Nikola IV Zrinski or Miklós IV Zrínyi (Hungarian: Zrínyi Miklós, pronounced [ˈzriːɲi ˈmikloːʃ]; 1507/1508 – 7 September 1566), also commonly known as Nikola Šubić Zrinski (Croatian: [nǐkola ʃûbitɕ zrîːɲskiː]), was a Croatian-Hungarian nobleman and general, Ban of Croatia from 1542 until 1556, royal master of the treasury from 1557 until 1566, and a descendant of the Croatian noble families Zrinski and Kurjaković. During his lifetime the Zrinski family became the powerful noble family in the Kingdom of Croatia.
Zrinski became well known across Europe for his involvement in the Siege of Szigetvár (1566), where he died stopping Ottoman Empire's Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent's advance towards Vienna. The battle was considered so important that the French clergyman and statesman Cardinal Richelieu described it as "the battle that saved civilization". Zrinski came to be considered a role model of a faithful and sacrificial warrior, Christian hero as well as a national hero in both Croatia and Hungary, and is often portrayed in artworks.
Nikola was a Croat. He was born as one of the six children of Nikola III of the Zrinski family from the noble tribe of Šubić, and of Jelena Karlović, sister of future Croatian Ban Ivan Karlović of the Kurjaković family from the noble tribe of Gusić. His birthplace is unknown, but it is generally considered to have been Zrin Castle. The same is about his birth date, for which different primary sources give dates ranging between 1507, 1508 and 1518, but according to them and other evidence it is considered to have been in 1507 or 1508, with 1508 most often cited in scholarship.
Zrinski already distinguished himself in the early twenties during the Siege of Vienna in 1529, for which was awarded with a horse and golden chain. After the death of his father Nikola III in 1534, Nikola IV with older brother Ivan I inherited estates in Pounje, and they simultaneously started to fortify them as well as make contacts with the Ottomans, to whom they paid a yearly tribute like their father. However, between 1537 and 1540 they started fighting against Gazi Husrev-beg's forces for the control of fort Dubica.
In January 1539, Zrinski murdered the Imperial Army commander Johann Katzianer at Fortress Kostajnica because Katzianer had deserted the King Ferdinand I Habsburg, had started to conspire in favor of throne contestant John Zápolya, and had cooperated with the Ottomans. During the following year, the estates of the Zrinski brothers were again attacked by the Ottomans. By June 1540, they fought the combined forces of Husrev-beg, Murat-beg Tardić and Mehmed-beg Jahjapašić, and because of a lack of sufficient help from the Austrian military, the fortress Kostajnica was temporarily lost to the Turks. Zrin Castle and Gvozdansko Castle managed to hold up, but the mining sites and others were devastated. They successfully repelled the attack however, and from that moment on the Zrinski family continuously fought against the Ottomans.
In 1541, together with his older brother Ivan I, Nikola received large possessions of the Vrana Priory in Croatia and Hungary by Ferdinand I, but with the death of his brother in the same year, he also became the only successor to the estates of the Zrinski family. In 1542, according to Antun Vramec, he saved the Imperial Army forces from defeat at the Siege of Pest by intervening with 400 Croats, for which service he was appointed Ban of Croatia, a position which held until his death in 1556. During this period he frequently went to Gvozdansko Castle in order to inspect the silver mines and the mint, like in other forts in the Pounje and Pokuplje basins. As compensation for him fighting against the Ottomans, he was granted the whole area of Međimurje (Muraköz) on 12 March 1546 by King Ferdinand I, hence the center of the Zrinski family has moved from Zrin Castle to the city of Čakovec, where he significantly rearranged the existing Čakovec Castle. In 1549 he was given the right to collect tax from the subjects by himself, and in 1561 the right to freely settle serfs on his estates.
In 1556, Zrinski won a series of victories over the Ottomans, culminating in the battle of Babócsa, and thus preventing the fall of Szigetvár. However, since he was unsatisfied with the amount of resources for defense, he voluntary withdrew from his position as Ban of Croatia. In the next year, 1557, he was titled Master of the treasury, a royal office position which he held until death, becoming once again one of the fifteen most influential persons in the Kingdom of Hungary. Additionally, he served as a captain of Croatian light cavalry (1550–1560), captain of Szigetvár and commander of the Transdanubian border from 1561 and 1563 respectively and until his death.
In 1563, on the coronation of Emperor Maximilian as king of Hungary, Zrinski attended the ceremony at the head of 3000 Croatian and Magyar mounted noblemen, in the hope of obtaining the highest dignity of Palatine, vacant by the death of Tamás Nádasdy. Some historians like Géza Pálffy consider he did manage to obtain it. In the next year, he hastened southwards to defend the frontier, and defeated the Ottomans at Szeged. In 1565, Zrinski brought a copy of the Holy Crown of Hungary to Vienna for the funeral ceremony of Ferdinand I.
In the spring of 1566, Zrinski was located in Szigetvár, a strategic fortress for the defense of the shortest route to Vienna, when the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent went with a large army for a second attempt to conquer Vienna, but first decided to capture Szigetvár. Zrinski was informed by the new king, Maximilian II, that he could either remain or leave it to another captain, but in an April, 23rd letter, Zrinski wrote that it was his will to remain because many thousands of people depend on the fortress' survival, and he started to strategically prepare to confront the Sultan. Suleiman's forces reached Belgrade on 27 June after a forty-nine-day march. Learning of Zrinski's success in an attack upon a Turkish forces at Siklós in July, destroying several detachments, Suleiman decided to postpone his attack on Eger and instead attack Zrinski's fortress at Szigetvár to eliminate him as a threat.
For over a month from 5 August to 7 September, with a small force of roughly 2,300–2,500 soldiers, mostly Croats, Zrinski heroically defended the small fortress of Szigetvár against the whole Ottoman army of over 100,000 soldiers and 300 cannons, led by Suleiman in person. They did so without reinforcements which were promised by the Hungarian–Croatian King, and against Suleiman's offer of Croatian land to Zrinski. The siege of Szigetvár ended with every remaining member of the garrison in a desperate and suicidal charge from the fortress led by Zrinski on 7 September 1566. Suleiman also died, but from natural causes, one day before the Ottomans won the siege. As Ottoman forces had suffered heavy casualties during the siege of Szigetvár, the army only managed to additionally capture the nearby fort Babócsa before Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha withdrew the army and ended the Ottoman conquest.
According to historical sources, Zrinski decided to be dressed in a hat and nice suit rather than a helmet and armour during his final charge, and chose to have his father's sabre in hand, so that he it could be said that he had "bared all that I was judged by God's judgment", and offered one hundred gold coins as a reward for the Ottoman soldier who cut off his head. He was shot by a Janissary with a musket in the head and chest, while by other accounts it was first by a musket in the chest and then an arrow to the head. It is considered that his head was sent by Mehmed Pasha to Budin Pasha Sokullu Mustafa, or to new Sultan Selim II, but eventually, the head was buried by son Juraj IV Zrinski, Boldizsár Batthyány and Ferenc Tahy in September 1566 at the Pauline monastery in Sveta Jelena, Šenkovec, Croatia. It is uncertain what happened to his body. It could have been burned or buried near the battlefield, but according to most sources it is considered to have been buried by a former captive, Mustafa Vilić, a Muslim from Banja Luka, because he had been well treated by Zrinski.