Editing Gabriel Bethlen (section)

== Early life ==

Gabriel was the elder of the two sons of Farkas [[Bethlen|Bethlen de Iktár]] and Druzsiána Lázár de Szárhegy.{{sfn|Barcza|1987|p=11}}{{sfn|Oborni|2012|p=206}} Gabriel was born in his father's estate, Marosillye (now [[Ilia, Hunedoara|Ilia]] in [[Romania]]), in 1580.{{sfn|Barcza|1987|p=11}}{{sfn|Oborni|2012|p=206}} Farkas Bethlen was a [[Hungarian nobility|Hungarian nobleman]] who lost his ancestral estate, Iktár (now [[Ictar-Budinț]] in Romania), due to the [[Ottoman Hungary|Ottoman occupation of the central territories of the Kingdom of Hungary]].{{sfn|R. Várkonyi|Campbell|2013|pp=698-699}} [[Stephen Báthory]], [[Prince of Transylvania]], granted Marosillye to him and made him captain-general of the principality.{{sfn|R. Várkonyi|Campbell|2013|p=699}} Druzsiána Lázár was descended from a [[Székelys|Székely]] noble family.{{sfn|Barcza|1987|p=11}}{{sfn|R. Várkonyi|Campbell|2013|p=699}} Both Farkas Bethlen and his wife died in 1591, leaving their two sons, Gabriel and [[Stephen Bethlen|Stephen]], orphaned.{{sfn|R. Várkonyi|Campbell|2013|p=699}}

The brothers were put under the guardianship of their maternal uncle, András Lázár de Szárhegy.{{sfn|Barcza|1987|p=11}}{{sfn|R. Várkonyi|Campbell|2013|p=699}} They lived in the [[Lázár Castle]] in Szárhegy in [[Székely Land]] (now [[Lăzarea]] in Romania) for years.{{sfn|R. Várkonyi|Campbell|2013|p=699}} Gabriel's court historian, Gáspár Bojti Veres, described Lázár as a "grumpy and fierce" soldier who did not care much about their formal education.{{sfn|Oborni|2012|p=206}}

According Gabriel's first extant letter (from 1593), [[Sigismund Báthory]], [[Prince of Transylvania]], seized the brothers' estates "at the word of many coaxing people" without paying a compensation to them in 1591 or 1592, but a "few primary kinsmen" convinced the prince to offer restitution or other landed property to them.{{sfn|Barcza|1987|p=11}}{{sfn|Erdősi|Lambert|2013|p=860}} Gabriel also mentioned in the letter that he decided to visit the prince's court in Gyulafehérvár (now [[Alba Iulia]] in Romania).{{sfn|Erdősi|Lambert|2013|p=861}}