George Martinuzzi
Encyclopedia
George Martinuzzi was a Croatian
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

 nobleman, a monk, bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

 of Oradea
Oradea
Oradea is the capital city of Bihor County, in the Crișana region of north-western Romania. The city has a population of 204,477, according to the 2009 estimates. The wider Oradea metropolitan area has a total population of 245,832.-Geography:...

, archbishop of Esztergom
Esztergom
Esztergom , is a city in northern Hungary, 46 km north-west of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom county, on the right bank of the river Danube, which forms the border with Slovakia there....

, cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...

 and Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 statesman.

Biography

Martinuzzi was born in Kamičac, Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....

 (southern Croatia
Croatia in personal union with Hungary
Kingdom of Croatia after the succession crisis become a part of Kingdom of Hungary and — depending on sources — either was incorporated into Hungary or Croatia existed in a personal union with Hungary....

). He is, as he usually signed himself Frater Georgius, known in Hungarian history as Fráter György or simply Tux Frate. He was the son of Grgur Utješinović (Gregory Utissenich), a Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

n nobleman, and was named Juraj Utješinović, but he used his mother's family name Martinuzzi, a Venetian
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...

 patrician family. His sister Ana married Bartol Drašković
House of Draškovic
The House of Drašković, also spelled Draskovich in English, is one of the oldest Croatian noble families, originally descended from lower-rank nobility of the Lika region.There are no reliable data on them before the 15th century...

 and had three sons, among which was the famous Croatian
Croatia in personal union with Hungary
Kingdom of Croatia after the succession crisis become a part of Kingdom of Hungary and — depending on sources — either was incorporated into Hungary or Croatia existed in a personal union with Hungary....

 Ban (viceroy)
Ban (title)
Ban was a title used in several states in central and south-eastern Europe between the 7th century and the 20th century.-Etymology:The word ban has entered the English language probably as a borrowing from South Slavic ban, meaning "lord, master; ruler". The Slavic word is probably borrowed from...

 and cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...

 Juraj Drašković
Juraj Drašković
Juraj II Drašković , February 5, 1525 – January 31, 1587) was a Croatian nobleman, statesman and Catholic bishop and cardinal, very powerful and influential in the Croato-Hungarian Kingdom...

.

From his eighth to his twentieth year he was attached to the court of János Corvinus
János Corvinus
John Corvinus King of Bosnia . He was the illegitimate son of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, and Barbara, supposed to be the daughter of a burgess of Breslau while there have been claims that he was actually the son of Beatrice of Naples, his father's second wife who was 16...

; subsequently, entering the service of the Zápolya family, he saw something of warfare under John Zápolya
John Zápolya
John Zápolya was King of Hungary from 1526 to 1540. His rule was disputed by Archduke Ferdinand I, who also claimed the title King of Hungary between 1526 and 1540. He was the voivode of Transylvania before his coronation.- Biography :...

 but, tiring of a military life, he entered The Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit
The Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit
The Pauline Fathers a Hungarian order of the Roman Catholic Church, are more formally known as The Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit .This name is derived from the hermit Saint Paul of Thebes , canonized in 491 by Pope Gelasius I...

 and became a monk at the age of twenty-eighth.

His historical career began when his old patron Zápolya, now king of Hungary
King of Hungary
The King of Hungary was the head of state of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1000 to 1918.The style of title "Apostolic King" was confirmed by Pope Clement XIII in 1758 and used afterwards by all the Kings of Hungary, so after this date the kings are referred to as "Apostolic King of...

, forced to fly before his successful rival Ferdinand, afterwards the emperor Ferdinand I
Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1558 and king of Bohemia and Hungary from 1526 until his death. Before his accession, he ruled the Austrian hereditary lands of the Habsburgs in the name of his elder brother, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.The key events during his reign were the contest...

, sent him on a diplomatic mission to Hungary. It was due to his tact and ability that John recovered Buda
Buda
For detailed information see: History of Buda CastleBuda is the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest on the west bank of the Danube. The name Buda takes its name from the name of Bleda the Hun ruler, whose name is also Buda in Hungarian.Buda comprises about one-third of Budapest's...

 (1529), and henceforth Fráter György became his treasurer and chief counsellor. In 1534 he became bishop of Oradea; in 1538 he concluded with Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

 the Treaty of Oradea, whereby the royal title and the greater part of Hungary were conceded to Zápolya. John Zápolya left the Frater the guardian of his infant son John Sigismund
John II Sigismund Zápolya
John II Sigismund Zápolya was King of Hungary from 1540 to 1570 and Prince of Transylvania from 1570–1571.-Family:The son of King John I and Isabella Jagiełło, he succeeded his father as an infant...

, who was proclaimed and crowned king of Hungary, the Fráter acting as regent. He frustrated all the attempts of the queen mother, Isabella Jagiellon, to bring in the Austrians, and when, in 1541, an Austrian army appeared beneath the walls of Buda, he arrested the queen and applied to the Porte for help.

On August 28, 1541, the Fráter did homage to the sultan
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...

