László Hunyadi
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László Hunyadi (1433 – March 16, 1457), was a Hungarian statesman.
László Hunyadi was the elder of two sons of János Hunyadi and Elizabeth Szilágyi. He was the older brother of Matthias Hunyadi, who would later became the king of Hungary. At a very early age he accompanied his father in his campaigns. After the battle of Kosovo (1448) he was left for a time, as a hostage for his father, in the hands of George Brankovic, (1427-1456), despot of Serbia. In 1452 he was a member of the deputation which went to Vienna to receive back the Hungarian king Ladislaus V. In 1453 he was already ban of Croatia-Dalmatia. At the diet of Buda (1455) he resigned all his dignities, because of the accusations of Ulrich II of Celje-Cillei and the other enemies of his house, but a reconciliation was ultimately patched up and he was betrothed to Mária, the daughter of the palatine, László Garai.
After his father's death in 1456, he was declared by his enemy Ulrich II of Celje (now Captain General of Hungary with significant power), responsible for the debts alleged to be owing by the elder Hunyadi to the state; but he defended himself so ably at the diet of Futak (October 1456) that Ulrich II of Celje feigned a reconciliation, promising to protect the Hunyadis on condition that they first surrendered all the royal castles entrusted to them. A beginning was to be made with the fortress of Nándorfehérvár (now Belgrade, Serbia) of which László was commandant, Ulrich (Cillei) intending to take the king with him to Nándorfehérvár and assassinate László within its walls. But Hunyadi was warned, and while admitting Ladislaus V and Ulrich, he excluded their army of mercenaries. On the following morning (November 9, 1456) Ulrich II of Celje was killed by Hunyadi's men in unclear circumstances.
The terrified young king, thereupon pardoned Hunyadi, and at a subsequent interview with his mother at Temesvár swore that he would protect the whole family. As a pledge of his sincerity he appointed László lord treasurer and captain-general of the kingdom. Suspecting no evil, Hunyadi accompanied the king to Buda, but on arriving there was arrested on a charge of plotting against Ladislaus, condemned to death without the observance of any legal formalities, and beheaded on the 16th of March 1457.
He is the protagonist of a popular Hungarian opera, Hunyadi László by Ferenc Erkel.
See I. Acsády, History of the Hungarian Realm (Hungarian), vol. i. (Budapest, 1904). (R. N. 13.)
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
