The Turkish preparations were pushed forward with great vigour, and in a short time an immense army was assembled in the great plain of Philippopolis. Although the Sultan had originally formed the intention of marching with it in person, he nevertheless appointed to its command his famous Grand Vizier and favourite Ibrahim. This man was by birth a Greek, of moderate stature, dark complexion, and had been in infancy sold as a slave to Soliman. He soon by his intelligence, his musical talents, his aspiring and enterprising spirit, won the favour of his master, and after Soliman’s accession to the throne participated with him in the exercise of the highest powers of the state, in the character of Vizier, brother-in-law, friend, and favourite, and enjoyed such distinctions as neither Turkish favourite nor minister has ever before or since attained. He not only often interchanged letters with his master, but frequently his clothes, slept in the same chamber, had his own seraglio in the Hippodrome, and his own colour, sky-blue, for the livery of his pages and for his standard. He insisted in his communications with Ferdinand on the title of brother and cousin. In a Latin verse which he addressed to the Venetian ambassador, he signified that while his master had the attributes of Jupiter, he himself was the Cæsar of the world. Yet all this exaltation was destined to the usual termination of the career of an Oriental favourite. He was murdered in 1536 by command of Soliman, on suspicion of a design to place himself on the throne.
Soliman had intended to put his army in motion in 1528, but his stores were destroyed, and his arrangements paralysed by rains of such extraordinary violence, that the troops, and even his own person, were endangered. A year’s respite was thus afforded to the Austrians,—the more valuable to them because, as all accounts concur in stating, they had in the first instance placed little reliance on the accounts of the Turkish preparations for war, and had entertained a very unreasonable disbelief in any serious intention on the part of Soliman to carry his menaces into execution. The threats and vaunting of Oriental despots may generally be received with much allowance for grandiloquence; but in this instance Ferdinand should have remembered that the sovereign who uttered them had already once overrun Hungary to the frontiers of Austria, and had good reason, from past experience, to anticipate success in a renewed invasion. On the 10th of April, 1529, the Sultan left Constantinople at the head of an army of at least 200,000 men. Zapolya, on his part, was not idle. He applied to nearly all the powers of Europe, not excepting even the Pope, Clement VII., whom he knew to be at this period on bad terms with the Emperor, urging them to support what he termed his just cause. These applications were unavailing; the Pope replied by excommunicating him, by exhorting the magnates of Hungary to the support of Ferdinand, and by urging the latter to draw the sword without delay in defence of Christendom.
Zapolya, supported by the money of some Polish nobles, and by some bands of Turkish freebooters, pushed forward early in April into Hungary at the head of about 2000 men, summoning on all sides the inhabitants to his support. Near Kaschan, however, he was attacked and completely routed by the Austrian commander Da Rewa. Meanwhile the Turkish army advanced without other hindrance than heavy rains and the natural difficulties of the passes of the Balkan, and by the end of June had effected the passage of the rivers of Servia, and had crossed the Hungarian frontier. Before the main body marched a terrible advanced guard of 30,000 men, spreading desolation in every direction. Their leader was a man worthy of such command of bloodthirsty barbarians, the terrible Mihal Oglou, whose ancestor, Kose Mihal, or Michael of the Pointed Beard, derived his origin from the imperial race of the Palæologi, and on the female side was related to the royal houses of France and Savoy. His descendants were hereditary leaders of those wild and terrible bands of horsemen called by the Turks “Akindschi,” i. e. “hither streaming,” or “overflowing;” by the Italians, “Guastadori,” the spoilers; by the French, “Faucheurs” and “Ecorcheurs,” mowers and flayers; but by the Germans universally “Sackman,” possibly because they filled their own sacks with plunder, or emptied those of other people. Whether this explanation be correct or not, it is certain that the name long retained its terrors in Austria, and that down to the beginning of the eighteenth century mothers used it to frighten their unruly children.
