Germans
Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe, who share a common German ancestry and history. German is the shared mother tongue of a substantial majority of ethnic Germans; the English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages. Since the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation within the Holy Roman Empire, German society has been characterized by a Catholic-Protestant divide. Of 100 million native speakers of German in the world 80 million consider themselves Germans. There are an additional 80 million people of German ancestry in the United States, Argentina, South Africa, the post-Soviet states, France, each accounting for at least 1 million. Thus, the total number of Germans lies somewhere between 100 and more than 150 million, depending on the criteria applied. Today, people from countries with German-speaking majorities most subscribe to their own national identities and may or may not self-identify as ethnically German.
The German term Deutsche originates from the Old High German word diutisc, referring to the Germanic "language of the people". It is not clear how if at all, the word was used as an ethnonym in Old High German. Used as a noun, ein diutscher in the sense of "a German" emerges in Middle High German, attested from the second half of the 12th century; the Old French term alemans is taken from the name of the Alamanni. It was loaned into Middle English as almains in the early 14th century; the word Dutch is attested in English from the 14th century, denoting continental West Germanic dialects and their speakers. While in most Romance languages the Germans have been named from the Alamanni, the Old Norse and Estonian names for the Germans were taken from that of the Saxons. In Slavic languages, the Germans were given the name of němьci with a meaning "foreigner, one who does not speak "; the English term Germans is only attested from the mid-16th century, based on the classical Latin term Germani used by Julius Caesar and Tacitus.
It replaced Dutch and Almains, the latter becoming obsolete by the early 18th century. The Germans are a Germanic people. Part of the Holy Roman Empire, around 300 independent German states emerged during its decline after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ending the Thirty Years War; these states formed into modern Germany in the 19th century. The concept of a German ethnicity is linked to Germanic tribes of antiquity in central Europe; the early Germans originated on the North German Plain as well as southern Scandinavia. By the 2nd century BC, the number of Germans was increasing and they began expanding into eastern Europe and southward into Celtic territory. During antiquity these Germanic tribes remained separate from each other and did not have writing systems at that time. In the European Iron Age the area, now Germany was divided into the La Tène horizon in Southern Germany and the Jastorf culture in Northern Germany. By 55 BC, the Germans had reached the Danube river and had either assimilated or otherwise driven out the Celts who had lived there, had spread west into what is now Belgium and France.
Conflict between the Germanic tribes and the forces of Rome under Julius Caesar forced major Germanic tribes to retreat to the east bank of the Rhine. Roman emperor Augustus in 12 BC ordered the conquest of the Germans, but the catastrophic Roman defeat at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest resulted in the Roman Empire abandoning its plans to conquer Germania. Germanic peoples in Roman territory were culturally Romanized, although much of Germania remained free of direct Roman rule, Rome influenced the development of German society the adoption of Christianity by the Germans who obtained it from the Romans. In Roman-held territories with Germanic populations, the Germanic and Roman peoples intermarried, Roman and Christian traditions intermingled; the adoption of Christianity would become a major influence in the development of a common German identity. The first major public figure to speak of a German people in general, was the Roman figure Tacitus in his work Germania around 100 AD; however an actual united German identity and ethnicity did not exist and it would take centuries of development of German culture until the concept of a German ethnicity began to become a popular identity.
The Germanic peoples during the Migrations Period came into contact with other peoples. The Limes Germanicus was breached in AD 260. Migrating Germanic tribes commingled with the local Gallo-Roman populations in what is now Swabia and Bavaria; the arrival of the Huns in Europe resulted in Hun conquest of large parts of Eastern Europe, the Huns were allies of the Roman Empire who fought against Germanic tribes, but the Huns cooperated with the Germanic tribe of the Ostrogoths, large numbers of Germans lived within the lands of the Hunnic Empire of
Vlad II Dracul
Vlad II known as Vlad Dracul or Vlad the Dragon, was Voivode of Wallachia from 1436 to 1442, again from 1443 to 1447. Born an illegitimate son of Mircea I of Wallachia, he spent his youth at the court of Sigismund of Luxembourg, who made him a member of the Order of the Dragon in 1431. Sigismund recognized him as the lawful voivode of Wallachia, allowing him to settle in the nearby Transylvania. Vlad could not assert his claim during the life of his half-brother, Alexander I Aldea, who acknowledged the suzerainty of the Ottoman Sultan, Murad II. After Alexander Aldea died in 1436, Vlad seized Wallachia with Hungarian support. Following the death of Sigismund of Luxembourg in 1437, Hungary's position weakened, causing him to pay homage to Murad II, which included participating in Murad II's invasion of Transylvania in the summer of 1438. John Hunyadi, Voivode of Transylvania, came to Wallachia to convince Vlad to join a crusade against the Ottomans in 1441. After Hunyadi routed an Ottoman army in Transylvania, the sultan ordered Vlad to come to Edirne where he was captured in 1442.
