Battle of Szigetvár
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The Battle of Szigetvár (also Battle of Siget) was a siege of the small fort located in Szigetvár, Hungary between 6 August and 8 September 1566, fought between the defending forces of the Habsburg Monarchy under the leadership of Croatian ban Nikola Šubić Zrinski (in Hungarian Zrínyi Miklós; note also that ban is a Croatian title), and the invading army of the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.
The entrenched Croatian forces of Zrinski, "...two thousand and three hundreds of them", held off a large Ottoman army (more than 90,000 men and 300 cannons[citation needed]) for several weeks. Despite their being undermanned and greatly outnumbered, the imperial army did not send them any reinforcements from Vienna.
After many days of exhausting and bloody struggle, the defenders retreated into the Old City; with the majority of Croats already dead, this was their last stand. The Turks tried to lure Zrinski into submission, offering him rule over all of Croatia (of course, under their sovereignty) but to no avail, Zrinksi saying "...nobody will point his finger on my children in contempt." In the morning, September the 7th, the all-out attack by the Turks began: fireballs, "Greek fire", concentrated cannonade, fusillade. Soon, the last Croat stronghold within Siget was set ablaze. The entire Turkish army swarmed against the Old City, drumming and yelling, "..their flags darkening the skies." Reportedly, Zrinski prepared for the last charge, addressing his brothers-in-arms:
- "..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!"
In the third, decisive battle Zrinski was first wounded, then killed. The Turks took the fort and effectively won the battle. Only seven defenders managed to get through Turkish lines.
The Ottoman army suffered heavy losses, estimated at 18,000 cavalrymen[citation needed] and 7,000 elite janissaries[citation needed], with the jannissary corps decimated[citation needed]. Yet, probably the biggest loss was the death of Suleyman the Magnificent from a heart attack during the siege. All this deterred the Ottoman push for Vienna that year.
The battle was immortalized in the epic poem The Peril of Sziget (Szigeti Veszedelem in Hungarian) (1664) by Zrinski's great-grandson, Nicholas Zrinski, also a ban of Croatia. This was one of the first such epics in the Hungarian language. Arguably the best work of Ivan Zajc is the opera Nikola Šubić Zrinski where the battle is depicted and sung about (U boj, u boj).
