Battle of Kletsk

Lithuanian battle against the Tatars from A Description of Sarmatian Europe (1578) by Alexander Guagnini

Date	5 August 1506
Location	Kletsk
Result	Decisive Lithuanian victory

Belligerents

Commanders and leaders

Feth Giray and Burnaş Giray (sons of Khan Mengli Giray)

Strength

7,000

20,000

The Battle of Kletsk (Belarusian: Бітва пад Клецкам, Lithuanian: Klecko mūšis) was a battle fought on 5 August 1506 near Kletsk (now in Belarus), between the army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led by Court Marshall of Lithuania Michael Glinski, and the army of the Crimean Khanate, led by Fetih I Giray and Burnaş I Giray, sons of the Khan of Crimea, Meñli I Giray. The battle was one of the first and greatest Lithuanian victories over the Tatars.

The Lithuanians had allied themselves with Hacı I Giray, founder of the Crimean Khanate. However, in the 1480s his son Meñli I Giray, who came to power with the help of the Ottoman Empire, allied himself with the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which had long been an enemy of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Lithuanians then allied with the Golden Horde and its remnant Great Horde, which were enemies of the Crimean Khanate. During the Muscovite–Lithuanian War of 1503, the Crimean Tatar armies pillaged the grand duchy's southern towns of Slutsk, Kletsk, and Nyasvizh and even threatened the capital city of Vilnius. Alexander Jagiellon, Grand Duke of Lithuania, then ordered the construction of a defensive wall around his capital, which was completed in 1522. In August 1505, Meñli I Giray sent his eldest son to plunder the territories of Minsk, Polotsk, Vitebsk, and Navahrudak. It was not only a raid for slaves and loot, but also for political pressure to execute imprisoned Sheikh Ahmed, the last Khan of the Great Horde.