The Siege of Eger occurred during the 16th century Ottoman Wars in Europe

Ottoman wars in Europe

The wars of the Ottoman Empire in Europe are also sometimes referred to as the Ottoman Wars or as Turkish Wars, particularly in older, European texts.- Rise :...

. It was a major Hungarian

Kingdom of Hungary

The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...

 victory after a series of crushing defeats at the hands of Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 forces and checked the Ottoman expansion into both Central Europe

Central Europe

Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...

 and Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

.

Background

The Ottoman Sultan

Sultan

Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...

, Suleiman the Magnificent

Suleiman the Magnificent

Suleiman I was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1520 to his death in 1566. He is known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent and in the East, as "The Lawgiver" , for his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system...

, commenced his expansion of the empire in 1520 after the reign of Selim I

Selim I

Selim I, Yavuz Sultân Selim Khan, Hâdim-ül Haramain-ish Sharifain , nicknamed Yavuz "the Stern" or "the Steadfast", but often rendered in English as "the Grim" , was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to...

. He began assaults against Hungarian and Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n influenced territories, invading Hungarian soil in 1526. The Hungarian Army was crushed at the Battle of Mohács

Battle of Mohács

The Battle of Mohács was fought on August 29, 1526 near Mohács, Hungary. In the battle, forces of the Kingdom of Hungary led by King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia were defeated by forces of the Ottoman Empire led by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent....

 and the way was paved for an attack on the Danube Basin. The battle also brought about the death of the King

Monarch

A monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...

 of Hungary and Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

, Louis II

Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia

Louis II was King of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia from 1516 to 1526.- Early life :Louis was the son of Ladislaus II Jagiellon and his third wife, Anne de Foix....

, leading to a disputed claim for the throne. The Austrian Emperor

Emperor

An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife or a woman who rules in her own right...

 Ferdinand I

Ferdinand I of Austria

Ferdinand I was Emperor of Austria, President of the German Confederation, King of Hungary and Bohemia , as well as associated dominions from the death of his father, Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, until his abdication after the Revolutions of 1848.He married Maria Anna of Savoy, the sixth child...

 succeeded to the Bohemian throne but was challenged to the Hungarian throne by the pretender John Zápolya

John Zápolya

John Zápolya was King of Hungary from 1526 to 1540. His rule was disputed by Archduke Ferdinand I, who also claimed the title King of Hungary between 1526 and 1540. He was the voivode of Transylvania before his coronation.- Biography :...

 whose claim was backed by nobles and the Sultan. The power struggle continued beyond John's death in 1540 when his son, John II Sigismund Zápolya

John II Sigismund Zápolya

John II Sigismund Zápolya was King of Hungary from 1540 to 1570 and Prince of Transylvania from 1570–1571.-Family:The son of King John I and Isabella Jagiełło, he succeeded his father as an infant...

 succeeded to the throne. It was not resolved until he renounced the throne in 1563 when he was succeeded by Maximilian I

Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor

Maximilian II was king of Bohemia and king of the Romans from 1562, king of Hungary and Croatia from 1563, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation from 1564 until his death...

.

The Ottomans met resistance during the Siege of Güns

Siege of Güns

The Siege of Güns or Siege of Kőszeg was a siege of Kőszeg in the Kingdom of Hungary within Habsburg Monarchy. In the siege that happened in 1532, Croatian Captain Nikola Jurišić defended the small border fort of Kőszeg with only 700-800 Croatian soldiers with no cannons and few guns, preventing...

 (Kőszeg) in 1532, where a force of 800 men under Miklós Jurisich managed to hold back the Ottoman armies. However, this only delayed their campaign by 25 days, and they continued to close in on Buda

Buda

For detailed information see: History of Buda CastleBuda is the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest on the west bank of the Danube. The name Buda takes its name from the name of Bleda the Hun ruler, whose name is also Buda in Hungarian.Buda comprises about one-third of Budapest's...

, finally occupying the capital in 1541. Buda became the seat of Ottoman rule in the area, with the Ottoman supported John II governing the occupied territories.

The loss of Christian forts at Temesvár and Szolnok

Szolnok

Szolnok is the county seat of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county in central Hungary. Its location on the banks of the Tisza river, at the heart of the Great Hungarian Plain, has made it an important cultural and economic crossroads for centuries....

 in 1552 were blamed on mercenary soldiers within the Hungarian ranks. When the Turks turned their attention to the northern Hungarian town of Eger

Eger

Eger is the second largest city in Northern Hungary, the county seat of Heves, east of the Mátra Mountains. Eger is best known for its castle, thermal baths, historic buildings , and red and white wines.- Name :...

 in the same year few expected the defenders to put up much resistance, particularly as the two great armies of the Ottoman lords Ahmed and Ali, which had crushed all opposition previously, united under Eger.

