Peace of Sathmar
The Peace of Sathmar (also: Friede von Szatmár , Hungarian : Szatmári beke ) was concluded on April 29, 1711 in the city of Sathmar between the Habsburg imperial court, the Hungarian estates and the rebellious Kuruzzen . It marked the formal end of the uprising of Francis II Rákóczi , which had lasted since 1703 .
prehistory
After surviving the Second Turkish Siege of Vienna in 1683, the Habsburgs were able to conquer the territories of the Kingdom of Hungary that had previously been under Ottoman suzerainty in the Great Turkish War . However, resistance soon arose against the Austrians, who were initially welcomed as liberators. From 1703 a rebellion broke out in northeast Hungary under the leadership of the Hungarian nobleman Franz II Rákóczi . This spread to all of Upper Hungary , northern Transylvania and today's Carpathian Ukraine and insurgent hussars even threatened the Austrian capital Vienna at times .
It was not until 1708 that the tide turned under the energetic General Sigbert Heister . On August 3, 1708, supported by Hungarian Raitzen from Slavonia, he was able to beat a numerically superior army of Kuruc near the city of Trenčín . Further defeats for the insurgents followed. In order to keep the rebellion alive, Rákóczi made promises to the serf peasants, which in turn made the Hungarian nobility at a distance from him. Prince Eugene of Savoy , who had been President of the Court War Council since 1703 and stayed at the theater of war in the Spanish Netherlands , now recalled the dreaded General Heister and replaced him with the Hungarian nobleman Johann (János) Pálffy , who was loyal to the Habsburg castle , in order to be able to start negotiations better. On November 17, 1710, these were initiated by a letter from Count Alexander (Sándor) Károlyi , who was on the side of the Kuruc. On January 13, 1711, the first provisional armistice was negotiated between the two armies.
On January 31st, Pállfy and Rákóczi met in person for peace negotiations at Vaja Castle . However, Rákóczi did not want to accept the offered conditions, including amnesty and restitution of his goods, and went to the Kingdom of Poland on February 21, 1711 to negotiate with representatives of the Russian Tsar Peter the Great , from whom he hoped for support. But its forces were tied up in the Great Northern War , but it was hoped for a quick end on this scene. Count Károlyi was appointed commander of the Kuruzen army during his absence. The last fortified places controlled by the insurgents were on the Polish border: Ungwar , Munkatsch , Huszt and the Kővár Castle in Berkeszpataka . Károly urged peace and traveled to Rákóczi. The two met first on March 22, 1711 in Munkatsch, and a second time in Stry on the other side of the Carpathian Mountains . His adviser, the magnate Nicolaus Bertsényi de Brunótz, advised Rákóczi against negotiations and recommended that Károlyi be arrested as a traitor. Rákóczi did not agree to this, but forbade Károlyi to negotiate until his return. Instead, a rebel convention should be convened in Huszt. However, Count Károly disregarded Rákóczi's orders and began negotiations with the king's representatives. In order to be able to conclude a comprehensive peace he summoned the representatives of the Hungarian and Transylvanian estates, not to Huszt, but to Sathmar. On April 4th, preliminaries were adopted promising amnesty and return of goods to all those insurgents, including Rákóczi, who would lay down their arms and swear allegiance to the king by April 27th. On April 7th, the deputies gathered in Sathmar sent a letter to Rákóczi in which they asked him to release them from the oath they had taken in order to be able to make a peace, since it was the general mood in the convent, not a drop of blood to shed more. Daniel Esterházy, the commander of the Kuruc in the fortress Kassa , Károly wrote, he should immediately cease all hostilities. As a result, this last great bulwark of the rebels in Upper Hungary could be occupied by Habsburg troops immediately afterwards. On April 18, Rákóczi replied: "Even if all his followers wanted to throw themselves blindly into the Sclaverey, which he warned them about, he would not do it, nor would he fall into the trap set by the Viennese court" .
At the same time, on April 17, 1711, Emperor Joseph I died unexpectedly in Vienna . The inheritance fell to his brother Charles VI. who was still in Barcelona because of the War of the Spanish Succession . In order to enforce his claim to the Hungarian royal crown, the imperial court chancellery in Vienna under the leadership of the empress mother and regent Eleonore Magdalene of the Palatinate was interested in a quick peace in Hungary. However, the death of the emperor and Hungarian king was kept secret by Pállfy until the negotiations were concluded.
