Georg Martinuzzi

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Cardinal Martinuzzi (1551) (painting from the Baroque period)

Georg Martinuzzi OSPPE ( Croatian Juraj Utješinović Martinušević , Hungarian György Utjesenovic , also known as Frater György , brother Georg ; * 1482 in Kamičak , Dalmatia ; † December 17, 1551 at Winzendorf Castle ) was a Croatian-Hungarian cleric and statesman at the time of the Renaissance .

Life

Origin and early years

He was the son of the Croatian landowner Gregor Utješinović, who was killed in action against the Turks. His mother was a Venetian from the Martinuzzi patrician family ; his uncle was Giacomo Martinuzzi , Bishop of Skradin in Dalmatia . In memory of her, he took the surname Martinuzzi. His first name is also given as Juraj ; his last name is given as Utiesenovic, Utyeszenics, Utissenoviski, Utješinovic, Wisenowiski or Martinuzius ( Latin ). He himself usually drew as Frater Georgius , in Hungarian historiography he is referred to as Frater György or, for short, as the Frater .

At the age of eight he came to the court of Duke János Corvin in 1490, where he became the duke's first page and valet. He stayed there for twelve years until he entered the service of the Zápolya family and for a short time fought under Johann Zápolya . A Pauline monk had taught him to read and write, so he gave up his military career and joined this order in 1510 in the monastery of St. Laurentius near Buda , later he studied philosophy and theology .

Church and political career

coat of arms

Georg Martinuzzi became prior of the Pauline monastery in Czestochowa , later he was head of the monastery in Sajolad near Erlau in northern Hungary. In 1527 the newly crowned King of Hungary János Zápolya came to this monastery when he fled to Poland after his defeat by King Ferdinand of Bohemia and asked him for help. Frater György gathered the supporters of King John, obtained financial support from the greats of the kingdom and raised an army, which in 1529, under the command of General Ravay , defeated Ferdinand's troops. The king appointed him royal advisor and treasurer that same year.

In 1534 Georg Martinuzzi was appointed Bishop of Nagyvárad by King János . Since he was preconized by the Pope five years later , he had the diocese run by auxiliary bishops. In 1536 he became bishop of Csanád . In 1538 he concluded the Nagyvárad Treaty with King Ferdinand, through which János was granted the title of king and rule over most of Hungary, with Ferdinand remaining his successor.

On May 30, 1539 he took over the bishopric of Nagyvárad. King János died on July 21, 1540 and revoked the Treaty of Nagyvárad on his deathbed, at the same time he bequeathed the crown of Hungary to his only nine-day-old son Johann Sigismund Zápolya ; Georg Martinuzzi and Peter Petrovich were appointed guardians of the infant by the late king. The two proclaimed János Zsigmond as king. Sultan Suleyman I promised to recognize the young king. However, in 1541 the Sultan captured Buda, the capital of Hungary. Bishop Martinuzzi, guardian of the young king and regent, managed to keep Transylvania as an independent principality under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. He then changed his policy and in 1545 tried to establish a common front with Ferdinand against the Turks. The contract was confirmed in the parliament of Cluj in 1551 after Georg Martinuzzi had convinced the queen mother Isabella and the young king to resign; and led to the reunification of Hungary under the Habsburgs . For Martinuzzi this brought the metropolitan seat of Esztergom as well as the cardinal title . He had already received episcopal ordination in 1548 through Franciscus Josephich , the bishop of Senj .

The assassination of Cardinal George Martinuzzi, by followers of the Imperial General Castaldo , on December 16, 1551.

On October 12, 1551 Georg Martinuzzi was by Pope Julius III. elevated to cardinal priesthood and permitted to wear his white habit instead of the purple of the cardinals who were secular priests ; however, he died before he could receive the cardinal's hat and a title church . In 1551 the Turks took Csanád and other places. Thereupon Cardinal Martinuzzi and the imperial generals Giovanni Battista Castaldo , Margrave of Cassiano, and Sforza Pallavicini united their troops against the common enemy. A letter from the cardinal stressing the danger to the Turks was read out in the consistory on November 16, 1551. In December 1551, in order to delay an attack by the Turks, Martinuzzi secretly proposed that the Sultan pay tribute . However, his secret contacts aroused the suspicion of Castaldo, who accused King Ferdinand of high treason and asked permission to eliminate the cardinal if necessary. The king agreed. Martinuzzi's secretary Marco Aurelio Ferrari was recruited for this. On December 17, 1551 in Winzendorf Castle the secretary stabbed his master while he was reading a letter; However, the 69-year-old was still able to resist, so that he was finally killed by Pallavicini and his soldiers.

Funeral and trial

His tomb is in the Catholic Cathedral in Alba Iulia . In 1553 there was a trial in Vienna for the murder of Georg Martinuzzi, which was led by Nunzius Girolamo Martinengo . The doctor Giorgio Biandrata , who had worked in Transylvania, was called to testify at the trial.

literature

Web links

Commons : George Martinuzzi  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Arnold Huttemann: A Flemish physician of the 16th century in Transylvania and Austria. In: Historical Yearbook of the City of Linz , 1958, pp. 55, 59, online ( Memento from February 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 4.4 MB).
  2. ↑ Béla Köpeczi (ed.): Brief history of Transylvania. ("Erdély rövid története"). Akademie-Verlag, Budapest 1990, ISBN 963-05-5667-7 .
  3. ↑ Antonio Rotondo:  BIANDRATA, Giovanni Giorgio. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 10. Rome 1968.
personal data
SURNAME Martinuzzi, Georg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES György Utješenović, father Georgius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian statesman, cardinal
DATE OF BIRTH 1482
PLACE OF BIRTH Kamičak , Dalmatia
DATE OF DEATH December 17, 1551
Place of death Winzendorf