Introduction
A few months ago while doing research into
leadership I stumbled upon some leadership and “team building” speeches that
Nikola Zrinski (Zrinyi, Miklous) gave to his troops in 1566 when more than 100,000
Ottomans besieged the fortress of Szigetvar manned by 2,300 Croatian and
Hungarian soldiers. The first quote, at
the start of the siege, that caught my attention was:
“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 stand with you, suffer for better or worse, to live and win or die with
you. So help me God!”
At the end of the siege, when all was lost,
he said to his troops:
"Horoes! We
could not keep the castle, but we kept our knightly honor!
Let us go out from this burning place into the open and stand up to our enemies. Who dies – he will be with God. Who dies not – his name will be honoured. I will go first, and what I do, you do. And God is my witness – I will never leave you, my brothers and knights!”
Let us go out from this burning place into the open and stand up to our enemies. Who dies – he will be with God. Who dies not – his name will be honoured. I will go first, and what I do, you do. And God is my witness – I will never leave you, my brothers and knights!”
You don’t hear leadership like that
anymore.
French clergyman and statesman Cardinal
Richelieu was reported to have described it as "the battle that saved
civilization (European Christian civilization)."
"We needed a miracle that the Habsburg Empire and
Europe to survive, and this miracle happened in Szigetvar. The question was decided here whether the
cross or the crescent would leave an indelible mark for centuries on the major
parts of Europe."
Nikola Zrinski was named the “modern
European (Slavic) Leonidas” after the siege.
Zrinski, Szigetvar and 1566 almost unknown in the English speaking
world.
I had to know more!
Unfortunately the story of Szigetvar is not
well known and I could not find any accounts of the siege and battle in English. I was quite disappointed this story was not
better known when it is more interesting than well known historical accounts of
The Alamo in Texas, William Wallace, the Scottish knight during the Wars of
Scottish Independence (movie: Braveheart) and the Battle of Thermopylae where King
Leonidas of Sparta led 300 Spartans against a force of more than 120-300,000
from the Persian Empire led by Xerxes I (movie: 300).
Sources
Doing some research, I found materials that
were referenced in various articles and books.
The most important account of the Siege of Szigetvar, I believe, comes
from the chronicles of Franjo Črnko (Ferenac, Ferenc Černko), who was Nikola
Zrinski’s chamberlain and chronicler. He
was inside the fort taking care of logistics and did not take part in the
battles. During the siege he kept an
account of what happened. At the end of
the siege he was taken captive and freed after Juraj Zrinski, Nikola Zrinski’s
son, paid a ransom. Franjo was able to
keep his journals. At Juraj’s insistence
Franjo wrote the story of the siege “Podsjedanje i osvojenje Sigeta” in the old
Croatian Glagolitic alphabet. The story
was popularized in 1568 when the Slovenian (from Ljubljana) Samuel Budina
translated the story into Latin in the book “Historia Sigethi”. The original by Črnko was lost but a copy was
found in the Upper Austria in the early 1900s by Anton Kaspert in the archives
of Karl Auersper. A translation by Franc
Kidric was published in 1912 by the title “Oblega Sigeta v sodobnem hrvaškem
opisu.”
The English language translation that I
provide is based on the work of Franc Kidrić in Croatian and from a Hungarian
translation of Samuel Budina’s work. I
“averaged out” the small differences and transformed the medieval style
language into modern English. I am not a
linguist but I think the translation is more than good enough to understand
what happened.
For my Croatian
countrymen, who will undoubtedly say that the translation could be better, I
agree that it could be more colorful and I invite someone to make a better English
translation.
Original Glagolitic text
The Siege of Szigetvar
Translated by Zeljko Zidaric, May 2017
This is the story of how Sultan Suleiman
the Magnificent tried to take the fort of Szigetvar in Hungary and died before
the fort was finally taken at a great cost.
With an insatiable desire to conquer
combined with an inexhaustible unforgiving hatred for the unbelievers the
Ottomans (Turks, House of Osman, Muslims) attacked into Europe. The Ottomans conquered and then dominated
over the unfortunate European Christians with a passion for cruelty. There is no better example of the destruction
the Ottomans caused than the events surrounding the conquest of Szigetvar; a
natural and man-made fort in the Slavonia region in the southern borderlands
between Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. Suleiman,
the Ottoman sultan, besieged the fort with his powerful army and after much
time and great losses eventually overpowered and captured it. The following story tells how Suleiman took
Szigetva
In the year of our Lord 1566, count Nikola
Zrinski [1]
(Miklós Zrínyi), a
nobleman with a distinguished ancestry and captain of the fortress at
Szigetvar, on June 15 received a report from a traveller indicating that he saw
the Ottoman sultan’s army near Sarajevo.
He walked alongside the army that was two miles long and heard that
their objective was either Eger or Szigetvar (Siget in Croatian and Zigetvar in
Turkish). A bridge was being built at
Petrovaradin across the Danube. (Note: A
bridge across the Danube indicates going towards Eger).
Soon afterwards an
informant came from Pécs (southern Hungary, about 35 km east of Szigetvar)
bringing a letter confirming that the Sultan was indeed on the move with his
troops but it is unkown where he is going and what city he plans to attack.
A third informant
arrived from Osijek, a city in Croatia, on the Drava River about 120 km to the
southest) telling Zrinski that a vanguard force of led by Bosnian and Karaman
pashas. Army units were amassing on the
other side of the Drava below Moslavina, they will cross the Drava but the
final destination was not known.
Another scout
arrived that stated that while near Osijek, at the port of Utovo (Ottovus) he
saw many boats and that the boats were going up the Drava towards Siklós (or
Siklos, about 60 km southeast of Szigetvar).
The army will cross the Drava River and rest at the Ottoman[2]
fort at Siklos. The army was large but
the final destination is not known.
A spy (paid informant) arrived from the
Ottoman camp arrived stating that the army had arrived at Utovo, crossed the
Drava and is heading towards Buda (Budin, across the river from Pest) but will
rest at Siklos.
While the vanguard army is at Osijek the
main army is still at Zemun and Belgrade (Nándorfehérvár).
On June
17, being aware that the Ottomans were crossing the Drava and they will
camp overnight in the fields at Siklos, captain Zrinski sent 1,000 infantry and
500 cavalry, led by his knights Gaspar Alapic, Nikola Kovac, Peter Patacic and
Vuk Paprativoic with the troop commanders to Siklos on a search and destroy
mission. Their orders were to “try their
luck”; to attack the Ottoman army if they find it otherwise to attack the
Ottoman fort at Siklos, plunder and burn it.
When the Szigetars [3]
got close to Siklos, during the night they sent 200 infantry and 100 cavalry on
a scouting mission (reconnaissance) through the fields around Siklos to find
the Ottoman army and then report back to the main force. As soon as they arrived at Siklos they
spotted the army that was led by one of the Sultan’s favorite sanjakbeys,
sanjakbey Tirali from Harija [4]
near Constantinople. The commanders
orders were to be an advance guard for the army, cross the Drava and then wait
near Pecs and wait for the rest of the arrive to arrive. He was given strict orders to wait and not to
move until receiving further orders from the sultan.
Zrinski’s troops attacked at dawn. The shocked Ottomans scattered and stumbled
through the mud in their nightshirts as the Szigetars cut them down with their
swords. Some managed to run and hide in
the forest but most were killed on the spot while others tried to hide in the
reeds in swamp (moat) around Siklos and they drowned. The sanjakbey was gravely wounded by a sword,
he stumbled into the swamp and drowned. The
Szigetars took the sanjakbey’s son and three Ottoman officers as captives to be
interrogated.
After the Ottoman soldiers were killed the
Szigetars began to pillage (loot, plunder) the camp. The treasure was great with much gold and
silver. War supplies included tents and
six war chariots as well as weapons such as war axes and various military tools. Animals included a few beautiful mares, 60
horses, 50 mules and 8 camels. Also
taken were purple robes and fur trimmed uniforms. Two large Ottoman red flags, made of silk
with a trim of silver thread one hand width wide were taken and a flagpole that
had a braided horsetail and a silver ball that looked like an apple at the top; called a “szandzsáknak” representing
the sanjak.
The soldiers returned to Szigetvar in
victory rejoicing with their great prize, spoils of war the likes of which had
not been seen in long time.
On July
2, Bosnian Mustafa-bey Sokolovic with the Bosnian army and Karaman pasha
crossed the Drava at Utovo landing at Harkany (Harsány) near Siklos.
On July
7, an informant came from the Ottoman camp in Belgrade stating that the
Sultan had arrived in Belgrade and had ordered boats to go up the Drava River
towards Siklos where he wanted a temporary pontoon bridge built across the
Drava. The bridge that had already been
made across the Danube was to be dismantled and the materials used for the new
bridge.
A letter arrived from Nasuf-aga in Pécs telling captain Zrinski that a commander Hamza-bey,
came up the Drava, with authority from the sultan, to collect and lead soldiers
with a responsibility to build a bridge and if he fails he will be impaled in
front of his house and that his body on the bloody spit will be carried around
the surrounding villages.
Hamza-bey started to build a bridge near
Utovo and had a lot of success. Then one
night when the bridge was almost completed high and powerful turbulent waters destroyed
the pontoon bridge and carried away the parts.
This was not the right place to build a bridge and so Hamza-bey moved
further down the Drava to build another bridge.
After two days of work, again at night the river destroyed the bridge.
He started building a third bridge, almost
at Osijek, but yet again the high and strong current was not good for bridge
building. Hamza-bey sent a messenger by
horse to the Sultan telling him that
he had spared no effort in trying to build a bridge but due to the power of the
river, at this time, he would not be able to build the bridge. The sultan received the message and sent a
reply. The messenger returned and gave Hamza-bey
an Ottoman scarf with gold embroidery on the edge which said:
“I, Sultan Suleiman, commands you to build a bridge at any place and in any
way but in a hurry across the Drava. If
the bridge is not built by the time I arrive you will be hung on the shore by
the bridge with this scarf.”
Hamza-bey understood the message and
immediately went to the Drava, south of Osijek, and took and organized all the
boats and bridge building supplies to start building a bridge. All the soldiers, officers and even officials
were put to work. All the locals in the
region either volunteered or were forced to help build the bridge. No one was spared. They work quickly with great seriousness and
some creativity. Hamza-bey worked night
and day until the mile long bridge was built through the swamp, oxbow lake, mud
and river. The bridge was finished in
ten days.
The scarf, sent by the sultan to Hamza-bey,
was forwarded to Hamza’s quarters in Pecs but the captain who replaced Hamza-bey
in Pecs secretly sent the scarf to captain Zrinski in Siget.
On July
20, the Bosnian and Karaman pashas left Harkany / Siklos and went to Pecs
and then to Szekesfehervar
(Stolni Biograd) where they were supposed to assist the Buda-pasha Sokolovic. The army was
accompanied by Hamza-bey’s army and servants and there was great sadness in the
city of Pecs when they left.
On the same day the Anatolian beyler-bey,
(bey of beys, commander of commanders) the greatest general of the East,
crossed the Drava over the bridge. The
Akinszi-pasha, commander of the army, followed by the Rumelian beylerbey, chief
strategist and ruler of the provinces north of the Aegean Sea and south of
Hungary (Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia).
They settled on the Mohacs plains where they set up a tent for the
sultan.
Sultan Suleiman crossed the Drava River
next. When the sultan arrived there was much
celebration and happiness.. After
inspecting the camp the sultan called for a meeting to plan the military action. He spent a few relaxing happy days here while
the army crossed the Drava River.
On July
31 the Rumelian beylerbey and the akanzi-pasha with 90,000 soldiers and
arrived and camped at St Lorinc (Szentlőrinc, St Lovrin), one mile from
Szigetvar.
When the advance troops, the Tatars and
light infantry began to arrive Captain and the dust cloud of the larger army
was seen on the horizon Zrinski was certain that Szigetvar was the Sultan’s
target. He called for a general meeting
of all troops, laborers and residents of the town to be held in the main square
of the Inner Castle (Citadel). When
everyone was in the square the gates were closed and captain Zrinski came in
front of everyone and spoke the following:
“My brethren, valiant men, brave knights serving our
imperial majesty! All of us can surely see that the Ottoman Sultan is upon us. We must now prepare ourselves and with
unwavering courage await our enemy; the enemy of the entire Christian world. With unlimited arrogance in their power and
paganism, the horde takes up arms against us.
We place our hope and our trust in our Lord God who is greater than the
Sultan and can surely help us little people in this great struggle. We must wait for the Sultan’s attack with a
calm heart and not be afraid of the strength and the large numbers, of our
enemy. We can have no doubt that if we
look to God and pray he will give us guidance and protection. Above all else we must strive to be faithful
to one another and united. There should
be no doubt, lies, hostility or hatred against one another. We must live and act honorably in agreement
and with goodwill. We will stand
together for as long as God wills.
Therefore my brethren, we must here and now bind
ourselves together and swear and oath of fidelity, first to our Lord God, then
to his majesty the emperor, to our tormented homeland and to one another that
we will be faithful and persevering. I
will swear my oath to you first and then you will swear your oath to me. In this way you will have no doubts in me and
I will have none in you. Hear my oath:
I Nikolas Zrinski, swear by Almighty God, and then our
majesty, our glorious king, these suffering lands and you, brave men gathered
here with me, ask for the help of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, One God, Holy
Trinity, that I will never leave you, I will endure with you all that happens,
whether good or bad and here, with you, I will live or die.
Now you must, with two fingers raised, swear your oath
to God, to your commanders and to me. You
must swear your oath with a loud and clear voice.
