György Thurzó (german: Georg Thurzo, sk, Juraj Turzo; 2 September 1567 – 24 December 1616) was a powerful Hungarian magnate, who served as the

Palatine of Hungary The Palatine of Hungary ( hu, nádor or , german: Landespalatin, la, palatinus regni Hungariae) was the highest-ranking office in the Kingdom of Hungary from the beginning of the 11th century to 1848. Initially, Palatines were represe ...

between 1609 and 1616.

Biography

György Thurzó was born into the richest noble house in

Upper Hungary Upper Hungary is the usual English translation of ''Felvidék'' (literally: "Upland"), the Hungarian term for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia. The region has also been ...

, the Thurzó family from

Szepes County Szepes ( sk, Spiš; la, Scepusium, pl, Spisz, german: link=no, Zips) was an administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary, called Scepusium before the late 19th century. Its territory today lies in northeastern Slovakia, with a very small are ...

. When György was 9 years old, his father, Ferenc, died and he was raised by his mother Katarina Zrinski (Kata Zrínyi), who was the daughter of Croatian Ban

Nikola IV Zrinski Nikola IV Zrinski or Miklós IV Zrínyi ( hu, Zrínyi Miklós, ; 1507/1508 – 7 September 1566), also commonly known as Nikola Šubić Zrinski (), was a Croatian nobleman and general, Ban of Croatia from 1542 until 1556, royal master of the tr ...

(Miklós Zrínyi). In 1575, Katarina and her children moved to the Nagybiccse (now Bytča, Slovakia) estate. György's mother remarried to Imre Forgách who rather liked György and ensured him a very high standard of education with the highly regarded scientist from

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

, Christoph Echardus. At the age of 17, György decided to take up a military and

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

career which he was able to put into action against the invading

Ottomans The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

in many battles. In 1590, at the Battle of Esztergom, he won a great victory over the Ottomans and then in the same year, at the Battle of Székesfehervár. György was a very educated man; he spoke Hungarian, German,

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, Greek, Croatian and Slovak fluently, was very interested in the arts and the sciences, and he was excited by new ideas. He grew up on the

Royal court A royal court, often called simply a court when the royal context is clear, is an extended royal household in a monarchy, including all those who regularly attend on a monarch, or another central figure. Hence, the word "court" may also be appl ...

of then Archduke Matthias, brother of

Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612) was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia (as Rudolf I, 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–1608). He was a member of the Hous ...

, whom he succeeded. On 26 April 1585 György's mother died and he was forced to return to Nagybiccse to take care of his estates of Árva (now Orava, Slovakia), Zsolnalitva (now Lietava, Slovakia) and Nagybiccse. In the same year, he married Zsófia Forgách and they had two daughters together, but Zsófia died giving birth to the second daughter in 1590. Several years later, György married

Erzsébet Czobor Baroness Erzsébet Czobor de Czoborszentmihály (1572 – 31 March 1626) was the second wife of Palatine György Thurzó. Biography Her parents were Imre Czobor, who served as Palatinal Governor of Hungary between 1572 and 1581, and his third wif ...

, with whom he had six unnamed daughters and a son,

Imre Thurzó Count Imre Thurzó de Bethlenfalva (11 September 1598 – 19 October 1621) was a Hungarian aristocrat, son of Palatine György Thurzó, who served as Perpetual Ispán (Count; ''comes'') of Árva County between 1616 and 1621. Count Imre also f ...

. Thurzó is perhaps best remembered for being the interceptor of the Hungarian Countess

Elizabeth Báthory Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed ( hu, Báthori Erzsébet, ; sk, Alžbeta Bátoriová; 7 August 1560 – 21 August 1614) was a Hungarian noblewoman and alleged serial killer from the family of Báthory, who owned land in the Kingdom of ...

, without a formal hearing. He was also a devout

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

. He built Lutheran churches in his lands. He paid for the construction of Lutheran

guilds A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...

in his estates. In 1610, he issued a decree: ''

Cuius regio, eius religio () is a Latin phrase which literally means "whose realm, their religion" – meaning that the religion of the ruler was to dictate the religion of those ruled. This legal principle marked a major development in the collective (if not individual ...

''. In 1609, he was bestowed with the title of, "

". Until his death, he remained loyal to the

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...

emperor. He died in 1616, in his estate in Nagybiccse.

References

* :sk:Juraj VII. Turzo {{DEFAULTSORT:Thurzo, Gyorgy 1567 births 1616 deaths Hungarian politicians Palatines of Hungary Gyorgy Hungarian people of Croatian descent Elizabeth Báthory

Biography

See also

References