SIEGE OF EGER

The 1552 'Siege of Eger' occurred during the 16th Century Ottoman Wars in Europe It was a major Austrian victory after a series of crushing defeats at the hands of Turkish forces and checked the Ottoman expansion into central and eastern Europe. However, it remained a small encounter in a war that the Hungarians under the Habsburg dynasty were struggling to maintain.

Contents

Historical Background

The Fortress

The Siege

The Siege in Art and Literature

References

Historical Background

The Turkish Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, commenced his expansion of the empire in 1520 after the reign of Selim I. He began assaults against Hungarian and Austrian influenced territories, invading Hungarian soil in 1526. The Hungarian Army was crushed at the Battle of Mohacs and the way was paved open to attack the Danube Basin. The battle also brought about the death of the King of Hungary and Bohemia, Louis II, leading to a disputed claim for the throne. The Austrian Emperor Ferdinand I succeeded to the Bohemian throne but was challenged to the Hungarian throne by the pretender John Zápolya 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 succeeded to the throne. It was not resolved until he renounced the throne in 1563 when he was succeeded by Maximilian I.
The Ottomans met resistance during the Siege of 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, finally occupying the capital in 1541. Buda became the seat of Turkish rule in the area, with the Turkish supported John II governing the occupied territories.
The loss of Christian forts at Temesvár and Szolnok in 1552 were blamed on mercenary soldiers within the Hungarian ranks. When the Turks turned their attention to the northern Hungarian town of Eger in the same year few expected the defenders to put up much resistance, particularly as the two great armies of the Turkish lords Ahmed and Ali, which had crushed all opposition previously, united under Eger.
Eger 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 (present day Kosice), 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 Wien more frequently.

The Fortress

The fortress of Eger is located north of the town on a hillside. It's positioning could have been better - the castle only overlooks the southern and western part 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 south-easy and 6 bastions on the walls- the Earth Bastion and Prison Bastion to the north-west, Sándor Bastion on the north wall, Bolyky Bastion on the north east 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 whilst a further bastion, Church Bastion, lay at the centre of the wall separating the two parts of the fortress.
The fort 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 usual during medieval sieges, both the attackers and the defenders tried to dug 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.

The Siege

The Ottoman army which arrived at Eger consisted of approximately 150,000 persons, some 80,000 of them were trained soldiers of various arms and combat value. The rest included logistics troops, craftsmen, merchants and gipsy caravans who provided repair services and popular entertainment, such as fortune-telling, to the Ottoman troops. Thus, the defenders of Eger were outnumbered about 1 to 50 in hand-to-hand combat. However, many of the Ottomans were worn and tired because of their long journey on foot, which started at the Balkans in the spring of 1552.
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 higly useful in collecting and transporting wood to the site to construct temporary siege platforms. The defenders had 6 large and about one dozen smaller cannons and some 300 trench guns with ample supplies of ammunition.
Despite the differences in strength, Eger's strong walls and morals allowed the defenders to survive 5 sieges and continuous cannonfire (excluding the ones stuck in the walls of the stronghold, almost 12,000 cannonballs landed inside in the fortress before the siege ended).
The fortress was defended by 2,100 combatants, 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 mercenaries, soldiers who were complete strangers to Hungary: Dobó hired six cannonmasters from Germany to make the most efficient use of Eger's artillery. The defenders were commanded by István Dobó and his deputy István Mekcsey, who had assumed command in 1549. Another noticeable officer, who was lauded in Hungarian literature and folklore, was Gergely Bornemissza. He commanded a detachment of 250 Austrian musketeers, however it was his skill with explosives that was to make this young officers 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 which he rolled into the Ottoman ranks. His secret lay in the gunpowder not simply blowing up but sparking even more fire. He loaded said weapons with oil, sulfur and flint to shower the enemy with burning missiles.
The Turks had expected an easy victory, but the bravery of the castles defenders, as well as Dobó's inspired leadership repelled repeated Turkish assaults. Even when the storage tower containing 24 metric tons of black gunpowder exploded and caused exstensive structural damage the invaders still couldn't find a way into the castle compound. After 39 days of bloody, brutal and intense fighting the remnants of 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 cadets.
According to modern historic 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, making much destruction to the walls with his battery of just four large siege guns. During the siege, the Ottoman army at least twice ran out of gunpowder and cannonballs (which were carved out of marble), limiting Ahmed's use of heavy artillery for at least a week. The end of autumn arrived earlier than usual with heavy rain and freezing nigh time temperatures. Reduced rice rations and allegations of officers' corruption caused discontent among the Ottoman troops.
After the victory Dobó and his officers resigned, to protest that King Ferdinand refused to contribute any material help to the defence and Gergely Bornemissza took over the fortress's command, before himself being ambushed and hanged by the Ottomans. The fortress of Eger remained defiant to Turkish attacks until 1596 when 7,000 defenders, mostly mercenaries, capitulated meekly against the Turkish forces personally commanded by the Sultan, Mehmed III. It was the beginning of nearly 80 years of Turkish rule in the town.

The Siege in Art and Literature

Earliest records of the siege were recorded by the chronicler Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos in 1554 who wrote musical verses of the exploits of the people of Eger. It was not until 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 in 1827. The most famous account was by author Géza Gárdonyi 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 Bornemissza, as well as Captain Dobó, and his co-commander István Mekcsey. During the 1960's the novel was adapted into a feature-length film, which is still regularly shown on Hungarian TV. Bertalan Székely'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.

References

1. Gárdonyi, Géza. ''Egri Csillagok'' (vol. 2). Európa Könyvkiadó, Budapest. 2000. pages 17, 49.
2. Gárdonyi, Géza. ''Egri Csillagok'' (vol. 2). Európa Könyvkiadó, Budapest. 2000. pages 33, 40, 49.