Ihász István - Pintér János szerk.: Történeti Muzeológiai Szemle: A Magyar Múzeumi Történész Társulat Évkönyve 6. (Budapest, 2006)
II. Módszertan - Műhely - Közlemények - Pozsonyi József: Adalékok a Rákóczi-szabadságharc főtisztjeinek genealógiájához
Contributions to the Genealogy of the Chief Commanding Officers in the Rákóczi Insurrection József Pozsonyi The Rákóczi Insurrection of 1703 demonstrated the frustration of both the Hungarian nobility and the peasantry, as well as that of the urban middle class, concerning the anti-Hungarian policies and practices of the long-rcigning Emperor Leopold I. The absolutism of the Habsburgs, together with religious grievances and the curtailment of the privileges of the various Hungarian estates, united into one camp the forces willing to fight for alleviating the burdens of the serfs, for the acceleration of economic development, and for the establishment of a national Hungarian state. On May 20, 1703, the insurgent peasants under the leadership of Tamás Esze and Albert Kis raised the standards of revolt sent to them by Rákóczi at the marketplaces of the settlements Tarpa and Vári. The inscription on the flags read "Pro patria et libertate" [For Country and Freedom]. The Rákóczi Insurrection was fought from the June of 1703 through May 1 st of 1711, the date of the armistice and capitulation of the Kuruc (freedom fighter) forces at Nagymajtény. During the eight years of Rákóczi's fight for freedom, a total of approximately 85 thousand people lost their lives. However, the size of Rákóczi's army, even at its largest, was only between 70 and 75 thousand. The bulk of the Kuruc troops were led by the members of the nobility, who were mostly inexperienced and undisciplined in military logistics and command. According to certain individual sources, like, for example, Magyarország Hadtörténete [Military History of Hungary], there were 25 generals in the insurrecting army. Among them, there were 8 counts, 7 barons, and 10 landlords. Other sources, such as Kálmán Thaly's Bottyán János vezénylő tábornok levelezései [The Letters of Commanding General János Bottyán], üst 30-32 generals. Thaly contends that there were only 7 people of noble descent who were given the rank of general. When listing the military ranks in the Rákóczi Insurrection, the rank of brigadier, introduced in 1704, would be the lowest among the grades for generals, while the title of genralissimo would be the highest. On the basis of this consideration, and also relying on Archívum Rákóczinnu m and Ferenc Rákóczi's memoirs called Emlékiratok as basic sources of information, we can safely state that there were 64 individuals ranked as generals fighting on the side of the Hungarian prince between 1703 and 1711. Even if we disregard the four French generals (Georges Chassan, Damoiseau, Louis Lemaire, and La Motte), we still have 60 ranking officers and generals left. As regards to the composition of the staff of generals, there were 13 counts, 10 barons, 35 land-owning noblemen, and one middle-class citizen among them, while one more was originally a villein. This latter one, called Tamás Esze, was raised to the status of nobility by Prince Rákóczi in 1708. The actual military rank of some of the ranking officers is not certain. For example, according to the majority of the sources, Ferenc Barkóczy Jr. was a colonel, whereas some of the sources grant him the rank of general. The same goes for Ádám Máriássy, who served as the adjutant general of the prince. As far as the relevant data in the sources is concerned, although there is some substantive discrepancy even in the case of the counts and the barons, the significant differences occur in the case of the landowners of noble descent.
