Századok – 2018
2018 / 2. szám - FIUMÉTÓL KONSTANTINÁPOLYIG - Tóth Hajnalka: Mennyit ér egy magyar lovas hadnagy? Egy rabkiváltás története diplomáciatörténeti kontextusban a 17. század közepéről
MENNYIT ÉR EGY MAGYAR LOVAS HADNAGY? 284 HOW MUCH IS A HUNGARIAN CAVALRY CAPTAIN WORTH? Prisoner Ransoming and International Diplomacy in the Mid-17th Century by Hajnalka Tóth SUMMARY Falling into captivity and then having to buy one’s liberty at a high cost was a common fate for many a man in the world of constant skirmishing and raiding that prevailed along the Hungarian-Ottoman frontier in the 16th and 17th centuries. The present paper, which adds to an already long Hungarian historiography on the ransoming of prisoners, explores the story of Ferenc Uki, a cavalry captain of the garrison of Pápa, who was liberated after almost ten years in Ottoman captivity in the spring of 1659 in exchange for 6000 thalers and an Ottoman çavus of Buda called Mustafa. The issue of his ransoming involved the highest layers of diplomatic contact between the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire in the middle of the 17th century. Close examination of the case reveals the underlying social networks as well as the role of personal interests that operated in the background, thus highlighting the complicated nature of the ransoming process. Thanks to the analysis, answers are offered as to why the delivery of the captain cost so much, why it was precisely Mustafa çavus who was liberated in exchange, and why the imperial ambassador to Constantinople, Simon Reniger von Reningen, had to negotiate for years about the exchange of the two prisoners.
