Twice the Ottoman armies reached the walls of Vienna: under Suleiman the Magnificent in 1529 and under the Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa in 1683. Drawing on the city’s archives, Schimmer narrates both sieges, the burning of the suburbs, the mines and assaults, the hunger inside the walls, and the arrival of John Sobieski’s relieving army. Lord Ellesmere’s translation adds material from Hammer and Sobieski’s letters.
A vivid narrative of two turning points in the long struggle between the Habsburgs and the Ottomans. Download the free EPUB.