We will watch to see who is unwilling to swear their
oath properly. The man that is unwilling
to swear an oath is least likely to endure with us to the end, he is not
honorable and might betray us. That man
is not committed to being with us and must leave now. Your oath is as follows:
All of us, citizens, cavalry, infantry and servants of
his imperial majesty, swear first by Almighty God, then our homeland and our
noble Count Nikola Zrinski that we will be faithful, true and obedient to our
commanders. We vow to be strong and
brave. We will live and die with you. So help us God!
Hear me! If death takes me from you, in my place will
stand my kinsman knight Gaspar Alapic. I
command you to obey him and show him the greatest of respect as you do me. If he gives you orders, follow them quickly
and faithfully. To my knight Gaspar I
order you to never give up the fight.
Hear now the codes of martial law:
If anyone, nobleman or ordinary man, cavalry or
infantry, refuses, for any reason, to fulfill a command from a superior, or
without justification draws a weapon on a fellow soldier they will be put to
death immediately.
If you find and read an Ottoman letter, you will be
put to death. If who find a letter
attached to an arrow I order you to take it to your superior who will bring it
to me and I throw it into the fire. If
you say a single word to an Ottoman, you will be cut down.
After you have been given your position, you must stay
in your position and hold it day and night.
If anyone, noble or not, officer or soldier, leaves his position without
permission from your superior you will be put to death immediately without
trial.
Those who have a wife or mother here, they will bring
you the food, drink and whatever necessities you need to you. Be without worry and hold your post. Those without a wife or mother here, my
kitchen will cook for you and ensure that your sergeants will bring a sufficient
amount of food to you in due time. I
will also give wine, one liter per person per day as well as bread, salt, vinegar
and smoked pork. Those that are married
will receive flour so that you can make bread for yourselves.
If two people are found talking in secret, spreading
rumors, sowing dissent, conspiring amongst them, both will be taken to their
commander and hanged. If you see or hear
people conspiring and do not report them, due to either friendship or bribe you
will be punished in the same way without delay.
Finally, if you steal from comrades, even the value of
one penny, you will be hanged.
To create a proper sense of fear, captain
Zrinski set up gallows in the Outer Castle near the city gate. To prove that his orders must be taken
seriously, Nikola Zrinski killed a soldier in the main square because the
soldier raised his sword against his commander.
Then captain Zrinski cut off the head of Mahmut-aga Vilić[5]
because of atrocities he committed while coming to Siget. That created the greatest feat in the castle
(city).
Captain Zrinski then orders that every
homeowner in the Old Town take the roof off his house and take the thatch
outside of Old Town. The straw roofs of
the houses in the New Town are to be taken down and put inside the house so
that the houses burn faster if New Town is abandoned.
After Zrinski and knights swore their oaths
there were 2,300 (and something) armed soldiers, not counting women and
children.
On that day 10,000 Ottomans from the camp
came to fight with our soldiers from morning to noon and then returned to camp
to sleep.
On August
1, the Sultan left the fields of Mohacs and set out for Szigetvar stopping
first at Harkany, near Siklos, a 45 km march.
Meanwhile on the same day the beylerbey and
the akanzi-pasha with 90,000 arrived and the army camped at Simlehov, which is
a quarter mile from the fort (town). From
noon to night they came for a fight. A
good amount of Ottomans died in the fight.
Every day many Ottomans were shot by muskets.
August
3, Arslan-pasha is strangled for his failures at
Palota. (Varpalotta).
August
4, Sultan is in Pecs.
August
5, Sultan is in St Lorinc. The beylerbey and the akanzi-pasha left the
high ground and came down to surround Szigetvar. Simlehov Hill is the camp (defensive
position) for the sultan. On that same
day the sultan’s tents were set up on the hill.
On August
6, Tuesday morning, the sultan, with all his might, arrives on top of the
hill while the army surrounds the town. The
tents were so close together, tent on tent, that you could not see through to
the town. On that day another large
attack was carried out into the night. When
the sun set the sultan ordered all the cannons and muskets that they had fired at
once to create an incredible thunder. In
the Ottoman camp the soldiers yelled with loud voices “Allah! Allah! Allah!”
while we in the town yelled the name of Jesus.
On August
7, the Ottomans made baskets with branches and plants from the hills and
fields and then filled them with soil and took them to near New Town. They dug trenches and made walls from the
baskets of dirt behind which they hid themselves and their cannons. They camouflaged their cannons and brought
them close to the town hiding behind the mounds (fences, rows) of soil. The janissaries hid behind the mounds and
attacked New Town. Fierce battles were
fought but even with the heavy shelling and gunfire little was
accomplished. Janissaries came to the
wall and fought fiercely with our men.
