Battle of Vienna

Capturing the city of Vienna had long been a strategic aspiration of the Ottoman Empire, due to the control the city had over the Danube and the overland trade routes to Germany and the Eastern Mediterranean. During the years preceding the siege, the Ottoman Empire, under the auspices of the Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha, undertook extensive logistical preparations, including the repair and establishment of roads and bridges leading into the Holy Roman Empire and its logistical centers, as well as the forwarding of ammunition, cannon, and other resources from all over the Empire to these centers and into the Balkans. The Siege of Szigetvár in 1566 blocked the advance of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent towards Vienna and stopped the Ottoman advance towards Vienna that year. Vienna was not threatened again until 1683. In 1679 plague had been raging in Vienna. rebels and Habsburg loyalists On the political front, the Ottoman Empire had been providing military assistance to the Hungarians and non-Catholic minorities in Habsburg-occupied portions of Hungary. There, in the years preceding the siege, widespread unrest had grown into open rebellion against Leopold I's pursuit of Counter-Reformation principles and his desire to suppress Protestantism. In 1681, Protestants and other anti-Habsburg Kuruc forces, led by Imre Thököly, were reinforced with a significant military contingent from the Ottomans, On 31 March, another declarationsent by Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha on behalf of Mehmed IVarrived at the Imperial Court in Vienna. The next day the forward march of Ottoman army elements began from Edirne in Rumelia. Ottoman troops reached Belgrade by early May. They were joined by a Transylvanian army under Prince Mihaly Apafi and a Hungarian force under Imre Thököly; they laid siege to Győr and the remaining army of 150,000 moved toward the city of Vienna. The King of Poland, John III Sobieski, prepared a relief expedition to Vienna during the summer of 1683, honoring his obligations to the treaty, and would depart from Kraków on 15 August. During this time most of Poland would be largely undefended, and taking advantage of the situation, Imre Thököly would attempt an invasion. Kazimierz Jan Sapieha delayed the march of the Lithuanian army, campaigning in the Hungarian Highlands instead, and arrived in Vienna only after it had been relieved. Immediately, tensions rose between Poland and the various German states – especially Austria – over the relief of the city. Payment of troops' wages and supplies while marching would be the predominant issue. Sobieski insisted 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 found as much money as possible to pay for these and arranged deals with the Polish to limit their costs. == Events during the siege ==

The main Ottoman army laid siege to Vienna on 14 July. On the same day, Kara Mustafa sent the traditional demand that the city surrender to the Ottoman Empire. 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 but were killed anyway. Siege operations started on 17 July. Mining tunnels were dug under the city walls, which would then be filled with sufficient quantities of black powder to demolish the walls. This, combined with the delay in advancing their army after declaring war, eventually allowed a relief force to arrive in September. The Ottoman siege cut virtually all means of food supply into Vienna. Fatigue became so common that Starhemberg ordered any soldier found asleep on watch to be shot. Increasingly desperate, the forces holding Vienna were on the verge of defeat when, in August, Imperial forces under Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, defeated Thököly at Bisamberg, northwest of Vienna. On 6 September, the Poles under Sobieski crossed the Danube northwest of Vienna at Tulln, to unite with imperial troops and the additional forces from Saxony, Bavaria, Baden and other imperial estates. Louis XIV of France declined to help his Habsburg rival, having just annexed Alsace. An alliance between Sobieski and Emperor Leopold I resulted in the addition of the Polish hussars to the existing allied army. The command of the European allied forces was assigned to the Polish king, renowned for his extensive experience in leading campaigns against the Ottoman army. Notably, he achieved a decisive victory over the Ottoman forces in the Battle of Khotyn (1673) and now commanded an army of 70,000–80,000 soldiers, countering a supposed Ottoman force of 150,000. Sobieski's courage and aptitude for command were already known in Europe. During early September, approximately 5,000 experienced Ottoman sappers had repeatedly demolished large portions of the walls between the Burg bastion, the Löbel bastion and the Burg ravelin, creating gaps of about in width. In response to this, the Viennese began digging their own tunnels to intercept the placing of large amounts of gunpowder in the caverns. The Ottomans finally managed to occupy the Burg ravelin and the low wall nearby on 8 September. Anticipating a breach in the city walls, the remaining Viennese prepared to fight in the inner city. == Ottoman siege casualties (July 17–September 12, 1683) ==

