Out of the ninety-one gentry who was granted nobility between 1711 and 1799, Ferenc Gyulay was the only one who became a count, and thus, a member of a more exclusive echelon of Hungarian aristocracy. It took two rounds of promotion, both taking place during the reign of Charles III. Gyulay’s rise is an interesting subject for various reasons. On the one hand, although the family was not one of the better known noble kindreds, it brought up one of the most successful accumulators of wealth in the era. On the other hand, in addition to the traditional genealogical works, the level of detail in the available sources allow microhistorical methods to draw a precise picture about Ferenc’s extraordinary career from unknown Komárom gentry to lord lieutenant of Ung County, and becoming the tenant of the Ung chamber estate after acquiring a number of other estates. Exploiting an exceptionally detailed source base, this study aims to present a case which probably models many other similar career trajectories in the period. As such, it helps understand how ambitious lower-ranking county nobility could propel into the elite circles of the estate system in 18th century Hungary.

The study examines the financial situation of individuals promoted from common gentry to high nobility. Biographic data of altogether ninety-one individuals were gathered to explore their financial situation, primarily their landed estates. The perceptions of promoted nobility were rather poor by their contemporaries and posterity alike. They were often portrayed as upstart court favourites or army officers subordinating everything to the interest of the empire, amassing wealth and building large stately homes to compensate for their humble roots but never attaining the financial standards of the original aristocracy. The study assesses the wealth of the members of the new elite (primarily, their landed property) and places them in the context of the original aristocracy to reveal the differences between their wealth and property. The overview of the whole social segment is nuanced by a case study: the rising of the Malonyay family provides an excellent example for the examination of a possible strategy – also adopted by other families of the same standing – to sustain their wealth and aristocratic status.

Nincs absztrakt.

The War of Succession which broke out after the death of Polish king, Augustus II, in 1733 is mentioned in Hungarian scholarship mostly on account of the treaty that ended the conflict: Francis of Lorraine, Maria Theresa’s husband, renounced his claims to Lorraine as his inheritance which in turn entitled him to appropriate Tuscany after the death of the last Medici. The present study, however, focuses on a different aspect of the war and its progress. Szemethy examines the Csáky correspondence held at the National Archives of Austria to reconstruct the available means of communication connecting officers of the Csáky Regiment in the remote and hard-to-access southern Italian areas and their general, György Csáky residing in Sopron and Vienna. The corpus, especially the letters smuggled across the frontline after the defeat at Bitonto on 25 May, 1734, reveals substantial changes in the mode and content of the hussars’ communication with their regiment owner.