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 the 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 gate crashed 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.
