Turkish War 1663/1664

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Battle of St. Gotthart (Szentgotthard) 1664

The Turkish War of 1663/1664 , also known as the 4th Austrian Turkish War , was a one-year military conflict between the Habsburg Empire and the Ottoman Empire . The Habsburgs initially achieved a defensive success through the Habsburg Commander-in-Chief Count Raimondo Montecuccoli against the Ottoman main army, which was on its way to Vienna, in the battle of Mogersdorf . Instead of militarily exploiting the victory against the defeated Ottomans, Emperor Leopold I signed the Peace of Eisenburg / Vasvár on August 27, 1664 . In this, the Habsburg emperor recognized the Ottoman supremacy in Transylvania , paid a severance payment and ceded Großwardein and Neuhäusel in Royal Hungary to the Ottomans. These reached their greatest territorial extent on Hungarian territory.

prehistory

The starting point of this war was the Ottoman vassal principality of Transylvania . Contrary to the prohibition of the Sublime Porte , the Prince of Transylvania Georg II. Rákóczi attacked Poland-Lithuania in 1657 in order to seize his crown. As a result of this solo effort, Grand Vizier Köprülü Mehmed Pascha moved to Transylvania with an Ottoman army in 1658 and devastated the principality. In August 1660 the Ottomans took the fortress Großwardein and built a new Vilayet of the same name in what was once Transylvanian territory . In the dispute over the succession of the late Georg II Rákóczi, a civil war between Michael Apafi and Johann Kemény began in Transylvania . Apafi, who was used by the Ottoman Empire , was finally able to prevail against Kemény, who was supported by imperial troops .

The Banus of Croatia, Nikolaus Zrinski (Hungarian Zrínyi Miklós , Croatian Nikola Zrinski ), meanwhile, expected another Turkish war to flare up and built a fortress in 1661 at his own expense in the mouth of the Mur and Drava. From this fortress, which he called Neu-Zrin (or Croatian: Novi Zrin ), he started robbery and looting expeditions into Ottoman territory, because he wanted to induce the emperor to go to war against the Ottoman Empire. The Croatian raids and the presence of imperial troops in Transylvania finally led to the first great Turkish war since 1606 and ended the "epoch of the status quo" between Vienna and the gate.

Course of the war in 1663

Raimondo Montecuccoli

In the summer of 1663 the new Ottoman Grand Vizier Ahmed Köprülü invaded the Habsburg royal Hungary with an army of more than 100,000 men and in September conquered the Neuhäusel fortress , which was made the center of another Ottoman Wilajet . The imperial commander in chief Count Raimondo Montecuccoli had to oppose the Ottomans only 12,000 men regular imperial troops as well as 15,000 men Hungarian-Croatian troops under the command of Nikolaus Zrinski. In the face of this catastrophic inferiority of his troops, Emperor Leopold I called the German imperial princes, the Reichstag and all of Europe for help in the winter of 1663. The loss of Neuhäusel fortress and the subsequent Turkish pillage far into Moravian territory ultimately led to Europe-wide support for the emperor in the Turkish struggle: Bavarian, Brandenburg and Saxon alliance troops were deployed as well as a 30,000-strong imperial army (which, however, never reached its target level ). Even Louis XIV , in his capacity as protector of the Confederation of the Rhine , sent a 6,000-strong auxiliary corps, for which he was apologized by ambassadors to the Ottoman Sultan, and he instructed his commanding officer, Jean de Coligny-Saligny , to send these troops as far as possible save.

