Mária Széchy

Anna Mária Széchy of Rimaszécs (Hungarian: rimaszécsi Széchy Anna Mária; circa 1610–1678), born Mária Széchy, was an early Hungarian noblewoman. She became one of the best-known and most influential women of her time in Hungary for actively and personally defending her property rights in the courts. She first challenged an unfair settlement following the death of her first husband, fighting her in-laws for three years.

Her main dispute was with her sisters and their husbands over Murány Castle, which they inherited together. With the help of her third husband, Ferenc Wesselényi, she secured the castle for herself. She married Wesselényi after assisting him in taking Murány for the Habsburg party, imprisoning the guards herself, then letting him into the castle at night. As his wife, she became one of the most powerful women in Hungary, often representing her husband through letters or in person.

She was involved in the magnate conspiracy headed by Wesselényi, but she lost her leading position after her husband's death. She continued to provide the conspirators with her network, but she betrayed their plans to the imperial court in 1668. She was arrested in 1670 and imprisoned in Murány, followed by Pozsony and finally Vienna, and her estate was confiscated. She was only released in 1676; she spent the last two years of her life in Kőszeg.

A poem by István Gyöngyösi made her famous as the Venus of Murány (the murányi Venus). Her life became a matter of renewed interest in the 1840s, an age of Hungarian nationalism.