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{{Short description|1683 battle between the Christian European States and the Ottomans}}
{{About|the 1683 battle at the end of the second Turkish Siege of Vienna|the first Turkish Siege of Vienna|Siege of Vienna (1529)|the 1945 battle|Vienna offensive|the American Civil War battle|Battle of Vienna, Virginia|other uses|Siege of Vienna (disambiguation){{!}}Siege of Vienna}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Siege and Battle of Vienna
| partof            = the [[Great Turkish War]], the [[Ottoman–Habsburg wars]], and the [[Polish–Ottoman War (1683–1699)|Polish–Ottoman War]]
| image             = Anonym Entsatz Wien 1683.jpg
| image_size        = 300px
| caption           = Battle of Vienna, 12 September 1683
| date              = Siege: 14 July – 11 September 1683<br>({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=7|day1=14|year1=1683|month2=9|day2=12|year2=1683}})<br>Battle: 12 September 1683<ref name=Finkel>{{cite book |last=Finkel |first=Caroline |title=Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wHiuDAEACAAJ |pages=286–87 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-02396-7 |year=2006 |access-date=14 September 2021 |archive-date=25 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231125172437/https://books.google.com/books?id=wHiuDAEACAAJ |url-status=live}}</ref>
| place             = [[Vienna]], [[Archduchy of Austria]], [[Holy Roman Empire]] (now Vienna, Austria)
| coordinates       = {{Wikidatacoord|Q200855|display=inline,title|name=Türkenschanzpark}}
| territory         = * Coalition of Christians establishes [[Holy League (1684)|Holy League]] to push back the Ottomans
* Beginning of the [[Great Turkish War]]
* Ottomans fail to take Vienna, coalition (later the [[Holy League (1684)|Holy League]]) forces invade territories in Hungary and the Balkans under Ottoman rule
| result            = Christian coalition victory<ref name=Finkel />
| combatant1        = {{flagicon image|Ottoman Vienna standard.svg|border=no}} '''[[Ottoman Empire]]'''
'''Vassal states''':
* {{flagicon image|Coat of arms of Crimean Khanate.svg}} [[Crimean Khanate]]
* {{flagicon image|Flag of Vladislaus II of Hungary.svg|border=no}} [[Principality of Upper Hungary|Upper Hungary]]
* {{resize|{{flagicon|Moldavia}}}} [[Moldavia]]
* {{flag|Transylvania}}
* {{flag|Wallachia}}
| combatant2        = '''[[Holy League (1684)|Holy League]]:'''<br>
'''{{flag|Holy Roman Empire}}'''
[[File:Arms of Counts of Habsbourg.svg|16px]] [[Habsburg monarchy]]
* {{flagcountry|Archduchy of Austria}}
Non-Habsburg states of the Holy Roman Empire
* {{flagicon|Baden}} [[Margraviate of Baden|Baden]]
* {{flagcountry|Electorate of Bavaria}}
* {{flagcountry|Electorate of Saxony}}
* {{flagicon|Franconia}} [[Franconian Circle|Franconia]]
* {{flagicon image|Wappen schwäbischer Reichskreis 2.jpg|border=no|size=25px}} [[Swabian Circle|Swabia]]
* {{flagicon image|Pabellon de Brandeburgo (c. 1684).svg}} [[Brandenburg-Prussia]]
'''{{flag|Poland–Lithuania}}'''
* {{flagicon image|Banner of Jan III Sobieski.svg|border=no|size=16px}} [[Crown of the Kingdom of Poland]]
{{flagdeco|Cossack Hetmanate}} [[Cossack Hetmanate]]<br>{{flag|Wallachia}} (secretly)<ref name="historia">{{cite web |url=https://www.historia.ro/sectiune/general/articol/participarea-lui-serban-cantacuzino-la-cel-de-al-doilea-asediul-vienei |title=Participarea lui Șerban Cantacuzino la cel de-al Doilea Asediul Vienei |language=ro |work=Historia |date=20 November 2020 |access-date=20 March 2022 |archive-date=28 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128171334/https://www.historia.ro/sectiune/general/articol/participarea-lui-serban-cantacuzino-la-cel-de-al-doilea-asediul-vienei |url-status=live}}</ref>
| commander1        = {{flagicon image|Ottoman Vienna standard.svg|border=no}} [[Grand Vizier]] '''[[Kara Mustafa Pasha]]{{executed}}'''<br>{{flagicon image|Ottoman Vienna standard.svg|border=no}} Kara Mehmed of Diyarbakir<br>{{flagicon image|Ottoman Vienna standard.svg|border=no}} Ibrahim of Buda<br>{{flagicon image|Ottoman Vienna standard.svg|border=no}} Abaza Sari Hüseyin<br>{{flagicon image|Ottoman Vienna standard.svg|border=no}} Pasha of Karahisar<br>{{flagicon image|Coat of arms of Crimean Khanate.svg}} [[Murad Giray]]<br>{{flagicon image|Flag of Vladislaus II of Hungary.svg|border=no}} [[Imre Thököly]]<br>{{flagicon|Moldavia}} [[George Ducas]]{{POW}}<br>{{flagicon|Transylvania|1615}} [[Michael I Apafi]]<br>{{flagicon|Wallachia}} [[Șerban Cantacuzino]]
| commander2        = {{flagicon|Holy Roman Empire}} '''[[Charles V, Duke of Lorraine|Charles of Lorraine]]'''<br>{{flagicon|Holy Roman Empire}} [[Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg]]<br>{{flagicon|Holy Roman Empire}} [[Georg Rimpler]]{{DOW}}<br>{{flagicon|Holy Roman Empire}} {{flagicon|Electorate of Saxony}} [[John George III]]<br>{{flagicon|Holy Roman Empire}} [[Georg Friedrich of Waldeck]]<br>{{flagicon|Holy Roman Empire}} [[Julius Francis, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg]]<br>{{flagicon|Holy Roman Empire}} {{flagicon|Electorate of Bavaria}} [[Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria|Maximilian II Emanuel of Bavaria]]<br>{{flagicon|Holy Roman Empire}} [[Eugene of Savoy]]<br>{{flagicon|Holy Roman Empire}} [[Livio Odescalchi]]<ref name="historia"/><br>{{flagicon|Poland–Lithuania}} '''[[John III Sobieski]]'''<br>{{flagicon|Poland–Lithuania}} [[Stanisław Jan Jabłonowski]]<br>{{flagicon|Poland–Lithuania}} [[Mikołaj Hieronim Sieniawski]]<br>{{flagicon|Poland–Lithuania}} [[Marcin Kątski]]<br>{{flagdeco|Cossack Hetmanate}} [[Semyon Paliy]]<br>{{flagicon|Wallachia}} [[Șerban Cantacuzino]] (secretly)
| strength1         = '''120,000''' soldiers to 65,000 soldiers during 60 days of siege with around 60 [[cannon|guns]]<ref name=":2" /> <br />
'''90,000''' to 40,000 soldiers during 60 days of siege<ref name=":2" /><br /><br />
'''150,000''' as of 10 September 1683,<ref name="Forst de Battaglia, Otto 1983">{{Citation |last=Forst de Battaglia |first=Otto |title=Jan Sobieski, Mit Habsburg gegen die Türken |publisher=Styria Vlg. Graz |year=1982 |page=215 of 1983 Polish translated edition}}</ref> down from 170,000 at the start of the campaign, according to documents on the [[order of battle]] found in Kara Mustafa's tent.<ref name="Wimmer, Jan 1983">{{Citation |last=Wimmer |first=Jan |title=Wiedeń 1683 |publisher=MON |year=1983 |page=306}}</ref>
{{refn|The lowest estimate is 90,000,<ref name="masters2009">Bruce Alan Masters, Gábor Ágoston: ''Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire'', Infobase Publishing, 2009, {{ISBN|1438110251}}, 584.</ref> while according to older estimates even up to 300,000<ref name="Harbottle, Thomas Benfield 1905">{{Citation |last=Harbottle |first=Thomas |title=Dictionary of Battles |publisher=E.P. Sutton & Co |year=1905 |page=262}}</ref><ref name="Clare, Israel Smith 1876">{{Citation |last=Clare |first=Israel |title=The Centennial Universal History: A Clear and Concise History of All Nations, with a Full History of the United States to the Close of the First 100 Years of Our National Independence. |publisher=J. C. McCurdy & Co. |year=1876 |page=252}}</ref><ref name="Drane, Augusta Theodosia 1858">{{Citation |last=Drane |first=Augusta |title=The Knights of St. John: With the Battle of Lepanto and Siege of Vienna. |publisher=Burns and Lambert |year=1858 |page=136}}</ref><ref name="Building News 1890">''American Architect and Building News''. 29.767 (1890): 145. Print.</ref>|group=Note}}&nbsp;<sup>– alternative estimates</sup>
Approximately 150 [[cannon]]s<ref name="masters2009"/>
| strength2         = '''Viennese garrison:'''
<br />11,000 soldiers<ref name="Podhorodecki, Leszek 2001, p. 83">{{Citation |last=Podhorodecki |first=Leszek |title=Wiedeń 1683 |publisher=Bellona |year=2001 |page=83}}</ref> + 5,000 volunteers<ref name="Podhorodecki, Leszek 2001, p. 83" />
<br />312 [[cannon|guns]] but only 141 operational<ref name="Podhorodecki, Leszek 2001, p. 83" />
<br />(strength on 10 September 1683)
----
'''Relief force:'''
<br /> 70,000 soldiers with 165–200 [[cannon|guns]]<ref name="K. Sakul P. 393-395">{{Cite book |last=Şakul |first=Kahraman |title=II. Viyana Kuşatması Yedi Ejderin Fendi |publisher=Timaş Publishing |year=2021 |isbn=978-6050835663 |location=İstanbul |pages=394–395 |language=tr}}</ref><ref name=":4"/>
* 18,500 Austrians<ref name="K. Sakul P. 393-395"/>
* 28,500 Germans<ref name="K. Sakul P. 393-395"/>
* 18,000 Poles<ref name="K. Sakul P. 393-395"/>
* 5,000 Cossacks<ref name=":4"/>
'''According to Podhorodecki:'''
<br />47,000 Germans and Austrians with some 112 [[cannon|guns]]<ref name="Podhorodecki, Leszek 2001, p. 106">{{Citation |last=Podhorodecki |first=Leszek |title=Wiedeń 1683 |publisher=Bellona |year=2001 |page=106}}</ref>
<br />27,000 Poles with 28 [[cannon|guns]]<ref name="Podhorodecki, Leszek 2001, p. 105">{{Citation |last=Podhorodecki |first=Leszek |title=Wiedeń 1683 |publisher=Bellona |year=2001 |page=105}}</ref>
----
'''Total:'''
<br />'''90,000''' but some left behind to guard bridges near Tulln and camps, plus 2,000 Imperial cavalry (not included above) left behind the Danube.<ref name="Podhorodecki, Leszek 2001, pp. 83, 106">{{Citation |last=Podhorodecki |first=Leszek |title=Wiedeń 1683 |publisher=Bellona |year=2001 |pages=83, 106}}</ref>

