Szigetvar - Hungary Past and Present, Szabad, 1854

Hungary Past and Present: History from the Magyar Conquest to the present time

Byt Emeric Szabad, 1854 

Source: See page 84

Soliman consequently decided to appear in person at the head of a fresh army on the battle-field, vowing to punish the insolent rashness of the German monarch, and to restore Hungary to the possession of the young Zapolya. The energy and speed with which his vast preparations were carried on, appeared to justify the weight of Soliman’s vow. The mighty conqueror, however, as will be seen, was arrested in the midst of his triumphant march, not by the motley and numerous troops voted by German diets, but by the Spartan-like bravery of a handful of Hungarians.

Soliman succeeded to the Ottoman throne in the year 1520, carried his triumphant arms into Syria and Egypt, quelled rebellion in Persia, and, in the midst of these enterprises, subjugated Servia, finally crowning his military exploits with the reduction of Rhodes. Courted alike by the Zapolyas and the Hapsburgs, he always adhered to the cause of the former, not scrupling, however, to accept of the presents and tribute of the latter, whom he deemed weak, impotent vassals, unworthy to rule the land of the brave. His friendly advice to Isabella and John Sigismund Zapolya, to abandon Buda to his vizier and repair to Transylvania, may fairly throw some suspicion on his professions of friendship to the young Hungarian king. Still the Ottoman conqueror deserves no small amount of credit for not having proclaimed himself unbounded lord of a country almost entirely in his hands; while he is entitled to just praise for enjoining on his viziers to permit full liberty to the people in the exercise of their different religions rites and ceremonies. Soliman was undoubtedly the most glorious of the Eastern conquerors, and it is with a feeling of regret, and almost pity, that one calls to mind the violent death he inflicted on his son Mustapha, thus staining a long career of glory by a single act proceeding from a fit of fury.

This last expedition of Soliman in 1566 was particularly characterized by its magnificent display; the van, marching without halt from Constantinople to Belgrade, was accompanied by a band of poets, who encouraged the army with a recital of passages from the Koran, and who breathed the poetical prayer, that Soliman “ might wave like the branches of a cypress in the wind of victory.” After an interview with Sigismund Zapolya at Belgrade, Soliman moved onwards along the banks of the Drave, which he crossed by means of a drawbridge constructed on the spot, passing by the fortresses of Essek and Peterwardein, and halting near Fiinflirchen, not far from the fortress of Szigeth, of which he resolved to make himself master. Szigeth, lying on the banks of a small river called the Almas, was surrounded by an old weakly fortified town, and a new suburb, the whole being defended rather by the surrounding marshes than by the strength of the ramparts. The garrison, consisting of three thousand Hungarian troops, was commanded by Nicholas Zriny, in the interest of Maximilian. The black flag, waving from the elevated walls, denoting the determination of the garrison to fight for life or death, served only to inflame the military ardour of Soliman, who instructed the Beglerbeg of Anatolia to take the old town by assault. The rotten walls, shaken to their foundation by the batteries of the Turks, which were planted upon artificially raised mounds, were soon for saken by the besieged and scaled by the janizaries.

Zriny was thus reduced to the fortress itself and some rows of houses situated near the outside of the gates, called the new town. In the meantime, the Turks, after dividing the booty they had found within the forsaken walls, threw up entrenchments, trying to fill up the ditches running round the fortress, and repeating their assaults. Some days were thus spent, when, on the 9th of August, a general assault was ordered on the new town. The impetuosity of the Turks defied the equal bravery of the Christians. Zriny soon saw that the life of even ten of his adversaries was too dearly bought with the loss of one of his own men.

The new town likewise was, therefore, abandoned; and by the 19th of August, the thinned garrison was confined to the narrow compass of the citadel. Zriny, with only six hundred men left, continued full of courage and hope, awaiting each hour the approach of the Austrian-German army, commanded by the generals Schwendi and Constaldo, and which was already lying encamped round Raab, at a few days’ march from Szigeth, where it had been joined by Maximilian himself. Soliman, meantime, tried to gain the strong hold by means of offers and promises of the most flattering kind to Zriny. But as all these offers were disdainfully refused, the Turks began the assault with redoubled fury. The morasses round the ramparts were soon filled with the heaps of slain; the Mussulman batteries and the fire of small arms enveloped

the fortress in a thick red cloud for a whole week; and notwithstanding the incessant work of death and destruction, the Turks were still repelled and foiled.

Soliman, deeming his laurels of forty years withered by the obstinate resistance of this handful of men, called his viziers to his golden tent, menacing them with violent death if the keys of Szigeth were not in his hands in a few days. Seffedin, the best general that had escaped the long carnage of the siege, renewed the attack on the 2d of September. The janizaries, driven to despair, signalized themselves by the rashness of their assaults, scaling the walls amid the thickest cross fire directed by the garrison, and precipitating themselves headlong through the breaches made in the walls.

Two days were thus passed: the Turks determined to conquer; Zriny and his small band still undaunted masters of the citadel. In the meantime, Soliman, who stood surveying the carnage from his tent, which was pitched on a neighbouring hill, already a prey to impatience and fury, was suddenly struck by a fit of apoplexy, and expired on the 4th of September. Mohammed, his son-in-law, took care not to divulge the portentous event, but clothing the body of Soliman in his most costly robe, placed it in the midst of the tent on an arm chair, and issued in the name of the dead sultan new orders and severer threats.

On the eighth day, the Turks forced their way close to the gate, spreading thick volumes of fire into the interior of the fortress.

“ Inextinguishable and choking flames,” said Zriny to the few that were left him, “hasten us toward our final fate, and not the power of the enemy. Let us take it as the decree of God, on account of our own sins, and those of our fathers. Yes, brave and faithful comrades, let us bear our fate with Christian fortitude, and now fight or die together as we have done for thirty-four days. I will go before to meet the enemy, twelve times more in thousands than we were in hundreds. Follow me; no surrender or defeat awaits them. We will die sword in hand. Brave brethren! Up! Do heartily what you see me do.”

Thus saying, Zriny—who had exchanged his heavy armour for a coat of black velvet, a plumed black cap, and a light sword—moved on noiselessly towards the gate, followed by his band, but sixty in number, besides a few women and children. The gate was soon thrown open. The Turks, suspecting some snare, stood for a while against, while Zriny and his comrades marched on steadily to the serried lines, till the last man of them fell dead and trampled to the ground. Such was the death of Nicholas Zriny, a death as heroic as that of Leonidas, but clouded with the painful consideration, that Zriny met his in behalf of a monarch who remained with his army, feasting and plundering, only three days’ march from the spot where the brave ones fell.  

The grand vizier sent the head of Zriny to the camp of Maximilian, commanding the bearer to deliver with it this message—

“ Here is the head of him whom you, with hundreds and thousands collected around you, left to perish alone, and whose death is mourned by his adversaries.”

Having interred the remains of Zriny with due and exemplary solemnity, the Turks marched on, pouring precipitately over the other side of the Danube. The intrigues of Constantinople, in consequence of the death of Soliman, saved Maximilian from utter ruin, and he bought a new peace at the hands of Selim II, son of Soliman, for a tribute of 30,000 ducats (1567.) Shortly after, Maximilian was also relieved of his rival John Sigismund Zapolya, who died a sudden death. The diets, held in the small portion of Hungary, of which Maximilian was master, continued to vote subsidies for the renewal of energetic wars against the infidels, who, as will be seen, maintained their rule over Hungary long after the death of both Maximilian and Selim II. (1576.)