BETHLEN, GÁBOR. - Prince of Transylvania, born in 1580 from an ancient Hungarian family, died in 1629. He spent his youth at the court of Sigismund Báthory and later became one of the most trusted advisors of Gabriel Báthory. After the latter's flight, with the support of Turkey he was elected Prince of Transylvania. He brought the independence of this country to such a point that at the beginning of the Thirty Years' War he could ally with the Bohemians to fight Hungary, under the pretext that Catholics were preparing to march against Protestants. A fervent Calvinist and declared opponent of the Habsburgs, he resolutely marched against northern Hungary, where Protestantism was losing ground to Cardinal Péter Pázmány. Bethlen's captain, Rákóczy, managed to occupy the fortress of Kassa, where, among others, Canon Marco Crisino and the Jesuits Stefano Pongrácz and Melchiorre Grodecz were massacred ("the Martyrs of Cassovia"). In the diet held shortly afterward in Beszterczebánya, Bethlen was elected King of Hungary, but he did not accept the crown. In this same diet, the secularization of ecclesiastical goods and the expulsion of Pázmány and the Jesuits from Hungary were decreed. However, since the Bohemian allies were defeated, Bethlen was forced to sue for peace.
BETHLEN, GÁBOR
