At the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Hungarians suffered a catastrophic defeat by
the much larger army of the Ottoman Empire; the Hungarian King Louis II also lost
his life in the battle. Two weeks later, in another battle that lasted several days,
the Ottomans destroyed a Hungarian camp of refugees at Marót. The topic of this study
is related to this event: Dobozi Mihály, who fought in the camp, escapes on a horse
with his young wife after the lost battle. When the Ottomans almost catch up with
them, the husband kills his wife to save her from being captured, and then he also
dies fighting against the Ottoman soldiers. The story not only appears in Hungarian
and foreign historiography and literature, but it was also a popular topic of Hungarian
historical paintings in the 19th century. According to previous studies, the wife
becomes a character with agency only in 19th-century descriptions by asking her husband
to kill her, however, this narrative is actually already found in some of the 16th-century
historical sources, including the description of Italian humanist historian Giovanni
Michele Bruto, which has been translated for the first time recently. One of the reasons
for the later popularity of the story may have been that it became an example of not
only spousal love and faithfulness, but also of patriotism, as in some versions the
wife wanted to die so that her husband could flee to later be able to continue fighting
for his homeland.
