Problema Transilvaniei în rapoartele diplomaţilor Casei de Austria la Istanbul în perioada 1547-1550
Transylvanian Issues Reflected in the Reports of the House of Austria Diplomats in Istanbul in 1547-1550

Summary/Abstract: As far as the diplomatic relationships between the House of Austria and the Ottoman Empire are concerned, the period between 1545 and 1550 was marked by ample negotiations regarding the “Hungarian inheritance”. Until the Hapsburg-Ottoman peace was signed in the summer of 1547, Transylvania had not represented a frequent and intense subject for the two parties. From the beginning of 1545 until December 1547, in the 50 letters between the diplomats in Istanbul and their Hapsburg superiors, letters that can be found in Austro-Turcica volume (München, 1995), Transylvania has been mentioned in 7 letters only. Transylvania does not appear as a distinct issue in the 1547 Peace Treaty between Sultan Suleyman and his Transylvanian Christian homologues as the Ottoman diplomacy refused to dissociate the question of Transylvania from the general question of the “Hungarian inheritance”. At the end of 1547, the Hapsburg diplomacy changed its strategy regarding its political approaches to Hungary. As they had become aware of the fact that taking the whole Hungarian Kingdom was impossible for the time being, even if they had resorted to military force, Ferdinand I of Hapsburg imposed the “small steps” strategy. Ferdinand considered that the first step they should take was taking Transylvania with the Sultan’s consent. The present paper highlights the way Hapsburg diplomats received their superiors’ orders regarding this issue, the way they preceded in their relationships with the Ottoman officials, the conclusions they reached after having decrypted the political messages and the diplomatic realities in Istanbul and the way they communicated with their superiors. From this perspective, the diplomatic correspondence we are referring to abounds in accounts regarding the Transylvanian question. A simple statistics shows that out of the 57 diplomatic correspondence documents from December 1547-January 1550, about one third contains explicit references to Transylvania. More than two thirds of the documents mentioned above contain information that has direct connection to Transylvanian issues. The most important information regarding Transylvanian issues that can be found in these documents deal with the following subjects: King Ferdinand I’s conception regarding Transylvania’s position and role in his anti-ottoman politics; the Ottoman Empire’s conception regarding Hungarian issues in the period after the Peace Treaty of 1547; opinion and action clashes among Ottoman high officials in the relationships with the Hapsburg diplomats; the diplomatic game of Governor Martinuzzi at the Ottoman Gate; dissensions of the Transylvanian political elite regarding the country’s external affairs; bribe and bribery as diplomatic negotiation policies with the Ottoman officials.

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