8. Dozsa’s Gruesome Martyrdom
Hungary’s peasants were condemned to perpetual servitude, permanently bound to the soil, fined heavily, their taxes raised, and the number of days they had to work for their landlords was increased. Dozsa was captured and condemned to a fiendishly gruesome death by torture. Accused among other things of having sought to become king, he was sentenced to sit on a smoldering hot iron chair, while a red hot iron crown was affixed to his head. Next, chunks of his flesh were torn out, and nine of his leading followers, starved beforehand, were forced to eat his flesh.
The aristocratic backlash backfired, however. Twelve years later, in 1526, the Ottoman Turks invaded Hungary, and swiftly overran what was a still bitterly divided country. As to Dozsa, the revolutionary aspects of his life and its ending were drawn upon during the communist era in Romania, his land of birth, and in Hungary. In the latter, Dozsa is the most popular street name in villages, and a main avenue and metro station in Budapest bear his name.
Related: Most Unbelievably Strange Deaths of the Renaissance.
