Ostrom vagy blokád, ostrom és blokád.
Siege or Blockade, Siege and Blockade.

To the History of the Reconquer of Várad (Oradea)

Summary/Abstract: The battle between 1688 and 1692 for the occupation of Várad is an unprecedented event of the reconquer because it has never happened before that the blockade turned into siege on two occasions. During the period of the occupying war (1683-1699) both the members of the war council of the Court and the commanders in chief in power from Hungary were fully aware of the prominent strategical importance of Várad because without having the fortress in Partium the Habsburg rule in the upper part of Hungary and Transylvania was uncertain. Although the siege proposed by Carol of Lotharingia in 1686 didn’t take place, occupying Eszék and Eger made possible the establishment of the blockade round the fortress, which almost lead to a result as the guard considered any further resistance hopeless without a relief army and a proper reinforcement. In 1691 the Imperial and Royal Army started the siege of the fortress. But the documents in Kriegsarchiv from Vienna clearly prove that Ludovic, marquis of Baden wanted to weaken the bastions and the guard by attacking them and also to decrease the stocks so that the besieged should surrender. Though his action was an unpredicted success, the defenders resisted, and the army sustaining the blockades could make the stubborn resisting fighters fall to their knees by another proper siege under the leadership of cavalry general Donat Johann von Heitersheim.

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