Georg Thurzo

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George III Thurzo von Bethlendorf ; also in Hungarian Bethlenfalvi Thurzó György or in Slovak Juraj (VII.) Turzo (born September 2, 1567 in Zsolnalitva ; † December 24/26 , 1616 in Nagybiccse ) was a Hungarian nobleman from the Thurzo family .

Life

Georg Thurzo (also known as Georg IV. Or V) was a clan of the Upper Hungarian Árva county from 1585 and a count and Hungarian palatine from 1606 . He was the son of Francis I Thurzo , Bishop of Nitra , and Katharina Zrinska . Thurzo was a military man and took part in numerous battles against the Turks in the Long Turkish War. He was also a well-known diplomat and a supporter of the Slovaks and Protestantism.

From 1598 he was adviser to Emperor Rudolf II , from 1599 royal cupbearer , from 1602 captain of the Trans-Danubian armed forces and main financier of the fortress garrison in Neuhäusel . As a Palatine he converted from the Lutheran ( Evangelical Church AB ) to the Catholic Church in 1610 .

He consistently implemented the rule “ Cuius regio, eius religio ” and this also with violence against the Catholics in Árva County. At the time of the Bocskai Estates uprising, he did not side with the rebels and therefore his property was looted.

In 1605, Bocskai's troops conquered Bytča and robbed his father's grave themselves. Parts of the looted property were found in the village of Bodiná . Thurzo left some villagers hanging without a judge's verdict and set fire to the village. It was soon discovered that the villagers were innocent and that Bocskai's mercenaries had only hidden the stolen property there. The robber baron Telekessy was called to Bytča under the pretext of pardoning him. Instead, Thurzo had him arrested and taken to Pressburg , where he was beheaded.

At the end of 1610 he arrested the high noblewoman Elisabeth Báthory, later known as the Blood Countess, on behalf of the Hungarian king, imprisoned her at her castle and organized the trial.

As a promoter of humanism , he was considered a patron of many artists and scholars. So his mansion in Bytča became a cultural center, where theater performances, concerts and theological and philosophical disputes took place and there was a large library.

relationship

Georg Thurzo was married to Sophie Forgács (1568–1590), later to the Baroness Elisabet Czobor (Hungarian Czobor Erzsébet) († 1626). He is buried in the Arwaburg .

From the second marriage in 1598 there was an only son, Emmerich , who suddenly died in 1621 at the age of 23. In modern sources it is said that he was murdered on the orders of the son of Elisabeth Báthory , Paul Nádasdy , because he had participated in peace negotiations between Gábor Bethlen and the emperor in Mikulov .

With the death of Emmerich Thurzo in 1621, the family died out.

literature

• Kálmán Benda: Thurzó von Bethlenfalva, György Graf , in: Biographical Lexicon for the History of Southeast Europe . Vol. 4. Munich 1981, p. 316 f.

predecessor	Office	successor
István Illésházy	Palatine Hill of Hungary 1606–1616	Zsigmond Forgách