Battle of the Cosmin Forest

Battle of the Cosmin Forest
Part of the Polish–Ottoman War (1485–1503) and Moldavian campaign (1497–1499)

Cherubin Gniewosz in the battle of Suceava (original by J. Kossak, c. 1890) (English)
Date26 October 1497
Location
Cosmin Forest, Moldavia, Ottoman Empire (today in Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukraine)
Result Ottoman–Moldavian victory[1]
Belligerents
 Kingdom of Poland  Ottoman Empire
 Moldavia
Commanders and leaders
King John I Albert
Stanisław Chodecki		 Stephen III of Moldavia
Strength
40,000 troops
40,000 servants[2]		 18,000 Moldavians
10,000 Wallachians and Tatars
500 Janissaries[3]
Casualties and losses
2,000 – 5,000[2] Minor

The Battle of the Cosmin Forest (1497) (Romanian: bătălia de la Codrii Cosminului; Polish: bitwa pod Koźminem) was fought between the Moldavian Prince, Ștefan cel Mare (Stephen the Great), supported by the Ottoman Empire, and King John I of Poland (John I Albert) of the Kingdom of Poland.[2] The battle took place in northern Moldavia, about 50 km north of the-then capital of Suceava (Polish: Suczawa), in the hills between Adâncata (nowadays Hlyboka), situated in the valley of the Siret River, and Cernăuți (nowadays Chernivtsi), situated in the valley of the Prut River, and resulted in a major victory for the Ottomans and their Moldavian vassals.

  1. ^ Jonathan Eagles, Stephen the Great and Balkan Nationalism: Moldova and Eastern European History, (I.B. Tauris, 2014), 58.
  2. ^ a b c The Battle of Cosmin Forest, Tadeusz Grabarczyk, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology, Vol. 1, ed. Clifford J. Rogers, (Oxford University Press, 2010), 434.
  3. ^ "Domnia lui Ștefan cel Mare. Repere cronologice", Vasile M. Demciuc, 2004, Codrul Cosminului (10): 3–12. ISSN 1224-032X, p. 11