GOLDEN APPLE VIENNA
Hello, history lovers, on this amazing day, which is like any other, except that today another Highlander story will be described, THE GOLDEN APPLE VIENNA has arrived. Every story is important and worth remembering, but this one is particularly interesting from my point of view. I assure you that it will be intriguing and amazing. As I write this, I feel confident that some will like it very much, while others will find fault with my reasoning and vision on this matter, but the story of John III Sobieski and the Holy League’s halting of the Ottoman invasion of Europe is worth telling. This topic is particularly relevant today, when the influx of immigrants from Muslim countries is on an unprecedented scale. From my point of view, these movements are not migration but an invasion under the banner of ‘don’t be racist, give up your home. Therefore, a highlander cannot remain indifferent to this and fail to notice the fact of mass resettlement of large numbers of people from those countries. And all this is happening without the consent of the indigenous population. For this reason, it is very important, and I want to describe this incredible day of 12 September 1683, which was the culmination of many important events that cannot be forgotten when describing this whole matter. Please think for a moment, and in the meantime, I will get to the point.
Throughout the chessboard of events, figures such as the aforementioned Jan III Sobieski and Merizifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha stand out. That is his full name, with Merizifonlu at the begining. I assure you that once we get to know their personalities better, we will understand the whole situation and why they both found themselves in Vienna. We must also not forget Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, Leopold I Holy Roman Emperor, and the defenders of Vienna, such as Gorg Rimpler. The combined forces under the command of Jan III Sobieski would have had nothing to liberate if it had not been for the heroic defence of a handful of soldiers under the command of Ernst Rudhiger von Strahemberg. But before you read about when and where it all began, I must admit that I had to experience this place for myself, go to Vienna and meet the people who breathe the air there. To my surprise, I was taken to Kahlenberg Hill by a taxi driver from Turkey. I know it’s incredible, but true. I began my journey in Krakow, the very place from which Sobieski set off to relieve Vienna, travelling by train, which follows almost the same route as the army’s march on Vienna. Without wasting any time, I went to Kahlenberg, from which the allied forces launched their attack. I will describe the course of the attack later on. However, before I get to the merits of the beginnings of the battle, I must add that the conflict between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Empire, whose capital had long been located in Vienna, Austria, began much earlier, and the capital was already besieged by the Ottomans in 1529. At that time, the walls were damaged, but the city was not captured. The following year, in 1530, the walls were rebuilt and the fortifications were improved with bastions. It was these bastions, with their moats, ramparts and cannons, that would be put to the test over the next 150 years.
WHEN IT ALL BEGAN
It all began in January 1683, when the Ottoman Empire declared war on the Habsburgs. Perhaps I should pause for a moment and explain what Ottoman actually means. Ottoman, because it was founded by Osman I around 1299. Osman came from Anatolia, a small tribe in Turkey that grew tremendously and desired more territory. The Ottoman Empire was dominated by the religion of Islam. Their rivals were the Habsburgs, a German family by origin, whose name translates as ‘Hawk Castle‘. This family from Habsburg Castle had ruled the Habsburg Empire since the 11th century and reigned over the Spanish and Hungarian Roman Empire. It must be admitted that if these empires had not fought each other, Europe and the world would have looked completely different. Anyway, let’s get to the point. In 1683, the Sultan declared war after unsuccessful peace negotiations a year earlier. Peace between the two empires had lasted 12 years. France, as the Habsburgs’ rival for leadership of the European empire, supported the Sultan Mahemed IV in his pursuit of war and was one of the fuses in the powder keg that soon found itself at the walls of Vienna. This powder keg of decisions to attack also included the Protestant Hungarian nobility under the command of Emeryk Thokoly, who were suppressed by the Catholic Habsburgs.
EMPEROR LEOPOLD I
MAHEMED IV SULTAN
Seeing this turn of events, Sultan Mehmed IV could not fail to take advantage of the situation and formed an alliance with Hungary. Kara Mustafa had been Grand Vizier since 1676. Unlike his predecessor, Merizifonlu K.M.Pasha had a great desire to destroy and take over the lands of the Holy Empire. One could say that he was obsessed with this idea. As we will later learn, it was this obsession and self-confidence that contributed to his misguided decisions. War was declared at the beginning of the year, but preparations for departure lasted until the beginning of summer, which left little time, but still enough to prepare and send out requests for help. Emperor Leopold I, knowing that the Ottoman army would soon be at the gates of Vienna, had to form an alliance with the Polish King Jan III Sobieski. Faced with this situation, the Polish king, to be honest, had little choice but to abandon Louis XIV‘s pro-French policy and conclude a mutual assistance agreement with Emperor Leopold I in the event of Turkish aggression. Incidentally, I learned that the direction of the Ottoman attack was not entirely known and could have taken a northern direction, which would have obliged the Emperor to help the Polish side. We know that these defence documents were signed on 31 March 1683, and from that moment on, each side had to be ready.
march to holy war jihad
Sometime in June, Sultan Mehmed IV‘s army reaches Belgrade, and then the aforementioned Kara Mustafa Pasha, also known as Black Mustafa, takes command and bids farewell to the Sultan. Now as commander-in-chief, he went to Stuhlweissenburg, today’s Hungarian city of Székesfehérvár, where on 25 June he announced his evil plans to attack Vienna directly. As far as historians know, the Sultan’s orders were to capture the border castles, but these goals did not satisfy Mustafa, and he was obsessed with capturing Vienna. If he had obeyed the Sultan’s orders, he would have joined forces with his Hungarian allies, which would have resulted in the capture of the fortresses and the securing of the area. His decision surprised everyone, including Prince Charles V of Lorraine, who was waiting for him with a surprise with his 33,000 soldiers at NeuHausel Castle. Not waiting and learning that Black Mustafa, as he was supposedly nicknamed, was heading straight for Vienna, he quickly moved to Raab Castle to cut him off. The Turkish army also gave these fortifications a wide berth to the south. The Duke of Lorraine, fearing that he would be outflanked, returned to Vienna. The Tatars, rapidly approaching the capital, encountered resistance from Charles V’s cavalry near Petronell. After this skirmish on 29-30 August, which showed that the Ottoman forces were quite fragile.
Mustafa the Black retreated with his troops towards Raab, plundering everything in his path, raping and burning. From my point of view, by destroying everything, he destroyed his supplies and the possibility of obtaining food during the siege, but more on that later. Remaining there for some time, he sent a message to the Sultan asking for further instructions, but when he did not receive them and lost patience, he set off for Vienna, leaving over 10,000 troops in RAAB Castle as security. Being just outside Vienna at the mouths of the rivers flowing into the Danube,
Black Mustafa crosses the river on 14 July from the south. The fortress is closed off from the north by the Danube and from the west by the hills of the Vienna Woods. His army is estimated to number between 120,000 and 150,000. Seeing how powerfully the fortress is fortified with bastions and walls, on 15 July he sends a messenger to the defenders of the castle with the idea that perhaps there will be no bloodshed on either side. The message reads as follows: ‘Surrender the city and convert to Islam, and you will all be spared.’ Strahemberg responds with the following refusal: “Let him come: I will fight to the last drop of blood” . It should be mentioned that Emperor Leopold cowardly left the city with 80,000 inhabitants a week earlier. Prince Charles V of Lorraine was also absent from the city, as he had to remain outside the city and conduct offensive and defensive operations. In this way, he remained a kind of link between the city and the rest of the world. The commander-in-chief of the city, Georg Rimpler, was left alone within the city walls with the great responsibility of defending it and the hope that the experience gained in previous years fighting the Turks would bring results.
Black Mustafa at the gates of Vienna – the beginning of the siege
On 15 July, the siege of Vienna begins, but it does not start with a charge or an attack by the Janissary infantry, as they are faced with incredibly fortified walls. After an initial inspection, Kara Mustafa chooses a starting point in the form of houses and gardens that stretched southwest of the fortress. Kara Mustafa was very pleased with this and thought that there was no better starting point than this gift in the form of undamaged buildings from which he could control the siege. It must be admitted that the Grand Vizier had the best sappers and miners. One of them was Capuchin Monk Ahamed Bei, who knew the city well. They began digging without delay, creating a network of zigzag trenches towards the walls of Vienna, which allowed them to approach with siege guns under cover. The Ottoman artillery, consisting of about 130 field guns, opened fire, bombarding the city day and night. However, the impact on the solidly built walls proved minimal. Since the early attack had failed, Kara Mustafa decided to dig tunnels and dig under the fortifications. Teams of Ottoman sappers dug under the bastions, reinforcing the tunnels with wood and filling them with gunpowder. Explosive charges blew up and created gaps in Vienna’s defences. The inhabitants of Vienna, in turn, frantically dug countermines, listening for the sounds of digging and trying to intercept or flood the enemy’s tunnels. On 25 July, Ottoman mines damaged the palisades opposite the Löwel and Burg bastions. Then one of the defenders’ successful counterattacks took place, in which Rimpler, the commander, and an engineer broke their arms and died a few days later, which turned out to be an incredible loss for the city. On 30 July, multiple explosions destroyed part of the walls near the Burg bastion, followed by an attack by the Janissaries, after which the defenders had to retreat deeper into the city and withdraw to a covered road. This attack enabled the Ottomans to install a battery of cannons, which quickly and directly destroyed the batteries on the Löwel Bastion.
