Lázár Mészáros

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lázár Mészáros

Lázár Mészáros (born February 20, 1796 in Baja , † November 16, 1858 in Eywood House, Titley ) was a Hungarian Lieutenant Field Marshal and Minister of War during the Hungarian War of Independence .

Life

Mészáros was in a family of aristocratic Hungarian landowners in the county Bacs-Kiskun born. Only four years old, he lost both parents in 1800 and was brought from one relative to another as a toddler. He attended schools in Baja, Szabadka , Pesta and Pécs , he broke off his law studies and entered the imperial army . In 1813 he participated as a soldier in the war against Napoleon and was in the following year in Bácser Cavalry - regiment to Lieutenant promoted.

From 1816 to 1837 he served as an officer in the 7th Hussar Regiment and then moved to the 5th Hussar Regiment. He was promoted to Rittmeister in 1833 and to Major in 1837 . With the latter, he spent 18 years in Italy. Field Marshal Radetzky recognized his talents and at his suggestion, Mészáros was promoted to colonel in 1845 and appointed commander of his previous regiment. Mészáros proved to be an extremely cultivated officer, he spoke seven languages ​​and had acquired extensive knowledge of the relationships between the military, society and the economy. In the course of Hungary's aspirations for independence from the Habsburg Empire, he corresponded with István Széchenyi since 1837 . Mészáros was then elected a member of the Magyar Tudós Társaság ( Hungarian Society of Sciences ). As an opening speech he chose the topic “ On the armed forces in modern civil societies ”. He also developed a lively scientific activity, especially in the field of chemistry and agricultural science.

At the suggestion of Lajos Kossuth , Prime Minister Batthyány appointed him to the cabinet of the first Hungarian revolutionary government on March 22, 1848. After his return from the Italian theater of war, he took over his office as Minister of War on May 23. From July 1848 he sat in the National Assembly as a parliamentary delegate in his native city of Baja. He was appointed Major General of the Imperial and Royal Armed Forces on June 8, member of the Defense Committee on October 1, and Commander-in-Chief of all imperial troops stationed on Hungarian territory. As Minister of War, he played a key role in the development and organization of the new Hungarian Honved Army . At the end of August 1848 he himself took command of the southern army and went to Vajdaság in the Voivodina . On September 30th he returned to Pesth . Mészáros was the only member of Batthyany's cabinet who did not resign. He also retained his post as Minister of War and a member of the Territorial Defense Committee. On December 13, 1848, he also took command of the approximately 10,000-strong Northern Army, recruiting further troops in Miskolc , but unhappy maneuvered against Count Schlick's independent corps in the Kaschau and Eperies area . On January 19, 1849, on Kossuth's intervention, he lost command of the army, but retained his post as Minister of War until May 6, 1849, after he had been appointed Lieutenant Field Marshal on April 15 after Hungary's declaration of independence . On July 26, 1849, Mészáros resigned from office in protest because he did not accept the manner in which General Mor Perczel commanded the military units under him. But he remained Deputy Commander in Chief of the Honved Army and was appointed Chief of Staff of the Southern Army in the Banat under General Dembiński . In the battle of Temesvár he fought under General Józef Bem , after the final defeat of the Hungarian War of Independence he fled into exile with Kossuth on August 14, 1849 across the Hungarian-Turkish border.

In May 1851 he left the asylum in Turkey and first settled in France, which he after the coup of Napoleon III. left in December 1851. After a stay in Jersey , he moved to the United States in the summer of 1853 , where he first tried his hand at farming in Iowa . He eventually settled in Flushing , New York, as a teacher in 1855 . In October 1858, shortly before his death, Mészáros returned to England. He died in Eywood House, Herefordshire in November 1858 and was buried in Titley. In his will, however, he wanted his remains to be buried in Hungary. That request was not granted until 133 years after his death on March 15, 1991 when his remains were transferred to his hometown of Baja.

literature

Web links

Commons : Lázár Mészáros  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Mészáros, Lázár
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian Minister of War
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1796
PLACE OF BIRTH Baja
DATE OF DEATH November 16, 1858
Place of death Eywood House, Titley