Long Turkish War

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with the later Great Turkish War.
Long War
Fifteen Years' War of Hungary
Part of the
Ottoman-Habsburg wars

Allegory of the Turkish war – The declaration of war before Constantinople
Date29 July 1593 – 11 November 1606
(13 years, 3 months, 1 week and 6 days)
Location
Hungary, Wallachia, Balkan Peninsula
Result

Inconclusive

Belligerents

 Holy Roman Empire

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth[2]

Ottoman Empire

•
Khanate of Crimea
Commanders and leaders
István Bocskai
Starina Novak
 Murad III
Mehmed III
Ahmed I
Koca Sinan Pasha
Cığalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha
Lala Mehmed Pasha
Tiryaki Hasan Pasha
Damat Ibrahim Pasha
Telli Hasan Pasha †
Strength
More than 100,000 men[3][4][5] 160,000–180,000[6][7]
Casualties and losses
Unknown, heavy Unknown, heavy

The Long Turkish War (

Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire, primarily over the principalities of Wallachia, Transylvania, and Moldavia.[8] It was waged from 1593 to 1606, but in Europe, it is sometimes called the Fifteen Years War (Hungarian: Tizenöt éves háború), reckoning from the 1591–1592 Turkish campaign that captured Bihać. In Turkey, it is called the Ottoman–Austrian War of 1593–1606 (Turkish: 1593-1606 Osmanlı-Avusturya Savaşı).[9]

In the series of Ottoman wars in Europe, it was the major test of force in the time period between the Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) and the Cretan War (1645–1669). The next of the major Ottoman–Habsburg wars was the Austro-Turkish War (1663–1664). Overall, the conflict consisted in a large number of costly battles and sieges, but with little gain on either side.

Overview

The major participants of the war were the Habsburg Monarchy, the

Papal State were also involved to a lesser extent.[10]

War funding

The Turkenkriege rallied larger than usual support behind the Holy Roman Emperor. The Reichstag convened in 1594 and voted a substantial tax grant, renewing this four years later and again in 1603. Some 20 million florins were promised and at least four-fifths actually reached the imperial treasury. A further 7 to 8 million florins were paid when Rudolf appealed to the Circle assemblies as well, giving a total of 23 to 28 million florins yielded by the minor German princes. The Habsburg monarchy itself raised around 20 million florins. Another 7.1 million flowed in from Italy, including both Imperial Italy and Papal and Spanish territories outside of the Emperor's formal rule, as well as from Spain itself.[11]

Prelude

Skirmishes along the Habsburg–Ottoman border intensified from 1591. In 1592, the fort of Bihać fell to the Ottomans following the siege of Bihać.

History

1593

In the spring of 1593, Ottoman forces from the Eyalet of Bosnia laid siege to the city of Sisak in Croatia, starting the Battle of Sisak that eventually ended in a victory for the Christian forces on June 22, 1593. That victory marked the end of the Hundred Years' Croatian–Ottoman War (1493–1593).

The Long Turkish War started on July 29, 1593, when the Ottoman army under

Sinan Pasha launched a campaign against the Habsburg Monarchy and captured Győr (Turkish: Yanıkkale) and Komárom (Turkish
: Komaron) in 1594.

1594

In early 1594, the

Mileševa monastery and transferred to Belgrade via military convoy.[13] Along the way, the Ottoman convoy killed all the people in its path as a warning to the rebels.[13] The Ottomans publicly incinerated the relics of Saint Sava on a pyre atop the Vračar plateau on April 27 and had the ashes scattered.[13]

1595–96

In 1595, an alliance of

Aron Vodă of Moldavia and Michael the Brave of Wallachia joined the alliance later that year. The Spanish Habsburgs sent an army of 6,000 experienced infantry and 2,000 cavalry from the Netherlands under Karl von Mansfeld, commander-in-chief of the Spanish Army of Flanders, who took command of the operations in Hungary.[15]

The Ottomans' objective in the war was to seize Vienna, [citation needed] while the Habsburg Monarchy wanted to recapture the central territories of the Kingdom of Hungary controlled by the Ottoman Empire. Control of the Danube line and possession of the fortresses located there was crucial. The war was mainly fought in Royal Hungary (mostly present-day western Hungary and southern Slovakia), Transdanubia, Royal Croatia and Slavonia, the Ottoman Empire (Rumelia – present-day Bulgaria and Serbia), and Wallachia (in present-day southern Romania).

