The raids spanned nearly the entirety of Moravia, and often took place concomitantly with Ottoman-Tatar raids into Austria and Silesia.[2] The Tatars reached as westward as Liechtenstein during these raids, and the joint Ottoman-Tatar forces pillaged Moravian settlements reaching to and beyond the capital of the region (Brno) several times.[3] In total, tens of thousands were killed whilst hundreds of thousands were enslaved and distributed across the Ottoman Empire to be sold as part of the country's slave trade. The aim of the Ottomans was not to occupy Moravia but to scare the local population, which they easily accomplished.[1]
Background
Political situation
The Moravian-Hungarian border shared several distinct characteristics; most notably, a deeply-felt vulnerability of the region – often portrayed as a "feminine" and endangered Moravia – as a result of constant threats from the Ottomans and their Tatar vassals. Another important aspect of life in the region was resistance against Habsburg rule and their Counter-Reformation efforts against the Protestant populace, which encouraged the rise of brigands, border guards and highlander rebels; all of whom were glorified by the local population. In addition to this, Moravia was embroiled in a conflict with its Vlach minority which revolted multiple times for independence.[4]
There were increasing calls for unity against the rapidly expanding Ottomans among the Protestant nobilities of Bohemia and Moravia, spiritually headed by Karel the Elder of Zierotin (1564–1636). The danger posed against the Bohemian and Moravian borderlands was made further perilous when Hungarian Protestants sided with the Turks over the Czechs, thus forming a direct connection with the Ottoman border.[2]
Raids
1599
During the Long Turkish War, Tatars (who acted under Ottoman vassalage) raided eastern Moravia for the first time. They mainly plundered the areas around Uherský Brod.[7]
Map of Moravia, c.1595
1605
Before the Treaty of Zsitvatorok in 1609 which ended the Long Turkish War between the Habsburgs and the Ottomans, eastern Moravia was frequently subjected to raids by insurgents aligned with Ottoman vassal Stephen Bocskai, Prince of Transylvania. These rebels, consisting of soldiers and mercenaries who fought alongside the Ottomans against the Habsburgs, often adopted the dress style of the Janissaries, reinforcing their direct association with the Ottomans. Turkish soldiers also participated in Bocskai's invasion.[8] Tens of thousands were enslaved by Bocskai's army and distributed across the Ottoman Empire to be sold (especially at Istanbul, Ottoman Hungary, and the Kefe Eyalet) as part of the Ottoman slave trade).[9]
In 1605… the 4th sunday after Easter [25 April]… just half past three in the night… they rushed on us from (the direction of) Skalica, and they immediately began to slay us, to take away our goods. Some were beaten so hard that they died in their hands; women and virgins were disgraced, and the Hungarians sold them to the Tatars. Cities, towns, villages, yards, mills, and huts were burned. This day we saw the whole Moravian and Austrian landscape on fire, almost turned into ruins… Tatars, Turks and Hungarians broke across the Slavic and Moravian borders to (the town of) Uherský Brod, and wanted the city to be subjugated to them… then they beat the drunken guard, quietly entering the town of Strážnice, knocking on the houses of the richest burghers, killing all who opened the door.[10]
In 1623, Gabriel Bethlen raided Moravia once more with 10,000 men. However, there are also estimates that his army was large as 40,000–50,000, whilst the Habsburgs numbered 9,000.[13] Much of his force was composed of Ottoman soldiers from the eyalets of Budin, Temeşvar, Eğri, Kanije, and Silistra. He was further helped by two Ottoman pashas; Serdar Ibrahim Pasha of Bosnia and Süleyman Pasha of Eger (Eğri).[14]
Gabriel Bethlen and his army in Moravia, c.1624
Only a week before his army set out for Moravia from Gyulafehérvár, the battle of Stadtlohn had taken place on 6 August 1623 where a large Protestant force under the command of Christian Brunswick were defeated as part of the Thirty Years' War. Unfazed, Bethlen carried out his raid despite being aware that he would not be reinforced with Protestant Union forces. He successfully captured multiple cities, such as Trnava and Košice.[15] This prompted the Habsburg forces in the area to seek refuge in Hodonín, a city 60 miles north of Vienna.[13]
Battle of Stadtlohn, c.1623
