Treaty of Constantinople (1533)


The Treaty of Constantinople was signed on 22 July 1533 in Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire and the Archduchy of Austria.

Background

During the Battle of Mohács in 1526 the king of Hungary, Louis II, had died without an heir to throne, but since the Ottoman Empire did not annex Hungary after the war, the Hungarian throne was left vacant for several months. Two claimants emerged: Ferdinand I, the archduke of Austria; and János Szapolyai, the voivode of Transylvania. Although Szapolyai was backed most the Hungarian elite, Ferdinand declared himself the legal king of Hungary, with the support of his older brother, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. The Ottoman Empire, however, backed Szapolyai, and Emperor Suleyman I mounted a threat against Austria in two military campaigns. Ferdinand saw that it was impossible to establish his rule in Hungary.
Meanwhile, the shah of Safavid Persia, Tahmasp I, became active in the eastern borders of the Ottoman Empire. Suleyman decided to concentrate his activities in the east and to give up his pursuit of hostilities in the west and so the treaty was signed.

Terms

The terms of the treaty were as follows:
Peace was violated with the 1537 Battle of Gorjani and the 1538 Battle of Preveza.
Szapolyai had no son, and according to the Treaty of Nagyvárad, signed in 1538, Ferdinand was the heir to the throne. However, after the treaty, Szapolyai's wife gave birth to a son. In 1540, when Szapolyai died of natural causes, Ferdinand reclaimed the throne, and the war was renewed. This time, Suleyman reversed his policy of allowing Hungary to persist as a vassal kingdom and annexed most of Hungary in his two campaigns in 1541 and 1543. Szapolyai’s infant son was transferred to Transylvania, his father’s former principality.