Habsburg troops take the Hatvan castle in 1596

In 1595, the Christians, led by Mansfeld, captured

Eger (Turkish
: Eğri), conquering it in 1596.

In 1595 in the Balkans, a Spanish fleet of galleys from the

privateers such as Alonso de Contreras took on the role of harassing Ottoman ships.[16][18]

On the eastern front of the war, Michael the Brave, prince of Wallachia, started a campaign against the Ottomans in the autumn of 1594, conquering several castles near the Lower

Iaşi and other parts of Moldova.[19] Michael continued his attacks deep within the Ottoman Empire, taking the forts of Nicopolis, Ribnice, and Chilia,[20] and even reaching as far as Adrianople.[21] At one point his forces were only 24 kilometres (15 mi) from the Ottoman capital, Constantinople
.

The execution of mutinous Walloon mercenaries in 1600

He was however forced to fall back across the Danube, and the Ottomans in turn led a massive counter-offensive (100,000 strong) which aimed to not only take back their recently captured possessions but also conquer Wallachia once and for all. The push was initially successful, managing to capture not only Giurgiu but also Bucharest and Târgoviște, despite fierce opposition at Călugăreni (23 August 1595). At this point the Ottoman command grew complacent and stopped pursuing the retreating Wallachian army, focusing instead on fortifying Târgoviște and Bucharest and considering their task all but done. Michael had to wait almost two months for aid from his allies to arrive, but when it did his counter-offensive took the Ottomans by surprise, managing to sweep through the Ottoman defences on three successive battlefields, at Târgoviște (18 October), Bucharest (22 October), and Giurgiu (26 October). The Battle of Giurgiu in particular was devastating for the Ottoman forces, which had to retreat across the Danube in disarray.[22]

The war between Wallachia and the Ottomans continued until late 1599, when Michael was unable to continue the war due to poor support from his allies.

The turning point of the war was the

Komarom
in 1598.

In 1599, the Turks and their Tatar allies attacked Prievidza, Topoľčany and other towns in the Nitra river valley in Upper Hungary, in what is now Slovakia, and took thousands of people into slavery.

1601–06

The siege of Buda in 1602

In August 1601, at the

Radu Şerban. Hence, the Austrian Habsburgs seemed to be able to win a decisive victory.[clarification needed
]

In September 1601, armies of the Holy Roman Empire laid siege to Nagykanizsa. Despite the numerical superiority, coalition armies had to abandon the siege 2 months later, due to heavy losses.

The last phase of the war (from 1604 to 1606) corresponds to the uprising of the Prince of Transylvania

Stephen Bocskay. When Rudolf – mostly based on false charges[citation needed] – started prosecutions against a number of noble men in order to fill up the court's exhausted treasury, Bocskay, an educated strategist, resisted. He collected desperate Hungarians together with disappointed members of the nobility to start an uprising against the Habsburgs ruler. The troops marched westwards, supported by the Hajduk of Hungary, won some victories and regained the territories that had been lost to the Habsburg army until Bocskay was first declared the Prince of Transylvania (Marosvásárhely, February 21, 1605) and later also of Hungary (Szerencs, April 17, 1605[clarification needed]). The Ottoman Empire supported Bocskay with a crown that he refused (being Christian). As Prince of Hungary he accepted negotiations with Rudolf II and concluded the Treaty of Vienna (1606)
.

