Mohács

Mohács mô´häch [key], town (1991 est. pop. 20,325), S Hungary, on the Danube. It is an important river port and railroad terminus and has metallurgical and timber industries. Mohács is best known for the crushing defeat (Aug. 29, 1526) there of Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia by Sulayman I of Turkey. Hungary was ill-prepared for the attack, and when Louis hastily tried to unite Hungary and Christendom behind him, only the pope sent help. With a poorly equipped and badly organized army of 28,000, Louis joined battle with a Turkish army of 200,000. The king and almost 25,000 of his army were killed in the battle the rest were taken captive and massacred. The defeat brought with it more than 150 years of Ottoman domination in Hungary. At Mohács are monuments to the slain, regarded ever since as martyrs to Christianity and to Hungarian independence. Mohács was also the scene (1687) of a Turkish defeat by Charles V of Lorraine, which hastened the end of Turkish rule in Hungary.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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