The events of March 15, 1848

Hungarian National Museum

With news of the Vienna developments reaching Pest*, demonstrations broke out. They started when famed poet Sándor Petőfi read a list of demands and recited his fiery poem, called the “National Song,” at the Café Pilvax, in downtown Pest. Participants seized a large printing shop and duplicated the list for distribution. The growing crowd later moved to the National Museum, where famed poet Sándor Petőfi exhorted them to action (in rainy weather).

Accompanied also by noted author Jókai, the crowd seized the University also City Hall, where they presented twelve demands. About 20 thousand crossed the Danube to Buda to the building of the Viceregal Council, where they demanded abolition of censorship, release of political prisoners, recognition of a revolutionary Committee of Public Safety as sole authority and neutrality of the imperial-royal military garrison. The Viceregal council acceded to the demands and released the only political prisoner, a journalist (Mihály Táncsics).

The same day a parliamentary delegation boarded two steamships in Pozsony for Vienna, carrying their Address to the Throne. The lead vessel, the “Béla,” carried many notables, including its titular leader, the archduke-palatine Stefan (himself a Habsburg), Kossuth (who called the trip “Voyage of the Argonauts”), Serbian Patriarch Rajačić, Baron Eötvös, Prince Paul Esterházy, Counts Széchenyi and Batthyány. The mission included 13 members of the upper and 59 of the lower house. The ships departed Vienna (back to Pozsony) on March 17, the “Argonauts” carrying with them an acceptance of their demands by Ferdinand V. Reception in Pozsony was triumphant: Prime Minister Count Batthyány was the first to step ashore. Kossuth followed, knelt and exclaimed “…we bring to our country … Independence and Greatness…”

March 15 has since become a national holiday in Hungary.

* Pest, now part of Budapest, was the country’s leading commercial center and administrative capital. The legislative capital was still in Pozsony.

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