1714: Geczy Julianna, the White Woman of Locse
September 25th, 2018 Headsman
On this date in 1714, Geczy Julianna was executed in the marketplace of Gyor as a traitor.
“The White Woman of Locse” — which is also the title of an 1884 romantic novel about her life by Mor Jokai — this woman allegedly betrayed that place* into the hands of imperial Habsburg troops during Hungary’s unsuccessful 1703-1711 rebellion. Sober historians view her as simply a person trusted to serve as the emissary between the garrison and its Habsburg besiegers which role would eventually entail her communicating the defenders’ surrender.
She salvaged her reputation for posterity — and set herself up for torture and execution — by paying the betrayal forward to the empire when she destroyed a number of documents sought by the imperial marshal Janos Palffy that could have incriminated Kuruc nobles in plotting for a renewal of hostilities.
“How can a woman sacrifice her whole country for a kiss, and then sacrifice her handsome head for the same country?” Jokai mused of his paradoxical subject. “What reconciles the heaven and hell in the character of a woman?”
* Formerly part of Hungary’s northern reaches, this town today resides in Slovakia.
On this day..
- 1965: The Carrillos, by the ELN - 2020
- 1852: The assassin of Korfiotaki - 2019
- 1863: Spencer Kellogg Brown, Union spy - 2017
- 1987: Gennady Modestovich Mikhasevich, Belarus serial killer - 2016
- 1794: Edmund Fortis, in the hands of God - 2015
- 1911: Dmitry Bogrov, Stolypin's assassin - 2014
- 2013: Xia Junfeng, chengguan slayer - 2013
- 1561: Sehzade Beyazit, inevitably - 2012
- 1991: Warren McCleskey - 2011
- 1998: Cao Haixin, unwelcome meddler - 2010
- 2007: Michael Richard, whose time ran out - 2009
- 1792: Jacques Cazotte, occultist - 2008
Entry Filed under: 18th Century,Arts and Literature,Austria,Beheaded,Capital Punishment,Death Penalty,Execution,Habsburg Realm,History,Hungary,Martyrs,Power,Public Executions,Torture,Treason,Women
Tags: 1710s, 1714, geczy julianna, gyor, mor jakai, nationalism, september 25
