The Sieges Of Vienna By The Turks - free ebook by Karl August Schimmer

THE SIEGES OF VIENNA BY THE TURKS.

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF KARL AUGUST SCHIMMER AND OTHER SOURCES, By THE EARL OF ELLESMERE. NEW EDITION. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1879. LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS....

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PREFACE.

The narrative specified in the Title from which the following pages are in general borrowed, and in great part translated, is the work of a gentleman resident in Vienna, and enjoying as such access to the numerous and valuable sources of information extant in the archives of that city. The other sources to which I have adverted in the title-page, and which I have used for purposes of addition and verification, are principally the well-known Turkish ‘History of Von Hammer;’ ‘The Life of Sobieski,

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CHAPTER I.

The fall of Constantinople in 1453 was followed by a rapid extension of the arms and power of the conqueror, Mahomet II. Within a short period he subjected Persia, the whole of Greece and the Morea, most of the islands of the Archipelago, and Trebisond on the coast of Asia Minor, the seat of the Greek empire of the Comnenes. The last of that dynasty, Daniel Comnenus, he took prisoner, and shortly after caused him with his family to be executed for the alleged offence, probably a mere pretext, of

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CHAPTER II.

From 1527 to September 11, 1529. The Turkish preparations were pushed forward with great vigour, and in a short time an immense army was assembled in the great plain of Philippopolis. Although the Sultan had originally formed the intention of marching with it in person, he nevertheless appointed to its command his famous Grand Vizier and favourite Ibrahim. This man was by birth a Greek, of moderate stature, dark complexion, and had been in infancy sold as a slave to Soliman. He soon by his intel

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CHAPTER III.

Before Soliman quitted Pesth he had issued a proclamation to the effect that “Whosoever in Hungary should withhold obedience and subjection from the Count John of Zips, Wayvode of Transylvania, whom the Sultan had named king, had replaced in the sovereignty, and had engaged himself to uphold, should be punished and extirpated with fire and sword; but that those who should submit themselves should be stoutly protected, and maintained in the possession of their property and privileges.” On the 21s

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CHAPTER IV.

From September 16 to September 26, 1529. In Vienna it was resolved by a council of war, as it was not possible to face the overwhelming numbers of the enemy in the open field, to neutralize, at least as far as possible, the advantages of any positions in the neighbourhood by the sacrifice of the suburbs, and of all buildings within range of fire from the walls. A more timely adoption of this indispensable measure would have obviated much of the violence and misery which attended its hurried exec

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CHAPTER V.

From September 26 to October 2, 1529. The Turkish army had scarcely arrived in the neighbourhood of the city, when a forest of tents rose from the ground, presenting so striking a spectacle, that even Austrian contemporary writers are excited to exchange their usual phlegmatic style in describing it for something of the Oriental. The country within sight of the walls as far as Schwechat and Trautmannsdorf was covered with tents, the number of which was calculated at 30,000, nor could the sharpes

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CHAPTER VI.

From October 3 to October 13, 1529. On the 3rd October, the enemy’s fire was much increased, and protracted even far into the night. An assault was therefore confidently expected. The garrison remained under arms night and day. Nothing, however, ensued except considerable damage to the Kärnthner tower and the adjacent bastion, in return for which the kitchen of the Beglerbeg of Roumelia was almost entirely disorganized by a heavy shot from the city. On the following day orders were issued in the

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CHAPTER VII.

October 14 to November 20, 1529. At daybreak of the 14th October the flower of the Turkish army was arrayed in three powerful bodies for the assault, and towards nine o’clock they advanced, led on by officers of the highest rank. On this occasion, however, the desperate courage and cheerful contempt of death which had usually been conspicuous among the Turkish soldiery were no longer distinguishable. It was to no purpose that their officers, the Vizier in person at their head, urged them forward

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CHAPTER VIII.

