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
the Prince of Tarente her new husband to make an attempt to remount the throne But the prudence valor and fidelity of the Transilvanian rendered their endeavors ineffectual till Pope Clement the sixth put an end to the war The signal services which the Vayvod had done to the King his Master both in Naples and to his friend and Ally Francis Carcarius Prince of Padoua made him dream of vaste recompenses wherewith his hopes fed him But he did but flatter himself for Lewis not only frustrated him of his great expectations but recalled him also from the Government of Naples jealous of the worth and vertue of so eminent a person P. Other great Potentats have done the like before and after King Lewis Narses and Gonzale have furnished matter enough to the Writers of their times to lay foul imputations on the Emperor Justinian and Ferdinand King of Arragon But how did Steven carry himself in this his disgrace G. This Transilvanian as accomplished a Courtier as he was a Captain dissembled his ressentiment till some favorable opportunity should be offered whereby he might with advantage revenge himself This proffered it self by the death of the King who left no other successor but a daughter named Mary affianced to Sigismond of Luxemburg King of Bohemia The non-age of this Princess the unconstant humor of the Hungarians and the practises of our Vayvod procured such a contempt of Mary that many said publickly They would not be governed by a Girle This Cabal knowing the dexterous adress of the Bishop of Zagabria who was an Italien both by extraction and inclination sent him to Charles the second King of Naples the son of Andrew and Cousin-germane of Mary The Bishop did exactly that for which he was sent He offers the Kingdom of Hungary to the King of Naples and prays him to come take possession of the Estates which as he said of right belonged to him Charles gave a favorable audience to the Bishop and finding his mind perplexed with passions of diverse natures required a time to resolve of a business of so great importance He broke the matter to his Queen who forgot not to disswade him both with reasons and tears from an entreprise dangerous for the wavering unconstancy of the people and shameful for the great injustice he should commit in robbing his near Kinswoman of her inheritance without any color of reason But at length both Equity Justice and Reason must yeeld to Ambition Charles equippeth a great Navy and accompanied with an army suitable to such a King he landeth in Dalmatia and in few days came to Zagabria where he was met with many of these Nobles who favored his entreprise From thence he marched to Buda and though he met with some resistence by the resolution of Nicolas Gara and some other faithful subjects of the Queen yet he was established in the Kingdom by the favor and assistance of the Transilvanian Vayvod Sigismund King of Bohemia and husband of Queen Mary seeing the loss of Hungary inevitable retired himself to his own Kingdom And then Charles thought he had struck a nail in the wheel of Fortune His joy notwithstanding was but short and his usurpation no longer lived then other violent actions are Sigismund is recalled by the enemies of the Usurper and having routed Charles killed or chased all that offered to resist him reestablisheth himself in the Dominions of Mary his Queen P. These were marvellous alterations and no question such as were of hard digestion to the Transilvanian G. The loss and defeat of the King of Naples made the Vayvod dispair and forget all that is dear and precious to men Religion and Countrey He trode upon all considerations divine and humane and hath his recourse to Bajazet King of Turks to whom he promiseth his daughter on condition that he should assist him to chase Sigismond and Mary out of their Kingdom of Hungary This was the beginning and original of the miseries of this till then flowrishing Kingdom and of the hopes the Infidels conceived to make it a part of their Empire Bajazet layeth hold on Occasion marcheth with a mighty army towards Hungary meeteth with King Sigismund near Nicopolis between whom was fought a fierce battel where twenty thousand Christians and three score thousand Turks were laid in the dust upon the 18. of September 1396. P. I believe it was there where John Duke of Burgundy was taken prisoner with the loss of a thousand Gentle-men whom he had carried with him to that war But if I be not deceived the Turk made no great progress in Hungary during the reign of Sigismund G. These Burgundians kept company with the Hungarians who died at that time But in Sigismund and his Successor Albert of Austrias reigns the Turk gained but little ground in Hungary He resolved to go softly and to be first Master of Constantinople before he would fix his thoughts else where But for all that he learned the way to give us visits Mahomet the first beat the Hungarians at Tautemberg in the year 1400. And the Infidels advanced by little and little immediatly after the death of Albert of Austria This Prince at his death left his Queen with child which occasioned great divisions amongst the Nobility Some thought it fit to wait till the Queen were brought to bed before any thing should be done in order to the election of a new King Others made difficulty to obey a child though she should be delivered of a son and therefore resolved to choose a King capable to govern them Hungary being thus divided a faction of the Great Ones sent an offer of the Kingdom to Vladislaus the son of Casimir King of Polen Another party preferred Ladislaus the son of Albert though he was yet in his cradle and in it they set the Crown upon his head P. Truth it self doth teach us what danger Estates are in when they are divided amongst themselves And assuredly Hungary hath suffered irreparable losses by its divisions G. This division of affections and forces moved Amurath the second to take the field and taking his advantage of the discords of Hungary pierced to the heart of the Countrey and besiedged Alba Royal. Yet he got not all done he desired but on the contrair he lost almost all his army and was forced to raise the siedge This affront did irritate the Tyrant who to have his revenge entered Hungary with new forces where he was defeated by John Huniades Corvin This action as it gained much reputation to Corvin so it enflamed Amurath with spite and rage and therefore opposeth to Huniades who was constantly General of King Vladislaus his armies two of his bravest Captains these were Isaac and Mezets who entered Hungary and Transilvany both at once and filled all places where they came with terror fire and confusion Huniades runneth to the rescue renconntreth them loaden with spoil chargeth them gallantly but unfortunatly for he was beaten back and put to flight
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
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
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
reason to commend his prudence then accuse him of precipitation I suppose there are few or none in the world but knows there are some animosities between the Emperor and the Crown of Sweden The Swedes show themselves constantly ready to own the Protestants whom the House of Austria endeavors to bring back to the bosome of the Church of Rome The wars which the Sweds made in Germany under the conduct of the Great Gustavus Adolphus and the auspicious reign of Queen Christina being directly against the Imperial Majesty hath imbittered their spirits rendered their distrusts misunderstandings immortal King Charles Gustave wasted spoiled and ruined Pole and Denmark He who is now Emperor and was then but King of Hungary and Bohemia opposed his victorious conquests which inflamed that King with such a desire of revenge that it is not dead with him These considerations that of the great number of Lutherans that the Emperor hath in his hereditary Dominions the desire they may have to change their Master to preserve the liberty of their consciences the great preparations the Swed incessantly makes though he be alwayes constantly well armed were capable to give just apprehensions and jealousies to a Prince whose forces were scarce able to resist that powerful and dreadful enemy whom he had in head of him These who will bring France in the play and dare alledge that the fear the Emperor had that the Most Christian King might sease on the Spanish Netherlands forced him to this accōmodation with the Turk seems to have far less reason on their side The controversies which the Crown of France had with the Austrian Family are intirely removed by a solemn Treaty And two Queens one whereof hath the possession of the Body the other of the Heart and both of them of the Ear of the King the one in the quality of his Mother the other of his Consort will never permit them to come to a rupture The tender love the King bears to the Queen his wife and the reverence he carries to the Queen his Mother are these indissoluble bonds of the good intelligence he intends to keep with their kinsmen and if this be not sufficient yet there is one reason that is infallible This Prince is extraordinarly religious and though the heat of a gallant youth a courage heroically martial and immense riches might perswade him to a breach yet his conscience will never suffer him to enterprize any thing that hath in it the least appearance of unjustice And if he find he cannot live without the exercise of his valor and the strength of his admirable Genius he will choose rather to go and gather palms in Palaestine then to imploy against us the flashing sword of his warlike Nobility The Duke of Beauforts setling foot in Africk is a fore-runner of what the Infidels have to fear and the Christians to hope for The Kings great soul aspires to great things but he weighs all his actions in the ballance of reason The zeal he witnessed by resenting the injury done us by the Turk the Christian words he spoke upon that subject the brave and seasonable succours he sent us hath blotted out of the Emperors mind all suspicions and jealousies he could harbor of him The affronts which Charles the eigth put upon Maximilian the first and the wrongs done by Lewis the twefth Francis the first and Henry the second to Charles the fifth are buried and intirely forgotten The attempt of Henry the Great and the assistance which Lewis the Just Lewis the Victorious have given since to the enemies of Ferdinand the second and Ferdinand the third and the opposition was made by the French to Leopolds election to the Imperial Dignity have now no more power in the Emperors heart then if he had never heard of them His Imperial Majesty knows that his Predecessors have served the Kings of France in the same manner imploying both Policy and Power against them He is not ignorant what evil usage Lewis the eleventh Charles the eighth and Lewis the twelfth received from John and Ferdinand Kings of Arragon and he hath read in the History of his Family how Charles the fifth keeped Francis the first prisoner till he was reduced to great extremities And how Philip the second used all means to rob Henry the fourth of the Inheritance belonged to him without any dispute And in one word the jealousie of State hath ever been so great between these two