The Eighth Tribe, 1975 (2. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1975-08-01 / 8. szám
August, 1975 THE EIGHTH TRIBE Page 3 In its nearly one-thousand-year of history, the crown is closely interwoven with the Magyar fate. At times, it was taken away by force. It was stolen, pawned, buried, and even taken into exile. But each time, it was somehow re-claimed, by means of money, trickery, or battle. This crown is not merely a piece of coronation jewelry. Its real value lies in its special judicial position. The crowned king received his power from the Holy Crown, rather than the other way around. Each Hungarian, no matter whether he was of Magyar, Croatian, Slovak or other descent, was a member of the Holy Crown, while every square foot of Hungary was the property of the Holy Crown, and was not in the name of the king. The Crown, and not the king, ruled over the “Countries of the Holy Crown”, assuring thereby, complete autonomy to each of the countries, with the right to self-administration, the right to the free use of their own language and culture of every ethnic minority group. The Hungarian Apostolic King was the only ruler in Europe who had the right of having the doubled cross (insignia of the Apostles) carried in front of him. There is no end to the legends and historical facts connected with the Holy Crown. Endre raised an army and revolted against his brother, King Imre, (1200 A.D.). Imre, with the Holy Crown upon his head, walked alone into his brother’s camp. “Let me see who daies to raise a hand against his annointed King!” he said. Then he led his brother, Endre, by the hand from the midst of his own army, and made him a prisoner. Such was the respect for the Holy Crown. As a result of the 150 year war and Turkish occupation, the Hungarians were weakened. The Austrian Emperor, who was also Apostolic King of Hungary, thought the time had come to end Hungary’s independence. The Holy Crown was taken to Vienna, only in times of coronation was it brought back to the fortress of Pozsony (in Hungary, near the Austrian border.) People recorded that each time the crown was taken away from Hungarian soil, thunderstorms broke out, lightning struck, roads and rivers flooded. Nature protested against the removal of the crown to foreign soil. Leaders of the different liberty-wars against the Habsburgs, such as Tokoly, Báthory, Bethlen, Rakoczy, and finally even Kossuth, in 1848, had the Holy Crown in their hands, but not one of them ever dared to put it on his head, for there was already an “Annointed King” who had been crowned with it, who had not officially abdicated, and was not yet officially dethroned by the legal representatives of the State. When, after the Russian invasion of 1849, Kossuth fled the country, he buried the Holy Crown, and the Emperor, Franz Joseph could neither be crowned nor regarded as the legal king of Hungary, until the Crown was found with the help of returning exiles. Today, the Holy Crown is in foreign hands again, on foreign soil. But in Hungary, people still believe, that the time shall come when it will return again, bringing justice, order, peace and happiness, back into the country. Translated by Elizabeth M. 1Pass Reprinted from Selected Hungarian Legends by Albert Wass
