SMS Szent István
Montecuccoli's plans for the construction of "Szent István" and her sister ships earned the approval of Emperor Franz Joseph I in January 1909, and by April plans for the design, construction, and financing for the battleships had been laid out. For a full year, the Austro-Hungarian Navy attempted to keep the looming construction of the first two battleships a state secret. This did not prevent rumors from circulating across Europe of two dreadnought battleships being constructed in Austria-Hungary. The French Naval Attaché in Vienna complained to Paris in 1910 of extensive secrecy within the Austro-Hungarian Navy, which manifested itself in several ways. Among these were a ban on photography in the Pola, future home port of "Szent István", and near-constant observation by the Austro-Hungarian police.
History of Hungary
The Magyars were Christianized at the end of the 10th century, and the Christian Kingdom of Hungary was established in AD 1000, 
ruled by the Árpád dynasty for the following three centuries.
In the high medieval period, the kingdom expanded beyond Pannonia, to the Adriatic coast. In 1241 during the reign of Béla IV, Hungary was invaded by the Mongols under Batu Khan. The Hungarians were decisively defeated at the Battle of Mohi by the outnumbered Mongol army. King Béla fled to the Holy Roman Empire and left the Hungarian population under the mercy of the Mongols. In this invasion more than 500,000 Hungarian population were massacred and the whole kingdom reduced to ashes.
After the extinction of the Árpád dynasty in 1301, the late medieval kingdom persisted, albeit no longer under Hungarian monarchs, and gradually reduced due to the increasing pressure by the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. Hungary bore the brunt of the Ottoman wars in Europe during the 15th century. The peak of this struggle took place during the reign of Matthias Corvinus (r. 1458–1490). The Ottoman–Hungarian wars concluded in significant loss of territory and the partition of the kingdom after the Battle of Mohács of 1526.