Armies of Europe, come to the rescue!
While the situation during the siege remains tense, with attacks and counterattacks on the walls, matters outside the city are also tense. Emperor Leopold I first tries to obtain funds from Pope Innocent XI to finance the city’s defence as quickly as possible. I imagine that this situation was also inconvenient for the Pope, because, as we know, this invasion was also directed against Christianity, and therefore against his authority. So they had to work hard to pay the soldiers who were slowly making their way towards Vienna. Their cries for help did not go unanswered. By 7 September, an army consisting of John III Sobieski and his troops, Maximilian Emanuel of Bavaria, Prince George Frederick of Waldeck and Prince George of Hanover (the future King of England), as well as the Saxons led by George III of Wettin, had gathered in the Tulln Valley. Charles V of Lorraine was also there with his troops, who had his hands full at the time. His task was to maintain strategic positions north of the city near Jedlesse and Tulln. He was constantly fighting skirmishes to secure these areas for the arrival of allied troops.
As you can see, everyone was extremely busy, with emotions running high. Kara Mustafa also had little to be happy about in his camp, as the Sultan clearly pressured him and blamed him for the bad decisions he had made earlier. It was unreasonable of him to attack Vienna directly instead of supporting the Hungarians in their uprising and capturing castles along the way, which would have provided provisions for a long siege. As you can see, tensions and fears arise everywhere, especially in a city where drastic measures are being taken. Everyone had to fight under threat of death, with fixed food rations, and everyone had to help remove the bodies, which were a huge problem. Another major problem was the lack of messengers, who were dying trying to get through the Tatar camp. There were even situations where huge sums of money were paid for attempts to sneak through. Even converted to today’s currency, these sums are worth £180,000. And in fact, this is not surprising, because someone risked their entire life or being skinned alive.
a fierce battle between the city's defenders and the Ottomans
The Ottoman attacks continued to put pressure on the defenders, advancing day by day. On 3 August, they managed to capture a long section of the palisade in front of the ravelin, pushing the defenders off the palisade. This manoeuvre marked the beginning of the next stage of the siege, known as the Battle of the Ditch, in which the Ottomans used tunnels to get past the bastions to the ditch between the walls. The defenders took advantage of the opportunity and fired at them from the caponiers installed by engineer Rimpler. This strategy resulted in deadly fire that buried many diggers alive. Despite this, the attack and digging continued to advance. On 8 August, the first Janissaries reached the city walls. Over the next few days, Ottoman mines exploded under the bastions and ravelin, causing a breach that the Viennese blocked at the last moment. They then carried out a series of raids to destroy the attackers’ tunnels. All of them ended in failure and resulted in the loss of many valuable men.
The Ottoman pressure on the city continued. While fierce fighting continued in the trenches, an epidemic of bloody diarrhoea broke out in the city. This is an infectious disease that causes diarrhoea with blood. It decimated the city’s population in all social groups. Meanwhile, the Ottomans made further progress. Despite the destruction of three of their own mines by Viennese countermines and artillery, they reached the centre of the moat by 15 August. The Viennese immediately launched a sortie to halt the Ottoman advance. This time they were successful and dealt a serious blow to the attackers. Storming from their positions, they killed most of the Ottomans in the trench, then destroyed their earthworks, burned the support beams and finally destroyed all the mines they found. This was a serious defeat for the Ottomans. It took them 12 days to regain full control of their lost positions.
