The Policy of Poland Against Moldova at the Beggining of the 17th Century

Valentin Konstantinov
Candidate of Historical Sciences (Ph.D. in History), Аssociate Professor,
Senior Research Fellow, Institute of History of Academy of Sciences of Moldova (Rebublic of Moldova, Chisinau),
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15407/ul2015.03.116 

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Abstract

At the end of the 16th century, in 1594, in the Romanian Principalities outside the Carpathians broke a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire. As a result of this compromise reached between the Poles and Turks, in Moldova was established a system of dual suzerainty, Polish and Ottoman. In late 1595, on the throne of the Principality of Moldova came Ieremia Movilă, which also had the quality of being Polish citizen, which meant at least a significant anterior period of his family’s relationship with the Polish socio-political society. His reign marks the maximum of the Polish influence in Moldova. Creating a buffer zone between the Ottoman Empire and Rzeczpospolita was very important for the Polish king and for this he sustained to come on the throne of Moldavia a person fully faithful to the Polish interests.

However, the system did not last long. The first problems arose when it came to question the problem of the successor of Ieremia Movilă. Very recently, in 1605, the Polish king discovered that the health of Ieremia Movilă is shaky and it raised the problem of decision upon his successor on the throne of Moldova.

According to the conditions of the Polish-Ottoman Treaty 1598, after Ieremia should come to the throne his eldest son, Constantin. The problem was that in 1605, Constantin was still a minor, so he could not make political decisions, especially in Moldova, a country with internal and external difficulties. New Polish envoys to Constantinople, clarified the situation and, immediately after the death of Ieremia, his brother, Simion succeeded. As has been established, his reign began the very next day after the disappearance of the former ruler. In turn, Simion Movilă didn’t reign for a long time. In September 1607, he died unexpectedly and there was the assumption that he had been poisoned by his sister-in-law, Elisabeta Movilă, the widow of Ieremia. At that time, the sons of both brothers, of Jeremiah and of Simion, had the right, according to the law of the earth, to rule the country. The war between the supporters of the cousins’ groups ended after the intervention of Stefan Potocki, with the victory of the supporters of Constantin Movilă, the son of Ieremia. Although it seemed that nothing will jeopardize the stability in Moldova, Gabriel Báthory’s actions, in early 1611, had to throw again the entire Romanian space into a new phase of instability.

In the first years of the XVII century, the situation for the Moldavian principality was stable. After 1611, began a new period in the history of the Moldavian principality – the Polish-Turkish confrontation. Between 1612 and 1621 armed clashes occurred in 1612, 1615–1616, 1620, 1621. These dates should be added and 1617 when the Polish Turkish troops were ready for confrontation, but in 1618 known more as the year of Orynin battle which despite its uncertainty became synonym of Tatar raid occurred after hours Tatar troops bypassed Polish disparate camps and looted Polish lands next few weeks.

We not must to see in this period only confrontation. Almost every time after a military confrontation, the parties proceeded to negotiate and Moldavian rulers played an important mediating role in these negotiations.

 

Keywords

Moldova, Poland, Ottoman Empire, confrontations, 17th century.

 

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