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Romania The Magyars' Arrival in Transylvania
In 896 the Magyars, the last of the migrating tribes to
establish a state in Europe, settled in the Carpathian
Basin. A
century later their king, Stephen I, integrated
Transylvania into
his Hungarian kingdom. The Hungarians constructed
fortresses,
founded a Roman Catholic bishopric, and began
proselytizing
Transylvania's indigenous people. There is little doubt
that these
included some Romanians who remained faithful to the
Eastern
Orthodox Church after the East-West Schism. Stephen and
his
successors recruited foreigners to join the Magyars in
settling the
region. The foreign settlers included people from as far
off as
Flanders; Szeklers, a Magyar ethnic group; and even
Teutonic
Knights returned from Palestine, who founded the town of
Brasov
before a conflict with the king prompted their departure
for the
Baltic region in 1225
(see
Historical and Geographical Distribution
, ch. 2). Hungary's kings reinforced the foreigners' loyalty
by
granting them land, commercial privileges, and
considerable
autonomy. Nobility was restricted to Roman Catholics and,
while
some Romanian noblemen converted to the Roman rite to
preserve
their privileges, most of the Orthodox Romanians became
serfs.
In 1241 the Mongols invaded Transylvania from the north
and
east over the Carpathians. They routed King Béla IV's
forces, laid
waste Transylvania and central Hungary, and slew much of
the
populace. When the Mongols withdrew suddenly in 1242, Béla
launched
a vigorous reconstruction program. He invited more
foreigners to
settle Transylvania and other devastated regions of the
kingdom,
granted loyal noblemen lands, and ordered them to build
stone
fortresses. Béla's reconstruction effort and the fall of
the Árpád
Dynasty in 1301 shifted the locus of power in Hungary
significantly. The royal fortunes declined, and rival
magnates
carved out petty kingdoms, expropriated peasant land, and
stiffened
feudal obligations. Transylvania became virtually
autonomous. As
early as 1288 Transylvania's noblemen convoked their own
assembly,
or Diet. Under increasing economic pressure from
unrestrained
feudal lords and religious pressure from zealous
Catholics, many
Romanians emigrated from Transylvania eastward and
southward over
the Carpathians.
Data as of July 1989
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