During the 1683 Battle of Vienna,
relief came out of the woods and down from the heights...
by Ludwig Heinrich Dyck
For nearly two long months, from
July 14 to early September 1683, Vienna endured the siege of a vast Turkish
army. The Turkish Serasker (Supreme Commander), Grand Vizier Kara “Black”
Mustafa, demanded surrender, but Count Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg, commander
of Vienna’s garrison, spat back, “Let him come; I’ll fight to the last drop of
blood.”
That last drop of blood had
almost been reached. Turkish mines and bombardment opened huge gaps in the city
walls. Sewage, rubble, and corpses littered the streets and disease ran
rampant. After fending off 18 major Turkish assaults, only a third of the originally
11,500-strong garrison remained fit for combat and their munitions were nearly
exhausted. Starhemberg knew that Vienna’s defenses were at their end. The
city’s only hope was the timely arrival of the anxiously awaited Christian
relief army. Without that army, the Turks would pour into the city and wantonly
enslave and butcher its inhabitants.
Mustafa’s Fierce Ambition
At least Starhemberg
could take heart in knowing that conditions were little better among the enemy.
Among the Turks disease was out of control owing to inadequate sanitary
facilities, casualties were horrendous, and morale was sagging. Worse still,
there were rumors of an immense Christian army approaching from the Vienna
Woods. Nonetheless, Mustafa’s confidence in victory remained undiminished.
Mustafa had another reason to
press on; he feared the Sultan’s punishment in the event of failure. By laying
siege to Vienna, Mustafa disobeyed Sultan Mehmed IV (1648-1687), who intended
that Mustafa do little more than capture Imperial frontier fortresses. But such
modest aims did not satisfy Mustafa.
Outwardly handsome, dignified,
and a devout Muslim, inwardly the Grand Vizier was an arrogant power monger
with an unveiled hatred of Christians. His one redeeming quality was his
personal bravery, but even this was tarnished by acts of extreme brutality; he
once flayed captured Poles alive and sent their stuffed hides to the Sultan as
trophies. Mustafa cared only for his own career and freely used deceit and
blackmail to make up for his lack of any real talent. Determined to follow in
the footsteps of the great Islamic conquerors of old, Mustafa had set out to
overcome the barrier that once before, in 1529, blocked the westward advance of
the Ottoman Turks: Vienna, capital of the Holy Roman Empire and of the Imperial
dynasty, the House of Hapsburg.
Leopold I Pleads for Help
In contrast to the offensive
spirit of Mustafa, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I (1658-1705) cowardly fled his
own capital for the safety of Passau. A bookworm and music composer, the pious
Leopold wasn’t much of a warrior. But he wasn’t going to abandon his capital to
the Turks either and feverishly petitioned the German and Polish nobility to
come to Vienna’s aid.
Leopold’s cries for help did not
remain unanswered. By September 7 a mighty army had gathered in the Tulln
valley. There was John III Sobieski, King of Poland and Duke of Lithuania, with
18,000 Poles; the Elector Max Emmanuel of Bavaria with 11,000 men; and Prince
George Friedrich von Waldeck with 8,000 Germans from Franconia and Swabia.
Prince George of Hanover (the future King George I of England) arrived with a
bodyguard of 600 cavalry sent by his father Duke Ernst August of Hanover, and
there were 9,000 Saxons led by the Elector of Saxony, John George III von
Wettin. Together with Imperial General Lieutenant Duke Charles of Lorraine’s
20,000 Austrians, the allied army numbered over 66,600.
Many princely volunteers
accompanied them, including young Prince Eugene of Savoy. Recently defected
from the service of Louis XIV, Eugene brought nothing but his sword and steed.
The “Prince volontaire” would be fighting with the Austro-German cavalry.
