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180-415: Matthias Corvinus ( Hungarian : Hunyadi Mátyás ; Romanian : Matia/Matei Corvin ; Croatian : Matija/Matijaš Korvin ; Slovak : Matej Korvín ; Czech : Matyáš Korvín ; 23 February 1443 – 6 April 1490) was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1458 to 1490, as Matthias I . After conducting several military campaigns, he was elected King of Bohemia in 1469 and adopted

360-601: A Turkic language continued to be a matter of impassioned political controversy throughout the 18th and into the 19th centuries. During the latter half of the 19th century, a competing hypothesis proposed a Turkic affinity of Hungarian, or, alternatively, that both the Uralic and the Turkic families formed part of a superfamily of Ural–Altaic languages . Following an academic debate known as Az ugor-török háború ("the Ugric-Turkic war"),

540-417: A circumfix , to change a word's meaning and its grammatical function. Hungarian uses vowel harmony to attach suffixes to words. That means that most suffixes have two or three different forms, and the choice between them depends on the vowels of the head word. There are some minor and unpredictable exceptions to the rule. Nouns have 18 cases , which are formed regularly with suffixes. The nominative case

720-731: A Diet and promised to refrain from levying taxes without the consent of the Estates and to convoke the Diet in each year. His promises remedied most of the Estates' grievances and almost 50 barons and prelates confirmed their loyalty to him on 21 September. Casimir Jagiellon invaded on 2 October 1471. With Bishop Janus Pannonius's support, he seized Nyitra (now Nitra in Slovakia), but only two barons, John Rozgonyi and Nicholas Perényi, joined him. Within five months Prince Casimir withdrew from Hungary, Bishop Janus Pannonius died while fleeing, and Archbishop John Vitéz

900-606: A bastion. The large shields set together in a circle present the appearance of a fort and similar to a wall in whose defense the infantry and all those among them fight almost as if from behind bastion walls or ramparts and at the given moment break out from it. Various long-range weapons including bows, crossbows, and arquebuses; all sorts of melee weapons, halberds, pikes, and awl-pikes; hussite/peasant weapons such as slings and flails; hand weapons such as morning stars and war hammers; and classical swords and sabres. The disadvantage of having periodically or occasionally paid recruits

1080-550: A campaign against Moldavia in the summer of 1476. Although he won the Battle of Valea Albă on 26 July, the lack of provisions forced him to retreat. Matthias sent auxiliary troops to Moldavia under the command of Vlad Dracula, whom he had released, and Stephen Báthory The allied forces defeated an Ottoman army at the Siret River in August. With Hungarian and Moldavian support, Vlad Dracula

1260-484: A captain appointed by the king) and could have been sent abroad as well. He also increased the insurrectio's time of service from 15 days to three months. Though these efforts were sound, the way they were carried out was not in any way supervised. In 1458, Matthias borrowed as many as 500 heavy cavalry from the Bohemian king, George of Poděbrady , to strengthen his situation at home against his rival landlords. This marks

1440-466: A captain-general. However, the Estates refused to elect his candidate Duke Frederick I of Liegnitz . Ali Bey Mihaloğlu , Bey of Smederevo , pillaged eastern parts of Hungary, destroyed Várad, and took 16,000 prisoners with him in January 1474. The next month, the envoys of Matthias and Casimir IV signed a peace treaty and a three-year truce between Matthias and Vladislaus Jagiellon was also declared. Within

1620-621: A criminal case against the Frankapans, the Zrinskis and other leading Croatian and Slavonian magnates for their alleged participation in the 1471 conspiracy. Most barons were pardoned as soon as they consented to the introduction of a new land tax. In 1481, for a loan of 100,000 florins, Matthias seized the town of Mautern in Styria and Sankt Pölten in Lower Austria from Friedrich Mauerkircher , one of

1800-403: A flank or division which quit the campaign. An easier solution was to have the captain accept some lands and castles to be mortgaged in return of service (in one occasion the forts of Ricsó (Hričovský hrad) and Nagybiccse (Bytča) to František Hag). An example of mass desertion occurred in 1481 when a group of 300 horsemen joined the opposing Holy Roman forces. One of these recorded insurrections

1980-681: A high proportion of words specific to agriculture and livestock are of Chuvash origin. A strong Chuvash influence was also apparent in Hungarian burial customs. The first written accounts of Hungarian date to the 10th century, such as mostly Hungarian personal names and place names in De Administrando Imperio , written in Greek by Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VII . No significant texts written in Old Hungarian script have survived, because

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2160-604: A large Ottoman army forced him to withdraw to Hungary. The following year, Matthias forced Stefan Vukčić, who had transferred Makarska Krajina to the Republic of Venice , to establish Hungarian garrisons in his forts along the river Neretva . Dénes Szécsi died in 1465 and John Vitéz became the new Archbishop of Esztergom. Matthias replaced the two Voivodes of Transylvania (Nicholas Újlaki and John Pongrác of Dengeleg) with Counts Sigismund and John Szentgyörgyi, and Bertold Ellerbach . Although Újlaki preserved his office of Ban of Macsó ,

2340-405: A larger and better-equipped navy. Since they were manned by South Slavs, mainly Serbs and Croats, the two major ports of operations were Belgrade and Szabács ( Šabac ). In 1475, concomitantly with the introduction of field guns, he ordered the installation of artillery onto the river barges as well as bombards able to shoot cannonballs ranging from 100 to 200 pounds (45 to 91 kg). In 1479, he had

2520-580: A member of the nobility mounted the royal throne in Hungary. Michael Szilágyi sent John Vitéz to Prague to discuss the terms of Matthias's release with George of Poděbrady. Poděbrady, whose daughter Katalin Matthias promised to marry, agreed to release his future son-in-law for a ransom of 60,000 gold florins . Matthias was surrendered to the Hungarian delegates in Strážnice on 9 February. With Poděbrady's mediation, he

2700-399: A millennium. These include tehén 'cow' (cf. Avestan daénu ); tíz 'ten' (cf. Avestan dasa ); tej 'milk' (cf. Persian dáje 'wet nurse'); and nád 'reed' (from late Middle Iranian ; cf. Middle Persian nāy and Modern Persian ney ). Archaeological evidence from present-day southern Bashkortostan confirms the existence of Hungarian settlements between

2880-785: A million additional people scattered in other parts of the world. For example, there are more than one hundred thousand Hungarian speakers in the Hungarian American community and 1.5 million with Hungarian ancestry in the United States . Hungarian is the official language of Hungary, and thus an official language of the European Union. Hungarian is also one of the official languages of Serbian province of Vojvodina and an official language of three municipalities in Slovenia : Hodoš , Dobrovnik and Lendava , along with Slovene . Hungarian

3060-454: A minor role in the Black Army, since Matthias decreased their participation gradually and called them up in large numbers early in his reign. In the laws of 1459 of Szeged , he restored the basis of 20 serfs to induct an archer (this time it was based on the number of persons). The barons' militia portalis no longer counted in the local noble's banner but into the army of the country (led by

3240-564: A mixed fleet of 360 vessels, a crew of 2600 sailors, and a capacity of 10,000 soldiers on board. Matthias also secured an exit to the Adriatic Sea : the city-port of Zengg from which Matthias Balázs could embark for his maritime campaigns. King Matthias could also monitor the trade going through the Danube Delta to the Black Sea from the city of Kilia , but during his reign, it was seized by

3420-843: A month, however, Vladislaus entered into an alliance with Emperor Frederick and Casimir IV joined them. Casimir IV and Vladislaus invaded Silesia and laid siege to Matthias in Breslau (now Wrocław in Poland) in October. He prevented the besiegers from accumulating provisions, forcing them to raise the siege. Thereafter the Silesian Estates willingly elected Matthias's new candidate Stephen Zápolya as captain-general. The Moravian Estates elected Ctibor Tovačovský as captain-general. Matthias confirmed this decision, although Tovačovský had been Vladislaus Jagiellon's partisan. The Ottomans invaded Wallachia and Moldavia at

3600-675: A month, no compromise was worked out. The Emperor also refused to commit himself to promoting Matthias's election as King of the Romans. After a month, Matthias left Vienna without taking formal leave of Frederick III. Having realised the Hungarian Estates' growing dissatisfaction, Matthias held a Diet in November. The Diet again authorized him to levy an extraordinary tax, stipulating that the sum of all taxes payable per porta could not exceed one florin. The Estates also made it clear that they opposed

3780-692: A nearby hovel in which Matthias persuaded George of Poděbrady to sign an armistice promising that he would mediate a reconciliation between the moderate Hussites and the Holy See. Their next meeting took place in Olomouc in April. Here the papal legates came forward with demands including the appointment of a Catholic Archbishop to the See of Prague , which could not be accepted by George of Poděbrady. The Czech Catholic Estates elected Matthias King of Bohemia in Olomouc on 3 May but he

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3960-521: A new campaign against them after the Diet authorized him to collect an extraordinary tax in mid-1461. However, he did not defeat Jiskra, who even captured Késmárk (now Kežmarok , Slovakia ). The envoys of Matthias and Emperor Frederick agreed the terms of peace treaty on 3 April 1462. According to the agreement, the Emperor was to return the Holy Crown of Hungary for 80,000 golden florins, but his right to use

