The last and largest of the anti-Habsburg risings, led by Francis II Rákóczi from 1703 to 1711, ran straight through this country. In 1706 kuruc insurgents — kuruc was the name for Rákóczi's fighters — disarmed and killed 491 imperial soldiers on the Brezovky meadows outside the town. Three years later, on 10 May 1709, Brezová was granted market rights by a privilege of Emperor Joseph I and became an oppidum, a market town: the right to hold fairs is what turns a cluster of farms into a place with crafts, trade and a square. That one decade brought both a killing field and a charter is a fair picture of what the uprisings were like to live through.Posledné a najväčšie z protihabsburských povstaní, vedené Františkom II. Rákócim v rokoch 1703 – 1711, prešlo priamo týmto krajom. V roku 1706 kuruci — tak sa volali Rákóciho bojovníci — odzbrojili a zabili na lúkach Brezovky za mestom 491 cisárskych vojakov. O tri roky neskôr, 10. mája 1709, získala Brezová výsadou cisára Jozefa I. trhové práva a stala sa mestečkom: právo držať jarmoky je to, čo z hŕstky gazdovstiev robí miesto s remeslami, obchodom a námestím. Že jedno desaťročie prinieslo aj masaker, aj výsadnú listinu, je celkom verný obraz toho, aké bolo povstania prežiť.
