Századok – 1994
Tanulmányok - Kubinyi András: A Jagelló-kori Magyarország történetének vázlata II/288
318 KUBINYI ANDRÁS 160 A Mohácsot megelőző belpolitikai helyzetre, pártharcokra, a királyi hatalom megerősítésére irányuló, általában sikertelen kísérletekre részletesebben: Kubinyi: A magyar állam i. m. 59-99. 161 Élelmezési problémákra: Kubinyi A mohácsi csata i. m. 81. o. 88. j. 162 A mohácsi csatára újabban: Szakály: A mohácsi csata i. m. — Perjés: i. m. — Kubinyi: A mohácsi csata i. m. 66-105. és az ezekben idézett korábbi irodalom, valamint a források. 163 Ennek a tanulmánynak a szövege jegyzetek nélkül egyetemi tankönyv céljára 1985-ben jelent mer a Makk Ferenc szerkesztette Fejezetek a régebbi magyar történelemből c. mű 103-131. Többek kérésére most jegyzetekkel ellátva bocsátom közre. Mivel pályám kezdete óta foglalkozom ezzel a korral, amelyből sok tucat tanulmányom jelent meg, elsősorban azokra támaszkodtam. A SUMMARY OF HUNGARIAN HISTORY IN THE AGE OF THE JAGIELLOS by Kubinyi András (Summary) The article deals with the history of 36 years pnor to the fall of the medieval Hungarian state in 1526, in the Battle of Mohács. King Matthias' wars of conquest in the previous decades contributed to the impoverishment of the country, and the struggles for the throne in 1490-91 emptied the treasury totally. The king was obliged to mortgage or give away several royal revenues, which involved the overall weakening of royal power. At the same time a crisis came to be felt both in domestic policy and in the economic life on the country. The authority and power of the cca. forty barons controlling nearly half of the country's territory followed from the number of the nobles serving them (the so-called familiar es). They came to be called servitores at that time and, in contrast with earlier years, they came to be employed for a definite period of time and were paid for their services. Besides the growing expenditure of the barons (they spent much on luxury) and their diminishing incomes (the got less revenue, especially money, from the serfs owing to the growing territory of wasteland), their grip on the nobles in their service also slackened. The nobles were willing to serve the barons but only in a loose form, questioning their right to administer justice over them. While earlier there was no rigid barrier between the wealthier nobles and the barons, the age of the Jagiellos saw the beginning of the separation of the two (see the law of 1498). So the wealthy nobility coming down from the ranks of the aristocracy got into the royal council by the votes of the lesser nobility and not by right of their own wealth as before, and became the leading stratum of the nobility in political life. Pauperization was also a threat for the nobility. Their demands for luxury were increasing and they were increasingly deprived also of many of their serfs, since given the right of free movement, they tended to leave them for the towns and for the baronial households. As regards the peasantry, there was a strong differentiation going on among them in the given period. There developed a wealthy peasant layer in the market towns and also in the villages playing an outstanding role in the production for the market, in trade and especially in the export of cattle. Members of the aristocracy and the nobility struggling with financial difficulties also wished to take their share in business and became rivals both for the town merchants and for the wealthy serfs, and user their political power against them. The signs of economic crisis in the early lSlffs also contributed to the difficulties of the country. All this led to the peasant war of 1514, where the wealthy serfs actively participated. From then on, Hungarian economy deteriorated quickly. Between 1490 and 1526 Hungary was in the states of transition and the inherent difficulties were further inhanced by the Ottoman threat. In contrast with most other countries, Hungary had to maintain an expensive system of border castles with 7-8000 soldiers garrisoned in them. This network proved to be efficient up to the fall of Belgrade in 1521, but the country was unable to bear the burdens any longer, so the catastrophe of Mohács was a natural outcome of all this to say nothing of the unquestionable fault in political administration.
