GIOVANNI Zapolya, king of HUNGARY. - Son of the palatine count Stefano Zapolya, born in 1487. Family traditions and the great power of his forebears enabled him to rise, while still young, in the civil struggles of Hungary, especially after the death of King Ladislao II in 1516.
After the battle of Mohacs against the Turks, in which King Luigi II [fell], Zapolya was elected king and crowned (10 Nov. 1526) by a Diet of supporters at Tokay, while another Assembly at Amburgo recognized as king Ferdinando d'Asburgo, brother of Emperor Carlo V, who had married Anna, sister and heiress of Luigi II. Open war then broke out between the two rivals. Zapolya, repeatedly defeated, initiated the policy of the Hungarians aimed at seeking protection from the Turkish sultan. These relations procured for him excommunication by the Church, without enabling him to withstand the superior forces of his adversary. In 1538 he made the peace of Varadino with Ferdinando, but immediately violated it and died in 1540 amid warfare. The Hungarians remember him as the last representative of the national tradition in opposition to the Habsburg house.