John Kemény

Who was John Kemény?

János Kemény was a Hungarian aristocrat, writer and prince of Transylvania.

János Kemény, offspring of a Transylvanian family of Hungarian aristocrats, held various political and military positions in the Principality of Transylvania, during the reign of princes Gábor Bethlen and George I Rákóczi. As he writes, the family descends from Kemeny Simon, who disguised himself as Hunyadi János and was killed by the Turks instead of his master. The story is recorded by Heltai Gaspar's work, Magyar Cronica, a Hungarian translation/rewriting of the Latin of Antonio Bonfini published in 1560s.

Under George II Rákóczi, he became the chief advisor of the prince, and leader of the military campaigns to Moldavia in 1653 and Poland in 1657, the latter being aimed at obtaining the Polish crown for Rákóczi. The Turks strongly opposed to Rákóczi's Polish ambitions and prohibited any military action. In the face of Turkish prohibition, Kemény also objected to the prince's ill-conceived Polish undertaking, and unwillingly took the leadership of the campaign that ended in disaster; Kemény's army, deserted by the Swedish allies, was captured by the Crimean Tatar allies of the Turks.