27 Facts About Gabriel Bethlen

Gabriel Bethlen was Prince of Transylvania from 1613 to 1629 and Duke of Opole from 1622 to 1625.

Gabriel Bethlen was King-elect of Hungary from 1620 to 1621, but he never took control of the whole kingdom.

Gabriel Bethlen was born in his father's estate, Marosillye, in 1580.

Farkas Gabriel Bethlen was a Hungarian nobleman who lost his ancestral estate, Iktar, due to the Ottoman occupation of the central territories of the Kingdom of Hungary.

Gabriel Bethlen mentioned in the letter that he decided to visit the prince's court in Gyulafehervar.

Historian Jozsef Barcza says, Gabriel Bethlen must have realized around that time that the Habsburg monarchs were unable to defend Transylvania against the Ottomans.

Gabriel Bethlen himself stated that he visited Prague in the retinue of Sigismund Bathory at an unspecified date.

Gabriel Bethlen supported Andrew Bathory, who mounted the throne with Polish assistance after Sigismund again abdicated in 1599.

Gabriel Bethlen received wounds in the battle and his wounds healed slowly.

Gabriel Bethlen joined the Transylvanian noblemen who rose up against Basta.

Gabriel Bethlen forged letters which suggested that the leading Transylvanian noblemen supported Moses Szekely to persuade the Ottomans to support Szekely, according to the contemporaneous Ambrus Somogyi.

The grand vizier granted the permission, but one of the refugees, Boldizsar Szilvasi, prevented Gabriel Bethlen's election, pointing out that a prince could not be elected by a group of refugees, but by the Diet of Transylvania.

Gabriel Bethlen decided to persuade the wealthy Stephen Bocskai to rise up against Rudolph's commissioners.

Gabriel Bethlen composed hymns and from 1625, employed Johannes Thesselius as kapellmeister.

Gabriel Bethlen later fell out with Bathory and fled to the Ottoman Empire.

In 1615, after the Peace of Tyrnau, Gabriel Bethlen was recognised by Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor.

Gabriel Bethlen developed mines and industry and nationalised many branches of Transylvania's foreign trade.

Gabriel Bethlen's agents bought goods at fixed prices and sold them abroad at profit.

Gabriel Bethlen was a patron of the arts and the Calvinist church, giving hereditary nobility to Protestant priests.

Gabriel Bethlen encouraged learning by founding the Gabriel Bethlen Gabor College, encouraging the enrollment of Hungarian academics and teachers and sending Transylvanian students to the Protestant universities of England, the Dutch Republic, and the Protestant principalities of Germany.

Gabriel Bethlen ensured the right of serfs' children to be educated.

Gabriel Bethlen opposed the autocracy of the Habsburgs; persecution of Protestants in Royal Hungary; the violation of the Peace of Vienna of 1606; and Habsburg alliances with the Ottomans and George Drugeth, the captain of Upper Hungary.

Gabriel Bethlen negotiated for peace at Pressburg, Kassa and Besztercebanya.

Gabriel Bethlen renounced his royal title on the condition that Hungarian Protestants were given religious freedoms and were included in a general diet within six months.

Gabriel Bethlen was given the title of Imperial Prince, seven counties around the Upper Tisza River and the fortresses of Tokaj, Munkacs, and Ecsed, and a duchy in Silesia.

In 1623 - 1624 and 1626, Gabriel Bethlen, allied with the anti-Habsburg Protestants, made campaigns against Ferdinand in Upper Hungary.

On his return from Vienna, Gabriel Bethlen wed Catherine of Brandenburg, the daughter of John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg.