From November 20 to the end of the year 1529.
Although for the moment Vienna was relieved from dread of the Turk, other causes of distress and apprehension survived the removal of the main danger, and required equally the application of violent remedies. Not to mention that the open country was long infested with roving parties of Turkish marauders who were little interfered with by a soldiery who had forgotten their own discipline in the excitement of success, in Vienna itself this spirit displayed itself in a fearful insurrection of the troops of the Empire, which threatened the citizens with greater calamities than even those of the siege itself. On the ground that they had repulsed five main attacks, they demanded fivefold pay; and as it was impossible at once to concede this demand, they indicated, not obscurely, an intention to pay themselves by a general plunder of the city. The authorities attempted in the first instance to appease them with fair words and moral reflections. These only led to increased demands, and at length to distinct threats of a total rejection of military obedience, and of a general assault on persons and property. The invitation of one of their ensigns, Paul Gumpenberger, for every man to rally round his colours who would be content with double pay, had, it is true, the desired effect, so far that several reasonable men broke off from the mass and rescued for the moment the superior officers from their turbulent comrades. On the following day, however, the clamour and the menaces were revived with increased violence. The Pfalzgraf Frederick, who had meanwhile arrived in Vienna, promised them now threefold pay, with which the greater number were satisfied, but it was not till the ringleaders had been executed that tranquillity was entirely restored. The troops were finally divided and marched off, some to Pressburg, others to Altenburg in Hungary, and with their departure confidencerevived and the citizens were enabled to commence the work of restoration and repair both of their defences and of the houses which had suffered by the enemy’s fire. The whole of the extensive space occupied by the fortifications now existing, as well as the glacis, both of which at this period were covered with buildings, were now cleared of such, and the repeated and obstinate attempts of the former proprietors to rebuild their dwellings as obstinately resisted. By the same operation the booths, so called, of the suburb vanished for ever, and when, some three years later, the alarm of invasion was revived, the extensive remains still standing of the Burgher hospital, and of many other large buildings and churches between the river Wien and the city, were levelled to the ground. In exchange for the vast and richly endowed Burgher hospital, the ruins of which had afforded the Turks so excellent a position in front of the Kärnthner gate, the city obtained in 1580 the nunnery of St. Clara, the nuns of which, reduced in numbers by the Reformation, had fled to another establishment of their order at Villach in Carinthia. Those who returned to Vienna after the siege were received in the Pilgrim-house near St. Anne, where they gradually died out, and their former buildings were formally made over to the city, out of which has since grown the great hospital now existing.
Original Narrative of the Adventures of the Cornet Christopher von Zedlitz in the Turkish Camp. From the Collection of the Baron von Enenkel in the State Archives at Vienna.
Original Narrative of the Adventures of the Cornet Christopher von Zedlitz in the Turkish Camp. From the Collection of the Baron von Enenkel in the State Archives at Vienna.
Among such praiseworthy Christian Knights, may also justly be celebrated the honourable and noble Knight and Master, Christopher von Czetliz, who in his honourable knightly deeds against the hereditary enemy of Christendom, the Turk, has learned and known the use and profit of diligent prayer, and how to acquit oneself with the Psalter or Prayer-Book of the good Knight and King, David, much better than other careless, idle, godless people, who take no account of psalm or paternoster; for when in years past the Turkish tyrant, Soliman, with a terrible power came from Constantinople upon Hungary, and having marched 280 German miles, without reckoning the bendings of roads and by-ways, sat down before Vienna, as it were at the door of theold and famous German people, so that all Germany behoved to be stirring, then did this noble Knight, Christopher, essay himself often and manfully against the enemy.
