László Széchenyi

The Count was born Széchenyi László Jenő Mária Henrik Simon on February 18, 1879 in Horpács, then a part of Austria-Hungary, a dual monarchy established in 1867. He was a son of Count Imre Széchenyi de Sárvár-felsővidék, the former Austrian Minister at the Court of Berlin and his wife, Countess Alexandra Sztaray-Szirmay et Nagy-Mihály (1843–1914).{{cite news |title=SZECHENYI COMPANY USES HIS INVENTION - The Count's Submarine Wireless Tried Out by Torpedo Boat at Newport |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1912/08/28/100546000.pdf |access-date=25 October 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=August 28, 1912}} The Széchényi family were one of the oldest and wealthiest in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.{{Cite web |title=Catalogue {{!}} The Catalogue {{!}} Széchényi, Count László {{!}} The de Laszlo Archive Trust |url=https://www.delaszlocatalogueraisonne.com/catalogue/the-catalogue/szechenyi-count-laszlo-4236/search/keywords:vanderbilt/page/3 |access-date=2024-02-15 |website=www.delaszlocatalogueraisonne.com}} He was also the great grandson of Ferenc Széchényi

He was the youngest of four brothers, including: Count Dionys, who was the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador in Denmark (he married Comtesse Marie de Caraman et Chimay), Peter Széchenyi, and István Széchenyi. All of the brothers were Reserve Lieutenants in the Imperial Hussars as well as Chamberlains at the Court.{{cite web|url=http://theesotericcuriosa.blogspot.com/2012/01/cash-for-coronets-ruitanian-coupling.html|title=The Esoteric Curiosa: Cash For Coronets: A 'Ruritanian' Coupling The Likes of Anthony Hope, Vanderbilt & Széchenyi. |publisher=theesotericcuriosa.blogspot.com|access-date=2014-10-24}}

His father owned thousands of acres divided into scores of farms and forest preserves on which the Széchenyis grew wheat, Turkish pepper, tobacco, hemp, and grapes.

File:Madame Széchenji, Count Lásló Széchenji, and Alice Roosevelt Longworth snaped (sic) at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial today LCCN94503008.jpg at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial, 1922.]]

Széchenyi was the inventor of the submarine wireless telegraphy, for sending and receiving sound-wave vibrations underwater. The machine was successfully tested with then U.S. Secretary of the Navy George von Lengerke Meyer, in Newport, Rhode Island. Széchenyi, along with David C. Watts, formed the Submarine Wireless Company to produce it.

By 1908, Széchenyi was the most prominent member of his family, which was quite numerous. He possessed two great estates in Hungary, Oermezo Castle, which is about three hundred years old and 4,000 acres, in the County of Templen, and Lagoshara Pusbla, a Summer place of about 4,300 acres, in the County of Somogy. Széchenyi also owned a one-story, ten room house at 14 Eotvoss-street in Budapest.{{cite web|url=http://theesotericcuriosa.blogspot.com/|title=The Esoteric Curiosa|publisher=theesotericcuriosa.blogspot.com|access-date=2014-10-24}}{{cite web|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1907/11/17/106768489.pdf|title=Count Szechenyi's Summer Seat - Oermezo, is a Picturesque Village of About 1,000 Inhabitants in Upper Hungary. Miss Gladys Vanderbilt's Future Neighbors. - View Article - NYTimes.com|publisher=query.nytimes.com|access-date=2014-10-24}}{{cite news|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84025891/1908-01-04/ed-1/seq-3/|title=The Washington bee. volume (Washington, D.C.) 1884-1922, January 04, 1908, Image 3 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress|date=4 January 1908|publisher=chroniclingamerica.loc.gov|access-date=2014-10-24}}

Shortly before the War, Széchenyi tried to become a financial leader in Hungary but failed. He is said to have lost $4,000,000 which is supposed to have come largely from his wife. He was a member of the 'Magnates Group' which speculated in mines, railroads and other enterprises. They failed to calculate the impact of the World War, and suffered a complete smash as a result of the fall in value of their shares.

The Kingdom of Hungary and the United States signed a treaty establishing friendly relations on August 29, 1921.{{cite news |title=SZECHENYI TO BE ENVOY.; Gladys Vanderbilt's Husband Will Represent Hungary Here. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/12/24/107038624.pdf |access-date=25 October 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=24 December 1921}} On January 11, 1922, Széchenyi presented his credentials as Hungary's first Minister to the United States. He served in that role until March 31, 1933.{{cite web|url=https://history.state.gov/countries/hungary|title=A Guide to the United States' History of Recognition, Diplomatic, and Consular Relations, by Country, since 1776: Hungary|publisher=Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute United States Department of State|access-date=2014-10-24}} He was transferred to the same post at the Court of Saint James's in England in 1933.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

File:Gladys Vanderbilt, 1906.jpg, 1906.]]

