The “Decisive Embassy” of Prince Krzysztof Zbaraski to Constantinople (1622–1623) and European Diplomacy amidst the Th irty Years’ War

The embassy of prince Krzysztof Zbaraski (1622–1633) is traditionally considered purely in the context of bilateral relations between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire for several reasons. First, the main goal of this embassy was to gain an imperial ‘ahdname after the first substantial military conflict between the parties in the previous year. Second, because in such terms this embassy is pictured in the two major sources documenting this mission. These are the official report by Zbaraski and the epic poem by his secretary Samuel Twardowski “Przeważna legacja” (“The Decisive Embassy”) (1633). Yet, prince’s diplomatic performance was closely observed by European residents and ad hoc ambassadors in Constantinople. Their dispatches give a perspective completely different from the one expressed in the official report of the prince. Specifically, they discussed whether the treaty between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire should include the paragraph regarding obligation of the Polish king to keep peace with the Transylvanian prince Bethlen Gábor. It was reported that this condition could impact Bethlen Gábor’s decision-making about resuming war with the Emperor Ferdinand II Habsburg after the Peace of Nikolsburg (1621). This article contextualises the embassy of the Prince Zbaraski within European political landscape amidst Thirty Years’ War and contrasts the results of the embassy to the tasks outlined in the ambassadorial instruction.1n