The Fall Of Szigetvár (1566) | Part 2: Zrinski's Redemption

[00:00:01] [SPEAKER_06]: It's early September 1566. In the southern plains of Hungary, a 71-year-old Sultan Suleiman

[00:00:09] [SPEAKER_06]: the Magnificent watches another artillery barrage pound at the walls of Szigetvár fortress.

[00:00:16] [SPEAKER_06]: The ever-present mist and grey sky had reduced visibility, and the drizzling weather had made

[00:00:21] [SPEAKER_06]: draining the mode of the castle difficult, but the siege was progressing. After battering

[00:00:27] [SPEAKER_06]: the castle for almost three weeks, virtually nothing of the outer walls was still left. The

[00:00:32] [SPEAKER_06]: bastion, the only building still standing, stood like a mausoleum on a hill of sharp,

[00:00:37] [SPEAKER_06]: broken gravestones. It was teetering, verging on collapse, but no matter what Suleiman tried

[00:00:43] [SPEAKER_06]: the defenders refused to surrender. No longer able to even raise their head above the walls,

[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_06]: the siege had fallen into a familiar pattern. By daylight the castle stood, beaten and

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_06]: broken, silently taking all the abuse the Ottomans could dish out. But by nightfall it

[00:00:59] [SPEAKER_06]: came to life. Like ants pouring out of an ant hill, soldiers and townsfolk patched up

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_06]: the walls, redug trenches and delivered ammunition to the outer towers. Church bells rang in

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_06]: communion and hymns wafted across the swamp to the Ottoman camp. And by morning it

[00:01:14] [SPEAKER_06]: started again. Suleiman's generals debated on the next steps. Already they'd offered

[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_06]: the castle's commander, Count Nikola Zyrinsky, all manner of riches, lands and titles. But

[00:01:26] [SPEAKER_06]: the Sultan knew his generals were wasting their breath. When a blacksmith refines its alloy,

[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_06]: through heat and hammer he casts off the impurities leaving only the purest metal behind.

[00:01:36] [SPEAKER_06]: Suleiman's conquests in Eastern Europe were the same. Through bribery, victory or flattery

[00:01:42] [SPEAKER_06]: he'd cast aside the weaker rulers. Anyone that remained, anyone insane enough to oppose

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_06]: him, wasn't there to beat the Sultan. They were there to bleed him dry. To sell their

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_06]: lives at such a high cost that the Sultan would be humiliated regardless of the outcome.

[00:01:59] [SPEAKER_06]: Through labored breath the old Sultan squinted at the rickety fortress. He knew it was

[00:02:04] [SPEAKER_06]: a matter of time but when? When would Zyrinsky die and give him Sigevah?

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_03]: When you think about businesses that are selling through the roof like aloe or allbirds,

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_03]: sure, you think about a great product, a cool brand and great marketing. But an often overlooked

[00:02:24] [SPEAKER_03]: secret is actually the businesses behind the business making selling and for shoppers buying

[00:02:30] [SPEAKER_03]: simple. For millions of businesses that business is Shopify. Nobody does online business better

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_03]: than Shopify. It's home of Shoppay, the number one checkout in the world. You can use it to

[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_03]: boost conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts going abandoned and way more sales going

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_03]: through to checkout. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_03]: slash income all lowercase go to shopify.com slash income to upgrade your selling today.

[00:03:05] [SPEAKER_03]: That's Shopify.com slash income.

[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_04]: I'm Ken Harbaugh host of Burn the Boats from Evergreen Podcasts. I interview political leaders

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_04]: and influencers, folks like award winning journalist Soledad O'Brien and conservative columnist

[00:03:22] [SPEAKER_04]: Bill Crystal about the choices they confront when failure is not an option. I won't agree with

[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_04]: everyone I talk to but I respect anyone who believes in something enough to risk everything

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_04]: for it because history belongs to those willing to burn the boats. Episodes are out every other

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_06]: week wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to the Anthology of Heroes podcast, the podcast

[00:03:45] [SPEAKER_06]: sharing stories of heroic figures who alter the course of history. Anthology of Heroes is part

[00:03:50] [SPEAKER_06]: of the Evergreen Podcast Network. I'm your host, Elliot Gates, and today I am walking you through

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_06]: part two of the story of the 1566 siege of Sighetva. Sighetva was a small but well

[00:04:03] [SPEAKER_06]: defended castle in southern Hungary that the Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman Magnificent was hell bent

[00:04:09] [SPEAKER_06]: on conquering. Though the fortress was fairly important in the long war between the Ottomans

[00:04:14] [SPEAKER_06]: and the Habsburgs for the old Sultan it was more than that. Almost certainly he knew this would

[00:04:20] [SPEAKER_06]: be his last campaign. Kept alive by elixirs and medicines his bones ached and his mind

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_06]: was beginning to fade. He was determined for his final campaign to end in victory.

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_06]: But Count Nikola Zrinsky, the commander of the fortress, was equally determined to hold out.

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_06]: Zrinsky had already decided whether a relief army came or not he would go down with the ship.

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_06]: He would not turn the keys over to the Sultan. But as the structure quivered after

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_06]: barrage after barrage of artillery fire the question had turned into who would break first?

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_06]: The castle or the Sultan? Our previous episode was almost entirely dedicated to Suleiman's life.

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_06]: As he and his enormous army made their way to Sighetva he had plenty of time to dwell on his

[00:05:06] [SPEAKER_06]: seven decades on earth. We saw the rise of his closest friend and probably lover Ibrahim Pasha,

[00:05:14] [SPEAKER_06]: a Greek slave who would become Grand Vizier the highest position in the Ottoman Empire

[00:05:18] [SPEAKER_06]: apart from the Sultan himself. We saw how the Sultan's favoritism to his friend

[00:05:23] [SPEAKER_06]: scandalized his court. We talked a little about the Ottoman attitudes towards homosexuality

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_06]: before seeing the rise of perhaps the most powerful woman to ever grace the halls of the Takapi palace.

