Ottoman and Hungarian Wars

1. Ottoman–Hungarian wars
Text Wikipedia,
slideshow Anders Dernback

2. Background
In the century after the death of Osman I in 1326, Ottoman rule began to extend
over the eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans, slowly at first and later in
earnest. Gallipoli was captured in 1354, severing the Byzantine Empire from its
continental territories the important city of Thessaloniki. Making it larger than
London at the time. (with a greater population than London at the time) was
captured from the Venetians in 1387, and the Turkish victory at the Battle of
Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving
the way for Ottoman expansion into the rest of Europe.

3. Ottoman
Empire

4. Rise (c. 1299–1453)
Ottoman Empire As the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia
was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities
known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of
Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish
tribal leader Osman I (d. 1323/4), a figure of obscure origins from
whom the name Ottoman is derived. Osman's early followers consisted
both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, with many but
not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality
by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River. A Byzantine
defeat at the Battle of Bapheus in 1302 contributed to Osman's rise as
well. It is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to
dominate their neighbours, due to the lack of sources surviving from this
period. The Gaza Thesis theory popular during the twentieth century
credited their success to their rallying of religious warriors to fight for
them in the name of Islam, but it is now highly criticised and no longer
generally accepted by historians, and no consensus on the nature of the
early Ottoman state's expansion has replaced it

5. In the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and
the Balkans. Osman's son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in
1326, making it the new capital of the Ottoman state and supplanting Byzantine control in
the region. The important port city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387
and sacked. The Ottoman victory in Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian
power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe. The Battle of
Nicopolis in 1396, widely regarded as the last large-scale crusade of the Middle Ages,
failed to stop the advance of the victorious Ottoman Turks. As the Turks expanded into the
Balkans, the conquest of Constantinople became a crucial objective. The Ottomans had
already wrested control of nearly all former Byzantine lands surrounding the city, but the
strong defence of Constantinople's strategic position on the Bosphorus Strait made it difficult
to conquer. In 1402, the Byzantines were temporarily relieved when the Turco-Mongol
leader Timur, founder of the Timurid Empire, invaded Ottoman Anatolia from the east. In the
Battle of Ankara in 1402, Timur defeated the Ottoman forces and took Sultan Bayezid I as
a prisoner, throwing the empire into disorder. The ensuing civil war.

6. The Balkan territories lost by the Ottomans after 1402, including Thessaloniki, Macedonia,
and Kosovo, were later recovered by Murad II between the 1430s and 1450s. On 10
November 1444, Murad repelled the Crusade of Varna by defeating the Hungarian,
Polish, and Wallachian armies under Władysław III of Poland (also King of Hungary) and
John Hunyadi at the Battle of Varna, although Albanians under Skanderbeg continued to
resist. Four years later, John Hunyadi prepared another army of Hungarian and Wallachian
forces to attack the Turks, but was again defeated at the Second Battle of Kosovo in
1448. The son of Murad II, Mehmed the Conqueror, reorganized both state and military,
and on 29 May 1453 conquered Constantinople. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the
Ottoman Empire entered a period of expansion.
Sultan Selim I (1512–1520) dramatically expanded the Empire's eastern and southern frontiers by
defeating Shah Ismail of Safavid Iran, in the Battle of Chaldiran. Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–1566)
captured Belgrade in 1521, conquered the southern and central parts of the Kingdom of Hungary as part
of the Ottoman–Hungarian Wars.
Ottoman forces besieged the Spanish garrison of Castelnuovo in 1539. France and the Ottoman Empire,
united by mutual opposition to Habsburg rule, became strong allies. The French conquests of Nice (1543)
and Corsica (1553) occurred as a joint venture between the forces of the French king Francis I and
Suleiman.

