John Hunyadi

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János (John) Hunyadi
Voivode of Transylvania Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary
Voivode of Transylvania
Reign	1441 – 1446
Successor	Imre Bebek I Nicolae de Ujlak
Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary
Reign	1446-1453
Issue
László Hunyadi Matthias Corvinus of Hungary
House	Hunyadi family
Father	Vajk Hunyadi
Born	c. 1400
Died	1456 Nándorfehérvár /Belgrade, Kingdom of Hungary, now Serbia
Burial	Roman Catholic Cathedral of Gyulafehérvár / Alba Iulia

Statue of Hunyadi, Heroes' Square, Budapest, Hungary

John Hunyadi (Hungarian: Hunyadi János, Romanian: Iancu de Hunedoara, Serbian: Сибињанин Јанко / Sibinjanin Janko; c. 1400^[1] – 11 August 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. He was also the father of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary.^[1]

Names in other languages

• Hungarian: Hunyadi János
• Serbian: Сибињанин Јанко or Sibinjanin Janko
• Albanian: Janosh Hunjadi
• Bulgarian: Ян (Янош) Хуняди (Yan Huniadi or Yanosh Huniadi); in Bulgarian epic songs: Янкул(а) войвода (Yankul(a) Voyvoda)
• Spanish: Juan Corvino
• Croatian: Janko Hunjadi --also: Ianco or (later tradition) Ivan Hunjadi
• French: Jean Hunyadi --also: Jean Huniade
• German: Johann Hunyadi
• Greek: Ιωάννης Ουνιάδης
• Medieval Latin: Ioannes Corvinus,
• Polish: Jan Hunyadi
• Portuguese: João Corvino
• Romanian: Iancu de Hunedoara, Ion Huniade or Ion Corvin
• Slovak: Ján Huňady
• Slovene: Ivan Hunyadi
• Turkish: Hunyadi Yanoş

Family

The Hunyadis were first recorded in an imperial charter of 1409, in which Sigismund of Luxembourg, then King of Hungary, gave the castle and estates of Hunyad (Latin: "possessionem nostram regalem Hwnyadwar"; Hungarian: Vajdahunyad, earlier: Hunyadvár, present-day Romanian: Hunedoara) to John's father, the knight Woyk (or Vajk, Voicu, Voik, Voyk), who had won distinction in the wars against the Ottomans.

John's father has been described as of Cumanic by some historians,^[2] while others have been claimed that he was of Vlach (Romanian) descent.^[3][4] However, people generally did not think of themselves primarily as Hungarian, Romanian or Cumanic because nationality had not yet been played as important a role in Hunyadis' time as it would later.

The family can be traced back merely two generations from John, to Vajk's father Serban (or Serb), while the family's name and ascent to comital rank (count of Hunyad) were established only by Sigismund's grant. This lack of evidence for royal descent gave rise to various legends and scholarly constructions about the origins of the Hunyadis, especially during the reign of John's son Matthias Corvinus, but his origin has also been disputed in modern times.^[5]

According to some, Vojk was a nobile from Wallachia,^[6] the son of Serb (also spelled as Sorb or Serbe), a Vlach Knyaz from the Banate of Szörény (Severin). According to others, John's grandfather Serb had three sons - John's father Vojk (a Hungarian pagan name, or a properly Vlach name, or even a Turkic or Slavic one), Magos (Mogoş, also Mogos, the latter meaning "tall" in Hungarian), and Radol/Radul (a Romanian name).^[7] Even if Vojk would be from Wallachia, others claim that a few of Wallachian nobles were of Cumans, Pecheneg, or Tatar descent. Another theory developed at the end of the 19th century claiming that Serb, John's grandfather, was originally from Serbia.^[8]

What is certain is that Vojk, John's father, took the family name of Hunyadi in 1409 when he received the estate around the Hunyad Castle from Sigismund and was ennobled as count of Hunyad. Currently, both Hungarians and Romanians consider John Hunyadi a national hero. Based on his birthplace in the historic Kingdom of Hungary, John Hunyadi was regarded as a subject of the Hungarian crown. During his youth, he may have spoken the Romanian language, but for most of his adult life, Hunyadi was probably in a Hungarian- and/or Latin-speaking environment. John was born in the Catholic faith.^[9]

Hunyad Castle, main entrance

Legendary origins

Matthias Corvinus' court historian Antonio Bonfini flattered his king by tracing the family's ancestry to the Roman gens Corvina, or Valeriana, while adding: "for this man was indeed born of a Romanian father and a Hungarian mother"^[10] Another contemporary historian, the Hungarian Johannes de Thurocz, similarly flattering his king, wrote in the Chronicle of the Hungarians (Chronica Hungarorum) that the Hunyadi family was of Hunnic origin, even calling Matthias Corvinus the second Attila.^[11] The 16th century historian Gáspár Heltai made Hunyadi the illegitimate son of emperor Sigismund and the young noble Erzsébet Morzsinay^[12]. John's son, King Matthias, had a statue of Sigismund in Visegrád and claimed him as his grandfather.

