István Széchenyi
Hungarian nobleman, writer, politician and national revivalist (1791–1860)
Count István Széchenyi de Sárvár-Felsővidék (Hungarian: sárvár-felsővidéki gróf Széchenyi István, pronounced [ˈʃɑ̈ˑrvɑ̈ˑrˌfɛlʃøˑvideːki ˌɡroːf ˈse̝ːt͡ʃe̝ːɲi ˌiʃtvɑ̈ːn]; archaically English: Stephen Széchenyi; 21 September 1791 – 8 April 1860) was a Hungarian politician, political theorist, and writer. Widely considered one of the greatest statesmen in his nation's history, within Hungary he is still known to many as "the Greatest Hungarian".
Family and early life
Széchenyi was born in Vienna to Count Ferenc Széchényi and Countess Juliána Festetics de Tolna; he was the youngest of their two daughters and three sons. The Széchenyis were an old and influential noble family of Hungary. Traditionally loyal to the House of Habsburg, they were linked with noble families, such as the Liechtenstein, the House of Esterházy and the House of Lobkowicz. István Széchenyi's father was an enlightened aristocrat who founded the Hungarian National Museum and the Hungarian National Library. The boy spent his childhood both in Vienna and on the family estate of Nagycenk, Hungary.
Military service in the Napoleonic Wars
After his private education, the young Széchenyi joined the Austrian army and participated in the Napoleonic Wars. He was seventeen years old when he entered the army. He fought with distinction at the battle of Raab (14 June 1809) and on 19 July brought about the subsequent junction of the two Austrian armies by conveying a message across the Danube to General Chasteler at the risk of his life.
“István Széchenyi” enters the record as hungarian nobleman, writer, politician and national revivalist (1791–1860). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what István, Széchenyi and Hungarian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“István Széchenyi” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, István, Széchenyi and Hungarian provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q279397. VIAF identifies the subject as 39390131. The Library of Congress control number is n80096685. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1791, 1860 and 1809.
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This entry incorporates text from “István Széchenyi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.