In this table, only household and retinue troops’ numbers are certain, 78,500 and 44,200 while other troops’ numbers are rounded, 50,000 Tatars, 10,000 Wallachian, 170,000 rear service etc. Based on this, Kahraman Şakul claims that this anonymous table shows counted numbers of household and retinue troops while number of provincial troops (Tımarlı Sipahi: 40,000) and vassal states’ troops (100,000) are expected numbers. For instance, Tatars, Nogais and Circassians number was more than 100,000 while this table shows that the Tatars (general term for Crimean Khanate and its vassals) brought 50,000 warriors. Ottoman accounts state the size of the household army as 25,529 Janissaries, 3045 weaponeers (in Ottoman Turkish: cebeci) and 4000 gunners, totaling 32,574 as opposed to 60,000 estimation in this table. Therefore, according to K. Şakul's assessment, the Ottoman army consisted of approximately 120,000 soldiers and 156 guns. Within their ranks, 30,000 troops were strategically stationed in captured castles and deployed to disrupt the approaching relief army's movements. s during the Battle of Vienna According to Austrian Ambassador Kunitz, the besieging Ottoman army had already decreased to 90,000 combatants as of 12 August. Kunitz also claimed that he learned from Ottoman captives that casualties were reaching 20,000 by end of August (other Austrian sources give Ottoman casualties as 12,000 until 13 August, demonstrating a steady increase in casualties of the Ottoman army in the days of siege). An Ottoman account captured after battle recorded the number of casualties as 48,544 until 10 September: 10,000 janissary, 12,000 sipahi (elite heavy cavalry), 16,000 beldar (digger), 6,000 engineer (in Turkish lağımcı: miner), 2,000 provincial sipahi and 2,000 Tatars, totaling 48,544 deaths. Compounding this, desertion (Ottoman sources and Luigi Marsigli give a 1/4 desertion of the Ottoman army) and disease diminished the Ottoman army on a large scale. According to Ottoman sources, the number of soldiers decreased from 120,000 (according to Kunitz, the Ottoman army totalled 180,000 men and 1/3 of the army was stationed away from the siege == Staging the battle ==

In an effort to stop the siege, the relief army of Poles and Imperial forces would rush to prepare a response. Despite the multinational composition of the army and the short space of only six days, an effective leadership structure was established, centred around the king of Poland and his heavy cavalry (Polish Hussars). The Holy League settled the issue 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. The combined besieging forces, led by Kara Mustafa, were less united and facing problems with motivation and loyalty, and struggled to prepare for the expected relief-army attack. Mustafa had entrusted defense of the rear to the Khan of Crimea and his cavalry force, which numbered between 30,000 and 40,000. There is doubt as to how much the Tatars participated in the final battle before Vienna. Their Khan refused to attack the relief force as it crossed the Danube on pontoon bridges and also refused to attack them as they emerged from the Vienna Woods. The Ottoman allies of Wallachia and Moldavia would also prove unreliable. George Ducas, Prince of Moldavia, was captured. joined the retreat after Sobieski's cavalry charge. Cantacuzino had negotiated with the Imperial forces for Wallachia to join the Christian side, longing for the position of protector of Christians in the Balkan Peninsula. In turn, the Habsburgs promised him the throne of Constantinople which was the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The confederated troops signalled their arrival on the Kahlenberg above Vienna with bonfires. The forces in the city of Vienna responded by sending Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki, a Polish nobleman, diplomat and trader fluent in Turkish, on a successful spy mission to penetrate the Turkish forces and notify the relief troops of when the joint attack was to be made. == Battle ==

