Polish–Ottoman War (1620–21)
| Polish–Ottoman War 1620–1621 | |||||||||
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| Part of Polish–Ottoman Wars | |||||||||
 Battle of Khotyn, by Józef Brandt |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Poland-Lithuania
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 Ottoman Empire
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Jan Karol Chodkiewicz † Crown Prince Vasa |
Osman II | ||||||||
The Polish-Ottoman War (1620–21) or First Polish-Ottoman War was a conflict between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire over the control of Moldavia. It ended with the Commonwealth withdrawing its claims on Moldavia.
Traditionally, Moldavia had been a subject of the Kingdom of Poland, and later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. As the Ottoman influence grew in the 16th century, they had become more and more interested in the region. From the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century, the magnates of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth intervened in the affairs of Moldavia, which the Ottoman Empire considered within its sphere of influence. Additionally, the Ottomans were aggravated by the constant raids of Cossacks, then nominally subjects of the Commonwealth, across the border into Ottoman territories. Another reason causing the war was the recent outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, and the request of support from the rebel leaders in Bohemia.
At the time, the Thirty Years' War was raging across Europe. Gabriel Bethlen, prince of Trasylvania saw an opportunity to unite the two Hungarian principalities, Transylvania and Royal Hungary, and sacked Vienna in November 1619. He also asked Sultan Osman II for aid, but this was unsuccessful. The Commonwealth was relatively uninvolved in this war but the Polish king, Zygmunt III Waza, sent an elite and ruthless mercenary unit, the Lisowczycy, to aid his Habsburg allies. They defeated the Hungarian lord George Rákóczi at the Battle of Humenné in 1619, and thus, cut the supply lines of Transylvanian forces. Then Gaspar Graziani, ruler of Moldavia, switched sides and joined Poland.
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