The Prince Who Brought Down The Ottoman Empire | More Than Enemies | Real Royalty

[Music] for centuries two great powers of battle for supremacy in europe the habsburgs and the ottoman empire [Music] the habsburg side is personified by prince eugene of savoy a young nobleman who is prepared to rebel against his own king louis xiv of france you should serve not me but god no never as an impoverished prince he embarks on what would be a brilliant career in the service of the habsburgs [Music] on the ottoman side gurnach a favorite in the harem mother of two sultans and to the end a philanthropist and patron of the arts two empires that are completely different and yet have much in common and they are always ready to go to war with one another we should fall back horrendous bloodbaths take place in which tens of thousands are left dead upon the battlefields in times of peace on the other hand trade flourishes and the two powers engage in lively cultural exchange that even extends to medical techniques what the devil are you doing now [Music] soon however the two great powers are at war again on 9 11 september the 11th 1697 prince eugene makes a decision that will change the world once again prince eugene is prepared to risk everything regardless of possible losses i've told him but he never listens to me everyone ready to march we'll surprise the turks at the river teaser your grace we're almost a whole day's march away and it's past midday we'll put the infantry up with the cavalry each horse will be written by two fully armed men and go as fast as it can in the heavy artillery we'll leave it behind in only one hour we can be at the teaser you heard the order two men on each horse move [Applause] this was how on september the 11th 1697 an army of over fifty thousand covered the ground in record time [Music] on arrival at center the habsburg army faces a scene of chaos the sultan and the ottoman cavalry are already over the teaser and the artillery and baggage train are being ferried across almost a hundred thousand men in all they are superior to us in numbers not if we drive them into the river the bridge over the teaser is far too narrow to take all those fleeing to safety and the sultan's camp is paralyzed by the onslaught of the imperial army as i see it prince eugene's great gift as a military commander was his ability to read a battle and most importantly to recognize the moment when a battle has reached its critical point when a battle is raging there's a deafening roar of guns firing and men shouting and you can see very little at the critical moment however prince eugene knew what to do now it's time to bring up the reserves now it's time to put my last soldiers into the firing line and if he has no soldiers left then he goes into battle himself turn the cannon that's it [Music] here the imperial soldiers were overcome with a real thirst for blood they went for the ottomans shooting stabbing beating the hell out of them and caused them far greater losses than they themselves suffered especially as many ottomans leapt into the teaser and drowned because they couldn't swim the battle of center lasted only a few hours and prince eugene's tactic was a complete success that afternoon 25 000 ottomans were killed while the habsburg army did not even lose 500. what is clearly noticeable is the total insensitivity of the commanders to the human losses even on their own side if you read prince eugene's correspondence you see that he was very rarely personally or morally affected by the casualties in his forces [Music] ah [Music] war was certainly waged more brutally against the ottomans than against any other enemies because the customary practice of taking prisoners and incorporating them into one's own forces didn't work with the turks who as a rule had a strong national consciousness and were also fanatical fighters however it would certainly be exaggerating to pretend that prince eugene was morally faultless or some kind of humanist but in that respect of course he was no different from other generals of his day back to the camp the defeated center is annihilating and puts an end to ottoman expansion in europe prince eugene's victory secures his reputation as a military commander of genius [Music] the seal of sultan mustafa ii captured its center can still be seen at the museum of military history in vienna prince eugene reported to the emperor that after the battle serious explosions had destroyed the greater part of the booty including the sultan's war chests [Music] whether by chance or not the following year see prince eugene making massive investments immediately after center he pays off all his debts and has two further wings built onto his winter palace the staterooms are decorated and fitted out with the greatest possible splendor and magnificence [Music] a young prince eugene had rapidly aroused envy at the viennese court why because his rise had been meteorites and in particular because he had flooded the rules of the day he had no scruples about using his career to line his own pocket and showing off his success as opulently in addition prince eugene purchases a plot outside the walls of vienna where he will build the grand summer palace later known as the belvedere in hungary he acquires the danube island of chapel where he builds ratskeva now a hotel it is the first of his palaces to be built by the architect lucas from hildebrandt whom prince eugene summoned from italy for the commission from now on all his main building projects will be entrusted to maestro gianluca as the prince calls him [Music] the emperor gives prince eugene extensive estates in the newly conquered territories at the southern hungarian village of mohach for example where there had been an important battle in 1526. today a memorial commemorates the 15 thousand soldiers who fell on that day prince eugene has a valuation done on the land which the emperor has assured him would be worth eighty thousand gilders when the valuation yields an estimate of 64 000 the hard-headed businessman prince eugene demands that the emperor make up the shortfall prince again via another prince eugene was