19 June 1547 the first Peace of Edirne / Drinápoly
19 June 1547 the first Peace of Edirne / Drinápoly
The first Treaty of Edirne was signed on 19 June 1547 between the Ottomans and the Habsburgs, and unlike the Second Treaty of Edirne in 1568, this agreement was made for five years. Let us recall the events that led to this treaty. The Dual Kingship prevailed in Hungary after the taking of Buda castle in 1541. This time, Suleiman decided not to leave Buda castle in the hand of Queen Isabella, the widow of late King Szapolyai János in fear that she would hand over the power over Eastern Hungary to King Habsburg Ferdinand of Western Hungary. You can read more about the details of Buda’s fall here:
Sultan Suleiman sent Queen Isabella and János Zsigmond, the baby king to Transylvania to reign. Had he had enough military power, he would have occupied Eastern Hungary as well but for the time being, he remained content with receiving a tax from those lands. Let us remark that Habsburg Ferdinand paid more money to the sultan for temporary peace than Eastern Hungary.
Suleiman also gave power to János Zsigmond’s Guardian, Martinuzzi in 1541 over the Trans Tisza River Region, appointing Petrovics Péter as the leader of the Temesköz Region, in exchange for paying an annual tax to him. However, he had to get disappointed in the loyalty of his new „vassals” at least as far as Martinuzzi, the Guardian of the child King János Zsigmond II was concerned. But there were no Ottoman troops in Eastern Hungary to oversee them.
The Sultan had to widen his lands to ensure the logistics of Buda castle, and he cast his eyes rather on Vienna instead of Transylvania.
The campaigns of Sultan Suleiman to Hungary
Martinuzzi, the White Monk, as it was befitting to a politician, was balancing the power and began working on the unification of Hungary under the Habsburgs.
He made a treaty with Ferdinand in Gyalu in 1541 and began to organize Eastern Hungary in 1542. Pretty soon, Martinuzzi was able to seize most of the power, and Queen Isabella began to hate him from her full heart. According to the Treaty of Gyalu, Ferdinand would get Eastern Hungary if he could take Buda back from the Turks. Unfortunately, the Imperial army suffered a defeat at Pest in 1542 so the Treaty of Gyalu was dumped. On top of this, the angered Ottomans sent the army of Voivode Petru Rareş of Wallachia to invade Transylvania. Fortunately, Martinuzzi was also an excellent military leader and could defeat them. You can read more about the fights at Pest in 1542 here:
The Ottomans were successful in defending their conquest and Suleiman set out the next year and took Pécs, Esztergom, Tata, and Székesfehérvár castles. Then he conquered more lands and the Pasha of Buda occupied Nógrád, Visegrád, Hatvan, and Simontornya castles in 1544. The Hungarian line of defense was on the brink of collapse. Ferdinand needed time to build out the new line of castles and he had to create peace.
King Habsburg Ferdinand
On the other hand, the sultan needed peace on the western fringe of his empire because he wanted to launch a campaign against the Persians. However, Sultan Suleiman demanded a high price for peace with Ferdinand who had to pay a humiliating sum of 30,000 gold Forints in exchange for governing Western Hungary that the sultan “mercifully ceded him”. It was much higher than the tax paid by Martinuzzi to the Sublime Porte. The Treaty of Edirne originally was set for five years but Ferdinand broke it in 1549 when he made a secret treaty with Martinuzzi about taking over Transylvania. The troops of the Habsburgs entered Transylvania in 1551 and it marked the end of the “peace”. Note, that there was never a real peace on the Borderland, the so-called “small war” was constantly raging between the local Ottoman garrisons and the Hungarian castle warriors.
Europe in 1547 (Behold, Royal Hungary was not a hereditary Habsburg domain)
These events triggered the large Ottoman campaigns that commenced in 1551 and 1552. You can read many stories on my page about the sieges of Eger, Temesvár, Szolnok, Veszprém, and Drégely castles, not to mention the Battle of Palást in 1552. At the same time, you might like to check out the Second Treaty of Edirne / Drinápoly which was signed in 1568:
