How Did the Peace Treaty of Szatmár End Hungary’s Fight for Freedom?

History, like nature, seldom leaps but rather unravels in patterns of gradual decline and abrupt turning points. The defeat of the kuruc forces at the Battle of Trencsény in 1708 was one such moment. The battle revealed not only the military fragility of the kuruc resistance but also the fraying unity of their cause. What had begun as a bold struggle against Habsburg domination, led by Ferenc II Rákóczi, was increasingly undermined by internal discontent and exhaustion after years of relentless warfare.

In an attempt to breathe life back into his failing rebellion, Rákóczi convened the Diet of Sárospatak in 1708, a desperate gesture to revive the waning support of the Hungarian peasantry. The diet abolished serfdom for those peasants and their families who continued to fight. Yet, this promise came too late. The people were weary, their spirits dampened by the strain of prolonged war, and even among the kuruc soldiers, dissatisfaction simmered.

By 1710, the rebellion suffered its final military blow at the Battle of Romhány, marking the end of any real hope for victory. From that point forward, the kuruc leaders shifted their focus from fighting to negotiating. Sándor Károlyi, entrusted with full powers by Rákóczi, opened peace talks with the Habsburgs. Meanwhile, Rákóczi clung to the fading hope of foreign intervention, turning to the Russian czar, Peter the Great, for military aid—a hope that proved illusory.

In April 1711, Károlyi signed the Peace Treaty of Szatmár, a document born not of triumph but of pragmatism. The kuruc forces formally surrendered on the field of Majtény. The treaty represented a compromise, balancing Hungarian interests with the Habsburgs' desire for stability. Amnesty was granted to the rebels, and the confiscated estates of Hungarian nobles were returned. The privileges of the nobility, including the right to elect a palatine and convene the diet, were restored. Religious toleration was promised, and foreign officials were removed from Hungarian posts.

Through this agreement, the Habsburgs secured the loyalty of the Hungarian aristocracy, thereby stabilizing their rule over the kingdom for decades. The rebellion was over, and Hungary’s centuries-long struggle for autonomy entered a new, more subdued phase.

Yet, for Rákóczi, the treaty was a bitter pill. Refusing to accept the terms, he chose exile over compromise. His odyssey took him across Europe before he eventually settled in Rodosto, Turkey, where he spent the remainder of his life in dignified obscurity. Rákóczi’s death in exile marked the symbolic end of the rebellion, though his legacy endured. When his ashes were returned to Hungary in the cathedral of Kassa, it was as if the nation was reclaiming not only its hero but also a fragment of its tumultuous past.

The Peace Treaty of Szatmár was not merely the conclusion of a rebellion; it was a critical juncture in Hungary’s history, a moment when resistance gave way to accommodation, and the contours of the nation’s future under Habsburg rule were quietly drawn.

Sources:

Győző Somogyi, The Army of the Rákóczi War of Independence 1703-1711, 2009.

Paul Lendvai, The Hungarians: A Thousand Years of Victory in Defeat, 2003.

Márki Sándor, II. Rákóczi Ferenc élete, 1907.

William B. Slottman, Ferenc II Rákóczi and the Great Powers, 1997.

Barcy Zoltán, A szabadságharc hadserege: 1848/49 katonai szervezete egyenruhái és fegyverzete, 1977.