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.

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

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; Moreover Wallachian coat of arms (which changed its appearance trough the Early Modern Age) depicts a raven-like bird (actually a black aquila chrysaëtos^[13]) holding a cross in its beak.^[14] 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.

Mother

John's mother was Elisabeta (Erzsébet) of Cinciş, a small noble lady. She was the daughter of a Romanian^[15] small nobleman from Hunyad (Hunedoara), Transylvania. Other sources name John's mother Erzsébet Morzsinay, a Hungarian small noble lady.^[16] 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.^{[citation needed]}

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).

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 raised the Turkish seige of 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 Elisabeth of Bohemia (1409–1442) and her infant son, Ladislaus Posthumus of Bohemia and Hungary. Featuring prominently in the ensuing civil war, Władysław III's side was thus reinforce by Hunyadi's considerable military abilities, he 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 suverainty 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 10 November 1444, confronted the Ottomans with less than half the Hungarian forces. Nevertheless, victory was still possible in the Battle of Varna as Hunyadi with his superb military skills managed to rout 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.^[17]

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 5 June 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 (7 October-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 victory and death

Hunyadi's tomb in Gyulafehérvár / Alba Iulia 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 14 July 1456 the flotilla assembled by Hunyadi destroyed the Ottoman fleet. On 21 July, 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 younger 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."

The Noon Bell

Pope Callixtus III ordered the bells of every European church to be rung every day at noon, as a call for believers to pray for the defenders of the city. However, in many countries (like England and Spanish kingdoms), news of the victory arrived before the order, and the ringing of the church bells at noon thus transformed into a commemoration of the victory. The Popes didn't withdraw the order, and Catholic (and the older Protestant) churches still ring the noon bell in the Christian world to this day.

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 act 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 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

References

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• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• Sources cited by the Encyclopædia Britannica:
  • R.N. Bain, "The Siege of Belgrade, 1456", in Eng. Hist. Rev., 1892.
  • Antonio Bonfini, Rerum ungaricarum libri xlv, editio septima (in Latin; ~contemporary source). Hungarian edition Balassi Kiado 2001
  • J. de Chassin, Jean de Hunyad, (in French), Paris, 1859.
  • György Fejér, Genus, incunabula et virtus Joannis Corvini de Hunyad (in Latin), Buda, 1844.
  • Vilmos Fraknói, Cardinal Carjaval and his Missions to Hungary, (in Hungarian), Budapest, 1889.
  • P. Frankl, Der Friede von Szegedin und die Geschichte seines Bruches (in German), Leipzig, 1904.
  • A. Pcr, Life of Hunyadi (in Hungarian), Budapest, 1873.
  • József Teleki, The Age of the Hunyadis in Hungary (in Hungarian), Pest, 1852-1857; (supplementary volumes by D. Csinki 1895).
• Enea Silvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II) In Europa - Historia Austrialis, BAV, URB, LAT. 405, ff.245, IIII kal. Aprilis MCCCCLVIII, Ex Urbe Roma Bilanguical (German-Latin) edition: [1]
• Camil Mureşanu, John Hunyadi. Defender of Christendom, Iaşi-Oxford-Portland 2001

Further reading

In English:

• Held, Joseph (1985). Hunyadi: Legend and Reality. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0880330701. 
• Muresanu, Camil (Trans. by Laura Treptow) (2000). John Hunyadi: Defender of Christendom. Center for Romanian Studies. ISBN 9739432182. 

Additional Books that Mention John Hunyadi:

• Florescu, Radu and Raymond T. McNally (1990). Dracula, Prince of Many Faces: His Life and His Times. Back Bay Books. ISBN 0316286567. 
• Lord Kinross, Patrick Balfour (1979). The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire. Harper Perennial. ISBN 0688080936. 

In Hungarian:

• Benedek, Elek. Nagy Magyarok Élete: Hunyadi János - Hunyadi Mátyás. Pannon-Literatúra Kft.. ISBN 9639355941. 
• Czuczor, Gergely. Hunyadi János és három más történet. Unikornis Kiadó. ISBN 9634274625. 
• Darvas, József (2004). A törökverő. Korona Kiadó Kft.. ISBN 9639376930. 
• Földi, Pál (2004). Hunyadi János, a hadvezér. Anno Kiadó. ISBN 9633753465. 
• Szentmihályi Szabó, Péter (2007). Kapisztrán és Hunyadi. Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó. ISBN 9789638618450.