Wladyslaw III. (Poland and Hungary)

Władysław von Warna (also Wladislaus von Varna , Wladislaus III. Of Poland and Hungary , Polish Władysław III Warneńczyk , Hungarian I. Ulászló , Croatian Vladislav I , Lithuanian Vladislovas III Varnietis , Latin Ladislaus ; * October 31, 1424 in Cracow ; †  10 November 1444 near Varna , Ottoman Empire , today Bulgaria ) was from 1434, when Władysław III. , King of Poland and from 1440, as Ulászló I./Vladislav I. , King of Hungary and Croatia . He was the eldest son of the Polish-Lithuanian king Władysław II Jagiełło and the Ruthenian princess Sophie Holszańska .

Władysław, King of Poland, Hungary and Croatia. Imaginary portrait of the king depicted in the Chronica Hungarorum around 1488.

Early life

After the death of his father, Władysław was crowned King of Poland at the age of 10, remaining under the tutelage of noble lords and Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki . He was raised by Gregor von Sanok . During his reign until he came of age, Cardinal Oleśnicki was the actual ruler.

Intervene in Bohemia

In December 1437 Emperor Sigismund died, he left only his daughter Elisabeth and his son-in-law Duke Albrecht V of Austria for the succession to the throne in Hungary and Bohemia . The pro-Poland party in Bohemia and the reluctance of the Hussites, who were opposed by Albrecht, to this line of succession had increased so much that in March 1438 they sent delegates to Cracow to offer the crown of Bohemia to King Władysław or his brother Kasimir Andreas . On May 4, 1438, the crown for Prince Casimir was accepted by the Polish estates at the Reichstag in Korcsin and an army was sent to Bohemia. After the Bohemians recognized Prince Casimir as their new king in Melnik on May 29, Albrecht reacted quickly to prevent a union of the Polish and Bohemian crowns. Despite strong contradictions from the opposition, he was crowned King of Bohemia on June 29, 1438 in Prague . Since June 6, 4,000 Poles under the leadership of the voivodes Sudiwoj von Posen and Tencin von Sandomir had moved into northern Bohemia, united with the Hussites to 12,000 men and plundered as far as Tabor . Albrecht gathered his troops near Prague, his German contingents were led by Margrave Friedrich von Meißen, the Duke of Bavaria and Margrave Albrecht Achilles von Kulmbach . At the beginning of August this strong army advanced against the Poles and Hussites entrenched near Tabor. From August 31st, however, negotiations were initiated as to which two armies would enable a non-fighting retreat. The youthful King Władysław, meanwhile, advanced into Silesia with a second army; he plundered the duchies of Opole , Ratibor and Troppau and made himself hated in Silesia for this reason . King Albrecht took advantage of this and advanced via Görlitz to Breslau , where he stayed until March 1439 to protect Silesia. After Hungarian troops under Stephan Rozgonyi had also fought back invading Poles in the Erlau area and the Lithuanian prince Švitrigaila threatened the Polish eastern border, Władysław felt compelled to stop his operations in Bohemia and accept Albrecht's takeover.

Battle of the throne for Hungary

When King Albrecht died early on October 27, 1439, his 30-year-old widow Elisabeth of Luxembourg was five months pregnant. However, many Magyar magnates, in particular Johann Hunyadi von Hunedoara, believed that Hungary needed a strong regent in view of the threat posed by the Ottomans, and in January 1440 they urged Elisabeth to meet the 15-year-old King Władysław III. to marry. Convinced that she would give birth to a son, Elisabeth resolutely opposed these demands and was able to obtain a postponement of the marriage plans. Soon afterwards, on February 22nd, the queen widow came to Komorn with her son Ladislaus , called Postumus ('the next born'). Despite this birth of a male descendant of Albrecht II, the opposing party prevailed that Władysław III. was elected King of Hungary by ambassadors of the Hungarian Diet on March 8, 1440 in Cracow. Elisabeth went to Stuhlweissenburg with the infant Ladislaus and had him crowned with the St. Stephen's Crown on May 15, 1440. In Bohemia, the strong Utraquist party resisted the succession to the throne through Ladislaus Postumus. Władysław III, who has now arrived in the furnace . was crowned King of Hungary by Dénes Szécsi , Archbishop of Gran , on July 17, 1440, also in Stuhlweiseburg . Did Elisabeth initially have Duke Albrecht VI. preferred as guardian of her son, so she approached after the coronation of Władysław III. Friedrich III, who rose to become Roman-German king . on. She pledged the St. Stephen's Crown to Friedrich for 2,500 ducats and handed over her son Ladislaus to him for guardianship and care. With the money she received, she recruited soldiers to fight against Władysław. This advanced towards her with his army, his vanguard under Andreas Tanczin attacked Tyrnau , and then reached Pressburg , plundering . From the beginning of February to the end of March 1441, Władysław surrounded the city, but then had to return to Ofen due to a lack of food. Johann Hunyadi took a leading role in the civil war that followed and was rewarded by King Władysław with leading the fortress of Belgrade and the Transylvania Voivodeship . On May 14, 1441 Władysław moved into Eger and was recognized by Bishop Simon Rozgonyi as the sole king of Hungary. The civil war for the Hungarian throne continued to rage in northern Hungary and also in Silesia . Finally, from June 1442, the papal legate Giuliano Cesarini mediated on behalf of Pope Eugene IV . between the opponents in order to put an end to the bloodshed and to enable a concentrated defense against the Turks. In November 1442 there was a meeting between Elisabeth and Władysław III in Győr , at which a balance was reached between them. However, only three days after the Jagiellonian left, Elisabeth suddenly died on December 19, and King Władysław suspected that he had let her be poisoned.

