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December 30, 2017

3229 ROMANIA - George I Rákóczi (1593-1648)


George I Rákóczi (8 June 1593, Szerencs - 11 October 1648) was Prince of Transylvania from 1630 until his death in 1648. He was the eldest son of Baron Sigismund Rákóczi and his second wife, Anna Gerendi. Sigismund, who was a successful military commander in Royal Hungary, was the first member of the Rákóczi family to rise to prominence. During the reign of George I Rákóczi, as during the reign of the princes Gabriel Bethlen or George II Rákóczi, the Principality of Transylvania, under Ottoman suzerainty, experienced an epoch of economic blossoming and political and cultural affirmation, reinforcing the central power.

He promoted an absolutist policy that has been doubled by the tendency to spread Calvinism. According to the ideas of Calvinism, he supported the use of the mother tongue in the liturgy and in education, not only in the case of the Hungarian community but also in the case of the Romanians and Transylvanian Saxons. The first translation of the New Testament in Romanian, also known as the Rakoczian Bible, was printed at the Princely Printing House in Alba Iulia at his request and on the expenses of the Principality.

His name is related to the establishment in 1669 of the elementary education system in Romanian, based on primary schools (népiskola), after his wife Zsuzsanna Lórántffy founded the first Romanian middle school in Făgăraş (in 1657). In 1644, he intervened in the Thirty Years War, declaring war against Emperor Ferdinand III. He took the whole of Upper Hungary and joined the Swedish army besieging Brno for a projected march against Vienna. However, his nominal overlord, the Ottoman Sultan, ordered him to end the campaign. In the Treaty of Linz (1645), Ferdinand recognized George's rule over the seven counties of the Partium and reaffirmed the religious liberties of Transylvania.

About the stamp
The stamp is part of the series Marine Landscapes in Painting, designed by Vlad Vămăşescu and issued on July 7, 2017. The series illustrates the sea, seen through artworks from the patrimony of the National Art Museum of Romania.
City by Sea (Naples) by Nicolae Grigorescu (2.20 RON) - It's on the postcard 3229
Balchik by Cecilia Cuţescu-Storck (2.70 RON)
Balchik by Dumitru Ghiaţă (8.00 RON)
Ivan Aivazovsky by Ivan Aivazovsky (15.00 RON)

References
Gheorghe Rákóczi I (rom) - Wikipedia

Sender: Carmen Ionescu (direct swap)
Sent from Bucharest (Bucharest / Romania), on 26.12.2017
Design: Török Károly F.
Photo: Sergiu Odenie
Watercolor, 19th century, The History Museum of Transylvania in Cluj-Napoca

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