Transylvania, the
Hungarian diet, assembled at Modgyes, elected him prince (1605), on
which occasion the Ottoman sultan sent a special embassy to congratulate
him and a splendid jewelled crown made in Persia. Bocskay refused the
royal dignity, but made skilful use of the Turkish alliance. To save the
Austrian provinces of Hungary, the archduke Matthias, setting aside his
semi-lunatic imperial brother Rudolph, thereupon entered into
negotiations with Bocskay, and ultimately the peace of Vienna was
concluded (June 23, 1606), which guaranteed all the constitutional and
religious rights and privileges of the Hungarians both in Transylvania
and imperial Hungary. Bocskay, at the same time, was acknowledged as
prince of Transylvania by the Austrian court, and the right of the
Transylvanians to elect their own independent princes in future was
officially recognized. The fortress of Tokaj and the counties of Bereg,
Szatmar and Ugocsa were at the same time ceded to Bocskay, with
reversion to Austria if he should die childless. Simultaneously, at
Zsitvatorok, a peace, confirmatory of the peace of Vienna, was concluded
with the Turks. Bocskay survived this signal and unprecedented triumph
only a few months. He is said to have been poisoned (December 29, 1606)
by his chancellor, Mihaly Katay, who was hacked to bits by Bocskay's
adherents in the market-place of Kassa.

See _Political Correspondence of Stephen Bocskay_ (Hung.), edited by
Karoly Szabo (Budapest, 1882); Jeno Thury, _Stephen Bocskay's
Rebellion_ (Hung.), Budapest, 1899. (R. N. B.)

BODE, JOHANN ELERT (1747-1826), German astronomer, was born at Hamburg
on the 19th of January 1747. Devoted to astronomy from his earliest
years, he eagerly observed the heavens at a garret window with a
telescope made by himself, and at nineteen began his career with the
publication of a short work on the solar eclipse of the 5th of August
1766. This was followed by an elementary treatise on astronomy entitled
_Anleitung zur Kenntniss des gestirnten Himmels_ (1768, 10th ed. 1844),
the success of which led to his being summoned to Berlin in 1772 for the
purpose of computing ephemerides on an improved plan. There resulted the
foundation by him, in 1774, of the well-known _Astronomisches Jahrbuch_,
51 yearly volumes of which he compiled and issued. He became director of
the Berlin observatory in 1786, withdrew from official life in 1825, and
died at Berlin on the 23rd of Novembe