FROM VIENNA TO PASSAROWITZ

(1683-1718)

After the denouement of the Zrini-Frankapan plot the Austrian mili-

tary authorities at Vienna and Graz wanted to separate Croatia from
Hungary altogether and to link it more closely with the hereditary
Austrian lands. As we have seen above a strong party in Croatia had
favored this solution to the perennial Croatian problem at various
times in the past, notably in 1527, 1535, and 1620. Again in the 1670's
many of the lesser nobility were partisans of the plan of effecting an
Anschluss with Austria. They considered that the Austrian connection
would fortify their own position vis-à-vis the Turks and the Hungarian-
Croatian magnates at one and the same time. In January 1672 the
small nobility petitioned the king to carry through the separation of
the remnants of the Triune Kingdom from Hungary and to attach
them directly to Austria. The Austrian party was extremely strong
among both freeholders and townsmen at this time, while the peasants
were still nationally indifferent for the most part. But the Viennese
court missed this opportunity to capitalize upon the pro-Habsburg
feeling among the Croatians just as Ferdinand I had done a century
and a half before.
Count Nikola Erdödi stood at the head of the party of the higher
nobility which battled to preserve the historic individuality of the
Croatian kingdom. In particular he offered resolute opposition to the
plan advanced by the Karlovac General, Johann Herberstein. Al-
though Herberstein, too, saw the value of constituting Croatia as a
hereditary Habsburg kingdom independent of Hungary, he was more
concerned with military considerations. This veteran campaigner
"smelled" another Turkish war in the offing and he considered that
the most efficacious way of dealing with the Ottoman menace was to
divide Banal Croatia into two districts. One of these would reach from
the sea to the Save, while the other would extend from the Save to
the Mur. These two Croatian districts would fall under the authority

Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/17/16 12:18 AM
 FROM VIENNA TO PASSAROWITZ (1683-1718) 157

of the Karlovac and Varazdin Generalities insofar as military matters

were concemed.1
In 1673 Leopold appointed Nikola Erdödi banal lieutenant. The
office of ban itself had remained vacant since the incarceration of
Petar Zrini. For eight years Erdödi actually exercised full banal au-
thority how^ever. Thus he was able to thwart the projects of Herber-
stein and other Austrian military men. Finally, in 1681, Leopold
allowed the formal installation of Erdödi as ban and gave his sanction
to twenty-nine laws (articuli) enacted by Sabor between 1643 and
1681; these laws had been operative in Croatia without the royal
approval until this time. Especially important was Article 6 which was
aimed against the great nobles. Leopold's confirmation of its validity
strengthened the position of the lower nobility and of the royal free
towns vis-à-vis the magnates who often advanced immoderate preten-
sions and were always ready to usurp authority when the opportunity
offered.
While Erdödi was endeavoring to save the historic individuality of
the Triple Kingdom ^ a fierce anti-Habsburg revolt flared up in Hun-
gary. The leader of this new uprising of the malcontents' was the
long-time admirer and second husband of Helen Zrini, daughter of
the magnate executed at Wiener Neustadt. This individual was the
young Count Thökölh who received support from the French as well
as from the Tiurks. At this historic juncture Louis XIV wanted to have
a free hand in the west to put into operation new plans that he had
devised for French aggrandizement. Therefore he was ready to assist
anyone who could make trouble for the Austrians in the east.
The Ottomans, too, were willing to aid Thökölly. In Constantinople
the war party, which was led by the Grand Vizier, Kara Mustapha,
was awaiting impatiently the end of the twenty year truce that the
Vasvár treaty had provided for. Leopold and his advisers wished to

^ Spomenici, II, no. CCXIV. See ako the recommendations made by the Hof-
kriegsrat (War Council) to Leopold concerning the reform of the Croatian adminis-
tration. Ibid., II, no. CCXV. See also Racki, nos. 599, 601, 608, 623.
2 It is well to remember that only northwestern Croatia, Habsbmrg Istria, and
the strip of coastline that included Senj, Bag (Karlobag), and Bakar, together with
some of the Adriatic islands, were under Austrian rule at this time. The greater
part of the Croatian territory still was subjected to the Ottomans while Venice
held most of the islands, various localities in Dalmatia, and western Istria. Thus
there was some excuse for the Austrians to look upon their Croatian provinces as
such rather than as the remnant of a formerly independent and still legally
autonomous entity. On the several divisions of the Croatian lands at this time
see Sisic, Pregled, 308-312.

Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/17/16 12:18 AM
 158 FROM VIENNA TO PASSAROWITZ (1683-1718)
prolong the existing peace but they could not overlook the overt
assistance and recognition that the Porte extended to Thökölly.
Great danger now threatened the Triune Kingdom from the Hun-
garian malcontents' in the north and from the Bosnian pashalik in the
south. Erdödi proclaimed the 'Insurrection and encamped with a
strong force in the Podravina between Koprivnica and Legrada. Sabor
convened in his camp here on August 24,1682, and again the following
month. The estates agreed that the Croatian army should cross the
Drave to deal with the Magyar 'malcontents'. In the spring of 1683
the banal cetas penetrated into the Medjumurje, which may have been
in Magyar hands by this time, and carried the war to the enemy.
Fortunately for the Croatians Kara Mustapha decided to bypass the
Croatian lands with his main army, the largest that the Ottomans ever
had assembled, and to drive directly for Vienna. Most of the Magyars
were supporting Thökölly and the Turks at this time. The Hungarian
count palatine, the chief executive of royal Hungary, could hardly find
2000 men to bring to the defense of Vienna where Count Rüdiger
Stahremberg had assembled some 13,000 other Imperialists to face
the Turkish storm. Kara Mustapha's forces, at least 250,000 strong
(including the bands led by Thökölly and the less willing auxiliaries
that the Ottomans were able to conscript among the Wallachians),
laid siege to the Austrian capital on July 17. Eighteen major assaults
followed between this date and September 11.
Through papal mediation a treaty of alliance was concluded be-
tween the House of Austria and Poland which was indebted to the
Habsburgs for assistance rendered to the Polish Commonwealth in
past years.® King John Sobieski with 20,000 troops effected a junction
with the 40,000 Imperialists who had assembled under the banner of
Duke Charles of Lorraine for the pvupose of relieving the Habsburg
capital. On September 12 the opposing armies met in a great melee
that ended with the complete and catastrophic rout of the huge
Turkish mass and of the Hungarian 'malcontents'. Six days later the
Ottomans again were beaten disastrously at Párkany. Esztergom then
fell into the hands of the Austrian forces. Thus the Austrians were en-
couraged to commit themselves to the long drawn out conflict that
Croatians and Magyars refer to as the 'War of Liberation' (1682-1699).
Croatian operations during this struggle were of relatively minor
significance. Nonetheless they were consistent and they took their toll
of the Turkish strength, already weakened seriously by the debacle
' See R. N. Bain, Slavonic Europe (Cambridge, 1908), 224-225, 249.

Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/17/16 12:18 AM
 FBOM VIENNA TO PASSABOWITZ (1683-1718) 159

before the walls of Vienna. Members of the Croatian gentry greatly

distinguished themselves in the siege of the Austrian capital, particu-
larly in the role of dispatch riders who had the vital task of keeping
the commander of the garrison, Count Stahremberg, and Duke
Charles and the Pohsh king in touch with one another. Also six hun-
dred Croatian riders, who were detailed to guide Prince Lubomirski's
Pohsh horse, saved the latter from falling into a Tmkish ambuscade
that might have inflicted serious loss upon the relieving array."·
When news of the Turkish failure before Vienna reached Dalmatia
the coastal and mountain population joined the inhabitants of Senj
and its vicinity in attacking aU Moslem villages within striking dis-
tance. They penetrated into Turkish-held territory to a depth of sixty
miles. Their successes motivated the priest, Matija Mesic,' to launch
an invasion of the Lika. Udbina fell to the priest's forces and Herber-
stein sent the Granicari to the aid of the trans-Velebit Croatians. Banal
forces also entered the Lika to expel the Ottomans from it finally and
forever.
Meanwhile Ban Erdödi was supporting the Croatian rising in
Slavonia where Frano Ilic, Tvab Matijevic, Ivan Sekulal, and Fra
Luka Imbrisimovic ralhed both Catholic and Orthodox elements.®
Erdödi captured Virovitica while General Croy, who according to
some accounts was a descendant of the Arpad kings of Hungary, to-
gether with Baron Makar drove the Ottomans headlong out of the
land between the Drave and Save. Dubica, Kostainica, Zrin, and
Novi fell to the ban himself, and the Banal Border was extended to
the Una.
Vienna's narrow escape from the Turkish peril had caused the Pope
to sponsor a 'Holy League'. Venice and Poland joined hands with
Austria to form this anti-Moslem instrument. But Paris exerted pres-
sure upon the Poles to abandon the agreement. While the Austrians
were indebted to the latter for the relief of Vienna there was much
truth from this time on in the cynical judgment of Austro-Polish rela-
* See Ivan Kukuljevic-Sakcinski, "Izviesce Simuna J u d e Sidica о turskoj obsadi
grada Веса g. 1683" [Report of Simun Sidic on the Turkish siege of the city of
Vienna in 1683], Starine, XVI (1884), 1-8. See a k o Jura regni, II, 351-357. T h e
Croatians fought mainly on the banks of the Mur, the Drave, and the Una, and
along the Military Border rather than at Vienna.
' The identification of Mesic as an Orthodox priest, therefore presumably a
Serbian, made by Dr. Gunther Rothenberg in his recent work, The Austrian
Military Border in Croatia, is inaccurate.
" Most of the Orthodox Serbs settled by the Turks in Slavonia left with the
Ottoman troops however.

Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/17/16 12:18 AM
160 FROM VIENNA TO PASSABOWITZ (1683-1718)

