The taking of Esztergom
During the Rákóczi War of Independence, few systematic castle sieges existed, except in rare cases. This was partly due to the composition of the Kuruc army, which consisted mainly of cavalry, and the infantry needed for sieges were not available in sufficient numbers. In addition, the army’s fighting style favored raids and quick action, and soldiers were reluctant to spend months besieging a single castle. There was also a lack of artillery of sufficient size, a lack of engineers, and a lack of soldiers trained to besiege a castle.
Most of the fortresses that fell to the Kuruc forces were starved, tricked, or surrendered by the Hungarian defenders. The strongest fortresses (Győr, Pozsony, Sopron, Buda, Pest, Várad, Szeben, Szeged, Arad, etc.) remained in imperial hands throughout. We know of only two real sieges during the War of Independence: the capture of Medgyes in 1706 and the capture of Esztergom in 1706. The latter was personally led by Prince Rákóczi II Ferenc.
The capture of Esztergom, situated at an important Danube crossing point, had the advantage of making it more difficult to supply Buda and Pest from Vienna, and also of providing the Kuruc rule in Transdanubia with a stronger rearguard. In 1704-05, Károlyi Sándor and Forgách Simon attempted to occupy the region three times but were soon forced to give up the territory. Only the campaign of Bottyán János at the end of 1705 brought lasting results.
Since the autumn of 1703, the Kuruc troops had been raiding around Esztergom, mainly on the other side of the Danube. Colonel Bottyán János, the Hungarian commander of the castle garrison, then still in imperial colors, fortified the castle defenses, and in December he was trapped and wounded in Zólyom Castle.
It is thought that he had already secretly made a pact with the Kuruc rebels, but returned to Esztergom, perhaps to hand it over to the enemy at the right time. However, the commander of the castle, Franz Ferdinand Freiherr von Kuckländer, discovered Bottyán’s double game and had him arrested. When he was escorted to Vienna, Bottyán escaped at Nyergesújfalu and joined the Kuruc army.
The secret plan also shows that Rákóczi had been experimenting with the capture of the castle from the beginning of the War of Independence. In 1705 he sent the French military engineer Lemaire to spy on Esztergom, who thoroughly explored the shape, construction, and weak points of the castle. In January 1706, Rákóczi informed Bercsényi Miklós of his plans to besiege Esztergom in several letters. During the armistice between April and July, he was able to prepare himself thoroughly for the operation, and on 24 July he moved his troops from Érsekújvár.
Crossing the Danube, they arrived on 28 July near Esztergom, which Kuckländer defended with 459 guards and 20 cannons. They were short of ammunition, rifles, no engineers, and few artillerymen. Alongside them, German citizens living in the town, Hungarians, and Serbs took part in the defense. Food was plentiful in the storehouses.
Rákóczi’s army surrounded the castle on 28-29 July. The very next day, Forgách Simon attempted to attack the castle gate, which he repeated several times in the following days, but to no avail. In the meantime, the trench works continued, and by the 7th they were so close to the walls that they were out of range of the castle’s cannons.
On 9 August, from the coast of Párkány and St. Thomas’ Hill, the castle began to be bombarded, but without much success. Only a small percentage of the shells hit the target, so the next two days the aim was corrected and they were more successful. From dawn on the 11th, they bombarded with full firepower and managed to hit the walls of the Water City.
On the 12th, Rákóczi ordered an assault, but the news of the approach of the Serbs from Buda caused such fear among the Kuruc soldiers that they fled back into the entrenchments. The next day, they finally managed to take the city, which the defenders evacuated. The Water City was set on fire. The siege, planned to last a week, had lasted for over half a month, and only the capture of the Water City was achieved.
From August 14 to 19, the bombardment of the castle continued, opening a four-meter-wide gap in the walls. The attack began on the 20th, 2 hours after midnight, but the defenders’ rifle and cannon fire forced the attackers to turn back. The artillery fire continued, and on the morning of the 23rd there was another assault, but the three-hour battle caused heavy casualties and the besiegers retreated.
