Abstract

The mining towns of Upper Hungary experienced varying forms of unrest in the course of the sixteenth century. Not long after Luther had pinned up the 95 theses against indulgences in Wittenberg in 1517 reformed ideas can be found in the predominantly German-speaking towns of northern Hungary. Paralleling the Peasants’ War in the Empire in time and sentiment, revolt broke out among the miners in 1525. Following the defeat of the Hungarian army by the Ottoman sultan Suleyman in 1526, the violence abated, but unrest continues to be evident throughout the sixteenth century. The paper will address the changing status of this particular group of mines in the course of the sixteenth century, which undoubtedly played a large role in the discontent. The paper will go beyond economic considerations and also address the ethnic dimensions of the Reformation in the region and the role of both ethnicity and preaching in the revolts of Upper Hungary.