Aftermath

The peace negotiations in Zsitvatorok in 1606

The Long War ended with the Peace of Zsitvatorok on November 11, 1606, with meagre territorial gains for the two main empires – the Ottomans won the fortresses of Eger, Esztergom, and Kanisza, but gave the region of Vác (which they had occupied since 1541) to Austria. The treaty confirmed the Ottomans' inability to penetrate further into Habsburg territories. It also demonstrated that Transylvania was beyond Habsburg power. Although Emperor Rudolf had failed in his war objectives, he nonetheless won some prestige thanks to this resistance to the Ottomans, by presenting the war as a victory. The treaty stabilized conditions on the Habsburg–Ottoman frontier. Also, Bocskay managed to retain his independence, but he also agreed to give up the title of "King of Hungary".

Rudolf portrayed himself as victorious in the Long War, but this did not protect him from the Habsburg family's internal politics. Rudolf, by the end of the war, had massive debts to lenders, border troops and the field army, made concessions with the Hungarian nobility, and disappointed the princes of the Holy Roman Empire who had subsidized the Habsburg-Ottoman frontier. Once peace was concluded with the Ottomans, the Habsburgs turned on one another. This struggle forced the family to confront the unresolved matter of Rudolf's successor and culminated in the childless Emperor Rudolf being pitted against his brother Matthias in the Brothers' Quarrel.[24]

Battles

Siege of Buda
Siege of Esztergom in 1595
Recapture of Pápa in 1597

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 963-548-961-7
    .
  2. ISBN 963-326-337-9
  3. ^ A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East, Spencer C. Tucker, 2009, p. 547
  4. ISBN 963-645-080-3
  5. ^ The Encyclopaedia of Islam Vol. 6 Mahk-Mid p. 1030
  6. ISBN 963-326-337-9
  7. ISBN 963-05-0929-6
  8. ISBN 978-0313337345
    . Retrieved 2012-03-23.
  9. ^ "Türkçe Bilgi: 1593–1606 Osmanlı-Avusturya Savaşı". Türkçe Bilgi.
  10. ^ "Great Turkish War (1683–1699)". Military History Books. Helion. Retrieved 2023-03-19.
  11. ^ Wilson, Peter H. (2009). "Europe's Tragedy: A History of the Thirty Years War." Allen Lane. p. 98.
  12. ^ Rajko L. Veselinović (1966). (1219–1766). Udžbenik za IV razred srpskih pravoslavnih bogoslovija. (Yu 68–1914). Sv. Arh. Sinod Srpske pravoslavne crkve. pp. 70–71.
  13. ^
    ISBN 978-0-88141-065-5
    .
  14. ^ Editions speciales. Naučno delo. 1971 – via Google books.
  15. ISBN 978-889651991-2
    , p. 67
  16. ^
    ISBN 0-52020330-5
    , p. 1229
  17. ^ Hutton, William Holden (1900): Constantinople: the story of the old capital of the empire. London: J.M. Dent & Co, p. 172.
  18. ^ a b Teneti, Alberto (1967). Piracy and the Decline of Venice, 1580–1615. Berkeley: University of California Press, p. 47
  19. ^ Constantin C. Giurescu, Istoria Românilor. Bucharest: Editura All, 2007 (Romanian), p. 183.
  20. ^ Coln, Emporungen so sich in Konigereich Ungarn, auch in Siebenburgen Moldau, in der der bergischen Walachay und anderen Oerten zugetragen haben, 1596
  21. ^ Marco Venier, correspondence with the Doge of Venice, 16 July 1595
  22. ISBN 973-8240-67-0
    . Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, 2002 (Romanian), pp. 128–129.
  23. ^ "Michael | prince of Walachia". Britannica. 27 March 2024.
  24. ^ Peter Wilson, The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy
  25. ^ "Győr ostroma. | Borovszky Samu: Magyarország vármegyéi és városai | Kézikönyvtár". Arcanum (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2018-09-26.

Sources

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