APolish–Ottoman alliance,[1] based on several treaties, occurred during the 16th century between the kingdom ofPoland-Lithuania and theOttoman Empire, as the Ottomans were expanding intoCentral Europe.
Poland and the Ottoman Empire had been at war since the end of the 15th century followingJagiellonian attempts to take control overHungary andBohemia. The Jagiellon kingVladislas II of Hungary was occupying the throne of Hungary and Bohemia.[1] The Jagiellons also allied withStephen III of Moldavia in 1484-87 to recover territories from the Ottomans, and later invaded Moldavia in 1497.[1]
In 1498, an Ottoman army of 40,000-60,000 underBali Pasha invaded Poland in the areas ofLesser Poland andMazovia.[1] Also under pressure from theRussians underIvan III in Lithuania, the Polish king and the Grand Duke of Lithuania,Alexander I Jagiellon, sought a rapprochement with the Ottomans.[1]
In 1503,Alexander I signed a five-year treaty with the Ottoman SultanBayezid II.[1] Alexander's successor kingSigismund the Old (1506–1548) also signed a treaty withSelim I in 1519 after he had lostSmolensk to the Russians.[1]
After the Ottomans invaded Hungary after theBattle of Mohács in 1526, Poland refrained from interfering with the Ottomans in the southwest.[2] Poland was in fact busy enough countering the Russian threat in Lithuania andLivonia, where it was able to concentrate its forces.[2]
UnderSuleiman the Magnificent, two treaties were signed in 1525 and 1528, and a treaty of "perpetual" peace was signed in 1533.[3] The 1533 treaty is thought to have been motivated by the huge progress of the Ottomans in theSiege of Vienna (1529).[4] The treaty was again renewed in 1547.[1]
The treaty was again renewed in 1551 withSigismund II Augustus, the last Jagiellonian king. As Suleiman was reaching his last years, a treaty was signed in 1564 between Poland and the futureSelim II, then still Imperial Prince in charge of the government ofKutahya.
After the death of Sigismund in 1572, Poland elected the French prince,Henry of Valois, rather than Habsburg candidates, partly in order to be more agreeable to the Ottoman Empire.[2] When Henri left to return to France in 1575, he was succeeded byStephen Báthory of Poland, who also had been supported by the Ottomans in obtaining theTransylvanian throne in 1571.[2]
The "perpetual" peace between Poland and the Ottoman Empire started to crumble in the 1590s.[2] Difficulties arose whenJan Zamoyski took advantage of the Ottoman–Habsburg war in Hungary to invadeMoldavia in 1595,[2] in theMoldavian Magnate Wars. TheTreaty of Jaruga was signed in 1617, restraining Polish interventions in the Danubian principalities,[2] but open conflict later erupted with thePolish–Ottoman War (1620–1621).