Kísérlet a misztikus alapú külpolitikára? (Bengt Skytte útja a Rákó-cziakhoz 1651–1652)
An Attempt at Foreign Policy on Mystical Foundations? The Bengt Skytte’s Journey to the Rákóczis in 1651–1652

Summary/Abstract: The journey of the Swedish Councillor of State, Bengt Skytte to Hungary and Transylvania in 1651–1652 is well known in Hungarian historiography. Ever since the major part of his letters to Queen Christina were published in Hungarian translation at the end of the 19th century, he has been seen as a prominent source describing the foreign policy plans of George Rákóczi, Prince of Transylvania, and his brother Sigismund, who had a leading role in the politics of the Hungarian estates. Skytte himself was generally regarded as an envoy sent by Queen Christina to explore the possibilities of a co-operation between Sweden and Transylvania. In 1963, Nils Runeby published an account of Skytte’s journey, in which he argued that the Swedish Councillor was not sent by the Queen to Eastern Europe, but rather he came on his own initiative. He was influenced by the ideas of a radical Protestant group around Jan Amos Comenius that seen Sigismund Rákóczi's marriage with Henrietta Maria, the sis-ter of the Elector Palatine, as a sign of the fulfillment of their dreams, a renewed Protestant co-operation against the Catholic Habsburgs. The present study is a critical re-reading of Runeby’s thesis, contrasting it to – mainly Hungarian – sources that were not at his dis-posal at the time of writing. Runeby’s theory that Skytte was not the Queen's envoy seems to be well-founded, and the most probable hypothesis for the explanation of his journey is also the one offered by the Swedish scholar. Unfortunately, due to the lack of any data about the connection between Comenius and Skytte, the last word in this question remains to be told. Nevertheless, Skytte’s information, supported by other contemporary evidence, remains an important source about the alternatives Transylvanian foreign policy had in the early 1650s.

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