BATTLE OF ZENTA
Hapsburg forces line up against Ottoman Sultan Mustafa II to strike a decisive blow during the Great Turkish War
Shortly after dawn on 11 September 1697 a high-ranking Ottoman prisoner named Cafar Pasha was brought before Prince Eugene of Savoy, the commander-in-chief of the Hapsburg Imperial army in war-ravaged Hungary. Although the Ottoman prisoner initially was tight-lipped regarding the location of Sultan Mustafa II’S army, known to be in the vicinity, he quickly changed his mind when threatened with physical harm. The prince declared that if he did not immediately divulge the location of the sultan’s army, a group of Croatians standing nearby would hack him to pieces.
Wanting to save his own life, the prisoner began sharing everything he knew. He told the prince that the sultan’s army was in the process of crossing the Tisza River just below the village of Zenta. The bulk of the cavalry and the sultan’s baggage train had already crossed to the far side of the river, but the foot soldiers had not yet made their way to the east side – leaving them vulnerable to attack.
Eugene knew he had to act quickly to take advantage of the favourable situation. Even though it was the 33-year-old Hapsburg field marshal’s first independent command on the Hungarian front, he had no doubt about what he must do. The information gleaned from the Ottoman officer presented him with a golden opportunity to destroy the Ottoman army and break the stalemate in the Great Turkish War.
The prince resolved at once to lead the Hapsburg cavalry to the river crossing, while the infantry and field guns made a forced march to Zenta. It would take most of the day to reach the enemy’s location, but Eugene had every intention of attacking before sundown.
The Long Wars
Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent’s victory over Hungarian King Louis II at the Battle of Mohacs in 1526 had led to the Ottoman annexation of two-thirds of Hungary. The remainder of the country, a buffer strip in the north known as Royal Hungary, remained in the hands of the Hapsburgs. Because Louis, who died fleeing the field, had no successor, the Hapsburgs inherited Hungarian dynastic claims. Sultan Suleiman followed up this great victory at Mohacs by besieging Vienna three years later, however he failed to capture it.
For three centuries, beginning in the mid-15th century until the 18th century, the Austrian Hapsburgs held the throne of the
Holy Roman Empire in an unbroken line of succession. Because the archduke of Austria also was the emperor, he could harness the military resources of the empire for his regional war against the Ottomans. The Imperial army engaged against the Ottomans generally included Austrians, Germans, Hungarians, and Croats.
An important battle that would foreshadow the Battle of Zenta occurred in 1664 when Grand Vizier Fazil Ahmed Pasha attempted to reach Vienna through western Hungary. Near the Monastery of St Gotthard on the Styrianhungarian frontier, the grand vizier’s army was crossing the Raab River when heavy rains raised the river, stranding the janissaries on the north side. Imperial general Raimondo Montecuccoli had hidden his army in the woods north of the river. He launched a surprise attack that wiped out nearly all of the janissaries save for a few who were rescued by Tatars skilled enough to swim their horses across the flooded river.
Although the Hapsburgs and Ottomans skirmished repeatedly along their frontier after the collapse of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1526, they fought two “long wars” that were characterised by particularly bloody sieges and battles. The first long war, known simply as the Long Turkish War, which lasted from 1593 to 1606, as mostly one-sided in favour of the Ottomans. Conversely, the Hapsburgs dominated the second long war, known as the Great Turkish War, which lasted from 1683 to 1699.
The second long war began when Grand
Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha’s Ottoman army besieged Vienna on 14 July 1683. The garrison held the Turks at bay for nearly two months. On 12 September, a Polish-imperial army led by Polish King Jan Sobieski launched a stunning attack from the Kahlenberg Heights overlooking the city. Sobieski’s Polish winged hussars, backed by an Imperial army led by Duke Charles of Lorraine, overran the Ottoman army. The survivors withdrew to Ottoman Hungary.
“THE PRINCE DECLARED THAT IF HE DID NOT IMMEDIATELY DIVULGE THE LOCATION OF THE SULTAN’S ARMY, A GROUP OF CROATIANS STANDING NEARBY WOULD HACK HIM TO PIECES”
Reconquest of Hungary
The great victory that the Polish-imperial army obtained at Vienna in 1683 was the first of a half dozen decisive victories the Hapsburgs would obtain during the Great Turkish War. Taking advantage of the substantial boost in morale achieved in the wake of their victory at Vienna, the Hapsburgs set about the reconquest of Hungary.
The following year Pope Innocent XI sponsored a Holy League whose primary participants were Hapsburg Austria, the Polish-lithuanian Commonwealth, Venice, and the Papacy. Each member of the alliance agreed that it would not make a separate peace with the Ottomans.
The armies of the time typically campaigned from roughly May to October and spent the
winter in a fortified area. The Ottoman army usually wintered in Erdine or Istanbul. Since it took them one or two months to reach the front with their slow-moving supply train, the campaign season often did not begin until August.
Charles of Lorraine followed up the Hapsburg victory at Vienna with the successful 78-day siege of Buda in 1686. He sustained the momentum of his counteroffensive with a decisive victory over the Ottomans in a pitched battle in 1687, at Harkany, southern Hungary. During this exchange the fury of the Ottoman janissaries proved to be no match for their opponents’ concentrated musket fire.
By this point in time, the Hapsburgs had conquered much of Hungary and had reversed many of the gains in the country made by Suleiman the Great. The Ottomans found themselves defending the Sava-danube line with Belgrade serving as their forward base. Lorraine’s successor, Max Emmanuel, Elector of Bavaria, succeeded in capturing the fortresses of Peterwardein and Belgrade in 1688.
Battle of Slankamen
When the Holy Roman Empire joined the coalition against France in the Nine Years’ War it afforded the Ottomans a chance to regroup and resume the offensive in Hungary. Emperor Leopold sent his best commanders (Charles of Lorraine, Ludwig of Bavaria, and Prince Eugene) and the bulk of his troops to fight the French, and this gave the Ottomans an opportunity to regain ground in Serbia, Hungary, and Transylvania. Grand Vizier Fazil Mustafa Pasha retook Belgrade in October 1690 after a brief siege.
Yet the grand vizier’s luck ran out on 19 August 1691 when he attacked Margrave Louis of Baden’s Imperial army 40 miles north of Belgrade on the right bank of the Danube River at Slankamen. Successive waves of Ottoman troops charged the Hapsburg position, but every charge was shattered by the Imperial infantry’s disciplined musketry. When Mustafa Pasha died leading a last desperate charge, his army panicked and fled the field.
Frontier clashes
Sultan Mustafa II took the Ottoman throne in February 1695 following the death of Sultan Ahmed II. Thirty-year-old Mustafa possessed many good traits. He was energetic, zealous, and eager to learn the art of war. He believed wholeheartedly that the sultan’s place was at the head of army of conquest. Yet he lacked military experience and was often indecisive. Shortly after Ahmed’s death, the fiery young sultan issued an imperial writ in which he sought to inspire an army demoralised by recent defeats at the hands of the Hapsburgs. Simply put, he stated that he intended to lead his armies in person against the Hapsburg forces like his famous forebear Suleiman the Magnificent.
Mustafa and Grand Vizier Elmas Mehmed Pasha led the Ottoman army north from Erdine on 1 July arriving in Belgrade little over a month later. The situation in Serbia had reached a stalemate with the Austrians heavily garrisoning Peterwardein and the Ottomans doing the same in Belgrade. Mustafa therefore decided to roll back Hapsburg gains in Transylvania. Their first objective was the fortress of Lipova in southern Transylvania, which the Austrians were using as a forward base for operations against the key Ottoman supply base at Temesvar.
The following year an Imperial army led by Augustus II, Elector of Saxony, besieged Temesvar. Mustafa marched to its relief, forcing Augustus to raise his siege and withdraw north.