Firstly, before Komorn; secondly, at the coronation at Stuhlweissenburg, where he distinguished himself among all the other knights there present, and exhibited himself before the king in knightly fashion, in tilting-feats, which no one could repeat after him, and which the chivalry present and his Majesty himself had much content to witness; and the latter soon after ordered him a cornetcy under the Count von Hardegg, when Pesth was recovered from the Turk. When Soliman in 1529 retook Pesth, and marched upon Vienna, Cornet Christopher was in the latter city, attached to the principal in command, when and where he gained much honour in skirmishing, and was moreover made prisoner, as will be related. In 1530, having been meanwhile knighted by his Majesty, he marched again to Pesth, under Count Hardegg, for the recovery of that city, where he joined himself with one Von Reussenstein, agreeing together to mount to the assault, as they did, and got as far as the breach, where, inasmuch as the others did not follow like men, but remained in the ditch, Cornet Christopher was hardly entreated, a Nimptsch (one of the family of Nimptsch) shot by his side, and he thrown back into the ditch; and this siege passed without success. In 1532, when the Turk was minded again to march on Vienna, but who for the good fortune of the Emperor Charles, who joined King Ferdinand in person at Vienna, had turned off to Güns, against which he failed in several assaults, Cornet Christopher was at the head of some knights from the principalities of Schweidnitz and Jauer; and when some on our side skirmished with the Turk at Neustadt, he advanced in front of all, and assailed and dismounted a Turk of consideration;—not to mention that he was somewhat ailing, and enfeebled by his march, so that so soon as he had found his way back to Breslau, he departed in God, helped surely by a Turkish syrup which he had taken, and which worked the stronger with time. For when, in the year before mentioned (1529), the Turk assailed Vienna, this noble knight had fallen upon him, and well conducted himself, and in a skirmish had fallen from and parted company with his horse, which had nottrusted itself to come back to him, and a cry being raised to save the standard, which was performed by a Fleming, Cornet Christopher had taken post on a small round hillock, where three Turks perceived and assaulted him, but he with his sword stood at bay, and stuck one of their horses in the head, and would have got clear off, but that twelve other Turks assailed him before and behind, and by numbers struck him to the ground; and when he had wounded one of these through the arm, they wrung his sword from him, and endeavoured to loose his armour, but as he was armed with a whole cuirass, no one could strip him, else, without doubt, in their fury they would have sabred and cut him to pieces. As it was they made him prisoner, and carried him off among them, by the side of their horses, a good quarter of a mile, and then set him in his cuirass on a baggage-mule, and carried him on through the night as far as Brück on the Leitha, the head quarter of the Turkish emperor. When they entered the camp there was much concourse to see a figure in full harness, cuirass, and head-piece, all screwed up, so that there was nothing but sheer iron to be seen; then one of the bystanders spoke to him in the Croat tongue, and asked him what he could do and compass, having such a load of iron on him; and he answered: “Had I a horse, and were I loose and free, thou wouldst then quickly see what I could do.” Being further asked whether he, Von Zedlitz, could touch the ground with his fist, he quickly bent himself down thereto: meanwhile the girth of the baggage-saddle burst, and he fell with a crash to the ground; and when the Turks began to laugh, he (Von Zedlitz) rose nimbly up, and, without a run, jumped in his heavy armour on the tall mule, so that the Turks admired and forbore to laugh. In this expedition there was about the Emperor Ibrahim (in German Emerich) Pacha, an eminent and notable man, the next to Solyman in that day, ruler and minister of everything in the Turkish realm, and who in this war counselled and directed everything. Before him when Von Zedlitz was brought, he gave order that they should take him out of his armour; but among the Turks was no man familiar with knightly equipment, who could deal with the manner of fastening of such a cuirass, then no longer much used and quiteunknown to the Turks, and he remained armed till questioned by Solyman himself. To him Count Christopher made answer, that if assured of his life he would undo himself. When Ibrahim Pacha had given him such assurance, he showed the interpreter two little screws at the side, which being loosed, the cuirass came to its pieces, to the great wonder of the Turks. When he had laid aside his harness, the Turks, observing a gold chain about him, fell upon him violently to tear it off; but he, seizing it with both hands, tore it in pieces and flung it among them. They also took from him his seal and ring, and on account of the gold, concluded him to be of great means and condition; but he held himself out for a gentleman of small means, who had won these things in war. As the account of these things spread itself through the camp, much was said of the feats of this man-at-arms, and of his singular dexterity under his strange attire, and every one was curious to see him, being, moreover, among the first who had been taken prisoners out of the city itself of Vienna. He was, therefore, ordered to exhibit himself in full cuirass, armed at all points for fight, and to prove whether in this fashion he could, without vantage, lift himself from the ground. On the following day, mules and several kicking horses being produced, Count Christopher laid himself on the ground with his cuirass screwed, and rising nimbly, without any vantage, sprung on a horse, and this he repeated