Disputa habsburgo-otomană din anii 1550-1551 pe seama „moştenirii ungare”. Atitudinea sultanului Süleyman I
The Habsburg-Ottoman Dispute from 1550-1551 on the “Hungarian Inheritance”: the Attitude of Sultan Süleyman I

Summary/Abstract: After 1547 the Ottoman Empire was unable to carry out a military action for crashing the Christian resistance in Europe. Conversely, Habsburgs tapped into their economic, military, ideological, and diplomatic resources taking the initiative in the confrontation with the Ottomans. Ferdinand I Habsburg was the leading figure of the anti-Ottoman Christian side. Under his influence, Vienna’s main political objective in mid-sixteenth century became the inclusion of the Hungarian legacy, especially of Transylvania. The principality represented the deciding factor in the equation of the Habsburg-Ottoman confrontation. The Habsburg offensive for occupying Transylvania began in 1549. The Viennese strategy worked on three main directions: the strengthening of the garrisoned troops in Upper Hungary; enticing the Transylvanian elite in its camp, and the prevention of an Ottoman intervention in Hungary through actions meant to appease the vigilance of Ottoman diplomacy. This objective was reached in the summer of 1551, when Spanish-German troops occupied Transylvania and Queen Isabella and her son, Prince John Sigismund, were forced to abdicate. The Porte’s reaction to this Habsburg advances was weak. Reports of Austrian ambassadors in Istanbul demonstrate that the priorities of the Ottoman foreign policy concentrated on Middle East while confronting the Habsburgs became secondary after the peace of 1547. The sultan’s responses to the Hungarian events were limited to diplomatic protests, threatening letters, some political maneuvers, and weak military actions. Although well informed about Transylvania, the sultan did not order a significant military action to prevent the occupation of the principality. Close reading of the sources (sultan’s letters ad reports by Christian agents in Istanbul) supports our view that a change occurred in mid-sixteenth century in Porte’s attitude concerning the supremacy in Central-Europe. The causes were Ottoman’s inability to impose a “final solution” in their confrontation of the Shia Persians, the internal dispute between the sultan’s sons, the difference of views on foreign policy between the sultan and the grand-vizier, physical and psychical illness of the sultan who neglected state affairs for long periods, the strong anti-Ottoman action of Ferdinand, the dysfunction of the alliance with Transylvania where governor George Martinuzzi sided with Ferdinand’s party. In these conditions Ottomans lost initiative in confronting the Christians, thus inclining the balance of forces on Europeans’ side.

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