The battle started before all units were fully deployed. At 4:00 am on 12 September, the Ottoman army attacked, seeking to interfere with the deployment of Holy League troops. At the same time, Cantacuzino and his soldiers (who secretly supported the Christian coalition) were trying to sabotage the Ottoman siege, by abandoning the bridge over the Danube on Brigittenau Island, where the Wallachians had been stationed in order to cover the left flank of the Ottoman Army. Mustafa Pasha launched counterattacks with most of his forces, but held back some of the elite Janissary and Sipahi units for a simultaneous assault on the city. The Ottoman leadership had planned, but ultimately failed, to capture Vienna prior to the arrival of Sobieski's forces. 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 by the defenders and disarmed. blessing the Polish attack on the Ottomans in the Battle of Vienna; painting by Juliusz Kossak In the early afternoon, a large engagement started on the other side of the battlefield as the Polish infantry advanced on the Ottoman right flank. Despite the arrival of the relief army, several parts of the Ottoman forces persisted in their attempts to breach the city's defenses, allowing Polish troops to advance on the field. By 4:00 pm the Poles had captured the village of Gersthof, which would serve as a base for their cavalry charge. The Ottoman army was in a desperate position between Polish and Imperial forces. Charles of Lorraine and John III Sobieski both decided independently to press the offensive and decisively defeat the Ottoman forces. The German forces resumed the offensive on the left front at 3:30 pm. At first, they encountered fierce resistance and were unable to make progress. However, by 5:00 pm they had begun to advance and taken the villages of Unterdöbling and Oberdöbling. Imperial forces were now closing in on the central Ottoman position (the "Türkenschanze", now the Türkenschanzpark), Sobieski led the charge The charge quickly broke the battle lines of the Ottomans, who were already exhausted and demoralized and would begin to retreat from the battlefield. The cavalry headed directly towards the Ottoman camps and Kara Mustafa's headquarters, while the remaining Viennese garrison sallied out of its defenses to join in the assault. The Ottoman forces were tired and dispirited following the failure of the sapping attempt, the assault on the city and the advance of the Holy League infantry on the Türkenschanze. Less than three hours after the decisive cavalry charge, the Holy League forces had won the battle and successfully defended Vienna. The first Catholic officer who entered the city was Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden, at the head of his dragoons. Afterwards Sobieski paraphrased Julius Caesar's famous quotation (Veni, vidi, vici) by saying "Venimus, vidimus, Deus vicit"- "We came, we saw, God conquered". ==Atrocities==

During the Siege of Vienna, the Ottoman troops pillaged the surrounding countryside and took many surviving civilians into slavery in the Ottoman Empire. In the village of Perchtoldsdorf outside of Vienna, the Ottomans massacred the men and enslaved the women and children. The villagers of Perchtoldsdorf had resisted the invasion and barricaded themselves in a church fortress. The Ottomans promised they would safeguard the villagers’ lives and property in exchange for their capitulation. Upon surrendering, however, the Ottomans gathered the men of the village in the market square, took their weapons, and massacred them; they captured the women and children and, as kafir war prisoners of dar al-harb, took them away as slaves. Normally, the Ottomans killed adult men and preferred to enslave women and children, but men were enslaved as well. In total, 57,220 people were kidnapped and taken away as slaves during the Ottoman pillage of the Austrian and Hungarian border zone in 1683; 6,000 men, 11,215 married women, 14,922 unmarried women under the age of 26 (of which 204 were noblewomen); and 26,093 children. == Aftermath ==

