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

he died. Albert's brief reign left little impression, and during the ensuing civil war, which lasted for more than two decades and was known by contemporaries as the "turbulent times", the people of Hungary looked back with yearning to the Sigismund Era. The legislation which Sigismund had embarked on in his final years was continued by Matthias, he also issued a great statute book, and in his decrees frequently referred to those of King Sigismund. Matthias also took to granting his followers the badge of the Order of the Dragon, founded by Sigismund. From the time he started on the Bohemian wars, Matthias followed Sigismunde policy, aiming to take control of the empire with a base in the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia. The Hunyadi Family Written sources first mention Matthias Hunyadi 's forebears in 1409, when King Sigismund granted the estate of Hunyadvár (Hunedoara) in Transylvania to Matthias' grandfither Vajk. The family died out in 1508, when Erzsébet, the daughter of Matthias' illegitimate son John Corvin, died young. A total of six generations are known of from that century from 1409 to 1508. Matthias' foreGrant of arms from King Ladisias V to János Hunyadi, 14.i3 Budapest, Magyar Országos Levéltár bears on his father's side were Kornauians from Wallachia. The earliest members of the family had customary Romanian forenames, and the sources usually mention them by the name Oláh (=Vlach). The name "Hunyadi" emerged during the life of the second known generation, because the custom for Hungarian nobles was for the family to take the name of one of their old estates. The grandfither took up service in King Sigismunde court, and his son John Hunyadi served in baronial courts as a young man. The Hunyadis belonged to the wealthier middle nobility; the first of them to come by a great fortune was John Hunyadi, m the 1440s. The family attained baronial rank in 1339, when John Hunyadi received the joint appointment of ban of Szörény (Turnu Severin) with his brother. Matthias' historian, János Thuróczy, claimed that the King's forebears moved from Wallachia to Hungary. There were two other stories current at that time. One said that John Hunyadi was the illegitimate son of King Sigismund. The other was propagated by the Italian humanists, who traced several royal houses of the time to ancient Roman clans. Petrus Ransanus identified the ancestors of Matthias as the Corvins of ancient Rome. He was led to this conclusion by two Latin words: corvus, Latin for raven, the family's heraldic bird, and Covinum, the Latin name of the family's first supposed estate, Keve (Kovin). Matthias never used the name Corvin for himself, but did for his son John. The family's old arms bore a raven holding a ring in its beak. In 1453, King Ladisias V appended to these a red lion rampant holding a crown m its paw, on a silver shield. Matthias' Accession to the Throne In March 1457, the fourteen-year-old Matthias Hunyadi, together with his elder brother László and the nobles loyal to the family, was arrested by King Ladisias V. A few days later, his brother was executed for the murder of Ulrich von Cilli, and Matthias was to stay in captivity for ten months. Ladisias V took him with him first to Vienna and then to Prague. An attempt to seize the family's estates was unsuccessful, however, because Matthias' mother Erzsébet Szilágyi and his uncle Mihály Szilágyi held off the troops of the King's party. Ladisias V died on 23 November 1457, and since he had no children, the country's magnates had to elect a ruler. Erzsébet Szilágyi made a contract with the Garai family, one of the most powerful in Hungary, under which the Garais would support Matthias' election in exchange for Matthias marrying Anna Garai, as his queen. On 24 January 1458, the Rákos Diet elected Matthias