Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. Vol. 1. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 24)

George Cushing: Eger - British connections

GEORGE CUSHING EGER - BRITISH CONNECTIONS In a postscript to my article 'Making History Come Alive' I mentioned the Englishman who, having read Egri csillagok, visited Gárdonyi in Eger shortly before his death. He was by no means the first Englishman to go there, indeed there have been connections between Eger and Britain for a very long time. Here I shall recall some of them. Egri csillagok ends with the withdrawal of the Turkish army, but that did not mean that Eger was saved from further attacks. The Turks still occupied Central Hungary and might return at any moment. The fortress was rebuilt - though not as completely as Gergely Bornemissza had planned - and the garrison was strengthened, but there was still a lack of large guns to repel a new attack. Nevertheless it was 44 years before the Turks made a new and this time decisive attempt to take Eger. It was important for them to succeed, for a new Sultan, Mehmet III, came to the throne in 1595, and he had to prove himself. So he personally organised the campaign of 1596 and monitored its progress; he also invited the English ambassador to accompany him, and the invitation was accepted, apparently without reference to London. The ambassador was Edward Barton, who was then and had made a name for himself for his work in Stamboul, particularly on behalf of the Levant Company, founded in 1581. John Sanderson, of that Company, had arrived in the Turkish capital not long before the Sultan's invitation had arrived, and Barton left him to report to London on events there. Barton supplied accounts of the campaign to him and to Sir Robert Cecil in London; he took with him a retinue of staff and servants to deliver his dispatches. The very large Turkish army arrived before Eger at the same time of year as in 1552. Here is Barton's account: 'Our arrival in Agria happened the twelfth of September. The thirteenth the inhabitants set all their suburbs on fire ... though they 49