Siege of Neu-Zrin
Contemporary illustration of one of the many battles for the Neu-Zrin fortress , on the right bank of the Mur ( Muhr flus ), before it was destroyed (author unknown)
| date | June 5 to June 30 or July 7, 1664 |
|---|---|
| place | Neu-Zrin , Reign of Me Herrimurje , Northern Croatia (on the border with Hungary ) |
| output | Victory of the Ottomans |
| consequences | Ottoman advance to Vienna and battle near Mogersdorf |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 70,000-100,000 men | ~ 3,000 men (~ 27,000 reserve troops not thrown into battle) |
| losses | |
|
~ 10,000 men |
~ 2,000 men |
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The siege of Neu-Zrin ( Croatian Novi Zrin ; Hungarian Új-Zrinyivár ) in June / July 1664 was the last of several military clashes between Croatian armed forces (with allied Austrian , German and Hungarian units) and Turkish troops over control of the New Zrin (Neu-Serin), a Croatian fortress owned by Nikola VII. Zrinski , Ban of Croatia , and which lay on the banks and on marshy islands of the Mur on the border between Croatia and part of Hungary, which was then conquered by the Ottomans. The Ottomans besieged the fortress from June 5th to 30th, 1664, then took it and on July 7th, 1664 destroyed it to the ground .
prehistory
Despite local skirmishes and skirmishes along the Croatian, Hungarian and Transylvanian borders to the conquered territories in the early 1660s, there was a period of unstable peace between the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Empire . But the twenty-year-old Leopold I of Habsburg feared an Ottoman military train to Vienna and its possible siege. He therefore ordered his troops to stay near Vienna.
At the same time, Nikola VII. Zrinski, Ban (viceroy) of Croatia and imperial general, demanded more support from the Viennese court for the fortification and strengthening of the border with fortresses in northern Croatia against the parts of Hungary conquered by the Ottomans ( Kanizsa , based in Greater Kanizsa ).
When there was no substantial support from the Viennese court, Zrinski began to build the Neu-Zrin fortress himself in his reign of Međimurje in 1661 . In 1662 the fortress was finished and shortly afterwards it was attacked by the Ottomans several times without success until June 1664.
Lineup
At the beginning of June 1664 a large Ottoman army arrived from Istanbul and Transylvania with around 40,000 fighters, plus around 30,000 Tatars and other allies, a total of 70,000 to 100,000 men (with auxiliary personnel - foremen, paramedics , servants , etc.). The army was stationed northeast of Međimurje. This superior military power was commanded by Grand Vizier Köprülü Fâzıl Ahmed Pascha .
The defenders of Neu-Zrin consisted of Croatian soldiers under commander Nikola VII. Zrinski (who had around 8,000 men in Međimurje), German and Austrian units, led by Generals Wolfgang Julius (Hohenlohe-Neuenstein) and Peter Strozzi , and from Hungarian forces under Pál Batthyány , Pál Eszterházy and Ferencz Nádasdy . They were in and near the fortress, west of the Mur, on its right bank. Not far away, next to Legrad an der Drau, south of the fortress, the camp of the reserve troops was stationed, which was constantly being supplemented with newly arrived units. There were about 6,000 men from Germany, about 6,700 men from Hungary and a larger French unit under Jean de Coligny-Saligny . On June 22nd, Nikolas brother Petar Zrinski came with 4,000 men from central Croatia . The imperial commander in chief Raimondo Montecuccoli was also in the camp for a short time . He did not allow the replacement troops (about 27,000 men in total towards the end of June) to be thrown into battle.
siege
On June 5, Grand Vizier Köprülü Pascha ordered the siege to begin and constant attacks on the fortress. General Strozzi was killed in a battle on June 6th.
After a few weeks, the defenders were defeated by the Turks. Most of the survivors fled west-southwest where the reserve army was waiting. This most likely happened on June 30th, but due to heavy rain that fell until July 3rd, the conquerors could not take full control of New Zrin.
The information about losses is disputed. The Turkish travel writer Evliya Çelebi wrote that the Christians lost 17,000 men. The real losses were about 10,000 for the besiegers and 2,000 for the defenders.
On July 7, 1664, the Turks set mines on fire and blew up the fortress. The siege was decided, but the Ottomans did not march further into the Croatian hinterland (e.g. towards Čakovec ), but withdrew to Groß-Kanizsa, in order to advance to Szentgotthárd a little later .
Post-history
By sacrificing the fortress, the Habsburg army gained time to consolidate and regroup. The following battle at St. Gotthard (August 1, 1664) ended with the victory of the Christian armed forces. After the battle, on August 10, 1664, the Treaty of Eisenburg (Vasvár) was concluded.
The builder and main defender of his fortress Nikola VII. Zrinski died on November 18, 1664 while hunting wild boar under unclear circumstances. New Zrin was never rebuilt.
Today there is a memorial obelisk at the site of the siege . The exact location and appearance of the fortress could not yet be clearly determined.
literature
- Dr. Dragutin Feletar, Petar Feletar, Hrvoje Petrić: Novi Zrin - Zrinska utvrda na Muri / 1661-1664 / (New Zrin - fortress of the Zrinskis on the Mur / 1661-1664 /), publisher: Bibliotheka Historia Croatica, Donja Dubrava - Zagreb 2001 ( ISBN 953-6235-84-6 )
- Gábor Hausner, Lajos Négyesi, Ferenc Papp: “Gate” usred vinograda na brijegu - Pokušaj određivanja lokacije Novog Zrina ( cattle pen in the middle of the vineyard - attempt to determine the location of New Zrin), original scientific work, Hungarian Academy of Sciences - Institute of History , Budapest 2006
- Dr. Dragutin Feletar: "Legradska kapetanija u obrani od Osmanlija - s posebnim osvrtom na Novi Zrin" ( Legradska kapetanija u obrani od Osmanlija - s posebnim osvrtom na Novi Zrin ” (Legrad captaincy in defense against the Ottomans, with a special look back at New Zrin), original scientific work, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts - Department for Social Sciences, Zagreb 2011