Hungary (Hung. Magyarorszag, Magyar land; Ger. Ungarn), a country of Europe, formerly an independent kingdom, subsequently united with Austria, from 1849 to 1867 a crown-land or province of the latter, and since 1867 one of the two main divisions of the Austro-Hun-garian monarchy. Before 1849 it embraced in a constitutional sense, besides Hungary proper, Croatia, Slavonia, and the Hungarian Littorale (coast land on the Adriatic), and in its widest acceptation also Transylvania, the Military Frontier, and Dalmatia, with an aggregate population of about 15,000,000. All these dependencies were in 1849 detached, and besides them from Hungary proper the counties of Middle Szolnok, Zarand, and Kraszna, and the district of Kovar, to be reunited with Transylvania, and the counties of Bacs, Toron-tal, Temes, and Krasse, to form the new crown-land of the Servian Waywodeship and Banat. In 1867 the changes made in 1849 were repealed; the Waywodeship was abolished, Transylvania reunited with Hungary, and Croatia and Slavonia recognized as a dependency of the Hungarian crown, which has its own provincial assembly, but also sends deputies to the Hungarian diet, and is subordinate to the Hungarian ministry.

The Military Frontier, which formerly had its separate administration, was destined to gradual incorporation partly with Hungary proper and partly with Croatia. Dalmatia was united with Cisleithan Austria. Thus Hungary in the wider sense, also called Transleithania or Transleithan Austria, from the little river Leitha which constitutes part of the frontier between the two main divisions of the monarchy, now comprises (the reorganization of the Military Frontier having become complete in 1873) Hungary proper, Transylvania, Croatia and Slavonia, and Fiume. The lands of the Hungarian crown have in common with Cisleithan Austria an imperial ministry, consisting of the departments of foreign affairs and the imperial house, of finances, and of war. In the article Austria we have treated of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy as a whole; and the articles Croatia, Military Frontier, Slavonia, and Transylvania will contain what is or lately was peculiar to those sections. In this article we shall treat of the lands of the Hungarian crown with special reference to that section which is called Hungary proper.

Hungary (in the wider sense) is situated between lat. 44° 11' and 49° 35' N, and Ion. 14° 25' and 26° 30'E., and is bounded N. E., N, and W. by Cisleithan Austria, S. and E. by the Turkish provinces and dependencies Bosnia, Servia, and Roumania. The total area of the lands of the Hungarian crown is 125,045 sq. m., of which 87,045 belong to Hungary proper. The population, according to the census of 1869, was 15,509,455, of whom 11,530,397 lived in Hungary proper. - Hungary in its chief parts forms a large basin surrounded almost entirely by mountain ranges, of which the principal are: the Carpathians, which encircle the north, with their various offshoots, the Hungarian Ore mountains between the Waag and the Eipel, the Matra E. of the preceding, and the winegrowing Hegyalja between the Theiss and the Hernad; the Leitha range, the wooded Ba-kony, and the Vertes, mostly continuations of the Noric and Carnic Alps, in the S. W. division; and the Transylvanian Alps on the S. E. frontier.

The chief artery of the country is the Danube, which enters it between Vienna and Presburg, and on its course to the Black sea receives the waters of all the other rivers, excepting only the Poprad, which rises near the N. boundary and flows to the Vistula. The principal of these affluents of the Danube are: on the right, the Leitha, Raab, Sarviz, and the Drave, which separates Hungary proper from Slavonia, with the Mur, its affluent; on the left, the March, Waag, Neutra, Gran, Eipel, Theiss, and Temes. The Theiss rises in the northeast, in the county of Marmaros, and its chief affluents are the Bodrog, Hernad, Sajo, and Zagyva on the right, and the Szamos, Koros, and Maros on the left. Most of the rivers of Croatia and Transylvania are also tributaries of the Danube; among others, the Save on the Turkish frontier and the Alt from Transylvania. The S. W. division, which has the fewest rivers, includes the two principal lakes of the country, the Balaton and the Neusiedler. Various marshes, moors, soda lakes, and swamps extend near the banks of the great rivers, especially of the Theiss. There are also numerous mountain lakes called "eyes of the sea," and caverns, of which that of Agtelek in the county of Gomor is the most remarkable.

Extensive islands are formed by the branches of the Danube; among others, the Great Schutt and Csepel in its upper course. The climate is in general mild, owing to the great northern barrier of the Carpathians. Often, when snow covers the northern mountain regions, the heat is considerable on the lowlands of the south, especially near the Maros. The climate of the great central plain resembles that of northern Italy; its sandy wastes, however, greatly contribute to the aridity of the summer winds. Blasts of wind and hailstorms are not unfreqaent in the Carpathians. The spring is the most agreeable season, but the autumn often partakes of the character of the Indian summer in the United States. - The fertility of the soil, with the exception of several mountainous and sandy regions, is almost extraordinary. Among the vegetable productions are: the different species of grain, especially wheat, maize, hemp, flax, rapeseed, melons, often of immense size, apples, pears, apricots, and plums; cherries, mulberries, chestnuts, filberts, and walnuts; tobacco, which is now monopolized by the crown; wine of the most various kinds, including the Tokay of the Hegyalja; almonds, figs, and olives, on the southern border; anise, Turkish pepper, sweet wood, safflower, madder, and other dye plants; oaks, which yield large quantities of galls, the beech, fir, pine, ash, alder, and numerous other forest trees, often covering extensive tracts of land in the mountainous regions.

