Hausner Gábor szerk.: A Hadtörténeti Múzeum Értesítője = Acta Musei Militaris in Hungaria. 7. (Budapest, 2004)
GYŰJTEMÉNYI- ÉS MŰHELYMUNKA - BAJÁK LÁSZLÓ: A Batthyányiak halotti címerei a Hadtörténeti Múzeumban
FUNERAL COATS OF ARMS OF THE BATTHYANY'S IN THE MILITARY HISTORY MUSEUM There are 24 funeral coats of arms in the collection of the Military History Museum that are related to the Batthyány family and date from the 18th and 19th centuries. The coats of arms were painted on paper and their primary function was to identify the deceased, as well as to decorate the catafalques on the scenes of death and the burial. Their inscriptions also informed the mourners about the rank and the offices of the departed. The coats of arms were often made in great numbers and several were distributed among the mourners, who carried them around in the funeral procession, and then took them home as memories. The funeral coats of arms of the 12 men and 12 women, most of whom had become family members through marriage, are relics of one of the most ancient and most important Hungarian aristocratic families, commemorating a period that might be considered as the family's days of glory 7 . Both the last national palatine (1751) and the first Hungarian prime minister responsible to Parliament (1848) were Batthyany's, in addition to an army commander (Károly B.) and a cardinal prince primate (József B.) that emerged from the family in the second half of the 18th century. Károly Batthyány had also gained the rank of imperial prince for the family. The most significant of the male "holders" of the coats of arms in the museum is Palatine Lajos Batthyány, member of the Order of the Golden Fleece and the Royal Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen, mayor, royal chancellor and high sheriff. Almost all the others too were imperial royal chamberlains, and most of them were privy councillors. One of them held a high national office, five were high sheriffs, and two had reached the rank of general in the army. With one exception (Skerlecz), the women had come from Hungarian or foreign aristocratic families (Countess Perger, Countess Roggendorf, Baroness Ottenfels-Gschwind). Most of them were members of the Order of the Star Cross, and some of them had become ladies of the court. Since the 17th century, most members of the Batthyány family had been buried in the crypt of the Franciscan monastery in Németújvár (now Güssing, Austria), which had been kept as common family property. It is most probable that the coats of arms were not made there, but in the place of death, generally in Vienna. The funeral coats of arms were displayed at the scenes of death and in the course of the burial service in Németújvár - the majority still bear the traces of nailing up. Presumably, the coats of arms in the museum were taken to Budapest as historical relics at the end of the 19th century. DIE TOTENWAPPEN DER ADELSFAMILIE BATTHYÁNY IM UNGARISCHEN HEERESGESCHECHTLICHEN MUSEUMS Im Besitz des Ungarischen Heeresgeschechtlichen Museums befinden sich 24 Totenwappen aus dem 18.-19. Jahrhundert, die mit der Adelsfamilie der Batthyánys im Zusammenhang stehen. Die Wappen wurden auf Papier gemalt. Ihre Funktion war das Identifizieren des Verstorbenen, sowie die Verzierung des Katafalkes auf den Orten, wo
