Revolt of Horea, Cloșca, and Crișan

The revolt of Horea, Cloșca, and Crișan (Romanian: Răscoala lui Horea, Cloșca și Crișan) was a Romanian-led revolt that began in the Metaliferi Mountains, Transylvania, but it soon spread throughout all Transylvania and the Apuseni Mountains. The leaders were Horea (Vasile Ursu Nicola, 1731–1785), Cloșca (Ion Oarga [ro], 1747–1785) and Crișan (Marcu Giurgiu [ro], 1733–1785).
The revolt started in 31 October 1784, in the village of Curechiu, Hunedoara, when 600 Romanian serf led by Cloșca were attacked by hussar troops while attempting to go to Alba Iulia and enlist as border guards in the imperial regiments, despite governor's Samuel von Brukenthal ban of further conscription. And it ended in 27 December 1784, when Horea and Cloșca were captured by the Habsburg authorities.
The revolt was directly related to the poor conditions of feudal serfs in the Principality of Transylvania, where Orthodox Romanians lacked political equality with Catholics. After Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I's incorporation of the principality into the Habsburg domains in 1691, the rights of the Hungarian, Székely, and Saxon nobles were preserved. The peasants however, most of whom were Romanians, had no political representation. In particular, although they were tolerated, the Romanian peasantry lacked guarantees for their Orthodox church institutions.
Several villages from Hunedoara entrusted the peasant Horea, whose official name was Vasile Ursu Nicola, to present their complaints before the Austrian Emperor Joseph II. Horea traveled to Vienna often in the years from 1779 to 1784 to present to the emperor the injustices to which the Romanian peasants in Transylvania were subjected, but with no success, the last audience being in April 1784. In the summer of 1784, Emperor Joseph II ordered a military conscription in Transylvania, those enlisted were to receive weapons and no longer perform serf duties, and the lands and houses they were using would become their own. However, the number of those who wished to enlist far exceeded the Austrian expectations. The conscription was canceled by the governor of Transylvania, Samuel von Brukenthal, under pressure from the Hungarian nobility who felt their class privileges were threatened, which further displeased the Romanian peasants.
The peasant Crișan however, in violation of Samuel von Brukenthal's order, gathered 600 serfs from different villages on 28 October 1784 and convinced them to go to Alba Iulia and enlist as border guards in the imperial regiments. The people set off towards Alba Iulia over the mountain, bypassing the town of Brad to avoid being stopped by the Hungarian nobility, they spent the night in the village of Curechiu. During the night, they were attacked by hussar troops, whom they managed to defeat and disarm. Now well armed, the attack changed the plans of the serfs, who turned back towards Brad. On 3 November 1784, they attacked the Kristyory noble court in Crișcior. Then, part of them went upstream, towards Abrud, via Mihăileni, while another group went downstream, conquering Brad, Baia de Criș, Ribița, Hălmagiu, Hălmăgel, Ociu Aciuta, and Pleșcuța.
In the following two days, the peasants destroyed and burned all the noble courts in the communes of Sulighet, Bretea, Ilia, Sârbi, Gurasada, Tătărești, Leșnic, Dobra, Roșcani, Geoagiu de Jos, and others. Peasants from Zarand, Strei and Hațeg further mobilized and joined the revolt. The crowd of rebellious peasants ravaged and set fire to the noble buildings in almost all the communes up to the border with Wallachia. Cloșca was part of the initial 600 serfs who marched for Alba Iulia, he would later play a significant role in the coordination and leadership of the uprising.
The revolt targeted the nobility but also non-Orthodox common people, regardless of ethnicity, because the Romanians considered they unfairly received opportunity for advancement in society. The massacres mostly affected the areas and population of Alsó-Fehér County, Zaránd County, and Hunyad County. Between the autumn of 1784 and the winter up to 1785, civilian casualties numbered about 4,000 people from 133 settlements, mostly Hungarians.
While the main Austrian army was waiting for instructions from Vienna, the rebels continued to fight the Transylvanian nobility. On 5 November 1784, the uprising reached the outskirts of the city of Deva, but failed to conquer the city, with 56 peasants being captured and executed. On 11 November 1784, Horea issued an ultimatum to the nobility who had taken refuge in the city, summarizing the political and social ideas of the uprising.
The revolt called for the release of the arrested peasants, national liberation and the organization of a 'popular republic'. The uprising spread, reaching the areas of Arad and Sibiu, with Saxon and Hungarian peasants joining the revolt as well. At its peak, the revolt reached 10.000 people. To buy time, the military and civil authorities signed armistices with the rebels at Tibru, Valea Bradului, and Sălciua. However, there were fierce battles at Brad, Lupșa, and Râmeț between the rebels and the Transylvanian nobility, with the rebels being victorious.
Emperor Joseph II, seeing the seriousness of the uprising, instructed the military to intervene and suppress the revolt in early November. He sent imperial forces to Transylvania, and they were commanded to use force to restore order. The Battle of Târsa was the first significant battle following the Austrian intervention where the rebels were defeated by the Austrian forces on 18 November 1784. Afterwards, the imperial forces, led by Colonel Johann von Vins, decisively defeated the peasants at Câmpeni (Topánfalva, Topesdorf) on 14 December 1784, causing a significant loss of morale and military strength for the rebels.
