Battle of Keresztes

Commanded by Sultan Mehmed III, the army marched through Edirne, Filibe (now known as Plovdiv), Sofia, and Niš to arrive at Belgrade on 9 August.However, news soon arrived that the Austrians had besieged and succeeded in taking over the Castle of Hatvan and had brutally killed all the Ottomans housed there, including the women and children.[5][7][10] The Christian army had 10,000 Austrians, 4,000 Germans, 3,000 reiters, 13,000 Hungarian light cavalry and 10,000 Transylvanians, and additional troops from fifteen other European countries for a total of 55,000 men.According to the report of the English diplomat Edward Barton, in very high numbers fought Crimean Tatar auxiliary forces in the Ottoman army into the battle of Keresztes.[2][12] The Austrian-Transylvanian army, under the joint command of Archduke Maximillian III of Austria and Prince Sigismund Bathory of Transylvania, was in position in fortified trenches.However, first he asked for the opinion of his tutor, the high cleric Hoca Sadeddin Efendi, who told the Sultan that he should continue the battle till the end.A letter written by an Ottoman Kapi Agha who was present during the battle to his friend in Istanbul describes the battle as following:"The brave men of that period, Çagalazade and Hasan Pasha, having sought refuge in God against the infidels, and the other emirs, commanders, and valiant soldiers of Islam, drew their swords and plunged into the sea of the enemy, their cries for Allah ascending to the heavens."[15]The author talks about the encirclement and destruction of the disorganized units of the Habsburg Army after it's failed attack on Ottoman main camp, with numbers are being possibly innaccurate.During these celebrations, four galleys full of state-procured sugar from Egypt arrived at the Golden Horn, which added "sweetness" to the news of a military victory.