Battle of Mohács ( 1687 ) The Second Battle of Mohács , also known as the Battle of ' Berg Harsány ' ( Harsány Mountain ) , was fought between the forces of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV , commanded by the Grand - Vizier Sari Süleyman Paşa , and the forces of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I , commanded by Charles of Lorraine . The result was a crushing defeat for the Ottomans . Background . The Great Turkish War began with the attack on Vienna in 1683 by the Ottoman army , and was broken by the Battle of Kahlenberg on 12 September 1683 . From September 1683 the initiative passed to the imperial troops . In the following years under Charles of Lorraine Imperial Habsburg armies conquered many fortresses ( such as Esztergom , Vác , Pest ) , which were under Ottoman rule , and after the Battle of Buda they laid siege to and took over the former Hungarian capital of Buda . At the end of 1686 the Ottomans made peace overtures ; however , the Imperial Habsburgs now saw a chance to occupy and conquer the whole of Hungary and these peace overtures were rejected . In April 1687 it was decided in Vienna that further military action should be taken . The main army ( of about 40 , 000 troops ) under the command of Duke Charles of Lorraine proceeded along the River Danube to Osijek on the River Drava , while a second army ( of about 20 , 000 men ) under command of Elector Max Emanuel of Bavaria moved along the River Tisza to Szolnok and towards Petrovaradin . In the middle of July the two imperial armies met on the Danube and either marched overland or along the Drava to Osijek . In contrast , the Ottoman army ( of about 60 , 000 men ) under the command of the Grand Vizier Sari Süleyman Paşa , stayed in front of the main River Drava crossing ( with its 8 km long wooden bridge ) at Osijek in order to protect it and then fortified this position . When the Imperial Habsburg army arrived , the River Drava divided the two sides . At the end of July the Imperial Habsburg army was able to make a bridgehead on the shores of the river and stood in battle array , in order to challenge the Ottomans . However , the Ottoman army remained passive and was satisfied with artillery bombardments of the weirs on the Drava , the bridges and the riverside . Because of the terrain Duke Charles of Lorraine could not observe the fortified Ottoman camp clearly in order to command an attack on it . So he decided to wait a few days for the clearing of the bridgehead . For this he was criticized both by his own sub - commanders and by the Emperor Leopold I . This reluctance to attack by his enemy was interpreted by the Ottoman Grand Vizier as a loss of morale by the Habsburg troops . Through skilful maneuvering in early August , he forced the Habsburg army back toward Mohács and towards an Ottoman fortified position . The Ottomans had also built a fortified position at Darda , but this was skilfully hidden among the thick bushes so that it was not visible to the Habsburg army . For this reason Duke Charles of Lorraine did not suspect the presence of the Ottoman army in the vicinity . Battle . On the morning of the 12th August the Duke of Lorraine decided to move to Siklós , because the position and the hard ground there made it more appropriate as a battle ground . The Habsburg right wing moving westward began to march through a densely forested area . Sari Süleyman Paşa decided that this was just the chance he was waiting for . He ordered an attack with his entire army on the imperial army ' s left wing , which under Maximilian II Emanuel , Elector of Bavaria was still in its earlier position , and which according to the Habsburg battle plan was also to start marching west . The Ottoman army caught the imperial army near Nagyharsány and the nearby Nagyharsány Hill , with its heavily wooded steep slopes . The Ottoman cavalry made up of 8000 Sipahi s tried to outflank this Habsburg army wing from the left . The commander of the wing , the Elector of Bavaria , immediately sent a courier to the Commander Duke of Lorraine , informing him that this wing was under threat . Orders were given and sent quickly and positions were taken immediately to resist the attack of the superior Ottoman forces , which had twice the numbers of the defenders . The Imperial infantry held their position , and General Enea Silvio Piccolomini with some of his cavalry regiments successfully counterattacked and stopped