ACTA HISTORICA - A MTA TÖRTÉNETTUDOMÁNYI FOLYÓIRATA TOM. 34 (1988)
34. kötet / 1. sz. - Buda 1686 - V. L'écho de la reconquete de Buda en Hongrie et en Europe - ÁGNES VÁRKONYI: The REconquest of Buda in Contemporary Hungarian Political Thought and Public Opinion
Acta Historica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 34 (1) pp. 3-15 (1988} V. L'écho de la reconquête de Buda en Hongrie et en Europe. Das Echo der Rückeroberung Budas in Ungarn und in Europa The Reconquest of Buda in Contemporary Hungarian Political Thought and Public Opinion ÁGNES VÁRKONYI At the very end of the last century, Ignác Acsády summarized the historiographical consensus that had by then emerged on the contemporary local reactions to the recapture of Buda: „All of civilized Europe celebrated the glad news of the redemption of Buda with overwhelming enthusiasm... In Hungary, too, thanksgiving services were held, in the fortresses there were salvoes of rejoicing, and the Te Deum was sung in a number of churches. And yet the hearts of the masses did not skip a beat on hearing that the ancient castle of King Matthias was no longer under the yoke of the crescent moon. What celebration there was, was official, Hungarian society at large was little moved by the news of this historical turning-point... For as glorious as the recapture of Buda was, and a great boon to posterity, the generation that lived through it could hardly rejoice in it... For much as they had longed to be freed of the Turkish yoke, the liberation took such a form that the scant population that was left could not but look back and consider the past to have been an ideal state as compared to the horrendous present, and people longed in sorrow for the happier days of yore .1 To this date, historians have been unable to contest the validity of this summary, and even the most recent works — mine included — have reiterated Acsády s conclusions.2 If anything, today the picture appears bleaker still, and the contrast between Europe, rejoicing, and Hungary, struck dumb, yet more harsh. The last fifty years of research has shown that European public opinion — a new development of the seventeenth century — fed on a veritable cornucopia of pamphlets, 1 Ignác Acsády: Buda visszafoglalása (The reconquest of Buda) A Magyar Nemzet Története (The History of the Hungarian Nation). Ed. Sándor Szilágyi. Vol. VII. Budapest, 1898, pp. 454 and 458. 2 Árpád Károlyi - Imre Wellmann: Buda és Pest visszavívása 1686-ban (The reconquest of Buda and Pest in 1686) Budapest, 1936, p. 385. - Ágnes R. Várkonyi: Buda visszavívása (The recapture of Buda) Budapest, 1984, p. 339 and ff. - János Barta jr.: Budavár visszavétele (The reconquest of Buda Castle) Kossuth Kiadó, 1985, p. 224 and ff. - Magyarország története 1526-1686 (The history of Hungary) Editor-in-chief: Pál Zsigmond Pach, Vol. III. III/2 p. 1629 and ff. - László Nagy: A török világ végnapjai Magyarországon (The last days of the Turkish rule in Hungary) Zrínyi Katonai Kiadó, 1986, p. 381 and ff. - László Nagy: Buda fölszabadulása a török alól (Buda's liberation from the Turks) Lotharingiai Károly hadinaplója Buda visszafoglalásáról (Charles Lorraine's war diary of the reconquest of Buda) Zrínyi Katonai Kiadó, Budapest, 1986, p. 55 and ff. Ágnes Várkonyi, Université des Sciences de Budapest, Faculté des Lettres, H-1052 Budapest, Pesti Barnabás u. 1. Acta Historica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 34 (1) (1988) Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest