At that time individual Turkish pashas began to wage war in Hungary. The pasha of Budim, Arslan, attacked the fort of Palota west of Szekesfehervar on June 5th 1566, but retreated after ten days when the counts of Helfenstein and the captain of Gyor, Salm, came to its aid. Salm went on to take not only the neighbouring Vesprim, but in the middle of July also took the well-fortified Totis. Some commanders even considered attacking Esztergon, but King Maximilian II ordered the dukes to limit themselves to defence, since word was received that the Sultan was on his way.
The aging Suleyman, struck by gout, could not properly stand on his feet, let alone ride, and was even mentally unstable. Nevertheless, he decided to lead his army personally. On one hand he wanted to fulfil his religious duty, and on the other he wanted to remove the stain inflicted on his honour by the defeat of his army at Malta. This was the thirteenth campaign that he led. On Apr29th he left Istanbul to arrive in Zemun as late as the second half of June; it was there that the Duke of Erdelj, John Sigismund, was ordered to meet him with his armed well-born royal suite. On June 29th the duke went down on his knees three times before the sultan and presented him with rich gifts. The sultan received him as a favourite son, and promised that he would not rest until crowning him with the Hungarian crown. On the following day the sultan gave him rich gifts which were carried by 22 court attendants, as well as four beautiful horses which were brought by the chief equerry. At their parting on July 1st, the sultan told the duke:
"You gather the troops, the gunpowder, lead and money; if there is anything you need, let me know and I will give you what you want."
Suleyman was primarily interested in capturing the strongholds which stood in the way of the expansion of Turkish rule, and these were Gyula in the east, Szigetvar in the West, and Eger in the north. Vezir Pertav-Pasha was dispatched to Gyula with 25.000 cavalrymen and infantry, reinforced by 2000 janisaries, and the sultan also ordered that he should be joined by the Pasha of Temesvar and Crimean Tartars. A two month siege reduced the ranks of the heroic defenders, so that the captain of the fort, Vladislav Kerečenji, with his remaining 500 men had to surrender, but with the provision that he and his men were free to leave. The Turks went on to take the lesser neighbouring forts of Jeno and Vilagos in doing so completely displaced the rule of the king Maximilian in regions to the east of the central part of the river Tisza.
It has been said that Suleyman first of all wanted to lead the main body of his army against Eger, but after receiving word that Nikola Zrinski defeated a Turkish company at Siklos he decided to move straight for Szigetvar, which was in any case a greater thorn in his side. But the crossing of the rising waters of the river Drava slowed down his advance, so that the Turkish army reached Szigetvar as late as August 1st, and Suleyman himself reached the town on August 6th. Because of conflicting reports, it is hard to say how many Turkish troops besieged the town, but there can be no doubt that there were more than 100,000 soldiers ready for battle and more than 200 canon of various sizes.
At that time Szigetvar consisted of the new town (to the south), the old town and the old fort (to the north). These three parts of Szigetvar were connected by bridges - the one between the old town and the fort being fairly long, while the one between the old town and the new town was much shorter. The main defence of the town as a whole was provided by the marshes of the stream of Almas which made it into an island (the Hungarian word for an island is in fact »sziget«). The best fortified was the fort itself; however, it had no stone walls, but only wooden defensive walls filled with earth and five bastions. It is only in the inner part of this fort, which was also aproached by a bridge, that there stood a stone tower in which gunpowder was kept. Nikola Zrinski had secured provisions for a lengthy siege of the town, so that there was plenty of food.
After learning that the Turks were drawing near, he assembled all his troops and all men ready to bear arms in the old fort, where they pledged their loyalty to him and promised to obey him to the death after he made the following pledge:
"I, Nikola prince of Zrin, do solemnly swear, first of all to Almighty God, and then to his Majesty, our glorious king and our suffering homeland and to you, my knights, that I shall never leave you, that I shall rather live and die with you, to suffer for better or worse. So help me God!"
On this occasion he appointed his nephew Gašpar Alapić to be his deputy in the event of his death.
Straight away on August 7th the Turks began attacking the new town. The siege lasted for a full month. Lacking proper fortifications, the new town could not hold out for long in spite of the heroic resistance of its defenders. After only two days, on August 9th, Zrinski had to burn it and withdraw into the old town. But the Turks needed only ten days to caputre it, and entered it on August 19th. On this occasion many defenders died because they did not have time to take refuge in the fort. Nevertheless, the Turks also had heavy casualties, with up to 3000 dead. Already during the siege of the old town Zrinski sent a message to King Maximilian, who was at the camp at Gyor, stating that he would, »should disaster befall him, set fire to the old town and retreat to the fort and defend it to the last man«.
