Vetráb József Kadocsa

The 2^nd Mohács

Tudjátok-e, mitől terem gazdagon a róna?

Tudjátok-e, mitől piros a fakadó rózsa?

Kardforgató őseinknek hullott itt a vére,

Ezeréves szép hazánknak minden kis rögére.

Pósa Lajos (1850-1914): Gondoljatok őseinkre /részlet[1]

The cotton string becomes black as it turns into blue flame and burns; the beam of light flickers, hesitating on the brownish glass of the night-lamp; the red heats up, the white emanates and the green springs out of the bound string. It is All-Saints Day. The victim, clothed in silence, is drawing a picture of the ancient sacrificed victims, captured in slowed down time on the canvas of memory. (Ecce homo)

A memory springs up in me: May, the smell of lilac; the warm steam rising from the growing fields, the greenish sprouts shooting out of the earth near Marót. A slow current, a clean thought, forming in the mouth: Is the old man going to tell us the story? I wonder if he will speak? Old János Pintér, points at the plain, indicating the place where almost twenty-five thousand Hungarian men, budding young women, old people and children met their unavoidable, heroic death. At the beginning of the 1950-s, an inscribed stone and a line of poplars preserved their memory. The fate of these memorials, like that of the crosses along the roadside was to be covered by mud by tractors.  The trees were cut out and the area was ploughed over. There is no trace of them, except in memory.

Our historians have, to this day, remained silent about this massacre, which was the beginning of the genocide in Pilis. (1529, Búbánat-völgy, Dömös)

Events in Buda in the Year 1526

The name Buda appears in many writings of that time, sometimes on its’ own or together with the town named Pest. According to the accounts of military events, Buda and Pest were totally destroyed by fire. The kings’ gift deeds, written after Sultan Sulejman left the country, mention that the Jewish houses left in Buda were given away by right of the Holy Crown[2] because the faithless were in collusion and cooperation with the Turks. The contradictions between the two accounts can be only accepted, if we take as a fact that the town that is today called Buda, was also called “PESTÚJHEGYI VÁR” (CASTLE OF PEST-NEW-HILL) in the year 1538, under the rule of King János Szapolya.  This Buda (Castle of Pest-New-Hill) was destroyed by the Turks’ fire, together with the town of Pest.  According to secret negotiations, the Turks received the key of the other Buda (the sanctified one) in Pilis,  without causing any harm. The key to the town was handed over to the Pasha by Joseph ben Slomo, the leader of the Public Jewish Association. For this deed, the leader of the Jews received a letters patent from the Sultan, which was extended by Sultan Abdelaziz in 1868.

The great Padishah and his retinue were ushered up to the Royal Palace, to the Treasury of the Hungarian Kingdom. We can also read about the events of this “visit” recorded by Evlya Celebi and in the war-diary of Sultan Sulejman (7^th day of Zil-Hidzse month, of the year 932) according to the later accepted Gregorian-Calendar: Saturday, 15^th September, 1526: “…The arsenal in the Royal Palace, other instruments and equipment, the extremely huge cannon in front of the Palace and other cannons; furthermore the copper statue and those around it were dragged away, were transported day and night to the ships.”

As we can read in the next note, not only the greatest part of the treasury was shipped away, but also two thousand (according to other sources three thousand) Jewish families from Buda (along with their belongings) were transported as free-citizens to the Turkish Empire. They could establish yeshivas, could keep their traditional costumes, and could trade freely as long as they paid their taxes.

We can read the following in the diary of Sulejman on 22nd September: “Budin vaki olan jahudiszi szürgün aolunup, gemilere kojuldu”, in English: „The Jews of Buda were banished and put on ships.” What kind of „banishment” could it have been, that we read in this Turkish diary: „…by leaving their homes and freeing themselves from their misery.”?

This could not have been an ad hoc decision as there were enough river-ships on hand for transportation and a large fleet was necessary to accomplish such a project!

Seven days earlier, the heroic battle of Marót, which took place below Buda (in Pilis), between the Turks and the Hungarian noblemen and citizens, who were hidden behind a barrier formed of carts, caused huge losses to both sides.

