Count Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg (Graz, 12 January 1638 – Vösendorf (near Mödling), 4 January 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 1660s under Raimondo Montecuccoli against the French and the Turks.
In 1683 he was military commander of the city of Vienna, with fewer than 20,000 men to oppose 100,000 besieging Turks. On 15 July 1683 Starhemberg refused to capitulate, counting on the speedy arrival of the army of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, and the strength of 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, its walls having been breached by Turkish sappers who had tunnelled under the walls, packed the tunnels with gunpowder, and detonated the explosive charges.
Finally, on 12 September, 80,000 Polish, Imperial, Venetian, Bavarian, and Saxon troops attacked the Turks and defeated them in the Battle on the Kahlenberg.
Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg was promoted to field marshal by the Emperor, recognizing Starhemberg's action in saving the imperial capital. He was also made a 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 at Vösendorf on 4 January 1701. His tomb (by Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach) is situated in the Schottenkirche in Vienna.
His cousin Guido Starhemberg also became a famous Austrian soldier and fought as an adjutant at his side.
The latter Austrian politician Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg (1899-1956) was a collateral descendant.