Mikó Árpád szerk.: Reneissance year 2008 (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2008/1)

PÉTER FARBAKY, ÁRPÁD MIKO, ENIKŐ SPEKNER, KORNÉL SZOVÁK, ISTVÁN TRINGLI, ANDRÁS VÉGH: Matthias Corvinus, the King. Tradition and Renewal in the Hungarian Royal Court, 1458-1490

The Italian humanist Naldo Naldi described the Buda library in idealised terms. In reality, however, works of ancient authors, poets and fathers of the church were accompanied by those of medieval theologists and contemporary humanists. The library was a worthy match to Lorenzo de' Medici's library in Florence and Federico da Montefeltro's in Urbino. Matthias' Succession Plans None of Matthias' marriages gave rise to a lawful heir. His only child, John Corvinus, was born out of wedlock to the Austrian Barbara Edelpöck on 2 April 1473. By 1479, the King had already, through grants of titles and domains, raised his natural son to an appropriate rank in the social order. He created for him the Duchy of Liptó, which existed neither before nor since, and in 1482 granted him the Hunyadvár domain. Portrait of John Corvinus, c. 1489 .Miii id ICH, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen Matthias devoted his entire domestic and foreign policy in the last five or six years of his reign to founding a dynasty. Lands reverting to the crown were assigned often arbitrarily - to his son. By 1490, the Prince was the wealthiest and most powerful landowner in Hungary, above any aristocrat. According to Bonfini, the King involved him in the everyday affairs of government and ceremonial events, so that all might recognise his son as the future sovereign. He planned a wealthy and prestigious marriage for him to the younger sister of the Prince of Milan, Bianca Maria Sforza. The Prince joined in the conquest of Lower Austria, and his triumphal entry to Vienna and Wiener Neustadt at his father's side displayed his candidacy to Emperor Frederick III. Matthias also promoted his son's succession to the Bohemian throne by granting him the powerful Silesian duchies of Troppau (Opava) and Glogau (Glogów). In Hungary, the prelates, barons, towns and captains of the royal castles swore an oath to elect the Prince king after Matthias' death. In the event, the opposition of Beatrice and the prelates, as well as several barons, prevented his election. Not even possession of Buda, Visegrád, other royal castles, the Holy Crown, the treasury, and the Corvina Library, presented by the already-ill King during his last residence in Buda, were sufficient to offset his illegitimate birth. King Matthias died in Vienna on 6 April 1490 without having secured his son's future, and without settling the future of his kingdom. Contenders for the Throne The loss of the King, though expected, came as a shock, and the country was seized by fear and confusion, exacerbated by the large number of contenders for the throne: John Corvinus from the Hunyadi family; Maximilian, son of Frederick III and King of the Germans from the Habsburgs; and two from the house of Jagiello: Wladislaw, King of Bohemia, and his younger brother John Albeit, Crown Prince of Poland. John Corvinus, having attracted little support, tried to take the throne by force, but was defeated at Csonthegy and was forced to withdraw. It was Wladislaw, after winning the support of Queen Beatrice through a promise of marriage, who the Diet unanimously elected. The King of Bohemia accepted the election terms in the Farkashida pact, and was crowned King of Hungary at Székesfehérvár in September 1490. The other two claimants to the throne obliged him to fight a war which lasted more than a year, Maximilian attacking from the west and John Albert from the north east. In all, the struggle for Matthias' legacy lasted nearly two years, ending with the Peace of Pozsony signed with the Habsburgs in November 1491, and the bloody battle near Eperjes (Presov), which destroyed John Albert's army. Wladislaw II (1490-1516) had consolidated his reign, and that of the Jagiello dynasty.