Századok – 2000
TANULMÁNYOK - Pálosfalvi Tamás: Cilleiek és Tallóciak: küzdelem Szlavóniáért (1440-1448) 45
98 PÁLOSFALVI TAMÁS with Wladislaw I, which meant that open strife between the two families was suspended until 1445. Latent struggle never ceased, however, for the counts, making use of their right to nominate the bishop of Zagreb, conferred upon them by queen Elizabeth, tried to obtain this important benefice for their own protégé, Benedek of Zólyom. In 1444 Frederick of Cilli sent an envoy of his own to the pope, asking him to resolve the problem of Zagreb in favour of bishop Benedek. Alerted by count Frederick's manoeuvres, Matkó Talóci profited from king Wladislaw's absence on the Balkans to put his own man, Demeter Csupor, bishop of Knin, at the head of the see of Zagreb in a totally uncanonical way. Before 10 March 1445 Matkó died, however, whereupon the counts of Cilli drove bishop Demeter from Zagreb and occupied the bishopric and its castles, Benedek of Zólyom having to content himself with the mere title of bishop. In May 1445 both counts of Cilli took the title of banus. In December 1445 and January 1446 count Ulrich launched a large-scale campaign against the brothers of Matkó Tallóci, and occupied their Slavonian castles. This offensive was followed by János Hunyadi's retaliatory attack in the spring of 1446, which yielded no results, however. Though the counts of Cilli seem to have been officially deprived of their title of banus, and Hunyadi appointed his own man to govern Slavonia, their power in the province could not be seriously challenged. Hunyadi's failure against the counts and then against king Frederick led him to seek a compromise with his Styrian opponents, which led in the very first days of 1447 to a secret treaty between the governor and the counts of Cilli through the mediation of László Garai. The most important element of the treaty was the acknowledgment of the counts of Cilli's authority in Slavonia, in return for which Frederick of Cilli mediated a truce with king Frederick, a precondition of Hunyadi's grandiose plans against the Ottomans. The treaty was then turned into a peace in June 1448. The final accord of the long struggle was the heroic death of Frankó Tallóci in the battle of Kossovopolje in October 1448.
