Stoye - The siege of Vienna: the last great trial between cross & crescent

The Last Great Trial Between

Cross & Crescent

John Stoye

PEGASUS BOOKS

NEW YORK

The Ottoman Frontier: Esztergom and Neuhusel

From pen-and-ink sketches by Dr Edward Browne in Additional MS. 5233 of the British Library

The Habsburg Frontier: Komdrom and Petronell

Engravings by G. Bodenehr and C. Beutler

Emperor Leopold I

By Michel Nol, drawn in Frankfurt in 1658, and by Elias Heiss

Charles V Duke of Lorraine

Engraved by J. C. Sartorius in 1677

The Burgplatz in Vienna

From the painting by Samuel Hoogstraten, dated 1652

The Hofburg and the Turkish Siege-Works

Drawn by Daniel Suttinger in 1683, and here reproduced from Vienna Gloriosa, id est peraccurata & ordinata Descriptio (Vienna, 1703)

Vienna in the Seventeenth Century

From engravings in E. Francisci, Vor-Blitz dessfortstralenden Adler-Blitzes... und zu Beleuchtung des jetzo wtenden trckischen- und frantzsischen Waffen dienlichster Vorbericht (Frankfurt, 1691)

Tartars and their Prisoners Crossing a River

From L. F. Marsigli, Ltat militaire de lempire ottoman, ses progrs et sa dcadence (The Hague, 1732)

The Siege at its Height

Drawn by Daniel Suttinger in 1687 and engraved by M. Bodenehr in 1688

Koltschitzki in Disguise

Frontispiece to Das heldenmthige wiewol gefhrliche Unterfangen Herrn Georg Frantzen Koltschitzky (Nuremberg, 1683)

The Danube and the Wiener Wald

Engravings by M. Merian, in his Topographia Provinciarum Austriacarum (Frankfurt, 1649), and by an unnamed artist

The City of Passau

An engraving dated 1576, by L. Abent

Starhemberg

Engraved by L. Gomier, and published in Rome

Sobieski

Published by C. Allardt in Amsterdam

An English Broadsheet, 1684

The original is printed in red ink

The following authorities have kindly given permission for the reproduction of these plates: The Trustees of the British Library for nos. IIV, VI, VII, IXXI and XIVXV, the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, for no. V, the Curators of the Bodleian Library for no. viii, and the Ashmolean Museum for nos. XII-XIII

Eastern Europe in 1683

The Danube in 1683

Germany in 1679

The Fortification of the City

Tartar Raids in Austria, 1683

The Routes to Vienna, JulyAugust 1683

The Wiener Wald, September 1683

Mehmed IV, Sultan

Kara Mustafa, Grand Vezir

Michael Apafi, Prince of Transylvania

Serban Cantacuzene, Prince of Wallachia

George III Duka, Prince of Moldavia

Murad Ghiraj, Khan of the Crimea

Imre Thkly, King of Hungary

Louis XIV, King of France

John III Sobieski, King of Poland

Charles XI, King of Sweden

Leopold I, Emperor

Eleanor of Pfalz-Neuburg, Empress, Leopolds third wife

Eleanor of Mantua, Dowager Empress, Leopolds step-mother

Eleanor, Leopolds half-sister, who married Charles Duke of Lorraine

Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg

John George III, Elector of Saxony

Max Emmanuel, Elector of Bavaria

Charles V, Duke of Lorraine

Herman, Margrave of Baden, President of the War Council in Vienna

Lewis of Baden, his nephew

Philip William, Count Palatine of Pfalz-Neuburg

Ernest Augustus, Duke of Hanover-Calenberg

George Frederick, Count Waldeck

Abele, President of the Treasury in Vienna

Borgomanero, Spanish ambassador in Vienna

Buonvisi, Papal Nuncio in Vienna

Caplirs, Vice-President of the War Council

Caprara, Leopolds envoy to the Sultan

Knigsegg, Imperial Vice-Chancellor

Kuniz, Leopolds envoy to the Sultan

Lamberg, John Maximilian, a senior court official in Vienna

Lamberg, John Philip, his son, Leopolds envoy to Berlin and Dresden

Montecuccoli, President of the War Council until 1680

Nostitz-Reineck, Bohemian Chancellor

Pallavicini, Papal Nuncio in Warsaw

Rbenac, French ambassador in Berlin

Schwarzenberg, President of the Imperial Council

Sinelli, Bishop of Vienna

Sinzendorf, Hans, President of the Treasury until 1680

Starhemberg, Conrad, Statthalter of Lower Austria

Starhemberg, Ernest Rdiger, his son, commander of the Vienna garrison

Stratmann, Austrian Court-Chancellor

Zierowski, Leopolds ambassador in Poland

Zinzendorf, Albert, a senior court official in Vienna

To Catherine

for withstanding the siege

On 6 August 1682, an important meeting took place in Sultan Mehmed IVs great palace in Istanbul. The highest officers of his government were present, and those among them who opposed the Grand Vezir Kara Mustafa for personal reasons, or deplored his aggressive statesmanship, had been silenced. They now agreed to disregard the existing treaty of peace with the Emperor Leopold I, which was not due to expire until 1684, and they recommended a military campaign for the year 1683, to be mounted in Hungary with the maximum armament of the Sultans empire.

In fact, these dignitaries were formally accepting the Grand Vezirs decision to intensify a policy already in operation; but they could hardly fail to realise how much depended on the bigger scale, and therefore on the scope, of his new proposal. In 1681, a number of the Sultans troops stationed north of the Danube had been sent to help Imre Thkly, the Magyar leader in rebellion against Habsburg authority in Christian Hungary, that part of the country which the Turks themselves did not occupy. Early in 1682, more troops were drawn from an even wider area, including Bosnia and Serbia, for the same purpose. Their commander, old Ibrahim, the governor of Buda, gave Thkly powerful assistance and some useful Habsburg strongholds in Slovakia were captured. Up to, but not beyond this point, the policy was flexible. It could be modified or even reversed. But now the Sultan, inspired by the Grand Vezir, went decidedly further. He recognised Thkly as King of Hungary under Ottoman protection. He instructed his own court, and in addition the full complement of his household troops, to winter in Adrianople. He began to summon other contingents from his more distant provinces. It was soon understood that they were all to move northwards during the early months of the following year to Belgrade, the general rendezvous for an immense concentration of forces.