Battle of Mohács
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Mohács was fought on August 29, 1526 near Mohács
, Hungary
. In the battle, forces of the Kingdom of Hungary
led by King
Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia
were defeated by forces of the Ottoman Empire
led by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent
.
The Ottoman victory led to the partition of Hungary for several centuries between the Ottoman Empire, the Habsburg Monarchy
, and the Principality of Transylvania. The death of Louis II as he fled the battle marked the end of the Jagiellon dynasty
in Hungary and Bohemia, whose dynastic claims were absorbed by the Habsburgs via the marriage of Louis' sister.
king Matthias Corvinus in 1490, the Hungarian magnates, who did not want another heavy-handed king, procured the accession of Vladislaus II
(reigned 1490–1516), king of Bohemia, because of his notorious weakness: he was known as King Dobže, or Dobzse in Hungarian orthography (meaning “Good” or, loosely, “OK”) from his habit of accepting without question every petition and document laid before him. The freshly elected King Vladislaus II donated most of the royal estates, régales and royalties
to the nobility. By this method, the king tried to stabilize his new reign and preserve his popularity amongst the magnates. After the naive fiscal and land policy of the royal court, the central power began to experience severe financial difficulties, largely due to the enlargement of feudal lands at his expense. Vladislaus became the magnates' helpless "prisoner"; he could make no decision without their consent. The Black Army
of Matthias Corvinus was dissolved by the aristocracy. The magnates also dismantled the national administration systems and bureaucracy throughout the country. The country's defenses sagged as border guards and castle garrisons went unpaid, fortresses fell into disrepair, and initiatives to increase taxes to reinforce defenses were stifled. Hungary's international role declined, its political stability shaken, and social progress was deadlocked.
In 1514, the weakened old King Vladislaus II faced a major peasant rebellion led by György Dózsa
, which was ruthlessly crushed by the nobles
, led by János Szapolyai. After the Dozsa Rebellion, the brutal suppression of the peasants greatly aided the 1526 Turkish invasion as the Hungarians were no longer a politically united people. The resulting degradation of order paved the way for Ottoman pre-eminence. In 1521, the strongest Hungarian fortress in the South, [Belgrade]]) fell to the Turks. The strongest nobles were so busy oppressing the peasants and quarrelling with the gentry class in the parliament that they failed to heed the agonized calls of King Louis II against the Turks. The early appearance of protestantism
further worsened the internal relations in the anarchical country.
The Hungarians had long opposed Ottoman expansion in southeastern Europe, but the fall of Nándorfehérvár
(hu
), (present-day Belgrade
, Serbia
) and Szabács
in 1521 meant that most of southern Hungary was left indefensible. King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia
, King of Hungary
and Bohemia
, entered into marriage with Mary of Habsburg in 1522. The Ottomans saw that growing alliance as a threat to their power in the Balkans and worked to break this alliance. After Suleiman I came to power, the High Porte made the Hungarians at least one and possibly two offers of peace. It is unclear why Louis refused the offer. It is possible that King Louis was well aware of Hungary's situation (especially after the Battle of Chaldiran
and Polish-Ottoman peace from 1525) and he believed that war was a better option than peace. Even in peacetime the Ottomans raided Hungarian lands and conquered small territories (with border castles), but a final battle still offered a glimmer of hope. To such ends, in June 1526, an Ottoman expedition advanced up the Danube River.
was defeated at the Battle of Pavia
on February 24, 1525, by the troops of Habsburg
H.R. Emperor Charles V
. After several months in prison, Francis I was forced to sign the Treaty of Madrid.
In a watershed moment in European diplomacy, Francis came to an understanding with the Ottoman Empire
, which then led to a formal Franco-Ottoman alliance
.
The objective for Francis I was clearly to find an ally against the powerful Habsburg Emperor Charles V
, in the person of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent
. The Ottoman-French strategic, and sometimes tactical, alliance lasted for about three centuries. It did however cause quite a scandal in the Christian world.
To relieve the Habsburg pressure on France, Francis asked Suleiman to make war on the Holy Roman Empire, and the road from Turkey to the Holy Roman Empire led across Hungary. The request of the French king coincided nicely with the ambitions of Suleiman in Europe and gave him an incentive to attack Hungary
in 1526, leading to the Battle of Mohács.
