Teleki László, a fogarasi román boérok követe a kolozsvári diétákon
László Teleki, Envoy of the Romanian Boers of Fogaras/Făgăraş at the Diets in Kolozsvár/Cluj

Summary/Abstract: Paradoxically, one of the most conservative jurisdictions, the Romanian province of Fogaras/Făgăraş, elected one of the most radical figures of the Hungarian liberal reform movement, Count László Teleki, as its ambassador to the Diet. This also illustrates the dialectic of the situation: the liberals pursued a policy of modernising reform with a disaffected electorate, seeking to strengthen the constitutionalism of the order to transform it into a modern constitutional system of representation, while bargaining with an imperial leadership that itself was tactical in its adherence to imperial absolutism. At the beginning of the 1840s, the press in Kolozsvár/Cluj proclaimed a liberal policy of social reform, and proposed bills that, if passed by the ruler, would set a precedent for the reformist opposition in Hungary to pursue further reform policies. But by 1846 Transylvania had become the scene of a conservative counterattack. The liberals were isolated. This explains László Telekiʼs radicalism and tendency to pessimism. But Fogarasiʼs experience confirmed that it was still possible for nationalities to live together after the horrors of the civil war of 1848-49.

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