Among the animals are the bear, wolf, lynx, wild cat, boar, chamois, marmot, deer, fox, hare; many fine breeds of horses and cattle (including buffaloes), dogs, sheep, and swine, the last of which are fattened in the forests on acorns. The birds comprise the golden and stone eagle, hawk, kite, bustard, heron, partridge, woodcock, nightingale, and lark. Fish, bees, and leeches abound. Of minerals, there are gold, iron, and copper in large quantities; silver, zinc, lead, coal, cobalt, nitre, antimony, arsenic, sulphur, alum, soda, saltpetre, potassium, marble, crystal, chalk; salt in immense mines, especially in Marmaros; jasper, chalcedony, hyacinths, amethysts, agates, and beautiful varieties of opal (in Saros). There are more than 300 mineral springs, of which those of Buda, Trentschin, Posteny, Bartfeld, Parad, and Szobrancz are among the most renowned. The chief articles of export are wheat, rapeseed, galls, honey, wax, wine, tobacco, copper, alum, potash, wood, cattle, sheep, swine, hides, wool, dried fruits, and brandies, especially slivovitza or plum liquor. For imports and manufactures Hungary relies mainly on Austria, the chief home manufactures, besides metals, being linen and woollens, leather, paper, pottery and clay pipes, soap and candles, and tobacco.

The means of communication, formerly scanty, are now rapidly extending. Steamers ply on the Danube and Theiss; a network of railways connects the various parts of the country with each other and with the neighboring provinces. The principal seats of learning are at Pesth, which is also the literary centre, Presburg, Kaschau, Debreczin, Patak, Papa, Erlau, Veszprem, Miskolcz, Szegedin, Stuhl-Weissenburg, and Grosswardein. - The variety of nationalities and languages rivals that of productions. There are Magyars or Hungarians proper, the predominant race (according to the census of 1869, about 5,688,000 in the lands of the Hungarian crown, including the Szeklers of Transylvania; 5,024,000 in Hungary proper), chiefly in the fertile regions of the centre and in the southwest; Slovaks (1,841,000) in the mountain regions of the northwest and north; Ruthenians (448,000) in those of the northeast; Croats and Serbs (Ras-cians) in the south and southwest (about 2,405,-700, of whom about 800,000 are in Hungary proper); Roumans in the southeast (about 2,477,700, of whom about 1,270,000 are in Hungary proper); Germans (1,894,800; in Hungary proper, 1,592,000) and Jews (552,000, mainly in Hungary proper), chiefly in the towns of all regions; gypsies (50,000), settled in towns and villages, or migratory; besides Armenians, French, Bulgarians, etc.

These various elements are distinguished not only by language, but also by peculiar costumes, manners, and moral characteristics. Of the inhabitants in 1869, 7,558,000 (in Hungary proper, 5,933,000) were Roman Catholics, 1,599,000 (in Hungary proper, 981,000) united Greeks, 2,589,000 (in Hungary proper, 1,414,000) non-united Greeks, 2,031,000 (in Hungary proper, 1,720,000) Calvinists (Reformed, popularly Hungarian church), 1,113,000 (in Hungary proper, 887,-000) Lutherans, and 552,000 Jews. Public education was reorganized in 1868. The common schools are of two grades: elementary schools with from one to three classes (14,685 in 1869), and schools of a higher grade with as many as six classes (569 in 1869). Education is compulsory, and children are bound to attend school from their 6th to their 12th year, and after that until their 15th year a "school of review." The actual attendance, however, is as yet unsatisfactory, and in 1869 amounted to only 50 per cent. of the children of school age, the number of attendants being 1,226,000. In 1869 there were 152 gymnasia, 25 Real-schule?i, and a university at Pesth. In 1872 a second university was opened at Klausenburg. - The Hungarian diet consists of two houses, the table of magnates and the table of deputies.

The former in 1873 was composed of the 3 archdukes who had landed estates in Hungary, 31 Roman Catholic and Greek archbishops, bishops, and high church dignitaries, 12 imperial banner bearers, 57 presidents of counties, 5 supreme royal judges, the count of the Saxons in Transylvania, the governor of Fiume, 3 princes, 218 counts, 80 barons, and 3 "regalists" of Transylvania. The table of deputies had 444 members, of whom 334 belonged to Hungary proper, 75 to Transylvania, 1 to Fiume, and 34 to Croatia and Slavonia. The diet meets annually, and new elections must take place every three years. The right of voting belongs to all who have a regular business or pay a small amount of direct taxes, as provided by law. The language of the diet is the Hungarian, but the representatives of Croatia and Slavonia are permitted to use the Croatian language. The Hungarian ministry-consists of a president and the heads of nine departments, viz.: the ministry of national defence, the ministry near the king's person (ad latus), the ministry of finance, of the interior, of education and public worship, of justice; of public works, of agriculture, industry, and commerce, and for Croatia and Slavonia. The administration of communes was regulated by law in 1871; that of municipia, which class comprises counties, districts, and the royal free cities, in 1870. The supreme court of the kingdom is the royal curia in Pesth, consisting of two divisions, the court of cassation and the supreme court.

The royal tables of Pesth (for Hungary proper and Fiume) and of Maros-Vasarhely (for Transylvania) are courts of the second resort; 102 royal courts and 306 district courts have original jurisdiction. The public revenue of Hungary for the year 1872 amounted to $82,187,809, the expenditure to $112,853,765. To meet the interest on the common debt of the monarchy contracted prior to 1868, Hungary pays an annual contribution of $13,630,000. It has also a special debt amounting to $219,000,000. Politically, Hungary proper, according to ancient custom, is divided into four natural divisions or circles, subdivided into counties, and called, from the standpoint of Pesth, the Cis-Danubian (N. and E. of the Danube), Trans-Danubian (S. and W. of the Danube), Cis-Tibiscan (N. and W. of the Theiss), and Trans-Tibiscan (S. and E. of the Theiss), and three districts: Jazygia (Jaszsag), with Great and Little Cumania (Kunsag); the Hayduk towns (Hajdu-Varosok); and Kovar. The counties are as follows: Cis-Danubian circle - Presburg (Pozsony), Neutra (Nyitra), Trentschin (Trencseny), Arva, Turocz, Bars, Lipto, Zolyom, Hont, Nograd, Pesth (Pest), Gran (Esztergom), Bacs. Trans-Danubian circle - Wieselburg (Mosony), Oedenburg (Soprony), Vas, Zala, Somogy, Baranya, Tolna, Vesz-prem, Raab (Gyor), Comorn (Komarom), Weis-senburg (Fejer). Cis-Tibiscan circle - Heves, Borsod, Gomor, Zips (Szepes), Saros, Torna, Abauj, Zemplen, Ung, Bereg. Trans-Tibiscan circle - Ugocsa, Marmaros, Szatmar, Szabolcs, Bihar, Bekes, Arad, Csanad, Csongrad, Toron-tal, Temes, Krasso, Middle Szolnok, Kraszna, Zarand. - Among the nations who occupied parts of Hungary before its conquest by the Magyars or Hungarians, we find the Dacians, Illyrians, Pannonians, Bulgarians, Jazyges, Alans, Avars, Huns, Gepidse, Longobards, and Khazars. The Romans held the S. W. part of the country under the name of Pannonia, while the S. E. belonged to their province of Dacia. Various Slavic tribes, together with "Wallachs, Bulgarians, and Germans, were the chief occupants at the time of the Magyar invasion.

The Magyars, a warlike people of the Turanian race, had made various migrations, and long dwelt in the vicinity of the Caucasian mountains, and afterward in the region between the Don and the Dniester, before they approached and crossed the Carpathians (about 887) under the lead of Almos, one of their seven chiefs (vezer), and elected head (fejedelem) or duke. They were divided into seven tribes and 108 families, had a compact, consecrated by oaths, which guaranteed justice and equality among themselves, and a religion which in various features resembled the Aryan element worship of the Medo-Persians, but also included the notion of a supreme being (Isten). Arpad, the son of Almos, conquered the whole of Hungary and Transylvania, organized the government, and also made various expeditions beyond the limits of these countries, among others against Svatopluk of Moravia, being invited by Arnulf of Germany. These expeditions were further extended under his son Zol-tan (907-946) and grandson Taksony (946-972), spreading terror and devastation as far as the North sea, the south of France and Italy, and the Euxine. But various bloody defeats, especially near Merseburg (933) by the emperor Henry I., on the Lech (955) by Otho I., and in Greece (970), finally broke the desire of the Hungarians for booty and adventurous exploits, and turned the attention of their princes to the consolidation of their power within the natural limits of the country.

Gejza (972-997), the son of Taksony, who married a Christian princess, promoted the introduction of Christianity, which was almost completed under his son Stephen I. (997-1038), whose religious zeal gained him a crown and the title of apostolic king from Pope Sylvester II. (1000), and afterward the appellation of saint. Assisted by Roman priests and German knights, he proclaimed the freedom of Christian slaves, introduced Latin schools, established bishoprics, built churches, chapels, and convents, elevated the bishops to the foremost rank in the state, compelled the people to pay tithes to the new clergy, and subdued the rebellious adherents of the national religion. The political and administrative institutions of the state were also organized. The original equality of the conquerors was limited by imitations of the western feudal aristocracy. The higher clergy, the higher nobility, consisting of distinguished national families and of foreign lords, and the common nobility, embracing the bulk of the national warriors, were the ruling classes; the two former, together with the dignitaries of the state, the palatine (nador), the court judge (afterward land judge), etc, formed the senate, or the higher division of the legislative body.

Against this new and foreign order of things the national party more than once violently rose, both under Stephen and his successors, Peter (1038-'46), against whom Aba Samuel was elected king, and who twice lost his throne, Andrew I. (1046-61), who perished after being defeated by his brother Bela, and Bela I. (1061-63), under whom the resistance of the defenders of the ancient religion was finally broken. The civil strifes were not only kept up by the undefined succession to the throne by the house of Arpad, but also fomented by the intervention of the popes and the emperors. The emperor Henry III. in the reign of Andrew repeatedly invaded the country. The son of the latter, Solomon (1063-'74), lost his throne chiefly in consequence of his ill treatment of his gallant cousins and successors Gejza (1074-77) and Ladislas (1077-'95), to whom he owed his elevation, and some splendid victories over invaders; and he vainly applied for aid both to the emperor Henry IV. and his antagonist Pope Gregory VII., who each claimed the rights of suzerainty over Hungary. Solomon died in exile. Ladislas was equally brave and pious.

He is a saint in the Roman calendar, and his victories over the Cumans, who invaded Transylvania and the neighboring districts, and the conquest of Croatia and Halicz (eastern Galicia), made him one of the favorite princes of his nation. His nephew Coloman (1095-1114), surnamed the Scholar, was an enlightened and able ruler. He introduced various reforms, refused to accept the lead of the first crusade, closely watched the hosts which passed through his country, and routed or repulsed the more disorderly, though he received Godfrey of Bouillon as a friend. He annexed Dalmatia, but stained the close of his reign by cruelty toward his brother Almos, who conspired against him. His son, the profligate Stephen II. (1114 -'31), waged war against almost all his neighbors. Bela II., the Blind (1131-'41), the son of Almos, and like his father the victim of Coloman, took bloody revenge on his former enemies on the occasion of the diet at Arad. Under his son Gejza II. (1141-'61) numerous Saxon colonies were settled in Zips and Transylvania, while their countrymen who joined the second crusade desolated the regions through which they passed.

