Baron Balassa Menyhért of Balassagyarmat, in some sources Balassi Menyhárt, was born around 1511 in Vienna. He was the chief Comes of Hont and Bars counties and the chief captain of the Danube inland. He was a typical mid-16th-century lord who repeatedly switched sides between the Habsburg and the Szapolyai sides and tried to exploit the turbulent situation of the time for his enrichment.
He is descended from the Balassa family of Gyarmat. His father, Balassa Ferenc, the Bán (Duke) of Szörény and Jajca, Croatia, Dalmatia, Slavonia, and Comes of Nógrád County, died at the Battle of Mohács. His mother was Perényi Orsolya. Of his brothers, János was the chief captain of Upper Hungary and archbishop of Nógrád (father of Balassi Bálint), Imre was a voivode of Transylvania, and Zsigmond was the chief Comes of Borsod and builder of the castle of Bozók. His two sons are known by their names: Boldizsár and István.
In the turbulent period following the Battle of Mohács, Menyhért initially sided with Szapolyai János. Together with Nyáry Ferenc, Hont county was divided into two, and he became the chief Comes of one of the two parts. After the death of Szapolyai János in 1540, however, he supported Ferdinand Habsburg’s claim to the throne. For this support, he was given the title of chief Comes of Bars.
He entered the stage of national politics when he married Thurzó Anna, the widow of Lévai Cseh Gábor, who had been killed in the siege of Pest in October 1542, when the Turks had already occupied the city. At that time, the Lévai Cseh family owned the castles of Léva, Csábrág, and Szitnya, which were given to Menyhért as a dowry. More precisely, Balassa acquired them partly by force, since Lévai Cseh Gábor had a son named János who would have been entitled to the inheritance.
Source: Szőllösi Gábor www.varlexikon.hu
The title of chief Comes of Bars and the possession of the above-mentioned castles also meant serious military obligations in this period, since it was during these years that Esztergom and Vác were occupied by the Turks, so the region of Hont, Bars became a part of the country subject to Turkish raids. One night in the spring of 1544, the Turks from Esztergom secretly climbed over the clay-plastered palisade walls of the town of Léva and, cutting down the resistance, attacked the castle gates. Jumping out of bed, Balassa Menyhért took up the sword and took charge of the defence. The determined stand of the defenders finally forced the Turks to retreat.
The attackers robbed the houses of the town and set them on fire, retreating with the horses they had taken. Balassa and his soldiers mounted up and gave chase, but seeing the large number of Turks, they only caught the rearguard and turned back. Meanwhile, Hungarian troops from the surrounding outlying castles arrived to help at the news of the attack. Together with their supporters, they again pursued the Turks and struck them in the valley near Szalka. In a bloody melee, the Hungarians routed the Turkish Sipahis, who abandoned the Janissary troops. The latter, fanatically defending themselves, almost all fell, and according to a contemporary source, 500 Turks perished.
I created a dramatized version of this event; you can read it here: https://www.hungarianottomanwars.com/dramatized-historical-writings/lord-balassas-victory-at-szalka-1544/
In the possession of the three castles, Balassa Menyhért regularly plundered the cattle of the smaller landowners in the area, sometimes on the pretext that they were supporting the Szapolyai claim to the throne, sometimes simply by fishing in the turbid waters. In 1546, for example, his troops raided Korpona. According to Mikszáth Kálmán, although his name was feared by everyone on the banks of the Ipoly and Garam rivers, legends were told of his valour. In 1548, King Ferdinand and the Diet finally decided to retake the castles and capture the robber baron, thanks to the many petitions of the complainants and in defence of Lévai Cseh János’ claim to the succession.
In the spring of 1549, Nikolas Salm, the governor-general of the country, laid siege to the castles by royal order. Menyhért entrusted the defense of the castle of Léva to Captain Dacsó Tamás and the defense of the castle of Szitnya to Captain Makri Lőrinc. Only after a long defense did the castle captain surrender Léva to the royal troops. Szitnya was taken by Bernardo de Aldana with 300 Spanish mercenaries in a quick siege. Menyhért did not wait to be captured in Csábrág castle, but first unsuccessfully asked the Turkish Bey of Nógrád for help, then fled to his Transylvanian estates before the siege closed, whereas Salm took the castle by assault.
