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The Fate of the Rockefeller Scion Eaten by Cannibals and Other Macabre History

Khalid Elhassan December 19, 2021 35 min

Macabre Facts - Michael Rockefeller, surrounded by Papua tribesmen — Michael Rockefeller, surrounded by Papua tribesmen. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

19. The Aristocrat Who Led Medieval Peasants Against His Own Class

Gheorghe Doja (1470 – 1514) was a Transylvanian nobleman and soldier of fortune, who made a name for himself in the wars against the expansionist Ottoman Turks. Despite the fact that he was himself an aristocrat, he led a peasant rebellion in 1514 – a fierce but eventually unsuccessful uprising of the downtrodden Hungarian peasantry against their rapacious aristocratic overlords. After the peasant revolt was put down, Doja went down in history as both a notorious criminal and a Christian martyr.

Based on his reputation as a successful military leader against the Turks, Doja was appointed by Pope Leo X to lead a Crusade against the Ottomans. About 40,000 volunteers gathered beneath his banner, comprised in the main of peasants, friars, and parish priests – medieval society’s lowest rungs. The Hungarian nobility however neither supplied the Crusaders nor offered military leadership. That was seen as especially unseemly since military leadership was the main justification for the aristocracy’s elevated status and privileges.

Also Read: Medieval Peasants Worked Fewer Hours Than Modern Americans.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.