Black Army of Hungary

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The Black Army (Black Legion or Host) - named after their black armor panoply - is in historigraphy the common name given to the excellent quality of diverse and polyglot military forces serving under the reign of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary.

It is recognized as the first standing continental European fighting force not under conscription and with regular pay since the Roman Empire and reputed to be the first military body to be undefeated in the field (under one ruler) since Alexander the Great in European combat history. Hungary's Black Army traditionally encompasses the years from 1458 to 1490 - a war, Renaissance-state building and glory-full dogmatic climatic to the sovereign's death who was its greatest benefactor bringing an epochal power and territorial expansion second to that of only Louis the Great of Hungary.

The core of the army consisted of 8-10 thousands of mercenaries, but its size doubled during the invasions. The soldiers were mainly Bohemians, but Polish, Germans and Hungarians joined as well from 1480. The main corps of the army were the infantry, artillery and light and heavy cavalry. The function of the heavy cavalry was to protect the light armored infantry and artillery, meanwhile the other corps inflicted random attacks on the enemy.

In 1458, Hungary had decided to elect as sovereign a well educated and endowned eighteen year old youth - and sometimes history tends to become suddenly concentrated in one man, who is then obeyed by the world. His father was one of the greatest warlords in Europe, the renowned crusader Regent-General John Hunyadi. After the Hungarian generalissimo Hunyadi, while Christian Europe waited with bated breath, managed to overthrow the conqueror of Constantinople, Mehmed II and the prodigous Ottoman onslaught on the key Hungarian river fortress of Belgrade, Europe was rescued single-handed in 1456. Matthias Corvinus' father's masterly defensive effort at Belgrade 1456 bequeathed a lasting legacy to the Western world starting a tradition of symbolic Catholic and European victory over the Ottoman Empire by starting church bells at noon, a tradition that has continued to this day.

The death of Matthias Corvinus meant the end of the "Black Army", because the weak Ladislaus II was not able to cover the costs of the army.