Contribution of Archaeological Prospection to the Research of an Early Modern Battlefield near Veľké Vozokany

Buda was the center of the mediaeval Kingdom of Hungary. Although it was under many sieges between 1526 and 1541 1 , it was captured by the Turkish forces in 1541.The town of Pest is located on the opposite embankment of the Danube River on a plain land. At the time of their occupation, the two towns became integral part of an empire that had an utterly different culture, so that their original population and functions totally changed. All this implied the transmogrification of their urban scenes.

The Empires of the Near East and India, 2019

History in Flux: Journal of the Department of History, Faculty of Humanities, Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, 2019

Following the Ottoman conquest of the Despotate of Serbia in 1459 and the Kingdom of Bosnia in 1463, a new phase of Hungarian-Ottoman relations was introduced. With the disappearance of the Hungarian “buffer” towards the Ottoman-held areas, the territories of the two states became adjacent, and their mutual frontier had to be negotiated afresh. By looking into all available material, Latin, Slavonic, and Ottoman, this paper aims to trace negotiations between the two sides in the period of King Matthias Corvinus’ reign and discern their content and application with regard to borders. It tackles the demarcation of the border between the two sides, and highlights the mechanisms employed for its institutional maintenance.

2002

After the death of King Mathias (1458-1490) the Turkish-Hungarian frontier remained generally peaceful. But the word "peaceful" should not be taken literally. This only meant that large-scale military operations led by the sultan himself did not take place. János Hunyadi dealt an annihilating defeat to the Turkish army, which had been engaged in the siege of Belgrade in 1456, and since then the Turks had been reluctant to launch large-scale military operations against the Hungarian Kingdom. King Mathias had kept the situation along the border firmly in his hands, and Turkish raids aimed at the realm or her frontiers were heavily defeated at the hands of the king's captains. During the reign of king Wladyslaw II (1490-1516) nothing seemed to have changed, Turkish raids were answered by similar Hungarian incursions into the territory of the Turkish Empire. In fact, the situation was steadily worsening for the Hungarians, the upkeep of the border fortresses and the salary...

2022

East European History Review, 2022

A few years after the Long Turkish War began, Sigismund Báthory, ruler of the Transylvania, decided to join the Habsburgs and the other members of the Holly League in their war against the Ottomans. Through this political decision Báthory ceased to be a vassal of the Turkish sultan, interrupting thus several decades of good relations between his country and the Porte. Although Transylvania was a rather small state, with limited military and economic potential, Prince Sigismund had great ambitions. He was able to attract the rulers of Moldavia and Wallachia on his side and attacked the Ottoman Empire on three fronts. In this article I will analyse the military operations on the frontier of Transylvania with the Ottoman province (eyalet) of Timișoara (Temeşvar). The various forms of regular and irregular warfare employed by the two opponents show the complexity of this confrontation. Major campaigns and sieges, which involved large numbers of combatants, were accompanied by frequent raids and skirmishes, typical for border warfare. These events also reveal the specific social and economic dynamic of frontiers in early modern Central and South-Eastern Europe.

Academia Letters, 2021

POLITICS AND SOCIETY IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH-EAST EUROPE. Life under the shadow of the Ottoman Empire's Expansion (15 th -16 th centuries, 2021

The Battle of Mohács (August 29, 1526) between Hungarian and Ottoman troops was a major event, which led to the dissolution of the medieval Hungarian kingdom. In the years preceding the battle, the fortress of Severin was in the front line of the anti-Ottoman struggle, under constant military pressure of the Turkish troops. Although the events are well known in the historiography, some unpublished documents from the Hungarian National archive give us new details on the last five years before the fall of the Danube fortifications into the hands of the Ottoman army (1524). The documents provide a look at the desperate situation of the citadel of Severin, especially in terms of lack of funds and supply, and the reaction of Hungarian court and nobility to Ottoman pressure on the southern frontier of the kingdom.