4140-571: A noble had to join a regional count in state of war. No significant number of mercenaries were present in the Hungarian Army during Matthias' early years. (In the 1463 Janus Pannonius ' report of the siege of Jajce Castle , there is no mention of them.) In case of emergency, a last chance existed for the actual king in power to mobilize the population suddenly. Every noble, no matter his social class, had to participate in person with his weaponry and all of his personal guards made available. These were

4320-439: A noble owned, he had to equip a mounted soldier. After the Diet of Temesvár (Timişoara) of 1397, the light cavalry was institutionalized as an army division. According to Antonio Bonfini , this lightly armed cavalry ( expeditissimus equitatus ) was not allowed to be part of the regular army when the order of the battle was formed, but was placed outside it in quite separate groups and used to destroy, burn, kill and instil fear in

4500-406: A process of nyelvújítás ( language revitalization ). Some words were shortened ( győzedelem > győzelem , 'victory' or 'triumph'); a number of dialectal words spread nationally ( e.g. , cselleng 'dawdle'); extinct words were reintroduced ( dísz , 'décor'); a wide range of expressions were coined using the various derivative suffixes; and some other, less frequently used methods of expanding

4680-622: A professional army, which became known as the " Black Army " in following decades. The peace treaty made in Wiener-Neustadt 19 July 1463. Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II invaded Wallachia in early 1462. He did not conquer the country but the Wallachian boyars dethroned the anti-Ottoman Vlad Dracula and replaced him with the Sultan's favorite, Radu the Fair . The new Prince was willing to grant concessions to

4860-755: A royal pardon and two castles, Solymos and Lippa (now Şoimuş and Lipova), in the Peace Treaty of Wiener Neustadt of 1463, and his soldiers received a payment of 25,000 ducats . He was stationed in Bosnia to fight the Ottomans the next year. Previously, in 1462, the King sent word to his equerry that he should hire 8,000 cavalry to start a holy war against the Ottoman Empire only if the Venetians – according to their promise – covered

5040-653: A series of Ottoman invasions in the late 1470s. In 1476, Matthias besieged and seized Šabac , an important Ottoman border fort. He concluded a peace treaty with Vladislaus Jagiellon in 1478, confirming the division of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown between them. Matthias waged a war against Emperor Frederick and occupied Lower Austria between 1482 and 1487. Matthias established one of the earliest professional standing armies of medieval Europe (the Black Army of Hungary ), reformed

5220-995: A similarly dramatic way over these three centuries. After the arrival of the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin , the language came into contact with a variety of speech communities , among them Slavic , Turkic , and German . Turkic loans from this period come mainly from the Pechenegs and Cumanians , who settled in Hungary during the 12th and 13th centuries: e.g. koboz " cobza " (cf. Turkish kopuz 'lute'); komondor "mop dog" (< * kumandur < Cuman ). Hungarian borrowed 20% of words from neighbouring Slavic languages : e.g. tégla 'brick'; mák 'poppy seed'; szerda 'Wednesday'; csütörtök 'Thursday'...; karácsony 'Christmas'. These languages in turn borrowed words from Hungarian: e.g. Serbo-Croatian ašov from Hungarian ásó 'spade'. About 1.6 percent of

5400-448: A strong-armoured mounted troop led by commander Ulrich von Grafeneck to help wipe out these brigades. When he reached Pozsony ( Bratislava ), he was reinforced by knight Georg Pottendorfer with his 600 crusader cavalry. This totaled 8,000–10,000 men ready to besiege, who began an assault after taking some minor fortifications on 1 January 1467. The vanguards of the Black Army officers were all present against their former ally. They included

5580-512: A treaty was agreed upon on 28 March 1478, and the text was completed by the end of 1477. The treaty authorized both monarchs to use the title of King of Bohemia although Vladislaus could omit to style Matthias as such in their correspondence, and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were divided between them. Vladislaus ruled in Bohemia proper and Matthias in Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia. They solemnly ratified

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5760-770: A war against the Ottomans, Matthias held a Diet at Tolna in March 1463. Although the Estates authorized him to levy an extraordinary tax of one florin, he did not intervene when Mehmed II invaded Bosnia in June. In a month, the Ottomans murdered King Stephen Tomašević and conquered the whole country. Matthias adopted an offensive foreign policy only after the terms of his peace with Emperor Frederick had been ratified in Wiener Neustadt on 19 July 1463. He led his troops to Bosnia and conquered Jajce and other forts in its northern parts. The conquered regions were organized into new defensive provinces,

5940-400: Is subject–verb–object (SVO). However, Hungarian is a topic-prominent language , and so has a word order that depends not only on syntax but also on the topic–comment structure of the sentence (for example, what aspect is assumed to be known and what is emphasized). A Hungarian sentence generally has the following order: topic, comment (or focus), verb and the rest. The topic shows that

6120-579: Is always on the first syllable of a word, as in Finnish and the neighbouring Slovak and Czech . There is a secondary stress on other syllables in compounds: viszontlátásra ("goodbye") is pronounced /ˈvisontˌlaːtaːʃrɒ/ . Elongated vowels in non-initial syllables may seem to be stressed to an English-speaker, as length and stress correlate in English. Hungarian is an agglutinative language . It uses various affixes , mainly suffixes but also some prefixes and

6300-549: Is expressed by a possessive suffix on the possessed object, rather than the possessor as in English (Peter's apple becomes Péter almája , literally 'Peter apple-his'). Noun plurals are formed with –k ( az almák 'the apples'), but after a numeral, the singular is used ( két alma 'two apples', literally 'two apple'; not *két almák ). Unlike English, Hungarian uses case suffixes and nearly always postpositions instead of prepositions. There are two types of articles in Hungarian, definite and indefinite, which roughly correspond to

6480-442: Is marked with boldface. Hungarian has a four-tiered system for expressing levels of politeness. From highest to lowest: The four-tiered system has somewhat been eroded due to the recent expansion of " tegeződés " and " önözés ". Some anomalies emerged with the arrival of multinational companies who have addressed their customers in the te (least polite) form right from the beginning of their presence in Hungary. A typical example

6660-405: Is necessary to provide them with pages, each of them requires one page per armor and shield and double bounty. Then there are the handgunners ... These are very practical, set behind the shield-bearers at the start of the battle, before the armies engage, and in defense. Nearly all of the infantry and arbusiers are surrounded by armored soldiers and shield-bearers, as if they were standing behind

6840-613: Is officially recognized as a minority or regional language in Austria , Croatia , Romania , Zakarpattia in Ukraine , and Slovakia . In Romania it is a recognized minority language used at local level in communes, towns and municipalities with an ethnic Hungarian population of over 20%. The dialects of Hungarian identified by Ethnologue are: Alföld, West Danube, Danube-Tisza, King's Pass Hungarian, Northeast Hungarian, Northwest Hungarian, Székely and West Hungarian. These dialects are, for

7020-399: Is sometimes described as having free word order, different word orders are generally not interchangeable, and the neutral order is not always correct to use. The intonation is also different with different topic-comment structures. The topic usually has a rising intonation, the focus having a falling intonation. In the following examples, the topic is marked with italics, and the focus (comment)

7200-475: Is the Funeral Sermon and Prayer , which dates to the 1190s. Although the orthography of these early texts differed considerably from that used today, contemporary Hungarians can still understand a great deal of the reconstructed spoken language, despite changes in grammar and vocabulary. A more extensive body of Hungarian literature arose after 1300. The earliest known example of Hungarian religious poetry

7380-693: Is the 14th-century Lamentations of Mary . The first Bible translation was the Hussite Bible in the 1430s. The standard language lost its diphthongs , and several postpositions transformed into suffixes , including reá "onto" (the phrase utu rea "onto the way" found in the 1055 text would later become út ra ). There were also changes in the system of vowel harmony . At one time, Hungarian used six verb tenses , while today only two or three are used. In 1533, Kraków printer Benedek Komjáti published Letters of St. Paul in Hungarian (modern orthography: A Szent Pál levelei magyar nyelven ),

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7560-523: Is the Swedish furniture shop IKEA , whose web site and other publications address the customers in te form. When a news site asked IKEA—using the te form—why they address their customers this way, IKEA's PR Manager explained in his answer—using the ön form—that their way of communication reflects IKEA's open-mindedness and the Swedish culture. However IKEA in France uses the polite ( vous ) form. Another example

7740-485: Is the communication of Yettel Hungary (earlier Telenor, a mobile network operator) towards its customers. Yettel chose to communicate towards business customers in the polite ön form while all other customers are addressed in the less polite te form. During the first early phase of Hungarian language reforms (late 18th and early 19th centuries) more than ten thousand words were coined, several thousand of which are still actively used today (see also Ferenc Kazinczy ,