tions expressed somewhat later by Prince Eugene of Savoy: "there, as

is vi^ell knovra, the channel always has existed by means of which evil
machinations against Hungary are secretly instigated and attempted."
Also the Venetians were hardly reliable allies. When she joined
Austria in the war against the Turks the Republic promised to return
all Croatian territory that came into her possession, except for those
parts which actually had belonged to Dalmatia in past centuries (since
1409 when the last king crowned by the Croatians themselves,
Ladislas of Naples, had sold his rights to Dalmatia to Venice). In the
fighting with the Ottomans, however, the troops of the Serenissima
took the district around Plivnoga, as well as land near the Zrmanja,
and part of the Podgorje below Bag. All of these areas either had been
Habsburg possessions or controlled by the Turks before the 'War of
Liberation' as the Croatians usually refer to the long drawn out
struggle that began with the siege of Vienna. The Venetians also kept
Knin which they had obligated themselves to return.
Despite the attitudes of her allies Vienna by 1684 felt that the
military situation warranted an effort to reahze the ambitious territo-
rial dreams of the Zrinis of two decades before. At Neuhäusel the
Croatian regiment commanded by Count v. Lodron fought brilliantly
as did the largely Croatian regiments of Mercy, Piccolomini, Saxe
Lauenburg, and Don Pedro Ricardi. In July of this year Count Traut-
mansdorf led four thousand Croatians in a successful assault upon
Mitrovica. Unfortunately the honor of the Croatian arms was blem-
ished here by a disgraceful massacre of prisoners. Dming the follow-
ing year the banal levies entered the Lika to support the movements
of Mesic. Contemporary chroniclers noted that 'Wallachian Turks' in
large numbers joined the Croatian banal troops and that more than a
hundred 'Wallach' families returned to Karlovac vvdth the Frontier
forces who entered into the fighting. Presumably both Serbian and
Arumanian (Kutzo-VIach or Macedo-Ruman elements) were included
among these people.
On August 23, 1685, a Croatian cavalry and infantry formation,
commanded by the ban in person, took Dubica on the Bosnian fron-
tier in a hot fight. In the following year the attack upon Buda proper
commenced. Twenty thousand Croatians were participants in this
action.' The capture of the Hungarian capital produced a profound

' Most of the Croatians were mounted troops but there were Croatian infantry
units in Count Leslie's corps. See Rudolf Kiszling, "Die Eroberung vom Ofen
1686", Milit.-wissenschaft. Mitteilungen, Heft 8 (Vienna, 1936).

Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/17/16 12:18 AM
 F B O M VIENNA TO PASSAROWITZ (1683-1718) 161

impression throughout the Balkans. Ragusa at once offered to place

herself under Austrian protection. A Ragusan deputation declared to
Leopold that now that the Hungarian crown, to which their ancestors
had rendered tribute, was restored to its old position, and that most
of the other Croatian territory had been delivered from the rule of
the pashas, Ragusa, too, wished to be included within the borders of
the Habsburg state. Indubitably there was a great deal of popular
enthusiasm for the acceptance of Habsburg rule among the Ragusan
Croats at this time.® The Republic held sway over the land between
Capo Cumino and Castelnuovo and its territory extended about four
miles inland in most places. Also the baimer of St. Blasius waved over
the islands off the Ragusan shore. As a result of the disastrous earth-
quake of 1667 there were only twenty-four noble families left in the
city whereas earlier in the centiuy more than three hundred patricians
had sat in the coimcil. Nonetheless the city was able to raise a force
of 2500 men which operated under the Habsburg banners and carried
out a successful expedition along the Neretva.
Through this venture and by means of special emissaries sent to
Hercegovina the Ragusans were able to stimulate pro-Austrian agita-
tion in the latter province. A number of the Hercegovinian clans, the
Croatian ones in particular, manifested their willingness to be placed
under Habsburg protection. When the Austrians captured Belgrade
in 1688 their cause became very popular in the northern Balkans.
Ragusa asked Vieima to send an army to Hercegovina, not so much
to fight the Turks for this province as to keep the Venetians out of it.
Leopold could not spare the troops needed to accomplish this objec-
tive but he did warn the Republic of St. Mark not to press its claims
in Hercegovirua. Ragusa much preferred to have the Ottomans as
neighbors rather than the Venetians. The best solution to the Ragusan
problem at this juncture, however, seemed to be the consummation of
an Anschluss with Austria. On October 16, 1688, this old Croatian
entity asked the Imperial Resident, Corradini, to declare those parts
of Hercegovina claimed by Venice to be Austrian territory. Moslem
as well as Christian clans were eager to become subjects of the Habs-
burgs at this time so Corradini went so far as to inform the Venetian
Proveditor General at Zadar that the towns of Popovo and Trebinje,
the especial objects of Venetian desire, were henceforth to be con-

® On Ragusan relations with Austria in the period 1689-1699 see Grga Novak,
"Borba Dubrovnika za slobodu 1683-1699" (Ragusa's struggle for freedom), Rad,
CCLIII (1935), 1-164.

Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/17/16 12:18 AM
162 FROM VIENNA TO PASSAROWITZ (1683-1718)

