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The paper examines the moral obligations of the soldier as presented in the essay De devoirs militaires authored in 1845 by Karl Gustav Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1777–1866), an important generalof the Austrian army of the post-Napoleonic era. It discusses the main points of the essay, offeringhistorical context.
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The issue of the gathering of the Lithuanian nobility in Vilnius, organised in Au- gust 1715 by Great Hetman of Lithuania Ludwik Konstanty Pociej as a way of sparking a protest against the contributions imposed by King Augustus II for the maintenance of the Saxon army in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, has so far been margin- ally addressed in historiography. The purpose of the article is to examine the causes and consequences of the gathering and to determine the Russian attitude towards it. Using manuscript sources from Russia, Belarus, Poland and Lithuania, the author ar- gues that the Russians had minimal influence over the organization of the gathering, yet they used it as a means to combat King Augustus II’s attempts to free himself from Russian influence. There is ample evidence to put forward a hypothesis that the request to Tsar Peter I for acting as an intermediary in the conflict between the king and the nobility was conceived by Pociej and other leading officials of the Commonwealth rather than by Russian diplomats. The article also argues that the convention in Vil- nius contributed significantly to the formation of the Tarnogród Confederation in the Crown. The Poles believed that the Lithuanians were determined to uphold the decla- ration of the Vilnius convention to instigate military action against the king’s policies and contributions for the purposes of the Saxon army. When the news of the Vilnius gathering spread throughout Poland, riots began in the southern provinces, and part of the Polish army declared a confederation and took up arms.
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On 17 July 1724, the local Jesuit college was broken into and vandalised by a mob of Toruń Protestants. These events, the so-called tumult of Thorn, prompted a strong reaction from the Polish authorities. Under the court’s ruling, Mayor Johann Gott- fried Rösner and nine other people who were found guilty were beheaded. This case resonated strongly in Europe. The prevailing opinion in the historiography is that the conduct of the municipal authorities following the tumult was slow and indecisive. In the light of the recently discovered sources (fragments of the drafts of city council minutes, originally destroyed during the siege of the city in 1813), it can be concluded that in the first days following the tumult the council did undertake an investigation, in which the blame for provoking the riots was quite explicitly placed on Jesuit stu- dents, and information about the incidents was sent to the council’s resident at the royal court in Warsaw. However, the decision to take any further steps was indeed procrastinated. The Jesuits were much quicker to disseminate the information about the harm done to their order in Toruń across the whole country.
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The Austro-Turkish War of 1788–1791 was one of the failed attempts by the Austrians to “reconquer” the Balkans. Probably for this reason, this military conflict is still awaiting a monographic interpretation both in American/European and Turkish historiography. For two centuries now, historians have been searching for the concept of the last Austro-Turkish War over the Balkans, and the present article is one of the first attempts to characterize the problems researchers face when they take up this issue. The article also outlines promising directions for further studies.
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It may seem that we know a lot about the elections and coronations of Roman kings and emperors in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and this also applies to the one of 1745, when Francis I Stephen became emperor. However, very little attention has been paid to the electoral delegations, their tasks, and their role in the pre-election negotiations. This article will therefore analyse the instructions issued by Queen Maria Theresa of Bohemia, who did not personally come to Frankfurt am Main for the election, to her diplomats. The analysis will then be supplemented by additional sources from the National Archives in Prague, where the reports of the delegation and other sources have been preserved. The election of 1745 is thoroughly compared with the elections of 1657–58 (Leopold I), 1711 (Charles VI), and 1742 (Charles VII). The author shows who made up the Bohemian delegation and how some of these diplomats’ tasks changed over time. Although the delegation of three noblemen – Counts Wurmbrand and Khevehüller, and Baron Hilleprand – had mainly ceremonial tasks, its role was also crucial in the actual negotiations, both on the very day of the election, then when it represented the Queen in the cathedral, and finally in conclave vote and when it was given other tasks (such as organising the celebratory banquet, illuminating the houses, etc.). It is evident that the delegation helped Queen Maria Theresa and her family regain possession of the imperial title.
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The publication of the Kaunas sejmik (dietine) records from 1733 to 1795 should be regarded as an important event in the history of Polish source editing. Many sejmik records have been published for the kingdom of Poland, but this is the first modern edition of part of the sejmik records from a district of the Grand Duchy of Lithu- ania. The article presents this collection of sources together with the editorial methods applied (the principles of collecting, selec- ting, and arranging material and editorial issues). The subject is set in the context of the discussion on publishing this type of source, which is of great significance for the history of the former Commonwealth.
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The advice of oppressive freedom in Western culture dates back to ancient times, including those principles of democracy that were implemented in Greek city-states. It changed forms of expression together with Christianity gaining the position of the dom- inant religion. However, this Christianization over the centuries encountered such un- believers or infidels who were not willing to subscribe to the Christian conviction that surrendering to the slavery of God and the Church representing Him on earth is the best way to free oneself from various sins. In the 16th and 17th centuries, attempts were made to justify oppressive freedom with earthly needs. In the eighteenth century, however, such social forces came to the fore, which, regardless of the existing beliefs, implemented its form, which in the final phase was primarily terror. It was Jacobin oppressive freedom. Later, various political forces in Western Europe distanced themselves from it, but in East- ern Europe they added their card to it under the title – communist terror.