Meanwhile Zapolya, encouraged by the progress of the Turk, had ventured his own person in an advance upon Hungary; many of his old adherents joined his standard, and he collected an army of some 6000 men, with which he came on to join the Sultan. The meeting took place in the field of Mohacs. Zapolya was received with acclamation by the Turks, and with presents and other marks of honour by the Sultan, whose hand he kissed in homage for the sovereignty of Hungary. The Sultan assured him of his future protection, and awarded him among other royal honours a body-guard of Janissaries. After the army had refreshed itself it proceeded slowly, occupying the fortified places to the right and left; and in thirteen days after its departure from Mohacs the Sultan’s tents were pitched in the vineyards of Pesth, the inhabitants of which had for the most part fled either to Vienna or Poland. The garrison consisted of only about a thousand German and Hungarian soldiers, under Thomas Nadasky, who in the first instance showed the best disposition towards a manful defence. The Turks, however, after continuing a well-sustained fire from the neighbouring heights for four days, were proceeding—although no breach had been effected—to storm the defences, when the courage of the garrison failed them. The latter, with the few remaining inhabitants, retired into the citadel, and the Turks occupied the town. Nadasky was firmly resolved to hold out to the last, with the view of delaying as long as possible the advance of the enemy; but the soldiers had lost all courage, and preferred to obey two of their German officers, who entered into a capitulation with the Turks, and answered Nadasky’s remonstrances by putting him into confinement. The Vizier rejoiced at the prospect of removing an obstacle which might have materially affected the ulterior plan of his campaign at so advanced a period of the season, and eagerly accepted the conditions, promising them life and liberty; and thus by mutiny and treason was the fortress surrendered on the 7th September. The traitors soon found reason to repent their crime. The event was one which, in justice to the Sultan, demands a close investigation, for the naked circumstances were such as to fix a stigma of bad faith on that sovereign, who, however open to the charge of cruelty, was usually distinguished by a rigid and even magnanimous adherence to his word. In many accounts, contemporary and later, he is accused in this instance of a reckless violation of his promises. It is certain that the garrison was massacred, but there is reason to believe that this occurred neither with the sanction of the Sultan nor without provocation on the part of the victims. The Janissaries were in a temper bordering on mutiny on being disappointed of a general plunder of the fortress. Stones were flying at their officers, and the second in their command had been wounded. Through the ranks of these men the garrison had to defile amid expressions of contempt for their cowardice. A German soldier, irritated at this treatment, exclaimed that if he had been in command no surrender would have exposed them to it. This information being received, as might be expected, with redoubled insult, the stout German lost patience, and with his sword he struck a Janissary to the ground. The general massacre which naturally ensued was certainly not by the order, and probably against the will, of the Sultan, as indeed the writer, Cantemir, a bitter enemy of the Turk, acknowledges. Not more than sixty men escaped this sweeping execution, part of whom escaped by flight and part were made prisoners. A proof, however, of Soliman’s appreciation of honour and courage is to be found in the fact that he not only eulogized the fidelity and firmness of Nadasky, but dismissed him on his parole not to serve against the Turks during the war. This generosity is the more to be praised as it was exercised in the teeth of the resistance not only of the embittered Janissaries, but of the Hungarian traitors in the suite of Zapolya. The fortress was placed in the hands of that leader, who remained behind with a sufficient garrison in charge of it, while the Turkish army pursued its triumphant progress over the Austrian frontier. On the 14th September Zapolya was solemnly installed on the Hungarian throne, the ceremony being attended, however, on the part of Soliman only by the Segbanbaschi, or second in command of the Janissaries, and by Soliman’s commissioner in Hungary, the Venetian Gritti, whose name has been already mentioned. A Turkish commandant was left in the place, and the Pacha of Semendria, Mohammed Bey, was sent on in advance towards Vienna to obtain intelligence and clear the roads.
CHAPTER III.
