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150-512: The spring campaign's commander-in-chief was General Artúr Görgey , whose army (47 500 men, 198 cannons) defeated the numerically, technologically and tactically superior (55 000 soldiers and 214 cannons and rockets) imperial armies led by Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz and after his dismissal, Ludwig von Welden , in a series of victories. The Hungarians won the battles of Hatvan (2 April), Tápióbicske (4 April), Isaszeg (6 April), Vác (10 April), Nagysalló (19 April), on 26 April relieved

300-523: A French chemist named Saint-Évre wrote an article in which he announced the discovery of the undecylic acid. At first, Görgei was disappointed that with this announcement his work would be pointless, but then he noticed that the French chemist was wrong in thinking that the undecylic acid was an original, undiscovered acid rather than a mixture of lauric and decanoic acids, which he demonstrated in his study. Görgei's results were published by Redtenbacher under

450-576: A Hungarian campaign to chase Windisch-Grätz and his troops out of Hungary. On 16–17 March, the Hungarian troops crossed the Tisza river; but, due to some unfounded rumors, Vetter decided to retreat to the starting position. During these events, Görgei was the only military commander who achieved notable success, by advancing from the north through Tokaj , Gyöngyös , Miskolc , and Mezőkövesd , by which he succeeded in diverting Windisch-Grätz's attention from

600-519: A Russian invasion. All the military and political advice seemed in favor of taking Buda first, rather than moving towards Vienna. According to Hungarian Historian Róbert Hermann, the capture of Buda after three weeks of siege (the only siege of the Hungarian Freedom War that ended in the taking of a fortress by assault; the remaining fortresses and castles were taken, by one or the other side, only after negotiations and then surrender)

750-402: A certain archaic eloquence. While Wesselényi was broken mentally, Kossuth, supported by Terézia Meszlényi's frequent visits, emerged from prison in much better condition. His arrest had caused great controversy. The Diet, which reconvened in 1839, demanded the release of the political prisoners and refused to pass any government measures. Austrian chancellor Metternich long remained obdurate, but

900-494: A charge of high treason. After spending a year in prison at Buda awaiting trial, he was condemned to four more years' imprisonment. Kossuth and his friend Count Miklós Wesselényi were placed in separated solitary cells. Count Wesselényi's cell did not have even a window, and he went blind in the darkness. Kossuth, however, had a small window and with the help of a politically well-informed young woman, Theresa Meszlényi, he remained informed about political events. Meszlényi lied to

1050-457: A coherent programme. The paper achieved unprecedented success, soon reaching the then immense circulation of 7000 copies. A competing pro-government newspaper, Világ (World), started up, but despite its attacks against Kossuth's ideas, it became counterproductive, and it only served to increase Kossuth's visibility and add to the general political fervor. Kossuth's ideas stand on the enlightened Western European type liberal nationalism (based on

1200-690: A delegation went to Buda and sent the news of the Austrian Revolution) as their hero, revolution broke out in Buda on 15 March; Kossuth traveled home immediately. On 17 March 1848 the Emperor assented and Lajos Batthyány created the first Hungarian government, that was not anymore responsible to the King, but to the elected members of the Diet . On 23 March 1848, Pm. Batthyány commended his government to

1350-400: A frontal attack of the enemy, the breaking of the weak Hungarian front line, cutting of his supply lines, and the occupation of Debrecen, the temporary Hungarian capital. Görgei later wrote in his memoirs that he knew that he could take these risks against such a weak commander as Windisch-Grätz. According to József Bánlaky and Tamás Csikány, Görgei failed to follow up his successes by taking

1500-408: A general battle plan, intervening only when needed, as he did at Tápióbicske and Isaszeg, where he turned, by his presence and decisiveness, the tide of battle in his favor. He took great risks at the start of both phases of his spring campaign because he left only a few troops in front of the enemy, while sending the bulk of his army to make encircling maneuvers, which, if discovered, could have led to

1650-444: A hard life. Records from the school show that his conduct was very good, he had no errors, his natural talents were exceptional, and his fervency and diligence were constant, being very severe with himself but also with the others. Despite this, in his letters he wrote that he despised the life of a soldier because he had to obey officers whom he did not respect and that he dreamed about a free and active life that he could not find in

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1800-483: A narrow strip of land in the west, Croatia, and a few land pockets and forts. In the battle of Isaszeg, Görgei had been close to encircling and completely destroying Windisch-Grätz's main Austrian army, which could have brought about a decisive end to the war; but the refusal of one of his army corps commanders, András Gáspár , to attack from the north, made possible the enemy escape. Görgei shared some responsibility for

1950-657: A national icon. He regained full health in January 1841. In January 1841 he became editor of the Pesti Hírlap. The job was offered to him by Lajos Landerer, the owner of a big printing house company in Pest (in fact, Landerer was an undercover agent of the Vienna secret police). The government circles and the secret police believed that censorship and financial interests would curtail Kossuth's opposition, and they did not consider

2100-463: A permanent manner for wartime. Lajos Kossuth was elected president of the OHB, which operated as the de facto government. Already on 14 September, a rapidly growing number of his supporters called in parliament for Kossuth to be given temporary dictatorial powers because of the critical and desperate war situation. For the first time in the revolutionary movements of 1848, for the first time since 1793,

2250-519: A place to live in Visegrád, where Görgei lived the last decades of his life. After Görgei's return and for the rest of his life, Hungarian public opinion was hostile, because of some false accusations. Kossuth's Letter from Vidin , written in the aftermath of Görgei's surrender, instilled a long-lasting hatred of Görgei amongst the Hungarians, many of whom came to believe that he was a traitor. In

2400-695: A result of their mixed ancestry, and as was quite common during his era, her children spoke three languages – Hungarian , German and Slovak – even in their early childhood. Lajos studied at the Piarist college of Sátoraljaújhely and the Calvinist college of Sárospatak (for one year) and the University of Pest (now Budapest ). At nineteen he entered his father's legal practice. Between 1824 and 1832 he practiced law in his native Zemplén County. His career quickly took off, thanks also to his father, who

2550-524: A scene of wild enthusiasm this was granted by acclamation. However the danger had been exacerbated by Kossuth himself through appealing exclusively to the Magyar notables rather than including the other subject minorities of the Habsburg empire too. The Austrians, meanwhile, successfully used the other minorities as allies against the Magyar uprising. While Croatian ban Josip Jelačić was marching on Pest,

2700-597: A small town in the county of Zemplén in modern day Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County of Northern Hungary . He was the eldest of five children in a Lutheran noble family of Slovak origin. His father, László Kossuth (1762–1839), belonged to the lower nobility , had a small estate and was a lawyer by profession. László had two brothers ( Simon Kossuth and György Kossuth ) and one sister (Jana). The family moved from Monok to Olaszliszka in 1803, and then to Sátoraljaújhely in 1808. Lajos had four younger sisters. Lajos' mother, Karolina, raised her children as strict Lutherans. As

2850-546: A student of chemistry at the University of Prague . He loved chemistry, writing this to his friend, Gusztáv Röszler, who had recommended him to professor Josef Redtenbacher , a great chemist at that time: [Y]our recommendation to Redtenbacher made me very happy. I am gaining life as never before. The science of chemistry itself, but also the leading of it by such a great professor as Redtenbacher, totally conquered me. Görgei's work in chemistry from this period are worthy of note: he conducted research into coconut oil, discovering

