The Transylvanian peasant revolt (Hungarian: erdélyi parasztfelkelés), also known as the peasant revolt of Bábolna or Bobâlna revolt (Romanian: Răscoala de la Bobâlna), was a popular revolt in the eastern territories of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1437. 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 Transylvanian peasants had already been outraged because of the increase of existing seigneurial duties and taxes and the introduction of new taxes during the first decades of the century. 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, the two counts of the Székelys and many Transylvanian noblemen also hurried to the mountain to assist them against the rebels.

The rebels sent envoys to the voivode to inform him about their grievances, but the envoys were captured and executed. The voivode invaded the rebels' camp, but the peasants resisted and made a successful counter-attack, killing many noblemen during the battle. To prevent the rebels from continuing the war, the bishop and the leaders of the noblemen started negotiations with the rebels' envoys. Their compromise was recorded in the Kolozsmonostor Abbey on 6 July. The agreement reduced the tithe by half, abolished the ninth (a seigneurial tax), guaranteed the peasants' right to free movement and authorized them to hold an annual assembly to secure the execution of the agreement.

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 rebellious peasants left their camp and moved towards Dés (Dej). After a battle near the town, the parties concluded a new agreement on 6 October which increased the rent payable by the peasants to the landowners. Shortly thereafter, the peasants invaded the Kolozsmonostor Abbey and took possession of Kolozsvár and Nagyenyed (Aiud). 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. The leaders of the revolt were executed and other rioters were mutilated at the assembly of the representatives of the Three Nations of Transylvania in February.

Transylvania ("the Land beyond the Forests") was a geographic region in the 15th-century Kingdom of Hungary.^[1] Four major ethnic groups – the Hungarians, Saxons, Székelys, and Vlachs (Romanians) – inhabited the territory.^[1] The Hungarians, the Hungarian-speaking Székelys, and the Saxons formed sedentary communities, living in villages and towns.^[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.^[2] The Vlachs initially enjoyed a special status, which included that they were to pay tax only on their sheep, but Vlach commoners who settled in royal or private estates quickly lost their liberties.^[3] For administrative purposes, Transylvania was divided into counties and seats.^[1][4] The seven Transylvanian counties were subjected to the authority of a high-ranking royal official, the voivode of Transylvania.^[5][6] The seats were the administrative units of the autonomous Saxon and Székely communities.^[7]

The voivodes presided over the noblemen's general assemblies, which were annually held at a meadow near Torda (Turda).^[8][7] From the early 15th century, the voivodes rarely visited Transylvania, leaving the administration of the counties to their deputies, the vice-voivodes.^[6][8] The Transylvanian noblemen were exempted from taxation in 1324.^[9][10] Noblemen were granted the right to administer justice to the peasants living in their estates in 1342.^[9][11] The prelates acquired the same right in their domains in the second half of the 14th century.^[11] In 1366, Louis I of Hungary decreed that an oath taken by a Vlach knez (or chieftain) who "had been brought"^[12] to his estate by royal writ was equal to a true nobleman's oath, but other knezes were on a footing of equality with the heads of villages.^[13][14] The legal position of the knezes was similar to the "nobles of the Church" and other groups of conditional nobles, but the monarchs frequently rewarded them with true nobility.^[14][15] The ennobled Vlachs enjoyed the same privileges as their ethnic Hungarian peers, thus they became members of the "Hungarian nation" which had been associated with the community of noblemen.^[16] On the other hand, the Vlach commoners who lived on their estates lost their liberties.^[16]

The Székelys were a community of privileged border guards.^[17][18] They fought in the royal army, for which they were exempted from taxation.^[19] A royal official, the count of the Székelys, was their supreme leader, but the Székely seats were administered by elected officials.^[4] The Saxons also had the right to elect the magistrates of their seats.^[20][21] They enjoyed personal freedom and paid a lump sum tax to the monarchs.^[20] The wealthiest Saxon towns – Bistritz, Hermannstadt and Kronstadt (Bistrița, Sibiu and Brașov) – owned large estates which were cultivated by hundreds of peasants.^[22] Dozens of Saxons and Székely families held landed property in the counties, for which they also enjoyed the status of noblemen.^[23] Saxon and Székely leaders were occasionally invited to Torda to attend the general assemblies, which enabled the leaders of the three nations to coordinate their actions.^[8]

The towns, located in the counties, could hardly compete with the large Saxon centers.^[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.^[25] The merchants from Kolozsvár, Dés and other Transylvanian towns were exempted from internal levies, but the noblemen often ignored that privilege, forcing the merchants to pay duties while travelling across their domains.^[26]

