in the United States: an immigration study, American Hungarian Review, 1967, p. 4 https://books.google.hu/books?ei=flgWTb7eI8yChQeli6W3Dg&ct=result&id=40RCAAAAIAAJ&dq=population+1490+Magyars+80%25&q=+80+stock&redir_esc=y#search_anchor László Kósa, István Soós, A companion to Hungarian studies, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1999, p. 16 The loss of 72% of Hungary as a result of the post-World War I Treaty of Trianon (reinforced by the post-World War II Treaty of Paris) made the remnant of Hungary ethnically homogeneous. More than nine-tenths of the population of modern Hungary is ethnically Hungarian and speaks Hungarian as their mother tongue.
Today, the feast day of the first king Stephen I (20 August) is a national holiday in Hungary, commemorating the foundation of the state (Foundation Day).
Names
The Latin forms or ( meaning kingdom); (Kingdom of Mary); or simply , were the names used in official documents in Latin from the beginning of the kingdom to the 1840s.
The German name () was used officially from 1784 to 1790; it was used again between 1849 and the 1860s.
The Hungarian name () was used in the 1840s, and then again from the 1860s to 1946. The unofficial Hungarian name of the kingdom was , which is still the colloquial, and also the official name of Hungary.Fundamental Law of Hungary (2012), Wikisource
The names in the other native languages of the kingdom were: , , , , , , and Italian (for the city of Fiume), .
In Austria-Hungary (1867–1918), the unofficial name was sometimes used to denote the regions of the Kingdom of Hungary. Officially, the term Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen was included for the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary, although this term was also in use prior to that time.
Capital cities
Name Time period Székesfehérvár 1000–1543Esztergom 1000–1256Buda 1256–1315Temesvár (now Timișoara) 1315–1323 Visegrád 1323–1408Buda 1408–1485Vienna (Bécs) 1485–1490 Buda 1490–1536 (1541)Lippa (now Lipova) – Eastern Hungarian Kingdom 1541–1542Gyulafehérvár (now Alba Iulia) – Eastern Hungarian Kingdom 1542–1570Pressburg (Pozsony, now Bratislava) 1536–1848 Buda 1848–1849Debrecen 1849Buda 1849–1873Budapest 1873–1944 Debrecen 1944 Budapest 1944–1946
History
Origins
The Hungarians, led by Árpád (who might have been either their sacred ruler known as a kende or their military leader known as a gyula), settled the Carpathian Basin in 895 and established the Principality of Hungary (896–1000).Acta orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Volume 36 Magyar Tudományos Akadémia (Hungarian Academy of Sciences), 1982, p. 419 The Hungarians led several successful incursions to Western Europe, until they were stopped by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor in Battle of Lechfeld.
Middle Ages
High Middle Ages
The principality was succeeded by the Christian Kingdom of Hungary with the coronation of St Stephen I (son of principal Géza. Originally called Vajk until baptized) at Esztergom on Christmas Day 1000. The first kings of the kingdom were from the Árpád dynasty. He fought against Koppány and in 998, with Bavarian help, defeated him near Veszprém. The Catholic Church received powerful support from Stephen I, who with Christian Hungarians and German knights wanted a Christian kingdom established in Central Europe. Stephen I of Hungary was canonized as a Catholic saint in 1083 and an Eastern Orthodox saint in 2000. Around the 11th century, the Kingdom of Hungary became a Christian state, and Catholicism in the Hungarian Kingdom was a state religion.
After his death, a period of revolts and conflict for supremacy ensued between the royalty and the nobles. In 1051, armies of the Holy Roman Empire tried to conquer Hungary, but they were defeated at Vértes Mountain. The armies of the Holy Roman Empire continued to suffer defeats; the second greatest battle was at the town now called Bratislava, in 1052. Before 1052, Peter Orseolo, a supporter of the Holy Roman Empire, was overthrown by king Samuel Aba of Hungary.
