These and such like reasons pronounced with the authority of a Legat and by a person extreamly eloquent prevailed so far with the Hungarians that they agreed unanimously not to disert their Christian brethren in this fair occasion And for this effect their forces are rendevouzed and Huniades marching with the Vanguard is followed by King Vladislaus with the gross of the army On his march Dracula Vayvod of Valachia came to him who told him he wondered of his confidence that would with so inconsiderable troopes hazard to seek and provoke so mighty an enemy who used to go a hunting accompanied with as great number as those the King then had with him and counselled him to return His advice was rejected and so the Vayvod leaving four thousand horse under the conduct of his own son with the King retired himself Amurath being informed that Hungary armed against him left Asia and came to Europe drew his forces together as speedily as he could met Vladislaus at Varna a town in Bulgary and gave him a total overthrow The loss of this day so dismal to the Christians and so joyful to the Infidels did let us see by the death of Vladislaus of Julian the Legat a world of brave Gentle-men that faith should be punctually kept that God punisheth the perjured though they cover their perfidy with cloaks of specoius colors They say that Amurath seeing his men worsted at the beginning of the battel pulled out of his bosome the Treaty that was concluded between him and the Hungarians and looking towards heaven spake these words with much zeal and passion JESUS CHRIST Behold the agreement which the Christians made with me and swore to me by thy Godhead and by breaking it hath mocked thee and me Now O CHRIST if thou be a God as they say thou art revenge the injury they have done to both thee and me And make it appear to these who yet know not thy Name that thou knows how to punish such as violate the Religion of faithful promises confirmed and sworn by thy Divinity This prayer was seconded by the entire defeat of the Christians The head of the King was carried on a lance through many places of Greece and Asia as an assured testimony of a compleat victory The body of Cardinal Julian the detestable Author of the perfidy was found stark naked pierced and hacked with many wounds The Epitaph of this King both valiant and fortunate so long as he was careful to keep his promises is worthy your knowledge and it is this Romulidae Cannas ego Varnam clade notavi Discite mortales non temerare fidem Me nisi Pontifices jussissent rumpere foedus Non ferret Sciticum Pannonis ora jugum As Varo Cannaes fatal fields did dy With noble Roman blood so Varna I Stain'd with Hungarian gore Learn mortals then To keep your faith and promise made to men The Pope importun'd me the Truce to break Which I with Osmans faithless race did make Hence the brave men of fair Pannonias lands Must now obey the barbarous Turks commands This misfortune fell on Hungary the 11. of November S. Martins day 1444. P. You have often told me that the promises of men ought to be inviolable and I was ever of that same opinion and this sad example confirmeth me fully in it But did this mischance spread it self over the whole army G. It was then the Almighties pleasure only to chastise this unfortunate Kingdom but not wholly to ruine it and so preserved John Huniades Corvin who seeing all things in a desperate condition after the death of the King saved himself by flight The year following the Hungarians who till then had rejected Ladislaus the posthume son of the Emperor Albert of Austria unanimously acknowledged him for King though he was but five years old and because of his tender age they committed the management of affaires to John Hunniades who two years after increased Amuraths trophies with the loss of 22000 Hungarians which he had brought in the field against him Not long after Sultan Amurath died at Adrianople and left his son Mahomet to succeed him who surpassed all his Predecessors in greatness of courage and subtilty of spirit This daring Prince in the third year his reign beseegeth Constantinople and taketh it within the space of fifty days on the 29. of May 1453. As this loss discouraged the Christians so it raised Mahomets thoughts to a hie pitch and furnished him with hopes to add Hungary to his conquests of Greece To effect which he laid Mysia waste and laid siege with two hundred thousand men to Belgrade which in ancient times was called Alba Graeca But the place being notably defended by Hunniades who for that purpose had cast himself into it the proud Turk lost almost his whole army with an hundred great pieces of Canon Hunniades did not long survive this gallant action but died the 8. of September 1456. Mahomet carrying his hie designs to Persia and Italy gave liberty to Hungary to breath a while hoping the ambition of the Nobles and the non-age of the King would raise intestine troubles in time of Peace which would give him some fair opportunity to subdue the Kingdom sparing it for some smal time P. But it was no smal good fortune to King Ladislaus that the Tyrant did not molest him in his younger years after the death of Hunniades But tell me what did he when he came to age G. The History tells us that when Ladislaus was 19. years old he married Magdelene of France the daughter of King Charles the seventh and that he dyed of poison at Prague in the time of the solemnity of his marriage so that he had but little time to make either his vertues or his vices appear yet there passed some considerable contingencies between the death of Hunniades and that of his Master the King Hunniades having left two sons who were perfect imitators of the vertue of their noble father gave some occasion of jealousie to Ladislaus and of an earnest desire to his favorites to be rid of them both These being envyous of Hunniades his glory wrought the matter so with the King that he caused Ladislaus the eldest sons head to be struck off for killing the Count of Cilie in a combat to which the Count had appealed him About the same time they clapped Matthias the second son of Huniades in prison and not being able to suffer the children of that famous worthy who had saved the State they had assuredly made his process if the death of the King and the Almighty Providence which had ordained him to wear the Hungarian Crown had not put a stop to their malice The Kings death which fell out in the year 1457. occasioned a wonderful alteration Matthias Corvin the son of John Hunniades is brought out of prison where he expected a sentence of death and placed in the throne And all these who envyed both his fathers glory and his own could
