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{{History of Hungary}}
This article deals with the history of the [[Kingdom of Hungary]] from the 10th century to c. 1526.
Note that, although a "[[monarchy|kingdom]]" arose only in AD 1000 and a Hungarian state or principality only in the late 9th century, this text also describes its early development after the year 896 when the [[Magyars]] arrived in the [[Carpathian Basin]].
==Meaning==
The term "Kingdom of Hungary" is often used to denote the multi-ethnic configuration of territories in order to draw a clear distinction with the modern Hungarian state, which is significantly smaller and more ethnically homogeneous. Prior to and in the 19th century, the term ''Hungarian'' in English and other languages often referred to any inhabitant of this state, regardless of his or her ethnicity.
The [[Latin language|Latin]] terms "''natio Hungarica''" and "''Hungarus''" referred to all [[noblemen]] of the kingdom. A ''Hungarus''-consciousness (loyalty and patriotism above ethnic origins) existed among many inhabitants of this state, however according to [[István Werbőczy]]'s [[Tripartitum]] ''Natio Hungarica'' or ''Hungarus'' were only the privileged noblemen, subjects of the Holy Crown regardless of ethnicity.
==Overview==
In the four centuries after their migration into the Carpathian Basin, the Magyars gradually developed from a loose confederation of tribes into a recognized kingdom. This kingdom, which became known as the Kingdom of Hungary, was led by the [[Árpád Dynasty]] and was firmly allied to the Christian West. Eventually the [[Árpád]] line died out and the Kingdom of Hungary again descended into anarchy, with the most powerful nobles competing for control.
[[File:HRR 10Jh.jpg|thumb|left|250px|The Holy Roman Empire at Otto's death.<br>Mgft. = march/margraviate<br>Hzt. = duchy<br>Kgr. = kingdom]]
After the Árpád Dynasty ended, Hungary's nobles chose a series of foreign kings who re-established strong royal authority. Hungary and the adjacent countries prospered for several centuries as [[Central Europe]], and experienced an era of peace interrupted only by succession struggles. But over time, the onslaughts of the [[Ottoman Empire]] and the strife of the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] weakened Hungary, and the country was eventually partitioned by the Ottomans and the [[Austrian Empire|Habsburgs]].
==Magyar campaigns and the 955 battle==
The bonds linking the seven Magyar tribes grew weak soon after the migration into the Carpathian Basin. For more than half a century Magyars ravaged [[Bavaria]], [[Italy]], the [[Byzantine Empire]], and lands as far away as the [[Pyrenees]]. In 907, [[Margrave Luitpold]] of Bavaria built up his army and attempted to score a decisive victory against the Magyars. The European army was defeated by [[Árpád]]'s army in [[Battle of Pressburg]]. In 910 The Magyars defeated [[Louis the Child]]'s united [[Franks|Frankish]] Imperial Army near [[Augsburg]]. From 917-925, Magyars raided through [[Basle]], [[Alsace]], [[Burgundy (region)|Burgundy]], [[Saxony]], and [[Provence]]. In 937, they raided France as far west as [[Reims]] and Italy as far as [[Otranto]] in the south. Sometimes fighting as mercenaries and sometimes lured by spoils alone, the Magyar bands looted towns and took captives for labor, [[ransom]], or sale on the slave market. The [[Byzantine emperor]] and European monarchs and princes paid the Magyars annual [[tribute]]. In 955, however, German armies under [[Otto I]] of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] destroyed a Magyar force near [[Augsburg]] ([[Battle of Lechfeld]]). The defeat effectively ended the Magyar raids against western Europe, although the raids on the [[Byzantine Empire]] continued until 970.
==Arpad dynasty (970s—1301)==
===Geza and the beginnings of the Christianization of the Hungarian people===
[[File:Hungary 11th cent.png|thumb|right|250px|Hungary in the 11th century]]
In the 970s—as a pressing result of the changed domestic and foreign affairs—chief prince [[Géza of Hungary|Géza]] adopted [[Christianity]], and started spreading it in the country. At the same time he started to organize the central power, too. He hardly ever made war against foreign countries during his 25-year-long princely rule. His peace policy was reinforced by dynastic marriages—which were quite usual at that time—between his children and members of foreign ruling families, in order to consolidate the rule of the Magyars in the Carpathian Basin by other European countries.
[[Géza of Hungary|Géza]]'s efforts to establish a stable state power and guarantee the throne for his son were not successful because he had to share the country with the other members of the principal family. Prince [[Koppány]] also laid claim to the throne. In the Hungarian succession the theory of [[seniority]]—the right of the oldest living brother—prevailed. [[Koppány]] also laid claim upon the principal's widow, [[Sarolt]]. Géza's will, that his first-born son should inherit the throne, contradicted the ancestral right.
In connection with adopting Christianity, the question of vital importance was whether Hungary should join the [[catholicism|western]] or the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]. Initially (around 948) the Hungarian noblemen joined the Byzantine Church. In the autumn of 972 [[Adalbert of Prague|Saint Adalbert of Prague]] was sent as bishop of the Hungarians by [[Pope Silvester II]] to spread western Christianity among the Hungarians. He christened Géza and his family. His wife, Sharolt, had been baptized by a [[Greeks|Greek]] bishop in her early childhood. The decision to accept the second christening was dictated by foreign relations. The last phase of the Hungarian raids was directed against the southeast, and this alienated the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantines]]. It may have been a warning to the Hungarian principality when the Byzantine emperor abolished the [[politics|political]] and [[religion|religious]] independence of [[Bulgaria]] in the mid 11th century, after a period of short integration of the [[First Bulgarian Empire]] and the Easter Roman Empire.
[[File:Crown, Sword and Globus Cruciger of Hungary2.jpg|thumb|left|[[Holy Crown of Hungary]].]]
Consequently, the Hungarian chief prince needed the political, [[morality|moral]], and occasional military help of the German empire because of the Byzantine threat. Adopting western [[Christianity]] was thus both a [[culture|cultural]] and a political event for the [[hungarian people|Hungarians]]. During Géza's reign, the plundering campaigns came to an end. His efforts to establish a country independent of other powers was almost successful before he died.
===István/Stephen I===
[[File:Europe 1000.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Europe in 1000 AD, during Stephen I's rule.]]
[[File:Hun rovas alphabet.png|thumb|400px|right|The [[Old Hungarian script]], the so-called "Rovás alphabet" The country switched to using the Latin language and alphabet under king [[Stephen I of Hungary|saint Stephen]] (reigned: 997-1038), and until as late as 1844, Latin remained the official language of Hungary]]
When Geza died the issue of succession to the throne created tension at the court: by ancestral right [[Koppány]] should have claimed the throne, but Geza chose his first-born son to be his successor. The fight in the chief prince's family started after Géza's death, in 997. [[Koppány]] took up arms, and many people in [[Transdanubia]] joined him. The rebels represented the old faith and order, tribal independence and the pagan belief. His opposer, [[Vajk Stephen]], got the name István/Stephen when he was christened, at that time the [[Principality of Nitra|prince of Nitra]], supported by the loyal Magyar lords and German and Italian knights wanted to join European Christian community of independent states. Stephen won the throne struggle and became chieftain/prince. The victory of the Christian István over the pagan [[Koppány]] in the battle for succession was of the utmost importance in determining the future course of Hungarian history.
Stephen consolidated his rule by ousting other rival clan chiefs and confiscating their lands. Stephen then asked [[Pope Sylvester II]] to recognize him as king of Hungary. The pope agreed, and legend says Stephen was crowned on [[Christmas]] Day in the year 1000. The crowning legitimized Hungary as a Western kingdom independent of the Holy Roman and Byzantine empires. It also gave Stephen absolute power, which he used to strengthen the [[Roman Catholic Church]] and Hungary. The country's eastern and southern borders marked the borders of the [[Western world]].<ref>http://www.culturalfoundation.hu/41-16484.html</ref> Stephen ordered the people to pay tithes and required every tenth village to construct a church and support a priest. Stephen donated land to support bishoprics and monasteries, required all persons except the clergy to marry, and barred marriages between Christians and pagans. Foreign monks worked as teachers and introduced Western agricultural methods. In the earliest times [[Hungarian language]] was written in a [[Old Hungarian script|runic-like script]]. The country switched to the Latin alphabet under Stephen. From 1000 to 1844, Latin was the official language of the country.
Stephen administered his kingdom through a system of counties (administrative model of Frankish Empire), each governed by an ispan count, or magistrate, appointed by the king. In Stephen's time, Magyar society had two classes: the freemen nobles and the unfree. The nobles were descended in the male line from the Magyars who had either migrated into the Carpathian Basin or had received their title of nobility from the king. Only nobles could hold office or present grievances to the king. They paid tithes and owed the crown military service but were exempt from taxes. The unfree—who had no political voice—were slaves, freed slaves, immigrants, or nobles stripped of their privileges. Most were serfs who paid taxes to the king and a part of each harvest to their lord for use of his land. The king had direct control of the unfree, thus checking the nobles' power.
Clan lands, crown lands, and former crown lands made up the early realm. Clan lands belonged to nobles, who could will the lands to family members or the church; if a noble died without an heir, his land reverted to his clan. Crown lands consisted of Stephen's patrimony, lands seized from disloyal nobles, conquered lands, and unoccupied parts of the kingdom. Former crown lands were properties granted by the king to the church or to individuals.
Stephen also subdued semi-independent princes like Ajtony in South-Hungary near the [[Mureş River]] (Maros) and [[Gyula III|Gyula]] in [[Transylvania]].
===Stephen's most important successors, and the Mongol invasion, reconstruction===
Stephen died in 1038 and was [[canonized]] in 1083. Despite pagan revolts and a series of succession struggles after his death, Hungary grew stronger and expanded. [[Transylvania]] was defended against nomads from the east, and [[Székely]]s (a tribe related to the Magyars), and [[Saxons]] were settled in the 11th and 12th centuries. Stephen created the Hungarian heavy cavalry as an example for Western European powers.
After his death, a period of revolts and conflict for supremacy ensued between the royalty and the nobles. In 1051, armies of the Holy Roman Empire tried to conquer Hungary, but they were defeated at Vértes mountain and at Pozsony in 1052.
