Maurice Benyovszky
| Móric Benyovszky | |
|---|---|
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Portrait of Benyovszky
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| Born |
September 20, 1746 Verbó, Kingdom of Hungary (today Vrbové, Slovakia) |
| Died | May 23, 1786 (aged 39) Madagascar |
| Citizenship | Hungarian, Polish, Austrian, French |
| Parents |
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| Awards |
Order of the Golden Fleece Order of Saint Stephen Order of Saint Louis |
Móric Ágost (Máté Móric Mihály Ferenc Szerafin Ágost) Count de Benyovszky, in Slovak Móric Beňovský, in Polish Maurycy Beniowski, (20 September 1746 – 23 May 1786) was a nobleman from the Kingdom of Hungary. He was an explorer, writer, the self-declared King of Madagascar, and a military officer in the French, Polish, Austrian and American armies. He is considered a national hero in Hungary, Slovakia and Poland.
Benyovszky was born and raised in Verbó, Kingdom of Hungary (Currently Vrbové, Slovakia), to the noble House of Benyovszky. His parents - Sámuel Benyovszki and Baroness Rozália Révay. Surviving family documents and letters reveal that they wrote and talked with each other and in extended family only in Hungarian. His career began as an officer of the Habsburg army in the Seven Years' War during the reign of Empress Maria Theresia. In 1768 he joined the Bar Confederation, a Polish national movement against Russian intervention. He was captured by the Russians, interned in Kazan, and later exiled in Kamchatka. Subsequently, he escaped and returned to Europe via Macau and Madagascar. In 1772 Benyovszky arrived in Paris where he met King Louis XV of France and was offered the privilege to act on behalf of France to colonize Madagascar. After establishing the settlement of Louisburg, in 1776 Benyovszky was elected by a group of local tribal chiefs as their Ampanjakabe (ruler). In 1779 Benyovszky came to America, where he tried to obtain support for a proposal to use Madagascar as a base against the British in aid of the American War of Independence. He died in 1786 while fighting against the French on Madagascar.
Benyovszky was a Hungariancount of Hungarian,Slovak and Polish ancestry. His father, Count Samuel Benyovszky, was born in Turóc County of the Kingdom of Hungary (Turiec, in present-day Slovakia) as heir of the House of Benyovszky and served as a general in the Hussars of the Austrian army. His mother, Rozália Révay, was a baroness from the noble HungarianRévay family, she was the great granddaughter of Péter Révay, as well as being descended from the Nádasdy, Báthory, Esterházy and Serényi families through her father Count Balthazar Révay de Szklabina, and was the widow of a general when she married Benyovszky's father. In the 16th century, after the Battle of Mohács, in which Benyovszky's ancestors fought, the family moved from southern to northern Hungary, away from the territory invaded by the Ottomans.
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