Siege of Novi Zrin (1664)

Siege of Novi Zrin (1664)
	Part of the Croatian–Ottoman wars; and Ottoman–Habsburg wars
	; Novi Zrin Castle, situated on the right bank of the Mura River (Muhr flus), in 1664, before it was destroyed.
Date	5 June – 7 July 1664
Location	Novi Zrin Castle (Új-Zrínyivár), Međimurje County, northern Croatia (at the border to Hungary)
Result	Ottoman victory Destruction of Novi Zrin;
Belligerents
Habsburg Monarchy Kingdom of Croatia; Kingdom of Hungary; League of the Rhine;	Ottoman Empire Crimean Khanate;
Commanders and leaders
Nikola Zrinski, Ban (viceroy) of Croatia; General Wolfgang Julius count of Hohenlohe; General Peter count of Strozzi †	Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed Pasha, Grand Vizier; Ismail Pasha Bosniak ; Evliya Çelebi
Strength
~ 1,200 German, 700 Hungarian (among 30 Hajduks) and Croatian defenders	30,000
Casualties and losses
~ 15,000 killed	~ Unknown

Depiction of Battle of Novi Zrin in 1663, when Croatian defenders successfully defended the fort.

Memorial obelisk on the place where the castle once was

The siege of Novi Zrin (New Zrin Castle); Croatian: Utvrda Novi Zrin; Hungarian: Új-Zrínyivár; Turkish: Zerinvar) in June/July 1664 was last of the military conflicts between the Croatian forces (with allies) led by Nikola Zrinski, Ban (viceroy) of Croatia, and the Ottoman army commanded by Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed Pasha, Grand Vizier, dealing with possession of Novi Zrin Castle, defended by Croats, situated on the bank and marshy islands of Mura River, near the border line between northern Croatia and southwestern part of Hungary, at the time occupied by the Ottomans. The battle resulted in destruction^[1] of the castle, and retreat of the Croatian crew, which was forced to withdraw to safer territory of inland Croatia.

Historical background

Despite local skirmishes and battles along the Ottoman border with Croatia, Hungary and Transylvania at the beginning of the 1660s, there was a period of unstable and insecure (tacit assumption) temporary peace between the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Empire. It seemed that both sides wanted to keep it; however, Leopold I of Habsburg, twenty-year-old inexperienced Emperor, under strong influence of his advisors, feared Ottoman campaign towards Vienna and possible siege of the Austrian capital, so he kept the majority of his military forces close to Vienna.

At the same time, Nikola Zrinski, Croatian ban and brave and skillful warrior, well-known all over Europe, demanded support from the Viennese court to consolidate and reinforce the border line in northern Croatia, by constructing new fortifications that would parry and neutralize the Ottoman threat from Kanije Eyalet in the occupied southwestern Hungary, but with no success. In 1661 Zrinski started construction of new stronghold - Novi Zrin Castle, on his own, at the confluence of the Mura River with the Drava, finishing it during 1662. Since then, the castle was attacked several times by the Ottomans, especially in 1663, but its defence was solid and successful.

Siege

At the beginning of June 1664 a large Ottoman army, numbering up to 100,000 men (some sources mention even much more), including around 40,000 Ottoman and 30,000 Tatar fighters, led personally by the Grand Vizier Köprülü, was moving from Constantinople to the northwest and approaching Novi Zrin (later to fight in the Battle of Saint Gotthard on 1 August 1664). The defenders of Novi Zrin consisted mostly of Croatian and German soldiers (around 3,000 men in total), while the majority of the Habsburg army (30,000 men), encamped near Saint Gotthard, awaited the outcome of Novi Zrin battle. As the siege of Novi Zrin was ongoing, Crimean Tatars led by kahn's son Ahmed Giray raided the Croatian countryside, which according to Evliya Celeby's Seyahatnâme resulted in sack of Krapina.^[3]

On 5 June 1664 Köprülü ordered siege and continuous attacks upon the castle. After a few weeks of fighting, with exhausted defenders receiving only insignificant reinforcements from the Emperor's headquarters, the Turks managed to dig lagums, or tunnels, below the bastions and ignited gunpowder to blow them up. On 7 July 1664 the strong explosions destroyed parts of the walls, making big holes. Aggressors consequently rushed and penetrated into the castle.

The surviving and enormously outnumbered Croatian defenders were forced to withdraw from the castle and abandon the Mura River area. Ottoman commanders gave the order to their soldiers to destroy Novi Zrin completely to the ground and then marched their army northwards, first towards Kanije and then towards Saint Gotthard.