In 1091 [[Ladislaus I of Hungary]] conquered [[Croatia]].<ref>[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/croatia Free Dictionary - Croatia]</ref><ref>[http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Ladislaus+I Ladislaus I]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.korcula.net/history/mmarelic/byzant.htm|title=Marko Marelic : The Byzantine and Slavic worlds}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/hunyadi/hu02.htm|title=Hungary in American History Textbooks}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://erwin.bernhardt.net.nz/hungary/hungaryfacts.html|title=Hungary, facts and history in breef}}</ref>
According to an alternative history based on the document [[Pacta Conventa]], which is most likely a forgery<ref>[http://books.google.hr/books?id=YIAYMNOOe0YC&pg=RA3-PA267&vq=King+of+Hungary,+Slavonia,+Croatia,+and+Dalmatia&dq=pacta+conventa+croatia+cambridge&source=gbs_search_s&cad=0Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250]</ref> Hungary and Croatia created a personal union. There is no undoubtedley genuine document of the personal union, and medieval sources mention the annexation into the Hungarian kingdom.
The actual nature of the relationship is inexplicable in modern terms because it varied from time to time.<ref name="Bellamy, p. 38">Bellamy, p. 38</ref> Sometimes Croatia acted as an independent agent and at other times as a vassal of Hungary.<ref name="Bellamy, p. 38"/> However, Croatia retained a large degree of internal independence.<ref name="Bellamy, p. 38"/> The degree of Croatian autonomy fluctuated throughout the centuries as did its borders.<ref>{{cite book|last=Singleton|first=Frederick Bernard|title=A short history of the Yugoslav peoples|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=1985|pages=29|isbn=9780521274852}}</ref>
The 11th and 12th centuries were relatively peaceful, and Hungary slowly developed into a western type of [[Feudal society|feudal economy]]. Crop production gradually supplemented stock breeding, but until the 12th century planting methods remained crude because tillers farmed each plot until it was exhausted, then moved on to fresh land. Gold, silver, and salt mining boosted the king's revenues. Despite the minting of coins, cattle remained the principal medium of exchange. Two important kings led portions of the remainder of the [[Árpád dynasty]].
====King Coloman the "Book-lover" (1095-1116)====
[[Coloman,_King_of_Hungary|King Coloman]] published his most famous law half a millennium before other governments: ''De strigis vero quae non sunt, nulla amplius quaestio fiat'' (As for the matter of witches, no such things exist, therefore no further investigations or trials are to be held).
[[File:Europe mediterranean 1190.jpg|250px|thumb|Europe in 1190, during Bela III's rule.]]
====Béla III (1172-1192)====
[[Béla III]] was the most powerful and wealthiest member of the dynasty. Béla spent annual the equivalent of {{convert|23000|kg}} of pure silver. It exceeded those of the French king (estimated at some {{convert|17000|kg}}) and was double the receipts of the English Crown.<ref>[http://books.google.co.uk/books?ct=result&id=y0g4YEp7ZrsC&dq=%22B%C3%A9la+III%22+annual+revenue&pg=PA46&lpg=PA46&sig=ACfU3U2STdXJyC_RFJp9Ipb3Rw4SmsrWww&q=ladis#PPA28,M1 A concise history of Hungary]</ref> He rolled back the Byzantine potency in the Balkan region. Agricultural methods and the clearing of additional land produced enough surplus to support a class of full-time craftsmen. In the 13th century Hungary's nobles were trading gold, silver, copper, and iron with western Europe for luxury goods.
[[File:Coa_Hungary_Country_History_Imre_(1196-1204).svg|thumb|130px|left|The red and white stripes symbolizing the Árpáds used in 1202 on a seal of King Imre. This coat of arms was used for a short time only.]]
====Andrew II (1205-1235)====
[[File:Hungarian Crusader Knight.png|thumb|right|200px|Hungarian Crusader Knight in the [[Fifth Crusade]].]]
Until the end of the 12th century, the king's power remained supreme in Hungary. He was the largest landowner, and income from the crown lands nearly equaled the revenues generated from mines, customs, tolls, and the mint. In the 13th century, however, the social structure changed, and the crown's absolute power began to wane. As the crown lands became a less important source of royal revenues, the king found it expedient to make land grants to nobles to ensure their loyalty. King [[Andrew II of Hungary|Andrew II]] (1205–35), a profligate spender on foreign military adventures and domestic luxury, made huge land grants to nobles who fought for him. These nobles, some of whom were foreign knights, soon made up a class of magnates whose wealth and power far outstripped that of the more numerous lesser nobles.
In 1211, he granted the Burzenland (Transylvania) to the [[Teutonic Knights]]. In 1225, Andrew II expelled the Teutonic Knights from Transylvania, hence Teutonic Order had to transfer to the Baltic sea.
He led the [[Fifth Crusade]] to the [[Holy Land]] in 1217. He set up the largest royal army in the history of crusades (20,000 knights and 12,000 castle-garrisons). When Andrew tried to meet burgeoning expenses by raising the serfs' taxes, thereby indirectly slashing the lesser nobles' incomes, the lesser nobles rebelled. In 1222 they forced Andrew to sign the [[Golden Bull of 1222|Golden Bull]]. The [[Golden Bull of 1222]] was the first constitution in [[Continental Europe]]. It limited the king's power. The golden Bull—the Hungarian equivalent of England's Magna Carta—to which every Hungarian king thereafter had to swear. Its purpose was twofold: to reaffirm the rights of the smaller nobles of the old and new classes of royal servants (servientes regis) against both the crown and the magnates and to defend those of the whole nation against the crown by restricting the powers of the latter in certain fields and legalizing refusal to obey its unlawful/unconstitutional commands (the "''ius resistendi''"). The lesser nobles also began to present Andrew with grievances, a practice that evolved into the institution of the [[parliament]], or [[diet (assembly)|Diet]]. The most important legal-ideology was the [[Doctrine of the Holy Crown]]. Important points of the Doctrine: The sovereignty belongs to the noble nation==>(the Holy Crown). The members of the Holy Crown are the citizens of the Crown's lands. None can reach full power. The nation is sharing a portion of the political power with the ruler. Minority cannot rule over majority.
====Béla IV (1235-1270)====
Andrew II's son [[Béla IV of Hungary|Béla IV]] (1235–79) tried with little success to reestablish royal preeminence by reacquiring lost crown lands. His efforts, however, created a deep rift between the crown and the magnates just as the Mongols were sweeping westward across Russia towards Europe. Aware of the danger, Bela ordered the magnates and lesser nobles to mobilize. Few responded, and the [[Mongol]]s routed Bela's army at the [[Battle of Mohi]] on April 11, 1241. Bela fled first to Austria, where Duke [[Frederick II, Duke of Austria|Frederick II]] of Babenberg held him for ransom, then to [[Dalmatia]]. The Mongols reduced Hungary's towns and villages to ashes and slaughtered a great part (estimations go to 25-30%) of the population before news arrived in 1242 that the Great [[Ögedei Khan]] had died in [[Karakorum]]. The Mongols withdrew, sparing Bela and what remained of his kingdom. Another theory says, that Ögodei's death wasn't the only reason for the withdrawal of the Mongol Army. It is also possible that the leadership of the army realized that the campaign wasn't so successful as thought, due to the well-fortified castles and towns, and this would lead to a demoralisation soon. Therefore they decided to abort the campaign. The biggest calamity for the population were the periods of diseases and food shortages after the Mongol invasion. Only strongly fortified cities and abbeys could withstand the assault. As a consequence, after the Mongols retreated, King Béla ordered the construction of hundreds of stone castles and fortifications, meant to be defense against a possible second Mongol invasion.
Bela realized that reconstruction would require the magnates' support, so he abandoned his attempts to recover former crown lands. Instead, he granted crown lands to his supporters, reorganized the army by replacing light archers with heavy cavalry, and granted the magnates concessions to redevelop their lands and construct stone-and-mortar castles that would withstand enemy sieges. Bela repopulated the country with a wave of immigrants, transforming royal castles into towns and populating them with Germans, Italians, and Jews. Mining began anew, farming methods improved, and crafts and commerce developed in the towns. Additional Rumanians (Wallachs)—who already had some settlings in Transylvania—were also welcome to cross the Carpathians. Furthermore he resettled the [[Cumans]] of [[Cuthen]], who left the country before the Mongol invasion into [[Kunság]]/[[Kiskunság]]/[[Nagykunság]], and gave them autonomy. After Bela's reconstruction program, the magnates, with their new fortifications, emerged as Hungary's most powerful political force. However, by the end of the 13th century, they were fighting each other and carving out petty principalities.
King Bela IV died in 1270, and the Árpad line expired in 1301 when [[Andrew III of Hungary|Andrew III]], who strove with some success to limit the magnates' power, unexpectedly died without a male heir. Anarchy characterized Hungary as factions of magnates vied for control. During the reigns of the Kings after the Árpád dynasty, the [[Kingdom of Hungary]] reached its greatest extent, yet royal power was weakened as the major landlords (the Barons) greatly increased their influence. The most powerful landlords started to use [[royal prerogative]]s (coinage ,customs, declaration of wars against foreign monarchs).
