1515

Voivode of Transylvania, John Zapolya, woke up after the Battle of Szeged tied up in the Ottoman war camp. Given a luxurious and large tent, he quickly surmised he had been captured in the wake of the battle. It would not be long before he met a chain of people that eventually led all the way to Piri Pasha personally. The Ottomans seemed intent on at first failing to get the man who had gained significant fame, much of which he already had, defending Hungary from their enemies. Zapolya's ambition to be King of Hungary was quite public, though he always made an effort to recognize Vladislaus as the current rightful King, and he did not budge. Instead hoping to use him as leverage, Piri Pasha would instead entreat with Vladislaus through letter.

Zapolya's portion of the camp was centrally located, a key prisoner and a high ranking one at that. It would be this that would be at the center of the surprise when a group of men heard speaking Serbian were heard when they executed Zapolya and fled the tent and camp. In an extremely impressive feat, they were able to avoid capture with a well set series of turns and traps prepared. Dressed in Ottoman regalia and never seen speaking Serbian before, though with an obvious accent, it was assumed they had infiltrated or served in the Ottoman army. Within Hungary and beyond, what had happened was abundantly clear. The Sultan had executed his greatest foe in cold blood with shame by doing so with assassin. For those in the Ottoman camp, it was blamed usually on discontented Serbian subjects or on occasion someone like the Sultan or Piri.

The loss of the Voivode compacted with the shortly thereafter brokered peace shifted Hungary. The Kingdom of Hungary was stripped naked of all its border fortresses, forced to give up massive thousand-men mountains or face the despoiling of its greatest city. The Danube and Sava were wide open to the Ottoman river fleet, and the Hungarians now found the chain of Belgrade able to be used at their loss. The majority of Hungarian noble estates were still free of Turkish taxation, but instead often found them despoiled either by akinji or their own peasantry. They also returned home to find many of their subjects demanding all sorts of concessions like the returning forestry privileges and the returning of land previously bought by the landowner. Many of these had loosely been promised when Vladislaus sent out missives to key peasant figures and uprisings promising the repealing of vastly expanded noble rights and lands during his earlier reign. The peasants would soon find out that such promises by the King were just that, and the nobility were all too confident in their king's quiet confiding that they would not in fact find themselves at the loss of anything. The Hungarians had already conducted mass repressions against the peasantry during the year and year before that in particular during Dozsa's height. This meant many parts of Hungary were too defeated and depopulated to muster any meaningful force, though the demoralization and poor conditions greatly hindered any sort of productivity. There were still pockets of resistance, especially in Eastern Carpathia where Dozsa once again was able to return from the mountains and muster a large peasant force numbering in the tens of thousands. The Hungarians gathered a force large enough to soon defeat another poorly armed and unfed peasant force with just a number of heavily armored knights and were also able to capture and brutally execute Dozsa and the other ringleaders. The severe brutality of the nobles in the execution and response caused periods of mass exodus of peasantry from border regions, but eventually the realm would find itself truly at rest. Vladislaus had secured deals years in advance with key allies to secure greater imports of food which arrived concurrently. By virtue of it coming through Vladislaus and his allies, the vast majority of it would serve to support the nobility and clergy's vast appetites but the worst potential famine would be avoided. Nonetheless, Hungary would find itself after the war in a severe famine.

Vladislaus would give the Voivodeship of Transylvania to Stephen Bathory VIII, a member of the rival branch of Bathory to his right-hand man, while George Zapolya as John Zapolya's nearest male relative secured his inheritance. Cardinal Bakocz took a much larger backseat role in court politics as he hid in shame from his failed crusade while Stephen VII Bathory recovered from his injury and returned to his place at the zenith of Hungary society. King Vladislaus's passing and establishment of Stephen and Bakocz as regents would make him king in all but name. George Zapolya worked with other key allies to secure the future of the Magyar party, whose lower nobility panged from the pain of losing John Zapolya but remained key figures in Hungary. Radicalized into action by the failure and loss, they were more active in Hungarian politics and Diets than ever before.

TL;DR

• John Zapolya is murdered by a gang of Serbian men in Ottoman military uniform while a prisoner of the Sultan.

• The Hungarians and Ottomans make peace, and Hungary is in the throes of a severe famine.

• Vladislaus's broken promise leads to more brutal repression and a worsening famine while Dozsa is captured and peace slowly returns

• Vladislaus's passing comes with both rival branches of the Bathory family in powerful positions, while John Zapolya's brother takes up his position claiming the throne.

• Recovering from his injury, Stephan VII Bathory returns and becomes "king-in-name" as one of the two regents of Louis with Tomas Bakocz, who is embarrassed by his botched crusade.