Principality of Transylvania (1570–1711)
Principality of Transylvania Principatus Transsilvaniae | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1570–1711 | |||||||||
  Top: Báthory banner Bottom: Bethlen banner  Coat of arms | |||||||||
John II Sigismund Zápolya | |||||||||
• 1704–1711 (last) | Francis II Rákóczi | ||||||||
| Legislature | Peace of Szatmár | 29 April 1711 | |||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Romania Hungary Slovakia Ukraine | ||||||||
The Principality of Transylvania (
The principality continued to be a part of the Lands of the Hungarian Crown[16] and was a symbol of the survival of Hungarian statehood.[17] It represented Hungarian interests against Habsburg encroachments in the Habsburg-ruled Kingdom of Hungary.[18] Traditional Hungarian law had to be followed scrupulously in the principality;[14] furthermore, the state was predominantly Protestant.[19] After the unsettled period of Rákóczi's War of Independence, it was subordinated to the Habsburg monarchy.
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Background
Eastern Hungarian Kingdom and Zápolya family
On 29 August 1526, the army of Sultan
Transylvania was administrated by Isabella, John Sigismund's mother, from 1541 to 1551, when it fell for five years under Habsburg rule (1551–1556). The House of Zapolya regained the control of Transylvania in 1556,[20] when the Diet of Szászsebes elected Sigismund as prince of Transylvania.
Transylvania was now beyond the reach of
Principality of Transylvania
The Principality of Transylvania was established in 1570 when John II renounced his claim as
Prince
Under Bocskay's successors Transylvania had its golden age,
The fall of
Demographics
Ruling system
Until 1691 Transylvania was ruled by Unio Trium Nationum, the three state-constituting socio-ethnical entities termed "nations", consisting of the Hungarian nobility, the Saxon urban settlers, and the Székely peasant-soldiers, while a significant part of the general population, consisted of Orthodox Romanians, remained deprived of any civil and political rights.[28][29]
The Composition of the Parliament
The
The coalition of the "Three Nations" retained its legal representative monopoly under the prince as before the split of the medieval Hungarian Kingdom occasioned by the Ottoman invasions. According to Dennis P. Hupchick, though there were occasional clashes between the Hungarian plainsmen and the Székely mountaineers, they were united under the patronymic "Magyars" and, with Saxon support, formed a common front against the predominantly Romanian peasantry.[14]
Demographic evolution
There is an ongoing scholarly debate between Hungarian and Romanian historians regarding the medieval population of Transylvania. While some Romanian historians claim continuous Romanian majority, Hungarian historians claim the continuous settlement of Romanians into the Kingdom of Hungary. Official censuses with information on Transylvania's population have been conducted since the 18th century, but the ethnic composition was the subject of different modern estimations.
Nicolaus Olahus, Primate of Hungary stated in the book Hungaria et Athila in 1536 that in Transylvania "Four nations of different origins live in it: Hungarians, Székelys, Saxons, and Vlachs" [34][35][36]
Based on a work by Antun Vrančić (1504–1573), Expeditionis Solymani in Moldaviam et Transsylvaniam libri duo. De situ Transsylvaniae, Moldaviae et Transalpinae liber tertius, more estimations exist as the original text is translated/interpreted in a different way, especially by Romanian and Hungarian scholars. According to Hungarian interpretations, Vrančić wrote about the inhabitants of Transylvania and about the Romanians: "The country is inhabited by three nations, Székelys, Hungarians, and Saxons; I should also add the Romanians who – even though they easily equal any of the others in number – [37] have no freedom, no aristocracy, no right of their own, besides a small number living in the Haţeg district, where the capital of Decebalus is believed to have stood, and who, during the time of John Hunyadi, a native of those places, were granted aristocratic status because they had always taken part in the struggle against the Turks. The rest of them are all commoners, serfs of the Hungarians, having no places of their own, spread all over the territory, in the whole country, sparsely inhabited in open regions, mountains and forests, they mostly live out their miserable lives hiding together with their flocks."[38][39] In Romanian interpretations, it is noted that the proper translation of the first part of the sentence would be: "...I would nevertheless add the Romanians, who – even though they easily equal the others in number – ..."[40]
Romanian historians Ioan Bolovan and Sorina-Paula Bolovan argue that the Romanians were the majority during the life of Antun Vrančić. Based on their works, in 1690 there was an absolute Romanian majority, and no significant demographic change happened between the Middle Ages and 1750, when the Austrian administration tracked newcomers, which also explained concerns about Transylvanian Romanians leaving for Wallachia and Moldavia, including