7920-407: Is unmarked ( az alma 'the apple') and, for example, the accusative is marked with the suffix –t ( az almát '[I eat] the apple'). Half of the cases express a combination of the source-location-target and surface-inside-proximity ternary distinctions (three times three cases); there is a separate case ending – ból / –ből meaning a combination of source and insideness: 'from inside of'. Possession

8100-598: The Aq Qoyunlu Turkmens , proposed an anti-Ottoman alliance to Matthias but he refrained from attacking the Ottoman Empire. Matthias supported the Austrian noblemen who rebelled against Emperor Frederick in 1472. The following year, Matthias, Casimir IV and Vladislaus entered into negotiations on the terms of a peace treaty, but the discussions lasted for months. Matthias tried to unify the government of Silesia, which consisted of dozens of smaller duchies , through appointing

8280-490: The Black Legion/Regiment – were the military forces serving under the reign of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary . The ancestor and core of this early standing mercenary army appeared in the era of his father John Hunyadi in the early 1440s. The idea of the professional standing mercenary army came from Matthias' juvenile readings about the life of Julius Caesar . Hungary's Black Army traditionally encompasses

8460-660: The Comitatus of Nitra and their occupation of the fort of Kosztolány , as the army was composed of Bohemian-Moravian professionals previously in service for George and Frederick III . Apart from the militia, there were religious outcasts (considered heretics) looking for shelter, including Hussite Bratriks ("Brothers" – Hussites in Slovakia/ Upper Hungary ) and rogue Žebraks who favoured pillaging instead of payment. Svehla established an ad hoc fort, and he appointed Jorig Lichtenburger and Vöttau as comeses for

8640-541: The Estates to unanimously proclaim the 14-year-old Matthias as king on 24 January 1458. He began his rule under his uncle's guardianship, but he took effective control of government within two weeks. As king, Matthias waged wars against the Czech mercenaries who dominated Upper Hungary (today parts of Slovakia and Northern Hungary ) and against Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor , who claimed Hungary for himself. In this period,

8820-670: The General sejm of Poland rejected his offer. Matthias's commander Sebastian Rozgonyi defeated Jiskra's soldiers at Sárospatak but the Ottomans' invasion of Serbia in April forced Matthias to conclude an armistice with the Czechs. They were allowed to keep Sáros Castle (now Šariš Castle , Slovakia) and other fortified places in Upper Hungary. Matthias sent two prelates, August Salánki, Bishop of Győr , and Vincent Szilasi, Bishop of Vác , to Prague to crown George of Poděbrady king. Upon their demand,

9000-542: The Hussite King of Bohemia, and conquered Moravia , Silesia , and Lusatia , but he could not occupy Bohemia proper. The Catholic Estates proclaimed him King of Bohemia on 3 May 1469, but the Hussite lords refused to yield to him even after the death of their leader George of Poděbrady in 1471. Instead, they elected Vladislaus Jagiellon , the eldest son of Casimir IV of Poland . A group of Hungarian prelates and lords offered

9180-565: The Ottoman Empire conquered Serbia and Bosnia , terminating the zone of buffer states along the southern frontiers of the Kingdom of Hungary . Matthias signed a peace treaty with Frederick III in 1463, acknowledging the Emperor's right to style himself King of Hungary. The Emperor returned the Holy Crown of Hungary with which Matthias was crowned on 29 April 1464. In this year, Matthias invaded

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9360-470: The Palatine Michael Ország , Jan Jiskra, Jan Haugwitz, Balázs Magyar, Pál Kinizsi, Nicholaus Ujlaki Ban of Macsó (Mačva), and Peter Sobi Ban of Bosnia-Croatia-Dalmatia, with the last dying in the assault. Before the siege began, Matthias offered Švehla the chance to return to his service in exchange for an unconditional surrender on all grounds. After a refusal, he immediately began the siege and

9540-663: The Romanian lexicon is of Hungarian origin. In the 21st century, studies support an origin of the Uralic languages, including early Hungarian, in eastern or central Siberia , somewhere between the Ob and Yenisei rivers or near the Sayan mountains in the Russian – Mongolian border region. A 2019 study based on genetics, archaeology and linguistics, found that early Uralic speakers arrived in Europe from

9720-623: The Romanian language of the envoys of Stephen the Great , Prince of Moldavia . According to a treaty between John Hunyadi and Đurađ Branković , Despot of Serbia , Matthias and the Despot's granddaughter Elizabeth of Celje were engaged on 7 August 1451. Elizabeth was the daughter of Ulrich II, Count of Celje , who was related to King Ladislaus the Posthumous and an opponent of Matthias's father. Because of new conflicts between Hunyadi and Ulrich of Celje,

9900-659: The Transylvanian Saxon merchants, who had come into bitter conflict with Vlad Dracula. The latter sought assistance from Matthias and they met in Brassó (now Brașov , Romania) in November. However, the Saxons presented Matthias with a letter that was allegedly written by Vlad Dracula to Sultan Mehmed in which the Prince offered his support to the Ottomans. Convinced of Vlad Dracula's treachery, Matthias had him imprisoned. In preparation for

10080-723: The Volga River and the Ural Mountains . The Onoğurs (and Bulgars ) later had a great influence on the language, especially between the 5th and 9th centuries. This layer of Turkic loans is large and varied (e.g. szó ' word ' , from Turkic ; and daru ' crane ' , from the related Permic languages ), and includes words borrowed from Oghur Turkic ; e.g. borjú ' calf ' (cf. Chuvash păru , părăv vs. Turkish buzağı ); dél 'noon; south' (cf. Chuvash tĕl vs. Turkish dial. düš ). Many words related to agriculture, state administration and even family relationships show evidence of such backgrounds. Hungarian syntax and grammar were not influenced in

10260-439: The "heretic" Poděbrady swore loyalty to the Holy See . Matthias's first Diet assembled in Pest in May 1458. The Estates passed almost fifty decrees that were ratified by Matthias, instead of the Regent, on 8 June. One decree prescribed that the King "must call and hold, and order to be held, a diet of all the gentlemen of the realm in person" every year on Whitsunday . Matthias held more than 25 Diets during his reign and convoked

10440-489: The 1670s, and the family itself was established in 1717. Hungarian has traditionally been assigned to the Ugric branch along with the Mansi and Khanty languages of western Siberia ( Khanty–Mansia region of North Asia ), but it is no longer clear that it is a valid group. When the Samoyed languages were determined to be part of the family, it was thought at first that Finnic and Ugric (the most divergent branches within Finno-Ugric) were closer to each other than to

10620-671: The 2011 Hungarian census, 9,896,333 people (99.6% of the total population) speak Hungarian, of whom 9,827,875 people (98.9%) speak it as a first language, while 68,458 people (0.7%) speak it as a second language . About 2.2 million speakers live in other areas that were part of the Kingdom of Hungary before the Treaty of Trianon (1920). Of these, the largest group lives in Transylvania , the western half of present-day Romania , where there are approximately 1.25 million Hungarians . There are large Hungarian communities also in Slovakia , Serbia and Ukraine , and Hungarians can also be found in Austria , Croatia , and Slovenia , as well as about

10800-584: The Black Army led by Haugwitz. Of the 8,000 members, 2,000 were able to escape to western Styria , where they continued to pillage the countryside. The prisoners were escorted to Buda, where the Black Army was officially disbanded and they were allowed to leave abroad under the condition never to come back and claim their payment. They joined the forces already in Austria. They confronted Count Georg Eynczinger on 7 May 1493, at Thaya , where they were all killed or captured and tortured to death. The last remaining mercenaries were integrated into local garrisons, such as

10980-553: The Diet of 1458 explicitly prohibited the imposition of extraordinary taxes. However, an extraordinary tax, one golden florin per each porta or peasant household, was levied late that year. The Ottomans occupied the fort of Golubac in Serbia in August 1458; Matthias ordered the mobilization of all noblemen. He made a raid into Ottoman territory and defeated the enemy forces in minor skirmishes. King Stephen Thomas of Bosnia accepted Matthias's suzerainty. Matthias authorized his new vassal 's son Stephen Tomašević to take possession of

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11160-478: The Emperor and Matthias signed a truce in Olomouc in April 1460. The Pope soon offered financial support for an anti-Ottoman campaign. However, John Jiskra returned from Poland, renewing the armed conflicts with Czech mercenaries in early 1460. Matthias seized a newly-erected fort from the Czechs but he could not force them to obey him. The costs of his five-month-long campaign in Upper Hungary were paid for by an extraordinary tax. Matthias entered into an alliance with

11340-404: The Emperor had confirmed Vladislaus Jagiellon's position as King of Bohemia and Prince-elector . Matthias invaded Lower Austria and imposed a blockade on Vienna. Vladislaus Jagiellon denied to support the Emperor, forcing him to seek reconciliation with Matthias. With the mediation of Pope Sixtus IV , Venice, and Ferdinand I of Naples , Matthias concluded a peace treaty with Frederick III, which

11520-405: The Emperor's rebellious brother Albert VI, Archduke of Austria . George of Poděbrady sided with the Emperor although the marriage of his daughter, who became known as Catherine in Hungary, to Matthias was celebrated on 1 May 1461(married 1461 to 1464). Relations between Matthias and his father-in-law deteriorated because of the Czech mercenaries' continued presence in Upper Hungary. Matthias launched

