The Phoenix Land

by Miklos Banffy

  Vilmos Böhm (1880–1949): Defence minister under Károlyi and commander-in-chief of the army under Béla Kun. He fled the country in 1919, returning only after the Second World War when he accepted diplomatic posts, including that of ambassador to Sweden. He then fell out with the post-war Communist government and never returned to Hungary.

  General George Boulanger (1837–1891): French minister of defence from 1886 to 1887 and headed a reactionary revolt against the French republic in 1889.

  Ionel Bratianu (1864–1927): Leader of the Romanian National Liberal Party – Partidul National Liberal – who was prime minister of Romania five times between 1909 and 1927, when he was succeeded by his brother. His party was supported largely by big business and concentrated on modernizing Romania’s backward economy. A leader of pro-Allied opinion in Romania, he was later largely responsible for his country entering the war in 1916 on the Allied side. Later he sent Romanian troops to help oust the Béla Kun regime and then to occupy a large slice of Hungarian territory.

  Aristide Briand (1862–1932): French foreign minister for many years and later prime minister. Queen Zita’s brothers deceived themselves if they fancied that Briand supported the return of the King-Emperor Karl either to Hungary or Austria. He seems to have politely pronounced himself sympathetic to the exiled Habsburgs but had never been so rash as to pledge French support for their restoration.

  Lord Bryce (1838–1922): Politician, historian, attorney at law and professor at Oxford, British ambassador in Washington from 1907 to 1914. Viscount Bryce spoke in the House of Lords about the unjust decisions of the treaty of Trianon.

  Budweis: Formerly in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now in the Czech Republic more than two hundred kilometres north of Vienna.

  Prince Castagnetto (1879–1923): Member of the Neapolitan Caracciolo family, Italian ambassador in Budapest from 1920 to 1923.

  Lord Robert Cecil (1864–1958): Lawyer and conservative politician, son of Lord Salisbury, represented Britain at the Paris peace talks.

  Gyorgyi Vasilievich Chicherin (1872–1936): Senior soviet minister from 1918 to 1930, was signatory to the Brest-Litovsk treaty.

  George Benjamin Clemenceau (1841–1936): Radical French politician. He was prime minister from 1906 to 1909, during which time he was responsible for the separation of church and state. He was again prime minister in 1917 and presided over the peace talks, where he proved to be one of the most implacable enemies of Germany and Austria-Hungary. This earned him the nickname of ‘the Tiger’.

  Count Czernin: Austrian foreign minister in 1914 and responsible for persuading the aged emperor into signing the fatal ultimatum which was then delivered to Serbia and resulted in the declaration of war. He had done this by informing Franz Joseph that the Serbian army had already crossed the Drava and so was invading Hungarian territory. This was not in fact true. He was a supporter of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to Austria-Hungary since the suicide of his cousin the archduke Rudolf, and who had collected around him in the Belvedere palace in Vienna what many people considered a sinister cabal whose ultimate aim was to incorporate all the Balkan states under the aegis of the Habsburg monarchy. The plots woven in the Belvedere palace form the subject of a seminal subplot in Bánffy’s The Writing on the Wall.

  Géza Daruváry (1866–1934): Bánffy’s successor as foreign minister from 1922 to 1924.

  Friedrich Ebert (1871–1925): German politician, leader of the Social-Democrat Party between 1913 and 1919 and president of the so-called ‘Weimar Republic’ between 1919 and 1925.

  Tibor Eckhardt (1888–1972), Press spokesman for the provisional government in Szeged in 1919, head of the press department under Teleki’s government between 1920 and 1921, president of the Independent Smallholders Party in 1932.

  János Erdélyi (1863–1930): As his name suggests, a native of Transylvania, he was principal envoy of the Romanian government at the Budapest discussions concerning the transfer of Transylvania to Romanian sovereignty.

  Empress Elisabeth, Queen of Hungary: Wife of Emperor Franz Joseph. Spent much time in Hungary, loved the Hungarians and spoke their language, and was much beloved by them.

  Count Tamás Erdödy (1868–1931): His memoirs, Die Memoiren des Grafen Tamás von Erdödy Habsburgs Weg von Wilhelm zu Briand Vom Kurier der Sixtus-Briefe zum Königsputschisten von Paul Szemere und Erich Czech were published in 1931.