the attack of the Ottoman Sipahi cavalry . The Ottoman Grand Vizier was surprised by this unexpectedly fierce enemy resistance and ordered the cessation of the Ottoman attack . The Ottoman artillery continued to shell the Habsburg positions , but the Ottoman infantry and cavalry troops were ordered to hold their positions and for the infantry to go defensive behind the fortifications . This relative lull in fierce fighting gave the right wing of the Habsburg Army enough time to return to its original position . The Habsburg commander the Duke of Lorraine initially thought that his army should defend the positions , which might have led to a relative standstill . However , to gain the initiative , the Elector of Bavaria and the Margrave Louis of Baden - Baden persuaded him to order a large - scale counter - attack . The deployment of the Imperial Habsburg Army for this counter - attack was finished at 3 pm . Just at the same time Sari Süleyman Paşa decided to attack again alongside Mustafa Pasha of Rodosto the commander of the Janissary . Again Sipahis supported the Janissary infantry frontal attack by attempting to outflank the Habsburg army . Margrave Ludwig of Baden successfully resisted the attack with his infantry squadrons and then he went on to attack the still unfinished Ottoman defensive position . At the forefront of this Imperial penetrative attack on the Ottoman fortifications were the troops under the command of the generals Rabutin and Eugene of Savoy . The Ottoman cavalry riders could not outflank because the steep terrain was difficult for their horses ; they had to dismount . The Ottoman attack and then resistance collapsed and soon this led to a retreat of the Ottoman army in a wild flight . The battle became a crushing defeat for the Ottomans . Throughout the battle only the left wing of the Imperial Habsburg army saw the main action . There was a dense forest in front of the Imperial Habsburg army ' s right wing , which prevented it from attacking . Despite this , it attempted a bypassing manoeuvre on the right to force the relocation and withdrawal of the Ottomans , but its columns lost their way in the forest . The losses of the Habsburg Imperial army were very light , about 600 men . The Ottomans army suffered huge losses with an estimated 10 , 000 deaths , as well as the loss of most of its artillery ( about 66 guns ) and much of its support equipment . The splendid command tent of the Grand Vizier and 160 Ottoman flags fell into Imperial hands . It is reported that the value of the share of the bounty that was given to the Elector of Bavaria surpassed two million golden ducats . Aftermath . After the battle , the Ottoman Empire fell into deep crisis . There was a mutiny among the Ottoman troops . The commander Sari Suleyman Pasa became frightened that he would be killed by his own troops and fled from his command , first to Belgrade and then to Istanbul . When the news of the defeat and the mutiny arrived in Istanbul in early September , Abaza Sivayus Pasa was appointed as the commander and soon as the Grand Vizier . However , before he could take over his command , the whole Ottoman Army had disintegrated and the Ottoman household troops ( Janissaries and Sipahi s ) started to return to their base in Istanbul under their own lower - rank officers . Even the Grand Vizier ' s regent in Constantinople was frightened and hid . Sari Suleyman Pasa was executed . Sultan Mehmed IV appointed the commander of Istanbul Straits Köprülü Fazıl Mustafa Pasha as the Grand Vizier ' s regent in Istanbul . He made consultations with the leaders of the army that existed and the other leading Ottoman statesmen . After these , on 8 November 1687 it was decided to depose Sultan Mehmed IV and to enthrone Suleiman II as the new Sultan . The disintegration of the Ottoman army allowed Imperial Habsburg armies to conquer large areas . They took over Osijek , Petrovaradin , Sremski Karlovci , Ilok , Valpovo , Požega , Palota and Eger . Most of present - day Slavonia and Transylvania came under Imperial rule . On 9 December 1687 there was organised a Diet of Pressburg ( today Bratislava , Slovakia ) , and Archduke Joseph was crowned as the first hereditary king of Hungary , and descendant Habsburg Emperors were declared the anointed kings of Hungary . For a year the Ottoman Empire was paralysed , and Imperial Habsburg forces were poised to capture Belgrade and penetrate deep into the Balkans .