The Bocskai uprising, known in Hungary as Bocskai's War of Independence () was a revolt which took place in Hungary, Transylvania and modern Slovakia during the Long Turkish War (between 1604 and 1606) against Emperor Rudolf II. The rebel leader was Stephen Bocskai, a Protestant Hungarian nobleman. The Ottoman wars had burdened the Kingdom of Hungary for years, causing famine and disease, and the armies of the Christian states had been weakened by losses to Ottoman and Tatar forces.
Rudolf II persecuted the Protestants, and the wealthy Hungarian noblemen were falsely accused of treason. Bocskai organized the revolt and persuaded the Hungarian military Hajduks to join, defeating the imperial forces and foreign mercenaries. The Hungarian nobility, soldiers and peasants (including the minorities) joined Bocskai's Hajduk army. Although he was supported by the Ottoman Empire, the Crimean Khanate, Moldavia, Transylvania and Wallachia, he prevented an Ottoman siege of Vienna. Bocskai was declared Prince of Transylvania and Hungary, but recognized that total Hungarian independence impossible against the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Empire. He blazed a political trail for his supporters: the preservation of an independent Transylvania, a potential base for the unification of Hungary.
Background
Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria, who became Holy Roman Emperor in 1556, had centralized the military and finances of the Habsburg Empire. The Kingdom of Hungary (which had lost territory) was governed by the Hofkriegsrat, the , the Hofkanzlei and the Secret Council, based in Vienna. The border fortress system was imported from Vienna during the 16th century. Pozsony and Szepes (Spiš) were governed from Vienna, and the Court Chamber (Hofkammer) had no Hungarian members.
Complaints in the national parliaments included the behavior of foreign officials and mercenaries and the fact that the Habsburgs spent little time in Hungary. Rudolf moved his residence from Vienna to Prague in 1583; it was safer from the Ottomans, but further from Hungary. After the 1562 death of Palatine Tamás Nádasdy, his position remained vacant until 1608.
Prelude
In 1591, the Long Turkish War began. The Habsburg Monarchy (Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, Croatia, and Moravia) joined the Transylvanian and Ottoman vassal states of Moldavia and Wallachia. Several European states also sent troops to Hungary. The Papal State primarily recruited foreign Walloon and Italian mercenaries for the war. The Habsburg and Spanish kings also employed Walloon mercenaries in addition to German, Italian and Spanish soldiers.
The Christian forces suppressed the Ottomans early in the war until the Battle of Keresztes (1596), when they were defeated. The war then dragged on, wearing out Hungary, Transylvania, and Croatia. The Habsburgs spent their military budget, and the unpaid mercenaries (particularly the Walloons) ventured into Hungary and Transylvania. The Tatar auxiliary of the Ottoman army wrought havoc in Hungary, and several thousand men died of hunger and disease.
The Long Turkish War's effects on Transylvanian domestic policy
With minor clashes escalating along the border, the Long Turkish War began as early as 1591. More serious combat took place in 1593, when Sultan Murad III nullified the 1568 Treaty of Adrianople and declared war on the Habsburgs. Although the sultan called on Zsigmond Báthory to join the Ottoman army, he decided to join the anti-Ottoman league on the advice of his uncle Stephen Bocskai (captain of Várad, present-day Oradea) and the Jesuit priest Alonso Carrillo. Most of the Transylvanian Assembly feared that Turkish troops would loot Transylvania before the Christian army arrived, however, and the prince's plan was not adopted. Zsigmond Báthory resigned from the principality in the summer of 1594 in favor of his cousin, Boldizsár Báthory, who represented the Turks.
Bocskai began working behind the scenes to reverse this. After visiting the prince's trustees, he asked for soldiers. The Assembly of Kolozsvár passed a resolution dissolving the Turkish alliance and supporting the emperor. On orders from Sigismund, the opposition lords, the prince (Boldizsár Báthory), his cousin, chancellor Farkas Kovacsóczy, councilor Sándor Kendy (father-in-law of Boldizsár Báthory and Farkas Kovacsóczy), Ferenc Kendy (brother of Sándor János Kendy), Gábor Kendy Gergely and László Szalánczy from Branyicska were captured and executed. Others were imprisoned because prince Sigismund Bathory had pardoned János Gerendi, Albert Lónyai, György Szalánczi and Boldizsár Szilvásy.