The battle for the old town was particularly bloody. The Grand Vezir Mehmed Sokolović first of all tried to win Zrinski over to his side by sending him a letter, tied to an arrow shot into the town, offering to give him all Croatia if he would only surrender Szigetvar. Some time after this, in the Megjimurje region the Turks captured the trumpeter of Juraj Zrinski, Nikola's eidest son. Suleyman then took the trumpet, which bore the coat of arms of the Zrinski family, and sent it to Nikola Zrinski with the message that he would execute Zrinski's son if he does not surrender. Finally, the Turks threw various letters written in Croatian, Hungarian and German, calling the defenders not to lose their lives in vain, but rather to surrender and receive rich gifts from the sultan. However, all the threats and messages proved useless. The Turks incessantly attacked the fort, day and night, for several days and succeeded in damaging the fortifications in several places.
On August 26th Grand Vezir Sokolović ordered an all-out charge. This assault was repelled; what is more, the defenders captured two Turkish banners and killed the Egyptian governor Ali-Pasha and the artillery commander Aliportuk. An even fiercer assault was carried on August 29th, the anniversary of the fall of Belgrade, the battle of Mohacs and the taking of Budim. Although very ill and invalid, the sultan himself mounted his horse and showed himself to his troops in order to encourage them. But the heroic defenders beat off all assaults from dawn to dusk, and even captured an aga of the janisseries. The Turks then started work to undermine the fortifications, September 2nd they dug under the bastion known as »the hill«, which was built by Nadasdy, and filled the swamp with wood, straw and gunpowder.
Zrinski then succeeded in fending off another Turkish assault but the wind shifted and the town began to burn forcing Zrinski to abandon it, together with provisions, food supplies and the suffering inhabitants to the Turks, and to retreat with his remaining troops, into the tower. However, Suleyman had died on September 4th, and had not lived to see the fall of Szigetvar or receive word of the fall of Gyula. The Grand Vezir Sokoiović kept the news of the sultan's death a secret from everyone, even the vezirs, and even propped up the sultan's dead body on a chair at the window of his tent before leading the charge on September 5th, so as to make it appear that the sultan is still alive and watching his brave troops. At the same time Sokolović sent a confidential messenger to Suleyman's son and his father-in-law Selim II with word of his father's death and also called on him to hurry to the camp and join the troops. In order to continue in deceiving the Turks, Sokolović maintained the usual customs and ceremonies (he has food prepared for the sultan and, at a certain time od day, ordered musicians to play in front of his tent) as if the sultan was still alive.
Zrinski could not hold out much longer in the fort within the old town. He was left with less than 500 brave troops. At dawn of September 7th the Turks began to release incendiary arrows and fireballs into the fort, setting fire to it, including Zrinski's quarters. When the entire Turkish army prepared for the assault, Prince Zrinski decided to charge out of the fort to a heroic death rather than meet a cowardly end in the fire.
Zrinski first of all ordered all his valuable objects and treasure to be taken from his quarters and thrown into the fire He then summoned his faithful official Črnko and with his assistance dressed in his resplendent robes. On his head he placed a gold-embroidered cap with an aigrette and a jewel. He belted his sabre and carried a light round shield. He had a hundred Hungarian ducats sown into the lining of his dolman to serve as a prize for the Turk who would capture him. And finally, he took the keys of the fort so that they would not fall to the enemy while he was alive. It was dressed like this that he left his quarters and joined the remaining defenders, who were waiting for him in the courtyard near the gate at which they aimed a canon loaded with pieces of iron and lead shot. Repeating to his faithful troops that he does not regret dying for the sacred faith in Jesus, for the king and homeland, he ordered the tower gate to be lowered and the canon to be fired. The shot brought down a multitude of Turks in front of the bridge and cleared the way into the enemy ranks.
At that moment Zrinski broke out with his troops, led by Lovro Juranić who carried the royal banner. Zrinski, at the head of the charge, brought down a Turkish officer with a shot from his pistol and began wielding his sword all around him. The Turks kept calling to him not to rashly lose his life, but rather to surrender and plead for mercy from the sultan. Finally he was struck in the head by an enemy shot and fell to the ground. A furious battle was then fought around the dying commander, a battle in which the defenders perished to a man. The Turks took the still breathing Zrinski and carried him to the aga of the janissaries, who had him placed on Kocijan's canon and decapitated. And then, when the victorious Turks burst into the tower to plunder it, the storerooms full of gunpowder exploded and buried 3000 enemy soldiers in the rubble.
The defenders of the fort of Szigetvar were killed almost to the man; the Turks spared the lives of only a few, including Zrinski's clerk Črnko, the young Bert Gerecija, Stjepan Oršić and Gašpar Alapić, who was later to become the ban of Croatia. Črnko and Alapić were released from Turkish imprisonment after Juraj Zrinski, Nikola's father, paid their ransom. Sokolović had Nikola Zrinski's head placed on a pole in front of the sultan's tent, where it stood for two days. On September 9th he sent the head to his brother Mustapha, the pasha of Budim, who forwarded it to Count Salm. Nikola's son Juraj took it to Čakovec, where it was laid to rest in the family tomb in the Pauline church of St. Helen.
The siege and taking of Szigetvar cost the Turks 18,000 cavalrymen and 7,000 janissaries. Also lost were a multitude of volunteers who were not on the official muster roles.
Vjekoslav Klaić: The History of the Croats
Page 249
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.