{{refn|'''Viennese garrison''': 15,000 soldiers<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SWBkx0UlgMAC&pg=PA216 |first1=Spencer |last1=Tucker |title=Battles That Changed History: An Encyclopedia of World Conflict |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2010 |page=215 |isbn=978-1598844290 |access-date=19 October 2015 |archive-date=25 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231125172455/https://books.google.com/books?id=SWBkx0UlgMAC&pg=PA216 |url-status=live}}</ref> + 8,700 volunteers,<ref name="masters2009"/> 370 [[cannon]]s<br>'''Relief force''': 50,000–60,000 Germans,<ref name="ReferenceB">''Austria's Wars of Emergence'', Michael Hochedlinger</ref> 15,000–20,000 Poles,<ref name="ReferenceB"/><ref name="ReferenceC">''The Enemy at the Gate'', Andrew Wheatcroft. 2008.</ref> 5,000 [[Zaporozhian Cossacks|Cossacks]]<ref name=":3"/><ref name=":4">{{Cite book |author=Dmytro Doroshenko |title=History of the Ukraine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CJ0qzgEACAAJ |publisher=A. Vansovich |year=1939|page=325}}</ref>|group=Note}}&nbsp;<sup>– alternative estimates</sup>
| casualties1       = '''Total casualties:<br />~66,000–79,000''' dead or captured<br>40,000+ deserted
----
Casualties during the siege: 48,544 killed, 25% desertion and unknown number of deaths from diseases<ref name=":2" />
----
Casualties during the battle: 8,000–20,000<ref name="Tucker" />{{rp|661}}<br />
Captured: ~10,000<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|661}}
| casualties2       = '''Total casualties:<br />16,500–20,000'''
----
Casualties during the siege: 12,000<ref name="masters2009"/>
----
Casualties during the battle: 4,500<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|661}}
<br />3,500 dead or wounded (1,300 Poles)<ref name="Podhorodecki, Leszek 2001, pp. 140–141">{{Citation |last=Podhorodecki |first=Leszek |title=Wiedeń 1683 |publisher=Bellona |year=2001 |pages=140–141}}</ref>
| campaignbox       = {{Campaignbox Great Turkish War}}
{{Campaignbox Polish-Ottoman Battles}}
}}