Széchenyi was twenty-eight years old when he met Gladys Vanderbilt (1886–1965), the seventh and youngest child of Alice Claypoole Gwynne and Cornelius Vanderbilt II, the president and chairman of the New York Central Railroad. Gladys grew up in the family home on Fifth Avenue in New York City, and their summer "cottage," The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island.{{cite book |title=Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt |url=https://archive.org/details/fortuneschildren01vand |url-access=registration |last=Vanderbilt |first=Arthur T. II |year=1989 |publisher=Morrow |location=New York |isbn=0-688-07279-8}} They married on January 27, 1908, at her family home in New York City, after their meeting in Berlin near her twenty-first birthday in 1907.{{cite news |title=THE HOUSE OF SZECHENYI IN MAGYAR ANNALS. Long and Illustrious Record of the Ancient Hungarian Family Into Which Miss Gladys Vanderbilt will be Married To-morrow. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1908/01/26/104794655.pdf |access-date=25 October 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=January 26, 1908}}{{cite news |title=MISS VANDERBILT NOW A COUNTESS She Becomes the Bride of Count Laszlo Szechnyi, Chamberlain to Austrian Emperor CEREMONY A SIMPLE ONE Bridal Pair Elude Camera Squad and Make Their Escape in a Speeding Motor Car |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1908/01/28/105002510.pdf |access-date=25 October 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=January 28, 1908}} Their early married life was spent in Hungary raising their five children.{{cite book|title=Newportraits|author=Newport Art Museum (R.I.)|date=2000|publisher=University Press of New England|isbn=978-1-58465-018-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JLfRCgAPCyIC|page=177|access-date=2014-10-24}} Together, Széchenyi and Vanderbilt were the parents of five daughters:

• Countess Cornelia "Gilia" Széchényi (1908–1958),{{cite news|last1=Times|first1=Special Cable To The New York|title=DAUGHTER TO SZECHENYIS.; Former Miss Gladys Vanderbilt Becomes a Mother at Her Castle|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1908/10/28/archives/daughter-to-szechenyis-former-miss-gladys-vanderbilt-becomes-a.html|access-date=28 April 2017|work=The New York Times|date=28 October 1908}} who married Eugene Bowie Roberts (1898–1983), an heir of the Roberts family of Bowie, Maryland, a Colonial family of Maryland.{{cite news |title=MISS SZECHENYI ENGAGED TO WED; Daughter of the Hungarian Minister to London and E. B. Roberts to Marry. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1933/06/13/105143856.pdf |access-date=25 October 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=13 June 1933}}
• Countess Alice "Ai" Széchényi (1911–1974),{{cite news|title=SZECHENYI'S SECOND CHILD.; Daughter Born to Him and the Countess -- Son to Viscountess Maidstone. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1911/08/05/archives/szechenyis-second-child-daughter-born-to-him-and-the-countess-son.html|access-date=28 April 2017|work=The New York Times|date=5 August 1911}}{{cite news |title=Countess Hadik, 63; Was a Descendant Of the Vanderbilts |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1974/02/27/91435530.pdf |access-date=25 October 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=27 February 1974}} who married Hungarian Count Béla Hadik (1905–1971), a son of Count János Hadik, who was briefly the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hungary.{{cite news |title=Count Bela Nadik, a Dog Breeder, 66 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1971/02/20/81875275.pdf |access-date=3 September 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=20 February 1971}}
• Countess Gladys Széchényi (1913–1978),{{cite news|last1=Times|first1=Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph To The New York|title=DAUGHTER TO SZECHENYIS.; She Was Born at Her Parents' English Home on Thursday. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1913/08/16/archives/daughter-to-szechenyis-she-was-born-at-her-parents-english-home-on.html|access-date=28 April 2017|work=The New York Times|date=16 August 1913}} who married the English Christopher Finch-Hatton, 15th Earl of Winchilsea (1911–1950). They divorced in 1945,{{cite news|title=LORD WINCHILSEA, DREXEL KIN, WEDS: 15th Earl Marries in London Mary A. Conroy, Daughter of Fruit Merchant|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/06/18/107137003.html?pageNumber=28|access-date=10 August 2016|work=The New York Times|date=June 18, 1946}} and in 1954, she married American banker Arthur Talbot Peterson (1905–1962).{{cite news |title=Paid Notice: Deaths COLWELL, PHOEBE ANN TALBOT PETERSON |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage-9D06EFDE133AF937A25753C1A9649D8B63.html |access-date=25 October 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=October 14, 2012 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Arts |first1=United States Commission of Fine |title=Massachusetts Avenue Architecture |date=1973 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=186 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5GNKRXMm-u4C&pg=PA186 |access-date=25 October 2019 |language=en}}
• Countess Sylvia Anita Gabriel Denise Irene Marie "Syvie" Széchényi (1918–1998), who married Hungarian Count Antal Szapáry von Muraszombath Széchysziget und Szapar (1905–1972).{{cite web |title=Hungarian National Museum enriched with an invaluable collection |url=https://mnm.hu/en/museum/news/hungarian-national-museum-enriched-invaluable-collection |website=mnm.hu |publisher=Hungarian National Museum |access-date=25 October 2019 |language=en |date=19 December 2017}}
• Countess Ferdinandine "Bubby" Széchényi (1923–2016), who married the Austrian Count Alexander von und zu Eltz genannt Faust von Stromberg (1911–1977).

CoSzéchenyi died in Budapest on 5 July 1938. His widow died on 29 January 1965 in Washington, D.C.{{cite news|last1=Times|first1=Special To The New York|title=Countess Szechenyi a Citizen|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B04E3DA133CE13BBC4B51DFBF66838C659EDE&legacy=true|access-date=28 April 2017|work=The New York Times|date=23 September 1947}}

{{See|Vanderbilt family}}

Through his daughter Gladys, he was a grandfather of Christopher Denys Stormont Finch-Hatton, 16th Earl of Winchilsea (1936–1999), who is known for his work promoting of the interests of the displaced Sahrawi people.{{cite news|last=Philip|first=A B|title=Obituary: The Earl of Winchilsea and Nottingham|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-the-earl-of-winchilsea-and-nottingham-1104944.html|access-date=29 March 2013|newspaper=The Independent|date=8 Jul 1999}}

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Category:1879 births

Category:1938 deaths

Category:Austro-Hungarian Army officers

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Category:Ambassadors of Hungary to the United States

Category:Ambassadors of Hungary to Mexico