1683 AD
On September 12, 1683, a coalition of Catholic armies known as the Holy Leagueβcomprising forces from the Holy Roman Empire, Poland-Lithuania, Bavaria, Austria, and other German statesβrelieved the siege of Vienna and decisively defeated the Ottoman Turkish army. The decisive charge was led by King John III Sobieski of Poland with his famous Winged Hussars, who swept through the Ottoman lines on the Kahlenberg hill outside Vienna.
The Ottoman army, which had numbered approximately 150,000 men, was routed. The Grand Vizier Koprulu Mustafa Pasha fled, abandoning his campβand his famous coffee potsβto the Christians. The victory at Vienna is often considered the turning point that ended Ottoman expansion into Europe and began the slow decline of the Ottoman Empire.
Pope Innocent XI had worked tirelessly to unite the Christian powers against the Ottoman threat, and the victory was celebrated throughout Catholic Europe with Te Deums and processions. The Holy League would go on to liberate much of Hungary from Ottoman rule. Key Sources: Pope Innocent XI's letters; Polish chronicles of Sobieski; Ottoman records of the siege