Before Soliman quitted Pesth he had issued a proclamation to the effect that “Whosoever in Hungary should withhold obedience and subjection from the Count John of Zips, Wayvode of Transylvania, whom the Sultan had named king, had replaced in the sovereignty, and had engaged himself to uphold, should be punished and extirpated with fire and sword; but that those who should submit themselves should be stoutly protected, and maintained in the possession of their property and privileges.” On the 21st of September, Soliman with his main army crossed the Raab at Altenburg in Hungary, and on the same day his advanced corps of plunderers and destroyers under Michael Oglou, after spreading terror far and wide around them, reached the neighbourhood of Vienna. It may be questioned whether the main objects of the campaign were promoted by the employment of this force. As a scourge to the defenceless portion of an enemy’s country, none could be so effective; but though terror may paralyze the resistance of the scattered and the weak, cruelty serves to excite the indignation and organize the resistance of those beyond its immediate reach; and in the case of the Sackman cruelty was combined with a reckless treachery, which was laid to the account and affixed to the reputation of the general body of the invaders and their great leader, in some instances hardly with justice. Contemporary writers have exhausted their powers of language in describing the atrocities perpetrated by these marauders. We find, for example, in a rare pamphlet of the time,[2] the following: “At which time did the Sackman spread himself on every side, going before the Turkish army, destroying and burning everything, and carrying off into captivity much people, men and women, and even the children, of whom many they grievously maimed, and, as Turkish prisoners have declared, over 30,000 persons were by them carried off, and as has since been told, such as could not march were cruelly put to death. Thus have they wasted, destroyed, burnt, and plundered all in the land of Austria below Ens, and nearly to the water of Ens, but on the hither side of the Danube for the most part the land has escaped, for by reason of the river the Turk could do there but little harm; the towns also round about Vienna beyond Brück on the Leitha, have remained unconquered and unwasted by the Turk, but the open country wasted and burnt.” The irresistible pressure forward of the main army, the threats of the Sultan, and the merciless fury of the Sackman, produced their consequences in the prompt surrender of most of the places which were unprovided with garrisons and adequate defences. In this manner fell Fünfkirchen, Stahlweissenburg, and Pesth, without a blow, into the hands of the enemy. In Gran the inhabitants even refused to admit the garrison sent by Ferdinand for its occupation, and the Archbishop Paul Tomori so far forgot his honour and duty as to procure the surrender both of town and citadel to the Sultan, to whose camp the prelate also betook himself. Komorn was abandoned by its garrison. Raab also fell, but not till it had been set on fire by the fugitives. Altenburg in Hungary was betrayed into the hands of the enemy. Brück on the Leitha, on the contrary, defended itself stoutly; and the Sultan, pleased with the constancy and courage of its defenders, willingly accorded them terms in virtue of which they were pledged to do him homage only after the fall of Vienna. Content with this compact, he ceased his attack on the city, marched past under its walls, and strictly forbade all injury to the district in its dependence. Wiener Neustadt also defended itself with spirit, and in one day repelled five attempts to storm its defences in the most heroic manner. Several other places, among them Closterneuburg, and Perchtoldsdorf, and some castles held out with success.[3] Such occasional opposition was scarcely distasteful to Soliman, for whom invariable and cheap success had not its usual attraction. His far-reaching ambition looked to a sovereignty of the West corresponding to that which his ancestors had asserted over the East, and he remarked with complacency the valour of men whom he destined for his future subjects. For the same reason he detested cowardice in the ranks of his opponents, and punished it with the same severity as if it had exhibited itself in his own. In contemplation also of the immensity of his force, the rapidity of his progress, and the unprepared condition of Austria, he held success for certain, and isolated instances of resistance could, as he conceived, only afford useful practice to his troops without affecting the general and inevitable result. In fact, the aspect of the time for Austria was one of gloom and danger. The main force of the enemy was hard upon the frontier, which had already been crossed at several points by the terrible bands of Michael Oglou; and from the walls of Vienna the horizon was seen reddened with the flames of burning villages, while within the city little or nothing had yet been done for its fortification and defence. It is true that, on the near approach of the danger, Ferdinand had called meetings of the States, as well in Austria as in the other provinces of his hereditary dominions; and had for this object proceeded in person through Styria, Carinthia, Tyrol, and Bohemia. The cause was everywhere taken up with much alacrity. In Austria the tenth man was called out for service; the other provinces undertook to furnish considerable forces; and Bohemia promised, in case of the actual invasion of Austria, to send to her aid every man capable of bearing arms. The King, however, saw but too well that with all this aid he would be no match in the field for the Sultan’s force; and he turned his thoughts to the Empire, in which the religious disputes of the time presented serious difficulties in the way of the assistance he required. The danger, however, was pressing enough to allay for the moment even the heats engendered by the Reformation. At the Diet of Spire, which was attended by most of the Electoral and other Princes of the Empire, Ferdinand addressed to them an urgent appeal, in which he made a prominent allusion to the fact that Soliman had declared his determination never to lay down his arms till he had erected a monument to his victories on the bank of the Rhine. The voice of party was indeed silenced by this appeal to a common interest; but the succour, voted after protracted discussion, was nevertheless scanty, not exceeding 12,000 foot and 4000 horse, as the contingent for the Germanic body. Then followed interminable debates as to the selection of a commander; and the Turks were over the Save and in possession of Pesth before the Germanic contingent was mustered. There were not wanting men hard of belief, pedants of the true German stamp, who maintained that mere apprehension had exaggerated the danger; and finally it was agreed at Ratisbon, to which city the assembly had transferred itself, to send a deputation of two persons to Hungary to investigate the state of affairs on the spot.[4] They went; and, having the good fortune to escape the hands of the Turks, returned with evidence sufficient to satisfy the doubts of their sagacious employers.
On the day on which Soliman crossed the Hungarian frontier, a detachment of Imperial cavalry under Paul Bakics encountered a body of the Turkish light troops in the immediate neighbourhood of Vienna, and took a few prisoners. The conquerors showed themselves apt disciples in cruelty of the Turks, and even exceeded their teachers, who with the sabre usually made short work with their captives, whereas the men now taken were racked or tortured before they were bound together with ropes and flung into the Danube. Meanwhile the near approach of the Turks and the delay of all succour raised consternation in Vienna to the highest pitch. The news of the fall of Pesth, which reached it on the 17th September, suggested flight to all who had the means of escape. In defiance of an urgent summons on the part of the authorities, addressed to all capable of bearing arms, many burghers left the city on pretence of bearing their women and children to places of safety, and few of these returned. These delinquents were called afterwards to severe account, though much excuse was to be found for such conduct on the part of individuals in the shameful neglect of their rulers, who had postponed measures of defence till resistance appeared hopeless. The countless hosts of the invader had crossed the frontier before any force had been collected which could even impede its advance. The royal troops encamped at Altenburg hardly amounted to 5000 men, who on the first appearance of the enemy effected a rapid retreat in order not to be cut off from Vienna. The succours promised by the Empire were not forthcoming, though messenger after messenger was sent to hurry their advance. Even the Bohemian troops approached but by slow marches, under their leader John of Bernstein, and required every exhortation to greater diligence. At length Duke Frederick of the Palatinate, the prince elected as leader of the army of the Empire, arrived on the 24th of September at Lintz with the scanty levies, amounting to a few thousands, which had as yet been collected. At Lintz he held conference with Ferdinand as to the measures to be pursued, and then hastened forward to effect his entrance into Vienna before the arrival of the Turks. On the 26th, however, he received at Grein the intelligence that the Turks had appeared in force in the neighbourhood of the city. He was at first resolutely determined to cut his way at all hazards, but when he learned that both the bridges over the Danube were in possession of the enemy, being satisfied that by the attempt he could only involve his feeble forces in certain and useless destruction, he determined to halt at Crems for reinforcements. His cousin, however, the brave Pfalzgraf Philip, succeeded in throwing himself into the city, with a small number of Spanish and German troops, three days before it was surrounded by the Turks.
In Vienna the necessary preparations had now been made with almost superhuman exertion, but in such haste and with so little material, that they could only be considered as very inadequate to the emergency. The city itself occupied then the same ground as at present, the defences were old and in great part ruinous, the walls scarcely six feet thick, and the outer palisade so frail and insufficient that the name Stadtzaun, or city hedge, which it bears in the municipal records of the time, was literally as well as figuratively appropriate. The citadel was merely the old building which now exists under the name of Schweizer Hof. All the houses which lay too near the wall were levelled to the ground; where the wall was specially weak or out of repair, a new entrenched line of earthen defence was constructed and well palisaded; within the city itself, from the Stuben to the Kärnthner or Carinthian gate, an entirely new wall twenty feet high was constructed with a ditch interior to the old. The bank of the Danube was also entrenched and palisaded, and from the drawbridge to the Salz gate protected with a rampart capable of resisting artillery. As a precaution against fire the shingles with which the houses were generally roofed were throughout the city removed. The pavement of the streets was taken up to deaden the effect of the enemy’s shot, and watchposts established to guard against conflagration. Parties were detached to scour the neighbouring country in search of provisions, and to bring in cattle and forage. Finally, to provide against the possibility of a protracted siege, useless consumers, women, children, old men, and ecclesiastics were, as far as possible, forced to withdraw from the city. Though this latter measure was successful for its special purpose, and prevented any failure of subsistence during the investment of the city, it had the melancholy consequence that many of the fugitives met with massacre or captivity at the hands of the Turkish light troops. In the neighbourhood of Traismauer, for instance, in the very beginning of September, a body of no less than 5000 were unsparingly massacred by the Sackman. To meet the financial exigency of the time, an extraordinary contribution was levied throughout Austria. A bishop was taxed 5 florins, a mitred prelate 4, an unmitred 3, a count 4, the rest of the noblesse, as also the secular clergy, and all citizens who were accounted to possess 100 florins, 1 florin each; peasants, servants, and others of the poorer classes a kreutzer in the dollar; day labourers 10 pennies, and every communicant 9 pennies (see “Chronicon Mellicense,” part vii. p. 572). Should these sums appear small, the value of money must be considered at a period when a considerable country-house might be purchased for 50 florins, and when 200 florins were reckoned a competence.