Lajos Kazar: Facts against fiction

SWITZERLAND

History of Transylvania. In antiquity the area was called Dacia. In the 3rd century the Romans abandoned it and withdrew behind the line of the Danube. Subsequently the area of former Dacia was the possession of the Goths, Vandals, Gepids, Avars and Slavs; in the 9th century the Magyars/Hungarians took possession of it. In the 12th century, Germans, the so-called Transylvanian Saxons, were settled there, who have preserved their language and culture. Whether the Rumanians are autochthonous in Transylvania or began to settle there in the 13th century is debated. ... In the Peace Treaty of Trianon (1920) Transylvania was allotted to Rumania. Through the Vienna Arbitration Decision in 1940 northern Transylvania was returned to Hungary. With the signing of the Peace Treaty of Paris (10.2.1947) the whole of Transylvania was given to Rumania again.

N.B. The above presentation of Transylvanian history is fair.

Rumania - People and Settlements. As descendants of the Dacians, Romanized through Roman colonists, the Rumanians, after mingling with Slav elements and with the passing of the great migration of peoples (Völkerwanderung), spread as wandering herdsmen over their present area of settlement, thereby creating a Romance language island between the Hungarians and Slavs.

History. On the territory of former Dacia and beginning with the 13th century developed - first under Hungarian, later intermittently under Polish, finally under Turkish suzerainty - the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia which excelled in the fight against the Turks (Mircea I, 1386-1418); Johannes Hunyadi, 1441-56; Stephan the Great, 1457-1504). Michael the Brave, prince of Wallachia, after his conquest of Transylvania (which afterwards was restored to Hungary), temporarily united the Rumanians under a single sceptre (1593-1601).

N.B. To list Johannes/János Hunyadi, voivode (royal governor) of Transylvania and regent of Hungary, as if he had been a ruler of Wallachia and/or Moldavia is historically incorrect. As regent of Hungary he had some constitutional rights over the rulers of Wallachia and Moldavia which were in his days, and long after, vassal states of the Kingdom of Hungary.

Rumanian propaganda likes to list him among the Wallachian/Rumanian heroes in the fight against the Turks because he is alleged to have been of Wallachian descent and was voivode of Transylvania which Rumanian historiography likes to present as ,,one of the Rumanian principalities/countries", dating from Dacian times. In fact in Hunyadi's time Transylvania's Wallachian/Rumanian population likely did not make up more then 20% of the total population in which approx. 65% were Hungarians/Magyars.

Michael the Brave's conquest of Transylvania is true in so far as he in his capacity as the ruler of Wallachia in vassalage to Hungary, in 1599 had been given temporary charge by Rudolf, emperor of Germany and king of Hungary, to restore order in Transylvania, then suffering from internecine struggles. When Michael the Brave, leading a predominantly Székely-Hungarian army defeated the Transylvanian ruler Andreas Báthori, he actually broke his oath of fealty to the latter. After less than ten months as nominal ruler of Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia, Michael the Brave was murdered by an officer of Rudolf's mainly Spanish and Vallonian army. From pertinent documents it has been established that he had no intention to unify Wallachia and Moldavia with Transylvania. In the event, a Polish army chased him from both Moldavia and Wallachia. Romantic Rumanian historiography has grossly exaggerated his role considering especially the fact that the elite of his army was Székely-Hungarian and was led by Székely-Hungarians

His ,,conquest" of Transylvania, mainly due to the Székely-Hungarians' hatred for the Báthoris, is used to strengthen the claim of the Rumanians to Transylvania on ,,historical grounds".

The lexicon's data regarding Michael the Brave, i.e., 1593-1601, refer to the years of his overall rule, not his rule over Transylvania.

Lajos Kazar: Facts against fiction