MARTINUZZI, GEORGE [GYoRGY UTIESENovIc] (14821551)

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MARTINUZZI, GEORGE [GYoRGY UTIESENovIc] (14821551) , Hungarian statesman, who, since he usually signed himself " Frater Georgius," is known in Hungarian history as FRATER GYORGY or simply THE FRATER, was born at Kamicic in Croatia, the son of Gregory Utiesenovic, a Croatian

gentleman

GENTLEMAN (from Lat. gentilis, " belonging to a race or gens," and " man "; Fr. gentilhomme, Span. gentil hombre, Ital. gentil huomo, in its
original
- ORIGINAL
and strict signification, a term denoting a man of good family, the Lat. generosus (its invariable transl

. His mother was a Martinuzzi, a Venetian patrician family. From his eighth to his twentieth year he was attached to the court of John Corvinus; subsequently, entering the service of the Zapolya family, he saw something of warfare under John Zapolya but, tiring of a military life, he entered the Paulician Order in his twenty-eighth year. His historical career began when his old patron Zapolya, now king of

Hungary

HUNGARY
HUNGARY (Hungarian Magyarorszdg)

, forced to fly before his successful rival Ferdinand, afterwards the emperor Ferdinand I., sent him on a diplomatic mission to

Hungary

HUNGARY
HUNGARY (Hungarian Magyarorszdg)

. It was due to his tact and ability that John recovered Buda (1529), and henceforth Frater GySrgy became his treasurer and

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

counsellor. In 1534 he became bishop of Grosswardein; in 1538 he concluded with Austria the peace of Grosswardein, whereby the royal title and the greater part of Hungary were conceded to Zapolya. King John left the Frater the guardian of his infant son John Sigismund, who was proclaimed and crowned king of Hungary, the Frater acting as regent. He frustrated all the attempts of the queen mother, Isabella, 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 the 28th of August 1541, the Frater did homage to the sultan, but during his absence with the baby king in the Turkish camp, the grand

vizier

VIZIER

took Buda by subtlety. Then only the Frater recognized the necessity of a composition with both Austria and Turkey. He attained it by the treaty of Gyula (Dec. 29, 1541), whereby western Hungary fell to Ferdinand, while Transylvania, 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, and the important city of Kassa. It was the Frater'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 Frater 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 till his death. Queen Isabella, who hated the Frater 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, COUNCILS OF

(1550). A combination was then formed against him of the queen, the hospodars of Moldavia and Wallachia and the Turks; but the Frater shut the queen up in Gyula-Fehervar, drove the hospodars out of Transylvania, defeated the Turks at Deva, 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 con-firmed by the diet of Kolozsvar in August 1551. The Frater retained the governorship of Transylvania, and was subsequently consecrated archbishop of

Esztergom

ESZTERGOM (Ger. Gran; Lat. Strigonium)

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. Unfortunately, the Turks no longer trusted a diplomatist they could not understand,
while Ferdinand suspected him of an intention to secure Hungaryfor himself. When the Turks (in 1551) took Csanad and other places, the Frater and the imperial generals Castaldo and Pallavicini combined their forces against the common foe; but when the Frater 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 Frater's secretary Marco Aurelio Ferrari was hired, and stabbed his master from behind at the castle of Alvinczy while reading a

letter

LETTER (through Fr. lettre from Lat. littera or litera, letter of the alphabet; the origin of the Latin word is obscure; it has probably no connexion with the root of linere, to smear, i.e. with wax, for an inscription with a stilus)

, on the 18th of December 1551; but the cardinal, though in his sixty-ninth year, fought for his life, and was only despatched with the aid of Pallavicini and a band of bravos Ferdinand took the responsibility of the murder on himself He sent to Julius III. an accusation of treason against the Frater in eighty-seven articles, and after long hesitation, and hearing one hundred and sixteen witnesses, the

pope

exonerated Ferdinand of blame.
See A. Bechet, Histoire du ministere du cardinal Martinusius (Paris, 1715) ; O. M. Utiesenovic, Lebensgeschichte des Cardinals Georg UtiesenoviE (Vienna, 1881); Codex epistolaris Fratris Georgii 7535-1551, ed. A.

Karolyi

KAROLYI, ALOYS, COUNT (1825-1889)

(Budapest, 1881). But the most vivid presentation of Frater is to be found in M. Jokai's fine historical romance, Brother George (Hung.) (Budapest, 1893). (R. N. B.)

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