Matthias Corvinus
Matthias Corvinus was born in Kolozsvár, now Cluj-Napoca in Romania, on the 23rd of February 1443. He was the second son of John Hunyadi and his wife Elizabeth Szilágyi. His education was managed by his mother due to his father's frequent absences from home. Many of the most learned men of Central Europe frequented John Hunyadi's court when Matthias was a child. Gregory of Sanok, a former tutor of King Vladislaus III of Poland, was Matthias's only teacher whose name is known. Under these scholars' influences, Matthias became an enthusiastic supporter of Renaissance humanism.
As a child, Matthias learnt many languages and read classical literature, especially military treatises. According to Antonio Bonfini, Matthias "was versed in all the tongues of Europe", with the exceptions of Turkish and Greek. Although this was an exaggeration, it is without doubt that Matthias spoke Hungarian, Latin, Italian, Polish, Czech, and German. On the other hand, the late 16th-century Polish historian Krzystoff Warszewiecki wrote that Matthias had been able to understand the Romanian language of the envoys of Stephen the Great, Prince of Moldavia.
A treaty between John Hunyadi and Đurađ Branković, Despot of Serbia, engaged Matthias and the Despot's granddaughter Elizabeth of Celje on the 7th of August 1451. The marriage of their children only took place in 1455 after new conflicts arose between Hunyadi and Ulrich of Celje. Elizabeth died before the end of 1455. John Hunyadi died on the 11th of August 1456, less than three weeks after his greatest victory over the Ottomans in Belgrade. Ladislaus Hunyadi, Matthias's elder brother, became the head of the family but was assassinated by King Ladislaus the Posthumous on the 9th of November 1456.
Taking advantage of resentment among barons, the King had the Hunyadi brothers imprisoned in Buda on the 14th of March 1457. Ladislaus was beheaded two days later on the 16th of March after the royal council condemned him and his brother to death for high treason. Matthias was held in captivity in a small house in Buda. His mother and her brother Michael Szilágyi staged a rebellion against the King and occupied large territories in the regions to the east of the river Tisza. King Ladislaus fled to Vienna in mid-1457, and from Vienna to Prague in September, taking Matthias with him.
King Ladislaus died childless in 1457. His elder sister Anna and her husband William III, Landgrave of Thuringia, laid claim to his inheritance but received no support from the Estates. The Diet of Hungary was convoked to Pest to elect a new king in January. Pope Calixtus III's legate Cardinal Juan Carvajal began openly campaigning for Matthias.
The election of Matthias as king was the only way of avoiding a protracted civil war. Ladislaus Garai was the first baron to yield. At a meeting with Matthias's mother and uncle, he promised that he and his allies would promote Matthias's election. Michael Szilágyi promised that his nephew would never seek vengeance for Ladislaus Hunyadi's execution. They also agreed that Matthias would marry the Palatine's daughter Anna, his executed brother's bride.
Michael Szilágyi arrived at the Diet with 15,000 troops, intimidating the barons who assembled in Buda. Stirred up by Szilágyi, the noblemen gathered on the frozen River Danube and unanimously proclaimed the 14-year-old Matthias king on the 24th of January 1458. At the same time, the Diet elected his uncle as regent. Matthias made his state entry into Buda five days later. He ceremoniously sat on the throne in the Church of Our Lady, but was not crowned because the Holy Crown of Hungary had been in the possession of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor for almost two decades.
The 14-year-old monarch administered state affairs independently from the outset, although he reaffirmed his uncle's position as Regent. For instance, Matthias instructed the citizens of Nagyszeben, now Sibiu in Romania, to reconcile their differences with Vlad Dracula, Prince of Wallachia on the 3rd of March 1458. Matthias's election was the first time that a member of the nobility mounted the royal throne in Hungary.
As king, Matthias waged wars against the Czech mercenaries who dominated Upper Hungary and against Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor. In this period, the Ottoman Empire conquered Serbia and Bosnia, terminating the zone of buffer states along the southern frontiers of the Kingdom of Hungary. Matthias signed a peace treaty with Frederick III in 1463, acknowledging the Emperor's right to style himself King of Hungary. The Emperor returned the Holy Crown of Hungary with which Matthias was crowned on the 29th of March 1464.
In this year, Matthias invaded the territories that had recently been occupied by the Ottomans and seized fortresses in Bosnia. He soon realized he could expect no substantial aid from the Christian powers and gave up his anti-Ottoman policy. Matthias introduced new taxes and regularly set taxation at extraordinary levels. These measures caused a rebellion in Transylvania in 1467, but he subdued the rebels.
The next year, Matthias declared war on George of Poděbrady, the Hussite King of Bohemia, and conquered Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia, but he could not occupy Bohemia proper. The Catholic Estates proclaimed him King of Bohemia on the 3rd of May 1469, but the Hussite lords refused to yield to him even after the death of their leader George of Poděbrady in 1471. Instead, they elected Vladislaus Jagiellon, the eldest son of Casimir IV of Poland.
A group of Hungarian prelates and lords offered the throne to Vladislaus's younger brother Casimir, but Matthias overcame their rebellion. Having routed the united troops of Casimir IV and Vladislaus at Breslau in Silesia in late 1474, Matthias turned against the Ottomans who had devastated the eastern parts of Hungary. He sent reinforcements to Stephen the Great, Prince of Moldavia, enabling Stephen to repel a series of Ottoman invasions in the late 1470s. In 1476, Matthias besieged and seized Šabac, an important Ottoman border fort.