The disputed rights to Galicia and Dalmatia, and the often changing relations with the Byzantine empire, were now sources of frequent wars in the north and south. Stephen III. (1161-73), Gejza's youthful son, who overcame the intrigues of Manuel Comnenus and the opposition of two rivals, Ladislas II. and Stephen IV., but succumbed to poison, was succeeded by his brother Bela III. (1173-'96), who, having been educated at the Greek court, and supported by it, introduced various imitations of its administrative organization, and was successful in Galicia, as well as in Dalmatia against the republic of Venice. His connection with the West in consequence of his marriage with Margaret of France induced numerous noble youths to visit the chief cities and schools of France, England, and Italy. His son Emeric (1196-1205) was tormented by the revolts of his brother Andrew, and in vain had his son Ladislas III. crowned before his death. Andrew II. (1205-35) was successively under the influence of his unscrupulous wife, who finally was assassinated; of the pope, who compelled him to undertake a crusade; of his financiers, Christian, Saracen, and Jewish, who monopolized the revenues of the impoverished kingdom; of the nobility, who in 1222 extorted from him the "Golden Bull," a Hungarian Magna Charta of freedom and privileges, including the right of armed resistance to tyranny; and finally of a combined violent opposition, to which belonged his son and successor Bela (IV.). The long reign of the latter (1235-70) commenced with salutary reforms, but was afterward disturbed by the immigration of the Cumans and the invasion of the Tartars, who annihilated the Hungarian army on the Sajo (1241), and marked their way from the Carpathians to the Adriatic by sword and fire, famine and pestilence.

Bela did his best to restore order and repeople the country by new immigrants, bestowed various rights on the cities, and promoted the culture of the vine; but his wars with Austria, Styria, etc, and the revolts of his son Stephen, destroyed order, and promoted only the usurpations of the high nobility. Stephen V. (1270-72) was successful against Ottokar of Bohemia. His son Ladislas IV. (1272-'90), who succeeded at the age of 10, caused violent commotions and endless misery by his Cumanian amours and predilections, and was murdered at the instigation of one of his mistresses. A nephew of Bela IV., Andrew III. (1290-1301), was the last of the Arpads, and after a disturbed reign, which various diets held on the plain of Rakos near Pesth could not consolidate, died probably by poison. The throne was now open for competition, and the royal dignity became purely elective. Charles Robert of Anjou, a nephew of the king of Naples, and by his mother a descendant of the extinct dynasty, being supported by the see of Rome, was the first elected; while another party, the leader of which was the powerful count Matthias Csak, successively elected Wenceslas, son of the king of Bohemia (1301-'5), and Otho of Bavaria (1305-8), both of whom were by a similar title descendants of the Arpads. Charles Robert's reign (1309-42) was marked by great successes at home and abroad.

The regal power was extended and consolidated, chiefly by a new military and financial organization; western refinement and luxury made the Hungarian lords more docile, and the succession to the thrones of Poland and Naples was secured to the two sons of the king, Louis and Andrew. Visegrad, however, which replaced Stuhl-Weissenburg as the royal residence, witnessed many a princely crime. Buda became a still more splendid residence under Louis, surnamed the Great (1342-'82), who further developed the regal power, but with it the oppressive feudal institutions; and, excepting his repeated expeditions to Italy to revenge the assassination of his brother Andrew by his own wife, Joanna, he was successful in all his undertakings, conquering among other territories Moldavia and Bulgaria. He also succeeded his uncle Casimir the Great, the last of the Piasts, as king of Poland. He was chivalrous, luxurious, and bigoted; he promoted commerce, but burdened the peasants, persecuted the Cuman pagans, and expelled the Jews, whom, however, his son-in-law Sigismund of Luxemburg brought back into the country.

This prince having liberated his wife Mary, who had got rid of a rival, the Neapolitan Charles the Little, by assassination, but subsequently lost her throne and freedom, reigned together with her (1387-"95), and after her death alone (1395-1437), being also elected German emperor, and succeeding to the throne of his house in Bohemia. His long reign was full of civil strife, including the Hussite war in Bohemia, a revolt in Hungary, which for a short time deprived him of his liberty, and a rising of the peasants, in Transylvania, and of wars against Venice and the Turks, who under Ba-jazet routed him in the battle of Nicopolis; but it was also marked by some salutary reforms in favor of the lower classes. Sigismund was succeeded by his son-in-law the emperor Albert (II.) of Hapsburg (1437-'9). He died after an unsuccessful campaign against Sultan Amurath, leaving his thrones to his wife Elizabeth, who offered her hand to Ladislas III. of Poland, a grandson of Louis the Great. The young Polish king after some struggle became also king of Hungary under the name of Ula-dislas I. (Hung. Ulaszlo), but, after several victories of his great general John Hunyady over the Turks, fell at Varna (1444), having broken his oath of peace to the infidels.

Ladislas (V.), the posthumous child of Albert, whom his mother Elizabeth, shortly before her death, had carried together with the crown to her brother-in-law the emperor Frederick III., was now acknowledged as king (1445), Hunyady being appointed governor or regent. Frederick of Hapsburg, however, had to be compelled to restore the prince; powerful lords caused endless disturbances, and the Turks menaced Hungary, while preparing to strike the last blow at the Byzantine empire. Hunyady himself was defeated, but made good his escape, and died victorious, having repulsed Mohammed II., the conqueror of Constantinople, from the walls of Belgrade (1456). Of his two sons, Ladislas was executed by command of the ungrateful king, but Matthias, surnamed Corvi-nus, ascended the throne after the death of the latter (1457) and a protracted election struggle. The ablest monarch of Hungary (1458-90), he subdued the rebellious lords, and in numerous campaigns vanquished the emperor, Podiebrad of Bohemia, and the armies of Mohammed II. He restored order, law, and prosperity, promoted science and art more than any other prince of his age, and administered his kingdom with an impartiality the glory of which survived him in the popular adage, "King Matthias is dead, justice gone." But his works perished with him.

