Egy diplomáciai zsákutca: Bethlen Gábor házasságkötése Brandenburgi Katalinnal
A diplomatic dead-end: Gábor Bethlen's marriage with Catherine of Brandenburg

Summary/Abstract: Marrying off his sister, Catherine to Gábor Bethlen, prince of Transylvania, in 1626 entailed a lot of risks for Georg Wilhelm, elector of Brandenburg. Contrary to the expectations, the reactions of the emperor were quite mild – in sharp contrast to those of Sigismund III, king of Poland, who went as far as to threaten the elector with depriving him of his fief, the Duchy of Prussia because of this decision. The paper argues that neither Bethlen's generosity in financial questions related to the marriage, nor the envisaged cooperation for the Protestant cause could have been strong enough arguments for Georg Wilhelm to take such a risk. However, there are some signs that point to a possible explanation: that Bethlen's envoys in the early autumn of 1625 secretly promised the Brandenburg court that Catherine would be elected as the prince's successor (which did happen later, in June 1626). But the high price the prince paid for his fiancée did not pay off: the military collapse of Brandenburg in 1626-1627 made any political cooperation impossible and there is little evidence that the prestige of Bethlen raised significantly thanks to his new consort. On the other hand, the election of Catherine created strong tension in Transylvanian politics and led to a short period of turmoil bordering on a civil war after Bethlen's death in 1629-1630. Thus, this marriage can be considered Gábor Bethlen's greatest political mistake: the substantial investments brought in negative results only.

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