In a disastrous battle in 1526 at Mohács (S. Central Hungary) the Ottoman Turks, under Suleyman I, defeated the main Hungarian army. The young Hungarian king Louis II (b. 1506), too, lost his life in the final hours of the fight.
After the battle, the Hungarian nobility elected János Zápolya king (1526-1540), whereas the Diet (session of parliament), in Pozsony (Bratislava, Slovakia today), voted Habsburg Ferdinand I (1526-1564). The rivalry lasted until 1538, when Ferdinand I, who was already a Bohemian king, emerged victorious.
Although not the first Habsburg on the Hungarian throne, he opened a steady chain of Habsburg kings. It directly led to the events of 1848.
After the Battle of Mohács (1526), the country had hoped that, through control over much of Europe, the Habsburgs would have the resources and will to effectively curb and throw back Ottoman conquests.
The wisdom of that belief has been debated since, as the Turks gradually swallowed up over half the country, while showing mixed respect for Hungarian sovereignty — some considering Hungarians as (more or less) equal to Austrians, others regarding the country a colony. The mercurial Habsburg behavior had caused revolts at times, such as that led by Ferenc Rákóczi II in 1703. A brief revolt by the Jacobin priest Ignácz Martinovics was another signal of malcontent (1774).
In 1848, Emperor King Ferdinand V was waffling between these extremes, facing the rise of nationalism in his polyglot empire — in Italy, in Bohemia and, as we shall see, in Hungary.
As “national” languages were replacing the official Latin, and demands for abolishing serfdom widespread, the stage was set for reforms.
Prelude
1848
- February: Europe seethes — Paris, Vienna revolt
- March 3: Kossuth's address, the "April laws"
- March 13: events in Pest
- March 13-14: Revolt in Vienna
- March 15: Rally in Pest, the Revolution
- March 18
- March 23
- March 29: King Ferdinand V equivocates
- April 11
- April 12: first responsible Hungarian government
- April 21
- May 10: Slovak demands
- May: The Serb Movement
- May 17: Transylvania developments
- May 21: Foundation of the Honvéd (Hungarian National Army)
- May 24: Kossuth issues banknotes ("bankók")
- June 12: the Diet moves to Pest
- July 11
- July 8: Archduke Palatine Stephen addresses the Diet
- September 9: Diet committee presented to Ferdinand
- September 10: Vienna equivocates, new decree
- September 11: Jellačić leads the Croat-Slavonian army into Hungary
- September: The Croatian Invasion
- September 21: Battle of Pákozd
- September 25: Count Lamberg appointed, Batthyány removed
- October 3
- October 6
- October 30: Vienna uprising, battle of Schwechat
- November 21
- December 2: Ferdinand abdicates, Franz Joseph succeeds; Schwarzenberg takes over
- December 13
- Transylvania, 1848
- Croatia and Hungary
1849
- January: war begins
- Government moves to Debrecen
- February 4
- March: "War of the generals"
- The "March Constitution"
- April 1849: battles in Central Hungary
- May 1
- June: Escalation
- July: retreat to Szeged
- Szolnok
- August: Overwhelmed
- September 5
- September 12
- September 17
- September 27
- September: "in exile"
- October 2
- October 10
- October 24
- October 6
- October: Retribution
- Martyrs of Arad
- Epilogue
