Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
ZRINYI, MIKLOS, COUNT (1620—1664)
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: YAK-ZYM
del.icio.us it!
|
See also:ZRINYI, MIKLOS, See also:COUNT (1620—1664) , Hungarian See also:warrior, statesman and poet, the son of See also:George Zrinyi and Magdalena Szechy, was See also:born at Csakvar. At the See also:court of See also:Peter Pasmany the youth conceived a burning See also:enthusiasm for his native See also:language and literature, although he always placed arms before arts. From 1635 to 1637 he accompanied Szenkveczy, one of the canons of See also:Esztergom, on a See also:long educative tour through See also:Italy. During the next few years he learnt the See also:art of See also:war in defending the Croatian frontier against the See also:Turks, and approved himself one of the first captains of the See also:age. In 1645 he acted against the Swedes in See also:Moravia, equipping an See also:army See also:corps at his own expense. At Szkalec he scattered a See also:Swedish See also:division and took 2000 prisoners. At See also:Eger he saved the See also:emperor, who had been surprised at See also:night in his See also:camp by See also:Wrangel. Subsequently he routed the army of See also:Rakoczy on the Upper See also:Theiss. For his services the emperor appointed him See also:captain of Croatia. On his return from the war he married the wealthy Eusebia Draskovics. In 1646 he distinguished himself in the See also:Turkish war. At the See also:coronation of See also: In this See also:double capacity he presided over many Croatian diets, always strenuously defending the See also:political rights of the Croats
and steadfastly maintaining that as regarded See also:Hungary they were to be looked upon not as partes annexae but as a regnaum. During 1652–J3 he was continually fighting against the Turks, yet from his See also:castle at Csaktornya he was in See also:constant communication with the learned See also:world; the Dutch See also:scholar, Jacobus Tollius, even visited him, and has See also:left in his Epistolae itinerariae a lively See also:account of his experiences. Tollius was amazed at the linguistic resources of Zrinyi, who spoke See also:German, Croatian, Hungarian, Turkish and Latin with equal facility. Zrinyi's Latin letters (from which we learn that he was married a second See also:time, to See also:Sophia Lobel) are fluent and agreeable, but largely interspersed with Croatian and Magyar expressions. The last See also:year of his See also:life was also its most glorious one. He set out to destroy the strongly fortified Turkish See also:bridge at See also:Esseg, and thus cut off the See also:retreat of the Turkish army, re-capturing all the strong fortresses on his way. He destroyed the bridge, but the further pursuance of the See also:campaign was frustrated by the refusal of the imperial generals to co-operate. Still the expedition had covered him with See also:glory. All See also:Europe rang with his praises: It was said that only the Zrinyis had the See also:secret of conquering the Turks. The emperor offered him the See also:title of See also:prince. The See also:pope struck a commemorative See also:medal with the effigy of Zrinyi as a See also: The See also:French king created him a peer of See also:France. The Turks, to wipe out the disgrace of the Esseg affair, now laid See also:siege to Uj-Zerin, a fortress which Zrinyi had built, and the imperial troops under Montecuculi looked on while he hastened to relieve it, refusing all assistance, with the result that the fortress See also:fell. It was also by the See also:advice of Montecuculi that the disgraceful See also:peace of Vasvar was concluded. Zrinyi hastened to See also:Vienna to protest against it, but in vain. Zrinyi quitted Vienna in disgust, after assuring the Venetian See also:minister, Sagridino, that he was willing at any moment to assist the See also:Republic against the Turks with 6000 men. He then returned to Csaktornya, and there, on the 18th of See also:November, was killed by a See also:wild See also:boar which he had twice wounded and recklessly pursued to its lair in the See also:forest swamps, armed only with his See also:hunting-See also:knife. His poetical See also:works first appeared at Vienna in 165r, under the title of The See also:Siren of the Adriatic (Hung.); but his See also:principal See also:work, Obsidio Szigetiana, the epopoeia of the glorious self-See also:sacrifice of his heroic ancestor of the same name, only appeared in fragments in Magyar literature till See also:Arany took it in See also:hand. It was evidently written under the See also:influence of both See also:Virgil and See also:Tasso, though the author had no time to See also:polish and correct its rough and occasionally somewhat wooden versification. But the fundamental See also:idea—the See also:duty of Hungarian valour to shake off the Turkish yoke, with the help of See also:God—is See also:sublime, and the whole work is intense with See also:martial and religious enthusiasm. It is no unworthy See also:companion of the other epics of the See also:Renaissance See also:period, and had many imitators. Arany first, in 1848, began to recast the Zrinyiad, as he called it, on See also:modern lines, and the work was completed by Antal VekSny in 1892. See J. Arany and Kazmir Greksa, Zrinyi and Tasso (Hung.), Eger, 1892; Karoly Szechy, Life of Count See also:Nicholas Zrinyi, the poet (Hung.), See also:Budapest, 1896; See also:Sandor K3rosi, Zrinyi and Macchiavelli (Hung.), Budapest, 1893. (R. N. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] ZRINYI, MIKLOS, COUNT (1508—1566) |
[next] ZSCHOKKE, JOHANN HEINRICH DANIEL (1771-1848) |