3000-534: Is how it had been given at his birth. For example, Sándor Pethő's bibliographical book Görgey Artúr (Budapest, 1930), or Artúr's younger brother István Görgey's Görgey Arthur ifjusága és fejlődése a forradalomig [The youth of Artúr Görgey, and his development until the revolution] (Budapest, 1916) and Görgey Arthur a száműzetésben 1849–1867 [Artúr Görgey in exile, 1849–1867] (Budapest, 1918). But, recent historiography spells it Görgei (Róbert Hermann's and Tamás Csikány's works, for example). In Hungarian surnames ,

3150-464: Is impossible to speak in a hundred different languages. There must be one language and in Hungary this must be Hungarian". Kossuth's assimilatory ambitions were disapproved by Zsigmond Kemény , though he supported a multinational state led by Hungarians. István Széchenyi criticized Kossuth for "pitting one nationality against another". He publicly warned Kossuth that his appeals to the passions of

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3300-521: Is seen as a Robin Hood -like character, while Kossuth was the personification of the nation. Also, the Serbs referred to him as King Kossuth, whose carriage was said to be drawn by 600 horses. On 7 December 1848, the Diet of Hungary formally refused to acknowledge the title of the new king, Franz Joseph I, "as without the knowledge and consent of the diet no one could sit on the Hungarian throne" and called

3450-809: Is why this article also uses this form. Görgei was born as Johannes Arthur Woldemár Görgey at Toporc in Upper Hungary (today Toporec , Slovakia ) on 30 January 1818 to an impoverished Hungarian noble family of Zipser German descent who immigrated to the Szepes (today Spiš ) region during the reign of King Géza II of Hungary (1141–1162). During the Reformation , they converted to Protestantism. The family name refers to their origin from Görgő village ( Hungarian : görgői , lit. "of Görgő"), today Spišský Hrhov in Slovakia . In 1832, Görgei enrolled in

3600-673: The Hungarian Revolutionary Army , he was the leader of the victorious Spring Campaign and liberated almost all of Western Hungary from Austrian occupation. In recognition of his military successes, he was awarded by the Hungarian Government and was appointed Minister of War. In the last days of the revolution, he was appointed the " dictator " of Hungary . On 13 August 1849, when he realised that he would not be able to fight newly arrived and superior Austrian and Russian armies, he surrendered his troops to

3750-486: The Magyar Kémiai Folyóirat [Hungarian Chemistry Magazine]. Görgei's skills and achievements in chemistry were praised by Vojtěch Šafařík and Károly Than . Redtenbacher wanted to hire Görgei as a chemist at the university of Lemberg , but in the end Görgei retreated to the family domains at Toporc, because his uncle Ferenc had died and his widow had asked him to come home and help the family. After

3900-590: The United States Capitol with the inscription: Father of Hungarian Democracy, Hungarian Statesman, Freedom Fighter, 1848–1849 . Friedrich Engels considered him to be "a truly revolutionary figure, a man who in the name of his people dares to accept the challenge of a desperate struggle, who for his nation is Danton and Carnot in one person   ...". Lajos Kossuth was born into an untitled lower noble (gentry) family in Monok , Kingdom of Hungary,

4050-522: The sapper school at Tulln , profiting from a tuition-free place offered by a foundation. Because his family was poor, this was a great opportunity for him; but initially, he did not want to be a soldier. During this period, he wrote to his father that he would rather be a philosopher or scientist than a soldier. He spent almost thirteen years in this school, receiving a military education. He decided not to accept money from his family, and ate very little, and wore poor clothes in an effort to train himself for

4200-425: The " jus soli " principle, that is the complete opposition of the typical Eastern European ethnic nationalism , which based on " jus sanguinis "). Kossuth followed the ideas of the French nation state ideology, which was a ruling liberal idea of his era. Accordingly, he considered and regarded automatically everybody as "Hungarian" – regardless of their mother tongue and ethnic ancestry – who were born and lived in

4350-431: The "feudal type" of monarchies. Széchenyi's economic policy based on Anglo-Saxon free-market principles, while Kossuth supported the protective tariffs due to the weaker Hungarian industrial sector. Kossuth wanted to build a rapidly industrialized country in his vision while Széchenyi wanted to preserve the traditionally strong agricultural sector as the main character of the economy. The crisis came, and he used it to

4500-482: The "y" instead of an "i" (used today), usually appears as the last letter of the names of nobles (as a locative adverb suffix: for example, 'Debreceni', meaning "from Debrecen"), because their names appeared in writing earlier than the names of people of common origin, so the nobiliary surnames retained the archaic spelling of the period when they were first written down. The surnames of the common people, which appeared later, after Hungarian spelling changed, had an "i" as

4650-459: The 14 April declaration. The Russians intervened in the struggle and made common cause with the Austrians, in mid-June 1849 the allies advanced into Hungary from all sides. Görgei found himself before a greatly superior enemy. The reinforcements that Kossuth had promised did not came, because on 7 June General Perczel, the commander of the southern Hungarian army, had suffered a heavy defeat in

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4800-429: The 20th   century, this characterization was challenged by modern research. As a result, Görgei is less often considered treasonous, and his reputation as one of the most talented and successful Hungarian generals of the 19th   century has been restored, being now regarded as one of Hungary's greatest historical heroes. The earlier books and articles about Artúr Görgei usually gave his surname as Görgey , which

4950-552: The 22nd), scored a draw (at Turcsek 17 January 1849), and won two ( Igló on 2 February 1849, and Branyiszkó on the 5th). Kossuth, who did not want to give the supreme command to Görgei, conferred it on the Polish general Henryk Dembiński . Many officers from Görgei's Army of the Upper Danube ( György Kmety , Lajos Aulich ) were astonished at Kossuth's decision and sought to protest, but Görgei ordered them to accept it. One of

5100-428: The 28th—but these were mostly due to the inattention of his brigade commanders. Görgei understood that with his inferior troops he could not stop the main Austrian army; and if he risked battle, he would have suffered a decisive defeat, which would have ended Hungary's bid for independence. In the war council held on 2 January 1849, Görgei convinced the other commanders that there was no other choice than to retreat from

5250-419: The 5th   Hungarian battalion, from Győr, to train newly enlisted men. Shortly after that, a former companion-in-arms, Lieutenant Imre Ivánka, Prime Minister Lajos Batthyány 's secretary, recommended him to Batthyány to work in the ministry. Görgei worked with Ivánka on a plan to organize the voluntary mobile national guards into four camps and was named captain of the national guard camp at Szolnok . Görgei

5400-631: The Austrians to Klagenfurt, in Carinthia , and was kept under surveillance until 1867, when amnesty issued as a result of the Hungarian-Austrian Compromise and the founding of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. He then was able to return to Hungary. Over several years of hardships in different parts of Hungary, Görgei unsuccessfully tried to find a suitable job; and his brother, István Görgey, provided him with

5550-517: The Batthyány government to resign, the nation found itself once more bereft of executive authority. The government meeting of 11 September, under Kossuth's leadership, adopted revolutionary decisions on finance and the military to defend the invaded homeland. Another attempt by Batthyány to form a cabinet failed, and Kossuth declared that until another government was appointed, he would retain his position as finance minister. According to legend, it

