Caina Amalas, coffee, and Vienna

Writers get ideas from many different places. In my case, I get a big part of my story ideas from history. Today is September 12th, which seems a good day to tell where I got the idea of Caina Amalas opening a coffee house in GHOST IN THE ASHES.

The idea came from the Battle of Vienna in 1683, when the armies of the Ottoman Empire besieged Vienna. Turning the siege, a Polish-Lithuanian adventurer* named Jerzy Kulczycki volunteered to seek aid. He slipped out of the city, disguised himself as a Turkish soldier (avoiding capture by singing Ottoman songs as he marched), and made his way to Duke Charles of Lorraine, who promised to come with help. Kulczycki returned to Vienna with the message that help was coming, and the city leadership decided to hold out rather than surrender to the Ottoman army.

On September 12th (331 years ago today), the relief army attacked under King Jan III Sobieski of Poland, Duke Charles, and several other noblemen of Poland-Lithuania and the Holy Roman Empire. During the resultant battle, which featured the largest cavalry charge in recorded history, the Ottoman Turks were defeated and Vienna saved. The people of Vienna rewarded Kulczycki with money and a house, and King Jan gave him many sacks of coffee beans captured from the Ottoman camp. Using the coffee beans and the money, Kulczycki opened Vienna’s first coffee house, and while coffee had been known in Western Europe since the late 1500s or so, his coffee house helped popularize coffee. In Vienna in particular, coffee houses became centers of intellectual and social activity.

Which explains why Caina, as a spy, would be most interested in owning one. 🙂

-JM

*Given that at various times Kulczycki was a captive, a soldier, a nobleman, and a merchant, “adventurer” seems like the best description of his career.