Frederick but he was excluded because Vladislaus his party prevailed During this interraign the Emperor recovered all that Matthias had taken from him in Austria and at length Vladislaus maugre all the Competitors mounts the throne The beginning of his reign was troublesom for his brother Albert assisted with his Uncles the brothers of Casimir King of Polen beseegeth Cassovia the capital City of the higher Hungary and so gave him work on that side Blaise Magger a dependent of John Corvin being offended that his Master was rejected refused to deliver the Crown which was in his keeping to the new King upon which he was beseeged at Vissegrad which he held bravely out and would neither deliver Town nor Crown till he had command so to do from his Master Maximilian having recovered his losses in Austria advanced towards Hungary and being assisted by these who had favored his election in the interreign made a successful progress Vladislaus fainting under the burden of so many troubles came to an agreement with Maximilian the tenor whereof was so hateful to the Hungarians that the Palatine Emeric Prini caused proclaim through all the streets of Presburg that he neither did nor ever would consent to it But this generosity of his lasted not long for being gained by presents he signed the articles of Peace by which the Crown and Kingdom of Hungary is entailed to the House of Austria if Vladislaus died without issue You may see here a disease cured by the application of a remedy odious to the whole Nation This tempest not yet well allaid ushered in another conjured up by Albert another Polonian pretender whose heart could not brook it to see his brother King of Hungary he takes armes and beseegeth Cassovia the second time But while he endeavors to take it he is taken himself and forced to give surety to suffer Vladislaus to live in quyet Shortly after Vladislaus married and within three or four years had a son and a daughter Anne and Lewis both of them famous in the Hungarian History Anne was married to Ferdinand of Austria Grand-child to the Emperor Maximilian who by her had a numerous issue whose posterity reigns yet in Germany and Hungary The accidents of the birth life and death of Lewis were extraordinare He was born without a skin which made his subjects fear he should be spoiled of his Kingdom He wore a beard when he was but fifteen years old and was gray haird of eighteen which made most men conclud his life to be short He died in a marish at Mohats when he was but twenty years of age at which time the greatest part of his Kingdom fell in the hands of the Mahometans Which makes us see that these preter-natural accidents proved truly ominous as we shal find hereafter Vladislaus making no more account of what had passed between him Maximilian of Austria caused crown his son Lewis at Alba Royal by the hands of Thomas Cardinal of Strigonium in the year 1508. And the year after he got him to be crowned King of Bohemia at Prague when he was but three years old The Emperor Maximilian was hugely dissatisfied with these things but Vladislaus entertaining peace with the Turk on the one side and supported by Polen on the other he was forced to dissemble his ressentment P. Ordinarly a great calm is followed by a great tempest and if it fell not out so with Vladislaus he hath been fortunate beyond his merite G. Towards the end of his life and after the death of Bajazeth a civil war began in Hungary which was like to ruine it entirely upon this occasion The King had a great desire to invade Selim Emperor of Turky who was kept busie at home disputing the Crown with his brother Achmet which design he communicates to Pope Julius the first The Pope approves of it and promiseth his assistance but prevēted by death left the management of it to his Successors Mean while Vladislaus bethinks himself better and renews with Selim the Peace he had made with his father Bajazet This Peace exceedingly displeased those who loved war and a little after Cardinal Thomas Legat for the Holy See came to Hungary with a Croisade to joyn the Nobility and Commons in a vigorus pursuit of a war against the Infidels The common people who had been ever till then used with much rigor thinking the time to recover their liberty was now come turned their armes against the Nobles Their numbers made them insolent and they elect one George Sekell first for their General and then for their King He and his rable having cōmitted a world of mischiefs laid siege to Themisware where his army is defeated and himself and brother Lucatius taken prisoners by John Zapoliha Vayvod of Transilvany This action put Zapoliha in so high credit with the better sort that Vladislaus was contemned and nothing more spoken of then degrading the King and mounting the Vayvod in the throne But Vladislaus prevented the disgrace by his death which fell out in the year 1516. P. By what you tell me I am perswaded the Hungarians are hugely loyal and affectionate unto their King when they are gallant and that they are easily moved to change him for another when he is not so G. A warlike people desires ever to see their King a horse-back when the preservation of his Estate requires him so to be And though experience ofteu teach us that the preservations of the persons of Kings preserves Kingdoms yet a people is ever desirous to see their King on the head of their army But for all that the Hungarians have reason to be of another opinion and their History will let them see what a misfortune it is to loose a King with loosing a battel Lewis in his tender years succeeding his father Vladislaus was vilipended by Sultan Soliman who knowing his weakness and the divisions that then were amongst Christian Princes thought this time convenient to bring Hungary under his subjection To this effect he makes peace with the Persian and rusheth upon Lewis with all his forces This young King knowing how unable he was alone to grapple with so mighty an enemy prayed other Christian Potentats to send him succours and not to permit the Bulwark of Christendom to fall into the hands of the common enemy of believers His prayers prevailed not for Christendom then was tearing it self in pieces so Lewis was forced to take the field yea even before these troopes were brought together of which his army was to be composed The Turk had already passed the Save and the Drave and meeting with the Hungarians both few in number and evil provided of a General did without any difficulty obtain the victory and that so compleatly that the King and the most part of these that followed him were lost one way or other either in battel or the flight P. I have heard say that two and twenty thousand Christians died at this fatal field and that besides horses
not hinder a man but of an indifferent quality to be preferred to the whole family of Austria in the year 1458. P. These effects of the Divine Providence are admirable But reigned he gloriously G. Hungary hath had but few Kings like to Matthias He was ignorant of nothing that belonged to the knowledge of a great Prince his reign was glorious both in the time of peace and war Many great Hungarian Lords opposed his election and after it they importuned the Emperor Frederick the third to set the Crown which he had a keeping on his own head which some say he did Once certain it is he did not restore it till six years after he got in exchange of it three score thousand dukats at Newstadt a town in Austria A little before its restoration some of the factious offered the Kingdom to Casimir the son of another Casimir King of Polen who sent his son to receive it with a powerful army but Matthias made haste to the frontiers from which he forced the Polonian to return These intestine broils gave both the courage and the opportunity to the Turk to make himself Master of Bosnia Rascia and a part of Servia But King Matthias after his Coronation valiantly regained all was lost and reduced Transilvania and Valachia to their duty This happy progress prompted Matthias to undertake an irreconciliable war with the Grand Seigneur and without all peradventure he had given him work enough if his heroical design had not been obstructed by the Emperor and the Pope And this doth evidently appear by the letters which he wrote on that subject to the Electors of the Empire and to the Cardinal of Arragon To the first he remonstrats that when he was on the river of Savus going to fight with the Infidels he received certain intelligence that in a Dyet at