A „nyitott határ” – egy hadtörténelmi paradoxon hatása. Néhány gondolat a Magyar Királyság 16–17. századi oszmánellenes védelmi rendszerének sajátosságairól

Author(s): István Czigány / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 4/2018

Thoughts about the characteristics of the Kingdom of Hungary’s defense system against the Ottoman Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries. After the advance of the Ottoman Empire halted at the middle of the Kingdom of Hungary in the late 16th century, the Habsburg Empire, bearers of the Hungarian crown at the time, and the Ottoman Empire both built their own defense systems. The two empires created thousand kilometers long, similarly structured castle systems. The opposing defense lines were balanced in terms of power. Both sides had a force of approximately 20,000 soldiers. The upkeep of this kind of military force was a significant burden on both empires, and they could only secure their system of strongholds, but couldn’t close the border down. The Treaty of Adrianopole (1568) didn’t draw a clear border, it only aimed to determine the affiliation of the border settlements and the part of the populace that paid taxes to both sides. While the Ottomans ruled over the Christian border area, the Kingdom of Hungary partially reorganized state presence in Ottoman Hungary (royal, palatine, and county rights, and the way noble’s lands were managed) with the help of the military of the border castles and landowners. A peculiar, “open” border area was created, the size of which depended on how large an area the Hungarian and Ottoman border castles collected taxes from. This system of shared rulership (condominium) and the resulting tax structure became the main reason behind the skirmishes, raids, and the constant state of border war. The Treaty of Zsitvatorok (1608) regulated taxation by the Hungarian and Ottoman parties in the border area, sometimes even allowing the presence of the other side’s armed forces within their dominion. This became the norm not only in the border area at this time, but in entire Ottoman Hungary apart from the Temesköz and Szerémség regions. During the early 17th century, due to the Bocskai uprising (1604–1606), and the Western engagements of the Habsburgs, the role of the Hungarian political and military elite, and the armies of the Hungarian aristocracy grew stronger in the governance, financing and military structure of the kingdom’s border areas. Despite the deficiencies of the border castle system, the balance of military power remained intact on the Ottoman border. An important aspect of this was the Hungarian taxation in Ottoman Hungary, and the presence of the soldiers of the border castles.

A nagyszombati kalmárcéh szabályzata 1547/1604-ben

Author(s): László Fülöp / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 2/2020

The linguist's recent paper examines a merchant guild in Nagyszombat (Trnava), specifically its 16th-century statutes. He mentions by name the merchants of the town and the guild master in charge of the guild. It explains the order of the daily operation of the guild.

A palócokról

Gondolatok, megjegyzések

Author(s): István Majoros / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2016

The author writes a monograph (Palóc Land) about a strange people, the Palóc, living in the northern part of Hungary and in southern Slovakia. Material poverty and spiritual riches are the main characteristics of the Palóc. They speak a special and interesting dialect. This study is a part of the mentioned monograph. In this study the author presents the meaning of the Palóc and he presents the regions where they live. And he presents also different opinions of these questions.

A Polyphony of Stories from 17th and 18th-century Southeastern Europe

Author(s): Jelena Mrgić / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

The aim of this paper is to present a selected ensemble of narrative and documentary sources – diaries, memoirs, chronicles, travelogues, business letters, and one confidential report – in order to pursue a sort of polyphonic path in historical research. Connecting these histories, i.e. personal stories from different, at times confronting, yet overlapping Kulturkreisen, shows a less visible web of liaisons between people. They belonged to different social strata – bellatores, oratores, nobility and the emerging third class of entrepreneurs, and stemmed from Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim religious and cultural environments. Differences in their educational, professional or cultural backgrounds seem to diminish while their interconnectedness, in the space of Southeastern Europe, comes to the fore.