one of the best and cleverest money men of his time as such he was an exception at the court of vienna which was constantly in debt and unable to pay the costs of the wars and the courthouse eugene by contrast quickly makes capital out of his fame as a military commander and not only in central europe he goes to the london stock exchange and issues war loans which are made out in his own name and not in that of the habsburgs or the emperor these warlords became so popular that they sell out and immediately refill his war chest prince the emperor is unable to come up with the sun eugene has demanded but pays him in kind by giving him further estates in hungary amongst these is the wine growing area oviliani which has been destroyed and plundered by the ottomans prince eugene has the villages resettled and builds up a moral wine estate even today the wines from billionaire have an excellent reputation [Music] the estate eugene takes over has around 120 acres of cultivated land within 20 years the prince has expanded it to five times the size virginia still produces some of hungary's best wines and is also known as the bordeaux of the east its special feature is that ever since prince eugene's time it has combined the best of both western european and balkan winemaking [Music] but the emperor also made enormous territorial gains the victory at center led to the habsburgs acquiring the whole of hungary and transylvania and the peace treaty of karlawitz of 1699 finally brings 15 years of war with the ottomans to an end [Music] in the ottoman empire the lost wars and the sultan who prefers hunting to the business of government are causing growing discontent in particular the leaders of the elite household troop known as the janissaries refused to put up with the situation any longer [Music] where is our sultan he's not here he's out hunting all members of the most high demand listen it's enough this can no longer go on not a month passes without some tax being increased the sultan and the grand mufti are responsible that tobacco and coffee are so highly taxed that the merchants can't sell their goods and even my own men have been waiting for months for payment we won't put up with this for a single moment longer stoked up by the agitators popular outrage rises to extreme levels the cauldron around which the janissaries gather for their meals is a powerful symbol for the elite fighters reminding them of the time where the turkic tribes were still nomads this is where the new recruits pronounce their oath of loyalty and where discussions take place on important issues feelings run high and what about our pay which is already months overdue there's no sign of it we won't stand for it any longer we've waited long enough when the cauldrons are overturned the viziers and the sultan know that they cannot escape the rage of their elite corps [Music] so it is in august 1703 the janissaries storm the palace assassinate the grand mufti and depose sultan mustafa ii [Music] nor does the peace last long in europe when in 1700 the habsburg king of spain charles ii dies without direct issue both the austrian habsburgs and the french bourbons lay claim to the throne the result is the war of the spanish succession a conflagration that spreads all over europe and lasts 14 years the first world war of the modern age [Music] the erstwhile poppa prince eugene has now become so powerful that he set fair to become the richest and mightiest man in the habsburg lands his next step towards this goal is a comprehensive reform of the armed forces [Music] the army is becoming more specialized and is now much more than just foot soldiers and cavalry the artillery plays an important role there are the sappers who specialize in earthworks and military engineering miners who in sieges dig tunnels under the enemy's city walls and a special corps responsible for transport and logistics so what develops is in principle the beginning of a modern standing army consisting not only of combat troops but also auxiliaries in short the beginning of the 18th century was a turning point in military history [Music] prince eugene begins by unifying the army's weaponry until then the colonel in chief of each regiment had decided what arms his men should carry the fact that eugene is now also a minister of state enables him to raise money and buy modern weapons the great progress made in the field of weaponry naturally had an effect on tactics and strategy the match lock was replaced by the more modern flintlock furthermore the troops no longer advanced in large pike squares but formed lines in which it was critically important to stay in line that was the beginning of military drill which hadn't existed prince eugene is now sent to fight the french in northern italy in order to reach the theater of war without facing the enemy he has to cross the alps passing through the trentino with armaments that in some cases weigh tons this feat can only be compared with hannibal's crossing of the alps in roman times [Music] in italy eugene is to meet a man with whom he will have a lifelong and fateful relationship the kant to bonovar [Music] the actress and theatre director herrera from garland is one of cal bonneville's direct descendants in recent years she's made an intensive study of her illustrious ancestor's life this is moment when prince eugene and bonevale first came face to face was not really their first encounter as they had known of each other for some time they had had a previous encounter at a distance as members of different camps at the battle of luzara and we know that they had great respect for one another the interesting thing about luzara was that both sides claimed victory and had masses celebrated accordingly though actually it was probably a kind of draw but even then the young bonaval stood out from the rest because he was a talented officer and strategist as was quite clear even though he was serving under vondom [Music] after serious disagreements with the french generals bonivale defects to the enemy prince eugene can make good use of him in his army he not only has high regard for his gifts but also has other