Vienne they had resolved to invade him To the second he wrote that the Pope favored the Venetians who had taken from him the I le of Valga without any occasion given by him and not satisfied with that his Holiness endeavored to take from him the power to confer Ecclesiastical Benefices within his own Kingdom of purpose to disgrace him with his own subjects P. But I think there is little appearance that these two Princes whom it most concerns to chase the Turk out of Europe should endeavor to keep the swords of those in their sheaths who would gladly draw them against that common enemy G. I should also be of your opinion if Peter de Reva had not told us that he copied these things out of the original and adds that which seems more incredible In his fifth Century of his Monarchy of Hungary he tells us that the Emperor seased on all the moneys which the Spiritual and Temporal Lords of Hungary had contributed for the war which Matthias intended against the Turk and that the Pope helped to drain the Kingdom of moneys by ordering Collections to be made for the Knights of the Rhodes Yet all these blocks that were laid in his way did not hinder Matthias by his Generals Paul Canisi and Steven Battori to defeat and chase Ali Beg out of the field with the loss of threescore thousand Turks and thereafter in person to regain Jaitsa and reduce Bosnia to his obedience Yet these traverses at home necessitated him to make a truce with Mahomet And the Tyrant dying in the year 1481. Matthias with all his force resolves to renew the war and for that purpose desired a Safe-conduct from the Emperor for his Embassadors to come and treat of an accommodation but could not obtain it He intreated also the Pope to give him Zemini the son of Mahomet that he might make use of him against his brother Bajazet who a little before had taken upon him the government of the Turkish Empire But this was refused him by his Holiness which spited Matthias the more that it was done not to loose a piece of money which was yearly payed to the Pope by Bajazet for the detention or as it was called the maintenance of his brother Zemini Besides this Pope by his Spiritual Authority obliged Matthias to confirm the Truce with Bajazet which he had made with his father Mahomet Shortly after this brave King looking upon all the indignities he had received from the Emperor as insupportable for any generous soul declared open war against him which proved so fortunate on his side as having brought the greatest part of Austria under his obedience at length he over-masters Vienne and Newstadt the two great bulwarks of that Arch-Dukedom From thence he marched to the Kingdom of Bohemia and made himself Master of Silesia and Moravia But Casimir King of Polen would have a share of the booty and therefore entered Silesia with a mighty army but by the mediation of the Princes of the Empire these two Kings agreed that both Matthias and Vladislaus the son of Casimir should bear the tittle of Kings of Bohemia but Vladislaus should alone enjoy the Electoral dignity and the Kingdom Matthias keeping in his possession the Provinces of Silesia Moravia and Lusatia redeemable after his death for four hundred thousand Crowns While Matthias was busied in these wars the Turk breaks the Truce and seaseth on Killen and Nester-Alba which at that time were accounted strong holds on the river Danube At length this valiant King having reigned five years at Vienne and while there was a Treaty on foot for the restoration of it to the Emperor he dieth on the tuesday before Easter in the moneth of March 1490. His corps was carried to Alba Royal and interred with his Predecessors the Kings of Hungary P. It was fitting this martial Prince should die on Mars his day and in the moneth which hath its name from Mars But it is pitty his valor was not still employed against the common enemy and I am sory that these who should have exhorted him to it should have diverted him from so glorious an undertaking But I pray who succeeded him G. Matthias Corvin having no lawful issue wished that his natural son John Hunniades might have been elected to be his successor But after his death the spirit of division possessed the Hungarians Four Princes pretended to this divided Kingdom and the Nobility being divided in four Cabales favored him with their votes whom they conceived most worthy of so great an honor John the son of the late King had the suffrages of these who reverenced the vertues of his Grand father and father which eminently appeared in him and of such also who would more gladly obey a born Hungarian then a stranger The second party stood for Albert Jagellon the second son of Casimir King of Polen whom his father furnished with forces to fight against Vladislaus his elder brother who made the third party Casimir thinking his son Vladislaus might well enough be satisfied with the Crown of Bohemia The fourth Cabale inclined to elect Maximilian son of the Emperor
advanced to Hungary King John went to wait on him at Bellgrade accompanied with Lasco and as splendide a company of the Nobility as was possible for him to bring together And in that great Assembly he did homage to the Infidel and acknowledged him for his Lord. The Sultan a little moving himself in his seat gave him his hand and assured him that nothing could be so pleasing to him then to support and restore the afflicted and oppressed He bid him be of good courage and told him He would restore to him all he should recover from his enemy Ferdinand These promises were confirmed by a most solemn and pompous oath after the fashion of these unbelievers who in all their actions will appear beyond that which they are All things being set in order Soliman marched to Buda which he might easily take in regard it was abandoned by the German guarison And then he forced Thomas Nadasdy to give over the Castle whereof he was Governor This victory gave opportunity to the Turk to reestablish John in the Royal dignity which accordingly he did Then treading over the bellies of all that durst offer to resist him he laid siege to Vienne He battered it with all imaginable fury and artifice but if it was well attaqued it was as well defended by Philip the Victorious Prince Palatine of the Rhine and Nicolas Count of Solms who forced him to retire with shame and to confess that who would take Vienne must have good mittains P. That place hath been for more then an age the mark at which the ambition of the Ottomans hath aimed They fancy to themselves if they had once possession of the seat and ordinary residence of the Emperor of the West they would quickly pluck from us the head of the Roman Eagle which is yet amongst us But in regard the Turk did rather fly then retire and that he was rather covered with Cypress then with Lawrels let us follow him and see what he did afterward G. I shal pass over all he did which makes not to our purpose neither shal I speak of his inhumane cruelties or the horrible marks he left of his indignation Let it suffise that I tell you that being arrived at Buda he caused bring before him all the Royall Ornaments and in presence of many great persons as well Christians as Mahometans he said thus to King John Brother and Friend Since next to God thou had thy recourse to me in thy calamity I was pleased to be favourable to thee and I have handled the matter so that thou art Master of thy Kingdom Now I deliver in thy hands the City and Castle of Buda with all Hungary whereof I declare thee King And turning to the Hungarian Lords he proceeded thus I command you to be faithful and obedient