Eugene Takes Command
At the outbreak of the Great Turkish War, 19-year-old Prince Eugene had arrived in Austria
“HE STATED THAT HE INTENDED TO LEAD HIS ARMIES IN PERSON AGAINST THE HAPSBURG FORCES LIKE HIS FAMOUS FOREBEAR SULEIMAN THE MAGNIFICENT”
eager to fight with the Imperial army. The youthful prince was of short stature and had an oval face, aquiline nose, and gleaming eyes.
He received an appointment as lieutenant in the Kufstein Dragoons, a regiment in Charles of Lorraine’s army, during the relief of Vienna. Afterwards, the emperor awarded him for his valour by giving him command of the regiment. Eugene served for the next six years on the Hungarian front where he was able to observe firsthand the successful generalship of both Charles of Lorraine and Louis of Baden. After a brief stint on the Rhineland at the outset of the Nine Years’ War, he received a transfer to northern Italy.
Eugene fought with great distinction on the Italian front during the Nine Years’ War and received a promotion to field marshal in 1693. Four years later, Leopold appointed Eugene to serve as the commander-in- chief of the Imperial forces on the Hungarian front. When Eugene arrived in Peterwardein in July 1697 in the midst of the campaign season, the young field marshal set about improving the condition of the 30,000 Austria, Brandenburg, and Saxon troops assembled at the fortress. As he inspected and drilled the troops, he sent a request to the emperor for reinforcements, rations, ammunition, and equipment. Leopold directed his quartermasters that Eugene should receive the provisions and equipment he had requested. Since the Nine Years’ War had ended, Leopold also was able to send Eugene 20,000 additional troops.
Leopold advised Eugene to avoid engaging the enemy. If Eugene should decide to give battle, he should only do so if he was certain of victory, said Leopold. He received another dispatch from the emperor on the day of battle reminding him to exercise caution.
Eugene had learned a great deal about the art of war in his 14 years of active service in the Imperial army. He hoped for an opportunity to strike the larger Ottoman army when it was vulnerable. Although Mustafa might have more men, Eugene had every confidence that he could outfight him.
Road to battle
In his third campaign season, Sultan Mustafa departed Erdine with 80,000 troops arriving in Belgrade on 10 August 1697. His senior military advisors disagreed over the best strategy for the campaign season. Amcazade Huseyin Pasha, the commander of the Belgrade fortress, argued in favour of a northward advance against Peterwardein. He argued that Transylvania was a sideshow and that if the Ottomans were to regain control of Hungary they would first have to retake Peterwardein.
For his part, Grand Vizier Elmas Mehmed Pasha argued in favour of a march to Temesvar. He believed that Peterwardein was too strong to capture. For that reason, the sultan could focus on retaking Transylvania. Once that region was secured, the Ottoman army would be able to threaten Hapsburg strongholds in Royal Hungary.
After careful consideration, the sultan opted for a march to Temesvar. What he planned to do once he reached that destination, though, is uncertain. He may have wanted to actively campaign in Transylvania or he may simply have desired to go into winter camp early in Wallachia.
“THE JANISSARIES, WHO WERE ARMED WITH BOTH BOWS AND MUSKETS, FOUGHT WITH GREAT COURAGE, BUT THEY WERE MOWED DOWN BY THE RELENTLESS VOLLEY FIRE OF THE IMPERIAL MUSKETEERS”
Mustafa led his army north from Belgrade on 18 August. The army crossed the Danube, then made a detour west to capture Titel Castle at the confluence of the Tisza and Danube. It then marched north along the right bank of the Tisza reaching the vicinity of the village of Zenta, which was situated 80 miles north of Belgrade, on the morning of 11 September.