From November 20 to the end of the year 1529. Although for the moment Vienna was relieved from dread of the Turk, other causes of distress and apprehension survived the removal of the main danger, and required equally the application of violent remedies. Not to mention that the open country was long infested with roving parties of Turkish marauders who were little interfered with by a soldiery who had forgotten their own discipline in the excitement of success, in Vienna itself this spirit displ

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CHAPTER I.

1530 to 1538. The close of the year 1529 had been made memorable in the annals of Christendom by the retreat of Soliman. He had retired not without loss and a degree of exhaustion which promised an interval at least of repose to the countries he had so cruelly ravaged. He was, however, neither satiated with blood nor discouraged by that signal failure of the main object of his expedition which the Turkish historiographers strove in vain to conceal beneath the flowers of Oriental eloquence. So ea

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CHAPTER II.

1539 to 1566. In 1539, Zapolya, advanced in age, but anxious to bequeath his powers of mischief to a lineal descendant, contracted a marriage with Isabella of Poland. His wishes were gratified in the following year by the birth of a son; an event which he himself survived only twenty-four days. The ambitious mother, setting at defiance the terms of the treaty of Grosswaradin, asserted the claim of her child to the throne of Hungary, and invoked the protection of the Sultan. The secrecy with whic

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CHAPTER III.

1566 to 1664. Soliman was succeeded on the throne by Selim II., son of a favourite slave, Roxalana. The male issue of the other inmates of the royal harem, whether wives or concubines, had been remorselessly sacrificed to secure the undisputed succession of one who proved the first of his race to set an example of degeneracy from the qualities which had made his predecessors the terror of Christendom. Under the rule of Soliman the power and reputation of the Porte had reached a point of elevatio

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CHAPTER IV.

Montecuculi had derived but little assistance in his campaigns from the good will or aid of the Hungarians. Their disaffection led to the adoption by the Austrian Government of a course of measures at variance with the laws of the realm, and as impolitic as they were illegal, their main objects being to Germanize the nation, and to extirpate the Protestant heresy. The excesses of the German troops were such as to make the Hungarians, especially the Protestants, feel that they would rather gain t

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CHAPTER V.

1672 to 1680. The suppression of the dangerous conspiracy above described—however on many grounds we may sympathise with its authors—can hardly be considered in itself other than as an event favourable to the interests of Christian Europe. Unfortunately, however, the Austrian Government, not satisfied with the severity exercised on the leading conspirators, wreaked its impolitic and unjustifiable revenge upon the kingdom of Hungary at large. It was treated as a conquered country. The Protestant

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CHAPTER VI.

1682 to 1683. On the 8th December, 1682, the servants of Count Caprara had reached Vienna with tidings of the enormous preparations of the Turks. The reports from Hungary were also unfavourable, and the necessity for immediate measures of defence was palpable as it was urgent. The first requisite, money, was sought for in an impost of a hundredth part of the means of the higher and lower nobility, and of the clergy, usually exempt from such burthens, but considered liable in the case of invasion

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CHAPTER VII.

From June 30 to July 13, 1683. The Vizier during the above transactions had led the main army by way of Belgrade as far as Essek, where, as before related, his meeting with Tekeli took place. In the discussions of a council of war held at this place, several Pachas and Tekeli himself declared their opinions strongly against undertaking a siege of Vienna, at least in the current year. They recommended, not without substantial military grounds, the previous reduction of the strong places in Hungar

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CHAPTER VIII.

From the 13th to the 19th July. In the evening of the 13th, the infantry of the Imperial army destined for the garrison of Vienna marched into the city; and now all the gates, even including that of the Rothenthurm, by which these troops had entered, were built up and barricaded. On the same day two summonses in the Latin language were thrown over the counterscarp. They remained unanswered. The following were the military arrangements for the defence:—Stahremberg’s principal subordinates in comm

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CHAPTER IX.

From the 9th to the 17th July. The fate of the inhabitants of the small town of Perchtoldsdorf forms a sad episode in the annals of the Turkish invasion. So early as the 9th July the Tartar horse had appeared in its neighbourhood. The inhabitants, after the example of their forefathers of 1529, converted the church tower and the churchyard with its surrounding wall into a fortress, and repulsed without difficulty the first attack of the marauders. The attack was repeated on the following day, bu

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CHAPTER X.

