Habsburg–Ottoman wars in Hungary (1526–1568)

Maps

1540s

In 1541, the Ottomans failed to take the fortress of Szigetvár. However, a humiliating defeat was inflicted on the Habsburgs in the siege of Buda (1541). John Szapolyai died in 1540 and his son was only a few weeks old. An Austrian attack on Buda followed the news of the death of John, but the appeals of John's widow to Suleiman were not unanswered, and in 1541 the elderly General Wilhelm von Roggendorf was defeated outside of Buda before he could even cross the Danube to take it. The next year Ferdinand besieged Pest but was repulsed.

In April 1543 Suleiman launched another campaign in Hungary, bringing back Bran and other forts so that much of Hungary was under Ottoman control. As part of a Franco-Ottoman alliance (see also: Franco-Hungarian alliance and Petar Keglević), French troops were supplied to the Ottomans in Hungary; a French artillery unit was dispatched in 1543–1544 and attached to the Ottoman Army. In August 1543, the Ottoman succeeded in the siege of Esztergom The siege was followed by the capture of the Hungarian coronation city of Székesfehérvár in September 1543. Other cities that were captured during this campaign were Siklós and Szeged, in order to better protect Buda. However, continuous delay of the push toward the west, because of the siege of these fortresses, meant that the Ottomans could not launch any new offensive against Austria.

From 1548 to the end of the war, a Habsburg Spanish infantry tercio that had fought in the Schmalkaldic War, led by Maestre de campo Bernardo de Aldana, was detached in Hungary to fight against John Zápolya's supporters on behalf of Ferdinand. In fact, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V sent Spanish troops to help his brother regularly from 1527 to 1553, support that proved instrumental in Hungary remaining inside Christianity.

1550s

Ottoman campaign in Hungary in 1552

In the spring of 1551, the Ottomans held the Hungarian border forts of Pécs, Fehérvár, Esztergom, Vác, Nógrád, Hatvan and Szeged. During the conquest campaign in 1551, the Turks were defeated by George the Frater at Timișoara (Temesvár) and Lippa, and the Sultan was outraged. This marked the end of the peace of Drinapolis (Erdine) in 1547. György Fráter deceived the sultan - in fact, he only wanted to gain time and finally hand over Transylvania, which had been under the rule of the Kingdom of Hungary since 1003, to the Hungarian king, Ferdinand of Habsburg.

Due to the Turkish threat, on the instructions of Ferdinand I, in 1550–51, on the site of the old Szolnok earthen castle, Szolnok was surrounded by a new city wall (partly according to the plan of István Dobó), and its weak castle was fortified. Lőrinc Nyáry was appointed to the forefront. This new strength did not fit into the Turkish plans to keep central Hungary. Suleyman's main goal was to make a bigger gap between the western part of Hungary and the Principality of Transylvania. For all this, Sultan Suleiman sent another conquering army against the politically divided Kingdom of Hungary. The commander-in-chief of his army, Kara Ahmed, who left Constantinople, was the serdar[general] and other commanders were Mehmed Sokollu beglerbey of Rumelia and Hadim Ali pasha r(governor) of Buda. The poorly paid mercenaries of King Ferdinand and the Hungarian population fled the Turkish armies. Several Hungarian castles were left to their fate without protection. Ahmed's army's aim was to acquire the Timisoara region, while Hadim Ali had to occupy the castles of Hont and Nógrád, thus securing the way to the rich mining towns of the highlands.

In 1552 two Ottoman armies crossed the border into the Hungarian Kingdom. One of them – led by Hadim Ali Pasha – started a campaign against the western and central part of the country whilst the second army – led by Kara Ahmed Pasha – attacked the fortresses in the Banat region. Hadim Ali Pasha laid siege to the castle at Veszprém and captured it on 2 June. The army of Ali Pasha – about 10,000 to 12,000 strong – got below Drégely Castle on the morning of 6 July. The fall of Drégely started a chain of defeats of castles of Hont and Nógrád counties. Ottoman troops conquered nine-tenths of the castles in the two counties in short order. During the campaign they occupied Timișoara, Veszprém, Szécsény, Hollókő, Buják, Lippa, Lugos, Karánsebes, Drégely and several smaller fortresses. Pasha Hadim Ali marched from Buda and Vizier Kara Ahmed marched from the West side of Transylvania (Partium). The Habsburg army under Erasmus von Teufel made a belated attempt to stop the Ottoman troops at Plášťovce (then Palást), but was completely defeated in a two-day battle of Palást, and 4,000 German and Italian prisoners were deported to Istanbul. The two armies united under Szolnok, then besieged and conquered the Szolnok Castle, and turned against the gate of Upper Hungary, Eger. At the end of the July there was an enormous gap in the Hungarian border castle system.

