Honvéd (1848–1849)
혼베드 (1848–1849)
The army raised by the Hungarian revolutionary government in 1848–1849. Its name means "defender of the homeland"; it grew out of the national guard and volunteer battalions of the summer of 1848 amid Kossuth's recruiting speeches, recovered almost the whole country in the Spring Campaign of 1849, and surrendered at Világos to the combined Russian and Austrian armies.
In depth
Article III of the April Laws gave Hungary military authority, but the emperor resisted. The Diet set up a national guard and on 15 April 1848 a regular national guard of 10,000, followed by mobile volunteer battalions. Facing Jelačić's invasion Kossuth went from town to town recruiting volunteers, and the Honvéd was his creation. It halted Jelačić at Pákozd on 29 September, and by mid-December it numbered 100,000–110,000 men.
About 40 percent of its private soldiers came from the non-Hungarian nationalities and around half its officers and generals were of foreign origin; Polish, Viennese, German and Italian legions also joined it. In April 1849 it defeated Windischgrätz at Isaszeg and elsewhere and on 21 May retook Buda, but with 160,000 men against 380,000, including some 200,000 Russians and Haynau's Austrians, it surrendered at Világos on 13 August. The Royal Hungarian Honvéd of 1868 and the modern Hungarian army later took up the name.