Hungarian History Podcast / 19 - Did the Kingdom of Hungary vanish after 1526?

Did the Kingdom of Hungary vanish after 1526?And was the Transylvanian Principality just a mere vassal state of the Ottomans?

You’ve heard it countless times: after the Battle of Mohács, Hungary disappeared. I have heard this narrative from many Romanians that Hungary was wiped off the map, swallowed by empires, and only “reappeared” centuries later.
But that’s not what really happened.

“The Hungarian Kingdom vanished into the blue” — this is a provocative modern nationalist narrative, spread by those who want to marginalize Hungary’s historical role and deny its sacrifice in defending Western civilization, for which it paid a bloody price. It’s time to pose a Hungarian narrative to challenge these intentionally fabricated misconceptions.

In this episode, we uncover what really happened after 1526 — how the Kingdom of Hungary survived as a sovereign state, ruled by its own crown, laws, and diet, in personal union with the Habsburgs.
Royal Hungary, Transylvania, and Croatia each carried forward parts of that sovereignty, keeping the kingdom alive. In this episode, I also compared the Transylvanian Principality’s status with that of Wallachia and Moldavia.

We also examine the Croatian argument, which has a genuine historical and legal foundation — and how both sides utilized law, diplomacy, and power to defend their claims under extremely challenging circumstances.

This is not a story of disappearance.
It’s a story of continuity — of a kingdom divided but alive, sovereign even under the weight of empires.