The Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, Montenegrins, Bosnians, Macedonians, and Albanians have virtually independent histories.

The Slovenes will struggle to define and defend their cultural identity for a millennium, first under the Frankish Kingdom and then under the Austrian Empire.

The Croats of Croatia and Slavonia will enjoy a brief independence before falling under Hungarian and Austrian domination; and the Croats in Dalmatia struggle under Byzantine, Hungarian, Venetian, French, and Austrian rule.

The Serbs, who will briefly rival the Byzantine Empire in medieval times, will suffer five hundred years of Turkish domination before winning independence in the nineteenth century.

Their Montenegrin kinsmen will live for centuries under a dynasty of bishop-priests and savagely defend  their mountain homeland against foreign aggressors.

Bosnians will turn to heresy to protect themselves from external political and religious pressure, convert in great numbers to Islam after the Turks invade, and become a nuisance to Austria-Hungary in the late nineteenth century.

A hodgepodge of ethnic groups will people Macedonia over the centuries.

As the power of the Ottoman Empire wanes, the region is contested among the Serbs, Bulgarians, Greeks, and Albanians and also is a pawn among the major European powers.

Finally, the disputed Kosovo region, with an Albanian majority and medieval Serbian tradition, will remain an Ottoman backwater until after the Balkan wars of the early twentieth century.

Ferdinand, in addition to the lands he receives from his brother, also increases his territorial reach by marrying into the Jagiellon family, the royal family of Hungary and Bohemia.

When his brother-in-law, King Louis, dies fighting the Turks at the Battle of Mohacs in 1526, Ferdinand claims the right of succession.

Although the diets representing the nobility of Bohemia (and its dependencies of Moravia and Silesia) do not acknowledge Ferdinand's hereditary rights, they formally elect him king of Bohemia.

As king of Bohemia, he also becomes an elector-prince of the Holy Roman Empire.

In Hungary and in the subordinate Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia-Dalmatia, however, Ferdinand faces the rival claim of a Hungarian nobleman and the reality of the Turkish conquest of the country.

He is able to assert authority only over the northern and western edges of the country, which becomes known as Royal Hungary.

His Hungarian rival becomes a vassal of the Turks, ruling over Transylvania in eastern Hungary.

The rest of Hungary will become part of the Ottoman Empire in 1603.

Although Ferdinand undertakes various administrative reforms in order to centralize authority and increase his power, no meaningful integration of the Hereditary Lands and the two newly acquired kingdoms occurs.

In contrast to the authority of kings of Western Europe, where feudal structures are already in decline, Ferdinand's authority continues to rest on the consent of the nobles as expressed in the local diets, which successfully resist administrative centralization.

Stephen Báthory, a son of Nicholas Báthory (1462–1500) of the Somlyó branch of the Báthory family, had in 1522 been appointed adjutant of the Voivode of Transylvania, serving under the Voivode John Zápolya.

After the Battle of Mohács in 1526, Stephen had supported Zápolya's claim to the Kingship of Hungary and in 1529 is made Voivode of Transylvania.

Sultan Süleyman, vowing to capture Vienna, mobilizes an army and sets out from Constantinople for the west.

The Turkish forces, hampered by bad weather, take three months to reach Belgrade, during which time the Austrians have strengthened their defenses.

Ottoman forces return in late summer 1529 to that part of Hungary formerly held by Zápolya and occupied by Ferdinand.

On August 18, Suleimen, hoping to remove at one blow all further intervention by the Habsburgs, had reached reached the Mohács plain, to be greeted by a substantial cavalry force led by John Zápolya (which will later accompany Suleiman to Vienna).

Zápolya pays him homage and helps him recapture several fortresses lost since the Battle of Mohács to the Austrians, including Buda, which falls on September 8.

The only resistance comes at Pozsony, where the Turkish fleet is bombarded as it sails up the Danube.

Vienna's population, as the Ottomans advance towards the city, organizes an ad-hoc resistance formed from local farmers, peasants and civilians determined to repel the inevitable attack.

The defenders are supported by a variety of European mercenaries, namely German Landsknecht pikemen and Spanish musketeers sent by Charles V. The Hofmeister of Austria, Wilhelm von Roggendorf, assumes charge of the defensive garrison, with operational command entrusted to a his brother-in-law, a seventy-year-old German mercenary named Nicholas, Count of Salm, who had distinguished himself at the Battle of Pavia in 1525.

Salm arrives in Vienna as head of the mercenary relief force and sets about fortifying the three-hundred-year-old walls surrounding St. Stephen's Cathedral, near which he establishes his headquarters.

To ensure the city can withstand a lengthy siege, he blocks the four city gates and reinforces the walls, which in some places are no more than six feet thick, and erects earthen bastions and an inner earthen rampart, leveling buildings where necessary to clear room for defenses.

The Ottoman army that arrives in late September has been somewhat depleted during the long advance into Austrian territory, leaving Suleiman short of camels and heavy artillery.

Many of his troops arrive at Vienna in a poor state of health after the tribulations of a long march through the thick of the European wet season and of those fit to fight, a third are light cavalry, or Sipahis, ill-suited for siege warfare.

Three richly dressed Austrian prisoners are dispatched as emissaries by the Sultan to negotiate the city's surrender; Salm sends three richly dressed Muslims back without a response.

The Ottoman army settles into position as the Austrian garrison launches sorties to disrupt the digging and mining of tunnels below the city's walls by Ottoman sappers, and in one case almost capturing Ibrahim Pasha.

The defending forces detect and successfully detonate several mines intended to bring down the city's walls, subsequently dispatching eight thousand men on October 6, to attack the Ottoman mining operations, destroying many of the tunnels, but sustaining serious losses when the confined spaces hinder their retreat into the city.

The Count of Salm is wounded by a falling rock, and will die a few months later from his wounds.

More rain falls on October 11, and with the Ottomans failing to make any breaches in the walls, the prospects for victory begin to fade rapidly.

In addition, Suleiman is facing critical shortages of supplies such as food and water, while casualties, sickness, and desertions begin taking a toll on his army's ranks.

The janissaries begin voicing their displeasure at the progression of events, demanding a decision on whether to remain or abandon the siege.

The Sultan convenes an official council on October 12 to deliberate the matter.

It is decided to attempt one final, major assault on Vienna, an "all or nothing" gamble.

Extra rewards are offered to the troops.

However, this assault is also beaten back as, once again, the arquebuses and long pikes of the defenders prevail.

Unseasonably heavy snowfall makes conditions go from bad to worse.

The Ottoman retreat turns into a disaster with much of the baggage and artillery abandoned or lost in rough conditions, as are many prisoners.

Vienna thus stands as the principal European bulwark against further Muslim advance.

Under the existing conditions of supply, transport, and military organization, the Ottomans have reached the limit of their possible expansion in the West; the winter base that supports this expansion must be maintained in Constantinople because of the constant threat of military action against the Safavids in the East.

The siege of Vienna, however, has secured Süleyman's rule of Hungary and will prevent Ferdinand from launching a new attack against the territories ruled by Zápolya.

Zápolya has meanwhile returned to rule from Buda, and Ferdinand offers Süleyman tribute in exchange for all of Hungary.

The sultan, humiliated and angered, makes no reply.