Rákóczi, Ferenc II, Movement of 1703–11

an anti-Hapsburg liberation war in the Kingdom of Hungary headed by Ferenc II Rákóczi.

The war began on May 21, 1703, with an antifeudal uprising of serfs in the north of Hungary proper. By late 1703 almost the whole territory of the Kingdom of Hungary was in the hands of the rebels, the Kurucok, who demanded the liquidation of the feudal and foreign yoke. Supported by Ukrainian, Rumanian, and Slovak peasants, the rebels drove the Hapsburg troops out of Transylvania in July 1704 and out of the Transdanubian region in December 1705. Under the influence of the military successes of the Kurucok, a large part of the nobility joined the movement, striving to channel it into an exclusively anti-Hapsburg orientation.

In September 1705 a state assembly of estates (diet) in Szécsény refused to recognize Emperor Joseph I as king of Hungary and proclaimed the formation of a “confederation” headed by Rákóczi. Organs of executive power—a senate and an economic council—and a regular Hungarian Army were set up. In June 1707 a diet in Ónod approved a law deposing the Haps-burgs from the Hungarian throne. A secret treaty was signed with Russia, and ambassadors were exchanged in September 1707.

After 1707 the peasantry, convinced that its basic demands remained unsatisfied, began leaving the movement, even though the diet in December 1708 adopted a law emancipating the participants in the liberation war from serfdom. The rebels were severely defeated in battles with the Hapsburg troops in September 1708 near the village of Trenćin and in January 1710 near Romhány. Among the nobility and the Catholic clergy the desire for peace with the Hapsburgs increased. In early 1711 the commander in chief of the rebel army, Baron S. Károlyi, entered into secret negotiations with the commander of the Hapsburg troops, Count J. Pálffy. On Apr. 30, 1711, he betrayed the rebels and concluded a peace treaty in Szatmár (present-day Satu-Mare). On May 1, 1711, the army of the Kurucok (12,000 men) surrendered on Majténjyi Field, and on June 22, 1711, the last fortress held by the Kurucok, Munkács, surrendered to the Hapsburg troops.