Károly Kocsis and Eszter Kocsisné Hodosi argue that the Hungarians were the most numerous ethnic group before the second half of the 17th century, when they were exceeded by Romanians. They assert the following structure of the population: in 1595, out of a total population of 670,000, 52% were Hungarians, 28% Romanians, 19% Germans.[42] Around 1650, in a letter written to the Sultan, Moldavian prince Vasile Lupu affirms that the number of Romanians was one-third of the population.[43][44] By 1660, according to Miklós Molnár, 955,000 people lived in the principality (Partium included) and the population consisted of 500,000 Hungarians (including 250,000 Székelys), 280,000 Romanians, 90,000 Germans and 85,000 Serbians, Ukrainians and others and had reached its end-of-century level.[45]
On the other hand, according to Dennis P. Hupchick, Romanians were the majority population in the region during the rule of Stephen Báthory (16th century).[46] In 1600, according to George W. White, Romanians, who were primarily peasants, constituted more than 60 percent of the population.[47] This theory is supported by Ion Ardeleanu, who states that the Romanian population represented "the overwhelming majority" in the age of Michael the Brave.[48] According to Louis Roman, various works from the XVII century claim that Romanians were the most numerous ethnic group in Transylvania during that time, including those of Johannes Tröster, Grigore Ureche, and Miron Costin.[49]
The period 1567–1661 had a deep demographic impact on the country.
According to official estimates made by the Austrian administrative authority (Verwaltungsgericht) dating from 1712 to 1713, the ethnic distribution of the population in Transylvania is as follows: 47% Hungarians, 34% Romanians, 19%, Saxons.[51] In Benedek Jancsó's estimation, there were 250,000 Romanians, 150,000 Hungarians and 100,000 Saxons in Transylvania at the beginning of the 18th century.[52] In 1720, according to Károly Kocsis and Eszter Kocsisné Hodosi, out of a total population of 806,221, 50% were Romanians, 37% Hungarians, 12% Germans.[42]
Immigration and emigration of Romanians
The change of ethnic composition of the Principality of Transylvania and the influence of migrations is also subject to debate among historians. The Hungarian historiography claims that a large immigration of ethnic Romanians took place into the Principality of Transylvania, while the Romanian historiography asserts that there was more emigration towards Moldavia and Wallachia than vice versa.[53]
Transylvania survived as a state, and this peace facilitated its reconstruction and a gradual economic recovery, which themselves attracted new settlers from the surrounding countries into Transylvania. In addition, the population density of Transylvania was lower than it was in royal Hungary. These circumstances favoured immigration: over these decades, people moved in significant numbers to the principality, mainly from Moldavia, but from Wallachia as well.[50] As a result of two decades of peaceful rule and economic policy of Prince Michael I Apafi, the population in Transylvania increased. The labor shortage that developed as a result of the good economic conditions also favored immigration. The prince's patient and understanding religious policy offered shelter to all groups persecuted because of their religion. All the Transylvanian princes of this era strove to win the Transylvanian Romanian population to the cause of development and progress with the help of religious reform, to make the Romanian ethnic element just as useful for Transylvania as the other three nations were: Hungarian, Székely and Saxon. The efforts of these Hungarian princes were so successful that the Transylvanian Romanians became the creators, founders, and then the transmitters of Romanian culture to their brothers living beyond the Carpathians. Enjoying the full help of the princely power, the Transylvanian Romanians were able to grow numerically, according to Árpád Kosztin.[54]
Evliya Çelebi (1611–1682) was an Ottoman explorer who traveled through the territory of the Ottoman Empire and neighboring lands over a period of forty years, recording his commentary in a travelogue called the Seyahatnâme "Book of Travel". His trip to Hungary took place between 1660 and 1666. The Transylvanian's state of development in the 17th century was so good that it was an attraction to strangers longing for its territory. Evliya Çelebi wrote in his book that the Romanian serfs moved en masse to Transylvania because of the extreme ruthlessness of the rulers of Romanian lands, and the justice, legal order, and low taxes in Transylvania.[43]
In Wallachia the beys were very tyrannical over them, therefore these rayahs saying: "Let justice be justice", all moved to Transylvania and pay one gold tribute to the king and they have no other duties.
