Radical Protestant Propaganda of the Thirty Years' War

Primary Materials
Of the two Protestant figures investigated in my thesis, Bethlen Gabor seems to have been
the more controversial. This fact is perhaps surprising when one considers that it was
Gustavus Adolphus, rather than Bethlen Gabor, who invaded the Empire and temporarily
controlled parts of its territory. In fact, while there is only a very small minority of surviving
texts that are critical of the King, 84 the case of propaganda on Bethlen Gabor is a different
story entirely. My research shows that the positive and radical Protestant texts on the
Prince are in the minority, while the rest of the texts that focus on him were either neutral
reports on his involvement in the Bohemian conflict or were pieces critical of him.
I shall begin my review of the primary materials on the Prince with a summary of the radical
pro-Bethlen pieces of propaganda that are the focus of this chapter. I have identified fifteen
pro-Bethlen sources, eight broadsheets and seven pamphlets. The broadsheets were
published exclusively between the years 1619 and 1621, meaning that they correspond to
the most significant phase of Bethlen Gabor’s activity in the war. The pamphlets’ year of
publication has a wider span, ranging from 1618 to 1626, with the final pro-Bethlen
pamphlet being an account of the Prince’s marriage to Catharine of Brandenburg and their
wedding festivities. 85 These seven broadsheets and eight pamphlets are the only ones that I
can categorize as radical Protestant publications with certainty. This is because they try to
84 See primary materials section on Gustavus Adolphus in Chapter Two. Of course, after Gustavus
Adolphus’s death the popularity of the Swedes suffered more generally. Both the Jesuits and the
Saxons produced material critical of the Swedes after 1632, depicting them respectively as lacking
God’s support and as being obstacles to peace. The Germans also became increasingly war-weary
after the King’s death. See Böttcher, pp. 353, 360.
85 Umbständtliche Relation Deß Bethlehem Gabors/ mit der Chur- Brandenburgischen Princessin
Catharina/ zu Cascha gehaltenen Beylagers (1626), 4 pages. Herzog August Bibliothek, shelf mark: A:
160.7 Quod. (51). All further references to material from the Herzog August Bibliothek will be
abbreviated to HAB followed directly by the source’s shelf mark. The shelf mark of material from
other archives and libraries will also follow the name of the institution.
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