Peace negotiations
Now the representatives of the Habsburg king came to Sathmar and the opposing parties began peace negotiations. Even Rákóczi came from Poland, but without bringing any support from there. While Count Károly reached an agreement with Johann Pálffy on the terms of a peace treaty, Rákóczi distrusted the offer. He feared that the concessions offered by Pállfy would not be kept by the Habsburgs and therefore did not want his troops to be disarmed. However, the majority of the Kuruc did not want to continue the fight and so finally Alexander Károly accepted the peace treaty on behalf of the insurgents, while Rákóczi left Sathmar and went back to Poland, where he had the prospect of being elected King of Poland.
On April 29, 1711, the peace treaty and amnesty for the rebels were accepted by everyone present. On May 1, 1711, the solemn signing took place, during which the Confederates took the oath on the king. Signed for the king were: Field Marshal Count Johann (János) Pálffy and Court War Councilor Carl von Locher, Baron von Lindenheim. Count Alexander (Sándor) Károly and 16 other representatives of the Hungarian nobility signed on behalf of the rebellious Kuruzen and the Hungarian estates, on behalf of Transylvania Michael (Mihály) Barcsay, Michael (Mihály) Teleki and six other representatives and on behalf of the Principality of Moldova Hungarians who fled were authorized representative Stephan Daniel, with five others. Stephan Hunyadi, royal judge in Nagybánya and Georg Szasz, royal judge in Felsőbánya signed for the Hungarian royal cities and mining towns . Daniel Bulyoszky, appointed lawyer of the Hungarian nation and Georg Pongracz, appointed trustee of the Province of Transylvania, signed on behalf of everyone else present at the hearing. Stephan Giulay and the Transylvanian Saxon Gabriel Haller signed on behalf of the Transylvanian troops .
Terms of contract
The Treaty of Sathmar contained ten points, which were intended to establish a comprehensive peace in the whole Kingdom of Hungary and in the principality of Transylvania, which was independent from it, and which guaranteed both the material and political interests of the Hungarian estates and the former insurgents and at the same time the rule of the Habsburgs over Hungary and Should secure Transylvania.
- Prince Rákoczi was given a final period of three weeks to enter into the agreement and to swear allegiance to the king.
- Amnesty for all insurgents, including the return of their confiscated goods, if they swear the oath of allegiance within three weeks. Acceptance of domestic soldiers in imperial service or the right to return to their home region. Those soldiers who have been declared libertini for bravery ( exempt from serfdom ) retain this status. Foreign soldiers in the insurgent army are issued passports to return home.
- His Majesty grants religious freedom for Hungary and Transylvania for the reciprocal religions (this means the Evangelical Augsburg and the Reformed Helvetic Confessions ). The clergy's income is maintained. The pardoned insurgents are free to bring religious complaints before His Majesty or the Hungarian Diet.
- The property of the widows and orphans should not be confiscated by the tax authorities.
- Supporters of the uprising in exile can also claim the amnesty after the set date. General Steinville is given the power to pardon those Transylvanians who return from Moldova and Wallachia. A return to previous positions can be requested, and Field Marshal Pállfy will support such requests. Jazygen , Kumanen and Haiducken keep their freedom.
- All Confederates in captivity are included in these regulations.
- Damages that occurred during the armistice will be compensated.
- The ratification of the court is solemnly announced everywhere.
- The king would uphold the freedoms of Hungary and Transylvania, no pardoned persons should be persecuted or insulted.
- A next Reichstag should remedy all cheap complaints. The court would always keep its love for Hungary, the nation its loyalty to the king.
consequences
On May 1, 1711, the day it was signed, 12,000 Kuruz warriors gathered near the village of Nagymajtény , laid down their weapons and swore an oath of allegiance to the Habsburg king before Marshal Pállfy. This ceremony was accompanied by military music and a flag parade. Afterwards, a Te Deum was sung and the pardoned rebels were each given a certificate confirming their amnesty. In the next few days, more troops lying on the Somesch followed the peace conditions, as well as 5,000 cavalry in northern Maramures . On May 15, the fortresses of Ungwar, Huszt and Kővár, which were still under Kurucian control, accepted the peace. Only the commander of the Munkatsch fortress, Baron Stephan (István) Sennyey, opposed it. After a brief siege, the city was captured on June 23, 1711. The Kuruc uprising was over.
Even before the peace treaty was signed, Prince Eugene had written a letter to the Ottoman Grand Vizier Baltaji Mehmed Pascha on April 15 , in which he informed him about developments in Hungary and assured him that, despite the end of the Kuruc uprising, Austria would not question the peace of Karlowitz will ask.