[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_06]: That woman was Roxalana, a redhead slave from Poland who Suleiman fell head over heels for.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_06]: Roxalana had caused ripples in court by insisting on a monogamous almost

[00:05:46] [SPEAKER_06]: Western style relationship with the Sultan who shockingly agreed. Suleiman was so smitten by

[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_06]: the redhead vixen that court gossip speculated that she'd actually bewitched him with spells from

[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_06]: her native land. We finished the episode with a dejected Suleiman reading over love poetry and

[00:06:05] [SPEAKER_06]: letters he'd written to Roxalana who in turn complained to him about the influence of Ibrahim,

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER_06]: the Grand Vizier. The writing was on the wall and Suleiman would soon have to pick

[00:06:15] [SPEAKER_06]: between his best friend and his wife. There was quite a bit in episode one. Through it we got to

[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_06]: learn why Suleiman was the way he was so I'd recommend checking that one out. But if you're

[00:06:27] [SPEAKER_06]: the type of person who likes to fast forward through the action movies to get to the good

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_06]: parts then by all means don't mistop you. Let's get into it. Part two, the final part of the

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_06]: 1566 Siege of Sigeva. Through a half-collapsed window the 58 year old Count Nikola Zdrynsky

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_06]: IV looked out at Suleiman's grand tent wondering at the kind of man Suleiman must be.

[00:07:07] [SPEAKER_06]: The castle shook and flakes of plaster rained down on him as another cannonball tore into the walls.

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_06]: His council chambers looked like an infirmary now, in fact every room did. Each man was coated

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_06]: in plaster mud and dried blood. It was near impossible to find a man without wounds.

[00:07:25] [SPEAKER_06]: Leaning against walls or sprawled out on the floor with each cannonball impact everyone

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_06]: grimaced and braced themselves as if waiting for the roof to collapse.

[00:07:35] [SPEAKER_06]: But not Zdrynsky, he knew exactly how much damage his castle could take

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_06]: and the old Sultan hadn't reached the threshold yet. Every wall he knew the thickness,

[00:07:44] [SPEAKER_06]: every trench it's width, every cannon, its caliber. Becoming commander of this

[00:07:49] [SPEAKER_06]: strategically vital castle was the culmination of Nikola Zdrynsky's life work

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_06]: and he'd spent years building up its defenses for siege just like this one.

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_06]: A career land baron Zdrynsky had worked his way up from minor lord to court aristocrat

[00:08:06] [SPEAKER_06]: but Count Nikola Zdrynsky had not lived a good life. Everything he'd done in life he'd done

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_06]: for himself. In his mind charity belonged in the church and had no place in the hard, cruel,

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_06]: real world. Every loan, marriage or donation was a favor he could bank away for a rainy day,

[00:08:26] [SPEAKER_06]: more leverage to hold over another person to advance his standing at the Hapsburg court.

[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_06]: While it's true he owned almost every village from Mohatch to Vienna,

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_06]: you'd be hard pressed to find another man who'd sit for dinner with him. Zdrynsky's name was Mud.

[00:08:42] [SPEAKER_06]: A loyal hound for the Hapsburg family he did the dirty jobs they didn't want to be

[00:08:46] [SPEAKER_06]: associated with. On their orders he'd invited another commander to dinner and under the flag

[00:08:52] [SPEAKER_06]: of hospitality lunged at him stabbing him to death. While the name Zdrynsky was black in the courts

[00:08:58] [SPEAKER_06]: of Europe few could deny the man had his uses. He'd been there years ago when a much younger

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_06]: Solomon and his army bore down on the golden apple. Outside the city walls in the mud

[00:09:11] [SPEAKER_06]: and blood Zdrynsky and his men did their part protecting the gateway to Europe.

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_06]: Feliths and Cool-headed, his skill in the battlefield and his loyalty to the emperor

[00:09:20] [SPEAKER_06]: soon catapulted him into the upper echelons of power, part of the inner circle of the Hapsburg court.

[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_06]: Not long after he was formally offered the command of Sigetvar Fortress.

[00:09:32] [SPEAKER_06]: It was a huge promotion but one that came with equally huge risks.

[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_06]: Sigetvar Castle was a formidable structure but it was deep behind enemy lines. A Hapsburg castle

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_06]: smack bang in the middle of Ottoman lands. Zdrynsky had been given the ultimate prize,

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_06]: the culmination of a life spent scheming and killing for the Hapsburgs. And if anyone,

[00:09:54] [SPEAKER_06]: be they Muslim or Christian wanted to take it from him they'd need to pry the keys

[00:09:58] [SPEAKER_06]: from his cold dead hands. In a letter written to a friend before the siege began

[00:10:03] [SPEAKER_06]: the Count declared quote, we have decided to lock ourselves up in this fortress,

[00:10:08] [SPEAKER_06]: our wish being to serve our sweet doomed country with our blood and in the event by risking our

[00:10:13] [SPEAKER_06]: lives. From the time he took command Zdrynsky had begun fortifying his prize. Walls were thickened,

[00:10:20] [SPEAKER_06]: food ammunition and medicine were stockpiled and peasants were forced to labor on the moat.

[00:10:26] [SPEAKER_06]: The castle already had a moat but Zdrynsky deliberately burst the banks of it,

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_06]: flooding the outer plains and turning the surrounding countryside into a thick soupy swamp.

[00:10:36] [SPEAKER_06]: So now anyone that wished to attack would have to drag their cannons across a thick bog

[00:10:40] [SPEAKER_06]: to get in range of the castle. The Count received little help from the Hapsburg court so

[00:10:46] [SPEAKER_06]: he raided Ottoman lands and took what he needed. He had no qualms about antagonizing the sultan

[00:10:52] [SPEAKER_06]: because he probably knew that regardless of whether or not he kept a low profile his castle

[00:10:57] [SPEAKER_06]: would be the first in any campaigns headed into Europe. And soon whispers of exactly that reached

[00:11:04] [SPEAKER_06]: his ears. By 1565 there were rumours that the sultan was planning a campaign, his third and

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_06]: final attempt to conquer the golden apple Vienna. The army would have to march right past Sighetva.

