TRANSYLVANIA - GABRIEL BETHLEN Prince - Lot 389

TRANSYLVANIA - GABRIEL BETHLEN Prince October 23, 1613 - November 15, 1629 His cuirassed bust to the right holding a scepter. R/. Crowned coat of arms between N-B. ♦ Dav 4724 Silver thaler 1629 Nagybanya (28.12 g). Beautiful medallion patina. A very fine example. Exemplary Collection of Dr. J.-P. G. (March 1975) no. 318. Gabriel Bethlen was a Transylvanian Hungarian warlord and politician, elected Prince of Transylvania (1613-1629) and King of Hungary (1621-1622). He pursued a very active foreign policy, in favor of Protestantism: while the Counter-Reformation was raging in France and in the Habsburg possessions (Austria, Bohemia, Royal Hungary), the Transylvanian Diet, through the Edict of Toleration of 1568, switched its majority to Protestantism, either Lutheran (adopted by the Saxons), Calvinist (adopted by part of the Magyars and Western Szeklers), or Unitarian (adopted by part of the Magyars).