The 15th century was the century which spans the Julian dates from January 1, 1401 (MCDI) to December 31, 1500 (MD).
Sigismund of Luxembourg was a monarch who reigned as king of Hungary and Croatia from 1387, king of Germany from 1410, king of Bohemia from 1419, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1433 until his death in 1437, as well as prince-elector of Brandenburg. He was the last male member of the House of Luxembourg.
The Battle of Mohács was fought on 29 August 1526 near Mohács, Kingdom of Hungary, between the forces of the Kingdom of Hungary and its allies, led by Louis II, and those of the Ottoman Empire, led by Suleiman the Magnificent. The Ottoman victory led to the partition of Hungary for several centuries between the Ottoman Empire, the Habsburg monarchy, and the Principality of Transylvania. Further, the death of Louis II as he fled the battle marked the end of the Jagiellonian dynasty in Hungary and Bohemia, whose dynastic claims passed to the House of Habsburg.
Maximilian II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1564 until his death in 1576. A member of the Austrian House of Habsburg, he was crowned King of Bohemia in Prague on 14 May 1562 and elected King of Germany on 24 November 1562. On 8 September 1563 he was crowned King of Hungary and Croatia in the Hungarian capital Pressburg. On 25 July 1564 he succeeded his father Ferdinand I as ruler of the Holy Roman Empire.
Louis II was King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia from 1516 to 1526. He was killed during the Battle of Mohács fighting the Ottomans, whose victory led to the Ottoman annexation of large parts of Hungary.
The history of the Czech lands – an area roughly corresponding to the present-day Czech Republic – starts approximately 800,000 years BCE. A simple chopper from that age was discovered at the archeological site of Red Hill in Brno. Many different primitive cultures left their traces throughout the Stone Age, which lasted approximately until 2000 BCE. The most widely known culture present in the Czech lands during the pre-historical era is the Únětice Culture, leaving traces for about five centuries from the end of the Stone Age to the start of the Bronze Age. Celts – who came during the 5th century BCE – are the first people known by name. One of the Celtic tribes were the Boii (plural), who gave the Czech lands their first name Boiohaemum – Latin for the Land of Boii. Before the beginning of the Common Era the Celts were mostly pushed out by Germanic tribes. The most notable of those tribes were the Marcomanni and traces of their wars with the Roman Empire were left in south Moravia.
Ferdinand I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1556, King of Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia from 1526, and Archduke of Austria from 1521 until his death in 1564. Before his accession as Emperor, he ruled the Austrian hereditary lands of the Habsburgs in the name of his elder brother, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Also, he often served as Charles' representative in the Holy Roman Empire and developed encouraging relationships with German princes. In addition, Ferdinand also developed valuable relationships with the German banking house of Jakob Fugger and the Catalan bank, Banca Palenzuela Levi Kahana.
Ferdinand II was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia between the late 1610s and his death in 1637. He was the son of Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria, and Maria of Bavaria. His parents were devout Catholics, and, in 1590, they sent him to study at the Jesuits' college in Ingolstadt, because they wanted to isolate him from the Lutheran nobles. In July that same year (1590), when Ferdinand was 12 years old, his father died, and he inherited Inner Austria–Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and smaller provinces. His cousin, the childless Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, who was the head of the Habsburg family, appointed regents to administer these lands.
John Zápolya or Szapolyai, was King of Hungary from 1526 to 1540. His rule was disputed by Archduke Ferdinand I, who also claimed the title King of Hungary. He was Voivode of Transylvania before his coronation, from 1510 to 1526.
The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen I at Esztergom around the year 1000; his family led the monarchy for 300 years. By the 12th century, the kingdom became a European middle power within the Western world.
The Habsburg monarchy, also called the Danubian monarchy, or Habsburg Empire, was the collection of lands and kingdoms of the Habsburg dynasty, especially for those of the Austrian line. In historiography, the terms Austria, Austrian and Austrians are frequently used as pars pro toto shorthand for the Habsburg monarchy. From 1438 to 1806, a member of the House of Habsburg was also Holy Roman Emperor. However, the states of the Holy Roman Empire ruled by their own dynasties are not considered to have been part of what is now called the Habsburg monarchy.