===The Medieval Hungarian State===
"Medieval Hungarian constitutional development made the power of Hungarian Kings the most efficient one of medieval age, and that reason was the absence of feudalism. No doubt, infiltrations of feudalism, as prevalent through-out Europe, are to be found in old Hungarian institutions, but as an accidental inter-mixture only, not as their essence and chief feature. That blending of public prerogative with rights belonging to the sphere of private law, which is the essence of feudalism never prevailed in the organisation of Hungarian public powers, never broke their action on the nation as a whole. To this early prevalence of public law in the government of the country do Hungary owe not only a superior efficiency not detrimental to liberty of Hungarian public powers, but in connection with it an early growth of conscious national unity, of patriotism on broad lines, at a time when tribal feeling and feudal allegiance sub-divided all European nations into small units which paralysed each other, and into a corresponding fractional mentality adverse to the very idea of State and to inchoate national feeling." ( Count [[Albert Apponyi]]: "The juridical nature of the relations between Austria and Hungary" Arts and Science Congress, held at United States St. Louis in 1904 )
==Hungarian Aristocracy in Medieval Age==
The local (regional) power of aristocracy from medieval Hungary was based on three pillars: the court offices they performed; their domains and castles; their suite based at the institution of familiaritas (a kind of vassality). This study – reconstructing a concrete instance – tries to follow the interactions between these factors and to introduce the reader in the strange world of medieval Hungarian noble society with its legal procedures, practical solutions, family links, policies and rivalries. One of the conclusions I made, is that from these factors the primary and the most active one is that of court connections of aristocratic people and their political roles. They had chances to obtain new estates (conserving they actual power) and to protect their interestes only being in this status. Another conclusion is, that political changes on the national level (in the royal government, for ex.) had an instantly effect on the regional situation, on the fate of some estates, on the family policies and regional balance of forces.<ref>http://www.epa.oszk.hu/00900/00979/00307/pdf/007.pdf</ref>
===Rank list of the most important medieval baronial titles and high offices===
These barons were (under Sigismund of Luxemburg):
*the count palatine (comes palatinus)
*the voivode of Transylvania (woyuoda Transsiluanus)
*the judge of the royal court (iudex curiae regiae)
*the bans of Slavonia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Macsó, and Severin (bani)
*the master of the treasury (magister tavernicorum)
*the master of janitors (ianitorum regalium magister)
*the master of stewards (dapiferorum regalium magister)
*the master of the cup-bearers (pincernarum regalium magister)
*the marchall (agasonum regalium magister)
*counts of Pozsony (present day Bratislava) and Timis (hung:Temes)
*the high treasurer (summus thesaurarius)
*the count of the Szeklers (Comes Siculorum)
*the secret chancellor
==Golden Era (1308-1490)==
Hungary's first two foreign kings, [[Charles I of Hungary|Charles Robert]] and [[Louis I of Hungary|Louis I]] of the House of [[Capetian House of Anjou|Anjou]], ruled during one of the most glorious periods in the country's history. Central Europe was at peace, and Hungary and its neighbors prospered.
===Charles I (1308-1342)===
After the destructive period of [[interregnum]] (1301–1308), the first [[Capetian House of Anjou|Angevin]] king, [[Charles I of Hungary]] (King: 1308–1342) -An [[Árpád dynasty|Árpád]] descendant in the female line- successfully restored the royal power, who defeated oligarch rivals, the so called "little kings". Charles I was crowned as a child and raised in Hungary. His new fiscal, customs and monetary policies proved successful under his reign. Charles Robert also introduced tax reforms and a stable currency.
One of the primary sources of his power was the wealth derived from the gold mines of east and northern Hungary. Eventually production reached the remarkable figure of 3,000 lb. of gold annually—one third of the total production of the world as then known, and five times as much as that of any other European state.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Europe/Hungary-HISTORY.html |title=Hungary—History |publisher=Nations Encyclopedia.com |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://mek.oszk.hu/02000/02086/02086.htm |title=C. A. Macartney: Hungary—A Short History |publisher=Mek.oszk.hu |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref> He reestablished the crown's authority by ousting disloyal [[magnate]]s and distributing their estates to his supporters. Charles Robert then ordered the magnates to recruit and equip small private armies called ''banderia''. Charles Robert [[Rule by decree|ruled by decree]] and convened the [[Diet (assembly)|Diet]] only to announce his decisions. Dynastic marriages linked his family with the ruling families of [[Kingdom of Naples|Naples]] and [[Poland]] and heightened Hungary's standing abroad.
Hungary was the first non-Italian country, where the renaissance appeared in Europe.<ref name="mester">[http://www.fondazione-delbianco.org/inglese/relaz00_01/mester.htm The influences of the Florentine renaissance in Hungary]</ref>
The Renaissance style came directly from Italy during the [[Quattrocento]] to Hungary foremost in the Central European region. The development of the early Hungarian-Italian relationships was a reason of this infiltration, which weren't manifested only in dynastic connections, but in cultural, humanistic and commercial relations. This effect was getting stronger from the 14th century. In the first half of the 14th century, the statues of ladies, knights, court musicians, servants and guardsmen mark not only the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, but also the beginning of a new age. Dressed in full-length gowns, richly gathered cloaks, pointed shoes and daring hats, they are an unexpected reminder of a flourishing, almost decadent Hungarian Trecento, whose mere existence was no more than a conjecture before the miraculous appearance of the archaeological foundings at Buda Castle.<ref>[http://impulzus.sch.bme.hu/info/hunhist.html History of Hungary]</ref>
The power of the former Árpad Dynasty was still based on the vast royal estates. Under the Angevins, the royal family was restored as the greatest land owning family of the realm (they had one-third of all lands), but Angevin power was rather based on the possession of castles (some 160 out of 300, while the most powerful non-royal family possessed seven).
===Louis the Great (1342-1382)===
[[Image:Louis role.jpg|thumb|250px|Countries kingdoms under Louis' leadership in 1370s]]
Charles Robert's son and successor [[Louis I of Hungary]] (1342–82) maintained the strong central authority Charles I had amassed. In 1351 Louis issued a decree that reconfirmed the [[Golden Bull]], erased all legal distinctions between the lesser nobles and the magnates, standardized the [[serf]]s' obligations, and barred the serfs from leaving the lesser nobles' farms to seek better opportunities on the magnates' estates. The decree also established the [[Fee tail|entail]] system. Hungary's economy continued to flourish during Louis's reign. Gold and other precious metals poured from the country's mines and enriched the royal treasury, foreign trade increased, new towns and villages arose, and craftsmen formed guilds. The prosperity fueled a surge in cultural activity, and Louis promoted the [[Illuminated manuscript|illumination of manuscripts]] and in 1367 founded Hungary's first university. Louis extended his rule over territories to the [[Adriatic Sea]], and occupied the [[Kingdom of Naples]] several times. Under his reign lived the most famous epic hero of Hungarian literature and warfare, the king's Champion: Nicolas [[Toldi]]. Louis had become popular in Poland due to his successful campaigns against the Tatars and pagan Lithuanians. Two successful wars (1357–1358, 1378–1381) against [[Venice]] annexed Dalmatia and Ragusa and more territories at [[Adriatic Sea]]. Venice also had to raise the Angevin flag on St. Mark's Square on holy days.
Louis I established a university in [[Pécs]] in 1367 (by papal accordance). The Ottoman Turks confronted the country ever more often. In 1366 and 1377, Louis led successful champaigns against the Ottomans (Batlle at Nicapoli in 1366), therefore Balkanian states became his vassals. From 1370, the death of [[Casimir III of Poland]], Louis became king of [[Poland]] in 1370 and ruled the two countries for twelve years. Until his death, he retained his strong potency in political life of Italian Peninsula.
While Louis was engaged in these activates, the [[Ottomans]] made their initial inroads into the [[Balkans]].
===Sigismund of Luxemburg (1386-1437)===
[[Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor|Sigismund]] (1387–1437), Louis's son-in-law, won a bitter struggle for the throne after Louis died in 1382. Under Sigismund, Hungary's fortunes began to decline. Many Hungarian nobles despised Sigismund for his cruelty during the succession struggle, his long absences, and his costly foreign wars. In 1401 disgruntled nobles temporarily imprisoned the king. In 1403 another group crowned an [[anti-king]], who failed to solidify his power but succeeded in selling [[Dalmatia]] to [[Republic of Venice|Venice]]. Sigismund failed to reclaim the territory. Sigismund became king of [[Bohemia]] in 1419. In 1404 Sigismund introduced the Placetum Regium. According to this decree, Papal bulls and messages could not be pronounced in Hungary without the consent of the king. Sigismund congregated [[Council of Constance]] (1414–1418) to abolish the [[Western Schism|Papal Schism]] of Catholic church, which was solved by the election of a new [[pope]]. In 1433 he even became [[Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor|Holy Roman Emperor]]. In response, Sigismund created the office of [[Palatine (Kingdom of Hungary)|palatine]] to rule the country in his stead.
Like earlier Hungarian kings, Sigismund elevated his supporters to magnate status and sold off crown lands to meet burgeoning expenses. Although Hungary's economy continued to flourish, Sigismund's expenses outstripped his income. He bolstered royal revenues by increasing the serfs' taxes and requiring cash payment. Social turmoil erupted late in Sigismund's reign as a result of the heavier taxes and renewed magnate pressure on the lesser nobles. Hungary's first peasant revolt erupted when a [[Transylvania]]n [[bishop]] ordered peasants to pay [[tithe]]s in coin rather than [[Payment in kind|in kind]]. Also, [[Husite]] teachings spread among the population making the bishop more unpopular. The revolt was quickly checked, but it prompted Transylvania's [[Székely|Szekel]], [[Hungarian people|Magyar]], and [[Transylvanian Saxons|German]] orders to form the [[Union of Three Nations]], which was an effort to defend their privileges against any power except that of the king. During his long reign Royal castle of Buda became probably the largest Gothic palace of the late Middle Ages. The first Hungarian [[Bible translation]] completed in 1439, but Hungarian Bible was illegal in its age. Hungary was the first non-Italian country, where the renaissance appeared in Europe.<ref name="mester"/>
Additional turmoil erupted when the Ottomans expanded their empire into the Balkans. They crossed the [[Bosporus]] [[Strait]]s in 1352, occupied much of [[Bulgaria]] in 1423, and defeated the [[Serbs]] at the [[Battle of Kosovo]] in 1389. Sigismund led a crusade against them in 1396, but the Ottomans routed his forces in the [[Battle of Nicopolis]], and he barely escaped with his life. [[Tamerlane]]'s invasion of [[Anatolia]] in 1402-03 slowed the Ottomans' progress for several decades, but in 1437 [[Sultan]] [[Murad II]] prepared to invade Hungary. Sigismund died the same year, and Hungary's next two kings, [[Albert II of Germany]] (1437–39) and [[Władysław III of Poland]] (1439–44), known in Hungary as ''Ulaszlo I'', both died during campaigns against the Ottomans.
[[File:Coat of Arms of Hungary Historic Design.png|thumb|130px|left|This coat of arms first appeared during the reign of [[Louis I of Hungary|Louis I]] (1342-1382) and evolved into the one used today.]]