In November 1551, he fought in the Hungarian army led by Fráter György, besieging the Turkish-held castle of Lippa. However, his bad relations with the Habsburg party soon changed because, in the summer of 1552, he was appointed captain general of the Danube inland region.
In 1556, however, he changed his allegiance again and became one of the leaders of the supporters of King János Zsigmond. With the Transylvanian troops, Balassa Menyhért and Petrovich Péter forced the surrender of Dobó István’s troops loyal to King Ferdinand at Szamosújvár in November. In 1557, Menyhért and his troops took Büdy Castle without a fight, and in 1558, they besieged and destroyed the castle of Nagyszőlős.
As a result of his participation in the conspiracy against Queen Isabella, the mother of János Zsigmond, he was appointed captain of the Hungarian parts of Transylvania at the Diet of Gyulafehérvár on 29 September 1558. As a reward for his support for the Szapolyai party, he was granted the castles of Diód, Léta, Hadad, Tasnád, and Szatmár, where he established his headquarters. In 1560, he also acquired by pledge the villages of Nagy and Felsőbánya, where he had a fortified castle built on the southwestern side of the Roman Catholic cemetery.
By the end of 1561, Menyhért had finally returned to the allegiance of Ferdinand Habsburg. As a reward for his defection, King Ferdinand made him a baron and promised and exchanged the castle of Detrekő from the Fugger merchant family to him. As a result of Menyhért’s defection, the Transylvanian troops recaptured the castles of Diód and Léta by siege in a short time. After two weeks of resistance, the defenders of Diód surrendered the small fortress on 2 February 1562 in exchange for a free retreat, which was destroyed by King János Zsigmond.
The fortress of Léta was surrendered on 12 February, but it too was destroyed by the explosion of gunpowder stored inside. Transylvanian troops also besieged Hadad Castle, which was then defended by Sulyok György. However, on March 4, 1562, the relieving army of Balassa Menyhért and Zay Ferenc, captain of the Kassa army, arrived at Hadad and won a decisive victory over the Transylvanian army led by Báthory István and Némethy Ferenc (Battle of Hadad).
In 1563, Menyhért conquered and destroyed the castle of Szinér. However, developments in Transylvania slowly took an unfavourable turn for Balassa, as at the end of 1563, King János Zsigmond defeated the Moldovan voivode who had turned against him, and thus, having secured the hinterland, the Transylvanians launched an attack again in 1564. In the autumn of 1564, Menyhért and his soldiers from Szatmár raided the Transylvanian-held Tokaj, where he tried to seize the harvest.
The captain of the castle of Várad, Báthory István, raided Szatmár, captured the castle on 3 October, and took the Balassa family prisoner. Menyhért’s wife, one of his sons, and his daughter died in captivity, and István’s son was freed only in 1570. In October 1564, the 12,000-strong Transylvanian troops, with Turkish help, besieged Hadad Castle, which was then defended by Sennyei Mátyás, and despite his heroic defence, the castle fell. Báthory also took Nagybánya in the autumn of that year.
Maximilian, the new Habsburg king, appointed Lazarus Schwendi as the chief captain of Kassa, who launched an attack with the help of Balassa Menyhért in early 1565. Schwendi captured the castle of Tokaj on 11 February, Balassa took Szerencs on 15 February, and the pro-Maximilian troops continued their series of attacks and recaptured Szatmar, Nagybánya, and Szilágycseh, forcing King János Zsigmond to renew peace negotiations.
He died in Vienna on 9 February 1568. He was buried in Széleskút, near the castle of Detrekő, with his image carved on his red marble tombstone. An anonymous contemporary author wrote a play about his life and character in 1566-67, entitled Comedia on the Betrayal of Balassi Menyhart.
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