The Unitarian Church in Transylvania was first recognized by the Edict of Torda, issued by the Transylvanian Diet under Prince John II Sigismund Zápolya ( January 1568 ), and was first led by Ferenc Dávid ( a former Calvinist bishop, who had begun preaching the new doctrine in 1566 ).

As Louis had no legitimate children Ferdinand was elected as his successor in Kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary, but the Hungarian throne was contested by John Zápolya, who ruled the areas of the kingdom conquered by the Turks as an Ottoman client.

In 1534 as the Kingdom of Hungary was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, the castle was besieged during the rebellion of Czibak Imre, the bishop of Oradea and two years later John Zápolya donated the castle along with other possessions to Török Bálint making him the richest nobleman of Hungary.

Impressed by Stephen, George VI Báthory, of the Ecsed branch, was persuaded to change his allegiance from the Habsburgs to Zápolya, for which the Habsburg King deprived him of his castle Bujak.

Ferdinand was able to win control only of western Hungary because Zápolya clung to the east and the Ottomans to the conquered south.

He was unable to enforce this agreement during his lifetime because John II Sigismund Zápolya, infant son of John Zápolya and Isabella Jagiełło, was elected King of Hungary in 1540.

Ferdinand won recognition only in western Hungary ; while a noble called John Zápolya, from a power-base in Transylvania, challenged him for the crown and was recognised as king by Suleiman in return for accepting vassal status within the Ottoman Empire.

Suleiman's achievement was to consolidate the gains of 1526 and further establish the puppet kingdom of John Zápolya as a buffer state against the Holy Roman Empire.

It was rebuilt and strengthened by John II Sigismund Zápolya in 1565, in order to control the Székelys.

John Zápolya or John Szapolyai (,,,, ; 2 February 1487 – 22 July 1540 ) was King of Hungary ( as John I ) from 1526 to 1540.

Zápolya was en route to the battlefield with his sizable army but did not participate in the battle for unknown reasons.

One was Zápolya, Transylvania's voivode and Hungary's most prominent aristocrat as well as commander of an intact army.

An assault on Buda was driven off by John Zápolya, although Ferdinand was successful elsewhere — capturing Gran ( Esztergom ) and other forts along the Danube river, a vital strategic frontier.

John Zápolya was recognized as the King of Hungary by the Habsburgs, although as an Ottoman vassal.

John Zápolya died in 1540 and was succeeded by his infant son John II Sigismund Zápolya.

However, other nobles turned to the nobleman John Zápolya who, being supported by Suleiman, remained unrecognized by the Christian powers of Europe.

The Somlyó branch, on the other hand, supported John Zápolya, whom the greater part of the Hungarian nobility had elected King.

They were supported by different factions of the nobility in the Hungarian kingdom ; Ferdinand also had the support of his brother the Emperor Charles V. After defeat by Ferdinand at the Battle of Tarcal in September 1527 and again in the Battle of Szina in March 1528, Zápolya gained the support of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Sultan.

At first, Jovan Nenad supported Zápolya, but Hungarian nobles, whose lands in Bačka he had taken, estranged Zápolya from him, so in the beginning of 1527, he switched to Ferdinand.

The modern Unitarian Church in Hungary ( 25, 000 members ) and the Transylvanian Unitarian Church ( 75, 000 members ) are affiliated with the ICUU and claim continuity with the historical Unitarian Christian tradition established by Ferenc Dávid in 1565 in Transylvania under John II Sigismund Zápolya.

On the 18th he reached the Mohács plain, to be greeted by a substantial cavalry force led by John Zápolya ( which would later accompany Suleiman to Vienna ), who paid him homage and helped him recapture several fortresses lost since the Battle of Mohács to the Austrians, including Buda, which fell on the 8th of September.

Thus Zápolya took no notice of his rival's protests, nor of those voiced by the few Hungarians who rallied to Ferdinand.

As his suppression had become a political necessity, he was routed at Temesvár ( today Timişoara ) by an army of 20, 000 led by John Zápolya and István Báthory.

An orphan, he was brought up by the Greff family, and was educated in Buda at the court of John Zápolya.

King John II Sigismund Zápolya | John Sigismund of Hungary with Suleiman in 1556.

After the death of John Zápolya, Duke of Erdelj ( Transylvania ) the King of Hungary and the Habsburg Emperor wanted to annex his lands, and civil war erupted between duchess Isabella ( wife of John Zápolya, and daughter of King of Poland ) and her supporters under command of Petar Petrovic ( predominantly Serbs ), and the George Martinuzzi ( or Đorđe Utješenović, later created a Cardinal as reward for his accomplishments in this conflict ).

After Zápolya's death in Szászsebes ( Sebeş ), his son John II Sigismund Zápolya succeeded him as King of Hungary and an Ottoman vassal.

* John II Sigismund Zápolya, King of Hungary and Prince of Transylvania

After the disastrous battle of Mohács, Baron Tamás Nádasdy and Count György Cseszneky occupied the town for King Ferdinand I while John Zápolya also was attempting to annex it.

John Sigismund Zápolya or John Sigismund Szapolyai ( Hungarian: Zápolya / Szapolyai János Zsigmond, Croatian: Ivan Žigmund Zapolja ) ( 18 July 1540 in Buda, Hungary – 14 March 1571, Gyulafehérvár, Transylvania ) was King of Hungary ( as John II ) from 1540 to 1551 and again from 1556 to 1570.

As King Louis had no children, Hungary was divided into two parties: one elected John Zápolya, a respected Hungarian noble, while the other declared for the King of Hungary a Habsburg, Ferdinand, Louis ' brother-in-law.

During that time, King Zápolya sent armies after Jovan Nenad, wishing to settle his internal affaris before Ferdinand could return to Hungary.

In 1526, when Hungary was divided into three parts ( the Western territories were occupied by the Habsburgs, Transylvania was an independent state, and the rest was under Turkish occupation ), Gáspár Serédy, one of the lords loyal to King Ferdinand, ravaged the monastery, on the grounds that the abbot was supposedly a follower of Ferdinand's rival King John Zápolya.

* Hedwig Jagiellon ( 1513 – 1573 ), daughter of Sigismund I the Old of Poland and his first wife the Hungarian Countess Barbara Zápolya.

In 1512, Sigismund married a Hungarian noblewoman named Barbara Zápolya, with whom he had two daughters:

Suleiman I receiving Isabella Jagiellon | Queen Isabella and John II Sigismund Zápolya | her infant son at Buda ( 1541 )

In 1571, the session of Transylvanian parliament under prince John II Sigismund Zápolya accepted the free preach of the word of God, including the Unitarian Church.

* John II Sigismund Zápolya ( 1540 – 1571 )

Suleiman the Magnificient | Suleiman receiving Isabella Jagiełło | Isabella and her infant son John II Sigismund Zápolya | Sigismund, circa 1540.

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Here he met with John II Sigismund Zápolya who he earlier promised to make the ruler of all Hungary.

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# REDIRECT John Sigismund Zápolya