Long War (1591–1606)

The Long War (also named the Thirteen or Fifteen Years' War) took place from 1591 or 1593 (but not 1592) to 1606 and was a border conflict between the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire over Balkan territories.

History
The major participants of this war were the Habsburg Monarchy, the Principality of Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldavia opposing the Ottoman Empire. Ferrara, Tuscany, Mantua and the Papal State were also involved to a lesser extent.

Skirmishes along the border intensified from 1591. In 1592, the fort of Bihać in what was central Croatia at the time fell to the Ottomans. 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 which eventually ended in a victory for the Christian forces on June 22, 1593.

The Long War started on July 29, 1593 when the Ottoman army under Sinan Pasha launched a campaign against the Habsburg Monarchy and captured Győr (Yanıkkale) and Komarom (Komaron).

In 1595, an alliance of Christian European powers was organized by Pope Clement VIII to oppose the Ottoman Empire; a treaty of alliance was signed in Prague by the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II and Sigismund Báthory of Transylvania. Aron Vodă of Moldavia and Michael the Brave of Wallachia joined the alliance later that year.

The Ottoman's objective of the war was to seize Vienna, while the Habsburg Monarchy wanted to recapture the central territories of the Kingdom of Hungary controlled by the Ottoman Empire.



Control over 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).

In 1595, the Christians captured Győr, Esztergom and Visegrád, strategic fortresses on the Danube, but they did not engage in the siege of the key fortress of Buda. The Ottomans launched a siege of Eger (Eğri), conquering it in 1596.

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 Danube, including Giurgiu, Brăila, Hârşova, and Silistra, while his Moldavian allies defeated the Ottoman armies in Iaşi and other parts of Moldova. Michael continued his attacks deep within the Ottoman Empire, taking the forts of Nicopolis, Ribnic, and Chilia and even reaching as far as Adrianople. At one point his forces were only 24 km from the Ottoman capital, Constantinople.

The conflict continued with the Battle of Călugăreni, considered one of the most important battles between the Ottomans and Wallachians (Romanians). Although the Wallachians emerged victorious from the battle, Michael was forced to retreat with his troops and wait for aid from his allies, Prince Sigismund Báthory of Transylvania and Emperor Rudolf of Austria. 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 Battle of Mezőkeresztes, which took place in the territory of Hungary on October 24–26, 1596. The combined Habsburg-Transylvanian force of 45–50,000 troops was defeated by the Ottoman army. The battle turned when Christian soldiers, thinking they had won the battle, stopped fighting in order to plunder the Ottoman camp. Despite this victory, the Ottomans realized for the first time the superiority of Western military equipment over Ottoman weapons. This battle was the first significant military encounter in Central-Europe between a large Christian army and the Ottoman Turkish Army after the Battle of Mohács. As a result of the Battle of Mezőkeresztes, the Christians became unable to achieve their strategic objective and the war was reduced to smaller battles and sieges of fortresses, which often changed hands several times.



In August 1601, at the Battle of Guruslău, Giorgio Basta, and Michael the Brave defeated the Hungarian nobility led by Sigismund Báthory, who accepted Ottoman protection. After the assassination of Michael the Brave by mercenary soldiers under Basta's orders, the Transylvanian nobility, led by Mózes Székely, was again defeated in 1603 at the Battle of Braşov by the Habsburg Empire, and Wallachian troops led by Radu Şerban.

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 – 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, and achieved several victories against the Habsburg army until Bocskay was first declared the Prince of Transylvania (Târgu Mureș, February 21, 1605) and later also to Hungary (Szerencs, April 17, 1605). The Ottoman empire supported Bocskay with a crown that he refused (being Christian). As Prince of Hungary he accepted negotiations with Rudolf II to end the war.

Aftermath
The Long War ended with the Peace of Zsitvatorok on November 11, 1606. The Peace of Zsitvatorok confirmed the Ottomans' inability to penetrate further into Habsburg territories. It also demonstrated that Transylvania was beyond Habsburg power. The treaty stabilized conditions on the Habsburg-Ottoman frontier.