Count Gyula (Julius) Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka

http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A1ssy_Gyula_(politikus,_1823%E2%80%931890)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyula_Andr%C3%A1ssy

Gyula Count Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka (3 March 1823 – 18 February 1890) was a Hungarian statesman, who served as Prime Minister of Hungary (1867–1871) and subsequently as Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary (1871–1879). He was sometimes called Count Julius Andrassy in English.

The son of Count Károly Andrássy and Etelka Szapáry, he was born in Vlachovo (now in Rožňava District, Slovakia) in the then Kingdom of Hungary. The son of a liberal father who belonged to the political opposition, at a time when to be in oppose the government was very dangerous, Andrássy at a very early age threw himself into the political struggles of the day, adopting at the outset the patriotic side.

Count István Széchenyi was the first adequately to appreciate his capacity, when in 1845 the young man first began his public career as president of the society for the regulation of the waters of the Upper Tisza river.

In 1846, he attracted attention by his bitter articles against the government in Lajos Kossuth's paper, the Pesti Hírlap, and was returned as one of the Radical candidates to the diet of 1848, where his generous, impulsive nature made him one of the most thorough-going of the patriots.

When the Croats under Josip Jelačić attempted to return Međimurje, which was then part of Hungary, to Croatia, Andrássy placed himself at the head of the gentry of his county, and served with distinction at the battles of Pákozd and Schwechat, as Arthur Görgey's adjutant (1848).

Towards the end of the war Andrássy was sent to Constantinople by the revolutionary government to obtain at least the neutrality of Ottoman Empire during the struggle.

After the catastrophe of Világos he migrated first to London and then to Paris. On 21 September 1851 he was hanged in effigy by the Austrian government for his share in the Hungarian revolt.

He employed his ten years of exile in studying politics in what was then the centre of European diplomacy, and it is memorable that his keen eye detected the inherent weakness of the second French empire beneath its imposing exterior.

Andrássy returned home from exile in 1858, but his position was very difficult. He had never petitioned for an amnesty, steadily rejected all the overtures both of the Austrian government and of the Magyar Conservatives (who would have accepted something short of full autonomy), and clung enthusiastically to Ferenc Deák's party.

On 21 December 1865 he was chosen vice-president of the diet, and in March 1866 became president of the sub-committee appointed by the parliamentary commission to draw up the Composition (commonly known as the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867) between Austria and Hungary, of which the central idea, that of the "Delegations," originated with him.

It was said at that time that he was the only member of the commission who could persuade the court of the justice of the national claims.

After the Battle of Königgrätz he was formally consulted by Emperor Franz Joseph for the first time. He advised the re-establishment of the constitution and the appointment of a responsible ministry.

On 17 February 1867 the king appointed him the first constitutional Hungarian premier. It was on this occasion that Ferenc Deák called him "the providential statesman given to Hungary by the grace of God."

As premier, Andrássy by his firmness, amiability and dexterity as a debater, soon won for himself a commanding position. Yet his position continued to be difficult, inasmuch as the authority of Deák dwarfed that of all the party leaders, however eminent.

Andrássy chose for himself the departments of war and foreign affairs. It was he who reorganized the Honvéd system (state army), and he used often to say that the regulation of the military border districts was the most difficult labour of his life.

On the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Andrássy resolutely defended the neutrality of the Austrian monarchy, and in his speech on 28 July 1870 warmly protested against the assumption that it was in the interests of Austria to seek to recover the position she had held in Germany before 1863. On the fall of Beust (6 November 1871), Andrássy stepped into his place. His tenure of the chancellorship was epoch-making.

Hitherto the empire of the Habsburgs had never been able to dissociate itself from its Holy Roman traditions. But its loss of influence in Italy and Germany, and the consequent formation of the Dual State, had at length indicated the proper, and, indeed, the only field for its diplomacy in the future – the Near East, where the process of the crystallization of the Balkan peoples into nationalities was still incomplete. The question was whether these nationalities were to be allowed to become independent or were only to exchange the tyranny of the sultan for the tyranny of the tsar.

Hitherto Austria had been content either to keep out the Russians or share the booty with them. She was now, moreover, in consequence of her misfortunes deprived of most of her influence in the councils of Europe.

It was Andrassy who recovered for her proper place in the European concert. First he approached the German emperor; then more friendly relations were established with the courts of Italy and Russia by means of conferences at Berlin, Vienna, St Petersburg and Venice.