Battle of Mogersdorf

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Battle of Mogersdorf
Battle of Mogersdorf / St. Gotthart (Szentgotthárd) (1664)
Battle of Mogersdorf / St. Gotthart (Szentgotthárd) (1664)
date August 1, 1664
place between Mogersdorf and St. Gotthard an der Raab
output Defensive victory of the imperial troops
Parties to the conflict

Ottoman Empire 1793Ottoman Empire Ottoman Empire

Holy Roman Empire 1400Holy Roman Empire Holy Roman Empire ( Archduchy of Austria , Confederation of the Rhine and others), Kingdom of FranceHabsburg MonarchyHabsburg Monarchy France Kingdom 1792France 

Commander

Grand Vizier Köprülü Fâzıl Ahmed

Count Raimondo Montecuccoli

Troop strength
approx. 50,000 approx. 25,000
losses

12,000 dead

1,000 dead

The Battle of Mogersdorf or the Battle of St. Gotthard was the most important battle in the Turkish War of 1663/1664 . It took place on August 1, 1664 on the Raab between Mogersdorf and the Cistercian monastery St. Gotthard in German West Hungary (today Burgenland ). The Imperial Army under the leadership of Count Raimondo Montecuccoli and the Imperial Army at Empire Field Marshal Leopold Wilhelm of Baden-Baden succeeded the Ottoman main force reside under the command of the Grand Vizier Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed Pasha against Vienna wanted to march. The battle was one of the four major open field battles of the Turkish Wars .

prehistory

In June 1664 the commander of the imperial southern army (also called " Mur Army"), Banus Nikolaus Zrinski , had to break off the siege of the Ottoman fortress Kanizsa , because Grand Vizier Köprülü with an army of around 50,000 men horrified the fortress. Then Köprülü turned to the west and, after a month-long siege , conquered the Neu-Zrin fortress, which was built by the Banus himself and which the southern army was unable to defend due to the low staffing level of 17,000 men. Since the imperial commander-in-chief Montecuccoli was unable to send reinforcements to Zrinski, Zrinski left the imperial army on June 29, angry.

Starting position

After the fortress Neu-Zrin was destroyed, the main Ottoman armed forces moved towards Vienna and on July 30th met the main imperial army on the Raab between Mogersdorf and St. Gotthard, which had taken up position on the left bank of the river. This multinational alliance force under the command of Montecuccolis, which still numbered 28,500 men in February 1664, was only 25,000 strong because of the poor sanitary conditions and the lack of food, often for days. Opposite it, on the right bank, stood an Ottoman army, twice as strong, with 50,000 men.

Course of the battle

Battle of Mogersdorf / St. Gotthart (Szentgotthard) 1664

Formation of the alliance troops

Grand Vizier Köprülü forced the numerically inferior Allies to follow him closely without interruption. Montecuccoli brought together all available Allied troops on the northern bank of the Raab and took up position in the Raab near Mogersdorf in the corner of the mouth of the Lafnitz . The right wing in the west, under the command of Montecuccolis, formed the imperial regiments with the artillery in front of the front, followed by the imperial troops under Georg Graf Waldeck in the center and the French under Jean de Coligny-Saligny on the left wing. The bulk of the Allied cavalry was united under Baron Johann Sporck on the extreme right wing.

Translate the Ottomans

In the early morning hours of August 1, 1664, 3,000 sipahis and 3,000 janissaries crossed the Raab under massive fire protection from the Ottoman Topçular , first overran the outposts and then the camp of the imperial troops, which their commander, Count von Waldeck, against Montecuccoli orders, only insufficiently through entrenchments had secured. The surprised and disordered troops in the center were split up by the Sipahis, while the Janissaries managed to take the village of Mogersdorf. This practically dissolved the center of the Allies, "the Heyl des Vatterlandes [hung] by a thread," as it later said in a report to the Reichstag .

Imperial counterattack

In this critical situation, Montecuccoli personally led the counter-attack with three infantry and two cuirassier regiments, which was initiated by Margrave Friedrich VI. was supported by Baden-Durlach with some newly formed Saxon troops. At the same time, the commandant of the Rheinbund corps, Count von Hohenlohe , attacked the Janissaries who had penetrated Mogersdorf with two battalions and four squadrons and drove them out. A French cavalry brigade and two French infantry regiments that had followed suit took part in these battles, and they captured the remains of the village and defended it against attempts by Ottoman recapture.

After heavy fighting in Mogersdorf and in the camp of the Reich troops, the Ottomans withdrew to their bridgehead on the left bank of the river. At this point in time, the commanders of the army and the commander in chief were unclear about how to proceed: should one hold the position that had just been recaptured or risk an attack on the enemy forces in order to throw them back into the Raab? While the various possibilities were sometimes heatedly discussed, the news came of an Ottoman cavalry attack against the right wing.

