August 29, 1526.
For years, turmoil spread across European courts.
The unprecedented expansion of the Ottoman Empire to Europe's east unnerved every ruler.
Subjugating and controlling large parts of the Balkan and the Middle East, the Empire
began focusing on Central Europe.
One of the first bulwarks standing in their way was the once-mighty Hungarian Kingdom.
The Hungarians had fought multiple wars against the Ottomans in the decades before.
But this invasion, culminating in the epic Battle of Mohacs, would change the course
of Hungarian, Ottoman, and frankly, European history, for centuries to come.
[Intro]
One of the greatest battles in Hungarian history occurred on this vast, open, and uneven plain.
Ask any Hungarian about Mohacs, and they will know what you are talking about.
The battle was a watershed moment in the history of Hungary, and, frankly, Central Europe and
the Ottoman Empire.
When the Ottomans invaded, the young Hungarian King and his commanders assembled most of
the Hungarian nobility and their soldiers.
What followed was a figurative and literal decapitation of Hungary's nobility and the
Kingdom as a whole.
And it all happened here, on this field.
[Hungary's decline]
In 1489, Hungary's King Mattias Corvinus ruled the country for nearly 32 years.
The so-called Hungarian Renaissance, during his reign, saw him attempt to close the gap
in culture, law, urban development, habits and customs compared to Western European countries.
Relatively speaking, the country blossomed.
It was recognised as a bulwark against the Ottomans and a central trading route from
Russia and the Middle East.
Internationally, Mattias was respected by friends, and feared by enemies.
Out of self-preservation, the nobility rallied around him, despite the high taxes he levied
to maintain his permanent mercenary army and lavish court life.
He died in 1490, marking the outbreak of a fierce succession crisis.
It set in motion the country's rapid decline.
There was no heir apparent - Mattias wanted his illegitimate son John to ascend to the
throne.
The nobility preferred a pliable King, and when other pretenders joined the struggle,
they picked the weakest link.
Vladislas II Jagiellon was elected as a concession.
Notoriously weak-willed, the barons expanded their power and reversed some of the reforms
passed under Mattias.
To maintain the aristocracy's goodwill, Vladislaus bestowed many royal domains and sources of
income.
He was lukewarm at best when it came to state affairs.
His nickname was "Dobze", referring to his tendency to say "Yeah, all right" whenever
the nobles proposed whatever to him.
Miklos Molnar writes:
"Vladislas seems to have spent twenty-six years saying 'Yes, yes' to unbelievable waste
and to the impoverishment of the state, not to mention decay in his own court.
(...) Sometimes, the royal couple had to rely upon the goodwill of the great lords even
for their daily meals.
Without financial contributions from the Holy See and from Venice, the Hungarian state would
have been unable to pay the soldiers on the military frontiers exposed to Turkish attack.
The celebrated 'black army', now unpaid, were driven to exactions.
(...) The destruction of the glorious army ensued.
Perhaps, too, this army posed a threat to the oligarchs."
The magnates managed to have their tax burden slashed while that of the common folk increased.
As a result, peasants found themselves driven back to serfdom, and border defences decayed.
Unrest spread, and division flourished.
Realising they were being pushed back down, lower nobility attempted to unite under the
popular voivode of Transylvania, Janos Szapolyai.
He tried to break the power monopoly by the barons and hoped to succeed Vladislas after
his death.
Cracks emerged in every segment of Hungary's society.
At the same time, a new crusade against the Ottomans was organised.
In April 1514, a 40.000-strong peasant army assembled in Pest, ready to depart to war.
Led by Gyorgy Dozsa, the maltreatment by landlords during their march towards Transylvania resulted
in a widespread peasant revolt.
The weak and old King ordered them to disband, to no avail.
Parts of Hungary, mainly the south and Tisza region, saw mansions plundered and nobles
murdered.
Dozsa laid siege to Temesvar.
Szapolya led the suppression of the revolt.
He brutally crushed the rebels, and Dozsa's execution entered history books thanks to
its cruelty.
Laws were drafted, subjugating the peasantry.
