John Hunyadi

John Hunyadi, as imagined by a 17th century artist

John Hunyadi (Medieval Latin: Ioannes Corvinus, Hungarian: Hunyadi János, Romanian: Iancu or Ioan de Hunedoara; Serbian: Sibinjanin Janko; c. 1407[1]–August 11, 1456), nicknamed the White Knight, was a Voivode of Transylvania (from 1441), captain-general (1444–1446) and regent (1446–1453) of the Kingdom of Hungary, with a distinguished military career[2]. He was also the father of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary[1], one of its most renowned kings.

Contents

Names in other languages

Origin

John Hunyadi - hand-colored woodcut in Johannes de Thurocz's Chronicle Chronica Hungarorum, Brno, 1488.
Hunyad Castle, main entrance

Modern scholarship has cleared up the numerous legends which surrounded the Hunyadi family.

Father

The historian Antonio Bonfini traces the family's ancestry to the Roman gens Corvina, or Valeriana, in order to flatter his king, Matthias Corvinus, John's son. He also writes: "for this man was indeed born of a Vlach/Wallachian father and a Greek mother"[3] Another historian, the Hungarian Johannes de Thurocz -to flatter his king like Bonfini did- writes in the Chronicle of the Hungarians (Chronica Hungarorum) that the Hunyadi family is of Hunnic origin. He also calls Matthias Corvinus as the second Attila.[4]Gáspár Heltai in his chronicle makes Hunyadi the illegitimate son of King Sigismund and the young noble Erzsébet Morzsinay[5][6] [7]. However his mother was Erzsébet or Elizabeth Morzsinay,[8] who came from a Hungarian[9][8][10][11] noble family from Hunyad. Others try to establish the purely Hungarian origin of the family; most authors suggest a Romanian/Wallachian[12][13][14][15][16][17][18], others a Serbian[19] or Cumanian[20][10][21][22][23]origin.

Contemporary sources indicate that he was of either Vlach[24][25][26] or Hungarian (Magyar) origin; his father was Vajk[4] (a Hungarian name[10][27][28][29][30][31][32]), a Vlach or Hungarian minor nobleman soldier in the service of King (later Emperor) Sigismund of Luxembourg. John's grandfather Serb had three sons - Vojk (Voicu, a Romanian name) John's father Magos (Mogoş, or Magos a Hungarian name, means "tall"), and Radol/Radul (a highly popular Romanian name), who won distinction in the battles with the Ottomans.[33] What is certain is that Vajk, John's father, took the family name Hunyadi in 1409 when he received the estate around the Hunyad Castle from King Sigismund, (possessionem nostram regalem Hwnyadwar) and was ennobled as a count of Hunyad.

According to some sources, Vojk was a nobile from Wallachia, the son of Serb (also spelled as Sorb or Serbe; a Cuman name which meaning is "luckless"[10] or probable meaning the Vlach name Şerban, which in Hungarian official documents was also spelled as Sorbán[34]), a Vlach Knyaz from the Banate of Szörény (Severin). A theory developed at the end of the 19th century claims that Serb, John's grandfather, was originally from Serbia,[19] an origin not attested by contemporary sources.

Mother

John's mother was named Elizabeth or Erzsébet of Cinciş, the daughter of a small noble family from Hunyad- Vajdahunyad (Present day: Hunedoara). While formerly she was supposed to belong to the family of Morzsinay, it was shown in the late 19th century by János Karácsonyi that for various reasons the theory that Hunyadi's father married a member of the Morzsinay family is unsustainable. According to the History sections of the Hunyad Castle guides, John's mother was Hungarian noble lady. [9] [8][10][11]

Currently, both Hungarians and Romanians consider John Hunyadi a national hero.

Ethnicity

Unlike today, during the Middle Ages, ethnicity was not important; however, John Hunyadi spoke the Hungarian language. Hunyadi himself may be regarded as Hungarian, based on his birthplace - the historic Kingdom of Hungary. He may have spoken the Romanian language only during his youth, and was born in the Catholic faith. [35] For most of his adult life, Hunyadi was in a Hungarian-speaking environment.

