Siege of Güns Siege of Kőszeg | |||||||
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Part of the Little War in Hungary within Ottoman–Habsburg wars and the Ottoman wars in Europe | |||||||
Edward Schön: Siege of Güns | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Ottoman Empire | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Nikola Jurišić |
Suleiman the Magnificent | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
700-800[1] | 120,000–200,000[2] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Heavy[3] | Appreciable losses[4] |
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The Siege of Güns or Siege of Kőszeg (Turkish language: Güns Kuşatması) was a siege of Kőszeg (German language: Güns)[Note 1] in the Kingdom of Hungary within Habsburg Monarchy, that took place in 1532. In the siege, the defending forces of the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy under the leadership of Croatian Captain Nikola Jurišić (Hungarian language: Miklós Jurisics), defended the small border fort of Kőszeg with only 700-800 Croatian soldiers, with no cannons and few guns.[1] The defenders prevented the advance of the Ottoman army of 120,000-200,000 toward Vienna, under the leadership of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (Ottoman Turkish language: سليمان Süleymān) and Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha.[1][5]
The exact outcome is unknown, since it has two versions which differ depending on the source. In the first version Nikola Jurišić rejected the offer to surrender on favourable terms, and in the second version, the city was offered terms for a nominal surrender. Suleiman, having been delayed nearly four weeks, withdrew at the arrival of the August rains,[5] and did not continue towards Vienna as he'd intended, but turned homeward.[3] Suleiman secured his possession in Hungary by conquering several other forts,[6] but after the Ottoman withdrawal, Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand I reoccupied some of the devastated territory. Following this, Suleiman and Ferdinand concluded a 1533 treaty in Constantinople that confirmed the right of John Zápolya as a king of all Hungary, but recognised Ferdinand's possession of some of the reoccupied territory.[7]
Background[]
On August 29, 1526, at the Battle of Mohács, the Christian forces led by King Louis II were defeated by Ottoman forces led by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.[8] Louis was killed in the battle, which resulted in the end of the independent Kingdom of Hungary as he died without an heir. Both the Kingdoms of Hungary and Croatia became disputed territories with claims from both the Habsburg and Ottoman empires. Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand I, who was a brother of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, married the sister of Louis II[9] and was elected King by the nobles of both Hungary and Croatia.[10][Note 2]
The throne of Hungary became the subject of a dynastic dispute between Ferdinand and John Zápolya from Transylvania, since Suleiman had promised to make Zápolya the ruler of all Hungary.[12] During Hungarian campaign of 1527–1528, Ferdinand captured Buda from John Zápolya in 1527, only to relinquish his hold on it in 1529 when an Ottoman counter-attack stripped Ferdinand of all his territorial gains during 1527 and 1528.[9] The siege of Vienna in 1529 was the first attempt by Suleiman the Magnificent to capture the Austrian capital. This siege signalled the pinnacle of Ottoman power and the maximum extent of Ottoman expansion in central Europe.[9]
Little War in Hungary[]
Following Suleiman's unsuccessful Siege of Vienna in 1529, Ferdinand launched a counter-attack in 1530 to regain the initiative and avenge the destruction brought by Suleiman's 120,000 strong army. This campaign is usually considered as the start of the Little War, the period of a series conflicts between the Habsburgs and the Ottoman Empire. An assault of Buda was driven off by John Zápolya, the vassal King of Hungary, but Ferdinand was successful elsewhere, capturing Gran (Esztergom) and other forts along the Danube river, a vital strategic frontier.[5]
Campaign of 1532[]
During the early period of the Little War in Hungary, Suleiman, as a response to Ferdinand's counter-attack in 1530, and as a part of his fifth imperial campaign[13] (Ottoman Turkish language: سفر همايون, Sefer-i humāyūn)[Note 3] in 1532, led a massive army of over 120,000 troops to besiege Vienna again. Due to Suleiman's rapid advances, Ferdinand feared the Christian forces would not be assembled in time to meet him.[15] On 12 July, Suleiman wrote to Ferdinand from Osijek (German language: Esseg) in Slavonia, to assure him of the Ottoman advance.[15] According to the letter, Suleiman's fifth campaign was primarily directed against Charles V, and not personally against Ferdinand.[16] After Suleiman crossed the river Drava at Osijek, instead of taking the usual route for Vienna, he turned westwards into Ferdinand's held Hungarian territory.[5] According to historian Andrew Wheatcroft, on the route for Vienna, the Ottoman army had briefly invested and captured seventeen fortified towns or castles.[1] Ferdinand withdrew his army, leaving only 700 men with no cannons and a few guns to defend Kőszeg.[5]
