Kubinyi András: Matthias Rex (Budapest, 2008)
Two. From Childhood to Election as King
the footsteps of his father by being appointed as captain-general of Hungary, but Ulrich of Celje, Ladislaus V’s relative, wished to obtain the office for himself. In the autumn of 1456, the king came with Ulrich of Celje and an army to Nándorfehérvár on the pretext of launching a campaign against the Turks. According to their particular bias, the sources offer various versions of what then happened. The accounts seem to agree, however, that László Hunyadi, who was staying in Belgrade under the command of his uncle Mihály Szilágyi, refused entry to the royal troops. Only the king and Ulrich of Celje were allowed into the castle with a small escort. László Hunyadi and his supporters then had Ulrich brought before them; they sentenced him to death after citing a letter supposedly written by him to Brankovic, in which he had expressed a desire to kill the two Hunyadi brothers. The murder of Ulrich of Celje took place on November 9, 1456, and László Hunyadi appears to have played an active role in this crime. On hearing of this event, the royal army disbanded and Ladislaus V became practically the captive of the Hunyadi family. László Hunyadi took the king to Temesvár, a town that also lay under his control. Hunyadi’s mother, Erzsébet Szilágyi, was in Temesvár, and perhaps Matthias was there too. The sovereign had to swear under oath that he would not seek revenge for his relative’s death; he was also required to appoint László Hunyadi as captain-general. Ulrich of Celje had been Slavonia’s most powerful lord. His death led to a new situation in the country. The male line of the counts of Celje died out, and Ulrich’s widow was unable to retain the family’s property. Emperor Frederick III secured inheritance of the estates and property bound to the princely title, while the family’s properties in Hungary were divided among the late count’s mercenary captains. The most important political relationship in the country until 1456, however, was the alliance —sometimes marred by differences of view—between János Hunyadi and Miklós Újlaki. After Hunyadi, Újlaki was the country’s most powerful baron; he and the late regent had divided the country into spheres of interest, and János Hunyadi had always refrained from interfering in Újlaki’s sphere in Transdanubia. After his father’s death, however, László Hunyadi laid claim to the Németújvár estate in western Hungary, which Újlaki considered his own. Moreover, as captain-general of Hungary, László Hunyadi immediately became the country’s most influential baron, 26