György Dózsa (or, in some sources, György Székely; 1470 - 20 July 1514) was a Székely Hungarian man-at-arms (and by some accounts, a nobleman) from Transylvania who led a peasants' revolt against the Hungarian landed nobility. He was eventually caught, tortured, and executed along with his followers, and remembered as both a Christian martyr and a dangerous criminal.
Born in Dálnok, Dózsa was a soldier of fortune who won a reputation for valour i...
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György Dózsa (or, in some sources, György Székely; 1470 - 20 July 1514) was a Székely Hungarian man-at-arms (and by some accounts, a nobleman) from Transylvania who led a peasants' revolt against the Hungarian landed nobility. He was eventually caught, tortured, and executed along with his followers, and remembered as both a Christian martyr and a dangerous criminal.
Born in Dálnok, Dózsa was a soldier of fortune who won a reputation for valour in the wars against the Ottoman Empire. The Hungarian chancellor, Tamás Bakócz, on his return from the Holy See in 1514 (with a papal bull issued by Leo X authorising a crusade against the Ottomans), appointed Dózsa to organize and direct the movement. Within a few weeks he had gathered an army of some 100,000 so-called Kurucok, consisting for the most part of peasants, wandering students, friars, and parish priests - some of the lowest-ranking groups of medieval society. They assembled in their counties, and by the time Dózsa had provided them...
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