The cross, the eagle and the dragon's tooth. Plans for an anti-Ottoman league and battles against the Ottomans in the Báthory era (1578–1597)

CLASSIS II
tom. 5
Tamás Kruppa

The cross, the eagle and the dragon's tooth. Plans for an anti-Ottoman league and battles against the Ottomans in the Báthory era (1578–1597) (CVH II/5), Budapest–Rome 2014. 516 p. + two plates (picture, map)

 

The book draws on archival sources held in Italy (mainly in the Vatican and Venice) and Vienna as well as already published source material, puts them in the spotlight and lets them speak about a crucial period in the history of Hungary and Transylvania, which has been largely neglected in Hungarian historiography.

In accord with the nature of the sources, it discusses its main subject, the attempts to create an anti-Ottoman alliance, within the framework of the dynamics of international diplomacy. The reign of Stephen Báthory, Prince of Transylvania and King of Poland, as well as that of his successor, Sigismund Báthory, Prince of Transylvania, coincided with the intensification of efforts to expel the Ottomans from Hungary and Europe as well as with the outbreak of the Fifteen Years' War, during which the attention of the Holy See was directed to the region for an unprecedentedly long time.

 

The book ends with an Epilogue that not only provides a summary, but also makes an attempt to draw the moral and to propose novel viewpoints to be taken into consideration in further research. The book includes ample quotations from contemporary sources so that the reader can better understand the mentality of these characters. There is an English summary and a table of contents at the end of the book.