7. The extent of the
Ottoman Empire in
1566, upon the
death of Suleiman
the Magnificent

8. Vlad the Impaler
Vlad III, known as Vlad the Impaler (Vlad
Dracula Vlad Drăculea 1428/31 – 1476/77),
was Voivode of Wallachia three times
between 1448 and his death. He is often
considered one of the most important
rulers in Wallachian history and a national
hero of Romania.
He was the second son of Vlad Dracul,
who became the ruler of Wallachia in
1436. Vlad and his younger brother, Radu,
were held as hostages in the Ottoman
Empire in 1442 to secure their father's
loyalty. Vlad's father and eldest brother,
Mircea, were murdered after John
Hunyadi, regent-governor of Hungary,
invaded Wallachia in 1447.

9. Lands ruled around 1390 by Vlad the Impaler's grandfather,
Mircea I of Wallachia (the lands on the right side of the
Danube had been lost to the Ottomans before Vlad's reign)

10. Hungarian defenders in Belgrade (1456)
part of the Ottoman Wars in Europe
Ottoman–Hungarian wars
The Ottoman–Hungarian Wars were a
series of battles between the Ottoman
Empire and the medieval Kingdom of
Hungary. Following the Byzantine Civil
War, the Ottoman capture of Gallipoli, and
the decisive Battle of Kosovo, the
Ottoman Empire was poised to conquer
the entirety of the Balkans and also
sought and expressed desire to expand
further north into Central Europe
beginning with the Hungarian lands.

11. Siege of Belgrade
(in Hungarian:
Nándorfehérvár) 1456.
Hünername 1584

12. Crusades of Varna
Initial Hungarian success culminated in the Crusade of Varna, though without
significant outside support the Hungarians were defeated. Nonetheless the
Ottomans suffered more defeats at Belgrade, even after the conquest of
Constantinople. In particular, the notorious Vlad the Impaler, with limited Hungarian
help, resisted Ottoman rule until the Ottomans placed his brother, a man less
feared and less hated by the populace, on the throne of Wallachia. Ottoman
success was once again halted at Moldavia due to Hungarian intervention, but the
Turks finally succeeded when Moldavia and then Belgrade fell to Bayezid II and
Suleiman the Magnificent, respectively.

13. Fortress of
Belgrade as
it looked in
the Middle
Ages. The
lower and
upper town
with the
palace are
visible.

14. 1526 the Ottomas crushed the Hungarian army
In 1526 the Ottomans crushed the Hungarian army at Mohács with King Louis II of
Hungary perishing along with 50,000 of his armored knights. Following this defeat,
the eastern region of the Kingdom of Hungary (mainly Transylvania) became an
Ottoman tributary state, constantly engaged in civil war with Royal Hungary. The
war continued with the Habsburgs now asserting primacy in the conflict with
Suleiman and his successors. The northern and most of the central parts of
Hungary managed to remain free from Ottoman rule, but the Kingdom of Hungary,
the most powerful state east of Vienna under Matthias I, was now divided and
constantly threatened by Ottoman ambitions in the region.

15. The Battle of Nicopolis,
as depicted by
Turkish miniaturist

16. Result
Date1366–1526
Location
Central Europe (Kingdom of Hungary), Eastern Europe (Moldavia),
Balkans (Bulgaria, Kosovo, Serbia, and Wallachia)
Result
Ottoman victory, Hungarian Kingdom partitioned, war continues
between the Habsburgs and Ottomans
Flag of Ottoman Empire
Flag of Hungary

17. Ottoman Empire 1300 - 1683
Territorial expansion of the
Ottoman Empire from 1300
until its greatest extent in
1683.

18. Balkans and Turkish wars of Louis I of Hungary
In 1344 Louis I of Hungary, who would rule from 1342–1382 and earn the epithet
"the Great", invaded Wallachia and Moldavia and established a system of
vassalage.
Louis and his 80,000 strong army repelled the Serbian Dušan's armies in the
duchies of Mačva and principality of Travunia in 1349. When Czar Dušan broke into
Bosnian territory he was defeated by Bosnian Stjepan II with the assistance of
Louis' troops, and when Dušan made a second attempt he was decisively beaten by
Louis in 1354. The two monarchs signed a peace agreement in 1355.
The Battle of Nicopolis, as depicted by Turkish miniaturist
His latter campaigns in the Balkans were aimed not so much at conquest and
subjugation as at drawing the Serbs, Bosnians, Wallachians and Bulgarians into the
fold of the Roman Catholic faith and at forming a united front against the Turks.

19. 1352 - 1365
It was relatively easy to subdue the Balkan Orthodox countries by arms, but to
convert them was a different matter. Despite Louis' efforts, the peoples of the
Balkans remained faithful to the Eastern Orthodox Church and their attitude toward
Hungary remained ambiguous. Louis annexed Moldavia in 1352 and established a
vassal principality there, before conquering Vidin in 1365. The rulers of Serbia,
Walachia, Moldavia, and Bulgaria became his vassals. They regarded powerful
Hungary as a potential menace to their national identity. For this reason, Hungary
could never regard the Serbs and Wallachians as reliable allies in subsequent wars
against the Turks.

20. Spring 1365
In the spring of 1365, Louis headed a campaign against the Bulgarian Tsardom of
Vidin and its ruler Ivan Sratsimir. He seized the city of Vidin on 2 May 1365; the
region was under Hungarian rule until 1369.
In 1366 Byzantine Emperor John V visited Hungary to beg for help against the
Ottoman Turks, who were in increasing conflict with the Balkan vassal states.
The Battle of Nicopolis (25 September 1396) is thought to be the first encounter
between Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, where a broad alliance of Christian
monarchs and the Knights Hospitaller were crushed by a numerically superior
Turkish army under their 4th Sultan Bayazid I.

21. Timur and the Ottoman Interregnum
Despite these successes the Ottomans were dealt a major setback when at Ankara
in 1402 Timur the Great of the Timurid Empire defeated and captured the Ottoman
Sultan Bayezid the Thunderbolt (so named for the speed of his crushing victories
against his Christian opponents, most notably at Nicopolis). After a decade of
internecine battles, Mehmed I emerged victorious and reestablished the Ottoman
Empire and Byzantine Emperor accepted its vassalship and agreed to pay tribute.
The Ottoman Interregnum, or the Ottoman Civil War (20 July 1402 – 5 July 1413; Turkish:
Fetret Devri, "Interregnum Period"), was a civil war in the Ottoman Empire between the sons
of Sultan Bayezid I following the defeat of their father at the Battle of Ankara on 20 July 1402.
Although Muhammad Çelebi was confirmed as sultan by Timur, his brothers İsa Çelebi, Musa
Çelebi, Süleyman Çelebi, and later, Mustafa Çelebi, refused to recognize his authority, each
claiming the throne for himself. Civil war was the result. The Interregnum lasted a little under
11 years until the Battle of Çamurlu on 5 July 1413, when Muhammad Çelebi emerged as
victor, crowned himself Sultan Mehmed I, and restored the empire.

22. Musa and Suleyman
Late 16th-century
depiction of Musa
and Suleyman, facing
each other
Prince Isa and Prince
Muhammad
Civil war broke out among the
sons of Sultan Bayezid I upon
his death in 1403. His oldest
son, Süleyman, with his capital
at Edirne, ruled the recently
conquered Bulgaria, all of
Thrace, Macedonia and
northern Greece.

23. Campaigns of Murad II, 1421–1451
Murad II, the successor to Mehmed I, proved to be a man of far greater military
skills then his peaceful predecessor. In 1422, no longer professing suzerainty to
the Byzantines, he laid siege to Constantinople, which narrowly avoided
becoming an Ottoman conquest. However he had managed to capture lands
surrounding Constantinople.[citation needed]
With Byzantium no longer a threat, Murad II began his war against his Christian
opponents, attacking Macedonia and capturing Thessalonika from the Venetians
in 1430. Between 1435 and 1436 the Ottomans made a show of strength in
Albania, but the country survived due to intervention from the Kingdom of
Hungary, whose borders now neared those of the Ottoman Empire.