The loss of Belgrade (Nandorfehervar) in 1521 caused great alarm in Hungary, but the too-late and too-slowly-recruited 60,000 strong royal army – led by the king - forgot to take food along, so therefore the army disbanded spontaneously under the pressure of hunger and disease without even trying to recapture Belgrade, the southern key of Hungary, from the newly installed Turkish garrisons. In 1523, Archbishop Pál Tomori
, a valiant priest-soldier, was made Captain of Southern Hungary. The general apathy that had characterized the country forced him to lean on his own bishopric revenues when he started to repair and reinforce the second line of Hungary’s border defense system.
Three years later, an Ottoman army set out from Constantinople
on April 16, 1526, led by Suleiman the Magnificent personally. The Hungarian nobles, who still did not realize the dimensions of the approaching danger, did not heed their King's call to the colours. Louis II ordered them to encamp on July 2, but no one reported on that day – not even the King. Only when Louis himself furnished an example with his appearance in the camp did things start to move. The Hungarian war council – without waiting for their reinforcements only a few days march away – made a serious tactical error by choosing the battlefield near Mohacs, an open but uneven plain with some swampy marshes.
The Hungarian army was divided into three main units: the Transylvania
n army under John Zápolya
, charged with guarding the passes in the Transylvanian Alps, with between 8,000 and 13,000 men; the main army, led by Louis himself (beside numerous Spanish, German, Czech and Serbian mercenaries); and another smaller force, commanded by the Croatian
count Christoph Frankopan
, numbering around 5,000 men. Due to geography, the Ottoman army's ultimate goal could not be determined until it was crossing the Balkan Mountains
. Unfortunately for the Hungarians, by the time the Ottoman army had crossed, the Transylvanian and Croatian army was further from Buda
than the Ottomans were. Contemporary historical records, though sparse, indicate that Louis preferred a plan of retreat, in effect ceding the country to Ottoman advances, rather than directly engaging the Ottoman army in open battle.
The Hungarian forces chose the battlefield, an open but uneven plain with some swampy marshes near Mohács
leading down to the Danube. The Ottomans had been allowed to advance almost unopposed. While Louis waited in Buda, they had besieged several towns and crossed the Sava
and Drava
Rivers. Louis assembled around 25,000 to 30,000 soldiers (with Croatian and Polish contingents and about 800-1000 soldiers of the Papal States) while the Ottoman army numbered around 50,000. The Ottomans are said to have numbered over twice as many — though this figure is exaggerated — and had up to 160 cannon. " The Hungarian army was arrayed to take advantage of the terrain and hoped to engage the Ottoman army piecemeal. The only advantage the Magyars had that day was that their troops were well-rested, while the Turks had just completed a strenuous march in scorching summer heat. But rather than attacking their fatigued enemy then, the Hungarians just watched as they struggled through the marshy terrain. It would have been "unchivalrous" to attack the enemy when they were not yet ready for battle.
Hungary built up an expensive but obsolete army, structured similarly to that of King Francis I
at the Battle of Pavia
mostly reliant on old fashioned heavily armoured knights on armoured horses (Gendarme knights
). The Hungarian line consisted of two lines, the first with a center of mercenary infantry and artillery and the majority of the cavalry on either flank. The second line was a mix of levy infantry and cavalry. The Ottoman army at the time was one of the most modern and professional armies in Europe , reliant on disciplined firearm-equipped infantry and artillery. To make up numbers the Ottomans deployed large numbers of irregular auxiliaries drawn from local provinces, but their effectiveness was limited and they were usually considered cannon fodder
by the Ottoman commanders.