to your King here present If you do so I shal be your friend If you do otherwise I will destroy you with my seimeter And thou O King my friend Rememher of the great benefit thou hath received of God and of me Thou hath the Crown which thou and thy Successors shal enjoy peaceably if all of you continue in my friendship and the duty you owe me When he had spoke so he left Lewis Gritti son to Andrew since Duke of Venice by a Graecian concubine in Hungary with some Cavallery and so returned to Constantinople P. I wonder that Soliman having suffered so great losses in Austria did not recompense them by the detention of Hungary for I have heard that the Turk is not a slave to his promise G. Soliman did as these who break young horses he used this gentleness to tame the Hungarians and he gave that to John which he was afraid he could not well keep to himself But then King John fearing with much reason that the Grand Seigneur would weary of his succours and perceiving his affaires to be in a bad condition he sent to Vienne that same Lasco whom he had imployed at the Port. This active man procured a years truce in which time the edge of their animosity being somewhat blunted they came to an agreement By which John was to enjoy the Kingdom to his death after which Ferdinand or one of his sons should succeed him But because it was not impossible but John might have children it was provided that if he had a son that son should enjoy all these Lands and Castles which belonged to John before he was King of Hungary And besides all that he should be Prince of Transilvany This treatie was ill observed Ferdinand caused invade Transilvany by Baltasar Bamfy Sclavony by John Coatenerus the Province of Sebuse by Leonard Baron of Velts But all these attempts were rendered vain by the prudence of King John and the valor of George Martenusias a Monk and the Kings great favorite commonly called Frier George And so they came to another accommodation The calm which John enjoyed after he conjured away the tempest gave him leasure to think of his marriage And for that effect sends to Sigismund King of Pole and demanded his daughter Isabel or Elisabeth for his wife And having obtained her the nuptials coronation of the Queen were magnificently solemnized P. I believe King Ferdinand was not well pleased with a marriage from which might proceed an addition to his troubles and an opposition to his pretentions neither do I think Soliman could approve of the transaction which John made with Ferdinand without his knowledge or at least without his consent in regard a vassal can innovate nothing of that he holds in fee without the approbation of his Soveraign G. In this exigent John was like to him that holds the wolf by the ears He saw well enough that he had reason to fear as much mischief from Soliman as from his Competitor yet he conceived stronger hopes of a Christian Prince then of an Infidel notwithstanding whereof we shal presently see that his successors submitted to the Turk to preserve a part of their dignity Not long after King Johns marriage Stephen Meylats and some others take arms against him in favor of Ferdinand John desirous to quench the fire before it grew inextinguishable leaves his Queen at Buda and marcheth to Transilvany where he easily received these in his favor who acknowledged their fault which act of grace moved many to return to their duty But Meylats shuts himself up in the strong Castle of of Fogaras to wait for the succours which Ferdinand was to send him under the conduct of Nadasdy The King beseegeth the Castle and after a long siege takes it Mean time comes a Courrier who brings him the glad tydings of the birth of a son whom God had given him Such News useth to be very acceptable to these who have no children especially to such who are stricken in years You may easily imagine that John received them with an excess of joy which he witnessed by drinking after the Hungarian manner more then enough This augmented his
sickness which at Sassebs sent him to his grave a few days after his sons birth and in the fifty and third year of his own age His death was kept quyet as much as possibly might be done but at length it was published with the tenor of his testament by which he declared his son the universel heir of all his goods and George Martenusias or Frier George Tutor of the pupil Prince Some days before he died he exhorted the Nobility to have a regard to the honor of the Hungarian Nation and to prefer his son to any stranger whatsoever if they should fall upon the election of a new King assuring them that the grand Seignior would protect him if they had their recourse to him The desire of a dying King and the jealousie the Hungarians had of a strangers domination moved many of the great ones to set the Crown upon the head of the Infant the very day of his Baptism and to send to the Port to beg Solimans protection P. Hungary is most misfortunate yet little or no mischief hath come upon it which it hath not deserved What an eternal shame was it for a Christian King on his death bed to exhort his Subjects to have recourse to a Turk to free his posterity from that obligation himself had put upon it by a solemn Treaty What inexcusable folly was it in them to crown a Child and thereby render him the object of the indignation of a powerful neighbor Prince What insupportable impiety was it to run to an Infidel for shelter before they knew if he whom they feared would exceed the bounds of Reason Certainly the Hungarians had lived more happily and quietly if they had religiously observed the Treaties and Promises of their Kings and the faithless Turk would have found stronger bars to his Ambition if the House of Austria had not been so much traversed and crossed in its just pretensions G. When the ruine of great Estates approacheth all things contributes to their destruction Kingdoms that have changed Masters have been the principal framers of their own misfortune The condition of Hungary was so depraved that almost every one gloried to be inconstant and perfidious But let us follow the threed of our story that we may come near our own times King Ferdinand having heard of his Competitors death sent Nicolas Count of Salms to the Queen Douager to dispose her to the observation of the Treaty which had been made between him and her husband and willingly to grant that to reason which she would be constrained to yeeld to force That she and her son would find it a greater advantage to them to acquiesce to what the late King had concluded with mature deliberation then to draw upon Hungary the mischiefs and evils of an obstinatly sought for war That himself was ready to perform all he had promised and to use her with favor more then ordinary The Queens answer to the Earl was that her sexe her age and her grief rendred her incapable to fall upon any resolution in a business of so great importance till she had the advice of the King her Father and therefore intreated Ferdinand to allow her some few months for that effect That the Emperor Charles his Brother and Himself would reap but little honor to make war on a woman drowned in tears and a Child swadled in his Craddle This answer did not at all please Ferdinand who immediatly sent Leonard Baron of Velts with an army to bring her to reason The Queen in this extremity sends Embassadors to the Port who were well received by Soliman and graciously dispatched They returned with an embroidered scarlet robe a Mace of Iron the Pommel of which was of Gold a Shable the sheath whereof was set with precious stones as tokens