Over the next two weeks, neither side made any significant progress, although there were many bloody battles. More Ottoman mines exploded, and their soldiers repeatedly attacked the defenders’ positions. The defenders, in turn, tried to repel the attackers by carrying out sorties. Neither side gained much, but both suffered heavy losses. Overall, the outnumbered Viennese suffered greater losses than the numerous Ottoman army. In the last week of August, when heavy rains turned the siege into a battle in the mud, Starhemberg mobilised all his resources. He ordered his soldiers to build a second line of defence behind the city walls, stretching from Burg-Bastion to Löwel-Bastion. The commander was concerned about the city walls, which is why he made this decision.
Vienna prays for a miracle
At that time, Charles V of Lorraine set off with his army towards Tulln. However, the most important reinforcements were late. King John III Sobieski did not leave Krakow until 14 August – two weeks later than he had promised or was able to. On 1 September, a messenger arrived in the city with the news that a rescue army would soon arrive. He was immediately sent back to the emperor with a desperate plea for help: the defenders could no longer hold out. The price of the ongoing bombardment of the city was high. At the beginning of September, food ran out. While the Ottomans could at least obtain small amounts of food, hunger became a real problem within the city. Two successful expeditions from Schottentor brought 22 oxen and two horses, providing short-term relief. This was not a long-term solution for Vienna’s large population, but it alleviated the problem for a while. To signal the tragic situation to the approaching relief army, the inhabitants of Vienna fired rockets from the tower of St. Stephen’s Cathedral (Stephansdom) every night. As the situation became increasingly dramatic, Starhemberg urged everyone to complete the line of defence in the streets behind the threatened section of the wall. The defenders launched numerous attacks to destroy the Ottomans’ mining tunnels, but most of them ended in failure. Finally, Starhemberg ordered his men to abandon the remains of the ravelin, counterscarp and caponiers. On the night of 2–3 September, the Ottoman trenches practically surrounded the ravelin. Their mining tunnels reached two to three metres below the city walls. Now everything came down to defending the curtain wall, i.e. the section of the wall between two bastions. The enemies now often met in their tunnels. The tunnels became so dense that they practically formed an underground network. As a result, hand-to-hand combat ensued.
CHARLES V LORRAINE
support has arrived
Charles of Lorraine and John III Sobieski met on 31 August in Oberhollabrunn to hold a war council. Five days later, their two armies, along with troops from Bavaria, Saxony and various other German states, joined forces near Tulln. Jan III Sobieski took 27,000 crown troops from Krakow, including 25 banners and the Hussars, and undertook a rapid march through Silesia (Gliwice). Moravia, Bohemia (the route of my train from Krakow). On 3 September, he met with the allied forces in Tulln, where he took command of the entire Polish, Austrian, and German armies, numbering a total of 67,000 soldiers. On 6 September, the troops crossed the Danube via a pontoon bridge. The Austrian troops were then ordered to push the Turks through the hilly terrain along Vienna, diverting their attention from the rest of the army, which left its baggage train and marched through the Vienna Woods. They were assisted by local guides. The journey through this almost impassable terrain was arduous and slow. This crossing of a large mass of people and horses, laden with 26 cannons dismantled into parts, through the dense forest took two days. Only a few artillery pieces could be taken along. However, they encountered no other difficulties, as there were no Ottoman fortifications on the Kahlenberg Hill. On 11 September, the Viennese allies reached the top of the mountain and went to sleep, already in battle formation. At this tense moment, Charles of Lorraine received a short note written by Stahemberg. It went: ‘There is no time to lose, sir, no time to lose.’ Kara Mustafa, knowing that the enemy’s attack would come from Kahlenberg, left 15,000 men in the trenches during the siege of the city, and positioned the rest, about 80,000 men, at the foot of the hill.
at sunrise on Kalanberg, the fluttering of Husras feathers
On 12 September, at dawn, when the sun was just rising above the horizon, the allied forces formed up for attack in the following order: The left flank was formed by the imperial field army under the command of Charles of Lorraine, the centre by troops from Saxony, Bavaria, Franconia, Swabia and other German states. The Poles, under the command of their king, formed the right flank. On the other side were Mustafa the Black and the Ottomans in the centre, Moldavian and Wallachian vassals on the right, and Tatars on the left wing. Sobieski decided to send a single hussar banner under the command of Zygmunt Zbierzchowski to reconnoitre the terrain for ditches and wolf pits. The banner galloped in a wide arc between the Turkish positions, spreading panic, but suffering heavy losses. Kara Black Mustafa, thinking that this was the main attack, ordered his men to chase them to the edge of the forest, where the Poles had managed to roll out their cannons and open fire on the enemy. Sobieski, who was waiting on Kahlenberg to observe the developments, gave the order. At the same time, the hussar regiments of Hetmans Stanisław Jabłonowski and Mikołaj Sieniawski charged, with the regiments commanded by Jan III Sobieski between them. During the slow descent from the hill in full battle formation, the hussars followed the King of Poland, who commanded 20,000 hussars. The left wing of Charles V of Lorraine moved next and made contact with the enemy. In a fierce battle, they repelled the Janissary troops near Nussdorf. At that moment, seeing this, the centre launched an attack on the central Tatar troops. The army paused for a moment in suspense.