5700-470: The Battle of Káty, from an Austro-Croatian army, reinforced with Serbian rebels, led by Josip Jelačić. Perczel could not send the reinforcements because he needed them there. A second problem was that many of his experienced generals, who had proved their talent in the spring campaign, were no longer available: ( János Damjanich had broken his leg, Lajos Aulich was ill, and András Gáspár had resigned from

5850-539: The Danube, the Chain Bridge , which disrupted the Hungarian supply lines and threatened the Hungarian troops and supply carriages, causing the Hungarians to make a long detour, which caused weeks of delay, and prevented their use of the Danube as a transport route. Besides that, he had to deploy a considerable portion of his force in order to monitor the Austrian troops in Buda, thus weakening any attack westward. Also,

6000-595: The Declaration of the Hungarian Independence, whose chief proponent was Kossuth. The latter refrained from naming Görgei as commander-in-chief of the Hungarian army, naming weak commanders, such as Henryk Dembiński or Lázár Mészáros, instead, thus weakening the army. After his surrender to the Russian army, he was not executed, like many of his generals, due to Russian intercession, but was taken by

6150-528: The Diet. In the new government Kossuth was appointed as the Minister of Finance. He began developing the internal resources of the country: re-establishing a separate Hungarian coinage, and using every means to increase national self-consciousness. Characteristically, the new Hungarian bank notes had Kossuth's name as the most prominent inscription; making reference to "Kossuth Notes" a future byword. A new paper

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6300-470: The Habsburg dynasty. Kossuth believed that society could not be forced into a passive role by any reason through social change. According to Kossuth, the wider social movements can not be continually excluded from political life. Behind Kossuth's conception of society was a notion of freedom that emphasized the unitary origin of rights, which he saw manifested in universal suffrage. In exercising political rights, Széchenyi took into account wealth and education of

6450-588: The Habsburg emperor under the name Ferdinand I of Austria , dismissed the Batthyány Government and authorized the Ban of Croatia , Josip Jelačić . On 11 September 1848, when the troops of Jelačić crossed the Dráva river to enter Hungary, Görgei's national guards were ordered to come from Szolnok to Csepel Island to keep an eye on the movements of Croatian supplies. Here, Görgei organized the villagers from

6600-800: The Hungarian Honvéd army, training them for future battles. He debated with Kossuth about how to organize an effective defense of the border, and was forced to accept Kossuth's idea of aligning his units along the border, although he thought that grouping them further back would be a better choice. When, in the middle of December, the Austrian troops under Windisch-Grätz advanced across the Lajta river (the border between Austria and Hungary), Görgei slowly retreated, thus angering Kossuth, who thought that he should fight for every inch of Hungarian territory. Görgei understood that if he would have followed Kossuth's wishes, he would certainly have been crushed by

6750-503: The Hungarian armies: Vác (10 April), Nagysalló (19 April), and Komárom (26 April). The plan was similar to the first part: this time the IInd corps led by General Lajos Aulich, and two brigades led by colonels György Kmety and Lajos Asbóth demonstrated , diverting the attention of Windisch-Grätz from the Ist, IIId, and VIIth corps' pincer maneuver from the northwest, in order to relieve

6900-593: The Hungarian army for political reasons. ) Görgei was forced to put in their place other officers, who were capable soldiers, but were not experienced as army corps leaders, many of them lacking the capacity to act independently when needed. A third problem was that he could not adequately fulfill the duties of being both supreme commander and head of the war ministry at the same time, being forced to move frequently between Pest and his general staff office near Tata . Nevertheless, Görgei decided to attack Haynau's forces, hoping to break them and advance towards Vienna before

7050-543: The Hungarian army. The minimal objective of the Hungarians was to force the Austrians to retreat from the Danube–Tisza Interfluve . During these operations, due to the faults of some of Görgei's corps commanders (György Klapka and András Gáspár ), as well to Windisch-Grätz cautiousness, the latter managed to escape the trap of being surrounded; but nevertheless, because of his defeats at Hatvan (2 April), Tápióbicske (4 April), and Isaszeg (6 April), Windisch-Grätz

7200-448: The Hungarian border to Pest, can be seen as only partly successful; but this campaign was his first as commander of such a large, the main army of Hungary, being responsible for retreating before the numerically and technologically superior enemy forces without suffering a decisive defeat, having subordinates and the majority of his soldiers who were equally inexperienced. Although, strategically his decisions were not faultless, tactically he

7350-405: The Hungarian capitals. In spite of remonstrations from Kossuth, who wanted him to accept a decisive battle before the Hungarian capitals, Görgei maintained his resolve and retreated to Vác , letting Buda and Pest fall into the hands of the enemy, who entered the cities on 5 January 1849. The Hungarian Committee of National Defense, which temporarily functioned as the executive power in Hungary after

7500-608: The Hungarian government was in serious military crisis due to the lack of soldiers, Kossuth used his popularity, he went from town to town rousing the people to the defense of the country, and the popular force of the Honvéd was his creation. When Batthyány resigned he was appointed with Szemere to carry on the government provisionally, and at the end of September he was made President of the Committee of National Defense. Prime minister Lajos Batthyány 's desperate attempts to mediate with

7650-416: The Hungarian plains. According to the military historian Róbert Hermann, the one-and-a-half months of Görgei's campaign to the east through northern Hungary was a strategic success, because Görgei prevented Windisch-Grätz from attacking with all his forces towards Debrecen, where the Hungarian government had taken refuge, thus putting an end to the Hungarian revolution, and because he provided enough time for

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7800-562: The Hungarian struggle for independence. After the Battle of Pákozd of 29 September 1848—in which the Hungarian troops, led by János Móga, defeated the troops of Jelačić, saving the Hungarian capitals—Görgei's 2,500 troops, reinforced by 16,500 peasant militia from Tolna county , observed the movements of the Croatian reinforcements, led by Roth and Philipovich, blocked their retreat, and eventually forced them to surrender. Görgei's superior

7950-430: The Hungarian troops to cross the Austrian border, decided to personally encourage the Hungarian army. In a war council, the old commanders, led by Móga, declared that an assault on the Austrian border would bring with it a Hungarian defeat, pointing at the numerical superiority of the enemy. Kossuth argued, "Our cause is linked with Vienna – separated from it, nobody will give us any importance." He warned that

8100-612: The Hungarians, creating an even greater numerical superiority. Despite this Görgei agreed to follow the government's plan, in order to avoid an open conflict with them. So, he promised to lead his troops to southern Hungary, starting 3 July, hoping that until that day all the scattered units of his army would be able to gather and join his army. Lajos Kossuth Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva ( Hungarian: [ˈlɒjoʃ ˈkoʃut] ; Hungarian : udvardi és kossuthfalvi Kossuth Lajos ; Slovak : Ľudovít Košút ; English: Louis Kossuth ; 19 September 1802 – 20 March 1894)

8250-526: The Official Censor halted circulation by lithograph printing. Distribution in manuscript by post was forbidden by the government, although circulation by hand continued. In 1836, the Diet was dissolved. Kossuth continued to report (in letter form), covering the debates of the county assemblies. The newfound publicity gave the assemblies national political prominence. Previously, they had had little idea of each other's proceedings. His embellishment of

