Moldavian campaign (1497–1499)

Moldavian campaign
Part of Polish–Ottoman War (1485–1503)
Date1497–1499
Location
Moldavia, Ottoman Empire, and Poland
Result Ottoman-Moldavian victory[1][2]
Territorial
changes		 Ottoman vassal Moldavia gets Pokuttia
Belligerents
Kingdom of Poland  Ottoman Empire
 Moldavia
Commanders and leaders
John I Albert Bayezid II
Stephen the Great
Strength
80,000 men[3][4] Unknown
Casualties and losses
Heavy
est. 100,000 enslaved[5]		 Unknown

The Moldavian campaign or the Polish–Ottoman War of 1497–1499[6][7][8] was an unsuccessful war led by John Albert of Poland against the Moldavians, supported by their Ottoman suzerains. John Albert set out with an army of 80,000 men with the objectives of deposing Stephen the Great of Moldavia and replacing him with Sigismund Jagiellon, reconquering the fortresses on the northern Black Sea coast and taking control of Crimea and the Danube Delta.[3][9]

Background

John I Albert was elected due to his advocacy for an offensive policy against the Ottomans, and he made an alliance with Venice and Hungary for a joint effort against them.[2] Stephen the Great of Moldavia refused to join the alliance fearing that Moldavia would be the main scene of any Polish–Ottoman war.[2] Albert's efforts to displace him led to a quarrel with Ladislas of Hungary who considered Stephen as his vassal. This broke up their recent alliance and as a result, Albert planned on achieving his objectives without any foreign help.[2] After some years of preparation, Albert sent an envoy to Istanbul asking for peace but Bayazid II rejected this and both sides were ready for war by 1497.[3]

Battle

Albert was able to raise an army of 80,000 men and 200 cannons, in the summer of 1497 he set out planning to reconquer the fortresses on the northern Black Sea coast and take control of Crimea and the Danube Delta, while Stephen the Great of Moldavia was able to secure Ottoman support.[4][3][2] The Polish offensive began in the month of June in 1497, but the Moldavians, supported by the Ottomans, crossed into Bukovina and decisively defeated the Poles at Valea Cosminului (Battle of the Cosmin Forest) and then proceeded to raid into Polish territory as far as Lwów.[10][2][1] Albert's campaign was disastrous and his objectives had failed, so he made peace with the Moldavians and Ottomans in 1499 and recognised Ottoman control of the Black Sea.[2][11][12]

Consequences

As a result of this campaign, the Crimean Tatars were now left with a major empire including the entire steppe north of the Crimea from the Dniester to the Volga under the suzerainty of the Ottoman sultan.[2]

After the battle of the Cosmin Forest, John I Albert hastily returned to Poland (suffering another major defeat on the way where 5,000 Polish soldiers were killed in Bukovina) and built the Kraków Barbican, fearing an attack by the Ottoman Empire after his successive defeats. The walls of Kraków were strengthened and additional fortifications were built to defend the city in case of a Turkish invasion.[5][13]

References

  1. ^ a b The Crimean Tatars: The Diaspora Experience and the Forging of a Nation. Brian Glyn Williams. BRILL.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey: Volume 1, Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire 1280-1808. Stanford J. Shaw, Ezel Kural Shaw. Cambridge University Press
  3. ^ a b c d The Crusade against Ottomans and the Political Backdrop in East-Central Europe at the End of the Fifteenth Century In: The Ottoman Threat and Crusading on the Eastern Border of Christendom during the 15th Century Authors: Liviu Pilat and Ovidiu Cristea Type: Chapter Pages: 242–285 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004353800_008
  4. ^ a b Page 42: Shirogorov V. V. Ukrainian War. The Armed Conflict for the Eastern Europe in XVI – XVII cеnturies. Volume I. The Melee of Rus’. (Up to the middle of XVI century) Vladimir Shirogorov. – Moscow: Molodaya Gvardiya, 2017. – 919 [9] p.
  5. ^ a b Smołucha, Janusz [in Polish] (2022). "Poland as the Bastion of Christianity and the Issue of a Union with the Orthodox Church". Perspektywy Kultury. 36 (1). Krakow: Jesuit University of Philosophy and Education Ignatianum: 41. doi:10.35765/pk.2022.3601.04.
  6. ^ Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire. Selcuk Aksin Somel. Scarecrow Press.
  7. ^ Our Kingdom Come: The Counter-Reformation, the Republic of Dubrovnik, and the Liberation of the Balkan Slavs. Zdenko Zlatar.
  8. ^ Daily Life in the Ottoman Empire. By Mehrdad Kia.
  9. ^ Europe in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Denys Hay. Routledge.
  10. ^ The Battle of Cosmin Forest, Tadeusz Grabarczyk, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology, Vol. 1, ed. Clifford J. Rogers, (Oxford University Press, 2010), 434.
  11. ^ Medieval Polish Armies 966–1500. David Nicolle, Witold Sarnecki. Bloomsbury Publishing.
  12. ^ The Turks: Ottomans (2 v.).Hasan Celâl Güzel, Cem Oğuz, Osman Karatay. Yeni Türkiye.
  13. ^ Nowakowska, Natalia (14 November 2004). "Poland and the Crusade in the Reign of King Jan Olbracht, 1492–1501". In Norman Housley (ed.). Crusading in the Fifteenth Century. Springer Publishing. pp. 128–147. ISBN 0230523358.