Körmöczi Katalin szerk.: Historical Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum 3 - From the End of the Turkish Wars to the Millennium - The history of Hungary in the 18th and 19th centuries (Budapest, 2001)

ROOM 10. Hungary in the 18th Century (Gábor Németh)

Leopold II (1790-92), who had returned to Vienna from Tuscany. Copper engravings recall the rapprochement between the monarch and the Hungarian Estates, and the law of 1791 documents the restoration of Hungarian constitutionalism. The Diet showed less sensitivity towards social reform than towards constitutional relations; and the radical reform plans developed in the course of 1791 were never tabled for discussion. On the basis of Law LXVII of 1791, nine committees were instructed to work out reform proposals for the next Diet. The proposals were ready by the mid1790s, but were not debated until 1827. Under Francis I (1792-1835), Leopold II's successor, the Court in Vienna was for a long time preoccupied with the inevitable wars first with Revolutionary France and then with Napoleon. In Hungary the Court wanted order and tranquillity. While under Francis I the policy of the Court in Vienna was characterized by conservatism, in Hungary the growth of the noble-national, enlightened feudal movement continued. Reform plans were considered by enlightened aristocrats and by certain members of the intelligentsia representing the lesser nobility. Ever more radically, national and bourgeois endeavours were influenced by ideas promoted by the European Enlightenment and the French Revolution. The news of the events in France prompted János Batsányi's ominous words: "To see the future in advance, To Paris turn your watchful glance." THE HUNGARIAN JACOBIN MOVEMENT The anti-feudal reform movement now developing in Hungary was represented by members of the new intelligentsia, headed by József Hajnóczy (1750-95). Radicalized by the French Revolution, they formed secret organizations, reading circles and clubs. Organization at a national level was started in 1794 by Ignác Martinovics (1755-95), who, adopting the organizational forms of the freemasonry movement, founded two secret societies. Drafted in catechism form, the programmes of the "Secret Society of Reformers in Hungary" and the "Society for Liberty and Equality" planned the establishment of an independent republic, and, as a second, step, the democratic transformation of the country. Besides the catechisms, members of the movement got to know the "Marseillaise" in the translation made by Ferenc Verseghy (17571822). This can be seen on the copy which once belonged to János Szlávy (17721840). During the course of 1794 and 1795, the Court settled its accounts with the "traitors". The five leaders of the movement were executed: József Hajnóczy, János Laczkovics (1754-95), Ignác Martinovics, Jakab Sigray (17607-95), and Ferenc Szentmarjay (1767-95). The executions were later followed by those of Pál Őz (1766-95) and Sándor Szolártsik (1766-95). The melancholic event is symbolized by the executioner s sword with which the executions were performed. The executions are commemorated in an engraving by an unknown master, who includes in the picture the so-called "Martinovics Tree" (Fig. 25). Many were sentenced to imprisonment, among them outstanding figures in Hungarian intellectual life - for example, Ferenc Kazinczy and János Batsányi (1763-1845). Kazinczy gave an account of his incarceration in his Diary of My Imprisonment.