Ferenc Rákóczi II was the Prince of Transylvania from 1704 to 1711. In the very early 1700s, right after the Ottoman Empire left Hungary and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was born, the Hungarian nobility started feeling that Hungary should be an independent kingdom again. As part of the old branch of Hungarian nobility, Ferenc Rákóczi II was a part of this movement. He and the other independence-minded noblemen of Hungary took advantage of the Spanish War of Succession happening between the Spanish, French and Austrians. Rákóczi and his fellow noblemen amassed a group of about 3,000 soldiers willing to fight for independence, and in 1703, they marched west of Budapest to take those lands back from the Austrians.
A series of peace negotiations were attempted between 1705 and 1711. First, in 1705, the Hungarians and Austrians failed to negotiate the sovereignty of Transylvania. In 1707, Rákóczi and his foreign allies fought to depose the House of Habsburg from leadership. This effort failed, and the Habsburg line continued to rule the Austro-Hungarian empire. In 1708, Rákóczi was injured in battle. Fearing that he was dead, the other rebelling noblemen and generals abandoned the quest for independence and appealed to the Habsburgs for forgiveness.