The indolent Uladsilsa (II.) of Bohemia (1490-1516) was as poor as he was contemptible, and let his lords do as they chose. Of these John Zapolya, waywode of Transylvania, suppressed with dreadful bloodshed a great insurrection of the peasantry under Dozsa (1514). Under the young and weak son of Uladislas, Louis II. (1516-'26), the country gradually ripened for a catastrophe. While the nobles disputed, Belgrade fell, and finally the battle of Mohacs was rashly fought against Sultan Solyman the Magnificent. The Hungarian army was destroyed, Louis perished on his flight, and his wife, the sister of Ferdinand of Austria, hastened to carry the crown to her brother. This prince inaugurated the still reigning dynasty of the Hapsburgs, being acknowledged as king (1527-'64) by the nobility of the western counties, while the national party elected John Zapolya, who prevailed in Transylvania and the adjoining parts. The latter put himself under the protection of Solyman, who took Buda and even besieged Vienna (1529). Long campaigns and negotiations and short-lived treaties now followed each other, the final result of which was that Hungary was for about 150 years divided into three parts with often changing limits, under the Hapsburgs as kings, the pashas of the sultans, and the princes of Transylvania. The greater part of Hungary proper, however, including the whole northwest, was in the hands of the royal or imperial armies, the monarchs holding also the crown of Germany after the abdication of Charles V., and finding many a hero among their Hungarian subjects.

Maximilian (1564-'76) was saved by the self-sacrificing heroism of Zrinyi, who fell with his little fortress Szi-get and the last of his men only after the death of the besieger Solyman and the destruction of a part of his army (1566). All these services of the magnates, as well as of the nation, were ill repaid by the Austrian dynasty. The diets of Hungary, which for centuries remained the blood-covered bulwark of Christendom, more than once had to complain that the imperial soldiery did more to devastate the country and famish the people than the infidel conquerors. Rudolph I. (1576-1608) commenced the persecution of the Protestants. These, however, not only had a free home in Transylvania under the enlightened Stephen Bathori, afterward king of Poland (who had succeeded the younger Zapolya), but also a protector of their rights in Hungary in Bocskay, the Tran-sylvanian successor of Sigismund Bathori, who suddenly raised the banner of freedom, sweeping all over the north, crushing the generals of Rudolph, and finally compelling the latter to the humiliating peace of Vienna (1606). The old emperor finally resigned his Hungarian crown to his brother Matthias (II.), whose tolerant reign, however, was too short for the pacification of the country (1608-'19). His successor Ferdinand II. (1619-37), who commenced his reign amid the first flames of the thirty years' war, was prevented from tearing the Hungarian charter of liberty, as he did the Bohemian, by the victories of the Transylva-nian prince Bethlen Gabor (Gabriel Bethlen), the successor of the profligate tyrant Gabriel Bathori, who extorted from him the treaty of Nikolsburg (1622), which again sanctioned the rights of the Protestants. A similar treaty was concluded at Linz by Ferdinand III. (1637's 7) with George I. Rakoczy of Transylvania (1645). Leopold I. (1657-1705), whose long reign in Hungary was but a series of wars, insurrections, and executions, found a less able opponent in the ambitious George II. Rakoczy of Transylvania, and excellent generals against the Turks in Montecuculi, who gained the battle of St. Gothard (1664), and Nicholas Zrinyi (the poet), but made an ignominious peace with the sultan, and sent against the insurgents of the northern counties the bloodthirsty Caraffa, Strasoldo, and others.

The people rose again "for God and freedom" under Tokolyi (1678), who, being allied with Apafi of Transylvania, the Porte, and Louis XIV. of France, was near uniting the whole of Hungary under his banner, when the reverses of the Turks before Vienna (1683), and the subsequent victories of the imperialists, sealed the fate of the insurrection. Caraffa made the scaffold permanent in Eperies; the diet of Presburg had to consent to the demands of the emperor in making the throne hereditary in the house of Austria and abrogating the clause of the golden bull which guaranteed the right of resistance to oppression (1687); Prince Eugene completed the victories over the Turks, and conquered the peace of Carlovitz (1699); Transylvania was occupied, and Tokolyi, who tried in vain to recover it, died in exile in Asia Minor. Hungary was now a province of Austria, and treated as such, when the noble-hearted Francis Rakoczy, who had long lived in exile, suddenly appeared on the N. E. borders (1703) and renewed the struggle for religious and civil liberty. Protestants and Catholics flocked to his banners, which were triumphantly carried into the very vicinity of Vienna, when the emperor died.

His son Joseph I. (1705-'ll) was inclined to peace, and Rakoczy was not opposed to it, though assisted by Louis XIV. and the perplexities of the new emperor in the war of Spanish succession. Diets and negotiations followed each other, but without success, while the victories of Eugene and Marlborough and violent dissensions in the camp of the insurgents enabled the emperor to restore the fortunes of the war in Hungary. In the absence of Rakoczy, who had gone to Poland to procure the alliance of Peter the Great, a peace was finally concluded at Szat-mar (1711) with the representatives of the emperor, toleration and a strict observance of the constitution being promised. Joseph's successor Charles (VI. as emperor, III. as king, 1711-40) ratified the treaty, while Rakoczy absolved his followers from their oath of allegiance to him. The new emperor's favorite scheme, the pragmatic sanction, which was to secure the succession of the female line to all his possessions, was agreed to by the diet of 1722, which also enacted various other important laws.

The peace of Passarovitz (1718), the result of Eugene's new victories, enlarged the kingdom with the Banat, the last province of the Turks in Hungary; but after another war Belgrade was ceded to the Turks by the treaty concluded in that city in 1739. Charles's mild reign disposed the nation to defend the disputed rights of his daughter Maria Theresa (1740-80), who appeared in person before the diet of Presburg, and was greeted with lively acclamations by the chivalric nobles. Their Moriamur pro rege nostro Maria Theresa was no vain promise, for Hungarian blood was shed profusely in her wars against Frederick the Great and other enemies. She rewarded the fidelity of the people by mildness, and various ameliorations of the condition of the peasantry (the Urbarium) are among the merits of her reign; but she too was far from strictly observing the constitution, which her son Joseph II. (1780-'90), in his immoderate zeal for reforms and centralization, was eager to destroy. To avoid binding himself by the constitutional oath, he refused to be crowned in Hungary, autocratically dictated his liberal reforms, and imposed upon the country foreign officials, a foreign language, the German, and foreign official costumes.

