Kurucok

(a Hungarian word derived from the Late Latin cruciati, “crusaders”), peasants who took part in antifeudal uprisings in the Hungarian kingdom in the 16th century. The name dates from the uprising led by György Dózsa in 1514. In the 17th and early 18th centuries the term kurucok referred to peasants and noblemen who fought in the anti-Hapsburg liberation movements under the leadership of I. Thököli (1678–85) and Ferenc Rákóczy II (1703–11).