Horthy de Nagybánya, Nikolaus Miklós

Horthy de Nagybánya, Nikolaus Miklós (b. 18 June 1868, d. 9 Feb. 1957). Regent of Hungary 1920–44 Born in Kenderes, he graduated from the Imperial Naval Academy of Fiume, and by 1918 had advanced to become Commander-in-Chief of the Austro-Hungarian navy. Lacking purpose in a post-1918 Hungary which had become land-locked after World War I (confirmed at the Treaty of Trianon), his resentment was heightened by the new Bolshevist regime of Béla Kun. In response, he spearheaded the Nationalist Army in its overthrow of the regime, and was declared regent in January 1920. In response to the country's growing political polarization, and particularly to a popular, radical right wing, his rule became increasingly dictatorial during the 1930s. He placated the new tendencies, for example, by allowing the rise of official anti-Semitism. Although personally on bad terms with Hitler, he was dazzled by the latter's initial military successes in 1939–40, so that he joined in the Nazi attack on Hungary's former ally, Yugoslavia, on 11 April 1941. In 1944 he tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a separate peace with the Allies. For this he was imprisoned after the German invasion of Hungary, to be released by the Allies in 1945. He died in exile in Portugal.