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Hungary - Matthias Corvinus King of Hungary
1458-1490 A.D.
Kremnitz Mint: 1472 Silver Denar 16mm (0.5 grams)
Obverse: MAX•II•D•G•H•PO•I•S•AV•G•V•B•P• Aaround Shield of Arms, 1472 above.
Reverse: •PATRONA•••VNGARIE• (Patron of Hungary) Madonna and Child. The K
and B flanking the Madonna is the Mark of the Kremnitz Mint.
The Madonna and Child and Legend Patron of Hungary which is so prevalent on
the coinage of Hungary was first placed there by Matthias Corvinus 1458 – 1490.
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item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime
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Matthias Corvinus (Hungarian:
Hunyadi Mátyás or
Corvin Mátyás, 23 February 1443 – 6
April 1490) also called the Just, was
King of Hungary from 1458 to his death. He was also
King of Bohemia, (1469-1490) and
Duke of Austria.[1][2][3]
Names
in other languages
Hungarian: Hunyadi Mátyás or Corvin Mátyás,
Czech: Matyáš Korvín,
Croatian: Matijaš Korvin,
German: Matthias Corvinus,
Medieval Latin: Mattias Corvinus,
Polish: Maciej Korwin,
Romanian: Matia/Matei/Mateiaş Corvin,
Serbian: 'Matija Korvin (Матија Корвин),
Slovak: Matej Korvín,
Slovene: Matija Korvin
Early
life
Matthias was born in
Kolozsvár in the
Kingdom of Hungary (today
Cluj,
Romania) in a
house now known as the
Matthias Corvinus House. He was second son of
John
Hunyadi, a successful Hungarian General probably of
Romanian[4][5][6][7][8][9]
descent who had risen through the ranks of the
nobility to become
regent of
Hungary. Matthias' mother was
Erzsébet Szilágyi, from a
Hungarian noble family.
His tutors were the learned
János Vitéz, bishop of
Nagyvárad, whom
he subsequently raised to the primacy, and the Polish humanist
Gregory of Sanok. The precocious Matthias quickly mastered German, Italian,
Romanian, Latin and principal Slavic languages apart form his native Hungarian,
frequently acting as his father's interpreter at the reception of ambassadors.
His military training proceeded under the eye of his father, whom he began to
follow on his campaigns when only twelve years of age. In 1453 he was created
count of
Beszterce, and was knighted at the
siege of Belgrade in 1456.
The same care for his welfare led his father to choose him a bride in the
powerful family of the
Counts of Cilli. Mattias was married to Elizabeth of Celje. She was the only
known daughter of
Ulrich II of Celje and Catherine Cantakuzina. Her maternal grandparents were
Đurađ Branković and
Eirene Kantakouzene. But the young Elizabeth died in 1455, before the
marriage was consummated, leaving Matthias a widower at the age of fifteen.[10]
After the death of Matthias's father, there was a two-year struggle between
Hungary's various barons and its
Habsburg king,
Ladislaus the Posthumous (also king of Bohemia), with treachery from all
sides. Matthias's older brother
László Hunyadi was one party attempting to gain control. Matthias was
inveigled to Buda by the enemies of his house, and, on the pretext of being
concerned in a purely imaginary conspiracy against Ladislaus, was condemned to
decapitation, but was spared on account of his youth. In 1457, László
Hunyadi was captured with a trick and beheaded, while the king died suddenly in
November that year; rumors of poisoning were dispelled by research in 1985 which
gave acute
leukemia as the cause of death. Matthias was taken hostage by
George of Poděbrady, governor of
Bohemia, a
friend of the Hunyadis who aimed to raise a national king to the Magyar throne.
Poděbrady treated Matthias hospitably and affianced him with his daughter
Catherine, but still detained him, for safety's sake, in Prague, even after a
Magyar deputation had hastened thither to offer the youth the crown. Matthias
took advantage of the memory left by his father's deed, and by the general
population's dislike of foreign candidates; most the barons, furthermore,
considered that the young scholar would be a weak monarch in their hands. An
influential section of the magnates, headed by the
Palatine László Garai and by
Miklós Újlaki,
voivode of
Transylvania, who had been concerned in the judicial murder of Matthias's
brother László, and hated the Hunyadis as semi-foreign upstarts, were fiercely
opposed to Matthias's election; however, they were not strong enough to resist
against Matthias's uncle
Mihály Szilágyi and his 15,000 veterans.
Rule
Early
rule
Thus, on 20 January 1458, Matthias was elected king by the
Diet. This was the first time in the medieval Hungarian kingdom that a
member of the nobility, without dynastic ancestry and relationship, mounted the
royal throne. Such an elections upset the usual course of dynastic succession in
the age. In the Czech and Hungarian states they heralded a new judiciary era in
Europe, characterized by the absolute supremacy of the Parliament, (dietal
system) and a tendency to centralization. At this time Matthias was still a
hostage of George of Poděbrady, who released him under the condition of marrying
his daughter
Kunhuta (later known as Catherine). On 24 January 1458, 40,000 Hungarian
noblemen, assembled on the ice of the frozen Danube, unanimously elected
Matthias Hunyadi king of Hungary, and on 14 February the new king made his state
entry into Buda.
Matthias was 15 when he was elected King of Hungary: at this time the realm
was environed by perils. The
Ottomans and the
Venetians threatened it from the south, the emperor
Frederick III from the west, and
Casimir IV of Poland from the north, both Frederick and Casimir claiming the
throne. The Czech mercenaries under
Giszkra held the northern counties and from thence plundered those in the
centre. Meanwhile Matthias's friends had only pacified the hostile dignitaries
by engaging to marry the daughter of the palatine Garai to their nominee,
whereas Matthias refused to marry into the family of one of his brother's
murderers, and on 9 February confirmed his previous nuptial contract with the
daughter of Poděbrady, who shortly afterwards was elected
king of Bohemia (2 March 1458). Throughout 1458 the struggle between the
young king and the magnates, reinforced by Matthias's own uncle and guardian
Szilágyi, was acute. But Matthias, who began by deposing Garai and dismissing
Szilágyi, and then proceeded to levy a tax, without the consent of the Diet, in
order to hire mercenaries, easily prevailed. He recovered the
Golubac Fortress from the Ottomans, successfully invading
Serbia, and
reasserting the suzerainty of the Hungarian crown over
Bosnia. In the following year there was a fresh rebellion, when the emperor
Frederick was actually crowned king by the malcontents at Vienna-Neustadt (4
March 1459); Matthias however drove him out, and
Pope
Pius II intervened so as to leave Matthias free to engage in a projected
crusade against the Ottomans, which subsequent political complications, however,
rendered impossible. On 1 May 1461, the marriage between Matthias and
Poděbrady's daughter took place.
From 1461 to 1465 the career of Matthias was a perpetual struggle punctuated
by truces. Having come to an understanding with his father-in-law Poděbrady, he
was able to turn his arms against the emperor Frederick. In April 1462 the
latter restored the holy crown for 60,000 ducats and was allowed to retain
certain Hungarian counties with the title of king; in return for which
concessions, extorted from Matthias by the necessity of coping with a
simultaneous rebellion of the Magyar noble in league with Poděbrady's son
Victorinus, the emperor recognized Matthias as the actual sovereign of Hungary.
Only now was Matthias able to turn against the Ottomans, who were again
threatening the southern provinces. He began by defeating the Ottoman general
Ali Pasha, and then penetrated into Bosnia, capturing the newly built fortress
of Jajce after a
long and obstinate defence (December 1463). On returning home he was
crowned with the
Holy Crown on 29 March 1464. Twenty-one days after, on 8 March, the
15-years-old Queen Catherine died in childbirth. The child, a son, was
stillborn.
After driving the Czechs out of his northern counties, he turned southwards
again, this time recovering all the parts of Bosnia which still remained in
Ottoman hands.
Wars
in central Europe
Western conquests of Matthias Corvinus.
Matthias gained independence of and power over the barons by dividing them,
and by raising a large royal army, fekete sereg (the King's
Black Army of Hungary of
mercenaries),
whose main force included the remnants of the
Hussites from
Bohemia. At this time Hungary reached its greatest territorial extent of the
epoch (present-day southeastern
Germany to
the west,
Dalmatia to the south,
Eastern Carpathians to the east, and southwestern
Poland to the
north).