Hunyadi made Vlad's cousin, Basarab II, voivode. Vlad was released before the end of the year, but he had to leave his two sons as hostages in the Ottoman Empire, he was restored in Wallachia with Ottoman support in 1443. He remained neutral during Hunyadi's "Long Campaign" against the Ottoman Empire between October 1443 and January 1444, but he sent 4,000 horsemen to fight against the Ottomans during the Crusade of Varna. With the support of a Burgundian fleet he captured the important Ottoman fortress at Giurgiu in 1445, he made peace with the Ottoman Empire in 1446 or 1447, which contributed to the deterioration of his relationship with Hunyadi. Hunyadi invaded Wallachia, forcing Vlad to flee from Târgoviște in late November, where he was killed at a nearby village. Vlad's early life is poorly documented, he was born before 1395, was one of the numerous illegitimate sons of Mircea I of Wallachia. Vlad's modern biographers agree that he was sent as a hostage to Sigismund of Luxembourg, King of Hungary, in 1395 or 1396.
Sigismund mentioned that Vlad had been educated at his court, suggesting that he spent his youth in Buda and other major towns of Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire. Mircea I died in 1418, his only legitimate son, succeeded him. Two years Michael died fighting against his cousin, Dan II. During the following decade, Dan II and Vlad's half-brother, Radu II Praznaglava, were fighting against each other for Wallachia. Vlad left Buda for Poland without Sigismund's authorization in early 1423, but was captured before reaching the border. Before long, Sigismund acknowledged Dan II as the lawful ruler of Wallachia; the Byzantine historian, recorded that Vlad was "an officer in the army" of the Byzantine Emperor, John VIII Palaiologos, he "had access" to the imperial palace in Constantinople. Historian Radu Florescu says that Sigismund had appointed Vlad to receive John VIII in Venice in 1423, Vlad accompanied the emperor back to Constantinople. After realizing that John VIII could not help him to seize Wallachia, Vlad returned to Hungary in 1429.
Sigismund made Vlad a first-class member of the Order of the Dragon in Nuremberg on 8 February 1431. Other first-class members included Grand Duke of Lithuania; the dragon-shaped badge of the order gave rise to his Romanian sobriquet, for which his sons became known as Dracula. Vlad swore fealty to Sigismund. Vlad had to promise. However, Sigismund did not assist him to seize Wallachia. In the summer, Vlad's half-brother, Alexander I Aldea, invaded Wallachia with Moldavian support and dethroned Dan II. Vlad settled in Transylvania. A Neo-Renaissance mural in a three-storey house in the main square of Sighișoara may depict Vlad Dracul after an original painting, according to Radu Florescu; the mural depicts a corpulent man with long moustaches wearing a white turban. Alexander Aldea went to Adrianople to do homage to the Ottoman Sultan, Murad II, in 1432. Vlad wanted to invade Wallachia with the support of Wallachian boyars who had fled to Transylvania, but Alexander Aldea's principal official, prevented the invasion.
Sigismund authorized Vlad to buy weapons and muster an army of exiled boyars only in 1434. In 1435, Alexander Aldea fell ill and never recovered. Taking advantage of his brother's illness, Vlad broke into Wallachia, but Alexander Aldea and his Ottoman allies forced him to retreat. Alexander Aldea died in autumn 1436, he did not dismiss his predecessor's officials with the exception of Albu, who thus became his enemy. Vlad did not confirm the treaty that Alexander Aldea had concluded with the Ottomans, provoking an Ottoman incursion against Wallachia in November. Vlad's patron, Sigismund of Luxembourg, died on 9 December 1437. Sigismund's death and the uprising of the Transylvanian peasants weakened Hungary, forcing Vlad to seek reconciliation with the Ottoman Empire, he went to Edirne and swore fealty to Murad II. He promised to pay a yearly tribute to the sultan and to support the Ottomans' military campaigns at the sultan's order. Before long, Murad II decided to invade Hungary and ga
Guild
A guild is an association of artisans or merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as a confraternities of tradesmen, they were organized in a manner something between a professional association, a trade union, a cartel, a secret society. They depended on grants of letters patent from a monarch or other authority to enforce the flow of trade to their self-employed members, to retain ownership of tools and the supply of materials. A lasting legacy of traditional guilds are the guildhalls constructed and used as guild meeting-places. Guild members found guilty of cheating on the public would be banned from the guild. An important result of the guild framework was the emergence of universities at Bologna and Paris. A type of guild was known in Roman times. Known as collegium, collegia or corpus, these were organised groups of merchants who specialised in a particular craft and whose membership of the group was voluntary. One such example is the corpus naviculariorum, the college of long-distance shippers based at Rome's La Ostia port.