11700-421: The Estates more frequently than his predecessors, especially between 1458 and 1476. The Diets were controlled by the barons, whom Matthias appointed and dismissed at will. For instance, he dismissed Palatine Ladislaus Garai and persuaded Michael Szilágyi to resign from the Regency after they entered into a league in the summer of 1458. The King appointed Michael Ország , who had been his father's close supporter, as

11880-401: The Finno-Ugric hypothesis was concluded the sounder of the two, mainly based on work by the German linguist Josef Budenz . Hungarians did, in fact, absorb some Turkic influences during several centuries of cohabitation. The influence on Hungarians was mainly from the Turkic Oghur speakers such as Sabirs , Bulgars of Atil , Kabars and Khazars . The Oghur tribes are often connected with

12060-427: The Great had supported the rebellion, Matthias invaded Moldavia . However, Stephen's forces routed Matthias's at the Battle of Baia on 15 December 1467. Matthias suffered severe injuries, forcing him to return to Hungary. Matthias's former brother-in-law Victor of Poděbrady invaded Austria in early 1468. Emperor Frederick appealed to Matthias for support, hinting at the possibility of Matthias's election as King of

12240-509: The Hungarian lexemes collected from technical texts, dialects etc. would total up to 1,000,000 words. Parts of the lexicon can be organized using word-bushes (see an example on the right). The words in these bushes share a common root, are related through inflection, derivation and compounding, and are usually broadly related in meaning. Black Army of Hungary The Black Army ( Hungarian : Fekete sereg , pronounced [ˈfɛkɛtɛ ˈʃɛrɛɡ] , Latin: Legio Nigra ), also called

12420-476: The Hungarian barons invited a third pretender, the King of Bohemia and brother of John Albert, Vladislaus II . After the barons double-crossed John Corvinus, he escaped from the capital and was moving to Pécs , when he was attacked midway at Szabaton village and suffered a defeat from which he was able to retreat. No parts of the Black Army were yet involved, as their core was stuck in Silesia and Styria . Their famed captains Blaise Magyar and Paul Kinizsi joined

12600-457: The Hungarian language contains 75,000 words, and the Comprehensive Dictionary of Hungarian Language (to be published in 18 volumes in the next twenty years) is planned to contain 110,000 words. The default Hungarian lexicon is usually estimated to comprise 60,000 to 100,000 words. (Independently of specific languages, speakers actively use at most 10,000 to 20,000 words, with an average intellectual using 25,000 to 30,000 words. ) However, all

12780-408: The Hungarians whose exoethnonym is usually derived from Onogurs (> (H)ungars), a Turkic tribal confederation . The similarity between customs of Hungarians and the Chuvash people , the only surviving member of the Oghur tribes, is visible. For example, the Hungarians appear to have learned animal husbandry techniques from the Oghur speaking Chuvash people (or historically Suvar people ), as

12960-656: The Just, the monarch who wandered among his subjects in disguise, he remains a popular hero of Hungarian and Slovak folk tales. Matthias was born in Kolozsvár (now Cluj-Napoca in Romania) on 23 February 1443. He was the second son of John Hunyadi and his wife, Elizabeth Szilágyi . Matthias' education was managed by his mother due to his father's absence. Many of the most learned men of Central Europe , including Gregory of Sanok and John Vitéz , frequented John Hunyadi's court when Matthias

13140-483: The King appointed Peter Szokoli to administer the province together with the old Ban. Matthias convoked the Diet to make preparations for an anti-Ottoman campaign in 1466. For the same purpose, he received subsidies from Pope Paul II . However, Matthias had realized that no substantial aid could be expected from the Christian powers and tacitly gave up his anti-Ottoman foreign policy. He did not invade Ottoman territory and

13320-682: The King had the Hunyadi brothers imprisoned in Buda on 14 March 1457. The royal council condemned them to death for high treason and Ladislaus Hunyadi was beheaded on 16 March. Matthias was held in captivity in a small house in Buda. His mother and her brother Michael Szilágyi staged a rebellion against the King and occupied large territories in the regions to the east of the river Tisza . King Ladislaus fled to Vienna in mid-1457, and from Vienna to Prague in September, taking Matthias with him. The civil war between

13500-602: The Moldavian army supported by the Ottoman fleet. ... we regard the armored heavy infantry as a wall, who never give up their place, even if they are slaughtered to the last one of them, on the very spot they are standing. Light soldiers perform breakouts depending on the occasion, and when they are already tired or sense severe danger, they return behind the armoured soldiers, organizing their lines and collecting power, and stay there until, on occasion, they may break forth again. In

13680-415: The Ottomans did not make major incursions into Hungary, implying that he signed a peace treaty with Mehmed II's envoy who arrived in Hungary in 1465. Matthias visited Slavonia and dismissed the two Bans Nicholas Újlaki and Emeric Zápolya, replacing them with Jan Vitovec and John Tuz in 1466. Early the following year, he mounted a campaign in Upper Hungary against a band of Czech mercenaries who were under

13860-622: The Ottomans to march through Slavonia when raiding the Emperor's realms. The Frangepan family, whose domains in Croatia were exposed to Ottoman raids, entered into negotiations with the Emperor and the Republic of Venice. In 1469, Matthias sent an army to Croatia to prevent the Venetians from seizing the Adriatic coastal town Senj . Matthias expelled George of Poděbrady's troops from Silesia. Matthias's army

14040-463: The Palatine's daughter Anna, his executed brother's bride. Michael Szilágyi arrived at the Diet with 15,000 troops, intimidating the barons who assembled in Buda. Stirred up by Szilágyi, the noblemen gathered on the frozen River Danube and unanimously proclaimed the 14-year-old Matthias king on 24 January. At the same time, the Diet elected his uncle as regent. Matthias's election was the first time that

14220-710: The Polish troops in December 1491 in the Battle of Eperjes ( Prešov ), which was a decisive victory for the Black Army. John Albert withdrew to Poland and renounced his claim to the throne. The Black Army was sent to the south region to fight the Ottoman invasions. While waiting for their wages, they sought plunder in the nearby villages. The National Council ordered Paul Kinizsi to stop the plundering at all costs. He arrived in Szegednic-Halászfalu in late August 1492, where he dispersed

14400-507: The Romans , the first step towards the imperial throne. Matthias declared war on Victor's father King George of Bohemia on 31 March. He said he also wanted to help the Czech Catholic lords against their "heretic monarch", whom the Pope had excommunicated . Matthias expelled the Czech troops from Austria and invaded Moravia and Silesia . He took an active part in the fighting; he was injured during

14580-671: The Samoyed branch of the family, but that is now frequently questioned. The name of Hungary could be a result of regular sound changes of Ungrian/Ugrian , and the fact that the Eastern Slavs referred to Hungarians as Ǫgry/Ǫgrove (sg. Ǫgrinŭ ) seemed to confirm that. Current literature favors the hypothesis that it comes from the name of the Turkic tribe Onoğur (which means ' ten arrows ' or ' ten tribes ' ). There are numerous regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and

14760-639: The Saxons and the Székelys ) formed an alliance against the King in Kolozsmonostor (now Mănăștur district in Cluj-Napoca, Romania) on 18 August, stating that they were willing to fight for the freedom of Hungary. Matthias assembled his troops immediately and hastened to the province. The rebels surrendered without resistance but Matthias severely punished their leaders, many of whom were impaled, beheaded, or mercilessly tortured upon his orders. Suspecting that Stephen

14940-533: The Silesian lands to him. John Haugwitz never recognized this treaty and held their possessions in Silesia afterwards. Meanwhile, the disappointed John Albert gathered an army at the eastern border of Hungary and attacked the vicinity of Kassa ( Košice ) and Tokaj , also in 1490. John Corvinus accepted Vladislaus as his feudal lord and helped him in his coronation (he personally handed the crown to him). Vladislaus married

15120-448: The Ugric and Finnic languages is greater, but the correspondences are also regular. The traditional view holds that the Hungarian language diverged from its Ugric relatives in the first half of the 1st millennium BC, in western Siberia east of the southern Urals . In Hungarian, Iranian loanwords date back to the time immediately following the breakup of Ugric and probably span well over

15300-539: The administration of justice, reduced the power of the barons, and promoted the careers of talented individuals chosen for their abilities rather than their social statuses. Matthias patronized art and science; his royal library, the Bibliotheca Corviniana , was one of the largest collections of books in Europe. With his patronage, Hungary became the first country to embrace the Renaissance from Italy. As Matthias

15480-513: The administration of justice. He appointed Albert Hangácsi , Bishop of Csanád as the first Chief Justice . Sultan Mehmed II returned to Bosnia and laid siege to Jajce in July 1464 . Matthias began assembling his troops along the River Sava , forcing the Sultan to raise the siege on 24 August. Matthias and his army crossed the river and seized Srebrnica . He also besieged Zvornik , but the arrival of

15660-516: The administration of royal revenues. He entrusted the administration of the Crown's customs to John Ernuszt , a converted Jewish merchant. Within two years, Ernuszt was responsible for the collection of all ordinary and extraordinary taxes, and the management of the salt mines. Matthias's tax reform caused a revolt in Transylvania. The representatives of the " Three Nations " of the province (the noblemen,

15840-495: The army and, with mercenary knights, was in the majority. Its armament was well prepared and of high quality except for the noble banners. This stands for proprietary arms, not the ones provided by the king. The traditional hussars were introduced by Matthias; henceforth, the light cavalry is called huszár , a name derived from the word húsz ("twenty" in English), which refers to the drafting scheme where for every twenty serfs

16020-466: The banates of Jajce and Srebrenik . Matthias was assisted by Stjepan Vukčić Kosača , Grand Duke of Bosnia , who controlled the area of modern and Old Hercegovina . A former vassal to the Bosnian kings, Stjepan accepted Matthias's suzerainty. Queen Catherine died in early 1464 during preparations for her husband's coronation with the Holy Crown, which had been returned by Emperor Frederick. The ceremony

16200-428: The battlefield was ignored by the time their support could have been redeemed in gold later on. The cities were also relieved of paying war levies if they supplied the craftsmanship and weapon production to equip the military. King Matthias increased the serfs' taxes; he switched the basis of taxing from the portae to the households, and occasionally, they collected the royal dues twice a year during wartime. Counting

16380-399: The cannon firing despite the harsh winter conditions. Švehla and his 2,500 men (and additional citizens) resisted the superior besiegers, but food storages reached extremely low levels and all the efforts to break out were unsuccessful, so he decided to capitulate twice to Matthias with the aforementioned taking his revenge in rejecting it. After three weeks, Švehla feigned a breakout attempt in

16560-469: The capital Vienna in 1485) and more than half of the Crown of Bohemia ( Moravia , Silesia and both Lusatias ), the other important victory of the army was won against the Ottomans at the Battle of Breadfield in 1479. Matthias recognized the importance and key role of early firearms in the infantry, which greatly contributed to his victories. Every fourth soldier in the Black Army had an arquebus , which

16740-458: The cavalry constantly harassed the enemy and guarded the "middle") and preferred archery to fusiliers, with the latter being engaged at the very start of the battle. With firearm production being made available by local marksmen in Transylvania, especially in Braşov , this type of ranged infantry became cheaper to handle for the Hungarians. The river fleet ( Hungarian : flottila or naszád )

16920-496: The civilian population, while they rode ahead of the regular army. They assembled from the militia portalis , a significant number of them insurrectios , the Moldavians and Transylvanians with the first having serfs with lesser accoutrement and the latter generally regarded as good horse archers. They were divided into groups of 25 ( turma ) led by a captain ( capitaneus gentium levis armature ). Their field of operation

17100-502: The combination of plate and mail armour and the use of the pavises (these painted willow-wood large shields were often ornamented and covered with leather and linen). The latter served multiple purposes: to hold off enemy attacks, to cover ranged infantry shooting from behind (fusiliers engage first, the archers fire constantly), and moveable hussite-style tabor (with a restricted deployment of war wagons in number). The infantry contained Swiss pikemen , who were held in high regard by

17280-467: The command of Ján Švehla and had seized Kosztolány (now Veľké Kostoľany in Slovakia). Matthias routed them and had Švehla and his 150 comrades hanged. At the Diet of March 1467, two traditional taxes were renamed; the chamber's profit was thereafter collected as tax of the royal treasury and the thirtieth as the Crown's customs . Because of this change, all previous tax exemptions became void, increasing state revenues. Matthias set about centralizing

17460-473: The county. The fort and its looting inhabitants had a surrounding sphere of influence ranging from the valleys of Váh and Nitra to the eastern provinces of Austria. Matthias realized the threat and ordered two of his "upper-land" captains to besiege Kosztolany, namely Stephen Zápolya and Ladislaus Podmaniczky. After returning from Slavonia, the king joined the siege. It is worth mentioning that here, among few occasions, Matthias cooperated with Frederick. He sent

17640-546: The dining rooms" after his marriage. According to a contemporaneous record, around that time Matthias's revenues amounted about 500,000 florins, half of which derived from the tax of the royal treasury and the extraordinary tax. Matthias concluded an alliance with the Teutonic Knights and the Bishopric of Ermland against Poland in March 1477. However, instead of Poland, he declared war on Emperor Frederick after he learnt that

17820-509: The east, specifically from eastern Siberia. Hungarian historian and archaeologist Gyula László claims that geological data from pollen analysis seems to contradict the placing of the ancient Hungarian homeland near the Urals. Today, the consensus among linguists is that Hungarian is a member of the Uralic family of languages. The classification of Hungarian as a Uralic/Finno-Ugric rather than

18000-428: The end of 1474. Matthias sent reinforcements under the command of Blaise Magyar to Stephen the Great. Their united forces routed the invaders in the Battle of Vaslui on 10 January 1475. Fearing a new Ottoman invasion, the Prince of Moldavia swore fealty to Matthias on 15 August. Sultan Mehmed II proposed peace but Matthias refused him. Instead, he stormed into Ottoman territory and captured Šabac , an important fort on

18180-436: The end of the Black Army. The noble estate of the parliament succeeded in reducing the tax burden by 70–80 percent, at the expense of the country's ability to defend itself, thus the newly elected king Vladislaus II was unable to cover the cost of the army. King Vladislaus II donated most of the royal estates, régales and royalties to the nobility. After the dissolution of the Black Army, the Hungarian magnates also dismantled

18360-434: The end, all of the infantry and shooters are surrounded by armoured and shielded soldiers, just as those were standing behind a rampart. Since, the greater pavieses, put next to each other in a circle, show the picture of a fortress, and are similar to a wall, in the protection whereof the infantry and all the ones standing in the middle, fight like from behind tower-walls or rampart, and they occasionally break out of there. At

18540-630: The equivalents in English. Adjectives precede nouns ( a piros alma 'the red apple') and have three degrees: positive ( piros 'red'), comparative ( pirosabb 'redder') and superlative ( a legpirosabb 'the reddest'). If the noun takes the plural or a case, an attributive adjective is invariable: a piros almák 'the red apples'. However, a predicative adjective agrees with the noun: az almák piros ak 'the apples are red'. Adjectives by themselves can behave as nouns (and so can take case suffixes): Melyik almát kéred? – A piros at . 'Which apple would you like? – The red one'. The neutral word order

18720-461: The estate armies. Whenever they were called upon, they were not allowed to fight for longer than 15 days, and their field of operations was restricted to within the borders of Hungary. The so-called insurrectio (noble "insurrection") was nothing more than an obsolete form of drafting, but it was valid until the Battle of Raab in 1809, mainly because it relieved the participating nobles of paying their taxes; but generally, these enlisted armada played

18900-495: The expenses (unfortunately for the Hungarians, this financial aid was postponed from time to time). The first major and mass conscription of mercenaries appeared during the Bohemian Wars (1468–1478), whereas the core of his royal infantry, a force of 6,000–8,000 armed men, were incorporated into the Black Army (the origins of the moniker could also come from this era). After Matthias's income increased periodically, simultaneously,

19080-441: The financial threshold of one million florins, a previously commonly accepted number. In 1467, Matthias Corvinus reformed the coin system for easier accumulation of taxes and manageable disbursements and introduced an improved dinar, which had a finer silver content (500‰) and weighed half a gram. He also re-established its ratio, where one florin of gold equaled 100 dinars of silver, which was so stable that it remained in place until

19260-419: The first Hungarian-language book set in movable type . By the 17th century, the language already closely resembled its present-day form, although two of the past tenses remained in use. German, Italian and French loans also began to appear. Further Turkish words were borrowed during the period of Ottoman rule (1541 to 1699). In the 19th century, a group of writers, most notably Ferenc Kazinczy , spearheaded

19440-574: The fortresses of the Archbishopric in Carinthia , Carniola and Styria . An Ottoman army supported by Basarab Țepeluș of Wallachia invaded Transylvania and set fire to Szászváros (now Orăștie in Romania) in late 1479. Stephen Báthory and Paul Kinizsi annihilated the marauders in the Battle of Breadfield on 13 October. Matthias united the command of all forts along the Danube to the west of Belgrade in

19620-409: The front while getting out from the rear through a water channel. Though his physically weak and exhausted entourage of 2,000 infantry tried to elude the besieging forces, they were not fast enough to escape safely. Balázs Magyar and Pál Kinizsi rode down to the fort of Csejte ( Čachtice ), where they clashed. Almost all of the rioters fell, only 250 being taken prisoner. Svehla evaded capture again but

19800-622: The future. Matthias also exercised royal prerogatives to increase his revenues. For instance, he ordered a Palatine's eyre in a county, the cost of which were to be covered by the local inhabitants, but he soon authorised the county to redeem the cancellation of the irksome duty. The Czech Catholics, who were led by Zdeněk of Šternberk , joined forces with Matthias in February 1469. Their united troops were encircled at Vilémov by George of Poděbrady's army. In fear of being captured, Matthias opened negotiations with his former father-in-law. They met in

