Everything about Battle Of Moh Cs totally explained
The
Battle of Mohács (or
mohácsi vész/Bane of Mohács; ; ; ; ; or
Mohaç Meydan Savaşı) was a
battle fought on
August 29,
1526 near
Mohács,
Hungary. In the battle, forces of the
Kingdom of Hungary led by King
Louis II were defeated by forces of the
Ottoman Empire led by Sultan
Suleiman the Magnificent.
The Ottoman victory led to the partition of Hungary for several decades between the Ottoman Empire, the
Habsburg Monarchy of
Austria, and the Principality of
Transylvania. The death of Louis II as he fled the battle marked the end of the
Jagiellon dynasty, whose dynastic claims were absorbed by the Habsburgs via the marriage of Louis's sister.
Background
The Hungarians had long opposed Ottoman expansion in southeastern Europe, but the fall of
Belgrade, and
Szabács in 1521 meant that most of southern Hungary was left indefensible. As a counter to growing Ottoman power,
Louis II, King of Hungary and
Bohemia, entered into marriage with
Mary of Habsburg in 1522, hoping to gain the aid of
Habsburg Austria in the looming war with the Ottomans. The Ottomans saw the growing alliance as a threat to their power in the Balkans and planned to break this alliance.
After
Suleiman I came to power the
High Porte made the Hungarians at least one and possibly two offers of peace. It is unclear why Louis refused the peace offer from the Ottomans. It is possible that
King Louis was well aware on Hungary's external policy scene (especially after the
Battle of Chaldiran and Polish-Ottoman peace from 1525) and he realised that war was a better option than peace. Even in peacetime the Ottomans raided Hungarian lands and conquered huge territories (with border castles) but a final battle still offered a glimmer of hope. To such ends in June 1526, an Ottoman expedition advanced up the
Danube River to attack.
Preparations
The loss of Belgrade in 1521 caused great alarm in Hungary, but the too late and too slowly recruited 60,000 strong royal army – led by the King - disbanded spontaneously under the pressure of hunger and disease without even trying to recapture Belgrade “the key of Hungary” from the newly installed Turkish garrisons.
In 1523 Archibishop
Pál Tomori, a valiant priest-soldier, was made Captain of Southern Hungary. The general apathy that had characterized the country forced him to lean on his own bishopric revenues when he started to repair and reinforce the second line of Hungary’s border defense system.
Five years later, a huge Ottoman army set out from Constantinople on April 16 1526, led by Suleiman the Magnificent personally. The Hungarian nobles, who still didn't realize the huge dimensions of the approaching danger, were not heeding their King's call to colors. Louis II ordered them to encamp on July 2, but no one reported on that day – not even the King! Only when Louis himself furnished an example with his appearance in the camp did things start to move.
The Hungarian war council – without waiting the reinforcements only few days march away – made a serious tactical error by choosing the battlefield near Mohacs, an open but uneven plain with some swampy marshes.
The Hungarian army was divided into three main units: the
Transylvanian army under
John Zápolya, charged with guarding the passes in the
Transylvanian Alps, with between 8,000 and 13,000 men; the main army, led by Louis himself (beside numerous spanish, german and czech mercenaries, as well as serbs); and another smaller force, commanded by the
Croatian count Christopher
Frankopan, numbering around 5,000 men. Due to geography, the Turkish army's ultimate goal couldn't be determined until it was crossing the
Balkan Mountains. Unfortunately for the Hungarians, by the time the Ottoman army had crossed, the Transylvanian army was further from
Buda than the Ottomans were. Contemporary historical records, though sparse, indicate that Louis preferred a plan of retreat, in effect ceding the country to Ottoman advances, rather than directly engaging the Ottoman army in open battle.
The Hungarian forces chose the battlefield, an open but uneven plain with some swampy marshes near
Mohács leading down to the Danube. The Ottomans had been allowed to advance almost unopposed. While Louis waited in Buda, they'd besieged several towns and crossed the
Sava and
Drava Rivers. Louis assembled around 25,000 to 28,000 soldiers while the Ottoman army numbered around 50,000 to 65,000. The Hungarian army was arrayed to take advantage of the terrain and hoped to engage the Ottoman army piecemeal.
The battle
Hungary had an expensive but obsolete structured army. (Similar to king Francis I. at battle of Pavia)
As with the uncertainty over the number of actual combatants, there's debate over the length of the battle. Its starting time is generally placed between 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM, but the endpoint is difficult to ascertain. While some historians have placed the length of the battle at two to three hours, this seems unlikely given several important factors. The Ottoman army didn't retreat from the field and enter camp after the battle; instead, the Ottomans remained on the field all night without food, water, or shelter. Given that the Ottoman historians all note that it was raining, it seems likely that had the battle been short and ended early in the afternoon, by 5:00 PM at the latest, the Sultan would have ordered his army to camp or at least to return to their baggage. The few reliable sources indicate that Louis left the field at twilight and made his escape under cover of darkness; since the sun wouldn't have set until 6:30 PM on
August 29 1526, this would imply that the battle lasted significantly longer than two to three hours (perhaps as long as four or five).
As the first of Suleiman's troops, the
Rumelian army, advanced onto the battlefield, they were attacked and routed by Hungarian troops led by
Pál Tomori. This attack by the Hungarian right was successful in causing considerable chaos among the Ottoman ranks, but even as the Hungarian attack pressed forward, the Ottomans rallied with the arrival of more Ottoman forces. While the Hungarian right advanced far enough at one time to place Suleiman in danger from Hungarian arrows that struck his
cuirass, the superiority of the Ottoman numbers and the timely charge of the
Janissaries, the elite troops of the Ottomans, probably overwhelmed the attackers, particularly on the Hungarian left. The Hungarians took many casualties from the skillfully handled Turkish artillery. The Hungarians couldn't hold their positions, and those who didn't flee were surrounded and killed or captured. The king left the battlefield sometime around twilight but was thrown from his horse in a river at Csele and died, weighed down by his armor. Some 1,000 other Hungarian nobles and leaders were also killed. It is generally accepted that more than 14,000 Hungarian soldiers were killed in the initial battle.
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