of his Amity and Protection And at the same time ordered all the Governors of the neighbor places to draw to the field without delay to succour the Queen While these things are a doing Lasco who had changed his Master and taken himself to Ferdinands service and was then his Embassador at Constantinople demanded of the Sultan the Kingdom of Hungary upon the same conditions which were granted before to John Zapoliha which proposition did displease the Turk so much that he clapped the Embassador in prison and said he deserved to die for offering to mock him Soliman having absolutely refused Ferdinands demands and sending strong supplys to Queen Isabel Hungary became the Theatre of most horrible confusions and was dyed with the promiscuous blood of Germans Turks and Hungarians Rogendorff a new General of Ferdinands beseegeth Buda This siege put Soliman on his way to raise it But he might have saved himself the labor for his forces had done the work before his arrival Rogendorff having lost twenty thousand men saved himself by flight The Turk notwithstanding keeps on his Journey and being come near the City sends Presents to the young King But afterward desiring to have satisfaction for the great charge and trouble he and his forces had been at he desired the Queen to send her son to him assuring her he demanded it for no other reason then to oblige his children to love the young King more tenderly At the same time his messengers had order to tell her the cause why the Grand Seigneur did not give her self a visit was that he would not do any thing that might bring a blemish upon her reputation The Queen returned her humble thanks to the Sultan for his civility but wavered in her resolution whether she would send her son to him or not George Martinusias told her that she neither might or could refuse it Overcome by invincible necessity she puts him in a craddle worthy such a child and having commanded his Nurse and some other Matrones and a great many Lords to accompany him she sends him to the Turkish camp Soliman to do him honor caused meet him with a gallant troop of horse he looked upon him embraced him courted and dandled him and caused his children do so also And in the mean time caused seize one of the ports of the Town by which his troops entered and secured all the streets of the city Then were the Citizens commanded to deliver up all their arms if they desired to save their lives which was instantly done without any noise This being past Soliman sent back the young King to his mother but keeped the Lords who had convoyed him The Queen seeing her Town and Officers of State in the Turks power laments weeps and prays but her lamentations tears and prayers availed not nor did hinder the Infidel to put it to the debate in his Divan whether he should keep the Kingdom of Hungary for himself or restore it to the young King P. The great Turk is so absolute and formidable to his subjects that I presume in his Councels all speak according to his humor and inclination G. It was not so here for all the opinions which
to serve himself with the one of them against the other and in the mean time by his dexterity to keep the absolute power of the Government to himself Such was the ambition of this petty gentleman who from a contemptible and underling domestick of John Zapoliha's Mother came to be a Monk from an ignorant Monk to be King Johns servant and then Bishop of Varadine and first Minister of Estate and could now suffer no equal He possessed the Queen with fears that he would do her self a bad office and dethrone her son The just apprehension of this danger moved Queen Isabel to represent to Soliman that the proud Monk had demanded assistance of King Ferdinand to bring about the design he had to establish himself in the Throne by the suppression and perhaps the death of her son Martenusias on the other hand represents to Ferdinand that having had infinite obligations to the late King John he could in gratitude do no less then employ all his power to procure the standing welfare honor and utility of the son of so deserving a father But that the quality of a Prelate did oblige him much more to have an eye to the preservation of Christendom That he had to do with a fearful woman who upon the least suspicion would not miss to implore the Turks succours And if the Government were not taken out of her hands then undoubtedly Transilvany would fall in the Turks hands To obviate which he intreated Ferdinand to offer the Queen a recompence to yeeld up her Estates and he conceived it would be prudently done to offer to her son all these advantages which were offered to his father Ferdinand who knew Martenusias well enough made no doubt but that he intended to cheat him for all that he resolves to make his profit of the Monks craftiness And therefore making fair weather with him he praised his Christian zeal and conjured him to persevere in so laudable an intention sends him some Canon and a thousand Horse payed for four moneths Things tending thus to a change every one of the parties endeavored to make his advantage of the present conjuncture of affairs Ferdinand acquaints his brother the Emperor with all that passed and of the hopes he had to be a gainer if he would be pleased to assist him with his counsel and his forces Charles relisheth the proposition and sends to his brother John Baptista Castaldo a Spaniard a prudent and valiant gentleman whom he might intrust with the conduct of the whole design Queen Isabel of Iagello who knew and apprehended the practises of Martenusias called a convocation of the Estates of the Countrey to gain the good will of the Nobility thinking by this mean to preserve to her self and her son that rank and dignity which belonged to them The Monk fearing the Estates should fall upon some resolutions which might diminish his greatness makes all possible haste to Agnabet where the Dyet was assembled breaks it up forceth the Queen to retire to Alba Julia and commenceth the war against his Master While this is a doing Castaldo arrives at Claudiopolis which the Hungarians call Calesvar and the Germans Clausemburg from whence in order to his instructions he intreats Martenusias to perform what he had promised to King Ferdinand This Prelate then knowing the Queens fears went and payed her a visit shew her her escapes and exhorted her to an accommodation with Ferdinand to which she consents To this effect the Transilvanian Estates are convocated at Claudiopolis where Don Castaldo lets them see the Commission he had to treat with the Queen He endeavored to make it appear to her that it was purely impossible for her and her son to defend Transilvany against the Turk That for the good of Christendom it would be expedient perhaps necessare for them both to make a resignation of it to the King of the Romans And in lieu thereof he promiseth to John Sigismund the two Dutchies of Opeln and Ratibore the revenue whereof extended to five and twenty thousand ducats a year and Joanne the daughter of Ferdinand with an hundred thousand crowns of portion and to the Queen fifty thousand crowns with the payment of all her debts This was Castaldo's proffer P. When I consider Transilvany I think this compensation was very insignificant yet it may be thought considerable enough in regard by the renunciation the Queen and her son did fairly rid themselves of an inevitable necessity to make war either with the great Turk or the House of Austria and the sexe of Isabel and the non-age of John Sigismund rendered them both incapable for that But did the Queen accept