The idea for the present volume or, more precisely, for a Workshop at which the papers here brought together were delivered, grew out of discussions, involving its two present editors and other colleagues, which took place during some congenial evening gatherings at an earlier workshop, on the subject of “Bordering Early Modern Europe”, which was held at the University of Sofia in March 2013.1 It occurred to us then that, if we were to develop the themes of borders and frontiers which had largely figured in the 2013 workshop, it might be useful to look more narrowly at one or other of the several moments of significant change in the configuration of the borders of Europe with its neighbours in the Early Modern period.
A general consensus soon emerged that it was, perhaps, overdue to give some further attention to what was arguably one of the most significant reconfiguration of the borders of Eastern Europe: the one which took place in the course of the “Long War” of 1683–99 between the Austrian Habsburgs and their allies – Poland, Venice and (eventually) Russia – and the Ottomans, and subsequently in the peace settlement which was to be achieved in 1699 at the Congress of Carlowitz, a process characterised by one notable historian of our time as the “closing of the Ottoman frontier” in Europe.
Use of the term “overdue” also suggests that there has been a relative dearth (though not an absolute one) of contemporary scholarship on a subject which recent events might well qualify as capable of rescuing it from a certain degree of academic obscurity. The deeper reasons for the unfashionability of the Sacra Lega wars among both Turkish and Western historians may only be guessed at, and although they do need to be addressed, that task cannot be attempted here. It is hoped, however, that the papers collected here may stimulate further research into the period.
To what extent we were justified in this hope, which was manifested in the enthusiastic participation of the historians who assembled in Sofia in the spring of 2014 for a workshop on the diplomatic history of the Long War and the Carlowitz settlement, time will tell, but the papers here gathered together for publication bear witness to our hopes for a revival of interest in the subject.
Our thanks, as editors and participants, are due to the Center for Excellence in the Humanities “Alma Mater” at St Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, and especially to its Director, Professor Ivan Ilchev, whose positive attitude made the funding of the workshop in April 2014 and the financing of the editing of the manuscript possible. We wish also to thank Dr. Anne Simon from the University of London, who lingustitcally edited the papers, which was of great help for those authors who were not English native speakers. We would like also to say thank you to Dr. Maria Baramova from the Institute for Byzantine and Balkan Studies at Sofia University’s Faculty of History, who compiled the index of the volume.
And, at the end, some words of gratitude from one of the editors, Ivan Parvev, to the other, Colin Heywood. It should be underlined that the idea to have a workshop on the War of 1683–1699 and the Congress of Carlowitz was actually Colin Heywood’s. So thank you, Colin, for that fine insight! We, the colleagues from the University of Sofia, picked up that proposal and now we all, Professor Heywood included, are really glad to hold this fine Brill volume in our hands!
Colin Heywood, Ivan Parvev
Spring 2019
M. Baramova, G. Boykov and I. Parvev (eds.), Bordering Early Modern Europe (Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Verlag, 2015).