[00:11:18] [SPEAKER_06]: Zdrynsky knew that the sultan would never leave an actively hostile fortress at the rear of an

[00:11:23] [SPEAKER_06]: army. Without a doubt the Ottomans would be coming for his castle first. And now as another cannonball

[00:11:30] [SPEAKER_06]: pounded into the walls and shook the room his hunch proved correct. Stamping a letter with

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_06]: a wax seal he directed a messenger to Vienna. The stamped envelope was another request,

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_06]: a plea for the emperor to send reinforcements. The emperor that Zdrynsky had lowly served

[00:11:47] [SPEAKER_06]: was their only hope. If a relief army didn't arrive soon all the willpower in the world would not

[00:11:54] [SPEAKER_06]: keep this structure standing. Back in Suleiman's grand tent the sultan tossed and turned with

[00:12:01] [SPEAKER_06]: the reins letting up his doctors that hoped his pains would dissipate but they were worse than

[00:12:06] [SPEAKER_06]: ever. As he dreamt he thought back to the night when everything changed. It was 1536,

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_06]: 30 years ago. He was in his dining hall back in Istanbul sitting soberly with his wife

[00:12:21] [SPEAKER_06]: Roxalana and his grand vizier Ibrahim Pasha. The dining table overflowed with game birds and fish

[00:12:29] [SPEAKER_06]: of all kinds dressed in spices and herbs from as far away as Indonesia but Suleiman wasn't hungry.

[00:12:37] [SPEAKER_06]: Pushing the food around in his plate he sat stone faced watching rather than listening

[00:12:42] [SPEAKER_06]: as Ibrahim told another story of his victories in Persia. As his old friend exuberantly explained

[00:12:50] [SPEAKER_06]: the strange customs of the Persians Suleiman quietly looked him up and down. Everything

[00:12:56] [SPEAKER_06]: this man owned everything he was everything he'd achieved was thanks to him Suleiman.

[00:13:02] [SPEAKER_06]: Did he realize that? Apart from himself Ibrahim was the most powerful person in the empire

[00:13:09] [SPEAKER_06]: more powerful than even his beloved Roxalana. Suleiman took another long sip of water as the

[00:13:15] [SPEAKER_06]: grand vizier continued. Ibrahim always did have a way with words but Suleiman knew him well enough

[00:13:21] [SPEAKER_06]: to know when he was nervous. Over the last five years the relationship between these two soulmates

[00:13:28] [SPEAKER_06]: had soured. The sultan wasn't an idealistic teenager anymore. He didn't need long walks in

[00:13:35] [SPEAKER_06]: the forest or dreamy boat rides discussing the origins of the universe. He was the ruler of

[00:13:41] [SPEAKER_06]: the largest empire in the world and what he needed was stability and loyalty and he was no longer sure

[00:13:49] [SPEAKER_06]: if Ibrahim gave him either. Roxalana sat watching the pasher with an expression that matched her

[00:13:56] [SPEAKER_06]: husbands. Since her arrival at the court as a concubine she had risen further than any woman

[00:14:02] [SPEAKER_06]: in the Ottoman empire ever had or ever would. Now Suleiman had no concubines favorites or consorts.

[00:14:10] [SPEAKER_06]: She and Suleiman were married. Breaking centuries of tradition the two were in a monogamous western

[00:14:16] [SPEAKER_06]: style relationship. She was for all intents and purposes queen of the Ottoman empire.

[00:14:23] [SPEAKER_06]: Since she'd arrived on the scene she'd never liked her husband's closeness with this Greek

[00:14:28] [SPEAKER_06]: slave and recent events had driven the point home. The sultan was getting old and succession was on

[00:14:35] [SPEAKER_06]: everyone's mind. By the 1550s Suleiman had four sons three through Roxalana and one other son

[00:14:43] [SPEAKER_06]: through an old concubine of his called Mahidevran. Though Mahidevran was now long gone from the

[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_06]: political scene her son remained that had grown into a very talented, disciplined and brave

[00:14:54] [SPEAKER_06]: man. His name was Mustapha. Without a doubt Mustapha was the best candidate for the throne. Foreign

[00:15:02] [SPEAKER_06]: dignitaries who met the sultan's sons didn't even consider it a competition. Mustapha was loved

[00:15:08] [SPEAKER_06]: by the soldiers and the people he was wise good-looking with an even temperament that matched

[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_06]: his fathers but Roxalana knew well that if Mustapha took the throne he would follow the

[00:15:19] [SPEAKER_06]: Ottoman tradition of having his brothers strangled. That was just the way it was.

[00:15:24] [SPEAKER_06]: And once that happened she'd likely be killed or at best sent away to some faraway hermitage

[00:15:30] [SPEAKER_06]: to live out her days as a wise and old crone. For her to survive she needed to convince

[00:15:35] [SPEAKER_06]: her husband that one of their sons was a better choice of heir. Unfortunately all her kids were

[00:15:41] [SPEAKER_06]: pretty unremarkable. Suleiman was a womanizing drunkard who palace staff nicknamed the

[00:15:47] [SPEAKER_06]: Sot. Bayezid was impatient and entitled and Khyangir was cursed to be born as a hunchback.

[00:15:55] [SPEAKER_06]: But Roxalana had tasted power, she'd come from nothing and refused to return to nothing.

[00:16:02] [SPEAKER_06]: Gently and gradually she turned Suleiman against Mustapha. This put her at odds with

[00:16:07] [SPEAKER_06]: the government, the army and most prominently Ibrahim Pasha all of whom pointed out that

[00:16:13] [SPEAKER_06]: Mustapha was the obvious choice to succeed the throne. But one fateful day on campaign

[00:16:19] [SPEAKER_06]: the Sultan summoned Mustapha to his tent. Once he had entered his father's quarters

[00:16:24] [SPEAKER_06]: the young man was seized and after a struggle killed. We don't know exactly what crime Mustapha

[00:16:31] [SPEAKER_06]: was said to have committed but it seems he was accused of plotting rebellion against his father.