the proffers G. This couragious and prudent Princess being exceedingly desirous to free her self from the yoke of Martenusias acquiesced to what Ferdinand had offered and instantly delivered up all the Royal Ornaments to Castaldo and intreated that Spanish Lord to move the King of the Romans to perform without delay that which was promised on his part and immediatly retired her self to Cassovia which was given her for a retreat till the entiere execution of the Treaty Castaldo having now the Hungarian Crown in his hands believed they should all acknowledge his Master for King and therefore desired the Transilvanians to take the oath of fidelity to King Ferdinand who unanimously did it after George Martenusias who by the bargain had got the Arch-Bishoprick of Strigonium and a Cardinals hat procured by the King of the Romans The matter having passed so each party prepared for war the Hungarian well knowing the Turk would not so easily suffer a Province which had acknowledged his Soveraignty to fall in the hands of another without his consent The event made it appear they had made a right conjecture for he enters Transilvany with an army but made a sory progress so long as Martenusias lived or that the Queen had any hopes that Ferdinand would observe the agreement she had made with him As to Frier George it was observed he desired to serve the Christians without giving too much occasion of offence to the Turk for at the surrender of Lippa to Castaldo he saved Ulmani Bey whom they resolved to cut in pieces and protected within his Castle of Vivaria him who received the tribute which Transilvany payed to Soliman These actions cost him his life for Castaldo having entred in a deep distrust of him got Mark-Antony Ferrero his Secretary who because of his charge had frequent access to him to stob him with a dagger Sultan Soliman being informed of the death of Martenusias and of the oath the Transilvanians had made to the King of the Romans commanded Stephen Prince of Moldavia the Governor of Buda and some other neighboring vassals of his to take arms and fall upon them This order was no sooner issued out of the Port but it was put in execution And Transilvany in a short time had reason to say that the death of one Tyrant had not delivered it
from slavery Mean time Queen Isabel seeing she could not obtain the performance of the promises were made to her prayed the Grand Seigneur once more to have pitty of her son Soliman either moved with compassion of the widow Queen or touched with his own interests assists her powerfully and reduceth the Transilvanians to that necessity that they implored Ferdinand to permit them to treat with Soliman in favor of John Sigismund Ferdinand though much against his will gave his consent And they obtained for their Prince that same favor that was granted to John Zapoliha his father for these submissions duties and tribute that it should please Soliman to impose on him This fell out in the year 1551. The Queen having entred in repossession of her Estates her brother Sigismund August mediated another treaty between Ferdinand and her By it she obtained more advantagious conditions then by the former one Her son should espouse Joanne the daughter of Ferdinand and enjoy for ever in Soveraignty for himself and his heirs Transilvany the County of Abavivar Muran Huzth Marmet and a part of the revenue of the territories of Ceregh and of Ugocha P. I am of the opinion few Countreys are to be found which have changed their Masters so oft as Transilvany And I know not if I be obliged to believe that a King of the Romans brother to one of the puissantest Emperors that ever reigned in Germany and father of so many children should put on a resolution to part with a Principality which he had acquired partly by consent partly by right and partly by force G. I know that Potentats do not give away willingly that which they have gained It is notwithstanding true that Ferdinand gave up that Soveraignty whereof we speak and that he permitted John Sigismund to do what he pleased in Transilvany except the assuming the tittle of King Yea the business was carried on a greater length for this Transilvanian supported by the Turks forces demanded that the Danube should divide Hungary and Transilvany and that the Kingdom of Hungary should be entailled to him and his successors in case the masculine line of the Austrain family should chance to be extinct This insolent demand vexed Ferdinand he takes armes and constrained the Transilvanian Prince to be contented that the river Tebiscus should be the utmost bound of his Estates This agreement displeased either Sigismund or the Great Turk who prompted him to act because he might not enter publickly on the stage himself in regard of a truce he had made with Ferdinand for eight years Hereupon John Sigismund denounceth war against Maximilian the second who succeeded his father Ferdinand and took Zackwar Hudad and Corazzo and had taken Cassovia also if the rigor of the Winter season had not hindered him But these victories were short lived Maximilian grievously offended with these insolencies takes armes and attacks him vigorously regains what he had lost and forces his enemy to a Peace Soliman being returned from Malta where fortune had not favored him begins a new war in Hungary where he dies at the siege of Zigeth which was surrendered to Basha Mustafa his Lieutenant General the 7 of September 1566. Selimus who succeeded to his father made a truce with the Hungarians for eight years and in it comprehended the Transilvanian who by the recommendation of his Uncle Sigismund August King of Pole got an addition to his Dominions of some Territories which the Emperor yeelded to him and the town of Guila which he bought from the Turk in the year 1568. John Sigismund perceiving the dy of war run favorably for him offered to corrupt some Hungarians to carry on his designs with more advantage in that Kingdom But his endeavors and practises dyed with himself in the year 1570. and in the thirty and third year of his age And in him and with him ended the race of Zapoliha He had chosen Gaspar Bekez for his successor but he was rejected by the Grandees who put in his place Stephen Battori on the 14. of May 1571. This Prince acknowledged the Grand Seigneur for his Soveraign as his Predecessor had done And being elected King of Pole after the retreat of Henry of Valois he made it appear that vertue and fortune are not incompatible in one and the same subject This brave Gentle-man was within a very few years a Baron a Prince and a King and eminently worthy of the highest of these degrees Being chosen King of Polen he delivered up Transilvany to his brother Christopher Battori who not finding the House of Austria favorable to him because his brother Stephen in the election of Pole was preferred to Maximilian the second was forced to seek support at Constantinople This was a most vertuous Prince who having suppressed the boldness of Bekez who endeavored to supplant him reigned gloriously till his death which put him in his grave 1581. To him succeeded his son Sigismund being yet a child Stephen Battori his Uncle King of Pole having appointed him three Tutors sowed jealousie amongst them which gave him shortly occasion to thrust them all three out and to put the person and affairs of his Nephew in the hands of John Geczi Governor of Varadin This was a gallant and an orderly Gentle man who quickly made himself known to be a man of courage as well as conduct Scarce had he laid his hands on the reins of the Government of his pupils