What was the greatest battle of the early modern period?

On our scores it is Vienna in 1683, where John III Sobieski's relief army broke the Ottoman siege on 12 September and began the war that cost the sultan Hungary at Karlowitz in 1699. It ties Yorktown on 48 points and goes first as the older battle.

Which battles are on the list?

Fifteen, ranked by score: Vienna (1683), Yorktown (1781), Mohács (1526), Sekigahara (1600), the Spanish Armada (1588), Poltava (1709), Tenochtitlan (1521), Quebec (1759), Saratoga (1777), Plassey (1757), Lepanto (1571), Blenheim (1704), Panipat (1526), Culloden (1746) and Naseby (1645).

Why is Lepanto only eleventh?

Because it decided less than its fame suggests: Venice still gave up Cyprus in 1573 and the Ottomans rebuilt their fleet within a year, so it scores 3 for decisiveness and consequence. It takes full marks for recognition and memory and ties Blenheim on 41 points, going ahead on recognition.

Why is Rocroi not on the list?

It scores 31 points. The 1643 victory over the Spanish tercios is famous as a symbol, but France and Spain fought on until the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, so it scores 3 for decisiveness and consequence. It was on the earlier, shorter version of this page.

When was the early modern period?

Roughly from 1500 to the end of the 18th century, from the spread of gunpowder to the eve of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. This guide counts battles fought from 1500 to 1789.

How did gunpowder change warfare?

It made castle walls vulnerable to cannon, replaced knights and archers with musketeers, and rewarded drill and discipline over individual prowess.

The 15 Greatest Battles of the Early Modern Age, Ranked

Unknown painter, National Maritime Museum, late 16th century, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

At a glance
Rank	Battle	Date	Forces	Result
1	Vienna	1683	100,000 to 120,000 Ottomans vs 65,000 to 69,000 relief	Ottoman defeat; siege broken
2	Yorktown	1781	About 16,000 to 19,900 allies vs 7,500 to 9,000	British army surrendered
3	Mohács	1526	60,000 to 100,000 Ottomans vs about 25,000	Ottoman victory; Louis II killed
4	Sekigahara	1600	About 80,000 a side (traditional figures)	Tokugawa victory; shogunate to 1868
5	The Spanish Armada	1588	About 130 to 138 Spanish vs 136 to 200 English ships	English victory; invasion abandoned
6	Poltava	1709	About 42,000 Russians vs 31,000 Swedes (about 19,000 fought)	Russian victory; Swedish army lost
7	Tenochtitlan	1521	About 900 Spaniards at the start of the siege and 50,000 to 100,000+ allies	City fell; Aztec Empire ended
8	Quebec	1759	About 4,500 British vs 4,500 French	British victory; Quebec taken
9	Saratoga	1777	About 15,000 vs 6,000 to 7,500 British and Germans	Burgoyne surrendered; France joined
10	Plassey	1757	About 3,000 vs about 50,000 on paper	Company victory; Bengal won
11	Lepanto	1571	206 galleys and 6 galleasses vs about 280 ships	Holy League victory; Cyprus still lost
12	Blenheim	1704	52,000 to 56,000 vs 56,000 to 60,000	Allied victory; Vienna saved
13	Panipat	1526	About 12,000 vs 40,000 to 100,000 and elephants	Babur victorious; Mughal rule begins
14	Culloden	1746	About 7,800 (our sum) to 9,000 vs about 5,000	Government victory; Jacobites crushed
15	Naseby	1645	12,000 to 17,000 vs 10,000 to 11,000	Parliament victory; King's army destroyed

See the whole era on one page: the early modern era, with a map of every battle, a timeline and its commanders ›

Quick answer

What were the greatest battles of the early modern period?

The relief of Vienna on 12 September 1683 tops our ranking: John III Sobieski's army broke the Ottoman siege and began the war that cost the sultan Hungary. Yorktown, Mohács, Sekigahara and the Spanish Armada complete the top five of the fifteen battles fought between 1500 and 1789 that made our list.

Between 1500 and 1789 gunpowder, galleys and drilled infantry changed the way wars were fought, and a handful of battles decided who would rule from Mexico to Japan. This list covers the land and sea battles of those years, anywhere in the world, plus the sieges that decided a war or the fate of a state, such as Tenochtitlan and Yorktown. The wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon have their own guide, and long sieges such as Malta in 1565 are compared in our guide to sieges. The fifteen battles are ranked by a score, not by date, and how we chose and ranked them is explained right after the list, with the battles that came close.¹

1 Vienna, 1683

Where: Vienna and the Kahlenberg heights, Austria
War: Great Turkish War
Sides: Ottoman Empire (Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa) against the Habsburg garrison and a relief army of imperial, German and Polish troops (King John III Sobieski)
Strength: About 100,000 to 120,000 Ottomans vs 16,000 defenders and a relief army of 65,000 to 69,000
Result: Ottoman defeat; siege broken on 12 September 1683; 10,000 to 15,000 Ottoman losses

