 One contemporary account suggests that they were able to enlist 1,000 runaway Wallachian serfs, whom they also used to confirm petitions they addressed to the Sultan and to George II Rákóczi, the reigning Prince of Transylvania.Rákóczi was interested in the planned insurrection, receiving the fugitives at his court in Feyérvár (Bălgrad).He hoped to use the boyars as negotiators of an alliance between his country and the Ottoman Empire.