Encouraged by promises of help from Louis XIV of France, the anti-Habsburg rebels now rose "pro libertate et justitia", and chose the youthful Thököly as their leader. The war began in 1678. Eastern Hungarian Kingdom and central Hungarian mining towns were soon in Thököly's possession. In 1681, reinforced by 10,000 Transylvanians and a Turkish army under the Pasha of Nagyvárad (today Oradea, Romania), he compelled the Emperor to grant an armistice. In June 1682 he married Croatian countess Jelena Zrinska (in Hungarian: Zrínyi Ilona), the widow of Prince Francis I Rákóczi.