Battle of Buda ( 1686 ) The Battle 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 took Buda after a long siege . After the unsuccessful second siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1683 , which started the Great Turkish War , an imperial counteroffensive started for the re - conquest of Hungary , so that the Hungarian capital Buda could be freed from the Turks . Formation of the Holy League . In 1541 , Buda was conquered by the Turks in the Siege of Buda , and was under Turkish rule for the next 145 years . Following the Turkish defeat at the Battle of Vienna in 1683 , Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I saw the opportunity for a counterstrike . With the aid of Pope Innocent XI , the Holy League was formed on 5 March 1684 , with King Sobieski of Poland , Emperor Leopold I , and the Republic of Venice agreeing to an alliance against the Turks . First siege , 1684 . In the spring of 1684 , an army of about 38 , 000 men marched under Charles V , Duke of Lorraine , to free the city of Buda from the Turks . After the main army crossed the Danube at Esztergom on 13 June , the front of the imperial army under the command of Maximilian Lorenz von Starhemberg and the cavalry general Louis William , Margrave of Baden - Baden arrived at the castle town of Visegrád on 15 June . On 16 June , the town of Esztergom was taken by storm by the imperial troops in spite of its strong walls , after a gate was destroyed by cannons . The majority of the Turkish occupation troops were killed and the city was plundered . Only a few Turks managed to withdraw to the castle on the rock above the city . After a siege of one - and - a - half days , the remaining Turkish garrison capitulated on 18 June . On 27 June , the imperial army met a strong Turkish army of 17 , 000 men at Vác under the command of the Grand Vizier Kara İbrahim Pasha who would eventually drive out the Habsburgs . Although the Turks had entrenched themselves at a favorable position , Karl V opened the fight with cannon fire . The centre of the imperial troops was led there by Maximilian Lorenz von Starhemberg and after a rather short fight knew that the Turkish troops were defeated . Vác fell to the imperial army the same day . On 30 June , the imperial main army entered the city of Pest , to which the Turks had set fire shortly before . After the army crossed the Danube at Vác , it began the siege of Buda , which was defended by approximately 10 , 000 Turks . The imperial army , consisting of 34 , 000 men , began the bombardment of Buda ' s fortress with 200 cannons on 14 July 1684 , the anniversary of the beginning of the siege of Vienna . Field Marshal Graf Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg was assigned to conduct the siege . On 19 July , the imperial troops took control of the lower part of the town of Buda . However , since too few troops were available to occupy it , Ernst Rüdiger ordered the houses in that part of the town burnt down . Throughout July and August , the imperial army made several attempts to attack the fortress , but all were repelled by the Turkish defenders . At the beginning of September , an imperial general reported that the number of the soldiers fit for service had shrunk from 34 , 000 to 12 , 500 , and morale was low . On 11 September , an imperial auxiliary corps reached Buda , providing new momentum to the campaign . On 22 September , a Turkish relief army arrived , and immediately attacked the besieging forces . The imperial army managed to repel them , but was unable to defeat them . The Turkish relief army then engaged the imperial army in repeated nuisance attacks , which , coupled with losses caused by the Turkish city garrison , caused a plunge in morale . Ernst Rüdiger , who was severely wounded and facing sustained criticism from his army , had to be replaced in command of the siege . The final blow was a spell of poor weather conditions throughout October , and the decision was made to withdraw . On 30 October , the imperial army withdrew after a siege which had lasted 109 days . Several factors had caused the size of the allied force to shrink to about half its original size : battle losses , dysentery and a fever epidemic , poorly dug trenches , and tactical errors in the siege . The captain Paul Joseph Jakob von Starhemberg and the Christian allies after this failed enterprise had to regret losing 23 , 000 men . Ironically , the blame for the failure was laid with the man who had only led the army at the beginning of the siege : Ernst Ruediger von Starhemberg . Second siege , 1686 . In 1686 , two years after the unsuccessful siege of Buda , a renewed campaign was started to take Buda . This time , the Holy League ' s army was twice as large , containing between 75 , 000 - 80 , 000 men , including German , Hungarian , Croat , Dutch , English , Spanish , Czech , Italian , Catalan , French , Burgundian , Danish and Swedish soldiers , and other Europeans as volunteers , artillerymen , and officers . The Turkish defenders consisted of 7 , 000 men . By the middle of June 1686 , the siege had begun . On July 27 , the Holy League ' s army started a large - scale attack which cost them 5 . 