Batthyány Ádám (1610-1659)

Batthyány Ádám, the son of Batthyány Ferenc and Lobkowitz Poppel Éva, was born in the castle of Németújvár on February 14th, 1610.

His sister Erzsébet later became famous for her donations to the Dominicans of Szombathely. Ádám was raised in the Calvinist faith by his father (until 1625) and later in the Evangelical faith by his mother. In Sárvár, under Nádasdy Pá, he prepared himself for life in court. He became involved in property disputes with his mother and was declared of age early, so he took over more and more manors and castles from his mother, who retired to Dobra, where she became famous for her medical practice.

In 1629, despite his mother’s opposition, Ádám Batthyány converted to Catholicism under the influence of Pázmány Péter. He accompanied the imperial court to Regensburg but also visited other German cities. He kept a diary of his travels. Ferdinand II appointed him chamberlain and in 1630 he received the title of count. He lived for years at the court in Vienna, where he fell in love with Aurora Formentini, a member of an Austrian noble family. Although his mother did not consent to the marriage, Batthyány married Aurora in 1632.

In 1633, after the death of his former mentor, Nádasdy Pál, he was appointed to the position of district captain of Transdanubia and head of the Borderland region opposite the Turkish-occupied Kanizsa Castle, with the title of councilor. From Németújvár (Güssing) he was in charge of the defense of the Transdanubian region and was in regular correspondence with his subordinate officers. In the harsh winter of 1641, he led a raid to Igal with several units from the Transdanubian castles and landlords, and they returned home with rich booty.

The raid in 1654

After 1648, which marked the end of the Thirty Years’ War, in the first half of the 1650s, the Hungarian aristocracy thought that the Habsburgs could now turn with all their might against the Turks and drive the Ottomans out of the country. They were wrong.

King Ferdinand III signed another treaty with the Muslims in 1650. This political situation may have been the reason why the aristocrats of the Hungarian Trans-Danubian region launched a series of raids against the Turks to urge the Habsburgs to attack the occupying Ottomans as well. Unfortunately, the hoped-for Habsburg attack did not take place. However, the Hungarian raids didn’t stop.

In the 1650s Batthyány led several successful raids. In the second half of October 1654, together with Esterházy Pál, they raided the area around Fehérvár. Not much is known about the details of this particular raid. One thing we do know is that Batthyány was close to death. He was the chief captain of the region that opposed the Turk-occupied Kanizsa and its Trans-Danubian lands. At the beginning of the raid, the nobleman suffered a stroke on October 21.

Eszterházy wrote the following about this event:
“It was Ádám’s daughter, Countess Batthyány Mária Eleonora, the widow of my deceased uncle (Eszterházy László was his uncle who was killed in the battle of Vezeklény), who died at 7 o’clock in the morning on October 21 at Rohonc. It happened when we were on a raid together with my lord Batthyány Ádám, who had a stroke in the meantime, so he could not learn of his daughter’s death”.

This almost cost Batthyány his life, but he was not wounded, he suffered a stroke. But he soon recovered and continued the campaign. The cardinal in Prague, Ernst Adalbert Harrach, could write this:

“Count Batthyány is said to have had a stroke, but he recovered very soon and was able to take all the chances against the Turks and even bring home some prisoners”.

After the stroke, however, he did not personally take part in any further military actions. In October 1656 his soldiers were successful under Buda, and in January of the following year, they attacked Somogy. In April, with the help of a renegade named Kösze Gyurkó, they won a fine victory over the Turks of Zsámbék, Vál, and Buda near Tata.

Stages of his career

In 1640, King Ferdinand III appointed him chief table master. In 1644 he was the commander of the Hungarian army of nobility during the attack of Prince Rákóczi I György of Transylvania. He also kept a record of this. He modernized his estates and expelled the Protestant clergy from his manors. Between 1640 and 1648 he built a Franciscan monastery in Németújvár. He bought the manor of Borostyánkő so that the western part of Vas County belonged almost in one block to the Batthyány estate. He kept regular accounts for his employees and subordinates of the manor and the court and kept exact records of everything.

Borostyánkő castle (Bernstein) Photo: Ádám Attila

This resulted in the creation of one of the largest family archives of 17th-century Hungary, which is still an inexhaustible source for researchers of the period. He was a famous book collector, and his shelves contained not only books on theology and prayer but also technical and historical works, mainly in Hungarian and German, the only two languages he spoke. He had difficulty reading Latin. That’s why he had so many Hungarian volumes.

Borostyánkő castle Photo: Szöllösi Gábor
www.varlexikon.hu

He also sponsored the publication of books, including a funeral oration for his wife in 1654. He did a lot of building work in his castles, especially in Németújvár, Rohonc, Szalónak and Körmend. After the death of Aurora Formentini, he remarried and wed Katharina Wittmann. His children from his first marriage were Kristóf, Pál, Eleonóra, Anna and Borbála. In an unprecedented move for the time, Batthyány managed to inherit the title of Governor General of the Transdanubian District and Chief Captain of the Borderland opposite Kanizsa to his elder and younger sons during his lifetime in case of the Emperor’s death. Batthyány Ádám died on March 15, 1659. He was buried in the Franciscan church in Németújvár by the Bishop of Győr, Széchényi György.

Source: Szibler Gábor

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Batthyány Ádám (1610-1659)

The raid in 1654

Stages of his career

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