BATTLE OF ZENTA
Shortly after dawn on 11 September 1697 a high-ranking Ottoman prisoner named Cafar Pasha was brought before Prince Eugene of Savoy, the commander-in-chief of the Hapsburg Imperial army. The prince declared that if Pasha did not immediately divulge the location of Sultan Mustafa II’s army, a group of Croatians standing nearby would hack him to pieces.
Desperate to save his own life, the prisoner began sharing everything he knew. He told the prince that the sultan’s army was in the process of crossing the Tisza River just below the village of Zenta. The bulk of the cavalry and the sultan’s baggage train had already crossed to the far side of the river, but the foot soldiers had not yet made their way to the east side – leaving them vulnerable to attack.
Eugene knew that he had to act quickly to take advantage of the favourable situation. The information gleaned from the Ottoman officer presented him with a golden opportunity to destroy the Ottoman forces and break the stalemate in the Great Turkish War.
THE LONG WARS
Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent s victory over Hungarian King Louis II at the Battle of Mohacs in 1526 had led to the Ottoman annexation of two-thirds of Hungary. The remainder of the country, a buffer
