Battle of Szigetvar

The Battle of Szigetvar was a monumental battle in the small fort of Szigetvár in Hungary in 1566 between the defending forces of the Kingdom of Hungary under the leadership of Croatian ban Nikola Šubić Zrinski;, 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 vast Ottoman army (more than 90,000 men and 300 cannons) for several weeks. Despite them being undermanned and greatly outnumbered, the imperial army from Vienna would not send them any reinforcements.

After many days of exhausting and bloody struggle, the defenders have receded into the Old City; with the majority of Croats already dead, their last stand. Turks have tried to lure Zrinski into submission, offering him rule over entire Croatia (of course, under their suzerainty). To no avail: "...nobody will point his finger on my children in contempt." In the morning, September the 7th, the all-out attack by Turks began: fireballs, "Greek fire", concentrated cannonade, fusillade. Soon, the last Croat stronghold within Siget was set ablaze. The entire Turkish army was swarming against the Old City, drumming and yelling, "..their flags darkening the skies." 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 last decisive battle Zrinski was first wounded, then killed. Only seven defenders managed to get through Turkish surround. Historians consider that Turks lost 18,000 cavalrymen and 7,000 elite yanissaries. The yannissary corps was decimated.

The huge Ottoman army, the best Suleyman the Magnificent (who died during the siege) could gather, suffered heavy losses and was ultimately stopped in its tracks.

The battle was immortalized in the epic poem Szigeti Veszedelem (1664) by Zrinyi's great-grandson, Miklos Zrinyi, also a ban of Croatia. This was one of the first such epics in Hungarian language.