The Eighth Tribe, 1974 (1. évfolyam, 1-7. szám)
1974-09-01 / 4. szám
September, 1974 THE EIGHTH TRIBE Page Nine because through the Czech King, Fredrick of Brandenburg and son-in-law to the English King, Bethlen maintained a link with the Protestant West. In between his second and third military campaigns, his first wife having died, he tried to realize his ambition through marriage. One fine day quite unexpectedly, a delegation arrived from Bethlen at the court of Ferdinand II of Habsburg, and they asked for the hand of Ferdinand’s youngest daughter. Ferdinand was very tempted; the terms, though ambiguous, seemed to promise an end to Bethlen’s recurrent attacks. So he summoned the senior member of the Habsburg family all the way from Spain to consult him on the matter. Together they solved what was Bethlen’s real intent with the marriage — no less than the unification of Hungary under Bethlen’s personal rule, the abandonment of Hungary to Calvinism and using Habsburg resources to drive the Turks from Hungary. The only thing the Habsburgs would have gained was that Bethlen would have turned against the Turks. The Habsburgs refused, and thereupon Bethlen’s delegation went further west, to Brandenburg of Germany, and obtained the hand of Princess Catherine of Brandenburg, his ally’s, the Czech king’s sister. The Reformed Church prospered and became the bulwark of literature and science and patriotism in Hungary just as its sister churches did in other countries. To reward this role of the church and its ministers, Prince Gabor Bethlen of Transylvania awarded the title of nobility to all its ministers, and a robe of royalty was designed. To this day Hungarian Reformed ministers wear it. Concurrent with all his military and diplomatic efforts toward a unified Hungary, he was building Transylvania into a model state economically and culturally. Wherever he went, he always seemed to have an eye for what would be good in Transylvania. So, when fighting in Bohemia he comes across a clan of Catholic Czechs, who are excellent tradesmen, but who are severely oppressed by the Calvinist majority, he induces them to settle in Transylvania. And there these Catholic Czechs soon break the intolerable monopoly of the local Saxons’ industry. When around Kassa in Northern Hungary lie hears about some unemployed miners, he induces them to settle in Transylvania, where the turbulent decades left most mines caved in or flooded. With them as a starter, he advanced Transylvanian mining to a level never attained before. He was always on the lookout for new ideas and techniques in agriculture, industry and commerce, but at the same time he didn’t overlook a good chance for some old fashioned bartering. As when he returns from his first campaign at Vienna and his troops are driving along an enormous number of horses captured from the Habsburg armies, he talks the local Saxons into swapping their oxen, which they use for plowing, for those horses; then he has those oxen driven to Vienna and sold for slaughtering. Bethlen was the first man of power in Europe, who recognized, that the age-old feudal economy would not work any more, and who struck out along the lines of a centrally controlled economy with its price and production controls. His economy lent itself better for export, and for export he established a corridor through Turkish held territory to Venice. With such methods, he nearly tripled Transylvania’s income in his sixteen years of rule. When we consider, that some of the German states like Brandenburg barely exceeded 200,000 golden florins yearly1 income, and he raised Transylvania’s yearly income from 300,000 golden florins to nearly a million, we can appreciate the prosperity Bethlen created for his Transylvania. In education, his establishment of a school system that embraced the lower classes of society, sets him above many of his contemporaries. He put a great value on higher education as well. He founded the University of Gyulafehervar and had some western professors included on its faculty. He strongly stipulated, that young men of talent from the class of small landowners and the peasantry be included without any discrimination. Bethlen not having had much in the way of formal education himself, enjoyed it tremendously when he could find time to visit this university he founded. He used to join class discussions on those occasions as humbly as any student was expected to. He also believed in sending young
