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Rákóczi's War of Independence (1703–1711) was one of the most significant attempts to topple the rule of theHabsburgs overHungary. The war was conducted by a group of noblemen, wealthy and high-ranking progressives and was led byFrancis II Rákóczi and resigned soldiers and peasants fought alongside the noblemen. The insurrection was unsuccessful, ending with theTreaty of Szatmár; however, the Hungarian nobility managed to partially satisfy Hungarian interests.
With theTreaty of Karlowitz in 1699, theOttoman Empire renounced almost all of its claims to some ofits territories, which were conquered from the medieval Kingdom of Hungary after 1526. The nobility was against Habsburg rule because the lands formerly taken away from them by the Ottomans were returned only to those who could prove their right to own the property and could pay 10% of its worth to the Habsburgs. If they failed to do so, the property went to creditors of the Empire. The peasant class turned against the Empire because of the hardships the long wars brought upon them. In 1697 an anti-Habsburg uprising inTokaj was suppressed. However, relations between the court and the nobility were deteriorating, and the new Habsburg rulers treated the peasants so poorly that eventually some people wished for a return to Turkish rule.[1]
International relations provided Hungarians with an opportunity to liberate themselves from the Habsburgs. With the help of KingLouis XIV of France, anti-Habsburg rebels, led by young noblemanImre Thököly, rose against the Empire in 1678. Thököly occupied most of Northern Hungary. In 1681, the Ottomans joined to help him, and he was recognised as King of Upper Hungary by SultanMehmed IV. However, when the Ottomans lost the battle of Vienna in 1683, Thököly lost Ottoman support and was eventually defeated in 1685. His alliance with the Ottomans changed the positive perception Western Europe had about Hungary, and instead of being thought of as the bastion of Christianity, the country was now being thought of as an enemy,[2] Partly as a consequence, Hungary was occupied and organised as "newly acquired territory" instead of "territory liberated from the Ottomans".
Francis II Rákóczi (Hungarian:II. Rákóczi Ferenc) was the son of an old noble family and one of the richest landlords in theKingdom of Hungary.[3] He was the count(comes perpetuus) of theComitatus Sarossiensis (in HungarianSáros) from 1694 on. He was born toFrancis I Rákóczi, elected ruling prince of Transylvania, andIlona Zrínyi, in 1676. His father died when Rákóczi was a mere baby, and his mother marriedImre Thököly in 1682. After Thököly was defeated, Zrínyi held the castle ofMunkács (today Mukacheve in Ukraine) for three years but was eventually forced to surrender. After the Treaty of Karlowitz, when his stepfather and mother were sent into exile, Rákóczi had stay in Vienna under Habsburg supervision.
Remnants of Thököly's peasant army started a new uprising in the Hegyalja region of northeastern present-day Hungary, which was part of the property of the Rákóczi family. They captured the castles ofTokaj,Sárospatak andSátoraljaújhely, and asked Rákóczi to become their leader, but he was not eager to head what appeared to be a minor peasant rebellion. He quickly returned to Vienna, where he tried his best to clear his name. Rákóczi then befriended Count Miklós Bercsényi, who was married toKrisztina Csáky, and whose property atUngvár (today Ужгород (Uzhhorod), in Ukraine), lay next to his own. Bercsényi was a highly educated man, the third richest man in the kingdom (after Rákóczi and Simon Forgách), and was related to most of the Hungarian aristocracy.
As theHouse of Habsburg was on the verge of dying out, France was looking for allies in its fight against Austrian hegemony. Consequently, they established contact with Rákóczi and promised support if he took up the cause of Hungarian independence. An Austrian spy seized this correspondence and brought it to the attention of the Emperor. As a direct result of this, Rákóczi was arrested on 18 April 1700 and imprisoned in the fortress ofWiener Neustadt (south of Vienna). It became obvious during the preliminary hearings that, just as in the case of his grandfatherPéter Zrínyi, the only possible sentence for Francis was death. With the aid of his pregnant wife Amelia and the prison commander, Rákóczi managed to escape and flee to Poland. Here he met with Bercsényi again, and together they resumed contact with the French court.
Three years later, theWar of the Spanish Succession caused a large part of the Austrian forces in the Kingdom of Hungary to temporarily leave the country. Taking advantage of the situation,kuruc forces began a new uprising in Munkács, and Rákóczi was asked to head it. He decided to invest his energies in a war of national liberation, and accepted the request. On 15 June 1703, another group of about 3000 armed men headed by Tamás Esze joined him near the Polish city of Lawoczne (todayLavochne, a village inUkraine). Bercsényi also arrived, with French funds and 600 Polish mercenaries.
Most of the Hungarian nobility did not support Rákóczi's uprising, because they considered it to be no more than ajacquerie, a peasant rebellion. Rákóczi's famous call to the nobility ofSzabolcs County seemed to be in vain. He did manage to convince theHajdús (emancipated peasant warriors) to join his forces, so his forces controlled most ofKingdom of Hungary to the east and north of theDanube by late September 1703. He continued by conqueringTransdanubia soon after.
Since the Austrians had to fight Rákóczi on several fronts, they felt obliged to enter negotiations with him. However, the victory of Austrian and English forces against a combined French-Bavarian army in theBattle of Blenheim on 13 August 1704, provided an advantage not only in the War of the Spanish Succession, but also prevented the union of Rákóczi's forces with their French-Bavarian allies.
This placed Rákóczi into a difficult military and financial situation. French support gradually diminished, and a larger army was needed to occupy the already-won land. Meanwhile, supplying the current army with arms and food was beyond his means. He tried to solve this problem by creating a new copper-based coinage, which was not easily accepted in Hungary as people were used to silver coins. Nevertheless, Rákóczi managed to maintain his military advantage for a while – but after 1706, his army was forced into retreat.