The Ottomans had besieged Vienna once before, in 1529. In 1683 Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa came back with about 200,000 men, 80,000 of them in the baggage train, and some 120,000 closed around the city on 14 July, by the City of Vienna's count; the Wilanów museum gives 100,000. Count Starhemberg held the walls with about 11,000 soldiers and 5,000 militia and by early September had lost half of them.²

On 12 September a relief army of 65,000 to 69,000 imperial, German and Polish troops under John III Sobieski came down from the Kahlenberg. Late in the afternoon about 20,000 horsemen charged and the Ottoman army broke, losing about 10,000 killed and 5,000 wounded by the dzieje.pl count, almost 15,000 by the Wilanów museum’s. Sobieski wrote to the Pope: “Venimus, vidimus, Deus vicit,” we came, we saw, God conquered.³

It decided the direction of the frontier. Kara Mustafa was strangled on the sultan’s orders, the Pope drew Austria, Poland and Venice into a Holy League, Buda fell in 1686, and at Karlowitz in 1699 the sultan accepted Austrian rule over Hungary and Transylvania; Austria came out the major power of Central Europe, and the Ottomans never again threatened it so seriously. Poland, which had led the charge, won back only Podolia.⁴

Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition, consequence, memory and certainty: the day the Ottoman advance into Central Europe turned into a retreat. It drops a point on decisiveness, because the war it opened ran sixteen more years; it ties Yorktown on 48 points, recognition and consequence, and is first as the older.

Read the full story of the siege and battle of Vienna ›

Panoramic painting of a battle before a walled city, with cavalry charging into tents — The relief of Vienna in 1683, with the besieged city in the background and the Ottoman camp under attack. Painting by Frans Geffels, made between 1683 and 1694. Public domain

2 Yorktown, 1781

Where: Yorktown and Gloucester Point, Virginia
War: American Revolutionary War
Besiegers: About 16,000 to 19,900 American and French troops under Washington and Rochambeau; de Grasse’s French fleet offshore
Defenders: About 7,500 to 9,000 British, German and Loyalist troops under Cornwallis
Outcome: Surrendered 19 October 1781; 7,416 British missing and captured

By 1781 the American rebellion had become a European war: France had signed an alliance with the United States in 1778 and sent supplies, troops and a fleet. That summer Cornwallis fortified Yorktown as a base the Royal Navy could supply. On 5 September a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse beat the British at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay while Washington and Rochambeau marched south from New York. By late September the allies at Williamsburg numbered about 16,000 by our sum of the park historian Charles Hatch’s figures (5,200 Continentals, 7,500 French and over 3,000 militia), or 19,900 by the American Battlefield Trust’s count; Cornwallis had about 7,500 by Hatch’s count, 9,000 by the Trust’s.⁵

The allies closed around the town on 28 September, dug siege lines on 6 and 11 October and stormed Redoubts 9 and 10 on the night of 14 October. On 19 October the garrison marched out to Surrender Field and laid down its arms, a third of all British forces in North America, the National Park Service notes. What it decided was the war itself: in March 1782 Parliament voted to make peace, and the Treaty of Paris of 1783 ended British rule over the thirteen colonies. Myth vs fact: the British band playing “The World Turned Upside Down” at the surrender is, says the American Battlefield Trust, apocryphal.⁶

Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition, decisiveness, consequence and certainty: no other early modern siege settled a war so plainly. Memory scores 4; it ties Vienna on 48 points, recognition and consequence, and goes second as the younger.

Read the full story of the siege of Yorktown ›

3 Mohács, 1526

Where: Plain of Mohács by the Danube, southern Hungary
War: Ottoman-Hungarian wars
Sides: Ottoman Empire (Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent) against the Kingdom of Hungary (King Louis II)
Strength: 60,000 to 100,000 Ottomans vs about 25,000 Hungarians (disputed)
Result: Ottoman victory on 29 August 1526; Louis II drowned; 14,000 to 24,000 Hungarian losses

In 1526 Hungary guarded Central Europe’s southern border, but its court had no money for the border forts. Suleiman the Magnificent marched from Belgrade with almost 100,000 men by one estimate; the Hungarian defense ministry’s account puts his regular troops at no more than 60,000. King Louis II met him on the plain of Mohács on 29 August with about 25,000 men by the count of the chancellor Brodarics, some 15,000 of them horsemen. The figures are disputed.⁷

The Hungarians charged in the afternoon, and by evening their army had ceased to exist: 10,000 infantry and 4,000 horsemen fell, with seven prelates and 28 barons; another count gives 24,000 casualties. Louis drowned in a marsh as he fled, and Suleiman entered Buda on 11 September.⁸

Louis was the last of his line, so the battle decided who would rule the Danube basin. Two kings were elected, the Habsburg Ferdinand I and John Zápolya, and Hungary ended up in three parts, Royal Hungary, the Ottoman pashalik of Buda and Transylvania, until the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. Louis’s crowns passed to the Habsburgs, and their Turkish wars, begun that day, ran on into the eighteenth century. Hungarians still shrug off a lesser misfortune with “Több is veszett Mohácsnál,” more was lost at Mohács.⁹

Why it ranks here: Full marks for decisiveness, consequence and memory: one afternoon ended the independent Kingdom of Hungary. It loses a point on recognition, being less known outside Central Europe, and on certainty for the disputed army sizes; it ties Sekigahara on 46 points, recognition and consequence, and goes above it as the older.