This period of revolts ended during the reign of Béla I. Hungarian chroniclers praised Béla I for introducing new currency, such as the silver denarius, and for his benevolence to the former followers of his nephew, Solomon. He was succeeded by Ladislaus I of Hungary, who further stabilized and strengthened the kingdom. He was also canonized as a saint. Under his rule Hungarians successfully fought against the Cumans and acquired parts of Croatia in 1091. Due to a dynastic crisis in Croatia, with the help of the local nobility who supported his claim, he managed to swiftly seize power in northern parts of the Croatian kingdom (Slavonia), as he was a claimant to the throne due to the fact that his sister was married to the late Croatian king Zvonimir who died without an heir.
However, kingship over all of Croatia would not be achieved until the reign of his successor Coloman. With the coronation of King Coloman as "King of Croatia and Dalmatia" in Biograd in 1102, the two kingdoms of Croatia and Hungary were united under one crown.Larousse online encyclopedia, Histoire de la Croatie: Although the precise terms of this relationship became a matter of dispute in the 19th century, it is believed that Coloman created a kind of personal union between the two kingdoms. The nature of the relationship varied through time, Croatia retained a large degree of internal autonomy overall, while the real power rested in the hands of the local nobility. Modern Croatian and Hungarian historiographies mostly view the relations between Kingdom of Croatia (1102–1526) and Kingdom of Hungary from 1102 as a form of a personal union, i.e. that they were connected by a common king.Barna Mezey: Magyar alkotmánytörténet, Budapest, 1995, p. 66 Also, one of the greatest Hungarian jurists and statesmen of the 16th century, István Werbőczy in his work Tripartitum treats Croatia as a kingdom separate to Hungary.
Especially Arabic and Byzantine travelers from this time praised the richness country, the dense pastures, the nicely cultivated lands, the plentiful animals in waters and forests. They said that the wheat is cheap, the markets are populous, the cities flourish and the folk are wealthy. Although it is hardly credible that they refer to all layers of society, the documents were inspired by the reality.
13th century: Mongol invasion and recovery
In 1222, Andrew II issued the Golden Bull which laid down the principles of law.
In 1241, Hungary was invaded by the Mongols and while the first minor battles with Subutai's vanguard probes ended in seeming Hungarian victories, the Mongols finally destroyed the combined Hungarian and Cuman armies at the Battle of Mohi. The Mongol invasions ultimately resulted in the death of 15-25% of Hungary's population, some 300,000-500,000 people in total.Sugar, p.27: "In the plains, between 50 and 80 percent of the settlements were destroyed. In forested areas, in the mountains, and in Transylvania, the demographic loss is estimated at 25-30 percent". In 1242, after the end of the Mongol invasion, numerous fortresses to defend against future invasion were erected by Béla IV of Hungary. In gratitude, the Hungarians acclaimed him as the "Second Founder of the Homeland", and the Hungarian Kingdom again became a considerable force in Europe.
In 1260 Béla IV lost the War of the Babenberg Succession, his army was defeated at the Battle of Kressenbrunn by the united Bohemian forces. However, in 1278, Ladislaus IV of Hungary and Austrian troops fully destroyed the Bohemian army at the Battle on the Marchfeld.
Late Middle Ages
The Árpád dynasty died out in 1301 with the death of Andrew III. Subsequently, Hungary was ruled by the Angevins until the end of the 14th century, and then by several non-dynastic rulers – notably Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor and Matthias Corvinus – until the early 16th century.
The Anjou Age
When Andrew III's predecessor, Ladislaus IV, was assassinated in 1290, another nobleman was set up as titular King of Hungary: Charles Martel of Anjou. Charles Martel was the son of King Charles II of Naples and Mary of Hungary, the sister of Ladislaus IV. However, Andrew III took the crown for himself and ruled without inconvenience after Charles Martel's death in 1295. Upon Andrew's death in 1301, the country was divided between powerful lords hostile to each other. A coalition of some of these oligarchs first crowned Wenceslaus III, who quickly fled from the anarchy, then Otto III, who was forced to leave by the Kán family. Charles, remaining as the only candidate, was finally crowned King Charles I in 1310. His famous battle at Rozgony, described as "most cruel battle since the Mongol invasion of Europe" by the Chronicon Pictum, ended his war of reunification.