Estate when King Stephen dyes in the year 1586. The powerful factions which bandied one against another in Pole for the election of a new King gave Geczi an opportunity to show what worth was in him He joyned his forces with these of Samoisky who favoured Sigismund of Sweden against Maximilian of Austria his Competitor who was beaten taken and forced to quite his pretensions to the Swed In the mean time the Turk made a fierce war in Hungary against the Emperor Rodolp the second And though the Officers and Commanders of his Imperial Majesties forces were men of sufficient worth and gallantery who sold to the Sultan all the victories he obtained at a very dear rate yet in the year 1595. Sinan Basha Lieutenant General to Selimus reduced to his obedience the admirable fort of Javarin at that time deemed impregnable P. I have heard say that Sinan vaunted that he had brought the Emperor Rodolph to the necessity to beg Peace by the loss of that wonderful strength But Sansovia saith that Sinan lost there fifty thousand men and that a little after the war began again hotter then ever G. The Emperor had too much courage to seek Peace after so considerable a loss He knew he could obtain none but that which would have been exceeding disadvantageous and for that reason he resolved to continue the war and so sought the help of all those who were able to give it and got Sigismund Battori Prince of Transilvany to be of his party This Prince was easily moved to be pertaker of so
noble a design because he was a person of a great spirit and courage as also because he thought it a shameful thing for a Christian to joyn with these who aimed at nothing so much as the entire subversion of Christianity He concluded therefore a Treaty with the Emperor whereof these were the principal Articles That Sigismund taking arms against the Turk it should not be permitted to the Emperor to make Peace without him And if the matter should come to an accommodation the Principalities of Valachia Moldavia and Transilvania should be comprehended in the Treaty That Sigismund should enjoy the name the honors and prerogatives of a Prince of the Empire That an honorable rank amongst them should be assigned to him That the Emperor should give him a Princess of the House of Austria for his Consort That as long as the war lasted the Emperor should furnish him every year one hundred thousand florins of the Rhine which will amount to thirty and three thousand pounds sterlin And should entertain to him a good Body of Germane horse and foot That all these places that Sigismond should take in the war should remain in propriety to him and these that should be of his issue of both sexes That if the mischance should fall out that the Turk should by force of arms expell him his Dominions of Transilvany the Emperor should be obliged to assign him as many Lands within the Empire as should be sufficient to entertain him like a Prince That there should a general act of oblivion pass for him and all those who had served under the Turks Banner against his Imperial Majesty That the Prince should enter in possession of all these Lands which he enjoyed before in Illyria and Hungary That the Emperor should provide him with canon powder other munitions of war That the Transilvanian should take the field with fourscore thousand fighting men Valachians Moldavians and Transilvanians This agreement was sealed with the marriage of Prince Sigismund with Mary Christine daughter of Charles Arch-Duke of Grats with the Order of the Golden Fleece which Philip the second of Spain sent to him By Pope Clement the eight's present of a Hallowed Hat and sword and by a great mass of moneys which was sent to him from several places of Christendom This League did much satisfie many great Potentats but did so displease and exasperate Sultan Amurath the Princes of Sigismunds own family and the greatest part of the Transilvanians that presently followed terrible invasions troubles and murthers Upon which the Prince called these Nobles to him who he knew to be affectionate to his person and interests and having all his thoughts taken up with the meditation of horrible revenges against his kinsmen and the Great Men of Transilvany he summoned his Estates to meet at Claudiopolis There it was that he put to death Balthasar Battori his Uncle and many other Lords and declared them guilty of rebellion and leze Majesty and amongst the first Stephen and Andro Battori his cousin germans the sons of Balthasar At the same time Sigismund thinking he had extinguished the fire of the Rebellion caused publish thorow all his Territories the League which he had made with the Emperor against the Ottoman family and exhorted and commanded all his subjects to take arms to deliver themselves from the tyranny and slavery under which they had so long groaned A few days after he brought fifty thousand men in arms and having provided them with sufficient and able Officers he advanced with them towards the Danube to act the first part of the Tragedy Now he is in the fields Fortune sides with him he takes seven ships loaden with silver and other rich merchandises which Sinan Basha was to employ to corrupt the Officers of Vienne to betray it to his Master the Grand Seigneur This good luck put Sigismund in a capacity to beseege Themiswar But he had scarce begun to attack it when he receives intelligence that the Tartars were wasting and making havock of his Territories and subjects which called to him for their defence Having raised his siege he marcheth against them but finding them lodged in an inaccessible place where valor could not avail him he hath recours to policy he fires theirs quarters and having smoaked them out gives them a total overthrow without any difficulty and with no considerable loss on his side P. Thus far Prince Sigismund Battori was fortunate and gallant and if it were not that the death of his Uncle and some other Transilvanian Lords seem to argue him of some cruelty I see not wherein his conduct can be blamed I would gladly know if fortune accompanied him to his grave and if he left any children behind him to inherite his vertue and Estates G. I come softly to that ye desire to know The Valachians and Moldavians admiring the Transilvanians victories would gladly share with them and therefore make a conjunction of their forces Sultan Amurath seeing that his losses occasioned this revolt endeavored to set his affairs in better order and to that effect commands the Basha of Themiswar to attack the rebells and make them feel the rigor of fire and sword The Basha takes the field but is defeated by Prince Sigismund towards the latter end of the year 1594. This victory of the Prince was seconded by another which he obtained by the overthrow of twenty thousand Tartars who were returning home loaden with spoil and booty About that time died Amurath the second leaving Mahomet the third to succeed him who coming to the Crown about thirty years of age gave great largesses to his Janizaries and made huge preparations for the war against the Christians And understanding that the Cossacks and Podolians had entered in League with the Transilvanians he sent an Army of one hundred thousand Turks under the command of Sinan whom he commanded to chastise these rebels exemplarly Sinan prepares himself to give a full obedience to the commands of his impersous Master and while he studies to gain friends in Moldavia he gathers a formidable Army for the execution of his design But all his preparations came to nought by the industrious vigilance of Sigismund who brought up Sinans rear so close that as he repassed the Danube the bridge overcharged with numbers of flying Turks broke and Sinan falling himself in the river was in danger to have born company with an infinite number of his Army who were there drowned This great action joyned to many more in all which the prudence valor conduct and good fortune of Prince Sigismund appeared to admiration acquired him the name of Invincible And forced Sultan Mahomet to take upon himself the conduct of his Army You might see him then in the field in person with two hundred thousand fighting men and these dreadful forces gave him the confidence to advance as far as Agria There it was that the Arch-Duke Maximilian and Prince Sigismund by the custom they had gotten to overcome contemning