[00:16:36] [SPEAKER_06]: While the specifics of the crime aren't clear the reaction from his empire was.

[00:16:42] [SPEAKER_06]: Outraged army cause rebelled against the Sultan horrified that someone like Suleiman who preached

[00:16:47] [SPEAKER_06]: law and order would execute his son for virtually no reason. Palms were published and Dershers were

[00:16:54] [SPEAKER_06]: sung and though the Sultan calmed things down this murder was a stain on his career and his conscience.

[00:17:01] [SPEAKER_06]: Since that fateful day he had fought a civil war against another one of his sons

[00:17:05] [SPEAKER_06]: leaving just a single contender to follow in his footsteps. Out of the eight sons he bore over

[00:17:11] [SPEAKER_06]: the course of his life the only option left, the only one still living was Suleiman.

[00:17:17] [SPEAKER_06]: An overweight drunkard who preferred parties and musicians to learning and bureaucracy.

[00:17:24] [SPEAKER_06]: As Suleiman looked at his plate of untouched food his anger rose quietly inside.

[00:17:29] [SPEAKER_06]: Ibrahim continued to spew an unending stream of flattery but he was past listening.

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_06]: Past caring. In that moment he saw Ibrahim as everything Roxalana said he was,

[00:17:41] [SPEAKER_06]: a Greek slave, a crypto-christian who desired the throne for himself.

[00:17:46] [SPEAKER_06]: It was Ibrahim to blame for his recent setbacks, Ibrahim to blame for his drunkard of an air,

[00:17:52] [SPEAKER_06]: Ibrahim to blame for everything. Pulling his chair back he bit his old friend farewell

[00:17:57] [SPEAKER_06]: and retired to his chamber with Roxalana following in tow. Once he reached his chamber

[00:18:02] [SPEAKER_06]: he summoned the palace mutes. Ten years ago it was these men that would pass the letters of

[00:18:08] [SPEAKER_06]: affection between Suleiman and Ibrahim when they could never bear to be apart. Tonight though

[00:18:13] [SPEAKER_06]: they were here for a very different reason. As the Grand Vizier slept they crept into his

[00:18:19] [SPEAKER_06]: quarters and tried to strangle him but the pasha woke up and wearing just his nightgown

[00:18:24] [SPEAKER_06]: dough for his weapon. He did his best to fight them off tearing the curtains and sheets

[00:18:29] [SPEAKER_06]: as he writhed and squirmed forcing the mutes to draw their daggers and finish him off.

[00:18:36] [SPEAKER_06]: On the 15th of March 1536 servants entered the chambers of the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.

[00:18:43] [SPEAKER_06]: Inside was a grizzly sight. Bedsheets in tatters and curtains drenched in blood Ibrahim Pasha,

[00:18:51] [SPEAKER_06]: a Greek slave who had risen to the highest echelons of power

[00:18:54] [SPEAKER_06]: was laying on his bed with multiple stab wounds and a noose around his neck.

[00:19:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Hello everyone my name is Tom Kearns and I host the Anglo-Saxon England podcast

[00:19:09] [SPEAKER_02]: where I cover the history and culture of England from the departure of the Romans in the 5th century

[00:19:14] [SPEAKER_02]: to the Norman conquest in 1066. So far we've surveyed the collapse of Roman rule in Britain,

[00:19:20] [SPEAKER_02]: the migration of the Anglo-Saxons and the history of Northumbria from its beginnings

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_02]: in the mists of legend to its destruction at the hands of Viking raiders in the 9th century.

[00:19:29] [SPEAKER_02]: I hope you'll come and give it a go.

[00:20:07] [SPEAKER_06]: The painful memories, even in sleep, troubled the Sultan greatly. Outside the collapsing fortress

[00:20:20] [SPEAKER_06]: of Sighetva he tossed and turned. His 72 year old heart beat rapidly, unable to drive away the

[00:20:27] [SPEAKER_06]: dark memories his breathing turned ragged and sharp. As the Sultan gasped for air inside Sighetva

[00:20:35] [SPEAKER_06]: Zrinsky now knew his position was hopeless. The Emperor, his last hope, had fallen victim to

[00:20:43] [SPEAKER_06]: Solomon's spies. He'd become convinced that his capital Vienna was a true objective for the attack

[00:20:49] [SPEAKER_06]: and that Sighetva was just a diversion to draw his troops away. That was why he'd ignored

[00:20:54] [SPEAKER_06]: Zrinsky's calls for help. Sighetva was a castle on a chessboard, being sacrificed to keep the king

[00:21:01] [SPEAKER_06]: safe. No relief army was coming, Zrinsky was on his own. The Ottomans had now taken both islands

[00:21:10] [SPEAKER_06]: that linked Sighetva to the mainland. Both the Old Town and the New Town had fallen.

[00:21:16] [SPEAKER_06]: Painstakingly at great human cost they drained the moat. The cannons were now in firing

[00:21:22] [SPEAKER_06]: range of his bastion. Chunks of mortar and brick fell from the ceiling with each hit as Zrinsky's

[00:21:28] [SPEAKER_06]: troops did their best to return fire. As he reread the offer of surrender from the Sultan,

[00:21:33] [SPEAKER_06]: Zrinsky mulled over his options. Without a doubt his cause was hopeless.

