Siege of Kőszeg

The siege of Kőszeg (Hungarian: Kőszeg ostroma) or siege of Güns (Turkish: Güns Kuşatması), also known as the German campaign (Turkish: Alman Seferi) was a siege of Kőszeg (German: Güns) in the Kingdom of Hungary within the Habsburg Empire, that took place in 1532. In the siege, the defending forces of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy under the leadership of Croatian Captain Nikola Jurišić (Hungarian: Jurisics Miklós), defended the small border fort of Kőszeg with only 700–800 Croatian soldiers, with no cannons and few guns. The defenders prevented the advance of the Ottoman army of over 100,000 toward Vienna, under the leadership of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (Ottoman Turkish: سليمان, romanized: Süleymān) and Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha.

The exact outcome is unknown, since there are two versions which differ, depending on the source. In the first version, Nikola Jurišić rejected the offer to surrender on favourable terms; in the second version, the city was offered terms for a nominal surrender, which the garrison accepted. Suleiman, having been delayed nearly four weeks, withdrew at the arrival of the August rains, and did not continue towards Vienna as he had intended, but turned homeward.

Suleiman secured his possession in Hungary by conquering several other forts, but after the Ottoman withdrawal, Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand I reoccupied some of the devastated territory. Following this, Suleiman and Ferdinand concluded a 1533 treaty of Constantinople that confirmed the right of John Zápolya as a king of all Hungary, but recognised Ferdinand's possession of some of the reoccupied territory.