CHAPTER VII.
AT THE VERY DOORS.
The time of which we are writing was a critical one in Hungary's history. "She was sick, very sick, and the remedy for her disease was bitter in proportion to the gravity of her condition." (Jókai Mór.)
The power and prestige of the sovereign had lost much under Béla's predecessors, first his uncle and then his father; for the latter had rebelled against his brother, and the civil war had increased the importance of the magnates, while it diminished that of the sovereign. Béla's father András had succeeded his brother, and had shown himself as weak, as vain, and as untrustworthy, as king, as he had done as subject.
Béla had inherited many difficulties, and in his eagerness to set matters right, had been over-hasty, over-arbitrary, and had made enemies of many of the great nobles by curtailing their extorted privileges.
András, always in need of money, had given and pawned Crown property, until there was little left. Béla, succeeding to an almost empty treasury, had recalled some of those donations which never ought to have been made; and also, by way of instilling respect for the King's majesty, had withdrawn from the great nobles certain privileges, which they bitterly resented, for some of them had attained such a pitch of might and wealth as rendered them independent of the King and the law. There were two classes of nobles, the magnates and the lesser nobility, the latter being more and more oppressed by the former. All who owned a piece of land were "noble," but as their possessions differed greatly in amount, so some were rich and others very much the reverse.
The nobles of both classes, and the clergy attended the Diets; but the mass of the people were as yet unrepresented.
Standing army there was hardly any, and when the King wanted troops he had to raise them, and pay them as he could. Those who held crown-fiefs were bound to obey the King's call to arms, but at his cost, and not their own, and all nobles of whatever degree were bound to join his standard if the country was attacked, not otherwise. If the King wanted them to cross the frontier, he must bear the expense; and if they did not choose to go, he was helpless and could not punish them.
But, to be first in the field is often half the battle. To wait until the enemy is actually in the country may spell disaster and even ruin.
Béla was well aware of the danger which threatened. He had heard much from Kuthen, and he had other sources of information as well, men who kept him well posted in all that was going on. Troops he must have if the country was to be saved; and as the Kunok were always ready for war he felt obliged to favour them; and, to raise money for the pay of others, he was obliged to pledge the Crown revenues and to debase the coinage.
If Hungary had been of one mind in those days, if all had been ready to rise in her defence as once they would have done, she would have had little difficulty in driving back the Mongols; but some of the magnates secretly hoped for a reverse, if so be the King might be thereby humbled. They little knew!