The House of Apponyi, also known as Apponyi de Nagy-Appony, was a prominent and powerful Hungarian family of the high upper nobility of the Kingdom of Hungary, whose members remained notable even after the kingdom's dismemberment in the successor states of Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
History While tracing its origins to the High Middle Ages, the family became prominent in the 18th century with its elevation to the rank of Counts of Nagy-Appony in 1739 and the acquisition of seventeen grand domains between 1760 and 1800. In the last century of the Habsburg monarchy, four of its members received the Order of the Golden Fleece, a total held in a draw among the European nobility by the houses of Esterházy, Batthyány, and Pálffy (4 each). In addition, Albert Apponyi received the Order in 1921 shortly after the end of the monarchy. In addition to this the Apponyi family sat within all Hungarian Kings and then Habsburg private courts which was reserved only for the most powerful and important members of the Kingdom.
The family's name refers to Appony, now Oponice, a region located North of Nitra in present-day Slovakia, in which the family established itself in the late 14th century. Nagy-Appony ("Greater Appony") is the southern part of the area, which was long ruled by the Apponyi family.
Many Apponyis were active in the military, politics, and/or the Catholic Church, as was customary in Hungarian aristocratic families. More distinctive of the Apponyi family was its tradition of Diplomacy for the Kingdom of Hungary then the Habsburg monarchy, and briefly for Interwar Hungary in the significant case of Albert Apponyi. Bibliophilia was another distinguished Apponyi family tradition, the most prominent legacy of which is the Apponyi Library, now a part of the Slovak National Library and still located in the former Apponyi Castle in Oponice.
Nomenclature The Apponyis, like other Hungarian magnates, juggled different languages when it came to given names. They were typically bilingual in Hungarian and German and educated in other languages as well, and went by corresponding names depending on context. Thus, the Hungarian name Apponyi Antal refers to the same individual as Anton Apponyi (German), Antoine Apponyi (French), or Antonius Apponyi (Latin) - Latin having remained widely used as a written language in Hungary well into the modern era. English-language historiography generally displays the first given name in Hungarian, but with the family name put last as customary in Europe outside of Hungary, e.g. Antal Apponyi. During Josephinism and its aftermath until around the Compromise of 1867, however, the use of Hungarian was suppressed in nobility families such as the Apponyis, and German names were more customary.
From the 14th to the 18th century The Apponyis claimed ancestors among the Magyar tribes through the Péc clan. Beyond genealogy, little is known of the family history until the Late Middle Ages.
Miklós (Nicolaus) Apponyi (late 14th/early 15th century) In Miklós's time the family was granted the fortress of Appony (now Oponice) by King Sigismund in 1392, upon which it took up the Apponyi name.
Barons Péter (?–1626) and Pál Apponyi (1564–1624) Brothers Péter and Pál were made Barons in June 1606 by King Rudolf in recognition of their fight against the Ottomans. They were signatories of the Peace of Vienna with Stephen Bocskai in the same year. They died without heirs, which meant no sons could carry on the baronial title.
Baron Balázs (Blasius) Apponyi (?–1637) Balázs, a cousin of Péter and Pál, inherited the Appony domain after Péter's death. He in turn was made a Baron by King Ferdinand II, on 12 November 1624, possibly for his literary activity and/or role in negotiations in Vienna with the supporters of Gabriel Bethlen. On 8 January 1636 Ferdinand II appointed him one of his Hungarian royal advisers. He was a distinguished writer of religious poetry in Latin. He died without male heirs, which meant the Apponyi family remained untitled until the elevation of Lázár to Baron in 1718. He was buried in the monastery of Horné Lefantovce.
János Apponyi (early 17th century)
János is said to have joined the Franciscan order as a young nobleman and to have had a vision of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, in 1617 or 1618. Tradition has that he died shortly afterwards, after his family refused to acknowledge his religious vocation. In his memory, Count Kristóf Erdődy founded a monastery dedicated to Saint Catherine in Dejte (now Dechtice) in 1618. The monastery, today known as Katarínka, was dissolved in 1786 by Joseph II but its ruined church still stands.
Count Lázár Apponyi (?–1739) Lázár fought at the Siege of Buda (1686), where his father Miklós Apponyi died. He was personally raised to the hereditary rank of Baron by Charles VI in Vienna on 16 February 1718, for his outstanding military contribution to the Habsburg fights against the Ottoman Empire. Charles VI then made Lázár Count of Nagy-Appony on 30 May 1739 in Laxenburg, and his descendants kept that title until the end of the monarchic period. The family's coat of arms also dates from that moment.
József Apponyi (1718–1787) József, son of Lázár, joined the Society of Jesus in Vienna in 1736, studied there and in Graz until 1741, then taught grammar in Győr (1742) and Trnava (1743). He later lectured in philosophy, logic, mathematics, physics, theology, and ethics. His Oratio de augustissimo verbi incarnati mysterio was published in Vienna in 1745. He remained a Catholic priest after the Suppression of the Society of Jesus.
Count Antal György (Anton Georg) Apponyi (1751–1817) Antal György (or György Antal), grandson of Lázár and son of György László (Georg Ladislaus) Apponyi (1736–1782), was a major cultural figure who founded the Apponyi Library. Joseph Haydn dedicated him six quartets in 1793 (No. 54 to 59, Op. 71 & 74), since known as "Apponyi Quartets". Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is also believed to have composed several pieces for him. In 1795, Antal György Apponyi invited Ludwig van Beethoven to try his hand at a string quartet, an attempt that only materialized a few years later with the Opus 18 quartets published in 1801. From 1784 he rebuilt the castle in the domain his father had purchased in Hőgyész, and spent much of his later life there.
