ANB 1053 THE HISTORY OF ANGLO-HUNGARIAN RELATIONSHIPS
Dr. Tukacs Tamás
Contents
I. The Beginnings: St. Stephen and St. Margaret of Scotland
II. The Effects of English Puritanism in Hungary
III. The Image of Hungary in England in the 16th and 17th Centuries
IV. The Effects of English Literature on Hungary until the Reform Age
V. “Anglomania” in Hungary in the Nineteenth Century
VI. Bölöni Farkas Sándor (1795-1842) and his Travels
VII. Széchenyi István and England
VIII. English Travellers in Hungary in the 19th Century
IX. Fest Sándor, the Father of English Studies in Hungary
X. Anglo-Hungarian Relationships Between 1945-48. The Role of the British Council
Sources and Recommended Reading
I. The Beginnings: St. Stephen and St. Margaret of Scotland
IN THIS SECTION, we will cover:
medieval England and Hungary (10th – 12th centuries)
the earliest Anglo-Hungarian contacts, dynastic relationships
the exiled English princes, Edmund and Edward in Hungary
the alleged marriage of Edward and Agatha, St. Stephen’s daughter
the references to Agatha and St. Margaret of Scotland in chronicles
Where do the relationships of England and Hungary begin? Naturally, we could go back in time almost infinitely, but the safest point of departure is probably the Middle Ages, more specifically, the foundation of the Kingdom of Hungary and the rule of St. Stephen (1000-1035).
At the “very beginning” (by which we mean the 8th and 9th centuries) there was no direct contact between Hungary and England. An important intermediary power at this time was the Kingdom of the Franks (by and large the present-day France) which intended to conquer the area of Carantania, that is, the area of what is now Slovenia and Austria. They did succeed, and this territory became part of the Frank Kingdom in the late 8th century.
A crucial question, however, from the point of view of English and Hungarian contacts is whether St. Stephen had a daughter called Agatha and whether she married an English prince. How could a Hungarian princess get to know an English prince and how could he come to the Hungarian court? To answer this question, we shall have a look at the historical conditions of England at that time. Edmund II (or Edmund Ironside), the king of England died in 1016 in a battle with the Danes, after reigning for a few months. After his death, Cnut the Great (1016-35) became the king of England (and Denmark, Norway and parts of Sweden, “the North Sea Empire”). Edmund II had two sons, Edmund and Edward. Cnut wanted to execute a number of noblemen he was suspicious of, including the two sons, and sent Edward and Edmund to Sweden, instructing the Swedish king, Olaf, to execute the two sons. Olaf, instead, sent them forward to Hungary. They arrived in Hungary in 1046, probably through Sweden and Russia (Kiev).[1] Soon after arriving, Edmund died.
Edward (the Exile) married Agatha, and had three children: Margaret, Edgar and Christina. Things began to speed up in 1042, when Cnut’s family died out and his empire collapsed. Edmund Ironside’s younger brother, Edward the Confessor returned from Norman exile in 1042 and became the King of England until 1066.
It was somewhere in the early 1050s that news arrived claiming that Edward has a heir in exile. To be more exact, György, the archbishop of Kalocsa, and Leodvin, the bishop of Bihar visited Pope Leo IX in 1051. Aeldred, the bishop of Worcester heard from them that Edward the Confessor has a descendant in the Hungarian court. By the middle of the 1050s, the situation became very distressing for Edward, since he still had no male heir and the Saxon royal house was close to extinction. Aeldred went to Cologne and tried to persuade Henry III, the Holy Roman Emperor, to convince the Hungarian king, Andrew, to let prince Edward go back to England. Meanwhile, Godwin, the earl of Wessex and his family also wanted to gain the English throne. Finally, Edward went back to England (through Cologne) in 1057. But two days after arriving, he died. The cause of his death is uncertain, and it is likely that he was murdered, probably by the Godwinsons. His son, Edgar, had to escape and he lived comfortably in the court of William the Conqueror, the Norman king. He was proclaimed king in the year of the Norman conquest in 1066, but was never crowned.
