Miklós Zrínyi

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Nikola Zrinski
)
For the member of the Zrinski family and great-grandfather who lived in the 16th century, see Nikola IV Zrinski.
Nikola Zrinski
Zrínyi Miklós
Széchy
Nikola Zrinski monument in Zrinski Park in Čakovec, Croatia

Miklós Zrínyi (

House of Zrinski, a Croatian-Hungarian noble family.[1][2][3] He is the author of the first epic poem, The Peril of Sziget, in Hungarian literature.[4]

Biography

Miklós was born in Csáktornya,

canons of Esztergom, on a long educative tour through the Italian Peninsula
.

Contemporary drawing showing Nikola Zrinski in battle against Ottomans.

Over the next few years, he learned the art of war in defending the Croatian frontier against the Ottoman Empire, and proved himself one of the most important commanders of the age. In 1645, during the closing stages of the Thirty Years' War, he acted against the Swedish troops in Moravia, equipping an army corps at his own expense. At Szakolcza he scattered a Swedish division and took 2,000 prisoners. At Eger he saved the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand III, who had been surprised at night in his camp by the offensive of Carl Gustaf Wrangel.

Although he was not enthusiastic about having to fight against fellow Hungarians, subsequently he routed the army of

Drašković
.

In 1646 he distinguished himself in the actions against Ottomans. At the coronation of

Bohemia, he carried the sword of state, and was made ban
and captain-general of Croatia. In this double capacity he presided over many Croatian diets.

During 1652–1653, Zrínyi was continually fighting against the Ottomans – nevertheless, from his castle at Csáktornya (

Ottoman Turkish and Latin with equal ease. Zrínyi's Latin letters (from which it was gathered that he was married a second time, to Sophia Löbl) are, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition of 1911, "fluent and agreeable, but largely interspersed with Croatian and Magyar expressions". In a Latin letter from 1658 to friend Ivan Ručić expressed his consciousness of being an ethnic Croat and Zrinski ("Ego mihi conscius aliter sum, etenim non degenerem me Croatam et quidem Zrinium esse scio").[6][7]

In 1655, he made an attempt to be elected Palatine of Hungary (nádor); in spite of support by the petty nobility, his efforts failed. The king, reacting to Zrínyi's good connections to Protestants and the Hungarians of Transylvania, nominated Ferenc Wesselényi instead.[8]

Activities in 1664

The last year of his life was also a culmination of his efforts and prestige. In 1663, the Ottoman army, led by Grand Vizier

Köprülü Ahmed, launched an overwhelming offensive against Royal Hungary, ultimately aiming at the siege and occupation of Vienna. The imperial army failed to put up any notable resistance; the Ottoman army was eventually stopped by adverse weather conditions. As a preparation for the new Ottoman onslaught due next year, German troops were recruited from the Holy Roman Empire and aid was called from France, and Zrínyi, under the overall command of the Italian Raimondo Montecuccoli
, leader of the Imperial army, was named commander-in-chief of the Hungarian army.

Engraving of Zrinski

As a preparation for campaigns planned for 1664, Zrínyi set out to destroy the strongly fortified

Kanizsa, the most important Turkish fortress in Southern Hungary, failed, as the beginning of the siege was seriously delayed by machinations of the overly jealous Montecuccoli, and later the Emperor's military commanders (apart from Hungarian and Croatian leaders), unwilling to combat the Grand Vizier's army hastily coming to the aid of Kanizsa, retreated.[10]

Despite the failed siege, the expedition made his name famous and praised throughout Europe. According to the 1911 Britannica, "it was said that only the Zrínyis had the secret of conquering the Turks".

Louis XIV created him a Peer
.

Contemporary drawing showing the death of Zrinski on 18 November 1664.

After relieving Kanizsa, the Grand Vizier turned against

Battle of Saint Gotthard (1664). The Turkish defeat could have offered an opportunity for Hungary to be liberated from the Turkish yoke. However, the Habsburg court chose not to push its advantage in order to save its strength for the brewing conflict with France over the Spanish succession. The Peace of Vasvár laid down unfavourable terms, including a tribute to the Sublime Porte (which would never be paid) against a few presents from the Ottomans - all despite the fact that Austrian-Hungarian troops maintained the upper hand.[11]

Zrínyi rushed to

Wesselényi conspiracy, aimed at the restoration of the independent Kingdom of Croatia and Kingdom of Hungary.[12]
However, on November 18, he was killed in a hunting accident in a place called Kursanecz (today Kuršanec, Croatia), by a wounded wild boar. To this day, rumors persist that he was assassinated on the order of the Imperial Court. While no conclusive evidence has ever been found to support this claim; however, it remains true that both the Habsburgs and the Ottomans lost their mightiest adversary in Hungary due to his death. The village where he died was renamed Zrínyifalva in Hungarian to commemorate him.