The Roman guilds failed to survive the collapse of the Roman Empire. In medieval cities, craftsmen tended to form associations based on their trades, confraternities of textile workers, carpenters, glass workers, each of whom controlled secrets of traditionally imparted technology, the "arts" or "mysteries" of their crafts; the founders were free independent master craftsmen who hired apprentices. There were several types of guilds, including the two main categories of merchant guilds and craft guilds but the frith guild and religious guild. Guilds arose beginning in the High Middle Ages as craftsmen united to protect their common interests. In the German city of Augsburg craft guilds are being mentioned in the Towncharter of 1156; the continental system of guilds and merchants arrived in England after the Norman Conquest, with incorporated societies of merchants in each town or city holding exclusive rights of doing business there. In many cases they became the governing body of a town. For example, London's Guildhall became the seat of the Court of Common Council of the City of London Corporation, the world’s oldest continuously elected local government, whose members to this day must be Freemen of the City.
The Freedom of the City, effective from the Middle Ages until 1835, gave the right to trade, was only bestowed upon members of a Guild or Livery. Early egalitarian communities called "guilds" were denounced by Catholic clergy for their "conjurations" — the binding oaths sworn among the members to support one another in adversity, kill specific enemies, back one another in feuds or in business ventures; the occasion for these oaths were drunken banquets held on December 26, the pagan feast of Jul —in 858, West Francian Bishop Hincmar sought vainly to Christianise the guilds. In the Early Middle Ages, most of the Roman craft organisations formed as religious confraternities, had disappeared, with the apparent exceptions of stonecutters and glassmakers the people that had local skills. Gregory of Tours tells a miraculous tale of a builder whose art and techniques left him, but were restored by an apparition of the Virgin Mary in a dream. Michel Rouche remarks that the story speaks for the importance of transmitted journeymanship.
In France, guilds were called corps de métiers. According to Viktor Ivanovich Rutenburg, "Within the guild itself there was little division of labour, which tended to operate rather between the guilds. Thus, according to Étienne Boileau's Book of Handicrafts, by the mid-13th century there were no less than 100 guilds in Paris, a figure which by the 14th century had risen to 350." There were different guilds of metal-workers: the farriers, knife-makers, chain-forgers, nail-makers formed separate and distinct corporations. In Catalan towns, specially at Barcelona, guilds or gremis were a basic agent in the society: a shoemakers' guild is recorded in 1208. In England in the City of London Corporation, more than 110 guilds, referred to as livery companies, survive today, with the oldest more than a thousand years old. Other groups, such as the Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers, have been formed far more recently. Membership in a livery company is expected for individuals participating in the governance of The City, as the Lord Mayor and the Remembrancer.
The guild system reached a mature state in Germany circa 1300 and held on in German cities into the 19th century, with some special privileges for certain occupations remaining today. In the 15th century, Hamburg had 100 guilds, Cologne 80, Lübeck 70; the latest guilds to develop in Western Europe were the gremios of Spain: Toledo. Not all city economies were controlled by guilds. Where guilds were in control, they shaped labor and trade. In order to become a master, a journeyman would have to go on a three-year voyage called journeyman years; the practice of the journeyman years still exists in France. As production became more specialized, trade guilds were divided and subdivided, eliciting the squabbles over jurisdiction that produced the paperwork by which economic historians trace their development: The
Albești, Mureș
Albești is a commune in Mureș County, Romania. It is composed of nine villages: Albești, Bârlibășoaia, Jacu, Șapartoc, Țopa, Valea Albeștiului, Valea Dăii and Valea Șapartocului. List of Hungarian exonyms
Transylvanian Saxons
The Transylvanian Saxons are a people of German ethnicity who were settled in Transylvania in waves starting from the mid-12th century until the late Modern Age. After 1918 and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, in the wake of the Treaty of Trianon, Transylvania was joined to the Kingdom of Romania, Transylvanian Saxons, together with other German sub-groups in newly enlarged Romania, became part of that country's broader German minority. Few still live in Romania, where the last official census carried out in 2011 indicated around 36,000 Germans, out of which 13,000 were of Transylvanian Saxon descent; the colonization of Transylvania by Germans commenced under the reign of King Géza II of Hungary. For decades, the main task of these medieval German-speaking settlers was to defend the southeastern border of the Kingdom of Hungary against foreign invaders stemming from Central Asia; the first wave of settlement continued well until the end of the 13th century. Although the colonists came from the western Holy Roman Empire and spoke Franconian dialects, they came to be collectively referred to as'Saxons' because of Germans working for the Hungarian chancellery.
The type of medieval German once spoken by these craftsmen and workers became known locally as Såksesch. The Transylvanian Saxon population has been decreasing since World War II in native Romania. Transylvanian Saxons started massively leaving the territory of present-day Romania during and after World War II, relocating to Austria predominantly to southern Germany; the process of emigration continued during the Communist rule in Romania. After the collapse of the Ceaușescu regime in 1989 half a million of them fled to unified Germany. Nowadays, the vast majority of Transylvanian Saxons live in either Austria. Nonetheless, a sizable Transylvanian Saxon population resides today in North America, most notably in the United States, as well as in Canada; the initial phase of German settlement began in the expansive mid-12th century, with colonists travelling to what would become Altland or Hermannstadt Provinz, based around the city of Hermannstadt, today's Sibiu. Although the primary reason for Géza II's invitation was border defense, similar to employing the Székelys against invaders, Germans were sought for their mining expertise and ability to develop the region's economy.
Most colonists to this area came from the Moselle River region. A second phase of German settlement during the early 13th century consisted of settlers from the Rhineland, the southern Low Countries, the Moselle region, with others from Thuringia and from modern-day France. A settlement in northeastern Transylvania was centered on the town of Nösen, the Bistritz, located on the Bistrița River; the surrounding area became known as the Nösnerland. Continued immigration from the Empire expanded the area of the Saxons further to the east. Settlers from the Hermannstadt region spread into the Hârtibaciu River valley and to the foot of the Cibin and Sebeș mountains; the latter region, centered around the city of Mühlbach, was known as Unterwald. To the north of Hermannstadt they settled what they called the Weinland including the village of Nympz near Mediasch; the term'Saxon' was applied to all Germans of the regions because the first German settlers who came to the Hungarian kingdom were poor miners or groups of convicts from Saxony.
In 1211 King Andrew II of Hungary invited the Teutonic Knights to settle and defend the Burzenland in the southeastern corner of Transylvania. To guard the mountain passes of the Carpathians against the Cumans, the Knights constructed numerous castles and towns, including the major city of Kronstadt. Alarmed by the Knights' expanding power, in 1225 Andrew II expelled the Order, which henceforth relocated to Prussia in 1226, although the colonists remained in Burzenland; the Kingdom of Hungary's medieval eastern borders were therefore defended in the northeast by the Nösnerland Saxons, in the east by the Hungarian border guard tribe of the Székelys, in the southeast by the castles built by the Teutonic Knights and Burzenland Saxons, in the south by the Altland Saxons. Although the knights had left Transylvania, the Saxon colonists remained, the king allowed them to retain the rights and obligations included within the Diploma Andreanum of 1224; this document conferred upon the German population of the territory between Draas and Broos both administrative and religious autonomy and obligations towards the kings of Hungary.
The territory, colonized by Germans covered an area of about 30,000 km². The region was called as Saxon Lands. During the reign of King Charles I of Hungary, the Saxons were organized in the Saxon Chairs: Along with the Teutonic Order, other religious organizations important to the development of German communities were the Cistercian abbeys of Igrisch in the Banat region and Kerz in Fogarasch; the earliest religious organization of the Saxons was
Counties of Romania
A total of 41 counties, along with the municipality of Bucharest, constitute the official administrative divisions of Romania. They represent the country's NUTS-3 statistical subdivisions within the European Union and each of them serves as the local level of government within its borders. Most counties are named after a major river, while some are named after notable cities within them, such as the county seat; the earliest organization into județe of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia dates back to at least the late 14th century. For most of the time since modern Romania was formed in 1859, the administrative division system has been similar to the French departments one; the system has been changed several times since and the number of counties has varied over time, from the 71 județe that existed before World War II to only 39 after 1968. The current format has been in place since 1968 as only small changes have been made since the last of, in 1997. According to a 2011 census data from the National Institute of Statistics, the average population of Romania's 41 counties is about 445,000, with Iași County as the most populous and Covasna County the least.
