Ödön Beöthy

Who was Ödön Beöthy?

Ödön Beöthy, Hungarian deputy and orator, was born in Nagyvárad, Hungary, his father being a retired officer and deputy lord-lieutenant of the county of Bihar.

At the age of sixteen he served in the war against Napoleon, and was present at the great battle of Leipzig. Like so many others of his compatriots, he picked up Liberal ideas abroad. He was sent to parliament by his county in 1826 and again in 1830, but did not become generally known till the session of 1832–1836, when along with Ferenc Deák he, as a liberal Catholic, defended the Protestant point of view in the mixed marriages question. He was also an energetic advocate of freedom of speech. After parliament rose he carried his principles to their logical conclusion by marrying a Protestant lady and, being denied a blessing on the occasion by an indignant bishop, publicly declared that he could very well dispense with such blessings.

In 1841 he was elected deputy lord-lieutenant of his county to counteract the influence of the lord-lieutenant, Lajos Tisza, and powerfully promoted the popular cause by his eloquence and agitation. After 1843 the conservatives succeeded in excluding him both from parliament and from his official position in the county; but during the famous March Days he regained all his authority, becoming at the same time a commander of militia, a deputy and lord-lieutenant. At the first session of the Upper House, he moved that it should be radically reformed, and during the war of Independence he energetically served the Hungarian government as a civil commissioner and lord justice.