The '''Siege''' and '''Battle of Vienna'''{{efn|{{langx|de|link=no|Schlacht am Kahlenberg|lit=Battle of the Bald Mountain}}; {{langx|pl|odsiecz wiedeńska|lit=Relief of Vienna}} or ''bitwa pod Wiedniem''; {{langx|ota|بچ محاصرهسى|translit=Beç Muḥāṣarası|lit=siege of [[Vienna#Etymology|Beç]]}}; {{langx|tr|İkinci Viyana Kuşatması|lit=second siege of Vienna}}}} took place at [[Kahlenberg]] Mountain near [[Vienna]] on {{nobr|12 September}} 1683<ref name=Finkel /> after the city had been besieged by the [[Ottoman Empire]] for two months. The battle was fought by the [[Holy Roman Empire]] (led by the [[Habsburg monarchy]]) and the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]], both under the command of Polish King [[John III Sobieski]], against the Ottomans and their [[Vassal and tributary states of the Ottoman Empire|vassal and tributary states]]. The battle marked the first time the Commonwealth and the Holy Roman Empire had cooperated militarily against the Ottomans. The defeat was a turning point for Ottoman expansion into Europe, after which they would gain no further ground.<ref name=Leitsch01>{{cite journal |author=Leitsch, Walter |title=1683: The Siege of Vienna |access-date=19 December 2014 |journal=History Today |date=July 1983 |volume=33 |issue=7 |url=http://www.historytoday.com/walter-leitsch/1683-siege-vienna |archive-date=21 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221234902/https://www.historytoday.com/walter-leitsch/1683-siege-vienna |url-status=live}}</ref>{{refn|The defeat of the Ottoman Army outside the gates of Vienna 300 years ago is usually regarded as the beginning of the decline of the Ottoman Empire. But Walter Leitsch asks whether it was such a turning point in the history of Europe? ... However, it marks a turning point: not only was further Ottoman advance on Christian territories stopped, [[Great Turkish War|but in the following war]] that lasted up to 1698 almost all of [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungary]] was reconquered by the army of Emperor Leopold I. From 1683 the Ottoman Turks ceased to be a menace to the Christian world. ... The battle of Vienna was a turning point in one further respect: the success was due to the cooperation between the troops of the Emperor, some Imperial princes and the Poles. ... However the co-operation between the two non-maritime neighbours of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, the Emperor and Poland, was something new. ... Walter Leitsch is Professor of East European History and Director of the Institute of East and Southeast European Research at the University of Vienna.<ref name=Leitsch01/>|group=Note}} In the ensuing war that lasted until 1699, the Ottomans would cede most of [[Ottoman Hungary]] to [[Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor]].<ref name=Leitsch01/>

The battle was won by the combined forces of the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the latter represented only by the forces of the [[Crown of the Kingdom of Poland]] (the march of the [[Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army|Lithuanian army]] was delayed, and they reached Vienna after it had been relieved).<ref name="Davies, Norman 1982">{{Citation |last=Davies |first=Norman |title=God's Playground, a History of Poland: The Origins to 1795 |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1982 |page=487}}</ref> The Viennese garrison was led by [[Feldzeugmeister]] of the [[Imperial Army (Holy Roman Empire)|Holy Roman Imperial Army]] [[Ernst Rüdiger Graf von Starhemberg]], an Austrian subject of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. The overall command was held by the senior leader, the [[King of Poland]], John III Sobieski, who led the relief forces.

The forces of the Ottoman Empire and its vassal states were commanded by [[Grand Vizier]] [[Kara Mustafa Pasha|Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha]]. The Ottoman army numbered approximately 90,000<ref name="masters2009"/> to 300,000<ref name="Harbottle, Thomas Benfield 1905"/><ref name="Clare, Israel Smith 1876"/><ref name="Drane, Augusta Theodosia 1858"/><ref name="Building News 1890"/> men (according to documents on the [[order of battle]] found in Kara Mustafa's tent, initial strength at the start of the campaign was 170,000 men<ref name="Wimmer, Jan 1983" />). They began the siege on 14 July 1683. Ottoman forces consisted, among other units, of 60 [[Orta (Janissary)|ortas]] of [[Janissary|Janissaries]] (1,000 men paper-strength) with an [[Army of observation|observation army]] of some 70,000<ref>{{cite book |author=Bruce, George |title=Harbottle's Dictionary of Battles |url=https://archive.org/details/harbottlesdictio00harb |url-access=registration |publisher=Van Nostrand Reinhold |year=1981}}</ref> men watching the countryside. The decisive battle took place on 12 September, after the arrival of the united relief army.

Some historians maintain that the battle marked a turning point in the [[Ottoman–Habsburg wars]], a 300-year struggle between the Holy Roman and Ottoman Empires. During the 16 years following the battle, the Austrian Habsburgs would gradually conquer southern Hungary and [[Principality of Transylvania (1570–1711)|Transylvania]], largely clearing them of Ottoman forces. The battle is noted for including the largest known [[cavalry charge]] in history.

== Prelude ==
[[File:OttomanEmpire1683.png|left|thumb|The Ottoman Empire in 1683]]
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]]'s towards Vienna and stopped the Ottoman advance towards Vienna that year. Vienna was not threatened again until 1683. In 1679 [[Great Plague of Vienna|plague]] had been raging in Vienna.<ref>Nähere Untersuchung der Pestansteckung, p. 42, Pascal Joseph von Ferro, Joseph Edler von Kurzbek, royal publisher, Vienna 1787.</ref>

[[File:Kuruc labanc összecsapás.jpg|thumb|left|Skirmish between Hungarian anti-Habsburg [[Kuruc]] 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 [[Royal Hungary|Hungary]]. There, in the years preceding the siege, widespread unrest had grown into open rebellion against [[Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor|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,<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|657}} who recognized Thököly as King of "[[Upper Hungary]]" (the eastern part of modern-day [[Slovakia]] and parts of northeastern [[Hungary]], which he had earlier taken by force from the Habsburgs). This support included explicitly promising the "Kingdom of Vienna" to the Hungarians if it fell into Ottoman hands. Yet before the siege, a state of peace had existed for 20 years between the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire as a result of the [[Peace of Vasvár]].

In 1681 and 1682, clashes between the forces of Imre Thököly and the Holy Roman Empire (the border of which was then northern Hungary) intensified, and the incursions of Habsburg forces into central Hungary provided the crucial argument of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha in convincing Sultan [[Mehmed IV]] and his [[Divan]] to allow the movement of the Ottoman army. Mehmed IV authorized Mustafa Pasha to operate as far as [[Győr]] (then known as ''Yanıkkale'', and in German as ''Raab'') and [[Komárom]] (in [[Turkish language|Turkish]] ''Komaron'', ''Komorn'' in German) Castles, both in northwestern Hungary, and to besiege them. The [[Military of the Ottoman Empire|Ottoman army]] was mobilized on 21 January 1682 and war was declared on 6 August 1682.