8400-476: The Opposition Party. Ferenc Deák was absent. As Headlam noted, his political rivals, Batthyány, István Széchenyi , Szemere, and József Eötvös , believed: his intense personal ambition and egoism led him always to assume the chief place, and to use his parliamentary position to establish himself as leader of the nation; but before his eloquence and energy all apprehensions were useless. His eloquence

8550-466: The Ottoman Empire. The ministry council accepted Görgei's plan, but unfortunately because of his required presence at the council, Görgei was unable to concentrate his troops against Haynau's army, freshly deployed from the northern to the southern banks of the Danube, when they attacked Győr on 28 June. Görgei arrived only at the end of the battle, when it was too late to rescue the situation for

8700-537: The Russians at Világos , thus ending the revolution. Görgei's difficult relationship with Lajos Kossuth , the foremost politician and president-governor of revolutionary Hungary, impacted the course of the war of independence, Görgei's military career, and his post-revolutionary life until his death. During his campaigns in the winter and summer of 1848–1849. Görgei clashed with Kossuth over their differing opinions on military operations and because Görgei disapproved of

8850-580: The VII corps arriving at the battlefield only after the battle ended). The Hungarian officers revolted against the Polish commander and demanded his dismissal and that a Hungarian general be put in his place. Among the generals whom the Hungarian officers would accept as the supreme commander, Görgei was the most popular; and in an officers meeting held in Tiszafüred , in the presence of the government's chief commissary Bertalan Szemere , they elected Görgei as

9000-551: The Viennese royal court to achieve reconciliation and restore peace were no longer successful. Due to his unsuccessful peace missions, Batthyány slowly began to become politically isolated and increasingly lost the support of the parliament. On 6 September, Kossuth ordered the first Hungarian banknotes to be issued to cover defence expenses. In early September 1848, after the Habsburg King of Hungary, Ferdinand V, compelled

9150-409: The army himself; but when the corps commanders— György Klapka , Lajos Aulich, János Damjanich —declared that Görgei was the ablest commander for that job, he had to accept it. Thus, Görgei became acting head only a few days before the start of the spring campaign. The plan of the spring campaign had to take into account the fact that the enemy troops were numerically superior to the Hungarians. So, it

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9300-538: The army. Following graduation, he served in the Nádor Hussar regiment, undertaking the role of adjutant . By 1837, he had reached the rank of lieutenant and entered the Hungarian Noble Guard at Vienna , where he combined military service with a course of study at the university. In 1845, on his father's death, Görgei happily left the army, feeling that the military life did not suit him, to be

9450-526: The aspirations of a free people. He at once became the leader of the European revolution; his speech was read aloud in the streets of Vienna to the mob which overthrew Metternich (13 March); when a deputation from the Diet visited Vienna to receive the assent of Emperor Ferdinand to their petition, Kossuth received the chief ovation. While Viennese masses celebrated Kossuth (and from the Diet in Pressburg

9600-461: The besieged fortress of Komárom , force the Austrians to retreat from the capitals, and eventually to encircle them. This maneuver resulted in success, except for the encirclement of the enemy troops, which escaped, retreating from all Hungary, except for a strip of land near the Austrian border. These Hungarian successes were achieved despite the changing of the Austrian high command (Alfred Zu Windisch-Grätz, Josip Jelačić, and Ludwig von Welden ) and

9750-422: The bulk of his army around Buda and Pest, to prevent Görgei turning to the west and attacking Vienna, thus preventing the Austrians from attacking the provisional capital of Debrecen, and providing time for the Hungarian troops east of Tisza to reorganize. He also sent needed money and ore supplies from mining towns such as Körmöcbánya , Selmecbánya , and Besztercebánya to Debrecen. Another of Görgei's goals

9900-506: The citizens, thus he supported only limited suffrage similar to the Western European (British, French and Belgian) limited suffrage of the era. In 1885, Kossuth called Széchenyi a liberal elitist aristocrat while Széchenyi considered himself to be a democrat. Széchenyi was an isolationist politician while, according to Kossuth, strong relations and collaboration with international liberal and progressive movements are essential for

10050-412: The command; Görgei refused. In the end, Móga remained the commander during the Battle of Schwechat , where the Austrian troops of Windisch-Grätz and Jelačić routed the Hungarian army, which was composed mainly of inexperienced national guards and peasants. Görgei led the advance guard and achieved some success, but the lack of experience of the soldiers and the commanders made all his actions useless, and

10200-413: The commander-in-chief, with their decision ratified by Szemere. When Kossuth heard about this, he was angered and rushed to the military camp, thinking that Görgei was its organizer and declaring that he would order Görgei executed for this revolt. But when he arrived at Tiszafüred and saw that the majority of the officers supported Görgei, Kossuth was forced to accept the situation. However, he declared that

10350-563: The concentration of the Hungarian forces behind the Tisza river, clearing the Szepes region of enemy troops, and thus securing with this the whole territory between Szeged and the Galician border as a Hungarian hinterland from which a future counterattack could be launched. During his retreat, he fought five notable battles, of which he lost two (Szélakna on 21 January 1849, and Hodrusbánya on

10500-472: The creation of a Hungarian port at Fiume . Kossuth played a major role in the formation of the Opposition Party in 1847, whose programme was essentially formulated by him. In autumn 1847, Kossuth was able to take his final key step. The support of Lajos Batthyány during a keenly fought campaign made him be elected to the new Diet as member for Pest . He proclaimed: "Now that I am a deputy, I will cease to be an agitator." He immediately became chief leader of

10650-421: The crossing of the main Hungarian forces at Cibakháza , forcing the Austrian commander to take a defensive position, and thus ceding the initiative to the Hungarians before the start of their Spring Campaign. At the end of March 1849, Görgei was named as acting commander by Kossuth because Vetter had fallen ill. Before this, Kossuth again hesitated, trying to find somebody else, even thinking of taking command of

10800-436: The culture of Slavonic inhabitants of Hungary, he sowed the seeds of both the collapse of Hungary in 1849 and his own political demise. In 1844, Kossuth was dismissed from Pesti Hírlap after a dispute with the proprietor over salary. It is believed that the dispute was rooted in government intrigue. Kossuth was unable to obtain permission to start his own newspaper. In a personal interview, Metternich offered to take him into

10950-405: The danger of war in 1840 obliged him to give way. On the day of his release from the prison, Kossuth and Meszlényi were married, and she remained a firm supporter of his politics. She was a Catholic and her Church refused to bless the marriage since Kossuth, a proud Protestant, would not convert. At the time of their marriage it was unheard of that people of different religions married. According to

11100-568: The defeat of Jelačić's army, the people of Vienna revolted , forcing the emperor to flee to Olmütz . The Hungarian troops led by János Móga, who had defeated Jelačić at Pákozd, advanced to the Hungarian–Austrian border; and many people thought that it should come to the aid of the revolutionaries in the imperial capital, which was at that time defended only by the troops of Jelačić. The Hungarian officers, many of whom were foreign and unsure of what to do, said that they would agree to this only if

11250-473: The defeat of the revolution, in 1851, Görgei received an award and 40 Hungarian pengős , as an honorarium, from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences for his achievements in chemistry during the two and a half years he worked in this field. In March 1848, during the early days of the Hungarian revolution, Görgei was in Vienna and Prague, preparing to marry Adéle Aubouin, a French- Huguenot girl, who