Read the full story of the Battle of Mohács ›

4 Sekigahara, 1600

Where: Sekigahara, Mino Province (today Gifu Prefecture), Japan
War: War for the succession to Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Sides: Eastern Army (Tokugawa Ieyasu) against the Western Army (Ishida Mitsunari and the Toyotomi loyalists)
Strength: About 80,000 a side by the National Park Service’s account, over 150,000 in all (traditional figures)
Result: Eastern Army victory on 21 October 1600; about 30,000 dead by the National Park Service’s count

When Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had united Japan, died in August 1598, the council ruling for his heir split between Tokugawa Ieyasu, first of the five elders, and Ishida Mitsunari, first of the five commissioners, drawing in almost every daimyo. On a rainy night in October 1600 the Western Army, about 80,000 strong by the National Park Service’s account, took the hills around the road through Sekigahara; Ieyasu’s Eastern Army was of similar size, over 150,000 men in all.¹⁰

Fighting began in fog at 7:30 a.m. on 21 October. Some 28,000 Mōri troops on Mount Nangu never moved, and Kobayakawa Hideaki, with about 15,600 men on Mount Matsuo, had secretly promised to change sides. When he finally attacked his own allies, the Western line broke, and by the early afternoon about 30,000 men lay dead, by the Park Service’s count. Myth vs fact: Stephen Turnbull reports the historian Shiramine Jun’s finding that Kobayakawa changed sides when the battle began, which makes the famous story of Ieyasu’s gunners firing on his hill to force his hand a myth.¹¹

Ieyasu became master of Japan and was named shogun three years later, which is why the Japanese call it the battle that divided the realm. His shogunate lasted until 1868, some 260 years of peace.¹²

Why it ranks here: Full marks for decisiveness, consequence and memory: one morning settled who would rule Japan for two and a half centuries, and its battlefield has a prefectural museum. Recognition and certainty score 4; it ties Mohács on 46 points, recognition and consequence, and goes below it as the younger.

Read the full story of the Battle of Sekigahara ›

Japanese folding screen painted with hundreds of samurai and banners across a battlefield — A folding screen of the Battle of Sekigahara from the late Edo period, in the collection of the Gifu City Museum of History. Public domain

5 The Spanish Armada, 1588

Where: The English Channel and off Gravelines, on the Flemish coast near Calais
War: Anglo-Spanish War (to 1604)
Fleets: The Spanish Armada (Duke of Medina Sidonia) vs the English fleet (Lord Howard of Effingham, Drake)
Strength: About 130 to 138 Spanish ships vs about 136 to 200 English; some 60 a side in the fight off Gravelines
Result: English victory on 8 August 1588; invasion abandoned; only about 67 of 138 Spanish ships got home

Philip II, master of what World Book calls the world’s most powerful country, meant the Armada to end English help for the Dutch rebels and make England Catholic again. It left Lisbon on 30 May 1588 with 138 ships and over 25,000 seamen and soldiers by the Royal Museums Greenwich count, about 130 ships by others, to carry the Duke of Parma’s army over from Flanders. It anchored off Calais on 6 August, but Parma was blockaded by a Dutch fleet and never came out.¹³

That night the English sent eight fireships into the anchorage. The Spaniards scattered, and on 8 August about 60 English ships attacked a similar number of Spanish off Gravelines all day at close range, sinking at least three. The Armada fled north around Scotland and Ireland, where about 19 ships were wrecked; only about 67 of the 138 got home, and up to 11,000 men died, while HISTORY.com puts the loss at as many as 60 ships and 15,000 men. Myth vs fact: English guns did not destroy the Armada; most of its losses came from storms and disease.¹⁴

It decided that England would not be invaded, and won it recognition as one of Europe’s most feared sea powers. Spain remained a great power and the war ran on to 1604, but English sailors now challenged it across the world with new confidence.¹⁵

Why it ranks here: A household name: full marks for recognition and memory. Decisiveness and consequence score 4, because Spain stayed a great power and the war ran on to 1604, and certainty 4, as the fleet counts differ; on 45 points it ties no one.

6 Poltava, 1709

Where: Poltava, on the Vorskla River, Ukraine
War: Great Northern War (1700 to 1721)
Sides: Russia (Tsar Peter I) against Sweden (King Charles XII), with Hetman Mazepa’s Cossacks
Strength: About 42,000 Russians with 102 guns vs about 31,000 Swedes in the whole army with 4 guns, 6,000 of them on siege and rearguard duty (Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine); around 19,000 Swedes fought in the battle (Military History Matters)
Result: Russian victory on 8 July 1709; about 15,000 to 16,000 more Swedes and Cossacks surrendered at Perevolochna

In 1700 Charles XII of Sweden had routed Peter the Great at Narva, and Peter rebuilt his army along Western lines. In 1708 Charles marched on Moscow, turned south into Ukraine, where Hetman Ivan Mazepa joined him, and lost men to a harsh winter; in May 1709 he laid siege to Poltava. Peter came to its relief with 42,500 men and 102 guns; Charles had 31,000 in all and only four guns, with 6,000 of them tied down at the siege and the river crossings (Military History Matters puts the Swedes who fought at around 19,000), and, shot in the foot, he left command to Field Marshal Rehnskiöld.¹⁶

