Mihály Horváth

Born Oct. 20, 1809, in Szentes; died Aug. 19, 1878, in Karlsbad (present-day Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia). Hungarian historian and public figure.

Horváth received a clerical education and became a bishop in 1848. He took part in the Revolution of 1848–49 in Hungary. In January 1849 he was elected to the State Assembly in Debrecen, and in May of that year he became minister of culture and education in B. Szemere’s government. After the suppression of the revolution he emigrated and lived in Belgium, France, Switzerland, and other countries.

In 1851 the Austrian authorities sentenced Horváth to death in absentia. He was granted amnesty in 1866 and returned to Hungary in January 1867. He was sympathetic to Deák’s Party.

Horváth’s historical works are chiefly political chronicles of prerevolutionary and revolutionary Hungary. They acknowledge the progressive role and the political significance of the revolution.