===Count John Hunyadi's era===
After Władysław III, Hungary's nobles chose an infant king, [[Ladislaus the Posthumous|Ladislaus V the Posthumous]], and a [[regent]], [[John Hunyadi]], to rule the country until the former came of age. The son of a lesser nobleman of the [[Vlach]] ( though some historians suggest a [[Cuman]]ic)<ref>[http://lexikon.katolikus.hu/LINKEK/LINKHHHH/60HUNFAL.HTML Katolikus Lexikon: Hunyadi János], A M. Nemz. Tört. IV. Bp., 1896.—Elekes 1952.—Teke 1980.—Puskely 1994:279.(Hungarian)</ref> descent, who had won distinction in the wars against the [[Ottomans]]. Hunyadi rose to become a general, Transylvania's military governor, one of Hungary's largest landowners, and a war hero. He used his personal wealth and the support of the lesser nobles to win the [[Regent|regency]] and overcome the opposition of the magnates. Hunyadi then established a [[mercenary]] army funded by the first tax ever imposed on Hungary's nobles. He defeated the Ottoman forces in Transylvania in 1442 and broke their hold on Serbia in 1443, only to be routed at the [[Battle of Varna]] (where Władysław I (of Hungary) himself perished) a year later. In 1446, the parliament elected the great general [[John Hunyadi|János Hunyadi]] as governor (1446–1453) and then as regent (1453–1456) of the kingdom. In 1448 Hunyadi tried to expel the Turks from Europe, but because of the treachery of Serbs and Vlachs he was outnumbered and routed in the 3 days battle of Kosovo Polje.
One of his greatest victories being the Siege of Belgrade in 1456.
Hunyadi defended the city against the onslaught of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. During the siege, Pope Callixtus III ordered the bells of every church to be rung every day at noon, as a call for believers to pray for the defenders of the city. However, in many countries (like England and Spanish kingdoms), news of the victory arrived before the order, and the ringing of the church bells at noon thus transformed into a commemoration of the victory. The Popes didn't withdraw the order, and Catholic churches still ring the noon bell to this day.
Hunyadi died of the [[Bubonic plague|plague]] soon after.
===Matthias Corvinus and the Early Absolutism===
[[File:The wars of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (1458-1490).png|thumb|right|250px|Western conquests of Matthias Corvinus.]]
Some magnates resented Hunyadi for his popularity as well as for the taxes he imposed, and they feared that his sons might seize the throne from Ladislaus. They coaxed the sons to return to Laszlo's court, where Hunyadi's elder son was beheaded. His younger son, [[Matthias Corvinus of Hungary]], was imprisoned in Bohemia. However, lesser nobles loyal to Mátyás soon expelled László. After Ladislaus's death abroad, they paid ransom for Mátyás, met him on the frozen [[Danube River]], and proclaimed him king. Corvinus (1458–90) was, with one possible exception ([[John Zápolya]]), the last [[King of Hungary|Hungarian king]] to rule the country.
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.
A true Renaissance prince, a successful military leader and administrator, an outstanding linguist, a learned astrologer, and an enlightened patron of the arts and learning.<ref name="britannica1">{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/276730/Hungary#tab=active~checked%2Citems~checked&title=Hungary%20--%20Britannica%20Online%20Encyclopedia |title=Hungary—Britannica Online Encyclopedia |publisher=Britannica.com |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref> [[András Hess]] set up a printing press in [[Buda]] in 1472.
Although Matthias regularly convened the Diet and expanded the lesser nobles' powers in the counties, he exercised absolute rule over Hungary by means of a [[secular]] [[bureaucracy]]. Matthias enlisted 30,000 foreign and Hungarian mercenaries in his standing army and built a network of fortresses along Hungary's southern frontier, but he did not pursue his father's aggressive anti-Turkish policy. Instead, Mátyás launched unpopular attacks on Bohemia, Poland, and [[Archduchy of Austria|Austria]], pursuing an ambition to become Holy Roman Emperor and arguing that he was trying to forge a unified Western or Central European alliance strong enough to expel the Ottoman Turks from Europe. He eliminated tax exemptions and raised the serfs' obligations to the crown to fund his court and the military. The magnates complained that these measures reduced their incomes, but despite the stiffer obligations, the serfs considered Matthias a just ruler because he protected them from excessive demands and other abuses by the magnates. He also reformed Hungary's legal system and promoted the growth of Hungary's towns. Matthias was a true [[Polymath|Renaissance man]] and made his court a center of [[Humanism|humanist culture]]; under his rule, Hungary's first books were printed and its second university was established. His library, the [[Bibliotheca Corviniana|Corvina]], was famous throughout Europe. It was Europe's greatest collection of historical chronicles, philosophic and scientific works in the 15th century, and second only in size to the Vatican Library which mainly contained religious material. His renaissance library is a UNESCO [[World Heritage Site]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=15976&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html |title=Hungary—The Bibliotheca Corviniana Collection: UNESCO-CI |publisher=Portal.unesco.org |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref> In his quest for the imperial throne, Matthias eventually moved to [[Vienna]], where he died in 1490. His death is supposed to be caused by [[poison]].
==Jagiellon Dynasty and Decline of Hungary (1490—1526)==
The magnates, who did not want another heavy-handed king, procured the accession of [[Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary|Vladislaus II]], king of Bohemia (Ulászló II in Hungarian history), precisely because of his notorious weakness: he was known as King Dobže, or Dobzse (meaning "Good" or, loosely, "OK"), from his habit of accepting with that word every paper laid before him.<ref name="britannica1"/> Under his reign the central power began to experience severe financial difficulties, largely due to the enlargement of feudal lands at his expense.
Matthias' reforms did not survive the turbulent decades that followed his reign. An oligarchy of quarrelsome magnates gained control of Hungary. They crowned a docile king, [[Vladislaus II of Hungary|Vladislaus II]] (the Jagiellonian king of Bohemia, who was known in Hungary as ''Ulaszlo ''II, 1490–1516) the son of King [[Casimir IV of Poland]], only on condition that he abolish the taxes that had supported Matthias' mercenary army. As a result, the king's army dispersed just as the Turks were threatening Hungary. The magnates also dismantled Mathias' administration and antagonized the lesser nobles. In 1492 the Diet limited the serfs' freedom of movement and expanded their obligations while a large portion of peasants became prospering because of cattle-export to the West. Rural discontent boiled over in 1514 when well-armed peasants preparing for a crusade against Turks rose up under [[György Dózsa]] (a borderguard captain) and attacked estates across Hungary. United by a common threat, the magnates and lesser nobles eventually crushed the rebels. Dozsa and other rebel leaders were executed in a most brutal manner.
Shocked by the peasant revolt, the Diet of 1514 passed laws that condemned the serfs to eternal bondage and increased their work obligations. Corporal punishment became widespread, and one noble even branded his serfs like livestock. The legal scholar [[István Werbőczy]] included the new laws in his ''Tripartitum ''of 1514, which made up the espirit of Hungary's legal corpus until the revolution of 1848. However, the ''Tripartitum ''was never used as a code. The ''Tripartitum ''gave Hungary's king and nobles, or magnates, equal shares of power: the nobles recognized the king as superior, but in turn the nobles had the power to elect the king. The'' Tripartitum ''also freed the nobles from taxation, obligated them to serve in the military only in a defensive war, and made them immune from arbitrary arrest.
When Vladislaus II died in 1516, his ten-year-old son [[Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia|Louis II]] (1516–26) became king, but a royal council appointed by the Diet ruled the country. Hungary was in a state of near anarchy under the magnates' rule. The king's finances were a shambles; he borrowed to meet his household expenses despite the fact that they totaled about one-third of the national income. The country's defenses sagged as border guards went unpaid, fortresses fell into disrepair, and initiatives to increase taxes to reinforce defenses were stifled. In 1521 Sultan [[Suleyman the Magnificent]] recognized Hungary's weakness and seized Belgrade in preparation for an attack on Hungary. After that, Louis II and his wife, Maria von Habsburg tried to manage an anti-magnate putsch, but they were not successful. In August 1526, he marched nearly 100,000 troops into Hungary's heartland. Hungary's forces were just gathering, when the 26,000 strong Hungarian army met the Turks with bad luck in the [[Battle of Mohacs]]. Hungarians had well-equipped and well-trained troops, and awaited more reinforcements from Czechia and Transylvania, but lacked a good military leader. They suffered bloody defeat leaving 20,000 dead on the field. Louis himself died, thrown from a horse into a bog.
After Louis's death, rival factions of Hungarian nobles simultaneously elected two kings, [[John I Zápolya]] (1526–40) and [[Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor|Ferdinand]] of Habsburg (1526–64). Each claimed sovereignty over the entire country but lacked sufficient forces to eliminate his rival. Zápolya, a Hungarian who was military governor of Transylvania, was recognized by the sultan and was supported mostly by lesser nobles opposed to new foreign kings. Ferdinand, the first Habsburg to occupy the Hungarian throne, drew support from magnates in western Hungary who hoped he could convince his brother, Holy Roman Emperor [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]], to expel the Turks. In 1538 [[George Martinuzzi]], Zápolya's adviser, arranged a treaty between the rivals that would have made Ferdinand sole monarch upon the death of the then-childless Zápolya. The deal collapsed when Zápolya married and fathered a son. Violence erupted, and the Turks seized the opportunity, conquering the city of Buda and then partitioning the country in 1541.
==See also==
* [[List of Hungarian rulers]]
* [[Bulgarian-Hungarian Wars]]
* [[Ottoman-Hungarian Wars]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
*{{loc}}
{{Middle Ages by region|state=uncollapsed}}
{{Middle Ages|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kingdom Of Hungary In The Middle Ages}}
[[Category:History of Hungary]]
[[Category:History of Transylvania]]
[[Category:Kingdom of Hungary]]
[[Category:Medieval Hungary]]
[[es:Historia medieval de Hungría]]
[[hu:A középkori Magyar Királyság története]]
[[nl:Koninkrijk Hongarije (1000-1526)]]
[[uk:Королівство Угорське (1000 — 1918)]]' |
New page wikitext, after the edit (new_wikitext) | '{{Refimprove|date=November 2010}}
{{History of Hungary}}
This article deals with the history of the [[Kingdom of Hungary]] from the 10th century to c. 1526.
