death of his
wife's brother Louis made her the heiress of those two crowns, and thus
secured to Ferdinand the magnificent dowry of the kingdoms of Hungary
and Bohemia. But possession of the scepter of those realms was by no
means a sinecure. The Turkish power, which had been for many years
increasing with the most alarming rapidity and had now acquired
appalling strength, kept Hungary, and even the Austrian States, in
constant and terrible alarm.

The Turks, sweeping over Persia, Arabia, Egypt, Syria, all Asia Minor,
crossing the straits and inundating Greece, fierce and semi-savage, with
just civilization enough to organize and guide with skill their
wolf-like ferocity, were now pressing Europe in Spain, in Italy, and
were crowding, in wave after wave of invasion, up the valley of the
Danube. They had created a navy which was able to cope with the most
powerful fleets of Europe, and island after island of the Mediterranean
was yielding to their sway.

In 1520, Solyman, called the Magnificent, overran Bosnia, and advancing
to the Danube, besieged and captured Belgrade, which strong fortress was
considered the only reliable barrier against his encroachments. At the
same time his fleet took possession of the island of Rhodes. After some
slight reverses, which the Turks considered merely embarrassments, they
resumed their aggressions, and Solyman, in 1525, again crossing the
Danube, entered Hungary with an army of two hundred thousand men. Louis,
who was then King of Hungary, brother of the wife of Ferdinand, was able
to raise an army of but thirty thousand to meet him. With more courage
than discretion, leading this feeble band, he advanced to resist the
foe. They met on the plains of Mohatz. The Turks made short work of it.
In a few hours, with their cimeters they hewed down nearly the whole
Christian army. The remnant escaped as lambs from wolves. The king, in
his heavy armor, spurred his horse into a stream to cross in his flight.
In attempting to ascend the bank, the noble charger, who had borne his
master bravely through the flood, fell back upon his rider, and the dead
body of the king was afterward picked up by the Turks, covered with the
mud of the morass. All Hungary would now have fallen into the hands of
the Turks had not Solyman been recalled by a rebellion in one of his own
provinces.

It was this event which placed the crowns of Bohemia and Hungary on the
brow of Ferdinand, and by annexing those two kingd