24. Campaigns of John Hunyadi
In the 1440s and 1450s, the Hungarian military leader John Hunyadi became the
key architect of campaigns against the Ottoman Empire. In 1441 he scored a
pitched battle victory at Semendria over Ishak Bey. The following year, he
annihilated an Ottoman force invading Transylvania at Sibiu.[citation needed]
Following this victory, Wallachia again accepted the suzerainty of the Kingdom of
Hungary.[citation needed] With the help of knights from western Europe, Hunyadi
succeeded in capturing Nis on November 3, 1443, defeating another Turkish army
as they crossed the Balkan Mountains and then taking another victory on Christmas
Day. Because supplies for the Crusader army were low, Hunyadi concluded a ten-
year peace treaty with Murad II, presumably on Hunyadi's terms, for it was the
triumphant Hungarian that entered Buda in February 1444. Ten years was the
maximum time permitted by Islamic law for a treaty with an "infidel". The peace was
short lived, as Cardinal Julian Cesarini incited the Hungarians to break the treaty
and attack the Turks once more. However, much of the Crusader armies' strength
had been reduced due to the loss (by defection) of Serbia, Albania and the
Byzantine Empire.

25. Battle of Varna
The Crusader army attacked across the Danube. Murad, upon hearing of the
Christian breach of the treaty, is said to have mounted the broken treaty on his
standard and said the words, "Christ, if you are God as your followers claim,
punish them for their perfidy. The two armies met on November 10, 1444 near
Varna in eastern Bulgaria. Accounts vary as to how many troops were present but
the Crusaders may have been 30,000 strong whilst the Ottoman forces were two
to three times larger. Nonetheless, Hunyadi's successful defense wagons held the
line until King Ladislas led a charge to his death against the Turkish lines. His head
was mounted on a spear where all the defeated Crusaders could see it. Few
Crusaders survived the battle, although Hunyadi did escape with his life.

27. After Varna
The Hungarians recovered their strength after Varna and Hunyadi was able to lead
another expedition down the Danube. Turkish counter-attacks saw this "crusade"
driven back. After Murad dealt with the Greeks at the Peloponesse and others who
had fought him at Varna, he turned his attention to Albania, whose leader, once an
Ottoman hostage, was now a popular resistance leader. Hunyadi could not refuse
an offer to fight the Turks and in 1448 an army of some 24,000 Hungarians
marched south into Serbia. At the Second Battle of Kosovo Murad scored another
victory against the Hungarians. This time, Hunyadi had had enough and was
unable to campaign against the Ottoman Sultan. Murad II passed on his powers to
his successor, Mehmed II. Thanks to such victories, the Ottoman forces were able
to capture Constantinople in 1453 with only the Italians offering minimal support to
the Byzantines.

28. Battle of Belgrade 1456
Meanwhile, the Ottoman issue had again become acute, and, after the fall of
Constantinople in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II was rallying his resources to subjugate
Hungary. His immediate objective was Nándorfehérvár (today Belgrade).
Nándorfehérvár was a major castle-fortress, and a gatekeeper of south Hungary.
The fall of this stronghold would have opened a clear way to the heart of Central
Europe. Hunyadi arrived at the Siege of Belgrade at the end of 1455, after settling
differences with his domestic enemies. At his own expense, he restocked the
supplies and arms of the fortress, leaving a strong garrison there under the
command of his brother-in-law Mihály Szilágyi and his own eldest son László
Hunyadi. He proceeded to form a relief army, and assembled a fleet of two hundred
ships. His main ally was the Franciscan friar, Giovanni da Capistrano, whose fiery
oratory drew a large crusade made up mostly of peasants. Although relatively ill-
armed (most were armed with farm equipment, such as scythes and pitchforks) they
flocked to Hunyadi and his small corps of seasoned mercenaries and cavalry.

29. Battle of
Nándorfehérvár,
Hungarian
painting from the
19th century. In
the middle
Kapisztrán János
with the cross in
his hand.

