26 July 1703 The Serbs ambushed the Kuruc rebels of Bihar County
After the reconquest war of Hungary, the Habsburgs favored the Serbs, perhaps not unintentionally, and it caused bloody conflict between Hungarians and Serbs.
Bihar County has always been the home of the wandering Hajdu soldiers, the base of Protestantism, so even during the Thököly uprising, the dismissed Borderland warriors, poor peasants, Hajdus, and Protestant priests and students gathered here. During the years following the wars of liberation against the Turks, Szőcs (Szűcs) János from Balmazújváros rallied those dissatisfied with the imperial rule. He was formerly a Colonel of Thököly.
When he heard of Rákóczi’s return, he went to the prince, who appointed him colonel of the cavalry. He was ordered to organize an army near Diószeg to prevent the Serbs of the Arad Castle from joining the Imperial garrison in Várad Castle.
By this time, around 3000 infantrymen and 300 horsemen had gathered around Bóné András and Gödény Pál, former lieutenant of the Hajdú troops. On July 19, when Rákóczi had just crossed the Tisza River, the armed rebels at dawn “were sitting on Diószeg, then besieged the castle of General Count Gronsfeld and slaughtered the Germans found inside, together with Prefect Nordermann Sebestyén. Their chiefs were Bóné András and Gödény Pál, who lived in Diószeg” – reads the city minutes of Debrecen.
The hated prefect was killed in a rather cruel way: “his teeth were taken out with pincers and he was forced to dig a grave for himself, then his head was cut off and he was thrown into a pit he had made for himself.” After the Germans were driven out, the Kuruc troops occupied the bridge over the Berettyó River and the roads leading to Várad.
In response to their action, commander Beckers from Várad Castle, led by the Serbian captain Jovan Tököli-Popović and captain Kis Balázs, sent two regiments of Serbian soldiers from Váradolaszi, joined by 1200 Serbian soldiers of Friedrich Löwenburg and imperial soldiers of Major Böck.
Although the Kuruc troops were on constant patrol, with 300 cavalrymen constantly watching the Berettyó River bridge, the German attack took them by surprise. They slaughtered many of them, occupied the bridge at Pocsaj, and looted and burned the villages around Diószeg in the Érmellék and Sárrét regions.
At that time Rákóczi was camped in Debrecen and he heard about the failure of Bóné’s army. On August 5th he sent a strong army led by Bercsényi Miklós against the Serbs, which attacked the settlement of Váradolaszi at dawn the next day and slaughtered many Serbs. Kis Balázs was also killed.
(Source: Szibler Gábor)
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