000 killed . They were thrown back by the defenders . A Turkish relief army arrived at Buda in the middle of August led by Grand Vizier Sarı Süleyman Paşa , but the besieged Ottoman forces led by commander Abdurrahman Abdi Arnavut Pasha was unable to mount any offensive and was soon after killed in action . Abdi Pasha ' s defensive efforts are referred to as " heroic " by Tony Jaques in his book the Dictionary of Battles and Sieges . Prince Eugene of Savoy and his dragoon s were not directly involved in entering the city , but secured the rear of their army against the Turkish relief army , which could not prevent the city from being entered after 143 years in Turkish possession . Massacre of Jews and Muslims . After the conquest , the victorious soldiers took out their fury on the hated " heathen s " . Knowledge of the Turkish threat was firmly embodied in the consciousness of Europe at that time , fueled by tales of Turkish atrocities against civilians and the religious attitudes of the Christian church : " Buda was taken and abandoned to plundering . The soldiers committed thereby such excesses . Against the Turks , because of their long and persistent resistance , which had cost an amazing quantity of its comrades their lives , they spared neither age nor sex . The Elector of Bavaria and the Duke of Lorraine , disturbed by knowing of men killed , and women raped , gave good orders that the butchery must stop , and the lives of over 2000 Turks were saved . " Over 3 , 000 Turks were killed in the slaughter perpetrated by imperial troops , and the violence was directed not only against the Muslims , but likewise against the Jewish population of Buda . As subjects of the Ottoman Empire , who enjoyed greater tolerance under the Ottomans compared to the Habsburgs , the Jews had fought side - by - side with the Turks and were considered allies of the Turks . After the conquest of the city , the Jewish community , which at its height had numbered 3 , 000 persons , of Buda was almost completely destroyed . Approximately half of the city ' s 1 , 000 Jews were massacred , as a " punishment " for their loyalty to the Ottoman Turks , while the other half , several hundred Jews and 6 , 000 Muslims , were captured to be sold as slaves or held for ransom . The homes and properties of the Jews were looted and destroyed . The Reformation Hungarian Protestants advocated the complete removal of the Jewish population of Hungary . Not only the remaining Jews of Buda , but also most of the Jews of entire Hungary left Buda along with the retreating Turks . The captured ones were sent to Vienna , Pozsony or Mikulov . The mosques and minaret s of Buda were destroyed and three synagogues were burned , along with numerical valuable books , by the Army of the Holy Roman Empire . The most bloody events of the battle have been recorded by Johann Dietz of Brandenburg , an army doctor in the besieging army : " " . . . Not even the babies in their mother ' s wombs were spared . All were sent to their deaths . I was quite horrified by what was done here . Men were far more cruel to each other than wild beasts ( Bestien ) . " " The imperial troops buried their own dead , and threw the dead bodies of the Turks and Jews into the Danube . Consequences . During the Turkish reign , the city of Buda flourished . It became a cultural and commercial center . Some of the churches in the city were rebuild to mosques but not destroyed . Churches , mosques , schools , communal kitchens , bakeries and Turkish baths were built . The cultural treasures of the city were protected and preserved by the Turks during their reign . As a consequence of the recapture of Buda from the Turks , as well as winning the Battle of Mohács ( 1687 ) , the Hungarian parliament recognized at Pressburg in November 1687 that the heritability of the Hungarian crown had passed to the Habsburgs , without the right to object as well as resistance . In addition the Hungarian parliament committed itself to crown the Habsburg successor to the throne still during his father ' s lifetime as king of Hungary . Thus on 9 December 1687 Joseph , the 9 - year - old son of emperor Leopold , was crowned , as a first hereditary king with the Stephanskrone crown . Hungary was a hereditary country of the Habsburgs and already in June 1688 the " commission for the mechanism of the Kingdom of Hungary " was now finally created , in order to create in the country of the Stephanskrone a strong monarchistic government .