With so many prominent nobles,
quarrels over command were unavoidable but were resolved through the
selflessness of the Duke of Lorraine. Although cursed with a pockmarked face
and a limp leg, his proven combat history against both the Turks and the
French, his personal courage, humility, and charm gained everyone’s affection
and admiration. On Lorraine’s recommendation, Supreme Command was given to
Sobieski, King of Poland. Sobieski, who refused to serve under anyone, held the
highest rank and had demonstrated his valor and skill by defeating the Turks at
Khocizm in 1673. Albeit past his prime and so fat as to be unable to mount his
horse without assistance, Sobieski nevertheless retained a sharp mind and,
decked out in luxurious garb and armor, still looked the part of a charismatic
commander-in-chief. Lorraine’s Plan to Squeeze the TurksSobieski would lead the Poles
while Lorraine nominally commanded the Austro-German forces. Beyond this each
commander led his own men while adhering to Lorraine’s tactical plan. The idea
was to march the army from Tulln through the Vienna Woods to the Kahlenberg
heights (“berg” in German means height or mountain). From the heights a broad,
sweeping descent would squeeze the Turks against the city, the Danube arm, and
the Vienna River. The approach denied the Turks the natural defenses of the
aforementioned rivers and, because the allies would emerge from out of the
wilderness, they hoped to catch their enemy unprepared.By the 10th the main army reached
the Weidling Valley on the northwestern side of the Kahlenberg. Colonel Donat
Heissler’s vanguard of 600 dragoons had already reached the Kahlenberg heights
three days prior, to light fires and alert Vienna of its impending relief.
Early in the morning of the 11th, Lorraine sent reinforcements to Heissler, who
led his dragoons, musketeers, and a band of Italian volunteers against the
Turkish outposts at the Chapel of St. Leopold and the ruined Camuldensian
monastery. After routing the Turks from the Christian holy places, Heissler
launched signal flares into the night sky. To the defenders on Vienna’s battered
walls, Heissler’s fires and flares were like a sign from God that their prayers
had finally been answered.At 11 in the morning of the 11th,
the Austro-German contingent moved into position on the heights, between
Leopoldsberg and the Hermannskogel: Lorraine and John George with Imperials and
Saxons on the left and Waldeck and Max Emmanuel with Franconians, Bavarians,
and Imperials on their right. Both contingents placed their cavalry on their
outer flanks. The Poles, meanwhile, were still struggling to cross the
Weidlingsbach to form the honorable right wing of the allied army, between
Rosskopf and Dreimarkstein.
Later that day, the princes and
generals met on the ridge to behold a panorama of the siege. Below them Turkish
siege works and camps surrounded the city, wedged beneath the Vienna River to
the south and the Danube arm to the north. A dim haze of smoke rose from the
constant artillery barrage, exploding mines, and campfires. More worrisome was
the rugged terrain of precipices, ravines, and woodlands that led down from the
hills to the plain below.
Angered, Sobieski claimed that
the maps sent to him by Imperial commanders had misled him. He expected the
terrain to have been far more level and now proposed either a detour to the
south or a slow, meticulous advance. These ideas were stoutly overruled by the
other generals who decided to continue with Lorraine’s original idea of a
full-scale attack from the ridges of the Vienna Woods. Although the terrain was
rough it was noted that Mustafa had done very little to fortify his besieging
army. Nevertheless, the Polish king did manage to gain the transfer of four
Hapsburg infantry battalions to support the Polish cavalry.That night Lorraine ordered his
general of artillery, Count James Leslie, to place a battery along the edges of
the Kahlenberg to provide supportive fire for the main advance. While the
artillerymen labored, cries of “Allah” and the incessant artillery bombardment
of Vienna robbed many of the Christians of their deserved sleep. Moreover, the
previous day’s march had been carried out at great speed in the face of
difficult terrain and stormy weather. To lighten the load, many supplies were
left behind, leaving the men with empty stomachs and forcing the horses to feed
on leaves. Despite these hardships morale remained high.
The Ottomans Await the Christian
AttackBelow the Christians,
over 70,000 Ottomans and auxiliaries, deployed between the Danube and the
Vienna Rivers, awaited the Christian attack, surprise having been passed. Kara
Mehmed Pasha, Beylerbeyi of Diyarbakir, with 10,000 troops—including the
Bosnian-Rumelians, centered on the Nussberg—made up the right wing. Behind him,
on Prater Island, there were a further 5,000 Moldavian and Wallachian
reinforcements.
The bulk of the Turkish center
under Ibrahim Pasha, Beylerbeyi of Buda, and Kara Mustafa occupied the
fortified ridges above the Döblingerbach and Krottenbach up to Weinhaus.
Ibrahim and Mustafa’s forces, made up of cavalry, seymen peasant militia, and janissary
infantry, were about 23,000 strong. Beside them, on their left, Abaza Sari
Hüseyin Pasha, Beylerbeyi of Damascus, commanded the rest of the central line.
His 15,000, mostly cavalry, units covered the Weinhaus-Ottakring-Baumgarten
line with smaller detachments deployed in the Schafberg area to slow down and
hamper the initial Christian advance. Here the walls and buildings of numerous
vineyards provided shelter for the defenders.
