Eastern Hungarian Kingdom - John II Sigismund's Reign

John II Sigismund's Reign

In 1540, when Zápolya died, his son, the infant John II Sigismund Zápolya was crowned by the Hungarian estates, and the kingdom remained divided. From 1541 or 1542, the house of Zápolya also controlled the region that after 1571 became known as Partium.

For much of John II's reign the country was governed by his mother, Isabella, with the help of the regent, the Catholic cleric George Martinuzzi and with the support of the sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.

In 1541 the divided country fell apart into three parts because of the Turk occupation: a central portion controlled by the Ottoman Empire as Budin Province, a western part, called Royal Hungary, whose nobles elected Ferdinand as the king, in hope he would help expelling the Turks, and the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom, out of which later the Principality of Transylvania emerged.

During the decade of 1540s, the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom included the counties of Máramaros, Szabolcs, Szatmár, Közép-Szolnok, Bihar, Külső-Szolnok, Békés, Csongrád, Arad, Csanád and the Temesköz. The bigger towns as Várad or Lippa were significant centres of state power, warranting predominance over the region's magnates. The one of the wealthiest noble Péter Petrovics was the absolute ruler of the Temesköz, however he was loyal to the Zápolya family. It followed that he cooperated with György Fráter (George Martinuzzi) the guardian of the infant John Sigismund. The regions from county of Máramaros to Kraszna river was ruled by the Drágffy-Perényi family, Ecsed and Somlyó by the Báthory family, Békés county by the Patócsy, the Maros river's valley by the Jaksics family and town of Debrecen by the Török family of Enying. The Zemplén, Borsod, and Abaúj counties with their undefined borders were ruled by the Balassa, Losonci, Bebek and the Drugeths families however they possessed considerable autonomy.

The army campaigns of 1543–44 left only one secure road link to Royal Hungary, along the Vág valley, and this momentum further decreased the numbers of Habsburg supporters in the kingdom. In August 1544, commissioners from the central parts of the medieval Hungarian kingdom as counties along the Tisza river participated as equals in the Transylvanian diet at Torda. The Transylvanian diet became the legal successor of the Hungarian diets due to this practise.

The chancellery and the high court at Buda disappeared during the political chaos of 1540-41 and Transylvania could not be administered by the central organs of the Hungarian Kingdom anymore. The apparatus of Transylvania's voivode was inadequate to provide the task of administering a state. György Fráter formed new administrative structure and he established the court at Gyulafehérvár.

The feudal estates lost their leverage over the cases of state. The Saxons were still pro-Habsburg supporters and adopted a passive stance. Péter Haller, the royal magistrate at Szeben, was the only Saxon at the court of Gyulafehérvár. The Székelys had only few advocates in the circles around the regent and the queen. King John's supporters usually had no roots within the new confines of the country, however their relatives were found amongst the senior officials and courtiers in large numbers. The ruling class still trusted to the reunification of the country, and György Fráter always encountered the pressure of this wish and expectation.