Like the uncertainty over the number of actual combatants, there is debate over the length of the battle. Its starting time is generally placed between 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM, but the endpoint is difficult to ascertain. While some historians have placed the length of the battle at two to three hours, this seems unlikely given several important factors. The Ottoman army did not retreat from the field and enter camp after the battle; instead, they remained on the field all night without food, water, or shelter. Given that the Ottoman historians all note that it was raining, it seems likely that had the battle been short and ended early in the afternoon, by 5:00 PM at the latest, the Sultan would have ordered his army to camp or at least to return to their baggage. The few reliable sources indicate that Louis left the field at twilight and made his escape under cover of darkness; since the sun would not have set until 6:27 PM on August 29, 1526, this would imply that the battle lasted significantly longer than two to three hours (perhaps as long as four or five), and so is one of the shortest-lasting of the history.
As the first of Suleiman's troops, the Rumelia
n army, advanced onto the battlefield, they were attacked and routed by Hungarian troops led by Pál Tomori
. This attack by the Hungarian right was successful in causing considerable chaos among the irregular Ottoman troops, but even as the Hungarian attack pressed forward, the Ottomans rallied with the arrival of Ottoman regulars deployed from the reserves. While the Hungarian right advanced far enough at one time to place Suleiman in danger from Hungarian arrows that struck his cuirass
, the superiority of the Ottoman regulars and the timely charge of the Janissaries, the elite troops of the Ottomans, probably overwhelmed the attackers, particularly on the Hungarian left. The Hungarians took serious casualties from the skillfully handled Turkish artillery and musket volleys. The Hungarians could not hold their positions, and those who did not flee were surrounded and killed or captured. The result was a disaster, with the Hungarians advancing into withering fire and flank attacks, and falling into the same trap that John Hunyadi
had so often used successfully against the Ottomans. The king left the battlefield sometime around twilight but was thrown from his horse in a river at Csele and died, weighed down by his heavy armor. Some 1,000 other Hungarian nobles and leaders were also killed. It is generally accepted that more than 14,000 Hungarian soldiers were killed in the initial battle.
In the aftermath, Suleiman gave orders to keep no prisoners
. Next day he wrote in his diary: "The Sultan, seated on a golden throne, receives the homage of the viziers and the beys, massacre of 2,000 prisoners, the rain falls in torrents." Reportedly among those 2,000 were several notable Hungarian leaders. Suleiman could not believe that this small, "suicidal" army was all that once powerful country could muster against him, so he waited at Mohacs for a few days before moving cautiously against Buda.
and pillaged the castle and surroundings, they retreated soon afterwards. It was not until 1541 that the Ottomans finally captured and occupied Buda (see main article) without fight. However, to all intents and purposes, the Battle of Mohács meant the end of the independent Kingdom of Hungary
as a unified entity. Amid political chaos, the divided Hungarian nobility
elected two kings simultaneously, János Szapolyai
in 1526, and Ferdinand I of Habsburg
in 1527. The Ottoman occupation was contested by the Habsburg
Archduke of Austria, Ferdinand I
, Louis's brother-in-law and successor by treaty with King Vladislaus II
.
Bohemia fell to the Habsburgs, who also dominated the Northern and western parts of Hungary and portions of today's Croatia
(Royal Hungary
), while the Ottomans held central Hungary and suzerainty over semi-independent Transylvania
. This provided the Hungarians with sufficient impetus to continue to resist the Ottoman occupation, which they did for another seventy years.
The subsequent near constant warfare required a sustained commitment of Ottoman forces, proving a drain on resources that the largely rural and war torn kingdom proved unable to repay. Christian armies besieged Buda several times during the 16th century, and Suleiman himself died of natural causes in Hungary during the Battle of Szigetvár
in 1566; there were also two unsuccessful Ottoman sieges of Eger
, which did not fall until 1596, seventy years after the Ottoman victory at Mohacs. The Turks proved unable to conquer the Northern and Western parts of Hungary which belonged to the Habsburg
monarchs.
Mohács is seen by many Hungarians as the decisive downward turning point in the country's history, a national trauma that persists in the nation's folk memory. For moments of bad luck, Hungarians still say: "more was lost at Mohács" (Több is veszett Mohácsnál). Hungarians view Mohács as marking the end of an independent and powerful European nation.
Whilst Mohács was a decisive loss, it was the aftermath that truly put an end to independent Hungary. The ensuing two hundred years of near constant warfare between the two empires, Habsburg and Ottoman, turned Hungary into a perpetual battlefield. The countryside was regularly ravaged by armies moving back and forth, in turn devastating the population. Only in the 20th century would Hungary regain its political independence, but it has never regained its former political power.
