Second Battle of Mohacs

The plain of Mohacs in southern Hungary, where the Ottomans had crushed the Hungarian kingdom in 1526, became the site of a second decisive battle more than a century and a half later. By 1687 the tide had turned: following the Ottoman failure to take Vienna in 1683, the Holy League—uniting the Habsburg Empire, Poland, Venice, and others—had launched a sustained offensive to drive the Turks from Hungary.

In August 1687 an Imperial army commanded by Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, confronted the Ottoman forces near Mohacs. The Habsburg troops won a decisive victory, routing the Ottoman army and inflicting heavy losses. The defeat was so complete that it touched off a mutiny within the Ottoman ranks and political upheaval in Constantinople, contributing to the deposition of Sultan Mehmed IV.

The Second Battle of Mohacs marked a turning point in the long struggle between the Habsburgs and the Ottoman Empire. The victory consolidated Habsburg control over much of Hungary, and in its aftermath the Hungarian Diet recognized the hereditary right of the Habsburg dynasty to the Hungarian crown. The Ottoman retreat continued in the following years, confirmed by the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699.