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The article presents an analysis of the instructions of the local sejmik (an assembly of the regional nobility) prepared for their Vawkavysk representants (envoys)at the Sejm sessions during the reign of King August III (1735–1763). These instructions included from 4 to 40 points. Vawkavysk envoys at the time of August III were well-known parliamentarians of their epoch; there were such personages as Stefan Olędzki, Michał Antoni Sapieha, Kazimierz Massalski, Ludwik Gerwazy Oskierka and Dominik Suchodolski. They were supporters of the Familia Party (a political faction led by the Czartoryskis and allied families), which sought to reform the state to strengthen it. The instruction to the Vawkavysk envoys covered a wide range of the state’s domestic and foreign policy issues, as well as the affairs of the Vawkavysk poviat (county) itself. These instructions contain items concerning the functioning of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Sejm, the increase of the size of the army, the reform of the judiciary, economic and financial issues, demands for independence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, others regarding private points in the interests of individual noblemen, as well as foreign policy activities (primarily in relation with Russia issues).
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The dominion-historical aspects of the mid–18th century are not only significant from economic and historic points of view. Agriculture, the powerhouse of the Hungarian Kingdom, with its joint manufacturing industry, significantly determined the social status of the noble families of the era. The primary source of this paper is an urbarium (socage) containing an inventory, completed in 1778. On its basis it is easier to quantify the real impact of a not-so-well-known lesser noble family, the Bályoki–Hégen Szénás family. Data found in this document could show us on what scale, with how much income and by what methods they have led their estates. With the help of research published in the field, it is possible to calculate the expenses of the family approximately, making it easier to calculate their real profit and to determine the characteristics of their management strategies.
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One of the groups of sources that can most profitably be used for the examination of the argarian population of Hungary in the early modern era is the archival legacy of the regulation of seigneurial dues ordered by Queen Maria Theresia. Alongside the quantitative data, the responses given to the points of the inquiry shed light on the living and legal conditions of the most characteristic group within the eighteenth-century peasantry, that of contract tenants. While part of the jobbágy-peasantry and as such excluded from the noble nation and from all kinds of political and economic power, this group of the subjected population nevertheless theoretically enjoyed exceptionally wide guarantees in everyday economic activity as opposed to the lord’s economy, with which it lived in an uneasy harmony, sometimes conflicting, and to the lord himself. Based on the material of four counties (Veszprém, Sopron, Borsod, Bihar), the paper explores the regional patterns of contract tenant peasantry in 887 settlements, as well as their ethnic, social and economic features, and those of the lords who dominated them. It likewise explores the proportion of landless peasants and resettled ethnic minorities, prevailing landholding forms, and the issues of serfdom and freedom in correlation with the contract relationship. Through a qualitative analysis of the responses given by the population at the time of the regulation, the paper also explores the formal characteristics of contract-making, offering a „typology” of such contracts by ordering the different contracts into a system.
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Matthias Bel (1684–1749), Hungarian historian and geographer was as renowed that he could see his own long biography in his life, which was published in 1746 by Johann Jakob Brucker and Johann Jakob Haid in two languages, and two separate series, but of identical content in the fifth volume of their Pinacotheca scriptorum nostra aetate litteris illustrium in Latin, and Bilder-sal heutiges tages lebender, und durch Gelahrtheit berühmter Schrifftsteller in German. With arguments based on both style and content, the present paper at first demonstrates that the text in question is in fact an autobiography. Next, it examines the roles in which Bel chose to present himself, in other words, the self-representation he used in the text. The major roles are the following: 1. the unfortunate student and reformer teacher; 2. the prosecuted pietist pastor; 3. the patriotric intellectual. Finally, the paper explores the extent to which the career of Bel was typical or idiosyncratic if placed in the context of the living conditions of the contemporary Protestant “Hungarus” intellectual elite. The concusion is that while his school years, university studies and early career presents several common features with the curricula of other contemporary Hungarian men of letters, Bel’s immense scientific production and its very high level was far from ordinary, and was not exclusively rooted in this “Hungarus” scientific world. Consequently, it may be misleading to regard Bel as a typical “Hungarus” intellectual. Emphasising the necessity for a new, modern biography of Bel, the paper also outlines its plan as conceived by the author.
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One of Maria Theresa’s most important financial–economic provisions was the introduction of the 20-guilder foot currency system in 1750, which was extended to an international coinage system by the coin convention signed between the Habsburg Monarchy and Bavaria in 1753. My research summarizes the historical background and the steps that lead to the contract. The convention-based coinage system, implemented in various forms, became extremely popular in Central Europe. The causes and impacts are also analyzed, together with all the monetary details that are yet unexplored in the Hungarian scholarly literature.
