Kubinyi András: Matthias Rex (Budapest, 2008)
One. The Family and Relatives of Matthias Hunyadi
opinion, confiscated the Fogaras estate from the Geréb family and gave it to the Transylvanian Saxons. Even so, after the 1471 conspiracy inspired by János Vitéz and Janus Pannonius, the king wished to strengthen his powerbase; his nearest relatives were best suited to this task. Thus, in September 1471, Matthias returned Fogaras to the Geréb family, but the head of the family, János Geréb, died shortly thereafter. Zsófia Szilágyi’s marriage to János Geréb produced five sons. The eldest son, István, died in his late twenties in 1468; we know nothing of a wife or any positions he may have held. The next son, Lőrinc, appears to have perished as a child. The third son, Péter, had the most successful career, becoming one of his cousin Matthias’ best military commanders. At the time of the conspiracy in 1471, it was Péter Geréb’s task to secure Upper Hungary. In 1475-1476, he served Matthias as captain of Jägerndorf in Upper Silesia, then, between 1477 and 1479, he joined the ranks of the barons as voivode of Transylvania. Between I486 and 1489, he held the post of master of janitors (ianitorum regalium magister). He died in 1503 as palatine of Hungary. With his death the family died out, since his younger brother László, who had been bishop of Transylvania in 1475, passed away as archbishop of Kalocsa in 1502. The fifth son, Mátyás, served as ban of Croatia-Slavonia from 1483-1489. He had good organisational skills and worked hard to consolidate the Croatian border-fortresses. Although relations were reasonably close for a time, nevertheless a dispute between Matthias and his two cousins seems to have arisen, because both Péter and Mátyás were dismissed from their posts in 1489. As a consequence of this perhaps, the three Geréb brothers did not support the succession of their cousin’s son Janus Corvinus in 1490. Even so, after the Geréb family died out, Janus Corvinus inherited most of the landed property held by the family. Orsolya Szilágyi, the other younger sister of Matthias’ mother, became the first wife of János, a member of the younger branch of the Rozgonyi family. János Rozgonyi was one of the country’s most illustrious aristocrats. After 1449, he served as voivode of Transylvania on several occasions and then became lord chief justice (judex curiae regiae). He died in August 1471 at the German diet of Regensburg, which he was attending as an envoy. His wife Orsolya died at a young age: according to the sources she was still alive in 1455, when she had two sons and a daughter. Just one of these two sons, János, survived until adulthood. 19