Soon after his coronation, Matthias turned his attention upon Bohemia, where
the Hussite
leader
George of Poděbrady had gained the throne. In 1465
Pope
Paul II excommunicated the Hussite King and ordered all the neighbouring
princes to depose him. On 31 May 1468, Matthias invaded Bohemia; however, as
early as 27 February 1469, he anticipated an alliance between George and
Frederick by himself concluding an armistice with the former. On 3 May the
Bohemian Catholics elected Matthias king of Bohemia, but this was contrary to
the wishes of both pope and emperor, who preferred to partition Bohemia. George
however anticipated all his enemies by suddenly excluding his own son from the
throne in favour of Ladislaus, the eldest son of Casimir IV, thus skillfully
enlisting Poland on his side. The sudden death of Poděbrady in March 1471 led to
fresh complications. At the very moment when Matthias was about to profit by the
disappearance of his most capable rival, another dangerous rebellion, headed by
the primate and the chief dignitaries of the state, with the object of placing
Casimir, son of Casimir IV, on the throne, paralysed Matthias's foreign
policy during the critical years 1470-1471. He suppressed this domestic
rebellion indeed, but in the meantime the Poles had invaded the Bohemian domains
with 60,000 men, and when in 1474 Matthias was at last able to take the field
against them in order to raise the siege of
Breslau,
he was obliged to fortify himself in an entrenched camp, whence he so skillfully
harried the enemy that the Poles, impatient to return to their own country, made
peace at Breslau (February 1475) on an
uti
possidetis basis, a peace subsequently confirmed by the congress of
Olomouc (July 1479).
During the interval between these pieces, Matthias, in self-defence, again
made war on the emperor, reducing Frederick to such extremities that he was glad
to accept peace on any terms. By the final arrangement made between the
contending princes, Matthias recognized Ladislaus as king of Bohemia proper in
return for the surrender of
Moravia,
Silesia and
Upper
and
Lower Lusatia, hitherto component parts of the Bohemian monarchy, till he
should have redeemed them for 400,000 florins. The emperor promised to pay
Matthias a huge war indemnity, and recognized him as the legitimate king of
Hungary on the understanding that he should succeed him if he died without male
issue, a contingency at this time somewhat improbable, as Matthias, only three
years previously (15 December 1476), had married his third wife,
Beatrice, daughter of
Ferdinand I of Naples.
The emperor's failure to follow through on these promises induced Matthias to
declare war against him for the third time in 1481. The Hungarian king conquered
all of the fortresses in Frederick's hereditary domains. Finally, on 1 June
1485, at the head of 8,000 veterans, he made his triumphal entry into Vienna,
which he henceforth made his capital.
Styria,
Carinthia and
Carniola
were next subdued;
Trieste was
only saved by the intervention of the Venetians. Matthias consolidated his
position by alliances with the
dukes of Saxony and
Bavaria, with the
Swiss Confederation and the
archbishop of Salzburg, establishing henceforth the greatest potentate in
central Europe.
Wars
against the Ottoman Empire
The roughly 50 years old Matthias (contemporary sculpture from Buda
Castle)
Bronze bust of Matthias in National Historical Memorial Park,
Ópusztaszer.
In 1471 Matthias renewed the
Serbian Despotate in south Hungary under
Vuk Grgurević for the protection of the borders against the Ottomans. In
1479 a huge Ottoman army, on its return home from ravaging Transylvania, was
annihilated at Szászváros (modern
Orăştie, 13 October 1479) in the so-called
Battle of Breadfield. The following year Matthias recaptured Jajce, drove
the Ottomans from northern Serbia and instituted two new military banats, Jajce
and Srebernik, out from reconquered Bosnian territory.
In 1480, when an Ottoman fleet
seized Otranto in the Kingdom of Naples, at the earnest solicitation of the
pope he sent the Hungarian general, Balázs Magyar, to recover the fortress,
which surrendered to him on 10 May 1481. Again in 1488, Matthias took
Ancona under
his protection for a while, occupying it with a Hungarian garrison.
On the death of sultan
Mehmet II in 1481, a unique opportunity for the intervention of Europe in
Ottoman affairs presented itself. A civil war ensued in Ottoman Empire between
his sons
Bayezid and Cem;
the latter, being worsted, fled to the
knights of Rhodes, by whom he was kept in custody in France. Matthias, as
the next-door neighbour of the Ottomans, claimed the custody of so valuable a
hostage, and would have used him as a means of extorting concessions from
Bayezid. But neither the pope nor the Venetians would accept such a transfer,
and the negotiations on this subject greatly embittered Matthias against the
Papal court. The last days of Matthias were occupied in endeavouring to secure
the succession to the throne for his illegitimate son
János; Queen Beatrice, though childless, fiercely and openly opposed the
idea and the matter was still pending when Matthias, who had long been crippled
by gout, expired very suddenly on 6 April 1490, just before Easter.
Policies
in Wallachia and Moldavia
At times Matthias had
Vlad III the Impaler,
Prince of
Wallachia, as his vassal. Although Vlad had great success against the
Ottoman armies, the two Christian rulers disagreed in 1462, leading to Matthias
imprisoning Vlad in Buda. However, wide-ranging support from many Western
leaders for Vlad III prompted Matthias to gradually grant privileged status to
his controversial prisoner. Vlad was eventually freed and married Matthias'
cousin,
Ilona Szilagy. As the Ottoman Empire appeared to be increasingly threatening
as Vlad Tepes had warned, he was sent to reconquer Wallachia with Hungarian
support in 1476. Despite the earlier disagreements between the two leaders, it
was ultimately a major blow to Hungary's status in Wallachia when Vlad was
assassinated that same year.
In 1467, a conflict erupted between Matthias and the
Moldavian
Prince
Stephen III, after the latter became weary of Hungarian policies in
Wallachia and their presence at
Kilia;
added to this was the fact that Matthias had already taken sides in the
Moldavian conflicts preceding Stephen's rule, as he had backed
Alexăndrel (and, possibly, the ruler referred to as
Ciubăr Vodă), deposing
Petru Aron.
Stephen occupied Kilia, sparking Hungarian retaliation, that ended in Matthias'
bitter defeat in the
Battle of Baia in December (the King himself is said to have been wounded
thrice).
Patronage
Matthias Church in Budapest.
Matthias was educated in
Italian, and his fascination with the achievements of the
Italian Renaissance led to the promotion of
Mediterranean cultural influences in Hungary.
Buda,
Esztergom,
Székesfehérvár and
Visegrád
were amongst the towns in Hungary that benefited from the establishment of
public health and education and a new legal system under Matthias' rule. In
1465 he founded a university in
Pressburg (present-day
Bratislava,
Slovakia),
the
Universitas Istropolitana. His 1476 marriage to Beatrice, the daughter of
the King of Naples, only intensified the influence of the
Renaissance.
An indefatigable reader and lover of culture, he proved an extremely generous
patron,
as artists from the
Italian city-states and
Western Europe were present in large numbers at his court. The most
important humanists living in Matthias' court were
Antonio Bonfini
Galeotto Marzio and the famous Hungarian poet
Janus Pannonius.
Like many of his acculturated contemporaries, he trusted in astrology and
other semi-scientific beliefs; however, he also supported true scientists and
engaged frequently in discussions with philosophers and scholars.
He spoke
Hungarian,
Croatian, Latin,
and later also
German,
Czech.
Royal
library
Matthias Corvinus's library, the
Bibliotheca Corviniana, was Europe's greatest collections of secular
books: historical chronicles, philosophic and scientific works in the fifteenth
century. His library was second in size only to the
Vatican Library. (However, the Vatican Library mainly contained Bibles and
religious materials.)[11]
In 1489, Bartolomeo della Fonte of Florence wrote that Lorenzo de Medici founded
his own Greek-Latin library encouraged by the example of the Hungarian king.
Corvinus's library is part of UNESCO World Heritage.[12]
Legacy
In the course of his expansion, Matthias strengthened his state's diplomacy.
Apart from his regular network of relations with his neighbours, as well as the
Pope and
Kingdom of Naples, he established regular contacts with
France,
Burgundy,
Switzerland,
Florence, most
German
states, Russia
and, occasionally, with
Persia and Egypt.
Matthias's empire collapsed after his death, since he had no children except
for an illegitimate son,
János Corvinus, whom the noblemen of the country did not accept as their
king. Matthias' rival as King of Bohemia,
Ladislaus II of the
Jagiellon line, followed him.
High taxes, mostly
falling on peasants, to sustain Matthias' lavish lifestyle and the Black Army
(cumulated with the fact that the latter went on marauding across the Kingdom
after being disbanded upon Matthias's death) could imply that he was not very
popular with his contemporaries. But the fact that he was elected king in a
small anti-Habsburg
popular revolution, that he kept the barons in check, persistent rumours about
him sounding public opinion by mingling among commoners incognito, and
harsh period known witnessed by Hungary later ensured that Matthias' reign is
considered one of the most glorious chapters of Hungarian history. Songs and
tales refer to him as Matthias the Just (Mátyás, az igazságos in
Hungarian), a ruler of justice and great wisdom, and he is arguably the most
popular hero of Hungarian folklore. There is a Hungarian proverb still used
today saying Matthias has died, justice is gone (Meghalt Mátyás, oda
az igazság). He is also one of the
sleeping kings, e.g. as
Kralj
Matjaž in Slovenia.
This popularity is partially mirrored in modern
Romania: 19th
century
Romantic nationalism invested in Matthias and his fathers' Vlach origins,
their Christian warrior stances, and their cultural achievements.
Titles
His titles in the 1486 laws: King of Hungary, Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia,
Rama, Serbia, Lodomeria, Cumania and Bulgaria, Prince of Silesia and Luxembourg,
Margrave of Moravia and Lusatia
[13]
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