30. Siege of Belgrade (1456)
The Siege of Belgrade, Battle of Belgrade or Siege of Nándorfehérvár (Hungarian:
nándorfehérvári diadal; lit. "Triumph of Nándorfehérvár") was a military blockade of
Belgrade that occurred from July 4–22, 1456. After the fall of Constantinople in
1453, the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror rallied his resources in order to
subjugate the Kingdom of Hungary. His immediate objective was the border fort of
the town of Belgrade (in Hungarian: Nándorfehérvár). John Hunyadi, the Count of
Temes and captain-general of Hungary, who had fought many battles against the
Turks in the previous two decades, prepared the defenses of the fortress.
The siege escalated into a major battle, during which Hunyadi led a sudden
counterattack that overran the Ottoman camp, ultimately compelling the wounded
Mehmed II to lift the siege and retreat. The battle had significant consequences, as
it stabilized the southern frontiers of the Kingdom of Hungary for more than half a
century and thus considerably delayed the Ottoman advance in Europe.

31. July 1456 the flottillia destroyed the Ottoman fleet
On July 14, 1456 the flotilla assembled by Hunyadi destroyed the Ottoman fleet. On
July 21, Szilágyi's forces in the fortress repulsed a fierce assault by the Rumelian
army, and Hunyadi pursued the retreating forces into their camp, taking advantage of
the Turkish army's confused flight from the city. After fierce but brief fighting, the
camp was captured, and Mehmet raised the siege and returned to Constantinople.
With his flight began a 70-year period of relative peace on Hungary's southeastern
border.
However, plague broke out in Hunyadi's camp three weeks after the lifting of the
siege, and he died on August 11. He was buried inside the (Roman Catholic)
Cathedral of Alba Iulia (Gyulafehérvár), next to his younger brother John. Sultan
Mehmet II paid him tribute: "Although he was my enemy I feel grief over his death,
because the world has never seen such a man."

32. Turkish wars of Matthias Corvinus (1458–1490)
Hunyadi's son Matthias Corvinus was crowned king in Buda in 1458 at the age of
15. In 1471 Matthias renewed the Serbian Despotate in south Hungary under Vuk
Grgurević for the protection of the borders against the Ottomans. In 1479 an
Ottoman army, on its return home from ravaging Transylvania, was annihilated at
Szászváros (modern Orăştie, 13 October 1479) in the Battle of Breadfield. The
following year Matthias recaptured Jajce, drove the Ottomans from northern Serbia
and instituted two new military banats, Jajce and Srebernik, from reconquered
Bosnian territory.
Military actions of Matthias Corvinus and the Black ArmyIn 1480 an Ottoman fleet
seized Otranto in the Kingdom of Naples. At the earnest solicitation of the pope
Matthias sent the Hungarian general, Balázs Magyar, to recover the fortress, which
surrendered on 10 May 1481. Again in 1488, Matthias took Ancona under his
protection for a while, occupying it with a Hungarian garrison.

33. Battle of
Breadfield

34. Wallachian and Moldavian wars 1456 - 1475
Mehmed II's post-Constantinople troubles escalated further when the Balkan
principality of Wallachia under Count Vlad III Dracul rebelled against the Ottoman
Empire and declared the King of Hungary as his suzerain. The main drive for these
actions was Vlad's return to his homeland after being in exile as a hostage of the
Ottoman sultan. In 1461, five years after his return, Vlad initiated war with the Turks
when he impaled the Turkish ambassadors demanding tribute from him and took
the fortress of Giurgiu. Vlad then began a bloody assault across the Danube to the
Black Sea, destroying as many of the ports as he could to prevent Ottoman naval
attacks. Ottoman attempts to subdue Vlad militarily proved a failure, but his cruelty,
which had terrorized his enemies, proved to be his undoing. When Mehmed offered
the populace the choice of Vlad or his brother Radu, the populace chose Radu and
soon Vlad was again an exile on the run. An attempt to return a few years
afterwards ended in his death in battle.

35. Military actions of Matthias Corvinus
and the Black Army
The Black Army (Hungarian: Fekete sereg),
also called the Black Legion/Regiment –
possibly after their black armor panoply – is
a common name given to the military forces
serving under the reign of King Matthias
Corvinus of Hungary. The ancestor and core
of this early standing mercenary army
appeared in the era of his father John
Hunyadi in the early 1440s. The idea of the
professional standing mercenary army came
from Matthias' juvenile readings about the
life of Julius Caesar.