Contemporary Ottoman historian Silahdar Findiklili Mehmed Agha (1658–1723) described the battle as an enormous defeat and failure for the Ottoman Empire, the most disastrous since the foundation of Ottoman statehood in 1299. The Ottomans lost at least 20,000 men during the siege, or 8,000–15,000 dead and 5,000–10,000 captured (according to Tucker). File:Powrot z Wiednia.jpg|Return from Vienna by Józef Brandt, Polish army returning with Ottoman loot File:HGM Türkische Standarte 1683.jpg|Ottoman military flag captured in the siege of Vienna File:Chasuble sewn with Turkish tents captured by Polish Army in Vienna 1683.JPG|Chasuble sewn with Turkish tents captured by the Polish army in Vienna, 1683 Starhemberg immediately ordered the repair of Vienna's severely damaged fortifications to guard against a possible Ottoman counterstrike. However, Vienna would never again be besieged by the Ottoman Empire. Due to his defeat at the battle, on 25 December Kara Mustafa Pasha was executed in Belgrade in the approved mannerby strangulation with a silk rope pulled by several men on each endby order of the Janissary Agha." Further, Protestant Saxons, who had arrived to relieve the city, were reportedly 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 refused to continue the pursuit. Ultimately, the Safavids would not conduct a new campaign, for concerned state officials (notably the dominant eunuch faction within the royal court) were aware of the decline in Safavid military strength, and thus did not consider it prudent. The eunuchs, according to Professor Rudi Matthee "were not against the idea of having the Ottomans suffer some humiliation, but they did not want their power destroyed for fear that this would remove a buffer against Christian Europe". == Significance ==

The victory at Vienna set the stage for a conquest of Hungary and (temporarily) lands in the Balkans in the following years by Louis of Baden, Maximilian II Emanuel of Bavaria and Prince Eugene of Savoy. The Ottomans fought on for another 16 years, eventually losing control of Hungary and Transylvania. The Holy Roman Empire signed the Treaty of Karlowitz with the Ottoman Empire in 1699, which would cede much of Hungary to the Habsburgs. The battle marked the historic end of Ottoman expansion into Europe. The actions 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. Since Sobieski had entrusted his kingdom to the protection of the Blessed Virgin (Our Lady of Częstochowa) 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 (between 9 and 15 September) and was, when Pope Pius X intended to make room for the celebration of the actual Sundays, transferred to 12 September, the day of the victory. The Pope would change 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 honor of Sobieski, the Austrians erected a church atop the Kahlenberg hill north of Vienna. In 2024, the city of Vienna rejected a monument to King Jan Sobieski due to concerns about Islamophobia and anti-Turkish sentiment. File:Sobieskitablica.jpg|Plaque at the Polish Congregatio Resurrectionis church on Kahlenberg File:ПАМ,ЯТНИК УКРАІНСЬКИМ КОЗАКАМ ВИЗВОЛИТЕЛЯМ ВІДНЯ ВІДЕНЬ 2014.jpg|Monoument to the Zaporozhian Cossacks in Leopoldsberg, Vienna File:Battle of Vienna02.jpg|Plaque memorializing the 300th anniversary of the successful defense against the Ottomans at the gates of Vienna File:Moldauer Kreuz-Kapelle2.JPG|The Moldauer Kapelle housing a replica of Cantacuzino's cross File:Monument to Jan III Sobieski photo 3- author Czesław Dźwigaj.jpg|Monument to King Sobieski in Poland, by Czesław Dźwigaj September 11 attacks Some have proposed that Al-Qaeda chose September 11, 2001 as the date to carry out terrorist attacks throughout the United States due to the day's perceived significance as the turning point in the Battle of Vienna. According to Lawrence Wright, September 11, 1683 was seen by Al-Qaeda as the date when the Western world gained dominance over Islam; the 11th of September 318 years later would mark a rebirth of Islamic power. == In popular culture ==

• Siege of Vienna raised by John Sobieski, poem by William Wordsworth written in February 1816. • The Day of the Siege: September Eleven 1683, a 2012 English-language Polish and Italian historical film. • The song "Winged Hussars", from Sabaton's 2016 album The Last Stand is about the battle, specifically centred around the Polish cavalry charge on 12 September. == See also ==