They were decisively thrown into serfdom.
These laws would not be revoked until the 1848 Revolution.
If it wasn't already obvious, the country was regressing.
It should be noted that despite it formally being peacetime, Ottoman raids and incursions
against Hungary's frontiers, and retaliatory action, happened more often than not.
[Towards Mohacs]
Vladislas passed away in 1516.
His ten-year-old son Lajos II ascended to the throne.
With firmly entrenched barons at court, the young boy could hardly make decisions himself.
During his tenure, trouble brewed in the south.
And it rapidly heated up.
Whereas his predecessor mainly focused on the east, Suleyman I, Sultan of the Ottoman
Empire, turned his attention to the west.
In 1521, the strategically important Belgrade fell.
This caused a shockwave in Hungary and Central Europe.
But due to the domestic turmoil, no adequate response materialised.
Despite his young age, the King understood the significant danger.
One year later he married Mary of Habsburg.
The Ottomans viewed this strategic marriage as a danger to their expansionist goals.
They weren't too wrong.
Lajos' brother-in-law, Archduke Ferdinand, sent troops to Hungary to curb Ottoman encroachment.
But Hungarian nobility was all but pre-occupied with the looming Ottoman danger.
Thanks to the regressive state the country was in, the Ottomans enjoyed a relatively
smooth expansion.
One year after Belgrade, they seized Orsova.
In 1524, they conquered Szoreny.
Large parts of the Danube fell under Ottoman control, and fortresses rapidly surrendered
after each other.
The energetic warrior-priest, Kaloca's archbishop Pal Tomori, was appointed Captain of southern
Hungary.
Using his own funds, he began rebuilding the neglected southern defences.
Still, the road to Buda was largely undefended.
Despite his best efforts, international developments made them futile.
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V defeated King Francis I of France at the Battle of Pavia.
France's defeat directly led to the Franco-Ottoman alliance.
Francis requested Suleyman wage war against the Holy Roman Empire.
To do so, the Ottomans had to go through Hungary.
Aligning perfectly with Suleyman's ambitions, another incentive for invading Hungary was
added to the list.
In April 1526, a massive army led by Suleyman left Istanbul, marching north.
Hungary was under direct threat.
Hungarian mobilisation was sluggish at best.
King Louis departed from Buda with 4000 soldiers.
In Transylvania, Szapolya assembled a 10.000-strong army.
And in the southwest, the Croatian count Christoph Frankopan commanded some 5000 soldiers.
When Louis reached Mohacs, the army had grown to 25.000 men.
The reluctant Tomori took command.
The majority of Hungary's lords, barons and counts were present.
The only ones absent were Frankopan's and Szapolyai's men, still marching from their
respective directions.
They would not reach the battlefield in time.
The Hungarians camped nearby Mohacs, awaiting the Ottoman arrival.
This took longer than expected, but after a long and gruelling march in the summer heat,
the Ottomans finally arrive in late August.
[Battle Formations]
The Hungarians commanded some 25.000 soldiers.
The vast majority of Hungary's nobility was present, mainly in the form of heavy cavalry.
Their regular army was augmented by German, Swiss, and Italian mercenaries and a 1500-strong
contingent of Polish soldiers and knights.
They had 85 cannons at best.
Still, a significant number at the time.
At dawn, they deployed in two main lines.
The mercenary infantry, some 12.000, held the centre vanguard and artillery, flanked
by cavalry.
The right flank consisted of 6000 horsemen, commanded by Ban of Croatia, Dalmatia and
Slavonia, Ferenc Battyany.
The left wing consisted of 3000 horsemen commanded by Baron Peter Perenyi.
Behind them stood a much smaller mix of infantry and cavalry.
Most heavy cavalry and nobles concentrated in this line around the King.
The Ottomans outnumbered the Hungarians.
Sources indicate their army might have numbered up to 80.000 regular troops, augmented by
irregular auxiliaries.
Janissaries led their well-trained army.
They deployed their lesser trained irregulars on the left flank.
They deployed among the largest forces of artillery seen at that time—some 300 cannons.