several times; and then, with running and vaulting, afforded those hellhounds a princely spectacle of knightly exercises, to their great admiration, and specially that of Ibrahim Pacha, who soon after took him to himself, and kept him safe in his own custody. Meanwhile, there came to him certain officers to frighten or to prove him, telling him to hold himself in readiness, for that the Pacha would do him right that same day. To these he answered, that as a Christian he was in truth not afraid of death; as one who, in honour of his Redeemer, in obedience to his sovereign, and in defence of his country, had prepared himself by prayer for death at any hour or instant, and hoped and believed most certainly to enjoy eternal joy and happiness through Christ; but, nevertheless, could not credit that such was the order of the Pacha, for he knew for certainthat what the Pacha had promised he would perform like an honourable soldier. When this reached the Pacha, the longer he considered the more he admired, not only the knightly feats, but the noble spirit of this hero. When, also, Soliman himself asked him whether, if he (Soliman) should release him, he would still make war upon him, Count Christopher answered, undismayed, that if God and his Redeemer should grant him deliverance, he would while life lasted fight against the Turks more hotly than ever. Thereupon the Sultan replied, “Thou shalt be free, my man, and make war on me as thou wilt for the rest of thy life.” Soliman knew perhaps well that he would not live long, for it has been conjectured that the Turks had given him a potion, which in a few years attacked his life and carried him off. The Pacha, however, kept him in good case while the siege lasted, namely, about a month; and in place of his cuirass, gave him a dress of red velvet Tyrian stuff, which he wore and lay in night and day, and sent him from his own table meats and mixed drinks (probably sherbet), as daily prepared for himself, and even in course of time offered and gave him wine.[9]The Count, for special reasons, gave himself out for a Bohemian, being conversant in the Slav language, which is much in use with the Turks. When it came to the time appointed for the great assault, the Pacha said to him at table, “This evening will the great Sultan take possession of Vienna, and it will fare ill with your people,” and then asked him further, how strong the garrison was; and the Count answered, “All that he could tell was, that the garrison within were of that stamp that they would one and all be killed before they would surrender the city.” When the assault took place, the Count was left in the Pacha’s tent without any special guard, but loose and free of his person, and able to look about him in the camp; but when, by help of God, the Turks being repulsed broke up their camp, the Pacha took the Count with him the first day’s march, but in the morning after put another Turkish robe of velvet on himover the former, which is still preserved by his brothers, Francis and Hans von Zedlitz; and added a present of a hundred aspers, and also a cavalry prisoner whom the Count knew and had begged for, and caused them to be honourably attended and passed safe, so that on the following day they reached Vienna, where the Count was honourably received by the princes, counts, gentlemen, and officers there present.
Notice of the Devastation effected by the Turks, from Original Sources.
The general character of the operations of the Sackman has been sufficiently described. From the foot of the Kahlenberg, from Heiligenstadt and Döbling to the shore of the Leitha, his presence was proclaimed by the smoke of burning villages, and his march was tracked by wasted fields and vineyards. In the first days of the investment of Vienna the vineyards of Heiligenstadt had been destroyed by the Bosnian light troops; and on the day of the last assault its failure was avenged by the indiscriminate massacre of the inhabitants. At Döbling the pastor, Peter Heindl, was flung on a burning pile of the registers and archives of the district. Hütteldorf, St. Veit, Brunn, and Enzersdorf were burnt. In Perchtoldsdorf the inhabitants indeed held out in the castle, but every thing beyond its walls was destroyed. From the fortress of Lichtenstein the eldest son of its possessor of that day was dragged into slavery. In Closter-Neuburg the upper town and the ecclesiastical buildings held out, but the lower was destroyed. Baden shared its fate. The destroyers penetrated even into Upper Austria, and thence into Styria, where, however, they on several occasions met with their match, for the people rose upon their scattered bands, and burned alive those whom they overpowered. A detachment also crossed the Danube in thirty vessels, and made an incursion on the left bank. After having set fire to the village and castle of Schmida, they were surprised and in great part destroyed by a body of 200 cavalry under Count Hardegg. A number of fugitives were pursued to the shore, and perished in an over-crowded vessel, which went to the bottom. Another body, which, disturbed in its occupation of plunder, had taken refuge in a tower near Korneuburg, were surrounded and cut to pieces bythe land-bailiff George von Leuchtenberg, and the Bavarian colonel of cavalry Wolfgang von Weichs. In spite of these isolated acts of vengeance and resistance, upwards of 20,000 Christians were slaughtered or dragged into slavery; and but few of the latter, most of them young persons of either sex and priests, ever returned. It is a remarkable fact, proved from all the original accounts, that the Turks preferred making slaves of the clergy to the putting them to death; possibly, for the pleasure of tormenting them at leisure. According to a contemporary narrative, upwards of 14,000 of the Akindschis perished in these desultory conflicts. Taking their whole force at the number, usually admitted, of 40,000, the proportion is not improbable.