ANST - FW: Musing on August 29th -- Know Mohacs

[j'lynn yeates]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


- -----Original Message-----
From: Ellsworth Weaver [mailto:astroweaver at yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2000 22:50
To: 2thpix at surfari.net
Subject: Musing on August 29th -- Know Mohacs


Dear Folk,

Today, August 29, marks the anniversary of a battle which lasted only
few hours. In it was lost a king, a country, and the objective of the
winner. August 29,1526 was the battle of Mohacs. This was the
critical
battle that sealed the fate of Hungary, which had been the "Shield of
Christianity" against the Ottoman menace for over 200 years.

Louis II, King of Hungary and of Bohemia was born July 1, 1506 to
Vladislas II.. Louis was a sickly youth but he was smart. Vladislas
only had one son and to make sure that he would succeed to the
throne,
Vlad had Louis crowed king of Hungary in 1508 and king of Bohemia in
1509. He was made king-in-fact at the tender age of 9 upon the death
of
his father  He was declared of age to rule on December 11, 1521 (at
fifteen!) and got married the next January to Maria of Austria.

Okay, he was fifteen, a newlywed and king of two countries. Party on!
That was exactly what he and his new bride did.  Pretty soon folks in
Hungary and Bohemia said that maybe the young king need not worry
himself with affairs of state while he was on his honeymoon (or even
longer.)

Four years later, in the summer of 1526, the countries need every
leader they could get. They had visitors: the Ottoman Turks, lead by
Suleyman the Magnificent.

When Suleyman acceded to the throne in 1520, the Ottoman Empire,
extending over three continents, was larger than any European state.
Twelve to thirteen million inhabitants would be a conservative
estimate
of its population. As a comparison, the population of Hungary was
around four million at the time. The Ottoman Turks had conquered
Gallipoli, Constantinople, all of the Byzantine world, Egypt, and
even
the Mamluks. Understand that these were smart, careful planning, kick
butt dudes. Every year their empire expanded and maintained. They had
already taken a large part of what is now Romania and Bulgaria and
made
them vassal states.

Now as strange as it might seem, Suleyman had no desire to conquer
Hungary. He set the Danube and Sava rivers as the boundaries of his
tremendous empire, and did not intend to advance beyond them  What he
did want is that Hungary stay Ottoman-friendly and not buddy up with
the Habsburgs (or Hapsburgs). In essence, Hungary would be a nice
buffer state to keep those pesky Holy Roman Emperors away from what
Suleyman considered his territory. The Danube was a fine natural
boundary. Hungary, no offense, would be more trouble than it was
worth
to conquer and hold. All Suleyman wanted was for the Hungarians to
play
nice.

The Hungarians were in no mood to cuddle with the Moslems. The Turks
had been raiding, raping, pillaging and generally being very annoying
along the border. Hungary was going broke. It was like being bitten
to
death by Chihuahuas. Defense was expensive and sapping. No big help
from anyone seemed forthcoming. And when the hammer came down, as all
Hungarians seemed to believe was coming, Hungary would hardly be a
gnat
on the Turkish windshield. Add finally to that, you have to realize
that these folks did consider themselves the "shield of
Christianity."
Play nice? Eat my steel!

Further complicating matters was that Maria of Austria, Queen of
Hungary, was a Habsburg and sister to Ferdinand Habsburg, King of
Austria, and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. See how Louis was
squeezed?
Here is his snuggle-bunny and her folks all saying hold the fort.
Suleyman saying keep away from them Habsburgs or we will whack you.
Louis was just a teenager in love.

Suleyman took his troops north and regretfully took charge. The exact
number of Turkish troops varies from account to account. Some list it
at one million. Most are more inclined to say 70,000 to 80,000
combat-ready troops with extras handling the wagons and camels. Some
of
the best of the lot were called Janissaries.

Small aside, Janissaries were a standing Ottoman Turkish army,
originally organized by Murad I. They were troops made up of captured
infidels (lots of Christians), converted to Islam and then given
impressive training. This was before Navy Seals but you get the idea.
Special laws that cut them off from civil society regulated the daily
lives of Janissaries. They were elite, hard to beat.

Louis got the word that the Turks were coming. He sounded the alarm
and
started off calling for 1/2 the peasants to enlist (as opposed to the
normal 1/5). Later he had a bloody sword passed around as a signal
that
every man Jack of them should turn out. Cool symbol! He even said
that
the lepers should enlist but keep to their own unit. So it was do or
be
done to for the Hungarians.