The battlefield became an official national historical memorial site in 1976 on the 450th anniversary of the battle. The memorial was designed by architect György Vadász.
Mohács
Mohács is a town in Baranya county, Hungary on the right bank of the Danube.-History:Two famous battles took place there:# Battle of Mohács, 1526# Battle of Mohács, 1687...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. In the battle, forces of the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
led by King
King of Hungary
The King of Hungary was the head of state of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1000 to 1918.The style of title "Apostolic King" was confirmed by Pope Clement XIII in 1758 and used afterwards by all the Kings of Hungary, so after this date the kings are referred to as "Apostolic King of...
Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia
Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia
Louis II was King of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia from 1516 to 1526.- Early life :Louis was the son of Ladislaus II Jagiellon and his third wife, Anne de Foix....
were defeated by forces of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
led by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman I was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1520 to his death in 1566. He is known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent and in the East, as "The Lawgiver" , for his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system...
.
The Ottoman victory led to the partition of Hungary for several centuries between the Ottoman Empire, the Habsburg Monarchy
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
, and the Principality of Transylvania. The death of Louis II as he fled the battle marked the end of the Jagiellon dynasty
Jagiellon dynasty
The Jagiellonian dynasty was a royal dynasty originating from the Lithuanian House of Gediminas dynasty that reigned in Central European countries between the 14th and 16th century...
in Hungary and Bohemia, whose dynastic claims were absorbed by the Habsburgs via the marriage of Louis' sister.
Decline of Hungary (1490-1526)
After the death of the absolutistAbsolute monarchy
Absolute monarchy is a monarchical form of government in which the monarch exercises ultimate governing authority as head of state and head of government, his or her power not being limited by a constitution or by the law. An absolute monarch thus wields unrestricted political power over the...
king Matthias Corvinus in 1490, the Hungarian magnates, who did not want another heavy-handed king, procured the accession of Vladislaus II
Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary
Vladislaus II, also known as Ladislaus Jagiellon ; was King of Bohemia from 1471 and King of Hungary from 1490 until his death in 1516...
(reigned 1490–1516), king of Bohemia, because of his notorious weakness: he was known as King Dobže, or Dobzse in Hungarian orthography (meaning “Good” or, loosely, “OK”) from his habit of accepting without question every petition and document laid before him. The freshly elected King Vladislaus II donated most of the royal estates, régales and royalties
Royalties
Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
to the nobility. By this method, the king tried to stabilize his new reign and preserve his popularity amongst the magnates. After the naive fiscal and land policy of the royal court, the central power began to experience severe financial difficulties, largely due to the enlargement of feudal lands at his expense. Vladislaus became the magnates' helpless "prisoner"; he could make no decision without their consent. The Black Army
Black Army of Hungary
The Black Army , "Black Legion" or "Regiment"—possibly named after their black armor panoply, see below) is, in historiography, the common name given to the military forces serving under the reign of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary...
of Matthias Corvinus was dissolved by the aristocracy. The magnates also dismantled the national administration systems and bureaucracy throughout the country. The country's defenses sagged as border guards and castle garrisons went unpaid, fortresses fell into disrepair, and initiatives to increase taxes to reinforce defenses were stifled. Hungary's international role declined, its political stability shaken, and social progress was deadlocked.
In 1514, the weakened old King Vladislaus II faced a major peasant rebellion led by György Dózsa
György Dózsa
György Dózsa was a Székely Hungarian man-at-arms from Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary who led a peasants' revolt against the kingdom's landed nobility...
, which was ruthlessly crushed by the nobles
Nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary
The origin of the nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary can be traced to the Magyar conquest of Pannonia in the 9th century, and it developed over the course of the Middle Ages...
, led by János Szapolyai. After the Dozsa Rebellion, the brutal suppression of the peasants greatly aided the 1526 Turkish invasion as the Hungarians were no longer a politically united people. The resulting degradation of order paved the way for Ottoman pre-eminence. In 1521, the strongest Hungarian fortress in the South, [Belgrade]]) fell to the Turks. The strongest nobles were so busy oppressing the peasants and quarrelling with the gentry class in the parliament that they failed to heed the agonized calls of King Louis II against the Turks. The early appearance of protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
further worsened the internal relations in the anarchical country.
