Suleiman I's campaign of 1529

Hungarian campaign of Suleiman
Part of the Ottoman-Habsburg wars
"The Great Gun", a 1518 allegorical representation by Albrecht Dürer of the Turkish menace for the German lands.
Date 1529 Location Hungary Result Ottoman victory; Ottomans re-occupy Raab, Komárom, Esztergom, and Buda
Belligerents
Habsburg Austria  Holy Roman Empire Kingdom of Bohemia  Kingdom of Croatia Ferdinand's Hungarian kingdom	Ottoman Empire  Moldavia John Szapolyai's Hungarian kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Ferdinand I	Suleiman the Magnificent Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha John Szapolyai Peter IV Rareș
Strength
	120,000 soldiers[1] (including 12,000 Janissaries)[2] 20,000 camels 300 guns 6,000 Hungarian horsemen[2]
Casualties and losses
20,000 dead (soldiers and civilians)[2]	40,000 dead[2]

Suleiman I's campaign of 1529 was launched by the Ottoman Empire to take the Austrian capital Vienna and thereby strike a decisive blow, allowing the Ottomans to consolidate their hold on Hungary. This was in response to Ferdinand I's daring assault on Ottoman Hungary.

March[]

Suleiman's march to Vienna was also an attempt to assist his vassal, John Szapolyai who claimed the throne of Hungary. Suleiman sent his army of 120,000 strong north on the 10 May 1529 . His campaign was marked by speedy success- on September 8 Buda surrendered to the Ottomans and John Szapolyai was installed as King of Hungary. Suleiman then went further taking Gran, Tata, Komárom and Raab^[1] so that much of Ferdinand I's gains the previous two years were lost. On 27 September, Suleiman reached Vienna.

Aftermath[]

The arrival of the Sultan's massive host in Central Europe caused much panic across Europe - Martin Luther, who had believed that the Turks were God's punishment against the sins of Christians^[3] modified his views and wrote the book the War with the Turks in 1529 urging that "the scourge of God" should be fought with great vigour. However, when Suleiman began besieging Vienna it would prove to be his first and most decisive blunder.

Bibliography[]

• Clodfelter, M. (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492-2015 (4th ed.). McFarland. ISBN 978-0786474707.
• Madden, Thomas F. Crusades the Illustrated History. 1st ed. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan P, 2005
• Turnbull, Stephen. The Ottoman Empire 1326 - 1699. New York: Osprey, 2003.

Notes[]