Ferenc Rákóczi, unable to come by his father's legacy, had therefore withdrawn to his estates in Royal Hungary.

Notably, the Rákóczi family is Calvinist, and they are staunch supporters of the Calvinist cause.

However, Francis' mother, Zsófia Báthori, had come from a Catholic family, and had converted to Calvinism merely for the sake of her marriage, only to leave Calvinism, re-convert to Catholicism (disregarding her husband’s last wishes) and become a bulwark of Hungarian Counter-Reformation after her husband's death.

Ferenc also becomes a Catholic in 1662, thus acquiring favor with the Catholic Habsburg Court.