The average county's land area is 5,809 square kilometres, with Timiș County the largest and Ilfov County the smallest. The municipality of Bucharest, which has the same administrative level as that of a county, is both more populous and much smaller than any county, with 1,883,425 people and 228 square kilometres; the earliest organization into județe, ținuturi, dates back at least to the late 14th century. Inspired from the organization of the late Byzantine Empire, each județ was ruled by a jude, a person appointed with administrative and judicial functions. Transylvania was divided into royal counties headed by comes with administrative and judicial functions. After modern Romania was formed in 1859 through the union of Wallachia and the rump of Moldavia, the administrative division was modernized using the French administrative system as a model, with județ as the basic administrative unit. Aside from the 1950–1968 period, this system has remained in place until today. Since 1864, for each județ there exists a prefect, a subordinate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and representative of the government inside the county.
Until 1948, each județ was further divided into several plăși, each administered by a pretor. After the adoption of a new Constitution in 1923, the traditional local administrative systems of the newly acquired regions of Transylvania and Bessarabia were made uniform in 1925 with that of the Romanian Old Kingdom. County borders were kept intact, with few adjustments, the total number of counties was raised to 71. In 1938, King Carol II modified the law on the administration of the Romanian territory according to the fascist model. Ten ținuturi were ruled by Rezidenți Regali, appointed directly by the Monarch; the ținuturi represented another layer of administration between counties and the country, as the county borders were not erased. Due to the territorial changes during World War II, this style of administration did not last, the administration at the județ level was reintroduced after the war. Between 1941–1944, Romania administered the territory between the Dniester and Southern Bug rivers known as Transnistria, which consisted of 13 separate counties.
After taking over the administration of the country in 1945, the Communist Party changed the administrative model to that of the Soviet Union in 1950, but changed it back in 1968. The county borders set were quite different from those present during the interbellum, as only 39 counties were formed from the 56 remaining after the war. In 1981, Giurgiu and Călărași were split from Ialomița and the former county of Ilfov, while in 1997, Ilfov County, a dependency of the municipality of Bucharest for nearly two decades, was reinstated; the county borders set in 1968 are still in place today, but the functions of different authorities have changed due to administrative reforms in the 1990s. At present, Romania is divided into one municipality; each of the counties is further divided into communes. The prefect and his administration have executive prerogatives within the county limits, while limited legislative powers are assigned to a County Council elected every four years during local elections.
The territorial districts of the Romanian judicial system overlap with county borders, thus avoiding further complication in the separation of powers on the government. Communes of Romania Development regions of Romania List of Romania county name etymologies Former administrative divisions of Romania List of Romanian counties by population List of cities and towns in Romania List of Romanian counties by foreign trade Municipiu Blog of the Romanian Royalty House showing various maps with the previous administrative divisions of Romania. Current and historical divisions of Romania at Statoids.com "Geopolitical Entities and Their Codes". National Institute of Standards and Technology. Archived from the original on 2010-08-22. Retrieved 2010-
George I Rákóczi
George I Rákóczi was Prince of Transylvania from 1630 until his death in 1648. George was his second wife, Anna Gerendi. Sigismund, a successful military commander in Royal Hungary, was the first member of the Rákóczi family to rise to prominence. George was born in Szerencs on 8 June 1593, his mother died in 1595. George's childhood is undocumented, his father sent him to Kassa in late 1604 or early 1605. Kassa was the seat of Stephen Bocskai, who had rebelled against the Habsburg ruler of Royal Hungary, Rudolph. Through sending George to Kassa, Sigismund demonstrated his support to Bocskai who made him the governor of the Principality of Transylvania in September 1605. Bocskai named Bálint Drugeth as his successor in Transylvania on his deathbead, but the Diet of Transylvania elected Sigismund prince on 12 February 1606. After his election, Sigismund first drank George's health. Gabriel Báthory, who laid claim to Transylvania, made an alliance with the irregular Hajdú troops. Sigismund was forced to abdicate in Báthory's favor on 5 March 1608.
