Battle of Rozgony

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Battle of Rozgony
Illustration of the battle in the Chronica Hungarorum
Illustration of the battle in the Chronica Hungarorum
date June 15, 1312
place east of Košice , Kingdom of Hungary
output Victory of the House of Anjou
Parties to the conflict

House Anjou
Johanniter
town of Kaschau
Zipser Saxony

Army of the Aba family
Mercenaries from Matthäus Csák

Commander

Charles I (Hungary)

Aba Nagy
Demeter Balassa


The Battle of Rozhanovce or Battle of Rozgony ( Hungarian rozgonyi csata , Slovak bitka pri Rozhanovciach ) was a medieval battle in the Kingdom of Hungary between King Charles I of the House of Anjou , reinforced by troops from the Spiš Saxons, Johanniter and the city of Kosice and the House Aba , who de facto controlled the north-eastern part (today Eastern Slovakia) of the kingdom, supported by Matthäus Csák , who ruled over what was then Northern Hungary (today Western, Central Slovakia and today's Northern Hungary).

prehistory

After the Árpád family died out in 1301, the Hungarian throne was disputed between several houses such as Anjou, Přemysliden and Wittelsbach . After several years, King Charles I of the Anjou family was crowned in Stuhlweissenburg in 1310 , after the land of Ladislaus V of Bohemia and the Bavarian Otto III. had been controlled. However, he only controlled small parts of the kingdom, as large parts belonged to different oligarchs who only pursued their own interests (→ Hungarian small kingdoms ). The main enemy was Matthäus Csák and the Aba family, allied with him, who ruled over northern parts of the kingdom. The former organized a campaign in 1311 to Buda , the capital of the kingdom, and had it plundered; however, the royal counterattack in Csák's dominion failed.

The reason for a campaign against the Aba family was given to the king when they began an attack on the royal city of Sárospatak in the spring of 1312 and had it plundered. Therefore, at the beginning of April 1312, Charles I organized a campaign into the heartland in the Sharosh County and besieged Sharosh Castle . Despite several weeks of siege, the castle could not be taken and the royal troops had to retreat to the Spiš County (which was still loyal to the king), as the Abas received a 1,700-strong reinforcement from Csák. There the king reinforced his troops around Zipser Saxony. In the meantime, the army of the Aba family marched against the city of Košice and began a siege, as the Abas saw the city as a weaker enemy than the royal troops and at the same time they wanted the death of the ruler Amadeus Aba , who had been in a dispute a year earlier was killed with the citizens, retaliate. Therefore, the king had to help the city of Kosice immediately before it could be conquered.

course

The battle took place in the valley of the Torysa near the village of Rozhanovce (German Roschonowetz , Hungarian Rozgony ), east of Košice . The Abas army broke off the siege and marched east, stopping on the slope of a hill. The royal army, however, had to take an unfavorable position in the valley. The army commanded by Demeter Balassa advanced on the royal troops; a bloody mêlée followed , with heavy losses of knights on both sides. The king also lost his standard and had to fight under the standard of the Johanniter. Ultimately, however, Zipser Sachsen and reinforcements from the city of Kosice were able to decide the battle for the king and the Aba army was completely pushed back.

Follow

Many senior members of the Aba family died in the battle. Despite high losses on the royal side, the property was shared between the king and loyal followers. Even Matthäus Csák was unable to carry out any major attacks against the king after the battle, but still held his "province". It was occupied after Matthew's death in 1321. In the following years the central power was further consolidated and the oligarchic period came to an end.

It is said to be the largest battle in Hungary after the Mongol storm in 1241 (→ Battle of Muhi ).

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