The loss of Belgrade (Nandorfehervar) in 1521…

The loss of Belgrade (Nandorfehervar) in 1521 had caused great alarm in Hungary, but the too-late and too-slowly-recruited sixty-thousand strong royal army—led by the king—had forgotten to take food along, so the army therefore disbanded spontaneously under the pressure of hunger and disease without even trying to recapture Belgrade, the southern key of Hungary, from the newly installed Turkish garrisons.

In 1523, Archbishop Pál Tomori, a valiant priest-soldier, is made Captain of Southern Hungary.

The general apathy that had characterized the country forces him to lean on his own bishopric revenues when he starts to repair and reinforce the second line of Hungary's border defense system.