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Flogged for Her Country

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windar

Teller of Tales
This brief story was inspired by the following picture posted yesterday on the thread “Judicial Corporal Punishment of Women: Illustrations” by Switgrizz

02.jpg

1848 was a year of revolutions throughout Europe-France, Italy, Germany and many other countries. Possibly the bloodiest was in Hungary, where rebels led by Lajos Kossuth rose up to demand civil liberties and a degree of independence from the Austrian Empire and the Hapsburg Emperor Ferdinand. After initially acceding to many of their demands, the Emperor, backed by Russia, eventually sent troops to quash the revolt.

The Austrian troops were commanded by General Julius Jacob von Haynau, who acquired the nickname, “The Hyena” for his conduct in putting down the Hungarian uprising, and most particularly for the incident described by our reporter below:

It was a hot day, the 16th of August 1849, when the Austrian soldiers came for Madame de Maderspach, mother of seven and a noble lady, near 40 years of age, who, along with her husband, was sympathetic to the Hungarian cause and had allowed and even encouraged the local villagers to celebrate the Hungarian Declaration of Independence.

The Lady was hauled before General von Haynau, who looked down upon her from his seat on an elevated dais.

“Madame, I find you guilty of insurrection against the Emperor Ferdinand, ruler of this land by Grace of God. Take her to the village market place and flog her.”

The good Lady looked completely stunned by this atrocity. “What?" she cried. “I am a Lady and a mother and a patriot. How dare you pass such a judgement on me?”

The General looked at her like she was a piece of bad fish he had been served by a negligent cook. “You are a rebel and you will be treated like any other rebel, man or woman. You will be stripped to the waist and whipped until I decide you have been sufficiently punished.”

“You are not a General, sir, but a low-born scoundrel and a cad. To whip a woman-it is shameful.”

The General flicked his hand in her direction. “To the marketplace with this tiresome Hungarian whore!" he shouted angrily. His men dragged her there, protesting the whole way, von Haynau following closely behind.

At the marketplace, the soldiers cleared a spot, pushing back the villagers who had been buying their daily provisions. A Sergeant ordered the crowd to form rows. “You shall all see what happens to those, man or woman, who defy the Emperor.”

One of the soldiers grabbed a wooden crate from one of the apple vendors and ordered the lady to kneel upon it. “I shall not kneel for you beastly oppressors!” she protested. Three burly soldiers grabbed her roughly and forced her to her knees on the box.

“Strip her!” the order came. One of the soldiers grabbed her dress and ripped it and the bodice beneath it into several pieces, such that the poor woman was laid completely bare above the waist, the tattered remains of her upper garments hanging down from the waistband of her skirt.

“It is shameful to strip a woman in public,” the good Lady protested. “You show us what your Emperor is-a tyrant, an oppressor of our people.”

“Silence, whore!” von Haynau cried. “All I want to hear is your cries and begging for mercy under the whip.”

One of the soldiers approached carrying a vicious looking whip of braided leather as long as his arm. He stared at the naked back of the fine Lady, stretched out beneath him. “What are you waiting for, fool?” von Haynau demanded. “Flog her as you would a man and if I see you holding back, I will have you flogged also.”

He drew his arm back and lashed the cruel leather down onto the soft skin of Madame de Maderspach's back. She howled in pain. Again he whipped her. Several soldiers had to hold her arms, so intense were her struggles to escape the searing agony. But, the brave Lady did not once give the General the satisfaction he desired. For, despite her great distress, she did not once beg for mercy. Rather, she continued to curse him and the Emperor and cry, “Freedom for Hungary! Arise Magyars and free yourself from the Austrian yoke!”

I know not how many times they lashed her, for beyond a certain point I could no longer bear to look. Certainly two dozen, perhaps three. Eventually, though, even von Haynau could see that, rather than dispiriting the rebels, this would only inspire them to resist Austrian tyranny more vigorously. “Enough!” he cried and stalked back to his barracks, leaving Madame de Maderspach sobbing, her body grievously damaged, but her spirit unbroken.