Following his rapid advances within Moravia, Bethlen besieged Hodonín in late October. The garrison was commanded by Albrecht von Wallenstein, who was third-in-command of soldiers in Moravia.[16] Bethlen lacked siege artillery, which meant that he had to starve the garrison into submission. After three weeks, he was very close to capturing the fortress, but with winter approaching and his men eager to return home with their loot, he decided to abandon the siege and negotiate a truce.[13] A truce which would last until September 1624 was signed between him and Emperor Ferdinand II on 19 November 1623. When retreating from Trnava to Esztergom, the Ottoman troops, now separated from Bethlen, were attacked by the forces of László Révay on 27 and 30 November.[17]
Portrait of Albrecht von Wallenstein, c.1620
Bethlen enslaved over 10,000 people during his offensive. They were once again mostly sold in Istanbul, Ottoman Hungary, and the Kefe Eyalet.[18] The Moravian slaves were highly sought after by the Ottoman populace (alongside those from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, of whom 1 million were enslaved from 1500 to 1644 by Ottoman-Tatar raids).[10][19]
1663
During the Austro-Turkish War (1663–1664), there was panic among the Moravian population surrounding a joint Ottoman-Tatar raid. The imperial court at Vienna had fallen "into a state of paranoia".[20] This fear was justified as three separate raids were realised on Moravia (which occurred concomitantly with the raids on Austria, Silesia, and Upper Hungary) by the Ottomans between August and October 1663.[21] The Ottoman force that raided Moravia (numbering 10,000, mostly composed of akinjis and partially of Tatars), broke away from Grand VizierKöprülüzade Fazıl Ahmed Pasha's main army after he reasserted control over Wallachia and Moldavia, and crossed the Váh via Považská Bystrica into Moravia.[7][22] Even though the Turks most likely did not capture a fortress in these 1663 raids, Moravia was heavily plundered and the Tatars reached as far as Liechtenstein. These raids were the most devastating Ottoman attacks in Moravian history.[3][23]
Map of Moravia, c.1645
In August 1663, a contingent of 6,000 Tatars and Turks ravaged the cities of Trnava, Freistadt, and St. Georgen, abducting and killing many across Austria, Silesia, Moravia, and Upper Hungary. Prisoners from the regions of Mikulov (Nikolsburg), Brno (Brunn), and Olomouc (Olmutz) were forcibly transported to Landshut. In September, the Ottomans and Tatars returned to plunder Mikulov, Ravensburg, and Brno. The Tatars reached as far westwards as to the estates of the Dietrichstein and Liechtenstein princes; their land suffered extensive damage, with 32 villages burned in Liechtenstein. An estimated 12,000 captives were taken and most were sold at Nové Zámky (now part of the Uyvar Eyalet) as part of the Ottoman slave trade.[24] These raids provoked a general rising in Western Europe to support the Austrians.[25]
Uyvar Eyalet, c.1683
Following this, an Ottoman-Tatar force launched another offensive toward Bratislava (Pressburg), setting fire to the villages of St. Georgen and Geiersdorf (in Austria), crossing the Váh and descending via the Rosinsko pass toward Hradisko. In this raid, a force of approximately 14,000 (including Janissaries, Tatars, and Hussars) struck the region between Brno and Valašské Klobouky, capturing an additional 2,000 people.[26]
Before the last major Ottoman incursion into Moravia in October 1663, the Czech nobilities reinforced the castles and garrisons of the borderlands with the help of Jean-Louis Raduit de Souches, the reputed Governor of Špilberk Castle. He was made a Field marshal of the Imperial Army in 1664 due to his role in defending the region. Since the rural population had to pay for the construction and reinforcing of these forts alongside the wages of the garrisons, many revolted due to their poor economic conditions. After the rebellion was suppressed, most of them were imprisoned in the towers of the castles of Moravia.[27]
17th-century portrait of Jean-Louis Raduit de Souches
On 6 October 1663, a 4,000-strong Turkish-Tatar army clashed with 200 Wallachian border guards and dozens of mercenaries near the town of Starý Hrozenkov.[28] They were headed by Valerián Podstacký and Hetman Dombrovského. The Wallachian force was destroyed and the battle resulted in an Ottoman victory after nearly all the border guards were wiped out. After this, the Turko-Tatar force pillaged settlements as far as the Moravian capital, Brno. The populace was devastated, fleeing with their possessions for protection to nearby forests, mountains, and fortresses.[10][27]
