(34) 1. BATORY, Andrzej (1566-1599)

Episcopate. Elected coadjutor bishop, with right of succession, of Ermland, July 28, 1584. Did not participate in the conclave of 1585, which elected Pope Sixtus V. Returned to Poland after the death of the king in 1586. Opted for the deaconry of S. Angelo in Pescheria, January 7, 1587. Succeeded to the see of Ermland, March 23, 1589. Chancellor Jan Zamoyski allowed him in 1589 to claim the coadjutorship of the diocese of Kraków but when it vacated in 1591 Cardinal Jerzy Radziwiłł was appointed its bishop. With the assistance of the vicar general, Johannes Kretzmer, he governed the diocese and tried to implement the Tridentine reforms.Did not participate in the first conclave of 1590, which elected Pope Urban VII. Did not participate in the second conclave of 1590, which elected Pope Gregory XIV. Did not participate in the conclave of 1591, which elected Pope Innocent IX. Did not participate in the conclave of 1592, which elected Pope Clement VIII. Abbot commendatario of the Augustinian-Chorherren abbey of Czerwinsk on the Vistula River, 1593. Under pressure from the Holy See, received the subdiaconate on January 8, 1597. From 1597 to 1598, he conducted a general visitation to his diocese. On March 28, 1599 he became count of Transylvania, after his cousin, Zsigmond Batory, resigned in his favor. He allied himself with the Valachian and Moldavian counts. Emperor Rudolf of Austria was opposed to the ruling of Transylvania by the Batorys (4); he asked Mihai Viteazul to conquer the region for the Habsburgs; Viteazul entered Transylvania with his army and allied himself with the Seklers, who were enemies of the Batorys; and defeated Count-cardinal András Batory near Szeben. The defeated count-cardinal tried to escape to Poland, but he was caught in Csíkszentdomonkos and murdered.

Death. October 28, 1599, Csíkszentdomonkos (5). Buried in the main church of Alba Iulia (6) on November 24, 1599.

Bibliography. Berton, Charles. Dictionnaire des cardinaux, contenant des notions générales sur le cardinalat, la nomenclature complète ..., des cardinaux de tous less temps et de tous les pays ... les détails biographiques essentiels sur tous les cardinaux ... de longues études sur les cardinaux célèbre ... Paris : J.-P. Migne, 1857 ; Facsimile edition. Farnborough ; Gregg, 1969, col. 329; Cardella, Lorenzo. Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Stamperia Pagliarini, 1793, V, 221-224; Chacón, Alfonso. Vitæ, et res gestæ Pontificvm Romanorum et S. R. E. Cardinalivm ab initio nascentis Ecclesiæ vsque ad Vrbanvm VIII. Pont. Max. 2 volumes. Romae : Typis Vaticanis, 1630, col. 1767; Eubel, Conradus and Gulik, Guglielmus van. Hierarchia Catholica Medii et Recentioris Aevi, Münich : Sumptibus et Typis Librariae Regensbergianae, 1935; reprint, Padua : Il Messagero di S. Antonio, 1960, III, 47, 72 and 327; Karp, Jans-Jürgen. "Bathory, Andreas." Die Bischöfe des Heiligen Römischen Reiches, 1448 bis 1648 : ein biographisches Lexikon. Herausgegeben von Erwin Gatz, unter Mitwirkung von Clemens Brodkorb. Berlin : Duncker & Humblot, 1996, pp. 33-34; Kolberg, I. "Beiträge zur Geschichte des Kardinals und Bischofs von Ermland Andreas Bathory."; Nitecki, Piotr. Biskupi Kościoła w Polsce w latach 965-1999. Słownik biograficzny. Przedmowa Henryk Gulbinowicz. Warszawa : Instytut Wydawniczy "Pax", Warszawa 2000, col. 21-22; Prokop, Krzysztof Rafał. Polscy kardynałowie. Kraków : Wydawnictwo WAM, 2001, pp. 7, 10, 86, 89-100, 105, 107 and 136; Zeitschrift für die Geschichte und Altertumskunde Ermlands, XVII (1910}, 563-733; Zedler, Johann Heinrich, and Carl Günther Ludovici. Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexicon aller Wissenschafften und Künste. 64 v. Graz, Adakemische Druck, 1961- . Reprint. Originially published : Halle : J. H. Zedler, 1732-50.

Webgraphy. Brief biographical data, in Hungarian, Magyar Elektronikus Könyutár; biography, in Hungarian, Magyar Elektronikus Könyutár; his portrait, arms, funeral monument and biography, in Polish, Wikipedia; brief biographical data, in Polish, Grupa Onet.pl SA; his genealogy, A8 B2 C3 D2, Genealogy EU; portrait and biographical data, in English, Ferencz Attila; , in Italian, Wikipedia; images and biography, in Hungarian, Wikipedia; his arms and portrait, Araldica Vaticana; his tomb, Requiem Datenbank.

(1) This is according to his brief biographical data in Hungarian, his genealogy and his brief biographical data in English, all linked above; his biography in Hungarian, also linked above gives 1566 with a (?) as the year of his birth; Karp, "Bathory, Andreas", Die Bischöfe des Heiligen Römischen Reiches, 1448 bis 1648, p. 33; and his brief biographical data in Polish, linked above, say that he was born in 1563; Prokop, Polscy kardynałowie, p. 91, says that was born in 1562 or 1563.
(2) The genealogy linked above indicates that he died on January 7, 1563 which, if correct, means that the cardinal could not have been born in 1566 and that if he was born in 1563 it was probably posthumously.
(3) The site on her family, linked above, in the legend of the second map, says that her fourth child, András, was born in 1561.
(4) Berton, Dictionnaire des cardinaux, col. 329, citing a letter of Cardinal d'Ossat dated January 13, 1600, says that after the defeat of the cardinal, ignoring or pretending to ignore his death, the emperor had written to Pope Clement VIII strongly accusing him (the cardinal) of intelligence with the Turks and asking the pope to excommunicate him and deprive him of the cardinalate.
(5) This is according to Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii et Recentioris Aevi, III, 47; Gauchat, Hierarchia Catholica Medii et Recentioris Aevi, IV, 359; and his biography in Hungarian, linked above, indicate that he died on October 31, 1599; the brief biographical data in Hungarian and his genealogy indicate that he died on November 3, 1599; the latter says February 3, 1599 but is probably an error misreading II (February) instead of 11 (November); Zedler, Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexicon aller Wissenschafften und Künste, seems to distinguish between the battle that he lost against Mihai Viteazul on October 28, 1599, and his death on November 9, 1599 during the escape; Karp, "Bathory, Andreas", Die Bischöfe des Heiligen Römischen Reiches, 1448 bis 1648, p. 34, says that he died either the 29 or the 31 of October, 1599; Prokop, Polscy kardynałowie, p. 99, says that he died either on October 18, or 28 or 31 or on November 3, 1599.
(6) This is according to Chacón, Vitæ, et res gestæ Pontificvm Romanorum et S. R. E. Cardinalivm, II, col. 1767; Cardella, Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa, V, 224, says that Sámuel Timon, S.J., in his Porpora Pannonica indicates that his body was transferred to Claudiopoli (now ClugGherla, Romania) and buried in a magnificent monument; Chacón, Vitæ, et res gestæ Pontificvm Romanorum et S. R. E. Cardinalivm, II, col. 1767, also indicates that he was buried in Alba Iulia, ibidem honorabili sepulchro condituum fuit; Karp, "Bathory, Andreas", p. 34, says that he was buried in the main church of Alba Iulia.

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