The Hungarians had long opposed Ottoman expansion in southeastern Europe, but the fall of Nándorfehérvár
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
(hu
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
), (present-day Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
) and Szabács
Šabac
Šabac is a city and municipality in western Serbia, along the Sava river, in the historic region of Mačva. It is the administrative center of the Mačva District. The city has a population of 52,822 , while population of the municipality is 115,347...
in 1521 meant that most of southern Hungary was left indefensible. King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia
Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia
Louis II was King of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia from 1516 to 1526.- Early life :Louis was the son of Ladislaus II Jagiellon and his third wife, Anne de Foix....
, King of Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
and Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
, entered into marriage with Mary of Habsburg in 1522. The Ottomans saw that growing alliance as a threat to their power in the Balkans and worked to break this alliance. After Suleiman I came to power, the High Porte made the Hungarians at least one and possibly two offers of peace. It is unclear why Louis refused the offer. It is possible that King Louis was well aware of Hungary's situation (especially after the Battle of Chaldiran
Battle of Chaldiran
The Battle of Chaldiran or Chaldoran occurred on 23 August 1514 and ended with a victory for the Ottoman Empire over the Safavid Empire of Persia . As a result, the Ottomans gained immediate control over eastern Anatolia and northern Iraq...
and Polish-Ottoman peace from 1525) and he believed that war was a better option than peace. Even in peacetime the Ottomans raided Hungarian lands and conquered small territories (with border castles), but a final battle still offered a glimmer of hope. To such ends, in June 1526, an Ottoman expedition advanced up the Danube River.
European events, and the Franco-Ottoman alliance
King Francis I of FranceFrancis I of France
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...
was defeated at the Battle of Pavia
Battle of Pavia
The Battle of Pavia, fought on the morning of 24 February 1525, was the decisive engagement of the Italian War of 1521–26.A Spanish-Imperial army under the nominal command of Charles de Lannoy attacked the French army under the personal command of Francis I of France in the great hunting preserve...
on February 24, 1525, by the troops of Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
H.R. Emperor Charles V
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
. After several months in prison, Francis I was forced to sign the Treaty of Madrid.
In a watershed moment in European diplomacy, Francis came to an understanding with the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, which then led to a formal Franco-Ottoman alliance
Franco-Ottoman alliance
The Franco-Ottoman alliance, also Franco-Turkish alliance, was an alliance established in 1536 between the king of France Francis I and the Turkish ruler of the Ottoman Empire Suleiman the Magnificent. The alliance has been called "the first non-ideological diplomatic alliance of its kind between a...
.
The objective for Francis I was clearly to find an ally against the powerful Habsburg Emperor Charles V
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
, in the person of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman I was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1520 to his death in 1566. He is known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent and in the East, as "The Lawgiver" , for his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system...
. The Ottoman-French strategic, and sometimes tactical, alliance lasted for about three centuries. It did however cause quite a scandal in the Christian world.
To relieve the Habsburg pressure on France, Francis asked Suleiman to make war on the Holy Roman Empire, and the road from Turkey to the Holy Roman Empire led across Hungary. The request of the French king coincided nicely with the ambitions of Suleiman in Europe and gave him an incentive to attack Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
in 1526, leading to the Battle of Mohács.
Preparations
Pál Tomori
Pál Tomori was a Catholic monk and archbishop of Kalocsa, Hungary. He defeated an Ottoman army near Sremska Mitrovica in 1523....
, a valiant priest-soldier, was made Captain of Southern Hungary. The general apathy that had characterized the country forced him to lean on his own bishopric revenues when he started to repair and reinforce the second line of Hungary’s border defense system.
Three years later, an Ottoman army set out from Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
on April 16, 1526, led by Suleiman the Magnificent personally. The Hungarian nobles, who still did not realize the dimensions of the approaching danger, did not heed their King's call to the colours. Louis II ordered them to encamp on July 2, but no one reported on that day – not even the King. Only when Louis himself furnished an example with his appearance in the camp did things start to move. The Hungarian war council – without waiting for their reinforcements only a few days march away – made a serious tactical error by choosing the battlefield near Mohacs, an open but uneven plain with some swampy marshes.
