Obléhání Nových Zámků

Flight of the New Chateaux


Date:
May 1621 - July 1621


Place:
Nové Zámky, Slovakia


Participants:
Imperial Army
x
Bethlen's Rebel Army

Result:
The fortress was defended

On 7 May 1621, the Imperial troops under the command of General Buquoy managed to conquer Bratislava. However, the soldiers did not stay there for long. Already on May 10, they moved on. They gradually occupied Svätý Jur, Pezinek and Trnava. Then they laid siege to the fortress of Nové Zámky, the main Bethlen armoury, led by Stanislav Thurz.


The siege work, however, progressed very slowly. The imperial army was suffering from a lack of food, which was, among other things, the result of their previous devastation. Also very unpleasant were the frequent raids carried out by the garrison of the fortress, which had already been reinforced during the siege by four thousand Hungarian fighters under the command of Stefan Horváth. These raids cost the lives of many imperial soldiers. In one of these raids, which took place on 10 June, the Uhlans even managed to kill Buquoy himself. Several officers of his entourage met the same fate. The lack of food, the active defence of the fortress garrison and the death of the commander-in-chief were soon compounded by the arrival of Count Thurn, who had fled to Bethlen after his defeat on White Mountain.


In this situation, the commanders decided to end the siege. This decision was then implemented on 17 July, when the imperialists marched south to the Danube. When the defenders noticed this, they made a violent attack on the rear of the retreating army. They thus managed to take three thousand prisoners and seize less than three dozen cannon, a large quantity of ammunition and wagonloads of trena. When the earlier besiegers approached the Danube, they fortified themselves several kilometres above Komárno. However, they could not hold this position for long. The number of pursuers continued to grow and, in turn, cases of desertion in the ranks of the imperial army began to multiply. The soldiers found refuge in Komárno, Bratislava and Rab.




Source:
Rothenburg, Friedrich Rudolf von: Schlachten, Belagerungen und Gefechte in Deutschland und den angrenzenden Ländern von 1618 bis 1629, Hirschfeld'schen Buchdruckerey, Wien 1835.