Berecz Mátyás - Bujdosné Pap Györgyi - Petercsák Tivadar (szerk.): Végvár és mentalitás a kora újkori Európában - Studia Agriensia 31. (Eger, 2015)
MÉSZÁROS KÁLMÁN: „Vagy hazám szabadsága, vagy halál”. Rózsa István szegedi végvári vitéz Rákóczi táborában
Kálmán Mészáros “EITHER THE LIBERATION OF MY HOMELAND, OR DEATH” István Rózsa Szeged Border Castle Warrior in the Rákóczi Camp Among the longest held artefacts in the Weapon Cabinet of the Hungarian National Museum is a pointed dagger dating from the turn of the 18th century on the brass mounting of which is the date 1704 and a number of mottos accompanied by the name of the owner István Rózsa. The legendary beginnings of the Szeged soldier’s career as passed down through the generations had already been put down in writing by historians during the course of the 19th century. It was according to this legend that as a shepherd’s son somewhere in the Szeged region, at the spring which bears his name, István Rózsa cut down a Turk who was washing himself there, and on seizing the horse and his weapons then embarked on a military career. In 1697, he distinguished himself at the Battle of Zenta, and his deeds were recognized by Leopold I in 1699 when a letter of safe-conduct was sent to his home. According to the romantic tales surrounding Rózsa it was then that he also acquired his famous pointed dagger. Although there is some discrepancy with the date 1704, some new data relating to István Rózsa featuring in the present study can be linked to this period, namely his role in the Rákóczi War for Freedom. According to the Szeged-Palánkváros land register, on 18* April 1704 while a cavalry private, Rózsa defected to the kuruc army who had been occupying Palánk, together with his younger brother, before fleeing and setting fire to the suburb. By the autumn of 1705 he was serving as vice-lieutenant in the company of the most famous Szeged kuruc lieutenant Miska Kis. By 1707, he himself was a lieutenant, and the commander of one of the three Szeged companies. His name appears with ever greater regularity in the written sources, where he is mentioned variously as being an excellent raider or as an officer who on account of his misdemeanours is convicted or at least suspected of wanting to become a traitor. It was probably in the summer of 1710 that his loyalties returned to the emperor, following the Peace of Szatmár. In 1718-20 it was as a cavalier lieutenant that he served at Szeged Castle. 307