A prímás, a bán és a bécsi udvar (1663–1664)

Author(s): Péter Tusor / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 02/2015

The aim of the study was to examine and analyse in detail, in the framework of a research on the political role of the ecclesiastical estate (status ecclesiasticus), especially in the early modern era, and on the basis of newly discovered sources, the measures taken by its leader, György Lippay, primate of Hungary (1642–1666) in the interest of Miklós Zrínyi, ban (banus) of Croatia (1647–1664) in the court of Vienna during 1663–1664. After 1608, the Hungarian political establishment was characterized by the so-called „dualism of estates”. In practice it meant that the ruler and the estates, or rather their leaders, the palatine and the archbishop of Esztergom, primate of Hungary, exerted political power together. Until the period examined here, primate Lippay was regarded as the main exponent of Habsburg authority in Hungary. From 1663 Lippay, who had previously treated Miklós Zrínyi with mistrust and even as a political opponent, became his determined protector in the court. In the summer of 1663 he not only tried to get reinforcements for Zrínyi-Újvár, but also labored for the dispatch of eight thousand German soldiers under the command of Zrínyi to make him able, together with his own troops and the soldiers of the local Hungarian lords, to start military operations against the Ottomans. While trying to convince in long letters duke Johann Ferdinand Porzia, president of the Secret Council, he also sent to the imperial court his Jesuit confessor, Zakariás Trinkell, provided with detailed instructions, and giving him new information all the time. He also put to work his extensive network of Jesuit connections. The mission of Trinkell was repeated in the middle of August 1664. According to the new instructions of Lippay, which dwelt on the merits and grievances of the ban, Trinkell was given the task of achieving that Zrínyi should be given a convenient commanding post and an independent army in the war against the Ottomans. Yet the imperial court concluded an armistice with the Ottomans already on 10 August 1664 at Vasvár, news of which only reached the Hungarian political leaders late in September. Probably after informally consulting the main representatives of the estates, among them Zrínyi himself, Lippay turned through Trinkell to bishop Christoph Bernard von Galen of Münster, one of the leaders of the Rhenish Alliance, then staying in Vienna, to protest against the peace, which had been made in complete secrecy, and was utterly unfavorable to Hungary. He drew attention to the fact that the agreement was equally injurious to the Empire, and proposed instead the immediate recuperation of Érsekújvár, which had been lost in 1663. It was in the wake of the failure of this hitherto unknown diplomatic mission that the idea of an anti-Habsburg conspiration (the so-called Wesselényi conspiration) came to the fore. 1663, and especially 1664 are turning points in the history of the dualism of estates which had been functioning since 1608. While also shedding light on the relationship between Lippay and Zrínyi, the newly found sources analysed in this study mainly enlighten this turn and, in connection with the approach of the imperial estates in October, its special international aspects.

A Quest for Originality in Latin Poetry of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Observed in Manuscripts of the Seventeenth-Eighteenth Centuries

Author(s): Živilė Nedzinskaitė / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2018

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were the time when literature in Latin written by professors and students of Jesuit colleges flourished in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This trend was the outcome of the Jesuit educational model. The main disciplines in colleges were poetics and rhetoric. The classes of these two disciplines not only aimed at teaching theoretical rules, acquainting the students with the prevailing literary canon, and pointing out the differences between genres, but also encouraged students’ individual creative work, as it was independent writing that was a proof of students’ ability to apply theory in practice. Student writing was strongly influenced by the theory of imitation, which was very popular at the time. Resorting to manuscript material from the colleges of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the article focuses on varying degrees of influence of the imitation theory on students’ individual creative work: it shows the relation between imitation and the literary tradition, the rules of rhetoric, and imitation of canonical authors; it also places emphasis on the quest for individual expression. The author observes that some texts composed by students are on a par with the best poetic works of the well-known poets of that time.