11400-537: The enlistment period of the Hungarian national guards would expire soon; and if they did not engage the Austrians, they would go home without any fighting. He also said that if only one of the Hungarian commanders would say that he would attack, showing a plan by which success could be achieved, he would make that person the commander. At that moment Görgei stood up and said, "We have no other choice than to advance because if we do not advance, we will lose more than losing three battles." Hearing that, Kossuth wanted to give him

11550-402: The failure to make the best of this opportunity because, wrongly thinking that Gáspár had already begun to attack, he did not urge his general on. Also playing an important role in the liberation of the country were the troops of Józef Bem , who liberated Transylvania , and Mór Perczel, who liberated much of southern Hungary, except for Croatia . However, Görgei was the commander who achieved

11700-568: The final decision about who would be the commander would be announced after he presented the facts to the Parliament. In Debrecen, Kossuth and his political supporters ignored the wishes of the Hungarian generals to name Görgei and designated Antal Vetter as commander-in-chief. On 8 March, by way of consolation, Görgei was decorated with the Second Class Military Order of Merit. In the middle of March, Vetter planned

11850-414: The first decisions of the new commander was to order many of the Hungarian units, under the lead of Görgei and Klapka, to retreat, enabling the Austrian troops of General Franz Schlik to escape from their encirclement. On 25–27 February 1849, Dembiński, after making mistake after mistake, lost the Battle of Kápolna (in which Görgei's VII corps could not participate; because of Dembiński's poor deployment,

12000-409: The foreign or wavering officers and soldiers to remain with the army, halting its dissolution, and to defend Hungary with all determination. After the proclamation, Görgei chose to retreat eastward, through the northern Gömör-Szepes Ore and Tátra mountain ranges, and to conduct operations on his own initiative, forcing the Austrian commander Windisch-Grätz to send troops in pursuit as well as keep

12150-455: The fortress and move with the bulk of his troops to southern Hungary, to the confluence of the rivers Maros and Tisza. Görgei thought this new plan completely wrong: that the region which they wanted to concentrate the troops was completely racked by the war, that the most important fortress of the region, Temesvár was in the hands of the enemy, and that this retreat would provide enough time for Haynau and Paskevich to unite their forces against

12300-606: The fortress of Komárom from a long Austrian siege, then on 21 May 1849 liberated the Castle of Buda , concluding the Spring Campaign. On the other theaters of operations, the Hungarians also scored victories against the enemies of the revolution. In Transylvania, the Hungarian army led by Józef Bem , after the victory against the Austro-Russian forces in the Battle of Nagyszeben from 11 March, liberated most of

12450-422: The full. Count Széchenyi judged the reform system of Kossuth in a pamphlet, Kelet Népe from 1841. According to Széchenyi, economic, political and social reforms must be instituted slowly and carefully so that Hungary would avoid the violent interference of the Habsburg dynasty. Széchenyi was listening to the spread of the expansion of Kossuth's ideas in Hungarian society, which did not consider good relations with

12600-513: The full. On 3 March 1848, shortly after the news of the revolution in Paris had arrived, in a speech of surpassing power he demanded parliamentary government for Hungary and constitutional government for the rest of Austria. He appealed to the hope of the Habsburgs, "our beloved Archduke Franz Joseph " (then seventeen years old), to perpetuate the ancient glory of the dynasty by meeting half-way

12750-452: The government for the recent defeats and the evacuation of the capitals, but also declared that he, along with his army, would not put down their weapons and that he would fight with all his energy and power against the imperials to defend the Hungarian revolution and the April laws . This proclamation was seen at once by Kossuth as a revolt against his authority, but it convinced the majority of

12900-404: The government service. Kossuth refused and spent the next three years without a regular position. He continued to agitate on behalf of both political and commercial independence for Hungary. He adopted the economic principles of Friedrich List , and was the founder of the popular "Védegylet" society  [ hu ] whose members consumed only Hungarian industrial products. He also argued for

13050-630: The greatest success by defeating the main Austrian army—which constituted the most experienced, and best-equipped forces of the Austrian Empire, and had Austria's best as its commanders—forcing them to retreat from the most developed central and western parts of the country, including the capitals. Görgei achieved his successes with a numerically and technologically inferior army (47,500 Hungarian soldiers, having 198   cannons, vs 55,000 Austrian soldiers with 214   cannons and rockets), which lacked heavy cavalry (relying almost completely on

13200-442: The harsh winter, marching in the mountains, several times Görgei and his troops escaped encirclement by the Austrian troops (at one point escaping by opening a formerly closed mine tunnel and passing through it to the other side of a mountain). Then, on 5 February 1849, they broke through the mountain pass of Branyiszkó , defeated General Deym in the Battle of Branyiszkó , and united with the Hungarian troops led by György Klapka on

13350-457: The imperial army's imminent attack. While he waited for the attack, which ultimately came on 14 December 1848, Görgei reorganized his army, sending home the national guards and the peasant militias—who had been the first to flee from the Schwechat battlefield and were deemed ineffective in fighting against the well trained, professional imperial army—and increased the number of the battalions of

13500-433: The initial attempt to break through was unsuccessful, causing the Hungarian infantry heavy casualties. During the spring campaign, Görgei's tactical outlook changed drastically, from being an extremely cautious commander who planned for slow, calculated movements, to a general full of energy, quick in action and ready to take risks if necessary to achieve his goals. Görgei understood that the main cause of Dembiński's failure

13650-418: The last letter. Being of noble birth, initially, Görgei had a "y" at the end of his surname; but during the 1848–49 revolution, a period of an anti-nobiliary reaction, many Hungarians from noble families changed the last letter of their surnames from "y" to "i". For example, the renowned novelist Mór Jókay became Mór Jókai . Görgei similarly changed his name, because of his progressive liberal views. Even after

13800-445: The light Hussar cavalry), and having relatively very few soldiers fighting in the other types of units common in the armies of that period ( chasseurs , grenadiers , lancer cavalry, dragoons , cuirassiers ), and with constant shortages of weapons and ammunition. Several times these shortages caused the Hungarian infantry to not engage in long shooting duels with the Austrians, but to employ bayonet charges , which were repeated if

13950-405: The main Russian forces arrived. This plan was maybe the only rational way to end—if not with full success, but with at least a compromise—this war against overwhelmingly superior enemy forces. The place for the Hungarian concentration, the fortress of Komárom (one of the strongest fortresses of the empire), was the best choice, if they wanted to have a chance of success, and avoid having to retreat to

14100-414: The main Russian troops led by Paskevich arrived from the north. Despite an initial victory in the Battle of Csorna on 13 June, his troops were not so successful afterwards. In the next battle, fought at Zsigárd on 16 June 1849, while he was in the capital to participate in the meeting of the ministry council, his troops were defeated; his presence on the battlefield could have brought a better result. In

14250-414: The much superior imperial army (he had 28,000 inexperienced soldiers against Windisch-Grätz's 55,000 imperial troops). On 30 December 1848, at Kossuth's urging and before Görgei arrived, Mór Perczel engaged and was heavily defeated by imperial troops led by Josip Jelačić in the Battle of Mór , thus leaving Görgei alone in a hopeless struggle against a vastly superior Austrian army. Görgei's retreat from