Corvinus legend

The epithet Corvinus (referring to the raven) was first used by the biographer of his son Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, but is also applied to John. It is linked to the legend documented by Gáspár Heltai, among others. The legend said that John was the illegitimate son of Hungarian King Sigismund of Luxembourg,[1] and that Vajk was a faithful soldier of his father for two decades. After the death of his wife, King Sigismund met Erzsébet Morzsinai, a virgin noblewoman, and fell in love. In the morning, the king gave a royal ring to the lady, promising her that he would take care of the son. After the boy was born, the family set off to Buda to the palace of Sigismund. During the trip, they took a rest, and baby John started crying. Erzsébet gave him the ring to make him quiet, whereupon a rook stole the ring. Erzsébet's brother took his bow and arrow and shot the rook, whereupon, as if by a miracle, the rook did not die, and the ring was recovered. Arriving at the royal court in Buda, Sigismund filled the baby's cradle with precious stones. Other versions of the legend state that it was the child John himself, about 6 years old, who shot the arrow.

The legend may have some basis in fact, as his presumed father, Vojk, had never before had a coat of arms depicting a raven, and suddenly he changed it for some reason; on the other hand, Wallachian tradition does not indicate anything related to ravens. The family of Vajk received the estates of Hunyad, and John's education was funded by the king. The part of the legend that is most questioned is not the raven and the events surrounding little John (which, with minimal differences, might not differ from the truth), but the parentage by Sigismund. The main counterargument is that John was not able to become king of Hungary because he was not considered of royal blood. It is argued that John, his wife Erzsébet, and their son Matthias invented and/or promoted the legend in order to allow at least John's son to become king.

Brother

His brother (d. ca. 1440) was also called John, for no particular reason; John has been confused with him (also called Székely János, or John the Szekler). John's son, King Matthias, had a statue of Sigismund in Visegrád and claimed him as his grandfather.

Wife

In 1432, John married Erzsébet Szilágyi (c. 1410-1483), a Hungarian noblewoman, also of high rank (Szilágy being the name of a county overlapping with present-day Sălaj County).

Widely respected in Europe, he still gathered rivals throughout his lifetime, and was the object of the Ottoman Empire's most ferocious hatred.

Rise

With Sigismund and in the disputed elections

John Hunyadi in the Hussite Campaign, as depicted in the Johannes de Thurocz Chronicle

While still a youth, the younger John Hunyadi entered the retinue of Sigismund, who appreciated his qualities. (He also was the King's creditor on several occasions.) He accompanied the monarch to Frankfurt, in Sigismund's quest for the Imperial crown in 1410, took part in the Hussite Wars in 1420, and in 1437 drove the Ottomans from Semendria. For these services he received numerous estates and a seat in the royal council. In 1438 King Albert II made Hunyadi Ban[1] of Severin. Lying south of the defensible southern frontiers of Hungary, the Carpathians and the Drava/Sava/Danube complex, the province was subject to constant harassment by Ottoman forces. Upon the sudden death of Albert in 1439, Hunyadi, arguably feeling Hungary needed a warrior king, lent his support to the candidature of young King of Poland Władysław III of Varna in 1440, and thus came into collision with the powerful Ulrich II of Celje, the chief supporter of Albert's widow Elizabeth II of Bohemia and her infant son, Ladislaus Posthumus of Bohemia and Hungary. He took a prominent part in the ensuing civil war and was rewarded by Władysław with the captaincy of the fortress of Belgrade (at that time, Nándorfehérvár) and the governorship of Transylvania. He shared the latter dignity with Mihály Újlaki.

First battles of the Balkans

The burden of the Ottoman War now rested with him. In 1441 he delivered Serbia by the victory of Semendria. In 1442, not far from Nagyszeben, on which he had been forced to retire, he annihilated an immense Ottoman presence, and recovered for Hungary the suzerainty of Wallachia. In February 1450, he signed an alliance treaty with Bogdan II of Moldavia.

In July, he vanquished a third Turkish army near the Iron Gates. These victories made Hunyadi a prominent enemy of the Ottomans and renowned throughout Christendom, and stimulated him in 1443 to undertake, along with King Władysław, the famous expedition known as the long campaign. Hunyadi, at the head of the vanguard, crossed the Balkans through the Gate of Trajan, captured Niš, defeated three Turkish pashas, and, after taking Sofia, united with the royal army and defeated Sultan Murad II at Snaim. The impatience of the king and the severity of the winter then compelled him (February 1444) to return home, but not before he had utterly broken the Sultan's power in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Albania.

