Julius Jacob von Haynau (October 14, 1786, Kassel

Kassel

Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

 – March 14, 1853) was an Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n general

General

A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....

.

The illegitimate

Legitimacy (law)

At common law, legitimacy is the status of a child who is born to parents who are legally married to one another; and of a child who is born shortly after the parents' divorce. In canon and in civil law, the offspring of putative marriages have been considered legitimate children...

 son of the landgrave

Landgrave

Landgrave was a title used in the Holy Roman Empire and later on by its former territories. The title refers to a count who had feudal duty directly to the Holy Roman Emperor...

 (later elector

Prince-elector

The Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire were the members of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Roman king or, from the middle of the 16th century onwards, directly the Holy Roman Emperor.The heir-apparent to a prince-elector was known as an...

) of Hesse-Kassel, William I

William I, Elector of Hesse

William I, Elector of Hesse was the eldest surviving son of Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and Princess Mary of Great Britain, the daughter of George II.-Early life:...

 and Rebecca Richter, a Jewish woman, he entered the Austrian

Austrian Empire

The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...

 army as an infantry officer in 1801 and saw much service in the Napoleonic wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

. He was wounded at Wagram

Battle of Wagram

The Battle of Wagram was the decisive military engagement of the War of the Fifth Coalition. It took place on the Marchfeld plain, on the north bank of the Danube. An important site of the battle was the village of Deutsch-Wagram, 10 kilometres northeast of Vienna, which would give its name to the...

, and distinguished during the operations in Italy in 1813 and 1814. Between 1815 and 1847 he rose to the rank of field marshal lieutenant.

On October 11, 1808 Haynau married Thérèse von Weber, the daughter of Field Marshal Lieutenant Weber, who was slain at Aspern. She died, leaving one daughter, in 1850.

Rise

A violent temper, which he made no attempt to control or conceal, led him into trouble with his superiors. His hatred of revolution

Revolution

A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...

ary principles was fanatical. When the insurrectionary movements of 1848

Revolutions of 1848

The European Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Spring of Nations, Springtime of the Peoples or the Year of Revolution, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe in 1848. It was the first Europe-wide collapse of traditional authority, but within a year reactionary...

 broke out in Italy, his known zeal for the cause of legitimacy, as much as his reputation as an officer, marked him out for command. He fought with success in Italy, but was chiefly noted for the severity he showed in suppressing and punishing a rising in Brescia

Brescia

Brescia is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, between the Mella and the Naviglio, with a population of around 197,000. It is the second largest city in Lombardy, after the capital, Milan...

. The mob of Brescia had massacred invalid Austrian soldiers in the hospital, a provocation which led to reprisals.

In June 1849 Haynau was called to Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 to command first an army of reserve, and then in the field against the Hungarians

Hungarian Revolution of 1848

The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 was one of many of the European Revolutions of 1848 and closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas...

. His successes against the declining revolutionary cause were numerous and rapid. In Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

, as in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, he was accused of brutality. It was, for instance, asserted that he caused women who showed any sympathy with the insurgents to be whipped. He also ordered to execute 13 Hungarian generals of the revolutionary cause at Arad, some of them were hanged though they have been high rank officers. For this reason he won the unenviable nickname of "Hyena of Brescia" or "Hangman of Arad", spoofing the "Habsburg Tiger" nickname addressed to Haynau by Austrian soldiers.

Decline

His ostentatious hatred of the revolutionary parties marked him out as the natural object for these accusations. On the restoration of peace he was appointed to high command in Hungary. His temper quickly led him into quarrels with the minister of war, and he resigned his command in 1850. He then travelled abroad.

The refugees had spread his evil reputation. He was saved from mob violence in Brussels with some difficulty. In London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 he was attacked and beaten by draymen at what was then the Barclay & Perkins brewery

Anchor Brewery, Southwark

The Anchor Brewery, Southwark, was situated off Southwark Bridge Road and had its main entrance on Park Street, Southwark.- History :The brewery was established in 1616 by James Monger and for many years was a relatively small concern. In the 18th century it was owned by the Thrale family, who were...

, which he was visiting. When Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...

 visited England in 1864, he insisted on visiting the brewery to thank "the men who flogged Haynau."

G. K. Chesterton

G. K. Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....

, the famous English author, describes the situation in 'The Crimes of England'. "When an Austrian general who had flogged women in the conquered provinces appeared in the London streets, some common draymen off a cart behaved with the direct quixotry of Sir Lancelot or Sir Galahad. He had beaten women and they beat him. They regarded themselves simply as avengers of ladies in distress, breaking the bloody whip of a German bully."

In 1862, during the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

,
General Benjamin Butler

Benjamin Franklin Butler (politician)

Benjamin Franklin Butler was an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts....

,
commanding the Union forces occupying New Orleans,
ordered that women showing disrespect toward Union officers
were to be regarded as common prostitutes;
for this, Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard

P. G. T. Beauregard

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard was a Louisiana-born American military officer, politician, inventor, writer, civil servant, and the first prominent general of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Today he is commonly referred to as P. G. T. Beauregard, but he rarely used...

referred to Butler as "the Haynau of the North." Beauregard did
not explain his allusion, apparently assuming that his officers
were familiar with Haynau's reputation.