most Illustrious Houses that the one never endeavored or enterprized any great action but it was vigorously opposed by the other But Lewis following Maximes wholly different from these of his Ancestors it is fit Leopold do the like and not suffer himself to be surpassed in any act of generosity and that there be now an entire good understanding between them The propinquity of Blood the uniformity of Religion the equality of Age and which is much more then all these the Glory of God the propagation of the Faith and the quiet and repose of Christendom which depends much upon their Union should oblige them to love one another to succor one another and to have but one soul and one will It may be said that upon the death of this King of Spain the Interests of these two great Princes will prevail more with them then all these considerations that I have alledged And that both having pretentions to the Inheritance of their Father in Law they will share it with dint of Sword and the strongest will carry away the greatest part To which I answer that the King of Spain dying and leaving a lawful Heir Male the administrators of the Pupil will dutifully render to the Most Christian King all these respects all that friendship and good offices and neighborhood which were promised to him in the last Treaty of Peace by the Catholick King The Emperor will do the same upon his part and knowing that the love and amity of great persons is entertained by Civilities by Embassies and other testimonies of honor and respect he will not be wanting to give all these Demonstrations of Curtesie that can be required for the preservation of so precious so necessare a friendship But if it should please God which we pray him to avert to call to another world both the King and Prince of Spain without any other heir male I fear we should be in danger to see bloody Tragedies Yet we hope so much from the prudence of the Spaniard and the moderation of the Emperor and the King that they will suffer themselves to be over-ruled by reason more then interest and every one of them quitting something of their right come to a fair and arbitrary accommodation Peaceable men would wish that the King of Spain might live yet twenty years and that his son the Prince comd to a mans age might succeed him Yea I know some who would gladly quite some of the years of their own life to prolong theirs who
you before I did ever believe and I hold it still for a certain truth that most part of men have more reason to be thankful to God for the good they receive from him then to petition him for a deliverance from the evils which afflict them And yet we hear more complaints then praises because we are more sensible of pain then pleasure A Prince is not so much contented to have been victorious all his life as he is afflicted to see Fortune turn her back upon him in one single rencounter A great Man who almost found nothing impossible to him till he was fifty years old and who had seen his most redouted enemies brought under his power said That Fortune was a woman and loved young men better then old And retired himself to a solitary life because he saw his ambition limited by one of the greatest Empires that ever was There are some who take a permission rashly to hazard on any enterprise that pleaseth their capricious humor and do excessively complain when these things which themselves began without judgement contributeth to their misfortune Certain it is that the Divine Providence which the vulgar nick-name Fortune often abateth the pride of the most successful to make them acknowledge that what they have obtained proceded from his Bounty and not from their prudence We see many States-men who see or think they see all things and yet are blind as moles to these calamities which threaten both their Countrey and their persons This I could confirm with infinit exemples but I pass them over in silence that I may hear your Demands and answer them as exactly as possibly I can P. Let us speak then of the present wars of Hungary And because a Discourse you had with me three years ago led us to the sight of a dangerous cloud which rose above Transilvany and that out of it since hath issued a tempest which hath dejected George Ragotchy and Janos Remin to mount Abaffion the throne entertain me with the cause and effects of that alteration that I may know whence it cometh that the Grand Seigneur who hath been but a pure spectator of the Tragedy which Europe hath acted full thirty years should now insolently invade our Neighbors and thereby give us opportunity to take armes and with joynt forces and affections make him repent his enterprise I am confident that this rupture hath so many circumstances preceeding accompanying and following it that I may with advantage spend some days to weigh and ponder them and that these who shal consider them after me may thereby reap both pleasure and profit G. I have always looked upon your will as a law which should over-rule me yet I am to obey you in this with some reluctancy because I fear I must speak more then perhaps willingly I would And because you must know from whence the remedies must be taken which are intended for application I shal endeavor to satisfie you And that you may have reason to acquiesce to what I say I will lead you to the source and fountain from whence sprung our miseries and will briefly represent to you what the Turk hath done in Hungary since Bajazeth came there to support the rebellion and foment the discord I know that these who know no better say when the Turk intendeth a war he hath little regard to justice that the smal difficulty he proponeth to himself to meet with in the