A Nagykereki Bocskai várkastély történeti kiállítása ( Bocskai-szabadságharc 400. évfordulója 4. Debrecen, 2004)

brought its first fruits in this region, in the successful der fence of Nagykereki (3-5. Oct. 1604) and the battle of Almosd (15. Oct. 1604), which proved decisive in the course of the uprising developing into a fight for freedom. The military successes were accompanied by political results, and the Transylvanian nobility and the Hungarian elected him as Prince of Transylvania on 21. February 1605 at Nyárádszereda, then Prince of Hungary on 4. April 1605. During his short reign he worked out the political directives which determined the Hungarian political mentality in the century just beginning at that time, built on the need for an independent Transylvania, which could also ensure the rights of the Hungarian Monarchy. In the summer of 1606 he concluded peace with the Hungarian King, which ensured acknowledgement of privileges and practising Protestant religion for the Hungarian believers, and played a dominant role in the conclusion of peace between the Hungarian King and the Turkish Sultan at Zsitvatorok, which brought the fifteen-year war to a close. He endowed the courageous hajdú soldiers with land and free nobility privileges in several charters, installing them into the natural structure of the society; neither did he forget to provide a charter for his ancestral estate, Kismarja. The hajdú towns provided by him with special rights, then the organising Hajdú-district legal authority, later Hajdú county, together with Bihar, always faithfully preserved, and still vividly recall the memory, prominence and political heritage of their great son and benefactor, Bocskai István, an outstanding figure among the great Hungarians. 71