DOZSA, GYORGY (d. 1514), Hungarian revolutionary, was a Szekler squire and soldier of fortune, who won such a reputa tion for valour in the Turkish wars that the Hungarian chan cellor, Minas Bakocz, on his return from Rome in 1514 with a papal bull preaching a holy war against the Muslims, appointed him to organize and direct the movement in Hungary. In a few weeks he collected thousands of so-called Kuruczok (a corruption of Cruciati), consisting largely of the most oppressed portion of the community, to whom alone a crusade against the Turk could have the slightest attraction. They assembled in their counties and by the time Dozsa had drilled them into some sort of disci pline and self-confidence, they began to air the grievances of their class. No measures had been taken to supply the volunteers with food or clothing ; at harvest time the landlords ordered them to return to reap the fields, and when they refused to do so, mal treated their wives and families and set their armed retainers upon the half-starved multitudes. Instantly the movement was changed into a war of extermination against the landlords. Dozsa had lost control of the rabble, who were led by a socialist parson of Szegled, Lorincz Meszaros. Hundreds of manor-houses and castles were burnt and thousands of the gentry done to death by impalement, crucifixion and other unspeakable methods. The rising soon attained the dimensions of a revolution; the feudal levies of the kingdom were called out against it, and mercenaries were hastily hired from Venice, Bohemia and the emperor. At first it seemed as if the Government were incapable of coping with Dozsa and his bands. In the summer he took the fortresses of Arad, Lippa and Vilagos, and one of his bands got within five leagues of the capital. But at last his peasants were over matched by the mail-clad nobles. Dozsa, too, had become de moralized with success. He was finally routed at Temesvar by the combined forces of Janos Zapolya and Istvan Bathory, taken prisoner and afterwards put to death with the most unspeakable barbarities.
See Sandor Marki, Dozsa Gyorgy (Budapest, 1884) ; and a novel by Eotvos trans. into German as Der Bauernkrieg in Uugarn (185o) .