ZÁPOLYA, John, King of Hungary. - Son of the palatine count Stephen Zapolya, b. in 1487. Family traditions and the great power of his ancestors enabled him to emerge while still young in the civil struggles of Hungary, especially after the death of King Ladislaus II in 1516.

After the battle of Mohács with the Turks, in which King Louis II [fell], Zapolya was elected king and crowned (Nov. 10, 1526) by a Diet of loyalists at Tokay, while another Assembly at Hamburg recognized as king Ferdinand of Habsburg, brother of Emperor Charles V, who had married Anna, sister and heiress of Louis II. Between the two rivals there was now open war. Zapolya, repeatedly defeated, inaugurated the policy of the Hungarians aimed at seeking protection from the Turkish sultan. These relations of his brought him excommunication by the Church, without enabling him to resist the superior forces of his adversary. In 1538 he made the Peace of Várad with Ferdinand, but he immediately violated it and d. in 1540 amid arms. The Hungarians remember him as the last representative of the national tradition in opposition to the Habsburg house.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: L. Szalay, Geschichte Ungarns, Budapest 1870-75; S. Domanovsky, Geschichte Ungarns, Munich 1923; F. Eckhart, Introduction à l'histoire hongroise, Paris 1928.

Francesco Cognasso

@incollection{ec6_giovanni_zapolya_re_d_ungheria, author = {Cognasso, Francesco}, title = {Giovanni Zapolya, re d'ungheria}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {611--612}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/giovanni-zapolya-re-d-ungheria} }

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Zápolya, John, King of Hungary

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