Aftermath

The destruction of Novi Zrin, together with a little bit later (on 10 August 1664) signed the Peace of Vasvár, that was recognized by many Croatian and Hungarian magnates like Zrinski as unfavourable and shameful. Their tension with the Habsburg government lead to the Zrinski–Frankopan conspiracy. Later in the same year Zrinski died, allegedly killed by a wild boar, but the rest of magnates continued the conspiracy, which ended tragically in 1671.

Novi Zrin was never rebuilt.^[1] Today there is only a memorial obelisk on the place where the castle once was.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Feletar 2011, p. 81
^ Vincent Mignot ,1787
^ Çelebi, Evliya (1996). Putopis: odlomci o jugoslavenskim zemljama (in Bosnian). Sarajevo: Sarajevo - Publishing. pp. 503–509.

Sources

Feletar, Dragutin (September 2011). "Legradska kapetanija u obrani od Osmanlija s posebnim osvrtom na Novi Zrin" [Role of the Legrad Military District in the Defence against the Ottoman Empire - Special Emphasis on Novi Zrin]. Rad Hrvatske Akademije Znanosti i Umjetnosti (in Croatian) (510=48). Zagreb: The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts: 47–81. ISSN 1330-0768. 48=510(2011):47-81.

External links

[Feletar-p81-1] Feletar 2011, p. 81

[2] Vincent Mignot ,1787

[3] Çelebi, Evliya (1996). Putopis: odlomci o jugoslavenskim zemljama (in Bosnian). Sarajevo: Sarajevo - Publishing. pp. 503–509.

[1]

[2]

[3]

v t e Major sieges involving the Ottoman Empire by century
13th-14th	1285 Kulaca Hisar 1326 Bursa 1328–1331 Nicaea 1333–1337 Nicomedia 1360s Adrianople 1385 Sofia 1393 Tarnovo 1394–1402 Constantinople
15th	1411 Constantinople 1422 Constantinople 1422–1430 Thessalonica 1428 Golubac 1440 Belgrade 1440–41 Novo Brdo 1448 Svetigrad 1450 Krujë 1453 Constantinople 1455 Berat 1456 Belgrade 1461 Trebizond 1462 Mytilene 1463 Jajce 1464 Jajce 1466–67 Krujë 1467 Krujë 1470 Negroponte 1474 Scutari 1477–78 Krujë 1478–79 Scutari 1480 Rhodes 1481 Otranto 1484 Chilia
16th	1500 Cephalonia 1517 Cairo 1521 Belgrade 1522 Knin 1522 Rhodes 1529 Peñón of Algiers 1529 Vienna 1531 Diu 1532 Güns (Kőszeg) 1532 Maribor 1533–34 Coron 1534 Tunis 1534 Baghdad 1537 Klis 1537 Corfu 1538 Diu 1539 Castelnuovo 1541 Buda 1543 Nice 1543 Esztergom 1548 Aden 1548 Van 1551 Tripoli 1552 Muscat 1552 Hormuz 1552 Temesvár 1552 Eger 1556 Oran 1559 Bahrain 1563 Oran 1565 Malta 1566 Szigetvar 1570–71 Famagusta 1574 Tunis 1578 Gvozdansko 1592 Bihać 1593 Sisak 1596 Eger
17th	1601 Nagykanizsa 1621 Khotyn 1638 Baghdad 1663 Uyvar 1664 Novi Zrin 1648–1669 Candia 1672 Kamenets 1683 Vienna 1684 Buda 1684 Santa Maura 1685 Érsekújvár 1686 Buda 1686 Pécs 1688 Negroponte 1688 Belgrade 1690 Belgrade 1695 Azov 1696 Azov
18th	1711 Brăila 1715 Nauplia 1716 Corfu 1716 Temeşvar 1717 Belgrade 1733 Baghdad 1734–35 Ganja 1737 Ochakov 1739 Belgrade 1788 Ochakov 1788 Khotin 1789 Belgrade 1789–90 Izmail 1799 El Arish 1799 Jaffa 1799 Acre
19th	1801 Cairo 1806 Belgrade 1821 Patras 1821–22 Acropolis 1821 Tripolitsa 1822 Missolonghi 1823 Missolonghi 1825–26 Missolonghi 1826–27 Acropolis 1828 Kars 1828 Varna 1854 Calafat 1854 Silistra 1854–55 Sevastopol 1855 Kars 1877 Plevna
20th	1912–13 Scutari 1912–13 Adrianople 1915 Van 1915–16 Kut 1916–1919 Medina
Ottoman defeats shown in italics.