Logistically, it would have been risky or impossible to launch an invasion in August or September 1682, since a three-month campaign would have taken the Ottomans to Vienna just as winter set in. But the 15-month gap between mobilization and the launch of a full-scale invasion provided ample time for Vienna to prepare its defense and for Leopold to assemble troops from the Holy Roman Empire and form an alliance with Poland, [[Republic of Venice|Venice]] and [[Pope Innocent XI]]. The defensive alliance of the Holy Roman Empire with Poland was concluded in the 1683 Treaty of Warsaw, by which Leopold promised to support [[John III Sobieski]] if the Ottomans attacked [[Kraków]], and in return, the [[Military of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Polish army]] would come to the relief of Vienna if it were attacked.<ref name=Tucker>{{cite book |last=Tucker |first=Spencer |title=A Global Chronology of Conflict |volume=Two |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1MhaAAAAYAAJ |publisher=Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC |isbn=978-1851096671 |date=2010 |access-date=14 September 2021 |archive-date=25 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231125172447/https://books.google.com/books?id=1MhaAAAAYAAJ |url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|656, 659}}

On 31 March, another declaration{{snd}}sent by Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha on behalf of Mehmed IV{{snd}}arrived 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 [[Principality of Transylvania (1570–1711)|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.<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|660}} About 40,000 [[Crimean Khanate|Crimean Tatar]] troops arrived {{convert|40|km}} east of Vienna on 7 July,<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|660}} twice as many as the Imperial troops in the area. Emperor Leopold fled Vienna for [[Passau]] with his court and 60,000 Viennese, while [[Charles V, Duke of Lorraine]], withdrew his force of 20,000 towards [[Linz]].<ref name="Wheatcroft2009">{{cite book |author=Andrew Wheatcroft |title=The Enemy at the Gate: Habsburgs, Ottomans and the Battle for Europe |page=120 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HCmwFM8_QCoC |year=2009 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-1-4090-8682-6 |access-date=5 November 2020 |archive-date=9 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240809034243/https://books.google.com/books?id=HCmwFM8_QCoC |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|660}} The main Ottoman army arrived at Vienna on 14 July; the city's only defense force was now that of Count [[Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg]]'s 15,000 men.<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|660}} Saxon engineer [[Georg Rimpler]], who had been employed by the empire to prepare for war with the Turks, began to prepare Vienna for the upcoming siege – much of Austria's pre-war plans had calculated on fighting the Turks near the city of Győr, a plan made untenable by the Turkish advance.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Duffy |first=Christopher |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nuioCgAAQBAJ&q=georg+rimpler&pg=PA14 |title=The Fortress in the Age of Vauban and Frederick the Great 1660–1789 |date=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-40859-8 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="EickhoffEickhoff2009">{{cite book |author1=Ekkehard Eickhoff |author2=Rudolf Eickhoff |title=Venedig, Wien und die Osmanen: Umbruch in Südosteuropa 1645–1700 |page=354 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-aVLji2FzMC |year=2009 |publisher=Klett-Cotta |isbn=978-3-608-94511-9}}</ref>

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.<ref name="Davies, Norman 1982"/>

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.<ref name="ReferenceA">Stoye, John. ''The Siege of Vienna: The Last Great Trial between Cross & Crescent''. 2011 {{ISBN?}}{{page needed|date=September 2023 }}</ref>

== 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.{{refn|The original document was destroyed during World War II. For the German translation, see here [http://www.tuerkenbeute.de/res/pdf/forschung/nachweise/quellen/TuerkenkriegHabsburg.pdf] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080529103533/http://www.tuerkenbeute.de/res/pdf/forschung/nachweise/quellen/TuerkenkriegHabsburg.pdf |date=29 May 2008}} |group=Note}} Ernst Rüdiger Graf von 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]],<ref>Palmer, Alan, ''The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire'', p. 12, Barnes & Noble Publishing, 1992. {{ISBN|1-56619-847-X }}</ref> 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.<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|660}}
{|
| style="vertical-align:top" | [[File:Perchtoldsdorf Pfarrkirche Türkenfenster 01 (cropped).jpg|thumb|x120px|The plundering of Perchtoldsdorf, parish church [[Perchtoldsdorf]]]]
| style="vertical-align:top" | [[File: August Querfurt - The Turkish siege of Vienna.jpg|thumb|x120px|The Ottomans before the walls of Vienna, by [[August Querfurt]]]]
| style="vertical-align:top" | [[File:Vienna Battle 1683.jpg|thumb|x120px|The Ottoman Army surrounds Vienna, by [[Frans Geffels]]]]
| style="vertical-align:top" | [[File:Atlas Van der Hagen-KW1049B10 051 3B-Iver der Geestelyke en Wereltlyke in Weenen, int ruineeren en verbranden der Turkse werken, en Logementen.jpeg|thumb|x120px|Civilian defence of Viennas fortifications, by [[Romeyn de Hooghe]]]]
|}

The Viennese had demolished many of the houses around the city walls and cleared the debris, leaving an empty plain that would expose the Ottomans to defensive fire if they tried to rush into the city.<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|660}} In response to this Kara Mustafa Pasha would order his forces to dig long lines of trenches directly toward the city, to help protect them from the defenders as they advanced.

The Ottomans had 130 field guns and 19 medium-caliber cannon, compared to the defenders' 370.<ref name="masters2009"/> [[Mining (military)|Mining]] tunnels were dug under the city walls, which would then be filled with sufficient quantities of [[gunpowder|black powder]] to demolish the walls.<ref name="MIC2015">{{cite book |author=Michael Gaitley, MIC |title=The Second Greatest Story Ever Told |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PeG5BgAAQBAJ&pg=PT33 |year=2015 |publisher=Marian Press – Association of Marian Helpers |isbn=978-1-59614-319-7 |pages=33– |access-date=5 November 2020 |archive-date=9 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240809034722/https://books.google.com/books?id=PeG5BgAAQBAJ&pg=PT33#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|660}} According to Andrew Wheatcroft, the outer [[palisade]] was around 150 years old and mostly rotten. To counter this, the defenders set to work knocking very large tree trunks into the ground to surround the walls. This disrupted the Ottoman plan of a quick siege, adding almost another three weeks to the time it would take to get past the old palisade.<ref>{{cite episode |title=The Siege of Vienna |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00k9h9g |series=In Our Time |credits=[[Melvyn Bragg]], Andrew Wheatcroft, Dr. Claire Norton and [[Jeremy Black (historian)]] |station=BBC Radio 4 |airdate=14 May 2009 |minutes=17:30}}</ref> This, combined with the delay in advancing their army after declaring war, eventually allowed a relief force to arrive in September.<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|660}} Some historians have speculated that Kara Mustafa wanted to take the city intact with its riches and declined an all-out attack, not wishing to initiate the plundering that would accompany an assault, which was viewed as the right of conquering soldiers.<ref name="brandon">{{cite web |last=Bates |first=Brandon J. |year=2003 |url=http://writing.byu.edu/content/honors/contest/2003/batesbrandon.pdf |title=The Beginning of the End: The Failure of the Siege of Vienna of 1683 |publisher=Brigham Young University |access-date=28 August 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822060754/http://writing.byu.edu/content/honors/contest/2003/batesbrandon.pdf |archive-date=22 August 2006}}</ref>

The Ottoman siege cut virtually all means of food supply into Vienna.<ref>{{cite web |last=Ripperton |first=Lisa |url=http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=morris&book=german&story=vienna |title=The Siege of Vienna |publisher=The Baldwin Project |access-date=28 August 2006 |archive-date=5 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181005034945/http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=morris&book=german&story=vienna |url-status=live}}</ref> Fatigue became so common that von 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, {{cvt|5|km}} northwest of Vienna.