  Mihály Esterházy (1884–1958): Member of parliament from 1910 and Mihály Károlyi’s envoy to Switzerland between 1918 and 1919, distant cousin to Bánffy and a close friend.

  Móric Esterházy: Cousin and close friend of Miklós Bánffy.

  King Ferdinand of Bulgaria: Known to the world as ‘Foxy’ Ferdinand, scion of the family of Sax-Coburg Goth, king of Bulgaria from 1908 to 1918, died 1948.

  Luigi Facta (1861–1930): Head of the Italian government from February to October 1922.

  Fiume: A port on the Adriatic, formerly part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was renamed Rijeka when ceded to Yugoslavia by the Treaty of Trianon in 1920 and is now in the independent republic of Slovenia.

  Maurice Foucher: Became high commissioner in Budapest in 1920. He was recalled to Paris after King Karl’s second putsch.

  General Franchet d’Esperey: French officer, commander-in-chief of the Allied forces based in Belgrade when the war came to an end.

  István Friedrich (1883–1951): Hungarian politician. In 1919 he assisted in the plot to oust the Peidl government and then tried to form a government of his own which was not recognized either by Admiral Horthy or by the Western powers. He joined the exiled king in his attempts to return and then became one of the founders of the Legitimist Party.

  Gerbeaud: Founder of the most famous café, pastry and confectionary shop in Budapest which bears his name and whose doors are still open today. The chocolates are as good as ever. There is a moving scene in They Were Divided, the last book of Bánffy’s trilogy, which is set in Gerbeaud’s in 1914.

  Gödöllo: Former Habsburg summer residence not far from Budapest.

  Gyula Gömbös (1886–1936): Pro-fascist president of the Hungarian Defence Union in 1919, defence minister from 1929 to1936.

  General Görgey: One of the 1848 rebels. Hopelessly outnumbered and surrounded, surrendered to the Tsarist army at Világos as he knew his men would be more humanely treated by the Russians than they would have been by the Austrians. With hindsight there is no question that this was the only sensible course and saved many lives, but he was nevertheless considered to be a traitor by many Hungarians.

  Count János Hadik: Briefly prime minister in the troubled days at the end of October 1918. He does not seem to have inspired much confidence either in the young king or, for that matter, in Mihály Károlyi who was to succeed him in office.

  Albert Hanotaux (1853–1944): French politician and historian, twice minister for foreign affairs. He was in office when Madagascar became part of the French empire and played an important part in the formation of French West Africa. He frequently represented France at the League of Nations.

  Lajos Hatvany (1880–1961): Rich Hungarian banker and newspaper owner, author of several works who also edited a five-volume collection of papers concerning the great poet Petöfi. Was a member of the National Council in 1918. Left Hungary on the fall of Communism. Although politically active at the time of Károlyi’s socialist republic, he receives only two brief and unflattering mentions in the Károlyi memoirs. He was much disliked by Bánffy.

  Baron Julius von Haynau: Austrian military commander principally responsible for savage reprisals against those who had taken part in the 1848 revolution. It was his order to execute thirteen generals that earned Emperor Franz Joseph the nickname, so full of hatred: ‘The Old Hangman in Vienna’.

  Iván Héjjas (1890–1950): a well-known figure of the White Terror. It seems he must also have understood some German, as he served in the nineteenth Imperial Regiment.

  Ferenc Herczeg (1863–1954): Much respected Hungarian writ
er and friend of Bánffy’s.

  Géza Herczeg (1888–1954): Edited the Nap, Magyar Hírlap and Az Ujság. In 1918 he was head of the press department under Mihály Károly. Later he worked in Vienna for the Neue Freie Presse. After a time he went to live in America.

  The Abbé János Hock: With Károlyi and others, was a founder member of the National Council, much disliked and distrusted as a self-seeking demagogue by Miklós Bánffy but much admired by Mihály Károlyi, who described him as ‘a brilliant orator’. On 16 October he became president of the National Council, a post which Károlyi resigned, having been appointed Minister-President. Like Károlyi he was later to find himself an exile from Hungary.

  The Hofburg: The vast imperial palace in the centre of Vienna.

  Sir Thomas Hohler (1871–1946): English diplomat. Held posts in Constantinople, Saint Petersburg, Cairo, Tokyo, Mexico and Washington, chief commissioner in Budapest from 1919, ambassador from 1921 to 1924. Friendly with Admiral Horthy.

