Lajos Kossuth was a Hungarian 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 Kingdom of Hungary.
Background
Kossuth was born on September 19, 1802 in Monok, Hungary, the oldest of four children in a Lutheran noble family of partial Slovak origin. His father, László Kossuth (1762-1839), belonged to the lower nobility, had a small estate and was a lawyer by profession. László Kossuth had two brothers (Simon Kossuth and György Kossuth) and one sister (Jana). The mother of Lajos Kossuth, Karolina Weber (1770-1853) was born to a Lutheran family of partial German descent, living in Upper Hungary (today partially Slovakia).
Education
Kossuth studied at the Piarist college of Sátoraljaújhely and one year in the Calvinist college of Sárospatak and the University of Pest (now Budapest).
Career
Kossuth served as a deputy in the parliaments of 1825-1827 and 1832-1836. His publication of the parliamentary proceedings caused his arrest by the Austrian authorities. He was imprisoned for a year, but the parliament of 1839 obtained his release in 1840. Thereafter, he became known as a fiery orator and ardent radical nationalist. He campaigned for abolition of feudal burdens and against exemption of the nobility from taxation, and for a Hungarian government which would not be subservient to Austria. He was elected to the important parliament of 1847. When news of the revolution in Paris reached Hungary on March 3, 1848, Kossuth demanded full parliamentary government for Hungary and the introduction of constitutional rule in the rest of the Hapsburg monarchy but neglected to support the rights of the non-Magyar inhabitants of Hungary. When the formation of a Hungarian cabinet was sanctioned, Kossuth became minister of finance. The intervention of Austria was a signal to Kossuth to call for a national rising. Kossuth became head of the provisional government in September 1848. As the war grew in bitterness, Kossuth proceeded to more dictatorial steps; in April 1849 he proclaimed the dethronement of the Hapsburgs and was elected governor. With Russian aid, however, the Austrians triumphed. Kossuth abdicated on August 11 and fled to Turkey. In 1851 he visited Great Britain and the United States to seek support for the cause of Hungarian independence. In 1859 he settled in Italy. He died at Turin on March 20, 1894.
Achievements
Politics
At “long Diet” the new generation of Hungary’s reformers was mounting its first full-scale offensive against the absolutist and obscurantist system under which Hungary was then ruled from Vienna, and in its excited atmosphere Kossuth developed his political and social philosophy of advanced radicalism. There was no postulate of the European liberalism of the day that he did not burn to see realized in Hungary - no abuse or injustice there left unremedied. But liberty meant for him, above all else, national liberty, and he felt passionately that, until Hungary enjoyed de facto the internal freedom to which its laws entitled it, no social or economic progress was possible. The first battle, therefore, must be the political one. Sanguine and impulsive, he was blind to the dangers involved in too strong a challenge to Vienna.
Connections
Kossuth married Terézia Meszlényi in 1840. They had three children: Ferenc Lajos Ákos (1841-1914), who was Minister for Trade between 1906 and 1910; Vilma (1843-1862) and Lajos Tódor Károly (1844-1918).
Father:
László Kossuth
Mother:
Karolina Weber
Spouse:
Terézia Meszlényi
Daughter:
Vilma Kossuth
Son:
Lajos Tódor Károly
Son:
Ferenc Lajos Ákos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva