Andreas von Auersperg

After his parents' early demise, the governor of Carniola, Baron Weikhard von Auersperg (1533–1581), became the guardian of the one-year-old boy.

In 1583 he rose to the rank of colonel and was appointed commander-in-chief (Feldobrist) of the Croatian and Dalmatian frontier lands in Karlstadt in 1589.

On 22 June 1593, the day of Saint Acacius,[3] the leader of the Ten thousand martyrs, a battle occurred near the fortress of Sisak in present-day Croatia, where the Sava and Kupa rivers meet.

Sources report[4] that the Ottoman army attacking the fortress was 38,000 strong, commanded by the Bosnian beylerbey (governor-general), Hasan Pasha (born Niko Predojević).

Thus, Auersperg won the Battle of Sisak and saved central Europe from imminent Ottoman invasion, whereupon Pope Clement VIII sent the Protestant—who was nicknamed the "Carniolan Achilles" or even the "Christian Achill(es)" and called "the Terror of the Turks"—a handwritten letter of congratulation.