Royal Hungarian Honvéd

'Defender of the Homeland'; collectively, the Honvédség), was one of the four armed forces (German: Bewaffnete Macht or Wehrmacht) of Austria-Hungary from 1867 to 1918, along with the Austrian Landwehr, the Common Army and the Imperial and Royal Navy.

The word honvéd in Hungarian (sometimes "honved" in English sources[4][5][6]) means "defender of the homeland" and first appeared during the 1848 revolutions.

Subsequently, the bulk of the fighting was against the Empire of Austria, whereupon a number of regular imperial regiments went over to the Hungarian side.

A common Austro-Hungarian War Ministry was formed immediately for the large Common Army, but it had no right to command directly the smaller Austrian Landwehr and the Hungarian Honvéd armies, which were respectively placed under the direct control of the separate Austrian and Hungarian Ministries of Defence.

The Hungarian Landwehr consisted of territorial units from the Hungarian half (called Transleithania or the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen) of Austria-Hungary, the historical territory of the Kingdom of Hungary: These territories included what is present-day Hungary, Slovakia (so-called Upper Hungary) and parts of the present-day countries of Austria (Burgenland), Croatia, Romania (Banat, Crișana, Maramureș, Transylvania), Serbia (Banat, Vojvodina), Slovenia (Prekmurje) and Ukraine (Transcarpathia).

Although weaker in numbers - there were only three battalions per infantry regiment instead of the usual four in the Common Army - the troops were regular combat soldiers and were highly trained.

In addition, the Croatian-Slavonian Honvéd units were subordinated to the Ban in Agram and not to the National Defence Minister in Budapest.

or graduated from the Ludovika Military Academy (a cadet school opened in 1872 specifically for the training of Honvéd officers) in Budapest.