these parts during the reign of Ferdinand This Arch Duke was the most zealous Catholick in the World and one who could least suffer the diversity of Religions which his predecessors had permitted in their Territories His zeal and good fortune moved his Cousine Matthias to prefer him to all the other Princes of his family And intending the succession of the Empire for him he caused him to be acknowledged King of Hungary and Bohemia before he died Ferdinand begins his reign with the oppression of the Protestants he caused shut up some of their Churches and demolished others in Bohemia He recalled the Jesuits to Hungary and rejected all these articles which favored any other Religion then the Roman Catholick in all the Treaties that had been made by the former Emperors with the Hungarians and Bohemians This action which bred much evil blood in a Body formidable at that time gave occasion to the Bohemians to reject Ferdinand and to elect Frederick Prince Palatine of the Rhine to be their King And Ferdinand was forced to see in a short time the Bohemians and Hungarians before the wals of his capital City of Vienne At the same time Gabor cloaths himself as all rebels do with the pretext of Religion and for the maintenance thereof enters in a League with the Bohemians and sets an Army a foot of eighteen thousand men and eighteen pieces of canon and with it enters Hungary where finding mens spirits prepared for rebellion his progress proved successful which furnished him with the confidence to proclaim himself King At this time Ferdinand was at Franckfurt where he was elected Emperor This high dignity administred to him both authority and forces neither did he think of any thing else then shortly to recover the Kingdoms which he had well near lost and to humble those who durst so insolently attack him He spoke loud of the wrong dishonor and injustice was done him he remonstrated to the Electors of the Empire to the Kings of Great Britain and France the just right he had on his side to look for his own He drew to his party all the Roman Catholicks of Germany and the Elector of Saxe also who was one of the great Pillars of the Protestants and endeavored withal to keep the swords of strangers within their sheaths Not long after the Elector Palatine whose forces were very considerable was put to flight Gabor made more resistance and had put the Emperors affairs in a bad enough condition if his associats had done their duty better at Prague Count Dampiere General of the Imperialists lost his life viewing the Castle of Presburg in which Gabor had put a garrison And Charles of Longueval Count of Buckoy having reduced Moravia to the Emperors obedience and made a great progress in Hungary died there after he had received sixteen wounds The death of this great person gave means to Gabor to recover many places to dissipate those who opposed his designs and to over-run all the Countrey But at length seeing his Confederates beaten and his own forces scattered he desired peace and obtained it in the year 1622 upon these conditions That he should retain all Transilvany Tokai Cassovia and seven other Lordships of Hungary That he should deliver up the Hungarian Crown and all the other Towns that he keeped in that Kingdom That he should absolutly quite the name of King and content himself with the tittle of Prince of the Empire with the Dutchies of Opeln and Ratibore and that he should re-possess the Jesuites of these places they enjoyed before the war This peace lasted not long Gabor gives Vaczia to the Turk who sends him fourscore thousand men which the Count of Torne had obtained for him With these he once more invades Hungary alledging the conditions of the Treaty of Odinburg were not keeped to him That his Religion was oppressed and that the money they owed him was not payed him The Emperor desirous to be at an end of this business caused remonstrate to the Grand Seigneur that Gabor did but abuse his authority and his forces and that he was invaded by him without any reason To his words Ferdinand added the powerful arguments of arms and by them constraineth his enemy to an accommodation less advantageous then the first By this Treaty in the year 1624 Gabor lost the tittle of Prince of the Empire and some of these Territories in Hungary which had been granted him by the former Treaty Shortly after this restless spirit joyned his forces with these of Charles Ernest Earl of Mansfield But forty thousand Tartars who were coming to him being defeated by the Polonians he left him to go and take care of his own Estates And having only for the space of four years enjoyed the company of Catharine Daughter of John Sigismund Elector of Brandeburg he died in the year 1628. having suffered incredible torment in his feet and at his death he made it known that he honored the Emperor and the Turk equally for he left to every one of them a horse whose Caparison was garnished with rich stones and forty thousand ducats in speces He left to the Princess his wife one hundred thousand pieces of Gold every piece of the value of ten shillings sterlin one hundred thousand dollars in silver and one hundred thousand Florins and three Lordships which she was to enjoy during her life P. This Princess having above four score thousand pound sterlin in coyned money and Jewels sutable to a personage of her quality had enough to help a younger brother of a noble family and it is probable it was for that that Francis Charles Duke of Saxon Lauemburg married her some years after the death of her first husband But I would gladly know who succeeded to Bethlem Gabor and what fell out in that Countrey after his death G. When the heir of a Principality is not certainly known the death of the last Prince is ever followed with trouble Princess Catharine the widow of Gabor not having learned the Art to reign nominated Stephen Czac to be her husbands successor and intreated the Turk to confirm him But this Election displeased all the Transilvanians who divided in two factions the one favoring Stephen Bethlem the brother of their late Prince and the other inclining to George Ragoski The first was so misfortunate that his own children rose up against him the second having overcome all opposition made an agreement with the Emperor and gained the favor of the Turk and so enjoyed Transilvany peaceably yet his good fortune was not constant Stephen Bethlem who had yeelded all his pretentions to him chanced to kill one of his kinsmen and fearing the punishment he deserved endeavored to shun it by a greater crime He demanded assistance from the Port from whence he received an army of Turks and Tartars with which he beseeged Giula Ragoski detesting the infidelity of the faithless Turk submits himself to the House of Austria who assisted him with three Regiments of