Ambassador or impostor? The labyrinths of Habsburg diplomacy in the context of a homicide in Constantinople Cover Image

Követ vagy szélhámos? A Habsburg-diplomácia útvesztői egy konstantinápolyi gyilkosság tükrében
Ambassador or impostor? The labyrinths of Habsburg diplomacy in the context of a homicide in Constantinople

Author(s): Zsuzsanna Cziráki
Subject(s): 17th Century
Published by: AETAS Könyv- és Lapkiadó Egyesület

Summary/Abstract: While I was conducting research on the circumstances of Simon Reniger’s appointment as Habsburg ambassador to Constantinople, a crime started to excite my interest. The offence had been committed during the term of the previous resident ambassador, Alexander Greiffenklau but it caused a lot of difficulties even at the time when Reniger came into office. Namely, in the autumn of 1646, Greiffenklau killed a certain Don Juan de Menesses, an adventurer of dubious origin, who – according to Habsburg informants – had been involved in conspiring against the dynasty within the Sultan’s entourage. In my paper, I want to describe what led to Menesses’ murder and what kind of consequences can be drawn on the basis of the crime as to the diplomatic cooperation between the Spanish and the Austrian lines of the Habsburg dynasty in the last years of the Thirty Years’ War.

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 22-39
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Hungarian