György Dózsa (or György Székely; 1470 – 20 July 1514) was a Székely man-at-arms (and by some accounts,örgyDó a nobleman) from Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary who led a peasants' revolt against the kingdom's landed nobility. He was eventually caught, tortured, and executed along with his followers, and remembered as both a martyr and a dangerous criminal. During the reign of king Vladislaus II of Hungary (1490–1516), royal power declined in favour of the magnates, who used their power to curtail the peasants' freedom.
Military career
George Dózsa was born in Dálnok (today Dalnic) around 1470. During the wars against the Ottoman Empire, he was a soldier of fortune. He spent his childhood in Dálnok with his younger brother Gergely (Gregory) Dózsa, and after the death of his father, the family moved to Makfalva. The young Dózsa was always attracted to the military career, and wanted to follow in his father's footsteps, so he later joined the army.
Dózsa served in several fortresses and became known as an excellent fencer and duelist during his military service. He took part as a cavalry captain in the 1513 campaign against the Ottomans led by János Szapolyai, Voivode of Transylvania. After the campaign he remained on guard at Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade). But Dózsa's desire for glory was growing, and his fellow soldiers tried in vain to dissuade him from challenging the feared Ottoman champion Ali of Epeiro to a duel. Ali was the leader (Bey) of the Ottoman Spahi cavalry from castle of Szendrő (now Smederevo Serbia), who had already caused the death of many Hungarian valiants during his duels. Ali immediately accepted the challenge, the duel was held on the field between Nándorfehérvár and Szendrő on 28 February 1514. After a desperate long but fierce struggle, Dózsa slowly managed to overcome his opponent, he cut off one of Ali's arm, and finally beheaded the Ottoman champion. With this victory, Dózsa won a nation-wide reputation and fame. For this brave deed, György Dózsa was knighted by King Valdislaus.
From peasant crusade to rebellion
In 1514, the Hungarian chancellor, Cardinal and Archbishop Tamás Bakócz, returned from the Holy See with a papal bull issued by Leo X authorising a crusade against the Ottomans. The archbishop appointed Dózsa to organize and direct the movement on 24 April 1514. On 30 April, after a solemn service, the Cardinal presented Dózsa with the symbol of the new crusade: a white flag with the red cross, blessed by the Pope.
The recruitment was probably accelerated when, at about the time of Dózsa's supposed appointment, Bakócz entrusted the recruitment to the obscurantist branch of the Franciscan order. The 'stricter' branch of the Franciscan order, which had split in the 15th century, was one of the best-established in Hungary in the 1510s, with nearly seventy monasteries and 1,700 friars throughout the country. So in the last week of April, the Franciscan friars went into action, mobilising tens of thousands of men in a few weeks. In the first week of May, 15,000 men were already in arms under Pest, and in several camps throughout the country, a further 25,000 to 30,000 peasants were waiting for the start of the operations against the Turks.
Within a few weeks, Dózsa had gathered an army of some 40,000 so-called hajdú, 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 he had provided them with some military training, they began to air the grievances of their status. No measures had been taken to supply these voluntary crusaders with food or clothing. As harvest-time approached, the landlords commanded them to return to reap the fields, and, on their refusing to do so, proceeded to maltreat their wives and families and set their armed retainers upon the local peasantry.