Course of the war in 1664

The Ban of Croatia Nikolaus Zrinski as "Turkish winner"
Contemporary illustration of one of the many battles for the Neu-Zrin fortress during the siege of the fortress

At the beginning of 1664 the imperial coalition army was divided into three corps: The Mur Army in the south, made up of Croatian and Hungarian magnate troops under Nikolaus Zrinski, was about 17,000 strong. The central main army under Montecuccoli had a strength of 28,500 men and a northern army under the imperial general Louis Rattuit de Souches stood with 8,500 men in northwestern Hungary . There were still 12,500 men in reserve as fortress garrisons. Without the troops tied up in the fortresses, Montecuccoli had a force of around 54,000 men at its disposal, which, however, was anything but a homogeneous mass: There were repeated differences of opinion between the commanders of the various alliance troops and Montecuccoli had to use all his diplomatic skills to to maintain the unity of this army. A particular difficulty was that there was strong resentment between himself and the Croatian Banus Zrinski, which was to get worse in the course of this war.

In January 1664, the Mur Army began looting campaigns far into Ottoman territory and was able to destroy the strategically important Draubrücke at Esseg (Croatian: Osijek ). However, it was not possible to take the fortress Kanizsa , as the plan or order of Montecuccolis had provided. The siege, which began at the end of April, ended in June when Köprülü and his armed forces moved out of the winter quarters in Neuhäusel and put the besiegers to flight. Then he moved with his army in the direction of the fortress Neu-Zrin and captured it.

The Mur Army was too weak to successfully defend the fortress and Montecuccoli refused to come to the aid of the besieged. Nikolaus Zrinski then blamed the imperial commander-in-chief for the loss of the fortress and, after the Peace of Eisenburg, headed the magnate conspirators . Zrinski did not want to see that it was impossible for the experienced strategist Montecuccoli to risk his army in an attempt at relief: Even in the event of a victory, the outcome of the campaign would have remained uncertain, whereas in the event of a defeat Vienna and the Austrian hereditary lands would have been at the mercy of the Ottomans .

Battle of Mogersdorf

Battle of Mogersdorf / St. Gotthart (Szentgotthard) 1664

After conquering the Neu-Zrin fortress , the main Ottoman army marched towards Vienna, but was stopped by the main army of Montecuccolis on the Raab between Mogersdorf and the Cistercian monastery of St. Gotthard. The battle that took place on August 1, 1664 ended surprisingly with a victory for the imperial family: the Ottomans were only able to bring about 12,000 men over the flood waters of Raab, which, after initial successes, were destroyed by a counter-attack by the imperial cuirassiers under Count Johann von Sporck .

In Upper Hungary, de Souche's army was also able to achieve minor successes against the Turks under Kuchuk Mehmed Pasha. There was also a defensive success at the Battle of Levencz .

The Peace of Eisenburg

Just nine days after the battle, the Treaty of Eisenburg (Hungarian Vasvár) was signed on August 10, 1664 for a period of 20 years. The Ottomans were awarded the conquests they had made, the tripartite division of Hungary was confirmed, as was the Ottoman influence in Transylvania, the Neu-Zrin fortress had to be razed and the Habsburgs recognized the Prince of Transylvania, Michael Apafi, appointed by the gate. In historiography, especially in Hungarian, in connection with this peace there is repeatedly reported of a "tribute" by the emperor to the sultan in the amount of 200,000 guilders. In fact, however, this agreement freed Leopold I from the suspicion of being liable to pay tribute, since mutual "honorary gifts" were expressly stipulated. Since French constitutional law theorists in particular (but also others) derived the priority of the King of France over the Emperor from the previous obligation to pay tribute, the changed language regulation was also of great importance for the position of the House of Habsburg in Europe.

Consequences of the peace treaty

Of Croatian and Hungarian nobles the peace of iron castle as "shameful" was seen, as he had brought no territorial gains despite military successes. The Hungarian magnates in particular were disappointed by Leopold, since as King of Hungary he had the duty to liberate Hungary from the Ottomans. From the Habsburg perspective, Emperor Leopold I had little choice. They argued that finances were in poor shape and that the Ottoman army was still powerful. In addition, there was a western orientation towards foreign policy against the expanding France under Louis XIV , which threatened the western border of the Holy Roman Empire and was classified by the Viennese diplomats as the greater danger. In contrast, the declining Ottomans were considered less important by the Viennese court diplomacy. Nevertheless, the diplomatic situation at the time was favorable for the House of Habsburg. There was even a small French contingent in the ranks of the Imperial troops. The potential danger of war with France did not arise until the War of Devolution from 1667 to 1668.