Along the northern bank of the
Vienna River, on the left wing near Mariabrunn, stood 18,000 Tartars. “By
Allah, the King is really among us,” blurted their Kahn when he discovered that
Sobieski himself led the relief army. In a decision opposed by Ibrahim Pasha
but approved by the other senior generals, Kara Mustafa decreed that the
remaining 15,000 janissaries and provincial troops would continue the siege of
Vienna.
The Battle BeginsAt 5 am on the 12th, Kara
Mehmed’s vanguard opened the battle by attempting to disrupt the deployment of
Leslie’s artillery. From his viewpoint at the ruined monastery, Lorraine
noticed that an advance of the whole Turkish right accompanied the attack on
the battery. In response, Lorraine sent reinforcements to Leslie and ordered
the advance of the Austro-German left wing. By sunrise, of what came to be a
sunny and clear day, Waldeck and Max Emmanuel also received orders to begin the
descent. After informing Sobieski of his actions and gaining his approval,
Lorraine hurried off to lead the Austro-Saxon troops pouring down the defiles
of the Kahlenberg. The Polish king prepared himself for battle by attending a
Mass held in the Chapel of St. Leopold.To the Turks it seemed “as if an
all consuming flood of black pitch was flowing down the hills” at whose head
fluttered proudly a large red flag with a white cross. Lorraine’s main concern
was the maintenance of a unified front, a daunting task due to the uneven
ground.
Reinforced by Duke Eugene of
Croy’s infantry, the Austrians routed the Turks firing at Leslie’s artillery
and together with John George’s Saxons to their right established a line facing
the Nussberg-Karpfenwald. Supported by light artillery fire and maintaining an
unrelenting barrage of musketry fire, the Austrians slowly but steadily
advanced up the Nussberg. Here there was stiffening resistance by the Turks,
who skillfully used the cover of the terrain to their advantage. An Imperial
regiment that had reached the outskirts of Nussdorf was repulsed, while the
Turks still holding Kahlenbergerdorf threatened the Austrian left flank.
Lorraine ordered Count Caprara to
storm Kahlenbergerdorf from the shoulder of the Leopoldsberg. With Heissler in
the lead, the dragoons encountered initially heavy resistance but, supported by
Prince Jerome Lubomirski’s heavy cavalry, seized Kahlenbergerdorf and advanced
beyond it. But Mehmed’s men, now reinforced by seymen, rallied and threw the
Christians back to the village. On its outskirts, the Turks fell upon the
wounded, beheading the dead and dying.
By 10 am the German left wing
occupied the rim of the Nussberg. Unfortunately, on their right Waldeck and Max
Emmanuel had failed to keep up with Lorraine’s advance. This exposed the right
flank of the Saxons, who had veered left from the Karpfenwald to bolster the
Austrian attack on the Turkish Nussberg positions. Lorraine called for a halt
to allow Waldeck and the second and third Austro-Saxon battle lines to catch up
and reestablish a solid front. Joined by John George, Lorraine hurried off to
the front line to take personal charge of the German soldiers. Sobieski,
meanwhile, left the Chapel to hasten the movement of the Poles who still had
not arrived in position south of Waldeck.Recognizing the loss of the
Nussberg to be a serious threat to their right flank, the Grand Vizier and
Ibrahim Pasha mounted a vicious counterattack but were pushed back into the
flatter terrain around Grinzig. A second assault proved more successful so that
the Imperial infantry began to waver but was saved by the arrival of dragoons
and the elite armored cuirassier heavy cavalry. John George and his bodyguard
cavalry took part in the action. Wounded in the cheek by an arrow, the Saxon
Elector cut down a Syrian lancer. Pursuing their advantage, the Saxons advanced
down the Muckental in the direction of Heiligenstadt while the Austrians moved
toward Nussdorf.
The Attack on Nussdorf
Supported by Leslie’s artillery,
now deployed on the Nussberg, and Caprara’s advance from Kahlenbergerdorf,
Saxon and Imperial dragoons under Margrave Ludwig Wilhelm of Baden and Heissler
led the attack on Nussdorf. Entrenched in the village cellars, ditches, and
ruined walls, the Turks put up fierce resistance and were only overcome by the
arrival of Wilhelm’s uncle, Field Marshal Herman of Baden, leading the Austrian
infantry. To the south, Field Marshal von Goltz’s Saxons successfully drove the
Turks from Heiligenstadt and Grinzig.
