Saint Stephen's Crown
Anthony Mockler
In 1924 a British consul in a remote hill town of Ethiopia wrote to the Foreign Office: 'The act of King George V in returning the Ethiopian crown to the Empress on the occasion of Ras Tafari's recent visit to England has created a great impression in the south-west.'
It is difficult to picture the wild Galla tribesmen jumping with joy at the news, but Consul Hodson, a serious man who once hit a golf ball all the way to Addis Ababa on the occasion of his annual visit, cannot have had his tongue totally in his cheek. The return of Crowns does create a great impression — particularly of course if the Crown, as in the Ethiopian case, has been captured in battle (at Magdala by Napier), is being returned to an Empire, and is in itself rather a splendid object.
But the Crown of St Stephen, returned last week to Budapest by the Americans, was not exactly won by them in battle, was returned to an anti-monarchical regime, and is in itself a small, bizarre and unbeautiful thing, formed of semi-precious stones surmounted by a bent gold cross. Nor does it exactly possess the odour of sanctity. Its first bearer, Stephen, was a saint who dealt with a rival pretender, Vazul, by blinding him and pouring liquid lead into his ears. Yet a modern Hungarian historian has called the crowning of Stephen as his country's first King in the year 1000 'the most significant single act in the history of Hungary'.
The Hungarians, a wild collection of tribes of Finno-Ugrian extraction, had settled in the middle of Europe, splitting the north Slays from the south Slays and the east Slays from the west Slays. Had they followed the normal pattern, their leaders would have become Dukes, owing allegiance either to the Byzantine Empire in the East or to the Holy Roman Empire in the West. As it was, with a touch of political
genius, they placed themselves — having turned Christian — directly under the protection of the Pope and thus ensured the independence of their nation. Pope Sylvester II sent the corona latina to Hungary, empowering the Prince Primate of Esztergom to crown, then and thereafter, the Kings of Hungary.
The Holy Crown of Hungary is, then, much more than a mere headpiece, much more important than any of our crowns or indeed any crown anywhere else in the world. It is something of a talisman, an Excalibur, a Stone of Scone or, more exactly, something in the nature of Tolkien's Rings of Power that confer supreme authority on the holders.
Apparently this mystical value was first attributed to the Crown of St Stephen during the 14th Century. But it was not till the Diet that followed the crushing of the free peasant revolt of 1514 that the full doctrine of the Crown was defined by a brilliant political theorist, Stephen Werboczi. According to his Tripartitum, the code that was for three centuries the foundation of Hungary's constitution, the Holy Crown is itself the fount of all authority: all the land belongs to it, it is the supreme liege lord and the real seat of power even ifthere is no King to wear it. (My italics).
The Crown's symbolism might logically have faded away first after the War of Independence of 1848-9(won brutally by the Austrians with Russian help) when the nobles abandoned their sole right to own land, and secondly after the fall of the Habsburgs. On the contrary, possession of the Holy Crown legitimised in the first case Kossuth's rebellion, and in the second the Regency of Admiral Horthy. And when in October 1944 Horthy attempted to proclaim neutrality, and his government was replaced, briefly, by the Arrow Cross regime, the new Leader, Szalasi, insisted on assuming his powers formally in the held. . c of the Holy Crown. Its power s ld till d
Only weeks after Szalasi's coup, the Re Army was at the gates. of Budapest. Throughout history it had been held that the Holy Crown must never leave HungarY. for, while it stayed, Hungary was alive: Since the days of Matthias the Great, it ha° been protected by the Crown Guard 7 a splendid body of men, mustachioed six" footers, uniformed in scarlet breeches, green shakoes and long white capes. But Szalasi's security chief overruled the Commander of the Crown Guard. The 1.161Y Crown was not to fall into Communist hands. It disappeared; in fact, in the chaos of th.e time, it was abandoned for three months. al a railway siding at the Austrian frontier, then secretly retrieved. But rumours were rife all over the border. In Austria the Americans arrested eight members of the Crown Guard and took possession of Vie black safe, contents unknown.' When opened, it was found to contain the orb and the sceptre. But where was the Holy Crown itself? A hue and cry started. Rakosi, the new ruler of Hungary, wanted it, allegedly t° send it to Stalin for display at the I:le!' ' mitage. Cardinal Mindszenty wanted it order to restore it (as he declared at his trial) to the custody of the Pope in Rome' The Hungarian émigrés (thereare now over half a million Hungarians in the United States) wanted it as a rallying point — but it was not till long after the uprising of 1956 that the Americans finally admitted that they had it in their safe keeping. From 1964 there began a slow improve' ment in the relations between Church and State in Hungary that gathered momentuni following the forced retirement of the exiled Cardinal Mindszenty in FebruarY 1974 and his death a year later. This Culminated last June in a visit paid by Janos Kadar to the Vatican — the first-ever visit by an East European Communist ruler to the Pope. That visit, Kadar said, had 'closed a certain era and opened a new one.' But it was another statement of his on that occasion that probably finally decided the Americans to return the Holy Crown — praise for the Pope and the Vatican for all they had done for peace and 'in particular for promoting Helsinki.' Declared supPort for human rights was Carter's price.
Nevertheless, though the new Archbishop of Esztergom, Cardinal Laszlo Lekai, was present when Cyrus Vance and his entourage returned the Holy Crown it was a low-key affair. The Secretary at State was officially 'on holiday', newspaper reports were subdued, and the people were not informed of the time or place of the restoration. Officially the Holy Crown Is now merely 'a national treasure.' But it will be interesting to see if its talismantic powers survive — whether Hungary, which has been dead for so many years now, begins to come alive again.
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