Battle of Vienna

This article is about the 1683 battle. For the earlier Ottoman siege of 1529, see Siege of Vienna. For the 1485 Hungarian siege, see Siege of Vienna (1485). For the 1945 battle, see Vienna Offensive.

Battle of Vienna
Part of the Great Turkish War, the Ottoman–Habsburg wars, and the Polish–Ottoman War
Battle of Vienna on 12 September 1683
Date 14 July–12 September 1683 Location Vienna, Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, today Austria Result Decisive Holy League victory Territorial changes Ottomans fail to take Vienna, Holy League forces invade Ottoman possessions in Hungary and the Balkans
Belligerents
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Holy Roman Empire Bavaria Saxony Franconia Habsburg Hungary Swabia	Ottoman Empire Vassals: Crimean Khanate Not engaged: Moldavia Wallachia Transylvania
Commanders and leaders
Jan Sobieski Stanisław Jan Jabłonowski Mikołaj Hieronim Sieniawski Marcin Kazimierz Kątski (relief force) Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg (garrison) Charles of Lorraine John George III of Saxony Georg Friedrich of Waldeck	Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha Kara Mehmed of Diyarbakir Ibrahim of Buda Abaza Sari Hussein Pasha of Karahisar Murad Giray
Strength
Viennese garrison 15,000 soldiers+ 8,700 volunteers 370 cannons Relief force 50,000 Germans 37,000 Poles 160 cannons A total of around 110,700	90,000–300,000 130 field guns + 19 medium-caliber cannons
Casualties and losses
4,500 Garrison during siege: ~12,000 The inhabitants of 44% of the houses in Vienna and Lower Austria. 30,000 Christians executed in captivity by Ottomans	20,000 dead during siege, 40,000 dead in battle 5,000 captured

The Battle of Vienna (German: Schlacht am Kahlen Berge or Kahlenberg, Polish: Bitwa pod Wiedniem or Odsiecz Wiedeńska, Turkish: İkinci Viyana Kuşatması) is a battle that took place on 11 and 12 September 1683 after the imperial city of Vienna had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months. It was a battle of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in league with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Holy League) versus the Muslim Ottoman Empire and chiefdoms of the Ottoman Empire, and took place at Kahlenberg Mountain near Vienna. The battle marked the beginning of the political hegemony of the Habsburg dynasty in the Holy Roman Empire and Central Europe.

The battle was won by the combined forces of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the latter being represented only by the forces of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (the march of the Lithuanian army was delayed; as a result they arrived in Vienna after it was relieved). The Viennese garrison was led by Ernst Rüdiger Graf von Starhemberg, an Austrian subject of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor. The overall command was held by the commander of the Polish forces, the King of Poland, Jan III Sobieski.

The alliance fought the army of the Ottoman Empire and those of Ottoman fiefdoms commanded by Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha. The siege itself began on 14 July 1683, by the Ottoman army of approximately 90,000–300,000 men. The besieging force was composed of 60 ortas of Janissaries (12,000 men paper-strength) with an observation army of c.70,000 men watching the countryside. The decisive battle took place on 12 September, after the united relief army of approximately 84,000 men had arrived.

It has been suggested by some historians that the battle marked the turning-point in the Ottoman–Habsburg wars, the 300-year struggle between the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Indeed, over the sixteen years following the battle, the Habsburgs of Austria gradually occupied and dominated southern Hungary and Transylvania, which had been largely cleared of the Ottoman forces. However, post-Orientalist historiographies shed light on the fact that the Ottoman Empire did remain strong and imposing in the Balkan - despite some administrative, economic and military turmoils - up until the late 18th century. Much of the Holy Leagues' gains would be recaptured by the Ottomans, such as the Morea and Azov, while the Balkan territories would fall back in parts to the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Passarowitz

Prelude

The capture of the city of Vienna had long been a strategic aspiration of the Ottoman Empire, due to its interlocking control over Danubian (Black Sea to Western Europe) southern Europe, and the overland (Eastern Mediterranean to Germany) trade routes. During the years preceding the latter siege (the former had taken place in 1529), under the auspices of grand viziers from the influential Köprülü family, the Ottoman Empire undertook extensive logistical preparations, including the repair and establishment of roads and bridges leading into the Holy Roman Empire and its logistical centres, as well as the forwarding of ammunition, cannon and other resources from all over the Ottoman Empire to these centres and into the Balkans. Since 1679, the plague had been raging in Vienna.

The Ottoman siege of Vienna

On the political front, the Ottoman Empire had been providing military assistance to the Hungarians and to non-Catholic minorities in Habsburg-occupied portions of Hungary. There, in the years preceding the siege, widespread unrest had become open rebellion against Leopold I's pursuit of Counter-Reformation principles and his desire to crush Protestantism. In 1681, Protestants and other anti-Habsburg Kuruc forces, led by Imre Thököly, were reinforced with a significant force from the Ottomans, who recognized Thököly as King of "Upper Hungary" (the eastern part of today's Slovakia and parts of today's north-eastern Hungary, which he had earlier taken by force of arms from the Habsburgs). This support included explicitly promising the "Kingdom of Vienna" to the Hungarians if it fell into Ottoman hands. Yet before the siege, a state of peace had existed for twenty years between the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire as a result of the Peace of Vasvár.

In 1681 and 1682, clashes between the forces of Imre Thököly and the Holy Roman Empire (of which the border was then northern Hungary) intensified, and the incursions of Habsburg forces into Central Hungary provided the crucial argument of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha in convincing the Sultan, Mehmet IV and his Divan, to allow the movement of the Ottoman army. Mehmet IV authorized Kara Mustafa Pasha to operate as far as Győr (the name during the Ottoman period was Yanıkkale, in German Raab) and Komárom (in Turkish Komaron, in German Komorn) Castles, both in northwestern Hungary, and to besiege them. The Ottoman Army was mobilized on 21 January 1682, and war was declared on 6 August 1682.

The logistics of the time meant that it would have been risky or impossible to launch an invasion in August or September 1682 (a three-month campaign would have gotten the Ottomans to Vienna just as winter set in). However this 15-month gap between mobilization and the launch of a full-scale invasion allowed ample time for Vienna to prepare its defence and for Leopold to assemble troops from the Holy Roman Empire and set up an alliance with Poland, Venice and Pope Innocent XI. Undoubtedly this contributed to the failure of the Ottoman campaign. The decisive alliance of the Holy Roman Empire with Poland was concluded in the 1683 Treaty of Warsaw, in which Leopold promised support to Sobieski if the Ottomans attacked Kraków; in return, the Polish Army would come to the relief of Vienna if it were attacked.

On 31 March 1683, another declaration, sent by Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha on behalf of Mehmet IV, arrived at the Imperial Court in Vienna. On the next day, the forward march of Ottoman army elements began from Edirne in Thrace. The Turkish troops reached Belgrade by early 31 March ^{This date clearly needs adjusting - zero days to reach Belgrade?}, were joined by a Transylvanian army under Prince Mihaly Apafi and a Hungarian force under Imre Thököly, laid siege to Győr, and the remaining army of 150,000 moved toward the city of Vienna. About 40,000 Crimean Tatar troops arrived 40 km east of Vienna on 7 July, twice as many as the Imperial troops in the area. Emperor Leopold fled Vienna for Passau with his court and 60,000 Viennese, while Charles V, Duke of Lorraine withdrew his force of 20,000 towards Linz. The main Turkish army arrived at Vienna on 14 July, now only defended by Count Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg's 15,000 men.

The King of Poland Jan III Sobieski prepared a relief expedition to Vienna during the summer of 1683, so honouring his obligations to the treaty. He left his own nation virtually undefended when departing from Kraków on 15 August. Sobieski covered this with a stern warning to Imre Thököly, the leader of Hungary, whom he threatened with destruction if he tried to take advantage of the situation — which Thököly in fact attempted. Jan Kazimierz Sapieha the Younger delayed the march of the Lithuanian army, devastating the Hungarian Highlands (now Slovakia) instead, and arrived in Vienna only after it had been relieved.

Immediately, tensions rose between Poland and the various German states, above all Austria, over the relief of the city. Payment of troops' wages and supplies while marching was predominant among these. Sobieski demanded that he should not have to pay for his march to Vienna, since it was by his efforts that the city had been saved; nor could the Viennese neglect the other German troops who had marched. The Habsburg leadership hurriedly found as much money as possible to pay for these and arranged deals with the Polish to limit their costs.

Troops	Infantry	Cavalry and Dragoons	Cannons	Total
Holy Roman Empire forces total relief:	29,600	17,800	124	47,250
Imperial troops	8,100	10,350	70	18,400
Electorate of Bavaria	7,500	3,000	26	10,500
Swabia & Franconia	7,000	2,500	12	9,500
Electorate of Saxony	7,000	2,000	16	9,000
Crown of the Kingdom of Poland	16,450	20,550	28	37,000
Habsburgs and their confederates estimated total:	46,050	38,350	152	84,400

Events during the siege

The Ottoman Army erroneously surrounds Vienna.