In total, over 40,000 people (mostly young people) were enslaved by the Turks in Moravia in 1663. Thousands were killed in the process.[7] The cities of Uherský Brod, Uherské Hradiště, Břeclav, Hustopeče, and Hodonín among many others were heavily pillaged, burned, and damaged; dozens[a] of towns and villages were also burned to the ground. Most notably: Pozlovice, Slavičín, Brumov, Valašské Klobouky, and Vlachovice among many others. Moravia after these raids is described by Czech historian Matouš Václavek as a "wasteland", "burnt" and "bankrupt".[30]
Contemporary author Václav František Letocha (1669–1738) wrote about the raids:
Turks and Tatars broke into Austria and Moravia; they murdered, burned, and captured the people. What fear, anguish, fleeing, worry, hiding, running and persecution – it cannot be said. For there was nothing to see but fire, burning, slaughter and destruction. Neither in the woods or in the mountains, nobody could be sure of their safety because (Turks) through their wicked interpreters [Czech-speaking renegades in the Ottoman army] tried to lure people out of their hidings, out of the crevices and forests, calling for them.[31]
Map of the Kingdom of Hungary and the Balkans, c.1680
In the wake of these raids and the Turkish victory in the 1663–1664 war, the Ottomans gained considerable land that formerly belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary (Upper Hungary), thus inching even closer to Moravia. In 1668, Hungarian Catholic baron Franz III. Nádasdy expresses the dilemma of the Hungarian nation in a 1668 pamphlet:[32]
Our protector [Vienna] obviously knows that the Turks will tear us apart unless we submit. Now we desperately cry out and say: 'Either protect us or let us submit!'. But the answer is threatening: 'We do not let you submit'. And of protection no mention is made, since there is nothing they could protect us with... Look and judge, Christian World, what is the soul that wilfully lets this be so, and even promotes this by suitable action.
1683
Map of Moravia, c.1692
During the second siege of Vienna in 1683, another destructive raid was launched on Moravia and Austria by the Ottomans (whose raiding forces were mainly composed of Tatars); albeit slightly less intense than the raids 20 years earlier.[33] A force comprising 2,000 infantry and 1,000 dragoons was mobilized to defend the country, with Wallachian forces also standing ready. Despite these efforts, the strength of the forces proved inadequate, and the Ottoman raid extended as far as Brno, Přerov, and Nový Jičín. Ottoman vassal Emeric Thököly's forces were also involved in the pillaging.[34]
17th-century portrait of Emeric Thököly
1711
Moravia was prone to Ottoman and especially Tatar raids (although of a lower scale) until the end of Francis II Rákóczi's war of independence. Rákóczi was Prince of Transylvania, which the Ottomans lost in 1699 after the Treaty of Karlowitz; he would later flee to Tekirdağ after his failed rebellion. The Ottoman threat to Moravia essentially ended with Rákóczi's downfall because the Turks were no longer as close to Moravia as they used to be after the fateful Great Turkish War; and with their ally Rákóczi's uprising having failed, they no longer had direct access to the region.[35]
Posthumous portrait of Francis II Rákóczi, c.1896
Impact on the population
General population
Overall, during the numerous Ottoman raids on Moravia, tens of thousands were killed whilst hundreds of thousands were enslaved and sold as part of the Ottoman slave trade. Women were raped, many were tortured, and young people were taken captive. These events are said to have caused transgenerational trauma among the Moravian and even the Bohemian populations of the early modern era.[23]
Upon hearing news of the second siege of Vienna in 1683, suicide rates dramatically increased across Moravia; especially in the western city of Jihlava. Thousands of Bohemian villagers fled to Prague in droves to seek refuge from the "Ottoman menace".[36]
Jews
Many Jews were enslaved in the Ottoman raids on Moravia, especially in Mikulov. However, their fate generally differed from the enslaved Christians since they were often bought by Ottoman Jews[b] and sent back to their homeland. A contemporary author writes:[39]
[…] the wife of one Nikolsburg [Mikulov] inhabitant, Yitzhak Eizik b. HR’R Tanchum, fell into the captivity of the Kedariyim [Tatars] and Yishmaelim [Muslims; Ottomans in this case] with a young son, during the war turmoil in the Moravian land in 5424 [1663]. [They were] among other captives; men, women, and children that were dragged and oppressed. Behold, in God’s mercy more than half of these captives were redeemed, and they returned to their land.