On 6 September, the Poles under Sobieski crossed the [[Danube]] {{cvt|30|km}} northwest of Vienna at [[Tulln]], to unite with imperial troops and the additional forces from [[Electorate of Saxony|Saxony]], [[Electorate of Bavaria|Bavaria]], [[Brandenburg-Prussia]], [[Margraviate of Baden|Baden]] and [[Army of the Holy Roman Empire|other imperial estates]]. [[Louis XIV]] of [[Kingdom of France|France]] declined to help his [[France–Habsburg rivalry|Habsburg rival]], having just [[War of the Reunions#Background|annexed Alsace]].<ref name="MIC2015"/> Approximately 5,000 [[Zaporozhian Cossacks]] led by [[Semyon Paliy]] joined the relief force.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |author=Alexander Paly |title=Історія України |trans-title=History of Ukraine |volume=3 |year=2017 |location=[[Kyiv]] |publisher=К.І.С |isbn=978-617-684-166-1|language=uk|page=381}}</ref>

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.<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|661}} Sobieski's courage and aptitude for command were already known in Europe.{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}}

During early September, approximately 5,000 experienced Ottoman [[sapper]]s had repeatedly demolished large portions of the walls between the Burg [[bastion]], the Löbel bastion and the Burg [[ravelin]], creating gaps of about {{convert|12|m}} 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.<ref name="MIC2015"/>

== Ottoman siege casualties (July 17–September 12, 1683) ==
{| class="wikitable" style="float:right"
! Initial Ottoman Army unit numbers<ref>Kahraman Şakul. II. Viyana Kuşatması: Yedi Ejderin Fendi, Timaş Yayınları. İstanbul 2021. pp. 229–231.</ref>
|-
| style="text-align:center; vertical-align:top" |
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:85%"
| style="text-align:center; width:19em" bgcolor="#FFDF3F" | '''A. Kapıkulu (household) Army''' || style="text-align:center; width:4em" bgcolor="#FFDF3F" | '''78,500'''
|-
| style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#FFE97F" | Janissary and cebeci (weaponeer) and gunner || style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#FFE97F" | 60,000
|-
| style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#FFE97F" | ''Sipâh'' (Kapıkulu) (household cavalry) || style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#FFE97F" | 15,000
|-
| style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#FFE97F" | ''Mısır Kulu'' (Mamluks) || style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#FFE97F" | 3,000
|-
| style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#FFE97F" | ''Şam Kulu'' (Damascus Mamluks) || style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#FFE97F" | 500
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:85%"
| style="text-align:center; width:19em" bgcolor="#FF8C3F" | '''B. Tımarlı Sipahiler (provincial cavalry)''' || style="text-align:center; width:4em" bgcolor="#FF8C3F" | '''40,000'''
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:85%"
| style="text-align:center; width:19em" bgcolor="#79FF3F" | '''C. Kapı Halkları (governor's retinue)''' || style="text-align:center; width:4em" bgcolor="#79FF3F" | '''44,200'''
|-
| style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#A7FF7F" | 8 viziers, three of them ''Tug''-ed (banner) || style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#A7FF7F" | 19,300
|-
| style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#A7FF7F" | Kara Mustafa Paşa || style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#A7FF7F" | 6,000
|-
| style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#A7FF7F" | Janissary Agha Vizier Mustafa Pasha || style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#A7FF7F" | 2,000
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:85%"
| style="text-align:center; width:19em" bgcolor="#3FAFFF" | '''D. Vassal States''' || style="text-align:center; width:4em" bgcolor="#3FAFFF" | '''100,000'''
|-
| style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#7FC9FF" | Tatars || style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#7FC9FF" | 50,000
|-
| style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#7FC9FF" | Wallachia || style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#7FC9FF" | 10,000
|-
| style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#7FC9FF" | Moldavia || style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#7FC9FF" | 10,000
|-
| style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#7FC9FF" | Transylvania || style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#7FC9FF" | 10,000
|-
| style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#7FC9FF" |Middle Magyar (Thököly) || style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#7FC9FF" | 20,000
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:85%"
| style="text-align:center; width:19em" bgcolor="#BFA87A" | '''E. Rear Services''' || style="text-align:center; width:4em" bgcolor="#BFA87A" | '''170,000'''
|-
| style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#E5C992" | Clerk and janitor || style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#E5C992" | 20,000
|-
| style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#E5C992" | Shepherd, animal driver, etc. || style="text-align:center" bgcolor="#E5C992" | 150,000
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:85%"
| style="text-align:center; width:19em" | '''Total''' || style="text-align:center; width:4em" | '''432,700'''
|}
|}
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 [[Wallachia]]n, 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, [[Crimean Tatars|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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Şakul |first=Kahraman |title=II. Viyana Kuşatması Yedi Ejderin Fendi |publisher=Timaş Publishing |year=2021 |isbn=978-6050835663 |location=İstanbul |page=228 |language=tr}}</ref> 

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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Şakul |first=Kahraman |title=II. Viyana Kuşatması Yedi Ejderin Fendi |publisher=Timaş Publishing |year=2021 |isbn=978-6050835663 |location=İstanbul |pages=232–233 |language=tr}}</ref>

