István Dobó

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Dobó István statue on the main square named after him in Eger

Baron István (Stephan) Dobó von Ruszka (* 1502 in Szerednye , today Середнє, Ukraine ; † 1572 ) was a Hungarian soldier and the captain of the castle in the successful defense of the castle of Eger against a Turkish overwhelming force in 1552.

Life

István Dobó was born in 1502 to Domokos Dobó and Zsófia Cékei. He had five siblings, Ferenc, László, Domokos, Anna and Katalin. On October 17, 1550 he married Sára Sulyok and had two children, Ferenc and Krisztina, with her.

In 1549 he was given command of the castle of Eger (German: Erlau) . In 1552 there was a siege by the Turks. With a crew of only 2,100 (including many women), he successfully defended the castle against around 80,000 Turks, the first major defeat of the Ottoman Empire .

In gratitude, he was rewarded with the castles of Déva and Szamosújvár in Transylvania by the Roman-German king and later emperor Ferdinand I , whom Dobó had supported during the disputes over the Hungarian throne . In 1553 he was appointed voivod of Transylvania. Since Transylvania was separated from the Kingdom of Hungary in 1556 , he received the castle of Léva in today's Slovakia to compensate .

Accused of treason against the king, he was imprisoned in the castle of Pressburg for a few years and died shortly after his release in 1572.

literature

The events during the Turkish siege of Eger are described in detail in the novel “ Stars of Eger ” by Géza Gárdonyi .