Only one of ours died while many of theirs were killed.
Captain Zrinski ordered that all fences,
gardens and trees be cut down in the New Town and burned. Both gates are closed and filled with earth
to strengthen them. That evening and
early into the morning the Ottomans continued to build their trenches. Janissaries hid in the trenches, hiding under
ground safe from our guns.
On August
8, early Thursday morning, janissaries began to attack New Town from three
sides. Flaming tarballs were fired into
both parts of the town. New Town shook
from the cannon fire. Then Ali Portuk,
commander of the sultan’s naval and land forces as well as commander of the
engineers, began building a siege tower on a mound across the swamp and work
continued during the night. On top of
the siege tower were placed large cannons.
The height of the firing platform let the Ottomans shoot into the
fortress. The Szigetars dug defensive
ditches and put up palisades.
On August
9, Friday at dawn, Ali Portuk fired five large cannons and several smaller
ones and the Inner Castle shook. With
constant fire the tower was greatly damaged.
They even managed to hit and damage the bell in the tower. The cannons fired from early in the morning
to late at night without rest into New Town.
If there was a brief pause the firing started up again. They roared overnight without interruption.
When captain Zrinski saw, on Friday night,
how many of his men were killed by the shelling of New Town he decided to
abandon New Town. The buildings are set
ablaze and when they were completely destroyed (scorched earth), the gates were
sealed and survivors retreated to Old Town.
On August
10, Saturday, the Ottomans began to fire on Old Town with large guns from
three sides. The janissaries built a
barracks in New Town and dug trenches coming closer and closer. A siege tower was built on a hill in New Town
and cannons brought in and mounted on the hill (elevated firing position). From here they continued firing on Old Town
softening it up.
Outside, in the swamp, Ali Portuk began to
look for ways to destroy the levees (dikes) and dam system that created the swamp. He also began creating raised paths
(causeways, embankments) with wood, beams, earth, bags of wool, anything and
everything, into the swamp. Protective
cover was made from bags of wood placed tightly together to protect the
laborers from gunfire from the fort. From
day to day they got closer to the castle.
To ensure that the paths were built as quickly as possible everyone
contributed to the labor; no one was exempt from the burdensome work of
bringing material to the fort. The
camels, horses and mules did not rest. The
fields and forests were abuzz with people and animals.
As the two paths got closer to the castle
from these positions the castle was attacked with constant gunfire not allowing
our soldiers to move.
On August
19, Monday, the Ottomans captured and occupied Old Town. Many of our men, valiant soldiers, died
because they could not retreat into the castle and escape the enemy. The Ottomans slaughtered them when they blocked
the way to the bridge leading to the castle.
All those who could not get to the castle
were killed. Among the dead were Martin Bosnjk and Petar Botos, the
infantry commander and many other valiant soldiers. Also lost were old
Lovrenac, Petar Bata, Juri Matijasa and Sekcidi Matijasa. Also, on that day defending the Town died
Radovan and Dando Ferenac[6]
and many other heroes. whose names I can’t record in this book. We lost many
experienced and brave leaders. The loss of Old Town was a major loss
and great sacrifice. We were all overcome with great sadness when we shut the gates and
locked ourselves into the castle while the Ottomans occupied and took control
of New Town.
On August
20, the Ottomans started to shoot and attack the castle from four sides and
the embankments from New Town were getting closer to the castle. The water had begun to drain and dry out with
mud left behind.
On August
26, Monday, the Ottomans began their first attack on the Inner Castle
across the raised embankments. The
attack failed and many Ottomans were killed.
The Szigetars captured two large Ottoman flags and took them into the
castle.
Our soldiers shot and killed the missziri-pasha[7]
with a cannonball. The Ottomans slowly
left, leaving many dead under the palisades as well as many shovels and digging
equipment with which they came to attack the walls.
The next day,
Tuesday, the Ottomans attacked again and weakened the inner castle in three
places: the linden forest and the two bastions, the one
by the gate and the one in the direction of the hill.
On September
2, the janissaries stopped their direct attacks and changed their
strategy. That night they started
digging a mine under the large bastion on the hill of the outer castle. By the third day they excavated so much earth
from under the bastion that a janissary could go inside to the inner area and
shoot one of our heroes on the bastion.
They then filled the area under the bastion with anything that could
burn; a lot of lumber, wood chips, straw and gunpowder.
Sometime on September 4 or 5 on Similehov Hill, a quarter mile from Szigetvar
with the sounds and the smell of battle in the air, Sultan Suleiman died [8]. The grand vizier, the sultan’s Mehmed-pasha,
with several viziers, with cunning, kept the sultan’s death a secret from the
lower pashas, beys, janissaries and other soldiers. Suleyman’s son Selim was informed of the
death of the sultan, by messenger, after the victory at Szigetvar. To ensure that the news of the death did not
become public, Mehmed-pasha secretly killed the sultan’s doctor so that he
would not speak about the sultan’s death.
To minimize suspicion the daily routine was
kept up. The band played, trumpets and
drums, like normal. Food was prepared and
brought to the tent, like normal.
After Suleiman’s
death some great troubles arose; a fierce storm with powerful winds caued great
damage, overturning the sultan’s tents and scattering them all over. The winds blew to the Grand Vizier Mehmed-pasha
Sokolovic’s tent blowing it away. All
the straw, hay and trash the wind found were blown all over the camp. At the same time something strange happened
on the lower Danube, near Tolna. The
river became so turbulent that it mixed up with mud and sand becoming firty and
for three days it did not clear. Neither
the Ottomans nor locals from Tolna were ablr to use the water for washing or
drinking.
On the September
5, a Thursday, early in the morning, the Ottomans set fire to the mine
under the large bastion in the outer castle.[9]
The bastion burned furiusly and a strong wind from the south began to blow the
flames into the castle setting ablaze the wood brought into the castle for
repairs and to make palisades.
From there the captain’s barns began to
burn as did the other houses in the outer castle and then the whole castle was
on fire. On the bastion, in the fire,
were lost the emperor’s cannons. The Ottomans
attacked the bastion from four sides without any stopping. Again the janissaries fired their muskets
into the castle, with so many bullets hitting the castle that it sounded like
rain hitting the castle walls.
Through the opening in the Nadasdy bastion
the Ottomans were madly scrambling to get into the castle but captain Zrinski
was there, fighting to force two units of Ottomans out of the castle. Ivan Novakovic was lost during the fight.
Upon seeing the fire getting stronger and
closer to the gunpowder magazine by the gate to the inner castle (by which
there was a large forest) and the immense number of Ottomans storming from all
sides captain Zrinski knew that he could no longer hold out in the outer castle. His troops were in a constant fight with the
Ottomans entering the outer castle from all sides and the bastion. He ordered everyone, all the valiant knights still left, to retreat into
the inner castle. Those who could did retreat into the inner castle but many soldiers,
women and children were left outside. Once in the inner castle he closed the
gate and said goodbye to his beloved castle, which had come to such a horrible
end.
The Ottomans began to fight amongst
themselves (with some Ottomans being killed) over the women and children who
were then taken captives to the Ottoman camp.
Inside the inner castle captain Zrinski
ordered the commanders and captains to give each remaining soldier a post
(position to guard) and what they should look out for. The inner castle was in a corner of the outer
castle and walls of the outer castle surrounded the inner castle on two
sides. The inner castle and the outer
castle were separated by a moat and connected by a bridge. On the two sides facing the outer castle the
walls were not fortified with only the stone walls of houses creating the barrier. One of the houses was Zrinski’s quarters
while others stored muskets, gunpowder, bullets and cannon supplies were stored
and guarded.
The buildings that
were supposed to be full of food were empty as all the food was left in the
Outer Castle. An unspeakable amount of
food, flour, oats, barley, smoked fish and smoked pork as well as 50 barrels of
wine, 300 containers of vinegar, and 50 barrels of all varieties of legumes
were were abandoned. There was so much
food we did not know how much. All the
food was burned and lost in the fire so that neither we nor the enemy could
benefit from it.
Also lost in the
outer castle were our large cannons, now being used by the Ottomans against us. With our cannons they
started to shoot at us in the inner castle until they took the inner castle,
which will be explained later.
In the inner castle there were no large
guns except for two cannons and three mortars called “lightning makers” (maybe also four small cannons and 14 muskets).
All the warfare
equipment, together with other things, were now in the hands of the Ottomans in
the outer castle.
There was no food in the inner castle
except for 1,000 “kabal” of wheat flour that captain Zrinski brought from his
estate in Čargovo. Bread and water were
much needed in the inner castle for the women and children who were suffering
from thirst and hunger. While I the
outer castle every soldier, infantry and cavalry, had enough food but no one
brought any with them into the inner castle.
In the retreat not even gold and silver were worth saving; that’s how
quickly we retreated from the outer castle as the Ottomans advanced.
When the Ottomans took the outer castle
they planted many flags on the walls, embankments and the hill called the
“heights”. Thursday and Friday the Ottomans
in the outer castle rested while we in the inner castle were enclosed and
protected on all sides so that no one could come to us but we also could not
leave.
On September 7, the day before the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (Little Mass), early in
the morning at about 6:00 am, the Ottomans set fire to the inner castle. While Count Zrinski’s house was burning the
Ottoman sultan’s infantry began to fill the outer castle preparing for a full
assault. They
began to drum their drums and blow their horns.
They had so many flags in the Outer Castle that only God could count
them. The fields, waters or woods could
not be seen through the Ottomans. The
walls were full of Ottomans.
The Inner Castle began to burn more
fiercely and when captain
Zrinski knew that they can’t hold out much longer he called to Ferenc Crnko,
his chamberlain, to help him dress in clean clothes. Zrinski asked for his silk suit and silk
socks. To the knights that were with him
he said;
“I do not need heavy clothes (armor) but light clothes
that will not slow me down, in which I have more dexterity to fight better.”
He then asked his
chamberlain to bring him his kalpag, a black fur cap emroidered with gold, with
diamond embedded in a gold coin topped by a beautiful black heron feather. He said,
“I wore this at my wedding.”
He then asked for
100 gold ducates, only Hungarian ducats with no Ottoman ducats included. He cut the lining of his tunic and put the
coins inside and then sealed it and said to his men,
“Let it be known that I place these gold ducats so
that the pagan that (kills me and) takes the jacket will not be able to say he
found nothing (of value) on me (for all his effort).”
He asked for the keys to the castle, all
the keys he still had after Sziget was besieged, and put them into his tunic
with the gold ducats and said:
“My knights, believe me, as long as I can move this arm
and with this sword in my hand protect my life no one shall take these keys
from me. After my death, whoever likes
may have them. I have sworn to God that
no Ottoman will take me alive, as a captive, through the Ottoman camp, from
tent to tent and no one will point their fingers at my children in scorn.”
Next he asked for
his swords. Four swords were brought to
him. Some were decorated with silver
while others with gold. He looked at,
tested and appreciated each one. He
selected the sword that once belonged to his father and said:
“This is my oldest sword, passed down
from my father. With this sword I won my
first honors and with this swrod I earned everything that I have. With this sword in my hand I will now endure
God’s judgment.“
He left his
quarters with the sword in his right hand and ordered that his small round
steel shield be brought out, with no need for any other weapons, armor or a
helmet. He said,
“God will give me
the assistance and protection that I need.
I don’t seek to run and escape Sgetvar but to endure, with an unwavering
spirit, all that God wants of me.”
When captain Zrinski stepped out of his
quarters and into the square of the inner castle, all the intrepid heroes,
infantry and cavalry, were already waiting, each with his sword drawn, in armor
with shields. The residents, wives and
children were with them also. Even as they could see the castle
burning with no chance of putting out the fire they stood with an unwavering
spirit. In the
square he begin to speak so that everyone can hear and understand him. The noble Zrinski spoke:
“My brethren!
Brave soldiers. We can see how God is
punishing us with these flames. Our
enemy cannot defeat us with with their strength or mighty numbers and so they
try to destroy us with this cruel fire. The
punishment that the Almighty Lord sends fits our sins. We must bear this punishment and God’s
forgiveness with grateful spirit for we suffer not only for our sins but for
the sins of our nations.
Remember now the oath
I swore, the promise I made to you at the start of this siege. With God as my witness I swore to you that I
will live with you or die with you. Thanks
be to God that so far among us there has been no treachery or betrayal and
there will not be any now.
We can see that we
can’t stay here any longer even if we want to .
No matter how heroic we want to be there are three reasons we can’t stay
here. The first is that the fire is
strong and we will burn. The second is
that we are few in numbers. The third is
that we have no food or water and our wives and children suffer from thirst and
hunger. Why should we stay and perish in
this fire?
Knights (heroes),
let’s go from here into the outer castle and there fight our enemy face to face
(chest to chest) and then die so that our fall will receive eternal glory. Those who fall will be with God forever and
those who survive will be celebrated with the greatest prais of all time.
Therefore we must
go. I will go first, in front of you. What I do, you do the same. Trust me my beloved brethren, even onto death
I will not abandon you.
They yelled, “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!”. The emperor’s standard was given
to Lovro Juranic to carry it in front. The gate is opened.
to Lovro Juranic to carry it in front. The gate is opened.
At the gate there was a big cannon filled
with all sorts of metal pieces. The
cannon was fired at the advancing Ottomans.
Through the cloud of smoke, with saber in one hand and shield in the
other, Zrinski charged. Lovro Juranic
with the standard in front of him and all his knights, cavalry and infantry
that were left followed him out.
They clashed and fought with the Ottomans,
face to face, on the bridge towards the outer castle. While on the bridge the janissaries hit Zrinski three times with musket
fire with the last hitting Zrinski in the head causing him to fall to the
ground and the Ottomans screamed loudly “Allah!, Allah!