[[File:Battle of Vienna.Sipahis.jpg|thumb|left|upright|A depiction of [[Sipahi]]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<ref>{{Cite book |last=Şakul |first=Kahraman |title=II. Viyana Kuşatması Yedi Ejderin Fendi |publisher=Timaş Publishing |year=2021 |isbn=978-6050835663 |location=İstanbul |pages=302 |language=tr}}</ref>). 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.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Şakul |first=Kahraman |title=II. Vİyana Kuşatması Yedi Ejderin Fendi |publisher=Timas Publishing |year=2021 |isbn=978-6050835663 |location=İstanbul |pages=391 |language=tr}}</ref> Compounding this, desertion (Ottoman sources and [[Luigi Ferdinando Marsili|Luigi Marsigli]] give a 1/4 desertion of the Ottoman army<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Şakul |first=Kahraman |title=II. Vİyana Kuşatması Yedi Ejderin Fendi |publisher=Timaş Publishing |year=2021 |isbn=978-6050835663 |location=İstanbul |pages=392 |language=tr}}</ref>) 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<ref name=":0" />) to a warweary 40,000 soldiers. K. Şakul combines Kunitz's 90,000 combatant information for 12 August with an Ottoman casualties list, estimating the Ottoman army as 90,000 men (65,000 soldiers, around 60 guns and 25,000 rear service)<ref name=":2" /> but Kunitz's 90,000 combatant information belongs to 12 August while the Ottoman list is for 10 September.<ref name=":1" /> The Ottoman vassals of Transylvania, Wallachia and [[Moldavia]] were assigned to hold bridges on key retreat routes, thus not participating in the battle. The Tatar vassals were expected to participate in battle by the Ottomans but the mostly irregular Tatar horsemen demonstrated little effectiveness in battle, dissimilar to previous engagements. A lone 28,400 to 50,000 Ottoman army would battle against the relief army consisting of 65,000 soldiers (68,000 misinformation is originated from counting the 3,000 Polish contingent twice joined to the relief army beforehand) with 165–200 guns.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Şakul |first=Kahraman |title=II. Viyana Kuşatması Yedi Ejderin Fendi |publisher=Timaş Publishing |year=2021 |isbn=978-6050835663 |location=İstanbul |pages=393 |language=tr}}</ref>

== Staging the battle ==
[[File:1684 Entsatz von Wien anagoria.JPG|thumb|left|The relief of Vienna on 12 September 1683]]
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.<ref name="ReferenceA" /> The Habsburgs and Poles also agreed that the Polish government would pay for its own troops while still in Poland, but that the Emperor would fund them once they crossed into imperial territory. However, the Emperor would recognize Sobieski's claim to first rights of plunder of the enemy camp in the event of a victory.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref name="Malden2014">{{cite book |author=Henry Elliot Malden |title=Salus Vienna Tua: The great siege of 1683 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NDv1AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT79 |year=2014 |publisher=Soldiershop Publishing |isbn=978-88-96519-84-4 |pages=79– |access-date=5 November 2020 |archive-date=9 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240809034820/https://books.google.com/books?id=NDv1AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT79#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:Juliusz Kossak Sobieski pod Wiedniem.jpeg|thumb|''Sobieski at Vienna'' by [[Juliusz Kossak]] ]]

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]], [[List of rulers of Moldavia|Prince of Moldavia]], was captured.<ref name="EickhoffEickhoff2009" /> [[Șerban Cantacuzino]], who sympathized with the Christian Coalition,<ref>Ştefan Ştefănescu, "Defense of the Integrity of the Romanian States in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries", in Hie Ceausescu ed., War Revolution and Society in Romania the Road to Independence, New York, Social Science Monographs, Boulder, 1983, p. 76.</ref> joined the retreat after Sobieski's cavalry charge.<ref name="EickhoffEickhoff2009"/> 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.<ref name="historia3" />

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.<ref name="EickhoffEickhoff2009"/>

== Battle ==
{{See also|Order of battle for the Battle of Vienna (1683)}}
[[File:Bitwa pod Wiedniem (cropped).PNG|thumb|upright|The position of the Holy League armies (north), the besieged Vienna (middle), and the Ottoman army (between Vienna and Holy League armies) during the battle]]
The battle started before all units were fully deployed. At 4:00&nbsp;am on 12 September, the Ottoman army attacked, seeking to interfere with the deployment of [[Holy League (1684)|Holy League]] troops.<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|661}} The Germans would be the first to counterattack. Charles of Lorraine moved forward with the imperial army on the left and other imperial forces in the center and, after heavy fighting and multiple Ottoman counterattacks, took several key positions, in particular the fortified villages of [[Nussdorf, Vienna|Nussdorf]] and [[Heiligenstadt, Vienna|Heiligenstadt]]. By midday, the imperial army had inflicted significant damage on the Ottoman forces and would come close to a breakthrough.<ref>Wheatcroft, Andrew (2008). ''The Enemy at the Gate'', Preface p. xix, [https://books.google.com/books?id=uOYWBQAAQBAJ&dq=Vienna&pg=PA1 p. 1].</ref> 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.<ref name="historia3">{{cite web |title=Participarea lui Șerban Cantacuzino la cel de-al Doilea Asediul Vienei |url=https://www.historia.ro/sectiune/general/articol/participarea-lui-serban-cantacuzino-la-cel-de-al-doilea-asediul-vienei |work=Historia |language=ro |access-date=20 March 2022 |archive-date=28 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128171334/https://www.historia.ro/sectiune/general/articol/participarea-lui-serban-cantacuzino-la-cel-de-al-doilea-asediul-vienei |url-status=live}}</ref>
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<ref>{{cite web |date=6 November 2005 |url=http://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/23/0,1872,2392407,00.html |title=Duell im Dunkeln |publisher=2DF |language=de |access-date=28 August 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929134810/http://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/23/0%2C1872%2C2392407%2C00.html |archive-date=29 September 2007}}</ref> to breach the walls. In total, ten mines were set to explode but they were located by the defenders and disarmed.

[[File:King John III Sobieski blessing Polish attack on Turks in Vienna 1683.PNG|thumb|upright|left|King [[John III Sobieski]] 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&nbsp;pm the Poles had captured the village of [[Währing|Gersthof]], which would serve as a base for their cavalry charge.<ref name="ReferenceC"/> 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.<ref name="idem">idem</ref>

The German forces resumed the offensive on the left front at 3:30&nbsp;pm. At first, they encountered fierce resistance and were unable to make progress. However, by 5:00&nbsp;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),<ref name="idem"/> and as they made preparations for a final push, the Polish cavalry began to take action.<ref name="EickhoffEickhoff2009"/>

[[File:Pauwel Casteels - Battle of Vienna - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|Battle of Vienna, painting by [[Gonzales Franciscus Casteels]] ]]
It is recorded that the Polish cavalry slowly emerged from a nearby forest to the cheers of onlooking infantry, which had been anticipating their arrival. At 4:00&nbsp;pm, a detachment of 120 hussars engaged in a probing charge, successfully proving Ottoman vulnerability to attack but taking many casualties. During this action they would begin to approach the Türkenschanze, which was now threatened by three separate forces (the Poles from the west, the Saxons and Bavarians from the northwest and the Austrians from the north). At this point, the Ottoman vizier decided to leave this position and retreat to his headquarters in the main camp further south. However, by then many Ottoman soldiers were already leaving the battlefield.<ref name="ReferenceC"/>

