Kuruc

Kuruc (Hungarian: [ˈkurut͡s], plural kurucok), also spelled kurutz, refers to a group of armed anti-Habsburg insurgents in the Kingdom of Hungary between 1671 and 1711. Over time, the term kuruc has come to designate Hungarians who advocate strict national independence and the term "labanc" to designate Hungarians who advocate cooperating with outside powers. The term kuruc is used in both a positive sense to mean "patriotic" and in a negative sense to mean "chauvinistic". The term labanc is almost always used in a negative sense to mean "disloyal" or "traitorous". This term originally referred to Habsburg troops, mainly Austrian imperial soldiers, garrisoned in Hungary. The kuruc army was composed mostly of impoverished lower Hungarian nobility and serfs, including Hungarian Protestant peasants and Slavs. They managed to conquer large parts of Hungary in several uprisings from Transylvania before they were defeated by Habsburg imperial troops.