War and Game

Twice in the sixteenth century, foolish military initiatives by young monarchs led to the end of their lives and of the independence of important states. Sebastian of Portugal was crushed by the Moroccans at Alcazarquivir in 1578. In 1526, Louis II of Hungary confronted the powerful forces of Suleiman the Magnificent. Although Suleiman had set off in April 1526, bad weather delayed his crossing of the river Drava until late August. The Hungarians, however, in part due to slow preparations, were divided, poorly led and short of infantry, and they failed either to contest the Drava crossing or to retire to Buda and allow the Ottomans to exhaust their resources in a difficult siege. Instead they deployed behind the Borza, a small tributary of the Danube, and rather than waiting on the defensive, their heavy cavalry advanced.


The Hungarian charge (1) pushed back the Ottoman sipahis (cavalry) of Rumelia, but halted when Turkish troops advanced on their flank. Louis then led the remainder of his cavalry in a second attack which drove through the sipahis of Anatolia, but was stopped by the janissaries and cannon. Their fITe caused havoc, and the Hungarians, their dynamism spent, were then attacked in front and rear by the more numerous Turkish forces. Louis and most of his aristocracy died on the battlefield or in the nearby Danube marshes, Louis drowning while trying to swim across a river in armour, and few of his army escaped (3). Suleiman swept on to Buda, which fell ten days later. The days of independent Hungary were numbered. Louis had no children, and his inheritance was to be contested by his brother-in-law Archduke Ferdinand and by the Ottomans. Suleiman, however, initially decided not to annex Hungary but rather to accept the suggestion by John Zapolya, Prince of Transylvania, who was opposed to the Habsburgs, that he and his supporters be left in control in return for an acknowledgement of Ottoman suzerainty and a payment of tribute. Zapolya was chosen King of Hungary at the Tokay diet in 1527, but the Habsburgs under Ferdinand defeated him in 1527, leading to renewed Ottoman intervention in 1528-29.