Countess Helena Zrinski was one of the most famous freedom fighters in Croatia and Hungary. Her ancestry is derived from the Croatian noble family of Zrinski. She was the daughter of the Croatian Prince Petar Zrinski and the niece of the famous general and poet Nikola Zrinski. The Zrinski family repeatedly married into Hungarian noble families throughout the centuries. This is also what happened when the Transylvanian Prince Francis Rákóczi I married Helena Zrinski.
Figuratively speaking, the countess was a woman of the 21st century. After the death of her first husband, she married Imre Thököly, who was at least 8 years younger than her (some researchers also speak of 15 years). In addition to her beauty and excellent education, she was also capable of defending a castle. In the 17th century she was one of the most famous women in Europe because - while heavily pregnant - she defended the castle of Munkács against the Habsburg armies in the absence of her husband. When she had to give up the castle due to lack of food, she was separated from her son Francis Rákóczi II, who never forgot his mother's education and became one of the most important fighters of the independence movement in Hungary. Her husband, deeply in love with her, exchanged the captured countess for important generals. Letters say that on the way to Nicodemia / Izmit, she gave up her jewellery in order to free European slaves imprisoned by the Ottoman army.