Moldavian campaign (1497–1499)

Moldavian campaign (1497–1499)
Part of the Polish–Ottoman War (1485–1503)
Date1497–1499
Location
Moldavia and Poland
Result Moldavian-led victory[1][2][3]
Territorial
changes		 Moldavia annexes Pokuttia
Belligerents
Kingdom of Poland
Duchy of Masovia
Teutonic Order		 Moldavia
Ottoman Empire
Crimean Khanate
Wallachia
Kingdom of Hungary
Commanders and leaders
John I Albert
Stanisław Chodecki
Jan Teczynski (POW)
Konrad III Rudy
Johann von Tiefen		 Stephen III
Sima Boldur
Bayezid II
Strength
1497 Campaign:
80,000–100,000[4][5][6]
1498 Campaign:
Unknown		 1497 Campaign:
44,000 (Cosmin Forest)[7]
1498 Campaign:
40,000[8]
Casualties and losses
1497 Campaign:
11,000–40,000[9]
Nearly all Knights[9]
1498 Campaign:
Many killed
100,000 enslaved[10][11]		 Unknown

The Moldavian campaign of 1497–1499[12][13][14] 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 80,000–100,000 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.[4][6][15]

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.[4]

Campaign

Albert was able to raise an army of 80,000–100,000 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.[5][4][2][6] 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.[16][2][1] On 29 October, Konrad III Rudy sent out a detachment of 600 Masovian Knights to relief Albert's forces, but this detachment was destroyed by Stephen's entrusted commander (Sima Boldur) at the Battle of Lențești.[3][9][17] On 30 October, Polish forces were lured into another deadly Moldavian ambush, with remnants retreating from Moldavia.[3] From June to July 1498, Moldavian army devastated the south-eastern Polish lands and enslaved up to 100,000 Poles with Ottoman support.[3][10][11] 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][18][19]

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] Polish army suffered 11,000–40,000 casualties in 1497, alongside near complete annihilation of the Masovian and Teutonic Knights.[9]

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.[20][21]

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 Giurescu 1974, p. 103.
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ a b c Giurescu 1974, p. 102.
  7. ^ Vladimir Shirogorov, p. 322-323
  8. ^ Fischer 1907, p. 46.
  9. ^ a b c d George Marcu (2011). Bătălia de la Lenţeşti (29 octombrie 1497) [Battle of Lenţeşti (October 29, 1497)] (in Romanian). Enciclopedia Romaniei. Retrieved 10 March 2026. Aici, Ioan Albert a suferit o mare umilinţă, oastea sa a fost decimată, iar pe lângă distrugerea aproape în totalitate a Cavalerilor Teutoni şi a celor mazovieni, izvoarele sugerează pierderi importante (de la 11.000 la 40.000), inclusiv din rândul nobililor poloni. [Here, John Albert suffered great humiliation, his army was decimated, and in addition to the almost complete destruction of the Teutonic Knights and the Masovian Knights, sources suggest significant losses (from 11,000 to 40,000), including among the Polish nobles.]
  10. ^ a b Fischer 1907, p. 47, "Moldovenii în unire cu Turcii luară aproape 100,000 prisonieri din Polonia. [The Moldavians, in alliance with the Turks, took nearly 100,000 prisoners from Poland.]".
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire. Selcuk Aksin Somel. Scarecrow Press.
  13. ^ Our Kingdom Come: The Counter-Reformation, the Republic of Dubrovnik, and the Liberation of the Balkan Slavs. Zdenko Zlatar.
  14. ^ Daily Life in the Ottoman Empire. By Mehrdad Kia.
  15. ^ Europe in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Denys Hay. Routledge.
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ Eagles, Jonathan (2013). Stephen the Great and Balkan Nationalism: Moldova and Eastern European History. I.B. Tauris. p. 58. ISBN 1780763530.
  18. ^ Medieval Polish Armies 966–1500. David Nicolle, Witold Sarnecki. Bloomsbury Publishing.
  19. ^ The Turks: Ottomans (2 v.).Hasan Celâl Güzel, Cem Oğuz, Osman Karatay. Yeni Türkiye.
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ 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. doi:10.1057/9780230523357_9. ISBN 0230523358.

Bibliography

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