Everything about Battle Of U Ora 1620 totally explained
The
Battle of Ţuţora (also known as
Battle of Cecora) was a battle between the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (assisted by
Moldavian troops) and
Ottoman forces (backed by
Nogais), fought from
September 17 to
October 7 1620 in Moldavia, near the
Prut river.
Prelude to battle
Because of the failure of Commonwealth
diplomatic mission to
Istanbul, and violations of the
Treaty of Busza by both sides (as
Cossacks and
Tatars continued their raids across the borders), relations between the Ottomans and the Commonwealth plummeted in early 1620. Both sides began preparing for war, with neither being ready at the moment. The Ottomans planned for a war in
1621, while the Commonwealth
Sejm denied most funds the
hetmans had asked for. The
Senate's secret council finally decided, convinced by the
Habsburgs' representative, to send the Commonwealth forces in 1620 - even though many members of the Sejm thought that Polish forces were neither sufficient nor fully prepared. Hetman
Stanisław Żólkiewski, who was by then over 70 years old (as Commonwealth policy didn't allow for a possibility of forced retirement from government offices such as that of hetman), foreseeing the coming confrontation with Ottoman Empire, decided to meet Turkish troops on foreign soil, Moldavia being the obvious choice
1.
Hetmans
Zółkiewski and
Koniecpolski led the army to
Ţuţora (
Cecora in Polish sources), a
commune in
Iaşi county,
Romania) to fight the
Horde of
Khan Temir (Kantymir). The army numbered over 10,000 (2,000 infantry and almost no Cossaks cavalry) with many regiments being made up of the private forces of
magnates
Koreckis,
Zasławskis,
Kazanowskis,
Kalinowskis and
Potockis. The army entered Moldavia in September. The Moldavian ruler, hospodar
Gaspar Graziani, nominally vassal of the Ottoman Empire, decided to support the Commonwealth against the Ottomans. Graziani killed
janissaries in
Iaşi, imprisoned envoys of
Sultan Osman II (who had requested his deposal and escorting to Istanbul) and had wanted to flee, but, forced by Żółkiewski, joined his troops to the Polish camp. However, many of the Moldavian
boyars dispersed in order to defend their own
estates against pillaging by undisciplined Commonwealth magnates' troops, and others decided to wait for an outcome and join the winning side. In consequence, only a few hundred (600-1000) Moldavian supporters appeared in the Commonwealth camp. Żółkiewski ordered the army to proceed to the fortified camp (standing from previous wars) at Cecora.
The battle
On the
10 September, near Ţuţora, the Commonwealth army encountered the
Tatar and Ottoman forces (13,000-22,000), which had been sent by the Ottoman sultan to help
Gabriel Bethlen in his struggle against the Habsburgs. The Tatar force took Commonwealth defenders by surprise, taking many prisoners. During the first day of fight (the 18th), most of the Moldavians decided to switch sides, and quickly attacked the Polish flank. Mercenaries, private troops and their magnate leaders, were lacking in discipline and morale. Stanisław Koniecpolski commanded the right flank of the Commonwealth forces during the ensuing battle. On
19 September, it had become clear that Polish forces were defeated, although still managing to hold their positions; Koniecpolski prevented the army from disintegrating on 20/21 September. On
29 September, Commonwealth forces had broken through Ottoman ranks with
tabor wagon trains and started their retreat. However, after Graziani bribed some magnates, units of private troops begun to flee and some mercenary cavalry panicked and run away. This was a prelude on things to come. Consecutive attacks during the retreat (such as the violent one on 3 October) were repelled, only for troops to start desintegrating as soon as soldiers caught sight of the
Dniester and the Polish border.
During another large assault on the
6 October, most of the magnates and nobles started to flee north, leaving infantry and camp. Thus, they sealed the fate of the whole expedition: most of the Polish troops got killed or were captured. In the ensuing battle, Żólkiewski was killed and Koniecpolski and many others (
Samuel Korecki,
Mikolaj Struś,
Mikołaj Potocki,
Jan Żółkiewski,
Łukasz Żołkiewski),
Stanisław "Rewera" Potocki and
Bohdan Khmelnytsky were taken captive. Żółkiewski's head was mounted on a pike and sent to the sultan; duke Korecki, having often meddled in Moldavian territories, was soon murdered in the Istanbul prison.
In the face of such an important victory, advised by
grand vizier Ali Pasha and Gabriel Bethlen, Osman II decided that he could crash
Gavurs and extend his rule to the
Baltic Sea (or at least conquer the whole of
Ukraine from Poland). The Sultan soon nominated
Alexandru Iliaş as ruler of Moldavia, Graziani having been killed during his flight on
29 September.
Aftermath
In 1621, an army of 200,000 to 250,000 Turkish veterans, led by Osman II, advanced from Adrianople towards the Polish frontier. The Turks, following their victory in the Battle of Cecora, had high hopes of conquering
Ukraine - the part of Poland. The Polish commander Jan Karol Chodkiewicz crossed the Dniester in September 1621 with approximately 35,000 soldiers and
Cossack supporters and entrenched the
Khotyn Fortress, blocking the path of the Ottoman march. It was here that, for a whole month (2 September to 9 October), the Commonwealth hetman held the sultan at bay, up until the first autumn snow (
Battle of Khotyn). The deaths of approximately 40,000 of his men compelled Osman to withdraw. A few days before the siege was raised, the aged grand hetman died of exhaustion in the fortress on
September 24,
1621.
Chodkiewicz wasn't the only one to die as a result. Sultan Osman himself paid the highest price for the failure of his plans. After the tides turned, the defeat and subsequent retreat of Ottoman armies, coupled with internal matters, triggered the rebellion of janissaries in 1622, during which Osman II was murdered.
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