The Hungarians, Saxons and Székelys adhered to Roman Catholicism.^[27] The Diocese of Transylvania included most of the province, but the Saxons of Southern Transylvania were subjected to the archbishops of Esztergom.^[28][1] Catholic commoners were to pay an ecclesiastic tax, the tithe, but John XXIII exempted the lesser noblemen from paying it in 1415.^[1] However, George Lépes, the bishop of Transylvania, ignored this decision, especially after John had been declared an antipope.^[1] The Vlachs were originally exempt from the ecclesiastic tax, but Sigismund of Luxemburg, king of Hungary, decreed that the Vlachs who settled on lands abandoned by Catholic peasants were to also pay the tithe.^[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.^[30]

The Ottomans attacked Transylvania almost every year starting in 1420.^[31][32] The peasants had to pay the increasing costs for defence against the Ottomans.^[33][34] They were regularly obliged to pay "extraordinary taxes" in addition to the chamber's profit (the traditional tax payable by each peasant household to the royal treasury).^[34][35] The king also ordered that every tenth peasant should take up arms in case of an Ottoman attack, although peasants had always been exempt from military obligations.^[36] The accommodation of the troops was also an irksome duty, because the soldiers often forced the peasants to supply them with food and clothes.^[37] The landowners began to collect the ninth from the peasants.^[29] Although the ninth had already been introduced in 1351, it was not regularly collected in Transylvania.^[29] The noblemen also made attempts to hinder the free movement of their serfs.^[33]

The increasing taxes and the new burdens stirred up the commoners. The Transylvanian Saxons could only overcome their rebellious serfs with the assistance of the vice-voivode, Roland Lépes, in 1417.^[38] The united armies of the counties and the Saxon seats crushed the Székely commoners' uprising in 1433.^[39] In early 1434, the burghers of Kronstadt had to seek the assistance of the count of the Székelys against the Vlachs who had risen up in Fogaras County.^[40] Hussite ideas, especially their egalitarian Taborite version, began to spread among the peasantry in the 1430s.^[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]

The delegates of the three Estates of Transylvania, noblemen (including the ennobled Saxons and Vlachs), Székelys, and Saxons, assembled at Torda on 2 February 1438.^[82] They confirmed their "brotherly union" against the rebellious peasants and the Ottoman marauders.^[65][75] Nine leaders of the revolt were executed at the assembly.^[65] Other defenders of Kolozsvár were mutilated.^[65][75] Taking advantage of the victory, the leaders of the noblemen also made attempts to harm their personal enemies.^[83] For instance, the voivode who wanted to seize some properties of the Báthorys accused them of having cooperated with the rebels.^[83] In retaliation for its support of the rebels, Kolozsvár was deprived of its municipal rights on 15 November.^[65] However, the burghers attained the restoration of their liberties with the support of John Hunyadi on 21 September 1444.^[84]

Contemporaneous letters unanimously described the revolt as a peasant war against their lords.^[85] On 22 July 1437, the judge royal, Stephen Báthory, referred to the Transylvanian events as the "peasants' war"; on 30 September, Roland Lépes mentioned that a nobleman had been wounded "in the general fight against the peasantry"; and Bishop Lépes wrote of the "war of the peasants" on 27 January 1439.^[85] Other documents (including the records of the meetings of the town council of Nagyenyed) emphasized that craftsmen and townspeople also joined the revolt.^[86] No contemporaneous source recorded that national hatreds played any role in the uprising.^[87] On the contrary, the cooperation of the Hungarian and Vlach commoners during the rebellion is well-documented.^[88] The first compromise between the rebels and the noblemen explicitly mentioned their common grievances.^[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.^[88]

Historian Joseph Held states, the "conservative stance of the Transylvanian peasant movement was similar to late medieval peasant movements elsewhere in Europe".^[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.^[62] On the other hand, Lajos Demény writes, the movement developed into a "general attack against feudal society" in Transylvania.^[89] Both historians conclude that the rebels could not achieve their principal purposes.^[62][90] The peasants' right to free movement was partially restored,^[62] but the landowners were again able to reduce it during the last decade of the century.^[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. However, no merely ethnic prejudice prevented Vlachs from acquiring land and joining the Hungarian noble class, provided they accepted Catholicism and adopted a noble life-style. 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.^[92]

• György Dózsa
• List of peasant revolts
• Popular revolts in late-medieval Europe
• Tuchin Revolt