Matthias dismissed his Chief Chancellor Archbishop Szécsi, replacing him with Stephen Várdai, Archbishop of Kalocsa, and John Vitéz. Both prelates bore the title of Chief and Secret Chancellor, but Várdai was the actual leader of the Royal Chancery. Around the same time, Matthias united the superior courts of justice into one supreme court. The new supreme court diminished the authority of the traditional courts presided over by the barons and contributed to the professionalization of the administration of justice.
He appointed Albert Hangácsi, Bishop of Csanád as the first Chief Justice. At the Diet of March 1467, two traditional taxes were renamed; the chamber's profit was thereafter collected as tax of the royal treasury and the thirtieth as the Crown's customs. Because of this change, all previous tax exemptions became void, increasing state revenues. Matthias set about centralizing the administration of royal revenues. He entrusted the administration of the Crown's customs to John Ernuszt, a converted Jewish merchant.
Within two years, Ernuszt was responsible for the collection of all ordinary and extraordinary taxes, and the management of the salt mines. The Transylvanian revolt caused a rebellion in Kolozsmonostor on the 18th of August 1467. The representatives of the "Three Nations" formed an alliance against the King stating that they were willing to fight for the freedom of Hungary. Matthias assembled his troops immediately and hastened to the province. The rebels surrendered without resistance but Matthias severely punished their leaders, many of whom were impaled, beheaded, or mercilessly tortured upon his orders.
Matthias started the systematic collection of books after the arrival of his first librarian, Martius Galeotti, a friend of Janus Pannonius from Ferrara in around 1465. The exchange of letters between Taddeo Ugoleto, who succeeded Marzio in 1471, and Francesco Bandini contributed to the development of the royal library because the latter regularly informed his friend of new manuscripts. Matthias also employed scriptors, illuminators, and book-binders.
Although the exact number of his books is unknown, his Bibliotheca Corviniana was one of Europe's largest collections of books when he died. According to Marcus Tanner, the surviving 216 volumes show that Matthias had the literary tastes of a classic alpha male who preferred secular books to devotional works. For instance, a Latin translation of Xenophon's biography of Cyrus the Great survived.
When Matthias was 12, his family arranged for him to marry Elizabeth of Celje who was also a child when their marriage took place in 1455. She died in September before the marriage was consummated. His second wife Catherine of Poděbrady was born in 1449. She died in childbirth in January or February 1464. The child did not survive.
Matthias's third wife Beatrice of Naples was born in 1457. Their engagement was announced in Breslau on the 30th of October 1474 during the siege of the town by Casimir IV and Vladislaus Jagiellon. Her dowry amounted to 200,000 gold pieces. Beatrice survived her husband and returned to Naples where she died in 1508.
Matthias's only known child John Corvinus was born out of wedlock in 1473. His mother Barbara Edelpöck, the daughter of a citizen of Stein in Lower Austria, met the King in early 1470. John Corvinus died on the 12th of October 1504. The "Black Army" encircled Vienna in January 1485. The siege lasted for five months and ended with the triumphal entry of Matthias into Vienna on the 1st of June 1485. The King soon moved the royal court to the newly conquered town.
Matthias participated in the lengthy Palm Sunday ceremony in Vienna in 1490 although he had felt so ill that morning that he could not eat breakfast. Around noon, he tasted a fig that proved to be rotten and he became very agitated and suddenly felt faint. The next day he was unable to speak. After two days of suffering, Matthias died in the morning of the 6th of April. According to Professor Frigyes Korányi, Matthias died of a stroke; Dr. Herwig Egert does not exclude the possibility of poisoning.
Matthias's funeral was held in St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna and he was buried in Székesfehérvár Cathedral on 24 or the 25th of April 1490. His conquests were lost within months of his death. The burghers of Breslau soon murdered his captain Heinz Dompnig. The Emperor's rule in Vienna and Wiener Neustadt was restored without resistance.
Stephen Zápolya said the King's death relieved Hungary of the trouble and oppression from which it had suffered so far. Royal authority quickly diminished because various claimants fought for the crown. Vladislaus Jagiellon triumphed because the barons regarded him as a weak ruler and he gained the support of Matthias's wealthy widow by promising to marry her. The burden of Matthias's wars and splendid royal court mainly fell on the peasants who paid at least 85% of the taxes.
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Common questions
When and where was Matthias Corvinus born?
Matthias Corvinus was born in Kolozsvár, now Cluj-Napoca in Romania, on the 23rd of February 1443. He was the second son of John Hunyadi and his wife Elizabeth Szilágyi.
How did Matthias Corvinus become King of Hungary?
The noblemen gathered on the frozen River Danube and unanimously proclaimed the 14-year-old Matthias king on the 24th of January 1458. His uncle Michael Szilágyi arrived at the Diet with 15,000 troops to intimidate the barons who assembled in Buda.
What languages could Matthias Corvinus speak?
Matthias spoke Hungarian, Latin, Italian, Polish, Czech, and German according to Antonio Bonfini. The late 16th-century Polish historian Krzystoff Warszewiecki wrote that Matthias had been able to understand the Romanian language of the envoys of Stephen the Great, Prince of Moldavia.
Who were the wives of Matthias Corvinus?
His first wife Elizabeth of Celje died before the end of 1455 and his second wife Catherine of Poděbrady died in childbirth in January or February 1464. His third wife Beatrice of Naples survived him and returned to Naples where she died in 1508.
When did Matthias Corvinus die and how old was he?
Matthias died in the morning of the 6th of April 1490 after suffering for two days following a meal of rotten figs. He was born on the 23rd of February 1443 making him 47 years old at the time of his death.