
1683
Vienna
Vienna, Habsburg Austria
The high-water mark of Ottoman advance into Central Europe.
SiegeEarly modern
Sobieski · Kara Mustafa
Monarch
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth · 1629–1696
Elected king and working cavalry general
Sobieski arrived at Vienna after a night march over the Kahlenberg with the largest cavalry force of the age. He personally led the downhill charge of the winged hussars that broke the Ottoman camp. A king who still rode in the first rank decided a continent’s frontier.
The Kahlenberg charge that lifted the siege of Vienna.