Eger

Eger

Eger is the second largest city in Northern Hungary, the county seat of Heves, east of the Mátra Mountains. Eger is best known for its castle, thermal baths, historic buildings , and red and white wines.- Name :...

 was an important stronghold and key to the defence of the remainder of Hungarian soil. North of Eger lay the poorly reinforced city of Kassa

Kassa

Kassa can either mean:* Košice a town in Slovakia*Kassa, Mali* Kassa A Dutch consumer protection TV program* Kassa an African ruler* Iles de Los*Kassa, Italian Artist and Designer, http://www.kassa.it...

 (present day Košice

Košice

Košice is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary...

), the centre of an important region of mines and associated mints, which provided the Hungarian Kingdom with large amounts of quality silver and gold coinage. Besides allowing a take-over of that revenue source, fall of Eger would also enable the Ottoman Empire to secure an alternative logistic and troop route for further west-ward military expansion, possibly allowing the Turks to lay sieges on Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 more frequently.

Castle

The Castle of Eger

Castle of Eger

The Castle of Eger is a castle in Eger, Hungary. Historically, it is known for its repelling of the Turkish attack in 1552 during the Siege of Eger.- History :The first castle was built on the high hill named Várhegy at Felsőtárkány near Eger....

 is located east of the town

Town

A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...

 on a hillside. Its actual location was not ideal from a military point of view - the castle overlooks only the southern and western parts of the walled town - however, it had the advantage over the Ottoman forces as it provided excellent locations for gun positions. The castle comprised an inner and outer fortress with a gate tower to the southeast and 6 bastions on the walls - the Earth Bastion and Prison Bastion to the northwest, Sándor Bastion on the north wall, Bolyky Bastion on the northeast corner, Bebek Bastion on the eastern corner of the outer fortress and the Dobó Bastion on the western wall. The Varkoch gate sat on the southern wall of the inner fortress while a further bastion, Church Bastion, lay at the centre of the wall separating the two parts of the fortress.

The fortress of Eger was built on the ruins of an earlier stone fort, which replaced an ancient earthen encampment, possibly erected by the Huns. This made Eger's foundations stronger than usual and greatly hindered the work of Ottoman miners. As was usual during sieges at that time, both the attackers and the defenders tried to dig tunnels under the walls and plant gunpowder charges to either open gaps into the fortress or destroy the attacker's trenches. None of these attempts were successful during the siege of Eger.

Siege

The old hungarian data and Gárdonyi's roman about the number of the Ottoman Army (150-200,000 men) is romantic exaggerates. In reality the Ottoman army was number to 35-40,000 men from the Rumelian army (and some Anatolian contingent) and the troops of Ahmed Pasha from Buda.

The Ottomans had 16 zarbuzans (very large siege cannons) as well as 150 medium and smaller pieces of artillery and a fleet of two thousand camels, which proved to be highly useful in the collection and transportation of wood to the site used for the construction of temporary siege platforms. The defenders had 6 large and about a dozen smaller cannons and some 300 trench guns with ample supplies of ammunition.

Despite the difference in troop numbers, Eger's strong walls and the high morale of its defenders allowed the fortress to withstand five major assaults and continuous cannonfire (excluding the ones stuck in the walls of the stronghold, almost 12,000 cannonballs landed inside the fortress before the siege ended).

The fortress was defended by 2,100-2,300 people, a mixture of professional soldiers, insurgent peasants and a few dozen women. Among the approximately 1,530 combat-ready personnel there were only a handful of foreign mercenaries: Dobó had hired six cannonmasters from Germany in order to make the most efficient use of Eger's artillery. The defenders were commanded by István Dobó

István Dobó

Baron István Dobó de Ruszka Baron István Dobó de Ruszka Baron István Dobó de Ruszka (c. 1502 - Szerednye (today, Середнє (Szerednye / Serednie, Ukraine), mid-June 1572). Hungarian soldier, best known as the successful defender of Eger against the Ottomans in 1552. Dobó was a member of the...

 and his deputy István Mekcsey, who had assumed command in 1549. Another noted officer, famous in Hungarian literature and folklore, was Gergely Bornemissza. He commanded a detachment of 250 hungarian infantry, however it was his skill with explosives that was to make this young officer's name. During the siege Bornemissza devised primitive but lethal grenades and powder keg sized bombs to use against the attackers as well as a water-mill wheel packed with gunpowder

Gunpowder

Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...

 which he rolled into the Ottoman ranks. His secret lay in the gunpowder not simply exploding but sparking even more fire. He loaded these weapons with oil, sulfur and flint in order to shower the enemy with burning missiles.

