12/11/2023 0 Comments Battle of vienna polish hussars![]() ![]() Tolkien, and he incorporated it into The Return of the King. ![]() Made for Hollywood, you might say? Well, as a matter of fact, the dramatic saving act of the battle was noticed by none other than J.R.R. The charge proved to be the fatal blow to the Ottoman siege, and the battle to save Vienna was won within three hours. By the time the horsemen hammered down the hill, many of them were simply riding too fast to stop, and they cut through the enemy troops like a battering-ram of horse, man, and steel. The Winged Hussars and the thousands of cavalrymen that followed them smashed into the Ottomans, trampling many of them to death. These knights were named for the wings of birds of prey attached to the backs of their armor, which streamed behind them in the wind and made them resemble a cloud of avenging angels. The Polish king, at the head of 3,000 heavy lancers known to history as the Winged Hussars, led the charge. At 6 PM, at his command, an awe-inspiring cavalry charge plunged over the crests of the hills and pounded towards the invaders, a magnificent force of 18,000 horsemen. As Black Mustafa and the Turks tried desperately to force their way into the city before the relief troops could swing the advantage the defenders, the Polish King Jan Sobieski emerged from the forests on the hills above the Ottoman attackers. The calls were heeded, and a massive relief force made up of soldiers from Saxony, Baden, Franconia, Bavaria, Swabia, and Poland began to move towards Vienna.” The battle, a chaotic, bloody affair, began on September 11, 1683-but there is one moment that stands out, immortalized against the backdrop of an epic struggle between civilizations. Frantic pleas for assistance were sent out to the leaders of Christian Europe, calling for men and arms to repel the invaders. ![]() “Count Ernst Rudiger von Starhemberg, the commander of Vienna’s garrison, scorned the ultimatum: ‘Let them come I’ll fight to the last drop of blood.’ As the siege dragged on and hunger and exhaustion began to fell the city’s inhabitants, it began to look as if the defenders might have to do just that. “They arrived to lay siege to the city, demanding surrender,” Van Maren writes. They made a second attempt in July of 1683, under the leadership of “Black” Mustafa, the Empire’s grand vizier. Fierce defenders and savage weather eventually drove the Ottomans back, and Christian Europe, for the time being, was safe.”īut the Ottomans didn’t give up so easily. When the date came and went, Vienna’s defenders, a coalition that included German Landsknechts, Spanish Musketeers, and Italian mercenaries, both Catholic and Protestant, sent the sultan a message to let him know that his breakfast was getting cold. Stephen’s Cathedral within two weeks of the siege. He boasted that he would be having breakfast in St. “He had been racking up victories across the continent, and decided that the first great conquest that would lead to his domination of Europe would be the magnificent city of Vienna. In 1529, Sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent was “riding high,” writes Jonathon Van Maren at his blog The Bridgehead. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings was an actual fighting force who fended off the Ottoman invasion of Europe in the 17th century. Sometimes, however, the model is well known.Īccording to at least one literary observer, the model for a band of soldiers in J.R.R. ![]() Often, the human being upon whom an artist bases his depiction of the human form is anonymous. In art, especially in painting and drawing, the model is often an unsung hero. Winged Hussars saved Europe in a dramatic battle. ![]()
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