RÁKÓCZI. - A Hungarian noble family, probably of Bohemian origin, whose members were repeatedly princes of Transylvania.

Its most eminent representatives were: SIGISMUND (1544-1608), elected prince of Transylvania in 1607, renounced the following year in favor of Gabriel Báthory; GEORGE I (1593-1648), prince of Transylvania in 1630, allied himself with Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden against the Empire, conquered almost the entire Kingdom of Hungary and by the Peace of Linz (1645) forced the Emperor to recognize for Protestants freedom of worship in the lands of the crown of St. Stephen; GEORGE II (1621-60), prince of Transylvania in 1642, aspired to the throne of Poland and died from wounds received in combat against the Turks; FRANCIS I (1645-76), passed from Protestantism to Catholicism, was elected prince of Transylvania, but did not reign; FRANCIS II (1676-1735), placed himself, after the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession, at the head of the Magyar independence movement; elected in 1704 prince of Transylvania and in 1705 of all Hungary, he had the support of Louis XIV, but, repeatedly defeated by the Habsburgs, he took refuge in Poland, then in England and in France. In 1717 he requested the support of the Turks, then at war against the Emperor. Having settled in 1720 in the Ottoman Empire, he resided there until his death: he is the Magyar national hero; JOSEPH (1700-1738) was a claimant to the crown of Hungary during the Turco-Austrian war of 1737-38. The family died out in 1756.

Bibliography9 works

BIBL.: G. Miskolcay, R., in Enc. Ital., XXVIII, pp. 794-95; A. Szilágyi, Georg R. I im dreissigjährigen Kriege (1610-40), Budapest 1883; C. L. Wibling, Carl X Gustaf och Georg R. II, Lund 1891; E. Horn, François R. II, prince de Transylvanie, Paris 1906; L. Hengelmüller, Franz R. und sein Kampf für Ungarns Freiheit (1703-11), Stuttgart 1913; L. Makkai, Hist. de Transylvanie, Paris 1946, passim; E. Pillas, Etudes sur François II R., ibid. 1939; id., Josepha-Charlotte, la dernière des R., in Rev. d'hist. comparée, new series, 5 (1947), pp. 208-18; id., Les derniers d'une grande famille. Joseph et Georges R., ibid., 6 (1948), pp. 214-25.

Silvio Furlani

@incollection{ec10_rakoczi, author = {Furlani, Silvio}, title = {Rákóczi}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {507}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/rakoczi} }

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