Now we have to concentrate on Margaret, Edward the Exile’s daughter and Agatha, Edward’s wife. Margaret (1045-93), after her family returned to England from Hungary, married Malcolm III, the Scottish king. She helped him to “civilise” Scotland and forced the Scots to get rid of their barbarous customs by Christianising them by force. Margaret forced the Celtic type of Christianity out of Scotland and imposed Roman Catholicism on them. She was canonised and became Saint Margaret of Scotland in 1250. Her daughter, Edith, later married Henry I, William the Conqueror’s son in 1100, thus the Normans’ right to the throne was sanctified by this compromise.
What do the contemporary sources say about Margaret? It was evident that Malcolm married her because of her noble descent. As Alfred, the abbot of Rievaulx [pronounce: ri:’voʊ] puts it, she was “de semine regio anglorum et hunnorum” (from the seed of English and Hungarian kings). Ordericus Vitalis claims that she “Edvardus filiam regis hunnorum in matrimonium acceptit” (she accepted Edward, the Hungarian king’s son in matrimony). Thus, Margaret’s Hungarian origin is very probable.
As for Agatha, the story is less clear and there is more uncertainty surrounding her identity. The contemporary sources emphasise two possible aspects: either she was the relative of the Holy Roman Emperor, or she was Saint Stephen’s daughter (which was basically the same thing from different aspects). The role of Aeldred, the bishop of Worcester has been mentioned above. It is not surprising that Worcester is an important source of documents.
1. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has the following entry for the year 1057 (when Edward returned to England):
“A.D. 1057. This year came Edward Etheling, son of King Edmund, to this land, and soon after died. His body is buried within St. Paul's minster at London. He was brother's son to King Edward. King Edmund was called Ironside for his valour. This etheling King Knute had sent into Hungary, to betray him; but he there grew in favour with good men, as God granted him, and it well became him; so that he obtained the emperor's cousin in marriage, and by her had a fair offspring. Her name was Agatha. We know not for what reason it was done, that he should see his relation, King Edward. Alas! that was a rueful time, and injurious to all this nation -- that he ended his life so soon after he came to England, to the misfortune of this miserable people. (…)”
Agatha is not St. Stephen’s daughter here. She is mentioned as the emperor’s cousin. This Holy Roman Emperor was Henry II, the brother-in-law of Saint Stephen.
2. Florence of Worcester’s work, Chronicon ex Chronicis (a compilation from different chronicles) contains new information regarding her identity. It claims Edward married “filia germani imperatoris Henrici”. What does “germani” mean in this context? It cannot mean “German” since then the phrase would translate as “the German Emperor, Henry’s daughter”. We know, however, that Henry II was childless. So the word “germani” here must mean close relative (the word being related to the English word “germ”), that is, the brother-in-law of Saint Stephen, Henry II.
Other sources do not link Agatha’s identity to the German Henry II, but clearly speak about her as the Hungarian king’s daughter.
3. Ordericus Vitalis, an English chronicler, in his Historia Ecclesiestica, written between 1124 and 1142, included stories collected from chronicles, manuscripts and often personal meetings with crusaders and pilgrims. He is the first to mention Agatha as St. Stephen’s daughter. He mentions her as “filia regis hunnorum”, which clearly translates into “the Hungarian king’s daughter”.
He also has an interesting remark in his chronicle. He says that Edward “super hunos regnavit” (ruled over the Hungarians). How is this possible? We have to go back in time to the point when Aeldred goes to Cologne to seek help from Henry III to promote the homecoming of Edward. It is also remarkable that Edward could only go back to England after the German Emperor’s death, so it is possible that he was kept there by force, and maybe Henry had some plans with Edward, because, after all, through his wife, Agatha, Edward had an important connection with Henry III’s predecessor, Henry II, who was Saint Stephen’s the Hungarian king’s brother-in-law. It is probable that Henry wanted to send a counter-king, one of his relatives, to Hungary against the Hungarian king Aba Sámuel (1041-44). This counter-king could have been Edward the Exile. That is why the chronicle could say (assuming that Edward really became king) that he “ruled over the Hungarians.”
