Richard de Beaufré comte de Guyon (1813 – 12 October 1856) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

-born Hungarian soldier, general in the Hungarian revolutionary army and Turkish

pasha Pasha, Pacha or Paşa ( ota, پاشا; tr, paşa; sq, Pashë; ar, باشا), in older works sometimes anglicized as bashaw, was a higher rank in the Ottoman political and military system, typically granted to governors, generals, dignita ...

(Kurshid Pasha).

Biography

Early life

He was born at Walcot, near

Bath, Somerset Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...

,Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition the son of Commander John Guyon RN (1767-1844), a shipmate and friend of the

Duke of Clarence Duke of Clarence is a substantive title which has been traditionally awarded to junior members of the British Royal Family. All three creations were in the Peerage of England. The title was first granted to Lionel of Antwerp, the second son ...

(later William IV of Britain), and descended from a French noble family. After receiving a military education in England, Guyon fought against Dom Miguel in the

Liberal Wars The Liberal Wars (), also known as the Portuguese Civil War (), the War of the Two Brothers () or Miguelite War (), was a war between liberal constitutionalists and conservative absolutists in Portugal over royal succession that lasted from 18 ...

in Portugal. In 1832 Guyon entered the Austrian service joining the Hungarian Hussars; and was attached as aide-de-camp to General Baron Ignác Splényi (1772-1840), who had served at the

Battle of Marengo The Battle of Marengo was fought on 14 June 1800 between French forces under the First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte and Austrian forces near the city of Alessandria, in Piedmont, Italy. Near the end of the day, the French overcame General Mich ...

and was captain-in-chief of the Hungarian noble bodyguard, and Standard Bearer of Hungary. Guyon married Baron Splényi's daughter, Baroness Marie, on 22 November 1838. They had two sons and a daughter together. Until the outbreak of the Hungarian Revolution, Guyon led the life of a country gentleman on his estates near

Komárom Komárom (Hungarian: ; german: Komorn; la, Brigetio, later ; sk, Komárno) is a city in Hungary on the south bank of the Danube in Komárom-Esztergom County. Komárno, Slovakia, is on the northern bank. Komárom was formerly a separate villag ...

Hungarian Revolution

At the outbreak of the Hungarian Revolution, Guyon was among the first to offer his services to the national government as an officer of the

Royal Hungarian Army The Royal Hungarian Army ( hu, Magyar Királyi Honvédség, german: Königlich Ungarische Armee) was the name given to the land forces of the Kingdom of Hungary in the period from 1922 to 1945. Its name was inherited from the Royal Hungarian Hon ...

, and played a prominent part in the struggle for independence during the

Hungarian Revolution of 1848 The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 or fully Hungarian Civic Revolution and War of Independence of 1848–1849 () was one of many European Revolutions of 1848 and was closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas. Although t ...

. He won great distinction in the

Battle of Pákozd The Battle of Pákozd (or Battle of Sukoró) was a battle in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, Hungarian war of Independence of 1848-1849, fought on the 29 September 1848 in the Pákozd – Sukoró – Pátka triangle. It was the first ...

(29 September 1848) and the

Battle of Schwechat The Battle of Schwechat was a battle in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, fought on 30 October 1848 between the revolutionary Hungarian Army against the army of the Austrian Empire, in Schwechat, near Vienna. This was the last battle of 1848 i ...

(30 October) and after the Battle of Kapolna (26 and 27 February 1849) was made a general. During the retreat of Artúr Görgey's army in the winter of 1848-1849, Guyon carried the mountain-pass of Branyiszkó on 5 February 1849, and by that daring feat of his re-established the communication with the government at

Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and ...

, as also with the several other Hungarian army corps. When, in April 1849, the garrison of the besieged Fortress of Komárom was to be apprised of the victorious approach of the national army, Guyon, with a detachment of hussars, cut his way through the enemy's lines, and announced the approaching relief. On 14 July 1849, Guyon defeated the imperial army led by

Josip Jelačić Count Josip Jelačić von Bužim (16 October 180120 May 1859; also spelled ''Jellachich'', ''Jellačić'' or ''Jellasics''; hr, Josip grof Jelačić Bužimski; hu, Jelasics József) was a Croatian lieutenant field marshal in the Imperial-Roy ...

in the Battle of Hegyes, one of the last Hungarian victories of the freedom war, which assured Southern Hungary for the revolutionary army keeping the road open for the leaders of the revolution to escape in the Ottoman Empire. The bloody

Battle of Szőreg The Battle of Szőreg was a battle in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, fought on 5 August 1849 at Szőreg, Hungary, fought between the Hungarian Revolutionary Army led by Lieutenant General Henryk Dembiński and the main army of the Habsburg ...

(5 August 1849) allowed General

Henryk Dembiński Henryk Dembiński ( hu, Dembinszky Henrik; 16 January 1791 – 13 July 1864) was a Polish engineer, traveler and general. Dembiński was born in Strzałków, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. In 1809 he entered the Polish army of the Duchy of Wars ...

, protected by the self-sacrificing ten battalions of Guyon, to retire to Temesvár, where the

Battle of Temesvár The Battle of Temesvár (now Timișoara, Romania) was a key battle in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, fought on 9 August 1849 between the Austrian Empire, led by Field Marshal Julius Jacob von Haynau, and the Hungarian Revolutionary Army (s ...

, the last in the campaign, was fought and lost on 9 August. Guyon escaped to

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

. Two streets in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

are named after Count Guyon: Guyon Richárd Utca, and Guyon Kőz. Guyon's Hussar uniform is preserved on display at the Museum of Military History in the Buda Castle Quarter.

Ottoman Empire

In 1852 Guyon entered the service of the

Sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it c ...

without being required to change his faith. Under the name of Kourshid Pasha, he, as a general of division, was

Governor of Damascus This is a list of rulers of Damascus from ancient times to the present. :''General context: History of Damascus''. Aram Damascus * Rezon I (c. 950 BC) *Tabrimmon *Ben-Hadad I (c. 885 BCE–c. 865 BC) * Hadadezer (c. 865 BC–c. 842 BC) * Hazael ...

, and at the beginning of the Crimean war, did much to organise the army of

Kars Kars (; ku, Qers; ) is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. Its population is 73,836 in 2011. Kars was in the ancient region known as ''Chorzene'', (in Greek Χορζηνή) in classical historiography (Strabo), part of ...

. Guyon died of

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium '' Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting an ...

at Scutari in 1856. According to the ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'' he was "the first Christian to obtain the rank of pasha and a Turkish military command without being obliged to change his religion". İstanbul 6101

The 1863 '' Chambers Encyclopaedia'' states "Indomitable courage, and an incessant care for the comfort of the troops under his command, were the chief features in Guyon's character". The

Istanbul Military Museum Istanbul Military Museum ( tr, Askerî Müze) is dedicated to one thousand years of Turkish military history. It is one of the leading museums of its kind in the world. The museum is open to the public everyday except Mondays and Tuesdays. T ...

holds a memorial bust of Guyon together with other Hungarian artifacts.

Notes and references

References

* * This article incorporates text from the ''

Chambers's Encyclopaedia ''Chambers's Encyclopaedia'' was founded in 1859Chambers, W. & R"Concluding Notice"in ''Chambers's Encyclopaedia''. London: W. & R. Chambers, 1868, Vol. 10, pp. v–viii. by William and Robert Chambers of Edinburgh and became one of the mos ...