10/18/2023 0 Comments Battle of vienna 1683![]() ![]() These conflicts stemmed from neglect to prepare supplies for such a great number of people and animals. The march progressed undisturbed although upon occasions the Poles plundered the local population. In order to implement this plan, the Austrian army was compelled to stop the enemy at Orenburg and Hetman Sieniawski, dispatched to Olomoutz, protected the main column, encumbered with enormous convoys and commanded by the king in person. The choice of Tulln as the site of the crossing was to take the Turks by surprise. The Crown armies did not wait for the Lithuanian forces and set off towards Tulln, where they were to cross the Danube and meet the Austrians and the contingents of the princes of the Reich. Such a composition of the army made it possible to rapidly move towards Vienna. The majority of the forces was composed of the cavalry, in which the Austrians were particularly interested. Earlier, the allies were joined by a 2 000-strong cavalry corps under Hieronim Lubomirski. In a short while, 21 000 soldiers gathered near Cracow. Preparations for war were extremely efficient. Sobieski presented his attitude in a letter to Mikołaj Sieniawski, the field hetman of the Crown: ”Either Vienna will perish or defend itself both shall be inconvenient for us, because it is much better to fight in a foreign land, eating foreign bread and with the assistance of all the forces of the Empire and not only the emperor himself, than to defend oneself at one’s own cost, when our friends and neighbours abandon us if we do not come to their aid immediately”. He was well aware of the gravity of the situation and, simultaneously, of the gains of an alliance with Austria. The imperial diplomats send dramatic pleas, to which the victor of Chocim did not intend to remain indifferent. The sole hope for the town was assistance rendered by the Polish monarch. A regular siege was commenced, but due to the courageous stand of the Viennese it did not bring the Turks the anticipated results. 100 000 men were led by the conceited Kara Mustafa. When the Polish-Austrian alliance was being signed, the Turkish army had set off from Adrianople and in the middle of July, having ravaged a large part of Hungary, it reached the walls of Vienna. The Poles took upon themselves the mobilization of an army of 40 000 men and the Austrians promised to pay 1.2 million zlotys of war subsidies. The pact foresaw a joint battle against the Ottoman state, the avoidance of a separate peace treaty and a siege in case the Turks should attack the capitals of the two states. Only the Turkish threat facing Austria had finally jolted the emperor who was now concerned with obtaining help from the Polish monarch. Jan III had for long wished to achieve such an alliance, but to no avail. In order to avert bad luck and turning the pact into a topic of Fool’s Day jokes, it was antedated and bears the date of 31 March. The military alliance between the Commonwealth and Emperor Leopold I was signed on 1 Aril 1683. ![]()
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