Rákóczi realized that his army was too few and unprepared for an infantry attack, and his artillery was weak. So he chose a new method, digging mines under the walls. A natural cavity under the Lipót Bastion was widened and deepened, but they also started digging elsewhere. The work took weeks, especially as the rock was hard and marble. The defenders’ counter-attacks had little effect. By the night of 5 September, the mine under the bastion of Lipót was ready to be blown up, and Rákóczi called on Kuckländer to surrender, but he refused. Kuckländer secretly lowered 30 soldiers into the mine, who took it after a hard fight. Disappointed and desperate, Rákóczi ordered the mine to be retaken. The gunpowder was removed by the defenders in the meantime.
In a fierce, bloody five-hour battle, the Kuruc troops retook the cave on September 6. On the 8th, the Prince again called on the Imperials to surrender. By then, the defenders were down to 216 men, with only a few guns and rifles left, and the gap in the wall was 12 meters long. Kuckländer knew that the explosion would either bring down the bastion completely or damage it so badly that it would be indefensible. So he agreed to negotiate, and on the 14th the capitulation was signed. The fortress was surrendered on the 15th and 16th, and the garrison was free to leave with its weapons. As was the custom of the time, the defenders marched out of the castle through the gap on 17 September to demonstrate the hopelessness of further defense.
The Kuruc losses were at least 1000 but could have been more. Rákóczi appointed the French brigadier Chassant and Colonel Bonafous to command the castle, as no Hungarian would take up the post. At that time, the army of Field Marshal Guido Starhemberg was approaching fast and surrounded the castle on 28 October. Bonafous surrendered Esztergom on 9 November, despite the brave resistance of the defenders. Rákóczi’s efforts of nearly two months failed, and Esztergom remained in imperial hands throughout the rest of the war, with Kuckländer again appointed commander.
Among the troops involved in the siege, the elite forces of the prince’s court once again stood out. The commander himself, Colonel Szent-Ivány János, was wounded, and Lieutenant Szalay Ferenc, who had fought bravely at Szeged, could show his prowess once again. When the mine cave had to be retaken from the enemy, Lieutenant Szalay led the detachment that was ordered to retake the mine on the side of the castle hill, he carried out the operation successfully but received a severe bullet wound in the ankle, and was later invalided out of service and transferred to the garrison of the Munkács Castle.
The end of Kassa’s siege
The city of Kassa was liberated from the siege of the troops of Field Marshal Jean Louis Rabutin on October 11, 1706. Rabutin had set out from Transylvania in the summer of 1706, and after the Kuruc army had largely eluded him, his movements were hampered only by food shortages. Szolnok had been evacuated by the Kuruc forces before him, so he easily took it, but he did not attempt the siege of the well-fortified Eger, instead, he set his sights on Kassa.
The city was prepared for defense by Károlyi Sándor. He even managed to get the same infantry that had been used to reinforce Eger to move to Kassa, with excellent marching performance, ahead of the Imperial troops. Rabutin arrived at the city on 29 September and began the artillery siege on 1 October.
The defense was led by the old brigadier, town commander Radics András, who had already defended the castle of Munkács against the Imperials with Zrínyi Ilona. He was accompanied by infantry colonels Esze Tamás and Eöllyűs János, and cavalry colonels Ordódy György and Krucsay János. The artillery was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Bácsmegyey Ádám.
The besiegers shelled the city with 9 cannons for 9 days, leaving one of its streets in ruins and the cathedral under bombardment, but Rabutin called for the city’s surrender in vain. The Imperial commander withdrew his cannons on the 10th and retreated on the 11th, having learned of the approach of Rákóczi, who, after the capture of Esztergom, had hurried to relieve Kassa.
The prince entered the city on 14 October to thank the defenders for their bravery: he presented Radics and Ordody with a donation of land and the other officers with gold medals decorated with his image.
Sources: Szibler Gábor and HM Hadtörténeti Intézet és Múzeum
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