After the failed siege of Vienna in 1683, the Habsburgs launched an invasion into Ottoman Hungary. On 9 September 1686, they successfully wrested from Turkish control the city of Buda, which had a large Moravian and Bohemian Jewish population (many of whom were captured during the raids on Moravia). In the process, they massacred the Turkish and Jewish populations of the city. Half of the Jewish community were killed, mainly for fighting side-by-side with the Turks[40] who they saw as allies since they were more tolerant to Jews than Christian Europe.[41] Most of the remaining Jews in Buda and Ottoman Hungary joined the retreating Turks since it was prohibited by the Habsburgs for Jews to live in Buda.[42] The Jews who were not massacred were sent to Vienna, Bratislava, or Mikulov in Moravia by the Germans with the help of court Jew Samuel Oppenheimer and Prague native Sender Tausk, who was also Jewish.[43]
Many war songs, ballads, and poems were written of the Ottoman-Tatar raids; nearly all of which contain the motif of Turks as "terrible" invaders and kidnappers, such as that of a "kidnapped bride". One of the popular songs tells of how a brother and sister reunite unexpectedly after being in Ottoman captivity for years. The motif of the "kidnapped Janissary" was also popular; the mother of a Czech child meets her child who was kidnapped as part of the Ottoman raids, and the son recognises her by the lullaby she used to sing when he was a child. Another well-known ballad was that of the "fighter-girl"; the youngest girl of the household fights against the Turks instead of her old father. She defeats the invading force under the disguise of a soldier and eventually becomes the Empress of the Holy Roman Empire.[44]
These songs and ballads were often performed in front of a large audience at markets and fairs, where they imitated the Ottoman language. Some notable ballads include:[45]
The Turk goes through Moravia, his sabre glittering; Moravians run away, their shoes whistling.
"Eat me, oh fish of the Danube, eat me, for I would rather be dead than to be the Turk's wife." The mother of the Turk replies: "why did you drown, oh my bride, you could have lived here, lying in gold and silk".
Do they play music, or do the Turks come? The musicians don’t play, but the Turks come; they are arriving, oh my God, they are coming for me. Wait, Turks, at the door; I must ask my mother, my father.
O widow, do you feel sorry for your children? I miss my youngest one, the most precious flower.
The scenario of a well-known song was that of a Turkish mother lamenting over the escaping or death of her Moravian bride:[46]
The old Turkish woman cried a lot: why were you so afraid of me, my bride?
You did not have to do anything but count golden ducats
At home, you walked on black earth; but here, you walked on white marble
What were you so afraid of? Seven large farms, nine castles?
You would not have walked on mud, but on soft carpets
You would not have worked hard, but dressed in laces, you would have embroidered with silver and gold
You would not have suffered from hunger, but you would have drank coffee from crystal cups
If you came to the Turkish country, you would have died on a silk bed.
