JOHN (ZAPOLYA) (1487-1540), king of Hungary, was the son of the palatine Stephen Zapolya and the princess Hedwig of Teschen, and was born at the castle of Szepesvar. He began his public career at the famous Rakos diet of 1505, when, on his motion, the assembly decided that after the death of the reigning king, Wladislaus II., no foreign prince should be elected king of Hungary. Henceforth he became the national candidate for the throne, which his family had long coveted. In 1510 Zapolya sued in person for the hand of the Princess Anne in vain, and his ap pointment to the voivody of Transylvania (I5r I) was with the evident intention of removing him far from court. In 1513, he renewed his suit, which was again rejected. In 1514 he stamped out the peasant rising under Dozsa (q.v.) with incredible brutal ity. This increased his popularity with the gentry, and, on the death of Wladislaus II., the second diet of Rakos ap pointed him the governor of the infant king Louis II. He now aimed at the dignity of palatine also, but the council of state and the court party combined against him and appointed Istvan Báthory instead (1519). The dissensions between Zapolya and Báthory were responsible for the fall of Belgrade (1520. In 1522 the court made Bathory sole captain-general, against the wishes of the diet ; thereupon Zapolya attempted to depose the palatine and other great officers of state. In the following year, however,
the revolutionary Hatvan diet drove out all the members of the council of state and made Istvan Verboczy, the great jurist, and a friend of Zapolya, palatine. In the midst of this hopeless an archy, Suleiman I., the Magnificent, invaded Hungary and the young king perished with his army at Mohacs, Zapolya arriving too late to save the day. The court party accused him, but prob ably without ground, of deliberate treachery. The diets of Tokaj (Oct. 14) and Szekesfehervar (Nov. 1o) then elected Zapolya king of Hungary, and he was crowned on Nov. 11.
A struggle with the rival candidate, the German king Ferdinand I., at once ensued (see HUNGARY : History), Zapolya receiving support from the Turks. In 1538, by the compact of Nagyvarad, Ferdinand recognized John as king of Hungary, but secured the right of succession on his death. Nevertheless John broke the compact by bequeathing the kingdom to his infant son John Sigis mund under Turkish protection.
See Vilmos Fraknoi, Ungarn vor der Schlacht bei Mohcics (Buda pest, 1886) ; L. Kupelwieser, Die Kiimpfe Ungarns mit den Osmanen bis zur Schlacht bei Mohacs (Vienna, 1895).