[00:21:39] [SPEAKER_06]: Looking around at his crumbling castle he realised this was the culmination of a

[00:21:44] [SPEAKER_06]: life spent climbing the political totem pole. All manner of wicked deeds he'd performed

[00:21:49] [SPEAKER_06]: anything to progress his career. He'd begun his life as a minor land baron and now he stood

[00:21:55] [SPEAKER_06]: an esteemed member of the Imperial aristocracy, commander of one of the most important castles

[00:22:01] [SPEAKER_06]: in the empire. All this life he'd won in riches and now he had them. Wanted command,

[00:22:07] [SPEAKER_06]: he'd got it. Wanted respect, he'd earned it. But what was the point of any of it?

[00:22:13] [SPEAKER_06]: When this castle fell it would all be for nothing. And then what?

[00:22:17] [SPEAKER_06]: Was there any place in God's kingdom for him? But perhaps even a soul as wicked as his could

[00:22:25] [SPEAKER_06]: be redeemed. He was a croate landlord holding back Suleiman the Magnificent,

[00:22:32] [SPEAKER_06]: the most powerful man in the world. Perhaps even then he knew his name would be written

[00:22:36] [SPEAKER_06]: in the history books. Crumbling the letter into a ball he threw it in the fire.

[00:22:41] [SPEAKER_06]: Let the old man come for him. He had a stack of gunpowder left and the

[00:22:47] [SPEAKER_06]: he'd been able to. Just then though, a deafening roar of an explosion ripped through the fortress,

[00:22:53] [SPEAKER_06]: the scrape of iron and the slow rumble of collapsing bricks. He heard men screaming

[00:22:58] [SPEAKER_06]: and felt a wave of heat warm his body, followed by a heavy dark smoke that spread through the room.

[00:23:04] [SPEAKER_06]: Zerinsky rushed to the ramparts to see the Janissary troops surging up the walls.

[00:23:09] [SPEAKER_06]: The attackers had dug a mine under the side of the fortress and detonated a bomb in the tunnel

[00:23:14] [SPEAKER_06]: below. Sliding into the drained swamp, the side of the fortress was completely gone.

[00:23:20] [SPEAKER_06]: As flames engulfed the interior and the teetering structure began to quiver,

[00:23:24] [SPEAKER_06]: Zerinsky knew there was no way he could defend it any longer.

[00:23:28] [SPEAKER_06]: Through the smoke and ash he gathered up all the men who could still stand

[00:23:31] [SPEAKER_06]: and the few horses that remained. He may have told them that this was their moment

[00:23:35] [SPEAKER_06]: and that their deeds in the next few minutes would outlive them all.

[00:23:39] [SPEAKER_06]: A poem written by Zerinsky's great-grandson has him saying,

[00:23:43] [SPEAKER_06]: Since because of the fire we cannot stay here, as soon as God allows us to see the dawning,

[00:23:48] [SPEAKER_06]: we will go out of the castle and will there show that those whom we were in life

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER_06]: were the same now. As the Janissary swarmed up the gatehouse closing in for the kill,

[00:23:58] [SPEAKER_06]: the drawbridge dropped and the early morning sunshine flattered into the collapsing castle.

[00:24:03] [SPEAKER_06]: Destiny was calling them. The Janissary troops surged in through the breach,

[00:24:09] [SPEAKER_06]: out of a cloud of smoke and soot roared the last few defenders of Sighetvar

[00:24:13] [SPEAKER_06]: into the moor of the Ottoman troops, spurring their horses forward into certain death.

[00:24:19] [SPEAKER_06]: The crack of rifles erupted as the Janissary corps eviscerated the men,

[00:24:24] [SPEAKER_06]: leading the charge Nikola Zerinsky was hit first and slumped over in his saddle dead.

[00:24:30] [SPEAKER_06]: Those that left with him lasted less than a minute. It was over.

[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_06]: After one month and two days Sighetvar had fallen.

[00:24:43] [SPEAKER_06]: Behind them sat nothing but a shell. Zerinsky and his defenders truly had held out until

[00:24:48] [SPEAKER_06]: the last possible moment. The Ottoman siege camp broke into celebrations and everyone was jubilant.

[00:24:56] [SPEAKER_06]: The pious praised Alar, the impious drank and womanized and Suleiman's generals

[00:25:01] [SPEAKER_06]: breathed a sigh of relief. During the last week a bout of dysentery had spread through the camp

[00:25:07] [SPEAKER_06]: and all of them worried that the sultan's delicate health wouldn't be able to take any further strain.

[00:25:12] [SPEAKER_06]: But they'd made it. Sultan Suleiman had completed his 13th military campaign.

[00:25:19] [SPEAKER_06]: Eager to tell their sultan the good news, they entered his tent and approached the monarch's bed.

[00:25:24] [SPEAKER_06]: Gently they touched his shoulder but the sultan didn't stir. He was cold to touch.

[00:25:31] [SPEAKER_06]: Turning him around they must have gasped seeing the glassy eyes of Suleiman the Magnificent staring

[00:25:37] [SPEAKER_06]: back at them. The sultan was dead. Sealing the tent flaps quickly to keep the news from spreading,

[00:25:44] [SPEAKER_06]: the celebrations of the camp stopped quickly as the distant sounds of a huge explosion rippled

[00:25:49] [SPEAKER_06]: through the area. It seemed like even in death Count Zerinsky had had the last laugh.

[00:25:56] [SPEAKER_06]: As the Ottoman soldiers rushed in the castle to loot it, an ammunition case caught fire causing

[00:26:02] [SPEAKER_06]: the titering castle to explode spectacularly. Debris and stones flew in all directions

[00:26:10] [SPEAKER_06]: and buried thousands of Ottoman soldiers in the rubble.