19980-455: The hand of Paul Kinizsi to improve the defence of the southern frontier. Matthias sent reinforcements to Stephen the Great, who invaded pro-Ottoman Wallachia in early 1480; Matthias launched a campaign as far as Sarajevo in Bosnia in November. He set up five defensive provinces, or banates, centred around the forts of Szörényvár (now Drobeta-Turnu Severin in Romania), Belgrade , Šabac , Srebrenik and Jajce . The next year, Matthias initiated

20160-428: The height of the century, heavy cavalry was already at its peak, although it showed signs of declining tendencies. The striking power and the ability to charge without backup made it capable of forcing a decisive outcome in most battles. Although it was rarely deployed on their own, if it was, it would take square formations. Such turning points occurred at the Battle of Breadfield (1479). Usually, it made up one-sixth of

20340-465: The king. The heavily armoured infantry of the Black Army consisted of heavy pikemen, heavy halberdiers and heavy swordsmen. In 1481, the Black Army's infantry was described as follows: The third form of the army is the infantry, which divides into various orders: the common infantry, the armoured infantry, and the shield bearers. ... The armored infantry and shield bearers cannot carry their armor and shields without pages and servants, and since it

20520-510: The knights. During the Middle Ages, Hungarian soldiers of noble origin served exclusively as heavy armoured cavalry. Helmet, mail shirt, sabre, targe, spear and, in some cases, axes (including throwing axes). Infantry was less important but formed a stable basis in the integrity of an army. They were organized from mixed ethnicities and were composed of heavy infantry, shielded soldiers, light infantry and fusiliers. Their characteristics include

20700-477: The language holds official status nationally in Hungary and regionally in Romania , Slovakia , Serbia , Austria and Slovenia . In 2014 The proportion of Transylvanian students studying Hungarian exceeded the proportion of Hungarian students, which shows that the effects of Romanianization are slowly getting reversed and regaining popularity. The Dictate of Trianon resulted in a high proportion of Hungarians in

20880-484: The language were utilized. This movement produced more than ten thousand words, most of which are used actively today. The 19th and 20th centuries saw further standardization of the language, and differences between mutually comprehensible dialects gradually diminished. In 1920, Hungary signed the Treaty of Trianon , losing 71 percent of its territory and one-third of the ethnic Hungarian population along with it. Today,

21060-489: The leading figure of the Hungarian language reforms.) Kazinczy's chief goal was to replace existing words of German and Latin origins with newly created Hungarian words. As a result, Kazinczy and his later followers (the reformers) significantly reduced the formerly high ratio of words of Latin and German origins in the Hungarian language, which were related to social sciences, natural sciences, politics and economics, institutional names, fashion etc. Giving an accurate estimate for

21240-570: The marriage of their children only took place in 1455. Elizabeth settled in the Hunyadis ' estates but Matthias was soon sent to the royal court, implying that their marriage was a hidden exchange of hostages between their families. Elizabeth died before the end of 1455. John Hunyadi died on 11 August 1456, less than three weeks after his greatest victory over the Ottomans in Belgrade . John's elder son, who

21420-448: The medium of writing used at the time, wood, is perishable. The Kingdom of Hungary was founded in 1000 by Stephen I . The country became a Western -styled Christian ( Roman Catholic ) state, with Latin script replacing Hungarian runes . The earliest remaining fragments of the language are found in the establishing charter of the abbey of Tihany from 1055, intermingled with Latin text. The first extant text fully written in Hungarian

21600-478: The mid-16th century. The army was divided into three parts: the cavalry, paid three florins per horse; the pavisors , who received double the money; and the archers, light infantry and arquebusiers, with the latter consisting of mostly Czechs, Germans and Poles (all paid differently). Medieval gunpowder was quite expensive, so the King preferred adapting Hussite tactics to mounted warfare (based on defense, placing infantry behind wagon blockades or tall pavises, while

21780-574: The most part, mutually intelligible . The Hungarian Csángó dialect, which is mentioned but not listed separately by Ethnologue, is spoken primarily in Bacău County in eastern Romania. The Csángó Hungarian group has been largely isolated from other Hungarian people , and therefore preserved features that closely resemble earlier forms of Hungarian. Hungarian has 14 vowel phonemes and 25 consonant phonemes. The vowel phonemes can be grouped as pairs of short and long vowels such as o and ó . Most of

21960-548: The name of the country, " Magyarország " (Hungary), pronounced /ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ/ . It is one of three palatal consonants, the others being ⟨ty⟩ and ⟨ny⟩ . Historically a fourth palatalized consonant ʎ existed, still written ⟨ly⟩ . A single 'r' is pronounced as an alveolar tap ( akkora 'of that size'), but a double 'r' is pronounced as an alveolar trill ( akkorra 'by that time'), like in Spanish and Italian . Primary stress

22140-429: The national administration systems and bureaucracy throughout the country. The country's defenses sagged as border guards and castle garrisons went unpaid, fortresses fell into disrepair, and initiatives to increase taxes to reinforce defenses were stifled. Several theories exist about the army's name. The first recorded accounts using "black" description appear in written memoranda immediately after Corvinus' death, when

22320-415: The new Palatine. Most of Matthias's barons were descended from old aristocratic families but he also promoted the careers of members of the lesser nobility, or even of skilful commoners. For instance, the noble Zápolya brothers Emeric and Stephen owed their fortunes to Matthias's favour. Matthias's ordinary revenues amounted around 250,000 golden florins per year when his reign began. A decree passed at

22500-407: The new information for the listeners that may not have been known or that their knowledge must be corrected. For example, "Én vagyok az apád". ('I am your father'. Literally, 'It is I who am your father'.), from the movie The Empire Strikes Back , the pronoun I ( én ) is in the focus and implies that it is new information, and the listener thought that someone else is his father. Although Hungarian

22680-409: The nobles' own revenues; however the Ottoman frontier zone of southern Hungary had a large professional standing army which was paid by the king. Unlike the soldiers of the Black Army, these large mercenary garrisons were trained for castle defence. No other contemporary European realm would have been able to maintain two large parallel permanent forces for so long. The death of Matthias Corvinus meant

22860-465: The number of mercenaries increased as well. Historical records vary when it comes to numbers, mainly because it changed from battle to battle and most soldiers were only employed for the duration of combat or a longer conflict. Reckoning the nobility's banners, the mercenaries, the soldiers of conquered Moravia and Silesia, and the troops of allied Moldavia and Wallachia , the King could have gathered an army of 90,000 men. The nobility's participation in

23040-443: The other Ugric languages. For example, Hungarian /aː/ corresponds to Khanty /o/ in certain positions, and Hungarian /h/ corresponds to Khanty /x/ , while Hungarian final /z/ corresponds to Khanty final /t/ . For example, Hungarian ház [haːz] ' house ' vs. Khanty xot [xot] ' house ' , and Hungarian száz [saːz] ' hundred ' vs. Khanty sot [sot] ' hundred ' . The distance between

23220-425: The outset, although he reaffirmed his uncle's position as Regent. For instance, Matthias instructed the citizens of Nagyszeben (now Sibiu in Romania) to reconcile their differences with Vlad Dracula , Prince of Wallachia on 3 March. Jiskra was the first baron who turned against Matthias. He offered the throne to Casimir IV of Poland , the husband of King Ladislaus V's younger sister Elisabeth , in late March but

23400-478: The pairs have an almost similar pronunciation and vary significantly only in their duration. However, pairs a / á and e / é differ both in closedness and length. Consonant length is also distinctive in Hungarian. Most consonant phonemes can occur as geminates . The sound voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/ , written ⟨gy⟩ , sounds similar to 'd' in British English 'duty'. It occurs in

23580-535: The parts of Serbia that had not been occupied by the Ottomans. At the turn of 1458 and 1459, Matthias held a Diet at Szeged to prepare for a war against the Ottoman Empire. However, gossip about a conspiracy compelled him to return to Buda. The rumours proved to be true because at least 30 barons{, including Ladislaus Garai, Nicholas Újlaki, and Ladislaus Kanizsai , }met in Németújvár (now Güssing in Austria) and offered

23760-484: The peace treaty at their meeting in Olomouc on 21 July. Emperor Frederick only paid off half of the indemnity due to Matthias according to their treaty of 1477. Matthias concluded a treaty with the Swiss Confederacy on 26 March 1479, hindering the recruitment of Swiss mercenaries by the Emperor. He also entered into an alliance with Archbishop of Salzburg Bernhard II of Rohr , who allowed him to take possession of

23940-501: The peace treaty with Frederick. To pay the large amounts stipulated in his treaties with the Emperor and Jiskra, Matthias collected an extraordinary tax with the consent of the Royal Council. The Diet, which assembled in mid-1462, confirmed this decision but only after 9 prelates and 19 barons promised that no extraordinary taxes would be introduced thereafter. Through hiring mercenaries among Jiskra's companions, Matthias began organizing

