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. 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.

Since 1679, the plague had been raging in Vienna.

During the years preceding this second siege (the first 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. The battle is also noted for including the largest known cavalry charge in history.Ĭapturing the city of Vienna had long been a strategic aspiration of the Ottoman Empire, because of its interlocking control over Danubian (Black Sea to Western Europe) southern Europe, and the overland (Eastern Mediterranean to Germany) trade routes. In fact, during the sixteen years following the battle, the Austrian Habsburgs gradually recovered and dominated southern Hungary and Transylvania, which had been largely cleared of Turkish forces. Historians suggest the battle marked the turning-point in the Ottoman–Habsburg wars, a 300-year struggle between the Holy Roman and Ottoman Empires. The decisive battle took place on 11 September, after the united relief army of about 46,000 men had arrived. The Turkish forces consisted of 60 ortas of Janissaries (12,000 men paper-strength) with an observation army of c.70,000 men watching the countryside. An Ottoman army of approximately 90,000–300,000 men began the siege on 14 July 1683. The opposing military forces were those of Ottoman Empire and those of Ottoman fiefdoms commanded by Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha. The overall command was held by the senior leader, the King of Poland, John III Sobieski, who led the Polish forces.

(The march of the Lithuanian army was delayed, and they reached Vienna after it had been relieved.) The Viennese garrison was led by Ernst Rüdiger Graf von Starhemberg, an Austrian subject of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. The battle was won by the combined forces of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nations and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the latter represented only by the forces of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. In the ensuing war that lasted until 1698, the Turks lost almost all of Hungary to the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. The battle marked the first time Poland and the Holy Roman Empire had cooperated militarily against the Turks, and it is often seen as a turning point in history, after which 'the Ottoman Turks ceased to be a menace to the Christian world'. The battle was fought by the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nations in league with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Holy League) against the invading Muslim Ottoman Empire and chiefdoms of the Ottoman Empire, and took place at Kahlenberg Mountain near Vienna. The Battle of Vienna (German: Schlacht am Kahlen Berge or Kahlenberg Polish: bitwa pod Wiedniem or odsiecz wiedeńska Modern Turkish: İkinci Viyana Kuşatması, Ottoman Turkish: Beç Ḳalʿası Muḥāṣarası) took place in Vienna on 11th and concluding on the 12th of September 1683 after the imperial city of Vienna had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months.

1683 battle of vienna