[00:26:19] [SPEAKER_06]: Suleiman the Magnificent's death marked the end of an era. There would never be

[00:26:24] [SPEAKER_06]: another Ottoman sultan quite like Suleiman. His rule was the culmination of centuries of progress and

[00:26:30] [SPEAKER_06]: expansion. He'd inherited a stable rich empire and molded it to his values. He never shirked from

[00:26:37] [SPEAKER_06]: his responsibilities and he really did seem to care about his subjects. Though some of his

[00:26:42] [SPEAKER_06]: conquests would be rolled back, he undoubtedly changed the geographics of Europe. The present

[00:26:48] [SPEAKER_06]: day Muslim majority countries of Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina saw large-scale adoption

[00:26:54] [SPEAKER_06]: of Islam during his reign. As a boy he'd set out to emulate his great grandfather but in some ways

[00:27:01] [SPEAKER_06]: he'd surpassed him. In Turkey they call Mehmet II Fatih Sultan Mehmet, Mehmet the Conqueror,

[00:27:08] [SPEAKER_06]: but they call Suleiman Kanuni Sultan Suleiman, Suleiman the Lawgiver or the Lawmaker.

[00:27:15] [SPEAKER_06]: But at the end of the day he too was just a man. He wasn't infallible and the nepotism that he showed

[00:27:22] [SPEAKER_06]: towards his favourites, particularly towards Rokselana, would have consequences that would far

[00:27:27] [SPEAKER_06]: outlive him. Her position in the Ottoman court had no precedent, a woman with real meaningful

[00:27:33] [SPEAKER_06]: power pulling the strings, and long after she'd passed away other ambitious women

[00:27:38] [SPEAKER_06]: looked at Rokselana and saw how far they could rise. Historians refer to the next 100 years of the

[00:27:44] [SPEAKER_06]: Ottoman Empire as the Sultanate of Women, a period of time when women, usually the Sultan's mother

[00:27:50] [SPEAKER_06]: or one of his concubines would increasingly dominate the patriarchal Ottoman court.

[00:27:56] [SPEAKER_06]: After Suleiman's death was finally announced, his son Selim became the new Sultan as planned

[00:28:01] [SPEAKER_06]: and was like putting a toddler in the cockpit of a Boeing 747. Suleiman had left behind an

[00:28:08] [SPEAKER_06]: enormous, efficient but complex bureaucracy. This huge infernal machine with pressure valves

[00:28:16] [SPEAKER_06]: and hundreds of dials that needed to be monitored and pressed at specific intervals,

[00:28:20] [SPEAKER_06]: Selim was just not up to the task. Rarely sober he met his end just eight years later

[00:28:26] [SPEAKER_06]: slipping on marble tiles when he was drunk. His death began the very gradual decline of the

[00:28:32] [SPEAKER_06]: Ottoman Empire, but Europe wasn't out of the woods yet. The dream of taking Vienna,

[00:28:38] [SPEAKER_06]: the golden apple didn't die with Suleiman. The most dramatic siege in Europe's history

[00:28:42] [SPEAKER_06]: was about 100 years from now, but the Ottoman outlook on Europe had shifted.

[00:28:48] [SPEAKER_06]: From every Western campaign they planned there was a gnawing memory of how much the

[00:28:52] [SPEAKER_06]: Habsburgs made them bleed for a single castle at Siketva.

[00:28:58] [SPEAKER_06]: The Sultan's legendary end dragged another unexpected name along with it into the annals

[00:29:03] [SPEAKER_06]: of history. Nikolas Rinsky was truly an unlikely hero. If he was never given command of this

[00:29:10] [SPEAKER_06]: fortress he'd probably just be a footnote in our history books. Just a run-of-the-mill,

[00:29:14] [SPEAKER_06]: money hungry land baron he probably wouldn't be remembered. But instead he became the

[00:29:19] [SPEAKER_06]: figure of legends. His fellow nobles who used to spit at the thought of him,

[00:29:24] [SPEAKER_06]: begrudgingly admitted that his legendary last stand had wiped the slate clean from a life of sin.

[00:29:31] [SPEAKER_06]: A certain Romanian bishop who knew him and despised him was forced to admit that he had truly

[00:29:37] [SPEAKER_06]: wiped his sins clean with such a glorious end. While one of Suleiman's generals who watched

[00:29:43] [SPEAKER_06]: stunned as Zrinsky charged fearlessly into his front lines, wrote to a friend regretting

[00:29:48] [SPEAKER_06]: that he never got to meet him, quote, I still regret his death and I can prove this because

[00:29:53] [SPEAKER_06]: his head is not on a pale, meaning a pike. I sent it up to have it cleaned. I also had his body

[00:29:59] [SPEAKER_06]: buried as it would have been a shame to have the body of such a brave gentleman eaten by the birds.

[00:30:06] [SPEAKER_06]: Zrinsky's garrison of 2,300 men was killed almost to a man. But they'd sold their lives

[00:30:13] [SPEAKER_06]: at a premium price. By the end of the siege, somewhere between 20 and 30,000 Ottoman soldiers

[00:30:19] [SPEAKER_06]: lay dead. Some had died taking the old town or draining the moat. Others had died of dysentery

[00:30:26] [SPEAKER_06]: or disease in the siege camp. But the majority of deaths were from the final explosion when

[00:30:31] [SPEAKER_06]: the citadel collapsed and buried the soldiers in the rubble. As this story has been told and

[00:30:36] [SPEAKER_06]: retold over the years, myth and folklore has kind of crept into the narrative. One I

[00:30:42] [SPEAKER_06]: particularly enjoyed said that Zrinsky's final charge made it all the way to the Sultan's tent

[00:30:47] [SPEAKER_06]: where he killed Suleiman with his bare hands before being overwhelmed by his guards.

[00:30:52] [SPEAKER_06]: But the most famous story, and the one I used in our introduction, goes that Zrinsky rigged a bomb.

[00:30:58] [SPEAKER_06]: Knowing that the Ottoman soldiers will loot the castle, he leaves it behind before

[00:31:02] [SPEAKER_06]: charging up to meet his fate. To be fair, there's nothing disapproving this series of events.

[00:31:07] [SPEAKER_06]: I mean, there was an explosion that killed a stack of Ottoman soldiers. But it seems more plausible

[00:31:13] [SPEAKER_06]: that it was caused by an ammunition case catching fire rather than a deliberate plan by Zrinsky.

