The
Siege of Vienna in
1529 was the first attempt by the
Ottoman Empire, led by
Suleiman the Magnificent, to capture the city of
Vienna,
Austria. The siege signalled the pinnacle of the Ottoman Empire's power the maximum extent of Ottoman expansion in
central Europe (see
Ottoman wars in Europe), and was the result of a long-lasting rivalry with Europe. Thereafter, 150 years of bitter military tension and reciprocal attacks ensued, culminating in the
Battle of Vienna in 1683, which marked the start of the
Great Turkish War by European powers to remove the Ottoman presence.
The Ottoman failure to capture Vienna in 1529 turned the tide against almost a century of unchecked conquest throughout eastern and central Europe, which had previously claimed
Southeastern Hungary as a vassal state in the wake of the
Battle of Mohács. According to Toynbee, "The failure of the first [siege of Vienna] brought to a standstill the tide of Ottoman conquest which had been flooding up the Danube Valley for a century past."
There is speculation by some historians that Suleiman's main objective in 1529 was in actuality to reassert Ottoman control over Hungary, the western part of which still held out as an independent monarchy known as
Royal Hungary. The decision to attack Vienna after such a long interval in Suleiman's European campaign is viewed as an opportunistic manoeuvre after his decisive victory in Hungary. Other scholars theorize that the suppression of Hungary simply marked the prologue to a later, premeditated invasion of Europe.
Background
Main article in Battle of Mohacs, Campaign of Ferdinand I, Long War (Ottoman wars)In August 1526, Sultan
Suleiman I decisively defeated the forces of
King Louis II of Hungary at the
Battle of Mohács, paving the way for the Ottomans to gain control of south-eastern Hungary. The
Archduke of Austria,
Ferdinand I of Habsburg, who was the brother of
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, claimed the vacant Hungarian throne in right of his wife,
Anna of Bohemia and Hungary, sister to the childless (and thus heirless) Louis II. Ferdinand, won recognition only in western Hungary; while a noble called
John Zápolya, from a power-base in
Transylvania, challenged him for the crown and was recognised as king by Suleiman in return for accepting vassal status within the Ottoman Empire. Thus Hungary became divided into
Royal Hungary and
Ottoman Hungary up until
1699.
thumb|left|300px|The state of Hungary following its loss to the Ottoman Empire at [[Battle of Mohács|Mohács]]
Following the Diet of
Pozsony (modern
Bratislava) on 26 October, Ferdinand was declared King of Royal Hungary due to his marriage to Louis' sister and his own sister being the widow of Louis, who perished at Mohács. Ferdinand set out to
enforce his claim on Hungary and captured
Buda in 1527, only to relinquish his hold on it in 1529 when an Ottoman counter-attack stripped Ferdinand of all his territorial gains. . These gains were short-lived and by 1529, an Ottoman counter-attack swiftly negated all of the gains by Ferdinand in his campaigns in 1527 and 1528
.
Ottoman army
In the spring of 1529, Suleiman mustered a great army in
Ottoman Bulgaria, with the aim of securing control over all of Hungary and reducing the threat posed at his new borders by
Ferdinand I and the
Holy Roman Empire. Estimates of Suleiman's army vary widely from 120,000 to more than 300,000 men mentioned by various chroniclers. There is some tendency by later,
18th century European historians to exaggerate these figures to overstate the bravery of the outnumbered defenders of Vienna. As well as numerous units of
Sipahi, the elite mounted force of the
Ottoman cavalry, and thousands of
janissaries, the Ottoman army incorporated a contingent of
Moldovan and
Serb mercenaries from its eastern European provinces. Suleiman acted as the commander-in-chief (as well as personally leading his force), and in April he appointed his
Grand Vizier (the highest Ottoman minister), a former
Greek slave called
Ibrahim Pasha, as
Serasker, a commander with powers to give orders in the sultan's name.
Suleiman launched his campaign on the 10th of May, 1529 and faced numerous obstacles from the onset.
[Turnbull, p 50-1.] The spring rains that are characteristic of south-eastern Europe and the
Balkans were particularly heavy that year, causing flooding in
Bulgaria and rendering parts of the route used by the army barely passable. Many large-calibre cannons and artillery pieces became hopelessly mired or bogged down, leaving Suleiman no choice but to abandon them, while camels brought from the empire's Eastern provinces, unused to the difficult conditions, were lost in large numbers. Sickness and poor health became common amongst the ranks of the janissaries, claiming plenty of lives along the perilous journey.
Suleiman arrived in
Osijek on the
6th of August. On the 18th he reached the
Mohács plain, to be greeted by a substantial cavalry force led by
John Zápolya (which would later accompany Suleiman to Vienna), who paid him homage and helped him recapture several fortresses lost since the Battle of Mohács to the Austrians, including
Buda, which fell on the 8th of September.
[Stavrianos, p 77.] The only resistance came at
Pozsony, where the Turkish fleet was bombarded as it sailed up the Danube.
Defensive measures
As the Ottomans advanced towards Vienna, the city's population organised an ad-hoc resistance formed from local farmers, peasants and civilians determined to repel the inevitable attack who were supported by a variety of European mercenaries; namely German
Landsknecht pikemen and Spanish musketeers sent by
Charles V.
