Monday, September 10, 2012

Anniversary of the Battle of Vienna 1683

Edit: awakened by the Austrian Empire's conflict with a Hungarian Protestant, Imre Thokoly, the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet IV chose to intervene on his behalf and promised him the lands of the Hapsburgs for his assistance in conquering these his greatest enemies.  Meanwhile, the French not only refused to send help, but attacked Hapsburg possessions in Alsace at the same time.

The great victory which ensued on September 11th and 12th, under the leadership of the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold and thanks to the generous outpouring of support from the Polish King and his people, is largely unsung in the American Republic, and even most American Catholics are woefully ignorant of it.

Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I 1683


Photo, from Chesterton and Friends, blog...

A nice historical summary, here...

3 comments:

ascot said...

"under the leadership of the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold..." I beg your pardon, but leader does never leave his people in the danger. In such a case [and it was the case of Emperor Leopold in September 1683] we are talking about coward not a leader. Anti-Muslim allays asked Polish King Jan Sobieski to be the Chief of the allays army and it was him, not the coward emperor, who was the leader.

Anonymous said...

He was no coward and he had his reasons. An emperor is not only a king. Leopolds father, Ferdinand III., suffered a lot because he, as emperor, could not fight personally during the 30 years' war and it was his younger brother who fought instead. This younger brother, Leopold Wilhelm, also called "belicosissimus", was greatly admired by his nephew Leopold I. The emperor was no coward, he just made his duty, as most of the Habsburgs did, especially the heroes of the 17th century. It is typical for that family. To quote Leopold Wilhelm (while he was ill, but cared more for his soldiers than for himself): "An Austrian prince is not born for himself, but for his people." To be most usefull does not necesarilly mean to stay in a besieged city.

Eleonora

Tancred said...

It gave him the freedom to put together a coalition to face the Turk and to keep the Froggies at bay.