Shifting Allegiances and the Questions of Resilience: Lords of the Hungarian and Transylvanian Border during the Fortress Wars of 1560's (original) (raw)

Although the rule of Szapolyai dynasty was restored in Transylvania in 1556, the exact border between the territories ruled King John Sigismund, the elected King of Hungary and King Ferdinand I and Maximillian I of the Habsburg dynasty had remained ambiguous. This study aims to examine the nature of allegiances and political attitudes of the landlords in the region during the decade-long Fortress Wars of the Northeast commencing in the border region stretching from Kassa (Košice, SK) to Szatmár (Satu Mare, RO). Control over the border area changed multiple times within the course of months in 1556, 1562, 1564 and 1565, and all these conquests were realized with large armies deployed to the region only for the being. In case of these local lords, applying the concept of resilience – the capacity of the individual or group to adapt to new situations caused by external factors – would be a fitting term as their withstanding loyalty or defection to the other side was not inevitable the result of their true political convictions. A lesser noble could have changed his loyalty not because of careful considerations of long-term consequences or long-standing convictions, but due to suddenly changing political and military environment forcing him to reconsider his stance in view of his and the region’s interest reshaped by the new circumstances. However, his new stance cannot be regarded as final, as new turn of events would soon make him reconsider his position. The study also lists the units involved in the hostilities and gives an overview on their numbers, also taking the German mercenaries and their numbers into consideration.