Hungarian Peasants' Revolt, 1514



At Easter 1514, in Hungary the crusade against the Turks was preached. An army of 40,000 assembled at Pest, lead by György Dosza. However, he decided to lead it not against the Turks, but against Hungary's magnates - high nobility and clergy (Hungary, at that time was ruled practically by the Royal Council, composed of 39 barons). The suburbs of Buda and Pest became battleground. At royal command, the Voyevode of Transylvania, John Zapolyiai, approached with a force of 20,000; the decisivce battle was fought at Temesvar (in Rom. Timisoara). Szapolyiai put down the rebellion.
Dosza himself was executed; the peasants who were captured were reduced to the condition of serfdom.
In the same year, the Tripartitum - a law code defining the structure of Hungarian society - was set up, mainly credited to Istvan Werböczi. It was to serve as a Hungarian constitution for the next centuries to come.




EXTERNAL
FILES 		Die Bauernaufstände 1476-1525 (Peasants' Revolts), from Bundschuh's Homepage, in German
Biography of György Dosza, from Numismondo
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE Miklos Molnar, A Concise History of Hungary, Cambridge : UP 2001, KLMA Lib.Sign. 943.9 M727c



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on June 9th 2003, last revised on November 17th 2004

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