An Officer to the Habsburgs, A Captive to the Ottomans: Hauptmann Leonhardt Rüblandt’s Letters from the Seven Towers (1663–1674)

Hauptmann Leonhardt Rüblandt and several of his company’s imperial soldiers were taken captive by the Ottomans in a clash with Habsburg forces at Párkány (Ciğerdelen/Štúrovo) in 1663. Together with a group of other prisoners of diplomatic value, Hauptmann Rüblandt was incarcerated in the Seven Towers in Istanbul. From there, Rüblandt dispatched several letters to the imperial resident in Edirne and to Vienna. These letters testify to his interpretation of the events surrounding him in the Seven Towers as a manifestation of the wider political universe that extended beyond the walls of his confinement.