Giorgio Basta, Count of Huszt, Gjergj Basta or Gheorghe Basta (1550 – 1607) was an Italian general, diplomat, and writer of Arbëreshë origin, employed by the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II to command Habsburg forces in the Long War of 1591–1606. He was later sent to administer Transylvania as an Imperial vassal and to restore Catholicism as the dominant religion in the region. On his orders, his ally Michael the Brave, who ruled Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia, was assassinated on 9 August 1601, a few days after the common victory at the Battle of Guruslău, for trying to turn against Rudolf II. For this, he is often depicted as disloyal and violent by Romanian and Hungarian historians. Basta was also the author of books on the art of military leadership. Biography Basta was born to an Arbëreshë family. He is claimed to be born in La Rocca, modern day Roccaforzata, a village in Salento, Italy, however historical sources claim he was born in Rocca sul Tanaro, Monferrato. He was the son of Demetrius Basta, an Albanian Epirote who had fled the Ottoman conquest of the region to Italy, where he served the Spanish Empire. His father fought in the Piedmont countryside in the middle 1500s, and then in Flanders as commander of a cavalry regiment under the Duke of Alba. Very young, Basta became a soldier, and eventually got promoted to the rank of officer in a detachment commanded by Demetrio. Then after his father died, Basta served in a cavalry company run by his oldest brother Niccolò. In 1589, he married Anne de Liedekerke de Gavre, with whom he had 3 children: Ferdinand, Nicolas and Alexandrine. He began his military career in Flanders, where the young officer impressed Don John of Austria, and gained the governorship of Nivelles. In the service of Philip II of Spain, he led his army mainly on the French front during the War of the Three Henrys and the Catholic League. In 1584, Basta gained his first major victory when his troops were blocking communications between Malines and Antwerp. Even in the Spanish defeat in Brussels in March 1585, the blockade of the city was achieved by Basta's troops. During the end of the year, the commander led the cavalry of the expeditionary body which at Charles de Mansfeld's orders.... When the Catholics, in 1589, marched to retake Paris, it was the cavalry led