Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya II was born in 1907 and was the younger son of Regent Admiral Miklos Horthy.

After the death of his elder brother, István in 1942, Miklós Jr. became more powerful in his father’s government and supported his efforts to end the involvement of the Kingdom of Hungary with the Axis Powers. But on October 15, 1944, Nazi Germany launched Operation Panzerfaust (bazooka, also known as Operation Mickey Mouse). As part of this operation, Miklós Jr. was kidnapped by German commandos led by Otto Skorzeny and threatened with death unless his father surrendered and agreed to appoint the Arrow Cross Party as the new government. His father complied, and Horthy Jr. survived the war.

While his father was placed under house arrest in Bavaria, the younger Miklós was sent to the Dachau concentration camp. Late in April 1945, Miklós Jr. was taken to the Tyrol with other prominent inmates of Dachau. There the SS abandoned their prisoners as Allied forces advanced. The younger Miklós Horthy was liberated by the Fifth U.S. Army on May 5, 1945.

After the war, Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya II followed his father in to exile in Portugal where he lived until his death in 1993.