The Ottoman practice of luring individuals from hiding by using their native language had also become a prominent motif in Czech folklore, especially during and after the second siege of Vienna in 1683.[31]
Proverbs
Many proverbs arose in Moravia after the raids, especially amongst the Wallachian population of the region. Some of them include: to "beat as a Turk" (without mercy), to "come/go as a Turk" (in a hurry) to "play as pandurs" (to beat someone severely), and to refer to a disorderly family as a "Turkish household". Another popular proverb was "a Turkified one is worse than a Turk"; this refers to Stephen Bocskai's and other armies of Transylvanianprinces loyal to the Ottoman Empire.[47]
Myths
Following the three raids of 1663, three miraculous events connected to the Mongol invasion of 1241 were invented. These religious myths separately surrounded the locations of Hostýn hill, Štramberk and the Kotouč hill, as well as Olomouc. A fictional hero in the Olomouc myth is Jaroslav of Sternberg (Šternberk).[48] All of these myths refer to a Tatar invasion of 1241, a nonexistent event which can be traced back only to writings and sayings in the 1660s. Nevertheless, these sites (especially Hostýn) became the most visited pilgrimage locations in Moravia,[49] and continue to be popular destinations for pilgrims.[50]
↑ A contemporary source from England gives the figure of 60.[29]
↑ By the end of the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire had the largest Jewish population in the world by far, with 150,000 compared to Poland's and non-Ottoman Ukraine's combined figure of 75,000.[37][38] This vast presence of Jews in the country allowed for Jewish captives to be ransomed by their community relatively quickly.
Moravia is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia.
The history of the Czech lands – an area roughly corresponding to the present-day Czech Republic – starts approximately 800 years BCE. A simple chopper from that age was discovered at the Red Hill archeological site in Brno. Many different primitive cultures left their traces throughout the Stone Age, which lasted approximately until 2000 BCE. The most widely known culture present in the Czech lands during the pre-historical era is the Únětice Culture, leaving traces for about five centuries from the end of the Stone Age to the start of the Bronze Age. Celts – who came during the 5th century BCE – are the first people known by name. One of the Celtic tribes were the Boii (plural), who gave the Czech lands their first name Boiohaemum – Latin for the Land of Boii. Before the beginning of the Common Era the Celts were mostly pushed out by Germanic tribes. The most notable of those tribes were the Marcomanni and traces of their wars with the Roman Empire were left in south Moravia.
The Treaty of Karlowitz, concluding the Great Turkish War of 1683–1697, in which the Ottoman Empire was defeated by the Holy League at the Battle of Zenta, was signed in Karlowitz, in the Military Frontier of the Habsburg Monarchy, on 26 January 1699. Also known as "The Austrian treaty that saved Europe", it marks the end of Ottoman control in much of Central Europe, with their first major territorial losses in Europe, beginning the reversal of four centuries of expansion (1299–1683). The treaty established the Habsburg monarchy as the dominant power of the region.
The Czech lands or the Bohemian lands is a historical-geographical term which, in a historical and cultural context, denotes the three historical regions of Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia out of which Czechoslovakia, and later the Czech Republic, were formed. Together the three have formed the Czech part of Czechoslovakia since 1918, and the Czech Republic since 1 January 1993.
Although the Kingdom of Bohemia, both of the Lusatias, the Margraviate of Moravia, and Silesia were all under Habsburg rule, they followed different paths of development. Moravians and Silesians had accepted the hereditary right of the Austrian Habsburgs to rule and thus escaped the intense struggle between native estates and the Habsburg monarchy that was to characterize Bohemian history. In contrast, the Bohemian Kingdom had entrenched estates that were ready to defend what they considered their rights and liberties. The Habsburgs pursued a policy of centralization and conflict arose, which was further complicated by ethnic and religious issues.
The Czech lands, then also known as Lands of the Bohemian Crown, were largely subject to the Habsburgs from the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648 until the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. There were invasions by the Turks early in the period, and by the Prussians in the next century. The Habsburgs consolidated their rule and under Maria Theresa (1740–1780) adopted enlightened absolutism, with distinct institutions of the Bohemian Kingdom absorbed into centralized structures. After the Napoleonic Wars and the establishment of the Austrian Empire, a Czech National Revival began as a scholarly trend among educated Czechs, led by figures such as František Palacký. Czech nationalism took a more politically active form during the 1848 revolution, and began to come into conflict not only with the Habsburgs but with emerging German nationalism.
