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The Siege of Eger occurred during the 16th century Ottoman Wars in Europe. In 1552 the forces of the Ottoman Empire led by Kara Ahmed Pasha laid siege on the Castle of Eger, located in the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, but the defenders led by István Dobó repelled the attacks and defended the castle. Later, the siege has become an emblem of national defense and patriotic heroism in Hungary. ==Background== The Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, commenced his expansion of the empire in 1520 after the reign of Selim I. He began assaults against Hungarian and Austrian influenced territories, invading Hungarian soil in 1526. The Hungarian Army was crushed at the Battle of Mohács and the way was paved for an attack on the Danube Basin. The battle also brought about the death of the King of Hungary and Bohemia, Louis II, leading to a disputed claim for the throne. The Austrian Emperor Ferdinand I succeeded to the Bohemian throne but was challenged to the Hungarian throne by the pretender John Zápolya whose claim was backed by nobles and the Sultan. The power struggle continued beyond John's death in 1540 when his son, John II Sigismund Zápolya succeeded to the throne. It was not resolved until he renounced the throne in 1570 when he was succeeded by Maximilian I. The Ottomans met resistance during the Siege of Güns (Kőszeg) in 1532, where a force of 800 men under Miklós Jurisich managed to hold back the Ottoman armies. However, this only delayed their campaign by 25 days, and they continued to close in on Buda, finally occupying the capital in 1541. Buda became the seat of Ottoman rule in the area, with the Ottoman supported John II governing the occupied territories. The loss of Christian forts at Temesvár and Szolnok in 1552 were blamed on mercenary soldiers within the Hungarian ranks. When the Turks turned their attention to the northern Hungarian town of Eger in the same year few expected the defenders to put up much resistance, particularly as the two great armies of the Ottoman lords Ahmed and Ali, which had crushed all opposition previously, united before Eger. Eger was an important stronghold and key to the defense of the remainder of Hungarian soil. North of Eger lay the poorly reinforced city of Kassa (present day Košice), the centre of an important region of mines and associated mints, which provided the Hungarian Kingdom with large amounts of quality silver and gold coinage. Besides allowing a take-over of that revenue source, the fall of Eger would also enable the Ottoman Empire to secure an alternative logistic and troop route for further west-ward military expansion, possibly allowing the Turks to lay sieges on Vienna more frequently. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Siege of Eger (1552)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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