| Summary: | After the 1716 victorious campaign with the defeat of a great Ottoman army near Petrovaradin and the conquest of Temesvár, in the 1717 anti-Ottoman campaign Prince Eugene of Savoy had the main objective to conquer the fortress of Belgrade. Prince Eugene chose to cross the Danube, approaching Belgrade from the east and rear; in this manner, he surprised the Ottoman defenders of Belgrade, who did not expect the enemy to cross the river at that point. The Imperial troops began digging trenches, in a semicircle from the Danube to the Sava, both in front of the fortress and at the rear, in order to defend themselves in the case of the arrival of a Turkish relief army. In fact, Prince Eugene was informed about the approach of a huge Ottoman army to relieve Belgrade under the command of Grand Vizier Hacı Halıl Pasha. Actually, this army arrived on July 28, 1717. So, the Imperial troops were caught between the fortress and the relief army in a dangerous crossfire. Therefore, Eugene decided to attack the enemy at dawn on August 16: the infantry and the grenadiers advanced to the center of the line, while the cavalry had to go into action from both sides. Due to the poor visibility caused by the morning fog, the progress of the battle was not the one desired by the Prince of Savoy; only after the fog had dissolved, Eugene was able to carry out his battle plan by attacking the key Turkish position on the Bajdina hill. After 10 hours of hard fight, the battle was over with the clear success of the Imperial troops. The fortress, defended by Mustafa Pasha, capitulated on August 18. On July 21, 1718 a peace was signed in the locality of Požarevac (Passarowitz), between Emperor Charles VI and the Republic of Venice on the one hand, Sultan Ahmed III on the other. The Peace of Passarowitz ended the long Ottoman domination in Hungary. In this paper, we deal with the siege of the Belgrade fortress in 1717 and the consequent battle waged against the Ottoman army that had rushed to help the defenders of the fortress. The work is mainly based on published narrative and diplomatic sources, such as the military correspondence and the war plans of Prince Eugene.
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