264 Ch. 7 • The Age of Absolutism, 1650-1720

The Hungarian nobles, proud of their defense of the Habsburg empire
against Turkish incursions, seized every opportunity to extract concessions
from the Habsburgs. Unlike their Austrian counterparts, most of the Hun­
garian, or Magyar, nobles had become Protestant during the Reformation.
Habsburg persecution of Hungarian Protestants helped spark an insurrec­
tion in 1679 that spread into Moravia, Slavonia, and Silesia. This led
Leopold to promise the Hungarian Estates to restore some privileges of
landowners that had been suppressed. But dissatisfied Protestants then
called for Turkish assistance at a time when the Turks were preparing to
attack Habsburg territories. The Ottoman army besieged Vienna, the Habs­
burg capital, in 1683. It was saved after two months by the arrival of a com­
bined relief army of Austrians, Germans, and Poles under the command of
the crusading King John Sobieski (ruled 1674—1696), Catholic ruler of
Poland. Pope Innocent XI succeeded in convincing Emperor Leopold I, who

saw himself as a prince of the Catholic Reformation, to lead a uHoly League”

in 1684 against the Ottoman Turks. In the War of the Holy League (1686­

1687), and in subsequent fighting, Habsburg armies recaptured most of

Hungary and the eastern province of Transylvania from the Turks, as well as

Map 7.1 The Holy Roman Empire under Leopold I, 1658 The Holy Roman

Empire was a polyglot state, made up of territories of different nationalities.