Works

Vígszínház
in Budapest

Beside being a leading military figure of 17th-century Croatia and Hungary, Zrínyi is well known for his literary works, also reflected in his often-recited epithet Zrínyi Miklós, a költő hadvezér és politikus (Hungarian for Miklós Zrínyi, the poet the general and the politician). He is the author of the first epic poem in Hungarian literature.[4]

A statue of Nikola Zrinski at the Hadtorteneti Muzeum (War History Museum) in Budapest

Zrínyi's most significant literary work, The

Peril of Sziget (Szigeti veszedelem or Zrínyiász), an epic poem written in the Göcsej dialect of Hungarian, was written in the winter of 1648–1649, and was published, together with a few miscellaneous pieces of poetry, under the title of The Siren of the Adriatic Sea (Adriai tengernek Syrenája) in Vienna in 1651. The epic was composed in the manner of the classic epic poets, such as Virgil and their 16th century successor Torquato Tasso
.

The subject is the heroic but unsuccessful

Baroque epics of the period and despite its obsolete language being difficult to interpret to the average reader remains, to this day, one of the few pre-19th century Hungarian literary works still widely known to the public. The epic was translated to Croatian by Miklós's brother, Petar Zrinski (Hungarian
: Zrínyi Péter) who, while Miklós was a master of Hungarian, excelled in Croatian.

Beside his poetic works, Zrínyi is also a forerunner of Croatian and Hungarian political thinking and military science. In his essays and manifestos, such as Ne bántsd a magyart – Az török áfium ellen való orvosság (Do not hurt the Hungarians - An antidote to the Turkish poison) or Mátyás király életéről való elmélkedések (Reflections on the life of King Matthias) he makes a case for a standing army, moral renewal of the nation, the re-establishment of the national kingdom, the unification of Royal Hungary with Transylvania, and, of course, the ousting of the Turkish occupants.[13]

Honors

Postage stamps issued: Miklós Zrínyi Stamps were issued by Hungary on 1 January 1943,[14] 1 May 1945,[15] 18 June 1966,[16] 18 August 2000 in Hungarian History series,[17] and 5 September 2008.[18]

See also

Notes

  1. OCLC 248042657
    .
  2. OCLC 59360151
    . Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  3. OCLC 697622325
    .
  4. ^ a b Encyclopædia Britannica Online: Miklós Zrínyi
  5. ^ Szeberényi, Gábor: Zala és Somogy megye a Dráván túl. Megjegyzések a szlavóniai igazgatástörténet Árpád-kori rekonstrukciójának néhány kérdéséhez. In: A IX. Medievisztikai PhD-konferencia Szeged, 2015. június 17 -19. előadásai. University of Szeged, p. 324.
  6. ISBN 978-1-4438-1093-7
    .
  7. ^ Ivana Sabljak (2007). "U povodu 660 godina od bilježenja imena plemićke obitelji Zrinski: Dva brata i jedna Sirena". Vijenac (in Croatian) (349). Zagreb: Matica hrvatska. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  8. ^ Zrínyi Miklós, gróf, Magyar életrajzi lexikon
  9. ^ Yugoslav review (9th ed.). Jugoslovenska Revija. 1979. p. 41.
  10. ^ Sándor Szilágyi: A magyar nemzet története
  11. ^ The enemy at the gate, Wheatcroft
  12. ^ Múlt-kor történelmi portál
  13. ^ István Sőtér ed., A magyar irodalom története 1600-tól 1772-ig - Prózai művei
  14. ^ "Stamp: Count Miklós Zrínyi (1508-1566) (Hungary) (Characters and Relics of Hungarian History) Mi:HU 710,Sn:HU 606,Yt:HU 617,AFA:HU 671". Colnect. Retrieved 2018-07-09.
  15. ^ "Stamp: Count Miklós Zrínyi (1508-1566) (Hungary) (Liberation of Hungary) Mi:HU 763y,Sn:HU 634,Yt:HU 666A". Colnect. Retrieved 2018-07-09.
  16. ^ "Stamp: Miklós Zrínyi (1508-1566) defender of Szigetvár Castle (Hungary) (Personalities) Mi:HU 2252A,Sn:HU 1769,Yt:HU 1841,AFA:HU 2200". Colnect. Retrieved 2018-07-09.
  17. ^ "Stamp: Miklós Zrínyi (Hungary) (Hungarian History) Mi:HU 4622,Sn:HU 2724b,Yt:HU 3744". Colnect. Retrieved 2018-07-09.
  18. ^ "Stamp: Miklós Zrínyi was born 500 years ago (Hungary) (People) Mi:HU 5308,Yt:HU 4290,WAD:HU048.08". Colnect. Retrieved 2018-07-09.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nikola Zrinski.

Further reading

  • Paczolay, Gyula. 2019. Kőzmondások, szólások Zryínyi i Miklós írásaiban. Proverbs, Sayings in the Writings of Miklos Zrinyi. Budapest: Tinta Kőnyvkiadó.
  • Végh, Ferenc (2017). ""Legradska i Međimurska kapetanija" - dodaci vojnoj službi Nikole VII. Zrinskog" [»Captaincy of Legrad and Međimurje« - additions to military service of Nikola VII. Zrinski] (PDF). Podravina (in Croatian). 16 (32): 59–70. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Miklós_Zrínyi&oldid=1211885204"