Battel of Vienna

After the imperial capital had been under siege by the Ottoman Empire for two months, the battle of Vienna was fought on September 12, 1683, near Vienna, at Kahlenberg Mountain. The Holy Roman Empire, under the leadership of the Habsburg monarchy, and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, both commanded by King John III Sobieski, engaged in combat with the Ottoman Empire and its subordinate and tributary kingdoms. It is frequently regarded as a historical turning point when "the Ottoman Turks ceased to be a menace to the Christian world" since it was the first time the Commonwealth and the Holy Roman Empire had collaborated militarily against the Ottomans.

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was only represented by the forces of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, and the Holy Roman Empire's combined forces won the fight (the march of the Lithuanian army was delayed, and they reached Vienna after it had been relieved). Leopold I's Holy Roman Emperor Leopold's Austrian subject Ernst Rüdiger Graf von Starhemberg oversaw the garrison in Vienna. John III Sobieski, the king of Poland, who was in charge of the rescue efforts, retained ultimate command.

According to historians, the fight represented a turning point in the 300-year conflict between the Holy Roman and Ottoman Empires known as the Ottoman-Habsburg wars. The Austrian Habsburgs steadily recovered during the 16 years that followed the conflict and came to rule southern Hungary and Transylvania, which had been largely liberated from Ottoman forces. The largest known cavalry charge in history took place during the conflict, which is noteworthy.