Note that, although a "[[monarchy|kingdom]]" arose only in AD 1000 and a Hungarian state or principality only in the late 9th century, this text also describes its early development after the year 896 when the [[Magyars]] arrived in the [[Carpathian Basin]].
==Meaning==
The term "Kingdom of Hungary" is often used to denote the multi-ethnic configuration of territories in order to draw a clear distinction with the modern Hungarian state, which is significantly smaller and more ethnically homogeneous. Prior to and in the 19th century, the term ''Hungarian'' in English and other languages often referred to any inhabitant of this state, regardless of his or her ethnicity.
The [[Latin language|Latin]] terms "''natio Hungarica''" and "''Hungarus''" referred to all [[noblemen]] of the kingdom. A ''Hungarus''-consciousness (loyalty and patriotism above ethnic origins) existed among many inhabitants of this state, however according to [[István Werbőczy]]'s [[Tripartitum]] ''Natio Hungarica'' or ''Hungarus'' were only the privileged noblemen, subjects of the Holy Crown regardless of ethnicity.
==Overview==
In the four centuries after their migration into the Carpathian Basin, the Magyars gradually developed from a loose confederation of tribes into a recognized kingdom. This kingdom, which became known as the Kingdom of Hungary, was led by the [[Árpád Dynasty]] and was firmly allied to the Christian West. Eventually the [[Árpád]] line died out and the Kingdom of Hungary again descended into anarchy, with the most powerful nobles competing for control.
[[File:HRR 10Jh.jpg|thumb|left|250px|The Holy Roman Empire at Otto's death.<br>Mgft. = march/margraviate<br>Hzt. = duchy<br>Kgr. = kingdom]]
After the Árpád Dynasty ended, Hungary's nobles chose a series of foreign kings who re-established strong royal authority. Hungary and the adjacent countries prospered for several centuries as [[Central Europe]], and experienced an era of peace interrupted only by succession struggles. But over time, the onslaughts of the [[Ottoman Empire]] and the strife of the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] weakened Hungary, and the country was eventually partitioned by the Ottomans and the [[Austrian Empire|Habsburgs]].
==Magyar campaigns and the 955 battle==
The bonds linking the seven Magyar tribes grew weak soon after the migration into the Carpathian Basin. For more than half a century Magyars ravaged [[Bavaria]], [[Italy]], the [[Byzantine Empire]], and lands as far away as the [[Pyrenees]]. In 907, [[Margrave Luitpold]] of Bavaria built up his army and attempted to score a decisive victory against the Magyars. The European army was defeated by [[Árpád]]'s army in [[Battle of Pressburg]]. In 910 The Magyars defeated [[Louis the Child]]'s united [[Franks|Frankish]] Imperial Army near [[Augsburg]]. From 917-925, Magyars raided through [[Basle]], [[Alsace]], [[Burgundy (region)|Burgundy]], [[Saxony]], and [[Provence]]. In 937, they raided France as far west as [[Reims]] and Italy as far as [[Otranto]] in the south. Sometimes fighting as mercenaries and sometimes lured by spoils alone, the Magyar bands looted towns and took captives for labor, [[ransom]], or sale on the slave market. The [[Byzantine emperor]] and European monarchs and princes paid the Magyars annual [[tribute]]. In 955, however, German armies under [[Otto I]] of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] destroyed a Magyar force near [[Augsburg]] ([[Battle of Lechfeld]]). The defeat effectively ended the Magyar raids against western Europe, although the raids on the [[Byzantine Empire]] continued until 970.
==Arpad dynasty (970s—1301)==
===Geza and the beginnings of the Christianization of the Hungarian people===
[[File:Hungary 11th cent.png|thumb|right|250px|Hungary in the 11th century]]
In the 970s—as a pressing result of the changed domestic and foreign affairs—chief prince [[Géza of Hungary|Géza]] adopted [[Christianity]], and started spreading it in the country. At the same time he started to organize the central power, too. He hardly ever made war against foreign countries during his 25-year-long princely rule. His peace policy was reinforced by dynastic marriages—which were quite usual at that time—between his children and members of foreign ruling families, in order to consolidate the rule of the Magyars in the Carpathian Basin by other European countries.
[[Géza of Hungary|Géza]]'s efforts to establish a stable state power and guarantee the throne for his son were not successful because he had to share the country with the other members of the principal family. Prince [[Koppány]] also laid claim to the throne. In the Hungarian succession the theory of [[seniority]]—the right of the oldest living brother—prevailed. [[Koppány]] also laid claim upon the principal's widow, [[Sarolt]]. Géza's will, that his first-born son should inherit the throne, contradicted the ancestral right.
In connection with adopting Christianity, the question of vital importance was whether Hungary should join the [[catholicism|western]] or the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]. Initially (around 948) the Hungarian noblemen joined the Byzantine Church. In the autumn of 972 [[Adalbert of Prague|Saint Adalbert of Prague]] was sent as bishop of the Hungarians by [[Pope Silvester II]] to spread western Christianity among the Hungarians. He christened Géza and his family. His wife, Sharolt, had been baptized by a [[Greeks|Greek]] bishop in her early childhood. The decision to accept the second christening was dictated by foreign relations. The last phase of the Hungarian raids was directed against the southeast, and this alienated the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantines]]. It may have been a warning to the Hungarian principality when the Byzantine emperor abolished the [[politics|political]] and [[religion|religious]] independence of [[Bulgaria]] in the mid 11th century, after a period of short integration of the [[First Bulgarian Empire]] and the Easter Roman Empire.
[[File:Crown, Sword and Globus Cruciger of Hungary2.jpg|thumb|left|[[Holy Crown of Hungary]].]]
Consequently, the Hungarian chief prince needed the political, [[morality|moral]], and occasional military help of the German empire because of the Byzantine threat. Adopting western [[Christianity]] was thus both a [[culture|cultural]] and a political event for the [[hungarian people|Hungarians]]. During Géza's reign, the plundering campaigns came to an end. His efforts to establish a country independent of other powers was almost successful before he died.
===István/Stephen I===
[[File:Europe 1000.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Europe in 1000 AD, during Stephen I's rule.]]
[[File:Hun rovas alphabet.png|thumb|400px|right|The [[Old Hungarian script]], the so-called "Rovás alphabet" The country switched to using the Latin language and alphabet under king [[Stephen I of Hungary|saint Stephen]] (reigned: 997-1038), and until as late as 1844, Latin remained the official language of Hungary]]
When Geza died the issue of succession to the throne created tension at the court: by ancestral right [[Koppány]] should have claimed the throne, but Geza chose his first-born son to be his successor. The fight in the chief prince's family started after Géza's death, in 997. [[Koppány]] took up arms, and many people in [[Transdanubia]] joined him. The rebels represented the old faith and order, tribal independence and the pagan belief. His opposer, [[Vajk Stephen]], got the name István/Stephen when he was christened, at that time the [[Principality of Nitra|prince of Nitra]], supported by the loyal Magyar lords and German and Italian knights wanted to join European Christian community of independent states. Stephen won the throne struggle and became chieftain/prince. The victory of the Christian István over the pagan [[Koppány]] in the battle for succession was of the utmost importance in determining the future course of Hungarian history.
Stephen consolidated his rule by ousting other rival clan chiefs and confiscating their lands. Stephen then asked [[Pope Sylvester II]] to recognize him as king of Hungary. The pope agreed, and legend says Stephen was crowned on [[Christmas]] Day in the year 1000. The crowning legitimized Hungary as a Western kingdom independent of the Holy Roman and Byzantine empires. It also gave Stephen absolute power, which he used to strengthen the [[Roman Catholic Church]] and Hungary. Stephen ordered the people to pay tithes and required every tenth village to construct a church and support a priest. Stephen donated land to support bishoprics and monasteries, required all persons except the clergy to marry, and barred marriages between Christians and pagans. Foreign monks worked as teachers and introduced Western agricultural methods. In the earliest times [[Hungarian language]] was written in a [[Old Hungarian script|runic-like script]]. The country switched to the Latin alphabet under Stephen. From 1000 to 1844, Latin was the official language of the country.
Stephen administered his kingdom through a system of counties (administrative model of Frankish Empire), each governed by an ispan count, or magistrate, appointed by the king. In Stephen's time, Magyar society had two classes: the freemen nobles and the unfree. The nobles were descended in the male line from the Magyars who had either migrated into the Carpathian Basin or had received their title of nobility from the king. Only nobles could hold office or present grievances to the king. They paid tithes and owed the crown military service but were exempt from taxes. The unfree—who had no political voice—were slaves, freed slaves, immigrants, or nobles stripped of their privileges. Most were serfs who paid taxes to the king and a part of each harvest to their lord for use of his land. The king had direct control of the unfree, thus checking the nobles' power.
Clan lands, crown lands, and former crown lands made up the early realm. Clan lands belonged to nobles, who could will the lands to family members or the church; if a noble died without an heir, his land reverted to his clan. Crown lands consisted of Stephen's patrimony, lands seized from disloyal nobles, conquered lands, and unoccupied parts of the kingdom. Former crown lands were properties granted by the king to the church or to individuals.
Stephen also subdued semi-independent princes like Ajtony in South-Hungary near the [[Mureş River]] (Maros) and [[Gyula III|Gyula]] in [[Transylvania]].
===Stephen's most important successors, and the Mongol invasion, reconstruction===
Stephen died in 1038 and was [[canonized]] in 1083. Despite pagan revolts and a series of succession struggles after his death, Hungary grew stronger and expanded. [[Transylvania]] was defended against nomads from the east, and [[Székely]]s (a tribe related to the Magyars), and [[Saxons]] were settled in the 11th and 12th centuries. Stephen created the Hungarian heavy cavalry as an example for Western European powers.
After his death, a period of revolts and conflict for supremacy ensued between the royalty and the nobles. In 1051, armies of the Holy Roman Empire tried to conquer Hungary, but they were defeated at Vértes mountain and at Pozsony in 1052.