The
Margrave of Austria (equivalent to the English
Marshall), Wilhelm von Roggendorf, assumed charge of the defensive garrison, with operational command entrusted to a seventy-year-old German mercenary named Niklas Graf Salm, who had distinguished himself at the
Battle of Pavia in 1525.
Salm arrived in Vienna as head of the mercenary relief force and set about fortifying the three-hundred-year-old walls surrounding
St. Stephen's Cathedral, near which he established his headquarters. To ensure the city could withstand a lengthy siege, he blocked the four city gates and reinforced the walls, which in some places were no more than six feet thick, and erected earthen bastions and an inner earthen
rampart (A type of defensive wall consisting of a low earthen embankment topped by a parapet or
palisade), levelling buildings where necessary to clear room for defences.
Siege
St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, used as the informal headquarters of the Austrian resistance by Niklas Graf Salm, appointed head of the mercenary relief force
The Ottoman army which arrived in late September had been somewhat depleted during the long advance into Austrian territory, leaving Suleiman short of camels and heavy artillery. Many of his troops arrived at Vienna in a poor state of health after the tribulations of a long march through the thick of the European wet season and of those fit to fight, a third were
light cavalry, or
Sipahis, ill-suited for siege warfare. Three richly dressed Austrian prisoners were dispatched as emissaries by the Sultan to negotiate the city's surrender; Salm sent three richly dressed Muslims back without a response. Suleiman's 300 various artillery pieces and cannons immediately commenced bombarding Vienna's walls, but it failed to significantly damage the Austrian defensive earthworks.
As the Ottoman army settled into position, the Austrian garrison launched sorties to disrupt the digging and
mining of tunnels below the city's walls by Ottoman
sappers, and in one case almost capturing
Ibrahim Pasha. The defensive forces detected and successfully detonated several mines intended to bring down the city's walls, subsequently dispatching 8,000 men on the 6th of October to attack the Ottoman mining operations, destroying many of the tunnels but sustaining serious losses when the confined spaces hindered their retreat into the city.
More rain fell on the 11th of October, and with the Ottomans failing to make any breaches in the walls, the prospects for victory began to rapidly fade. In addition, Suleiman was facing critical shortages of supplies such as food and water; while casualties, sickness, and desertions began taking a toll on their ranks. The
janissaries began voicing their displeasure at the progression of events, demanding a decision on whether to remain or abandon the siege. The Sultan convened an official council on the 12th of October to deliberate the matter. It was decided to
attempt one final, major assault on Vienna: an "all or nothing" gamble. Extra rewards were offered to the troops. However, this assault was also beaten back as once again, the
arquebuses and long pikes of the defenders prevailed.
Unseasonably heavy snowfall made conditions go from bad to worse. The Ottoman retreat turned into a disaster with much of the baggage and artillery abandoned or lost in rough conditions, as were many prisoners. The receding army suffered an attack at
Pozsony (modern
Bratislava), a short distance from Vienna, as Suleiman's force made its way east back to
Ottoman Hungary.
Aftermath
Some historians speculate that Suleiman's final assault wasn't necessarily intended to take the city but to cause as much damage as possible and weaken it for a later attack, a tactic he had employed at
Buda in 1526. Suleiman would lead another campaign against Vienna in 1532, but it never truly materialised as his force was stalled by a resilient
Royal Hungarian fort in
Kőszeg, which managed to delay his force until winter closed in. Charles V, now largely aware of Vienna's vulnerability and weakened state, assembled 80,000 troops to confront the Ottoman force. Instead of going ahead with a second siege attempt the Ottoman force turned back, laying waste to the south-eastern Austrian state of
Styria in their retreat. The Viennan two campaigns in essence marked the extreme limit of Ottoman logistical capability at the time, to field large armies deep in central and western Europe. The army made its way back to
Constantinople where it was stationed for the winter, so that its troops could attend to their
fiefdoms and recruit for the next year's campaigning.
Suleiman's retreat however did not mark a complete failure. The campaign underlined and maintained Ottoman control of southern Hungary and left behind a trail of collateral damage in the neighbouring
Habsburg Hungary and Austria that impaired Ferdinand's capacity to mount a sustained counter-attack. Suleiman's achievement was to consolidate the gains of 1526 and further establish the puppet kingdom of
John Zápolya as a buffer state against the
Holy Roman Empire.
The invasion and its climactic siege exacted a heavy toll upon sides, with tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians left dead it in its wake. However, it was a milestone which marked the end of Suleiman's expansion toward the centre of Europe and arguably the beginning of the
stagnation and decline of the
Ottoman Empire as the dominant power of the
Renaissance world. Rolf Adolf Kahn, a German historian writing in 1529, remarked:
"The delivery of Vienna by a brave garrison under Count Niklas Salm in 1529, was probably a greater though less spectacular achievement than the liberation five generations later brought about primarily by the efforts of a rather large army of combined imperial and Polish forces".
Ferdinand I erected a funeral monument for the German mercenary Niklas Graf Salm, head of the mercenary relief force dispatched to Vienna, as a token of appreciation to his efforts. Niklas survived the initial siege attempt but had been injured during the last Ottoman assault and died on the
4th of May,
1530. The Renaissance
sarcophagus is now on display in the baptistery of the
Votivkirche cathedral in Vienna. Ferdinand's son,
Maximilian II, later built the Castle of Neugebaeude on the spot where Suleiman is said to have pitched his tent during the siege.
References and notes
Bibliography
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