A short presentation of the history of legal education in Romania

Author(s): Laura Magdalena Trocan / Language(s): English / Issue: 2(1)/2014

In Romania, the history of legal education dates from ancient times. The historical records show that legal education had appeared on the territory of countries that have later entered into the composition of the Romanian State, after enactment of the first written laws (pravile – or codices), and long before the enactment of legal codes on branches of activity. Thus, the preliminary of legal education in the Romanian countries can be traced back to the practice of writing laws (pravila – or codex) that emerged in the 17th century: in Walachia this was the Govora Code of 1640 and the Matei Basarab’s Code (also known as the reshaping of laws) in 1652: in Moldavia it was the Vasile Lupu Code (also known as the Romanian book of learning) of 1646. However, there are historians who claim that since 1400, an Academy of law or, at least, a course in law, would have been organized at the School of Alexander the Good in Suceava. The first educational institutions were established in monasteries and churches and teachers had a western and Byzantine educational background. In Moldavia in 1648, during the reign of Vasili Lupu, the Great Princely School was founded at Trei Ierarhi Monastry in Iasi. In 1694, under the reign of Constantin Brancoveanu – in Walachia, the Princely Academy was founded in Bucharest. Thus were laid the bases of Romanian higher legal education. In 1777 in Transylvania, the Romanian territory which for a long time was under Austro-Hungarian domination, by an imperial document called Ratio educationis imperial, an Academy of law was established in Oradea together with another in Bratislava. Over the years, the study of juridical sciences in Romanian countries developed and received systematic organization – especially after the Union of the Romanian principalities in 1859 – being influenced as much by historical realities as by the political, economic and social conditions of the country. This paper aims to provide an overview of the development of legal education in Romania and the contributions to the development of the science of law of the most prestigious Romanian jurists.

A Suggested New Attribution of Seventeenth-Century Flemish "Portrait of a Lady" in York Art Gallery to Jan Cossiers

Author(s): Magdalena Łanuszka / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2017

Propozycja atrybuowania XVII-wiecznego flamandzkiego "Portretu kobiety" (York Art Gallery) Janowi Cossiersowi

A szakítások és kiegyezések évszázada: a Magyar Királyság 17. századi története új megvilágításban

Author(s): Géza Pálffy / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 01/2015

The long 17th century, extending from the Peace of Vienna in 1606 to the Treaty of Szatmár in 1711, occupies a special place within the history of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its interpretation has traditionally been determined by the independentist approach of Hungarian romantic national historiography, which was born in the second half of the 19th century. Consequently, as late as the 1950s and 1970s the 17th century was still regarded as the most decisive period of the Hungarian struggles for independence, while in the 1980s and 1990s its most salient feature was identified in the alleged attempts launched from the Principality of Transylvania at the unification of the Hungarian Kingdom. On the basis of several years of archival research, and following in the footsteps of such historians as Robert Evans from Oxford, Thomas Winkelbauer from Vienna and Jean Bérenger from Paris, the author of the present study rather examines the history of the Hungarian Kingdom in the 17th century as part of a relationship between the Central European Habsburg Monarchy and the Kingdom of Hungary, the Habsburg court of Vienna and the Hungarian political elite. Within such a framework, the history of Hungary between 1606 and 1711 can be regarded as the century of ruptures and compromises. For the course of the century was determined by five important compromise-systems (1608: Pozsony/Pressburg, 1622: Sopron/Ödenburg, 1647: Pozsony, 1681: Sopron, 1711: Szatmár), practically all of which were elaborated at the Hungarian diet, and were accompanied by ruler coronations (1608: Hungarian King Matthias II, 1622: Queen Eleonora Gonzaga, 1647: King Ferdinand IV, 1681: Queen Eleonora Magdalena Theresia of Pfalz-Neuburg, 1712: King Charles III). Each of these compromises guaranteed the privileges and liberties of the Hungarian estates, and secured for the Hungarian political elite a decisive role in shaping the domestic politics, local administration and judicial system of Hungary. As a result, among all the constituents of the Habsburg Monarchy in the 17th and 18th centuries Hungary was one of the strongest in terms of sovereignty and estate state formation, and absolutism could not be introduced east of the Leitha river. In the light of recent research the topos which regards the Hungarians as “perennial rebels” should also be nuanced. With regard to the 17th century the term of “perennial compromise-seekers” could be applied to them as well. And, finally, the study draws attention to the fact that the history of the Kingdom of Hungary and that of the Principality of Transylvania in the 17th century, despite the manifold contacts between them, cannot be described within the framework of one and the same model or concept, for whereas the former was an important part of the Central European Habsburg Monarchy, the latter belonged to the sphere of interest of one of the strongest states of the contemporary world, namely the Ottoman Empire.

