Fun Facts Friday: Miklós Zrínyi

Miklós Zrínyi (5 January, 1620 – 18 November, 1684) was a Hungarian poet, statesman and military leader. His poem The Peril of Sziget is the first epic poem in Hungarian literature.

Books by or about Miklós Zrínyi*

Fun Facts about Miklós Zrínyi:

Miklós Zrínyi was born in Csáktornya, Hungary at the time but today it’s located in Čakovec, Croatia. His father, Juraj V Zrinsk was Croatian and his mother, Magdolna Széchy was Hungarian.
He studied at the court of Péter Pázmány, a noted Hungarian Jesuit known as a philosopher, theologian, statesman, and an important figure in Hungary’s Catholic Revival. Mr. Zrínyi loved to study languages and literature, but prioritized military training above all.
Over the years, Miklós Zrínyi proved himself to be a capable military commander defending Croatia against the Ottoman Empire, and fighting against Swedish troops during the Thirty Years’ War.
During the war he saved Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand III after Carl Gustaf Wrangel, commanding the Swedish forces, attacked his camp.
After the war he married Eusebia Drašković, daughter of a prominent Croatian noble family.
Even though he spent much of his time fighting the Ottomans, he was always exchanging words with European intellectual elites of the era. Those who visited Miklós Zrínyi told of his ease and fluency with at least six different languages.
Some of the languages Zrínyi spoke included Croatian (his mother tongue), Hungarian (his adopted country), Latin (the language of politics), German (the language of bureaucracy), Turkish (his enemy’s language), and even Italian just for fun.
His epic poem, The Peril of Sziget (Szigeti veszedelem), was written in Hungarian and tells of the heroic defense of Szigetvar by his great-grandfather. In the poem, Zrínyi lets his ancestor kill Soliman the Magnificent, which is a stretch. Soliman did die during the siege, but he was diagnosed with a disease.
Miklós Zrínyi served in the Hapsburg’s court but was not very liked. He was loyal to the Hungarian Catholic crown (also the Holy Roman Emperor) but kept insisting that Hungary be liberated from the Turks, and was sympathetic towards Protestants. The crown threw some medals his way, made him Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, but nothing more. The court liked his brother, Peter, even less. He was arrested and executed for treason.
Miklós Zrínyi was killed during a wild boar hunting expedition, although it is suspected that the “boar” worked for the Hapsburgs in some capacity. Sadly, we’ll never know.