There are two epilogs to this story-de Maderspach’s husband, hearing about his wife being flogged, ran to the market-place to try to rescue her, but was repelled by the soldiers. He went home and shot himself and when she returned there, bleeding from her whipping, she found him dead.

And von Haynau, after crushing the Hungarian rebellion, retired from the Army and, in October 1850, decided to visit London. Stories about his behavior had appeared in the British press and public opinion was greatly inflamed against him. Palmerston, the British Foreign Secretary, urged him to trim his distinctive mustache before venturing out into the streets, but von Haynau refused.

Passing the Barclay and Perkins Brewery, he was recognized by some of the workers, who, offended by von Haynau’s flogging of women and oppression of Hungarian workers, proceeded to beat him in the street. A plaque marks the spot.
International_incident_plaque.JPG
 
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Excellent work, windar! Maybe other drawings will also inspire you to write new short stories!
By the way, I found a historical study about General von Haynau, where the case of Madame de Maderspach is mentioned.
 

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You learn something every day......
This is the most erudite erotic site on the web, thank you windar.
So if anyone asks, you can say that you read CF for the articles:rolleyes:

I'm guessing that brewery no longer exists? Though here in the US there are old breweries that went out of business many years ago that have been revived under their old names in this New Golden Age of Beer...

Excellent work, windar! Maybe other drawings will also inspire you to write new short stories!
By the way, I found a historical study about General von Haynau, where the case of Madame de Maderspach is mentioned.
I do occasionally get inspired by pics and sometimes they are quite long stories, like "Barbary Coast" that I wrote with Barb, which was inspired by a pic.

Most of the events I described are well documented-von Haynau's brutal suppression of the Hungarian revolt and his beating in London. There is some dispute as to whether he really had Madame de Maderspach stripped and flogged, so we can say that it's a plausible version of history at worst.
 
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“You are not a General, sir, but a low-born scoundrel and a cad. To whip a woman-it is shameful.”
Must invite him to Cruxton Abbey.... though it would help if he was a high-born scoundrel and a cad. :rolleyes:

I know not how many times they lashed her, for beyond a certain point I could no longer bear to look. Certainly two dozen, perhaps three. Eventually, though, even von Haynau could see that, rather than dispiriting the rebels, this would only inspire them to resist Austrian tyranny more vigorously. “Enough!” he cried and stalked back to his barracks, leaving Madame de Maderspach sobbing, her body grievously damaged, but her spirit unbroken.

Could well be an ancestor of Barb's, indeed.

A well told story, Windar, it's quality undiminished by historical veracity or brevity! :)

I'm guessing that brewery no longer exists? Though here in the US there are old breweries that went out of business many years ago that have been revived under their old names in this New Golden Age of Beer...
It was swallowed up into the Courage Group, I understand.
 
Great piece. Hungarian history is sneaky morbid, and is full of wonderful material.

If you’re ever in Bubapest, check out the House of Terror, which was the headquarters of both the Gestapo and the KGB for a few decades. You can take an elevator down to the cells and torture chambers where rebels were kept. They even display one of the nooses that the 1956 rebel leaders was executed from. These people are proud of their pain. At least, they don’t feel like hiding it.
 
Great piece. Hungarian history is sneaky morbid, and is full of wonderful material.

If you’re ever in Bubapest, check out the House of Terror, which was the headquarters of both the Gestapo and the KGB for a few decades. You can take an elevator down to the cells and torture chambers where rebels were kept. They even display one of the nooses that the 1956 rebel leaders was executed from. These people are proud of their pain. At least, they don’t feel like hiding it.

I suppose it's not a co-incidence that Mood Pictures/Elite Pain are Hungarian...

Just a further epilogue. Benjamin Butler, the Union General who occupied New Orleans during the US Civil War, was compared by Southerners to von Haynau, which is rich, considering that Southerners were fighting for the right to keep on flogging female slaves as they had done for a couple of centuries.
 