The aristocrats, clinging to their promised freedoms, wanted to oppose the tendency to centralize rulership, as well as the forced re-Catholicization policy from Vienna. The land losses suffered weakened the magnates, who now saw their independence from Austrian centralism threatened. The tension between the Habsburgs and the Hungarians did not escape the attention of the author of the Seyâhatnâme , the Ottoman globetrotter Evliya Çelebi , on his trip through Hungary to Vienna. The Croatian and Hungarian magnates reacted to the peace treaty by organizing a magnate conspiracy against Habsburg . For this they sought support from France, the Ottoman Empire and other powers.

The peace treaty of Eisenburg ended after its contractual expiry 20 years later, when the Ottomans tried to conquer Vienna for the last time in 1683 and were finally expelled from Hungary as a result of the Great Turkish War (1683–1699) .

literature

  • Herbert St. Fürlinger (editor): 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. In: Herwig Wolfram (editor): Austrian history 1522–1699. Verlag Carl Ueberreuther, Vienna 2004., ISBN 3-8000-3532-4 .
  • Richard Franz Kreutel / Erich Prokosch / Karl Teply (translator): In the realm of the golden apple. The Turkish globetrotter Evliyâ Çelebi made a memorable trip to the Giaurenland and the city and fortress of Vienna in 1663. Volume 2 of the series Ottoman historians. Verlag Styria, Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-222-11747-0 .

See also

Web links

Commons : Austro-Turkish War (1663–1664)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Raimund Fürst Montecuccoli and the Battle of St. Gotthard-Mogersdorf in 1664: A Test of Europe (by Hubert Michael Mader) Austrian Military Journal - Issue 3/2006 ( Memento of October 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stanislav J. Kirschbaum: A history of Slovakia: the struggle for survival , p. 76
  2. ^ A b c Thomas Winkelbauer: Freedom of the ranks and the power of princes. Countries and subjects of the House of Habsburg in the denominational age. Part 1. In: Herwig Wolfram (editor): Austrian history 1522–1699. Verlag Carl Ueberreuther, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-8000-3532-4 , p. 151
  3. ↑ 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, p. 52
  4. ↑ a b c d Thomas Winkelbauer: Freedom of classes and princes' power. Countries and subjects of the House of Habsburg in the denominational age. Part 1. In: Herwig Wolfram (editor): Austrian history 1522–1699. Verlag Carl Ueberreuther, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-8000-3532-4 , p. 151
  5. ↑ Walter Hummelberger: The Turkish Wars and Prince Eugene. In: Herbert St. Fürlinger (editor): Our army. 300 years of Austrian soldiers in war and peace. Vienna / Munich / Zurich 1963, p. 54
  6. ^ A b Richard Franz Kreutel / Erich Prokosch / Karl Teply (translator): In the realm of the golden apple. The Turkish globetrotter Evliyâ Çelebi made a memorable trip to the Giaurenland and the city and fortress of Vienna in 1663. Volume 2 of the series Ottoman historians. Verlag Styria, Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-222-11747-0 , pp. 20-23.
  7. ^ Robert A. Kann : A history of the Habsburg Empire, 1526-1918. University of California Press, Berkeley (Cal.) 1980, ISBN 0-520-04206-9 , p. 64.
  8. ↑ Evliyâ Çelebi: In the realm of the golden apple. The Turkish globetrotter Evliyâ Çelebi made a memorable trip to the Giaurenland and the city and fortress Vienna in 1665. Translated and introduced by Richard Franz Kreutel / Erich Prokesch / Karl Teply, Volume 2 of the series: Ottoman historians. Verlag Styria, Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-222-11747-0 , p. 89.90.