Memoirs of a Hungarian Lady 1

MEMOIRS OF A HUNGARIAN LADY. BY THERESA PULSZKY. A HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION, BY FRANCIS PULSZKY. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1850. LONDON: Printed by Schulze and Co., 13, Poland Street. TO THE MOST NOBLE THE MARCHIONESS OF LANSDOWNE. WHEN I first had the happiness of meeting you in the year 1841, my girlish enthusiasm for England attracted your attention. You encouraged me to tell you all that filled my heart and occupied my mind, and kindly listened to the attempted development of my young ideas. The sanguinary events of the last year have driven me and my family from our country; but the good land that is beyond the sea/' the mighty Queen of Ocean, has granted us a hospitable asylum, to which your generous kindness welcomed me. You have again encouraged me to repeat my tale, no longer of the bright pictures then radiantly IV before my mind; but of the solemn tragedy, which has horrified Eastern Europe. Though I never mixed in politics, I have con- sidered it my duty, to give a simple account of what I have seen and heard. Perhaps this un- adorned narrative may help to rectify some erro- neous notions spread abroad respecting Hungary. I, of course, cannot assume to give in the follow- ing pages any new or striking view of the events which have passed before the eyes of Europe; but your Ladyship will certainly recognize the accents of truth, even when awkwardly expressed in a language more familiar to my admiration than to my pen. In the faith of this conviction, adventurously present these volumes to your gracious notice, and beg, with the most warm affection and sincere grati- tude, to be allowed to subscribe myself, Your Ladyship's Devoted THERESA PULSZKY. CONTENTS FIRST VOLUME. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. First Period PAGE HISTORY OF HUNGARY UNDER THE HOUSB OF ÁRPÁD ...............…….. I HUNGARY UNDER KINGS FROM DIFFERENT HOUSE8 (ANJOU, LUXEMBOURG, AUSTRIA, HU NY ADY, JA- GHELLO)...................................................................................................... lviii THE HUNGARIANS UNDER THE KINGS OF THE H0USES OF HAPSBURG AND LORRAINE......................................................... XCii CHAPTER I. FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF HUNGARY .............................................................. 1 CHAPTER II. CASTLE SZECSENY............................................................................................ 34 VI CHARTER III. PAGE HUNGARIAN COUNTRT LIFE...........................................................................71 CHAPTER IV. VIENNA IN THE SUMMER OF 1848…………………………………….. 107 CHAPTER V. THB INVASION OF JELLACHICH ………………………………………… 145 CHAPTER VI. THB OCTOBER INSURRECTION OF VIENNA……………………………. 175 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. FIRST PERIOD HISTORY OF HUNGARY UNDER THE HOUSE OF ÁRPÁD. OF all the nations who, leaving the heaths of Asia, migrated to Europe, and who on the ruins of the old world constructed new states on new foundations, pros- períng in the breath of European air and making its civilization their own, the Hungarians are the last. The most ancient history of the Hungarian people is buried in darkness, and but one thing is certain, namely, that it belongs to the same family of nomade tribe, which sent forth the Huns, Ayares, Kumans, the Uzi, and Polowzi. The original country of these tribes is old Turan, that immense tract pf land extending from the laké of Arai, from the Oxus and Jaxartes to the frontier of China and the desert of Góbi. This tract of land is still the home of several vagrant tribes in ii the states of Khiva, Bokhara, Kashgar, Kokan, and Yarkend. The remark has often been made that, in the history of mankind, the nomade nations, of all others, are most prone, when once thoroughly impregnated with some grand idea to exchange their clansmanhip for a centralized monarchical or theocratical fönn of government, and to establish themselves as conquerors; but that in the course of this tcansijjon, they almost always lose every Testige of liberty. Their independent life as herdsmen, their half solitude, grouped as they are in families, under the mdnlgent authority of the heads of their clans, and the paternal power of government of the latter, is the fhiitful source of abso- lute power, whenever a foreign invasion compels them to unite> or their roving disposition induces thjem, to go in quest of other homes. But as their enthusiasm cools down, which made them formidable to their neighbours, the unbridled power which sways them, feshiond them into an agrícultural people who form a kind of national aristocracy among the original in- habibants of the conquered country, whom they keep ia a state of sttbjection, more or less oppressive, as the case may be. Such is the history of the Jéws in Palestine, of the Arabs in Northern Africa, in Babylonia and Persia, of tíie Turanian tribes in India, of the Turks in the Byzan- tine empire, and of the Mongols in China. Sómé nomade nations perished in the