With the various Turkish, Tatar, and Cossack raids, and especially those due to the constant harassment and extortion of the Greeks, who were the tenants of the incomes of the two neighboring Romanian voivodeships, the entire population of some villages fled to Transylvania. In a diploma of Prince Gabriel Bethlen: "The Saxon priests belonging to the Kézdi chapter inform us that before that a village called Kövesd was inhabited by all Saxons, but now due to the many wars, it has been so destroyed that there are more Vlachs living in it like a Saxon." In 1648, Prince George I. Rákóczi wrote in a letter: "Our Saxon bishop called us together with his seniors under his bishopric, reporting that since the number of Saxons in Réten had greatly decreased and the Vlachs, vice versa, had multiplied greatly".[57] In 1663, the Wallachian voivode Ghica wrote to Michael I Apafi, Prince of Transylvania regarding the runaway Romanian serfs of the Filipescu boyar.[57] In 1668, the population of several Romanian villages migrated to Transylvania and the Romanian voivodes harassed Prince Michael I Apafi with demands that the "runaway villeins" be repatriated, and voivode Ghica was talking about entire Romanian groups.[50] In 1668, the voivode of Wallachia wrote to Michael I Apafi regarding a large number of escaped Romanian villages: "From our realm, a couple of villages have escaped into the realm of your greatness, some to Fogaras (Făgăraș) county, some to Brassó (Brașov), some to Szeben (Sibiu), and they did not flee because of their rascality but only for the heaviness of the tax." And in 1676, the Moldavian voivode Rosetti wrote twice to the Transylvanian prince because of his runaway serfs.[57] The Romanian peasantry, which flooded into Transylvania in this way, could take the place of the Hungarian, Székely and Saxon population decimated by the vicissitudes of the war, and their remaining real estate and property, without any difficulties.[57]
As a result of heavy taxes and hard services demanded, many serfs of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia migrated into Transylvania where the laws were more favorable. According to Hungarian estimations 350,000–500,000 Romanians migrated to Transylvania in the 18th century.[51]
After the death of Prince Michael I Apafi, between 1690 and 1703, many people emigrated from Transylvania due to the tax burdens of the government that did not take into account the local circumstances. Furthermore, between 1703 and 1711 the armies of the Habsburg emperors and Francis II Rákóczi fought each other during the Rákóczi's War of Independence. Escapes accompanying the war, famines and epidemics – mainly the plague – also greatly decimated the population. The ordeals of the Counter-Reformation carried out by military force also contributed to the decline of the population. Many Protestant families and groups – Hungarians, Székelys and Saxons – were forced to flee.