24120-453: The pretenders' side, John Albert and Vladislaus, respectively; the latter subsequently became the recognized king. Maximilian immediately attacked the conquered territories in Austria in 1490. The Black Army fortified itself in the occupied forts on the western border. Most of them were captured by trickery, bribery, or citizen revolt in a few weeks without any major battles. The trenchline along

24300-411: The proposition is only for that particular thing or aspect, and it implies that the proposition is not true for some others. For example, in " Az almát János látja". ('It is John who sees the apple'. Literally 'The apple John sees.'), the apple is in the topic, implying that other objects may be seen by not him but other people (the pear may be seen by Peter). The topic part may be empty. The focus shows

24480-482: The rebels and the barons loyal to the monarch continued until the sudden death of the young King on 23 November 1457. Thereafter the Hussite Regent of Bohemia, George of Poděbrady , held Matthias captive. King Ladislaus died childless in 1457. His elder sister, Anna , and her husband, William III, Landgrave of Thuringia , laid claim to his inheritance but received no support from the Estates . The Diet of Hungary

24660-406: The resistance group – captainship in the Black Army, since he found him skilled enough. In another case in 1474, František Hag revolted due to lack of pay, but the conflict ended without violence, and he remained Matthias' subject until his death. Before his death on 6 April 1490, King Matthias asked his captains and barons to pledge an oath to his son John Corvinus and secure his succession to

24840-487: The rest of the army was pillaging Hungarian, and later Austrian, villages when they were receiving no pay. One idea is that they adopted the adjective from a captain, "Black" John Haugwitz, whose nickname already earned him enough recognition to be identified with the army as a whole. In the first years of Matthias' rule, the structure of enlisting troops was built on the legacy of his ancestor Sigismund of Luxembourg . The majority of his army consisted of noble banners and

25020-525: The river Enns , which was built by mercenary captain Wilhelm Tettauer, resisted quite successfully for a month. Due to lack of payment, some of the Black Army mercenaries, mostly Czechs, switched sides and joined the Holy Roman army of 20,000 men in invading Hungary. They advanced into the heart of Hungary and captured the city of Székesfehérvár , which he sacked, as well as the tomb of King Matthias, which

25200-528: The river Száva, on 15 February 1476. During the siege, Matthias barely escaped capture while he was watching the fortress from a boat. For unknown reasons, Archbishop Johann Beckensloer left Hungary, taking the treasury of the Esztergom See with him in early 1476. He fled to Vienna and offered his funds to the Emperor. Matthias accused the Emperor of having incited the Archbishop against him. Mehmed II launched

25380-486: The siege of Třebíč in May 1468 and was captured at Chrudim while spying out the enemy camp in disguise in February 1469. On the latter occasion, he was released because he made his custodians believe he was a local Czech groom. The Diet of 1468 authorized Matthias to levy an extraordinary tax to finance the new war but only after 8 prelates and 13 secular lords pledged on the King's behalf that he would not demand such charges in

25560-407: The soldiers provided and regulated by the militia portalis (manor militia), which outlined that for every twenty serf-lots ( portae , literally "gates"), a noble was ordered to raise and lend one archer to the king. Later, that obligation was reconsidered, and the limit was shifted to one archer per 33 manors and three mounted archers per 100 manors. Those who did not have serfs but owned manors as

25740-414: The surrounding 7 countries, so it is widely spoken or understood. Although host countries are not always considerate of Hungarian language users, communities are strong. The Szeklers , for example, form their own region and have their own national museum, educational institutions, and hospitals. Hungarian has about 13 million native speakers, of whom more than 9.8 million live in Hungary. According to

25920-500: The territories that had recently been occupied by the Ottomans and seized fortresses in Bosnia. He soon realized he could expect no substantial aid from the Christian powers and gave up his anti-Ottoman policy. Matthias introduced new taxes and regularly set taxation at extraordinary levels. These measures caused a rebellion in Transylvania in 1467, but he subdued the rebels. The next year, Matthias declared war on George of Poděbrady ,

26100-485: The throne to Casimir , a younger son of King Casimir IV of Poland. The conspiracy was initiated by Archbishop John Vitéz and his nephew Janus Pannonius , Bishop of Pécs , who opposed war against the Catholic Vladislaus Jagiellon. Initially, their plan was supported by the majority of the Estates, but nobody dared to rebel against Matthias, enabling him to return to Hungary without resistance. Matthias held

26280-557: The throne to Emperor Frederick III on 17 February 1459. Even George of Poděbrady turned against Matthias when Frederick promised him to make him governor of the Holy Roman Empire. Although the joint troops of the Emperor and the rebellious lords defeated a royal army at Körmend on 27 March, Garai had by that time died, Újlaki and Sigismund Szentgyörgyvölgyi soon entered into negotiations with Matthias' envoys.Újlaki became indifferent, Szentgyörgyvölgyi joined to Matthias. Skirmishes along

26460-448: The throne to Vladislaus's younger brother Casimir , but Matthias overcame their rebellion. Having routed the united troops of Casimir IV and Vladislaus at Breslau in Silesia (now Wrocław in Poland) in late 1474, Matthias turned against the Ottomans, who had devastated the eastern parts of Hungary. He sent reinforcements to Stephen the Great , Prince of Moldavia , enabling Stephen to repel

26640-504: The throne. Though John was the biggest estate holder in Hungary and had the command over the Black Army, his stepmother, Queen Beatrice of Naples , invited two heirs, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and Polish prince John I Albert , for an assembly to be held at Buda to discuss who would inherit the throne. The former based his claim on the Peace Treaty of Wiener Neustadt , the latter on his family ties. Furthermore,

26820-419: The title Duke of Austria in 1487. He was the son of John Hunyadi , Regent of Hungary , who died in 1456. In 1457, Matthias was imprisoned along with his older brother, Ladislaus Hunyadi , on the orders of King Ladislaus the Posthumous . Ladislaus Hunyadi was executed, causing a rebellion that forced King Ladislaus to flee Hungary. After the King died unexpectedly, Matthias's uncle Michael Szilágyi persuaded

27000-507: The title King of Hungary along with Matthias was confirmed. In accordance with the treaty, the Emperor adopted Matthias, which granted him the right to succeed his "son" if Matthias died without a legitimate heir. Within a month, Jiskra yielded to Matthias. He surrendered all the forts he held in Upper Hungary to the King's representatives; as compensation, he received a large domain near the Tisza and Arad and 25,000 golden florins. That happened before

27180-519: The title of Chief and Secret Chancellor, but Várdai was the actual leader of the Royal Chancery . Around the same time, Matthias united the superior courts of justice, the Court of Royal Special Presence and the Court of Personal Presence , into one supreme court. The new supreme court diminished the authority of the traditional courts presided over by the barons and contributed to the professionalization of

27360-443: The tongues of Europe", with the exceptions of Turkish and Greek . Although this was an exaggeration, it is without doubt that Matthias spoke Hungarian , Latin , Italian , Polish , Czech , and German . Bonfini also wrote that he needed an interpreter to speak with a POW during his Moldavian campaign . On the other hand, the late 16th-century Polish historian Krzystoff Warszewiecki wrote that Matthias had been able to understand

27540-517: The total word count is difficult, since it is hard to define a "word" in agglutinating languages, due to the existence of affixed words and compound words. To obtain a meaningful definition of compound words, it is necessary to exclude compounds whose meaning is the mere sum of its elements. The largest dictionaries giving translations from Hungarian to another language contain 120,000 words and phrases (but this may include redundant phrases as well, because of translation issues) . The new desk lexicon of

27720-506: The turning point away from obsolete noble banners to skilled soldiers of fortune (in this case, they were remnants of the Hussites , whose battle tactics were later adapted by the Black Army). He needed more seasoned veterans, so he chose to settle a group of rogue Czech Army deserters led by John Jiskra who were already plundering the northern countryside seeking daily loot. Jiskra was promised

27900-527: The two candidates to the Bishopric of Passau . Hungarian language It is also spoken by Hungarian diaspora communities worldwide, especially in North America (particularly the United States and Canada ) and Israel . With 14 million speakers, it is the Uralic family's largest member by number of speakers. Hungarian is a member of the Uralic language family . Linguistic connections between Hungarian and other Uralic languages were noticed in

28080-430: The vassals' tribute, the western contributions, the local nobility's war payment, the tithes, and the urban taxes, Matthias's annual income reached 650,000 florins; for comparison, the Ottoman Empire had 1,800,000 per year. In contrast to popular belief, historians have speculated for decades that the actual sum altogether could circle around 800,000 florins in a good year at the peak of Matthias's reign, but never surpassed

28260-481: The war in Bohemia. George of Poděbrady died on 22 March 1471. The Diet of Bohemia proper elected Vladislaus Jagiello king on 27 May. The papal legate Lorenzo Roverella soon declared Vladislaus's election void and confirmed Matthias's position as King of Bohemia, but the Imperial Diet refused Matthias's claim. Matthias was staying in Moravia when he was informed that a group of Hungarian prelates and barons had offered