A szatmári bányavidék Bethlen Gábor uralkodásának első éveiben (1613–1620)

Author(s): Petra Mátyás-Rausch / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 04/2016

In the mid-16th century the mining region of Szatmár found itself squeezed to the borderland between the nascent Transylvanian Principality and the Hungarian Kingdom. Its belonging and position became doubtful once again after the death in 1613 of Gábor Báthory, the last Transylvanian prince from this family. As the area was crucially important to both sides from the perspective of both geopolitics and financial administration, the changes which took place over the mining region were profoundly influenced by contemporary politicomilitary events. Unwilling to give up the mining region on the borders, Matthias II, king of Hungary looked for a tenant to head the mining chamber and mining house of Nagybánya (today Baia Mare, Romania) whose loyalty to the dynasty would be in no doubt. It came quite conveniently for the Habsburgs, thus, that the faithful Herberstein family was restored to their estates in Szatmár at this critical juncture. Consequently, the Court Chamber (Camera Aulica) entrusted the direction of the mining chamber to the head of the family, Felician von Herberstein the Younger. Following in the footsteps of his father, the former lessee of Nagybánya, the younger Felician von Herberstein aimed to introduce several important changes into local mining, but these efforts ran counter to the interests of the urban leadership of Nagybánya. As the conflict between the urban magistracy and the tenant became increasingly envenomed, and the financial position of Herberstein had also catastrophically deteriorated by the late 1610s, his former supporters, among them the new captain of Upper Hungary, András Dóczy, abandoned him, and the count’s situation accordingly became untenable. Although the Court Chamber tried to find a new tenant, the first anti-Habsburg campaign of Gábor Bethlen, prince of Transylvania (1619–1621) decisively influenced the future of the mining region. In the winter of 1619 Bethlen conquered Nagybánya and the surrounding castles, and consequently removed Herberstein from his office. “Warfare” between Herberstein and the magistracy of Nagybánya was by no means a unique phenomenon; similar events were simultaneously acted out in other privileged mining towns as well. While not nationalized, Herberstein behaved in the same way as the contemporary urban nobility. He tried to exploit possibilities offered by urban privileges without submitting himself to the obligations and the jurisdictional consequences attached to urban existence. This obviously excited the magistracy of Nagybánya to act, and they defended the interests of the town with surprising determination.

A SZEGEDI VÁR ÉS GÓTIKUS VÁRTEMPLOMÁNAK RÉGÉSZETI KUTATÁSA 1999 ÉS 2010 KÖZÖTT

Author(s): Ferenc Horváth,Ottó Fogas / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2011

Die Studie überblickt die bisherigen Ergebnisse der Erforschung der Burg in Szeged mittels der Zusammenfassung sowohl der historischen Quellen als auch der früheren archäologischen Beobachtungen. Danach gibt sie die wichtigeren Ergebnisse der im vergangenen Jahrzehnt als geplante Grabung begonnenen Forschungen bekannt und fasst schließlich die bisherigen und aus den neuesten Erkenntnissen zu ziehenden Folgerungen zusammen. Die Freilegung der Burgkirche, die das Rückgrat des Forschungsprogramms bildete, hat grundsätzlich neue Ergebnisse erbracht. Denn es hat sich erwiesen, dass die gotische Kirche irgendwann zwischen dem Ende des 13. und der Mitte des 14. Jahrhunderts erbaut wurde. Im 15. Jahrhundert wurde sie erheblich umgebaut. An ihrer Südseite wurde eine Seitenkapelle errichtet, deren gotisches Sterngewölbe in der Türkenzeit herabstürzte. Aus den an Ort und Stelle entdeckten Rippensteinen konnte das gotische Gewölbesystem rekonstruiert werden. Vor der Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts erfuhr die Kirche noch einen weiteren Umbau und am Anfang des 18. Jahrhunderts wurde sie abgerissen. Der Chor der Kirche reicht unter das im 18. Jahrhundert darauf errichtete Tor der Kasemattenreihe (Maria Theresia-Tor), in dem derzeit das Burgmuseum untergebracht ist, so dass die vollständige Freilegung auf weitere Schwierigkeiten stößt.