From July 15 to July 30. The 15th July, the day from which may be dated the commencement of the active siege of Vienna, was distinguished by an accident which might well have brought that operation to a close by the destruction of the city. At two o’clock P. M. , some time after the Turkish batteries had opened, a fire broke out in the Scottish Convent, which, after destroying that establishment, rapidly spread to the Renngasse and the neighbourhood of the Imperial arsenal, which contained some

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CHAPTER XI.

From August 1 to August 22. As far as feats of arms were concerned, the garrison had as yet maintained its own with undaunted resolution and with a success unimpaired by any material discomfiture; but by the middle of August the inevitable consequences of so close an investment of a large town began to show themselves in the shapes of sickness and scarcity. The use of dried and salted meat produced a dysentery, which was often mortal both among the soldiery and the townspeople. Other forms of di

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CHAPTER XII.

23rd August to 8th September. On the 23rd of August, the enemy, after repeated assaults, had all but gained possession of the Burg ravelin, and had set on fire the palisades in face of the portion of that work still held by the garrison. This the soldiers, carrying water to it in their steel caps, succeeded in extinguishing, and the further advance of the Turks was checked. An assault ensued, in which the combatants mingled hand to hand. The Ottoman sabre, as on other similar occasions, failed i

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CHAPTER XIII.

To preserve the narrative of the siege unbroken down to the critical period at which it has now arrived, it has been necessary to withhold our attention from the proceedings of the Duke of Lorraine and the army of the Empire. We left them in the early part of July unable to cope with the tenfold numbers of the Turkish host, and compelled to await at safe distance, and scarcely in a threatening attitude, the accession of German levies and of the promised succour of the Poles. The former mustered

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CHAPTER XIV.

From the end of July to September 11. The corps of Tekeli had meanwhile prosecuted its operations in Upper Hungary. As he was approaching Tyrnau, the Duke of Lorraine reinforced the citadel of Presburg with some regiments of cavalry, and put the remainder of his army in motion across the March field. Learning that the town of Presburg was already occupied, and the citadel threatened by the adherents of Tekeli, and also that 20,000 Turks and 20,000 Hungarians were encamped in the neighbourhood, h

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CHAPTER XV.

September 12. At sunrise of the 12th September, the crest of the Kahlenberg was concealed by one of those autumnal mists which give promise of a genial, perhaps a sultry day, and which, clinging to the wooded flanks of the acclivity, grew denser as it descended, till it rested heavily on the shores and the stream itself of the river below. From that summit the usual fiery signals of distress had been watched through the night by many an eye as they rose incessantly from the tower of St. Stephen,

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CHAPTER XVI.

September 13. At sunrise of the 13th the Viennese rushed forth in crowds to taste the first sweets of their liberation from a two months’ imprisonment. The only gate yet open, the Stuben, was soon clogged with the multitude, and the greater number clambered over the rubbish of the breaches, eager to gratify in the Turkish camp their curiosity, or their rapacity, or both. With respect to the more transportable articles of value, the Pole had been before them; but in the article of provisions ther

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CHAPTER XVII.

From the end of September to the end of December, 1683. The Emperor’s stay in his rescued capital was brief. He quitted it for Lintz on the 16th, leaving to the local authorities a heavy task to be performed of repair, and reconstruction, and purification. The Christian prisoners had been compelled to labour in the Turkish trenches, and in like manner Turkish captives were now compelled to repair the damage they had contributed to effect. The events of the siege had shown the danger occasioned b

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CHAPTER XVIII.

Though the main interest of the drama ceases with the liberation of the city, the fate of a principal actor, Kara Mustapha, remains to be noticed; and some further events of the campaign will be found neither deficient in historical importance nor destitute of instruction to the soldier. The situation of the Polish army, and the general prospect of affairs some days after the battle, can hardly be better indicated than by the following extract from Sobieski’s letter to the Queen of the 17th Sept

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