Long Turkish War: Wallachian prince Michael the Brave confronts the Ottoman army in the Battle of Călugăreni and achieves a tactical victory.
The Battle of Clugreni was a battle in the history of early modern Romania. It took place on 23 August [O.S. 13 August] 1595 between the Wallachian army led by Michael the Brave and the Ottoman army led by Koca Sinan Pasha. It was part of the Long Turkish War, fought between Christian and Ottoman forces at the end of the 16th beginning of the 17th centuries.
The whole Ottoman force was estimated at 100,000 men, but not all of their troops were on the battlefield at Clugreni. It seems that only about 30,000-40,000 Ottoman soldiers were involved in the battle.Michael the Brave had in total about 15,000 men and about 12 large field cannons, with Transylvanian (Szkely) detachments. Michael the Brave strategically positioned his forces south of the village of Clugreni, where the Clnitea river flows into the Neajlov river. The terrain there was a muddy marsh, surrounded by forests that would negate the Ottoman's military superiority. The battle had three different phases. A narrow bridge over the Neajlov river was used by Michael as a mandatory pass point where he successfully held a large Ottoman attack, although a second Ottoman assault supported by flanking cavalry forced the Wallachians to retreat. However a Wallachian counterattack on the pursuing Ottomans forced them back over the river, ending the battle as Michael would retreat during the night. The Ottomans suffered much heavier casualties.
The Long Turkish War or Thirteen Years' War was an indecisive land war between the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire, primarily over the Principalities of Wallachia, Transylvania, and Moldavia. It was waged from 1593 to 1606 but in Europe it is sometimes called the Fifteen Years War, reckoning from the 1591–92 Turkish campaign that captured Bihać.
In the series of Ottoman wars in Europe it was the major test of force between the Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–73) and the Cretan War (1645–69). The next of the major Ottoman–Habsburg wars was the Austro-Turkish War of 1663–1664. Overall, the conflict consisted in a large number of costly battles and sieges, but with little gain for either side.