14400-407: The nation to arms. From a legal point of view, according to the coronation oath, a crowned Hungarian King could not relinquish from the Hungarian throne during his life, if the king was alive and unable do his duty as ruler, a governor (or regent with proper English terminology) had to deputize the royal duties. Constitutionally, his uncle, Ferdinand remained still the legal King of Hungary . If there

14550-551: The national census of 1828, in which taxpayers were counted in order to eliminate tax disparities, Kossuth assisted in the organization of the census of Zemplén county. He was popular locally, and having been appointed steward to the countess Szapáry, a widow with large estates, he became her voting representative in the county assembly and settled in Pest . He was subsequently dismissed on the grounds of some misunderstanding in regards to estate funds. The House of Kossuth, into which Lajos

14700-538: The next battle, at Pered , fought at 20–21 June, he was present; but, despite all his efforts, the intervention on Haynau's behalf of a Russian division of more than 12,000 soldiers led by Lieutenant General Fyodor Sergeyevich Panyutyin decided the fate of this engagement. On 26 June Görgei was again in the capital at a ministry council, and tried to convince Kossuth to concentrate all the Hungarian troops, except those from Transylvania and southern Hungary, around Komárom, to decisively strike against Haynau's troops, before

14850-413: The offensive against the Austrian frontier, contenting himself with besieging Buda , the Hungarian capital, taking the castle of Buda on 21 May 1849 instead of attacking Vienna and using that strategic opportunity, which the Hungarian victories from the spring campaign created, to win the war. Some of the representatives of the new generation of Hungarian historians, such as Róbert Hermann, believe that

15000-635: The orators, patriots, statesmen, exiles, he has, living or dead, no superior." Kossuth's powerful English and American speeches so impressed and touched the famous contemporary American orator Daniel Webster , that he wrote a book about Kossuth's life. He was widely honoured during his lifetime, including in Great Britain and the United States, as a freedom fighter and bellwether of democracy in Europe . Kossuth's bronze bust can be found in

15150-566: The overwhelmed Hungarian forces (17,000 Hungarians against 70,000 Austro-Russian soldiers); but he managed nevertheless to successfully cover their retreat towards Komárom, by personally leading hussar charges against the advancing enemy forces. After learning about the defeat at Győr , and the advance of the main Russian forces led by Field Marshal Ivan Paskevich from the north, the Hungarian government—following Kossuth's lead in another ministry council, held this time without Görgei—abandoned Görgei's plan of concentration and ordered him to abandon

15300-411: The panic of the volunteers, who started to flee, decided the battle's outcome. Görgei successfully protected the retreating Hungarians, preventing a complete rout. On 9 October, after the battle of Schwechat, Görgei was named colonel. On 1 November, Görgei, only 32, was named general and appointed commander of the army of the Upper Danube, being charged with protecting Hungary's western frontier against

15450-466: The people of Vienna asked them to do it; but the Viennese revolutionaries were reluctant to officially ask for Hungarian aid. In the meantime, the Austrian commander Windisch-Grätz , having crushed the revolution in Prague, came with his army to Vienna to crush the revolution there, with an overwhelming numerical superiority (80,000 Austrian soldiers against 27,000 Hungarians). Kossuth, waiting in vain for

15600-514: The people would lead the nation to revolution. Kossuth, undaunted, did not stop at the publicly reasoned reforms demanded by all Liberals: the abolition of entail , the abolition of feudal burdens and taxation of the nobles. He went on to broach the possibility of separating from the House of Habsburg . By combining this nationalism with an insistence on the superiority of the Hungarian culture to

15750-402: The popular uprising led by Gáspár Noszlopy also led to the liberation of this region from imperial occupation. During the Spring Campaign, the Hungarians liberated much of their country from Habsburg rule. The Habsburg armies and their allies, besides the fortresses and mountains mentioned above, remained only in the westernmost territory strip of Hungary, Croatia and the fortress of Arad . Also

15900-523: The portfolio of minister of war, while retaining the command of the troops in the field. Meanwhile, at the parliament in Debrecen , Kossuth formally proposed the dethronement of the Habsburg dynasty , which the parliament accepted, declaring the total independence of Hungary on 14 April 1849. Although he did not oppose it when Kossuth divulged his plan at Gödöllő after the battle of Isaszeg, Görgei

16050-613: The position of leadership necessary to start talks with the Habsburgs; but the Peace Party refused to help him, fearing a military dictatorship. So, he abandoned this plan. However, Görgei was wrong when he thought that the Hungarian Declaration of Independence had caused the Russian intervention when it came, because the Austrians had asked for, and the Czar agreed to, Russia's sending troops to Hungary before learning of

16200-607: The presence in it of decanoic acid and lauric acid . He started his research in the spring of 1847 in Prague but finished the experiments at home in Toporc, sending the results to the Imperial and Royal Academy of Vienna on 21 May 1848. His method for the separation of the fatty acids homologs was not the traditional way of using fractional distillation , but instead using the solubility of barium salts. His research can be summarized as follows: Just before Görgei started his study,

16350-410: The presence in southern Hungary of the 15,000-strong Austrian troops led by Josip Jelačić, which might come north by surprise to help the garrison of Buda, threatened to cut Hungary in two; and only the liberation of Buda could diminish this danger. Kossuth also urged Görgei to take the capital; he hoped that such a success would convince the European powers to recognize Hungary's independence, and prevent

16500-642: The prison commander, telling him she and Kossuth were engaged. In reality, Kossuth did not know Meszlényi before his imprisonment, but this permitted her to visit. Meszlényi also provided books. Strict confinement damaged Kossuth's health, but he spent much time reading. He greatly increased his political knowledge and acquired fluency in English from study of the King James Version of the Bible and William Shakespeare which he henceforth always spoke with

16650-611: The provinces territory (excepting the fortresses of Gyulafehérvár , Déva , with imperial garrison and the Erdélyi-középhegység mountains, held by the Romanian insurgents). In southern Hungary the Hungarians led by Mór Perczel and Józef Bem defeated the Serbian insurgents and Austrian troops, liberating the provinces of Bácska and Bánság , except the fortress of Temesvár and Titel . In southern Transdanubia ,

16800-445: The reasons for his actions, Perczel accepted his plans and ostensibly pardoned, but continued to resent, him. On 7 October 1848, thanks to Görgei's plans, Roth's and Philipovich's Croatian troops were forced to surrender at Ozora , the Hungarians taking almost 9,000 prisoners, together with their weapons and ammunition, including 12 guns; this being the most successful pincer maneuver of the Hungarian freedom war. On 6 October, after

16950-468: The region to observe and capture the envoys and supply carriages sent from Croatia to Jelačić and back. On 29 September, the Croatian ban sent the wealthy pro-Habsburg Hungarian noble, Count Ödön Zichy , to inform the commanders of the Croatian reserve troops, led by Major General Karl Roth and Major General Nicolaus Philippovich von   Philippsberg, about his decision to attack the Hungarian capitals of Buda and Pest . Görgei's troops captured Zichy, who

17100-537: The resignation of the Batthyány government on 2 October 1848, retreated to Debrecen . This retreat had a negative effect on the officers of foreign origin in the Hungarian army, who left in great numbers, which threatened to cause the army's total dissolution. On 5 January 1849, in Vác, irritated by these events and blaming his defeats on the government's interference, Görgei issued the Proclamation of Vác, which blamed