Siege[]
Located south of Sopron, the small town of Kőszeg was only a few miles from the Austrian border.[1] It was held by a task force commanded by the Croatian soldier and diplomat Nikola Jurišić.[17] Kőszeg was not considered a place of importance.[17] It was an insubstantial obstacle and many stronger places had yielded without a fight.[1] The Grand Vizier of the Ottomans, Ibrahim Pasha, did not realize how poorly defended Kőszeg was. After taking a few minor places, Suleiman came to join Ibrahim Pasha shortly afterwards, when the siege had already started.[5] The Ottomans met stiff resistance at Kőszeg.[17] Suleiman had hoped that the imperial army would come to relieve Kőszeg, affording him an opportunity for a larger engagement.[18] However, during the Ottoman attacks on Kőszeg, the imperial army still formed up in Regensburg.[19] The Ottomans continued with one attack after another; artillery fire brought down parts of the walls, but brought no surrender.[17][Note 4] The Ottomans' mines were sapped by countermines.[17] The layout of Kőszeg's walls made mining a feasible strategy, but even though several mines succeeded in blowing holes in the fortifications, the defenders held out.[5] For more than twenty-five days, without any artillery, Captain Nikola Jurišić and his garrison of 800 Croats held out against nineteen full-scale assaults and an incessant bombardment by the Ottomans.[1] The outcome has two versions. In the first version, Nikola Jurišić rejected the offer to surrender on favourable terms, and the Ottomans retreated.[1][4][21] In the second version, the city was offered terms for a nominal surrender. The only Ottomans who would be allowed to enter the castle would be a token force who would raise the Ottoman flag.[5] In either case, Suleiman withdrew at the arrival of the August rains,[5] and returned homeward instead of continuing towards Vienna as previously planned.[3] He had been delayed nearly four weeks, and during this time a powerful army had been collected in Vienna, which Suleiman had not the intention to face.[3] According to historian Paolo Giovio, Charles arrived with an imperial army at Vienna on September 23, too late for fighting the Ottomans since Suleiman already withdrew.[22] By their defense of Kőszeg, Nikola Jurišić and his men had saved Vienna from a siege.[3][Note 5]
Aftermath[]
Although he was stopped at Kőszeg and failed to conquer Vienna, Suleiman additionally secured his possession in Hungary by conquering several forts, since Ferdinand and Charles evaded an open field battle.[6] Immediately after the Ottoman withdraw, Ferdinand reoccupied devastated territory in Austria and Hungary.[23] Nevertheless, Suleiman concluded a peace treaty with Ferdinand in 1533, in Constantinople.[7] The treaty confirmed the right of John Zápolya as a king of all Hungary, but recognised Ferdinand's possession of that part of the country that enjoyed the status quo.[7]
This treaty did not satisfy Zápolya or Ferdinand, whose armies began to skirmish along the borders.[24] After Zápolya's death in 1540, Suleiman annexed Hungary to the Ottoman realm.[24] Although from 1529 to 1566 the borders of the Ottoman Empire moved further west, none of the campaigns after 1529 achieved the decisive victory that would secure the new Ottoman possessions.[25]
Notes[]
- ↑ During Ottoman–Habsburg wars, the small border fort was called Güns since it was under Habsburg jurisdiction, today as a part of Hungary it is known as Kőszeg.
- ↑ In 1527, the Croatian nobles convened the so-called Parliament on Cetin to elect Ferdinand as their king.[11]
- ↑ The Ottoman Turkish name for the imperial campaigns, according to Şemseddin Sâmî (Frashëri).[14]
- ↑ According to a historian Paolo Giovio, the siege of Güns failed because the Ottomans had not brought large siege guns, expecting to engage the Emperor in a field battle.[20]
- ↑ According to "A Historical Encyclopedia", the dogged defense of Kőszeg convinced Suleiman to give up on besieging Vienna, which was much more fortified.[2]
References[]
Footnotes[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Wheatcroft (2009), p. 59.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 A Historical Encyclopedia (2011), p. 151
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Vambery, p. 298
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Thompson (1996), p. 442
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 Turnbull (2003), p. 51.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Akgunduz and Ozturk (2011), p. 184.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Turnbull (2003), pp. 51–52.