At noon Lorraine called for
another halt to allow his troops to recuperate. The morning’s actions had been
a complete success. The whole Turkish right wing of Kara Mehmed was completely
overrun or destroyed. The Austro-Saxons now faced Ibrahim Pasha across the
Döblingerbach. Waldeck and Max Emmanuel, who had encountered little opposition,
reached Ibrahim’s flank across the Krottenbach while Caprara and Lubomirski
scattered the Romanians along the Danube.
The Poles Enter the Fray
The Poles finally appeared on the
heights after an exhausting march through the rough terrain of the Weidling
Valley. In the center, Sobieski with Artillery General Martin Katski descended
from the Gränberg. On the left, Fieldhetman Nicolas Sieniawski came down from
the Dreimarkstein, and on the right Crownhetman Stanislaw Jablonowski came down
from the Rosskopf. Polish infantry and the borrowed Hapsburg battalions
screened the descent to allow the establishment of an unbroken cavalry front on
the plains below.
Thorn bushes, grapevines,
ditches, hedge-rows and individual gönüllü suicide charges slowed
down the Polish advance. Nevertheless, in spite of a spirited defense by Abaza
Sari Hüseyin, the Poles, supported by artillery fire, steadily pushed forward.
With Sobieski in the lead the Michaelerberg was reached by 2 pm. The Germans,
who now came into view, gave off a terrific cheer upon spotting the arrival of
their Polish allies.
Beyond the Michaelerberg, on the
slopes of the Schafberg, the Poles were brought to a momentary halt. Ahead of
Sieniawski, 1,000 janissaries infiltrated the vineyards behind Plötzleinsdorf,
disrupting the junction between Sieniawski and Waldeck’s right wing. The
janissaries put up a stout defense but were dislodged with the arrival of
Imperial cuirassiers.
Around 4 in the
afternoon, Sobieski and Sieniawski reached the level terrain east of the
Schafberg. On their right Jablonowski fended off a feeble attack by the Tartars
near Mariabrunn. Sobieski now called a halt in order to build a more organized
and solid front. Kara Mustafa, aware of the new Polish threat to the Turkish
left wing, used the respite to withdraw troops from Ibrahim in order to bolster
Hüseyin Pasha.
The Poles Cavalry Units Get
Butchered
Sieniawski reopened the battle by
sending out achoragiew (standard Polish cavalry unit) of Crown hussars.
These crashed through two enemy lines but the 150 or so horsemen were unequal
to the task. Forced to retreat they lost a third of their number.
Falsely anticipating an Ottoman
advance the overzealous Sieniawski sent in a second choragiew. Stanislaw
Potocki, Starhorst of Halicz, volunteered to lead the charge. Again the Poles
broke through the Turkish ranks and again the Turks rallied to close the gap.
Stanislaw paid for his bravery with his life; a Turk sliced off the top of the
Pole’s head.
Further units of Polish cavalry
now charged the Turks who opened their ranks and then fell upon the Poles from
all sides, inflicting heavy casualties and killing several Polish lords, including
Andrzej Modrzewski, the Crown Grand Treasurer. The slaughter was followed by an
all-out Turkish pursuit, which soon came under fire from the Hapsburg infantry
on the Galitzenberg. Reinforcements from Sobieski’s center and the timely
arrival of dragoons and cuirassiers from the German right helped stop the Turks
in their tracks.
With the withering of the Turkish
assault and Jablonowski occupying the Galitzenberg on the Polish right,
Sobieski at last established an unbroken line for the next advance. North of
the Poles the Germans had long since recuperated. Despite the heat and the
exertions of the morning’s battle, the troopers were so eager to advance that
officers were forced to restrain them with the flat of the blade. Facing them
was Ibrahim Pasha on the ridges above the Krottenbach-Döblingerbach. The
Turkish position was the strongest along the entire front but had been weakened
by the dispatches sent to face the Poles.
Lorraine Hesitates: Stop for the
Day or Continue the Attack?
At this critical moment in the
battle Lorraine hesitated. Conferring with the Saxon commanders, the duke could
not decide whether another war council should be held to decide if the day’s
progress was sufficient or whether to continue attacking. To this the venerable
von Goltz replied that “God is pointing the way to victory … strike while the
iron is still hot.” Pleased with Goltz’s advice, Lorraine shouted “Allons
marchons!”
The attack opened with a terrific
barrage of musketry fire from the Christian squares, demoralizing and thinning
the Turkish defense. At around 5 pm the Franconians and Bavarians launched an
assault on the Türkenschanz, the location of the Holy Banner. Ibrahim Pasha’s
entire front now collapsed, opening the way to Vienna. Instead of moving toward
the city, however, Lorraine recognized the opportunity to strike at the right
flank of Hüseyin Pasha, who was currently getting ready to withstand Sobieski’s
all-out advance. Like Lorraine, Sobieski had at first been content with the
day’s gains but was persuaded to continue the battle by the aggressive spirit
of Sieniawski and the Germans.
