362 Történetek a mélyföldről 363 Attila Bárány: Queen Mary of Hungary and the Cult of King Louis II... Queen Mary of Hungary and the Cult of King Louis II in the Low Countries * Attila Bárány he paper investigates the ways how Queen Mary of Hungary, consort of King Louis II Jagiellonian (1516-26) was nurturing a cult in the Low Countries for her de- ceased husband, who fell victim of the Ottoman menace on the battleield of Mohács (1526). he paper focuses on the iconographic program of the House of Habsburg in the 1530s-40s in churches in the provinces of the Nether- lands, of which she acted as Governor between 1531 and 1555, particularly for instance in the Collegiate Church of the Dukes of Brabant in Brussels – presently Cathéd- rale Saints-Michel-et-Gudule / Sint-Michiels- en Sint- Goedelekathedraal. I am examining the representation of King Louis II in stained glass windows, throughout Hun- garian royal devices and emblems. he iconographic cycle portraying the members of the house was to satisfy the claims of a dynastic representation. I am giving an over- view of the eforts of Mary to make beneit of the legacy of the martyr monarch, the only prince who was killed at the hands of the Heathen, the sole Christian monarch, who took up arms against the Ottoman menace. I am also exploring Mary’s position in shaping the dynastic propa- ganda of the Habsburgs in the 1530s-50s as well as giving an outline of her portrait as a politician. Immediately upon the news of the death of Louis the Habsburgs launched a propaganda campaign to substanti- ate their dynastic claims for the throne. Emperor Charles V was to ind himself as the true spiritual successor of the legacy of Louis, whom he thought as the real hero of the anti-Ottoman struggle. 1 In their interpretation the king, who perished young on the battleield, became a tragic hero. 2 It was in absolute contrast to the vision of Mohács in Hungarian contemporary audience and later historical literature, which maintained that the king’s rule deterio- rated the lourishing kingdom of the Árpáds and Louis was running the decaying country into disaster, his idle, debauched, perverted life would only end in tragedy. his was to fundamentally determine the images of 16 th c. con- temporaries. 3 Louis’s negative view was mainly established by the contemporary history writer, György Szerémi, who had a large impact on the sixteenth-century home vision of the King. he setting of the exuberant, rambunctious king, who is drinking a lot, likes obscene jokes, has no authority in the eyes of his courtiers, who does not hold court councils but naked orgies with her extravagant, ma- leicent, iniquitous consort, who has made the curia into a brothel, was extremely biassed. 4 However, beyond the 1 Korpás Zoltán, V. Károly és Magyarország, 1526–1538, [Charles V and Hunga- ry] Budapest, Századvég, 2008. 55. 2 Béla Pukánszky, Mohács és az egykorú német közvélemény = Mohácsi emlékkönyv 1526, ed. Imre Lukinich, Budapest, Királyi Magyar Egyetemi Nyomda, 1926. 277–294, here 284., 286. 3 István Nemeskürty, Ez történt Mohács után. Tudósítás a magyar történelem ti- zenöt esztendejéről, 1526–1541, [his happened after Mohács. Report on ifteen years of Hungarian history] Budapest, Szépirodalmi, 1966.; Idem, Önia vágat sebét, [Wound cut by his own self] Budapest, Magvető, 1975.; Tibor Klaniczay, Mi és miért veszett Mohácsnál?, [What and why was lost at Mohács?] Kortárs, 1976, 5: 783–96. 4 György Szerémi, [Epistola] De perditione regni Hungarorum. [Levél] Magyaror- szág romlásáról, [Letter on the decay of Hungary], transl. László Erdélyi, Lász- ló Juhász, intr., notes by György Székely, Budapest, Magyar Helikon, 1961, (Monumenta Hungarica, V), 104. * he work is supported by the TAMOP 4.2.1/B–09/1/KONV-2010–0007 project. he project is implemented through the New Hungary Development Plan, co-inanced by the European Social Fund and the European Regional De- velopment Fund.