Though sources aren't clear, their army likely centred around the artillery and janissaries.
The battlefield at Mohacs was an open, uneven plain bordered by marshes in the east.
[Battle sequence]
At around 1 PM that day, Suleyman's Rumelian troops on the Ottoman left marched onto the
plain.
Pal Tomori did not give them a chance to deploy and his right flank immediately launched the
attack.
In a lightning charge, Tomori surprised the soldiers.
They heavily clashed and impacted the lines.
As a result, several Rumelian units were routed.
The Ottomans retreated initially.
Confident the victory was theirs, the Hungarians pushed the attack.
Reportedly, Hungarian bullets struck Sultan Suleyman's armour at one point.
But their attack turned out to be a crucial mistake.
As Tomori was pushing his advantage, the Ottoman right - including the Janissaries, cavalry
and artillery, swerved around the Hungarian right flank.
Tomori was overextended.
During the skirmish, the Ottomans readied their cannons and artillery.
Then, the Janissaries charged against the entire Hungarian line.
Especially the Hungarian left was heavily impacted, as the remainder of the Ottoman
army launched the assault.
Then, artillery volleys tore into their lines.
Suddenly, the Hungarians found themselves surrounded.
Mauled from every side, the lines wavered.
During the fighting Tomori was slain.
Left-and-right Hungarian knights and soldiers were massacred.
The battle lasted between two and four hours from the beginning to the end.
Finally, the Hungarian army was scattered and dislodged.
The King and a few surviving nobles fled the battlefield.
The Hungarian casualties were enormous.
It is estimated they lost 15.000 men.
Among them, 1000 were nobles: 20 to 28 barons, seven prelates, and two archbishops (among
them Pal Tomori), died.
King Louis drowned during his retreat - he fell in a river wearing his armour.
Up to 2000 Hungarian prisoners were executed in the Aftermath of the battle.
Text: "...the' king also after they had fought for about an hour and a half, started running
with his followers, and was striving towards Pécs, - but while running in a forded brook,
whose name is Krassó, or Csele brook, when his horse was running to the' other bank,
not being able to bear his burden, fell backwards into the' post, and drowned the' king in it
in the 22nd year of his life..."
" "The body of Louis II, which a fisherman had buried on the shore of the Chelyabinsk,
was taken out and prepared in a manner befitting a king, and buried..."
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
[Aftermath]
The Battle of Mohacs is among Hungary's greatest national tragedies.
The enormous losses among the nobility decapitated the ruling class, who was ready to defend
the country against foreign interference.
The reasons for the defeat differ from whoever you ask.
There is a lively historical debate still ongoing.
Among the reasons, surely, was the decaying of society, the extortion of the country and
the lack of investments in its defences.
Another significant reason was the underestimation of the Ottoman Empire.
The frontiers with the Ottomans had been relatively stable for over half a century.
So perhaps the defenders became complacent.
Suleyman initially couldn't believe this was the army supposed to defeat him.
He waited at Mohacs for several days, expecting the real army to arrive at any time.
This did not happen, and he executed Hungarian prisoners en-masse to kill time.
From Mohacs, there was barely if any resistance to Pest.
Suleyman moved in on the capital unopposed.
After sacking the city, he retreated south again.
But the lack of opposition showed the dire situation Hungary found itself in.
Lajos did not have any children, and as he drowned, Hungary did not have a ready successor
King.
His death meant Hungary entered a political vacuum.
Janos Zapolya and Ferdinand I Habsburg contested the crown, while Suleyman was in a fantastic
position to seize whatever territory he wanted.
It wasn't until 1541 that the country was decisively split into three parts.
For the next century-and-a-half, the Ottoman Empire controlled a large part of the country,
including its capital, Buda.
Transylvania became a vassal principality, while the Habsburg dominions absorbed Western
Transdanubia.
Centuries of conflict and resistance against both Habsburg and Ottoman overlords followed.
The battle decisively turned a new page in Hungary's history.
All, on this field in current-day southern Hungary.
Thank you very much for watching this video.