MAGYAR JOAN OF ARC

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 12, 15 January 1932, Page 2

MAGYAR JOAN OF ARC

HISTORIAN'S DISCOVERY. GALLANT COUNTRY GIRL. SENTENCED TO DEATH, BUT ESCAPED. Thanks to the indefatigable research , work of the Hungarian historian, Johann Kalmar, who has devoted a lifetime to the task. Hungary has learned that in Suzanne do Losardy, the daughter of a Hungarian landowner, she had a generally neglected Magyar “Joan of Arc.” No statue commemorates her, not one of the many Hungarian folk songs knows the name of this gallant country girl who marched to war at the head of the troops of Prince Rakoezy JI., the Hun garian national leader who fought so gallantly against the power of the Holy Roman (Austrian) Emperor. Suzanne de Losardy was born iu a village in Zemplen County in IGbl. Her parents were respected small gentry. When she was 20 years old she was fired with enthusiasm for the .Magyar national cause, and her parents were obliged to yield to her unswerving determination to fight at the side of her brother, who was ensign to Rakoezy. She took part in many fierce battles, and when the lighting was over devoted herself to the care of the wounded. Between conflicts she composed stirring war ballads for the encouragement of the troops. AVhen Rakoezy was elected Prince of Transylvania in 1704. she composed an ode to him which be had printed and distributed throughout the country. At the battle of Zsibo her brother Nicholas was slain at her side with thousands of other' by the Imperial troops, but .Susanne emerged from the slaughter unharmed “as by a miracle.’ Jm* mediately after this defeat of the Magyars the country was occupied by tho Emperor, and Susanne was arrested and sentenced to be shot as * rebel- While awaiting execution, she composed more patriotic ballads, which were smuggled out of prison and circulated secretly to maintain the patriotic spirit of the Magyars. On May 29, 17U5. a few days before the date fixed for her execution, she escaped to Turkey and was never heard of again. The only’ document in her writing ex rant is a letter to a friend telling of her tortures in prison and begging him to arrange her escape. “I cannot believe,” she wrote, “that the Emperor sent his troops to our blessed Hungarv to make war on women. My whole crime is that I am a Hungarian woman and patriot.”