Hungarian Wars (1446-1490)

The Hungarian Wars are a series of military conflicts between the Habsburg Frederick III. and Mátyás Hunyadi, called Matthias Corvinus .

Armed conflicts

Succession battles for Ladislaus Postumus

On June 5, 1446, Janos Hunyadi was elected Imperial Administrator of Hungary. The new regent immediately began a campaign against the German King Friedrich III., Who refused to deliver the young King Ladislaus Postumus (1440-1457). After the Hungarian army invaded Styria , Carinthia and Carniola at the same time , other difficulties forced Hunyadi to conclude an armistice with Friedrich for two years . In 1450 Hunyadi went to Pressburg in order to arrange a handover of Ladislaus with Friedrich, but no agreement could be reached. The opposition under the Counts of Cilli accused the imperial administrator of wanting to take over the throne himself. Hunyadi renounced all his dignities in favor of the young king as soon as he returned to Hungary in early 1453. The main burden in the fight against the Turks was carried by the Hunyadi, while the Cilli remained completely inactive. After Belgrade was besieged and relieved in 1456, Janos Hunyadi succumbed to an epidemic that same year, and Ulrich von Cilli was murdered by Ladislaus , a son of Johann Hunyadi, whose subsequent execution sparked outrage in Hungary. The young Ladislaus V fled from Ofen to Prague , where he unexpectedly died in 1457.

Succession struggles between Hungary and Austria

During the War of the Burgundian Succession in the west, the Habsburgs were also threatened in the east. The death of the Bohemian governor Georg von Podiebrad created a power vacuum. The King of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus, wanted a revision of the treaty of 1463, which guaranteed the Habsburgs a possible successor in Hungary. Friedrich III. entered into an alliance with the Polish king's son Wladislaw in 1467 and enfeoffed him with the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1477 .

In 1477 the Hungarians invaded the Habsburg lands. From now on King Corvinus concentrated on the dispute with Friedrich III. The emperor did not succeed in winning over the German electors and other imperial estates for military aid. In the spring of 1483 Friedrich von Vienna avoided the safe Wiener Neustadt , in 1485 Corvinus was able to conquer Vienna and let himself be called " Archduke of Austria ". In August 1487, the Hungarians succeeded in taking Wiener Neustadt, the new imperial residence in eastern Lower Austria . Friedrich first had to flee to Graz and temporarily to Linz in Upper Austria .

When King Matthias Corvinus died unexpectedly in Vienna in April 1490 and left no legitimate heirs, the military turning point came. Friedrich was able to win back the occupied territories. On July 15, 1490, the Hungarians elected the Bohemian ruler Vladislav as Hungarian king. In the Peace of Pressburg of November 7, 1491, the Habsburgs were able to secure their territorial power base in the east against Hungary. Wladislaw was from Friedrich III. recognized as a Hungarian king, but his kingdom should pass to Maximilian in the absence of heirs.

literature

• Franz Theuer : The robbery of the Stephanskrone , Edition Roetzer, Eisenstadt 1994, ISBN 3-85374-242-4 .
• Franz Pesendorfer: Hungary and Austria: a thousand years of partners or opponents. ÖBV Pädagogischer Verlag, Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-215-12667-2 , pp. 79–85.