The scion of an old Bethlen de Bethlen noble family from Transylvania, he was the only son of Count Istvan Bethlen de Bethlen and Countess Ilona Teleki de Szék. He had two elder sisters: Countess Klementine Mikes de Zabola and Countess Ilona Haller de Hallerkeö.
Career
Bethlen was elected to the Hungarian parliament as a Liberal in 1901. Later, he served as a representative of the new Hungarian government at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. In that year, the weak centrist Hungarian government collapsed, and was soon replaced by a communist Hungarian Soviet Republic, under the leadership of Béla Kun. Bethlen quickly returned to Hungary to assume leadership of the anti-communist "white" government based in Szeged, along with former Austro-Hungarian Navy admiral Miklós Horthy. After the "white" forces seized control of Hungary, Horthy was appointed Regent of Hungary. Bethlen again took a seat in the Hungarian parliament, allying with the conservative factions there. In 1919, Bethlen rejected a personal union between Romania and Hungary under the King of the Romanians. After the attempted return of King Charles IV to the throne of Hungary in 1921, Horthy asked Bethlen to form a strong government to eliminate the possibility of other such threats to the new country. Bethlen founded the Party of National Unity. Through a system of ballot manipulation, handing out government jobs, and changing the electoral law to enfranchise supporters, he was able to form a political machine that was unstoppable in Hungarian politics. Bethlen was also able to unite the two most powerful factors in Hungarian society, the wealthy, primarily Jewish industrialists in Budapest and the old Magyar gentry in rural Hungary, into a lasting coalition; this effectively checked the rise of Fascism in the country for at least a decade. Bethlen was also able to reach an accord with the labor unions, earning their support for the government and eliminating a source of domestic dissent. During his decade in office, Bethlen led Hungary into the League of Nations and arranged a close alliance with Fascist Italy, even entering into a Treaty of Friendship with Italy in 1927, in order to further the nation's revisionist hopes. He was, however, defeated in his attempts to change the Treaty of Trianon, which stripped Hungary of most of its territory after the First World War. The Great Depression shifted Hungarian politics to the extreme right, and Horthy replaced Bethlen with Count Gyula Károlyi de Nagykároly, followed quickly by Gyula Gömbös de Jákfa, a noted Fascist and antisemite. Increasingly shunted into political obscurity, Bethlen stood out as one of the few voices in Hungary actively opposed to an alliance with Nazi Germany. As it became apparent that Germany was going to lose the Second World War, Bethlen attempted, unsuccessfully, to negotiate a separate peace with the Allied powers. By the spring of 1945 most of Hungary had fallen to the advancing Soviet troops. The communists, who returned with the Soviets, immediately began their scheme to take over the country. They saw the aging Bethlen as a threat, a man who could unite the political forces against them. For this they had him arrested by the Soviets in March 1945. Soon after, Bethlen was taken to Moscow, where he died in prison on 5 October 1946.
Personal life
On 27 Jun 1901 he married his distant cousin Countess Margarete Bethlen de Bethlen. They had 3 sons:
Count András Bethlen de Bethlen ⚭ Magda Viola ⚭ Eszter Mészáros ⚭ Maria Palma 'Mizzi' Hoffmann ; no issue
Count István Bethlen de Bethlen ⚭ Donna Maria Isabella dei Conti :File:Coa_fam_ITA_paravicini.jpg|Parravicini ; had issue
Count Gábor Bethlen de Bethlen ⚭ Edith Schmidt ; had issue
