| Siege of Esztergom | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theGreat Turkish War | |||||||
 Siege of Esztergom (1685) | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Holy Roman Empire |  Ottoman Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Charles of Lorraine | Ibrahim Pasha [tr][1]Osman Pasha † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 60,000[2] | 42,000[2] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 100[2] | 1,500[2] | ||||||
Thesiege of Esztergom was a military conflict on August 16, 1685, between the armies of theHoly Roman Empire, particularly ImperialAustrian troops, and theOttoman Empire during theGreat Turkish War. The siege near today's town ofEsztergom ended in defeat for theOttomans.
The war began in 1683 with an offensive by the Ottoman army againstVienna. After this was defeated in theVienna on September 12, 1683, the Imperial army and its allied Polish troops began a counteroffensive to conquer Hungary. After theVictory at Párkány, on October 27, 1683,Esztergom was forced to surrender after a short siege. The year 1684 was also successful for the Imperial family. In the summer of 1685 they went to theNeuhäusel under their generalCharles of Lorraine. In order to distract the Imperial army, the Ottoman army under the Serasker Melek Ibrahim Pasha[1] made his own advance againstEsztergom.Charles of Lorraine therefore only left an observation corps in front ofNeuhäusel and marched with his main army to relieveEsztergom.[3]
When the enemy army approached, the OttomanSerasker (Minister of War), who commanded the troops, lifted the siege of Esztergom in order to be strong enough for the expected field siege. Since August 11, both armies had been facing each other in battle formation on the left bank of the Danube. Charles of Lorraine finally faked a retreat on August 16 and thus tempted the Ottomans to attack. This was initially directed primarily against the right wing of the Imperials, whereCharles of Lorraine himself had to intervene to reorganize his troops. After the center had also repelled an Ottoman attack,Charles of Lorraine gave the order to counterattack. The Regimenters moved forward and only opened fire from a very short distance away. They also brought up cannons, which opened a devastatinggrapeshot fire against the Ottoman soldiers. After a final offensive push by the Ottomans against the Imperial left wing, commanded by the Bavarian ElectorMax Emanuel failed, they began to flee the battlefield. The Imperial forces had to forego persecution because their troops were too exhausted.[4]
After the Ottoman field army was defeated, the cities besieged by the Imperial forces could no longer count on relief.Neuhäusel fell on August 19,[5] soon afterwards also the placesEperies,Kaschau, andTokaj. TheSultan therefore hadEmeric Thököly arrested in October and began the first peace negotiations with the emperor, however remained unsuccessful.[3]