[00:31:19] [SPEAKER_06]: Legends aside, Zrinsky's doomed resistance continues to inspire to this day. A national hero

[00:31:25] [SPEAKER_06]: in Croatia and Hungary, his last stand is still represented in paintings, statues, poetry,

[00:31:31] [SPEAKER_06]: even operas. My personal favorite is a piece of art by Johan Peter Kraft that vividly captures

[00:31:38] [SPEAKER_06]: the drama of the final charge as Zrinsky covered in red and gold silks charges from the smoky

[00:31:44] [SPEAKER_06]: fortress, saber-raised into the Ottoman lines. On September 7, 2017, Turkish President Recep Tayyip

[00:31:56] [SPEAKER_06]: Erdogan arrived at Friendship Park in southern Hungary. There were no Janissaries, no cannons,

[00:32:02] [SPEAKER_06]: no Habsburgs, no sultans anymore. No longer contested territory between two enormous empires,

[00:32:10] [SPEAKER_06]: Sigefar is a peaceful parkland in a rural part of modern Hungary. The Turkish president wore

[00:32:15] [SPEAKER_06]: a simple black suit with dark shades. Carrying a laurel wreath, he walked towards the enormous

[00:32:21] [SPEAKER_06]: bust of Suleiman the Magnificent. Friendship Park, which sits beside the ruins of Sigefar Castle,

[00:32:29] [SPEAKER_06]: was constructed in 1994 in an attempt to consolidate relationships between Hungary and Turkey.

[00:32:35] [SPEAKER_06]: Originally it was just going to be a bust of Suleiman there, but the Hungarians and Croatians

[00:32:40] [SPEAKER_06]: were appalled that their national hero was not represented, so an equally imposing bust of

[00:32:45] [SPEAKER_06]: Nikola Zrinsky was added. Despite the name of the park, the titanic busts of these men

[00:32:51] [SPEAKER_06]: look anything but friendly. Two block-carved faces raised on a platform in the middle of the park,

[00:32:57] [SPEAKER_06]: Suleiman with his sloping enormous turban looks fierce and domineering,

[00:33:02] [SPEAKER_06]: and Zrinsky with his feathered cap and neat beard looks stoic and unmoved.

[00:33:06] [SPEAKER_06]: If the busts were turned to face each other it would look like a cage match was about to start.

[00:33:12] [SPEAKER_06]: But President Erdogan wasn't just there for a stroll in the sunshine.

[00:33:16] [SPEAKER_06]: Well known for his admiration of the Ottoman Empire, he was there to commemorate the anniversary

[00:33:21] [SPEAKER_06]: of Suleiman the Magnificent. 450 years ago to the day, Sigefar had fallen and sultan Suleiman with it.

[00:33:30] [SPEAKER_06]: Suleiman could be something of a personal hero for President Erdogan, whose government policies

[00:33:35] [SPEAKER_06]: have often been described as neo-Ottoman. In the last few decades, Friendship Park and

[00:33:41] [SPEAKER_06]: Sigefar have generated a lot of media attention in Turkey. According to legend, after Suleiman died in

[00:33:48] [SPEAKER_06]: his tent, his internal organs, specifically his heart, were removed, placed in a golden box and

[00:33:54] [SPEAKER_06]: buried underneath the spot his tent was pitched. While his body was transported back to Istanbul

[00:34:00] [SPEAKER_06]: for his funeral, a small tomb was constructed near Sigefar where his organs were buried.

[00:34:06] [SPEAKER_06]: For a century after this tomb was a bit of a pilgrim destination for local Muslims,

[00:34:10] [SPEAKER_06]: but when the Habsburgs retook the area, they burned it to the ground.

[00:34:15] [SPEAKER_06]: As the centuries passed, the story of the tomb was thought to be nothing but an old

[00:34:19] [SPEAKER_06]: urban legend. But in 2013, Hungarian professor Norbert Papp was trekking through the outskirts

[00:34:27] [SPEAKER_06]: of Sigefar, poking through the ruins and looking for clues. It was a swelteringly hot day,

[00:34:33] [SPEAKER_06]: so when a local winemaker invited the archaeologists to take a break on his patio,

[00:34:37] [SPEAKER_06]: Norbert accepted. Under the canopy of grapevines, the professor waited patiently for a glass of

[00:34:43] [SPEAKER_06]: the local produce. As he sat, he noticed the table he was sitting on was propped up by an old red stone

[00:34:49] [SPEAKER_06]: with unusually precise divots hammered into it. He asked the winemaker where the stone had come

[00:34:55] [SPEAKER_06]: from and the man explained that in a cellar there were tons of stones that looked this way.

[00:35:01] [SPEAKER_06]: Descending down the crooked stairs into the ancient cellar, Norbert looked past the

[00:35:05] [SPEAKER_06]: dusty stack of wine bottles and realized he was standing in the badly damaged remains

[00:35:10] [SPEAKER_06]: of Suleiman the Magnificent Tomb. Comparing it with a sketch in an old monastery,

[00:35:16] [SPEAKER_06]: the dimensions seemed to match, and when a specific prayer niche was pointed directly

[00:35:21] [SPEAKER_06]: towards Mecca with less than one degree of deviation, he believed he'd finally found it.

[00:35:27] [SPEAKER_06]: The rediscovery of this lost tomb created quite a stir. Though there isn't much to see,

[00:35:32] [SPEAKER_06]: many travelled to this poor region of Hungary, including two descendants of Sultan Suleiman himself.

[00:35:39] [SPEAKER_06]: Keneze Murad, a French writer and I guess you could argue an Ottoman princess,

[00:35:44] [SPEAKER_06]: travelled to the cellar and remarked, quote, when they showed us the exact place,

[00:35:48] [SPEAKER_06]: I could not resist the emotion nor suppress my tears. I raised my hands and prayed for

[00:35:53] [SPEAKER_06]: Sultan Suleiman, the legislator, the Magnificent asking God to help Turkey in a difficult

[00:35:59] [SPEAKER_06]: situation. Keneze even provided some of her hair as a DNA sample in case any remains were found.