Allah!”.
The Ottomans
advanced, like a powerful storm pushing us back into the inner castle, where
the janissaries continued their attack with savage fury. The inner castle was full of Ottomans. From the tops of the walls the Ottomans threw
stones and wood at our soldiers and attacked with axes.
In that way the
enemy attacked us, and while we fought valiantly, killing all except those that
were secretly rescued, taken out in disguise or being given a janissary turban
to put on their head. This was done by
the janissaries and not others. The
remaining women and children were taken captive, alive, and the Ottomans fought
over the prisoners. Some who could not
pull a prisoner away from a fellow Ottoman killed the other in order to take
his captive.
There were so many dead bodies, of the
defenders and Ottomans, that the living walked on the dead. Inside the walls of the inner castle so many
people were slaughtered that the many dead bodies lay in a layer of clotting
blood that could be easily scooped up from the ground.
After all the living Christians were taken out of the inner
castle, both the inner and outer castles were full of Ottomans searching for
Zrinski’s treasure. At that time a fire
reached the gunpowder magazine, in a room on the ground floor of the tower. The gunpowder exploded destroying all the
buildings in the inner castle. The fire
was furious. Many Ottomans were killed
by flying stones and falling buildings. The
Ottomans themselves estimate that no less than 3,000 of their soldiers died due
to the explosion.
The entire Ottoman
army broke out into great weeping and grief over the incredible loss caused by
the great explosion. Some mourned the
death of a brother, some for a father, some for a son.
Zrinski’s body was taken from the
battlefield to the captain of the Janissaries who ordered that the head be cut
off and taken to the Sultan.
On September
8, Saturday, the day of the celebration of the Nativity of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, the head of captain Zrinski was placed on a spear and placed
alongside the heads of other Szigetvar leaders’ heads already on spears, close
to the ground and just a stone throw from the Sultan’s tent. By the spears there were large piles of heads
of the Szigetar troops that were killed.
All over the ground were thrown flags that were captured in the
fortress.
All day, without pause, the Ottomans came
to look at the head of the much talked about Nikola Zrinski stuck on a pike by
the side of the road. Ottoman soldiers
continued to bring Szigetar heads to the Sultan’s tent and the Grand Vizier
paid 10 ducats for each head.
Heads of Szigetar soldiers are brought the
sultan’s tent.
On September
9, Mehmed-pasha Sokolovic took captain Zrinski’s head down from public
display and sent the head of the hero to his brother Mustafa Sokolovic the
newly appointed pasha of the city of Buda.
When Mustafa received the head he wrapped it in red silk and covered it
with fine linens and then sent it, via two local peasants, to the Emperor’s
camp in Gyor.
In Gyor there was much mourning and many
tears. From there, Baltazar Baćan, brought the head to Čakovac to the
monastary of St Helena, where it was placed into the family crypt where his
first wife Catherine Frankopan, his daughter and two sons are buried. May the good Almighty God graciously give his
soul eternal rest in the Kingdom of Heaven!
[1] Zrinski’s title was “ban” which is translated as duke, viceroy
or governor.
I will use the military title of captain as Zrinski was the captain of the fort.
I will use the military title of captain as Zrinski was the captain of the fort.
[2] Ottoman will be used rather than Turkish as there were many
nationalities in the Ottoman Empire even though the Osmanli line was Turkish
and Constantinople/Istanbul in Turkey.
[3] I will call the soldiers from the fortress of Szigetvar as “Szigetars”
(Islanders) rather than calling them Croatians or Hungarians or Christians. The Szigetars were a mix of mainly Croatian
and Hungarian Catholics.
[4] Theari? Cori-sanjak? Vize? There is not much clarity in various sources
as to who the sanjakbey is.
[5] The name Vilic must be wrong because by other accounts a prisoner
Mustafa Vilić, who was treated well by Zrinski, takes Zrinski’s body and gives
it an honorable burial at the end.
[8] Some say that it was from old age, maybe dysentery, or a heart attack
or apoplexy brought on by the rage caused by the constant failures of his
troops. (remember, it was kept a secret)
Some other sources I wish I could read in
English include:
A Magyarok története ( Hungarian History )
by Miklós Istvánffy
Opis tvrđave Siget (Chronicle of Siget
Fortress) by Ferenc Forgač
Odiljenje sigetsko (The Sziget Farewell) by Pavao Ritter Vitezović (1652–1713, first published in 1684.
Vazetje Sigeta grada (Conquest of the City
of Sziget) by Brne Karnarutić published before 1573.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.