Eger várából a Nápolyi Királyságba. Egy magyar gályarab szabadulása, szolgálatai és kérelme III. Ferdinánd császárhoz
From the Castle of Eger to the Kingdom of Naples: The Release and Services of a Hungarian Galley Slave and His Petition to the Emperor Ferdinand III

Summary/Abstract: Ferenc (Francisco) Egri was captured in 1596 and became a galley slave in the Ottoman Empire. He and his companions, under the leadership of István Missigrádi (or Vissigrádi or Visegrádi, a person yet to be identified) took control of their ship in the Mediterranean, owned by the sanjakbey of Midilli (Lesbos), part of the Eyalet of the Archipelago. Sixty people of the sanjak-bey were killed and the rescuers released a number of Christian prisoners. Egri then served in Spanish Habsburg service for several decades in the navy of the Kingdom of Naples. He received a yearly payment, granted by Philip III, king of Spain. When he returned home in 1640, he requested a yearly pension from Emperor Ferdinand III. Several privy counsellors, including the president of the Privy Council, the count of Trauttmansdorff examined in Vienna the documents and the information Egri had provided, before the Emperor granted him the favor, via the Hungarian Chamber in Pozsony (Pressburg, Posonium). The story, with multiple fictional elements, reappeared two times in Hungarian popular journals in the 20th century. The paper includes the edition of two documents: the despacho real of Philip III about the yearly payment and a very short biography, probably written by Egri himself.

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