Siege of Szigetvár
The siege of Szigetvár or the Battle of Szigeth (pronunciation: [ˈsiɡɛtvaːr] Hungarian: Szigetvár ostroma; Croatian: Bitka kod Sigeta, Sigetska bitka; Turkish: Zigetvar Kuşatması) was a siege of the fortress of Szigetvár, Kingdom of Hungary, that blocked Sultan Suleiman's line of advance towards Vienna in 1566. The battle was fought between the defending forces of the Habsburg monarchy under the leadership of Nikola IV Zrinski (Croatian: Nikola Šubić Zrinski, Hungarian: Zrínyi Miklós), former Ban of Croatia, and the invading Ottoman army under the nominal command of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (Ottoman Turkish: سليمان Süleymān).
| Siege of Szigetvár Battle of Szigeth | |||||||||
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| Part of the Ottoman–Habsburg wars Ottoman wars in Europe Ottoman-Habsburg War (1565-1568) | |||||||||
Nikola IV Zrinski's charge from the fortress of Szigetvár (painting by Johann Peter Krafft, 1825) | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Nikola IV Zrinski † |
Suleiman I # Sokollu Mehmed Pasha | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
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2,300–3,000 Croats and Hungarians
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100,000
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
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Whole army killed;
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Heavy;
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After the Battle of Mohács in 1526, which resulted in the end of the independent Kingdom of Hungary, Ferdinand I was elected King by the nobles of both Hungary and Croatia. This was followed by a series of conflicts with the Habsburgs and their allies, fighting against the Ottoman Empire. In the Little War in Hungary both sides exhausted themselves after sustaining heavy casualties. The Ottoman campaign in Hungary ceased until the offensive against Szigetvár.
In January 1566 Suleiman went to war for the last time. The Siege of Szigetvár was fought from 5 August to 8 September 1566 and it resulted in an Pyrrhic Ottoman victory, there were heavy losses on both sides. Both commanders died during the battle – Zrinski in the final charge and Suleiman in his tent from natural causes. More than 20,000 Ottomans had fallen during the attacks and almost all of Zrinski's 2,300-man garrison was killed, with most of the final 600 men killed on the last day. Although the Ottomans were victorious, the siege stopped the Ottoman push to Vienna that year. Vienna was not threatened again until the Battle of Vienna in 1683.
The importance of the battle was considered so great that the French clergyman and statesman Cardinal Richelieu was reported to have described it as "the battle that saved (Western) civilization". The battle is still famous in Croatia and Hungary and inspired both the Hungarian epic poem The Siege of Sziget and the Croatian opera Nikola Šubić Zrinski.