But his violent though well meant measures were opposed everywhere, and the rising in his Belgic provinces, the unfavorable issue of his war against Turkey, and finally the threatening events in France, compelled the philanthropic despot to revoke his decrees shortly before his death. His mild and dissolute brother Leopold II. (1790-'92), afraid of the growing storm in the West, hastened to appease the Hungarian nation, which had been aroused by ignominious treatment and the spectacle of its perishing neighbor Poland to a general desire of national regeneration. The diet of 1791 again sanctioned the most essential constitutional rights of the kingdom in general, and of the Protestants in particular, and for a series of years Francis, the son and successor of Leopold (1792-1835), was satisfied during his wars with France with the continual subsidies of Hungary in money and men. The rare manifestations of democratic convictions he stifled in the dungeons of his fortresses, or, as in the case of the priest Martinovics (1795), in the blood of the offenders. The magnates were flattered and remained faithful.

Thus Napoleon in vain called upon the Hungarians to rise for national independence (1809). Scarcely, however, was Napoleon fallen, when Francis's minister Met-ternich began to undermine the constitution of Hungary, the only check on the unlimited sway of the Austrian rulers. Every means, secret or open, was resorted to, but in vain. The progress of enlightenment, the warning example of Poland, and the spirit of nationality, rekindled by the activity of Francis Kazinczy and others, had prepared the nation for a struggle for constitutionalism and liberal reforms, which Metternich, both under Francis and his imbecile son Ferdinand V. (I. as emperor of Austria, 1835-48), was unable effectively to resist. The Hungarian constitution had during the last few centuries undergone numerous modifications, without having at any period of its existence lost its vitality. As it was now, it was at the same time a charter of freedom, which shielded the people at large, and especially the non-Catholics, against bureaucratic sway, and secured to the nobility the greatest degree of personal liberty and immunity enjoyed by any class in Europe, and on the other hand an instrument of oppression in the hands of the nobility against all plebeian inhabitants of the country, especially the peasantry, which was degraded by numerous feudal burdens.

The nobles were free from every tax and personal service, except in case of a hostile attack on the country itself, when they were obliged to rise in a body at their own expense; they enjoyed all the privileges of the right of habeas corpus, governed the counties by their regular assemblies ("congregations"), elected magistrates, and exercised the right of legislation by their deputies to the lower house of the diet. The higher nobility, or magnates, together with the chief dignitaries of the crown and the church, formed the upper house of the diet under the presidency of the palatine. The representation of the free royal towns was almost nominal. The diet was now regularly convoked by the monarch at Presburg, at intervals not exceeding three years. Its duration was unlimited. The chief royal organs of general administration were the Hungarian aulic chancery at Vienna, and the royal council at Buda, whose decisions, however, very often met with opposition or delay in the county assemblies. This vis inertim of the latter was the principal check on all despotic or unconstitutional attempts of the Vienna ministry, while their publicity and jealously guarded freedom of debate were the chief elements of progress and political enlightenment.

Gradually to abolish the immunity of the nobles and the feudal burdens of the peasantry, to endow the great bulk of the people with political rights, and at the same time to fortify the old bulwarks of the constitution, now became the task of the patriots; and the great movement offered the rare spectacle of an aristocracy contending for the abolition of privileges and the equality of the people. Paul Nagy and Count Stephen Szechenyi were the champions of nationality at the diet of 1825, which inaugurated a long period of moderate but gradual reforms, the most important of which were carried through at the diets of 1832-'6, 1839-'40, and 1843^'4. The rights of the non-noble citizens, peasantry, and Jews, the equality of the Christian confessions, the official use of the Hungarian language, and the freedom of speech were extended, the majority of the educated lower nobility and a minority of the higher ardently contending against old abuses and aristocratic immunities, against bureaucratic despotism and religious intolerance.

Among the leaders of the "liberal opposition " under Ferdinand were the members of the upper house Count Louis Batthyanyi and Baron Eotvos; the deputies Deak, Beothy, Klauzal, Raday, Balogh, and Kubinyi; the Transylvanian agitator Baron Wesselenyi, and the publicist Kossuth. The cabinet of Vienna chose the last five as its victims, prosecuting them for treason, and imprisoning Wesselenyi and Kossuth for years. The old palatine Joseph, the uncle of the emperor, and the conservatives under the lead of Szechenyi and others, in vain strove to check the agitation. It reached its culminating point when Kossuth, after a lively struggle, was elected as representative of Pesth to the diet of 1847. A conflict with the government seemed imminent, when the general shock which followed the French revolution of February overthrew the rule of Metternich (March 13, 1848). Kossuth was greeted as liberator by the people of Vienna, and together with L. Batthyanyi intrusted with the formation of an independent Hungarian ministry by Ferdinand. Pesth had its revolutionary journee on March 15. Batthyanyi was president of the new ministry, Kossuth minister of finance.

Having enacted the abolition of feudality, a new election law, and various other radical changes in the constitution, the last diet of Presburg dissolved, the new national assembly being appointed to meet in July at Pesth. The cabinet of Vienna commenced its intrigues against the new order of things on the very day when it sanctioned it. Jellachich and others were sent openly or secretly to organize insurrections among the southern Slavic tribes and the Wallachs and Saxons in Transylvania, the diet of which proclaimed its reunion with Hungary. Every new measure met with opposition or delay through the Vienna government or its tools. Negotiations had no result. The whole south of the country was soon in a flame. Croatia and Slavo-nia proclaimed their independence of Hungary, and Ban Jellachich occupied the Littorale, and threatened to cross the Drave. Against all these contingencies the only resource of the government was its own zeal and the enthusiasm of the people. Volunteer troops (honveds, defenders of the land) were raised in the counties, contributions toward a national treasury were collected, and the militia was organized. The diet assembled in July and voted extensive levies and ample means for defence, but Ferdinand refused to sanction its resolutions.