28440-542: The western borderlands lasted for several months, preventing Matthias from providing military assistance to Tomašević against the Ottomans. The latter took Smederevo on 29 June, completing the conquest of Serbia. Jiskra swore an oath of loyalty to Emperor Frederick on 10 March 1460. Pope Pius II offered to mediate a peace treaty between the Emperor and Matthias. Podedébrandy also realised he need to support Matthias or at least had to be indifferent. He sent his daughter to Buda also offered his assistance. The representatives of

28620-535: The widowed Queen Beatrice in order to acquire her assets of 500,000 forints. This would have allowed him to cover the expenses of the Black Army stationed in Moravia and upper Silesia and the cost of transporting them home to Upper Hungary to defend it from the Polish army of John Albert. John Filipec , on behalf of the new king, helped to convince Silesian Black Army leader John Haugwitz to return to duty in exchange for 100,000 forints. The Hungarian–Czech army of 18,000 met

28800-444: The years from 1458 to 1494. The mercenary soldiers of other countries in the era were conscripted from the general population at times of crisis, and soldiers worked as bakers, farmers, brick-makers, etc. for most of the year. In contrast, the men of the Black Army fought as well-paid, full-time mercenaries and were purely devoted to the arts of warfare. It was a standing mercenary army that conquered large parts of Austria (including

28980-555: Was Matthias's brother, Ladislaus became the head of the family. Ladislaus's conflict with Ulrich of Celje ended with Ulrich's capture and assassination on 9 November. Under duress, the King promised he would never take his revenge against the Hunyadis for Ulrich's killing. However, the murder turned most barons{, including Palatine Ladislaus Garai , Judge royal Ladislaus Pálóci, and Nicholas Újlaki , Voivode of Transylvania , against Ladislaus Hunyadi. Taking advantage of their resentment,

29160-402: Was a child. Gregory of Sanok, a former tutor of King Vladislaus III of Poland , was Matthias's only teacher whose name is known. Under these scholars' influences, Matthias became an enthusiastic supporter of Renaissance humanism . As a child, Matthias learnt many languages and read classical literature , especially military treatises. According to Antonio Bonfini , Matthias "was versed in all

29340-400: Was an unusual ratio at the time. The high price of medieval gunpowder prevented them from raising it any further. Even a decade after the disbandment of the Black Army, by the turn of the 16th century, only around 10% of the soldiers of Western European armies used firearms. The main troops of the army were the infantry, artillery and light and heavy cavalry. The function of the heavy cavalry

29520-424: Was captured by peasants by the time he was too weak to fight. Matthias condemned him to be hanged along with the remaining few hundred prisoners. This was a rather violent act regarding the campaigns of King Matthias Corvinus. On the very next day, 31 January 1467, witnessing the executions, the garrison asked for mercy, and it was granted; and after taking Kosztolány, he also offered František Hag – officer member of

29700-588: Was carried out in full accordance with the customary law of Hungary on 29 March 1464; Archbishop of Esztergom Dénes Szécsi ceremoniously put the Holy Crown on Matthias's head in Székesfehérvár . At the Diet assembled on this occasion, the newly crowned King confirmed the liberties of the nobility. Hereafter the legality of Matthias's reign could not be questioned. Matthias dismissed his Chief Chancellor Archbishop Szécsi, replacing him with Stephen Várdai , Archbishop of Kalocsa , and John Vitéz. Both prelates bore

29880-576: Was composed of wooden galleys, rowboats (later upgraded to gunboats), and smaller ships, which were capable of sailing up the rivers Danube , Tisza and Sava . The victory at the Belgrade (Nándorfehérvár) in 1456, where the fleet played a significant role in breaking through the Turkish river blockade to bring relief to the besieged city, showed its importance and signaled the beginning of a recognition of its significance. It also encouraged King Matthias to build

30060-473: Was conducted by Jan Švehla, who accompanied Corvinus to Slavonia in 1465 to beat the Ottomans; but when they were approaching Zagreb , Švehla asked for royal permission to officially quit the offensive with his mercenaries due to financial difficulty. His request was denied, and as a consequence, he and two of his vice-captains left the royal banner along with their regiments. Following their breakaway, George of Poděbrady secretly supported their invasion into

30240-594: Was convoked to Pest to elect a new king in January 1458. Pope Calixtus III 's legate Cardinal Juan Carvajal , who had been John Hunyadi's admirer, began openly campaigning for Matthias. The election of Matthias as king was the only way of avoiding a protracted civil war. Ladislaus Garai was the first baron to yield. At a meeting with Matthias's mother and uncle, he promised that he and his allies would promote Matthias's election, and Michael Szilágyi promised that his nephew would never seek vengeance for Ladislaus Hunyadi's execution. They also agreed that Matthias would marry

30420-462: Was encircled and routed at Uherský Brod on 2 November, forcing him to withdraw to Hungary. Matthias soon ordered the collection of an extraordinary tax without holding a Diet, raising widespread discontent among the Hungarian Estates. He visited Emperor Frederick in Vienna on 11 February 1470, hoping the Emperor would contribute to the costs of the war against Poděbrady. Although the negotiations lasted for

30600-416: Was far larger than the army of Louis XI of France , the only other existing permanent professional European army in the era. The soldiers were mainly Czechs, Germans, Serbs, Poles and, from 1480, Hungarians. The Black Army was not the only large standing mercenary army of Matthias Corvinus. The border castles of the north, west and east were guarded mostly by the retinues of the local nobility, financed by

30780-535: Was forbidden to leave his see. Matthias appointed the Silesian Johann Beckensloer to administer the Archdiocese of Esztergom . Vitéz died and Beckensloer succeeded him in a year. The Ottomans had meanwhile seized the Hungarian forts along the river Nertva. Matthias nominated the wealthy baron Nicholas Újlaki as King of Bosnia in 1471, entrusting the defence of the province to him. Uzun Hassan , head of

30960-479: Was kept there. His Landsknechts were still unsatisfied with the plunder and refused to go for taking Buda. He returned to the Empire in late December but left garrisons of a few hundred soldiers in those Hungarian cities and castles he occupied. The National Council of the barons decided to recover the lost cities, especially Székesfehérvár. The Black Army was put in reserve at Eger , but their payment of 46,000 forints

31140-605: Was late again, so they robbed the neighboring monasteries, churches, peasants and fiefdoms. After their dues were paid, appointed captain Steven Báthory gathered an army of 40,000 soldiers and began the siege in June 1491, which lasted for a month. More minor cities were recaptured, and without further support from the German nobility, Maximilian agreed to negotiate, and in the end, he signed the Peace of Pressburg in 1491, which included ceding

31320-411: Was never crowned. Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia soon accepted his rule but Bohemia proper remained faithful to George of Poděbrady. The Estates of Bohemia even acknowledged the right of Vladislaus Jagiello , the eldest son of Casimir IV of Poland, to succeed king George of Poděbrady. Matthias's relations with Frederick III had in the meantime deteriorated because the Emperor accused Matthias of allowing

31500-510: Was reconciled with John Jiskra of Brandýs , the commander of the Czech mercenaries who dominated most of Upper Hungary . Matthias made his state entry into Buda five days later. He ceremoniously sat on the throne in the Church of Our Lady, but was not crowned, because the Holy Crown of Hungary had been in the possession of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor for almost two decades. The 14-year-old monarch administered state affairs independently from

31680-501: Was reinstalled as Prince of Wallachia but he was killed fighting against his opponent Basarab Laiotă . Matthias's bride Beatrice of Naples arrived in Hungary in late 1476. Matthias married her in Buda on 22 December that year. The Queen soon established a rigid etiquette, making direct contacts between the King and his subjects more difficult. According to Bonfini, Matthias also "improved his board and manner of life, introduced sumptuous banquets, disdaining humility at home and beautified

31860-444: Was scouting, securing, prowling, cutting enemy supply lines, and disarraying them in battle. They also served as an additional maneuverable flank (for swooping advance attacks) to strong centers of heavy cavalry. The medieval Hungarian written sources spoke disparagingly and contemptuously of the light cavalry and the hussars in general, and during battles the texts praised only the virtues, endurance, courage, training and achievements of

32040-453: Was signed on 1 December. The Emperor promised to confirm Matthias as the lawful ruler of Bohemia and to pay him an indemnity of 100,000 florins. They met in Korneuburg where Frederick III installed Matthias as King of Bohemia and Matthias swore loyalty to the Emperor. Negotiations between the envoys of Matthias and Vladislaus Jagiellon accelerated during the next few months. The first draft of

32220-405: Was that if their money had not arrived on time, they simply left the battlefield, or – in a worse scenario – they revolted, as happened in several instances. Since they were the same skilled men-at-arms led by the same leaders previously fighting under the Hungarian flag, they were as difficult to eliminate as the Black Army was to its enemies. However, they could be outnumbered, since it was always

32400-405: Was to protect the light armoured infantry and artillery, while the other corps delivered sporadic, surprise assaults on the enemy. In the beginning, the core of the army consisted of 6,000–8,000 mercenaries. In the 1480s, the number was between 15,000 and 20,000, but the figures in the great Viennese military parade reached 28,000 men (20,000 horsemen, 8,000 infantry) in 1485. Thus the Black Army

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