No sooner had he regained Hungary than he received tempting offers from Pope Eugene IV, represented by the Legate Julian Cesarini, from Đurađ Branković, despot of Serbia, and Gjergj Kastrioti, prince of Albania, to resume the war and realize his ideal of driving the Ottomans from Europe. All the preparations had been made when Murad's envoys arrived in the royal camp at Szeged and offered a ten years' truce on advantageous terms. Branković bribed Hunyadi -he gave him his vast estates in Hungary- to support the acceptance of the peace. Cardinal Julian Cesarini found a traitorous solution. The king swore that he would never give up the crusade, so all future peace and oath was automatically invalid. After this Hungary accepted the Sultan's offer and Hunyadi in Władysław's name swore on the Gospels to observe them.

The Battle of Varna, as depicted in the 1564 edition of Martin Bielski's Polish Chronicle.

Battle of Varna

Two days later Cesarini received tidings that a fleet of Venetian galleys had set off for the Bosporus to prevent Murad (who, crushed by his recent disasters, had retired to Anatolia) from recrossing into Europe, and the cardinal reminded the King that he had sworn to cooperate by land if the western powers attacked the Ottomans by sea. In July the Hungarian army recrossed the frontier and advanced towards the Black Sea coast in order to march to Constantinople escorted by the galleys.

Branković, however, fearful of the sultan's vengeance in case of disaster, privately informed Murad of the advance of the Christian host, and prevented Kastrioti from joining it. On reaching Varna, the Hungarians found that the Venetian galleys had failed to prevent the transit of the Sultan - indeed, the Genoese transported the Sultan's army (and received, according to legend, one gold piece for each soldier shipped over). Hunyadi, on November 10, 1444, confronted the Ottomans with four times the Hungarian forces. Nevertheless, victory was still possible in the Battle of Varna as Hunyadi with his superb military skills managed to route both flanks of the Sultan's army. At this point, however, king Władysław, who up to that point had remained in the background and relinquished full leadership to Hunyadi, assumed command and with his bodyguards carried out an all-out attack on the elite troops of the Sultan, the Janissaries. The Janissaries readily massacred the king's men, also killing the king, exhibiting his head on a pole. The king's death caused disarray in the Hungarian army, which was subsequently routed by the Ottomans; Hunyadi himself narrowly escaped. On his way home, Vlad II Dracul of Wallachia imprisoned Hunyadi; only the threats of the palatine of Hungary brought the voivode, theoretically an ally of Hunyadi against the Ottomans, to release him.[36]

Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary

Brief personal rule

At the diet which met in February 1445 a provisional government consisting of five Captain Generals was formed, with Hunyadi receiving Transylvania and four counties bordering on the Tisza, called the Partium or Körösvidék, to rule. As the anarchy resulting from the division became unmanageable, Hunyadi was elected regent of Hungary (Regni Gubernator) on June 5, 1446 in the name of Ladislaus V and given the powers of a regent. His first act as regent was to proceed against the German king Frederick III, who refused to release Ladislaus V. After ravaging Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola and threatening Vienna, Hunyadi's difficulties elsewhere compelled him to make a truce with Frederick for two years.

John Hunyadi in a Johannes de Thurocz Chronicle woodcut

In 1448 he received a golden chain and the title of Prince from Pope Nicholas V, and immediately afterwards resumed the war with the Ottomans. He lost the two-day Second Battle of Kosovo (October 7-10 1448, owing to the treachery of Dan II of Wallachia, then pretender to the throne, and of his old rival Branković, who intercepted Hunyadi's planned Albanian reinforcements led by Gjergj Kastrioti, preventing them from ever reaching the battle. Branković also imprisoned Hunyadi for a time in the dungeons of the fortress of Smederevo, but he was ransomed by his countrymen and, after resolving his differences with his powerful and numerous political enemies in Hungary, led a punitive expedition against the Serbian prince, who was forced to accept harsh terms of peace.

In 1450 Hunyadi went to the Hungarian capital of Pozsony to negotiate with Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III the terms of the surrender of Ladislaus V, but no agreement could be reached. Several of John Hunyadi's enemies, including Ulrich II of Celje, accused him of conspiracy to overthrow the King. In order to defuse the increasingly volatile domestic situation, he relinquished his regency and the title of regent.

On his return to Hungary at the beginning of 1453, Ladislaus named him count of Beszterce and Captain General of the kingdom. The king also expanded his coat-of-arms with the so-called Beszterce Lions.

Belgrade campaign and death

John's tomb in Alba Iulia Hungarian Catholic Cathedral.

