Print - Die Welt der Habsburger

‘Türkenpoldl’ and the
Austrian Heroic Age
Although Leopold did not personally take part in the
battle before the walls of Vienna in 1683, his reign
profited from the ensuing offensive against the
Ottoman Empire which had been seriously weakened
by this defeat.
Spurred on by this victory, the Habsburg army rapidly
conquered the Turkish-controlled parts of Hungary. In 1686
the ancient royal city of Buda was captured, and by 1688 the
army was at the gates of Belgrade. The most outstanding
military commander in imperial service was Prince Eugene of
Savoy (1664–1736), who would become a highly influential
figure at the Viennese court and was celebrated across Europe
as a strategist of genius.
The threat posed by the Turks was banished once and for all by
victory at the Battle of Zenta in 1697 and the following Peace of
Karlowitz in 1699, which was concluded on very advantageous
terms for Austria. Ottoman plans for expansion had been
stopped. In addition to Hungary Leopold was able to secure
dominion over Slavonia and Transylvania. The Habsburg
Monarchy had significantly extended its territory towards the
south-east. The dynasty’s rule in Hungary was now
consolidated and the heritability of the Hungarian crown by the
House of Habsburg confirmed by the Hungarian Estates.
There now followed decades of reconstruction in Hungary,
which had been devastated and depopulated by the Turkish
Wars, a conflict that had lasted for generations. From 1689 a
planned programme of re-colonization called the
‘Einrichtungswerk’ took place in central and southern Hungary.
Settlers from all parts of Central Europe were enlisted and an
ethnically diverse mixture of Magyars, Germans, Southern
Slavs, Romanians and Slovaks now re-populated the newly
acquired territories in the south-east.
Leopold’s reputation as a ruler benefited considerably from the
successful campaign to repel the Turkish threat, seen by many
as a justification for the existence of the Habsburg Monarchy.
The expansion of the Monarchy on the back of the military
successes against the Ottomans is regarded as the key event
of his reign, which was solemnly stylized in the patriotic
historiography of the nineteenth century as Austria’s ‘heroic
age’. The wholly un-warlike Leopold is today still referred to in
common parlance as ‘Türkenpoldl’.
Author
Martin Mutschlechner
Literature
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