The burden of authority - the preparations for the ambassadorial mission to Constantinople of baron Johann Ludwig von Kuefstein in 1628

This paper attempts to explain the situation after the negotiation of the Treaty of Szőny (1627) between the Ottoman and Habsburg Empires. It focuses only on the ambassadorial mission of the Habsburgs led by Baron Johann Ludwig von Kuefstein, which was sent to ratify the documents in Constantinople. It discusses the early period of the mission from the request of the emperor (18 November 1627) until the arrival of the delegation (18 November 1628) in the Ottoman capital. After briefly touching upon general surveys (historical context, historiographical and methodological problems, the chronology of the mission, etc.), the study describes the various problems that the baron had to face during the appointment of the personnel for the mission. Since many criteria for the offices and the officeholders raised political conflicts within the diplomatic environment of the court (and also could raise plenty of social problems), the baron had to compete with many obstacles as a “homo novus”. The impediments, the political situation and the pressure from the influential members of the “war party” and the “peace party”, predestined that many of the aims of the mission would never be accomplished. The main goal of the essay is to present a case study and draw a detailed picture of the ideal type of source material for the Habsburg diplomatic missions to the Ottoman Sublime Porte and to demonstrate the novel nature of the material for this well-researched topic. Due to this, it might offer unique opportunities in this field.