Thread by @Arby_K

A nation is divided into three after a fatal war.

After almost two centuries of changing borders, the nation is reunited.

But another two centuries later, the three divisions emerge again in three different nations.

Story in the evening ...

János Zápolya was born around 1487 to István Zápolya and Jadwiga of Cieszyn. The Zápolya were an influential noble family in Hungary, with István's elder brother, Imre, becoming the Palatine of Hungary, the highest ranking official after the king. 1/10

The death of the king of Hungary in 1490 led to the election of Polish prince Władysław as king. István Zápolya was among his supporters, and he would later become Palatine of Hungary as well. Władysław, however, had to make a treaty with the Habsburgs to confirm his claim. 2/10

The treaty allowed for the Austrian Habsburgs to succeed Władysław in case he died without legitimate male heir. But this led to opposition from Hungarians. In 1505 at the Diet of Rákos, János Zápolya moved the motion to ban foreign princes from ruling Hungary. 3/10

Though the motion passed, the king opposed it. The question of Habsburg succession got delayed when Władysław's son, Lajos, was born in 1506. But Władysław also agreed to marry his other child, elder daughter Anna, to the Habsburg prince, Ferdinand. 4/10

After his father's death in 1499, János Zápolya emerged as a prominent noble in the pro Hungarian faction of Hungary. In 1511, King Władysław appointed János as the voivode of Transylvania, the eastern part of Hungary, where he had to suppress rebellions. 5/10

Lajos succeeded as king in 1516. Still too young to rule, he had to depend on others to rule. Among them was the new Palatine of Hungary, István Báthori. The rivalry between Báthori and Zápolya was among the factors in the loss of Belgrade to the Ottomans in 1521. 6/10

The situation worsened in 1526, when the Ottomans attacked again at Mohács. Among the dead were György Zápolya, the younger brother of János Zápolya, and the Hungarian king Lajos. Though the Ottomans left, the kingdom of Hungary was in complete disarray. 7/10

János was crowned king, but another faction proclaimed the Habsburg prince, Ferdinand (and Władysław's son-in-law) as king. János sought the support of the Ottomans, who returned to Hungary and invaded Austria, besieging the Habsburg capital, Vienna, in 1529. 8/10

The Ottomans took over central Hungary with its capital, Buda. János ruled the eastern parts centred around Transylvania as Ottomans vassals, while the Habsburgs controlled the western and northern part. Bohemia and Croatia also went to the Habsburgs. 9/10

János died in 1540 and was succeeded by his son. His part of Hungary evolved into Ottoman principality of Transylvania. Habsburgs recaptured Hungary by 1699, but after their collapse in 1918, the three divisions became part of Slovakia, Hungary and Romania (Transylvania). 10/10