Siege of Vienna

Siege of Vienna
Part of the Ottoman wars in Europe and the Ottoman–Habsburg wars
Contemporary 1529 engraving of clashes between the Austrians and Ottomans outside Vienna, by Bartel Beham
Date 27 September–15 October 1529 Location Vienna, Holy Roman Empire (present-day Austria) Result Decisive Christian Coalition victory
Belligerents
Holy Roman Empire Kingdom of Bohemia Rhinish Palatinate  Spanish Empire	Ottoman Empire  Moldavia
Commanders and leaders
Niklas Graf Salm (WIA) Philipp der Streitbare Wilhelm von Roggendorf	Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent Grand Vizier Pargalı İbrahim Pasha
Strength
c. 17,000–21,000	c. 120,000–125,000, some sources claiming 300,000
Casualties and losses
Unknown but heavy	15,000 wounded, dead or captured

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 and the maximum extent of Ottoman expansion in central Europe. Thereafter, 150 years of bitter military tension and reciprocal attacks ensued, culminating in the Battle of Vienna of 1683, which marked the start of the 15-year-long Great Turkish War.

The inability of the Ottomans to capture Vienna in 1529 turned the tide against almost a century of conquest throughout eastern and central Europe. The Ottoman Empire had previously annexed Central Hungary and established a vassal state in Transylvania in the wake of the Battle of Mohács. According to Arnold J. 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 actually to assert Ottoman control over the whole of Hungary, the western part of which (known as Royal Hungary) was under Habsburg control. 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 theorise that the suppression of Hungary simply marked the prologue to a later, premeditated invasion of Europe.

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 childless King Louis was killed. His brother-in-law, Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria, brother of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, claimed the vacant Hungarian throne. 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 1700.

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Wikipedia