Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg

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This article is about the 17th century Austrian Fieldmarshal. For the 20th century extreme right politican see Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg.

Count Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg (Graz, January 12, 1638 - Vösendorf (near Mödling), January 4, 1701) was the army commander of Vienna during the second siege of Vienna in 1683, imperial general during the Great Turkish War and President of the Hofkriegsrat.

Starhemberg fought in the 1660's under Raimondo Montecuccoli against the French and the Turks.
In 1683 he was military commander of the city of Vienna where he had less than 20,000 men at his disposal against 100,000 besieging Turks. On July 15, 1683 he refused to capitulate, counting on the speedy arrival of the army of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor and the strength of the Vienna city walls which had been fortified after the first Siege of Vienna.

When the relief army under Jan Sobieski arrived in the first half of September, Vienna was on the brink of collapse as it's walls were breached by Turkish Sappers, who had dug corridors under the wall and detonated explosive charges.

Finally, on September 12, 80,000 Imperial, Polish, Venetian, Bavarian and Saxon troops attacked the Turks and defeated them in the Battle on the Kahlenberg.

Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg was named Fieldmarshal by the Emperor, out of recognition for saving his capital. He was also made minister of the state.

Starhemberg was severely wounded in 1686 during the Siege of Buda and had to abandon his command. In 1691 he was made President of the Hofkriegsrat and was responsible for the organisation of the Austrian army.

He died on January 4, 1701 in Vösendorf. His tomb (by Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach) is situated in the Schottenkirche in Vienna.

His cousin Guido Starhemberg also became a famous Austrian military figure and fought as an adjutant on his side.

A colleteral descendant was Austrian politician Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg (1899-1956).