The Swedes attacked at dawn on 8 July, were caught in the fire of the Russian redoubts and by 11 a.m. were routed. The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine counts over 9,300 Swedish dead and nearly 2,900 prisoners, HistoryNet 6,901 dead or wounded and 2,760 prisoners, among them Rehnskiöld; both give the Russians 1,345 killed. Charles escaped across the Dnieper to Ottoman territory, and the rest of his army, 15,000 to 16,000 men, surrendered at Perevolochna.¹⁷

It decided who would rule the Baltic. Denmark and Saxony-Poland rejoined, and at Nystad in 1721 Sweden gave Russia Estonia, Livonia, Ingria and Karelia; the war ended Sweden’s role as a great power, and Leibniz warned that Peter would become the new “Turk of the North.”¹⁸

Why it ranks here: Full marks for decisiveness and consequence: Poltava destroyed the Swedish field army and made Russia a European power. Recognition, memory and certainty score 4: the name is less known in the West than Vienna and the Swedish losses differ; on 44 points it ties no one.

Read the full story of the Battle of Poltava ›

7 Tenochtitlan, 1521

Where: Tenochtitlan, island capital of the Mexica (today Mexico City)
War: Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
Besiegers: About 900 Spaniards under Hernán Cortés at the start of the siege and 50,000 to over 100,000 Indigenous allies
Defenders: The Mexica under Cuauhtémoc, in a city of over 200,000 people
Outcome: Fell on 13 August 1521 after 93 days; the Aztec Empire ended

Tenochtitlan, on an island in Lake Texcoco, was the largest city of the Americas, with over 200,000 people. Cortés had been driven out on the Noche Triste of 30 June 1520, and smallpox had since swept the city. In 1521 he came back with about 700 infantry, 118 crossbowmen and arquebusiers, 86 horses, 18 guns and 13 brigantines built for the lake. Most of his army were Tlaxcalans and other enemies of the Mexica: at least 100,000 warriors by one count, 50,000 by another. Myth vs fact: a few hundred Spaniards did not take Tenochtitlan alone; their allies far outnumbered them.¹⁹

On 26 May the attackers cut the aqueduct from Chapultepec, and the brigantines swept the Mexica canoes off the lake, so water and food ran short. In July the defenders drove the Spaniards onto the defensive for nearly three weeks. On 13 August 1521, after 93 days of resistance, Cuauhtémoc was captured trying to escape by canoe, and the city fell. National Geographic puts the dead at about 100 Spaniards and as many as 100,000 Mexica, but every casualty figure for the siege is a guess.²⁰

It decided that Spain would rule Mesoamerica. From the ruins rose the capital of New Spain, with Cortés its governor in 1523, and Mexico City still stands on the site.²¹

Why it ranks here: Full marks for decisiveness and consequence: the fall of the city ended the Aztec Empire. Recognition and memory score 4 and certainty 3, because the casualty figures are guesses; it ties Quebec and Saratoga on 43 points, recognition and consequence, and goes first as the oldest.

Read the full story of the siege of Tenochtitlan ›

Woodcut map of the island city of Tenochtitlan in the middle of a lake — Tenochtitlan on its lake, from the map printed in Nuremberg in 1524 with the Latin edition of Cortés's letters, three years after the siege. Public domain

8 Quebec, 1759

Where: Plains of Abraham, outside the walls of Quebec, New France (today Quebec City, Canada)
War: Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War)
Sides: Britain (Major General James Wolfe) against France, Canadian militia and Indigenous allies (Marquis de Montcalm)
Strength: About 4,500 a side on the Plains
Result: British victory on 13 September 1759; 658 British and 650 French casualties; Quebec surrendered on 18 September

In the Seven Years’ War Britain struck at France’s colonies. In June 1759 it sent James Wolfe up the St. Lawrence with a fleet of 150 vessels and an army of over 8,000 regulars, nearly 900 Americans and 2,100 marines; Quebec had more than 18,000 defenders, most of them militia. For nearly three months Wolfe besieged and bombarded the city in vain.²²

Before dawn on 13 September his boats landed at L’Anse-au-Foulon, where light infantry climbed a 53-meter cliff, and by 8 a.m. 4,500 men stood on the Plains of Abraham. Montcalm attacked at once with about as many, and the British held their fire until the French were 40 meters away. The City of Quebec says the battle lasted only twenty minutes. Wolfe was shot three times and died on the field; Montcalm was wounded in the retreat and died next morning, and on 18 September Quebec surrendered.²³

The French won again at Sainte-Foy in April 1760, but the British fleet returned, Montreal surrendered that September and the Treaty of Paris of 1763 gave Canada to Britain. It decided that North America would be British, and by removing the French threat it gave the thirteen colonies the confidence that led to the Revolution. Benjamin West’s painting of the dying Wolfe, from 1770, is still famous.²⁴

Why it ranks here: Consequence and certainty 5: it decided that Canada would be British. Decisiveness is 4 because the French won again at Sainte-Foy and Montreal held out almost a year; it ties Tenochtitlan and Saratoga on 43 points, recognition and consequence, and goes below Tenochtitlan as the younger and above Saratoga as the older.

