| Dionys Széchenyi | |
| Office: | Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to Denmark |
| Term Start: | 1908 |
| Term End: | 1917 |
| Predecessor: | Iván von Rubido-Zichy (as Charge d'Affaires) |
| Successor: | Otto von Franz (as Charge d'Affaires) |
| Birth Name: | Dénes Széchenyi de Sárvár-felsővidék |
| Birth Date: | 1 December 1866 |
| Birth Place: | Pest, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary) |
| Death Place: | Stockholm, Sweden |
| Nationality: | Hungarian |
| Parents: | Imre Széchényi Alexandra Sztáray |
| Children: | 4 |
Count Dénes "Dionys" Széchenyi de Sárvár-felsővidék (1 December 1866 – 26 January 1934), was an Austro Hungarian soldier and diplomat.
Széchenyi on 1 December 1866 in Pest, then a part of Austria-Hungary, a dual monarchy established in 1867. Born into a prominent Hungarian noble family, he was the eldest son of Count Imre Széchenyi de Sárvár-felsővidék (1825–1898), the former Austrian Minister at the Court of Berlin and his wife, Countess Alexandra Sztáray de Sztára et Nagy-Mihály (1843–1914).[1] The Széchényi family were one of the oldest and wealthiest in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.[2] His younger brothers were Count Peter Széchenyi (who married Maria Ilona Esterházy de Galántha),[3] Count István Széchenyi, and Count László Széchenyi (who married American heiress Gladys Vanderbilt).[4]
His paternal grandparents were Count Ludwig "Lajos" Maria Aloys Széchenyi (eldest son of Count Ferenc Széchényi) and, his second wife, Austrian Countess Francisca (née von Wurmbrand-Stuppach) Széchenyi.[5] His maternal grandparents were Count Ferdinánd Sztáray de Sztára et Nagy-Mihály, and Matilda Klobusiczky.[6]
Széchényi and his three brothers were all Reserve Lieutenants in the Imperial and Royal Hussars as well as Chamberlains at the Court.[7] 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.[8] In 1898, upon the death of his father, he became the head of the Széchényi family.[9]
Like his father, he became a diplomat.[10] After serving in Paris, and as Secretary to the Legation in Dresden and Munich, he was appointed the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to Denmark in 1908 succeeded Christoph von Wydenbruck, who left in 1907. The interim head of mission was Charge d'Affaires Iván von Rubido-Zichy.[11] He served until 1917, until he was called back on account of his Entente sympathies.[12] After he left Copenhagen, he returned to his estates in Hungary where the Hungarian Republic was established in 1918 by pacifist Count Mihály Károlyi following the end of World War I and the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Széchényi, however, was forced to flee fourteen months later after the establishment of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, a Soviet socialist republic run by the Red Guards under the command of Mátyás Rákosi who nationalized all private property.[13]
In 1896, Széchényi married Countess Emilie de Caraman et Chimay (1871–1944),[14] a daughter of Louise de Graffenried-Villars and Eugène Auguste de Riquet, Prince de Caraman-Chimay (son of Joseph de Riquet de Caraman, 17th Prince de Chimay and Émilie Pellapra). Her sister, Hélène, was married to John Francis Charles, 7th Count de Salis-Soglio.[15] Together, they were the parents of:
The prominent Anglo-Hungarian portrait painter, Philip de László, made two portraits of his wife, both in 1912.[18] [19]
Széchényi died in Stockholm, Sweden on 26 January 1934.[9]