Many Romanians also migrated from Transylvania towards Moldavia and Wallachia. This phenomenon, also existing in the Middle Ages during the foundation of Moldova and Wallachia,[58][59] was amplified after György Dózsa's rebellion of 1514, the religious persecutions and the worsening standard of living of Romanian Transylvanians.[58] The fiscal policy of the Principality of Moldavia, indulgent towards newcomers, has allowed many of them to move there, creating new settlements, such as those that are named Ungureni.[58] The juridicial discrimination of Romanian Transylvanians increased from the time of the Diet of 1502, and their economic position worsened. From the Diet of 1552, for example, in comparison to Hungarians and Saxons, it was easier for ethnic Romanians to be accused before the law.[59] Such discriminations were also noticed by foreign visitors in Transylvania.[59]
In 1552, the Hungarians nobles in the area of Deva complained about a "massive fleeing" towards Wallachia, due to the looting practiced by Castaldo's army. The Cluj Diet of 1593 constated that "our haughty serfs, gathered in large groups and raised, immediately can go to the Romanian countries, even if they commit any illegality, they go there freely". In 1602 Giorgio Basta ordered the dwellers of Bistrița to guard the roads, the passes and the paths towards Moldavia, to prevent the Transylvanian serfs getting the Principality. In 1607 the Transylvanian Diet urged the Prince of Transylvania to demand from the Moldovan Voivode the restitution of the runaway serfs to their original lords. In 1609 the Transylvanian Diet requested that "there should be taken measures to stop their (Transylvanian serfs') crossing towards the Principates".[53] In 1635, the delegates of Vasile Lupu solicited the movement of serfs near Cluj to Moldavia. Similarly, in 1662 Michael I Apafi urged the dwellers of Bistrița to stop the movement of the impoverished people towards Moldavia.[59][60]
From the 16th century some ethnic Romanians started moving from Transylvania towards Poland, Silesia and Moravia, where they formed the ethnoregion of Moravian Wallachia.[58]
According to Árpád Kosztind, the Romanians were not affected by the Counter-Reformation, and no Romanians was forced to flee for religious reasons.[54] On other hand, according to Bolovan Ioan and Ștefan Meteș, the fact that Romanians belonged to the Orthodox Church and not to any Western Christian denomination was the cause of their remaining of political, economic and cultural inferiority to Hungarians, Szekelys and Saxons, making them more willing to emigrate towards Moldova and Wallachia.[41][58] Not by chance, a good part of the Romanian elite, but sometimes also simple people, emigrated, passing south and east of the Carpathians to the Romanian states of Moldavia and Wallachia, where they were able to assert themselves unfettered on all levels. It is also true that a small part of the Romanian nobility, as much as survived after the attempts of the Hungarian royalty to Catholicize in the previous centuries, in some places embraced one of the new reformed confessions.[41]
Food shortages, the famine of 1684–1686, caused by an increase in the price of grains, lead some of inhabitants to leave Transylvania, and many of the villages in the Fundus Regius remained abandoned. The Diet of Vásárhely of December 1694 claims that one third of the population of Făgăraș Country emigrated to Wallachia. On 7 May 1699, the Austrian Emperor Leopold I blamed the Transylvanian ruling class for the fleeing of the population towards the Danubian Principalities and other Ottoman-controlled areas.[49] By the 18th century, the emigration of Romanians towards Moldavia and Wallachia further increased.[49][58][41]
Gallery
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![The partition of medieval Kingdom of Hungary between the Ottoman and Habsburg empires lasted more than 150 years[61] after the Battle of Mohács in 1526](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5d/Central_europe_1683.png/120px-Central_europe_1683.png)
The partition of medieval Kingdom of Hungary between the Ottoman and Habsburg empires lasted more than 150 years[61] after the Battle of Mohács in 1526 -
The Principality of Transylvania, the successor of Eastern Hungarian Kingdom (1570). Partium is depicted in the darker colour
![The partition of medieval Kingdom of Hungary between the Ottoman and Habsburg empires lasted more than 150 years[61] after the Battle of Mohács in 1526](/File:Central_europe_1683.png)
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- ^ Compillatae Constitutiones Regni Transylvaniae (1671)
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- ^ István Keul, Early Modern Religious Communities in East-Central Europe: Ethnic Diversity, Denominational Plurality, and Corporative Politics in the Principality of Transylvania (1526–1691), Brill, 2009, p. 61
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In hac sunt quatuor diverso genere nationes: Hungari, Siculi, Saxones, Walachi
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{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ Çelebi, Evliya. Evlia Celebi Turkish world traveler's trips to Hungary (in Turkish).
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{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ a b c d e f Ștefan Meteș (1925). Emigrări românești din Transilvania în secolele XIII–XX. (Cercetări de demografie istorică) (in Romanian). pp. 35–41, 102, 156.
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External links
- Ethnic and Religious Mentalities in Transylvania during the time of Nicolaus Olahus at bcucluj.ro
- History of Transylvania, Volume I–III (2001–2002)