John III Sobieski was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1674 until his death in 1696.
The Battle of Vienna took place at Kahlenberg Mountain near Vienna on 12 September 1683 after the city had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months. The battle was fought by the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, both under the command of King John III Sobieski, against the Ottomans and their vassal and tributary states. The battle marked the first time the Commonwealth and the Holy Roman Empire had cooperated militarily against the Ottomans. The defeat was a turning point for Ottoman expansion into Europe, after which they would gain no further ground. In the ensuing war that lasted until 1699, the Ottomans would cede most of Ottoman Hungary to Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.
Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha was an Ottoman nobleman, military figure and Grand Vizier of Turkish origin, who was a central character in the Ottoman Empire's last attempts at expansion into both Central and Eastern Europe.
Taczanowski is the surname of a Polish szlachta (nobility) family from Poznań bearing the Jastrzębiec coat of arms and the motto: Plus penser que dire. They took their name from their estate Taczanów in the 15th century and by the 19th century were among the leading magnates in partitioned-Poland. Members of the family are historically significant religious, political, scientific, and military figures. The family was granted the title of count by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia in 1857. The Austrian branch of the family, which spells the name Dassanowsky, came to Vienna with the forces of King Jan Sobieski during the Battle of Vienna in 1683.
The Lipka Tatars are a Tatar ethnic group and minority in Lithuania, who originally settled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the beginning of the 14th century.
Prince Hieronim Augustyn Lubomirski (1647–1706) was a Polish noble (szlachcic), magnate, politician and famed military commander. He was a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire SRI.
Feliks Kazimierz "Szczęsny" Potocki (1630–1702) was a Polish noble, magnate, and military leader.
The Great Turkish War or The Last Crusade, also called in Ottoman sources as The Disaster Years, was a series of conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League consisting of the Holy Roman Empire, Poland-Lithuania, Venice, Russia, and the Kingdom of Hungary. Intensive fighting began in 1683 and ended with the signing of the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. The war was a resounding defeat for the Ottoman Empire, which for the first time lost substantial territory, in Hungary and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as in part of the western Balkans. The war was significant also for being the first instance of Russia joining an alliance with Western Europe. Historians have labeled the war as the Fourteenth Crusade launched against the Turks by the papacy.
Count Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg was military governor of Vienna from 1680, the city's defender during the Battle of Vienna in 1683, Imperial general during the Great Turkish War, and President of the Hofkriegsrat. By birth, he was a member of the House of Starhemberg.
Jerzy Skolimowski is a Polish film director, screenwriter, dramatist, actor and painter. Beginning as a screenwriter for Andrzej Wajda's Innocent Sorcerers (1960), Skolimowski has made more than twenty films since his directorial debut The Menacing Eye (1960). In 1967 he was awarded the Golden Bear prize for his Belgian film The Departure (1967). Among his other notable films is Deep End (1970), starring Jane Asher and John Moulder Brown.
Mark of Aviano, born Carlo Domenico Cristofori was an Italian Capuchin friar. In 2003, he was beatified by Pope John Paul II.
Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki of the Sas coat of arms was a Polish nobleman, diplomat, and spy during the Great Turkish War of Ruthenian origin. For his actions at the 1683 Battle of Vienna, when he managed to get out of the besieged city to seek help, he was considered a hero by the local people. According to legend, he is often cited as starting the first café in the city in 1683, using coffee beans left behind by the retreating Ottoman Turks. However, more recent sources suggest that the first coffeehouse in Vienna was opened by the Armenian Johannes Theodat in 1685.
Kazimierz Jan Paweł Sapieha was a grand hetman of Lithuania commencing in 1682. He held the title of duke starting in 1700. In 1681, he became Field Hetman of Lithuania, the following year he also became the voivode of Vilnius.
The Polish hussars, alternatively known as the winged hussars, were a heavy cavalry formation active in Poland and in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1503 to 1702. Their epithet is derived from large rear wings, which were intended to demoralize the enemy during a charge. The hussars ranked as the elite of Polish cavalry until their official disbanding in 1776.
Livio Odescalchi, Duke of Bracciano, Ceri and Sirmium, was an Italian nobleman of the Odescalchi family.
The Polish–Ottoman War or the War of the Holy League was the Polish side of the conflict otherwise known as the Great Turkish War. The conflict began with a Polish victory at the Battle of Vienna in 1683, and ended with the Treaty of Karlowitz, restoring to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth lands lost in the previous Polish-Ottoman War. It was the last conflict between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire, and despite the Polish victory, it marked the decline of power of not only the Ottoman Empire, but also of the Commonwealth, which would never again interfere in affairs outside of its declining borders.
The Battle of Humenné took place on 22–23 November 1619 near Humenné during the first period of the Thirty Years' War between the Transylvanian army and the joined loyalist Hungarian and Polish forces of Lisowczycy. It was the only battle of that war to involve the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The Battle of Párkány was fought between October 7–9, 1683 in the town of Párkány, in the Ottoman Empire, and the area surrounding it as part of the Polish-Ottoman War and the Great Turkish War. The battle was fought in two stages. In the first stage Polish troops under John III Sobieski were defeated by the Ottoman army under Kara Mehmed Pasha on October 7, 1683. In the second stage Sobieski, supported by Austrian forces under Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, defeated the Ottoman forces, which were supported by the troops of Imre Thököly, and gained control of Párkány on October 9, 1683. After the Ottoman defeat, the Austrians would besiege Esztergom and captured it at the end of 1683.
Essential Killing is a 2010 Polish survival political thriller film co-written and directed by Jerzy Skolimowski and starring Vincent Gallo and Emmanuelle Seigner. Gallo stars as an Islamic insurgent who finds himself fighting for survival in a frozen woodland, pursued by soldiers.
The Battle of Mątwy was the biggest and bloodiest battle of the so-called Lubomirski Rokosz, a rebellion against Polish King John II Casimir, initiated by a magnate and hetman, Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski. It took place on 13 July 1666 in the village of Mątwy, and ended in rebel victory. The royal army of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth lost almost 4000 of its best and most experiences soldiers, who were murdered by Lubomirski's men. Rebel losses are estimated at 200.
