János Szapolyai

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This article is about the János Szapolyai. For his son, see John Zápolya II.

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János Szapolyai or János Zápolya (Croatian: Ivan Zapolja, Serbian: Јован Запоља, Jovan Zapolja) (2 February 1487 – July 22, 1540) was King of Hungary, he had a dispute with Archduke Ferdinand I, who also claimed the title King of Hungary between 1526 and 1540. He was the voivode of Transylvania before his coronation.

He was born at Spiš Castle. Szapolyai used the turbulent times of his era to enrich himself and secured a power base in Transylvania, later he was tasked with defeating the peasant rebellion of 1514 led by György Dózsa which he did showing extreme cruelty. On 29 August 1526, the army of Sultan Suleiman of the Ottoman Empire inflicted a decisive defeat on the Hungarian forces at Mohács. Szapolyai was en route to the battlefield with his sizable army but did not participate in the battle for unknown reasons. The youthful King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia fell in battle, as did many of his soldiers. The Ottomans proceeded to invest and ransack the royal capital of Buda and occupied Syrmia, then withdrew from Hungary. The last three months of the year were marked by a vacuum of power; political authority was in a state of collapse, yet the victors chose not to impose their rule.

Two candidates stepped into the breach. One was Szapolyai, Transylvania's voivode and Hungary's most prominent aristocrat also commander of an intact army; the other, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, who was the late king's brother-in-law and the brother of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. Their contest for power would determine the course of Hungary's history, and that of Transylvania as well, for the region's fate was intimately tied in these crucial decades to that of the mother country.

The majority of Hungary's ruling elite backed Szapolyai, who for fifteen years had been playing a leading role in Hungarian political life. Part of the aristocracy acknowledged his leadership, and he enjoyed the enthusiastic support — not always reciprocated — of the lesser nobility. Most of his opponents succumbed at Mohács: the Hungarian branch of the Jagiellon dynasty became defunct, and its pro-Habsburg following was decimated.

A small minority of aristocrats sided with Ferdinand. The German dynasty's main argument — one that many historians would judge to be decisive — was that it could assist Hungary against the Ottoman Turks, although, in 1526, the promise rang empty. Hungary had been fighting the Ottomans for over a century, during which time the Holy Roman Empire and the House of Habsburg had offered much encouragement but no tangible help. The likelihood of assistance was further reduced by the conflict of Ferdinand's older brother, Emperor Charles V, and King Francis I of France that once again flared into open war in the summer of 1526. This circumstance led the voivode to discount the threat lurking behind the Habsburgs' candidacy: that Hungary would have to contend not only with the Ottomans, but also with an attack from the west.

Thus Szapolyai took no notice of his rival's protests, nor of those voiced by the few Hungarians who rallied to Ferdinand. On 10 November 1526, Szapolyai had himself proclaimed king by the diet at Székesfehérvár, and he was duly crowned the next day under the name King John I of Hungary.

Profiting from nine months of relative calm, King John I strove to restore state authority. He drew on his vast private wealth, the unconditional support of the lesser nobility, and the assistance of some aristocrats to impose his policies in domestic affairs. However, in the crucial sphere of foreign relations, success eluded him. He sought an entente with the Habsburgs, proposing to form an alliance against the Ottomans, but Archduke Ferdinand, who had himself elected king by a rump diet in December 1526, rejected all attempts at reconciliation. Hungary's envoys fanned out across Europe in quest of support. Only in France did they find a positive response, but even that was ineffective since Francis I was intent not on reconciling Hungary and the Habsburgs, but on drawing Hungary into a war against Charles V and his family.

Europe's political balance underwent a major shift in the summer of 1527, when, in a somewhat unplanned operation, mercenary forces of the emperor occupied Rome and drove Pope Clement VII, one of France's principal allies, to capitulate. This development freed Ferdinand — who also acquired the Bohemian throne in late 1526 — from the burden of assisting his brother. By then, Ferdinand had developed a Hungarian policy that was fully in keeping with the interests of his realms. He judged that if Hungary, unable to resist the Ottomans, took action independently of Austria and Bohemia, it might well enter into an alliance with the preponderant Ottoman Empire against its western neighbours. It was therefore in the interest of the Austrian hereditary provinces and of the Bohemian crown lands that the Habsburgs gain control of Hungary, by force if necessary.

In July 1527, an army of German mercenaries invaded Hungary. The moment was well chosen, for the forces of Zápolya were tied up in the southern counties, where Slavonic peasants, incited by Ferdinand, had rebelled; the revolt was led by the 'Black Man', Jován Cserni. In one sweep, the invaders captured Buda. Zápolya hurriedly redeployed his army, but on 27 September, near Tokaj, it suffered a bloody defeat.

Szapolyai managed to get a sizable following as King of Hungary, despite the association with the Ottomans which tainted him at the time. In 1538, by the Treaty of Varad, Ferdinand was designated as Zápolya's successor, after his death. After Zápolya's death in Szászsebes (Sebeş), his son John II Sigismund Zápolya succeeded him as King of Hungary and an Ottoman vassal. He is also well-known among the Turks, who considered him a loyal friend of Suleiman the Magnificent.

Zápolya's wife Isabella Jagiełło claimed the throne after John's death in the period of 1556 – 1559.

János I Zápolya House of Zápolya Born: 1487 2 February Died: 1540 July 22
Regnal titles
Preceded by Unknown	Voivode of Transylvania 1511 – 1526	István Báthory von Somlyó
Preceded by Louis II	King of Slavonia 1526 – 1540	Succeeded by Ferdinand I
	King of Hungary 1526 – 1540 contested by Ferdinand I	János II Sigismund contested by Ferdinand I
Notes and references
1. Regnal Chronologies