In 1091 [[Ladislaus I of Hungary]] conquered [[Croatia]].<ref>[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/croatia Free Dictionary - Croatia]</ref><ref>[http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Ladislaus+I Ladislaus I]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.korcula.net/history/mmarelic/byzant.htm|title=Marko Marelic : The Byzantine and Slavic worlds}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/hunyadi/hu02.htm|title=Hungary in American History Textbooks}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://erwin.bernhardt.net.nz/hungary/hungaryfacts.html|title=Hungary, facts and history in breef}}</ref>
According to an alternative history based on the document [[Pacta Conventa]], which is most likely a forgery<ref>[http://books.google.hr/books?id=YIAYMNOOe0YC&pg=RA3-PA267&vq=King+of+Hungary,+Slavonia,+Croatia,+and+Dalmatia&dq=pacta+conventa+croatia+cambridge&source=gbs_search_s&cad=0Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250]</ref> Hungary and Croatia created a personal union. There is no undoubtedley genuine document of the personal union, and medieval sources mention the annexation into the Hungarian kingdom.
The actual nature of the relationship is inexplicable in modern terms because it varied from time to time.<ref name="Bellamy, p. 38">Bellamy, p. 38</ref> Sometimes Croatia acted as an independent agent and at other times as a vassal of Hungary.<ref name="Bellamy, p. 38"/> However, Croatia retained a large degree of internal independence.<ref name="Bellamy, p. 38"/> The degree of Croatian autonomy fluctuated throughout the centuries as did its borders.<ref>{{cite book|last=Singleton|first=Frederick Bernard|title=A short history of the Yugoslav peoples|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=1985|pages=29|isbn=9780521274852}}</ref>
The 11th and 12th centuries were relatively peaceful, and Hungary slowly developed into a western type of [[Feudal society|feudal economy]]. Crop production gradually supplemented stock breeding, but until the 12th century planting methods remained crude because tillers farmed each plot until it was exhausted, then moved on to fresh land. Gold, silver, and salt mining boosted the king's revenues. Despite the minting of coins, cattle remained the principal medium of exchange. Two important kings led portions of the remainder of the [[Árpád dynasty]].
====King Coloman the "Book-lover" (1095-1116)====
[[Coloman,_King_of_Hungary|King Coloman]] published his most famous law half a millennium before other governments: ''De strigis vero quae non sunt, nulla amplius quaestio fiat'' (As for the matter of witches, no such things exist, therefore no further investigations or trials are to be held).
[[File:Europe mediterranean 1190.jpg|250px|thumb|Europe in 1190, during Bela III's rule.]]
====Béla III (1172-1192)====
[[Béla III]] was the most powerful and wealthiest member of the dynasty. Béla spent annual the equivalent of {{convert|23000|kg}} of pure silver. It exceeded those of the French king (estimated at some {{convert|17000|kg}}) and was double the receipts of the English Crown.<ref>[http://books.google.co.uk/books?ct=result&id=y0g4YEp7ZrsC&dq=%22B%C3%A9la+III%22+annual+revenue&pg=PA46&lpg=PA46&sig=ACfU3U2STdXJyC_RFJp9Ipb3Rw4SmsrWww&q=ladis#PPA28,M1 A concise history of Hungary]</ref> He rolled back the Byzantine potency in the Balkan region. Agricultural methods and the clearing of additional land produced enough surplus to support a class of full-time craftsmen. In the 13th century Hungary's nobles were trading gold, silver, copper, and iron with western Europe for luxury goods.
[[File:Coa_Hungary_Country_History_Imre_(1196-1204).svg|thumb|130px|left|The red and white stripes symbolizing the Árpáds used in 1202 on a seal of King Imre. This coat of arms was used for a short time only.]]
====Andrew II (1205-1235)====
[[File:Hungarian Crusader Knight.png|thumb|right|200px|Hungarian Crusader Knight in the [[Fifth Crusade]].]]
Until the end of the 12th century, the king's power remained supreme in Hungary. He was the largest landowner, and income from the crown lands nearly equaled the revenues generated from mines, customs, tolls, and the mint. In the 13th century, however, the social structure changed, and the crown's absolute power began to wane. As the crown lands became a less important source of royal revenues, the king found it expedient to make land grants to nobles to ensure their loyalty. King [[Andrew II of Hungary|Andrew II]] (1205–35), a profligate spender on foreign military adventures and domestic luxury, made huge land grants to nobles who fought for him. These nobles, some of whom were foreign knights, soon made up a class of magnates whose wealth and power far outstripped that of the more numerous lesser nobles.
In 1211, he granted the Burzenland (Transylvania) to the [[Teutonic Knights]]. In 1225, Andrew II expelled the Teutonic Knights from Transylvania, hence Teutonic Order had to transfer to the Baltic sea.
He led the [[Fifth Crusade]] to the [[Holy Land]] in 1217. He set up the largest royal army in the history of crusades (20,000 knights and 12,000 castle-garrisons). When Andrew tried to meet burgeoning expenses by raising the serfs' taxes, thereby indirectly slashing the lesser nobles' incomes, the lesser nobles rebelled. In 1222 they forced Andrew to sign the [[Golden Bull of 1222|Golden Bull]]. The [[Golden Bull of 1222]] was the first constitution in [[Continental Europe]]. It limited the king's power. The golden Bull—the Hungarian equivalent of England's Magna Carta—to which every Hungarian king thereafter had to swear. Its purpose was twofold: to reaffirm the rights of the smaller nobles of the old and new classes of royal servants (servientes regis) against both the crown and the magnates and to defend those of the whole nation against the crown by restricting the powers of the latter in certain fields and legalizing refusal to obey its unlawful/unconstitutional commands (the "''ius resistendi''"). The lesser nobles also began to present Andrew with grievances, a practice that evolved into the institution of the [[parliament]], or [[diet (assembly)|Diet]]. The most important legal-ideology was the [[Doctrine of the Holy Crown]]. Important points of the Doctrine: The sovereignty belongs to the noble nation==>(the Holy Crown). The members of the Holy Crown are the citizens of the Crown's lands. None can reach full power. The nation is sharing a portion of the political power with the ruler. Minority cannot rule over majority.
====Béla IV (1235-1270)====
Andrew II's son [[Béla IV of Hungary|Béla IV]] (1235–79) tried with little success to reestablish royal preeminence by reacquiring lost crown lands. His efforts, however, created a deep rift between the crown and the magnates just as the Mongols were sweeping westward across Russia towards Europe. Aware of the danger, Bela ordered the magnates and lesser nobles to mobilize. Few responded, and the [[Mongol]]s routed Bela's army at the [[Battle of Mohi]] on April 11, 1241. Bela fled first to Austria, where Duke [[Frederick II, Duke of Austria|Frederick II]] of Babenberg held him for ransom, then to [[Dalmatia]]. The Mongols reduced Hungary's towns and villages to ashes and slaughtered a great part (estimations go to 25-30%) of the population before news arrived in 1242 that the Great [[Ögedei Khan]] had died in [[Karakorum]]. The Mongols withdrew, sparing Bela and what remained of his kingdom. Another theory says, that Ögodei's death wasn't the only reason for the withdrawal of the Mongol Army. It is also possible that the leadership of the army realized that the campaign wasn't so successful as thought, due to the well-fortified castles and towns, and this would lead to a demoralisation soon. Therefore they decided to abort the campaign. The biggest calamity for the population were the periods of diseases and food shortages after the Mongol invasion. Only strongly fortified cities and abbeys could withstand the assault. As a consequence, after the Mongols retreated, King Béla ordered the construction of hundreds of stone castles and fortifications, meant to be defense against a possible second Mongol invasion.
Bela realized that reconstruction would require the magnates' support, so he abandoned his attempts to recover former crown lands. Instead, he granted crown lands to his supporters, reorganized the army by replacing light archers with heavy cavalry, and granted the magnates concessions to redevelop their lands and construct stone-and-mortar castles that would withstand enemy sieges. Bela repopulated the country with a wave of immigrants, transforming royal castles into towns and populating them with Germans, Italians, and Jews. Mining began anew, farming methods improved, and crafts and commerce developed in the towns. Additional Rumanians (Wallachs)—who already had some settlings in Transylvania—were also welcome to cross the Carpathians. Furthermore he resettled the [[Cumans]] of [[Cuthen]], who left the country before the Mongol invasion into [[Kunság]]/[[Kiskunság]]/[[Nagykunság]], and gave them autonomy. After Bela's reconstruction program, the magnates, with their new fortifications, emerged as Hungary's most powerful political force. However, by the end of the 13th century, they were fighting each other and carving out petty principalities.
King Bela IV died in 1270, and the Árpad line expired in 1301 when [[Andrew III of Hungary|Andrew III]], who strove with some success to limit the magnates' power, unexpectedly died without a male heir. Anarchy characterized Hungary as factions of magnates vied for control. During the reigns of the Kings after the Árpád dynasty, the [[Kingdom of Hungary]] reached its greatest extent, yet royal power was weakened as the major landlords (the Barons) greatly increased their influence. The most powerful landlords started to use [[royal prerogative]]s (coinage ,customs, declaration of wars against foreign monarchs).