The Kingdom of Bohemia, sometimes later in English literature referred to as the Czech Kingdom, was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Central Europe, the predecessor of the modern Czech Republic. It was an Imperial State in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Bohemian king was a prince-elector of the empire. The kings of Bohemia, besides the region of Bohemia proper itself, also ruled other lands belonging to the Bohemian Crown, which at various times included Moravia, Silesia, Lusatia, and parts of Saxony, Brandenburg, and Bavaria.
The Hungarian campaign of 1527–1528 was launched by Ferdinand I, Archduke of Austria and King of Hungary and Bohemia against the Ottoman Turks. Following the Battle of Mohács, the Ottomans were forced to withdraw as events elsewhere in their now massive Empire required the Sultan's attention. Seizing upon their absence, Ferdinand I attempted to enforce his claim as King of Hungary. In 1527 he drove back the Ottoman vassal John Zápolya and captured Buda, Győr, Komárom, Esztergom, and Székesfehérvár by 1528. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, took no action at this stage despite the pleas of his vassal.
The Polish–Ottoman War (1620–1621) was a conflict between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire over the control of Moldavia. It ended with the Commonwealth withdrawing its claims on Moldavia and to the eventual demise of the Sultan Osman II.
A queen mother is a former queen, often a queen dowager, who is the mother of the reigning monarch. The term has been used in English since the early 1560s. It arises in hereditary monarchies in Europe and is also used to describe a number of similar yet distinct monarchical concepts in non-European cultures around the world.
Vladislaus II, also known as Vladislav, Władysław or Wladislas, was King of Bohemia from 1471 to 1516, and King of Hungary and Croatia from 1490 to 1516. As the eldest son of Casimir IV Jagiellon, he was expected to inherit Poland and Lithuania. George of Poděbrady, the Hussite ruler of Bohemia, offered to make Vladislaus his heir in 1468. Poděbrady needed Casimir IV's support against the rebellious Catholic noblemen and their ally, Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary. The Diet of Bohemia elected Vladislaus king after Poděbrady's death, but he could only rule Bohemia proper, because Matthias occupied Moravia, Silesia and both Lusatias. Vladislaus tried to reconquer the four provinces with his father's assistance, but Matthias repelled them.
The siege of Buda ended with the capture of the city of Buda, Hungary by the Ottoman Empire, leading to 150 years of Ottoman control of Hungary. The siege, part of the Little War in Hungary, was one of the most important Ottoman victories over the Habsburg monarchy during Ottoman–Habsburg wars in Hungary and the Balkans.
A Polish–Ottoman alliance, based on several treaties, occurred during the 16th century between the kingdom of Poland-Lithuania and the Ottoman Empire, as the Ottomans were expanding into Central Europe.
The Jagiellonian dynasty, or simply Jagiellon, was a royal dynasty, founded by Jogaila, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, who in 1386 was baptized as Władysław, married Queen Jadwiga of Poland, and was crowned King of Poland as Władysław II Jagiełło. The dynasty reigned in several Central European countries between the 14th and 16th centuries. Members of the dynasty were Kings of Poland (1386–1572), Grand Dukes of Lithuania, Kings of Hungary, and Kings of Bohemia and imperial electors (1471–1526). The dynasty was a cadet branch of Gediminids.
The adjective kaiserlich-königlich, German for imperial–royal, was applied to the authorities and state institutions of the Austrian Empire until the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, which established the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Thereafter the abbreviation k. k. only applied to institutions of the so-called Cisleithania. Common institutions of both halves of the empire were described from 1867 to 1918 as kaiserlich und königlich/k. u. k.. Contrary to the regulations, the Common Army continued to use the abbreviation k. k. to describe itself until 1889.