The Siege of Szigetvár

Hi, this is Our Bloody History, where we relive epic stands of the past in a short, punchy email.

Here’s the drop today:

The battle that supposedly saved Western civilisation, which started this week 456 years ago, on 6 August 1566, when a huge Ottoman army changed its course to put an end to a small group of defiant Croatians and Hungarians.

Let's go.

It's early 1566, and Suleiman the Magnificent, ruler of the Ottoman Empire for the last 46 years, embarks on his 13th military campaign with the goal of taking Vienna from the hands of the West. He's 72, got gout and has to be carried in a litter. Nonetheless, he's determined to go to war anyway.

Suleiman leaves Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) in May with easily more than a hundred thousand men, one of the largest armies he's ever commanded. After 49 days of solid marching, the Ottoman horde arrives in Belgrade (capital city of modern-day Serbia).

It's here that Suleiman hears of an attack on a Turkish encampment at Siklós in Hungary. To make things worse, the attack was orchestrated by none other than Count Nikola IV Zrinski, a Croatian nobleman and general, and a known thorn in the Ottoman side. In his early twenties, Zrinski distinguished himself in Suleiman's failed Siege of Vienna (1529). The same man later went on to win a series of conflicts against the Ottomans. In short, the dude's pretty annoying.

Change of plans.

Suleiman sets a new direction.

The Ottomans now march west towards Zrinski's fortress at Szigetvár in Hungary, not north towards Eger (also located in Hungary) and then to Vienna as planned. Gotta eliminate that threat.

Behold Szigetvár – the lake fortress.

The fortress is divided by water into three islands: New Town, Old Town, and the castle—each of which is linked to the next by bridges and to the land by causeways. In order to take the castle, the Ottomans have to capture the first two islands.

On 5 August, Suleiman finally arrives at Szigetvár. He sets up camp on Similehov hill and positions his war tent to overlook the pending battle. This should be over quickly. Although impressive to look at, the fortified islands are defended by a mere 2,300 Croatian and Hungarian soldiers. Nada.

In honour of the great monarch, and in jest, the defenders had dressed the walls of the castle with red cloth, as if in festive celebration. They then fire a single cannon shot in greeting. Welcome friends. You'll find no quarter here.

It's on like Donkey Kong.

On 6 August 1566, our day in history this week, the first Ottoman wave crashes against the walls of New Town. Despite support from the powerful Ottoman cannons, the initial attack is repulsed. But wave after human wave continues to smash against the walls, relentlessly, tirelessly, from the two bridges on either side of the island. But there's no give in the dogged defenders.

Not as easy as Suleiman imagined.

To keep things concise, the siege unfolds like this:

• On 9 August, three days after the first assault, New Town is eventually overwhelmed by the massive numbers of Ottoman troops. One island down, two to go. During this first phase, the Ottomans lose more than 3,000 men, compared to just 300 defenders.

• The defenders withdraw to Old Town, the middle island, which is much harder to approach and better defended.

• The Ottomans then carry out ten assaults in ten days. They're super impatient. They've committed to taking Szigetvár, but every day they don't, winter draws closer, and with it, the window of time to march on Vienna gets smaller and smaller.

• After the tenth brutal attack, Old Town finally falls, forcing the the defenders to withdraw to the castle island. Two islands down, one to go.

• Suleiman offers Zrinski terms of surrender: turn over the castle and be made lord over all Croatia, under Ottoman vassalage. Zrinski is like yeah nah and ignores the offer.

• At this point, it's becoming crystal clear to Zrinski that the hoped-for reinforcements from Austria aint coming. It seems like this will be a fight to the end. In fact, the Croatian commander had promised on the first day of the siege a fight to the bitter end, and that whoever betrayed to the Ottoman’s would be executed.

• Suleiman then orders his men to shoot letters attached to arrows over the island walls promising safety (in Hungarian and Croatian) to those who surrender and let the Ottomans in. Yep, that doesn't work. Nice try though. He's gonna have to take Szigetvár by force.

• On 29 August and 1 September, the Ottomans launch heavy assaults on the remaining island. They build bridges with debris to create additional points of attack and hit it hard from all sides. But to no avail.

• Then, all of a sudden, the Ottomans cease all action and retreat to Old Town. OK. Weird.

