Mekcsey István (?-1553)
Our hero became famous during the siege of Eger Castle in 1552. In the last hours of the siege “his helmet was covered with red blood”. He was killed in a brawl after the siege by a peasant.
Let me tell you more about Mekcsey István, who became famous during the siege of Eger Castle in 1552. The Mekcsei (Mekcsey) family appears in our history in Baranya County in the 14th century. Their first known ancestor was Mekcsei Imre, who according to the sources was called ” Mekcsei Imre of Baranya”, his sons were Miklós and Péter, who were mentioned in documents between 1379-1428.
Mekcsey István is probably descended from the above-mentioned ancestors, we do not know the names of his parents. Captain Mekcsey István from Eger was born between 1495 and 1500 in Baranya County in a noble family in the village of Gerde, we know of a brother László and a sister named Sára. Mekcsey László was mentioned in a document of 1561 as a deputy notary, a follower of Prince János Zsigmond of Transylvania. Mekcsey László died in 1562.
The first evidence of the military service of Mekcsey István dates back to 1546 when he commanded 98 hussars as one of the Hungarian officers of Győr Castle. A year later, he was the castellan of Huszt Castle, the prefect of the important and lucrative salt mines of Máramaros and he was also the Comes of Máramaros County. He came to Eger on December 24, 1550, and on January 1, 1551, he was appointed second captain to Dobó István in the castle of Eger. Note that it was common in Hungary to appoint two captains at the same time: one of them always stayed in the castle, while the other went on military missions with the Hussar cavalry.
On January 24, 1551, he married Szunyogh Eszter in the castle. On July 9, 1552, Dobó István, as the delegate of the captain of Eger Castle, asked the nobility of several counties to help defend the castle against the Turks at the partial assembly in Szikszó. One of the most prominent participants of the defense of Eger Castle in 1552 was Mekcsey István, whose name, together with those of Dobó István, Bornemissza Gergely, Zolthay István and other officers who fought in Eger, is widely known to the educated public in Hungary.
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