The relief army was now ready for a final push. At around 6:00&nbsp;pm, the Polish king ordered the cavalry to attack in four contingents, three Polish groups and one from the Holy Roman Empire. 18,000 horsemen charged down the hills, the largest cavalry charge in history.<ref>{{cite book |last1=A'Barrow |first1=Stephen R |title=Death of a Nation: A New History of Germany |date=2016 |publisher=Book Guild Publishing |isbn=978-1910508817 |page=73 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AqlyCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT73}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Overy |first1=Richard |title=A History of War in 100 Battles |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0199390717 |page=58 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4jjvBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA58}}</ref> Sobieski led the charge<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|661}} at the head of 3,000 Polish heavy lancers, the "[[Polish hussars|Winged Hussars]]". [[Lipka Tatars]] who participated on the Polish side wore a sprig of straw in their helmets to distinguish them from the tatars fighting on the Ottoman side.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://aeon.co/essays/the-battle-of-vienna-was-not-a-fight-between-cross-and-crescent |title=The Battle of Vienna was not a fight between cross and crescent – Dag Herbjørnsrud {{!}} Aeon Essays |website=Aeon |access-date=20 June 2019 |archive-date=24 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180724114616/https://aeon.co/essays/the-battle-of-vienna-was-not-a-fight-between-cross-and-crescent |url-status=live }}</ref> 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 [[Sally (military)|sallied]] out of its defenses to join in the assault.<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|661}}

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.<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|661}} 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.<ref name="ReferenceC"/> Afterwards Sobieski paraphrased [[Julius Caesar]]'s famous quotation (''[[Veni, vidi, vici]]'') by saying "''Venimus, vidimus, Deus vicit''"- "We came, we saw, God conquered".<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|661}}<ref name="EickhoffEickhoff2009"/>

==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 [[Slavery in the Ottoman Empire|enslaved]] the women and children.<ref>Walters, E. N. (1997). My Memories of the Nimmerrichter-Barilitsch Family. USA: Gateway Press. XVII. 134</ref><ref>Crankshaw, E. (1971). The Habsburgs: portrait of a dynasty. Storbritannien: Viking Press. p136</ref>

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.<ref>Schimmer, Karl August (1879). The sieges of Vienna by the Turks. London : J. Murray. Contributor University of California Libraries. p. 97-98</ref> 

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.<ref>Schimmer, Karl August (1879). The sieges of Vienna by the Turks. London : J. Murray. Contributor University of California Libraries. p. 172</ref>

== Aftermath ==
[[File:Great Turkish War by Saracen Maps.png|thumb|Europe after the Battle of Vienna]]
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.<ref name="Abrahamowicz, Zygmunt 1973, p. 164">{{Citation |last=Abrahamowicz |first=Zygmunt |title=Kara mustafa pod Wiedniem. Źródła muzułmańskie do dziejów wyprawy wiedeńskiej (Kara Mustafa at Vienna. Muslim primary sources to history of the Vienna campaign) |publisher=Wydawnictwo Literackie |year=1973 |page=164}}</ref> The Ottomans lost at least 20,000 men during the siege,<ref name="Tucker" />{{rp|661}} while their losses during the battle with Sobieski's forces amounted to around 15,000 dead (according to [[Leszek Podhorodecki|Podhorodecki]])<ref name="Podhorodecki, Leszek 2001, pp. 140–141"/> or 8,000–15,000 dead and 5,000–10,000 captured (according to Tucker).<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|661}} Casualties of the relief force under Sobieski's command were much smaller, amounting to approximately 3,500 dead and wounded, including 1,300 Poles.<ref name="Podhorodecki, Leszek 2001, pp. 140–141"/> Tucker's estimate is slightly higher: 4,500.<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|661}} The 10,000 strong Viennese garrison and the civilian populace lost, due to all causes, about half of their initial number during the siege.<ref name="masters2009"/>

The Holy League troops and the Viennese took a large amount of loot from the Ottoman army, which Sobieski described in a letter to his wife a few days after the battle:
<blockquote>Ours are treasures unheard of ... tents, sheep, cattle and no small number of camels ... it is a victory as nobody ever knew before, the enemy now completely ruined, everything lost for them. They must run for their sheer lives ... General Starhemberg hugged and kissed me and called me his saviour.<ref>{{cite web |title=Letter from King Sobieski to his Wife |url=http://literat.ug.edu.pl/listys/095.htm |work=Letters from King Sobieski to his wife |publisher=University of Gdansk, Department of Cultural Studies, Faculty of Philology |access-date=4 August 2011 |archive-date=18 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120318065443/http://literat.ug.edu.pl/listys/095.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> </blockquote>

<gallery heights="100" widths="150">
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 [[Ottoman tents|Turkish tents]] captured by the Polish army in Vienna, 1683
</gallery>

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 manner{{snd}}by strangulation with a silk rope pulled by several men on each end{{snd}}by order of the [[Janissary Agha]].{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

Despite the victory of the Catholic allies, there was still tension among the various commanders and their armies. Sobieski demanded that Polish troops be allowed to have the first choice of the spoils of the Ottoman camp, and thus German and Austrian troops were left with smaller portions of the loot.<ref name=Stoye>{{cite book |last=Stoye |first=John |title=The Siege of Vienna: The Last Great Trial between Cross & Crescent |year=2011 |publisher=Pegasus Books |orig-year=2007 |page=175}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Stoye/>

Sobieski went on to liberate Grau{{clarify|date=February 2021}} and northwestern Hungary after the [[Battle of Parkany]], but [[dysentery]] halted his pursuit of the Ottomans.<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|662}} Charles V of Lorraine [[Siege of Buda (1686)|captured Buda]] and most of Hungary in 1686, establishing Habsburg control over southern Hungary and most of Transylvania in 1687 and [[Siege of Belgrade (1688)|capturing Belgrade]] in 1688.<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|663–664}}

The Ottoman defeat at Vienna sparked great celebrations in [[Safavid Empire|Safavid Iran]]; the report was apparently brought in such a spectacular way, that then incumbent Emperor (''[[Shah]]'') [[Suleiman I of Persia|Suleiman I]] ({{reign}}1666–1694) considered a march to [[Baghdad]], which had been lost in 1639 to the Ottomans by virtue of the [[Treaty of Zuhab]].<ref name="IraqSafavidIranica">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Iraq IV. Relations in the Safavid Period |last=Matthee |first=Rudi |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/iraq-iv-safavid-period |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Iranica (Vol. XIII, Fasc. 5 and Vol. XIII, Fasc. 6) |pages=556–560, 561 |year=2006 |access-date=24 January 2019 |archive-date=5 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221005210059/https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/iraq-iv-safavid-period |url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref name="IraqSafavidIranica"/> 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".<ref name="IraqSafavidIranica"/>

== Significance ==
[[File:Grottger-Jan III Sobieski i Leopold I pod Schwechat.jpg|right|thumb|''Sobieski meeting Leopold I'', by [[Artur Grottger]]]]
[[File:King John III Sobieski Sobieski sending Message of Victory to the Pope, after the Battle of Vienna 111.PNG|thumbnail|''Sobieski Sending Message of Victory to the Pope'', by [[Jan Matejko]] ]]
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.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