reasons for liking his young compatriot [Music] i'm not really sure but it shows off your broad shoulders particularly well do you think so but my hips your hips are quite formidable but the waistcoat is too large hmm i will ask my tailor to alter it for you now you are a real emperor's man more like a grey mouse liligance was not invented in vienna prince eugene is hoping bonneville will give him something that in spite of his rise to power has been denied him thus far true friendship and an inspiring relationship with another human being leibniz writes he wishes to find an academy in vienna hmm but that can't be any great problem for you i'm going to write to the emperor about it today i don't know how i can thank you enough dear friend by having introduced me to this great thinker i have something more for you the works of my good friend fennel do i see greed in your eyes forgive me dear friend it was simply pure joy over the written word that caused me to lose my composure may i eugene did not just cultivate intensive contacts with philosophers and other great minds of his time he also set great store by fine art and by commissioning the best artist to work for him in vienna to this end he not only paid large sums of money but also used diplomatic means to bring works of art to vienna sometimes from the remotest parts of the world the barack has now spread to constantinople a new century has begun grownuche has lived through a number of turbulent decades misrule on the part of its sultans has plunged the ottoman empire into a serious economic crisis the janissaries demand the head of the sultan gulnish's son mustafa [Music] i know that the sultan spends too much time out hunting if you spare his life i will seat it that he abdicates my youngest son ahmed is prepared to listen to your demands your son is inexperienced in the business of government and he has spent too long in the cafes if he were to let himself be guided by your wisdom and the experience of the grand vizier we would serve him unconditionally women taking part in ruling was the result of various factors one was the acquisition of power in the palace by the families of the grand viziers this happened when the sultan was too young to guide the fortunes of the land that is to deal with political and military matters in this case the grand vizier ruled together with the sultan's mother but this form of regency ended in the 17th century played a major part in bringing about the cultural heyday that the ottoman empire enjoyed under her son ahmed the third handwritten books are of course wonderful but they only reach a very small number of people books have been printed in europe for almost 250 years now look what masterpieces they have created and as a result their holy book has become widely known they are now even able to print books in arabic script we have to keep pace with them ibrahim muttafarika a transylvanian who converted to islam is a key figure in this development he supplies the ottomans with the technical knowledge for putting ancient manuscripts into print he obtains an audience with prince eugene who by this time has the largest library in europe in times of peace the prince is happy to pass on his knowledge to an ottoman delegation my library is divided up into three groups each group has its own color red for history and literature blue for theology and justice and yellow for the natural sciences may allah grant that even just one of my stories may appear in such a book inshallah gentlemen please a special feature of the library is that the books are all bound in the finest leather of course it would interest me if it was possible to obtain this leather directly from constantinople the prince means he would like more of these janissary skins well it's been a long time since the last one we have none left no no no let's be serious that is goatskin what we call morocco leather however it's hardly made in north africa anymore i have heard that you have the best goatskin containers in the world it is our intention to use this leather for binding the books of our sultan's library as well so there'll be no shortage of it for you the prince certainly needs large quantities of leather with the help of bonnevale who is well connected with great thinkers such as voltaire leibniz and montesquieu prince eugene succeeds in bringing his library up to fifteen thousand volumes it now forms the heart of the austrian national library [Music] neither emperor charles vi nor maria theresa were in a position to buy prince eugene's estate outright and it all came onto the market his niece victoria generously sold it off and the habsburgs in the case of the library however they came off badly because the contract specified that victoria should be paid a certain annuity for life then she lived much longer than they had thought she would and in the end the habsburgs paid less for the palaces than they did for the fifteen thousand [Music] bucks these are the books that i've brought from the library of prince eugene [Music] when ibrahimovic returns to constantinople gulnosh is dying but until the very end she remains the most important woman in the ottoman empire [Music] so this has a book that belonged to that cruel man it is good to see that even he feels love for beautiful things sometimes one compensates for the ugliness of life with the beauties of eternity in 1715 gulnush passes away [Music] during her lifetime gulnush had a mosque built to match the yeni jami the new mosque on the european side of constantinople but her mosque the mosque of the new sultan's mother or yeni valida jami is situated in usg on the anatolian side of the city neither mosque bears the name of its creator this seems to reflect the fate of the great ottoman women of this period however influential they were during their lives their names did not survive in the collective memory of their land or even on the city plans [Music] only a year after gunnish's death the almost 20-year long period of peace between the ottomans and habsburgs comes to an end once again a huge ottoman army is on the march this time towards belgrade near the fortress