9 Saratoga, 1777

Where: Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights, near Saratoga, New York
War: American Revolutionary War
Sides: Continental Army and militia (Horatio Gates) vs British and German troops (John Burgoyne)
Strength: About 15,000 Americans vs about 6,000 British and Germans engaged, from an army of about 7,500
Result: American victory; about 6,300 British and German soldiers surrendered on 17 October 1777

Burgoyne's plan for 1777 was to cut off New England: march south from Canada by Lake Champlain and the Hudson to Albany, meet General Howe coming up from New York, and seal the corridor between New England and the colonies to the south. Howe sailed for Philadelphia instead, and a third column under Barry St. Leger turned back to Canada after failing before Fort Stanwix. Burgoyne, poorly informed, kept coming.²⁵

He crossed the Hudson and found Horatio Gates dug in on Bemis Heights. His attacks at Freeman's Farm on 19 September and at Bemis Heights on 7 October both failed. The American Battlefield Trust counts about 15,000 Americans engaged against 6,000 British and Germans, and estimates about 330 American and 1,135 British killed and wounded. Surrounded and cut off from retreat, Burgoyne surrendered on 17 October: about 6,300 British and German officers and soldiers, with some 600 women and children, laid down their arms. The real result came in Paris. When the news reached the French foreign minister Vergennes in December, he offered the Americans an alliance, signed on 6 February 1778, and French money, troops and ships followed. In 1851 Edward Creasy made the victory over Burgoyne one of his fifteen decisive battles of the world.²⁶

Why it ranks here: Consequence and certainty take full marks: Saratoga brought France into the war. But the war ran on four more years, so decisiveness is 4, as are recognition and memory. Level on 43 points with Tenochtitlan and Quebec, and on recognition and consequence, it goes below them as the youngest.

Read the full story of the battles of Saratoga ›

10 Plassey, 1757

Where: Plassey (Palashi) on the Bhagirathi-Hooghly River, about 160 km north of Calcutta (Kolkata), Bengal
War: East India Company's war with the Nawab of Bengal, during the Seven Years' War
Sides: East India Company (Robert Clive) vs Siraj ud-Daulah, Nawab of Bengal, with French gunners
Strength: Company: about 3,000, with 2,100 sepoys and some 800 Europeans (National Army Museum), or 1,400 sepoys and over 700 Europeans (World History Encyclopedia); Nawab: about 50,000, a round estimate
Result: Company victory; Clive lost 22 killed and 50 wounded

In 1756 Siraj ud-Daulah, Nawab of Bengal, took the East India Company's Fort William at Calcutta. The Company won it back in 1757 and, learning that he was dealing with the French, decided he must go. With the Jagat Seth banking family, Clive secretly offered the throne to one of Siraj's own commanders, Mir Jafar, if Siraj were beaten in battle.²⁷

The armies met on 23 June 1757. The National Army Museum gives Clive about 3,000 men, 2,100 sepoys and about 800 Europeans, against around 50,000; World History Encyclopedia counts 1,400 sepoys and over 700 Europeans, says the 3,000 some historians give includes sailors, and puts the Nawab's army at perhaps around 50,000, of doubtful loyalty. Mir Jafar sent word to Clive that he would not fight for the Nawab, and his cavalry refused to take part. A heavy downpour then soaked the Nawab's uncovered powder while Clive's gunners kept theirs dry under tarpaulins. His horsemen, sent in on the belief that the British guns were silent too, were cut down, and most of his infantry left. Clive reported 22 killed and 50 wounded, and about 500 of the enemy dead. Mir Jafar was made Nawab. A second war made the change permanent: after the Company's victory at Buxar on 22 October 1764 it won the diwani, the right to collect the revenue of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.²⁸

Why it ranks here: Consequence takes full marks: Company rule in India grew from this day. But Mir Jafar's bargain decided as much as the fighting and Buxar had to finish the work, so decisiveness is 4, and the Nawab's 50,000 is a round estimate, so certainty is 4.

Read the full story of the Battle of Plassey ›

11 Lepanto, 1571

Where: Mouth of the Gulf of Lepanto (Naupaktos), western Greece
War: War of Cyprus, Ottoman-Venetian War of 1570 to 1573
Fleets: Holy League of Spain, Venice and the Papacy (Don John of Austria) vs Ottoman fleet (Ali Pasha)
Strength: 206 League galleys and 6 galleasses vs a fleet of similar size; about 280 ships a side by one count
Result: Holy League victory; 117 Ottoman galleys taken, Ali Pasha killed

Sultan Selim II's attack on Venetian Cyprus in 1570 pushed Venice into a Holy League with Spain and Pope Pius V. Its fleet sailed under Don John of Austria, half-brother of Philip II: 206 galleys, 108 of them Venetian, and six galleasses, heavy oared gun-ships sent ahead of the line. One count gives each side about 280 ships.²⁹

