[19] While in most Western European countries (like France and Britain) the king's reign began immediately upon the death of his predecessor, in Hungary the coronation was absolutely indispensable as, if it were not properly executed, the Kingdom stayed "orphaned".

[20][21][22] Since the Golden Bull of 1222, all Hungarian monarchs were obliged to take an oath during the coronation ceremony to uphold the constitutional arrangement of the country, to preserve the liberties of its subjects and to respect the territorial integrity of the realm.

He stirred up a revolt against the nobility among the Hungarian serfs, a subversive act which led Francis II, the Holy Roman Emperor, to dismiss Martinovics and his boss, Ferenc Gotthardi, the former chief of the secret police.

Consciously or unconsciously, Mihály Vörösmarty, Ferenc Kölcsey, Ferencz Kazinczy and his associates, to name but a few, were giving new life to Hungarian literature and simultaneously accomplishing political goals, with their pens proving no less powerful than their ancestors' swords.

[31] In 1825 Emperor Francis II finally convened the Diet in response to growing concerns amongst the Hungarian nobility about taxes and the diminishing economy, after the Napoleonic Wars.

Kossuth called for broader parliamentary democracy, rapid industrialization, general taxation, economic expansion through exports, and the abolition of serfdom and aristocratic privileges (equality before the law).

The government's alarm at the power and popularity of the Liberal party led it, soon after emperor Ferdinand I's accession in 1835, to attempt to crush the reform movement by arresting and imprisoning the most active agitators, including Kossuth and Miklós Wesselényi.

While in the Lower Chamber the reforming majority was larger than ever, a Liberal party now also formed in the Upper House under the leadership of Count Louis Batthyány and Baron Joseph Eotvos.

Széchenyi believed that economic, political and social reforms should proceed slowly and with care, in order to avoid the potentially disastrous prospect of violent interference from the Habsburg dynasty.

[34] Széchenyi based his economic policy on the laissez-faire principles practised by the British Empire, while Kossuth supported protective tariffs due to the comparatively weak Hungarian industrial sector.

The moderates, alarmed not so much by the motion itself as by its tone, again tried to intervene; but on 13 March the Vienna revolution broke out, and the Emperor, yielding to pressure or panic, appointed Count Louis Batthyány premier of the first Hungarian responsible ministry, which included Kossuth, Széchenyi and Deák.

He appealed to the hope of the Habsburgs, "our beloved Archduke Franz Joseph" (then seventeen years old), to perpetuate the ancient glory of the dynasty by meeting half-way the aspirations of a free people.

The arrival of the news of the revolution in Paris, and Kossuth's German speech about freedom and human rights had whipped up the passions of Austrian crowd in Vienna on 13 March.

[38] The process of commodity production and capitalization slowly reshaped the social conditions and the world view of the nobility, which began to advocate the human and civil rights in Hungary since the reform era.

Recent studies of social history have also suggested that the so-called "youth of March", the plebeian intelligentsia, should not be seen as a separate phenomenon in itself, but as an intellectual vanguard of an emerging societal strata that can be classified as the petty bourgeoisie.

They did not represent a measurable political and economic force in a comparison with the nobility in the nationwide scene, but in historically critical situations, especially in the more developed, larger urban centers, they could still prove to become a significant or even the determinant factor.

[39] " The print owner gave in, and immediately translating the desired documents into German, a few moments later, thousands came out of the fast press, copies of which were distributed to a gathering audience incessantly despite the pouring rain."

In the end, the final break between Vienna and Pest occurred when Field-Marshal Count Franz Philipp von Lamberg was given control of all armies in Hungary (including Jelačić's).

[48] Even the territorial integrity of the country was in danger: on 7 March an imperial proclamation was issued in the name of the emperor Francis Joseph establishing a united constitution for the whole empire, of which the Kingdom of Hungary was carved up into five independent military districts.

Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, however, refused all terms, and the Diet and government fled to Debrecen, Kossuth taking with him the Crown of St Stephen, the sacred emblem of the Hungarian nation.

The hopes of ultimate success were, however, frustrated by the intervention of Russia; all appeals to the western powers were vain, and on 11 August, Kossuth abdicated in favor of Görgey, on the ground that in the last extremity the general alone could save the nation.

[52][additional citation(s) needed] Some of these groups were led to fight against the Hungarian Government by their leaders who were striving for their own independence; this triggered numerous brutal incidents between the Magyars and Romanians among others.

Organized in the Western parts of modern Slovakia, the volunteers led multiple campaign across majority Slovak areas in Upper Hungary, all the way to Kassa (Košice) in the east.

[81] On 10 June 1848 the newspaper Wiener Zeitung wrote: In any case, the union of Transylvania, proclaimed against all human rights, is not valid, and the courts of law in the entire world must admit the justness of the Romanian people's protest[82] In September 1848, the Austrian commander Karl von Urban was the first to make a stand against the Revolution.

He summoned leaders of all 44 districts of the Principality of Transylvania to his headquarters in Naszód (Năsăud) on September 10, and offered protection both to villages that rejected conscription and to the landowners who feared a peasant uprising.

[90] But as they crossed the Southern Carpathian mountain passes (along the border of Transylvania and Wallachia), they were met by a large Hungarian revolutionary army led by Józef Bem, a Polish-born General.

He and Emperor Franz Joseph started to regather and rearm an army to be commanded by Anton Vogl, the Austrian lieutenant-field-marshal who had actively participated in the suppression of the national liberation movement in Galicia in 1848.

Hungarian lawyer George Lichtenstein, who served as Kossuth's private secretary, fled to Königsberg after the revolution and eventually settled in Edinburgh where he became noted as a musician.

[110] The Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence of 1848–49 caused fundamental, decisive changes in social thinking, and in a short time transformed bold ideas into Laws, which could not be negated even when they had been abolished by the "old order".

Another remarkable feat was accomplished by Colonel Charles Zágonyi, who, with his Frémont Guard, fearlessly charged against significantly superior hostile forces, capturing the Heights of Springfield.