The Battle of Mohács

The Battle of Mohács in 1526 fundamentally changed the history of Central Europe. It led to the collapse of the Kingdom of Hungary, opened the way for further Ottoman conquests, and the death of the Czech and Hungarian King Louis Jagiellon allowed the Habsburgs to build their own Central European monarchy.

Based on Hungarian, Turkish, Czech, Polish and Italian sources, the book reconstructs the campaign of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I and the battle itself in a compelling way. It explains why Louis failed to prepare the country for the attack and why his numerically weaker army was bloodily defeated despite initial success. Special attention is paid to the fate of the young king, where a single bad jump by his horse influenced the history of Central Europe for centuries to come…

The book also describes the Hungarian struggle against Ottoman expansion, the political situation of the Czech-Hungarian union, and the decline of the fortress line on the southern border. The author also returns to contentious questions: Could the defeat have been prevented with a different strategy? What role did John Zápolya play? And why did Christian Europe leave Hungary without any significant help? The story of Mohács is thus not only a picture of bravery and sacrifice, but also of selfishness, pride, and the devastating consequences of imperial ambitions.

This full-colour publication is supplemented by dozens of often rare illustrations and overview maps.