On 7 October 1571 the fleets met off the Gulf of Lepanto. Outnumbered on the wings, the Christians won in the center, where Ali Pasha's flagship was boarded and the Ottoman commander was killed. The League shared out 117 captured galleys and freed 12,000 Christian galley slaves; Royal Museums Greenwich puts the dead at about 25,000 Turks and 8,000 Christians. Among the wounded was Miguel de Cervantes, who lost the use of a hand. Myth vs fact: Lepanto did not break Ottoman sea power. The Ottomans rebuilt almost their whole fleet within a year and used it to retake Tunis from Spain in 1574, while Venice made peace in 1573 and gave up Cyprus. What lasted was memory. Pius V founded a feast of Our Lady of Victory to give thanks for the battle; Gregory XIII renamed it the feast of the Holy Rosary, and since 1913 it has been kept on 7 October.³⁰

Why it ranks here: Recognition and memory take full marks: the last great galley battle is known everywhere, and a feast recalls it. Decisiveness and consequence score only 3, because Venice lost Cyprus anyway and the sultan soon had a new fleet; level with Blenheim on 41 points, it goes ahead on recognition.

Read the full story of the Battle of Lepanto ›

Painted map of the battle of Lepanto with rows of galleys facing each other — The Battle of Lepanto in the Gallery of Maps in the Vatican, painted in the 1580s to designs by Ignazio Danti: the two fleets drawn up in their battle lines at the mouth of the Gulf of Patras. Public domain

12 Blenheim, 1704

Where: Blindheim (Blenheim) on the Danube, Bavaria, Germany
War: War of the Spanish Succession
Sides: English, Dutch and Imperial army (Marlborough and Prince Eugene) vs French and Bavarians (Tallard, Marsin and the Elector of Bavaria)
Strength: 52,000 to 56,000 Allies vs 56,000 to at least 60,000 French and Bavarians (sources differ)
Result: Allied victory; about 14,000 French and Bavarians captured, Marshal Tallard among them

In 1704 France and its ally Bavaria threatened Vienna, and Louis XIV reckoned that a blow there would break the Grand Alliance against him. The Duke of Marlborough left the Low Countries and marched his whole army to the Danube, to the shock of Dutch and English diplomats, and joined Prince Eugene of Savoy. On 13 August they attacked the French and Bavarians around the village of Blenheim. The National Army Museum gives 56,000 Allies against at least 60,000; another account gives about 52,000 against 56,000.³¹

Marlborough's assaults on Blenheim village drew Tallard's infantry and cavalry out of the center, while Eugene, beaten back three times, pinned Marsin and the Elector on the other wing. Then Marlborough broke the weakened center. Tallard's men fled toward the Danube, where over 3,000 drowned; the troops penned in Blenheim village surrendered, and Tallard himself was taken. The museum counts at least 20,000 French and Bavarian casualties and 14,000 prisoners, for 12,000 Allied killed and wounded. Vienna was saved, the Treaty of Ilbersheim took Bavaria out of the war, and from then on France fought on the defensive. Queen Anne gave Marlborough the royal manor of Woodstock, where Blenheim Palace was built for him; it is now a World Heritage Site. Edward Creasy counted Blenheim among his fifteen decisive battles of the world.³²

Why it ranks here: Certainty takes full marks, since the sources agree on the shape of the battle and the prisoner count. But the War of the Spanish Succession went on for years afterward, so decisiveness and consequence are 4, as are recognition and memory; level with Lepanto on 41 points, it goes below it on recognition.

13 Panipat, 1526

Where: Panipat, north of Delhi, India
War: Babur's fifth expedition into Hindustan
Sides: Babur, ruler of Kabul, vs Sultan Ibrahim Lodi of Delhi
Strength: 12,000 when Babur crossed the Indus vs 100,000 men and about 1,000 elephants by report (Babur's figures); some sources give Ibrahim as few as 40,000
Result: Babur's victory; Ibrahim Lodi killed

Late in 1525 Babur, ruler of Kabul, set out on his fifth expedition into Hindustan. By his memoir, everyone with the army when it crossed the Indus, good and bad, was written down as 12,000, while Sultan Ibrahim Lodi of Delhi was said to have an army of 100,000 and about 1,000 elephants. Other sources give Ibrahim as few as 40,000.³³

At Panipat Babur lashed 700 carts together in the Ottoman fashion, set matchlock men behind mantlets between them and left gaps for horsemen. For a week Ibrahim would not attack. On the morning of 21 April 1526 he did, and Babur's flanking parties swung into his rear while the wings pressed his sides, until his army was packed so tight that it could neither attack nor retreat. "In one half-day, that armed mass was laid upon the earth," Babur wrote. His men reckoned the enemy dead at 15,000 to 16,000, though people in Agra later spoke of 40,000 or 50,000. Ibrahim died in the fighting, and Babur entered Delhi three days later. Myth vs fact: the victory is usually credited to Babur's guns, but his own account suggests his archers did most of the killing, and only two small cannon are clearly mentioned. It began Mughal rule in India.³⁴

Why it ranks here: Decisiveness and consequence take full marks: it killed the Sultan of Delhi and began Mughal rule. Recognition is 3, as it is famous mainly in South Asia, and certainty 3, as the numbers rest largely on Babur's memoir; level with Culloden on 40 points and on recognition, it goes ahead on consequence.