• Four days later, on 5 September, the Ottomans fire a mine they've dug and succeed in collapsing a corner of the wall and opening a massive breech. A gust of wind rushes through the gap and sets fire to many of the buildings on the island.

• The island is now ready for the taking. But no attack comes that day. Nor the next. Only six hundred defenders remain. They're exhausted and confused. Why the delay? They wait anxiously for the hammer to strike.

• So, it turns out, Suleiman has just died in his tent. No one knows this yet except for top Ottoman commanders. Hence the retreat to Old Town and the delay on the final advance.

We're nearing the end now.

On 7 September, 32 days after the first assault, the Ottomans rally their troops and prepare for the final showdown. The battle kicks off with Greek fire, essentially an ancient flame-thrower, and a concentrated cannonade on the castle. According to Robert William Fraser, more than 10,000 large cannonballs are shot into the fortress during the siege. Soon the castle itself, the last stronghold within Szigetvár, is set ablaze.

But Zrinski isn't going to stay in the castle like some slow-cooked, cornered boar. Hell no. He gathers his men and prepares them for a final charge. They grab their horses and form up behind the castle gates behind a large mortar.

These are his final words:

The gates are thrown open and the mortar explodes into the concentrated Ottoman ranks on the causeway. The elite Janissaries are thrown into chaos as Zrinski charges across the bridge.

The Croatians and Hungarians hack and slash their way to Old Town. Zrinski takes two bullets in the chest and then an arrow to the head. Only seven defenders make it through the Ottoman lines to safety.

The Ottomans then enter the wasted castle, and, boom, the power magazine (where gunpowder is kept) explodes, killing 3,000 men. A parting gift from Zrinski, who had ordered a low fuse be lit before his final charge.

Szigetvár has finally fallen.

The way to Vienna is now open.

But winter is too close and a staggering number of Ottomans lay dead, between 20,000 - 30-000 men, including the Sultan.

It's time to go home.

Although the Ottomans win the Siege of Szigetvár, it is remembered by history as a Pyrrhic Victory – a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat.

The Siege of Szigetvár is one of history's most epic final stands. The importance of the conflict is considered so great that the French clergyman and statesman Cardinal Richelieu is reported to have described it as "the battle that saved (Western) civilization." And for long after, Szigetvar became known as a symbol of resistance and Zrinski a national hero in both Croatia and Hungary, inspiring art, poems and operas.

3 quick facts:

• Suleiman the Magnificent's death is kept secret for 48 days and his chief physician is strangled to prevent the word getting out and demoralising the troops.

• Zrinski's head is removed and sent as a gift to the new Sultan, while his body receives an honourable burial by a Turk who had been his prisoner and well treated by him.

• Vienna isn't threatened again until the Battle of Vienna in 1683, more than a hundred years later.

Other conflicts that happened this week:

• 1 August 902: Taormina, the last Byzantine stronghold in Sicily, is captured by the Aghlabid army, concluding the Muslim conquest of Sicily.

• 2 August 216 BC: The Carthaginian army led by Hannibal defeats a numerically superior Roman army at the Battle of Cannae.

• 3 August 881: Louis III of France defeats the Vikings, in the Battle of Saucourt-en-Vimeu, an event celebrated in the poem Ludwigslied.

• 4 August 1578: The Moroccans defeat the Portuguese at the Battle of Al Kasr al Kebir, initiating a succession crisis in Portugal because the Portuguese King is killed in battle.

• 5 August 1689: 1,500 Mohawk warriors launch a surprise attack against the small settlement of Lachine, New France, causing the Lachine Massacre, during the Beaver Wars.

• 6 August 1824: Pro-independence forces led by rebel Simón Bolívar defeat the Spanish in the Battle of Junín, paving the way for their ultimate triumph in the Peruvian War of Independence.

• 7 August 1461: Ming dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin stages a coup against the Tianshun Emperor, but fails and is forced to commit suicide.

A historical quote about historical things:

DisclaimerYou are reading my abstractions based on the abstractions of others. History is not always an accurate map of what really happened. The map is not the territory. Reality can be very different. We are like blind people groping an elephant, describing what we feel. It always pays to do your own research and ask questions.