of petrovaridin in present-day serbia prince eugene once again succeeds in driving the ottomans back allegedly by tricking them it is said that he had his horses shot back to front but can a horse walk with its hoofshot the wrong way around or is this perhaps just another of the many legends surrounding the life for prince eugene it is basically no problem putting the horseshoes back to front there is even an illness which is still treated this way the human footprints point in one direction and the hoof prince in the other in theory this tactic could send an opponent in the wrong direction but it would not deceive a seasoned reader of animal tracks in june 1717 prince eugene is once again besieging the fortress of belgrade which is held by the ottomans there he is visited by his old comrade in arms bonivale your bones can't be the youngest anymore either marijuana the bones are my smallest problem but my gout monitor me my gut it's been a very long time eugene i hear that you got married yes but you don't seem very pleased come with me i have something for you ever since his days as a neglected youth prince eugene has yearned for real friendship [Music] what is it emeralds diamonds so you are giving me a wedding present no it is to celebrate 15 years since our first encounter with one another in a battle so an anniversary gift see it as a tribute to our indestructible friendship indestructible yes [Music] prince eugene has besieged belgrade for two months bringing off a number of tactical master strokes then the ottoman army arrives to relieve the fortress the battle of belgrade is the prize example of a battle that prince eugene should in fact have lost the fortress he is besieging is probably the strongest in europe can only be besieged from the south and possesses a very strong garrison then the ottoman army approaches from the south and he's caught between two fronts something happens that has been typical of his whole career a stroke of luck at the right moment this time one of his mortars scores a direct hit on the fortress's munitions depot and blows it sky high then he launches a brilliant attack on the ottomans to the south surprising them by night and putting them out of action in spite of his inferior numbers this puts him in a position to take what is the most important fortress in south eastern europe at the treaty of pasanowitz the habsburgs gain the banner little walikia and further territories in northern serbia thanks to prince eugene the habsburg territories have now reached their greatest ever extent [Music] however great his successes were on the battlefield he still had remarkably little success in the field of human relationships yours is bigger than mine are you jealous of me i wonder what have i gained from all my honours i risked life and limb for this what do you expect let you finally do something for me have i done nothing for you didn't i promote you to the rank of general after you'd come to me as an outcast haven't i showered you with gifts forgive me but i'm not a harlot and ten years have passed since you made me a general others have received high offices and i have not though god knows i've done more than them so what do you want i want the governorship of sicily sicily and i will ensure you a lifelong supply of oranges and lemons that is quite impossible dear friend i have already promised the governorship to counter valles you've done what i can't give it to you you're a foreigner to the house of habsburg with all due respect and what are you then at least give me osiek no i'm sending you as a commander of artillery to the netherlands there you'll be deputy to play it is a very well endowed position priyay but priya is your deputy in the netherlands you're making me a deputy to your deputy is a very capable man everybody knows what a corrupt swiney is enough i cannot do more for you than that you will soon receive the order when you have to present yourself there [Music] every little lout gets caught one day by gout bonneville ridicules prince eugene in song before leaving vienna a frenchman here's the lowest dregs he even wanted osiric i dreams of being on a red butt doesn't have sufficient bread drink brother drink your rail in vienna is for sale drink [Music] [Applause] is a letter from brussels informs prince eugene that bonnevale has seriously insulted him and has joined a group of renegade noblemen who were openly expressing their hatred of habsburg rule prince eugene's deputy in brussels immediately has bonnevale arrested now we see that prince eugene has a very unforgiving side to him he recommends that the court of war should sentence bonnival to death for high treason the unusual thing about count bonova's death sentence is that the emperor only pronounced it after having been put under extremely strong pressure to do so by prince eugene which in turn is also very odd because of the long-standing close friendship he had with the french count there may have been a woman behind this ruthlessness a certain cantus alianore from batyani had long resented bonneville's influence [Music] whose turn yours my friend he is an absolutely degenerate being you're right the death sentence was reduced to imprisonment and bonneville was incarcerated for a year at the infamous prison of spielberg in southern moravia then he was released on the condition that he never set foot in the holy roman empire again it was around this time that prince eugene's magnificent garden palace was completed in a record time of only three years designed by lucas from hildebrandt it is one of austria's finest baroque buildings [Music] eugene is at the height of his power he is imperial field marshal president of the imperial court of war and governor both of milan and the austrian netherlands [Music] the french gardens featuring terraces lined with figural sculpture make prince eugene's new acquisition of schlosshoff an outstanding example of baroque splendor [Music] the festivities are also truly baroque to the horror of his guests prince eugene allows a tame line from his menagerie to roam around freeland banquets intoxicating festivities are no longer a part of