The Hungarian army was divided into three main units: the Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
n army under John Zápolya
John Zápolya
John Zápolya was King of Hungary from 1526 to 1540. His rule was disputed by Archduke Ferdinand I, who also claimed the title King of Hungary between 1526 and 1540. He was the voivode of Transylvania before his coronation.- Biography :...
, charged with guarding the passes in the Transylvanian Alps, with between 8,000 and 13,000 men; the main army, led by Louis himself (beside numerous Spanish, German, Czech and Serbian mercenaries); and another smaller force, commanded by the Croatian
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
count Christoph Frankopan
Christoph Frankopan
Christoph Frankopans Brinjski, Croatian: Krsto Frankopan Brinjski, Hungarian: Frangepán Kristóf, Frankapan, Frangipani was a Croatian count from the noble House of Frankopan and ban of the region of Croatia in the Hungarian Medieval Kingdom in 1527 under the reign of the King John I of Hungary.-...
, numbering around 5,000 men. Due to geography, the Ottoman army's ultimate goal could not be determined until it was crossing the Balkan Mountains
Balkan Mountains
The Balkan mountain range is a mountain range in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The Balkan range runs 560 km from the Vrashka Chuka Peak on the border between Bulgaria and eastern Serbia eastward through central Bulgaria to Cape Emine on the Black Sea...
. Unfortunately for the Hungarians, by the time the Ottoman army had crossed, the Transylvanian and Croatian army was further from Buda
Buda
For detailed information see: History of Buda CastleBuda is the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest on the west bank of the Danube. The name Buda takes its name from the name of Bleda the Hun ruler, whose name is also Buda in Hungarian.Buda comprises about one-third of Budapest's...
than the Ottomans were. Contemporary historical records, though sparse, indicate that Louis preferred a plan of retreat, in effect ceding the country to Ottoman advances, rather than directly engaging the Ottoman army in open battle.
The Hungarian forces chose the battlefield, an open but uneven plain with some swampy marshes near Mohács
Mohács
Mohács is a town in Baranya county, Hungary on the right bank of the Danube.-History:Two famous battles took place there:# Battle of Mohács, 1526# Battle of Mohács, 1687...
leading down to the Danube. The Ottomans had been allowed to advance almost unopposed. While Louis waited in Buda, they had besieged several towns and crossed the Sava
Sava River
The Sava is a river in Southeast Europe, a right side tributary of the Danube river at Belgrade. Counting from Zelenci, the source of Sava Dolinka, it is long and drains of surface area. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia, along the northern border of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and through Serbia....
and Drava
Drava
Drava or Drave is a river in southern Central Europe, a tributary of the Danube. It sources in Toblach/Dobbiaco, Italy, and flows east through East Tirol and Carinthia in Austria, into Slovenia , and then southeast, passing through Croatia and forming most of the border between Croatia and...
Rivers. Louis assembled around 25,000 to 30,000 soldiers (with Croatian and Polish contingents and about 800-1000 soldiers of the Papal States) while the Ottoman army numbered around 50,000. The Ottomans are said to have numbered over twice as many — though this figure is exaggerated — and had up to 160 cannon. " The Hungarian army was arrayed to take advantage of the terrain and hoped to engage the Ottoman army piecemeal. The only advantage the Magyars had that day was that their troops were well-rested, while the Turks had just completed a strenuous march in scorching summer heat. But rather than attacking their fatigued enemy then, the Hungarians just watched as they struggled through the marshy terrain. It would have been "unchivalrous" to attack the enemy when they were not yet ready for battle.
Battle
Francis I of France
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...
at the Battle of Pavia
Battle of Pavia
The Battle of Pavia, fought on the morning of 24 February 1525, was the decisive engagement of the Italian War of 1521–26.A Spanish-Imperial army under the nominal command of Charles de Lannoy attacked the French army under the personal command of Francis I of France in the great hunting preserve...
mostly reliant on old fashioned heavily armoured knights on armoured horses (Gendarme knights
Gendarme (historical)
A gendarme was a heavy cavalryman of noble birth, primarily serving in the French army from the Late Medieval to the Early Modern periods of European History...