Meanwhile, the Ottoman issue had again become acute, and, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, it seemed natural that Sultan Mehmed II was rallying his resources in order to subjugate Hungary. His immediate objective was Nándorfehérvár (today Belgrade). Nándorfehérvár was a major castle-fortress, and a gate keeper of south Hungary. The fall of this stronghold would have opened a clear way to the heart of Central-Europe. Hunyadi arrived at the siege of Belgrade at the end of 1455, after settling differences with his domestic enemies. At his own expense, he restocked the supplies and arms of the fortress, leaving in it a strong garrison under the command of his brother-in-law Mihály Szilágyi and his own eldest son László Hunyadi. He proceeded to form a relief army, and assembled a fleet of two hundred ships. His main ally was the Franciscan friar, Giovanni da Capistrano, whose fiery oratory drew a large crusade made up mostly of peasants. Although relatively ill-armed (most were armed with farm equipment, such as scythes and pitchforks) they flocked to Hunyadi and his small corps of seasoned mercenaries and cavalry.

On July 14, 1456 the flotilla assembled by Hunyadi destroyed the Ottoman fleet. On July 21, Szilágyi's forces in the fortress repulsed a fierce assault by the Rumelian army, and Hunyadi pursued the retreating forces into their camp, taking advantage of the Turkish army's confused flight from the city. After fierce but brief fighting, the camp was captured, and Mehmet raised the siege and returned to Istanbul. With his flight began a 70 year period of relative peace on Hungary's southeastern border. However, plague broke out in Hunyadi's camp three weeks after the lifting of the siege, and he died August 11. He was buried inside the (Roman Catholic) Cathedral of Alba Iulia (Gyulafehérvár), next to his elder brother John. Sultan Mehmet II paid him tribute:"Although he was my enemy I feel grief over his death, because the world has never seen such a man."

Personal Coat of arms – note the raven depicted on the escutcheon, the origin of the name Corvinus.

Legacy

The rise of nationalism has led to hero images of John Hunyadi in the discourse of several local nationalities – each in its own way has claimed him as their own, although he lived in and fought for Hungary and was a Governor of the Hungarian Kingdom, and did not acted politically in any other Country. Along with his son Matthias Corvinus, John has a very good reputation in Hungary, acquired a presence in modern Romania's political culture (images that focus on the origin rather than their careers within Hungary or on their presence as outsiders in the politics of Wallachia and Moldavia, although Hunyadi was responsible for establishing the careers of both Stephen III of Moldavia and the controversial Vlad III of Wallachia). John Hunyadi was a traditionally considered a national hero in Hungary.

Among John's noted qualities, is his regional primacy in recognizing the insufficiency and unreliability of the feudal levies, instead regularly employing large professional armies. His notable contribution to the development of the science of European warfare included the emphasis on tactics and strategy in place of over-reliance on frontal assaults and mêlées.

His diplomatic, strategic, and tactical skills allowed him to serve his country well. After his death, Pope Callixtus III stated that "the light of the world has passed away", considering his defense of Christendom against the Ottoman threat. The same pope has ordered the noon bell to be rung for the memory of Hunyadi's victory in siege of Belgrade, and to mark the resistance to Islamic progression inside Europe.

