Avram Iancu (; 1824 – 10 September 1872) was a Transylvanian Romanian lawyer who played an important role in the local chapter of the Austrian Empire Revolutions of 1848–1849. He was especially active in the Țara Moților region and the Apuseni Mountains. The rallying of peasants around him, as well as the allegiance he paid to the Habsburg monarchy, earned him the moniker Crăișorul Munților ("The Prince of the Mountains").Ion Ranca, Valeriu Nițu, Avram Iancu: documente și bibliografie, Bucharest, Editura Științifică, 1974 (most contemporary documents about Avram Iancu, including his report to Wohlgemuth)
Early life Avram Iancu was born in Vidra de Sus (currently Avram Iancu, Alba County), Transylvania, then part of the Austrian Empire, into a family of peasants that had been emancipated from serfdom. His father was Alisandru Iancu (1787–1855) and his mother was Maria Gligor. He had one elder brother, Ion (born 1822), who became a priest.
Iancu's grandfather was Gheorghe Iancu (deceased before 1812), who had four girls and three boys, including Alisandru. Little is known about Iancu's childhood. Local tradition holds that he had a typical moț character, joyful and witty, and that he had a musical talent, playing the leaf, alphorn, flute, and violin.
Iancu attended primary school in his village, in the Târsa hamlet, and then at Neagra (now Poiana Vadului). He later attended school in Câmpeni, Alba County, from where he graduated at age 13.
After this, he went to Zlatna, where he studied in a Hungarian school, in the Latin language, as there were no Romanian schools in this area. His teachers were Iozephus Stanken (1837–1838), Gregorius Iakabus (1838–1839) and Ludovicus Kovács (1839–1840 and 1840–1841). He graduated at age 17. He studied humanities from 1841, in the Piarist College of Cluj, graduating law school. Although he came from an Eastern Orthodox family, Iancu joined the Romanian Greek Catholic Church during his high school years.
Initial stages of 1848 Revolutions
Iancu became a law clerk in Târgu Mureș, and it was there that he learned about the events of March 1848 in Vienna and Pest. His attitude at the time showed the nature of the conflict that was to engulf Transylvania: while Iancu welcomed the transition, he was indignant that Hungarian revolutionaries (many of whom were landowners) refused to debate the abolition of serfdom (which at the time was the state of the majority of the Romanian population in Transylvania).Ioan N. Ciolan, Constantin Voicu, Mihai Racovițan, "Transylvania:Romanian history and perpetuation, or, what official Hungarian documents say", Military Publishing House, 1993
In the Apuseni Mountains, he started rallying peasants in Câmpeni. The protests he organized were recognized as peaceful by the authorities, but nevertheless worried them. Iancu and his associate Ioan Buteanu quickly became the main figures of the Romanian-led actions in the area, especially after they took part in the Blaj Assemblies starting in April, where over 40,000 Romanians met to protest against Transylvania becoming part of Hungary. In Blaj (; ) both opted for the main, radical wing of the movement. Centered on Alexandru Papiu Ilarian, the group opposed the Hungarian revolutionary option of uniting Transylvania and Hungary. It got into conflict with the minority wing around Greek-Catholic Bishop Ioan Lemeni, which chose not to boycott the elections for the Hungarian Parliament.
While the union was carried of on 30 May 1848, the majority of Romanian activists looked towards Vienna and Emperor Ferdinand, sharing the cause of the Transylvanian Saxons. Things became heated after 11 July, when Hungary declared its independence. Austria started to open itself to the Romanian demands, while bloody conflicts ensued between the Hungarian nobles and their Romanian serfs. The last Assembly in Blaj saw the Habsburg governor, Anton Freiherr von Puchner, approve of the arming of National Guards for Romanians and Saxons. On 27 September, the lynching of Austrian plenipotentiary Count Lamberg by a Pest crowd cut off any dialogue between the two centers. The new Emperor Franz Joseph and the Austrian government granted the Romanians numerous liberties and rights; although Lajos Kossuth's government abolished serfdom, this was no longer a match for the Imperial offer.
Conflict
Outbreak The Austrians clearly rejected the October demand that ethnic criteria become the basis for internal borders, with the goal of creating a province for Romanians (Transylvania grouped alongside Banat and Bukovina), as they did not want to replace the threat of Hungarian nationalism with the potential of Romanian separatism. Yet they did not declare themselves hostile to the rapid creation of Romanian administrative offices within Transylvania.
The territory was organized in ("prefectures"), with Iancu and Buteanu as two prefects in the Apuseni. Iancu's prefecture, the Auraria Gemina (a name charged with Latin symbolism), became the most important one as it took over from bordering areas that were never fully organized.
In the same month, the administrative efforts were halted, as Hungarians under Józef Bem carried out a sweeping offensive through Transylvania. With the discreet assistance of Imperial Russian troops, the Austrian army (except for the garrisons at Alba Iulia and Deva) and the Austrian-Romanian administration retreated to Wallachia and Wallachian Oltenia (both were, at the time, under Russia's occupation).
