In 1490, the Hungarian throne was occupied by the Czech king Vladislav II Jagiellon under the name of Vladislaus II (1490-1516). During the reign of Vladislaus II and his son Lajos II, the Czech Republic and Hungary were united by a personal union for 36 years. The accession of Vladislaus was accompanied by the loss of all the conquests of Matthias Hunyadi. The son of Emperor Frederick III, Maximilian Habsburg, easily conquered Austria, Silesia and Moravia and reunited them with the Czech Republic as a result of Hungarian-Czech union.
After becoming king of Hungary, Vladislaus II moved to Buda and has since done very little Czech affairs; but the royal power with him fell into decay, not only in the Czech Kingdom, but also in Hungary. The new king never challenged the decisions of the royal council. At the request of the nobility of Beatrice, the widow of Matthias, married Vladislaus II. Chancellor Tamash Bakots , Archbishop of Esztergom, whose brilliant career began under Matthias with an ordinary official, became an influential figure. In general, the reign of Vladislaus II was the most serene period since the time of Sigismund. But after Matthias Corvin’s death, the Turks cheered and the raids on Hungary became regular again.
Vladislaus II was so subordinate to the will of the nobility in all matters that no rebellion or conspiracy arose during his reign. The feudal lords succeeded in abolishing many progressive innovations. At that time, as centralized monarchies were created throughout Europe, the Hungarian nobles during this period insisted on the abolition of the military tax, which meant the dissolution of the hired army; in the interests of the nobles, a decree was issued obliging cities and towns that did not have royal status, to pay in kind tithe to local feudal lords. By the end of the 15th century, the predominance of both the state council and the royal court passed to the Hungarian nobles. Finally, a number of laws were passed into the rule of Vladislaus II, authorizing the enslavement of the peasants and a sharp increase in corvee.
At the same time, rising prices for agricultural products in Western Europe stimulated the development of the Hungarian economy, but all the benefits of export growth were enjoyed by the privileged class. Within this class, the struggle between large magnates and the bulk of the Hungarian nobility also intensified. In 1498, the state assembly established a list of 41 large landowners who had the right and duty to maintain their own troops. The victory was won by the nobles and their candidate for the inheritance Janos Zapolyai, a Croat by birth, the voivode of Transylvania, who soon became the leader of the “noble party”.
In 1505, the nobles carried out a law banning the inheritance of the crown to any foreigner – against the wishes of Vladislaus II of Habsburg by their mothers, to transfer the throne to the Austrian Hapsburgs in the event of the termination of the Hungarian-Czech Jagiellonian line. In 1506, Vladislaus II concluded a corresponding agreement with Maximilian I, the ruler of Austria, causing outrage of the Hungarian nobles, which smoothed only the birth in the same year of the heir to the king’s third wife, Anna de Foy.
In 1512, the Ottoman throne was occupied by Sultan Selim I Yavuz, who resumed his aggressive policy, and the Turks began raids on the southern regions of Hungary. In 1513, Pope Leo X entrusted the organization of a new crusade against the Turks to Bishop Tamash Bakotsi, a former serf peasant who had risen under Matthias Korvin and had become a large Estergom landowner. Tamas Bakots in a short time collected a 40 thousand strong army of the Crusaders, headed by the petty nobleman György Doge, descended from the Transylvanian Skei. The Hungarian feudal lords, alarmed by the creation of a huge peasant army, were frightened by the thought of their own spinning out of control and in May 1514 forced the king to cancel the crusade. Indignant Marriedsthey opened military actions against the feudal lords, in the summer of 1514 an uprising swept most of Hungary. On July 15, the noble army, Istvan Batori and Janos Zapolya, inflicted a decisive defeat on the rebels, György Doge was captured and executed on July 20 with unprecedented cruelty. By the fall, the uprising was crushed, while the feudal lords exterminated up to 50 thousand rebels. In October – November 1514, laws were adopted that further worsened the position of the Hungarian peasants: division into estates, attachment of peasants to the land forever, weekly corvee, etc. – all was approved. The forces of the Hungarian nation were finally undermined.
Son of Vladislaus II – the 10-year-old Louis II (1516–1526) reigned in his early years under the care of his uncle, the Polish king Sigismund I Jagiellon. Back in 1515 he was married to Princess Maria of Austria (daughter of Spanish King Philip I of Castile ), and his sister Anna married the heir to the Austrian throne Ferdinand I. However, despite the support of his smart and talented wife, Louis II was unable to curb the feudal anarchy, in which Hungary was plunging deeper and deeper. In 1521, Sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent captured Belgrade. In 1522 Louis was declared an adult. He tried to enlist the support of European kings against the Ottomans, so he turned to the Pope, Doge of Venice, to Poland, England and Austria. However, the Hungarian ambassadors were met coldly everywhere, in Hungary most of the nobles were no longer subordinate to Louis.
August 29, 1526 at the Battle of Mohac the army of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I, led by the Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha, inflicted 25 thousand casualties. Hungarian army was brutally defeated: the feudal anarchy was the main cause, many Hungarian nobles did not come to the king’s call, the feudal lords did not dare to arm the peasants. Louis II drowned in a swamp during the flight, after 12 days Suleiman entered the capital, which surrendered to the Turks without a fight. The Turks plundered all the lands of Pest and Balaton, only in the first year they captured up to 200 thousand people.
Dowager Queen Mary fled to Pozhon; in September 1526, Ferdinand I Habsburg was elected king of the Czech. However, Ferdinand , having bribed many nobles, on December 17, 1526, was elected king of Hungary. On the territory of Hungary, which had not yet come under the rule of the Turks, a long-term war broke out between supporters of Ferdinand and János Zapolja, while the Hungarian feudal lords constantly moved from one camp to another, pursuing only their own benefits.