Campaign against the Turks

In order to answer the desperate call for help of the beleaguered Constantinople , Pope Eugene IV called on the Poles and Hungarians to campaign against the Turks. After the armies of both countries had united, the allied army marched from Ofen on July 22, 1443 and crossed the Danube at Semendria . At the head of his cavalry, Hunyadi invaded Serbia and advanced to Nisch , followed by the Poles with 20,000 men under King Władysław. After further victories at Nissa on November 3rd and on December 24th at Slatitza , Sofja was also conquered. The allies had already invaded Bessarabia, and another victorious battle at the foot of the Kunobizzaberg followed. The impatience of the king, the severity of winter and the difficult supply of the army forced the allies to return home in February 1444. By this time the power of Sultan Murad II over Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia and Albania had largely collapsed and in Asia Minor the uprising of vassal Karaman-Ogli forced him to split up his armed forces.

Soon afterwards, King Władysław received calls from the Pope to resume the war against the Turks and to support the uprising of the Albanian Prince Skanderbeg . All preparations for war were already under way when Murad's ambassadors appeared at the royal encampment in Szeged to propose a ten-year armistice on favorable terms. Both Hunyadi and the allied Serb prince Đurađ Branković suggested accepting the offer, and King Władysław swore on the Bible on July 15, 1444 to accept the terms. Two days later, Cardinal Cesarini received news that a fleet of Venetian galleys had set out for the Bosporus to prevent the Sultan from bringing reinforcements by sea. The cardinal reminded the king that he had sworn to take part in a campaign on land if the Western powers attacked the Turks from the sea at the same time. Władysław and the majority in the War Council were still in favor of peace, but they wanted to comply with the papal will. Caesarini spoke to Władysław on August 4th with the power given to him by the Pope, from his oath given to the infidels. The troops advanced again towards the Black Sea in order to join the Christian fleet. Đurađ Branković was now - in the event of an expected defeat - afraid of the sultan's revenge and secretly informed Murad about the arrival of the Christians. When the allies reached Varna , they found that the Venetian galleys had been unable to prevent the Turks from passing through and that they were facing a strong superior force. The decisive battle near Varna took place on November 10, 1444 in what is now Bulgaria. Władysław led an outnumbered army against the Ottomans to attack. The battle ended with the crushing defeat of the Polish-Hungarian coalition, King Władysław III. himself only fell on the battlefield when he was 20 years old, and his body has remained missing. His tomb in the Wawel Cathedral in Krakow is empty.

Inheritance and succession

Legend has it that he managed to escape after the Battle of Varna and settled on the Portuguese island of Madeira under the name Henrique Alemão . After his death he was buried in a church in Madalena do Mar.

According to Ottoman tradition, however, his body was found in a ditch after the battle by the Janissaries Buchrychader. His head was cut off and brought to the Sultan. Murad II had the fallen king's head washed, stuffed, his hair trimmed and then put on a spear as a trophy for his army. Pickled in honey, the head was sent via Adrianople to the older residence in Bursa .

His younger brother Casimir IV. Andrew succeeded him in the office of King of Poland, and in Hungary and Croatia the Habsburg Ladislaus Postumus.

gallery

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  Symbolic tomb of King Władysław on the Wawel Castle in Krakow.

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  A Bulgarian cenotaph in Varna in honor of King Władysław.

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  A church in Madalena do Mar, Madeira, a hypothetical burial place of Władysław, King of Poland, Hungary and Croatia.

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  A memorial plaque to King Władysław III. of Hungary outside the Castle Palace in Budapest.

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  Władysław as a crusader (portrait from the “Gallery of the Kings of Poland” in a historical representation by the painter Jan Matejko, 19th century).

literature

• Franz Theuer : The Robbery of St. Stephen's Crown - The Battle of the Luxemburger, Habsburg, Jagiellonian and Hunyads in the Pannonian Region, Edition Roetzer, Eisenstadt 1994

Web links

Commons : Władysław III.  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ When the king fell in the battle of Varna, he was just 20 years old.
2. ^ Franz Theuer: The robbery of the Stephanskrone pp. 85–86
3. ^ Franz Theuer: The robbery of the Stephanskrone p. 114
4. ↑ Franz Theuer: The robbery of the Stephanskrone p. 105
5. ^ Franz Theuer: The robbery of the Stephanskrone p. 142
6. ^ Franz Theuer: The robbery of the Stephanskrone. P. 140.
7. ^ Franz Theuer: The robbery of the Stephanskrone. Pp. 149-153.
8. ^ Susanne Lipps: Madeira. 2nd edition, DuMont Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2011, p. 194

predecessor	Office	successor
Wladyslaw II.	King of Poland 1434–1444	Casimir IV. Andrew
Elisabeth	King of Hungary 1440–1444	Ladislaus V./IV.
Elisabeth	King of Croatia 1440–1444	Ladislaus V./IV.