MARTINUZZI, GYÖRGY (JURAJ UTJEŠENOVIĆ)

Cardinal, Transylvanian statesman (popularly "Friar George"); b. Kamičic, Croatia, 1482; d. Alvinc, Transylvania, Dec. 17, 1551. Though he was the son of a Croatian father (Utiešenović), he preferred to use the name of his Venetian mother. After a brief military career he joined the Paulite Order and later became the close adviser of King john i zÁpolya (1526–40) of Hungary. In 1534 he was appointed bishop of Nagyvárad and negotiated the Treaty of Nagyvárad (1538), in which King John agreed to Hapsburg succession after his death and thus to the unification of Hungary under Ferdinand I. But the dying John repudiated the agreement and made Friar George swear allegiance to his newborn son John Sigismund. Martinuzzi, as governor of Transylvania, attempted to maintain the infant's position with the support of Sultan Suleiman I. After the capture of Buda (1541) by the Turks, Martinuzzi returned to the original plan of unification of Hungary under the Hapsburgs in order to resist Turkish expansion. After lengthy negotiations the new treaty was ratified in 1551, and Martinuzzi was rewarded with the archbishopric of Esztergom (Gran) and the cardinal's hat. Meanwhile, to forestall the expected attack of the Sultan, he maintained friendly relations with the Turks. Such secret contacts raised the suspicions of Ferdinand's military commander, Castaldo, who, with the connivance of Ferdinand himself, arranged the Cardinal's assassination in the castle of Alvinc.

Bibliography: m. horvÁth, Frater György, élete (Budapest 1868). o. m. utieŠenoviĆ, Lebensgeschichte des Cardinals Utiešenović genannt Martinusius (Vienna 1881). k. juhÁsz, "Kardinal Georg Utjesenovich (T1551) und das Bistum Tschanad," Historisches Jahrbuch der Görres-Gesellschaft 80 (1961) 252–264.

[l. j. lekai]