Attrition On 8 November, Iancu, along with his 4,000 combatants of the "Auraria Gemina" Legion, took part in joint military actions with Austrian forces. The Legion reached Turda, and the city surrendered without a fight on 20 November. Then, he and his troops returned to the mountains.Dragomir 1968, p. 118 On 29 November, Iancu had another 1,500 troops mobilized for action. On 4 December, he reached Săcuieu, and on 6–7 December, he and his men were ordered to attack the enemy lines by surprise. However, the attack failed due to the incompetence of an Austrian officer, and the Romanians were forced to withdraw by 10 December. By early January 1849, the control over Transylvania was almost entirely regained by the Hungarian army. The Romanian fighters holding out in their mountain stronghold were running low on supplies, having only 800 rifles to arm a few thousand men, and were completely surrounded by Hungarian troops by the end of March.Dragomir 1968, p. 117
By February and March 1849, numerous attacks launched by the Hungarians ended in failure. Among these were the two battles of Mărișel, the first one fought in February and the second one in March. The first, fought against a Hungarian detachment of 600 soldiers, ended in their defeat.Petre Otu, 100 de bătălii din Istoria Românilor (in Romanian), Litera, București, 2021, p. 331. Their losses amounted to 13 dead and many wounded, who had to be loaded onto 4 carts and brought to Gilău, while the Romanians lost 6 dead.Iulian Topliceanu & Constantin Ucrain, Oastea lui Avram Iancu (in Romanian), Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 1989, p. 104. Wanting to wash away the shame brought by this defeat, the Hungarian military commander of the Gilău garrison sent an even larger force in March, made up of 1,600 soldiers. The Romanians under Iancu received support from the women of Mărișel, led by Pelaghia Roșu. With their combined help, the Hungarians were routed. They lost 30 dead on the battlefield, including a captain and a sergeant major, and another 100 drowned in the Someș River, while their many wounded were loaded onto 6 carts. The Romanians only had 2–3 men wounded.Iulian Topliceanu & Constantin Ucrain, Oastea Lui Avram Iancu (in Romanian), Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 1989, pp. 105–107.
In April 1849, Iancu was approached by the Hungarian envoy (in fact, a Romanian deputy in the Hungarian Parliament). Dragoș appeared to have been acting out of his own desire for peace, since Iancu's troops were tying down too many Hungarian troops: about 10,000, a third of its army in Transylvania, according to Hungarian general János Czetz. He worked hard to get the Romanian leaders to meet him in Abrud and listen to the Hungarian demands. Iancu's direct adversary, Hungarian commander , seems to have taken advantage of the provisional armistice to attack the Romanians in Abrud.Keith Hitchins, Românii 1774–1866, Bucharest, Humanitas, 1996 He did not, however, benefit from a surprise, as Iancu and his men retreated and then encircled him. Meanwhile, Dragoș was lynched by the Abrud crowds, in the belief that he was part of Hatvany's ruse.
Hatvany also angered the Romanians by having Buteanu captured and murdered. While his position became weaker, he was permanently attacked by Iancu's men until the major defeat of 22 May. Hatvany and most of his armed group were massacred by their adversaries, as Iancu captured their cannons, switching the tactical advantage for the next months. Hatvany's troops lost 5,000 soldiers and all of their artillery. Kossuth was angered by Hatvany's gesture (an inspection of the time dismissed all of Hatvany's close collaborators), especially since it made future negotiations unlikely.
On 8 June, the Romanian stronghold in the mountains was attacked by the largest Hungarian force yet: 4,000 men supported by 19 cannons led by General . The battle lasted between 11 and 17 June and ended in a crushing victory for the Romanians, the Hungarians having at least 500 troops killed during the battle. The Hungarian historian and philosopher Pál Vasvári, with a force of 3,000 men and 5 cannons, was killed on 6 July 1849 during an engagement with Romanian forces under the tribunes Nicolau Corcheș and Iacob Olteanu, and local forces of Mărișel under the centurion Indrei (Andrei) Roșu, the son of Pelaghia Roșu. They had 440–500 men under their command, only 123 of whom had rifles, in the Apuseni Mountains, in the area between present-day Mărișel and Fântânele, Cluj County. The battle cost the Hungarians between 800Gelu Neamțu & Vasile Tutula, Aspecte militare și pagini memorialistice despre Revoluția și Războiul civil din Transilvania (1848–1849) (in Romanian), Argonaut, Cluj-Napoca, 2008, p. 146. and 850Iulian Topliceanu & Constantin Ucrain, Oastea lui Avram Iancu (in Romanian), Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 1989, p. 158. dead soldiers and many wounded, with many of their officers and Vasvári himself killed. The Romanians captured 1 cannon, a lot of ammunition, and a considerable number of different weapons. Their losses were 4 dead and 12 wounded.Gelu Neamțu & Vasile Tutula, Aspecte militare și pagini memorialistice despre Revoluția și Războiul civil din Transilvania (1848–1849) (in Romanian), Argonaut, Cluj-Napoca, 2008, pp. 145–146. Iulian Topliceanu & Constantin Ucrain, Oastea lui Avram Iancu (in Romanian), Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 1989, pp. 157–159. The exact location of his death remains disputed among historical sources.
The Russian intervention in June precipitated events, especially since Poles fighting in the Hungarian revolutionary contingents wanted to see an all-out resistance to the Tsarist armies. People like Henryk Dembiński mediated for an understanding between Kossuth and the Wallachian émigré revolutionaries. The latter, understandably close to Avram Iancu (especially Nicolae Bălcescu, Gheorghe Magheru, Alexandru G. Golescu, and Ion Ghica), were also keen to inflict a defeat on the Russian armies that had crushed their movement in September 1848. Fighting also continued in July, during the peace negotiations, on 2, 4, and 22 July, all Hungarian attacks being repulsed yet again. Finally, the conflict ended on 29 July, as Iancu offered a guarantee to the Hungarian troops that he would not attack them, allowing them to withdraw in front of the Austro-Russian offensive.Dragomir 1968, pp. 270-271
Negotiations