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The name of Count László Bercsényi is best remembered for his military career and his role in uniting the Hungarian emigration in France after the Rákóczi War of Independence. At the peak of his career, he was the only Hungarian to be awarded the title of Marshal of France, which placed him in the highest strategic command company of the French Royal Army. This study describes the Hungarian-born Count’s multi-faceted military and political career, and the important role played by the social networks and court circles that supported him, including the exiled Polish King and daughter of Sanislo Leszczyński and the Masonic lodges, in winning this prestigious title. The study also highlights the importance of the French literacy of the Hungarian émigré overlord and his media contacts of the time. It also shows that part of his biography, which was included in the pamphlet proclaiming his title of Marshal, was published in a contemporary political treatise, Antoine-François Aubert’s Le politique vertueux.
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In this paper we attempt to evaluate the results of the database building process executed within the framework of the project HAS–RCH “Lendület” Ten Generations. Instead of the regional approach used in our previous studies, this paper focuses on other dimensions of inequalities. Using data from the 18th-century conscriptions and censuses aggregated at settlement level, we seek to analyse the differences in the socio-economic-demographic behaviour of different ethnic and religious groups before the reform era, and to trace, which linguistic-religious groups were over- and under-represented among the most underdeveloped settlements. We also investigated how the development level of the basic cultural infrastructure or the quality of land related to other socio-economic indicators, and what socio-economic demographic differences characterized settlements of different legal status/ population/hierarchical level in the 18th century. Finally, we examined if distance from the market left any imprint on socio-economic characteristics.
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Few personalities in Polish history have attracted such general and enduring dislike as Stanisław Poniatowski. This dislike has mostly focussed on the king’s personality, the means of his gripping power, and on his real or imagined political faults. The present paper concentrates on two events: the election of Stanislaus Augustus and the Bar Confederation, which ushered in the kidnapping of the king. It is in the context of these events that the early conceptions of legitimacy and idoneity are explored. Over the eighteenth century, not only the Polish society but also the foreign public had come to accept the fact that the kings of Poland got their throne through Russian support, as in was reflecting the existing state of geopolitical relations. The kidnapping of the king, and the reception of its news in Europe, are a perfect illustration of the basic problem of the Bar Confederation, namely that the outside world held a different conception of state and kingship, and the person of the ruler, than did the Polish nobility. The absolute rulers of Europe made small account of what legitimacy meant in Poland; for them, the legitimacy of royal power sprang partly from the right of birth, partly from the consecration and the coronation ceremony.
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Although the details of the 1793 “Jacobin” constitution are more or less unknown even to the public of historians, this document has been the subject of the most sharply conflicting opinions since its birth. It is seen by some as essentially a kind of forerunner of the “Stalinist” constitution: created by a dictatorial regime, it was built on principles and contained procedures that were most often flouted by its creators. Its critics argue that the referendum to adopt it was a massive manipulation and that it was ultimately not implemented, and so on. There are even those who consider it to be the most democratic constitution of the modern era and the first constitution based on full equality of citizenship. On the other hand, the debates on the Constitution in the spring of 1793 are considered by many specialists as perhaps the most innovative period of political thought in the Revolution. Its still-prevalent nimbus needs to be explained, as well as its contemptuous dismissal. This is what this paper will attempt to do.
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Numerous studies analyze the history of America colonized by Spain, England or France. At the same time, Russia’s presence in the Americas is little discussed worldwide and the history of Russian America is one of the most under-researched topics in Hungary. Based on the relative importance and the lack of similar research, this paper provides a comprehensive overview of the period of the Russian presence in America, from the times of Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov to the sale of Alaska. In the course of this, the author not only elaborates on the significance of the Shelikhov–Golikov Company, the forerunner of the later Russian–American Society but also the governorate of Alexandr Andreyevich Barnanov is presented. The period of his activity can be attributed to the period, when Russian America reached its greatest extent. The author analyzes the relationship between Russians and the local population, and describes circumstances that ultimately led to the sale of Alaska. This paper not only contributes to the current literature, but also provides a good basis for future.
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This study highlights one of the oldest and most beautiful bridges between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Romanian Lands in the 18th century. The analysis concerns Count Lars of Engeström, freemason, rector of the University of Lund, diplomat, and envoy of the Kingdom of Sweden in Vienna within the Habsburg Empire. In this capacity, he was able to obtain valuable information about the uprising led by Horea, Cloșca and Crișan in Transylvania in 1784. It was a rebellion that shook the reign of Emperor Joseph II. For this reason, its retaliation was commensurate. Thus, recounting a dramatic episode from the pre-modern history of the Romanians, Lars von Engeström left to posterity a beautiful fresco of Transylvania. He spoke about ethnic and confessional diversity, about the Romanian Roma, about the people living here and their problems. There is no definitive information confirming that he actually visited Transylvania. Nevertheless, the famous Swedish diplomat remains the greatest Northern European scholar to write about this 18th century Transylvanian uprising which was unique in its intercontinental resonance and had significant repercussions in the Swedish press of that era.
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Rendi ellenzék és kormánypárt az 1751. évi országgyűlésen [The opposition and the governing party at the 1751 Diet]. By János Nagy. Budapest: Budapest Főváros Levéltára–Mika Sándor Egyesület, 2020. 584 pp.
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