prosecution of his enterprises is the principal cause of his undertakings For my part I profess that little faith should be given to an infidel and that the end of the Turks designs is seldom other then his advantage yet it is not impossible for all that but that he may many times find a specious pretext wherewith to cover the ugly face of these disorders which his ambition procureth in the world And therefore I will show you what reason the Otthomans conceive they have to keep the soveraignity of Transilvany whereby you will also learn the causes why we are now calling our forces together and begging assistance of Strangers to defend it against them And then I shal come to these resolutions that are now concluded at Ratisbone by which these will be satisfied who desire to know the manner our Princes use to contribute for the preservarion of Germany and for the maintenance of the war we are engaged in for our defence against so mighty an enemy P. I should not receive that contentment which I promise to my self by your discourse if you should only relate simply to me what is a doing on our frontiers how numerous our forces are and of what worth and merite the Commanders of them be for these who look upon any novelty desire to know the cause of all And this war of ours having had its rise from the disrespect was given to the Sultan of Turky by Ragotchy and the protection which the Emperor vouchsaved to give to Remin Janos I cannot choose but hear with much satisfaction the reasons why the Grand Seigneur offers to chastise these Princes of Transilvany who offer to raise a war without his consent and the causes which oblidgeth the Emperor to defend them against him Speak then to that as clearly and succinctly as possibly you can G. You demand two things of me which seem to be incompatible yet I shal not despair to reconcile them provided you be attentive In the year 1350. or as others write 1383. Lewis the first of that name reigned peaceably over the people of Transilvania Moldavia Valachia Mysia Dalmatia Sclavonia which were appartenances of his Kingdom of Hungary But his repose was interrupted by a mischief which he could not prevent because he could not foresee it Joanne Queen of Naples a Princess extreamly dissolute having preferred in her affection some young Neapolitanes to her husband King Andrew put him to a cruel death The news whereof with the letters of those who abhorred the parricide did quickly stir up a desire of a just revenge in the soul of King Lewis This generous Prince finding himself oblidged in honor and justice to take armes to avenge the death of his brother raised a puissant army and marched straight to Naples His expedition was fortunate for having chased away the Queen and routed her party he very soon reduced the Rebells to obedience and then punished the principal Counsellors of that detestable Regicide This being done supposing Hungary stood in need of his presence he bethought him of his return to his ancient Kingdom but not till he had provided for the preservation of his new acquired one He had brought with him many brave and noble persons both for birth and merite amongst the rest Steven Vayvod of Transilvany who though young had a very hie place in the Kings favor Him he appointed his Lieutenant and with him left sufficient forces to keep the new conquered Neapolitans within the limits of their duty The departure of Lewis encouraged Joanne
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
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
the Turks great numbers gave him battel which had in all appearance bettered the condition of Christendom if the infamous desire of spoil and booty had not made victory which hovered over the Christian Army take wings and fly to the Infidels We lost twenty thousand men and the Turk a great many more but after that time it seemed that fortune which had gone hand in hand with Prince Sigismund turned her back upon him for forgetting his former valor and magnanimity he resolved to make an exchange of his Transilvanian Principality with some Territories in Silesia And to come the better to his purpose he brought as many of his forces together as possibly he could to make his last attempt He layes siege to Themiswar and was forced to raise it as he had done before Not long after Ibrahim Basha beseegeth Varadin Basta the Emperors Lieutenant General intreats Sigismund for the relief of it to joyn his forces with these over which he commanded which he promised to do but proved not a man of his word After that there was nothing to be seen in him but irresolution and unconstancy He caused proclaim his Cousine Cardinal Battori Prince of Transilvany but not being able to maintain him in it he resigned to the Emperor Rodolph all his Estates who gave him the Dutchies of Ratibore and Opeln for his life time with a yearly pension of fifty thousand Crowns and a Cardinals Hat which the Emperor promised to procure to him from the Pope P. I thought the Transilvanian Prince had been married and you say he sought to be a Cardinal G. I told you before that Sigismund Battori Prince of Transilvany was married to Mary Christine of Austria but being as great a coward in the rencounters of Venus as he was brave in those of Mars he declared himself to be impotent and so his marriage was declared null But I have not yet told you that after infinite miseries which his change procured to Transilvania Valachia and Moldavia resigned by him to Rodolph and after that he had repented himself of that folly and given sufficient testimonies of his unconstancy he died at Prague the 17. of March 1603. His death did not at all confirm