, but during his absence with the baby king in the Turkish camp, the grand vizier
Grand Vizier
Grand Vizier, in Turkish Vezir-i Azam or Sadr-ı Azam , deriving from the Arabic word vizier , was the greatest minister of the Sultan, with absolute power of attorney and, in principle, dismissable only by the Sultan himself...

 took Buda by subtlety. Then only the Fráter recognized the necessity of a composition with both Austria and Turkey. He attained it by the treaty of Gyula (December 29, 1541), whereby western Hungary fell to Ferdinand, while Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

, as an independent principality under Turkish suzerainty, reverted to John Sigismund. It included, besides Transylvania proper, many Hungarian counties on both sides of the Theiss
Tisza
The Tisza or Tisa is one of the main rivers of Central Europe. It rises in Ukraine, and is formed near Rakhiv by the junction of headwaters White Tisa, whose source is in the Chornohora mountains and Black Tisa, which springs in the Gorgany range...

, and the important city of Košice
Košice
Košice is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary...

. It was the Fráter's policy to preserve Transylvania neutral and intact by cultivating amicable relations with Austria without offending the Porte. It was a difficult policy, but succeeded brilliantly for a time.

In 1545, encouraged by the growing unpopularity of Ferdinand, owing to his incapacity to defend Hungary against the Turks, the Fráter was tempted to unite Austrian Hungary to Transylvania and procure the election of John Sigismund as the national king. But recognizing that this was impossible, he aimed at an alliance with Ferdinand on terms of relative equality, and to this system he adhered until his death.

Queen Isabella, who hated the Fráter and constantly opposed him, complained of him to the sultan, who commanded that either the traitor himself or his head should be sent to Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

 (1550). A coalition was then formed against him of the queen, the hospodars of Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...

 and Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...

 and the Turks; but the Fráter shut the queen up in Alba Iulia
Alba Iulia
Alba Iulia is a city in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania with a population of 66,747, located on the Mureş River. Since the High Middle Ages, the city has been the seat of Transylvania's Roman Catholic diocese. Between 1541 and 1690 it was the capital of the Principality of Transylvania...

, drove the hospodars out of Transylvania, defeated the Turks at Deva
Deva, Romania
Deva is a city in Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania, on the left bank of the Mureș River. It is the capital of Hunedoara County.-Name:...

, and finally compelled Isabella to accept a composition with Austria very profitable to her family and to Transylvania, at the same time soothing the rage of the sultan by flatteries and gifts. This compact, a masterpiece of statesmanship, was confirmed by the diet
Diet (assembly)
In politics, a diet is a formal deliberative assembly. The term is mainly used historically for the Imperial Diet, the general assembly of the Imperial Estates of the Holy Roman Empire, and for the legislative bodies of certain countries.-Etymology:...

 of Cluj Napoca in August 1551. The Fráter retained the governorship of Transylvania, and was subsequently consecrated archbishop of Esztergom and received the red hat. Thus Hungary was once more reunited, but the inability of Ferdinand to defend it against the Turks, as promised, forced the Frater, for the common safety, to resume the payment of tribute to the Porte in December 1551. However, the Turks no longer trusted a diplomat whose behavior they could not understand, while Ferdinand suspected him of an intention to secure Hungary for himself.
When the Turks (in 1551) took Cenad
Cenad
Cenad is a commune in Timiş County, Banat, Romania. It is composed of a single village, Cenad.-Demography:...

 and other places, the Fráter and the imperial generals Giambattista Castaldo and Pallavicini
Pallavicini
The Pallavicini, Pallavicino, were an Italian noble family descended from Oberto I . The first Pallavicino fief was created by Oberto II, who received them it by Frederick Barbarossa in 1162...

 combined their forces against the common foe; but when the Fráter privately endeavoured to mediate between the Turks and the Hungarians, Castaldo represented him to Ferdinand as a traitor, and asked permission to kill him if necessary. The Fráter's secretary Marco Aurelio Ferrari was hired, and stabbed his master from behind at the castle of Vinţu de Jos
Vintu de Jos
Vinţu de Jos, also known as Vinţ is a commune located in the centre of Alba County, Romania. It is composed of eighteen villages: Câmpu Goblii , Ciocaşu , Crişeni , Dealu Ferului , Gura Cuţului , Haţegana , Inuri , Laz , Mătăcina , Mereteu...

 while reading a letter, on December 16, 1551; but the cardinal, though in his sixty-ninth year, fought for his life, and was only dispatched with the aid of Pallavicini and a band of bravos. Ferdinand took the responsibility of the murder on himself. He sent to Pope Julius III
Pope Julius III
Pope Julius III , born Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, was Pope from 7 February 1550 to 1555....

 an accusation of treason against the Fráter in eighty-seven articles, and after long hesitation, and hearing one hundred and sixteen witnesses, the pope exonerated Ferdinand of blame.

Further reading

  • A. Bechet, Histoire du ministére du cardinal Marlinusius (Paris
    Paris
    Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

    , 1715); O. M. Utieienovi, Lebensgeschichte des Cardinals Georg t.Jliesenoviil (Vienna
    Vienna
    Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

    , 1881); Codex epistolaris Fratris Georgii 1535-1551, ed. A. Krolyi (Budapest, 1881). But the most vivid presentation of Fráter is to be found in M. Jókais' fine historical romance, Brother George (Hung.) (Budapest, 1893).

External links

  • George Martinuzzi entry at the Catholic Encyclopedia
    Catholic Encyclopedia
    The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia and the Original Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index...

  • Juraj Utješinović, a cardinal from Croatia
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK