Mátyás Corvinus: The Last Hungarian King
By Cameron Hewitt, co-author of Rick Steves' Eastern Europe
The Árpád dynasty — descendants of the original Magyar tribes — died out in 1301. For more than 600 years, Hungary would be ruled by foreigners...with one exception.
In the middle of the 15th century, Hungary had bad luck hanging on to its foreign kings: Two of them died unexpectedly within seven years. Meanwhile, homegrown military general János Hunyadi was enjoying great success on the battlefield against the Turks. When the five-year-old Ladislas V was elected king, Hunyadi was appointed regent and essentially ruled the country. Hunyadi defeated the Turks in the landmark 1456 Battle of Belgrade, temporarily preventing them from entering Hungary and becoming an even greater hero to the Hungarian people. Tragically, soon after this great victory, János Hunyadi died of the plague.
When King Ladislas also died (at the tender age of 16), the nobles looked for a new hero... and found Hunyadi's son, Mátyás (Matthias). He became the first Hungarian-descended king in more than 150 years, taking the nickname Corvinus (Latin for "raven," which appears on his coat of arms).
Progressive and well-educated, Mátyás Corvinus (r. 1458–1490) was the quintessential Renaissance king — a benefactor of the poor and a true humanist. He patronized the arts and built palaces legendary for their beauty. He dressed up as a commoner and ventured into the streets to see firsthand how the nobles of his realm treated his people.
Mátyás was a strong, savvy leader. He created Central Europe's first standing army — 30,000 mercenaries known as the Black Army. No longer reliant on the nobility for military support, Good King Mátyás was able to drain power from the nobles and make taxation of his subjects more equitable — earning him the nickname the "people's king."
King Mátyás was also a shrewd military tactician. Realizing that squabbling with the Turks would squander his resources, he made peace with the Ottoman sultan to stabilize Hungary's southern border. Then he swept north, invading Moravia, Bohemia, and even Austria. By 1485, Mátyás moved into his new palace in Vienna, and Hungary was enjoying a Golden Age.
Five years later, Mátyás died mysteriously at the age of 47, and his empire disintegrated. It is said that when Mátyás died, justice died with him. To this day, Hungarians consider him the greatest of all kings, and they sing of his siege of Vienna in their national anthem. They're proud that for a few decades in the middle of half a millennium of foreign oppression, they had a truly Hungarian king — and a great one at that.