Megjegyzések II. Lajos király halálához
Remarks on the Death of Louis (II) Jagiellon

Summary/Abstract: Louis (II) Jagiellon, King of Hungary and Bohemia, died on 29 August 1526 while fleeing from the battlefield of Mohács. While this event can hardly be qualified as unknown, several of its details have remained obscure. This situation has given birth to several legends, such as that the king may have been killed by his own men, or that he did not die where he has been thought to have perished by Hungarian historical memory. Yet a new scrutiny of the sources has led to the conclusion that Louis, on the run after the battle, in fact died along the right bank of the Danube, while crossing the creek called Csele. The king’s entourage was aware of the features of the landscape. While they knew that traffic in this area was difficult even in normal weather conditions, they did not count with the possibility that torrential summer rain may render the road from Mohács to Buda practically impassable, thereby making it a deathly trap for the ruler arriving on a tired mount, and perhaps wounded himself. Louis was not far from the final escape, and his fate was very much determined by the extreme weather conditions.

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