In the following days, while pockets of resistance and small skirmishes occurred, the imperial army had regained control over most of the region, with leaders of the revolt being hunted down. To capture Horea, the nobility placed a reward on his head. The crossing points into Wallachia and Moldavia were strictly monitored to prevent the leaders of the revolt from fleeing there. The Habsburg monarchy also requested the Ottoman Empire to refrain from granting asylum to the Transylvanian rebels. On 27 December 1784, Horea and Cloșca were betrayed by the forester Anton Melzer from Abrud, who informed the Austrian authorities of their location, leading to their capture in the Scorușetului forest of the Gilău Mountains. Peasants Ștefan Trif and Nuțu Matieș along with five others participated in Horea’s capture for the reward. Crișan was also captured on 30 January 1785, betrayed by nine peasants from Cărpeniș.
More than 600 rebels were captured, out of which 120 were sentenced to death, 37 penalties were delivered initially but they were leter changed to imprisonment as a result of the amnesty of the emperor, with an exception regarding the three leaders.
Crișan hanged himself on the night before the execution, while Horea and Cloșca were subjected to the harshest punishment provided by the Constitutio Criminalis Theresiana, by being broken on the wheel. On 28 February 1785. Horea and Cloșca were transported in two separate carts, accompanied until the moment of their execution by Romanian Orthodox priest Rațiu from the Church in Maierii Bălgradului. The transport was flanked by a squadron of Tuscan cavalry and approximately 300 infantry and hussars. On Dealul Furcilor (Gabelberg, Forks Hill), named today Dealul Horea (Horea Hill), between 2,500 and 3,000 Romanian serfs from over 400 villages were forcefully brought around the erected podium to watch the execution.
The head of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church during the revolt, Alexandru Sterca-Șuluțiu de Cărpiniș, described Horea as "a man of great wit and natural wisdom, with boldness and determination" who while ravaging the property of Transylvanian nobility did not attack imperial property. Horea was dressed in a black suman (a traditional Romanian coat), adorned on the edges with purple stitching, tight trousers, a sheepskin coat, and a black hat. As the revolt spread quickly, the peasants soon occupied all of Zărand, blocked the roads, took their own security measures, and even introduced their own 'Romanian passports'.
The text of one such 'passport' reads:
Cloșca was described as short in stature, intelligent, focused, and brave. He was somewhat wealthier than Horea. The nickname "Cloșca" comes from the peasant custom of playfully giving various names to fellow villagers and from his reputation as a hardworking householder who accumulated wealth. Cloșca lived in the village of Cărpeniș, in Alba County. He was married to Marina, and they had five children: Iosif, Nicolae, Ioan, Vasile, and Ana. He also had two siblings: his brother was named Teodor Oargă, and his sister was Achimia. At the outbreak of the revolt, Cloșca was 37 years old and had already been to Vienna three times, along with Horea, to present the petitions of the peasants to Emperor Joseph II. Throughout the entire revolt, he was Horea's closest collaborator and friend. In his testament, he split his wealth to multiple people.
Crișan was born in 1732 in the locality of Vaca (Váka, Vaka), today the village of Crișan, the son of Petru Golda from Vaca and the daughter of Priest Toader Giurgiu from Giurgești. Orphaned of both parents at a young age, he was adopted and raised by his maternal grandfather, Toader Giurgiu, who gave him his name. His first name remained the one given at baptism, Gheorghe. He attended school in Abrud under the name Gheorghe Giurgiu. He also served in the military in the regiment of Count Ferenc Gyulai. The nickname "Crișan" was given only after he settled in Cărpiniș, where he got married. The nickname referred to the fact that he came from the Crișul Alb valley.
The reward promised to the peasants who helped capture the leaders of the uprising was freedom from serfdom and a payment of 600 coins. Following their execution, Emperor Joseph II ordered that "all Romanians who are undoubtedly known to have committed mistreatments should be relocated with their cattle and tools", hundreds of peasants who took part in the revolt were displaced to Banat and Bukovina. However, Joseph II enacted a Patent for the Abolition of Serfdom for Transylvania in August 1785. This put an end to serfdom, although the feudal system continued to be practiced for several more decades. The Emperor also ended aristocratic control over peasant marriages, granted peasants the right to education and expanded their grazing rights.
The uprising had a wide echo abroad. From Austria to Portugal, from Germany to Italy, brochures, calendars, press articles, diplomatic reports, and engravings about the leaders of the uprising were published. Some intellectuals and philosophers defended and explained the peasants' actions. Horea was particularly credited by the European press with the idea of restoring Dacia, even being called "Rex Daciae" (King of Dacia).
The uprising reverberated throughout Western Europe. It upset the feudal system and is considered by many to have inspired the French Revolution. In 1785, Jacques Pierre Brissot, who would become a leader of the French Revolution, published an open letter to Joseph II in which he asserted the right of royal subjects to protest.
In Sweden, the revolt of the Transylvanian peasants led by Horea was followed through frequent correspondences with Vienna, Sibiu and other European centers. In 1814, the story of the rebels was adapted into a play titled "Horea and Closca, the Band of Thieves from Transylvania" which was performed in several Swedish cities.
In 1937, a monument in the form of an obelisk was erected in Alba Iulia to commemorate the revolt. It was designed by Iosif Fekete [ro] and Octavian Mihălțan.
During World War II, the Soviet Union created the Horea, Cloșca și Crișan Division which was named after the revolt. The division was made up of Romanian volunteers mainly drawn from prisoners of war and exiled communist activists.