SMS Szent István
Montecuccoli's plans for the construction of "Szent István" and her sister ships earned the approval of Emperor Franz Joseph I in January 1909, and by April plans for the design, construction, and financing for the battleships had been laid out. For a full year, the Austro-Hungarian Navy attempted to keep the looming construction of the first two battleships a state secret. This did not prevent rumors from circulating across Europe of two dreadnought battleships being constructed in Austria-Hungary. The French Naval Attaché in Vienna complained to Paris in 1910 of extensive secrecy within the Austro-Hungarian Navy, which manifested itself in several ways. Among these were a ban on photography in the Pola, future home port of "Szent István", and near-constant observation by the Austro-Hungarian police.
Artúr Görgei
In August 1848 the imminence of an imperial attack against Hungary grew day after day. Finally, at the beginning of September, King FerdinandV of Hungary, the Habsburg emperor under the name Ferdinand I of Austria, dismissed the Batthyány government, authorizing the Ban of Croatia Josip Jelačić to occupy Hungary, the latter invading the country on 11September 1848. When the troops of Jelačić crossed the Dráva river to enter Hungary, Görgei's national guards were ordered to come from Szolnok to Csepel Island to keep an eye on the movements of the Croatian supplies. Here, Görgei organized the villagers from the region to observe and capture the envoys and supply carriages sent from Croatia to Jelačić and vice versa. On 29September the Croatian ban sent the wealthy pro-Habsburg Hungarian noble, Count Ödön Zichy, to inform the commanders of the Croatian reserve troops led by Major General Karl Roth and Major General Nicolaus Philippovich vonPhilippsberg about his decision to attack the Hungarian capitals. Görgei's troops captured and arrested Zichy, who was charged with treason for his pro-Austrian activities, court-martialed, and hanged. This bold act of Görgei impressed Kossuth, who saw in him a great future leader of the Hungarian armed forces, promoting the 30-year-old major to the rank of general. Later, when a conflict between the two arose and started to become serious, Kossuth tried to prevent Görgei from becoming the leader of the main Hungarian forces because he saw in the independent general his greatest opponent, and this conflict caused difficulties in the Hungarian struggle for independence.