The Eighth Tribe, 1974 (1. évfolyam, 1-7. szám)
1974-09-01 / 4. szám
Page Eight THE EIGHTH TRIBE September, 1974 sylvania by foreign Catholic forces made Bocskay rebel. So Bethlen led his group of exiles back to Transylvania, and joined the fight to clear that province of Habsburg garrisons. Having succeeded in that, Bocskay swept across Northern Hungary with his “angels,” the Hajdus, seized Vienna, and forced the Habsburgs to sign the Treaty of Vienna (1606). This treaty established religious freedom for the Calvinists throughout Hungary, reaffirmed the obligations of the Habsburgs as regarded the Hungarian Constitution, and relinquished the rule of Transylvania to the Transylvanians themselves. Six months later, when Bocskay died of, what was charged, Habsburg poison, Bethlen, recently married, found himself at the center of things again. His one-time fellow exiles wanted HIM to be the ruler, but conscious of his humble origin, he put his weight behind a Calvinist aristocrat, George Rákóczi. When this man declined inspite of all Bethlen’s efforts, and the noble classes of Transylvania elected the richest Transylvanian, the 17 year old Gábor Bátory, Bethlen was instrumental in obtaining the very important Turkish blessing on this selection. Nothing could have pleased Bethlen more after this than a long beneficial rule by Batory, during which the newly won independence could be used for peaceful development of the country along Calvinist lines. But this was not to be. Gabor Batory developed into a Nero type tyrant, and eventually Bethlen had to seize power with Turkish help to save the new state from disaster. Bethlen’s coming to power in Transylvania with the help of Turkish arms was a jolt to the Hungarians in the north, but when they witnessed how speedily he got those Turkish, Tartar and Wallachian troops out of the country after his election, they were much relieved and greatly impressed. Shortly after that, the Northern Hungarian Calvinists were knocking on Bethlen’s door, asking him to come north as Bocskay did, for although Bocskay rid the country of foreign Habsburg troops and they had a large measure of religious freedom, under that same religious freedom, the Jesuits kept working on the large landowners, who, if they reverted to Catholicism, could declare the churches on their lands to be Catholic churches. Bethlen, rife with ambition for a unified, Calvinist Hungary, made a thorough military preparation for the move north. He organized a small private army from the late Bocskay’s hajdús and the Székelys. It was a hired army, where the men contracted to fight for him for a stipulated monthly pay. This came out of Bethlen’s own pocket, the noble classes of North Hungary and Transylvania contributing nothing to it in the beginning and not much more thereafter. In this army, as behooves the army of a devout Calvinist, no drinking was allowed, no campfollowing prostitutes of which the western armies of the period were notorious, nor even female visitors. In the camps, psalm singing was included in the daily program and later, entering battles with Bethlen at their head, they were singing psalms. Contrary to the general practice of the age, this army would not live off the country, but would carry its own supplies with them. Diplomatically, he made sure, that the Turks would not get alarmed at his successes and attack his rear. To the north, he successfully befriended the commanders of the border fortifications which were manned by Catholic Hungarians loyal to the Habsburgs, so they would not put up costly resistance against his passage. As he heard of a Czech rebellion in the making, he hastened to make alliance with them. When the Czechs electrified Europe by declaring their ties with the Habsburgs null and void by electing Frederick, the Prince of Brandenburg for their king, Bethlen moved north swiftly, swept across Northern Hungary into Bohemia. The Czechs, not having been as thorough as Bethlen with their military preparation, had already been pushed back deep into Moravia (the Czech province below Bohemia). With Bethlen there, the tide turned; then it was the Habsburg army that was retreating. In a few weeks Frederick’s and Bethlen’s forces reached the Danube. After many bloody battles, they crossed the Danube and surrounded Vienna. It was shortly after this that their ultimate success was frustrated by the undeclared war, that the Poles made on Bethlen’s rear lines at Kassa. This necessitated Bethlen’s withdrawal of most of his troops from Vienna to repel the Poles and repair the damage. While he was gone, his strategic know-how and his troops were fatefully missed by his allies. In the next three years, Bethlen had to realize, that his small army of Hajdús and Székelys, and Frederick’s German troops would not blossom into a grand army by the popular support of the Czechs and the Northern Hungarians. Neither the Czech nor the Hungarian aristocracy and county-bureaucracies were willing to come forth with the necessary sacrifices. Bethlen made two more military attempts to realize his goal, and had to settle for less advantageous treaties each time. The treaties he obtained could have contained more favorable terms, had he been willing to give up his Czech alliance. The Habsburgs desperately wanted him to give up his Czech alliance, but this Bethlen adamantly refused to do,