A székelyudvarhelyi Jézus-kápolna

Author(s): András Sófalvi / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: VIII/2013

The Jesus Chapel is located at the south entrance of the town Odorheiu Secuiesc. This ecclesiastical building belongs to the group of four-lobe chapels with analogies in the west and north of the Carpatian-basin and Transylvania. Traditional belief dated the building of the Jesus Chapel to the 13th century. The chapel was mentioned in the written sources for the first time in 1602. There are no carved stone elements in its structure. The special technical components of its altar date from the end of the 17th century – beginning of the 18th century. The central picture of the altar, representing Jesus with His bleeding heart and the lamb, are strongly connected with the Jesuit order which appeared in Odorhei at the end of the 16th century. The painted wood ceiling was made in 1677, originally the chapel was probably vaulted. The archaeological researches made in 1973 and 2011 have also given postmedieval dating. Stratigraphical data proved the building of the chapel post quem the middle of the 15th century. The stone and brick crypts discovered in the centre of the building are directly linked to the foundation of the chapel, which was probably a miraculous healing. Although it has been used later as a burial chapel, there are no written documents concerning the founder’s person or their family. The chapels in Gheorgheni (Szent Anna/Saint Anne Chapel) and Sânzieni (Szent István/Saint Stephen Chapel) are in Szeklerland the closest architectural analogies of the Jesus Chapel. Their newest research dated them to the 17th century and marked them as being votive or private chapels.

A Szentszék és a magyar választófejedelemség gondolata a 17. század végén

Author(s): Mihalik Béla Vilmos / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 03/2016

The anti-Ottoman war of reconquista conducted in Hungary (1683–1699) was also supported by the Protestant Principality of Brunswick-Lüneburg, several members of the princely family personally participating to the war. In return for the military support, Duke Ernst-August wanted to gain an electoral status, and his efforts were backed by the Prince-Elector of Brandenburg. Negotiations already started in 1689, when archduke Joseph, the son of emperor and Hungarian king Leopold I, was elected King of the Romans. The Catholic Electors followed the events with worry, especially from 1691, when the discussions between Ernst-August and the Viennese court started in earnest. The elector treaty (Kurtraktat), which was concluded on 22 March 1692, elicited more considerable resistance from the Catholic princes of the Holy Roman Empire, who feared both that the equilibrium between the confessions would be disrupted, and that the balance of power between the electoral and the princely colleges would be changed. The Catholic princes, and especially the bishoprics in the vicinity of Brunswick-Lüneburg, expected support from the Holy See. But the Holy See was unwilling to interfere with internal disputes within the Empire, especially with regard to the broader European situation, overshadowed by the Nine Years’ War. Yet it did maintain contacts with the Catholic imperial estates through the nuncios of Cologne and Vienna. It may have been from there that the idea of creating a new Catholic Electorate emerged. The idea, relating concretely to the Kingdom of Hungary, was first raised in the spring of 1692. A year later, in April 1693, Viennese nuncio Sebastiano Antonio Tanara came forward with this possibility once again. Parallelly, however, the restoration of rights carried by the Bohemian electoral vote was also proposed. One and a half decades later, during the War of the Spanish Succession, this latter solution was in fact adopted, although in a different political situation. But the very idea of a Hungarian Electorate shows that, after securing the hereditary succession of the Habsburg dynasty in Hungary (1687), the idea of connecting the Kingdom of Hungary to the Holy Roman Empire by elevating it to electoral status was also considered in Viennese court circles. The Hungarian estates were too powerful for such a plan to have real chances to succeed, however. Consequently, it remained no more than an interesting episode in the emergence of the Electorate of Hanover.

