Mailáth, the son of Count Jozsef Mailáth, an imperial minister of state, entered government service but soon had to resign because of an injury to his eyesight. Devoting himself to literary work, he edited two important collections of medieval German poetry (1818 and 1819) and wrote some German verse of his own (1824) before producing his German translations of Hungarian poems (1825 and 1829).

Writing in German, Mailáth brought out a number of major works, including his “Magyar Legends, Fables, and Tales” (1825), a five-volume “History of the Magyars” (1828–31), and his perceptive, five-volume “History of the Austrian Empire” (1834–50). He also wrote on mnemonics (1842) and on the healing power of animal magnetism (1852).

In the political ferment of the Revolution of 1848, Mailáth stood aloof, siding with neither the revolutionaries nor the conservatives. In 1848 he left Vienna for Munich, where after several years he found himself destitute. Despondent, he made a suicide pact with his daughter Henrika, who had long been his secretary. The two weighted their clothes with stones, tied themselves together at the wrists, and threw themselves into Lake Starnberg.