The main Ottoman army finally laid siege to Vienna on 14 July. On the same day, Kara Mustafa sent the traditional demand for surrender to the city.

Ernst Rüdiger Graf von Starhemberg, leader of the remaining 15,000 troops and 8,700 volunteers with 370 cannons, refused to capitulate. Only days before, he had received news of the mass slaughter at Perchtoldsdorf, a town south of Vienna where the citizens had handed over the keys of the city after having been given a similar choice. Siege operations started on 17 July.

The Viennese had demolished many of the houses around the city walls and cleared the debris, leaving an empty plain that would expose the Ottomans to defensive fire if they tried to rush the city. Kara Mustafa Pasha solved that problem by ordering his forces to dig long lines of trenches directly toward the city, to help protect them from the defenders as they advanced steadily toward the city.

Sipahis of the Ottoman Empire at Vienna.

The Ottomans had 130 field guns and 19 medium-calibre cannons, insufficient in the face of the defenders' 370 cannons. The fortifications of Vienna were very strong and up-to-date, and the Ottomans had to find a more effective use for their gunpowder: Mining. Tunnels were dug under the massive city walls to blow them up with substantial quantities of black powder.

The inaction by the Ottomans at this point, combined with the delay in advancing their army after declaring war, eventually allowed a Polish relief force to arrive in Sept. Historians have speculated that Kara Mustafa wanted to take the city intact with its riches, and that he declined an all-out attack, not wishing to activate the right of plunder which would accompany an assault.

The Ottoman siege cut virtually every means of food supply into Vienna. Fatigue became so common that Graf Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg ordered any soldier found asleep on watch to be shot. Increasingly desperate, the forces holding Vienna were on their last legs when, in August, Imperial forces under Charles V, Duke of Lorraine defeated Imre Thököly of Hungary at Bisamberg, 5 km north-west of Vienna.

On 6 September, the Poles under Jan III Sobieski crossed the Danube 30 km north-west of Vienna at Tulln, to unite with the Imperial troops and the additional forces from Saxony, Bavaria, Baden, Franconia and Swabia. Louis XIV of France declined to help his Habsburg rival, having just annexed Alsace.

An alliance between John III Sobieski and the Emperor Leopold I resulted in the addition of the Polish hussars to the already existing allied army. The command of the forces of European allies was entrusted to the Polish king, who had under his command 70,000 soldiers facing a Turkish army of 150,000. John III Sobieski's courage and remarkable aptitude for command were already known in Europe.

During early September, the experienced 5,000 Ottoman sappers had repeatedly blown up large portions of the walls between the Burg bastion, the Löbel bastion and the Burg ravelin, creating gaps of about 12m in width. The Viennese tried to counter this by digging their own tunnels to intercept the depositing of large amounts of gunpowder in subterranean caverns. The Ottomans finally managed to occupy the Burg ravelin and the low wall in that area on 8 September. Anticipating a breach in the city walls, the remaining Viennese prepared to fight in the inner city.

Staging the battle

Sobieski at Vienna by Juliusz Kossak.

The relief of Vienna on 12 September 1683

The relief army had to act quickly to save the city and so prevent another long siege. Despite the binational composition of the army and the short space of only six days, an effective leadership structure was established, centred on the King of Poland and his heavy cavalry (Polish Hussars). The Holy League settled the issues of payment by using all available funds from the government, loans from several wealthy bankers and noblemen and large sums of money from the Pope. Also, the Habsburgs and Poles agreed that the Polish government would pay for its own troops while still in Poland, but that they would be paid by the Emperor once they had crossed into imperial territory. However, the Emperor had to recognise Sobieski’s claim to first rights of plunder in the event of a victory.

Kara Mustafa Pasha was less effective at ensuring his forces' motivation and loyalty, and preparing for the expected relief-army attack. He had entrusted defence of the rear to the Khan of Crimea and his cavalry force, which numbered about 30–40,000. There is doubt as to how far the Tatars participated in the final battle before Vienna. Their Khan refused to attack the Polish relief force as it crossed the Danube on pontoon bridges and refused to attack as they emerged from the Wienerwald.

Polish hussars armour, dating to the first half of the 17th century, Polish Army Museum, Warsaw.

The Ottomans could not rely on their Wallachian and Moldavian allies. George Ducas, Prince of Moldavia, was captured, while Șerban Cantacuzino's forces joined the retreat after Sobieski's cavalry charge.

The confederated troops signalled their arrival on the Kahlenberg above Vienna with bonfires. In the early morning of 12 September, before the battle, a Mass was celebrated for the King of Poland and his nobles.

