Battle of Keresztes
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Keresztes (Also known as the Battle of Mezőkeresztes) took place on 24–26 October 1596. The battle was fought between a combined Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...

-Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

n force and the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 near the village of Mezőkeresztes
Mezokeresztes
Mezőkeresztes is a town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Northern Hungary near Mezőkövesd and Eger.-Location: south from county seat Miskolc. Can be reached by car on highway M3. The train station Mezőkeresztes–Mezőnyárád is away from the town itself, towards Mezőnyárád.-History:The area around it...

  in northern Hungary. The battle ended with a victory by the Ottoman Empire. Lord Kinross, a early 20th century historian, said that if the Ottoman Empire had been defeated, they would have lost Hungary and part of Bulgaria.

Background

On 23 June 1594, an Ottoman Army
Military of the Ottoman Empire
The history of military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the years between 1300 and 1453 , the classical period covers the years between 1451 and 1606 , the reformation period covers the years between 1606 and 1826 ,...

 marched from the city of Constantinople
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

. Commanded by Sultan
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...

 Mehmed III
Mehmed III
Mehmed III Adli was sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1595 until his death.-Biography:...

, the army marched through Edirne
Edirne
Edirne is a city in Eastern Thrace, the northwestern part of Turkey, close to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Edirne served as the capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1365 to 1453, before Constantinople became the empire's new capital. At present, Edirne is the capital of the Edirne...

, Filibe (now known as Plovdiv
Plovdiv
Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia with a population of 338,153 inhabitants according to Census 2011. Plovdiv's history spans some 6,000 years, with traces of a Neolithic settlement dating to roughly 4000 BC; it is one of the oldest cities in Europe...

), Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...

 and Niš
Niš
Niš is the largest city of southern Serbia and third-largest city in Serbia . According to the data from 2011, the city of Niš has a population of 177,972 inhabitants, while the city municipality has a population of 257,867. The city covers an area of about 597 km2, including the urban area,...

 to arrive at Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

 on 9 August. On 20 August, the army crossed the River Sava by bridge and entered the Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n territory of Siren. A war council was called at Slankamen Castle, and it was decided that they would begin a siege on the Hungarian fort of Eger
Siege of Eger (1596)
The Ottomans launched a siege of Eger as part of the Long War, conquering it in 1596. The 7,000 defenders of the fortress, mostly foreign mercenaries, capitulated to the Ottoman forces commanded by the Sultan Mehmed III himself....

 (Erlau). The fort controlled the communication routes between Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...

, Austria and Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

, all of whom were in revolt against the Ottoman suzerainty.

However, news soon arrived that the Austrians had besieged and succeeded in taking over the Castle of Hatvan
Hatvan
Hatvan is a town in Heves county, Hungary. Hatvan is the Hungarian word for "sixty". Hatvan is located at around ....

 and had killed all the Ottomans housed there, including the women and children. The Ottoman Army started a siege on the fort of Eger
Eger
Eger is the second largest city in Northern Hungary, the county seat of Heves, east of the Mátra Mountains. Eger is best known for its castle, thermal baths, historic buildings , and red and white wines.- Name :...

 on 21 September 1596, and by 12 October the castle had capitulated. As a retaliation to the Hatvan castle massacre, the defenders of this castle were all executed.

Not long after, Ottoman command received the report that a mixed army of Austrians and Transylvanians were advancing towards the Ottoman expeditionary force. A war council was conducted under Grand Vizier
Grand Vizier
Grand Vizier, in Turkish Vezir-i Azam or Sadr-ı Azam , deriving from the Arabic word vizier , was the greatest minister of the Sultan, with absolute power of attorney and, in principle, dismissable only by the Sultan himself...

 Damat Ibrahim Pasha
Damat Ibrahim Pasha
Damad Ibrahim Pasha was an Ottoman statesman who held the office of Grand Vizier three times Damad Ibrahim Pasha was an Ottoman statesman who held the office of Grand Vizier three times Damad Ibrahim Pasha was an Ottoman statesman who held the office of Grand Vizier three times (the first time from...

. It was decided that the Ottoman Army should march out of the Erlau castle so as to meet the Austrians at a suitable battle terrain. The Sultan thought that the Ottoman army should disengage and return to Constantinople; it was with great difficulty that he was persuaded to engage the enemy forces.

Battle

The Ottoman army marched through several passageways of marshy terrain and reached Haçova
Mezokeresztes
Mezőkeresztes is a town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Northern Hungary near Mezőkövesd and Eger.-Location: south from county seat Miskolc. Can be reached by car on highway M3. The train station Mezőkeresztes–Mezőnyárád is away from the town itself, towards Mezőnyárád.-History:The area around it...

