Overview

In the year 1000AD the King of Hungary accepted Christianity from the Pope and a crown from the Eastern Roman emperor at Constantinople. Hungary now entered mainstream Europe instead of looting and pillaging it. The royal house married into Polish and French aristocracy and the great landowners looked to Europe for their culture while retaining a fierce nationalism for their traditions and history. Disaster struck as the Ottoman Turkish onslaught which swept through the remains of the Byzantine empire, taking Constantinople and renaming it Istanbul, flooded through Europe almost reaching the gates of Vienna. Hungary fell before the Ottoman tide apart from a small sliver which looked to the nearest power, the Habsburgs of Austria for protection. The Austrian advance into eastern Europe in the 17th Century gradually recovered Hungary from their Turkish overlords, but instead of restoring its independence, the Habsburgs took the crown for themselves. For the next 150 years the Hungarians tried several times to reassert their sovereignty, without success. In 1848, with Europe rocked by revolutions and the Habsburgs fleeing from an uprising in Vienna, the Hungarian parliament declared, lawfully, their right to govern themselves. To protect their new status they formed a government and ordered the Hungarian regiments in the imperial armies to return home. Some managed to get back to Hungary, while others stayed in Italy to fight for Radetzky, yet others were forced to stay put. A regional National Guard was raised to defend the homeland and a new national army, the Honved, was formed to counter the revitalised Austrian forces who invaded the country. When the Russian Tsar offered his help to the young Francis Josef of Austria the situation became desperate, even more so as the Croat border troops and other non-Magyars within the country also took up arms in favour of the imperial cause. This book covers the armed forces of the Hungarian state, the former imperial regiments, National Guards, Honveds, foreign volunteers such as the Polish, Italian and German Legions, their organisation, uniforms, flags, arms and equipment. Additional material is provided, including brief biographies of Hungarian generals, and a selection of orders of battle. The book is fully illustrated with superb colour uniform plates by Ron Poulter, and line drawings showing the uniforms and equipment of the various branches of the armed forces of the country during Hungary's brief period of freedom.

Full Product Details

9781907677021

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Ralph's lifelong interest in military history, began with playing with friends 'Britains' figures across the dining room floor. Joining the British Model Soldier Society gave him an outlet for writing and illustrating articles on all aspects of military interest. This later progressed to articles in the commercial modelling and wargame press. A chance meeting led to membership of the Continental Wars Society and shortly thereafter, due to the illness of the then editor of the society journal, to taking on the editorship of the Foreign Correspondent, now in its twenty-first year. Ralph has had a book published on the armies of the First Schleswig war and illustrated another on the battle of Custoza in 1866. Now retired from the Civil Service he hopes to spend more time on his first interest. / Artist Ron Poulter, born in London, always has had a long-standing interest in military history and a gift for art. His past career I includes working for Tradition Magazine and the Costumiers Bermans where he worked on films as diverse as Waterloo and Dad's Army. Later he joined the British Museum Library where he worked for many years and was able to continue his research into military costume, specializing in the armies of South America pre-1900. He has gone on to become a leading expert on South American uniforms and dress. He has illustrated many books and articles for Osprey, Military Illustrated, Military Modelling etc. on a variety of subjects such as: the Polish winged Hussars; Vlad Tepes The Impaler ; the British Guards Regiments in the Napoleonic Wars and many South American wars including Bolivar and San Martin and their Wars of Independence. He is currently living in Scotland with his wife where he is working on a book, both writing and illustrating, on one of his favourite South American subjects which he hopes to be published in the near future.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available