BUDA AND ITS SOURROUNDINGS

The blood-field of Marót

„Csak Marótot ne emlegetné a királyné, ahol több magyar esett el a

szekérsáncok között, mint akár Mohácsnál! Férfiak, keservesebb

káromkodások között, mint amilyen káromkodásokat valaha a magyarság

hallott, asszonyok és gyermekek olyan sikoltozásokkal, hogy Pozsonyig

lehetett hallani. A nádorispán homlokát mindig ellepte a hideg

verejték, amikor a második Mohácsról, a maróti csatáról hallott.

Csak már elmúlna ez a keserves 1526-i esztendő, amely telve van

borzasztó eseményekkel!”

Krúdy Gyula: Királyválasztás Pozsonyban (1930. Óbuda)[3]

MOROTH, 13-14-15 September, 1526

Approximately 25000 people were killed by the Turkish army, Hungarian nobles and citizens of Buda, families (women and children). Determined until the end, despite the loss of many people, the bitter, desperate fight was successful; for the first two days the Hungarians, behind the barrier formed by carts and beams, fought back the attack of the light cavalry, causing great damage between their lines. On the third day, the final attack took place, on September 15^th. in the plain of Pilis below Buda. On this day, Sultan Sulejman (Solomon) ordered 6000 Janissaries, 10000 spahi soldiers and cannons with topchics handling them. The Turkish artillery broke through the walls of the barrier formed of carts built up for protection. During the gunfire of the Janissaries, thousands of people died; those who tried to escape were massacred relentlessly by the swords of the light cavalry of the spahi and rumi Tatars on the blood-soaked field of Marót. This military operation ended with many losses for the Turks, too. Three years later, an eyewitness remembered those days in the following way: “The Turks suffered a great painful loss at Buda.  For three days in 1526, they were burying their dead. The fallen were buried in the Jewish Cemetery.”

In all 24,873 Hungarians fell victim to the Turks at Marót, September 13^th  – 15^th, 1526. Five people escaped; one hundred were captured alive by the Turks.

The Turks lost 5,435 men.

In Krakow, in 1527, István Brodovics’ unusually quickly printed publication: “De conflictu Hungarorum cum Turcis ad Mohatz verissima descriptio”, (Chronicle of the Mohács Disaster by István Brodovics) which was translated into Hungarian by Dr. Imre Szentpétery, recounts the massacre at Marót:  „The enemy, which raged this way in Hungary, found no stronger opposition than at Marót, not far from Esztergom. The woods we call Vértes is the place where the Archbishop of Esztergom has his pleasant place of entertainment; it is surrounded by woods and groves. This is the place where a few thousand of our people (with wives and children) found shelter, hoping to find refuge in the strengthened conditions of nature. The enemy fought heavy battles against them, several times, but each time many Turks lost their lives. Finally, when the enemy could not break down the barriers formed by carts, they brought cannons to fire at them and almost all of the people in the camps were killed. The huge piles of corpses, which can still be seen there, are witness to the extent of the massacre.  Those few, who escaped, say that approximately 25,000 Hungarians died here. Altogether, between those who were cut down and those who fell into captivity, I dare say, I knew at least twelve thousand people who were killed there.”

We should give credibility to this note, which states that he knew personally 12,000 highly-placed persons among those who died there; this is only possible if these people were noble Hungarians. This contradicts the opinion of one of our well-known military historians that   „twenty to twenty-five thousand peasants (farmers) fought with gun-power, by building up barriers of carts as protection, like their ancestors, to fight against the Turks.”

ABOUT THE BUDA-S IN PILIS

If we take the word “buda” as a part of speech --  we use it to name towns (but always only one in any age) or we name people – it was in the ancient Hun-Magyar language an adjective meaning “awakened”.  The sanctified meaning is: “the living connection between Heaven and Earth, the Heavenly order, Heavenly Knowledge and Heavenly Law; the TUR-AN’s earthly Representative and Lord, in one person.”

That is why we see, when we look at Mary’s Country, the whole of the Carpathian Basin, that many locations have BUDA as a prefix or suffix and it is also used as a family name. If this is so in the Carpathian Home, it is obvious that we should find it  more often in the heart of the country, in the heart of Mother Earth in the PILIS Mountains. Geographically, within a central (sanctified) natural and man-made landscape, formed by hills, going back to the 5^th millennium B.C., ancient castles and, castle-fortresses and their remains can be found.

The first Buda (let’s call it ancient Buda) encircles one of the Pilis’ heart-shaped valleys. Its fortress defended the ancient castle at the upper section of the Rákász Creek and the circular Churches of Light, built on top of the surrounding hills. These fortress-systems were built in the first part of the fifth millennium before the birth of our Lord Jesus and, almost three thousand years later, they were renewed by a mortared-stone technique.   Their remains can still be seen in the new masonry.

Our chronicles mention that these castle-ruins were found by the related Scythian-Celtic peoples, and leaders of the Scythian people who entered and re-entered the Carpathian Basin throughout the centuries, like the great King Etele and his great-great-grandchild’s (Alamus) son Árpád did, who renewed and rebuilt them. According to Evlya Celebi this was the case of a castle built in 188 B.C., on the ruins of an ancient castle, by the Frankish King Francio and which was called Sicambria. This castle later became Atilla’s castle, Edtzilburg, which was later called Buda. After July 5^th 1243, it became known as Vetus Buda / Buda Veter (Latin); in Hungarian Ős-Buda (Ancient-Buda) or Ó-Buda (Old-Buda). This castle was also later called New-Buda, the main royal residence until the age of Lajos II., although the Court of the Kings did not always stay within its walls. Royal houses were also at the following places: DMS (read as: Dumuz, Dumus, Dimis, Dömös) and VSGRD (Víz-szeg-garád /Water-edge-stairs/; Visegrád).

It is worth mentioning that Sultan Sulejman’s war-diary notes from 18^th September, 1526 state: “They say that, from the construction of Buda through the direct descent rule of the Hungarian kings  until the rule of King Lajos, 4,700 years have passed.”

This data refers to the construction of the Castle of Ancient-Buda, which was called by the Turks Eski-Budin; whose surroundings were destroyed in eight days (from the 15^th of September, 1526 on) and which was also plundered; the nearby Pauline monastery was burnt to the ground and even its stone walls were dug out of the earth. According to the Pauline writings: “The castle of Buda was left untouched, nothing was destroyed and nothing was burnt. And while this was happening, one of the leaders of the Turks was shot in Marót by the gathered village-people. They took the victim to Buda, where they buried him, with great wailing, in the fields. The death of the leader made the emperor very sad.”

THE CLOISTER OF BUDASZENTLŐRINC

Gergely Gyöngyös, one of the leaders of the Hungarian founded Pauline Order, writes in his book about the history of the Order in Latin (which was translated into Hungarian by Father Vince Árva): “during this disastrous period, many of our cloisters were destroyed. The most beautiful one, the main cloister, the centre of our Hermit Order in Hungary, which was built in honour of Saint Lőrinc and which  lay in a beautiful landscape near Buda, one of our countries’ jewels, was totally plundered.”

“In the church, the glorious paintings, the wonderful choir-stalls, the priceless masterpieces, the outstanding organ and other objects were destroyed by the fire and the ceiling of the sanctuary collapsed. The altars were destroyed; the pictures were spoilt and cut; the graves were turned upside down; the nicely carved lid of the marble coffin of Saint Paul was pushed roughly aside and was broken into three parts. The glorious rooms of the cloister and all the workrooms were burnt to the ground. All the equipment was broken and they ate all the food. They spent ten days in the cloister, turning everything upside down, searching all angles and corners, destroying everything they could get hold of.  The Turks seldom plundered as much as here in this cloister.”

“It seems that not even until the end of the world will this cloister ever be rebuilt in its ancient beauty again. Although, with the help of God and Saint Paul, most of the important fittings of the church remained in a certain secret place where the brothers hid them. There was also no fire in the chapel of Saint Paul, apart from the main entrance door, yet everything was destroyed. In the library, books worth a fortune were burnt.”

“During this time, twenty-five brothers were killed by the Turks. Miraculously, others were only injured.”

NEM ODA BUDA[4]

The building operations of the castle started in 1243, using the name of that time “Pest New Hill”, in the southern part of the today’s Castle-Hill of Buda, where the ruined tower can still be seen. The other name of the Gellért Hill was “Hill of Pest”. Because of the possibility of a new Tatar-attack, construction on the castle was expedited. The first mention of the new castle was in a document of Béla IV.  The newly built castle was called “Novo Montis Pestiensis”, in Hungarian: “Újhegyi Pesti várunk” (NewHill Pest Castle).

The next three facts, which show that this name was used for the Royal Castle as well as for the long remaining public town, are as follows:

1) During the time of Queen Maria (1393) originated “The Protocol for Conferring the Degree of Doctor”, a document which can be read in Latin and German in the Library of Salzburg, in which it is mentioned that: György László is the Bishop of Veszprém and the Vicar of the parish-church of Saint Mary-Magdalena of Pestújhegy (Pest New Hill). (Inc.; Venerabili et circumspecto viro domino Johanni Trevor utriusque iuris doctori canonico[…]…And(reas) canonicus ecclesie sancti Stephani alias omnium sanctorum Wienne ad Romanam ecclesiam… ecclesie parochialis in Gredwino Salczburgensis diopcesis executor…

Gennant sind: Gregorius Ladislaus rector parochialis ecclesiae sanctae Mariae Magdalenae in novo Monte Pestiensis Vespremiensis dioecesis)

2) Approximately 145 years later we find (1538) in a letter written by King János (John) / (Szapolyai or Zápolya): “… our town (Buda) even in our times in all its privilege is still called and written as PESTÚJHEGYI VÁR.” (Castle of Pest New Hill.)

3) In the book of lists of churches from the Church of Esztergom (1908) (CLERI ARCHIDIOECESIS STRIGONIENSIS), the main church of the „Castle of Buda” is called „Blessed Virgin Mary Church of ÚJHEGYI PEST (New Hill Pest).”

The above-mentioned facts indicate that the present Buda and Óbuda (Old-Buda) (in today’s Budapest), only by their name remind us of the glorious old royal sanctified towns (in Pilis) but they are not identical to them. The traces of the old towns and castles can be found in Pilis; I say traces because of the current dilapidation of the castles and their defence-systems, which were destroyed by earthquakes in the area; and also by military actions throughout history and by the order of the Habsburg Emperors Leopold in 1701 (due to political reasons still not published) to blow up all the castles in Pilis. He also decreed that the stones should be brought away and used for newly built village-buildings in Pilis and its’ surroundings by the newly settled people of the time.

I saw for myself, in Dunabogdány, houses, the walls of which were stripped of plaster, revealing carved stones, which in all likelihood originated from nearby castles. I found a piece of a flagstone at Maros, which was of volcanic origin from a hand-carved building. We are proudly connected to an ancient past, which cannot be erased.  

Bibliography:

Kohn Sámuel: A zsidók története Magyarországon. 1884.  (History of the Jews in Hungary.1884)

Vasadi Péter: A budai zsidó közösség története 1526-1686 között.  (History of the Jewish Community in Buda between 1526 and 1686) (Study; www.zsido.hu/tortenelem)

Gyöngyösi Gergyely:  I. Remete Szent Pál Remete Testvéreinek Élete (The Life of the Brothers of Saint Paul, the First Hermit) / Varia Paulina III. (1998)

“Evlia Celebi: Török világutazó Magyarországi Utazásai. 1662-1664. (Turkish World Traveller’s Journeys in Hungary 1662-1664) (MTA 1904)

Szulejmán szultán győzelmes hadjárata 932 év Zil Hidzse hó (1526. IX. 8 – X, 7.) Sultan Sulejman’s Victorious Campaign from the month Zil-Hidzse, year 932” (8 September – 7 October, 1526) Translated by: József Thúry

Vértessy György:  Fehéregyháza kérdése (tanulmány)  (Questions on Fehéregyháza) / Study

Dr. Bagyary Simon:  Dobozi Mihály tragédiája / tort. Tanulmány.(esztergomi kath. Főgimn.  Értesítő, 1908 (The Tragedy of Mihály Dobozi)