4. The following, not too reliable source is Geoffrey Gaimar, an Anglo-Norman chronicler. In his L’Estoire des Engleis (The History of the English), a verse chronicle written in Old French between 1136 and 1140, he speaks about Agatha as the Hungarian king’s daughter and Edward as the heir to the Hungarian throne. The whole work sounds like a fairy tale or romance with a lot of fictitious names:
“Li reis sa fille a Edgar (!) donat /
Veauz sa gent cil l’epusat /
E li reis fist a tuz saver /
Apres son jur sait Edgar heir.”
"The king gave his daughter to Eadgar. /
Before his people, he married her, /
And the king gave all to know /
That Eadgar should be his heir after his days."
“Eadgar” and his wife become the parents of Margaret and Eadgar the Ætheling:
"De cest Edgar e de sa femme,
Eissit la preciose gemme, /
Margarete lapelat lom, /
Raine en fist rei Malcolom. /
Ele aueit vn son frere ainnez, /
Edgar l’Adeling estait nomez."
"From this Eadgar and his wife /
Issued the precious gem, /
Margaret they called her. /
King Malcolm made her his queen. /
She had an elder brother, /
Eadgar the Ætheling was he named."
5. The last source to be mentioned here is abbot Ethelred of Rievaulx. He was raised in the court of the Scottish king David I (1124-1153), the son of Malcolm III. Ethelred had first-hand information about family matters. He speaks about Margaret as “de semine regio anglorum et hunnorum”, that is, “from the seeds of English and Hungarian kings”.
II. The Effects of English Puritanism in Hungary
IN THIS SECTION, we will cover:
Protestantism (Puritanism) as a vital link between England and Hungary
students visiting famous English universities, study tours
the three centres of English influence (Debrecen, Sárospatak and Transylvania)
translations of English theological works
the Habsburg rule and the revival of English after the 1760s
After the beginning of the 16th century, another very important aspects of Anglo-Hungarian contacts was the link provided by the common religion, Protestantism. A typical person who built relationships between the two countries was a wandering university student – “a peregrine” as they were called at that time – who went to Protestant countries (Northern Germany, the Netherlands, England) to perfect his knowledge.
As early as the 16th century, data can be found on Hungarians who visited England to study. According to Bod Péter, there was a student, Skaritza Máté by name, who visited England during his travels in 1571. He was not the first Hungarian student we know of: a certain Nicolaus de Hungaria spent three years at Oxford between 1193 and 1196.
Between 1600 and 1680, no less than 200 Hungarian students went on study tours. In the period between 1616 and 1699, financial aid was given to Hungarian students in the eight Oxford colleges 155 times and we know 35 students by name among them.
Here mention must be made of the founders of the Puritan movement in Hungary, Medgyesi Pál and Tolnai Dali János. Medgyesi was Lórántffy Zsuzsanna’s chaplain-in-ordinary (Lórántffy was the widow of the late Transylvanian prince, Rákóczi György II). But Tolnai’s importance is greater. On 9 February 1638, he and other nine Hungarian fellow Puritans made a formal contract in London to propagate their ideas. After his return to Hungary, he started to spread his ideas. Rákóczi György II sent him to Sárospatak, but his teachings were considered to be dangerous and he was expelled from there in 1642. The Szatmárnémeti Synod put him under a ban in 1646. (Why were Puritan ideas found dangerous in Hungary?) After the death of Rákóczi György II, however, Tolnai found a patron in the person of Lórántffy Zsuzsanna, mentioned above, who facilitated the journeys of several Protestant theologians to England. Finally, three centres of Protestant teaching emerged in Hungary: Sárospatak, Debrecen and Transylvania as such.
After the Turkish occupation of Hungary, Debrecen enjoyed a rather precarious independence which was effectively bought from the Turks and was guaranteed by the Habsburgs and the Transylvanian princes. As a result, a prosperous agrarian Calvinist community emerged.