Ottoman scouts had no idea of the location of the Imperial army. Mustafa ordered his engineers to throw a bridge across the river south of the village. Once it was in place, he ordered his cavalry and artillery to cross to the left bank. Aware that his janissaries on the right bank would need to protect themselves against an enemy attack, he ordered them to entrench. They hastily constructed field works and maintained a vigilant watch for the enemy as the mounted troops and gun crews streamed across the narrow bridge of boats.
Slaughter at the riverbank
When he learned that the Ottoman army had crossed to the north side of the Danube River, Eugene assembled his army and set off to shadow his opponent. The task of tracking the enemy column fell to the Imperial hussars, who soon furnished Eugene with a prisoner to interrogate. Eugene acted immediately on the information extracted from the prisoner.
The Prince led his cavalry towards Zenta, and ordered his infantry commanders to conduct a forced march to the enemy’s location. The field marshal and the cavalry arrived at the assembly point at mid-afternoon; however, the infantry did not reach Zenta until 6.00pm This left Eugene two hours of daylight to inflict as much damage on the Turks as possible.
The Hapsburg field marshal deployed his troops in a half-moon formation before the arc of the enemy’s trenches. He placed his cavalry on both wings and his infantry in the centre. Eugene had complete confidence in the ability of his army to defeat the enemy. Imperialist musketeers had proven that their fire discipline was superior to that of the Ottoman janissary corps. As for the Imperial cavalry, the Prince could rely both on the firepower of his carbinearmed dragoons and the shock charge of his armoured cuirassiers.
Loud drums and blaring trumpets sounded the Imperial advance, and the Hapsburg line surged forward. The flanks of the Imperial army, which were anchored on the river, overlapped the entire position occupied by the entrenched janissaries.
Once the Imperialist line advanced, Mustafa directed sipahi cavalry on the far bank to recross the river and assist the infantry. Yet the narrowness of the bridge meant that only a small number could cross at a time.
a frightful bloodbath
As the battle grew in intensity, the Ottoman line began to weaken in places. Mehmed
Pasha, who was stationed with the janissaries, directed the defence for a time, but he was eventually slain. The janissaries, who were armed with both bows and muskets, fought with great courage, but they were mowed down by the relentless volley fire of the Imperial musketeers. As gaps opened up in the enemy lines, Eugene directed his cuirassiers to exploit them. A group of cuirassiers also succeeded in working their way around the Ottoman right flank to assail the Turks from behind.
At that point, the Turkish line began to collapse. Some of the janissaries fought on with great fury even though they realised that they were facing certain death. These knots of courageous janissaries, many of whom discarded their long-range weapons to wield their razor-sharp swords, soon found themselves surrounded by musketeers who shot them down at point-blank range. With the darkness growing and the battlefield shrouded in smoke, it became difficult to tell friend from foe.
Blown to pieces by the musketry and artillery, the Turkish bodies were piled high inside the Ottoman perimeter. As the last resistance crumbled at nightfall, the Imperial troops moved through the piles of wounded and dying determined to annihilate any remaining pockets of resistance. Eugene described the battle as “a frightful bloodbath”. The Imperial troops “could stand on the dead bodies as though on an island” he told the emperor.
When it was all over, 20,000 Turks lay dead inside their perimeter, and 10,000 more drowned in the river. Imperial losses were light in comparison. In addition to the grand vizier, four other viziers perished in the short but bloody battle. Mustafa escaped to Temesvar. Eugene followed up his victory by raiding deep into Serbia. His mounted force sacked Sarajevo and returned to Peterwardein laden with treasure.
Not long afterward Mustafa asked the
English to mediate a peace agreement. The English, who were assisted by the Dutch, helped the Hapsburgs and Ottomans come to terms. Through the Treaty of Karlowitz of 1699, the Hapsburgs recovered all of Hungary (except for the province of Temesvar), Croatia, and Transylvania. The Ottoman Empire retained the lands south of the Sava-danube line, which amounted to most of Serbia, including Belgrade. The Hapsburg victory in the Great Turkish War marked a precipitous decline in Ottoman power in Central Europe.