The Eighth Tribe, 1974 (1. évfolyam, 1-7. szám)
1974-09-01 / 4. szám
Page Six THE EIGHTH TRIBE September, 1974 harming Calvinist interests. Similarity with the Unitarians and the Sabbatists in Transylvania later: though he abhors them even worse than the Jesuits, he tries to be as tolerant with them as prudence would allow. And when the witch-hunting craze sweeps the civilized world — with some of the most outstanding people, Catholic as well as Protestant, firmly behind putting witches to death — Bethlen shines with his tolerance. Just outside of his jurisdiction, in the “Free-Royal” city of Debrecen, the city-council is putting “witches” to death quite diligently, hut when people charged with witchcraft are rounded up in Transylvania, he doesn’t put any of them to death: he gives instructions to scare those with evidence against them, to preach the acceptable way of life to them and to release them. Bethlen is frequently illustrated as a soldier atop a charging horse. He was a soldier and a first-class strategist, who believed in constant mobility and maneuver, in constant harrassment of the enemy until a favorable opportunity was achieved and an unhesitating follow-through from a position of advantage, but he was also a diplomat, who kept concurrent negotiation going for a favorable treaty. His military tent had a writing desk in it, and at that he spent everal hours each day writing letters to his envoys who were flung across Europe from Holland to Con stantinople. The West felt disappointed each time Bethlen started to negotiate at the height of his military success; they wanted him to forge on. But Bethlen knew when he reached the maximum of a military action, and he knew, that that was the time to negotiate. To realize his life-long ambition to reunify Hungary and to make it a Calvinist state, he used the most unpredictable methods. Parallel and sometimes contradictory diplomatic lines, military campaigns and marriage were alternated as means. And as it became increasingly evident that he could not realize his goal, he did not give up, or keep charging the same stone wall, or blame the Northern Hungarian aristocrats and the feudal system for his failure, rather he realized a lesser ambition. He organized Transylvania as a prosperous Calvinist state to serve as a redoubt of the Hungarian Reformed Church, whence, if not he, his posterity may realize his main goal. Success never went to his head. When at the high point of his first campaign, he has the Habsburg forces surrounded at Vienna and four of the Habsburghs’ brand-new, Saxon generals are dead on the battlefield, all of Hungary — Protestants as well as Catholics — are proclaiming him King of Hungary, and they want his coronation with the crown of St. Stephen without any delay, he keeps putting the coronation off. First things had to come first, and diplomatic preparations had to be made, or else devastation would be called upon the country. As success never went to his head, misfortune never made him dispair. His second campaign against the Habsburgs illustrates that. The plan there called for Bethlen’s army of 12,000 Szekelys and 12,000 Turks to link up with Fredrick of Brandenburg’s German infantry in Bohemia, get the Czechs to rise on their side (Fredrick was the Czechs’ king), and drive down to Vienna again. As it turned out however, Fredrick’s army was utterly defeated on its way to Bohemia hy the Habsburg army under General Tilly and when Bethlen got to Bohemia, there was nobody to link up with, the Czechs could not be induced to rise on his side, and he had to find the Habsburg Armv under the generals Montenegro and Wallenstein pitted against him. Still, Bethlen gave the “gazettes” in the West plenty to report. With brilliant maneuvers, he reaped success after success against this Habsburg army and in a few weeks he had it surrounded so tight, that the enemy had to start butchering their horses for food. Bethlen was already getting set for the last assault on the enemy and wanted to lead the charge in person when two disastrous things happened. The Turks refused to be in the charge and word reached him that Tilly’s Habsburg army is approaching to relieve his siege. Bethlen then finds out why the Turks want out: they had taken some 2000 Czech prisoners and they can’t wait to get back home with them so they could sell them as slaves... Bethlen realizes, that he is not only facing military defeat, but his Christian reputation will be destroyed for delivering Christian prisoners into heathen slavery. He summons the Turkish commander to his tent and orders him to free the prisoners, after which they can leave, but the commander refuses, and the Turks leave in a huff taking their prisoners with them. But Bethlen is prepared for that too. He alerts the Hungarian forts along the Turks line of march, who ambush the Turks as they get there, and free the prisoners. Then he calls the commanding general of the surrounded forces for a conference. Montenegro comes forth and Bethlen offers to lift the siege, if Montenegro and Wallenstein promise their good offices on his behalf in the upcoming negotiations with the Habsburg ruler. Montenegro not knowing anything about Bethlen’s trouble witli the Turks nor about Tilly’s army approaching, readily promises, and Bethlen leaves Bohemia with his Székely forces intact; and therefore, still in a good bargaining position.
