Miklos Zrínyi, born into an extremely wealthy aristocratic family and educated by the Jesuits, had become viceroy of Croatia in 1647.

His chief concern is driving the Turks out of Hungary, and he has spent his entire life fighting the conquerors, becoming the outstanding Hungarian military leader of his century.

Zrínyi also opposes Habsburg rule and seeks the unification of his dismembered country and the organization of a modern absolutist state.

He starts an anti-Habsburg organization in 1664 but is killed this same year by a wild boar.

Zrínyi's finest literary work, and one of the major works of Hungarian literature, is his epic Szigeti Veszedelem (1645–46; English translation, “The Peril of Sziget,” in Hungarian Poetry, 1955), which deals with the heroic defense of the fortress of Szigetvár (1566) against the armies of the sultan Süleyman II.

The commander of the fortress, the central figure of the epic, was the poet's great-grandfather, who fell during the siege.

The Turkish army, having wintered in Belgrade, renews its advance on Austrian Hungary, taking as many fortresses as possible on the road to Vienna and causing the Austrians under Holy Roman Emperor Leopold 1 (1640-1705) to begin peace negotiations.

Before ratifying the peace terms, the Turks plan to hold the area north of the Raab River, but fortune and bad weather rule otherwise.

Half of the Turkish army has crossed the river in the area of the Convent of St. Gotthard, but rain and flooding prevent the second half from crossing.

Austrian cavalry under Field Marshal Raimund Montecuccoli (1609-80) defeat the advance force in the Battle of St. Gotthard (or Raab River) on August 1, 1664, for which Montecuccoli is hailed as the savior of Christendom.

The Battle of St. Gotthard, the first great Turkish defeat, has forced the Treaty of Vasvár, a twenty-year truce signed on August 10, which confirms Turkish suzerainty over Transylvania but removes Austrian and Ottoman troops from the area to reduce confrontation.

In a minor territorial concession, the Turks keep the fortresses they have seized.

The Austrian military success is not reflected in the terms of the Treaty of Vasvar, as Transylvania is given to Apafi as an Ottoman client prince.

The Habsburg emperor’s cession of a large portion of Hungarian land to the Ottoman Turks under the Peace of Vasvar has provoked the opposition of many previously pro-Habsburg Hungarian Roman Catholic magnates, including the palatine administrator Ferenc Wesselényi; the bán (governor) of Croatia, Péter Zrínyi; the chief justice of Hungary, Ferenc Nádasdy; and Ferenc Rákóczi.

Forming a conspiracy to free Hungary and Croatia from Habsburg rule, they secretly negotiate for assistance from France and Turkey.

Ferenc Rákóczi marries Péter Zrínyi’s daughter Ilona in March 1666.

Péter Zrínyi finally receives some encouragement from the sultan in 1670 and prepares to march into Styria.

Rákóczi, believing rumors that a formal alliance has been concluded, also assembles his forces and arrests Count Rüdiger von Starhemberg, the imperial commander in the northern Hungarian city of Tokay.

The Turks' chief interpreter, however, has revealed the plot to Habsburg officials in Vienna.

Imperial troops rescue Starhemberg and easily disperse the rebels.

An Austrian court tries several leaders for high treason by a, and Zrínyi, Nádasdy, and two others are beheaded on April 30, 1671.

Wesselényi had earlier died of natural causes.

Rákóczi is spared on payment of a ransom, however, through his mother's influence with the Jesuits.