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Nikola Šubic Zrinski / Miklós Zrínyi
Croatian and Hungarian hero, member of the Croatian noble family Zrinski.
Nikola was the son of Nikola Zrinski and Ilona Karlovic. He distinguished himself at the siege of Vienna in 1529, and in 1542 saved the imperial army from defeat before Pest by intervening with 400 Croats, for which service he was appointed ban of Croatia.
In 1542 he routed the Turks at Somlyo. In 1543 he married Catherine (Katarina) Frankopan, who placed the whole of her vast estates at his disposal. The Emperor Ferdinand also gave him large possessions in Hungary, and henceforth the Zrinskis–Zrinyis became as much Magyar as Croatian magnates.
In 1556 Zrinyi won a series of victories over the Turks, culminating in the battle of Babócsa. The Croatians, however, overwhelmed their ban (count) with reproaches for neglecting them to fight for the Magyars, and the emperor simultaneously deprived him of the captaincy of Upper Croatia and sent 10,000 men to aid the Croats, while the Magyars were left without any help, whereupon Zrinyi resigned the banship (1561).
In 1563, on the coronation of the Emperor Maximilian as king of Hungary, Zrinyi attended the ceremony at the head of 3000 Croatian and Magyar mounted noblemen, in the vain hope of obtaining the dignity of palatine, vacant by the death of Thomas Nadasdy.
Shortly after marrying (in 1564) his second wife, Eva Rosenberg, a great Bohemian heiress, he hastened southwards to defend the frontier, and defeated the Turks at Segesd. In 1566, from August 5 to September 7, his small force heroically defended the little fortress of Szigetvar against the whole Turkish host, led by Suleiman the Magnificent in person. The Battle of Szigetvar ended with Zrinski perishing with every member of the garrison in a last desperate sortie.
Battle of Siget (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.
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