crisis of the transition from conquest to agriculture; domestic dissensions, or the sword of a league of foreign foes, dissolved and again sent them adrift as migratory hordes, whose fates are not historical, and who at least are lost in iii the coorse of years, like those terrifíc meteor illumine the horizon in one moment and vanish next The bonds once broken which united the tribes, they cease to be a nation; they return former state of famiiies and clans and amalgam the neighbouring nations; or with the Aboriginal Ibr a time were nnder their dominion. The last process occnrs especially in eases in which solu- tition does not follow on the heels of the common in the case of the Vandals in Africa, of the Spain, of the Lombards in Italy, whom the deprived of their national individuality, and absorbed by the original elements of the country the otherhand, the Hiins and the Avars in Europe, the Turkomans in Kharesm, the Magars the Golden Horde in Asia and Russia (Krim were completely and hopelessly dissolved.) Among these rudiments of nations, which were shape from the commencement of the declined Roman Empire down to the fifteenth century Hungarians play a conspicnous and interest from the fact that they alone, of all migrate succeeded in weathering the rocks which threaten most, who drifted most headlong in the current quest. They had sufficient strength to enemies, whom they stirred up by the conquer new country, and by those frequent predatory in which are of common occurrence in the first epocn of conqueríng nations, without finding selves compelled to sacrifíce their domestic the arbitrary sway of one man. The history ot Hungary, from the ninteen twelfth century, is consequently full of interest IV political philosopher, In the first years of that period, we see the Hungarian people worried by foreign enemies, and hurried on by those migratory instincts which are peculiar to nomade populations, leave their homes in Central Asia, and proceed to the Caspian, and from thence to the Black Sea; from thence they direct their steps to the Danube; for a legend is rife among them of a land of promise, belonging to the inheritance of Attila, Prince of the Huns and kinsman to their tribe. Obe- dient to the advice of the Chazars their neighbours, we behold the chiefs of the clans assemble for the election of a prince; but jealous of his influence, they limit the extent of his power. They make a State, and that State stands alone in history; for it originated in a "social contract,"the provisions of which were not only enacted but also observed. Thus united into a nation, the Hungarian tribes proceed, towards the end of the ninth century, to conquer their present country. The conquest is an easy one. Fortune favours them: they become over-bearing, and begin to deyastate the neighbouring countries. They make inroads upon Southern Germany, Upper Italy, and the Northern provinces of the Byzantine Empire. some detached parties visit even the South of France, and advance to the walls of Constantinople, until the hero, Botond — thus runs the Hungarian legend — breaks the gates of tbat city with his club. The people of Western Europe prayed at that time in this litany: "Oh, Lord! preserve us from the Hun- garians!"and dreadful rumours were current of the Hungarian barbarians, who, it was said, delighted in eating the hearts of their enemies. Neither the Byzan- tine nor the German Emperor scouldresist their inroads V all they could do was to conciliate them with gifts. The two Emperors did, indeed, all they could to break the power of their new and formidable enemies; and the manner in which they severally attempted that object, is characteristic of the distinguishing features of the East and West of Europe. Henry of Germany (Henricus Auceps) bribed the Hnngarians into an armistice of nine years, and during this time he built fortified cities and strongholds, and recruited his armies, só that when the Hungarian hordes advanced, they suf- fered several grievous defeats. The unwarlike Prince of Byzantium, on the other hand, purchases peace under the sáme conditions as Henricus Auceps; and, as a pledge of the good faith of the Hungarians, he takes several of their chiefs as hostages, and conducts them to Constantinople. Here they are cónverted to the Christian religion, and when they finally return to their country, the Byzantine Emperor sees that they are accompanied by the Bishop Hierotheos, for he is wefl aware that the Christian religion will change the barbarous manners of the Hungarians. Christianity thus transplanted into Hungary, had at first but an indifierent success. It was only after two generations, that the reál conversion of the Hungarian people took place. They adopted the forms, not of the petrified Grecian Church, but of the Romans. Still the reminiscences of the first Byzantine attempt at their conversion remained in the Hungarian language. To this day, the Grecian doctrine is called the old creed (ó hit), and the Greek Christians are proud of the old faith.* * The Russians, too, call themselves «Starowerzi,» i.

Load more