The Long War

The Long Turkish War or the Thirteen-Year War was a non-decisive land war between the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Empire, with the main cause being the conflict over the emirates of Wallachia, Transylvania, and Moldavia. The war lasted from 1593 to 1606, but in Europe it is sometimes referred to as the Fifteen-Year War, counting the Turkish campaign of 1591-1592 that extended its control over Bihać. It ended with the signing of the Treaty of Zitvatorok.

In a series of Ottoman wars in Europe, this war was the main test of strength between the Ottoman-Venetian War (1570–1773) and the Cretan War (1645-1669). The war that followed the Great Turkish-Habsburg Wars was the Great Turkish War in the period from 1683 to 1699. In general, the conflict involved a large number of costly battles and sieges, but without achieving any significant results for either side.

Overview

The main participants in the war were the Habsburg monarchy, Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia against the Ottoman Empire. Other states that also participated in the war to a lesser extent included Ferrara, Tuscany, Mantua, and the Papal States.

Background

Tensions along the Habsburg-Ottoman border had been escalating since 1591. In 1592, the fortress of Bihać fell into Ottoman hands. See Siege of Bihać (1592).

History

1593

In the spring of 1593, the Ottoman forces from the province of Bosnia laid siege to the city of Sisak in Croatia and began the Battle of Sisak, which ended with a Christian victory on June 22, 1593. This victory marked the end of the Hundred Years' Croatian-Ottoman War (1493-1593).

The war began on July 29, 1593, when the Ottoman army led by Sinan Pasha launched a campaign against the Habsburg monarchy and captured Giur (Turkish: Yanıkale) and Komárom (Turkish: Kómárón) in 1594.

1594

In early 1594, the Serbs in Banat rose up against the Ottomans. The rebels, under the banner of a holy war, raised flags bearing the icon of Saint Sava. Patriarch Gavrilo II of Jerusalem extinguished the holy war flags and supported this rebellion by the two Serbian Orthodox bishops Rufim Njegiš from Cetinje and Visarion in Trebinje. In response, the Ottoman Grand Vizier Koca Sinan Pasha ordered the green flag of Muhammad to be raised from Damascus to counter the Serbian flag and had the coffin containing the relics of Saint Sava removed from the monastery of Mileševa and transported to Belgrade on a military convoy. Along the way, the Ottoman convoy killed all those it encountered as a warning to the rebels. The Ottomans burned the relics of Saint Saba in an open pyre that took place on the Fruska Gora plateau on April 27.

1595-1596

In 1595, Pope Clement VIII formed an alliance between European Christian powers to counter the Ottoman Empire (The Holy League of Pope Clement VIII); Emperor Rudolf II and Sigismund Báthory, Prince of Transylvania signed a treaty of alliance in Prague. The princes of Moldavia, Aaron I and Michael the Brave, joined the alliance later that year. Habsburg Spain sent an army of 6,000 experienced infantrymen and 1,200 cavalrymen from the Netherlands under the command of Charles von Mansfeld, the commander-in-chief of the Spanish Army in Flanders, who took charge of operations in Hungary.

The Ottoman goal was to capture Vienna, while the Habsburgs wanted to defend it.