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "János Hunyady". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company. 
  2. ↑ Molnár, Miklós; Anna Magyar. "Chronology". A Concise History of Hungary. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521667364. http://books.google.com/books?hl=hu&lr=&id=gmn3F6KSTpsC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=John+Hunyadi+Transylvania&ots=Vmo73lMCLt&sig=unuNdlcEI45xqNRU1mrUFL7XvbA#PPR13,M1. Retrieved on 2008-05-26. 
  3. ↑ Decad. III, lib. 4, ed. cit., p. 448, in Armbruster, Adolf. The Romanity of the Romanians. Ch 3. Sec 2. p70
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 TEKE ZSUZSA: HUNYADI JÁNOS • 1407 k.–1456, 10. évfolyam (1999) 9-10. szám (93-94.) (Rubicon History Magazine, Hungarian)
  5. ↑ Historia Inclyti Matthiae Hunyadis, Regis Hungariae augustissimi, Ex Antonij Bonfinij, Historici diserti libris, Kolozsvár. 1565.
  6. ↑ http://sagv.gyakg.u-szeged.hu/tanar/farkzolt/SIGMUND/HJANOS.HTM The concrete story from Gáspár Heltai's chronicle. (Hungarian)
  7. ↑ http://www.hik.hu/tankonyvtar/site/books/b152/ch12s01s01.html Heltai Gáspár: Krónika az magyaroknak dolgairól (Hungarian)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Hóman Bálint- Szekfű Gyula: Magyar történet II., KMENy, Bp., 1936, 432.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 : Hunyadi család [1]
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Zoltán: A Hunyadiaktól karácsonyig [2]
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Doksi.hu: Hunyadi János kormányzó [3]
  12. ↑ Gábor Klaniczay "John Hunyadi". Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages. Ed. Andre Vauchez, Richard Barrie Dobson, Adrian Walford, Michael Lapidge. 
  13. ↑ Enea Silvius Piccolomini, (Pope Pius II), In Europa - Historia Austrialis, BAV, URB, LAT. 405, ff.245, IIII kal. Aprilis MCCCCLVIII, Ex Urbe Roma
  14. ↑ Paul Lendvai, The Hungarians: A Thousand Years of Victory in Defeat”, Princeton University Press 2004, chapter 7, p.75 “Hunyadi came from a Romanian (according to some sources, Slav) family which had migrated from Walachia to Transylvania”
  15. ↑ "Jean W. Sedlar, East Central Europe in the Middle Ages, 1000-1500, University of Washington Press, 1994". Retrieved on 2008-07-31.
  16. ↑ Neagu Djuvara, O SCURTĂ ISTORIE A ROMÂNILOR POVESTITĂ CELOR TINERI de NEAGU DJUVARA, Bucureşti. Humanitas, 2002. p.84
  17. ↑ I. Hurdubeţiu, Die Deutschen über die Herkunft der Rumänen. Von Johann Thunmann bis Ernst Gamillscheg, Breslau, 1944, p. 7
  18. ↑ Constantin Höfler, Das kaiserliche Buch des Markgrafen Albrecht Achilles. Vorkurfürstliche Periode 1440-1470 (=QFG, II) (Bayreuth 1850), no. 107, p. 214
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Dr. Borovszky Samu, Magyarország vármegyéi és városai (Hungary's counties and cities), published by: Országos Monográfiai Társaság (the Society for Hungarian Monographies), Budapest
  20. ↑ Katolikus Lexikon: Hunyadi János
  21. ↑ A M. Nemz. Tört. IV. Bp., 1896. - Elekes 1952. - Teke 1980. - Puskely 1994:279 (Hungarian)
  22. ↑ http://dragon.unideb.hu/~kltegimn/CLASSES/12C/HTM/PZ/HU/HUJ33.HTM (Hungarian)
  23. ↑ According to Jenő Nagy's research, who was the member of the Magyar Történelmi Társulat (Hungarian History Association) "„Bot, Marzsinai, Marák Kendék, Pomori, Tewrwek, Török, Fiátok, Majláthok, Békések Jósikák, Halásziak, Kendefiek, Gráfiak" families were of Cuman origin
  24. ↑ Enea Silvius Piccolomini, (Pope Pius II), In Europa - Historia Austrialis, BAV, URB, LAT. 405, ff.245, IIII kal. Aprilis MCCCCLVIII, Ex Urbe Roma
  25. ↑ P. Iroaie, I romeni nell opera di Ransano, în „Il Veltro, XIII (1969), 1-2, p. 184-185
  26. ↑ [4]"Antonio Bonfini’s Valachorum regulus: Matthias Corvinus, Transylvania and Stephen the Great", Alexandru Simon, "Babes-Bolyai" University, Cluj-Napoca
  27. ↑ http://mek.oszk.hu/00000/00084/00084.htm#2v, Online National Széchényi Library, (Hungarian)
  28. ↑ http://magyarnevek.hu/ferfi.php?char=v, "Hungarian names", in Hungarian
  29. ↑ http://www.origo.hu/utonevtar/index.html?id=1095, Hungarian forenames, in Hungarian
  30. ↑ http://www.kislexikon.hu/vajk.html
  31. ↑ http://www.keresztnevek.hu/jelent%C3%A9se/VAJK/
  32. ↑ http://nevnaptar.eu/keresztnevek_kereses.php
  33. ↑ Petre P. Panaitescu, Istoria Românilor, 7th edition, Editura didactică şi pedagogică, Bucureşti, 1990, p. 109
  34. ↑ Cf. Raoul Şorban, who in interviews and autobiographical writings said some members of his clan spelled their name Şorban, while other members Şerban
  35. ↑ Catholic Encyclopedia - Á. ALDÁSY
  36. ↑ "National Geographic Magyarország: A várnai csata" (in Hungarian). Retrieved on 2008-06-02.

References