Read the full story of the First Battle of Panipat ›

14 Culloden, 1746

Where: Culloden Moor, five to six miles east of Inverness, Scotland
War: Jacobite Rising of 1745 (the “Forty-Five”)
Sides: Government army (Duke of Cumberland) vs Jacobite army (Prince Charles Edward Stuart)
Strength: About 7,800 (our sum of Historic Environment Scotland’s 7,000 foot and 800 horse) to 9,000 government troops vs about 5,000 Jacobites
Result: Government victory; 1,000 to 1,500 Jacobites killed, 50 government dead

In 1745 Charles Edward Stuart, grandson of the exiled James VII and II, landed in Scotland, took Edinburgh and marched to Derby before turning back. By April 1746 his army was dispirited, short of food and losing men to desertion, and some 2,000 of them were away on other operations. A failed night march on Cumberland's camp at Nairn left it exhausted on the morning of the battle.³⁵

The open ground suited Cumberland's artillery, and the Highlanders stood under its fire for twenty minutes to nearly half an hour before they charged. On the right Clan Chattan smashed into Barrell's and Munro's regiments and was thrown back hand to hand; on the left the MacDonalds never reached the line. Dragoons rode around both flanks and turned defeat into rout. The fighting lasted less than an hour by the National Army Museum's reckoning, and forty minutes by another account. The official return gave 50 government dead and 259 wounded; Jacobite dead are put at 1,000 to 1,500. It was the last battle of the Jacobite risings and the last pitched battle on the British mainland, and the government went on to ban Highland dress and break the clan system. Today the clan graves draw tens of thousands of visitors a year, many from the Scottish diaspora.³⁶

Why it ranks here: Decisiveness and memory take full marks: it ended the Stuart cause for good, and its graves are a place of pilgrimage. Consequence is 3, as its effects stayed inside Britain, and recognition 3; level with Panipat on 40 points and on recognition, it goes below it on consequence.

Read the full story of the Battle of Culloden ›

Printed map of Culloden Moor and Inverness above a diagram of the two armies' battle lines — Map of Culloden Moor east of Inverness, with the order of battle of the royal army and the Highland army below, from James Taylor's Pictorial History of Scotland, 1880s. British Library. Public domain

15 Naseby, 1645

Where: Just north of Naseby, Northamptonshire, England
War: First English Civil War
Sides: Parliament's New Model Army (Sir Thomas Fairfax, with Oliver Cromwell) vs King Charles I's army (Prince Rupert leading the horse)
Strength: 12,000 to 17,000 Parliamentarians vs 10,000 to 11,000 Royalists (sources differ)
Result: Parliamentarian victory; about 5,000 Royalists taken prisoner

By 1645 Charles I and Parliament had been at war for three years. Parliament's new army, the New Model, promoted officers for ability rather than birth. The King, fresh from storming Leicester on 31 May, chose to fight it, although his nephew Prince Rupert advised against accepting battle. The armies met on 14 June just north of Naseby. The National Army Museum gives the King about 10,000 men against Fairfax's 12,000; another account gives 11,000 against 17,000.³⁷

Rupert's cavalry charged through Parliament's left wing and rode on to the baggage train in the rear, out of the fight. In the center the Royalist foot at first gained ground, but on the other wing Cromwell routed the horse in front of him and turned his troopers onto the King's infantry. The King's army was destroyed. Estimates of the Royalist dead run from about 600 to about 1,000, but some 5,000 men were taken prisoner, about 500 of them officers, with the guns and the baggage. Among the spoils was the King's cabinet of papers. Its letters showed the King and Queen seeking help from Catholic powers and foreign troops. Within a year Charles was on the run and gave himself up; after a second war he was tried by Parliament for treason and executed in 1649.³⁸

Why it ranks here: Decisiveness and certainty take full marks, because Naseby won the First Civil War for Parliament and is well recorded, and the road it opened to the King's trial gives consequence 4. Known mainly in Britain, it scores 3 for recognition and memory; it is alone on 38 points, one above the four close calls tied on 37.

Read the full story of Naseby ›

How we chose and ranked these early modern battles

We counted a battle as early modern when it was fought between 1500 and 1789, anywhere in the world: from the first years of the Spanish conquest of the Americas to the eve of the French Revolution. The battles before 1500 are in our guide to the greatest medieval battles, and the wars of 1792 to 1815 have their own greatest Napoleonic battles. A siege counts here only when it decided a war or the fate of a state, as at Tenochtitlan and Yorktown; long sieges compared by their length and endurance, such as Malta in 1565 or Candia, are in the greatest sieges in history, and the sultans' wars are ranked in more depth in the greatest battles of the Ottoman Empire.³⁹

We considered 25 candidates and scored each one from 1 to 5 on five criteria. Recognition counts three times, because this page answers the question of which early modern battles are the greatest; decisiveness, consequence and memory count twice, and certainty once:

Recognition (×3). 5 if the name is known far beyond military history and appears on most published lists of decisive battles, 1 if only specialists know it.
Decisiveness (×2). 5 if it decided a war or the fate of a state, 3 if it decided a campaign, 1 if it settled nothing beyond the day itself.
Consequence (×2). 5 if it changed the map or the course of history for generations, 1 if it changed nothing beyond the war.
Memory (×2). 5 if it is still a living tradition (a national day, a monument, a proverb, a march, a famous work of art), 1 if it is forgotten.
Certainty (×1). 5 if the numbers and events are confirmed by independent sources, 1 if they rest on one source or are disputed.