36. A knight from
the Black Army

37. Stephen the Great and war against Moldavia, 1475–1476
Mehmed's army seems to have spent itself in Wallachia for the campaign against
the Moldavians was shorter and yielded poorer results. In 1475 Mehmed ordered
an invasion of Moldavia. Again, the Ottomans often took possession of the field but
Moldavian hit-and-run tactics proved effective against the Turks. Poor roads further
slowed the Ottomans until Stephen the Great was able to concentrate his forces at
Vaslui. An Ottoman offensive was held in check and then finally driven from the
field on 10 January 1475.
The Ottomans returned in 1476, this time assisted by their allies from Crimea, the
Tartars and their newly conquered Vassal of Wallachia. Stephen knew that he did
not have the resources to defend his people and evacuated them to the mountains.
After a failed attack on the Ottoman vanguard Stephen seemed on the brink of
defeat when King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary offered assistance. The Ottomans
withdrew when the Hungarians began moving in and fighting did not resume until
1484.

38. Bayezid II 1481–1512
The early reign of Bayezid II included a small civil war against his brother Jem,
who escaped to the west. There European leaders entertained ideas of installing a
pro-Western sultan while sending a crusade to the Balkans. Consequently,
Bayezid did not incite any serious wars with his Christian opponents until his
brother's death in 1495. In the meantime Bayezid signed a ten-year peace with
Hungary in 1484, although this did not prevent a defeat of an Ottoman army at
Villach in 1493. Between 1484 and 1486 Bayezid campaigned annually against
Moldavia in an attempt to subdue it and link up with Crimea, his Muslim vassal and
ally. Despite two defeats in 1485 and 1486 Moldavia was subjugated. As Bayezid's
reign drew to a close he was entangled in a civil war between his sons Ahmed and
Selim. Eventually Selim took the throne in 1512 and for the next eight years
continued minor conquests in the west, although his main achievement was the
conquest of the Mamluke Sultanate. It would be Selim's successor, Suleiman who
would continue the war against Hungary.

39. Campaigns of Suleiman the Magnificent, 1520–1566
Suleiman the Magnificent resumed the war
against Hungary by attacking the city of
Belgrade, the same settlement that had defied
Mehmed II over half a century earlier. Despite
strong resistance, the city fell to Suleiman. In
1522 Suleiman took his army to a strategically
successful siege of Rhodes, allowing the
Knights Hospital to evacuate for the fort.
6 November 1494 – 6 September 1566), commonly known
as Suleiman the Magnificent in the West and Kanunî
Sultan Süleyman (Ottoman "Suleiman the Lawgiver") in
his realm, was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the
Ottoman Empire from 1520 until his death in 1566. Under
his administration, the Ottoman state ruled over at least 25
million people.

40. Discovery of
the Corpse of
King Louis II
When Suleiman
launched an invasion in
1526 the Grand Vizier
constructed a great
bridge ahead of the
Sultan allowing his army
to march into Hungary.
Despite eighty days of
marching and taking five
days to cross the
Danube River, the
Ottomans met no
resistance from the
Hungarians

41. Battle of Mohács
Louis II (Czech: Ludvík, Croatian: Ludovik, Hungarian: Lajos,
Slovak: Ľudovít; 1 July 1506 – 29 August 1526) was King of
Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia from 1516 to 1526. He was
killed during the Battle of Mohács fighting the Ottomans,
whose victory led to the Ottoman annexation of Hungary. He
had no legitimate issue.
The original plan of Hungarian King Louis II had been to
send a vanguard to hold the Danube where the
Ottomans were expected to cross, yet the nobles of the
Kingdom refused to follow the King's deputy in battle,
claiming that they did so out of zealous allegiance to
the King (and would therefore only follow him).
Consequently, when King Louis II took the field his
army of 36,000 men seemed to be doomed to fail
against the Ottomans' 80,000.