Battle

King John III Sobieski blessing Polish attack on Turks in Battle of Vienna - Juliusz Kossak painting

Battle of Vienna, painting by Pauwel Casteels.

Polish soldiers 1674-1696

The battle started before all units were fully deployed. At 4 AM, the Ottomans attacked, seeking to interfere with the deployment of the Holy League troops. Charles of Lorraine moved forward with the Imperial army on the left, with the other Holy Roman Imperial forces in the centre.

Mustafa Pasha launched a counter-attack with most of his force, but held back some of the elite Janissary and Sipahi units for a simultaneous assault on the city. The Ottoman commanders had intended to take Vienna before Sobieski arrived, but time ran out. Their sappers had prepared a large, final detonation under the Löbelbastei to breach the walls. In total, ten mines were set to explode but they were located and disarmed.

At that moment, a large battle was underway above the "subterranean battlefield" as the Polish infantry launched a massive assault on the Ottoman right flank. Instead of focusing on the battle with the relief army, the Ottomans continued their efforts to force their way into the city.

At one point during the battle, Kara Mustafa personally ordered the execution of 30,000 Christian hostages.

After twelve hours of fighting, the Poles held the high ground on the right. On the flanks, it is recorded that the Polish cavalry slowly emerged from the forest to the cheers of the onlooking infantry, who had been anticipating their arrival. The Holy League cavalry waited on the hills and watched the infantry battle for the whole day. At about 5 PM, the Polish King ordered the cavalry attack in four groups, three Polish and one from the Holy Roman Empire. Eighteen thousand horsemen charged down the hills, the largest cavalry charge in history. Jan III Sobieski led the charge at the head of 3,000 Polish heavy lancers, the famed "Winged Hussars". The Lipka Tatars who fought on the Polish side wore a sprig of straw in their helmets to distinguish themselves from the Tatars fighting on the Ottoman side. The charge broke the lines of the Ottomans, who were exhausted from the long struggle on two fronts. The cavalry headed straight for the Ottoman camps and Kara Mustafa's headquarters, while the remaining Viennese garrison sallied out of its defences to join in the assault.

The Ottoman troops were tired and dispirited following the failure of both the attempt at sapping and the assault on the city. The arrival of the cavalry turned the tide of battle against them, sending them into retreat to the south and east by nightfall. Less than three hours after the cavalry attack, the Christian forces had won the battle and saved Vienna.

Afterwards Sobieski paraphrased Julius Caesar's famous quotation (Veni, vidi, vici) by saying "Veni, vidi, Deus vicit" – "I came, I saw, God conquered".

Return from Vienna by Józef Brandt, Polish army returning with loot of the Ottoman forces.

Aftermath

Chasuble sewn with Turkish tents captured by Polish Army in Vienna 1683

The Ottomans lost at least 20,000 men during the siege and up to 40,000 during the battle with Sobieski's forces (Ottoman accounts quote a lower figure due to their not counting the fallen of Ottoman vassal/allied states and other Muslim volunteers).

The loot that fell into the hands of the Holy League troops and the Viennese was as huge as their relief, as King John Sobieski vividly described in a letter to his wife a few days after the battle:

Ours are treasures unheard of... tents, sheep, cattle and no small number of camels... it is victory as nobody ever knew before, the enemy now completely ruined, everything lost for them. They must run for their sheer lives... General Starhemberg hugged and kissed me and called me his saviour.

Starhemberg immediately ordered the repair of Vienna's severely damaged fortifications to guard against a possible Ottoman counter-strike. However, this proved unnecessary.

Soon, the Ottomans disposed of their defeated commander. On 25 December 1683, Kara Mustafa Pasha was executed in Belgrade in the approved manner, by strangulation with a silk rope pulled by several men on each end, by order of the commander of the Janissaries.

Despite the victory of the Christian allies, there was still tension between the various commanders and their armies. For example, Sobieski demanded that the Polish troops be allowed to have first choice of the spoils of the Turkish camp. The German and Austrian troops were left with smaller portions of the loot. Also, the Protestant Saxons, who had arrived to relieve the city, were apparently subjected to verbal abuse by the Catholic populace of the Viennese countryside. The Saxons left the battle immediately, without partaking in the sharing of spoils and refusing to continue pursuit.

Sobieski went on to liberate Grau and northwestern Hungary after the Battle of Parkany, but dysentery halted his pursuit of the Turks. Charles V took Belgrade and most of Serbia in 1686, and established Habsburg control over southern Hungary and most of Transylvania in 1687.

