Family Correspondence of Ferndinand I 1535 and 1536

In 1535 and 1536, the family correspondence was dominated by four main topics which had already, in previous years, played a significant role in the correspondence between Ferdinand I, Charles V, and Mary of Hungary, the governor of the Netherlands: - Ferdinand`s struggle for supremacy in Hungary against John/Jnos Szapolyai and the difficult negotiations to create a lasting peace with him; - Ferdinand and Charles` conflicts with the Ottomans and the Ottomans` allies, which culminated in Charles`s victory in Tunis; - the conflict with France, which in 1536 led to a new war after the October 1535 death of the last Sforza Duke in Milan; - and finally the religious division in the Holy Roman Empire, for which the Habsburg siblings mainly held the Saxon Elector John Frederick, Landgraf Philip of Hesse and Duke Ulrich of Wurttemberg responsible. The tensions between Ferdinand and his sister Mary, who ten years after the Battle of Mohcs still had to fear for her Hungarian possessions, have to be considered in relation to the larger conflict in Hungary. Other less frequently broached topics, such as the so-called "Count`s Feud" in Denmark, the plans for a General Council or the tensions with Henry VIII of England should be understood in the broader context of the major topics of the correspondence. Besides the major themes there are a few specific, minor, and largely unconnected issues: the defeat of the Anabaptists in Muenster, disputes between Venice and Ferdinand over property rights in Friuli, clashes over the maintenance of rule in Héricourt, the payment of the Imperial Chamber Court and the status of the Netherlands within the Holy Roman Empire. In the correspondence of 1535 and 1536, the lands of the Bohemian crown played a subordinate role. Ferdinand mentioned only briefly that he had convened the Moravian estates in Znojmo, primarily in order to discuss the raising of money in addition to clarifying domestic political affairs. The family correspondence of Ferdinand I in 1533 and 1534 contained very few non-political issues. Yet the following two years are even sparser in this respect; not even hunting receives a mention. In 1535 and 1536, there are only two issues that could be described as apolitical: the recurring concern for the health of family members and the one-time sending of a gift. The present text largely follows the editorial guidelines established in the preceding two volumes. There is only one significant change: the German summaries of every letter as well as the introduction have been translated into English. Since German can no longer be considered a lingua franca in the academic world and since the family correspondence of Ferdinand I is an important source for historians working in many different languages, this innovation seemed to be warranted.