sidered as standing under Austrian protection. These places received

Imperial letters patent to guarantee them against Venetian aggression.
The Spanish ambassador at the Viennese court, Borgomanero, en-
deavored to impress upon Leopold the desirability of having Ragusa
as a port of the Hungarian and Croatian kingdoms. Borgomanero
suggested that a Croatian garrison be sent to Ragusa as a means of
popularizing the idea of union with Austria.
There was a pro-Turkish as well as a pro-Austrian party in the
Republic, however — only the Venetians had practically no partisans
at all there — and although it was a minority faction this group worked
successfully to thwart the idea of the Austrian connection. The pro-
Turks calculated correctly that Vienna in any case would support
Ragusan interests in Hercegovina vis-à-vis Venice. As a matter of fact
it was only the presence of the Imperial Resident in Ragusa that kept
the Venetians from occupying the city itself, but the Turkophile ele-
ment considered that the existing state of affairs was satisfactory.
When the Serenissima launched a campaign against Ragusan shipping
on the pretext that the Republic of St. Blaise was supplying the Otto-
mans, Vienna at once stepped in to tell the Italians that they would
have to consider Ragusan shipping as inviolate or face a reckoning
with Austria over it. Obviously the attitude of the Turkophiles, that
since Vienna was protecting Ragusa anyway there was no point in
the latter becoming part of the Habsburg dominions was justified
from both the political and economic points of view.
Meanwhile the banal forces took an important though not decisive
part in the Austrian war effort in the Balkans.
In 1688 Count Petar Keglevic led the haramia of the Triune King-
dom across the Una to deliver a bold stroke at the Turkish stronghold
of Kosarac. The Croatian horse raided into Bosnia to turn the tables
on this land from which so many incursions into the banal territories
had set forth in past times. Soon afterwards the banal lieutenant.
Count Dinkovic, with less than 1500 riders defeated an Ottoman array
several times as large. In the first stages of this combat the Croatìans
found themselves opposed by 3000-4000 Turkish troops and beat a
quick retreat. As they retired, however, they ran head on into another
Moslem army 4000 strong. Caught between the enemy hosts as they
were there was nothing for it but to surrender or to fight. Dinkovic
reminded his men of the disaster suffered on the Krbava Polje two
centuries before and led a slashing charge that covered the ground
with hundreds of dead Ottomans. At least 2000 Turks lost their lives

Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/17/16 12:18 AM
 FROM VIENNA TO PASSAROWITZ (1683-1718) 163
in the waters of the Una when they tried to swim across it to escape
the victors. More than a thousand riderless horses swam ashore and
were rounded up by the winners of the deadly game.
Because of these successes the Austrian recruiters had an easy time
of it in Croatia. In 1691 alone 8000 men responded to the call to run
behind the drum'. The ban in this year forced the passage of the Save
and of the Una and invaded Bosnia once more. On August 19 the
campaign culminated in the decisive battle of Salankemen where the
Turkish Grand Vizier and many thousands of his troops lost their
lives. As related above here fell the last but one of the Zrinis also.
Congenitally incapable of seeing beyond the immediate horizon
that faced them at any given moment, the Croatians now expected the
House of Habsburg to expel all Moslems finally and forever from the
soil of the ancient Triune Kingdom. The Croatians could not compre-
hend that Austria had a more sinister enemy than the Turks, whose
power was on the wane despite instances of momentary recovery and
bursts of religious and martial enthusiasm. It was hardly possible for
the House of Austria to ignore the immoderate pretensions of France
during the age of Louis XIV (1660-1715). Let France gain her ends in
Germany and the Austrian state would be between the jaws of a nut-
cracker with the French applying pressure at one end and the Otto-
mans at the other. In fact there was in these years a kind of Franco-
Turkish-Hungarian Protestant 'Axis' that was at least as efficient as
the more celebrated twentieth century instrument of that name con-
cluded between Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, and Japan. Prince
Eugene of Savoy stated bluntly that the Turks never could have
reached Vienna in 1683 had not France prepared the way for their
advance by her intrigues with the Hungarian malcontents and by her
far flung diplomacy which operated against Austria in every part of
Europe with the purpose of isolating the Habsburg state from all
outside support. But the Croatians could not understand why Leopold
allowed himself to become involved in the War of the League of
Augsburg (1689-1697) in which Austria allied herself with England,
Sweden, and Spain to stop French expansion. Since the Austrians lack-
ed the power to fight a war on two fronts the campaign against the
Turks naturally came to a standstill. Only the Croatian banal and
Frontier forces were available to carry on a desultory kind of Klein-
krieg.^

' On Croatian military operations between 1691 and 1696 see Spomenici, III
(= M.S.H.S.M., X X ) , 11-12. See also Sisic, Pregled, 3 1 3 - 3 1 4 .

Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/17/16 12:18 AM
164 FROM VIENNA TO PASSAROWITZ (1683-1718)

The conclusion of peace with France in 1697 allowed the Habsburg

armies to turn eastwards once more. On September 11 of this year
Prince Eugene smashed the Turks at Zenta. Twenty thousand Otto-
man corpses strewed the battlefield after the firing had ceased, an-
other 10,000 drowned in attempting to escape, and 4000 more re-
mained prisoners in the hands of the victors among whom was in-
cluded a strong Croatian contingent. The Austrian loss was less than
a thousand men all told.
Eugene decided to follow up this stunning triumph by invading
Bosnia. He crossed the Save at Brod with fewer than ten thousand men
and made a dash for Saraievo. Croatian scouts spearheaded his col-
umns which stormed the citadel of Vranduk lowering down from
thickly wooded hills upon the narrow gorge of the Bosna a few miles
beyond Zenica. Other Turkish strong points fell, too, but Saraievo
itself gave him pause. It was the fortress here rather than the tovm as
such that constituted the major military problem. Without a siege train
it appeared impossible to reduce this stronghold before other Turkish
armies could come up to relieve it. Eugene decided, therefore, to lead
his little force back to the safety of Habsburg territory. Although he
had issued strict orders to his troops to refrain from violence against
the inhabitants of Saraievo and from incendiarism, the city caught
fire in some manner.
Zenta had been a body-blow from which the Turkish colossus was
unable to recover for the moment. Eugene's Bosnian invasion, from
which his command returned virtually unscathed, evidenced the state
of Moslem disorganization. Menaced now by Russia and Venice as
well as by Austria, the Porte saw itself compelled to make its peace
with the Habsburgs on the best terms that it could get.
At Karlovci (Karlowitz) in Sirmia, north of the Fruska Gora, the
diplomatic emissaries of the two old Balkan antagonists, Austria and
the Ottoman Empire, met to delineate a new frontier line. This was
drawn up so as to run between old Croatian Dalmatia and the former-
ly equally Croatian but now Turkish Bosnia. It passed through Knin,
Vrlika, Sinj, Duare, Vrgorac, and Citluk. Thus 'Turkish Dalmatia'
passed once again into the hands of Venice which had bought the
rights to the province from the last Angevin heir almost three centu-
ries before. The Ottomans had to yield to the House of Austria all of
the Hungarian kingdom except for the Banat of Temesvar in the
southern part of the Lands of St. Stephen's Crovra. Of course Austrian
possession of Transylvania and of Croatia proper was confirmed and

Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/17/16 12:18 AM
 FROM VIENNA TO PASSABOWITZ (1683-1718) 165

all of Slavonia was abandoned by the descendants of those Tmks who

had conquered it in Zapolya's time. Also the Lika and Krbava areas,
which had been mastered by Mesic' forces during the War of Libera-
tion, were lost to the Porte for good."
Leopold I was mindful of the services that the Croatians had ren-
dered to his house in the recently concluded war and decided that by
way of reward the Lika and Krbava, that is the land between the
Kulpa and the Una, should be returned to the banal authority. Also
he planned to turn over lower (eastern) Slavonia, save for Sirmia, to
the Zagreb authorities. But the Croats themselves after the end of the
war demanded the abolition of the Karlovac (Croatian) and the Varaz-
din (Slavonian) Generalities. If these territories of the Military Fron-
tier system were returned to the Triple Kingdom the ban once again
would rule from the Drave and the Danube to the Adriatic.
Leopold himself was inclined to accede to the wishes of the Croat-
ians, at least to the extent of restoring to the banal authority the
Varazdin Generality. Owing to the accretions of territory that the
Karlowitz peace had brought to Austria this part of old Slavonian
Croatia was no longer a frontier defense zone per se. But the outbreak
of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1713) and the flaring up of
the Great Northern War between Sweden and Russia (1701-1721)
frustrated the efforts of Ban Adam Batthyany to secure the return to
Civil Croatia of the land between the Kulpa, the Save, and the Una
and other areas that were included within the Military Borders. The
Military Border system assured the Habsburg army of a body of sol-
diers ready for action on an hour's notice. Obviously the international
situation was such as to make inadvisable the scrapping of this time-
tried institution of frontier defense in favor of the erratic resources
offered by the 'Insurrection. The firmly rooted disinclination of Sabor
to authorize the employment outside the borders of the Triple King-
dom of any considerable body of Croatian troops has to be remem-
bered too. In any case Leopold's advisers were convinced that the
government exercised by the Croatian estates was essentially in-

On the operations of Mesic in the Lika see Spomenici, III (— M.S.H.S.M.,

XX), 4-6, II ( = M.S.H.S.M., XVI), 395-396 and 396-434, passim. See also Her-
berstein's report, ibid., III ( = M.S.H.S.M., XX), 445-458 passim (no. XXXI, and
the report of the General Quartermaster, Wassenhoffen, no. XXXIII). On the
peace of Karlowitz see Spomenici, III ( = M.S.H.S.M., XX), 144-149, 155-159,
164-168.

Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/17/16 12:18 AM
166 FROM VIENNA TO PASSAKOWITZ (1683-1718)

efficient. Therefore they wanted to keep the Frontiers exempt from

the control of ban and Sabor."
To mitigate the disappointment produced among his Croatian sub-
jects by the failure to reincorporate the Varazdin Generality at any
rate with the banal-ruled lands, Leopold tried to buy Dalmatia from
Venice. But the Venetians refused either to sell or to trade.
There was another factor in the situation that made the retention
of the Frontier system unavoidable. The Hungarian malcontents'
were only waiting for a favorable opportunity to upset the provisions
of the Karlowitz peace that pertained to Hungary, as well as to repu-
diate the enactments of the joint Hungarian-Croatian diet of October
1687. In this last named gathering the Hungarian and Croatian estates
had agreed imanimously to accept as their hereditary kings the mascu-
line descendants of Leopold I. Only if both the Austrian and Spanish
lines of the Habsburgs were to die out would the Hungarians and
Croatians be free to select rulers from another dynasty. Of course the
Habsburgs had been the hereditary rulers of the Croatians since the
Cetin election of January 1, 1527, but the Magyars, even of royal
Hungary, had not acknowledged the hereditary claim of the Austrian
house until after the expulsion of the Turks from Buda in the 'War of
Liberation'. The joint Hungarian-Croatian sittings of October 1687
resulted also in the annulment of that article of the Golden Bull of
1222 which authorized armed resistance (the Insurrection) against the
king. Furthermore it had crovraed as king of Hungary and of Croatia-
Slavonia, Joseph I, oldest son of Leopold. Of course Leopold himself
continued to bear the title of Holy Roman or German Emperor and
he had in his own hands the actual direction of affairs in Croatia-
Slavonia and his other lands.
In 1687 Leopold appointed a commission to draw up proposals for
the political, financial, and military reorganization of those parts of
Hungary and Slavonia that had been or seemed likely to be recovered
from the Turks. A lasting record of the work of this commission was
compiled by its chief, Cardinal Kolonie.'^ This eminent cleric was in-
fluenced by the ideas of the victor of St. Gotthard (1664), Marshal
Montecuculli, as well as by the thought of the German economists.

For an Austrian view of the state of the Croatian territories after Karlowitz
see Spomenici, III ( = M.S.H.S.M., XX), 171-172.
"Compendium der haubdrelatium über die Einrichtung des Königreich Hun-
gam der anno 1688", VerwaltungsTeform-Ungarn nach der Türkenzeit, ed. Theodor
Mayer (Vienna-Leipzig, 1911), Appendix, pp. I - X L V .

Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/17/16 12:18 AM
 F R O M VIENNA TO PASSABOWITZ (1683-1718) 167

Becker, Hornick, and Schräder. He was familiar with the works of the
great international jurists, Grotius and Puffendorf, too. In accordance
with the precepts that he discovered in the writings of these various
individuals, he recommended that in the recovered territories both
urban communities and peasants be exempted from all feudal obliga-
tions. He did not advocate the freeing of the serfs but only the substi-
tution of a real' for a 'personal' relationship between them and their
lords. A real' relationship meant that they would pay a fixed rent for
the lands that they worked, but they would not be subject to the
feudal dues and services owed by the inhabitants of pre-Turkish times.
Any robot service that might be necessary for the general good of the
land should be fixed definitely by statute so as to eliminate arbitrary
exactions imposed by individual landlords or by legislative bodies
such as Sabor and the county assemblies. Kolonie demanded, too, that
the war tax be discontinued. He wanted to substitute a regular peace-
time tax in its place. Owing to the opposition of the Italian, General
Caraffa, who commanded the Habsburg forces in the rewon lands,
and to the disinclination of the nobles, whether Croatian or foreign, to
yield the dues owed to them by feudal law, Kolonie' proposals were
not adopted. His compendium, however, became the basis for the
reforms carried out later on by Maria Theresa and her son, Joseph II.
1/eopold acceded also to Kolonie' suggestion that a property census
be taken in the recovered districts and that those lords who had title
to estates there be told in precise terms the nature of the vassalage
that they could demand and expect of their peasants. But Slavonia at
this time was virtually a desert land devoid of population of any kind.
Even the Serbian and other Orthodox elements, whom the Turks had
settled there to take the place of the Croatian population which had
been killed off or emigrated, had withdrawn in the wake of the
Turkish armies. Such peasants as could be found to resettle the lands
left waste by the Turkish wars looked at first with great mistrust upon
the officers who had charge of the recolonization. When the court in
Vienna found that the old noble families that had owned land in
Slavonia before its conquest by the Turks wanted to revive intact the
conditions of medieval serfdom it simply refused to recognize their
property titles.'' The newly restored lands were declared crown
property. Thus the administration had its hands free to introduce

" Th claims of the old noble landowning families were confirmed in some
instances as in the case of the Keglevic title to the town of Blinje. See Spomenici,
III i- M.S.H.S.M., XX), 178-179.

Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/17/16 12:18 AM
168 FKOM VIENNA TO PASSABOWITZ (1683-1718)
whatever conditions it considered to be beneficial. But the descendants
of the old lords naturally were enraged by this procedure. Since many
of them were Magyars they fused their economic grievances with the
political and religious complaints of the other Hungarian mal-
contents'.
After the peace of Karlowitz Leopold introduced measures that
were designed to rehabilitate the Hungarian countryside which clear-
ly showed the effects of one hundred and fifty years of Tmkish op-
pression and neglect. In many areas the soil had not been worked for
a long time. To remedy this state of agricultural affairs and to en-
courage the Magyar peasantry to resume cultivation of their long
neglected soil, Leopold passed many benevolent laws and offered
material assistance to the half-vdld agriculturists of the old kingdom
of St. Stephen. But for almost two centuries the Himgarian farmers
had become unaccustomed to leading a regular or disciplined mode of
life. Prince Eugene noted at this time that every "civilized decree"
provoked a storm of indignation among the Magyars. Also, however,
it was the harsh tactics employed by the Imperial generals, notably
Caraffa, that produced resentment against Austria among the Hun-
garians. An ardent Catholic himself, Leopold allowed his Jesuit ad-
visers to persecute the Calvinists in Transylvania and Hungary proper.
As a general rule this persecution was not as severe as that to which
the French Huguenots were being exposed at this time. Of covirse the
Magyar Protestants could hardly have been expected to derive conso-
lation from the fact that their lot was not as hard as that of their
French co-religionists.
The chronic embarrassment of the Austrian finances and the ex-
penditures necessitated by the wars lamed Leopold's land reclamation
pohcy, although he certainly did expend very considerable sums in
behalf of Hungary's economic rehabilitation. Thus only the lack of a
generally accepted leader prevented the unchaining of another out-
break of the malcontents'. Thökölli, the fiery partisan chief who had
accompanied the Turkish host to Vienna in 1683, was only a bandit
in the eyes of many of his ovra countrymen. His idea of warfare was
to Ьшп and destroy — "Let's bum up the whole world"! he is supposed
to have said on one occasion. The other Magyar malcontents were
only local leaders with a limited following. Thökölly's stepson, the
young Francis Raköczi, grandson of Petar Zrini, was being educated in
Vienna under the eyes of the Austrian court. But finally he decided to
return to Transylvania, which several of his forbears had ruled, and

Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/17/16 12:18 AM
 F R O M VIENNA TO PASSABOWITZ (1683-1718) 169

to put himself at the head of the national and religious resistance to

Austrian political Catholicism.
Half Croatian himself, Raköczi understood that the Catholic Croats
would stand behind the House of Austria in this new crisis which
materialized in the year 1703. As the grandson of Petar Zrini, how-
ever, Raköczi had a certain status in Croatia. He hoped to vidn over
the Croats by sending to them that most prized of commodities, salt,
from the mines that his troops seized. Since the bulk of the Austrian
forces were tied up in Germany, Italy, and Spain, all theatres of the
war against the French, Raköczi's forces were able to control Tran-
sylvania and a great part of Hungary proper. They even menaced the
countryside around Vieima. It was only after the Habsburg forces de-
feated the Bavarians, who had allied themselves with the French in
1705, that any considerable Austrian strength could be deployed
against the malcontents'. Croatian support of Raköczi in the period
1703-1705 might have assured the success of his rising. But despite
their chagrin over the maintenance of the Military Border system, the
Croatian estates answered all of Raköczi's blandishments with the
statement that the Croatian nation would remain true to "God, King,
Kingdom, and Crown".** Nor was Croatian loyalty shaken by the
deposition of the Habsburgs from the throne of Himgary, a measure
sanctioned by the diet that sat in Raköczi-controUed territory on June
14, 1707. Soon afterwards the Transylvanian estates registered their
approval of this procedure.
Faced by the possibility that Raköczi would succeed in making him-
self hereditary prince both of Transylvania and of royal Hungary, the
Croatian nobility decided that the commoners of their nation should
be informed of the historic position and rights of Croatian kingdom.
Already Sabor had published a collection of laws that defined the time
honored status of the Croatian state vis-à-vis Hungary.*® Now it drew
up a statement of the reasons that had motivated the issuance of these
several laws and caused the little booklet to receive widespread dis-
tribution.
On the battlefield the Croatians continued to render loyal service to
their hereditary rulers. They fought against the French in Italy, the
Low Countries, along the Rhine, and even in France proper, as well
" On Raköczi's dealbgs with the Croats see Jura regni, II, 369-371: Spomenici,
III ( = M.S.H.S.M., XX) 235-236. Note also Leopold I's appeal to the Croatians
for support against the 'malcontents', Jura regni, II, 372, 374-375. See also Sisic,
Pregled, p. 317.
" Articuli regni Slavoniae (Zagreb, 1702).

Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/17/16 12:18 AM
170 FROM VIENNA TO PASSAROWITZ (1683-1718)

as against Raköczi's followers. There were even Croats among the

troops that Archduke Karl took to Catalonia with him to make his un-
successful bid for the Spanish throne that the death of his kinsman,
Carlos II, last of the Spanish Habsburgs, had left vacant.
In the Hungarian theatre of operations Raköczi had made the same
mistake in effecting the deposition of the Habsburgs that Louis
Kossuth was to make a hundred and forty years later. There was al-
ways a strong pro-Habsburg nucleus among the Magyars, especially
among the Catholics. Even many Hungarians who opposed Austrian
rule were ready to accept it on the moment that it would guarantee
religious freedom and the satisfaction of Hungarian particularist
susceptibilities.
While the civil war was in progress a 'rump' Himgarian parliament
continued to meet in royal or Habsburg Hungary. This body wished
to subordinate the Croatian Sabor to its authority. These pro-Habs-
burg Hungarian legislators proposed that laws passed by Sabor be
approved not by the king but by the Hungarian parliament. When
they failed to carry this point they made a determined effort to con-
fine the royal sanction of Croatian laws only to such as did not contra-
dict or controvert existing Hungarian statutes. The Croat delegates to
the Hungarian diet protested violently and vigorously. They pre-
sented a special memorial to Joseph I who had succeeded Leopold on
the latter s death in 1705. This memorial asked the king to not allow
the Hungarian proposal to become law. Faced with the alternative of
offending one or the other of the elements supporting him against
Raköczi, Joseph got out of the difficulty by dissolving parliament.
Hence the question was not settled at this time.*'
Negotiations for the conclusion of a compromise peace with the
Austrians had been launched by the more moderate 'malcontents'
immediately after the 'deposition of 1707. When it became evident
that the Ottomans definitely were not going to intervene in Raköczi's
behalf the fate of the rebellion was sealed. Despite the premature and
unexpected death of Joseph in 1711, the peace of Szatmár in the same
year put an end to hostihties.
The consequences of this agreement were outstandingly significant
for the future development of the Habsbiug monarchy. Szatmár be-
gan a new epoch in the life of both the Hungarian and Croatian king-
doms. Until the coming of a greater demagogue than Raköczi — Louis
Kossuth — there were no more Hungarian rebellions against Habsburg
Sisic, Pregled, 317-318.

Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/17/16 12:18 AM
 FROM VIENNA TO PASSAROWITZ (1683-1718) 171

authority. The spirit of Zapolya, Bocskay, Bethlen Gabor, Thökölly,

and of the 'malcontents' in general survived only in the stirring strains
of the Raköczi march and in the equally wild 'Kurucz' ballads. No
longer was religious friction to exacerbate Austro-Hungarian relation-
ships for at last the Magyar Protestants had the toleration that they
had long sought. In the final analysis Szatmár defined the relations
between Austria and Himgary that were to continue to exist, save for
the brief Kossuthist interlude in the nineteenth century, until the fall
of the monarchy in 1918.
Prince Eugene, cast-off scion of France and Savoy, and perhaps the
greatest of Austrian military heroes, virtually controlled Habsburg
foreign policy during the reign of Joseph I and the first years of that
of Karl III. In 1717 he led the bankrupt empire into still another war
with the Ottomans who had attacked the Venetian holdings in old
Croatian Dalmatia. Although the sultan advised Austria that this
Turkish-Venetian strife did not concern the Habsburg state, Eugene
thought otherwise. He began to concentrate troops in Slavonia and
Avhen the Moslems fired upon one of his naval convoys as it sailed
down the Save he had the pretext that he sought to open hostilities.
His forces seized Mitrovica while the Grand Vizier marched with
120,000 men towards the Dalmatian frontier. Eugene judged correctly
that this Moslem move was a feint to get him to come to the aid of
the hard pressed Venetians who had just lost their Greek stations at
Candia and Corinth. Should he succumb to the bait the Ottomans
Avould pour across the Save in force to invade Hungary and Croatia.
There were many Christian renegades, deserters from various Euro-
pean armies, serving in the Turkish ranks, and the remainder of the
'malcontents' who had followed Raköczi into exile stood beneath the
horsetail standards also. These influential elements in the Turkish host
wanted to carry the war into Habsburg territory rather than into
Dalmatia. Thus, as Eugene had foreseen, the Ottomans did not press
their invasion of Venetian domains when they saw that he was not
going to be taken in by their ruse. Instead the armies of the sultan
concentrated at Belgrade. Eugene passed the Danube with great
celerity on August 2, 1716. Three days later he won another of his
many victories.
This success prepared the way for his long planned assault upon
Belgrade itself. In the following year he took it and for the first time
since 1521 a Christian flag waved over the Citadel. Part of Bosnia
now had to be abandoned by the Ottomans. Eugene intended to press

Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/17/16 12:18 AM
172 FROM VIENNA TO PASSABOWITZ (1683-1718)

on and to drive the Turks forever from the northern Balkans. But the
Spanish thinking Karl had no real interest in this eastern war. He
wanted peace in order that he might consolidate his gains and intro-
duce the commercial policies that interested him. Besides, the Itahan
adventurer. Cardinal Alberoni, who controlled Spanish policies at this
time, had just sent an expeditionary force to seize Sardinia and Sicily.
It was the evident intention of the newly installed Bourbon regime in
Spain to oust Austrian influence from Italy. In this jig-saw of power
pohtics Karl had no desire to play for further stakes in the Balkans.
Too soon to satisfy the real interests of his empire he concluded the
peace of Passarowitz with the Turks. The sultan surrendered to
Austrian rule the Banat of Temesvar (old southern Hungary), northern
Serbia, northern Bosnia, and 'Little Wallachia' and southeast Sirmia.^'^
This treaty was a momentous one for all of the Habsbmg peoples.
A continuation of the war against the Ottomans might have permitted
Austria to establish herself so strongly in the northern Balkans that
Russian influence could not have prevailed against her in later times.
Prince Eugene was at the height of his powers and prowess, and his
military genius, in some measure at least, compensated for the finan-
cial weakness of the Habsburg state, even though it was precisely his
pursuit of glory that exacerbated the long standing monetary difficul-
ties of the empire. But the Balkan reality was abandoned for the
Itahan chimera which so often in the future was to lead the monarchy
of the Habsburgs to disaster. Had the House of Austria been able to
forget Italy it might still today rule a great empire. As it was the
Passarowitz peace gave the Ottomans the respite they needed, while
it was not long before the military and political power that Eugene
had brought to its zenith on the banks of the Danube was undergoing
a process of temporary decline.
Never again was Austria to have so favorable an opportunity for
Balkan expansion as that offered to her in 1718. Karl's thoughts for
the future, however, were not centered around the fvuther expansion
of his already far flung dominions. He wanted only to keep what he
had. Those Habsburgs who followed him might well have emulated

" On the Passarowitz peace see Spomenici, III ( = M.S.H.S.M., XX), 322-328.
See ako Sisic, Pregled, 321. Novi and its environs and Furjan were among the
points surrendered by the Ottomans. The Bosnian territory obtained by the
Habsburgs included the most authentically Croatian areas, that is the right bank
of the Save and Una rivers up to the foot of the Bosnian mountains. Venice got
Imotski and established the boundary that has existed since between Dalmatia on
the one hand and Bosnia and Hercegovina on the other.

Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/17/16 12:18 AM
 FROM VIENNA TO PASSAHOWITZ (1683-1718) 173

his conservative territorial policies. Any and all acquisitions made by

Austria after 1718 were unfortunate ones. Yet in the light of twentieth
centmy developments it can only be regretted that Karl remained
oblivious of the prizes that lay within his grasp. His myopia was
occasioned by his obsession to hand on to his successor an undivided
inheritance. He considered that the best way to accomplish this aim
was to secure the acquiescence of the other European powers to the
order of succession that he established in his famous Pragmatic Sanc-
tion officially promulgated on April 19, 1713.

Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/17/16 12:18 AM