===The Medieval Hungarian State===
"Medieval Hungarian constitutional development made the power of Hungarian Kings the most efficient one of medieval age, and that reason was the absence of feudalism. No doubt, infiltrations of feudalism, as prevalent through-out Europe, are to be found in old Hungarian institutions, but as an accidental inter-mixture only, not as their essence and chief feature. That blending of public prerogative with rights belonging to the sphere of private law, which is the essence of feudalism never prevailed in the organisation of Hungarian public powers, never broke their action on the nation as a whole. To this early prevalence of public law in the government of the country do Hungary owe not only a superior efficiency not detrimental to liberty of Hungarian public powers, but in connection with it an early growth of conscious national unity, of patriotism on broad lines, at a time when tribal feeling and feudal allegiance sub-divided all European nations into small units which paralysed each other, and into a corresponding fractional mentality adverse to the very idea of State and to inchoate national feeling." ( Count [[Albert Apponyi]]: "The juridical nature of the relations between Austria and Hungary" Arts and Science Congress, held at United States St. Louis in 1904 )
==Hungarian Aristocracy in Medieval Age==
The local (regional) power of aristocracy from medieval Hungary was based on three pillars: the court offices they performed; their domains and castles; their suite based at the institution of familiaritas (a kind of vassality). This study – reconstructing a concrete instance – tries to follow the interactions between these factors and to introduce the reader in the strange world of medieval Hungarian noble society with its legal procedures, practical solutions, family links, policies and rivalries. One of the conclusions I made, is that from these factors the primary and the most active one is that of court connections of aristocratic people and their political roles. They had chances to obtain new estates (conserving they actual power) and to protect their interestes only being in this status. Another conclusion is, that political changes on the national level (in the royal government, for ex.) had an instantly effect on the regional situation, on the fate of some estates, on the family policies and regional balance of forces.<ref>http://www.epa.oszk.hu/00900/00979/00307/pdf/007.pdf</ref>
===Rank list of the most important medieval baronial titles and high offices===
These barons were (under Sigismund of Luxemburg):
*the count palatine (comes palatinus)
*the voivode of Transylvania (woyuoda Transsiluanus)
*the judge of the royal court (iudex curiae regiae)
*the bans of Slavonia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Macsó, and Severin (bani)
*the master of the treasury (magister tavernicorum)
*the master of janitors (ianitorum regalium magister)
*the master of stewards (dapiferorum regalium magister)
*the master of the cup-bearers (pincernarum regalium magister)
*the marchall (agasonum regalium magister)
*counts of Pozsony (present day Bratislava) and Timis (hung:Temes)
*the high treasurer (summus thesaurarius)
*the count of the Szeklers (Comes Siculorum)
*the secret chancellor
==Golden Era (1308-1490)==
Hungary's first two foreign kings, [[Charles I of Hungary|Charles Robert]] and [[Louis I of Hungary|Louis I]] of the House of [[Capetian House of Anjou|Anjou]], ruled during one of the most glorious periods in the country's history. Central Europe was at peace, and Hungary and its neighbors prospered.
===Charles I (1308-1342)===
After the destructive period of [[interregnum]] (1301–1308), the first [[Capetian House of Anjou|Angevin]] king, [[Charles I of Hungary]] (King: 1308–1342) -An [[Árpád dynasty|Árpád]] descendant in the female line- successfully restored the royal power, who defeated oligarch rivals, the so called "little kings". Charles I was crowned as a child and raised in Hungary. His new fiscal, customs and monetary policies proved successful under his reign. Charles Robert also introduced tax reforms and a stable currency.
One of the primary sources of his power was the wealth derived from the gold mines of east and northern Hungary. Eventually production reached the remarkable figure of 3,000 lb. of gold annually—one third of the total production of the world as then known, and five times as much as that of any other European state.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Europe/Hungary-HISTORY.html |title=Hungary—History |publisher=Nations Encyclopedia.com |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://mek.oszk.hu/02000/02086/02086.htm |title=C. A. Macartney: Hungary—A Short History |publisher=Mek.oszk.hu |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref> He reestablished the crown's authority by ousting disloyal [[magnate]]s and distributing their estates to his supporters. Charles Robert then ordered the magnates to recruit and equip small private armies called ''banderia''. Charles Robert [[Rule by decree|ruled by decree]] and convened the [[Diet (assembly)|Diet]] only to announce his decisions. Dynastic marriages linked his family with the ruling families of [[Kingdom of Naples|Naples]] and [[Poland]] and heightened Hungary's standing abroad.
Hungary was the first non-Italian country, where the renaissance appeared in Europe.<ref name="mester">[http://www.fondazione-delbianco.org/inglese/relaz00_01/mester.htm The influences of the Florentine renaissance in Hungary]</ref>
The Renaissance style came directly from Italy during the [[Quattrocento]] to Hungary foremost in the Central European region. The development of the early Hungarian-Italian relationships was a reason of this infiltration, which weren't manifested only in dynastic connections, but in cultural, humanistic and commercial relations. This effect was getting stronger from the 14th century. In the first half of the 14th century, the statues of ladies, knights, court musicians, servants and guardsmen mark not only the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, but also the beginning of a new age. Dressed in full-length gowns, richly gathered cloaks, pointed shoes and daring hats, they are an unexpected reminder of a flourishing, almost decadent Hungarian Trecento, whose mere existence was no more than a conjecture before the miraculous appearance of the archaeological foundings at Buda Castle.<ref>[http://impulzus.sch.bme.hu/info/hunhist.html History of Hungary]</ref>
The power of the former Árpad Dynasty was still based on the vast royal estates. Under the Angevins, the royal family was restored as the greatest land owning family of the realm (they had one-third of all lands), but Angevin power was rather based on the possession of castles (some 160 out of 300, while the most powerful non-royal family possessed seven).
===Louis the Great (1342-1382)===
[[Image:Louis role.jpg|thumb|250px|Countries kingdoms under Louis' leadership in 1370s]]
Charles Robert's son and successor [[Louis I of Hungary]] (1342–82) maintained the strong central authority Charles I had amassed. In 1351 Louis issued a decree that reconfirmed the [[Golden Bull]], erased all legal distinctions between the lesser nobles and the magnates, standardized the [[serf]]s' obligations, and barred the serfs from leaving the lesser nobles' farms to seek better opportunities on the magnates' estates. The decree also established the [[Fee tail|entail]] system. Hungary's economy continued to flourish during Louis's reign. Gold and other precious metals poured from the country's mines and enriched the royal treasury, foreign trade increased, new towns and villages arose, and craftsmen formed guilds. The prosperity fueled a surge in cultural activity, and Louis promoted the [[Illuminated manuscript|illumination of manuscripts]] and in 1367 founded Hungary's first university. Louis extended his rule over territories to the [[Adriatic Sea]], and occupied the [[Kingdom of Naples]] several times. Under his reign lived the most famous epic hero of Hungarian literature and warfare, the king's Champion: Nicolas [[Toldi]]. Louis had become popular in Poland due to his successful campaigns against the Tatars and pagan Lithuanians. Two successful wars (1357–1358, 1378–1381) against [[Venice]] annexed Dalmatia and Ragusa and more territories at [[Adriatic Sea]]. Venice also had to raise the Angevin flag on St. Mark's Square on holy days.
Louis I established a university in [[Pécs]] in 1367 (by papal accordance). The Ottoman Turks confronted the country ever more often. In 1366 and 1377, Louis led successful champaigns against the Ottomans (Batlle at Nicapoli in 1366), therefore Balkanian states became his vassals. From 1370, the death of [[Casimir III of Poland]], Louis became king of [[Poland]] in 1370 and ruled the two countries for twelve years. Until his death, he retained his strong potency in political life of Italian Peninsula.
While Louis was engaged in these activates, the [[Ottomans]] made their initial inroads into the [[Balkans]].
===Sigismund of Luxemburg (1386-1437)===
[[Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor|Sigismund]] (1387–1437), Louis's son-in-law, won a bitter struggle for the throne after Louis died in 1382. Under Sigismund, Hungary's fortunes began to decline. Many Hungarian nobles despised Sigismund for his cruelty during the succession struggle, his long absences, and his costly foreign wars. In 1401 disgruntled nobles temporarily imprisoned the king. In 1403 another group crowned an [[anti-king]], who failed to solidify his power but succeeded in selling [[Dalmatia]] to [[Republic of Venice|Venice]]. Sigismund failed to reclaim the territory. Sigismund became king of [[Bohemia]] in 1419. In 1404 Sigismund introduced the Placetum Regium. According to this decree, Papal bulls and messages could not be pronounced in Hungary without the consent of the king. Sigismund congregated [[Council of Constance]] (1414–1418) to abolish the [[Western Schism|Papal Schism]] of Catholic church, which was solved by the election of a new [[pope]]. In 1433 he even became [[Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor|Holy Roman Emperor]]. In response, Sigismund created the office of [[Palatine (Kingdom of Hungary)|palatine]] to rule the country in his stead.
Like earlier Hungarian kings, Sigismund elevated his supporters to magnate status and sold off crown lands to meet burgeoning expenses. Although Hungary's economy continued to flourish, Sigismund's expenses outstripped his income. He bolstered royal revenues by increasing the serfs' taxes and requiring cash payment. Social turmoil erupted late in Sigismund's reign as a result of the heavier taxes and renewed magnate pressure on the lesser nobles. Hungary's first peasant revolt erupted when a [[Transylvania]]n [[bishop]] ordered peasants to pay [[tithe]]s in coin rather than [[Payment in kind|in kind]]. Also, [[Husite]] teachings spread among the population making the bishop more unpopular. The revolt was quickly checked, but it prompted Transylvania's [[Székely|Szekel]], [[Hungarian people|Magyar]], and [[Transylvanian Saxons|German]] orders to form the [[Union of Three Nations]], which was an effort to defend their privileges against any power except that of the king. During his long reign Royal castle of Buda became probably the largest Gothic palace of the late Middle Ages. The first Hungarian [[Bible translation]] completed in 1439, but Hungarian Bible was illegal in its age. Hungary was the first non-Italian country, where the renaissance appeared in Europe.<ref name="mester"/>
Additional turmoil erupted when the Ottomans expanded their empire into the Balkans. They crossed the [[Bosporus]] [[Strait]]s in 1352, occupied much of [[Bulgaria]] in 1423, and defeated the [[Serbs]] at the [[Battle of Kosovo]] in 1389. Sigismund led a crusade against them in 1396, but the Ottomans routed his forces in the [[Battle of Nicopolis]], and he barely escaped with his life. [[Tamerlane]]'s invasion of [[Anatolia]] in 1402-03 slowed the Ottomans' progress for several decades, but in 1437 [[Sultan]] [[Murad II]] prepared to invade Hungary. Sigismund died the same year, and Hungary's next two kings, [[Albert II of Germany]] (1437–39) and [[Władysław III of Poland]] (1439–44), known in Hungary as ''Ulaszlo I'', both died during campaigns against the Ottomans.
[[File:Coat of Arms of Hungary Historic Design.png|thumb|130px|left|This coat of arms first appeared during the reign of [[Louis I of Hungary|Louis I]] (1342-1382) and evolved into the one used today.]]