The first English influences that reached Debrecen were William Perkins (1558-1602), Louis Bayly (?-1631) and Perkins’s disciple, William Ames (Amesius) (1576-1633). The Hungarian Puritans set out to translate the works, mainly conduct books, of these eminent scholars. The earliest Perkins translations were carried out in 1620 and 1637 by Kecskeméti János and Iratosi János. In Cambridge, Medgyesi Pál started to translate the great conduct book of Louis Bayly entitled Praxis Pietatis (The Practice of Piety). By the 1660s, Debrecen acquired the role of the chief mediator between the culture of England and Hungary. William Ames’s Puritanismus Anglicus was published in 1662 and was translated by Komáromi Csipkés György, who was then a professor of Oriental languages at the college of Debrecen.
Most of these translations, adaptations or summaries were, in fact, not made from the English original works but from Latin versions. The early translators did not feel competent enough to translate English texts. For this reason, a special English study group was set up in Debrecen, names Schola Anglica. Komáromi Csipkés György wrote the first book of English grammar (1664) entitled Anglicum Spicilegium (Gleanings from English Grammar).[2] He relied on different sources, such as John Wallis’s Grammatica Linguae Anglicae (1653) and De Institutione Linguae Anglicae by an anonymous writer. He also wrote a Hungarian grammar book (Hungaria Illustrata), printed in Utrecht (another important Protestant centre) in 1655, two Hebrew textbooks, plus a full translation of the Bible, published in Leyden, in 1718, after his death (1678). After Komáromi’s death, the Schola Anglica also began to lose its importance.
The turn of tide took place in 1688, the defeat of the Turks and the Habsburg occupation of Hungary. Since the Habsburgs were Catholics, the cause of Protestantism suffered a serious blow. Heavy taxes were laid on Protestant educational institutions, Protestant scholars were denied passports, so they could not go on Western study tours and only Roman Catholic theological books were allowed to be printed. The situation became worse after the failure of the Rákóczi war of independence in 1711.
Things began to change in the late 1760s. There was one important difference, however. Instead of the Protestant influence, the forms of contact with England were established in a secular form. Hungarian men of letters became acquainted with the masters of English literature through French and German translations. The most popular literary figures were John Milton, Alexander Pope and Edward Young.
English firmly established itself as part of the curriculum of Protestant schools of Sopron and Késmárk. The Schola Anglica was also reorganised in Debrecen under the leadership of Szilágyi Sámuel, Benedek Mihály, Sinai Miklós and Budai Ézsaiás. They also set out to visit English universities but by this time their interest was purely secular. It is largely due to these 18th-century figures that the members of the coming generation (Csokonai, Bessenyei) became familiar with English literature.
III. The Image of Hungary in Englandin the 16th and 17th Centuries
IN THIS SECTION, we will cover:
the spirit of the Renaissance and early Modernity
references to Hungary in the works of famous writers
references to Hungary in the travelogues of the period
the stereotypes and misconceptions relating to Hungary
the specific works mentioning Hungary in the 17th century
How do the others see us? This has always been an intriguing question which has excited the Hungarians almost all the time. From the point of view of Anglo-Hungarian relationship, it is interesting to look at the concepts, ideas, prejudices and distorted and unreliable information that the English held in connection with us in the early modern period.
Let us begin with Shakespeare’s age (the second half of the 16th century). In this period, there were two main driving forces. At the end of the 16th century, the panorama of the English cultural and intellectual life becomes exceptionally wide. This is the age of the Renaissance, people were curious about everything, they discovered the world again and became interested in distant lands, geography, natural sciences, in short, anything new. The other important feature of the age is that practically half of Europe became a battlefield (due to the Turkish wars). It was extremely dangerous for an Englishman to travel to Hungary, but once they did, they were sure to be involved in all kinds of adventures. The frequent type of this age was the bragging soldier, who, returning from the European war, told all kinds of fantastic tales. Naturally, it was not only the desire for adventure that moved soldiers but also the hope of getting rich by plundering and getting a share from war booties.