The Ottomans had expected an easy victory, but the bravery of the castle's defenders, as well as Dobó's inspired leadership, resisted and repulsed repeated Ottoman assaults. Even after the storage tower containing 24 metric tons of black gunpowder exploded and caused extensive structural damage, the invaders still could not find a way into the castle compound. After 39 days of bloody, brutal and intense fighting the Ottoman Army withdrew, beaten and humiliated. The defenders' losses amounted to about one third of their ranks, including those killed and permanently maimed in combat. Dobó lost both of his squires.

According to modern historical research, several external factors contributed the defenders' success. There was significant in-fighting between the two Ottoman leaders, Pasha Ali and Pasha Ahmed. Ahmed was the senior and contributed twice as many troops to the united army, but Ali showed more strategic talent and proved his skill in artillery, heavily damaging the castle walls with his battery of just four large siege guns. During the siege, the Ottoman army ran out of gunpowder and cannonballs (which were carved out of marble) at least twice, limiting Ahmed's use of heavy artillery for a week or more. The end of autumn arrived earlier than usual with heavy rain and freezing nighttime temperatures. Reduced rice rations and allegations of corruption among the officers caused discontent among the Ottoman troops.

After the victory Dobó and his officers resigned, in order to protest King Ferdinand's refusal to contribute any material help to the defence. Gergely Bornemissza was appointed to take over command of the fortress. He was later ambushed, captured and hanged by the Ottomans. The fortress of Eger remained defiant of Ottoman attacks until 1596

Siege of Eger (1596)

The Ottomans launched a siege of Eger as part of the Long War, conquering it in 1596. The 7,000 defenders of the fortress, mostly foreign mercenaries, capitulated to the Ottoman forces commanded by the Sultan Mehmed III himself....

 when 7,000 defenders, mostly foreign mercenaries, capitulated to the Ottoman forces personally commanded by the Sultan, Mehmed III

Mehmed III

Mehmed III Adli was sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1595 until his death.-Biography:...

. The town remained in Ottoman hands for 91 years.

Eger has become an emblem of national defence, a symbol of patriotic heroism, and the superiority of a national army over an unmotivated foreign mercenary force.

In art and literature

Earliest records of the siege were recorded by the chronicler Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos

Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos

Sebestyén "Lantos" Tinódi was a 16th century Hungarian lyricist, epic poet, political historian, and minstrel.- Biography :...

 in 1554 who wrote musical verses of the exploits of the people of Eger.

It was not until the 19th century that the siege was seized upon by Hungarian writers as the basis of fictional accounts. The first was the poem Eger by Mihály Vörösmarty

Mihály Vörösmarty

Mihály Vörösmarty was an important Hungarian poet and dramatist.He was born at Puszta-Nyék , of a noble Roman Catholic family. His father was a steward of the Nádasdys. Mihály was educated at Székesfehérvár by the Cistercians and at Pest by the Piarists...

 in 1827.

The most famous account was by author Géza Gárdonyi

Géza Gárdonyi

Géza Gárdonyi, born Géza Ziegler was a Hungarian writer and journalist. Although he wrote a range of works, he had his greatest success as a historical novelist, particularly with Eclipse of the Crescent Moon and Slave of the Huns.-Life:Gárdonyi was born in Agárdpuszta, Austria-Hungary, the son of...

 who wrote his popular 1899 historical novel Egri csillagok about the events of this period. It chronicles the events leading up to and including the siege and tells the tale of Gergely Bornemissza, as well as Captain Dobó, and his co-commander István Mekcsey. During the 1960s the novel was adapted into a feature-length film, which is still regularly shown on Hungarian television.

Bertalan Székely

Bertalan Székely

Bertalan Székely was a Hungarian Romantic painter of historical themes. "The Discovery of Louis II's Dead Body", "Women of Eger", "Battle of Mohács", "Ladislas V" are among the most important of his historical paintings. Szekely is also known for his many murals.-External links:* *...

's painting Az Egri Nők (Women of Eger) depicts the defence of the fortress, especially by the womenfolk, and hangs in the National Art Gallery in Budapest.