42. Battle of Mohács
At Mohács the plains of Hungary allowed the heavier
Christian knights to launch an effective charge. As the
Hungarian knights brushed aside first the Akinjis and
then the Sipahis, the Ottoman cavalry regrouped and
flanked the Knights inflicting a moderate amount of
casulties. The Sultan then placed his Janissaries and
cannon into position chained up as an effective line .
The Hungarian cavalry took serious casualties from the
skilfully handled Turkish artillery. With the cavalry
annihilated, the infantry suffered immense casualties as
the weight of numbers of the Ottomans and their skill in
battle took their toll. When Suleiman the Magnificent
found the body of Louis II he is said to have been
saddened by his untimely death.

43. After Zapolya's death
Zápolya would rule Hungary until his death in 1540. Following his demise, Hungary
was split into three parts. The north-west (present-day Slovakia, western
Transdanubia and Burgenland, western Croatia and parts of north-eastern present-
day Hungary) remained under Habsburg rule; although initially independent, later it
became a part of the Habsburg Monarchy under the informal name Royal Hungary.
The Habsburg Emperors would from then on be also crowned as Kings of Hungary.
The Women of Eger
The eastern part of the kingdom (Partium and Transylvania) became at first an
independent principality, but gradually was brought under Turkish rule as a vassal
state of the Ottoman Empire. The remaining central area (most of present-day
Hungary), including the capital of Buda, became a province of the Ottoman Empire.

44. Nikola Šubić
Zrinski's Charge
from the Fortress
of Szigetvár

45. Siege of Eger (1552)
Siege of Eger (1552)
The Siege of Eger occurred during the 16th century
Ottoman Wars in Europe. In 1552 the forces of the
Ottoman Empire led by Kara Ahmed Pasha laid
siege to the Castle of Eger, located in the northern
part of the Kingdom of Hungary, but the defenders
led by István Dobó repelled the attacks and
defended the castle. The siege has become an
emblem of national defense and patriotic heroism in
Hungary.

46. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Severni_bedem3.jpg
North wall of the
Belgrade Fortress from
the 17th century

48. Hungary

49. A map of the lands ruled by Louis

50. From a small noble family in
Transylvania, John Hunyadi grew
to become one of the country's
most powerful lords, thanks to his
outstanding capabilities as a
mercenary commander. In 1446,
the parliament elected him
governor (1446–1453), then regent
(1453–1456). He was a successful
crusader against the Ottoman
Turks, one of his greatest victories
the Siege of Belgrade in 1456.
Hunyadi defended the city against
the onslaught of the Ottoman
Sultan Mehmed II.

51. In April 1443 King Vladislaus and his barons decided to
mount a major campaign against the Ottoman Empire.
With the mediation of Cardinal Cesarini, Vladislaus
reached a truce with Frederick III of Germany, who had
been the guardian of the child Ladislaus V. The armistice
guaranteed that Frederick III would not attack Hungary in
the subsequent twelve months.
Envoys from Ragusa (Dubrovnik, Croatia) were the first
to have informed the Hungarian leaders of the
preparations that Mehmed II had made for an invasion
against Hungary. In a letter addressed to Hunyadi,
whom he styled as "the Maccabeus of our time", the
papal legate, Cardinal Juan Carvajal made it clear that
there was not much chance of foreign assistance against
the Ottomans. With the Ottomans' support, Vladislav II
of Wallachia even plundered the southern parts of
Transylvania in late 1455.

52. The national
hero
Along with his
son Matthias
Corvinus,
Hunyadi is
considered a
Hungarian
national hero
and praised as
its defender
against the
Ottoman threat

53. The eastern part of the kingdom (Partium and Transylvania) at first became an
independent principality, but was gradually brought under Turkish rule as a
vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. The remaining central area (most of
present-day Hungary), including the capital of Buda, became a province of the
Ottoman Empire. Much of the land was devastated by recurrent warfare. Most
small Hungarian settlements disappeared. Rural people living in the new
Ottoman provinces could survive only in larger settlements known as Khaz
towns, which were owned and protected directly by the Sultan. The Turks were
indifferent to the Christian denominations practiced by their Hungarian subjects.
Eastern part of the kingdom Partium and Transylvania