With the cry of “Jezus Maria
ratuj” (Jesus Maria help.”) the whole Polish line rode down upon the Turks.
Encased in glittering steel that covered head to thighs, with their tiger and
leopard pelts fluttering in the wind and eagles’ wings affixed to their backs,
the leading units of hussars presented an almost unearthly spectacle. Armed to
the teeth with a 19-foot pennon-tipped kopia lance, a curved and a
straight saber, four pistols, and a battle hammer, and mounted on a powerful
armored steed, the hussar was the epitome of the Polish cavalier.
Following the hussars
were pancerny and kwarciany. Likewise made up of Polish
aristocrats, the cavalrymen of the pancerny wore helmets, mailed
shirts and shields and wielded short lances, falchions, the handzar dagger,
poleaxes, and musketoons or bows. The kwarciany light cavalry of the
poor Polish gentry and foreigners wore little armor and brandished short
lances, sabers, and the occasional pistol. Leading the whole attack was
Sobieski himself, his armor decked out in blue, luxurious semi-Oriental garb,
his hand holding thebulawa marshal’s baton. On his side, curved saber in
hand, rode 14-year-old Prince Jakób.
Slowed by vineyards and uneven
terrain, the heavy Polish cavalry did not pick up speed until it reached the
open terrain of the Baumgarten-Ottakring-Weinhaus area, where it ran into
Turkish skirmishers and artillery fire. Turkish guns ripped through the Polish
ranks but the charge of the cavaliers proved unstoppable. Like thunder, the
shattering of Polish lances resounded over the battlefield as the cavalry
overwhelmed the Turkish battle line. Sobieski followed on the heel of his
hussars, capturing the Turkish guns while the Turks, demoralized by Lorraine’s
advance on their right flank, rallied toward their left wing opposite
Jablonowski.
Mustafa Attempts to Rally the
TurksIn the Ottoman center, Kara
Mustafa entered the fray personally to prevent the imminent capture of the Holy
Banner by Waldeck’s steadily advancing Franconian-Bavarian foot. Flanked by sipâhî andsilâhdar (two
forms of cavalry; see sidebar), the Grand Vizier charged against a rain of
German cannon and musket fire. Mustafa grasped the banner but all around him
the Turkish attack crumbled, his men fleeing toward the Vienna River.
Simultaneously the Ottoman left wing completely disintegrated as Sobieski led
the combined forces against the Turks who had rallied in the Breitensee area.Boiling with vengeance, Mustafa
ordered the troops in the trenches to stop the bombardment of the city and
called for the destruction of equipment and massacre of captives. Mustafa knew
the battle was lost but his will to fight remained undiminished. With lance in
hand he led his personal bodyguard in a heroic but doomed assault against the
Christians. One by one his personal retainers, his private secretary, numerous
pages, and his whole Albanian bodyguard fell to the fire and swords of the
infidel. Only the argument that his own death would cause the destruction of
the remaining Ottoman troops persuaded Mustafa to break off the melee. Seizing
the Holy Banner of the Prophet and his private treasure, the Grand Vizier fled
the battlefield at around 6 in the evening to lead the retreat back to Györ.
Erroneously fearing that the Turks might rally and counterattack, Sobieski
forbade a full-scale pursuit and ordered his men to stay on guard.
Vienna is RelievedLorraine’s forces, meanwhile,
established contact with Starhemberg, who sallied out of the Schottentor to
join the battle. Ludwig Wilhelm of Baden and his dragoons were given the honor
of relieving the city. After marching up to the gate to the joyful tune of
kettledrums and trumpets, the dragoons joined the defenders in cleaning out the
few remaining Turks. At around 10 pm, after a further 600 Muslims were cut
down, the battle came to an end. In the Turkish camp, Christian infants and
children cringed among hundreds of butchered captives. Starhemberg’s garrison
took revenge by burning the 3,000 abandoned Ottoman sick and wounded alive. In
all the Turks suffered 15,000 casualties compared to 1,500 for the allies.