In 1552, Suleiman's united forces (Kara Ahmed pasha, Hadim Ali pasha, and Mehmed Sokollu beglerbey) laid siege of Eger, located in the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, but the defenders led by István Dobó repelled the attacks and defended the Eger Castle.

In 1554, the town of Fiľakovo in south-central Slovakia with the castle of the same name was conquered by the Turks and was the seat of a sanjak until 1593, when it was reconquered by the Imperial troops. On 27 March 1562, Hasszán, the sanjak-bey of Fülek (Fiľakovo) castle, defeated the Hungarian army of the Upper Lands at the battle of Szécsény.

Siege of Szigetvar 1556

The Ottoman armies advancing in Transdanubia managed to occupy all the surrounding fortresses in the years 1540-1550, so Szigetvár was completely left alone. After the Turkish attack, led by Toygun Pasha, governor of Buda, was repulsed by László Kerecsényi in 1555, the first full-scale siege of the fortress took place in the summer of 1556. Despite the extraordinary efforts of the Ottomans the castellan in charge of the defense, Marko Horvat Stančić [hr], kept the fortress against the multiple attacks led by Ali Pasha, governor of Buda.

While Szigetvár was besieged, on July 18, a Habsburg army besieged the Ottoman fort at Babócsa, on the west side of the Rinya River, 45 km west of Szigetvár. The commanders were Hungarian Palatine Tamás Nádasdy and Croatian Ban Nikola IV Zrinski. Ali Paşa knew that for Süleymân, losing a fort under Ottoman control is a bigger sin than failing to take one. Ali Paşa temporarily lifted the siege and took his men to Babócsa, to rescue the garrison but, on July 23-24, at a battle at the Rinya River, Nikola Zrinski defeated Ali Paşa, who then returned to Szigetvár, which, during his absence, had damaged walls repaired and the garrison reinvigorated. The Ottomans lifted the siege and left Szigetvár - chased and attacked while they fled.

Aftermath

The castle, damaged during the siege, was rebuilt under the leadership of the captain and with the involvement of the Italian military engineer Pietro Ferrabosco, using the most modern military techniques, as a result of which it became the most modern and strongest border fortress in Hungary by the end of the 1550s, protected by a rampart wall, corner bastions, and moats.

1560s

After the death of Márk Horváth, in 1561 Nikola IV Zrinski became the castle captain. He was tasked with maintaining the last important southern border fortress, still in imperial hands, endangering the security of the military and commercial road between Buda and Nándorfehérvár. After a few years of silence, the battle of Szigetvár took place in the late summer of 1566, which ended in the abandonment of Southern Transdanubia, surpassing all its significance and leaving a deep imprint in Hungarian historical memory, and ending in defeat despite the heroic endurance of the defenders. Sultan Suleiman I started his last campaign and he set Szigetvár as his first goal. He besieged the castle of Szigetvár with an army of hundred thousand regular forces, which Zrinski defended with about 2,500 soldiers, resisting the Turkish superiority for 34 days. On September 7, 1566, when the inner castle was already on fire, Zrinski and his 300 combat soldiers tried to erupt ("Zrinski's charge"), but all of them died a heroic death at the castle gate. During the siege, the medieval round tower was also destroyed. Immediately after the occupation of the castle, the Ottomans began to rebuild the fortress and the settlement.

After Suleiman died, Mehmed Sokollu hid it from the army for a month and sent a secret letter to prince Selim to take over the throne. The soldiers didn't know that Suleiman died until Selim joined the army in Belgrade. The army supported him to be the successor of Suleiman.

Aftermath

Peace was finally concluded in Edirne in 1568 and renewed in 1576, 1584, and 1591. War would not again break out between the Habsburgs and Ottomans until 1593, in the Long Turkish War. However, throughout this period of peace small-scale warfare continued, a conflict known as the "Little War" (German: Kleinkrieg). No large armies or sustained campaigns were launched, but authorities on both sides continually struggled with hostile raiders and forays across the poorly-demarcated border. Both sides, however, desired that peace continue.

In 1571 the Turks destroyed the Hodejov castle and in 1575 they conquered the Modrý Kameň castle. In 1588 there was a battle near the town of Szikszó, where the Hungarian army defeated the Turks.