- ↑ Turnbull (2003), p. 49
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Turnbull (2003), pp. 49–51.
- ↑ Corvisier and Childs (1994), p. 289
- ↑ R. W. Seton-Watson. The southern Slav question and the Habsburg Monarchy. p. 18. http://www.archive.org/stream/southernslavques00seto/southernslavques00seto_djvu.txt.
- ↑ Turnbull (2003), pp. 55–56.
- ↑ Zürcher (1999), p. 38.
- ↑ Sami Frashëri. Kamûs-ül Â'lâm. http://books.google.com/books?id=axw-AQAAIAAJ&pg=PT881&dq=%22+%D8%B3%D9%81%D8%B1+%D9%87%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%86%22&hl=en&ei=_Sb5TceLOMHqrAeWs4XwDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CE4Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=%22%20%D8%B3%D9%81%D8%B1%20%D9%87%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%86%22&f=false.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Setton (1984), p. 364.
- ↑ Setton (1984), pp. 364–365.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 Setton (1984), p. 365.
- ↑ Setton (1984), p. 366.
- ↑ Gregg (2009), p. 169.
- ↑ Gregg (2009), pp. 168–169.
- ↑ Ágoston and Alan Masters (2009), p. 583
- ↑ Zimmerman (1995), p. 124
- ↑ Black (1996), p. 26.
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 Scott (2011), pp. 58-59.
- ↑ Uyar and Erickson (2009), p. 74.
Bibliography[]
- Ágoston and Alan Masters, Gábor and Bruce (2009). Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 0-8160-6259-5, 9780816062591.
- Akgunduz, Ahmed; Ozturk, Said (2011). Ottoman History: Misperceptions and Truths. IUR Press. ISBN 978-90-902610-8-9.
- Black, Jeremy (1996). Cambridge illustrated atlas, warfare: Renaissance to revolution, 1492-1792. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-47033-9.
- Corvisier, André; Childs, John (1994). A dictionary of military history and the art of war. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-16848-6, 9780631168485. http://books.google.hr/books?id=nEQ7FUAdmc8C&dq=A+Dictionary+of+Military+History+and+the+Art+of+War,&source=gbs_navlinks_s.
- Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. 2011. ISBN 1598843362, 9781598843361.
- Gregg, Ryan E. (2009). Panorama, Power, and History: Vasari and Stradano's City Views in the Palazzo Vecchio. ProQuest. ISBN 0549937374, 9780549937371.
- Scott, Richard Bodley (2011). Clash of Empires. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1849082294, 9781849082297.
- Setton, Kenneth Meyer (1984). The Papacy and the Levant, 1204–1571: The Sixteenth Century, Vol. III. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society. ISBN 0-87169-161-2.
- Thompson, Bard (1996). Humanists and Reformers: A History of the Renaissance and Reformation. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 0-8028-6348-5, 9780802863485.
- Turnbull, Stephen R (2003). The Ottoman Empire, 1326-1699. New York (USA): Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-415-96913-1.
- Uyar, Mesut; J. Erickson, Edward (2009). A military history of the Ottomans: from Osman to Atatürk. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-275-98876-0.
- Vambery, Armin. Hungary in Ancient Mediaeval and Modern Times. Forgotten Books. ISBN 1-4400-9034-3, 9781440090349.
- Wheatcroft, Andrew (2009). The Enemy at the Gate: Habsburgs, Ottomans, and the Battle for Europe. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-01374-0, 9780465013746.
- Zimmerman, T. C. Price (1995). Paolo Giovio: The Historian and the Crisis of Sixteenth-Century Italy. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691043787, 9780691043784.
- Zürcher, Erik Jan (1999). Arming the state: military conscription in the Middle East and Central Asia, 1775-1925. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-86064-404-7.
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Coordinates: 47°23′17″N 16°32′30″E / 47.38806°N 16.54167°E
The original article can be found at Siege of Güns and the edit history here.