[00:36:06] [SPEAKER_06]: As President Erdogan laid his wreath beneath the bust of Suleiman the Magnificent, he hoped that

[00:36:11] [SPEAKER_06]: others would follow him and this would become a kind of pilgrim route, just like it was after

[00:36:15] [SPEAKER_06]: the death of Suleiman. Friendship Park still stands today, partly funded by Erdogan's government.

[00:36:22] [SPEAKER_06]: Hungary is one of the numerous countries where Turkey exerts kind of soft power.

[00:36:28] [SPEAKER_06]: In fact, if you overlay a map of Suleiman's empire top countries where

[00:36:32] [SPEAKER_06]: modern Turkey has an economic interest, you'd see a lot of overlap. Erdogan has been very clear

[00:36:39] [SPEAKER_06]: about his intentions to make Turkey an international power again. And while Viktor Orban, the President

[00:36:45] [SPEAKER_06]: of Hungary would no doubt welcome Turkish investment into one of Hungary's poorest regions,

[00:36:50] [SPEAKER_06]: he himself is renowned for harsh views on immigration, particularly Muslim immigration.

[00:36:57] [SPEAKER_06]: And his speeches regularly reference the humiliation his country suffered during Ottoman occupation.

[00:37:03] [SPEAKER_06]: As of 2023, it's been almost 500 years since the Get Var fell. And while Suleiman,

[00:37:09] [SPEAKER_06]: Zerinski, the Janissaries and the Habsburgs are all gone, it's interesting to think

[00:37:15] [SPEAKER_06]: how much has really changed. This has been Anthology of Heroes. Thanks for tuning in.

[00:37:23] [SPEAKER_06]: Before the outro music plays today, guys, I wanted to remind you that this is our final

[00:37:27] [SPEAKER_06]: episode for season five. This season has had about 20 or so episodes, our longest yet.

[00:37:33] [SPEAKER_06]: Just a heads up for any new listeners. I try and take about a one or two month break between

[00:37:38] [SPEAKER_06]: seasons to get a head start on research and stuff like that. So things will go quiet on the feed

[00:37:42] [SPEAKER_06]: for a bit. But you can keep up to date with the show, our releases, research,

[00:37:47] [SPEAKER_06]: and just general information on the show by following us on Instagram or Facebook,

[00:37:51] [SPEAKER_06]: where I'm most active. This is also a final call for any Q&A questions. At the end of each season,

[00:37:57] [SPEAKER_06]: I usually like to do a little season summary to show where we've gone and what we've talked about.

[00:38:01] [SPEAKER_06]: And this time, I thought it might be fun to include some audience questions. So if you've

[00:38:05] [SPEAKER_06]: got any questions or suggestions for me, either about me personally, the show, the sources,

[00:38:10] [SPEAKER_06]: you know, whatever, there's a few ways you can get in touch with me and I'll read them

[00:38:14] [SPEAKER_06]: out on the show. First, you can email me anthologyofheroespodcast or one word at gmail.com

[00:38:21] [SPEAKER_06]: You can message me on Instagram at anthologyofheroes or you can leave a voicemail on our website

[00:38:28] [SPEAKER_06]: anthologyofheroespodcast.com If you do leave your voice heads up, I will probably be playing

[00:38:31] [SPEAKER_06]: it on the episode so make sure you're okay with that. All those links are in the episode description.

[00:38:37] [SPEAKER_06]: Real talk there guys. I really hope you enjoyed this season and if you have maybe

[00:38:40] [SPEAKER_06]: you've got a second to rate this show on Apple podcasts or on Spotify, it just takes a second.

[00:38:45] [SPEAKER_06]: Alternatively, if you really enjoyed the show, maybe you'd like to join our team of generous

[00:38:49] [SPEAKER_06]: patrons. The patrons of the show give me a few dollars a month which helps me cover the cost

[00:38:54] [SPEAKER_06]: to posting the show. If you'd like to do that, there's a link in the episode description as well.

[00:38:59] [SPEAKER_06]: A big shout out to our generous patrons as always. Claudia, Tom, Caleb, Malcolm, Seth,

[00:39:05] [SPEAKER_06]: Angus, Phil, Lisa, Jim, Alan and John. Thanks a lot you guys. Big to you on the season 5 wrap up.

[00:39:11] [SPEAKER_05]: Twice been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for history. Dr. Taylor, thank you so much for

[00:39:16] [SPEAKER_05]: speaking with me. Well, thank you for having me on Peter. Hi everyone, my name is Peter

[00:39:19] [SPEAKER_05]: Zablaki, a historian and host of the History Shorts podcast. If you are a fan of serious yet fun history,

[00:39:26] [SPEAKER_05]: then it might be time to squeeze history shorts into your daily routine. From every day 10 minute

[00:39:31] [SPEAKER_05]: episodes on often stupefying history to weekly interviews with top historians, the History

[00:39:36] [SPEAKER_05]: Shorts podcast is your one-stop shop for easily accessible history. See you on your favorite

[00:39:41] [SPEAKER_01]: podcast app. Hello, this is Gary Chahot, welcoming you to check out the French History

[00:39:45] [SPEAKER_01]: podcast. Our main show covers the history of France from the first humans until present.

[00:39:51] [SPEAKER_01]: If you like Mike Duncan's The History of Rome and wanted a similar program covering the land of

[00:39:56] [SPEAKER_01]: beauty, culture and love, we are exactly that. We also host world-renowned scholars who have

[00:40:03] [SPEAKER_01]: delivered guest episodes on their specialties including 18th century pirates, revolutionary

[00:40:09] [SPEAKER_01]: booksellers in 20th century Paris, the special friendship between the Marquis de Lafayette and

[00:40:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Thomas Jefferson and numerous others. Learn what you love and listen to the French History podcast today.