The Moldavian Magnate Wars, or Moldavian Ventures, refer to the period at the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century when the magnates of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth intervened in the affairs of Moldavia, clashing with the Habsburgs and the Ottoman Empire for domination and influence over the principality.
Mikulov is a town in Břeclav District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 7,600 inhabitants. The historic centre of Mikulov is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation.
The Lands of the Bohemian Crown were the states in Central Europe during the medieval and early modern periods with feudal obligations to the Bohemian kings. The crown lands primarily consisted of the Kingdom of Bohemia, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire according to the Golden Bull of 1356, the Margraviate of Moravia, the Duchies of Silesia, and the two Lusatias, known as the Margraviate of Upper Lusatia and the Margraviate of Lower Lusatia, as well as other territories throughout its history. This agglomeration of states nominally under the rule of the Bohemian kings was referred to simply as Bohemia. They are now sometimes referred to in scholarship as the Czech lands, a direct translation of the Czech abbreviated name.
The Kingdom of Bohemia, sometimes referenced in English literature as the Czech Kingdom, was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Central Europe. It was the predecessor state of the modern Czech Republic.
The Battle of Saint Gotthard, of the Austro-Turkish War (1663–1664), took place on 1 August 1664 on the Raab between Mogersdorf and the Cistercian monastery St. Gotthard in West Hungary. It was fought between Imperial Army forces, including German, Swedish and French contingents, led by Imperial commander-in-chief Count Raimondo Montecuccoli and the army of the Ottoman Empire under the command of Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed Paşa.
The Peace of Nikolsburg or Peace of Mikulov, signed on 31 December 1621 in Nikolsburg, Moravia, was the treaty which ended the war between Prince Gabriel Bethlen of Transylvania and Emperor Ferdinand II of the Holy Roman Empire. The chief negotiators of the treaty were Maximilian von und zu Trauttmansdorff and Nikolaus Esterházy de Galántha.
The siege of Buda (1686) was fought between the Holy League and the Ottoman Empire, as part of the follow-up campaign in Hungary after the Battle of Vienna. The Holy League retook Buda after 78 days, ending almost 150 years of Ottoman rule.
The history of Moravia, one of the Czech lands, is diverse and characterized by many periods of foreign governance.
The Austro-Turkish War (1663–1664) or fourth Austro-Turkish War was a short war between the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman aim was to resume the advance in central Europe, conquer Vienna and subdue Austria. The Ottomans managed to capture key strongholds, however, the Habsburg army under Raimondo Montecuccoli succeeded in halting the Ottoman army in the Battle of Saint Gotthard.
The siege of Érsekújvár also known as the siege of Neuhäusel occurred in 1663 when Grand Vizier Fazil Ahmed Pasha leading the Ottomans invaded Habsburg Hungary and captured the Hungarian fortress at Érsekújvár.
The Margraviate of Moravia was one of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown within the Holy Roman Empire and then Austria-Hungary, existing from 1182 to 1918. It was officially administered by a margrave in cooperation with a provincial diet. It was variously a de facto independent state, and also subject to the Duchy, later the Kingdom of Bohemia. It comprised the historical region called Moravia, which lies within the present-day Czech Republic.
Crimean–Nogai slave raids in Eastern Europe were the slave raids, for over three centuries, conducted by the military of the Crimean Khanate and the Nogai Horde primarily in lands controlled by Russia and Poland-Lithuania as well as other territories, often under the sponsorship of the Ottoman Empire, which provided slaves for the Crimean and Ottoman slave trades.
During the Thirty Years' War (1618–48), there were several Vlach uprisings in Moravia. The Vlachs were a pastoralist community in Moravian Wallachia of eastern Moravia in what is today the Czech Republic.
The Ottoman–Habsburg war of 1529–1533 was the first of a long series of wars between the Habsburg and Ottoman Empire.
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Ibrahim Pasha
Stephen Bocskai 
Emeric Thököly 
Francis Rákóczi 
Count Bucquoy 