In a series of decrees, the pre-uprising acquis has now been restored. First of all, on June 25th, the regent Eleonore ordered the Eperiesser Evangelicals to return those Catholic churches and school buildings that had been given to them by the Kuruc. In return, they were given the right to build their own church in the suburbs. On September 25, she ordered all counties to restore the status quo ante with regard to ecclesiastical possessions . Complaints would be dealt with at the next Reichstag.
Russia signed the unfavorable Peace of the Prut on July 23, 1711 after a military failure against the Ottomans , but was still at war with Sweden . Russian support for Rákoczi was therefore not possible. He then left Poland and embarked for France via Danzig .
Already on May 2nd, Pállfy from Debrecen had written a letter to Barcelona informing Karl about the peace agreement. On June 11th he replied that he was completely satisfied with the result. The designated new Hungarian King Karl left Spain on September 28, 1711 and after a short stay in Milan finally reached Frankfurt am Main , where he was crowned the new Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire on December 22, 1711. The election had already taken place in his absence on October 12th. On February 2, 1712 he convened a Diet in Pressburg for April 3 . Even before it began, on March 2, 1712, Charles confirmed the resolutions of the Peace of Sathmar in a rescript to all counties and royal cities. After a short stay in Vienna, Karl reached Pressburg on May 19, 1712 and was finally crowned with the St. Stephen's Crown on May 22 . In the following year he issued the Pragmatic Sanction , which proclaimed the indivisibility of the Habsburg lands and the female succession to the throne when the male line became extinct. However, this was only accepted by Hungary after tough negotiations in 1723.
In 1714 the Venetian-Austrian Turkish War broke out and southern Hungary became a theater of war again. In the course of this Turkish war, Austria finally conquered the Banat, also a former territory of the Kingdom of Hungary. However, the peace of Sathmar explicitly did not apply to this region, which means that the concessions to the Hungarian nobility and the non-Catholic denominations in the Banat were not effective. Instead, this area should be placed under the direct control of Vienna and, through colonization, become a model Catholic province of the Habsburg Empire ruled according to absolutist principles.
All in all, according to modern estimates, one sixth of the kingdom's population, which before that was around three million, perished as a result of the Great Turkish War from 1683 to 1699 and the Kuruzenkrieg between 1703 and 1711. After the conclusion of the peace of Sathmar, the nobles and large landowners were therefore interested in a quick repopulation of the affected areas. Magyars from less affected regions, as well as Slovaks , Ruthenians , Raitzen and Germans were settled as colonists . The Peace of Sathmar thus also represents the beginning of the Swabian Platoons, at the top of which the Sathmar Swabians immigrated to Hungary from 1712 . It was not until 1722 that the imperial court directed these streams of colonists in an orderly manner, before that the magnates rivaled for the settlers.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Erich Zöllner : History of Austria: from the beginnings to the present , chapter: The war for the Spanish heritage , Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 1990, ISBN 9783486467086 , pp. 262, 263.
- ^ Johann Christian von Engel : History of the Ungrian Empire and its neighboring countries , 1814 (p. 250 ff).
- ^ Rákóczi Ferenc II .: Strange story of Prince Franz Rakoczi and the unrest and wars caused by the Hungarian displeasure , 1795 (p. 217).
- ^ Sándor Szilágyi: A Magyar Nemzet története XIII. fejezet. József király halála. A szatmári beke. - Magyar Elektronikus Könyvtár (Hungarian)
- ↑ Johann Christian von Engel: History of the Ungrian Empire and its neighboring countries , 1814 (p. 256 ff).
- ↑ Márta Fata: The role of the military in the Habsburg domestic population policy , In: War, the military and migration in the early modern times , ed .: Matthias Asche , Michael Herrmann, Ulrike Ludwig, Anton Schindling ; LIT Verlag Münster, 2008, ISBN 9783825898632 , p. 254 ff.
- ↑ Steven W. Sowards: Modern History of the Balkans , BoD - Books on Demand, 2004, ISBN 9783833409776 , p. 102.
- ^ Karl-Peter Krauss: German emigrants in Hungary: Settlement in the rule Bóly in the 18th century ; Chapter 4.2: Rule in the Kuruzzenkrieg and after the Peace of Sathmar (1711) , Franz Steiner Verlag, 2003, ISBN 9783515082211 , pp. 76–79.