Századok – 2011

KÖZLEMÉNYEK BETHLEN GÁBORRÓL - Cziráki Zsuzsanna: Brassó és az erdélyi szászok szerepe Bethlen Gábor fejedelem trónfoglalásában (1611-1613) IV/847

876 CZIRÁKI ZSUZSANNA significant sources found in the Austrian State Archives, the paper analyses internal affairs in Transylvania linked to the activity of the opposition groups led by the Saxons — chiefly by the city of Kronstadt — against prince Gabriel Báthory. The study also discusses special diplomatic aspects concerning the conflict of the two great powers in the region, the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire, and the ability of Saxons to participate in the course of events. The sources and conclusions presented in the paper seem to confirm the assertion that the privileged community of Transylvania Saxons was divided by partial interests. Research results also throw light upon the strategy of the third nation of Transylvania, namely the Saxons, how to overcome intentions of the central power in order to cut back privileges rooted in the territorial autonomy. Moreover, the sources enlighten two important factors of the Saxon diplomacy: the way of a profoundly harmonized action in case of the territorial dispersed community of the "Universitas Saxonum", and their flexibility enabling a balanced and rational tactic in the communication with both Empires, Habsburg and Ottoman. Summarizing the outcomes it can be declared that a systematic and sourceoriented survey on the common history of the Transylvanian nations can reveal further results of high importance, regarding the history of the Transylvanian nations, that of the Principality of Transylvania and Central-East Europe.