RÁKÓCZI. – Noble Hungarian family, probably of Bohemian origin, whose members were repeatedly princes of Transylvania.
Its most eminent representatives were: SIGIEMONDO (1544–1608), elected prince of Transylvania in 1607, he renounced the position the following year in favor of Gabriele Báthory; GIORGIO I (1593–1648), prince of Transylvania in 1630, he allied himself with Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden against the Empire, conquered almost the whole Kingdom of Hungary and, with the Peace of Linz (1645), compelled the Emperor to recognize freedom of worship for Protestants in the lands of the crown of S. Stefano; GIORGIO II (1621–60), prince of Transylvania in 1642, he aspired to the throne of Poland and died from wounds sustained in combat against the Turks; FRANCESCO I (1645–76), he converted from Protestantism to Catholicism, was elected prince of Transylvania, but did not reign; FRANCESCO II (1676–1735), after the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession, he placed himself at the head of the Hungarian independence movement; elected prince of Transylvania in 1704 and of all Hungary in 1705, he received the support of Louis XIV, but, repeatedly defeated by the Habsburgs, took refuge in Poland, then in England and France. In 1717 he requested the support of the Turks, who were then at war with the Emperor. Having settled in the Ottoman Empire in 1720, he remained there until his death: he is the Hungarian national hero; GIUSEPPE (1700–1738) was claimant to the Hungarian crown during the Turco-Austrian War of 1737–38. The family became extinct in 1756.