The list is ranked by total score, not by date. Ties go to the better-known battle, then to the one with the greater consequence, then to the older one. The scores are our editorial judgment, made on the evidence in the sources below, and the table shows every one of them, so you can see exactly why Vienna is first and why Lepanto, as famous as any battle here, sits only eleventh: Venice still gave up Cyprus two years later and the sultan had a new fleet within a year.

The scores behind the ranking
Rank	Name	Recognition ×3	Decisiveness ×2	Consequence ×2	Memory ×2	Certainty ×1	Total
1	Vienna	5	4	5	5	5	48
2	Yorktown	5	5	5	4	5	48
3	Mohács	4	5	5	5	4	46
4	Sekigahara	4	5	5	5	4	46
5	The Spanish Armada	5	4	4	5	4	45
6	Poltava	4	5	5	4	4	44
7	Tenochtitlan	4	5	5	4	3	43
8	Quebec	4	4	5	4	5	43
9	Saratoga	4	4	5	4	5	43
10	Plassey	4	4	5	4	4	42
11	Lepanto	5	3	3	5	4	41
12	Blenheim	4	4	4	4	5	41
13	Panipat	3	5	5	4	3	40
14	Culloden	3	5	3	5	5	40
15	Naseby	3	5	4	3	5	38

Close calls

Five battles came close and did not make the fifteen:

Hansan Island, 1592. Yi Sun-sin lured Wakisaka Yasuharu's 73 ships out of a narrow strait and closed around them in the crane-wing formation; Korean records count 47 burned or wrecked and 12 captured. The victory won Korea its southern sea and is still reenacted at the Tongyeong Hansan Battle Festival, but the war on land went on for years, so decisiveness is 4 here and it misses by one point.⁴⁰

White Mountain, 1620. In about two hours on a hill west of Prague, the imperial and Catholic League army crushed the Bohemian estates on 8 November 1620 and ended their revolt; twenty-seven of its leaders were executed. Ferdinand II then gave Protestants the choice of conversion or exile, but the battle opened rather than decided the Thirty Years' War, so consequence 4, and it misses by one point.⁴¹ › Battle of White Mountain, 1620

The Boyne, 1690. William III beat James II on 1 July 1690 (Old Style), and Orange parades still mark it every 12 July. But James's army withdrew intact and the Irish war was settled at Aughrim a year later, so decisiveness is 3. It misses Naseby by one point and ties on 37: below Hansan Island and the White Mountain as the younger, above Alcácer Quibir on recognition.⁴² › Battle of Beachy Head, 1690

Alcácer Quibir, 1578. At the Battle of the Three Kings on 4 August 1578 King Sebastian of Portugal was killed, leaving no heir, and Philip II of Spain took Portugal in 1580. Belief in a hidden king who would return lasted into the nineteenth century, but the battle is little known outside Portugal and Morocco and its numbers are uncertain, so it misses by one point.⁴³

Cajamarca, 1532. In November 1532 Francisco Pizarro's roughly 168 Spaniards fell on the Inca emperor Atahualpa's escort in the town square and took him prisoner, opening the conquest of the Inca Empire. But it was a capture rather than a battle that decided a war, and the Inca numbers are only estimates, so it scores 36, level with Third Panipat and ahead of it on consequence.⁴⁴

Why is Rocroi no longer on the list?

Rocroi was on the earlier, shorter version of this page, but on our scores it reaches only 31 points, well short of the fifteen: the Duke of Enghien's victory over the Spanish Army of Flanders on 19 May 1643 is better known as a symbol, the end of the tercio's long run of victories, than as a battle that decided a war.⁴⁵

The Army of Flanders lost about 10,000 dead, wounded and prisoners against some 4,000 French, by the count of the historian Àlex Claramunt Soto, while Albert Nofi of StrategyPage gives 8,000 Spanish dead and 7,000 wounded. Claramunt Soto also notes that the French were beaten at Tuttlingen that November and that the truce with the Dutch in 1647 and the Peace of Westphalia a year later let Philip IV rebuild his position in Flanders; France and Spain fought on until the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 7 November 1659. So Rocroi scores 3 for decisiveness and consequence, and its fame alone does not lift it past Naseby on 38 points or the five close calls. The whole story is in our article on the Battle of Rocroi.⁴⁶

War in the age of gunpowder

The early modern age is the story of gunpowder changing everything. Massed pikes gave way to muskets and cannon, ships became floating gun platforms, and disciplined, drilled armies replaced feudal levies. Battles like Lepanto, Sekigahara and Rocroi mark the passing of one age of war and the birth of another. In Ireland, the English victory at Kinsale in 1601 had lasting consequences for something older still, the old Gaelic order of Ireland.⁴⁷