For six months, Lajos Batthyány led Hungary. He tried to navigate between the demands of the revolutionaries and the requirements of the Habsburg court. He sought autonomy within the empire, not independence from it. He believed compromise was possible.
But the forces of reaction were regrouping. The emperor revoked the concessions he had granted. The imperial army prepared to march on Hungary. Compromise proved impossible.
Lajos resigned in September 1848, believing he had failed. Others, more radical, took over the revolutionary government. The war began.
Lajos did not fight. He was not a military man. But he did not flee either. He remained in Hungary, living quietly on his estates, hoping for a negotiated peace.
There would be no negotiated peace. When the revolution was crushed, the Habsburgs wanted vengeance. They arrested Lajos along with the generals and the politicians. They charged him with treason.
The trial was a formality. The verdict was predetermined. He was sentenced to death.