Hungarian Conservative

Charles I, Emperor of Austria, was crowned king of Hungary as Charles IV on 30 December 1916, after his father, Emperor and King Francis Joseph passed away on 21 November. His inauguration ceremony was the last public showcasing of the historical splendour of the Hungarian monarchy.

In 1864, Maximilian of Austria arrived in Mexico, assuming the throne of the country. He was declared emperor of Mexico as Maximilian I. Although this was only one, and quite brief, episode in his eventful life, it was the most memorable one, and the one that turned out to be fatal.

Mexico and Hungary are connected not only by their similar flag colours, or their shared love for hot and spicy food. Their histories also intersected multiple times, one example being when a Habsburg archduke briefly ruled the Latin American nation.

Sándor Wekerle was born 175 years ago in 1848. While being one of the most remarkable and enlightened Hungarian politicians of the Compromise era, he was largely exiled from history in the twentieth century.

This Saturday marks the anniversary of the death of Prince Emeric, the first Hungarian heir to the throne, who died at a tragically young age. His death during a hunting accident gave rise to conspiracy theories about his assassination and turned the wild boar into an unusual political actor and symbol in Hungarian history.  

The coronation ceremony of the Kings of Hungary was a highly formalised and strict ritual, which conferred sovereignty onto them via the Holy Crown. It represented the bond between king and nation, and the monarch’s duty to uphold the laws, customs, and liberties of Hungary.

The Habsburg Court regarded Protestantism simply as the ideological expression of the nobility, that is, the ‘spirit of rebellion’. In addition, it was part of the absolutist thinking of the era that only a mono-religious country could be politically united.