The centre of the army joined the attack almost immediately. The momentum with which the hussars and allied troops moved, destroying everything in their path, was astonishing. At full gallop, the Tatar cavalry, camp crews, Janissary infantry and even Black Mustafa himself were wiped out. I have read descriptions that said that a single wooden spear, reaching 6 metres in length, could impale 4-5 soldiers at once. They were clad in shining armour that covered them from head to thigh, with eagle wings fluttering in the wind. They were also armed with sabres, four pistols and a battle hammer. I would have liked to see it live, how the Turkish cavalry was crushed in a head-on clash with the Hussars. The charge itself did not last long, because as I know, the enemy had been canon firing since the early hours of the morning in order to destroy as many fortifications as possible. By evening, everything was clear and Vienna was saved. But the whole attack was more complicated than what we generally know. I will try to release a video in the future showing the entire course of events. But at this point, I will add a situation in which Kara Mustafa, being in the centre of the Ottoman line, personally entered the fight to prevent Waldeck’s Franconian-Bavarian infantry from capturing the banner. Charging, he had the Sipahi and Sihdar cavalry at his side. A moment later, he seized the banner, but the Turkish attack collapsed and the men began to flee when they saw Sobieski destroying the entire left wing of the Ottoman-Tatar army. At that moment, an enraged Black Mustafa ordered his soldiers to cease the siege of the city walls and join the defence against the advancing Christians. Kara Mustafa knew that the battle was lost, but he led his troops to attack until the very end. They all fell like flies from sabres and fire. Pinned against the walls and fearing for his life, he seized the holy banner and his holy treasure and fled the battlefield at around 6 p.m. in the direction of Györ. In the clash, 15,000 Turks were killed and 5,000 wounded, while the allies suffered 1,500 casualties. After the battle, incredible treasures were found in the Turkish camp, which supposedly belonged to the soldiers of the victorious army. It was very fortunate for Kara Mustafa that there was no long pursuit immediately after the battle, but only a few days later, and that he had previously fled the battlefield, having been wounded in the eye.
The situation after the battle / Pursuit and battle at Parkhany
After the battle, Sobieski ordered his forces to keep watch throughout the night, fearing a Turkish counterattack. He himself tried to control the desire for looting, which he did not entirely succeed in, as he hastened to take a portion of the considerable reward for himself. But this is not surprising, as they were seeking repayment for their own funds and loans they had taken out for the battle. (One could say that they had it in their contract). The next day, he also led the victorious army’s march to Vienna in the style of Julius Caesar, which did not please Emperor Leopold I, who claimed that he had the right to enter the city first. For this reason, he went to meet Sobieski and, in a fit of anger, refused to allow Sobieski’s son Jakub to marry his daughter, which led to a cooling of relations between the rulers. In the following days, the army of the Holy Alliance, together with Sobieski, pursued the Turks. In a multi-phase battle at the Parkhany (7-9 October), they defeated the Turkish corps and captured the fortress, although in the first phase, underestimating the enemy, they suffered a heavy defeat at Ostrzyhom. Kara Mustafa Pasha did not escape the noose, even though he tried to shift the blame onto other commanders by killing them. Sultan Mehmed IV was not fooled by these tricks and abandoned Belgrade, leaving behind an order to kill the Grand Vizier. The Battle of Vienna demonstrated the skill and determination of the Christian armies against the Ottomans. Plans to halt Muslim expansion into Europe had been in place for a long time. It was also beneficial for every ruler in Europe to ally themselves in the fight against a single enemy, although I believe France was the only exception. Austria was saved, or rather, the Habsburg Empire now had the initiative of the Holy Roman Empire. After hundreds of years of war, Christians reversed the course of events and stopped Islam, but was it for good, or did Islam understand that it was not by force but by the weakness of its enemies that we would defeat them… To be continued in 2025.