A meeting of the HungarianDiet (consisting of 6 bishops, 36 aristocrats and about 1000 representatives of the lower nobility of 25 counties), held nearSzécsény (Nógrád County) in September 1705, elected Rákóczi to be the "fejedelem"- (ruling) prince – of the Confederated Estates of the Kingdom of Hungary, to be assisted by a 24-memberSenate. Rákóczi and the Senate were assigned joint responsibility for the conduct of foreign affairs, including peace talks.
Encouraged byEngland and theNetherlands, peace talks started again on 27 October 1705 between thekuruc leaders and the Emperor. However, military operations continued and both sides varied their strategy according to the military situation. On 13 December Kuruc forces led byJános Bottyán defeated the Austrians atSzentgotthárd. One stumbling block was sovereignty overTransylvania – neither side was prepared to give it up. Rákóczi's proposed treaty with the French was stalled, so he became convinced that only a declaration of independence would make it acceptable for various powers to negotiate with him. In 1706, his wife (whom he had not seen in 5 years, along with their sons József and György) and his sister were both sent as peace ambassadors, but Rákóczi rejected their efforts on behalf of the Emperor.
On Rákóczi's recommendation, and with Bercsényi's support, another meeting of the Diet held at Ónod (Borsod County) declared the deposition of theHouse of Habsburg from the Hungarian throne on 13 June 1707. But neither this act, nor the copper currency issued to avoidmonetary inflation, were successful.Louis XIV refused to enter into treaties with Prince Rákóczi, leaving the Hungarians without allies. There remained the possibility of an alliance with theRussian Tsardom, but this did not materialize either.
At theBattle of Trenčín (HungarianTrencsén, GermanTrentschin, LatinTrentsinium, Comitatus Trentsiniensis, today inSlovakia), on 3 August 1708 Rákóczi's horse stumbled, and he fell to the ground, which knocked him unconscious. The kuruc forces thought him dead and fled. This defeat was fatal for the uprising. Numerous Kuruc leaders transferred their allegiance to the Emperor, hoping for clemency. Rákóczi's forces became restricted to the area aroundMunkács andSzabolcs County. The Hungarian-Polish-Swedish-French army was close to victory against the Austrians in theBattle of Romhány but after draw result and not trusting the word ofJános Pálffy, who was the Emperor's envoy charged with negotiations with the rebels, the Prince left the Kingdom of Hungary toPoland on 21 February 1711.[4][5]
TheDenmark–Norway annuallyprovided cavalry and infantry regiments to the Habsburg army, which stationed these Danish regiments in Hungary; this resulted in Danish soldiers fighting alongside the Habsburg army against the Hungarians (Kurucs) and their allies.[6][7][8] The Danish forces fought in Eastern Hungary and Transylvania (Battle of Zsibó).
TheSerbs (who settled in thesouthern borders of Hungary during theGreat Serb Migrations and protected by the Austrians) fought on the Emperor's side since the beginning of the war. They were used as light cavalry in the Austrian army and as tax collectors. During the eight years of war, Hungarian villages and towns of theGreat Hungarian Plain andTransdanubia were burnt and robbed by the Serbs, while inBácska, Serb villages were burnt. However, there were some Serbs who fought on Rakóczi's side against the Habsburgs – the Frontiersmen of Semlak (Mezősomlyó). The leader of the Kuruc Serb troops was Frontier Captain Obrad Lalić fromZenta.
Croatia also supported the Habsburg Monarchy, thus the Croatian Army and the Habsburg contingents precluded the Kuruc occupation of Croatia. Croatian and Serbian forces fought inTransdanubia and Upper Hungary. TheTransylvanian Saxons also distanced themselves from Rákóczi in 1703. Although Austrian General Rabutin lost in Transylvania, he retreated into the Saxonland, where Saxon towns and peasants gave shelter to the Habsburg Army. Clashes between the Kuruc and Habsburg-Saxon army took place throughout Croatia.
During the conflict, the Slovaks fought for Rákóczi. In the Kuruc army there were Slovak commanders and a few Kuruc forces were completely Slovak. After the enfranchisement of Transylvania, the Romanian minority stood en masse with the Kurucs, and supported the Romanian Kuruc forces. Finally, a few hundred mercenaries fromWallachia andMoldavia fought in Rákóczi's army.
Scores of Polish volunteers and mercenaries came from Poland, also many soldiers wereUkrainians andLipka Tatars, they supported the Kurucs. Several times Rákóczi asked for help fromPoland and endeavored to recruit more Polish soldiers. In the Hungarian lands, theGermans Spiš Saxons and some German groups (including renegades from the Habsburg Army) joined Rákóczi's war. They were supplemented by German mercenaries. The Kuruc Army also used commands and oaths in both the Slovak and German languages, since there were so many Germans and Slovaks who served in the Kuruc army.
TheRusyn minority in 1703 immediately joined the uprising, but before that between 1690 and 1702 the Rusyns supported the Hungarians against the Austrian soldiers. TheHungarian Slovenes from the regions ofMuraszombat,Lendva andSzentgotthárd joined the fight against the Habsburg soldiers, since theStyrian forces several times foraged in the Slovene villages.
A few hundred Swedish soldiers broke away from theBattle of Poltava, Benderi and Poland in Hungary. In 1710 Rákóczi admitted the Swedes into the demoralized Kuruc army. The Hungarian-Polish-Swedish-French army was close to victory against the Austrians in theBattle of Romhány, but the last of Rákóczi's forces was crushed in the course of the Austriancounterattack resulting a draw.
Rákóczi's army also includedBulgarians,Litvins,Crimean Tatars andOttomans.
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