bonneville's life after his release from prison he heads for constantinople the capital of the habsburg's arch enemy with hardly any financial means he makes it to sarajevo where for strategic reasons he converts to islam after bonaval had converted the sultan summoned him to constantinople and even provided him with a house containing his ideas for the modernization of the ottoman army [Music] impressed by his reform proposals that he commissioned bonaval to take over leadership of his gunners as commander of the artillery his name is now hambaraja ahmed pasha cannon's armored pasha prince eugene is furious when he hears about bonneville's defection to the ottomans he remembers his mother's secret weapon [Music] so the house court and state archive in vienna where parts of the prince's correspondence are preserved amongst these papers is eugene's request to the emperor to have bonneville poisoned in constantinople as a traitor the interesting thing about the attempted murder is that once again it was apparently at prince eugene's insistence that the emperor signed an order that instructed the ambassador in constantinople to have bonaval assassinated it even says precisely what poison was to be used namely diamond powder as was apparently common at the time what is interesting for me is seeing the emperor's signature under the assassination order this case the attempt on bonneville's life fails and the count enters a dervish monastery as a member of the merv levy order which is well known for having an especially tolerant world view [Music] the mov levy order still performs a special ritual every sunday the dance of the dervishes [Applause] [Music] in the whirling prayer the members of the sufi brotherhood gradually enter a trance-like state [Music] claude alexandre de bonivar now dies in 1747. his grave is at the cemetery of the mev levy order in the heart of istanbul only a few yards away is the final resting place of the pioneer of ottoman book printing [Music] ibrahimovic [Music] at the end of the 17th century the ottoman empire entered a period of political and economic decline periods of decline are always extremely interesting because the demise of the old makes room for new developments the time in which was just such a period the only surviving buildings commissioned by amateur ravi ghoul to give her her full name are a mosque and a fountain in istanbul in her lifetime however she was an important figure on account of her cultural open-mindedness and her charitable activities historians of the ottoman empire have not accorded gulnish the importance she really deserves she's best known today as the mother of ahmet iii the reign of ahmet iii was a period of exceptional creativity in the arts and architecture another example of exceptional creativity is lucas from hildebrand's transformation of prince eugene's country seat of schlosshoff it may not be the largest but surely the most elegant palace here the aging prince enjoyed many summer days amongst a small circle of selected friends everything here is wonderful everything is in harmony this conjunction of mars and jupiter not only means constant happiness but also an irrepressible unyielding will and triumphs on all levels and then jupiter in the 12th house standing for the love of the good and beautiful the love of art but mars in opposition to uranus not only shows your determination but also your cold-bloodedness and brutality but but i see no sign of venus you are a mars without a venus your grace and pluto in the sixth house i see a lot of darkness i see an old age of loneliness sadness and pain pain enough you are dismissed [Music] a life without venus i hate astrology oh i abandoned this superstition long ago when i left paris uh-huh ah this is a citrus lemons i had it sent from sicily morsha wherever do you get all these unknown plants from oh my child i have agents in every port in europe when they are not having to pursue someone for me they buy me the most beautiful animals and plants brought in by the trading ships that entered the harbor here maestro gianluca has really surpassed himself the terraces go down almost as far as the river one two three four five six seven one more than the emperor the emperor compelled him to go to war one last time now he was in a sense a victim of his own fame he had become a kind of secret weapon a trump card and particularly in this last war i think that he allowed himself to be wound up and put into action against his own will actually he wanted to spend his twilight years in one of his palaces the bold fighter and ruthless commander has now had his day in his last years prince eugene devotes himself even more intensively to his palaces and collections [Music] in the baroque era vienna was nominally an imperial court but it was regarded all over europe as backward provincial and mostly somewhat impoverished prince eugene on the other hand was not only a war hero but was well known as a rich and intelligent patron of the arts his reputation naturally rubbed off on vienna and for many years after his death it helped the city to improve its image even as an old man prince eugene retains all his high offices and even seems to be a kind of secret emperor he a foreigner has expanded the habsburg territories to their greatest ever extent and has at the same time commissioned architectural treasures of monumental grandeur in his old age he withdraws increasingly from society until at the end he is lonely and only talks to his animals raw lion raw [Music] raw [Music] when the noble knight dies in the evening on the 21st of april 1736 it is said that the tired tame lion woke up and roared so loudly at the belvedere that he could be heard far away within the city walls prince eugene's heart is laid to rest in turin his other mortal remains are placed in a chapel named after him instant stephen's cathedral he went as he had come as a foreigner and yet he made absolutely sure that he would never be forgotten [Music]

Channel: Real Royalty

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Length: 50min 42sec (3042 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 06 2021