Since Sobieski had entrusted his kingdom to the protection of the [[Veneration of Mary in Roman Catholicism|Blessed Virgin]] ([[Black Madonna of Częstochowa|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 [[Habsburg Spain|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.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} {{Relevance inline|date=May 2023}} 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").<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pch24.pl/chca-nam-odebrac-victorie-wiedenska-,17575,i.html |title=Chcą nam odebrać Victorię wiedeńską? |work=pch24.pl |date=9 September 2013 |access-date=10 September 2016}}</ref> 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]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Vienna cancels statue of Polish king over 'Islamaphobia' fears |url=https://brusselssignal.eu/2024/11/vienna-cancels-statue-of-polish-king-over-islamaphobia-fears/ |work=Brussels Signal |date=13 November 2024}}</ref>

<gallery heights="180" widths="150">
File:Sobieskitablica.jpg|Plaque at the Polish [[Resurrectionist Congregation|''Congregatio Resurrectionis'']] church on [[Kahlenberg]]
File:ПАМ,ЯТНИК УКРАІНСЬКИМ КОЗАКАМ ВИЗВОЛИТЕЛЯМ ВІДНЯ ВІДЕНЬ 2014.jpg|Monoument to the [[Zaporozhian Cossacks]] in [[Leopoldsberg|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]]
</gallery>

=== September 11 attacks ===
Some have proposed that [[Al-Qaeda]] chose September 11, 2001 as the date to carry out [[September 11 attacks|terrorist attacks throughout the United States]] due to the day's perceived significance as the turning point in the Battle of Vienna.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hitchens |first=Christopher |date=3 October 2001 |title=Why the suicide killers chose September 11 |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/03/september11.usa2 |access-date=8 November 2023 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=9 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240809034727/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/03/september11.usa2 |url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hudson |first=John |date=3 May 2013 |title=How jihadists schedule terrorist attacks |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/05/03/how-jihadists-schedule-terrorist-attacks/ |access-date=8 November 2023 |website=Foreign Policy |language=en-US |archive-date=4 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200404042748/https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/05/03/how-jihadists-schedule-terrorist-attacks/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

== In popular culture ==
* [[Siege of Vienna raised by John Sobieski]], poem by [[William Wordsworth]] written in February 1816.<ref name="c170">{{cite book |last=Wordsworth |first=W. |title=The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, in Ten Volumes - Vol. VII: 1816-1822 |publisher=Cosimo, Incorporated |series=Cosimo Classics literature |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-60520-263-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HnuaZ6bc_LoC&pg=PR5 |access-date=11 August 2024 |page=39}}</ref>
* ''[[The Day of the Siege: September Eleven 1683]]'', a 2012 English-language Polish and Italian historical film.
* The song "Winged Hussars", from [[Sabaton (band)|Sabaton's]] 2016 album ''[[The Last Stand (Sabaton album)|The Last Stand]]'' is about the battle, specifically centred around the Polish cavalry charge on 12 September.{{cn|date=December 2024}}

== See also ==
* [[Great Turkish War]]
* [[History of Vienna]]
* [[Ottoman wars in Europe]]
* [[Scutum (constellation)|Scutum]]: a constellation named in 1684 in reference to the battle
* ''[[The Day of the Siege: September Eleven 1683]]'', a 2012 English-language Polish and Italian [[historical drama]] film based on the Battle of Vienna and directed by [[Renzo Martinelli]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}
{{Reflist|group=Note}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* Stéphane Gaber, ''Et Charles V arrêta la marche des Turcs'', Presses universitaires de Nancy, 1986, {{ISBN|2-86480-227-9}}
* {{Cite book |author=Bruce, George |title=Harbottle's Dictionary of Battles |publisher=Van Nostrand Reinhold |year=1981 |ref=none}}
* Cezary Harasimowicz ''Victoria'' Warsaw 2007, novel {{ISBN|978-83-925589-0-3}}
* [[James Michener]], ''Poland'', a novel, see Chapter V "From the South"
* Alan Palmer, ''The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire'', Published by Barnes & Noble Publishing, 1992. {{ISBN|1-56619-847-X}}
* Wheatcroft, Andrew. ''The Enemy at the Gate: Habsburgs, Ottomans and the Battle for Europe.'' New York: Basic Books, 2010. {{ISBN|978-0465020812}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Battle of Vienna}}
{{Wikisource|A Letter From the King of Poland to His Queen. In Which is Incerted Many Particulars Relating to the Victories Obtained Against the Turks. With a Prayer of the Turks against the Christians}}
* [http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse/PolishHorseArtillery.htm Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Army in the 17th century] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018232750/http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse/PolishHorseArtillery.htm |date=18 October 2012 }} from kismeta.com
* [http://www.wilanow-palac.pl/battle_of_vienna.html The Battle of Vienna] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121112024340/http://www.wilanow-palac.pl/battle_of_vienna.html |date=12 November 2012 }} at the Wilanów Museum Palace
* {{in lang|de}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20070313160521/http://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/27/0%2C1872%2C2392507%2C00.html German TV: Türken vor Wien]
* {{in lang|de}} [https://archive.today/20121208202846/http://www.arte-tv.com/de/wissen-entdeckung/abenteuer-arte/Diese_20Woche/1683_20-_20Die_20T_C3_BCrken_20vor_20Wien/912238.html Arte TV: Türken vor Wien]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20161112212930/https://www.msz.gov.pl/resource/21badcbf-0c18-4fb8-8b19-3d382469d25f%3AJCR ''Winged Hussars''], Radoslaw Sikora, Bartosz Musialowicz, ''BUM Magazine'', 2016.
* "[https://aeon.co/essays/the-battle-of-vienna-was-not-a-fight-between-cross-and-crescent The Real Battle of Vienna]", by [[Dag Herbjørnsrud]], [[Aeon (digital magazine)|Aeon]], 24 July 2018.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vienna 1683}}
[[Category:1683 in the Habsburg monarchy]]
[[Category:1683 in the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:17th century in Austria]]
[[Category:17th century in Vienna]]
[[Category:Habsburg monarchy–Ottoman Empire relations]]
[[Category:Battles involving Bavaria]]
[[Category:Battles involving Moldavia]]
[[Category:Battles involving Saxony]]
[[Category:Battles involving the Crimean Khanate]]
[[Category:Battles involving the Principality of Transylvania (1570–1711)]]
[[Category:Battles involving Wallachia]]
[[Category:Battles involving the Cossack Hetmanate]]
[[Category:Battles of the Great Turkish War]]
[[Category:Battles of the Polish–Ottoman War (1683–1699)]]
[[Category:Cavalry charges]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1683]]
[[Category:Invasions of Austria]]
[[Category:Military history of the Habsburg monarchy]]
[[Category:Sieges involving the Holy Roman Empire]]
[[Category:Sieges involving the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Sieges involving the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]]
[[Category:Sieges of the Hungarian–Ottoman Wars]]
[[Category:Sieges involving Hungary]]
[[Category:Sieges of Vienna]]
[[Category:John III Sobieski]]