Kingdom of Hungary

Hungary, 1526–1867. Draft, not yet reviewed

After the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the country was ruled by two crowned kings (John I and Ferdinand I). This unsettled period lasted until 1570 when John Sigismund Zápolya (John II) abdicated as King of Hungary in Emperor Maximilian II's favor. Under the terms of the Treaty of Karlowitz, which ended the Great Turkish War in 1699, the Ottomans ceded nearly all of Ottoman Hungary. The kingdom became a dual monarchy in 1867, known as Austria-Hungary.

Seat of power: Bratislava

Rulers

Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor

Apostolic King of Hungary, 1526–1564

Ferdinand I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1556 and King of Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia from 1526. Ferdinand was a capable organiser with institutional imagination, who focused on building a centralised government for Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia instead of striving for a universal monarchy. He added innovations of his own such as the Raitkammer (collections office) and the Hofkriegsrat, conceived to counter the threat from the Ottoman Empire.

Portrait of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor: Hans Bocksberger the Elder, Public domain, file

John Zápolya

Apostolic King of Hungary, 1526–1540

John Zápolya was King of Hungary (as John I) from 1526 to 1540. His rule was disputed by Archduke Ferdinand I, who also claimed the title King of Hungary. In 1528, he fled to Poland, later aligning with the Ottomans, leading Hungary to become an Ottoman vassal state.

Portrait of John Zápolya: Erhard Schön (1491-1542), Public domain, file

Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor

Apostolic King of Hungary, 1564–1576

Maximilian II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1564 until his death in 1576. He was crowned King of Hungary and Croatia in the Hungarian capital Pressburg. According to historian Paula Sutter Fichtner, Maximilian failed to achieve his three major aims: rationalising the government structure, unifying Christianity, and evicting the Turks from Hungary.

Portrait of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor: Workshop of Nicolas Neufchatel, Public domain, file

Emperor Rudolf II

Apostolic King of Hungary, 1576–1608

Rudolf II was Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary and Croatia. Determined to unify Christendom, he initiated the Long Turkish War (1593–1606) with the Ottoman Empire. Exhausted by war, his citizens in Hungary revolted in the Bocskai Uprising, which led to more authority being given to his brother Matthias.

Portrait of Emperor Rudolf II: Workshop of Martino Rota, Public domain, file

Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor

Apostolic King of Hungary, 1608–1619

Matthias was Holy Roman Emperor from 1612 to 1619. Matthias played a significant role in the familial opposition of the Habsburgs against his brother, the Emperor Rudolf II. After gaining power, he showed little political initiative of his own. The course of his politics was determined by Cardinal Melchior Klesl until his fall in 1618.

Portrait of Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor: Lucas van Valckenborch, Public domain, file

Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor

Apostolic King of Hungary, 1619–1637

Ferdinand II was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia from 1619 until his death in 1637. Ferdinand regarded the regulation of religious issues as a royal prerogative and introduced strict Counter-Reformation measures from 1598. First, he ordered the expulsion of all Protestant pastors and teachers; next, he established special commissions to restore the Catholic parishes.

Portrait of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor: Unidentified painter, Public domain, file

Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor

Apostolic King of Hungary, 1637–1657

Ferdinand III was Archduke of Austria, King of Hungary and Croatia, King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor. Ferdinand ascended the throne at the beginning of the last decade of the Thirty Years' War and introduced lenient policies to depart from the old ideas of divine right held by his father, as he wished to end the war quickly. Although his authority as emperor was weakened after the war, his position in Bohemia, Hungary and Austria was stronger than that of his predecessors before 1618.

Portrait of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor: Jan van den Hoecke, Public domain, file

Ferdinand IV, King of the Romans

Apostolic King of Hungary, 1647–1654

Ferdinand IV was made and crowned King of Bohemia in 1646, King of Hungary and Croatia in 1647, and King of the Romans on 31 May 1653. Ferdinand IV also shared the role of King of Hungary and Croatia with his father; his coronation took place on 16 June 1647 in Pressburg, present-day Slovakia. Ferdinand IV unexpectedly died of smallpox in Vienna on 9 July 1654.

Portrait of Ferdinand IV, King of the Romans: Frans Luycx, Public domain, file

Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor

Apostolic King of Hungary, 1657–1705

Leopold I was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Germany, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia. Leopold's reign is known for conflicts with the Ottoman Empire in the Great Turkish War (1683–1699). By the Treaty of Karlowitz, Leopold recovered almost all of the Kingdom of Hungary, which had fallen under Turkish power in the years after the 1526 Battle of Mohács.

Portrait of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor: Benjamin Block, Public domain, file

Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor

Apostolic King of Hungary, 1711–1740

Charles VI was Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy from 1711 until his death. Faced with his lack of male heirs, Charles provided for a male-line succession failure with the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713. Charles died in 1740, sparking the War of the Austrian Succession, which plagued his successor, Maria Theresa, for eight years.

Portrait of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor: Johann Gottfried Auerbach, Public domain, file

Maria Theresa of Austria

Apostolic King of Hungary, 1740–1780

Maria Theresa was the ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position in her own right. In defiance of the grave situation, she managed to secure the vital support of the Hungarians for the war effort.

Portrait of Maria Theresa of Austria: Martin van Meytens, Public domain, file

Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor

Apostolic King of Hungary, 1780–1790

Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 18 August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 29 November 1780 until his death. Joseph was a proponent of enlightened absolutism like his brother Leopold II; however, his commitment to secularising, liberalising and modernising reforms resulted in significant opposition, which resulted in failure to fully implement his programs.

Portrait of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor: Anton von Maron, Public domain, file

Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor

Apostolic King of Hungary, 1792–1835

Francis II was the last Holy Roman Emperor from 1792 to 1806, and the first Emperor of Austria from 1804 to 1835. In 1806, after Napoleon created the Confederation of the Rhine, Francis abdicated as Holy Roman Emperor, which in effect marked the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1813, Francis turned against Napoleon and finally defeated him in the War of the Sixth Coalition, forcing the French emperor to abdicate.

Portrait of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor: Friedrich von Amerling, Public domain, file

Ferdinand I of Austria

Apostolic King of Hungary, 1835–1848

Ferdinand was Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary from March 1835 until his abdication in December 1848. He was incapable of ruling the empire because of severe epilepsy, so his father, before he died, made a will promulgating that Ferdinand should consult his uncle Archduke Louis on all aspects of internal policy. Following the Revolutions of 1848, Ferdinand abdicated on 2 December 1848.

Portrait of Ferdinand I of Austria: Eduard Edlinger, Public domain, file

Franz Joseph I of Austria

Apostolic King of Hungary, 1848–1916

Franz Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the ruler of the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his death in 1916. Largely considered a reactionary, Franz Joseph spent his early reign resisting constitutionalism in his domains.

Portrait of Franz Joseph I of Austria: Carl Pietzner, Public domain, file

Culture

The Hungarian nobility forced Vienna to admit that Hungary was a special unit of the Habsburg lands and had to be ruled in conformity with its own special laws.
During the Ottoman wars the territory of the former Kingdom of Hungary was reduced by around 60 per cent.
The new suffrage law (Act V of 1848) transformed the old feudal parliament (Estates General) into a democratic representative parliament.
The April laws utterly erased all privileges of the Hungarian nobility.

Picture

In April 1848, Hungary became the third country of Continental Europe to enact a law implementing democratic parliamentary elections.

Image: Mihály Zichy, Public domain, file

Sources

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.