). The Hungarian line consisted of two lines, the first with a center of mercenary infantry and artillery and the majority of the cavalry on either flank. The second line was a mix of levy infantry and cavalry. The Ottoman army at the time was one of the most modern and professional armies in Europe , reliant on disciplined firearm-equipped infantry and artillery. To make up numbers the Ottomans deployed large numbers of irregular auxiliaries drawn from local provinces, but their effectiveness was limited and they were usually considered cannon fodder
Cannon fodder
Cannon fodder is an informal, derogatory term for military personnel who are regarded or treated as expendable in the face of enemy fire. The term is generally used in situations where soldiers are forced to deliberately fight against hopeless odds in an effort to achieve a strategic goal...
by the Ottoman commanders.
Like the uncertainty over the number of actual combatants, there is debate over the length of the battle. Its starting time is generally placed between 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM, but the endpoint is difficult to ascertain. While some historians have placed the length of the battle at two to three hours, this seems unlikely given several important factors. The Ottoman army did not retreat from the field and enter camp after the battle; instead, they remained on the field all night without food, water, or shelter. Given that the Ottoman historians all note that it was raining, it seems likely that had the battle been short and ended early in the afternoon, by 5:00 PM at the latest, the Sultan would have ordered his army to camp or at least to return to their baggage. The few reliable sources indicate that Louis left the field at twilight and made his escape under cover of darkness; since the sun would not have set until 6:27 PM on August 29, 1526, this would imply that the battle lasted significantly longer than two to three hours (perhaps as long as four or five), and so is one of the shortest-lasting of the history.
As the first of Suleiman's troops, the Rumelia
Rumelia
Rumelia was an historical region comprising the territories of the Ottoman Empire in Europe...
n army, advanced onto the battlefield, they were attacked and routed by Hungarian troops led by Pál Tomori
Pál Tomori
Pál Tomori was a Catholic monk and archbishop of Kalocsa, Hungary. He defeated an Ottoman army near Sremska Mitrovica in 1523....
. This attack by the Hungarian right was successful in causing considerable chaos among the irregular Ottoman troops, but even as the Hungarian attack pressed forward, the Ottomans rallied with the arrival of Ottoman regulars deployed from the reserves. While the Hungarian right advanced far enough at one time to place Suleiman in danger from Hungarian arrows that struck his cuirass
Cuirass
A cuirass is a piece of armour, formed of a single or multiple pieces of metal or other rigid material, which covers the front of the torso...
, the superiority of the Ottoman regulars and the timely charge of the Janissaries, the elite troops of the Ottomans, probably overwhelmed the attackers, particularly on the Hungarian left. The Hungarians took serious casualties from the skillfully handled Turkish artillery and musket volleys. The Hungarians could not hold their positions, and those who did not flee were surrounded and killed or captured. The result was a disaster, with the Hungarians advancing into withering fire and flank attacks, and falling into the same trap that John Hunyadi
John Hunyadi
John Hunyadi John Hunyadi (Hungarian: Hunyadi János , Medieval Latin: Ioannes Corvinus or Ioannes de Hunyad, Romanian: Iancu (Ioan) de Hunedoara, Croatian: Janko Hunjadi, Serbian: Сибињанин Јанко / Sibinjanin Janko, Slovak: Ján Huňady) John Hunyadi (Hungarian: Hunyadi János , Medieval Latin: ...
had so often used successfully against the Ottomans. The king left the battlefield sometime around twilight but was thrown from his horse in a river at Csele and died, weighed down by his heavy armor. Some 1,000 other Hungarian nobles and leaders were also killed. It is generally accepted that more than 14,000 Hungarian soldiers were killed in the initial battle.
In the aftermath, Suleiman gave orders to keep no prisoners
No quarter
A victor gives no quarter when the victor shows no clemency or mercy and refuses to spare the life in return for the surrender at discretion of a vanquished opponent....
