The present monograph by Géza Pálffy is intended as a survey work of the historical Kingdom of Hungary in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and is aimed decidedly at a broader public. At the same time, however, it also provides important impetus for discussions within the historical sciences, which will first be briefly outlined below.
A first important point is the transregional and thus also transimperial perspective, which the author pursues consistently and skillfully. With this approach, he detaches Hungarian history from traditional concepts of national historiography and foregrounds the results of new research. Pálffy clearly expresses the differences in content in several places. One example is the evaluation of various anti-Habsburg uprisings, which include the military conflicts between Vienna and George I Rákóczi (1630–1648). In contrast to interpretations that define them as national uprisings or even as independence struggles, they should rather be seen in the context of power struggles with the House of Habsburg. Aspects of military and war history, which are the subject of this monograph, should also be mentioned in this context. Pálffy shows, for example, the manifold connections between different theaters of war within and outside the European continent that influenced events in Hungary. With regard to the Ottoman-Habsburg rivalry for dominance in Hungary, it is clear to see how the involvement of both powers in other theaters of war influenced their military capabilities in Hungary and thus the timing of the outbreak of hostilities. More recently, there has been an increased interest in war actors who fought in different theaters of war and on the side of different belligerents. Transylvanian units that participated in the battles of the Thirty Years’ War should certainly be analyzed in more detail against the background of current research.
A second aspect concerns questions of religious history, which are treated in great detail in the monograph. In recent research, with particular reference to the seventeenth century, there is now talk of an age of confessionalization that can be observed from the Atlantic to the Middle East. Géza Pálffy illustrates in great detail how the Reformation spread in large parts of the historical Kingdom of Hungary, both in the Habsburg and the Ottoman dominions. His account then also points out the strengthening of Catholicism, which took place mainly in the seventeenth century. The author also rightly points out that the term “Counterreformation” is very controversial and is now hardly used in historical research. However, the question already arises whether it might not be applicable when violent confrontations between Protestants and Catholics need to be described. In this context, Pálffy sees a deep break in the 1660s, when the Viennese court began to carry out an armed re-Catholicization. Pálffy explicitly calls this policy a counterreformation.
Out of numerous other themes covered in the book that encourage further reflection on a forward-looking narrative of Hungary's early modern history, I would like to touch only briefly on other concepts of time. While the 1660s represented (not only) a turning point in religious politics, Géza Pálffy foregrounds the Long Turkish War (1593–1606) as a temporal dividing line. This is also evident in the conception of the monograph, which is divided into two chronologically ordered sections. The first section is devoted to the decades between the Battle of Mohács (1526) and the (at least supposed) end of the Long Turkish War (1606). The second section focuses on the period from 1606 to 1711, which the author calls “Decay and Rejuvenation: The Janus-Faced Seventeenth Century.” The Long Turkish War had devastating economic effects and also shook the military-administrative structures in almost all areas of Hungary. At the same time, the official end of the war, whenever that was exactly, is only a conditionally meaningful date. Pálffy clearly points out that even after the formal end of the war, it is impossible to speak of a period of peace until the middle of the seventeenth century. He sees these decades as a period of civil war, which was not so much caused by the Ottoman-Habsburg antagonism. Rather, the anti-Habsburg campaigns of the Transylvanian princes (Gabriel Bethlen, Georg Rákóczi) contributed to keeping the region in a state of war. This example shows that it is not enough to interpret the Hungarian history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries only from the perspective of the Ottoman-Habsburg antagonism. Rather, it seems appropriate to focus more on the interests of local actors. Political borders between the two empires are not synonymous with borders of action for transregional networks. Géza Pálffy's book is thus also an appeal to consider the history of individual regions in their manifold interconnections.
The monograph is also characterized by very good readability, to which the conception of the book contributes significantly. The two long chapters are in turn subdivided into short sections accompanied by concise select bibliographies. However, readers will find a detailed bibliography at the end of the monograph. In addition, the reader will find numerous pictures and maps that contribute significantly to the understanding of the text. A detailed index of names, nationalities, and places is also very helpful.
Overall, the monograph is an inspiring overview that is definitely recommended reading.
