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# A Favorable International Environment

In their fulsome greeting to György Rákóczi after his election, Transylvania's estates evoked the memory of his father: 'Your Highness's father was also a prince of our poor country, and Your Highness spent his childhood amongst us'.[69]69. EOE 9, p. 150. Rákóczi seldom spoke of his early years, but he no doubt retained a memory of his father's short-lived rule. What is clear is that his personality and character differed greatly from those of Zsigmond Rákóczi. The latter was an adaptable and sociable man, and these qualities helped him to progress from castellan to the highest office in the land; and when he realized that his tenure entailed risks for the country, he was wise enough to resign. By contrast, when György Rákóczi decided while still at Sárospatak to seek the princely throne and was promptly urged to desist, he replied that he would rather risk his life than give up his ambition.

{2-108.} Stubborn in all respects, György Rákóczi I showed fierce attachment to what he considered his due. Towards his subjects, he was hard and demanding; he extracted from them by litigation more property than had been obtained by any other ruler of Hungary. Despite all this, he is commonly ranked among Transylvania's greatest princes. This distinction owed much to favorable circumstances, for an almost unprecedented calm prevailed during his reign in the regions surrounding Transylvania. A case in point was that of the Romanian voivodeships, where there was a long lull in their normally chaotic state. Since the beginning of the century, individual voivodes had ruled for an average of less than two years; yet the voivodes who came to power in the early 1630s remained in office for some twenty years. Wallachia's Matei Basarab, distantly related to the old ruling family, became voivode in 1632 and carried on for close to twenty-two years; and Moldavia's Vasile Lupu, although an Albanian by origin, managed to stay in office from 1634 to 1653. As long as they remained at peace with each other, they could rule undisturbed, for neither of the two imperial powers in the region showed much interest in them.

Meanwhile, the Austrian Habsburgs were fully absorbed in the Thirty Years' War, which, from their point of view, reached a low point in 1630, when many of Ferdinand II's Catholic supporters turned against him. To preserve the succession rights of his first-born child, Ferdinand had to dismiss his most successful general, Wallenstein, who had enriched himself in the wake of the failed Czech revolt. The Protestants' capable military leader, Sweden's King Gustavus Adolphus, followed his armies on to the continent. And diplomatic developments signalled that France would soon join actively in Europe's great war. In these circumstances, the maintenance of peace in Hungary was of capital importance for the Habsburgs. For years, Vienna would forego any attempt to modify the relationship between Transylvania and the Crown.

{2-109.} The other great power, the Ottoman empire, was also otherwise occupied. Since 1622, when Sultan Osman II was deposed by the Janissaries, Constantinople had suffered one reverse after another. The conquests of Suleiman the Great in Asia appeared imperilled. Rebellions and Persian attacks destabilized the region between the upper Euphrates and Tigris and the Persian Gulf. The Ottomans' administrative and military structures showed signs of decay. In the witty observation of Sir Thomas Roe, England's ambassador, wise men do not want to be involved in government, and the fools will soon steer the ship of state onto the shoals. That prediction was premature, but the Porte would have little impact in Europe in the 1630s and for some time thereafter.