Battle of Cecora ( 1595 ) The Battle of Cecora took place on October 19 – 20 , 1595 , during an expedition of Jan Zamoyski , of the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth , to Moldavia , as part of the Moldavian Magnate Wars . Background . In early 1595 Sigismund Báthory , Prince of Translyvania , convinced Ştefan Răzvan , a commander of Hungarian mercenaries in the service of the then Hospodar Aaron the Tyrant to rebel . Ştefan captured Aaron and sent him to Transylvania , then proclaimed himself as the new Hospodar and a vassal of Sigismund . In response the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed III , who had been Aaron ' s protector and sovereign , decided to put an end to the ongoing power struggles in Moldavia , Wallachia and Transylvania between various magnates . While Wallachia was to receive a new Turkish sponsored ruler , Moldavia was to be simply incorporated into the Ottoman Empire as a province . The Ottoman intervention aroused alarms in the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth which sought to reestablish its influence in the region , having lost sovereignty over Moldavia some hundred years earlier after the Battle of the Cosmin Forest . Battle . In the summer of 1595 the crown army of the Kingdom of Poland , numbering around 5000 cavalry , 2300 infantry and a few artillery pieces , led by the Crown Hetman Jan Zamoyski entered into the territory of Principality of Moldavia and on the 27th of August took Chocim and shortly after , on September 3 , the capital of the principality , Iași . Zamoyski then installed Ieremia Movilă , who was amicably disposed towards the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth , as Hospodar ( Prince ) of Moldavia . Zamoyski ' s intent was to create a buffer zone of friendly states around the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth , consisting of Moldavia , Transylvania and Wallachia , in order to protect it from Ottoman Turkey . The Ottomans reacted swiftly , although at the time the Sultan Mehmed III was engaged in a war against Michael the Brave , the Prince of Wallachia . The Sultan send the Crimean Tatars , under Khan Ğazı II Girej , supported by regular Ottoman troops , altogether numbering around 25 , 000 soldiers , to meet the Polish army . Upon hearing that the Tatars were approaching , Zamoyski crossed the Prut river and on September 6 had his troops erect a fortified camp , which was protected on both flanks by the river . The front of the camp in turn was defended by a rampart studded with thirteen bastion s . The rampart also possessed four sally port s which could be used for sortie s . The Khan ' s army arrived on the 18th of September . That day minor fighting took place among individual skirmisher s , during which Prince Kirill Różyński wounded the khan ' s nephew with a bow . The main fighting took place the following day when the khan ' s troops tried to storm the Polish camp . However , because the Tatars had few infantry the attempt was unsuccessful , and the attackers were constantly harried by Polish sallies issuing from the camp . After the struggle went no better for the Tartars on the 20th , Ğazı came to the conclusion that he did not have the means to take the camp and agreed to peace talks . On October 21 a peace treaty was signed , according to which the Tatars recognized Movilă as Hospodar in Moldavia , and assented to Polish troops being permanently stationed in the Principality . Two days later the Tatar army began its withdrawal .