Reporting of Federici Studies Center
The Battle of Vienna, In the year of the Lord 1683
The political-military scenario in the second half of the seventeenth century – rather troubled century – appears dark and full of uncertainties. The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), devastating religious war, it was also a political-military confrontation between the French ruling House of Bourbon and that of the Habsburgs. The intent was to remove the Habsburgs' hegemony over Germany, which derived from their imperial authority. To achieve this goal Armand du Plessis, better known as Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642), inaugurating a policy based on mere national interest to the detriment of a European and Catholic vision, allied himself with the Protestant princes. The Treaties of Westphalia of 1648 sanctioned the definitive weakening of the Holy Roman Empire. That's how it is about Germany, devastated, divided between Catholics and Protestants and politically separated, the hegemony of the king of France is established, Louis XIV (1638-1715). He does not hesitate to even seek the alliance of the Ottoman Empire, completely opposed to every Christian and European ideal. At the end of the century, therefore, Europe was prostrate, divided within itself between religious factions and dynastic struggles, with an economic and demographic crisis resulting from the war, which made her more vulnerable than ever.
The Islamic offensive
The Ottoman Empire, which had conquered the Balkan countries up to the Hungarian plain, on August 1st 1664 it had been temporarily blocked by the imperial armies led by Raimondo Montecuccoli (1609-1680) in the Battle of San Gottardo, in Hungary. Shortly after though, under the strategic guidance of the Grand Vizier Qara Mustafā (1634-1683), the offensive resumes, paradoxically encouraged by Louis XIV and his casual anti-Habsburg policy. There could not have been a more favorable moment for a victorious campaign and now the heart of Europe was within the reach of the Ottoman armies. Almost isolated, only the Republic of Venice prevents the Turks from gaining dominion in the Aegean, in Greece and Dalmatia. However, it was now an unequal struggle, Indeed, culminated in the loss of Candia in 1669, despite the heroic deeds of Francesco Morosini (1618-1694). In the 1672 in Podolia – a part of present-day Ukraine – is taken from Poland and in January of 1683, ad Istanbul, the Ottoman armies head towards Hungary. It is an immense army that is marching towards the heart of Europe, under the leadership of Qara Mustafā and Muhammad IV (1641-1692). The design they attempted to create was that of a sort of “greater European and Muslim Türkiye” of which Vienna was to be the future capital; a city which in turn would have been a bridgehead towards the rest of Europe, besieged and destined for defeat. The few remaining Imperial forces – reinforced by the Hungarian militias led by Duke Charles V of Lorraine (1643-1690) – they tried in vain to resist. The great leader in the service of the Habsburgs took command, although recovering from a very serious illness, from which – he said to himself – the prayers of a Capuchin father had saved him, known to many as Father Marco da Aviano. Father Marco had been sent by Pope Innocent XI to the Emperor to plead the cause of the anti-Turkish crusade. Father Marco's first act was to ask that the image of the Mother of God be shown on all imperial insignia. Since then, Austrian military flags will always carry the effigy of the Madonna for the next two and a half centuries. Only Adolf Hitler had them removed after his rise to power.
Read More
REX
Reporting of Federici Studies Center
