In From Nicopolis to Mohács, Tamás Pálosfalvi offers an account of Ottoman-Hungarian warfare from its start in the late fourteenth century to the battle of Mohács in 1526. During this period of one century and a half, the Kingdom of Hungary was the most constant and strongest rival of the expanding Ottoman Empire in Europe, and as such waged constant warfare in defence of its borders.
Based on the extensive use of hitherto unexplored source material, Pálosfalvi not only offers a sound chronology of military events, but also a description of Hungarian military structures and their transformation under constant Ottoman pressure, as well as an analysis of the reasons that lay behind the military breakdown of Hungary in the third decade of the sixteenth century.
Acknowledgements
A Note on Spelling
Figures and Maps
Introduction
1 Hungarian Military Organization, 1387–1526
1 The Inheritance: Political and Territorial Structures
2 The Angevin Legacy
3 Sigismund and his Reforms
4 The Armies of Hunyadi
5 King Matthias – The Myth of the Black Army
6 The Jagiellos: Adaptation under Pressure
2 The New Enemy: Hungary and the Ottomans, 1389–1429
1 The First Contacts between Hungary and the Turks
2 The Battle of Nicopolis
3 From Nicopolis to Golubac
4 The Siege of Golubac
3 From Golubac to Belgrade, 1428–1456
1 The Last Years of Sigismund
2 Albert to Wladislas i – Troubled Times
3 The First Ottoman Wars of Hunyadi, 1441–1443
4 The War of Illusions: The “Long March,” 1443–1444
5 The King’s Death: The Varna Campaign
6 The Last Offensive: The Battle of Kosovo Polje, 1448
7 On the Defensive: From Kosovo Polje to Belgrade, 1448–1456
8 The Siege of Belgrade, 1456
4 From Belgrade to Vienna: King Matthias and the Ottomans, 1458–1483
1 Securing the Borders, 1458–1466
1.1 Hungary and the Fall of Serbia, 1457-1459
1.2 Conflicting Views: King Matthias and Mihály Szilágyi, 1459-1460
1.3 The Return of Mehmed ii to the North
1.4 From Jajce to Zvornik, 1463-1464
1.5 “Passive Resistance”, 1465-1466
2 Turning West, 1467–1483
2.1 The Years of Disengagement, 1467-1475
2.2 The Siege of Šabac
2.3 Transylvania, Bosnia, Otranto, 1478-1482
5 The Wars of the “Long Peace,” 1483–1520
1 The Last Years of Matthias
2 From War to Peace, 1490–1495
3 A War that Nobody Wanted, 1499–1503
4 Shifting Alliances, 1508–1511
5 Under Pressure Again, 1511–1513
6 Towards the Edge of the Abyss, 1514–1520
6 The Collapse, 1521–1526
1 The Third Siege of Belgrade, 1521
2 Preparing for the Deluge: After Belgrade, 1522–1525
3 The Final Countdown, 1525–1526
4 The Battle of Mohács
7 Conclusion: Why Did Hungary Lose?
1 The Fall of Medieval Hungary, Part One: The Superiority of Ottoman Military Organization
2 The Fall of Medieval Hungary, Part Two: A Fiscal Breakdown
Bibliography
Index
