Moments in C.P. History - Number 10: Princess Batthyany
Tenth part of the series by Paul Melrose, from Februs 41
The name of Princess Irene Batthyany is not one which is
familiar to most people but, nevertheless, she had a brief flirtation with both
fame and humiliation as the beautiful wife of Count Lajos Batthyany whose reign
as President of Hungary was brief and tragic, ending in his execution. The
widowed Princess, though spared such a fate, was nonetheless subject to a very
public shame which forms the basis of this particular ‘Moment’.
In the mid 19th century, Europe was controlled by mighty
empires, one of the biggest being the Austrian Empire which then included part
of Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia and Hungary. The year
of 1848 became known as the year of revolution because, almost simultaneously,
many of these subordinate nations began to flex their muscles and demand
varying degrees of self government. In the forefront of these nations was
Hungary. The politics involved in the issue were complex and so the reader will
be spared too much insomnia-inducing background. To understand how Irene
Batthyany arrived at her humiliating fate however it is necessary to mention a
few names and look at a brief summary of events.
The first of these people was Louis Kossuth. He was the
leader of the opposition to Austrian control and in 1848, amid a tide of
revolt, he saw the opportunity to demand a certain degree of self government
for the Hungarians. Austria at first reacted with anger and indignation, but
when revolution actually broke out in Vienna itself, the Austrians, fearing
Hungary might secede from the empire, capitulated.
Amid scenes of joy, a fellow member of the Austrian
opposition, Count Lajos Batthyany, was appointed provisional President of the
new semi-independent Hungary and the provisional government sought to form a
type of government acceptable to the people, which turned out to be a
pseudo-monarchy with Batthyany at its head. So Batthyany adopted the courtesy
title of Prince and his proud and lovely wife became Princess Batthyany. Irene
Batthyany was a dark haired beauty in her early forties at the time of the revolt,
the mother of five children including three adult sons who were serving in the
Hungarian army.
The joy was short lived for, though Hungary had its
limited self government, it immediately inherited problems. Within Hungary’s
borders lay the state of Croatia whose people also sought self-rule. Given the
lesser of two evils, if the Croatians had disliked being ‘slaves’ of Austria,
they positively detested falling under the writ of the ‘Magyars’ and
immediately began to agitate against the situation with their overall rulers in
Austria.
So a new key name in the saga emerged when Austria
appointed a new Commissar for Croatia, a Colonel Joseph Jellacic, who was
fanatically anti-Hungarian. Once in power he broke off relations between
Croatia and Hungary on 19th April 1848, putting the new Hungarian regime
immediately in trouble from that point on. On 10th May, a Slovak minority in
Hungary asked for independent rights within Hungary and 5 days later the
Romanians condemned the new union with Hungary.
Prince Batthyany, realising that his newly self-governing
nation was facing trouble from all quarters, tried to do deals with his
Austrian masters if they disavowed the Croatian leader Jellacic. Batthyany and
his wife were contemptuous of Jellacic and his motives and made no secret of
the fact in public utterances, which drove the Croatian leader to fury. Given
subsequent events, this was to prove a terrible error of judgment by the
Batthyany family, for the Austrians, while apparently sympathetic to Batthyany’s
problems, were secretly boosting Jellacic in undermining the Hungarian regime.
Confident now that he had Austria’s blessing, Joseph
Jellacic’s Croatian army, together with a Serbian force, attacked Hungary in
June of 1848 and very quickly captured most of South Hungary.
The hapless Prince Batthyany resigned and the Hungarian
government attempted a compromise with their Austrian masters but to no avail,
Batthany’s resignation proving to be the catalyst for an open war between the
young Hungarian government and the Austrian monarchy.
Despite the Prince’s resignation from government, the
brave and determined Hungarians were at first remarkably successful on the
battlefield, turning the early tide against them, and prompting the abdication
of the Austrian emperor Ferdinand in favour of his nephew Francis Joseph. Soon,
however, the weight of numbers was too much and the reconstituted Austrian army
launched new assaults taking the Hungarian capital city of Pest within 2 weeks.
The outcome of hostilities was finally decided when the
Russians, under Czar Nicholas I, who had stood by and watched developments,
finally decided that if Hungary proved successful, revolt might begin within
the Russian empire, and so decided to crush the Hungarians in order to deter
such thoughts.
In June of 1849, two Russian armies entered Hungary, a
total of nearly half a million men now opposing the Hungarian regime. It was
too much. The Hungarian government fled into exile and, on 13th August 1849,
the Russian Commander Marshal Paskievicz was able to report to his Czar. ‘Hungary
lies at your feet your Majesty.’
Now the full weight of Russian retribution hit Hungary.
The country was placed under a military administration and thirteen of Hungary’s
senior officers were publicly hanged. Prince Batthyany, unable to escape from
the country with his family, had tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat
but was forcibly prevented from doing so. He was arrested and on October 6th
1849 was shot by firing squad. The occupying forces then proceeded to run riot,
tearing down Hungarian flags and wrecking Hungarian shops. About 100 more
executions followed until an amnesty spared the remainder, including the
widowed Princess Irene Batthyany who was allowed to remain in her lavish home
until it was decided what to do with her.
The mood of the mob, which at first had been so supportive
of Hungarian independence, turned sour in the aftermath of humiliating defeat,
much of the anger turning on the exiled Government and the Batthyany family.
Boosted by the public mood, a group of Russian officers decided one weekend in
November of 1849 to teach the widowed Irene Batthyany a humiliating lesson. A
dozen Russian soldiers gatecrashed the Palace of the Batthyany family and found
Princess Irene alone apart from her serving maid. Frightened, she demanded they
leave only to be told that, for her arrogance and because her sons had fought
with the rebel Hungarian forces, she should accept her share of responsibility
and punishment for bringing her country to such a parlous low.
Despite her shrieks of protest, Irene Batthyany was
carried out of her palace by the officers and taken, kicking and screaming to
the Pest market square where an enthusiastic mob soon gathered to witness Irene’s
humiliation. The terrified Irene was put up onto a platform and her head and
hands secured in a pillory reserved usually for the vagrants and prostitutes
who were regularly punished in public.
If her shame at such treatment was not enough, Irene was
further mortified to see the Croat leader Jellacic, who she had oft derided,
seated on the platform with a group of Croat officers all thirsting to witness
her degradation. Cheered on by the mob, the Russian officers lifted Irene’s
dress and petticoats, securing them to her shoulders, then pulled down her lace
drawers exposing her naked bottom to the jeering mob. One of the Russians then
removed his thick leather belt and proceeded to spank the bare bottom of the
shrieking Princess before handing over to another soldier who continued the
punishment. The punishment continued until all the officers had administered
the belt to Irene’s by now scarlet and roasting bottom for some considerable
time.
When Princess Irene Batthyany was shrieking in anguish,
her bottom crimson and swollen with pain, the Russians relented and she was
released. She was made to kiss the hand of Jellacic and offer apologies for
past slights before being allowed to pull up her drawers and adjust her dress.
The poor woman, having adjusted her clothing, was then compelled to drag
herself home on foot, completely humiliated, through a howling mob who pelted
her with rotten fruit and vegetables.
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