17250-679: The result of the victories of the Spring Campaign was the Hungarian Declaration of Independence on 14 April 1849, resulting in total Hungarian independence for some months before the Russian intervention brought the defeat of the Hungarian revolution and war of independence in the Summer Campaign . Art%C3%BAr G%C3%B6rgey Artúr Görgei de Görgő et Toporc (born Arthur Görgey ; Hungarian : görgői és toporci Görgei Artúr , German : Arthur Görgey von Görgő und Toporc ; 30 January 1818 – 21 May 1916)

17400-504: The revolt an excuse of legality. Actually, from this time until the collapse of the revolution, Lajos Kossuth (as elected regent-president) became the de facto and de jure ruler of Hungary. Subsequent to 28 September, the National Defence Committee (Országos Honvédelmi Bizottmány, or OHB) assumed the reins of power, initially in a provisional capacity and then, upon a parliamentary decree issued on 8 October, in

17550-399: The revolution made him change his noble surname from Görgey to Görgei. He first met Kossuth on 30 August 1848, when he proposed building a factory to produce percussion caps and primers, for which the politician promised to obtain funds. In August 1848, the danger of an imperial attack against Hungary grew day by day. Finally, at the beginning of September, King Ferdinand   V of Hungary,

17700-589: The revolution was suppressed, he kept using Görgei instead of Görgey; and although in some works which appeared after his death, and translations to Hungarian of his works—such as Mein Leben und Wirken in Ungarn in den Jahren 1848 und 1849 [My life and work in Hungary in 1848 and 1849], translated by his younger brother István Görgey in 1911, when the Görgey form is used—Görgei was the preferred form until his death, which

17850-467: The sending of reinforcement troops under Ludwig von Wohlgemuth from the Austrian hereditary provinces to Hungary. The spring campaign led by Artúr Görgei, combined with the successes of the Hungarian armies in the other fronts, forced the armies of the Austrian Empire and its allies, which at the beginning of March had controlled three-quarters of Hungary, to evacuate almost all of Hungary, except for

18000-417: The siege of Buda was not a mistake by Görgei because at that point he had not enough troops to attack towards Vienna because the Austrians had concentrated around Pozsony a fresh army that was two times the size of Görgei's, and also far better equipped. To achieve a victory with his tired troops, who had almost completely run out of ammunition, would have been virtually impossible. Görgei hoped that, while he

18150-427: The small circulation of the paper to be dangerous anyway. However, Kossuth created modern Hungarian political journalism. His editorials dealt with the pressing problems of the economy, the social injustices and the existing legal inequality of the common people. The articles combined a critique of the present with an outline of the future, combining and supplementing the reform ideas that had emerged up to that point into

18300-477: The speeches from the liberals and reformers enhanced the impact of his newsletters. After the prohibition of his parliamentary gazette, Kossuth loudly demanded the legal declaration of freedom of the press and of speech in Hungary and in the entire Habsburg Empire. The government attempted in vain to suppress the letters, and, other means having failed, he was arrested in May 1837, with Wesselényi and several others, on

18450-419: The success of liberty. Regarding foreign policy, Kossuth and his followers refused the isolationist policy of Széchenyi, thus they stood on the ground of the liberal internationalism : They supported countries and political forces that aligned with their moral and political standards. They also believed that governments and political movements sharing the same modern liberal values should form an alliance against

18600-634: The territory of Hungary. He even quoted King Stephen I of Hungary 's admonition: "A nation of one language and the same customs is weak and fragile." Kossuth pleaded in the newspaper Pesti Hírlap for rapid Magyarization : "Let us hurry, let us hurry to Magyarize the Croats , the Romanians , and the Saxons , for otherwise we shall perish". In 1842 he argued that Hungarian had to be the exclusive language in public life. He also stated that "in one country it

18750-789: The title: Über die festen, flüchtigen, fetten Säuren des Cocusnussöles [About the solid, volatile, fatty acids of coconut oil] (Sitzungsberichte der mathematisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Classe der k. Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien [Meeting reports of the mathematical and scientific department of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna]. 1848. 3.H. p.   208–227); by Justus von Liebig in Heidelberg ( Annalen der Chemie und Pharmazie . 1848. 66. Bd. 3.H. p.   290–314); and again, more than 50 years later, by Lajos Ilosvay in 1907 in

18900-578: The traditional practice, the bride or more rarely the fiancé had to convert to the religion of his or her spouse before the wedding ceremony. However Kossuth refused to convert to Roman Catholicism, and Meszlényi also refused to convert to Lutheranism. Their mixed religious marriage caused a great scandal at the time. This experience influenced Kossuth's firm defense of mixed marriages . The couple had three children: Ferenc Lajos Ákos (1841–1914), Minister for Trade between 1906 and 1910; Vilma (1843–1862); and Lajos Tódor Károly (1844–1918). Kossuth had now become

19050-412: Was General Mór Perczel , a nobleman with almost no military experience, who lacked Görgei's knowledge of the theory and practice of warfare. Seeing that some of Perczel's orders were wrong and could allow for the escape of the enemy, Görgei gave contradictory orders to his troops. Perczel became angry and wanted to put Görgei in front of a firing squad; but when the latter explained to the officers' council

19200-524: Was a Hungarian military leader renowned for being one of the greatest generals of the Hungarian Revolutionary Army . In his youth, Görgei was a talented chemist, with his work in the field of chemistry being recognized by many renowned Hungarian and European chemists. However, now he is more widely known for his role in the Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence of 1848–1849 . As the most successful general and greatest military genius of

19350-533: Was a Hungarian nobleman, lawyer, journalist, politician, statesman and governor-president of the Kingdom of Hungary during the revolution of 1848–1849 . With the help of his talent in oratory in political debates and public speeches, Kossuth emerged from a poor gentry family into regent-president of the Kingdom of Hungary. As the influential contemporary American journalist Horace Greeley said of Kossuth: "Among

19500-529: Was a lawyer for several higher aristocratic families, and thus involved his son in the administration, and his son soon took over some of his father's work. He first became a lawyer in the Lutheran parish of Sátoraljaújhely, in 1827 he became a judge, and later he became a prosecutor in Sátoraljaújhely. During this time, in addition to his office work, he made historical chronologies and translations. In

19650-543: Was against dethronement because he thought that this would provoke the Austrians into asking for Russian intervention. He thought that declining to demand dethronement and using the significant military successes he had achieved as arguments in an eventual negotiation with the Austrians might convince them to recognize Hungary's autonomy under the rule of the House of Habsburg, and the April Laws of 1848. He believed that this

19800-545: Was appointed as deputy to Count Hunyady at the Diet of Hungary . The Diet met during 1825–27 and 1832–36 in Pressburg (Pozsony, present Bratislava), then capital of Hungary. Only the upper aristocracy could vote in the House of Magnates (similar to the British House of Lords ) and Kossuth took little part in the debates as a deputy of Count Hunyady. At the time, a struggle to reassert a Hungarian national identity

19950-737: Was beginning to emerge under leaders such as Miklós Wesselényi and the Széchenyis . In part, it was also a struggle for fundamental economic and political and societal reforms against the stagnant and conservative Austrian government. Kossuth's duties to Count Hunyady included reporting on Diet proceedings in writing, as the Austrian government, fearing popular dissent, had banned published reports. The high quality of Kossuth's letters led to their being circulated in manuscript among other liberal magnates. Readership demands led him to edit an organized parliamentary gazette ( Országgyűlési tudósítások ); spreading his name and influence further. Orders from

20100-691: Was born to a Lutheran family (Kaltensteìn-Hidegkövy) of three-quarters-German and Magyarized-German (with one-quarter of their descent unknown), living in Upper Hungary (today partially Slovakia). (Kossut, 23 June 1765– Alsódabas, 13 March 1839) uradalmi ügyész (financial and legal supervisor of a manor ) (Kisraksa, 20 May 1738–1791) a táblabíró  [ hu ] (county court judge) in Turóc County (Pribóc, 10 January 1737 – ?) de Tótpróna et Blatnica (Liszka, 1770 – Brussels , 28 December 1852) postmaster pharmacist Shortly after his dismissal by Countess Szapáry, Kossuth

20250-659: Was born, originated from the county of Turóc (now partially Turiec region, Košúty , north-central Slovakia ). They acquired the rank of nobility in 1263 from King Béla IV . The Kossuths married into the Zathureczky , Nedeczky , Borcsány , and Prónay families, amongst others. Lajos Kossuth's paternal grandmother was a Beniczky and her Beniczky ancestors had married into the following families: Farkas, Zmeskal (one-eight Polish ancestry); Révay , Pajor (one-quarter German Baierle Magyarized to Pajor); and finally, Prónay . Lajos Kossuth's mother, Karolina Weber (1770–1853),

20400-470: Was charged with treason for his pro-Austrian activities, court-martialed , and hanged. This bold act of Görgei impressed Kossuth, who saw in him a great future leader of the Hungarian armed forces, promoting the 30-year-old major to the rank of general. Later, when a conflict between the two arose, Kossuth tried to prevent Görgei from becoming the leader of the main Hungarian forces because he saw him as his greatest opponent; this conflict caused difficulties in

20550-407: Was conducting the siege of Buda, new Hungarian troops would be conscripted, the Hungarian generals who were operating in southern Hungary would send him reinforcements, the issue of lack of ammunition would be resolved; and that then he would have a chance to defeat the Austrian troops. He also knew that the castle of Buda had a 5,000-strong Austrian garrison that controlled the only stone bridge across

20700-535: Was decided to defeat them in detail . The plan was that the VIIth Hungarian Corps would feint to divert the attention of the Austrian commanders, while the other three Hungarian army corps (the Ist, the IInd, and the IIIrd) would advance from the south, getting around the enemy, and fall on their rear, forcing them to retreat over the Danube, leaving the Hungarian capitals (Pest and Buda) in the hands of

20850-406: Was forced to retreat from the interfluve, taking refuge in the Hungarian capitals. In two of these battles (Tápióbicske and Isaszeg), the intervention of Görgei on the battlefield, who spoke personally to the hesitant Klapka, ordering him to hold his position and to counterattack, decided the battle for the Hungarians. The second part of the spring campaign resulted in three important successes for

21000-559: Was in this year that Kossuth was attacked by the country's most famous betyár , Sándor Rózsa . According to the story, Kossuth was on his way to Cegléd in a horse-drawn carriage when the bandit leader attacked him, but he kept his temper and persuaded him to join the national cause and stop robbing. The story might even be true, as Kossuth granted amnesty to the criminal on 23 October, who inturn launched an independent rebel group with 150 armed horsemen. Both men inspired legends in their time that are still alive today. In popular poetry, Rózsa

21150-480: Was later assigned to go to Istanbul and Smyrna (today İzmir ) to buy weapons for the newly conscripted Hungarian troops; but soon it became clear that their merchants were not trustworthy. Instead, Görgei was sent to the state factory at Wiener Neustadt to buy percussion caps and to Prague to buy primers from the Sellier & Bellot factory; he accomplished this mission successfully. The egalitarian ideals of

21300-422: Was mostly successful. The maximal goal of defending the border and repulsing the enemy was impossible to achieve, even if Perczel's troops would have joined him at Győr. He managed to accomplish the minimal goal, that of saving his troops from destruction at the hands of the superior forces of Windisch-Grätz. He suffered only two defeats that can be deemed important—at Nagyszombat on 16 December, and at Bábolna on

21450-487: Was no possibility to inherit the throne automatically due to the death of the predecessor king (as Ferdinand was still alive), but the monarch wanted to relinquish his throne and appoint another king before his death, technically only one legal solution remained: the Diet had the power to depose the king and elect his successor as the new King of Hungary. Due to the legal and military tensions, the Hungarian parliament did not make that decision for Franz Joseph. This event gave to

21600-409: Was of that nature, in its impassioned appeals to the strongest emotions, that it required for its full effect the highest themes and the most dramatic situations. In a time of rest, though he could never have been obscure, he would never have attained the highest power. It was therefore a necessity of his nature, perhaps unconsciously, always to drive things to a crisis. The crisis came, and he used it to

21750-527: Was one of the greatest Hungarian military successes of the war. Görgei was not in sympathy with the new regime, and he had refused the First Class Military Order of Merit for the taking of Buda, and also Kossuth's offer of a field-marshal's baton, saying that he did not deserve these and did not approve of the greed of many soldiers and officers for rank and decorations, wanting to set an example for his subordinates. However, he accepted

21900-573: Was started, to which was given the name of Kossuth Hirlapja , so that from the first it was Kossuth rather than the Palatine or prime minister Batthyány whose name was in the minds of the people associated with the new government. Much more was this the case when, in the summer, the dangers from the Croats, Serbs and the reaction at Vienna increased. In a speech on 11 July he asked that the nation should arm in self-defense, and demanded 200,000 men; amid

22050-422: Was the lady companion of a maiden relative of Redtenbacher. Görgei married her in the Lutheran church in Prague. After he finished his research in chemistry at his home at Toporc, he went to Pest, hearing about the 17 May 1848 call of the Hungarian government for decommissioned officers to join the newly established Hungarian army. He was conscripted into the revolutionary honvéd (army) at the rank of captain, with

22200-449: Was the latter's extreme cautiousness, which prevented him from concentrating his troops before the Battle of Kápolna. Fearful of being encircled, Dembiński had deployed his units so far from each other that they could not support each other when attacked. Görgei started the spring campaign as a mature commander, who let his corps commanders (János Damjanich, Lajos Aulich, György Klapka, András Gáspár) make independent decisions while following

22350-559: Was the only choice to convince the Habsburgs not to ask Russia's help against Hungary, which he thought would cause destruction and national tragedy. Preventing Russian intervention is why Görgei attempted to initiate secret talks with the Hungarian Peace Party (who were in favor of a compromise with the Austrians), to help him stage a coup d'état to overthrow Kossuth and the Hungarian government led by Szemere, to achieve

22500-411: Was to relieve the border fortress of Lipótvár from an enemy siege and to take the defenders and the provisions from this fort to Debrecen; but he saw that this would be too risky, due to the danger of encirclement by the enemy. So, he renounced this plan, and Lipótvár was forced to surrender to the Austrians on 2 February 1849. Despite this, he succeeded in accomplishing other goals mentioned earlier. In

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