A szigeti Bartos család: társadalmi felemelkedés az erdélyi fejedelmi hivatalnokság alsó rétegében a 16–17. század fordulóján

Author(s): László Glück / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 0

The service of the king played a particular role in upward social mobility in premodern Hungary, as the monarchs – thanks to the specific sovereign rights – had opportunities not comparable with that of the other members of society to reward subjects dear to them. Many commoners also managed to acquire nobility or seigneurial rights in the 15th and 16th centuries, thanks to their erudition (literacy and proficiency in Latin) which made it possible for them to be employed in the monarchic administration. The government of the Principality of Transylvania, a new state that emerged in the eastern part of Hungary in the mid-16th century, played a similar role. The present study gives the history of a family as an example of this.The father lived in Sziget, a small town in the north-eastern region of Hungary, and his profession possibly was that of a saddler. His sons were given an education. Péter started working at the Princely Treasury as an auditor (rationista), György supposedly served in the Princely Chancellery as a scribe, and István had been the private secretary to lords, and then worked as a scribe of the Princely Chancellery. The father already had been ennobled by a charter (this was usual among craftsmen from the end of the 16th century), and his sons were granted exemption for their plots in Sziget by the Prince. After the untimely death of the two elderly brothers, only István remained alive; he was awarded with estate donations as well by the Prince, and then entered into a marriage with a noblewoman from a well-to-do seigneurial family, inheriting landed properties by his marriage as well. After all, he used the cash from his father’s heritage or his court service to purchase the landed properties from different landlords being in difficulties. He attached great importance to good farming on the acquired landed properties. Old seigneurial families immediately accepted him, the homo novus, as one of them: this is clearly shown by the marriages of István and his children.

A Szilágyság és a Wesselényi család (14–17. század)

Author(s): / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 2012

This volume contains the edited texts of the papers presented at the conference "Sălaj (Szilágy) Region and the Wesselényi Family in the 14–17th centuries" held between 7 and 8 September 2012 in Cluj (Kolozsvár). The essays deal with the estate system and the political and economic history of the medieval Sălaj (Szilágy) region (Middle Solnoc/Szolnok and Crasna/Kraszna counties), as well as with the history of the Wesselényi family archives and the early modern history of the Wesselényi family.

A szülejmáni béke. A magyarországi oszmán adóösszeírások és a magyar– oszmán békekötések összefüggései

Author(s): Éva Sz. Simon / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 4/2018

Starting from the second half of the 15th century, the Kingdom of Hungary and the Ottoman Empire were separated by the natural border of the rivers Sava and lower Danube, fortified with border castles. With the capture of Belgrade, Zemun, and Sabac, the army of Suleiman I punched through this functional, formally established defense line, which led to the creation of the 150-year-long Ottoman rule in Hungary. During the more than 150 years following the Hungarian-Ottoman peace treaty of 1519, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire came to a peace agreement fourteen times. However, while the treaties of 1503 and 1519 specifically established the border settlements on the Sava-lower Danube line, as did the double committee sent out after the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699, the treaties between these never specified border castles or specific border marks. In the 16th century, on the western border of the Ottoman Empire the Ottomans used a unique, one might say genius method not used in other parts of the Empire to legitimize their rule in a region even before conquering it by force. They did not only utilize their army, but their diplomacy and administration as well, to subjugate these regions. The author of this study examines the correlations between the Ottoman-Hungarian peace treaties and the sanjak censuses appraising the taxability of the population, as well as their roles in the border negotiations. Furthermore, the study puts the findings of previous studies regarding the making of sanjak censuses in a broader context and provides a new foundation for these findings.

A Territory of Grace: Lampedusa during Early Modern Times

Author(s): Simon Mercieca,Joseph Muscat / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2013

A város a vidék szemében. Brassó és környezete a 17. század első évtizedeiben

Author(s): Zsuzsanna Cziráki / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 78/2019