 (Turkish meaning: Plain of the Cross), exhausted after a long siege and a hard, long march. The two armies faced each other on the plains of Haçova . The Austrian-Transylvanian army, under the joint command of Archduke Maximillian III of Austria and King Sigismund Bathory
Sigismund Báthory
Sigismund Báthory was Prince of Transylvania.-Biography:Hailing from the Báthory family's Somlyó branch, he was the son of Christopher Báthory, Voivod of Transylvania, and nephew of Stephen Báthory, King of Poland...

 of Transylvania, was in position in fortified trenches. When the Ottoman army attacked the Austrian trenches, the Battle of Haçova commenced and continued for two days, from 25–26 October 1596. Early firearms (cannons, rifles) were used extensively in the battle. The Austrians, being entrenched around the old ruined church, succeeded in driving back the Ottoman assaults with a barrage of cannon and musket
Musket
A musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth bore long gun, fired from the shoulder. Muskets were designed for use by infantry. A soldier armed with a musket had the designation musketman or musketeer....

 fire.

By the second day of battle the Ottoman Army appeared to have been defeated. According to the 17th Century Ottoman historian İbrahim Peçevi
Ibrahim Peçevi
İbrahim Peçevi or Peçuyli İbrahim Efendi was a Turkish historian of the Ottoman Empire. He was born in Pécs, Ottoman Empire , hence his name, Peçevi . His mother was of Sokollu Bosnian family. The name of his father is unknown...

:

"The Christians broke through the Ottoman army, but the soldiers of the Islam had not yet felt the defeat. Then, they started to plunder and taking of booty at the command headquarters of the Ottomans. Under a few flags, a large group of Christian soldiers attacked the tent where the chests of gold money of the Ottoman Exchequer were kept. They killed and otherwise eliminated the Janissary and household cavalry soldiers guarding the State Treasury. The Christian soldiers got on the Treasury chests of gold coin and put up their flags of cross over them and started to dance around them."


Commander Sultan Mehmed III wanted to flee from the battlefield. However, first he asked for the opinion of his tutor, the high cleric Hoca Sadeddin Efendi
Hoca Sadeddin Efendi
Hoca Sadeddin Efendi was an Ottoman scholar, official, and historian, a teacher of Ottoman sultan Murad III . His name is transcribed differently: Sa'd ad-Din, Sa'd al-Din, Sa’adeddin, Sadeddin, etc...

, Efendi told the Sultan that he should continue the battle till the end. Heeding this advice, Sultan Mehmed III ordered that the battle should continue.

On the second day of the battle, the fighting intensified. Troops from the Austrian army had reached the Sultan's tent, which was surrounded by the viziers and the teachers at the Palace Pages School for protection. While some troops were trying to enter the Sultan's tent, the other Austrian army's soldiers disengaged, in search of booty and plunder instead of continuing the engagement. The Ottoman horse groomers, cooks, tent makers, camels minders retaliated against the plunderers with whatever arms they could find, including cooks' spoons, blocks of wood, hammers for tent making, adzes, and axes for cutting wood. The Austrians were surprised and retreated in confusion. The cries of "the Christian enemy is fleeing" were heard by the Ottoman troops still fighting what seemed like a losing battle on the frontline. The boost of morale allowed them to recover the battle. With a major action from the artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

, the Ottoman forces started another attack on the Austrians across the front and outflanked the Austrian-Transylvanian army, routing them.

Aftermath

Soon after victory, Mehmed III appointed Cigalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha
Cigalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha
Cigalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha , meaning son of Cigala, was an Ottoman statesman of Italian background, who held the office of Grand Vizier for forty days between 27 October to 5 December 1596, during the reign of Mehmed III....

 as the new Grand Vizier. He sent an imperial victory proclamation to Istanbul giving the news of the conquering of Egri (Erlau) Castle and the victory at the Battle of Haçova (Keresztes). This reached Istanbul in October and there were public celebrations and public meetings organized in the city. During these celebrations, four galleys full of state procured sugar from Egypt arrived at Istanbul harbor, which added "sweetness" to the news of a military victory. Mehmed III
Mehmed III
Mehmed III Adli was sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1595 until his death.-Biography:...

was awarded the epithet of 'Conqueror of Egri'.

The Sultan's army marched for a month, returning to Constantinople victorious. With the army in place, a great victory procession was organized. A victory procession and many accompanying spectacles were carried out. The poets of Istanbul wrote special works about the victory. In the streets and markets of the city, town-criers were sent to announce that the streets of the city would be decorated. The warehouses and stores were all decorated with 'valuable cloths'. This display of colour all across the city is described in a poem by the poet [Kemal]:


"All the shops of the city became colored due to conquerors wishes


Each of which were decorated as if it were the kerchief of the sweetheart”
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK