Magyar külpolitika, 1930 (11. évfolyam, 1-7. szám)

1930 / 2. szám - The Hungarian Regency and its present Holder

20 HUNGÁRIA LLOYD July 1930 The Hungárián Regency The whole publiclife of Hungary has al al] times béén — and stil] is — predominantly symbolical in charaeter. The king is the symbol of aationaJ power and national trádition; and his coronation witfi the Holy Crown of St. Stephen, the firsti Apostolié King of Hungary, — itself a symbol of the constitutíonal prerogatives which devolve on the sovereign with its touch and révért to the people again ón the soveréign's death, — endows nini witli a mysteripus inviolability that makes his person sacred in the eyes of every true Hungárián. The power of this peculiar symbölism wás documented in á 'striking manner when tíhe Bolshevik nsurpers whö ruled Hungary for á brief span of breathléss terror in L919, with al] their ruthless and remorseless varidalism, Eeared to tóuch the Holy Crown. For the five inonths of thai reign of terror the saered syinbol rested nnharmed in its appointed place in the Chapel Kovai in Buda; and the symbolic consciousness of their national unity remained intact in the minds of áll trúe Hungarians. There is something peculiarly symbolical in the office of Regent too, as that office is inlferpreted by Hungárián eonstitutional law and understood|by Hungárián historians. The first holder of the office was the great and formidable ehampion of the Cross again the barbarism of the Crescent, — John Hunyadi, the father of Matíhias CorviwUs, the illtistríóus sovíereign whose name is idéntified with the glories of the Hungárián Renaissance Tt was on Whitsunday (June 5 th.), 144(i, that the Hungárián Estates assemblert at Rákos, elected John Hunyadi to be Regent (Gubernátor) in the name and „in the person" of the young Prince Ladislas of Habsburg, then practically a captive in the Court of the Einperor Frederick, to whose care he had been eommitted by his mother Elizabeth. The Regent was to act as the symbol of royal power and to be the „personalis" of the young prince until such time as the latter should become'King of Hungary by virtue of his coronation with the Holy Crown of St. Stepheii": and in that ca pacit y Hunyadi wielded a power which was practically unlimited. Iinmediately after his election Hunyadi requested the Estates „to appoint the ways and means according to which he should conduct the affairs of the office of Regent and provide for the defénce of the country, lest he should, exceed the ljounds and extend hisl power excessively by a breach of his oath", Accordingly the rights and duties of the Regent were defined as follows: — by the regal power vésted in him, in his charaeter as the symbolical representative of the King's person the Regen! had the right to reside freely in all royal boroughs and markét boroughs; üt was his duty to personaily command the Army in the event of any hostile attack on the country of a very dangerous charaeter: and in generál the Legislaturel invested the Regent with all the power belonging to the King's Majesty; though on the other hand seyeral restriefions were incorporated in law; in respect of grants of land, öf property reverting to the Crown he was entitled to make gifts only of such as did not exceed in size the area of 35 sessions or feudal holdings; and all such gifts were and its present Holder. subject to the ultimate approval of the sovereign; the revenue remaining was to be devoted solely to the redemption of the royal castles, boroughs or estates which had been pledged as security for loans or for political reasons: the Regent could not inflict púnashment for high treáson except with the knowfedge and by the advice or on the summons of the Estates: in affairs of State he was to be assisted by a. National Council consisting of twelve members, which was lo meel at least once every three months, its meetings to coincide in point of time with the sessions of the courts of law; and, though the Regent w as empowéréd to act on his own initiative in the absence of the Council, all judgments passed by Mm were subject to the supervision of the justices of the réalm, who had the right even to quash any decisions of his with which they did nol agree. Hunyadi's greatness as a generál made his name respected throughout Christendom; and his sagacity as a statesman has made his name the object of reverence and devotion down to the present day in Hungary. His death in 1456 after his grand victory over the Turks at Belgrádé was mourned by all Europe; even the Sultan exclaimed. „He was my foe, but 1 grieve for his death! The world has lóst its greatest man".] John Hunyadi was a son of that Transylvania which was for centuries to be the treasure-house of Hungárián culture and to give Hungary many of her greatest men. The home of the family — which gave Hungary her first eminent Regenti and her most glorious national king — was the castle of Yajda-Hunyad in tbc County of Hunyadi; and the romantic surroundings of his birthplace — the Scotland of Hungary — must have acted inspiringly on the mind both of the great Regent and of his still more eminent son. Many are the parallels to be found in the respective histories of Jöreat Britain and Hungary; and it woidd be an interesting study to investigate the question of the origin of the traditions which seem to point clearly and unmistakably to the eonunon ancestry of the peoples of Transylvania and Scotlahd. However that may he. Hunyadi's generalship, sagacity and devoted self-saerifice had saved Hungary and Europe for the moment from the menace of Turkish barbarism; Europe showed its gratitude by its accustomed attitűdé of apathy ami indifferencei and the young King Ladislas, now confirmed in the i>ossession of his inheritanoe by the glorious déeds of the father, listoned to the malignant counsels of incapable and ünscrupulous advisers and prpcóeded to — execúte the son. Ladislas Bunyadi was behéaded in March, 14ő7, in St. (íeorge's Square, in Buda. A year later — on January 23rd., 14Ő8 — Matthias Hunyadi was elected King of Hungary „amid the entbusiaslic acclamations of the people, and réigned for thirty-two years".2 Nearly five hundred years passed before, in 1920, the Bungarian people again elected a Regent. Once more Hungary had to protect herself against an Orientál peril — Bolshevism; but now the situation was aggravated by the conditions brought