György Dózsa's Crown

History of Owner
György Dózsa (1470 - 20 July 1514) was a Székely Hungarian man-at-arms (and by some accounts, a nobleman) from Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary who led a peasants' revolt against the kingdom's landed nobility. He was eventually caught, tortured, and executed along with his followers, and remembered as both a Christian martyr and a dangerous criminal.

In the course of the summer he took the fortresses of Arad, Lippa and Világos (today also called Şiria), and provided himself with cannons and trained gunners; and one of his bands advanced to within 25 kilometers of the capital. But his ill-armed ploughmen were overmatched by the heavy cavalry of the nobles. Dózsa himself had apparently become demoralized by success: after Csanád, he issued proclamations which can be described as millenarian.

As his suppression had become a political necessity, he was routed at Temesvár by an army of 20,000 led by John Zápolya and István Báthory. He was captured after the battle, and condemned to sit on a heated smoldering iron throne with a heated iron crown on his head and a heated sceptre in his hand (mocking at his ambition to be king). While Dózsa was suffering, a procession of 9 fellow rebels, who had been starved beforehand, were led to such throne. In the lead was Dózsa's younger brother, Gergely, who was cut in three before Dózsa despite Dózsa asking for Gergely to be spared. Next, executioners removed hot pliers from fire and forced them into Dózsa's skin. After pulling flesh from him, the remaining rebels were ordered to bite where the hot iron had been inserted and to swallow the flesh. Those who refused, about 3 or 4, were simply cut up which prompted the remaining rebels to do as commanded. In the end, Dózsa died on the throne of iron from the damage that was inflicted while the rebels who obeyed were let go without further harm.

This artifact bounced around Translvania until Jose' Morez (James McPherson) found it in a shop in a small town in Hungary.

Collection
The resurrected old nemesis of Arties used this on a mueseum guard to gain one of the meddilion artifacts. This artifact was collected by Artie Nielson