Visegrád 1335 (Budapest, 2009)
The Congress of Visegrád by György Rácz
S9« English The Congress of Visegrád The text of a 14th century chronicle has survived in the work of the 15th century Hungarian chronicler János Thuróczy, which gives a presumably contemporary account of the formal details of the meeting of 1335. Unlike Dlugosz’s account, this document focuses primarily on formalities, but such a description isjust as valuable for us as political data. Let it be quoted here word for word: “In the year of our Lord 1335, around the festivities of Saint Martin, Bohemian Kingjohn, his son Charles, and the king of the Poles came to the castle of Visegrád, to the court of King Charles, to seal their alliance with a peace treaty for all time. And so it happened. Out of the generosity of the Hungarian king 2,500 loaves of bread were provided for the lunch of the Bohemian king, as well as a good share of the royal meals, all in abundance, while the horses' day share of fodder was 25 >mérő<. For the lunch of the Polish king 1,500 loaves of bread and other foods, as well as 180 barrels of wine were provided. The king of Hungary presented the Bohemian king with various sorts of jewellery: 50 silver jars, two quivers, two belts, a magnificent chess board, two invaluable saddles, a knife with a belt that are worth 200 silver Marks and an elaborate pearl-oyster. Because the king of Poland was to pay homage to the king of Bohemia, and because Charles, King of Hungary, made the sister of the Polish king his wife, Charles, King of Hungary, gave him 500 Marks of the finest gold so as to save him from paying taxes to the Bohemian king. It has also been resolved that in the event of an enemy attack on any one of these countries, the others will help the one in trouble. And this has been sealed by an oath among one another.” The official documents released in Visegrád in the autumn of 1335 do little to nuance the descriptions of the chroniclers. Although the chronicles do have a kernel of truth, the event that they describe often took place in a different place, at a different time, in a different manner. In the above example the chronicler falsely asserts that Poland, as a feudal subject, had paying commitments to Bohemia and that Charles offered the required amount to “ransom" his brother-in-law. On the basis of the documents pertinent to the conference per se it is possible to draw a more realistic picture. We have seen that at the meeting in Trenčín the “ransom" to be paid to the Bohemian king 24 ^
