Confession and Politics in the Principality of Transylvania 1644–1657

By (author) Gábor Kármán Maps by Béla Nagy Series edited by Herman J. Selderhuis Associate editor Christopher B. Brown Associate editor Günter Frank Associate editor Bruce Gordon Associate editor Barbara Mahlmann-Bauer Associate editor Tarald Rasmussen Associate editor Violet Soen Associate editor Zsombor Tóth Associate editor Günther Wassilowsky Associate editor Siegrid Westphal

Book cover: Confession and Politics in the Principality of Transylvania 1644–1657

Extent: 302 pages

Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

Subjects: Early Modern & Renaissance Studies, Social Sciences 

Series: Refo500 Academic Studies (R5AS)

Language: German

Hardback (Published)

(April 2020)

ISBN: 9783525540794

6.34 x 9.25 inches

Price: $150.00

In stock

The transformation of Central Europe – the power of confessions


‘Confession and Politics in the Principality of Transylvania’ is a survey of the changing role the confessional element played in that country’s foreign policy. Though its rulers consistently supported the Protestant cause during the Thirty Years’ War, this East Central European principality has traditionally been understood as a counterexample to the confessionalisation thesis. Here, the evolution of the foreign policy of Princes Gyorgy RAkczi I and Gyorgy RAkczi II is presented alongside the argumentation they used to justify their political action before and after the Peace of Westphalia. This dual focus makes it possible to identify the changes in the function of confessional cooperation in the princes’ policies, as it lost its primary position and was transformed from an end in itself into a complementary means of justification. This book charts Transylvania’s foreign policy by examining its princes’ interactions with three main sets of contacts: leaders in the Kingdom of Hungary, protagonists of the ongoing crisis in Poland-Lithuania, and members of Western European Protestant networks. Based on a large number of published and archival sources, this book offers a novel interpretation of mid-seventeenth-century Transylvanian foreign policy and its intellectual background.

  • By (author) Gábor Kármán
  • Maps by Béla Nagy
  • Series edited by Herman J. Selderhuis
  • Associate editor Christopher B. Brown
  • Associate editor Günter Frank
  • Associate editor Bruce Gordon
  • Associate editor Barbara Mahlmann-Bauer
  • Associate editor Tarald Rasmussen
  • Associate editor Violet Soen
  • Associate editor Zsombor Tóth
  • Associate editor Günther Wassilowsky
  • Associate editor Siegrid Westphal