 A larger image of Stephen Bocskai, Prince of Transylvania, and his hajduks Košice top left, to the right fortress Nové Zámky By Master W. P. Zimermann, 1606 The portrayal of Stephen Bocskai may be based on an engraving by Caymox Baltazár, 1604 |
Stephen Bocskai (or Bocskay, Hungarian: Bocskai István; Slovak: Štefana Bockaja) (1 January 1557 - 29 December 1606) was a Hungarian Calvinist nobleman, and Prince of Transylvania (1605-06), who was an eager advocate of the Hungarian interests and became the leader of a revolt against the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor's effort to impose Roman Catholicism on the Kingdom of Hungary, when it was partitioned between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy. Stephen Bocskay convinced both the hajdus (emancipated peasant warriors) and the vast majority of the civilian inhabitants including some of the Hungarian nobility to rise against the Hapsburgs. Bocskay's army won two crucial battles against the Habsburg army at Álmosd and Bihardiószeg. In 1605, István Bocskai was elected to be the ruling prince of Hungary and Transylvania in the Diet of Szerencs and by the end of the year, Bocskay gained supremacy over Transylvania and the entire part of the Kingdom of Hungary which was not under Ottoman control. This eventually forced archduke Matthias to open negotiations with Bocskay. The Peace of Vienna was signed on 23 June 1606. The peace guaranteed all the constitutional and religious rights and privileges of the Hungarians both in Transylvania and Royal Hungary. Bocskay was acknowledged as Prince of Transylvania by the Austrian court, and the right of the Transylvanians to elect their own independent princes in the future was officially recognized.
