According to the legend of Prince Apafi Mihály, without the help of his wife, Bornemisza Anna, he could hardly button his coat, let alone govern Transylvania.
Well, after the death of Bornemisza Anna on August 5, 1688, her personal belongings and documents lay untouched for some time, later they passed to the Bethlen family through the younger Apafi’s wife. They were only processed in the 19th century. But by then, oral tradition had already told all sorts of stories, and, as is the way with fairy tales, the story rolled on like a ball of thread.
Bornemisza Anna’s date of birth is not known, but it is estimated to be around 1630. She was brought up in Jenő Castle, where her father, Bornemisza Pál of Berhida and Petrilina, was the chief captain. They fled to Munkács to escape the Turks, but beyond that nothing of significance is known about her childhood.
She was not yet twenty when she was engaged to the handsome Bánffy Dénes. Anna was already in the public eye, as she broke off her engagement a few months later. This was not the sort of thing a submissive girl would do, and it was common knowledge that she had given back the ring because she felt that Dénes wanted to rule over her and that their life would be a mere quarrel.
In today’s terms, she wanted to build her marriage on a partnership, and she finally achieved this with Apafi Mihály. It was a love marriage in which everything was discussed, including politics. It was so unusual that it may have been the reason why the rumour spread that Anna wore the trousers. She was certainly not only a beautiful woman, but also a clever and far-sighted one whose advice was worth considering.
In 1657, when Apafi took part in the Polish campaign, he was captured and the Turks unleashed the Crimean Tartars on Transylvania. Bornemisza Anna put everything she had into cash, and in addition she asked her relatives and good friends of their family, including Teleki Mihály, to help her raise the horrific ransom. On the grounds that Apafi was a nobleman, the Porte kept hiking up the price, all the money and gifts were in short supply. In three years, Anna collected 12,000 talers of ransom money, freeing her husband from captivity, who returned to Transylvania in the autumn of 1660.
The Turks made Apafi prince of Transylvania at the request of Ali Pasha, and the Estates were forced to vote for this after the death of Kemény János, who turned against the Turks. Apafi found himself in a difficult situation. The treasury was empty, and he had to somehow navigate his way between the great powers in order to preserve Transylvania’s relative independence.
Legend has it that he was not very good at politics, and did not really care for it, relying mainly on his wife, the quick-witted Anna, and Count Teleki Mihály, his chancellor. A clever, forceful and calm woman, she had, according to contemporary records, a great influence on the decisions of her helpless and unstable husband.
As Anna had unshakeable confidence in Chancellor Teleki Mihály, she is said to have persuaded the Prince not to decide on any national matter without Teleki’s knowledge. She herself informed the Chancellor of almost every minor event, without whose knowledge and consent nothing could happen in the Principality. Most of their correspondence was about political issues, the current situation in Transylvania and the Porte, and domestic events, but she also shared her personal troubles with Teleki.
Others have argued that this was not entirely true, that Anna was in control, as much of his later correspondence attests. Anna did advise the Prince to listen to Teleki on some matters, but there is no evidence that Apafi was a puppet in their hands. What we do have, however, is that at the beginning of his reign there was a spectacular revival in Transylvania.
He built ironworks, started glass production and book printing in several places, and established schools. There was a small economic boom. He passed laws on religious tolerance, allowed education in Romanian, issued decrees to protect teachers and clergy, etc. Anna would not have had much time for serious politics. She was constantly pregnant and giving birth. She gave birth to 14 children, but only one son, Mihály, born in 1676, reached adulthood. This may explain her poor health and bad mood.
Apafi kept his court in Fogaras and Ebesfalva, and it was left to Anna to manage the estate. This was no easy task. They paid a lot of taxes to the Porte, and their income was not unlimited. She kept economic diaries and kept everyone strictly accountable for their expenses. She had plenty of wit to ensure the financial stability of the court. This was not usually a woman’s job either, and it reinforced the misconception that she was the boss in the reign.
There was a very strong emotional bond between the two of them. Anna always regretted the slight contempt that the high Transylvanian families had for them, the princely couple, and her husband was often laughed at and not taken seriously. According to the records of Apor Péter, Anna’s anti-Catholicism knew little bounds, although the prince himself did not care much about the matter. She deeply condemned the widow of Prince Rákóczi II György, Báthory Zsófia, who returned to the Roman Catholic Church immediately after her husband’s death in 1660.
Her financial records have survived and provide an excellent chronology for researchers, as she kept her diaries from 1667 onwards, in which she recorded in minute detail all the income and expenditure of the princely court until the end of her life. One more item has been found, namely a cookery book attributed to her, written in 1680. This was not written by her, it was a hundred years old in her time. It was translated from German and dedicated to her by Keszei János. However, this work from Frankfurt was much more than a cookery book.
It helped as much with running the household, managing the estate and organising social events as it did with cooking. This gave the princess a collection of methodical and hitherto unknown technologies in Transylvania. She learned and successfully applied them. This was published in 1911, together with her economic diaries.
Some of her correspondence has even survived, which also proves that she was Apafi’s equal partner in government and, last but not least, his determined wife. And how lovable she was is reflected in the lines of Apafi Mihály: “On August 5, 1688, my beloved wife, who was my companion in all my bitter and troublesome affairs, was called away by God to my unforgettable sorrow at about ten o’clock in the evening in Ebesfalva”.
She was buried in the Apaffy crypt of the Lutheran Church in Almakerék, where her husband was later buried. All four of them were reburied together with the remains of their son and daughter-in-law in the Reformed Church on Farkas Street in Kolozsvár in 1909. The elaborate tomb was designed by Kós Károly in 1942.
Source: Naptármesék and Hungarian Wikipedia
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