Battle of Mohács
From Free net encyclopedia
Current revision
- This article explains the better-known Battle of Mohács of 1526. There was also another battle in the same locality in 1687.
{{Infobox Military Conflict
|conflict=Battle of Mohács
|partof=the Ottoman-Hungarian war
|image=
|caption=
|date=August 29, 1526
|place=Mohács, Baranya, south of Budapest, Hungary
|result=Decisive Ottoman victory
|combatant1=Ottoman Empire
|combatant2=Kingdom of Hungary
|commander1=Suleiman I
|commander2=Louis II of Hungary
Pál Tomori
|strength1=50,000–60,000
300 cannons
|strength2=26,000
John Zápolya's 8000, plus Frangepán's 5000 men-strong army did not arrive to the battlefiled in time.
|casualties1=16,000
|casualties2=23,000
}}
Template:Campaignbox Ottoman-Hungarian War
The Battle of Mohács (Hungarian: mohácsi csata or mohácsi vész, Turkish: Mohaç Savaşı or Mohaç Meydan Savaşı) was fought on August 29, 1526 between the Hungarian army led by Louis II and the Ottoman army led by Suleiman the Magnificent.
The Hungarians had long opposed Ottoman expansion in southeastern Europe. The marriage of Louis to Maria of Austria in 1522 drew the kingdom closer to the Habsburgs and the Ottomans saw the need to break this nascent alliance; after Louis refused a peace offer, the Ottomans decided to use military power. In June 1526, an Ottoman expedition advanced up the Danube to attack.
The Hungarian army was divided into three main units: The Transylvanian army with its battle task of guarding the passes in the Transylvanian Alps, the main army led by King Louis himself and another smaller force, commanded by Count Christopher Frangepan. As a result of the Kingdom's geographical position the Turkish army's final goal could not be determined until it was crossing the Balkan Mountains. But at this point the Transylvanian army was further from Buda than the Ottoman were. Some theories says that Zapolya's army couldn't arrive in time, others that he had a share in the King's failure...
The Hungarian forces chose the battlefield, an open but uneven plain leading down to the Danube, with some swampy marshes. The Ottomans had been allowed to advance almost unopposed. While Louis waited in Buda, they had besieged several towns and crossed the Sava and the Drava. Louis had assembled around 26,000 soldiers and the Ottoman army was around 50,000–60,000. The Hungarian army was arrayed to take advantage of the terrain and hoped to engage the Ottoman army piecemeal.
The actual battle lasted only two hours. As the first of Suleiman's troops, the Rumelian army, advanced onto the battlefield at 13:00 they were attacked and routed by Hungarian troops led by Pál Tomori. But as the main Ottoman force arrived in the early afternoon (around 14:00) the situation quickly changed. At one time Suleiman himself was in danger, from Hungarian arrows that struck his cuirass. Slow to reinforce the successes on their right, the Hungarian advance became irretrievably exposed. They could not last and those who did not flee were surrounded and killed or captured. Louis left the battlefield but was thrown from his horse in a river at Csele and died there. The most decisive factor in the battle was the Ottoman artillery, which mowed the Hungarians down in their thousands. More than 16,000 Hungarian soldiers were killed in the initial battle and a similar number of Ottomans. More than 1000 of the Hungarian nobility were slain.
The Sultan, more expedient than chivalrous, gave orders to keep no prisoners. Two days later he wrote in his diary "The Sultan receives the homage of the viziers and the beys, massacre of 2,000 prisoners, the rain falls in torrents."
The victory did not give the Ottomans the security they wanted. The battle meant the end of the independent Kingdom of Hungary, but the Ottoman forces withdrew in September and the territory was contested by the Habsburg Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, Louis's brother-in-law and successor by treaty with King Ladislaus. While Austria dominated the northern third and portions of today's Croatia, the Ottomans obtained southwestern Hungary and suzerainty over semi-independent Transylvania, using these inroads to move against independent Hungarian nobles in the east and Austrian possessions in the northwest, beginning with the siege of Vienna.
Image:Mohacs Monument at the Battlefield 2004.JPG
This battle is sometimes compared to the battles of Nicopolis and Crécy in the 14th century, where slow knights in heavy armor suffered major defeats at the hands of less armored opposition equipped with ranged weapons.
With this newly secured base in eastern Europe, The Ottoman Empire's efficient light cavalry and cannon would continue to launch advances into central Europe for decades. Their influence in Hungary, beginning with their support for John Zápolya against Ferdinand, continued until the Treaty of Karlowitz.
Mohács is seen by many Hungarians as the decisive downward turning point in the country's history, one which would prove to become a national trauma. To this day, Hungarians refer to this battle over 400 years ago to remind themselves how bad things could be. Similar to the English phrase of "don't cry over spilled milk," Hungarians state that "more was lost at Mohács" (Több is veszett Mohácsnál) when they experience bad luck.
Source: Lord Kinross The Ottoman Centuriesaf:Slag van Mohács cs:Bitva u Moháče de:Schlacht_bei_Mohács_(1526) es:Batalla de Mohacs hu:Mohácsi csata ja:モハーチの戦い nl:Slag bij Mohács pl:Bitwa_pod_Mohaczem no:Slaget ved Mohács (1526) pt:Batalha de Mohács sk:Bitka pri Moháči