This brief story was inspired by the following picture posted yesterday on the thread “Judicial Corporal Punishment of Women: Illustrations” by Switgrizz
When the pic was posted yesterday, I also wondered whether it was a fantasy, or referring to an actual event. Thanks for finding out so soon, Windar.

The case reminds a lot to the Madame de Kalergis. News of her suffering under the knout during the uprise of Russian Poland in 1846, spread throughout Europe. Ultimately, it was fake news.




http://www.cruxforums.com/xf/threads/a-noblewoman-under-the-knout-1846.5362/#post-249553

By the way, I found a historical study about General von Haynau, where the case of Madame de Maderspach is mentioned.

I even wonder whether the paper, on its p. 67, mentioning a Polish woman flogged by a Russian officer, is referring to the story of Maria Kalergis. The flogging of Maria Kalergis actually has not taken place, and likely, Austrian prpaganda may have used this fact to denie the event described here.
 
When the pic was posted yesterday, I also wondered whether it was a fantasy, or referring to an actual event. Thanks for finding out so soon, Windar.

The case reminds a lot to the Madame de Kalergis. News of her suffering under the knout during the uprise of Russian Poland in 1846, spread throughout Europe. Ultimately, it was fake news.




http://www.cruxforums.com/xf/threads/a-noblewoman-under-the-knout-1846.5362/#post-249553



I even wonder whether the paper, on its p. 67, mentioning a Polish woman flogged by a Russian officer, is referring to the story of Maria Kalergis. The flogging of Maria Kalergis actually has not taken place, and likely, Austrian prpaganda may have used this fact to denie the event described here.
I love me some fake news
 

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Lox, thanks for that link, which I hadn't seen before.

I based my account on the following, which was published in the New York Times of January 27, 1854. But the source there seems second hand at best, though the story appeared in numerous press accoounts at the time. It's always hard in accounts from war zones to distinguish fact from error from deliberate propaganda. What we can say for certain is that there are from wars throughout history well-documented atrocities far worse than a flogging of a noble Lady.

Maybe someone will come up with a video of the actual flooging and post it on YouTube, and then we can resolve our doubts...
 

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I'm guessing that brewery no longer exists?
It was swallowed up into the Courage Group, I understand.

Corporate takeovers in the brewing industry rule OK!
From Courage, via Imperial Tobacco to Fosters, to Scottish & Newcastle, to Charles Wells to Marstons. That's the beer side. On the pubs side (breweries traditionally owned the pubs which sold their beer) some well-paid creative types named the property company Inntrepreneur Estates.

here in the US there are old breweries that went out of business many years ago that have been revived under their old names in this New Golden Age of Beer...

We have a golden (and amber and dark and blonde) age here, but I don't think old names are generally resurrected. A local case is Tetley beer (nothing to do with tea of the same name) which was much liked when it was brewed in Leeds (from 1822), brewing taken over by Marstons (see above) at the Banks's brewery in Wolverhampton. Meanwhile a company called Leeds Brewery started making some very decent ales, and decided to licence the Tetley name for a premium ale-----this was met with much derision by ale buffs, since Tetley was now associated with deserting its home city and producing poorer tasting beer------nothing has been heard of this project for some time.
 
Do I dare admit to these guys that I don’t like beer? :confused:

I'm old-fashioned and non-PC enough that the sight of a woman with a pint of bitter does not provoke feelings of desire.

When I were a lad, ladies drank far more refined beverages:

babycham.jpg

(Now wait for Wragg and RR to give their views of the word 'refined')
 
I'm old-fashioned and non-PC enough that the sight of a woman with a pint of bitter does not provoke feelings of desire.

When I were a lad, ladies drank far more refined beverages:

View attachment 610959

(Now wait for Wragg and RR to give their views of the word 'refined')
I prefer a good glass of wine. I can’t help it. The taste and smell of beer puts me off. Wish it didn’t.
 
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