  Sir Esmé Howard (1863–1939): British diplomat and philanthropist. In 1926 he became ambassador to Washington.

  Alexander Petrovich Isvolski (1856–1919): At various times Russian ambassador to the Vatican, to Belgrade, to Munich, to Tokyo and to Paris. Russian foreign minister from 1906 to 1910.

  Jassy: Capital of the former principality of Moldavia that had been incorporated within the then principality of Romania in 1866. The inhabitants included many of Magyar origin and since becoming a province of Romania there had been several distributions of land to the peasantry. This continued after Romania was elevated into a kingdom in 1879.

  King John I of Hungary: Lost his throne after only a year to the rival claimant, Archduke Ferdinand of Habsburg, who, seeing John I’s weakness in the face of the Turkish threat and the fact that he had been deserted by those Hungarians and Transylvanians who had put him on the throne, invaded Hungary in 1527 and was immediately crowned with St Stephen’s Crown, which had been used less than a year before for King John himself.

  Archduke Joseph: Cousin of the emperor who made his home in Hungary. He lived at Poszony (now Bratislava) in what was then northern Hungary and is now the Czech Republic. Countess Sophie Chotek, who was his wife’s lady-in-waiting, afterwards morganatically married Archduke Franz Ferdinand and was assassinated with her husband at Sarajevo in 1914.

  Emperor Franz Joseph (1830–1916): Succeeded to the thrones of Austria and Hungary at the age of seventeen in 1848 and was on the throne during the troubled times of the Hungarian revolution of 1848. For many years he was still hated by those with memories of Austrian oppression. From 1867, when the Ausgleich (Compromise) was promulgated, the empire of Austria-Hungary became known as the ‘Dual Monarchy’ since the monarch in his own person was emperor of Austria and king of Hungary. From that date, the two countries had their own parliaments, prime ministers and civil servants, and only foreign policy, the banking systems and the armies were integrated under one banner. His only son, Crown Prince Rudolf, committed suicide at Mayerling in 1889, and his wife, the beautiful but wayward Empress Elisabeth, was assassinated in Geneva in 1898. This was not the end of his tragedies: in 1914 his heir, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serbian terrorist, an event that swiftly led to the outbreak of general European war in 1914. Thereafter, the succession to the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary feel to another nephew, Archduke Karl.

  Ferenc Julier (1878–1946): Hungarian strategist, successor to Stromfeld as Chief of General Staff under the Communist regime.

  Kálmán Kánya, (1869–1945): Hungarian Foreign Office official, served as ambassador to Mexico before the First World War and in the 1920s and 1930s was successively chief secretary of the foreign office, ambassador to Berlin and finally foreign minister. No friend to Bánffy.

  King Karl I (1887–1922): Crowned in the first part of these memoirs, he left the country in 1918 and was the last monarch of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

  Jongheer van Karnebeek: Dutch foreign minister.

  Julius Károlyi (1871–1947): Foreign minister from 1930 to 1931, and prime minister from 1931 to 1932.

  Count Mihály Károlyi (1875–1955): Hungarian politician, cousin of Miklós Bánffy, member of parliament from 1901, president of the Independent Party from 1913. Before World War I broke out he declared his support for British and French attitudes. He was against Hungary’s participation in the war and also the policies attributed to Count István Tisza. He became president of the Hungarian Republic in January 1919 and shortly afterwards, with the rise of Communism, left Hungary to live in the West and only returned in 1946. For a short time he accepted representative diplomatic posts. From 1949 until his death in 1955, he lived in Paris.

  Baron Sándor Károlyi: Commander-in-chief of the armies of Ferenc Rákóczi II, Prince of Transylvania, who had revolted against the Habsburgs in the last years of the seventeenth century. Rewarded for his services to the dynasty with huge grants of land and the title of Count. Rákóczi, on the other hand, was exiled. The peace of Szatmár in 1711 ended the rebellion and confirmed the Habsburg rule over Transylvania. In his memoirs Mihály Károlyi comments wryly that his family owed their immense wealth to the Habsburgs and finally lost it because of the part he played in their downfall.

