Transylvanian peasant revolt

The revolt broke out after George Lépes, bishop of Transylvania, had failed to collect the tithe for years because of a temporary debasement of the coinage, but then demanded the arrears in one sum when coins of higher value were again issued.

Most commoners were unable to pay the demanded sum, but the bishop did not renounce his claim and applied interdict and other ecclesiastic penalties to enforce the payment.

The bishop also tried to collect the tithe from the petty noblemen and from Orthodox Vlachs who had settled in parcels abandoned by Catholic peasants.

In the spring of 1437, Hungarian and Vlach commoners, poor townspeople from Kolozsvár (now Cluj-Napoca in Romania)[note 1] and petty noblemen started to assemble on the flat summit of Mount Bábolna near Alparét (Bobâlna) where they set up a fortified camp.

The bishop and his brother, Roland Lépes, the deputy of the voivode (or royal governor) of Transylvania, gathered their troops to fight against the rebels.

The voivode invaded the rebels' camp, but the peasants resisted and made a successful counter-attack, killing many noblemen during the battle.

The noblemen, the counts of the Székelys and the delegates of the Saxon seats concluded a "brotherly union" against their enemies at Kápolna (Căpâlna).

The united armies of the voivode of Transylvania, the counts of the Székelys and the Saxon seats forced the rebels to surrender in January 1438.

[1] Many of the Vlachs were shepherds, herding their flocks between the mountains and the lowlands,[1] but the monarchs and other landowners granted them fiscal privileges to advance their settlement in arable lands from the second half of the century.

[20] The wealthiest Saxon towns – Bistritz, Hermannstadt and Kronstadt (Bistrița, Sibiu and Brașov) – owned large estates which were cultivated by hundreds of peasants.

[24] Kolozsvár was granted the right to buy landed property from the noblemen or other landowners in 1370, but its burghers were regarded as peasants by the bishops of Transylvania and the abbots of Kolozsmonostor Abbey, who forced them to pay the ninth (a seigneurial tax) on their vineyards until 1409.

[29] Sigismund was an absent monarch, deeply involved in European politics; he spent much time outside Hungary, especially in his other realms, such as Germany and Bohemia.

[33] In May 1436, George Lépes urged the inquisitor James of the Marches to come to Transylvania, because Hussite preachers had converted many people to their faith in his diocese.

[41] In order to tackle financial burdens resulting from the Hussite wars and military campaigns against the Ottoman Empire, Sigismund of Luxemburg put lower value silver coins into circulation in 1432.

[46] At the bishop's request, the king ordered the voivode and the ispáns (or heads) of the counties to secure the collection of the tithe in early September.

[45] The villagers from Daróc, Mákó and Türe (Dorolțu, Macău and Turea) assaulted the abbot of Kolozsmonostor at Bogártelke (Băgara) in March.

[45] Peasants from Alparét and Bogáta (Bogata de Sus) were the first to settle on the top of the nearby Mount Bábolna[50] in May or June.

[51] Being surrounded by high cliffs and dense forests and crowned by a plateau of about 7–8 hectares (17–20 acres), the mountain was an ideal place for defence.

[33] A lesser nobleman, Antal Nagy de Buda, came with a group of peasants from Diós and Burjánosóbuda (Deușu and Vechea) to the mountain.

[33] They requested Csáki to put an end to abuses over the collection of the tithe and to persuade the bishop to lift the ecclesiastic bans.

[56] The rebels' deputies were appointed by their leaders, including Pál Nagy de Vajdaháza, who styled himself "the flag bearer of the universitas of the Hungarian and Vlach inhabitants of this part of Transylvania".

[62] The Kolozsmonostor agreement prescribed that the "delegates of the noblemen and the inhabitants of the realm" should ask Sigismund of Luxemburg to send an authentic copy of Stephen's charter.

[61] The peasants preserved the right to elect delegates and start new negotiations with the representatives of the noblemen if Stephen's charter did not properly regulate their obligations towards the landowners.

[65] They concluded a "brotherly union" against their enemies in early September, pledging to provide military assistance to each other against both internal and foreign aggressors.

[67][71] The new agreement did not determine the "gifts" that the peasants were to give to the landowners, only stating that they were required to fulfill this obligation three times a year.

[85] Other documents (including the records of the meetings of the town council of Nagyenyed) emphasized that craftsmen and townspeople also joined the revolt.

[88] For instance, the rebels complained that "both the Hungarians and the Vlachs who lived near castles" had arbitrarily been compelled to pay the tithes on their swines and bees.

[62] The peasants only wanted to secure the abolition of new seigneurial duties and the restoration of the traditional level of their taxes, without calling into question the basic structure of the society.

[91] According to historian Jean Sedlar, Vlach peasants "occupied the lowest rung of the social ladder, superior only to slaves" in medieval Transylvania because of their Orthodox faith.

At the same time, the fact that upward mobility required the renunciation of Vlach identity clearly hindered this group from developing a sense of ethnic solidarity.