Móric Beňovský
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Moric Benovsky (born 1741 or 1746 as Móritz Benyovszky - died May 23, 1786) was a Slovak noble in the Kingdom of Hungary, adventurer, globetrotter, explorer, colonizer, writer, chess player, the King of Madagascar, a French colonel, Polish military commander and Austrian soldier.
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[edit] Variations on his name
Slovak: (Matúš) Móric August Beňovský/Beňowský
Polish: Maurycy August Beniowski
Hungarian: Benyovszky Móric
French: Maurice Auguste de Benyowsky/-ski
English: (Matthew) Maurice Benyowsky/Benovsky
German: Moritz Benjowsky/-wski/Benyowski
Latin: Mauritius Auguste de Benovensis.
[edit] Biography
Beňovský was born in Vrbové near Trnava in present-day Slovakia (at that time part of the Kingdom of Hungary). The year of his birth (1741 or 1746) is disputed. His career began as an officer of Austrian army in the Seven Years' War, because Hungary was part of the Austrian monarchy at that time. However, his religious views and attitudes towards authority resulted in his leaving the country. From this time on he was called a sailor, an adventurer, a visionary, a colonizer, an entrepreneur, and a king.
In 1768 he joined the Confederation of Bar, Polish national movement against Russian intervention. He was captured by the Russians and interned in Kazan and later exiled in Siberia (Kamchatka). Subsequently, he escaped from Siberia and started a discovery trip through the Northern Pacific. In 1772 Beňovský arrived in Paris where impressed King Louis XV. He was offered to act in the name of France on Madagascar. In 1776 Beňovský was elected by the local tribal chiefs an Ampansacabe, (king) of Madagascar. In 1776 he returned to Paris and in appreciation for his services as Commander of Madagascar, he was awarded with promotion to the rank of General, and granted the military Order of Saint Louis and a life pension by Louis XVI. In 1779 Beňovský came to America, where he tried to obtain support in proposal to use Madagascar as a base in the struggle against England. He died in 1786 fighting with the French on Madagascar.
[edit] Important dates
- 1746 (September 9)
- Born in Vrbové near Trnava in Slovakia. Slovakia was part of the Kingdom of Hungary at that time, which in turn was part of the Habsburg Empire at that time.
- 1746 – 1759
- Childhood in Vrbové
- 1759 – 1760
- Studies at the Piarist College in Svätý Jur, a suburb of Bratislava
- 1760
- His mother dies, her property is inherited by her daughters from her first marriage, and Maurice has to care for his brothers and sisters, and is engaged in quarrels with his brothers-in-law.
- c.1762
- He shortly enters the army as an officer in the Seven Years' War (1755 – 1763), then escapes and stays in the Spiš.
- 1764
- He is accused of deserting and of apostasy (he had a rebellious attitude in matters of Catholic religion) and must participate in a tribunal.
- 1765
- He captures his mother's (see 1760) property in Hrušové near Vrbové, previously seized by one of his brothers-in-law. He is accused for this and must participate in a tribunal in Nitra. Before the trial ends (1766?), he flees to Poland, by which he violates the order of queen Maria Theresa forbidding to leave the country
- 1767 – 68
- He stays in those Spiš towns that Hungary had pawned to Poland in 1412
- 1768 (beginning of)
- For unknown reasons, he flees to Poland and enters into contact with Confederation of Bar (Konfederacja Barska) in Poland, which was rebelling against the Polish king Stanislaw August Poniatowski installed by Russia.
- 1768 (July)
- He is arrested in Spišská Sobota in the house of the butcher Hönsch (whose daughter will become his wife – see Family), because he had tried to organize a military unit for Confederation of Bar. In the same month he is imprisoned in the Lubovňa Castle (part of the pawned territories).
- 1769 - 1770
- He joins the Polish Confederation at Bar (Konfederacja Barska) to fight together with Kazimierz Pułaski for the independence of Poland from the Russian rule in the Ukraine. He is captured and interned in a camp at Kazan. Taking advantage of local rebellions (according to some sources the rebellion was icited by Benovsky), he flees from there to St. Petersburg, where he tries to board a Dutch ship, but the captain of the ship delivers him to the Russian police.
