Were Hungarians and Croatians always good friends?

One crown, two nations – many refer to the Historical fact that Hungary and Croatia were one country and so they had common struggles, successes and losses for more than 800 years and they are connected by true friendship even today.

Historians debate even today when the first Croats settled in the territory today known as Croatia, but it is clear that they arrived and took up Christianity long before the Hungarian tribes conquered the Carpathian Basin in 896. 

The first native Croatian ruler recognised by the Pope was Duke Branimir, who received papal recognition from Pope John VIII in 879. His successor, Tomislav, Hungarian and Bulgarian invasions and the medieval Croatian kingdom reached its peak in the 11th century during the reigns of Peter Krešimir IV (1058–1074) and Demetrius Zvonimir (1075–1089.

However, with the death of Stephen II (1089-1091) the native Croatian ruling dynasty of the Trpimirović died out, and Zvonimir’s brother-in-law Ladislaus I of Hungary (1077-1095) became Croatian king. After winning the war for the crown, Ladislaus’s successor, Coloman (1095-1116) cemented the reign of the Hungarian ruling dynasty in Croatia in 1102. 

Importantly; however, Croatia

maintained its autonomy throughout the centuries,

It was ruled by the local Sabor (parliament) and though the ban (viceroy) was appointed by the Hungarian king, he was always selected from the Croatian noble families.

Hungary and Croatia struggled together against the Mongol invasion of 1240-1241, the Hungarian king, Béla IV found shelter in the Dalmatian fortress of Trogir (Trau) and returned home from there to successfully rebuild the country. 

Croatian and Hungarian soldiers fought side by side

against the Ottoman invasion as well from the 15th century until the end of the 17th century when the Ottoman forces were finally drawn out from both countries. This fight gave heroes to both nations like Miklós Zrínyi who wanted to reunite the Habsburg-ruled Hungarian Kingdom, the Kingdom of Croatia and the independent principality of Transylvania against the Ottomans but was fatally injured in 1664 by a wild boar during hunting. Zrínyi was not only a politician and a warlord but also a poet writing the first epic poem, The Peril of Sziget, in Hungarian literature.

The poem commemorated his great-grandfather, Nikola IV Zrinski, who bravely protected Szigetvár in 1566 against the Ottoman siege lead by Suleiman the Magnificient. Suleiman died during the siege, but the janissaries kept his death in secret fearing of a riot in the camp and thus, a defeat on the battlefield.

At the end of the 17th-century Ottoman forces were defeated and driven out from the Kingdom of Hungary and Croatia. The Habsburg king of Hungary became the king of Croatia, as well, though the two countries were governed separately. The beginning of the 19th century was the time of the national awakening in both countries during which most Croats wanted the South Slavs (Serbians, Slovenians) to be united within the Habsburg Empire as a counterweight to the Hungarians.