Editing Moldavian Magnate Wars (section)

== Prelude to the next conflict (1618–1620) ==

===1618===

However, few of the treaty provisions were ever fulfilled. The Tatar raids resumed in 1618 (or perhaps even 1617), as commanders of the [[Dobruja]] and [[Budjak]] hordes left Iskender's camp during talks. At first, Żółkiewki could not divide forces and Tatars plundered unopposed, but he met the Iskender Pasha's force near [[Kamianets-Podilskyi]] (Kamieniec Podolski). On September 28, 1618, he drove it back while enduring heavy losses. In 1617 and 1619 Żółkiewski forced Cossacks to sign new agreements ("umowa olszaniecka" and "biało-cerkiewna"). Boats were to be burnt and raids were forbidden. In exchange, the [[Cossack register]] was expanded, and the annual subsidy to Cossacks from the Crown was increased. However, Cossack raids did not cease, especially as they were encouraged by Muscovy. In July 1618, after many warnings to the Commonwealth, the young and ambitious Sultan [[Osman II]] sent a letter to King Sigismund III with the threats of a new war and the burning of [[Kraków]]. Since the Ottomans were involved in large-scale war with Persia, this was no more than a warning at the time. However, Osman planned for a war against the Commonwealth, in order to compensate for the heavy losses sustained against Persia, where, in the [[Ottoman–Persian Wars]] of 1603–1611 and 1617–1618/19, the Ottoman Empire lost the [[Caucasus]].
[[File:Osman 2.jpg|thumb|left|Sultan Osman II, leader of the Ottoman Empire who threatened war with Sigismund II and the burning of Kraków]]

In 1618, the [[Thirty Years' War]] began. [[Czechs|Czech]] [[Protestants]] were supported by German and Hungarian Protestants. The Hungarians asked the then Prince of Transylvania, [[Gabriel Bethlen]], for help and declared their wish to unite Hungary with Transylvania. Bethlen had been appointed to the office after the Sultan's removal of [[Gabriel Báthory]] (ordered to the troops of Iskender Pasha in 1613). He was anti-Polish and a loyal Ottoman vassal and had aspirations to extend his rule to [[Moravia]], [[Bohemia]] and [[Silesia]]. Polish hetman Stefan Żółkiewski warned Bethlen against joining the Protestant side and promised help against the Ottoman Empire; however, Bethlen answered that it was too late to change allegiances. When the fight was joined by Gabriel Bethlen on the Protestant side, his siege of Vienna threatened to extend Transylvanian rule (and thus Ottoman) to Bohemia and Silesia.

===1619–20===

Polish nobles ([[Szlachta]]) supported the Czechs (at least verbally) because the struggle of Czech and Hungarian nobles was viewed as a struggle of "free" [[nobility]] against [[Autocracy|absolutist]] monarchs. Nobles would not fight the Protestants, and the Sejm had even forbidden Sigismund III to send Polish armed forces as assistance to the Habsburgs. However, the king of Poland, Sigismund, was a devout [[Roman Catholic]] and a long time sympathizer of the Habsburgs. Additionally, some of the Polish magnates and szlachta hoped to get back some parts of Silesia in exchange for helping out the Habsburgs. During talks with Sigismund's son, Prince [[Władysław IV Waza]], on his voyage to Silesia in mid-1619, [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor|Ferdinand II]], promised to allow a temporary occupation of part of Silesia by the [[Polish people|Poles]], with the possibility of incorporating those areas into Poland at a later date. Some of the [[Piast]] (old Polish dynasty) dukes of Silesia also supported returning their lands to the Polish realm, especially given the attractive [[religious tolerance]] policy of the Commonwealth and the fact that the Polish western regions had been very peaceful and secure for a long time.

Sigismund III decided to help the Habsburgs and privately hired an infamous {{Citation needed|date=May 2008}} mercenary group called the [[Lisowczycy]] (name took from their founder [[Aleksander Józef Lisowski]]), who were unemployed after the end of the wars with Muscovy ([[Polish–Muscovite War (1605–18)|Dymitriads]]) and were plundering and terrorizing the entire region of Lithuania. Sigismund sent the Lisowczycy to aid the Habsburgs towards the end of 1619. In the end, Ferdinand did not agree to any permanent concessions in Silesia, and only made Prince [[Karol Ferdynand]] (Władysław's brother) [[bishop]] of [[Wrocław]]. Neither did Habsburgs provide any help against the Ottoman Empire. The Lisowczycy crushed Transylvanian forces led by [[George I Rákóczi]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bartleby.com/65/ra/Rakoczy.html|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20050308110040/http://www.bartleby.com/65/ra/Rakoczy.html|archive-date = 2005-03-08|title = Homework Help and Textbook Solutions &#124; bartleby}}</ref> (Jerzy Rakoczy) at [[Závada, Humenné District]] and [[Humenné]] (November 13<ref>{{cite web |url=http://edu.clk.pl/~pinio/ |title=Alafabetyczny spis bitew Polskich |website=edu.clk.pl |access-date=12 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060429131544/http://edu.clk.pl/~pinio/ |archive-date=29 April 2006 |url-status=dead}}</ref> or 21–24,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://slawek-dabrowski.webpark.pl/lisowczycy.htm|title = Wirtualna Polska - Wszystko co ważne - www.wp.pl}}</ref> sources vary; see [[Battle of Humenné]]) and started looting, plundering, killing ''even children and dogs'' (as a contemporary historian wrote), and burning Eastern [[Slovakia]], thus forcing Bethlen to lift his siege of Vienna and try to save his own lands. Later, the Lisowczycy plagued Silesia and Bohemia and took part in the [[Battle of White Mountain]].

The ruler of Moldavia, another vassal of the Ottoman sultan, a hospodar of [[Italians|Italian]] origin, [[Gaspar Graziani]] (''Kasper Gratiani'' in Polish), decided he would be better off under Polish rule and started talks with the Polish king, promising to send 25,000 men. The Polish envoy to Constantinople who arrived in April 1620, was received very coldly. Later Cossack raiding and burning of Constantinople suburbs did not help.

The Habsburgs had no qualms about repaying Sigismund's help with treachery. Their envoy actively worked against a new treaty between the Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire because the Habsburgs knew that any Polish-Ottoman conflict meant less trouble for themselves. This intrigue, coupled with Ottomans annoyance with Commonwealth pro-Habsburg actions and constant attempts by some Polish magnates to gain influence in Moldavia, caused a new war to be unavoidable. In Poland, the king and the hetmans exaggerated the danger in order to recruit more troops and raise taxes for the army. However, the nobles did not trust such measures, and could not be convinced to pay raised taxes for the army, speculating about the reasons behind the expedition. The nobles often thwarted the king's initiatives, even if these could prove to be in the interest of the country at large (including their own long-term purpose), becoming suspicious of any rise in the king's power as a potential reduction of their privileges. The [[status quo]], which translated into their high standard of life, was generally favoured over any alternative.

Some historians say that King Sigismund decided to intervene in Moldavia because of internal problems caused mainly by the dispatch of Lisowczycy mercenaries to the Habsburg side and their conduct in war. Others point out that some nobles threatened with armed rebellion ([[rokosz]]), and, in case of a successful intervention, the king would increase his and the hetman's authority and focus noblemen's attention on external instead of internal problems. Additionally, hetman Żółkiewski, foreseeing confrontation with the Ottoman Empire, preferred to meet their troops on foreign soil.

In retrospect, this time the nobles were right about the lack of danger since neither Tatars nor Turks were ready in 1620. While the Sultan was indeed planning an expedition to Poland in 1621, this was to be done with a small contingent. However, it can be argued that the continuous policy of neglect for the military would dearly cost the Commonwealth in the coming decades.