Éberhárd Line
György (Georg) Apponyi (1780–1849), eldest son of Antal György, established himself in Eberhárd (now Malinovo), a castle near Pressburg (Pozsony, today's Bratislava) which had been purchased by his grandfather György and which his descendants kept until the dismemberment of the Kingdom of Hungary. Members of this branch are still alive today.
Count György (Georg) Apponyi (1808–1899)
György, son of György and grandson of Antal György, was a prominent conservative politician. He was Hungarian chancellor (1846–48) and Speaker of the Hungarian House of Magnates in 1861.
Count Albert Apponyi (1846–1933)
Albert, son of György, was a major Hungarian statesman of the conservative Party of Independence and '48. He is remembered both for his notorious 1907 legislation on the Magyarization of public education in the Kingdom of Hungary, known as Apponyi Law or Lex Apponyi, and for his brilliant (though unsuccessful) defense of Hungarian positions in the negotiations that led to the Treaty of Trianon in 1920. He received the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1921. He was also well respected by all of the major leaders of the time, such as Theodore Roosevelt who considered him a very dear friend, along with stayed at his estate when he came to visit Budapest in 1910. Upon his death he was also granted the title of prince regent a title which although not hereditary in nature can still be used for state matters and when referring to Albert Apponyi.
Countess Klotild (Clotilde) Apponyi (1867–1942)
Clotilde, née von Mensdorff-Pouilly and wife of Albert, was a prominent advocate of women's rights and women's suffrage, and a delegate for Hungary to the League of Nations in 1935–1937.
Appony Line Antal György Apponyi's second son Antal and his descendants kept custody of the ancestral family property in Oponice, where they lived until 1935. A branch of this family line held the Hőgyész domain until 1939.
Count Antal (Anton) Apponyi (1782–1852)
Antal was a diplomat for the Habsburg monarchy in Karlsruhe (Grand Duchy of Baden), Florence (Grand Duchy of Tuscany) from 1816 to 1819, and Rome (Papal States) from 1820 to 1826. In 1826 he became Ambassador in Paris, a position he held until 1848. He received the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1836. He died in the Apponyi castle on 17 October 1852.
Countess Teresa Apponyi (1790–1874) Maria Teresa, née Nogarolla in Munich of an old family originally from Verona, married Antal Apponyi in 1808. She impressed diplomats at the Congress of Vienna and gained the nickname la divine Thérèse. Frédéric Chopin dedicated her his Nocturne Op. 27 No. 1 and Op. 27 No. 2.
Count Lajos (Ludwig) Apponyi (1849–1909) Lajos, grandson of Antal and son of Gyula Apponyi (1816–1857), was appointed Marshal of the Court in Hungary (Hofmarschall in Ungarn) by Emperor Franz Joseph in December 1895, a newly created position that entailed guardianship of the royal palaces of Budapest and Gödöllő. Among other functions, he represented the monarchy at the ceremonial reburial of King Béla III and Queen Agnes of Antioch in Matthias Church on 21 October 1898. He was a member of the Budapest Park Club and of the Budapest Applied Art Society.
Countess Margit (Marguerite) Apponyi (1848–1931) Marguerite, née von Seherr-Thoss (de) from an ancient noble family in Silesia, married Lajos Apponyi in 1871. She was an active manager of the Appony estate and of the family's literary legacy. She ensured the publications of the memoirs of Rezső Apponyi (of the Jablánc line) and of her son Henrik Apponyi. She also had the decades-long correspondence of her mother-in-law Szofia (née Sztáray, wife of Gyula) with Charles de Montalembert edited by François Buloz and published in the Revue des deux Mondes in 1913. She devoted herself to philanthropy, together with her husband, especially with the hospital and school in Oponice.
Count Henrik Apponyi (1885–1935) Henrik started a diplomatic career, in Berlin (1912–1913) and Istanbul (1913–1914), but that was cut short by World War I and the end of the Habsburg monarchy. He relocated to Oponice in 1918 and dedicated his life to adventurous traveling, particularly in Sudan (1924) and India and Tibet (1930). His travel notes were published in London in 1937 under the title My big-game hunting diary from India and the Himalayas, with a foreword by the Viscount Halifax whom Henrik had met while in India. The book came out after the deaths of both his mother Marguerite, who had promoted the publication project, and that of Henrik himself. He died in Berlin in unclear circumstances.
Geraldine Apponyi (1915–2002)
Geraldine was a granddaughter of Lajos and daughter of Gyula Apponyi (1873–1924) and his American wife Gladys Virginia Steuart (1891–1947). She married King Zog I of Albania in Tirana, in a grand ceremony on 27 April 1938. She reigned as Queen consort for less than a year, then spent most of her long life in exile.
Lengyel line The two brothers Rezső and Gyula Apponyi inherited Lengyel Castle in 1863 from their uncle József Apponyi (1788–1863), third son of Antal György. Rezső took over Lengyel while Gyula stayed in Appony (Oponice). Members of this branch lived in Lengyel until 1930.
Count Rezső (Rudolf) Apponyi (1812–1876)