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The Siege of Vienna 1529 - By Paul Robinson
Paul Robinson discusses what might have happened if Suleiman were successful in his campaign against Vienna...
The
Augsburg Confession might not have been written if the spring of 1529
had not been unusually wet in southeastern Europe. Until the Diet of
Augsburg in 1530, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V had failed to move
effectively against the Lutheran princes. He had been unable to enforce
the edict of Worms or to form a consensus among the princes of the
Empire concerning religious questions. Although the Emperor had not
failed for lack of trying, his attention was divided in the late 1520s
between the Lutherans, war with France in the west, and the threat of
an attack by the Ottoman Turks in the southeast. The 1529 Peace of
Cambrai suspended Charles V’s rivalry with the French king, Francis I.
In the same year, the unsuccessful siege of Vienna by the Ottoman
Turkish Sultan Suleiman I (the Magnificent) marked the end of an
immediate Ottoman threat to the Empire.
Had Suleiman been able
to move his heavy artillery into position, Vienna might have fallen. If
Vienna had been taken, Charles V would have had to move against the
Ottomans immediately and, in all likelihood, would have postponed
action against the Lutherans for the sake of unity in the Empire
against an external foe. As it was, rumor of another Turkish attempt on
Vienna put battle plans high on the list of topics for the Diet of
Augsburg. Martin Luther, in a letter from Coburg in April 1530, wrote,
“It is said that the Turk has promised, or rather threatened, to return
to Germany next year with very great forces, even leading against us
large numbers of Tartars” (LW 49:286). But Charles did not face a
victorious Ottoman host because the rain-soaked roads kept Suleiman’s
largest guns out of the battle.
Charles V’s brother, Ferdinand
I, had inherited the battle with the Ottoman Empire along with the
title King of Hungary when the former king, Lajos II, was killed by the
Turks in the battle of Mohács in 1526. After that battle, Hungary was
partially conquered by the Turks, who then turned their attention
toward Austria. Suleiman moved toward Vienna from Ottoman-controlled
Bulgaria in the spring of 1529 with an army of about 100,000 men and
500 artillery pieces. (The number of troops engaged in battles during
this time period is notoriously difficult to determine. Contemporary
sources routinely exaggerate the numbers and also fail to account for
casualties and noncombatants in the opposing forces. The numbers given
here represent a consensus of modern scholarship.) As the Ottoman
forces advanced, the rains poured down and the roads were soon all but
impassable. Camels broke their legs in the muck and had to be
slaughtered, and about two hundred of the heaviest artillery pieces
were sent back. Without his largest cannon, Suleiman was forced to
change his tactics before even reaching Vienna. He would have to rely
on his miners rather than his guns to breach the city walls.
Meanwhile,
Vienna braced for the Ottoman onslaught. Ferdinand I left the city when
pleas for help addressed to his brother, Charles V, went unanswered.
Nicholas, Graf von Salm, a 70-year-old professional soldier, was left
to command the Viennese forces of approximately 20,000 men and 75 guns.
Nicholas set about preparing the city for a siege—repairing walls,
building fortifications, stockpiling supplies, and tearing flammable
shingles from roofs.
Battle was joined in September when the 300
guns remaining with Suleiman’s forces opened fire on the city. The
bombardment had little effect, however, since these were smaller
caliber pieces that could be dragged through the mud. Suleiman knew
that these cannon would never breach the walls of Vienna, and soon the
Viennese defenders found out that the bombardment was meant only as a
cover for the beginning of the Turkish mining operation. Mining was an
ancient means of taking down a castle tower or a portion of wall.
Miners would begin digging a tunnel well behind the lines of the
besieging army, and when the tunnel reached the area to be destroyed,
the miners would dig a cavern that was held up by wooden supports. Then
the cavern would either be set on fire or kegs of gunpowder would be
exploded in it. In either case, when the wooden supports were
destroyed, the wall or tower would fall into the pit and troops would
rush into the resulting breach in the defenses.
Nicholas,
commander of the Viennese forces, had bowls of water and dried peas
placed around the inside of the city walls. When ripples appeared in
the water or the peas shook, the defenders would know that Turkish
miners were near. They would then dig their own mines from within the
city to intercept those of the enemy. Six large tunnels were discovered
in this way. Battle was joined underground between the rival groups of
miners, and several Turkish powder kegs were seized by the Viennese.
Eventually the Turks succeeded in creating a minor breach at the Salt
Gate and a larger one at the Carinthian gate, but in both cases the
Turkish assault forces were driven back by the defenders.
Overall,
however, the Turkish mining was having little effect. In addition,
Viennese artillery mounted on the city rooftops began to take a toll on
the Turkish army. On October 14 the Ottomans mounted what would prove
to be a final assault. Although the Turks succeeded in exploding
another mine, their infantry was cut down by cannon fire and
hand-thrown bombs, and the defenders drove them from the walls of the
city. The Turks returned to their camp, packed their goods, and were
gone by the next morning. The siege of Vienna was over. (Martin Luther
recounted what he had heard of the end of the siege in a letter to
Nicholas von Amsdorf. LW 49:240–43)
Suleiman attempted to
conquer Vienna again in 1532 but failed even to reach the city,
contenting himself with raiding in Styria. The most famous Turkish
attack on Vienna came in 1683. The Turks were turned back on that
occasion by the King of Poland, Jan Sobieski—a defeat that marked the
beginning of the end of the Turkish Empire. A resident of Vienna, Georg
Franz Kolschitzky, also played a role in defeating the besieging army
and, according to legend, was rewarded for his service with the sacks
of coffee left behind by the Turkish invaders. Kolschitzky became one
of the first men to successfully run a coffeehouse in Vienna.
Written By: host
Date Posted: 11/16/2006
Number of Views: 789
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