Significance

"Sobieski Sending Message of Victory to the Pope" by Jan Matejko

"Sobieski meeting Leopold I" by Artur Grottger

The victory at Vienna set the stage for Prince Eugene of Savoy's reconquering of Hungary and (temporarily) some of the Balkan lands in the following years. The Ottomans fought on for another 16 years, losing control of Hungary and Transylvania in the process before finally desisting. The Holy Roman Empire signed the Treaty of Karlowitz with the Ottoman Empire in 1699.

The battle marked the historic end of the expansion of the Ottoman Empire into Europe.

The behavior of Louis XIV of France furthered French–German enmity - in the following month, the War of the Reunions broke out in the western part of the weakened Holy Roman Empire.

Plaque at the Polish Congregatio Resurrectionis church on Kahlenberg

Plaque memorializing the 300th anniversary of successful defense against the Ottomans at the gates of Vienna

Cultural legacy

Astronomical legacy

After the battle of Vienna, the newly identified constellation Scutum (Latin for shield) was originally named Scutum Sobiescianum by the astronomer Johannes Hevelius, in honor of Jan III Sobieski. While there are some stars named after non-astronomers, this is the only constellation that was originally named after a real non-astronomer who was still alive when the constellation was named, and the name of which is still in use (three other constellations, satisfying the same requirements, never gained enough popularity to last).

Religious significance

Because Sobieski had entrusted his kingdom to the protection of the Blessed Virgin (Our Lady of Czestochowa) before the battle, Pope Innocent XI commemorated his victory by extending the feast of the Holy Name of Mary, which until then had been celebrated solely in Spain and the Kingdom of Naples, to the entire Church; it used to be celebrated on the Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity of Mary and was, when Pope St. Pius X intended to make room for the celebration of the actual Sundays, transferred to 12 September, the day of the battle.

The Pope also upgraded the papal coat of arms by adding the Polish crowned White Eagle. After victory in the Battle of Vienna, the Polish king was also granted by the Pope the title of "Defender of the Faith" ("Defensor Fidei").

In honour of Sobieski, the Austrians erected a church atop the Kahlenberg hill north of Vienna.

Musical legacy

When the Ottomans were pushed away from Vienna, their military bands left their instruments on the field of battle and that is how the Holy Roman Empire (and thus the other Western countries) acquired cymbals and the timpani.

The Austrian composer Johann Joseph Fux memorialized the battle in his Partita Turcaria, which bore the sub-title, "Musical portrait of the siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1683".

It is said that the victors found in the Ottomans' abandoned luggage the 'Tárogató' a double-reed woodwind instrument that was to become the Hungarian national symbol for freedom after Racockzy's defeat against the Ottomans in 1711.

Culinary legends

Several culinary legends are related to the Battle of Vienna.

One legend is that the croissant was invented in Vienna, either in 1683 or during the earlier siege in 1529, to celebrate the defeat of the Ottoman attack on the city, with the shape referring to the crescents on the Ottoman flags. This version of the origin of the croissant is supported by the fact that croissants in French are a variant of Viennoiserie, and by the French popular belief that Vienna-born Marie Antoinette introduced the pastry to France in 1770.

Another legend from Vienna has the first bagel as being a gift to King Jan Sobieski to commemorate the King's victory over the Ottomans. It was fashioned in the form of a stirrup, to commemorate the victorious charge by the Polish cavalry. The veracity of this legend is uncertain, as there is a reference in 1610 to a bread with a similar-sounding name, which may or may not have been the bagel.

After the battle, the Viennese discovered many bags of coffee in the abandoned Ottoman encampment. Using this captured stock, Franciszek Jerzy Kulczycki opened the third coffeehouse in Europe and the first in Vienna. There is no contemporary historical source connecting Marco d'Aviano, the Capuchin friar and confidant of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, with the invention of cappuccino.

Miscellaneous legacy

The train route from Vienna to Warsaw is also named in Sobieski's honour.

See also

• Ottoman wars in Europe
• Great Turkish war
• History of Vienna

Additional Reading

• Stéphane Gaber, Et Charles V arrêta la marche des Turcs, Presses universitaires de Nancy, 1986, ISBN 2-86480-227-9.
• Bruce, George (1981). Harbottle's Dictionary of Battles. Van Nostrand Reinhold. 
• Cezary Harasimowicz "VICTORIA" Warsaw 2007, novel ISBN 978-83-925589-0-3
• Alan Palmer, The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire, Published by Barnes & Noble Publishing, 1992. ISBN 1-56619-847-X.

External links

• Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Army in 17th century from kismeta.com
• The Battle of Vienna at the Wilanów Museum Palace
• (German) German TV: Türken vor Wien
• (German) Arte TV: Türken vor Wien