King Louis II in the Battle of Mohács

In our Battle of Mohács scenario, King Louis II will lead the Hungarians. I wanted to represent him in a dignified manner, so I tried my best when painting him.

Louis was the son of Wladislaus II, the Jagiellonian King of Hungary. He was born in 1506. When his father died, Louis was crowned king at the age of only ten. During his reign, he had to face the ever-growing threat of Ottoman expansion. He was later considered a weak ruler who led the country to collapse. However, it was not his abilities that were the main reason for Hungary's downfall; rather, the overwhelming numerical and material superiority of the Ottomans made the country's situation increasingly hopeless.

The Ottoman Empire had nearly doubled in size through the conquests of Sultan Selim. His successor, Sultan Süleyman, inherited a much more powerful empire than his predecessors had ruled. At the same time, the Kingdom of Hungary had experienced no comparable territorial expansion, and its income was far lower than that of the Ottoman Empire. During the early 1500s, the Ottomans systematically weakened the southern Hungarian border fortress system. Sultan Süleyman then led a campaign against Belgrade, the most important stronghold of the Hungarian border defence, and captured the city—something even Mehmed the Conqueror had failed to accomplish. After the collapse of the border defence, there was little that could be done to stop a major Ottoman campaign targeting central Hungary.

In 1526, the king was informed about Süleyman's campaign against Hungary. Louis struggled to gather his army. He faced financial difficulties in hiring mercenaries, while the Hungarian nobility was only willing to join the campaign if the king himself was present.

Finally, a Hungarian force of approximately 27,000 men had to face Süleyman's army of around 75,000. The king led his troops bravely at the Battle of Mohács. He charged the Ottoman forces like a gallant knight, fighting in the front ranks. However, the Hungarians were overwhelmed by the numerical superiority of the Ottomans. Louis tried to flee, but not far from the battlefield, he fell from his horse into the Csele River and drowned.

On the vignette the figure left to the king is János Drágffy, the Judge Royal of Hungary. During the Battle of Mohács he was the standard bearer of the king and died in the battle. The banner is hand painted with the coat-of-arms of King Louis II.