Ottoman cavalry attack

Raimondo Count Montecuccoli, Imperial Commander in Chief

After the successful imperial counterattack, the Ottoman Commander-in-Chief Köprülü decided to launch a cavalry attack on the right flank of the Allies and for this purpose sent 4,000 Sipahis across the Raab. Baron von Sporck , who was in reserve with his cavalry on the far right flank , attacked the Ottoman cavalry unit, which was twice as strong, immediately after crossing the river and was able to throw it back over the Raab.

Imperial attack

After this success, the imperial commander in chief Montecuccoli was determined to seek the decision and to take all available forces against the enemy bridgehead. However, a personal conversation with the French commander Coligny was necessary before he was ready to make his troops available for a major attack. The remaining Ottoman troops, who had only temporarily holed up, had nothing to oppose this massive attack, as the majority of their troops had remained on the other bank of the river. By late afternoon the coalition army finally managed to wipe out the Ottoman troops on the left bank of the Raab, whose retreat turned into a flight. Since neither the Ottoman nor the Allied armies made further attempts to cross the flood-leading Raab, the battle ended with a defensive victory for Montecuccoli.

Consequences of the battle

Only nine days after the battle, the Peace of Eisenburg was signed on August 10, 1664 for a period of 20 years, which was rejected by a large number of Hungarian and Croatian nobles and became an essential aspect of the Hungarian-Croatian magnate conspiracy .

literature

swell

  • Hasan Ağa : The diary. In: Erich Prokosch (translator): War and victory in Hungary. The Hungarian campaigns of the Grand Vizier Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Pascha in 1663 and 1664, based on the “gems of history” of his keeper Hasan Ağa. In the series Richard Franz Kreutel (editor): Ottoman historians. Volume 8, Verlag Styria, Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1976, ISBN 3-222-10470-0 .
  • Raimondo Montecuccoli: Della Guerra col Turco . Guida, Naples 2002, ISBN 88-7188-602-X ( Italian ).

Research literature

  • Walter Hummelberger : The Turkish Wars and Prince Eugene. In: Herbert St. Fürlinger (Ed.): Our Army. 300 years of Austrian soldiers in war and peace. Vienna, Munich, Zurich 1963.
  • Thomas Winkelbauer : Freedom of Classes and Princely Power. Countries and subjects of the House of Habsburg in the denominational age. Part 1. (= Herwig Wolfram : Austrian History 1522–1699. ) Vienna 2004.
  • Hubert Michael Mader: Raimund Fürst Montecuccoli and the battle of St. Gotthard-Mogersdorf in 1664. A real test of Europe. In: Austrian military magazine. Edition 03/2006.
  • Klaus-Peter Matschke: The cross and the half moon. The history of the Turkish wars . Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf / Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-538-07178-0 .
  • Kurt Peball : The Battle of St. Gotthard-Mogersdorf, 1664 . Austrian Federal Publishing House for Education, Science and Art, Vienna 1964, 1978 (= Military History Series , Volume 1, DNB 453724949 / DNB 997150211 ).
  • Karin Sperl, Martin Scheutz, Arno Strohmeyer : The battle of Mogersdorf / St. Gotthard and the Peace of Eisenburg / Vasvár 1664. Framework conditions, actors, effects and reception of a European event , Burgenland Research, Volume 108, Eisenstadt 2016, ISBN 978-3-901517-80-8 .

Web links

Commons : Schlacht bei Mogersdorf  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The other three were the Battle of Mohács (1526) , the Battle of Mezőkeresztes 1596 and the Battle of Kahlenberg 1683, Klaus-Peter Matschke, The Cross and the Crescent. The history of the Turkish wars , Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf and Zurich 2004, p. 383
  2. ↑ a b c Walter Hummelberger, The Turkish Wars and Prince Eugene . In: Herbert St. Fürlinger (Ed.), Our Heer. 300 years of Austrian military service in war and peace , Vienna, Munich, Zurich 1963, p. 52
  3. ↑ Thomas Winkelbauer, Freedom of the Classes and Princely Power. Countries and subjects of the House of Habsburg in the denominational age . Part 1 (= Herwig Wolfram (Ed.), Austrian History 1522–1699 ), Vienna 2004. p. 152
  4. ↑ Ibid., P. 53
  5. ↑ Klaus-Peter Matschke, The Cross and the Crescent. The history of the Turkish wars , Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf and Zurich 2004, p. 355
  6. ↑ Hubert Michael Mader, Raimund Fürst Montecuccoli and the battle of St. Gotthard-Mogersdorf in 1664. A test of Europe . In: Austrian Military Journal, 03/2006 issue.
  7. ↑ Walter Hummelberger, The Turkish Wars and Prince Eugene . In: Herbert St. Fürlinger (Ed.), Our Heer. 300 Years of Austrian Soldierhood in War and Peace , Vienna, Munich, Zurich 1963, p. 53

Coordinates: 46 ° 56 ′ 30 ″  N , 16 ° 13 ′ 0 ″  E