The study focuses on a distinctive administrative unit of the Transylvanian Saxon Universitas: the district of Barcaság (Burzenland/Revier Barcza). Relying on contemporary sources, primarily local chronicles and municipal account books, the paper examines the image of early-seventeenth-century Brassó (Kronstadt/Brașov), one of the most important towns in early modern Transylvania, from the perspective of Barcaság, a district directly under its jurisdiction. This turbulent period held both destruction and prosperity for Transylvanians, so these couple of decades are especially suitable to demonstrate the relationship of Barcaság and its center, Brassó, in a wide range of issues. Based on the evidence found in surviving sources, three major themes emerge. First, the issue of defense dominating the war years: in case of military threat, the fortified town was an important place of refuge but was not suitable for the protection of the entire population of the area. Both the suburbs of Brassó, and the settlements in Barcaság were vulnerable when they faced Ottoman, Mongol or Hungarian haiduk armies. Although the town made efforts to protect them, these areas were largely expendable in the defense strategy of the Brassó magistrates. Secondly, the study examines supply and trade. Brassó was a commercial hub, but its advantage was achieved by repressing similar ambitions of other communities in Barcaság. At the same time, it was the most important trading place and served as a steady market outlet not only for the Saxon market towns and villages of Barcaság, but also for neighboring regions such as the Szeklerland and Wallachia. Finally, Brassó played an important role in the cultural life of the countryside; specifically, it acquired a significant sway over Barcaság through the control of faith and education. These aspects together clearly demonstrate that Brassó’s monopoly over Barcaság, originally developed in the Middle Ages, remained unchallenged in the early modern era too, and the long-standing symbiosis resulted in an exceptionally complex relationship which held both advantages and disadvantages for the people of Barcaság.

A Wesselényi-féle összeesküvés

Author(s): Ignác Romsics / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 02/2018

Although the Ottoman forces heading towards Vienna suffered a crushing defeat from the Christian troops on 1 August 1664 near Szentgotthárd, the imperial War Council decided to sign a peace that recognized all of the previous Turkish conquests and forbade the pursuit of the fleeing enemy. From the Viennese court’s standpoint, this was a logical decision, because the ruler, Leopold I was preoccupied with the impending extinction of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty and the inevitable war of succession that would break out. The troops were being kept in reserve for this. The Hungarian nobles, however, who hoped that the victory would signal the start of an anti-Turkish campaign, which would result in the whole of Hungary being liberated, became deeply dismayed. The most illustrious dignitaries of the country – Ferenc Wesselényi (Palatine), György Lippay (Archbishop of Esztergom), Ferenc Nádasdy (Lord Chief Justice) and Péter Zrínyi (Ban of Croatia) – all swore to oppose the emperor in order to create a Hungary independent from the Habsburgs with foreign help. After long preparations this conspiracy led to the armed uprising in 1670, that came, however, to naught and the Viennese court made an example of the plotters to serve as warning. It sentenced the chief conspirators to death by beheading and to loss of lands; the rest saw part or all of their property confiscated. It was following this that Leopold proclaimed the so-called legal forfeiture doctrine as the pretext for introducing open monarchical absolutism. Due to the resistance of the Hungarian nobility, however, his attempt failed.

A zsarnócai csata (1664) – török szemmel

Author(s): Balázs Sudár / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 03/2016

In the course of the 1663–1664 Habsburg–Ottoman war, the grand vezir Fazil Ahmed Pasha arrived to the Hungarian marches in 1663, and caused considerable losses there: he took the castle of Érsekújvár, and thereby practically severed the upper Hungarian counties from the small remaining part of the kingdom. In the current state of affairs, each victory had more than average importance, not only militarily but also from the perspective of public feeling. It is thus not surprising that these generated high-sounding accounts, taken over by later historiography as well. Exactly such an event was the battle of Zsarnóca on 16 May 1664. According to their own reports, the Christians won a great victory, and even the enemy commander was said to have died in the encounter. Ottoman sources, on the other hand, report on no such thing, no defeat is mentioned, and the Ottoman leaders continued to figure in later events, a clear indication that they did not die. What happened then? The Christians probably remembered their success in preventing the pursuing Ottomans from annihilating them, which enabled them to retreat in a more or less orderly way from the siege of Léva. Under the given circumstances, it was indeed quite an achievement. For their part, the Ottomans opined that their primary task was not the annihilation of the enemy host, but the relief of Léva. This they in fact achieved, and the action was thus regarded as a success. This, however, only reflected two different perspectives: while the Christians emphasized but one episode of the campaign, the Ottomans regarded the whole sequence of events.