  Sándor (Alexander) Károlyi: Count Károlyi Mihály’s great-uncle and second husband of his grandmother Clarisse, who had first married Edward Károlyi, Mihály’s grandfather. She was aunt to Miklós Bánffy. They lived at the vast manor house of Föth, some nineteen kilometres northeast of Budapest (still preserved and now used as a school for orphaned children). The great library of this house, where Mihály did all his early reading (seeMemoirs of Michael Károlyi, Jonathan Cape, London, 1956) is the setting for an important scene in They Were Counted, the first volume of Bánffy’s Transylvanian trilogy.

  Kaszino Club: The aristocrats’ club, now pulled down, which stood on the corner of Lajos Kossuth utca and Museum korut. Its entrance was directly in front of the former entrance to the Hotel Astoria, which still flourishes and which figures in Bánffy’s account of the October Revolution in 1918.

  Count Kaunitz (1711–1794): Distinguished statesman under Empress Maria Theresia.

  Kecskemét: Agricultural province eighty-five kilometres south of Budapest, which boasts Hungary’s largest orchards, produces thirty per cent of the country’s wine and the famous Kecskemét apricot brandy.

  Count Sándor Khuen-Héderváry (1881–1947): Hungarian politician and diplomat, held various ministerial posts and was ambassador in Paris from 1934 to 1940.

  Count Kunó Klebelsberg (1875–1932): With István Bethlen organized the party of National Unity in 1919. Minister of the interior from 1921 to 1922, and minister of education and religion from 1922 to 1931, he was influential in the reform of the educational system and the establishment of village schools. He created Hungarian Institutes in Vienna, Berlin and Rome.

  Lajos Kossuth (1802–1894): Hungary’s greatest revolutionary patriot, born into an old but untitled family of minor landowners in northeastern Hungary. He became known early as a talented and ardent political journalist with strong Liberal views for which he was imprisoned in May 1837. Soon after his release he became editor of the Pesti Hirlap, the most prominent Liberal newspaper, a position he used to further the aims of all those who advocated such radical reforms as abolishing all remaining traces of feudalism and the taxation of the nobility. This soon led to open opposition to Habsburg rule from Vienna. He became a member of parliament in 1847. By 1848 he had become the acknowledged leader of the Hungarian revolution whose aim was complete political independence from Austria. When, by 1849, the Hungarian insurrection had won many successes, he made a public declaration stating that ‘the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, perjured in the sight of God and man, had forfeited the Hungarian throne’ for which he earned the lifelong hatred of the young Emperor Franz Joseph. After the surrender of General Görgey at Világos, the insurrection was effectively at an end, and Kossuth fled to
Turkey. Eventually, after a period of exile in England, where he was fêted as a great patriot, he went to Italy and was to die there, in Turin. His body was taken back to Pest where he was buried amid the mourning of the whole nation.

  Béla Kun: Hungarian Communist leader whose rise to power in 1919 had brought about the flight of Mihály Károlyi. His repressive rule lasted only until the autumn of 1919.

  Philip László: Hungarian painter who made an international reputation principally in London during the first part of the twentieth century.

  Karl Liebknecht (1871–1919): Leader of the ‘Spartacus League’ workers revolutionary movement.

  David Lloyd George (1863–1945): Radical British politician. He became leader of the Liberal Party, a position he held until his death. He held several ministerial posts and was prime minister from 1916 to 1922. He represented England at the peace talks in Paris and in several subsequent international conferences.

  Cesare Lombroso, 1839–1909: Eminent Jewish-Italian criminologist, professor of psychiatry, forensic medicine and criminal anthropology and author of several seminal works on those and related subjects.

  Louis Loucheur (1872–1931): Industrialist, French minister for rearmament and reconstruction from 1917 to1920, member of French delegation to the peace conference.

  Márton Lovászy (1864–1927): Liberal Hungarian politician, member of the National Council in 1918 and one of Mihály Károlyi’s ministers. He was to become minister of war under Friedrich.

  György Lukács (1865–1950): Former editor of the review Monarchy. Became leader of the Revisionist Party in 1927.

  Ramsay MacDonald (1866–1937): Became England’s first Labour prime minister in 1924 and again from 1929 to 1937.

  Iuliu Maniu (1873–1951): Leader of the Romanian National Party, several times prime minister of Romania.

  Friar George Martinuzzi (1482–1551): Bishop of Várad and later governor of Transylvania, played a leading role in trying to unite Hungary in the troubled times of John I.