The battle field chosen by the Hungarians was across a river the
Turks
had to cross. It was a large field pretty much devoid of trees and
shrubs but had some gullies in it.  Louis and his generals set up at
the end of the field while across from them was a sort of a terrace.
It
would be something which the Turks would have to descend to get to
the
Hungarians. The slope was steep and slippery. It had been raining for
days before. The terrace also dropped off into a bog on the
Hungarians’
left.. Louis and company had figured that Suleyman’s troops would be
straggling into position well behind the terrace and would come
piecemeal into the jaws of the Hungarian forces.

Brings us to a point: how many Hungarians did Louis II command?
Again,
even the witnesses had no idea. There were serfs and peasants,
knights,
infantry, cavalry, bishops, nobles, cannon. You name it, they were
out
there. Best estimates say Louis had about 30,000 to 50,000 combat
forces there. They were hot to fight.

The first of Suleyman’s troops, the Army of Rumelia, arrived hot and
tired, came down the slope on the Hungarians’ right side. Louis’
general, Tomori, sent King Louis’ bodyguard to scout out the
situation.
When word came back that these folks were setting up tents, Tomori
had
the cavalry troops charge the right flank. They soon had routed the
Moslems. In fact, part of that troop made it close to Suleyman
himself.
However, Suleyman’s main force led by the great Ibrahim, arrived soon
after. They had with them the Janissaries and the Janissaries had
guns.


The center force was led by King Louis. They got off to a late start
due to a mix-up in communications. The cavalry and infantry arrived
just in time to be overwhelmed by the fleeing right flank. The
Janissaries were coming down the slippery slope and doing it quicker
than seemed possible. Actually, Suleyman’s engineers had laid down
special ramps to help them get down there and fight.

The left flank held back until it was much too late. Most of the
Hungarians around Louis stayed and died. Louis was spirited off of
the
battle field but was thrown in the stream when his horse reared.
Louis
drowned in his armour. The battle lasted from about 2 PM until 6 PM.

The estimated losses on the Hungarian side were about 20,000 to
50,000
including Tomori. Suleyman beheaded the surviving prisoners. The
bodies
they piled in mass graves. The Moslems searched the battlefield in
hopes that Louis was still alive. After all, with whom would Suleyman
sign a peace treaty?

After the battle, Hungary was without a king. Louis and Maria did not
have any kids. The Diet (Parliament) voted for Ferdinand I to be
king.
The nobles wanted Janos Zapolya. Well, nothing for it except to have
a
war to decide it. They skirmished for over 2 years until the country
was divided. Zapolya was king of a section which was in the Ottoman
Empire and Ferdinand was a good Christian Habsburg king.

Suleyman went back home taking more than 100,000 captives with him.
The
victor of the Battle of Mohacs really did not get what he wanted.
Hungary was not a country anymore and he was smack up against the
Holy
Roman Empire. Poor Hungary really wouldn’t be a country again until
some more unpleasantness in 1848.

The Hungarians beat up  themselves and Louis’ memory about this
battle.
I say they were courageous folk who stood their ground even when it
was
obvious they were going to get whacked. They were heroes who had no
time to wait for reinforcements. If you want to read more about this,
may I suggest a free book online which you can download: _The Fall Of
The Medieval Kingdom Of Hungary:  Mohacs 1526 - Buda 1541_ by Geza
Perjes. It is at http://www.hungary.com/corvinus/lib/warso/index.htm

What have we learned from this? You take in slaves, convert them, and
train them with weapons, they can be a powerful force? Yep, remember
the Mamluks! Sometimes even winning leaves you feeling empty inside?
Communication is the key to battle success? How about treat engineers
well and they can really help you? I live by that one myself.

As always keep my name and sig attached when you send these on to
your
Janissaries in the field. Do check the Archives for new and old
columns.

Searching the battlefield for kings,
J. Ellsworth Weaver

SCA – Sir Balthazar of Endor
AS – Polyphemus Theognis
TRV – Sebastian Yeats


=====
SmileWeavers Astrology Charts & Interpretations
Modern & Medieval (but always discreet)
If you are interested, contact me at
astroweaver at yahoo.com or 805.473.8867
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Read back issues of "Musings" @ http://www.surfari.net/~2thpix/amuse/
Read Ray Clark Dickson @ http://www.rayclarkdickson.com

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere!
http://mail.yahoo.com/

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGPfreeware 6.5.8 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com>

iQA/AwUBOaur6c50zdvN3Vp0EQKHrwCgjbuGqyTMvhbZnX4+IGViNCaB+8sAn0PD
gq2JF8DFOXVlHFJvUdfCXR5h
=xUbM
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

============================================================================
Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.