King John III Sobieski: The neglected Savior of Europe
12th September 1683, should be one of the most important dates for European self-awareness.
By Tore Rasmussen, 5th November 2021
King John III Sobieski can be considered one of the greatest European heroes of the Modern Era. In 1683, after two months of siege, he managed to defeat the Turkish invaders in the battle of Vienna and to save not only Vienna but all of Europe from further Muslim conquest.
It was the day Vienna was saved from the enemy's clutches. What if the Ottomans had been able to conquer Vienna? Perhaps Austria and Europe only would have become an appendage of the Ottoman empire in the following century and would have suffered the same fate as “The Sick Man of Europe” eventually did. Fortunately, history turned out differently.
Vienna was on the brink of collapse after a long gruelling siege. The defenders of the city were starving and faced utter annihilation. The inhabitants of Perchtoldsdorf, another Austrian town, had been massacred earlier in the Ottoman campaign, even if they had surrendered.
While the defenders of Vienna were fighting their desperate fight against hunger, despair and relentless Ottoman attacks, Emperor Leopold I worked night and day with Pope Innocent XI to assemble a coalition force against the Turkish Ottomans. The Pope and the Emperor successfully recruited Polish King John III Sobieski to their cause. He was already a renowned war hero by that time. Together with John III Sobieski, the Pope and the Emperor formed an alliance called The Holy League.
The Ottoman army was large, fielding around 150 000 soldiers, and held an entrenched position around Vienna. Even with allied reinforcements from The Holy League, the defenders were outnumbered nearly one to two. But The Holy League had an ace up their sleeve.
After the troops of The Holy League had engaged with the Ottoman army for several hours, everyone suddenly stopped in suspense; a massive cloud of dust was whirling up from Kahlenberg on the hill above Vienna.
The wind carried the sound of 18,000 horsemen charging down the hill. A rumbling sound shook the ground. The most enormous known cavalry charge in history was taking place. The spectating infantry from The Holy League cheered them on.
John III Sobieski personally led the charge, ahead of 3,000 Polish horsemen armed with heavy lances, pistols and sabres, the revered Winged Hussars. Their battle cry, “Amor Patriae Nostra Lex” (Love of the fatherland is our law), filled the air. The massive charge quickly broke the defence lines of the Ottomans, who were now both exhausted and demoralised.
King John III Sobieski sending Message of Victory to the Pope, after the Battle of Vienna.
Vienna was finally safe; Europe was secure: this is history, not fiction. Unfortunately, nowadays, many people forget the battle of Vienna, or at worst, they don't know about it. But let us have a quick look into the contemporary history of Vienna.
After what happened in 1683, Vienna should be the most grateful place in the world to John III Sobieski. But sadly, this is not the case. Three years ago, in 2018, the Polish artist, sculptor and professor Czesław Dźwigaj carved a fantastic statue of John III Sobieski defeating the Ottomans, which was meant to be placed on the Kahlenberg hill near Vienna to commemorate the 335th anniversary of the Battle of Vienna. But the new major of Vienna, Michael Ludwig, a politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), did not allow to place the statue in Kahlenberg, maybe not to irritate the half-million Muslim minority living in Austria.
Our publishing house Legatum Publishing wanted to remember the 338th anniversary of the battle of Vienna by live-tweeting the battle on Twitter 12th of September 2021 in 10 different languages: Polish, English, French, German, Italian, Ukrainian, Russian, Hungarian, Norwegian (Bokmål) and Norwegian (Nynorsk).
For some unknown reason, most of our Twitter accounts have been suspended, even if we passed 100 000 "Tweet impressions" and did not violate any of Twitter's rules or terms of service. The only Twitter page currently available is French, while all nine other languages are unavailable. Why this censorship? There is no valid excuse to suspend our accounts.
Regardless, we firmly believe Europeans should remember their history and must defend their legacy tooth and nail. Because if we do not, we are at the mercy of those who would reshape who we are. Identity is a complex thing. It is the foundation of any functional human society. It defines our interests and how we should understand and interact with the world around us. From the basis of an organic identity, formed over thousands of years and paid for with tears, sweat and blood springs, art, architecture, literature, and particular forms of beauty fill existence with purpose and meaning. Belonging to such an identity connects the individual member of the group to a more meaningful existence beyond the perishable limited personal identity. For this reason, we will strive to make our common European history known to a broad audience of adults and children.
Let us together preserve the memory of King John III Sobieski and the heroes from the Battle of Vienna, despite censorship and adversity.