- 1770 - 1771
- This time, the Russians send him into exile 8000 km further east to eastern Siberia (Kamchatka). There he is one of the few educated people, so the local governor asks him to teach his daughter piano playing. She falls in love with him. In May 1771 Benovsky organizes a revolt of mainly Polish prisoners, during which the rebels led by Maurice capture weapons, money and a Russian battleship. Benovsky’s girl is killed in ambush by a flying bullet. Benovsky then commandeers the captured battleship and on May 23 sets out for a discovery trip through the Northern Pacific (well before James Cook and Jean-François de La Pérouse) along the Aleutians, Alaska, Japan, Formosa (Taiwan), until the rebels finally arrive in Macao in July 1771. In his Voyage to the Pacific Ocean (London, 1785), Capt. James Cook will describe meeting with Erafim Izmailov, a mutineer left by Beňovský on Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands. That indirectly confirms that Beňovsky's really was at Alaska.
- 1771 – 1773
- In Macao, he enters into contact with France. The Kamchatka rebels sell their original ship and on another ship then sail to France. On their way (around the Cape of Good Hope) they also visit the huge island of Madagascar off the African coast, then still independent and ruled by countless native chieftains. Finally in July 1772, he and most of the Kamchatka rebels arrive in France, where he is joined by his wife and learns about his promotion to General of the Polish Confederation, as well as about his growing international fame. He suggests to the King Louis XV that he could establish a French colony on Formosa (Taiwan) or Madagascar. The king appoints him as Governor of Madagascar, gives him the title of count and a few promises, and charges him with leading a French military and trade mission to the island of Madagascar (see 1774);1774 (February): Maurice, together with 21 officers and 237 volunteers lands at Madagascar.
- 1774 – 1775 First expedition to Madagascar
- In Madagascar, he starts to build the town of Louisbourg, a kind of base, through which France could enter into trade relations with Madagascar, and starts to build roads, settlements and to dry up swamps. Louisbourg was at the Maroantsetra (Antongil Bay) and included a hospital/quarantine on Nosy Mangabe. Besides building the French presence and geographically exploring the island, Maurice is unifying tribes there (see 1776). From the beginning, he is in conflict with the Governors of the French colonies Réunion and Mauritius, who are his superiors and are sending negative reports on his activities to Paris, are hindering his projects and cause the French Maritime Ministry to send a committee, which then finds deficiencies in Maurice's activities. The main reason for this is that the colonisation did not bring the immediate profits expected by the French government.
- 1776
- On October 1, the natives of Madagascar elect him King / Emperor (Ampansacabé) of Madagascar on the Mahevelou plane. Among other things, Maurice introduces Latin script for the Madagascar language. (In the history of Madagascar, the King Andrianampoinimerina (1786-1810) is mentioned as the national unifier—in fact he built upon the efforts of the Ampansacabe Beňovský.) In general, however, Maurice's mission largely fails (also due to illnesses caught by his men – their number will reduce to 63 in 1778) and Paris ignores his requirements. At the end of the year, Maurice leaves the island and goes to France.
- 1776
- Back in France, he tries to achieve that the amounts he had invested in Madagascar are paid to him, and he presents new proposals for the colonization of the island. He is promoted to the rank of General, and granted the military Order of Saint Louis and a life pension by Louis XVI.
- 1777
- Still in Paris, he becomes a close friend of Benjamin Franklin (American envoy in France), Kazimierz Pułaski (1748-1779) and Franklin becomes a good uncle to Beňovský's two daughters. Franklin and Beňovský regularly play chess, often joined by Count Pułaski. Franklin will support Beňovský later in trying to organize an American expedition to Madagascar (see 1784). In the same year, Pułaski goes to America with Benjamin Franklin's letter of recommendation and presents to Continental Congress a proposal from Beňovský to use Madagascar as a base in the American struggle against England. The project is not approved, because Continental Congress does not want to risk alienating France. Also in 1777, Beňovský turns to the Austrian royal court. He petitions the Austrian empress Maria Theresa, offers his services and experience acquired abroad for the development of the commerce of his native country and asks her pardon and permission to return home (see 1765). The royal court in Vienna changes its attitude towards Maurice (because he now is in service of France, whose queen is member of the same—Habsburg—dynasty as that in Vienna). The amnesty is granted to him on October 17.
- Late 1777/ early 1778
- He returns to Slovakia and, for example, writes a letter to the French Maritime and Colonial Ministry from his castle in Beckovská Vieska near Trenčín.
- 1778
- France grants him the title of a brigadier with annual payments of 4 000 pounds, but all his proposals are rejected by the French court. In addition, on April 3 he receives a letter by Maria Theresa promoting him to the rank of Count. However, his project for maritime trade from Historic Hungary and for the establishment of a trade route from Komárno to Rijeka (i.e., the Mediterranean) is refused by the Austrian royal court. In addition he enters the Army and fights in the War between Austria and Prussia (1778-1779) in Prussia.
