Editing Gabriel Bethlen (section)

=== Beginnings ===

Modern historians try to reconstruct the major events of Gabriel's youth based on sources (primarily memoirs and letters) completed decades later, because only two documents written between 1593 and 1602 mentioned him.{{sfn|Erdősi|Lambert|2013|pp=861, 863}} One of the later sources is Gabriel's own letter from 1628, in which he stated that [[Stephen Bocskai]] had raised him and "placed great credence" in him.{{sfn|Erdősi|Lambert|2013|p=864}} Gabriel also stated that Bocskai was his "kin".{{sfn|Erdősi|Lambert|2013|p=864}} Another important source was written by Gabriel's retainer, Pál Háportoni Forró, who stated that Gabriel had held "great and honorable offices" and performed "the greatly laborious duties of emissary" in his youth.{{sfn|Erdősi|Lambert|2013|p=864}} Based on these sources, modern historians assume that Bocskai boosted Gabriel's career in Sigismund Báthory's court,{{sfn|Barcza|1987|p=12}}{{sfn|Oborni|2012|p=206}} but no contemporaneous document mentioned his presence in the prince's retinue.{{sfn|Erdősi|Lambert|2013|p=861}}

Sigismund Báthory joined the anti-Ottoman [[Holy League of Pope Clement VIII]] and broke into Ottoman territory in the summer of 1595.{{sfn|Keul|2009|p=141}} According to historian József Barcza, Gabriel gained his first direct experience of warfare fighting against the Ottomans in the [[Battle of Giurgiu (1595)|Battle of Giurgiu]] in [[Wallachia]] in 1595.{{sfn|Barcza|1987|p=17}} After a series of Ottoman victories, Báthory abdicated in return for the [[Duchies of Silesia|Silesian duchies]] of [[Duchy of Opole|Opole]] and [[Duchy of Racibórz|Racibórz]] in 1597, enabling the commissioners of the [[Holy Roman Emperor]], [[Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Rudolph]] (who was also king of [[Royal Hungary]]) to take possession of Transylvania.{{sfn|Barta|1994|p=295}}{{sfn|Kontler|1999|p=164}}