the possession of his Estates to the Emperor for the Turk never wanted these who practised for him in the Countrey and the people believing that their liberty was infringed by the agreement made between the Emperor Rodolp and their late Prince there was not any content with his present condition George Basta the Emperors Lieutenant General tyrannized over the Countrey The Turks the Tartars the Polonians had made Transilvany the theatre of a long and bloody tragedy so that the people longed and breathed for nothing so much as for their former condition In end Stephen Boskay having chaced away the Decemvirate which the Emperor had entrusted with the Government established himself into it more by the good will of the people and by these faults and disorders which the Emperors Generals committed then by his own proper forces The commonalities complained grievously of the Inquisition of the insolence of strangers and of the abrogation of their ancient priviledges and immunities Boskay fomented the discontents and by aggravating the faults of the Government he took a powerful and deep footing in the possession of the Principality For this cause Gabriel Bethlem to whom the Turk had given hopes of the province seing it was not time for him to have such thoughts submitted himself to Boskay But in the mean time joyning himself with Bechtes Basha of Themiswar endeavored to surprise Lippa but was near surprised himself and forced to fly in his shirt fear made him forget his breeches behind him and in them the treaty of his conspiracy This paper coming to the hands of Count Belljoyoso put a flea in his ear and seeking for a remedy for this disease he found it to be incurable In fine Boskay lost no time he beats Beljoyoso and reduceth him to a great extreamity and puts himself in possessiou of many places And having the favor of the Nobility the Towns and the Commons he found himself in a condition to speak like a Master But fortune who delights to make her self to be admired turned suddenly on Basta's side who having obtained some victories exhorted Boskay to lay down Arms and submit himself to the Imperial yoak But he who pretended to no less then the whole Principality made answer That if they suffered him not to enjoy Transilvany if they did not place Hungarians to be Governors of the Provinces and Towns if they did not send their militia of strangers sume where else if they did not permit the free exercise of his Religion He was resolved to prefer war to peace Fortune who is frequently a friend to rashness takes Boskays part and made him surmount all the difficulties he rencountered with in this war Basta who most opposed him saw his victories followed with an intire disobedience his sojors mutines and tells him he payed them with nothing but words They set upon him in his lodging and these who were appointed to be a guard to nine and twenty waggons loaden with money cloath and other things robbed them and went away some to Pole and others to the Enemy Transilvany being delivered of the fear of Bastas Army many of the hundred towns of it were taken by Boskays friends the rest rendered themselves to him before they were summoned This progress of Boskay forced the Emperor to send Demetrius Nabradi Bishop of Vesprin and Sigismund Forgas to treat with him These Deputies found that prosperity had made him insolent all the answer they got from him was That if they had come from the Nobility of Hungary they should have been very welcome but if they came from the Emperor they might return for he was so far advanced that he could not retire This language was so well understood by the Emperors deputies that they knew they had no more to do there and that Transilvany had changed its Master And in effect the Estates of the Province being assembled at Kerene Boskay was confirmed in the usurpation he made of the Principality upon condition that he granted a tolleration of the exercise of the Roman Lutheran and Swisse Religions Then under him Sigismund Ragoski was made Governor of the Countrey and Valentin Homanay General of the troops The Grand Seigneur who had keeped a watchful eye upon all these commotions sent a Chiaux to Boskay who presented him with a Mace a Shable and a Cloath of State to confirm him in the possession of his new Principality In acknowledgement of which favor Boskay sent to the Port Stephen Corlat and George Kikedi to assure the Turk of his fidelity and to present him with the marks of his homage and obedience P. They say this Embassie of Boskay was infamous because of the present his Deputies made to the Great Turk of some Germane boys and girles G. These who dare invade the
season were farr spent that in the mean time they might beseege and take Canisia which already they had blocked by the taking of Buzats Ziguet and by the garrison they had in Serinswar They demanded all these things that were necessare for the siege of so important a place and undoubtedly believing they should be sent to them they vigorously begun it at the opening of the spring This siege proved a Murtherer for it hugely diminished the number of the beseegers and endured longer then they at first did imagine the enemy approaching for Canisias relief the siege is raised and before the Christian forces could draw together the Turk takes Serinswar and little Comorre These successes were followed with greater For after our Army was assembled he continued his victories by the taking of Vesprin But fortune weary of following the wrong party turned on our side after which time the Visier and his Turks were not so successful Lewis Count of Souches Governorof Comorre defeats the Infidels at Sernevits and