The Battle of Tarcal or Battle of Tokaj was a battle fought on 27 September 1527 between the Habsburg-German-Hungarian forces of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor

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...

 and an opposing Hungarian army under the command of János Szapolyai. Taking place near Tokaj

Tokaj

Tokaj , is a historical town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Northern Hungary, 54 kilometers from county capital Miskolc. It is the centre of the famous Tokaj-Hegyalja wine district where the world famous Tokaji wine is produced.- History :...

, the encounter culminated in the defeat of Szapolyai's forces.

Background

Following the death of Hungarian King Louis II

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....

at the Battle of Mohács

Battle of Mohács

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....

, Hungarian nobility elected Szapolyai as their new king. Others, however, including the Croats

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...

, elected then Austrian Archduke Ferdinand to the post, and conflict began.

The battle

Szapolyai's army, numbering around 7-8000 men, consisted of mainly Hungarian, Transylvanian, and Croatian forces. The army led by Ferdinand, including his own Hungarians supporters, numbered 18 000 men, though 6000 were under the command of Niklas Graf Salm and Bálint Török

Bálint Török

Count Bálint Török de Enying was a Hungarian aristocrat, Ban of Nándorfehérvár , and between 1527-1542 the Lord of Csesznek.-Sources:*Bessenyei József: A Héttorony foglya* Magyarország történeti kronológiája Count Bálint Török de Enying (1502–1551) was a Hungarian aristocrat, Ban of Nándorfehérvár...

. On 26 September Szapolyai encamped near Tokaj. German forces engaged with, and defeated a small Szapolyai contingent in a skirmish near Sajólád

Sajólád

Sajólád is a village in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County in northeastern Hungary....

.

On 27 September intensive fighting broke out as Szapolyai attempted to decisively defeat Ferdinand's forces. His attempt was stymied, however, when Croatian troops overwhelmed the Styrian forces manning his army's right wing, while German and Austrian mercenaries swept through Szapolyai's cavalry. Hungarian hussars fighting for Ferdinand then broke through the central ranks of Szapolyai's army, seized his camp, and drove his remaining soldiers to the river Tisza

Tisza

The Tisza or Tisa is one of the main rivers of Central Europe. It rises in Ukraine, and is formed near Rakhiv by the junction of headwaters White Tisa, whose source is in the Chornohora mountains and Black Tisa, which springs in the Gorgany range...

.

Aftermath

After his defeat at the hands of Ferdinand's forces, Szapolyai retreated to Oradea

Oradea

Oradea is the capital city of Bihor County, in the Crișana region of north-western Romania. The city has a population of 204,477, according to the 2009 estimates. The wider Oradea metropolitan area has a total population of 245,832.-Geography:...

, where he raised a new army. Ferdinand thought he conquered all of Hungary, but in 1528 was confronted by Szapolyai once more, this time coming from from 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...

. At the Battle of Szina

Battle of Szina

The Battle of Szina took place near Seňa in present-day Slovakia. The battle was fought on March 20, 1528, between King János Szapolyai of Hungary, and Austrian forces under command of Bálint Török and Johann Katzianer, a Styrian mercenary commander of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor...

 Ferdinand once again defeated Szapolyai, who fled to Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

. Szapolyai would later ask for the help 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...

, who, in 1529, obliged by dislodging the Germans of Hungary and besieging Vienna

Siege of Vienna

The Siege of Vienna in 1529 was the first attempt by the Ottoman Empire, led by Suleiman the Magnificent, to capture the city of Vienna, Austria. The siege signalled the pinnacle of the Ottoman Empire's power, the maximum extent of Ottoman expansion in central Europe, and was the result of a...

.

Sources

• Sándor Szilágyi: History of the Hungarian Nation (A Magyar Nemzet Története)
• Military History of Hungary, Editor: Ervin Liptai Zrínyi Military Publisher, Budapest
  Budapest
  Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
  
  1985. ISBN 9633263379