[1] Due to internal unrest in Constantinople and Asia Minor, the Ottoman leadership did not plan another campaign in Hungary in 1603, instead focusing on waging war in Persia.

Sultan Mehmed offered Emperor Rudolf a favorable peace deal by sending Count Giovanni Mario Isolano, the Székesfehérvár captain who had been taken prisoner in 1602.

In exchange for the acknowledgement of Turkish ownership of Eger and Kanizsa, the sultan asked for the recognition of Pest, Esztergom, and Transylvania as belonging to the Hungarian monarch.

In order to arrange the march of the whole force to Buda Castle, Russwurm left Vienna for Esztergom on August 2, during the negotiations in Komárom.

[1] The Christians in the northern corner of the Danube's Csepel Island had established formidable defenses by the time the Ottomans arrived at Hamzabég (Érd city).

His camp lay close to Érd, and the Christians could not prevent his movement, sending a great deal of gunpowder, food, and troops to Buda Castle.

Around midday, a group of 1,500 Ottomans with curved swords and slings came into contact with the Hussars of Nádasdy and the cavalrymen of Siegfried von Kollonitsch.

The Turks, which had been steadily defending their position, were eventually overwhelmed by the Hussars thanks to the cavalry of Heinrich Matthias von Thurn and Kollonitsch, who soon arrived to support the Hungarians.

[1][2] Given the advanced fall weather, Russworm was now instructed by Emperor Rudolf to confine his efforts to the defense of Csepel Island and torment the Turks with minor skirmishes.

Russworm deployed musketeers and even set up forty cannons to protect the people inside the ramparts, but he was unable to call in the firemen because they were drunk in the camp.

Colonels Nádasdy and Kollonich, the commanders of the Hungarians, asked Russwurm for 50 Imperial Landsknechts as reinforcements, but the field marshal replied that he did not want to risk the lives of German infantrymen.

[2] Russwurm wanted to demonstrate his success after the defeat at Buda, so he turned his attention to the nearby weak castle of Hatvan.