Although Sigismund lost the throne, his short reign in Transylvania strengthened his sons' position, because no other noblemen could demonstrate a princely origin. George went to Pressburg to represent his ailing father at the Diet of Hungary in September 1608, he was still at the Diet. George and his two brothers, Zsigmond and Pál, inherited their father's vast estates in Royal Hungary. Bálint Drugeth, their father's widow, Borbála Telegdy, her son-in-law, István Kendi, sued them for parts of their inheritance. To secure the support of the monarch, George went to the royal court at Prague in spring 1611, he cooperated with György Thurzó, Palatine of Hungary, against the Hajdús. George was made the ispán of Borsod County in 1615. A year he was appointed the captain of the royal castle at Ónod, he married Zsuzsanna Lorántffy. He would emphasize in his last will that his wife was the most beautiful and pleasant woman whom he met in his life, they settled in Szerencs, but moved to her inherited estate, Sárospatak.
They were enthusiastic adherents of the Reformed Church. He supported Gabriel Bethlen, the Calvinist Prince of Transylvania, against the Catholic pretender, György Drugeth; when Drugeth was planning to break into Transylvania, George visited Bethlen in July 1616. Rudolph's successor, Matthias II, favored the Catholic noblemen, although most Hungarian noblemen adhered to Protestantism; the childless monarch's designated heir, was notorious for his strong commitment to Counter-Reformation. Matthias was still alive when Ferdinand was crowned king of Hungary at the Diet in Pressburg on 1 July 1618. George was absent from the Diet; the Habsburg monarchs' Anti-Protestant measures had outraged the predominantly Protestant Bohemian noblemen. Their representatives broke into the Prague Castle and throw Matthias's two Catholic lieutenants out of a window on 22 May 1618; the Bohemian rebels sent envoys to the Protestant countries, seeking assistance against the Habsburgs. The Habsburgs' Anti-Protestant policy annoyed George, a leader of the Hungarian Protestants.
He urged Gabriel Bethlen to intervene in the conflict on behalf of the Bohemian rebels. He started to hire Hajdú troops in summer 1619. To prevent Rákóczi and Bethlen's cooperation, András Dóczy, the commander of the royal troops in Upper Hungary, offered Rákóczi's estates to Bethlen on the king's behalf. Instead of accepting Dóczy's offer, Bethlen informed Rákóczi that he had decided to invade Royal Hungary. To facilitate Bethlen's invasion, Rákóczi tried to capture Drugeth, but he could not prevent him from fleeing to Poland. Rákóczi marched to Kassa and persuaded the predominantly Evangelical burghers to surrender on 5 September. A day his Hajdú troops tortured and murdered three Jesuit priests, Melchior Grodziecki, Marko Krizin and István Pongrácz. Rákóczi returned to Sárospatak to meet with Bethlen who arrived at the head of the Transylvanian army on 17 September, they went to Kassa where Bethlen held an assembly with the deputies of the noblemen and towns of Upper Hungary. The deputies elected Rákóczi the commander of Upper Hungary on 21 September.
He established his seat in Kassa. Drugeth broke into Zemplén County on 21 November. Rákóczi tried to stop their invasion. Bethlen soon hurried back to Hungary, he blamed Rákóczi for the defeat, describing him as a young and inexperienced commander in a letter to the burghers of Kassa. Drugeth's troops plundered the region of Kassa. Rákóczi ordered the mobilization of the local troops; the Cossacks left Hungary before the end of 1619, Drugeth followed them to Poland in early next year. Ferdinand's army laid siege to Pressburg in October, but Rákóczi hurried to the town and forced the invaders to lift the siege. However, Ferdinand's troops inflicted a decisive defeat on the Bohemian army in the Battle of White Mountain on 8 November, his commander, invaded Upper Hungary, forcing Bethlen to withdraw his troops as far as Kassa in the first half of 1621. Most Hungarian noblemen sought a reconciliation with Ferdinand, but Rákóczi remained loyal to Bethlen. After Bethlen's opponents seized the fortress of Fülek, Rákóczi laid siege it in April, but he could not force the defenders to surrender.
Bethlen launched a counter-attack against Ferdinand's army in August. Rákóczi joined the military campaign and participat
Romania
listen); Latin: Castrum Sex) is a municipality on the Târnava Mare River in Mureș County, Romania. Located in the historic region of Transylvania, Sighișoara has a population of 28,102 according to the 2011 census, it is a popular tourist destination for its well-preserved walled old town, which is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
.jpg){kind=spacer}
.jpg)