pursues them so vigorously that he made them abandon Barcan and ruined a bridge of boats which they had upon the Danube Raimund Count of Montecuculi made them repent that they offered to pass the river of Raab and the Earls of Coligni and Fueillade cut in pieces all those that had passed the same river near to Saint Godard P. They say indeed that the Count of Coligni and Fueillade did great things and therefore I should be glad before this discourse be at an end to know something of the assistance the Emperor desired of forreign Potentates for I suppose it hath been one of the great members of our Armies and one of the great motives that obliged the Grand Visier to hearken so soon to a peace G. There is no doubt to be made of that for the Emperor being very careful to make himself strong against so powerful an enemy sent his Embassadors to implore assistance from all these who were able to give it These he sent found good words in all places and in some good deeds all Germany was alarmed Italy Sweden Lorrain Spain and France took the preservation of Hungary to heart Spain and Italy promised to furnish great sums of money Sweden Lorrain and France offered to send troops entertained at their own charges I cannot tell precisely what the rest did But it may be said truly that the zeal of the French surpassed that of all other Christians The King who hath as much piety as Saint Lewis as much valor as Philip August as must wisdom as Charles the fifth and as much courage as Henry the Great and more zeal for Religion then all his Predecessors did hear with much grief that the Turk had begun the war and with much joy that the Emperor sought his help The mischiefs the Tartars had done upon our frontiers and the numbers of poor Christians that were every day brought in slavery and put in fetters moved him to so much compassion that when Count Strozzi limited the succours which he sought in name of his Imperial Majesty to four thousand foot and two thousand horse he wished they had not offered to set bounds to his liberality Then the words Christian Royal which came from his mouth did make it appear that all that can be said of his piety towards God and his pitty towards Hungary is far below his merite He exhorted his Nobility to this glorious Voyage and told even those whom he loved best that they would make their Court as advantageously in Hungary as at the Louver He protested in presence of many Princes and Lords That if his son the Daulphin were ten years of age he would send him in this expedition And which is more strange he assured his Audience that if it should be Gods pleasure to afflict Christendom so much as to suffer the Emperor to be worsted in this Campagn he would go in person the next to repair his losses repulse his enemy These Discourses full of martial heat and Christian zeal did put such an edge upon the French Nobility that instantly hundreths were seen who preferred the satisfaction of their consciences and generosities to all the pleasures and contents they could expect either in the Court or in this life Prince Philip Knight of Lorrain knowing his Predecessors had reigned in Jerusalem after they had expelled the Sarasens and that the Count of Harcourt his father was grieved that his age would not suffer him to put on armor nobly supplyed his place and gave in this occasion so many proofs of his courage that it may be said he hath revived the memory of these Princes of Lorrain who in former times conquered the East and of the Duke of Mercoeur who in the beginning of this last age made himself be admired at the retreat of Canisia and the taking of Alba Royal. The Princes of Rohan and Soubize having a thousand of their Predecessors to imitate did make it appear at this time that if the Dukes of whom they carry the tittle knew how to defend these of the Reformed Religion they knew as well to expose their lives for the defence of Christians The Duke of Brisac remembring the reputation which the Mareshalls of Cossé and Brisac his Ancesters acquired did neither spare his body nor his spirit to follow their trace and to win glory to himself The Count of Sault and the Marquess of Ragny and Canaples shew a burning desire they had to equalize the merit of the Constable of France the Duke of Lesdiguieres the Mareshalls of Crequi the Lords of Pontdormi and an infinit number more of their illustrious Predecessors who went before them in the road of Military vertue The Duke of Boüillon and the Count of Auvergn his brother led by the example of their brother and their Uncle and by that of the glorious Godfrey who filled all Europe with admiration in the year 1096. did so signalize themselves that if they did not reign in Jerusalem as their Ancestors did at least they will reign in the hearts of those who were spectators of their valors and who knows the laudable ambition they have to equalize the ancient Earles of Bologne of Nassaw of Berg and the Princes of Orange The Count of Selle the Knight of Saint Aignan the Marquess of Castelnaw and all the other French Lords Gentle-men who were about two thousand horse remembring they had Lewis the Victorious both for their King and their Pattern made the world see some by their glorious deaths and the rest by their heroical exploits that they were resolved either to pluck the palm out of the Visiers hand or die honorably in the quarrel In a word the Auxiliaries which the King sent us under the conduct of the Count of Coligni and the Lieutenant Generals Bodewels and Gassion did contribute much to the Victories which we gained and we may say that there was not amongst them a simple soldier who had not been an Officer nor Captain