![]() His one redeeming quality was his personal bravery, but even this was tarnished by acts of extreme brutality he once flayed captured Poles alive and sent their stuffed hides to the Sultan as trophies. Outwardly handsome, dignified, and a devout Muslim, inwardly the Grand Vizier was an arrogant power monger with an unveiled hatred of Christians. But such modest aims did not satisfy Mustafa. By laying siege to Vienna, Mustafa disobeyed Sultan Mehmed IV (1648-1687), who intended that Mustafa do little more than capture Imperial frontier fortresses. Mustafa had another reason to press on he feared the Sultan’s punishment in the event of failure. Without that army, the Turks would pour into the city and wantonly enslave and butcher its inhabitants. The city’s only hope was the timely arrival of the anxiously awaited Christian relief army. Starhemberg knew that Vienna’s defenses were at their end. After fending off 18 major Turkish assaults, only a third of the originally 11,500-strong garrison remained fit for combat and their ammunitions were nearly exhausted. Sewage, rubble, and corpses littered the streets and disease ran rampant. Turkish mines and bombardments had opened huge gaps in the city walls. That last drop of blood had almost been reached. ![]() The Janissaries were not called out of the trenches until it was too late. Polish horsemen descend upon the Ottoman forces besieging Vienna. The Turkish Serasker (Supreme Commander), Grand Vizier Kara “Black” Mustafa, demanded surrender, but Count Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg, commander of Vienna’s garrison, spat back, “Let him come I’ll fight to the last drop of blood.” The Battle of Kahlenberg, 1683 by Frans Geffels. Relief came out of the woods and down from the heights…įor nearly two long months, from July 14 to early September 1683, Vienna endured the siege of a vast Turkish army. ![]()
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