The Eighth Tribe, 1977 (4. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1977-06-01 / 6. szám

Page 8

THE EIGHTH TRIBE

June, 1977

Mrs. L. A. Czarnecki:

A VOICE FOR LOUIS KOSSUTH

Away from the friends they love, Exiled from their own dear land, Kutayach’s towers enclose A noble patriot hand.

Kossuth, their country’s chief, Who strove for the glorious cause, And fondly thought to give A nation Freedom’s laws.

He, too, is a prisoner there,

Who would have died to win That boon, for which he hoped Till even hope was sin.

Liberty! he fought for thee—

Thy right his only aim;

Yet tyrants won the day He nobly sought to gain.

And thou, heroic wife! thy name A household word shall he—

A star so pure and bright That all must worship thee.

Thy rare and matchless love Did danger proudly brave,

That thou might share with him A prison or a grave.

But Haynau! that name of disgrace, Who has tarnished the soldier’s fame

By deeds of the darkest dye,

Shall be covered with endless shame.

Let tyrants, such as he, become A blot on history’s page,

Who would quence the spirit free In chains or bloody rage.

My country, thou so great,

Hast stretched thy hand of power To protect this suffering chief In danger’s coming hour.

His sorrows have a claim On every soul who feels;

Nor will a British heart Ever turn from such appeals.

Kossuth! the sons of Freedom will Unite their prayers for thee,

That thou mayest soon obtain A home secure and free.

From: General Bem and other Poems By Mrs. L. A. Czarnecki, Edinburgh, 1853.

Written June 26, 1851.

(From: “Louis Kossuth—Champion of Liberty”—a future publication.)

while this has not been widely known until the relatively recent research efforts and results of Gy. Győrffy — at the time of the Árpádian conquest of Hungary in the late ninth century, the supreme ruler of the Magyars was still the kündü and not the gyula. And because the kiindü at the time of the conquest was Kurszán, it was he (and not the better known Árpád, who held the position of the gyula) who was the official head of the Magyar tribal federation. Kurszán retained his pre-eminent position until his death in 904. Yet, because by that time the power relationship between the kündü and the gyula had altered, Kurszán’s pre-eminence may have been purely nominal. This alone could explain why it was Árpád and not Kurszán who came to be remembered as the leader of the conquering Magyars. Yet, it cannot explain the almost total eradication of Kurszán’s memory from Magyar traditions. That can only be attributed to a number of additional factors. One of this may be Kurszán’s death in 904, after which Árpád unified the roles of the kündü and the gyula, and claimed their powers for himself alone. To this may be added Árpád’s and the Árpád Dynasty’s alleged purposeful attempt to wipe out the memory of the rival Kurszán from the collective traditions of the Magyar nation — as claimed and substantiated satisfactorily by Gy. Győrffy (Kurszán, pp. 9-40).

Whatever the truth in the above contention, the fact remains that after Kurszán’s death, Árpád and his descendants became the sole rulers of the Magyars — first as ruling princes, and after 1000 A.D. as Christian kings. The title of gyula was still retained. But the power associated with that office declined considerably. He became simply the commander of one of the wings of the Hungarian army. The other wing was commanded by the karcha (horka), which was another princely title, third in importance following the kiindü and the gyula.

In the course of the tenth century, both of these titles — gyula and horka —- became hereditary in the families of certain tribal chiefs. The office of gyula was held by the most significant tribal chief of Transylvania; while the title of horka was given to the most powerful southern tribal chief, who served as Hungary’s advanced guard against the Bulgarian and the Byzantine Empires, but was also leading some of the Magyar military campaigns to the West.

With the temporary decline of central power after Árpád’s death in 907, these tribal chiefs, as well as some of the others, became so independent-minded that they followed their own foreign policy, and even fought wars with a number of foreign powers. Their “indepen-35

dence”, however, came to a sudden end with the assumption of the princely power by Taksony in 955. Taksony, who was Árpád’s grandson, resumed the process of centralization. His policies were continued by his son Géza (972-997), and his grandson Vajk (St. Stephen) (997-1038). They destroyed the remaining power of the tribal chiefs, and established Hungary’s position firmly as one of the centralized Christian states of the European community of nations.

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— to be continued