Bekes Caspar

It comes from an old Hungarian family. His father, Laszlo, was a vice-ban of Lugos and German, who received the nickname "Bekes" from the locality he owned. Since 1557 he served in Transylvania at the court of the Hungarian King Jan Sigismund Zapolyai , was his treasurer and confidant. In 1565, he headed the embassy in Istanbul, whose goal was to secure the support of Sultan Suleiman I against Emperor Maximilian II ^[1] .

In the late 1560s, he sided with the Habsburgs in their intention to subjugate Transylvania. After the election of Stefan Batory in 1571, Prince of Transylvania opposed him, hoping to take his place himself, but failed. In 1575, his troops were finally defeated, and the land confiscated. After the election of Stefan Batory in 1576, Caspar made peace with him as King of the Polish and Grand Duke of Lithuania and settled in the Commonwealth in 1577 ^[1] .

He commanded the Hungarian infantry. He distinguished himself with personal courage and military talents during the defense of Elblлонg in 1577 and in the Polotsk campaign of 1579 . At the request of the gentry of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1579, he was reckoned with the nobility, and also received land ownership, including in the Grodno region . He died in Grodno on November 7, 1579 ^[1] .

The name Bekesha (from the Polish. Bekiesz , bekieszka ) is also associated with the name of Caspar Bekesh - a variety of short fitted caftan , usually on fur , with fur trim on the edges of the sleeves, pockets and hem.

Supporters of anti - Trinitarianism grouped around Bekes, after his death, the Catholic and Orthodox churches forbade him to be buried in their cemeteries ^[1] , as a result of which he was buried on the Lysa Gora in Vilnius , where the Hungarian commander Vadus Pannoniets, who had fallen near Polotsk in 1579, had already been buried. .

In the Military Statistical Review of the Russian Empire. Volume IX. Part 2. The Vilnius Province, for 1848, about Bekesova Gora is described as follows:

"Mount Bekeshova, one of the mountains called bald, got its name from the burial on it in 1580 of Casper Bekes, the leader of the Hungarian infantry, during the reign of King Stefan Batory, who ordered the construction of a monument over his grave. The river Vileyka, flowing at the foot of the mountain, annually undermined it more and more, so that on May 17, 1838, five of the axes of the walls of this monument collapsed, and in January 1841 the last three fell. Bekes belonged to the sect of the Anti-Trinitarian and therefore the Roman clergy did not bury his body in his cemetery " ^[2] .

There is a version that Kaspar Bekesh was convinced that he was an atheist ^[1] . This conclusion is based on the epitaph , the author of which, it was believed, was Bekes himself:

It cannot be ruled out that the inscription above Bekesh’s grave dates from 1649 and was made by Protestants during the religious struggle with the Catholics. Some researchers attribute the authorship of the epitaph to Andrei Volan . According to modern research, Bekes was an Arian , and at the end of his life, according to a letter from the papal nuncio Caligari on November 25, 1579, he even converted to Catholicism ^[1] , but it is unlikely that this would be true, since in this case the Catholic Church would not refuse bury him.

• Bekesh Caspar // Vyalikae Principality of Lithuania. Enceclapedia at 3 t . - Mn. : BelEn , 2005. - T. 1: Abalenskі - Kadentsya. - S. 298. - 684 p. - ISBN 985-11-0314-4 .
• Bekes Casper // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Polski Słownik Biograficzny . - Tom I. - Ossolineum, 1935. (Polish)