Sobieski ordered the German
forces around the Türkenschanz and Jablonowski’s wing on the banks of the
Vienna River to remain at guard throughout the night. A few Polish squadrons
hunted down Ottoman stragglers beyond the Vienna River. However, Sobieski’s and
Sieniawski’s own contingents, located as they were at the Muslim main camp,
could not control themselves. Order and discipline broke down as the Poles
feverishly pillaged the pick of the Muslim spoils. Instead of chastising his
troops, Sobieski acquired the lion’s share of the loot for himself. Within the
Grand Vizier’s pavilion, with its lavish courtyards, dining halls, baths, and
gardens, the King found heaps of golden and bejeweled treasures.On the 13th Sobieski conducted a
Roman-style triumphal march into Vienna to the cheers of the populace, who
cried, “Long live the king of Poland.” Sobieski’s egotism came as a bad affront
to the Austro-Germans. The premature looting of the Poles was bad enough, but
Sobieski’s entry into Vienna before the Emperor was an insulting breach of
protocol. Lorraine particularly was disgusted by Sobieski’s vanity, which on
the 13th prevented an opportune pursuit of the demoralized enemy and allowed
Mustafa to carry thousands of Christian children into captivity.
Leopold Returns to Vienna On the morning of the
14th the Germans rummaged through whatever loot remained at the Turkish camp.
Around noon the electors Max Emmanuel of Bavaria and John George III of Saxony
met Emperor Leopold himself at Vienna’s gates. Surveying his devastated
capital, Leopold found many of the buildings in ruins, although thankfully the
limited range of the Turkish artillery had left much of the interior of the
city untouched. Upon hearing the news of Sobieski’s march into the city,
Leopold became greatly aggravated. He so lost his nerve that he tactlessly paid
little attention to Lorraine’s problems of provisioning the relief force or
those of George III who, being a strong Protestant, brought up the matter of
Leopold’s mistreatment of the Hungarians. Fed up, John George III marched his
troops back to Saxony.
The next day Leopold rode out to
the Polish camp at Schwechat to visit the self-proclaimed savior of Vienna. The
meeting began well but deteriorated when Leopold coldly ignored the presence of
Sobieski’s son Jakób, whom Sobieski had hoped to marry to Leopold’s daughter.
Jakób showed his good nature by taking no offense, but his father, urged on by
his anti-Hapsburg Francophile nobles, magnified the incident to such a degree
that his relationship with Leopold remained forever strained.
Nevertheless, Sobieski remained
to lead the pursuit of the Turks. At Parkan on the 28th, he and Lorraine
annihilated a Turkish corps. With the remaining Turks on the retreat back to
Belgrade, the towns that had submitted to the Sultan now reaffirmed their
allegiance to the Emperor.
While the allied victory had
strained, rather than cemented, the ties between the Holy Roman Empire and
Poland, the rest of Christendom celebrated. In the streets of Vienna and in the
cities of Austria and all through Europe there was a feeling of euphoria. It
was the greatest victory over the Turks since Don John of Austria’s 1571
victory at Lepanto over the Sultan’s armada. For his heroic defense of the
city, Starhemberg was awarded 100,000 crowns, the Order of the Golden Fleece,
and the title of field marshal.
A Huge Loss for the Ottomans
The magnitude of the defeat was
not lost to Kara Mustafa who sought to escape the Sultan’s vengeance by blaming
his defeat on subordinate commanders, executing those that might inform the
Sultan of the Grand Vizier’s mishandling of the Ottoman army.
Mehmed IV remained unconvinced.
During the battle, the Christian commanders and troopers fought with skill and
courage while, tactically, their attack through the Vienna Woods wisely avoided
the natural defenses of the Danube and Vienna Rivers. Nevertheless, their
victory was not so much due to any Christian brilliance as it was to Mustafa’s
negligence and arrogance. By failing to properly fortify his army from an
outside attack and leaving many of his janissary units in the trenches
surrounding Vienna, the Grand Vizier sealed the fate of his army.
Mustafa would pay for his
failure. On December 25, 1683, while staying in the palace at Belgrade, the
sultan’s emissaries executed the Grand Vizier by strangulation and sent his
head to Constantinople.
The sultan’s anger was not
unfounded. A Turkish victory would not have meant the end of free Christendom,
because France would have presented a bulwark to further Ottoman expansion.
However, Austria was saved and, more importantly, the initiative passed to the
Holy Roman Empire. After hundreds of years of warfare the Christians had turned
the tide against the sword of Islam. Under Max Emmanuel, Ludwig Wilhelm “Türken
Louis” of Baden and above all Lorraine and Prince Eugene of Savoy, the Holy
Roman Empire would slowly but surely roll back the Ottoman hold on Eastern
Europe.
