The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1984 (11. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1984-08-01 / 8. szám

i

GALÉRIA HUNGARICA

JOHN HUNYADI’S Greatest and Last Victory:

THE BATTLE OF NÁNDORFEHÉRVÁR

One of Hungary’s greatest contributions to Western Civilization and Christianity occurred 528 years ago. For, it was on July 22, 1456, that John Hunyadi (Count of Hunyad; Count of Temes; Ban of Szörény; Voivode of Transylvania; Regent of Hungary; Border Captain; Statesman; Magnate; and Commander-in- Chief of the Royal Hungarian Army) defeated the mighty army of Sultan Mohammed II at the historic Battle of Nandorfehervar (Belgrade) and pushed back the Ottoman-Turk timetable for the conquest of Western Europe for almost 100 years!

A FIGHT-TO-THE-DEATH

It was a fight-to-the-death between a Hungarian “David” and a Turk “Goliath”. Hunyadi, whose recruiting agent and “religious adjutant” was John Capistrano (now St. John of Capistrano), had only about 40,000 ill-equipped and untrained men under his command, while Sultan Mohammed’s army consisted of 150,000 well-equipped and well-trained troops, 6,000 crack Janissaries (some of them Hungarian), 50,000 auxiliaries, 300 cannon (designed and forged by a Hungarian cannon-maker), seven siege catapults, 64 ships, and a heavily guarded, supply line which stretched all the way down to the cost of Bulgaria.

While Hunyadi’s small army, including the 6,000 garrison troops under the command of his brother-in-law, Michael Szilagyi, who was also the Commander of the Hungarian bastion of Nandorfehervar, prepared for battle against almost insurmountable odds, the entire royal court of King Ladislas V, accompanied by most of the nobility and magnates of Hungary, sought refuge in Vienna. Hunyadi and his men stood alone blocking the Ottoman- Turk invasion of the Carpathian Basin, the gateway to Western Europe.

THE OTTOMAN STRATEGY FOR CONQUEST

The keystone of Sultan Mohammed's strategy for the conquest of Western Europe and the demise of Christendom was Constantinople, the capital city of Christian Byzantium, which he took on May 29,1453. He then made preparations to extend the Ottoman penetration into Page 4

— -John Hunyadi, the “Champion of Christendom”.

the Balkans into an all-out assault on Western Europe via the Hungarian outpost on the lower Danube, Nandorfehervar, into Hungary, and through Vienna. Only two men, in all of Western Europe, foresaw the threat and took it seriously: John Hunyadi, who rallied his faithful “Szekelys” around him, and Pope Calixtus III, who dispatched the Franciscan monk, John Capistrano, to Hungary and Austria to recruit men and arms and assigned John Carvalho, as his Papal Envoy to Hungary. But nobody in power paid the slightest bit of attention to the warnings issued by these men - only the “little people”. And so, the stage for battle was set on June 29, 1456, when Pope Calixtus III issued his famous, but now forgotton, “Bulla Oratorium” (Bull of Prayers), which decreed that the bells of all Catholic Churches should be run every day at noon and that prayers be said for the victory of Christian arms over the Turks.

“ADMIRAL” HUNYADI SINKS THE OTTOMAN NAVY Sultan Mohammed II and his army and navy got to Nandorfehervar before

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Hunyadi arrived, and proceeded to blockade the Hungarian bastion. When Hunyadi came upon this interdiction of the garrison’s supply line, he immediately put together a “naval flotilla” of sorts, loaded each unmanned vessel with sand, and “floated” them down the Danube smack into the Turkish fleet. Behind his makeshift “navy”, sailed 3,000 fighters aboard “destroyers”, who wasted no time coming to grips with the enemy. When Michael Szilagyi saw the mayhem being committed on the Danube, he let his “navy” loose, too. Then, Hunyadi’s foot soldiers and cavalry attacked along both banks of the river. Within five hours of bloody fighting, the Ottoman navy had been sunk, the blockade was broken, and reinforcements poured into Nandorfehervar. High upon a hill overlooking the scene of battle, John Capistrano stood bare-footed, holding a huge cross, and praying to God.

THE FINAL ASSAULT Frustrated at the stubborness of the defenders, and furious over the loss of his powerful navy, Sultan Mohammed II launched his final assault against the walls of Nandorfehervar on July 21,1456.

John Capistrano at the Battle of Nandorfehervar.

Eighth Hungarian Tribe