Background
He was born at Eperjes, now Prešov in Slovakia.
He was born at Eperjes, now Prešov in Slovakia.
After studying law and philosophy at the high schools of his native town and Miskolc, he travelled abroad. England particularly attracted him, and his book, Aus dem Tagebuch eines in Grossbritannien reisenden Ungarns (From the Diary of a Hungarian Travelling in Britain) (Pesth, 1837) gained for him the membership of the Hungarian Academy. Elected to the Diet of Hungary of 1840, he was in 1848 appointed to a financial post in the Hungarian government, and was transferred in a similar capacity to Vienna under Esterházy.
When obliged to flee after Hungary"s defeat in the 1848-1849 war of independence, he joined Lajos Kossuth in England and with him made a tour in the United States.
He also wrote a historical introduction to his wife"s Memoirs of a Hungarian Lady (by Theresa Pulszky, London, 1850). Pulszky was condemned to death in contumaciam (in contempt of court, Pulszky having not attended) by a council of war in his home country in 1852.
In 1860 he went to Italy, took part in Giuseppe Garibaldi"s ill-fated expedition to Rome (1862), and was interned as a prisoner of war in Naples. Amnestied by the emperor of Austria in 1866, he returned home and re-entered public life.
He died in Budapest on 9 September 1897.
Pulszky was initiated in 1863 into Lodge Dante Alighieri in Turin and was soon raised to the 33rd grade of the Scottish Rite. After the establishment of the Symbolic Grand Lodge of Hungary (combining the Grand Lodge of Street John and the Grand Orient at 1886) he became its first Grand Master. In 1875 he supported Countess Helene Hadik Barkóczy"s initiation into a Masonic lodge.
In addition to his political activity, Pulszky was president of the literary section of the Hungarian Academy and director of the National Museum in Budapest, where he became distinguished for his archaeological researches. He employed his influence to promote both art and science and liberal views in his native country.
Hungarian Academy of Sciences]
However, he was suspected of intriguing with the revolutionists of that year and fled to Budapest, where he became an active member of the Committee of National Defence. He was in 1867-1876 and again in 1884 a member of the newly reformed Diet of Hungary, where he joined the Deák party.