. Next day he wrote in his diary: "The Sultan, seated on a golden throne, receives the homage of the viziers and the beys, massacre of 2,000 prisoners, the rain falls in torrents." Reportedly among those 2,000 were several notable Hungarian leaders. Suleiman could not believe that this small, "suicidal" army was all that once powerful country could muster against him, so he waited at Mohacs for a few days before moving cautiously against Buda.
Aftermath
The victory did not give the Ottomans the security they wanted. Though they entered the unguarded evacuated BudaBuda
For detailed information see: History of Buda CastleBuda is the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest on the west bank of the Danube. The name Buda takes its name from the name of Bleda the Hun ruler, whose name is also Buda in Hungarian.Buda comprises about one-third of Budapest's...
and pillaged the castle and surroundings, they retreated soon afterwards. It was not until 1541 that the Ottomans finally captured and occupied Buda (see main article) without fight. However, to all intents and purposes, the Battle of Mohács meant the end of the independent Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
as a unified entity. Amid political chaos, the divided Hungarian nobility
Nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary
The origin of the nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary can be traced to the Magyar conquest of Pannonia in the 9th century, and it developed over the course of the Middle Ages...
elected two kings simultaneously, János Szapolyai
John Zápolya
John Zápolya was King of Hungary from 1526 to 1540. His rule was disputed by Archduke Ferdinand I, who also claimed the title King of Hungary between 1526 and 1540. He was the voivode of Transylvania before his coronation.- Biography :...
in 1526, and Ferdinand I of Habsburg
Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1558 and king of Bohemia and Hungary from 1526 until his death. Before his accession, he ruled the Austrian hereditary lands of the Habsburgs in the name of his elder brother, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.The key events during his reign were the contest...
in 1527. The Ottoman occupation was contested by the Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
Archduke of Austria, Ferdinand I
Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1558 and king of Bohemia and Hungary from 1526 until his death. Before his accession, he ruled the Austrian hereditary lands of the Habsburgs in the name of his elder brother, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.The key events during his reign were the contest...
, Louis's brother-in-law and successor by treaty with King Vladislaus II
Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary
Vladislaus II, also known as Ladislaus Jagiellon ; was King of Bohemia from 1471 and King of Hungary from 1490 until his death in 1516...
.
Bohemia fell to the Habsburgs, who also dominated the Northern and western parts of Hungary and portions of today's Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
(Royal Hungary
Royal Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary between 1538 and 1867 was part of the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy, while outside the Holy Roman Empire.After Battle of Mohács, the country was ruled by two crowned kings . They divided the kingdom in 1538...
), while the Ottomans held central Hungary and suzerainty over semi-independent Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
. This provided the Hungarians with sufficient impetus to continue to resist the Ottoman occupation, which they did for another seventy years.
The subsequent near constant warfare required a sustained commitment of Ottoman forces, proving a drain on resources that the largely rural and war torn kingdom proved unable to repay. Christian armies besieged Buda several times during the 16th century, and Suleiman himself died of natural causes in Hungary during the Battle of Szigetvár
Battle of Szigetvár
The Siege of Szigetvár or Battle of Szigeth was a siege of the Szigeth Fortress in Baranya which blocked Suleiman's line of advance towards Vienna in 1566 AD...
in 1566; there were also two unsuccessful Ottoman sieges of Eger
Eger
Eger is the second largest city in Northern Hungary, the county seat of Heves, east of the Mátra Mountains. Eger is best known for its castle, thermal baths, historic buildings , and red and white wines.- Name :...
, which did not fall until 1596, seventy years after the Ottoman victory at Mohacs. The Turks proved unable to conquer the Northern and Western parts of Hungary which belonged to the Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
monarchs.
Legacy
Whilst Mohács was a decisive loss, it was the aftermath that truly put an end to independent Hungary. The ensuing two hundred years of near constant warfare between the two empires, Habsburg and Ottoman, turned Hungary into a perpetual battlefield. The countryside was regularly ravaged by armies moving back and forth, in turn devastating the population. Only in the 20th century would Hungary regain its political independence, but it has never regained its former political power.
The battlefield became an official national historical memorial site in 1976 on the 450th anniversary of the battle. The memorial was designed by architect György Vadász.