- 1779 First expedition to America
- Beňovský follows Pułaski to America and offers his services in the American Revolution in person in a letter to the Continental Congress. He is approved to report to General Pułaski at the siege of Savannah, where Pułaski died in his friend's hands. Without Pułaski's support, Maurice has no choice but to return to Europe.
- 1780
- In Austria, he presents another project aiming at promoting the maritime trade, but again it is rejected.
- 1781 - 1782 Second expedition to America
- Back in America, in 1782 we find him in Philadelphia with letters of recommendation from Benjamin Franklin, offering in a letter to General Washington through General Baron Steuben to serve in person the American Revolution and the USA, "of which he is desirous to become a citizen"; his offer is respectfully declined. A month later, through the French Minister to the United States, he submits a plan to General Washington proposing that he would raise in Germany a body of troops consisting of three legionary corps of cavalry, infantry, grenadiers, chasseurs and artillery, the whole amounting to 3,383 effective men, and after their transport to America they would be subject to the order of the United States and take the oaths of fidelity and allegiance. The project is favorably evaluated. Beňovský meets George and Mary Washington in their headquarters in Newborough (Newburgh, New York). Following this discussions with Washington, Beňovský rewrites his proposal and presents it to the Continental Congress on May 6. However, finally, the proposal is rejected by Congress following a reconciliatory change in British attitude under the new British cabinet. Beňovský writes a farewell letter to Washington and embarks on the Friendship for Europe. He stops en route in Saint Domingue (now Haiti) to visit his brother, Francis Beňovský, stationed there with a French army unit (see Chapter Family below).
- 1783
- He returns to Slovakia, where he visits his castle at Beckovská Vieska and receives a privilege from the Emperor Joseph II, under which he is under special protection of the king and is authorized to found an Austrian colony on Madagascar, in which Maurice will be the governor under the Austrian flag. However this project is not realized, because the royal court does not provide money for it.
- 1783
- After he had failed to gain recognition in France, Austria and the USA, he turns to Great Britain, where in 1783 he asks the British government to enable him an expedition to Madagascar. Also, he gives to John Hyacinth de Magellan, a member of the Royal Society and descendant of the famous Ferdinand Magellan, his memoirs (or diary) written in French, describing and exaggerating all his past journeys. In the same year, Magellan translates it from French to English (under the title: Memoirs and Travels) and the memoirs will be first published in 1790 in the UK. The manuscripts of Benowsky's Memoirs comprise four volumes in the French language and Benowsky appended a signature to each of them in witness of his responsibility for their contents. The manuscripts were deposited in the British Museum Library by the owners subsequent to their first publication in 1790 and are still kept in the Manuscript Division of the British Library. Soon the memoirs will be published in German (Berlin, 1790; Vienna, 1816), French (Paris, 1791), Dutch (Haarlem, 1791), Swedish (Stockholm, 1791), Polish (Warsaw, 1797), Slovak (Bratislava, 1808), and Hungarian (1888) and will become a world best-seller. In the same year, with Benjamin Franklin's and J.H. Magellan assistance, he enters into contact with the Baltimore businessmen Messonier and Zollikofer, who found an American-British company for trade with Madagascar.
- 1784 3rd expedition to America
- On March 24, he appoints J.H. Magellan Plenipotentiary for the State of Madagascar and authorizes him to act as representative of all economic and political affairs of the island. In the same year he leaves Baltimore for Madagascar on board the a 5CC-ton vessel Intrepid provided by Messonier and Zollikofer. During the voyage, the ship is blown off course and has to remain for repairs along the coast of Brazil, before it continues.
- 1785 -1786 Second expedition to Madagascar
- In Madagascar, he initiates a rebellion of natives of Madagascar (who have remained loyal to him) and finally captures the French trade settlement Foulpointe. He also starts building the capital of his empire, the trade settlement Mauritania (named after his himself—Maurice) at the furthest eastern point of the island, Cape East. In the contract with his Anglo-American associates, lots are guaranteed for all of them in the city. From Mauritania, he trades with Maryland and Baltimore. The main trade article are slaves.
- 1786
- The French Maritime Ministry, outraged by Maurice's cooperation with the USA and by the capture of Foulpointe, sends an unexpected expedition from the Pondichéry colony to stop Maurice. The expedition manages a surprise attack on May 23, 1786. Benovsky's fights bravely, but he and his empire dies from a bullet to his chest in Mauritania. He is buried at the village of Mauritania by his former lieutenant Jacques de Lassalle, together with two Russian fugitives who had accompanied him from Kamchatka.
[edit] Importance
Beňovský was a typical representative of the period of the Enlightenment, the development of transport and trade, exploration of unknown regions. He was:
- the first European sailor in the North Pacific region — he examined the western coast of Alaska between the mouth of the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers, sailing along to Unimak Island (Aleutians), and his voyage to Macao was the first known voyage from the north-east to the south-east shores of Asia
- the first person who has visited the land of four continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, America)
- was the first explorer of the St. Lawrence Island
- a significant explorer of Madagascar and first King of a unified Madagascar
- the first Slovak author of a worldwide best-seller
- the first Slovak having intervened in the development of many countries (at least Poland, USA, France, Austria, Madagascar)
[edit] Legacy
Besides being the author of a bestseller of the break of 18th and 19th century (see 1783), Beňovský became a rich source of inspiration for writers, poets and composers. The opera Benyowsky and the exiles of Kamchatka by François-Adrien Boïeldieu was presented in Paris in 1800. The US premier of the play Count Benyowsky—The Conspiracy of Kamchatka, a tragi-comedy in five acts by the German playwright August Friedrich von Kotzebue, took place in Baltimore along with the first performance of the US national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner, on October 19, 1814. The second of 8 operas by the Austrian composer Albert Franz Doppler (1821-1883), later arranged for piano by the Hungarian composer Mihaly Mosonyi, is also called Benyovszky. And Beniowski is also the name of an epic poem by the Polish poet Juliusz Słowacki (1809-1849). Also in his native Slovakia, many artistic works are associated with the name of Beňovský, above all the novel The adventures of Móric Beňovský by Jozef Nižňánsky (1933) and the Slovak-Hungarian TV series Vivat Beňovský from 1975.
Benovsky is considered a national hero above all by the Slovaks and by the Madagascarians, but also by the Poles. Beňovský's name and memory have survived in Madagascar to the present day. The island opposite Cape East is called the Benyowsky Island on older maps, and on the way from Antalaha to Cape East there is a ford named Baron Passage, relating to Benovsky's first stay on the island. When Madagascar gained independence, most European names fell into disuse, but not Beňovský's. One of the main streets in the capital Antananarivo (Rue Benyovski), as well as streets in several other major cities, is named after the unforgettable sovereign.
[edit] Benyowsky's nationality
There are three nations which consider Beňovský as one of them: Slovaks, Hungarians and Poles. He was a nobleman of the Kingdom of Hungary of Slovak origin. Besides, as a young man Benyowsky left Hungary and joined the Polish Confederation of Bar fighting for freedom against the Russian Empress Catherine. He became a close associate of his Polish compatriots. Until his death Poles were his brothers-in-arms. In many occasions he also declared himself as a Pole. To some extent, the myth of Benyowsky's Polish nationality was created by his "Polish" name and a poem "Beniowski" written by Julius Slowacki, one of the finest Polish poets. However, as many nobles of the 18th century, Beňovský was a cosmopolitan in the best tradition, serving different great powers and mastering various languages.
[edit] Benyowsky's family
Father: Samuel Beňovský, from the noble Beňovský family. At the time of Móric's birth, he was an Austrian colonel.
Mother: Rozália Beňovský (original name: Révay), her father was the Bishop of Spiš, this was her second marriage.
Wife: Zuzana Beňovská (original name: Hönsch) (1750-1815), daughter of a butcher. She stayed in Baltimore in 1784 and after Móric's death she and her daughters departed America in 1786 and returned to Beňovský's castle in the Slovak town of Beckovská Vieska, where Countess Beňovská died in 1825 (They definitively did not stay in the USA as some sources sometimes suggest).
Brothers and sisters: 2 sisters, 2 brothers. His brother Francis Beňovský (František Beňovský) was an officer and adventurer in the Caribbean around 1780 and the adjutant of Major Polerecky, Head of the Blue Hussars of the French cavalry supervising the British surrender at Yorktown in America in 1781. He died in America in 1789.
Thanks to the help of Benjamin Franklin, Beňovský's descendants kept the spirit of cosmopolitanism and can be found all across Europe, as well as in the United States.
[edit] Bibliography
Memoirs of Benyowsky
The Memoirs and Travels of Mauritius August Count de Benyowsky, Magnate of the Kingdom of Hungary and Poland. One of the Chiefs of the Confederation of Poland. Consisting of his Military Operations in Poland, his Exile into Kamchatka, his Escape and Voyage from that Peninsula through the Northern Pacific Ocean, Touching at Japan and Formosa, to Canton in China, with an Account of the French Settlement, he was Appointed to Form upon the Island of Madagascar. Written by Himself. Translation from the Original Manuscript. London-Dublin, William Nicholson.