The Austrian troops which were still sent against the insurgents were led by traitors. A serious attempt under Meszaros against the Rascians in Bacs (August) failed; the new troops were slowly gathering. Jellachich finally crossed the Drave, and the Vienna government, having reconquered Lombardy, threw off its mask and sent Count Lamberg to disperse the diet by force. The Batthyanyi ministry now resigned, and a committee of defence was formed under the presidency of Kossuth. The revolution began. The old troops were transformed and blended with the new. Kossuth's eloquence brought the people of the central plain under arms. Single detachments of Hungarian troops returned with or without their officers from abroad. The fortress Co-morn was secured. The archduke Stephen, the new palatine, fled from the country. Lamberg was massacred on the bridge of Pesth by a mob. Jellachich was defeated at Pakozd near Buda (Sept. 29) and fled toward Vienna, which rose in revolution (Oct. 6). The principal fortresses hoisted the national flag. On the other hand, Temesvar and Arad hoisted that of Austria. The war of races raged with terrible fury and varying success. Transylvania was entirely lost.

The pursuit of Jellachich was executed with hesitation by Moga, a late Austrian general, the frontier river Leitha was crossed too late, and the hastily collected volunteers fled after a short fight at Schwechat (Oct. 30) against Windischgratz and Jellachich, who thus became masters of Vienna. Katona, sent to reconquer Transylvania, was routed at Dees. Count Schlick entered Hungary from the north, and occupied Kaschau (Dec. 11). The Rascian Damjanics alone led the honveds to victory on the S. E. frontier, while Perczel successfully defended the line of the Drave on the S. W. Unable to defend the W. frontier against Windischgratz, Gorgey, the new commander of the army of the upper Danube, retreated on the right bank of that river, evacuating Presburg, Raab, and, after the rout of the equally retreating Perczel at Moor (Dec. 29) and an engagement at Teteny, the capital Buda-Pesth itself (Jan. 5, 1849). The day before, Schlick dispersed the undisciplined army of the north under Me-szaros, the minister of war.

Thus the government and diet, which transferred their seat to Debreczin, would have had little prospect of security if the Polish general Bern had not begun in the latter half of December a new Tran-sylvanian campaign, which cheered the patriots with a nearly unbroken series of successes over the imperialists. Gorgey, too, who according to anew plan of operations returned westward on the left bank of the Danube, leaving a part of his troops with Perczel on the middle Theiss, succeeded in diverting the Austrian main army under Windischgratz from a march on Debreczin. Then turning northward, he skilfully fought his way through the rugged region of the Ore mountains, amid continual perils, and, after a signal victory of his vanguard under Guyon over Schlick's corps on Mount Brany-iszko (Feb. 5), finally effected a junction with the army of the upper Theiss, which under Klapka had been successful against that Austrian general. The activity of Kossuth and his associates in supplying all these bodies of troops with men, ammunition, money, and officers was admirable.

The zeal of the committee of defence was worthily responded to by the confidence of the people, who, even when two thirds of the country were in the hands of the enemy, almost as willingly accepted "Kossuth's bills " as specie, and by the general bravery of the troops. But new dangers arose with the invasion of the Russians from the Danubian principalities into Transylvania, where Bern, after a triumphant march (January), was suddenly checked before Hermann-stadt, and could save his position at Piski (Feb. 9, 10) only after the loss of a part of his troops; and within the national camp by the stubborn disobedience and intrigues of Gorgey, which caused the unfavorable issue of the great battle of Kapolna (Feb. 26, 27), the retreat of the united main army beyond the Theiss, the deposition of its commander, the Pole Dem-binski, and a considerable loss of time. Another heavy loss was that of the isolated fortress Eszek, which was surrendered with immense stores by its cowardly commanders. Elated by the despatches of Prince Windischgratz, the young emperor Francis Joseph, who had succeeded his uncle at Olmutz, Dec. 2, 1848, now promulgated a new constitution (March 4), which with one stroke annihilated the constitution and national independence of Hungary, making it, with narrowed limits, a crownland of Austria. But the next few days brought a new series of Hungarian victories.

Damjanics, who had been recalled from the south, routed the Austrians at Szolnok (March 5). Bern took Hermannstadt and drove the Russians through the Red Tower pass into Wallachia. After the occupation of Cronstadt, all Transylvania, except Carlsburg, was in the hands of the Polish general. Perczel swept over the Rascian Vendee. The temporary chief commander of the main army, Vetter, having fallen ill, Gorgey finally received the command, and the offensive against Windischgratz was resumed. He crossed the Theiss at various points, and, advancing toward the capital, defeated the enemy at Hatvan (April 2), Bicske, Izsaszeg, Waitzen, and Nagy Sarlo, rescued Comorn, which had withstood a long siege" and bombardment, crossed the Danube, and gained a victory at Acs (April 26). During this short campaign the diet at Debreczin proclaimed the independence of the country (April 14), appointing Kossuth its governor, and Au-lich entered Pesth. Instead, however, of continuing his victorious march to the capital of the enemy, Gorgey returned with the bulk of his army to the siege of Buda, while a new and extensive Russian invasion was approaching.

