Francis II Rákóczi in the context of "Prince of Transylvania"

Rákóczi's War of Independence (1703–1711) was one of the most significant attempts to topple the rule of the Habsburgs over Hungary. The war was conducted by a group of noblemen, wealthy and high-ranking progressives and was led by Francis II Rákóczi and resigned soldiers and peasants fought alongside the noblemen. The insurrection was unsuccessful, ending with the Treaty of Szatmár; however, the Hungarian nobility managed to partially satisfy Hungarian interests.

The Treaty of Szatmár (or the Peace of Szatmár) was a peace treaty concluded at Szatmár (present-day Satu Mare, Romania) on 29 April 1711 between the House of Habsburg emperor Charles VI, the Hungarian estates and the Kuruc rebels. It formally ended Rákóczi's War of Independence, which had endured since 1703.

In the Great Turkish War, the forces of the Habsburg monarchy conquered large parts of Ottoman Hungary. However, the new rulers soon met with resistance by the Hungarian magnates led by Francis II Rákóczi, culminating in the rebellion led by Rákóczi, which from 1703 onwards spread throughout Upper Hungary (today mostly Slovakia), Transylvania and Carpathian Ruthenia. The rebels were decisively defeated by a Habsburg army under Field marshal Sigbert Heister, backed by Rascian forces, in the 1708 Battle of Trencsén. As the conflict rumbled on, the Hofkriegsrat president Prince Eugene of Savoy appointed the loyal Hungarian Field Marshal János Pálffy chief negotiator. In November 1710, Pálffy contacted the Kuruc commander Sándor Károlyi and achieved a truce on 13 January 1711.

The Battle of Blenheim (German: Zweite Schlacht bei Höchstädt; French: Bataille de Höchstädt; Dutch: Slag bij Blenheim) fought on 13 August [O.S. 2 August] 1704, was a major battle of the War of the Spanish Succession. The overwhelming Allied victory ensured the safety of Vienna from the Franco-Bavarian army, thus preventing the collapse of the reconstituted Grand Alliance.

Louis XIV of France sought to knock the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold out of the war by seizing Vienna, the Habsburg capital, and gain a favourable peace settlement. The dangers to Vienna were considerable: Maximilian II Emanuel and Marshal Ferdinand de Marsin's forces in Bavaria threatened from the west, and Marshal Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme's large army in northern Italy posed a serious danger with a potential offensive through the Brenner Pass. Vienna was also under pressure from Rákóczi's Hungarian revolt from its eastern approaches. Realising the danger, the Duke of Marlborough resolved to alleviate the peril to Vienna by marching his forces south from Bedburg to help maintain Emperor Leopold within the Grand Alliance.