===Count John Hunyadi's era===
After Władysław III, Hungary's nobles chose an infant king, [[Ladislaus the Posthumous|Ladislaus V the Posthumous]], and a [[regent]], [[John Hunyadi]], to rule the country until the former came of age. The son of a lesser nobleman of the [[Vlach]] ( though some historians suggest a [[Cuman]]ic)<ref>[http://lexikon.katolikus.hu/LINKEK/LINKHHHH/60HUNFAL.HTML Katolikus Lexikon: Hunyadi János], A M. Nemz. Tört. IV. Bp., 1896.—Elekes 1952.—Teke 1980.—Puskely 1994:279.(Hungarian)</ref> descent, who had won distinction in the wars against the [[Ottomans]]. Hunyadi rose to become a general, Transylvania's military governor, one of Hungary's largest landowners, and a war hero. He used his personal wealth and the support of the lesser nobles to win the [[Regent|regency]] and overcome the opposition of the magnates. Hunyadi then established a [[mercenary]] army funded by the first tax ever imposed on Hungary's nobles. He defeated the Ottoman forces in Transylvania in 1442 and broke their hold on Serbia in 1443, only to be routed at the [[Battle of Varna]] (where Władysław I (of Hungary) himself perished) a year later. In 1446, the parliament elected the great general [[John Hunyadi|János Hunyadi]] as governor (1446–1453) and then as regent (1453–1456) of the kingdom. In 1448 Hunyadi tried to expel the Turks from Europe, but because of the treachery of Serbs and Vlachs he was outnumbered and routed in the 3 days battle of Kosovo Polje.
One of his greatest victories being the Siege of Belgrade in 1456.
Hunyadi defended the city against the onslaught of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. During the siege, Pope Callixtus III ordered the bells of every church to be rung every day at noon, as a call for believers to pray for the defenders of the city. However, in many countries (like England and Spanish kingdoms), news of the victory arrived before the order, and the ringing of the church bells at noon thus transformed into a commemoration of the victory. The Popes didn't withdraw the order, and Catholic churches still ring the noon bell to this day.
Hunyadi died of the [[Bubonic plague|plague]] soon after.
===Matthias Corvinus and the Early Absolutism===
[[File:The wars of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (1458-1490).png|thumb|right|250px|Western conquests of Matthias Corvinus.]]
Some magnates resented Hunyadi for his popularity as well as for the taxes he imposed, and they feared that his sons might seize the throne from Ladislaus. They coaxed the sons to return to Laszlo's court, where Hunyadi's elder son was beheaded. His younger son, [[Matthias Corvinus of Hungary]], was imprisoned in Bohemia. However, lesser nobles loyal to Mátyás soon expelled László. After Ladislaus's death abroad, they paid ransom for Mátyás, met him on the frozen [[Danube River]], and proclaimed him king. Corvinus (1458–90) was, with one possible exception ([[John Zápolya]]), the last [[King of Hungary|Hungarian king]] to rule the country.
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.
A true Renaissance prince, a successful military leader and administrator, an outstanding linguist, a learned astrologer, and an enlightened patron of the arts and learning.<ref name="britannica1">{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/276730/Hungary#tab=active~checked%2Citems~checked&title=Hungary%20--%20Britannica%20Online%20Encyclopedia |title=Hungary—Britannica Online Encyclopedia |publisher=Britannica.com |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref> [[András Hess]] set up a printing press in [[Buda]] in 1472.
Although Matthias regularly convened the Diet and expanded the lesser nobles' powers in the counties, he exercised absolute rule over Hungary by means of a [[secular]] [[bureaucracy]]. Matthias enlisted 30,000 foreign and Hungarian mercenaries in his standing army and built a network of fortresses along Hungary's southern frontier, but he did not pursue his father's aggressive anti-Turkish policy. Instead, Mátyás launched unpopular attacks on Bohemia, Poland, and [[Archduchy of Austria|Austria]], pursuing an ambition to become Holy Roman Emperor and arguing that he was trying to forge a unified Western or Central European alliance strong enough to expel the Ottoman Turks from Europe. He eliminated tax exemptions and raised the serfs' obligations to the crown to fund his court and the military. The magnates complained that these measures reduced their incomes, but despite the stiffer obligations, the serfs considered Matthias a just ruler because he protected them from excessive demands and other abuses by the magnates. He also reformed Hungary's legal system and promoted the growth of Hungary's towns. Matthias was a true [[Polymath|Renaissance man]] and made his court a center of [[Humanism|humanist culture]]; under his rule, Hungary's first books were printed and its second university was established. His library, the [[Bibliotheca Corviniana|Corvina]], was famous throughout Europe. It was Europe's greatest collection of historical chronicles, philosophic and scientific works in the 15th century, and second only in size to the Vatican Library which mainly contained religious material. His renaissance library is a UNESCO [[World Heritage Site]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=15976&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html |title=Hungary—The Bibliotheca Corviniana Collection: UNESCO-CI |publisher=Portal.unesco.org |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref> In his quest for the imperial throne, Matthias eventually moved to [[Vienna]], where he died in 1490. His death is supposed to be caused by [[poison]].
==Jagiellon Dynasty and Decline of Hungary (1490—1526)==
The magnates, who did not want another heavy-handed king, procured the accession of [[Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary|Vladislaus II]], king of Bohemia (Ulászló II in Hungarian history), precisely because of his notorious weakness: he was known as King Dobže, or Dobzse (meaning "Good" or, loosely, "OK"), from his habit of accepting with that word every paper laid before him.<ref name="britannica1"/> Under his reign the central power began to experience severe financial difficulties, largely due to the enlargement of feudal lands at his expense.
Matthias' reforms did not survive the turbulent decades that followed his reign. An oligarchy of quarrelsome magnates gained control of Hungary. They crowned a docile king, [[Vladislaus II of Hungary|Vladislaus II]] (the Jagiellonian king of Bohemia, who was known in Hungary as ''Ulaszlo ''II, 1490–1516) the son of King [[Casimir IV of Poland]], only on condition that he abolish the taxes that had supported Matthias' mercenary army. As a result, the king's army dispersed just as the Turks were threatening Hungary. The magnates also dismantled Mathias' administration and antagonized the lesser nobles. In 1492 the Diet limited the serfs' freedom of movement and expanded their obligations while a large portion of peasants became prospering because of cattle-export to the West. Rural discontent boiled over in 1514 when well-armed peasants preparing for a crusade against Turks rose up under [[György Dózsa]] (a borderguard captain) and attacked estates across Hungary. United by a common threat, the magnates and lesser nobles eventually crushed the rebels. Dozsa and other rebel leaders were executed in a most brutal manner.
Shocked by the peasant revolt, the Diet of 1514 passed laws that condemned the serfs to eternal bondage and increased their work obligations. Corporal punishment became widespread, and one noble even branded his serfs like livestock. The legal scholar [[István Werbőczy]] included the new laws in his ''Tripartitum ''of 1514, which made up the espirit of Hungary's legal corpus until the revolution of 1848. However, the ''Tripartitum ''was never used as a code. The ''Tripartitum ''gave Hungary's king and nobles, or magnates, equal shares of power: the nobles recognized the king as superior, but in turn the nobles had the power to elect the king. The'' Tripartitum ''also freed the nobles from taxation, obligated them to serve in the military only in a defensive war, and made them immune from arbitrary arrest.
When Vladislaus II died in 1516, his ten-year-old son [[Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia|Louis II]] (1516–26) became king, but a royal council appointed by the Diet ruled the country. Hungary was in a state of near anarchy under the magnates' rule. The king's finances were a shambles; he borrowed to meet his household expenses despite the fact that they totaled about one-third of the national income. The country's defenses sagged as border guards went unpaid, fortresses fell into disrepair, and initiatives to increase taxes to reinforce defenses were stifled. In 1521 Sultan [[Suleyman the Magnificent]] recognized Hungary's weakness and seized Belgrade in preparation for an attack on Hungary. After that, Louis II and his wife, Maria von Habsburg tried to manage an anti-magnate putsch, but they were not successful. In August 1526, he marched nearly 100,000 troops into Hungary's heartland. Hungary's forces were just gathering, when the 26,000 strong Hungarian army met the Turks with bad luck in the [[Battle of Mohacs]]. Hungarians had well-equipped and well-trained troops, and awaited more reinforcements from Czechia and Transylvania, but lacked a good military leader. They suffered bloody defeat leaving 20,000 dead on the field. Louis himself died, thrown from a horse into a bog.
After Louis's death, rival factions of Hungarian nobles simultaneously elected two kings, [[John I Zápolya]] (1526–40) and [[Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor|Ferdinand]] of Habsburg (1526–64). Each claimed sovereignty over the entire country but lacked sufficient forces to eliminate his rival. Zápolya, a Hungarian who was military governor of Transylvania, was recognized by the sultan and was supported mostly by lesser nobles opposed to new foreign kings. Ferdinand, the first Habsburg to occupy the Hungarian throne, drew support from magnates in western Hungary who hoped he could convince his brother, Holy Roman Emperor [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]], to expel the Turks. In 1538 [[George Martinuzzi]], Zápolya's adviser, arranged a treaty between the rivals that would have made Ferdinand sole monarch upon the death of the then-childless Zápolya. The deal collapsed when Zápolya married and fathered a son. Violence erupted, and the Turks seized the opportunity, conquering the city of Buda and then partitioning the country in 1541.
==See also==
* [[List of Hungarian rulers]]
* [[Bulgarian-Hungarian Wars]]
* [[Ottoman-Hungarian Wars]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
*{{loc}}
{{Middle Ages by region|state=uncollapsed}}
{{Middle Ages|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kingdom Of Hungary In The Middle Ages}}
[[Category:History of Hungary]]
[[Category:History of Transylvania]]
[[Category:Kingdom of Hungary]]
[[Category:Medieval Hungary]]
[[es:Historia medieval de Hungría]]
[[hu:A középkori Magyar Királyság története]]
[[nl:Koninkrijk Hongarije (1000-1526)]]
[[uk:Королівство Угорське (1000 — 1918)]]' |