Buda was stormed (May 21), the government and diet returned to the capital, and Gorgey again took the field, but injudiciously chose the N. bank of the Danube for his new campaign, and, without profiting by Kmetty's victory at Csorna, S. of that river (June 13), wasted the blood of his army on the Waag. The Russian armies and fresh Austrian troops under Haynau were in the meanwhile pouring into the country from various quarters. Wysocki, the successor of Dembinski in command, retreated before Paskevitch; Temesvar was unsuccessfully besieged by Vecsey; Bern was paralyzed by a new and more terrible rising of the Wal-lachs, while his province, too, was invaded by the Russians. After various unsuccessful struggles on the line of the Waag, the loss of Raab, and a great battle at Szony (July 2), Gorgey, leaving Klapka in Comorn, finally retreated toward the middle Theiss; but after a bloody fight against Paskevitch at Waitzen (July 15), he turned northward, again and again repulsing the Russians, and crossed the Theiss at Tokay. The Russians crossed it at Fured, while the central Hungarian forces under the chief command of Dembinski retreated toward Szegedin. The government, leaving the former place, where the last session of the diet had been held, retired to Arad, which, having recently surrendered, was made the last point of general concentration, after the rout of Bern at Schas-burg by the Russians under Luders, of one of Gorgey's divisions under Nagy-Sandor before Debreczin by the army of Paskevitch, and of Dembinski at Szoreg by Haynau. Dembinski, however, retreated toward Temesvar, where his army suffered a terrible defeat (Aug. 9). Gorgey, who now arrived at Arad, summoned Kossuth to resign, and received from him the supreme civil and military command, Klapka's sally from Comorn and signal victory over the besieging Austrian army (Aug. 3) being unknown at Arad. Two days later Gorgey surrendered his army at discretion to the generals of the czar at Vilagos (Aug. 13). Damjanics followed his example, and surrendered Arad. Kossuth, the late ministers Szemere and Casi-mir Batthyanyi, the generals Bern, Dembinski, Meszaros, Vetter, Perczel, Guyon, Kmetty, "Wysocki, and others, fled into Turkey. Mun-kacs, Peterwardein, and Comorn capitulated.

But scarcely had the tricolor disappeared from the ramparts of the last named fortress, Oct. 4, when the work of revenge commenced on the side of the victors. Count Louis Batthyanyi, who had been made captive on a mission of peaceful mediation, was executed at Pesth, Oct. 6, and the commanders Kis, Aulich, Damjanics, Nagy-Sandor, Torok, Lahner, Ve-csey, Knezich, Poltenberg. Leiningen, Schwei-del, Dessewffy, and Lazar, all of whom had surrendered at discretion, were executed on the same day at Arad. Other executions followed. The dungeons of the empire were filled with prisoners for life or long terms. Gorgey was confined at Klagenfurth. The remnants of the Hungarian troops were impressed into the Austrian army, and the estates of the rich patriots confiscated. The country remained under martial law, receiving new divisions, authorities, and tax regulations, and foreign officials. The German was made the language of the reorganized higher courts, offices, and schools. New contributions, military levies, and so-called voluntary loans, followed each other. A conspiracy and an attempt on the emperor's life led to the resumption of wholesale executions in 1853. The Protestants and Jews were subjected to particular restrictions.

This state of affairs ended with Austria's defeat in Italy (1859). The dismissal of the centralizing minister Bach, the appointment of Goluchowski, and the diploma of Oct. 20, 1860, were followed by the convocation of a Hungarian diet. This was opened in April, when Schmerling had taken the place of Goluchowski, and the patent of Feb. 26, 1861, that of the October diploma. (See Austria, vol. ii., pp. 149, 150.) As no representatives from Transylvania had been summoned, the diet considered itself incomplete, and this was to be expressed, together with other grievances, either by an address to Francis Joseph, as Deak proposed it, or merely by a resolution ignoring' the royal rights of that emperor. When the debate was to open, May 8, the leading defender of the latter policy, Count Teleky, was found to have put an end to his career by a pistol shot. (See Teleky.) Deak's address was carried, but as he emphatically demanded the restoration of the laws of 1848, the diet was dissolved in August. The country maintained its opposition to the Vienna schemes, and only the Saxons and Roumans of Transylvania were persuaded in 1863 to send representatives to the imperial Reichsrath. The joint intervention with Prussia in the Schleswig-Holstein affairs proving detrimental to Austria, chiefly from want of ready support on the part of the Hungarian and Slavic nationalities, Francis Joseph repaired to Pesth in June, 1865, dismissed Schmerling, replacing him by a federalist minister, Belcredi, suspended the imperial constitution, and convoked a new Hungarian diet.

Deak ruled this as he did the preceding, and remained firm in his demands. Francis Joseph, on the eve of the great struggle with Prussia, prorogued the diet, but after the disastrous battle of Sadowa (July 3, 1866) was ready to submit to the demands of the Hungarians. His new leading minister Beust undertook the task of carrying through a compromise, and the result was the dualistic system of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, as finally sanctioned in December, 1867. (See Austria, vol. ii., p. 141.) A national Hungarian ministry was appointed in February, 1867, of which Count Andrassy was the head. A general amnesty was proclaimed, and the emperor was crowned as king of Hungary (June 8) at Buda, with extraordinary pomp. The diet, having carried through various reforms, including the emancipation of the Jews, and settled the relations of Croatia to the Hungarian crown on a basis analogous to the relation of Hungary to the monarchy, closed its sittings in December, 1868. Two principal parliamentary parties had been formed, the conservative or Deak party, which had a decided majority, and the opposition party of the left, under Ghyczy and Tisza, aiming at a mere personal union with Cisleithan Austria under the house of Hapsburg. The revolutionary extreme left numbered few adherents.

The same was the position of affairs in the diet of 1869-72. Andrassy, who in the war of 1870 restrained Beust from interfering against Prussia, succeeded that statesman in November, 1871, as foreign minister of the monarchy, Lonyay taking his place in Hungary. A new agreement was entered into with Croatia, and the Military Frontier districts were gradually placed under civil jurisdiction. The finances of the country, however, became rapidly embarrassed by state subsidies, and Lonyay fell under personal attacks, Szlavy becoming his successor (December, 1872). The new cabinet was even less successful, and in March, 1874, made room for a coalition ministry under Bitt6.