He is first mentioned in 1527 when Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor gathered an army to support his claims on the throne of Hungary, which had become vacant after King Louis II of Hungary was killed in the Battle of Mohács (1526) against the Ottomans. Katzianer took part in Ferdinand's Hungarian campaign of 1527–1528 against the voivode of Transylvania, John Zápolya, who had also been proclaimed King, supported by a large faction of the nobility in the Hungarian kingdom.