THE STRENGHTENING OF THE MEDIAEVAL HUNGARIAN STATE

UNDER THE RULE OF CHARLES I

The Interregnum:
 1301: Andrew III dies  male line of the Árpád dynasty dies out  interregnum (1301-1308;
a temporary period when a country doesn’t have a king)
 barons having influence and power  literally ruling Hungary
 candidates for the Hungarian throne:
 from powerful European dynasties, descended from the Árpád dynasty in the female
line  power struggle began
 Wenceslas of the Premysl dynasty
 Czech support
 got crowned, but stepped down for:
 Otto of Bavaria
 supported by the Holy Roman Empire
 crowned  couldn’t strengthen his rule  had to leave
 Caroberto (had the Pope’s support)
Charles Robert/Caroberto (1308-1342):
 Anjou dynasty
 from Naples and Sicily (son of the king of Naples)
 1301 – crowned by the archbishop of Esztergom (without the Holy Crown)
 elected king twice, in 1301 and in 1309
 wasn’t really supported by the Hungarian nobility  assisted by the Pope
 Wenceslas and Otto withdrew  Caroberto won  Charles I
Fight against the barons:
 large territory of Hungary was under the domination of barons
 had a lof of territories
 had their own politics and own army
 didn’t want a strong monarch like Charles, as that would’ve threatened their oligarchic
attempts of ruling (they could’ve easily manipulated a weak king)
 most powerful barons:
 Csák Máté – northwestern Hungary
 Aba Amádé - nort-eastern
 Kán László - Transylvania
 Kőszegi family – Transdanubia
 Charles fought against them  turned them against each other, defeated the one-by-one
 supported by the pope and the church, the lesser nobility, the townspeople and the
peasants
 common people just wanted peace in the country
 by 1310 - oligarchs accepted Charles’ rule, he was crowned
 1311 – Csák Máté turned against the king
 1312 - Battle of Rozgony  decisive battle, barons were finally defeated by the king
 Honour system: he confiscated lands of barons and gave smaller lands to other aristocrats to
gain support from them
THE STRENGHTENING OF THE MEDIAEVAL HUNGARIAN STATE
UNDER THE RULE OF CHARLES I
Military reforms:
 defence of the country
 new military system: banderia (comes from the word ’bandiera’- banner)
 private armies
 barons could lead their banderia + royal banderia + banderias of the counties strong
Hungarian military
The reform of the treasury:
 Urbura: new tax system: mine-rent
 made landlords interested in mining  contributed to the success of Hungary in gold
and silver mining
 whose land had a mine could keep 1/3 of the income of the mine
 mining gold and silver became a royal monopoly  Hungary: first in gold mining
 Golden forint:
 Charles introduced stable, high - value gold coins, minted from mined gold  Golden
Forint
 modelled after the fiorino d’oro from Florence
 money minting  royal monopoly
 Gate tax:
 tax on the lands of the peasantry  peasants had to pay tax after every single one of
their gates, where a full-packed chariot could go through, no matter the size of the
land or how many families lived on the land
 Thirtieth customs duty:
 merchant had to pay one-thirtieth value of their goods to the royal chamber
 royal towns paid special taxes to the royal chamber
 foreigners paid special taxes for privileges
 Charles established the royal chamber
 these taxes – which were collected by the king – were called regales
 the introduction of regales resulted in a successful economic policy
Foreign policy:
 1335 – Visegrad summit
 Charles called together the King of Bohemia (John of Luxemburg) and King of
Poland (Casimir III)
 aim: political and economical cooperation, boost of foreign trade
 agreed on using trade routes that avoided Vienna’s high customs duty
 dynastic treaty (personal union) between Charles and Casimir  if one of them dies,
the other’s son will inherit their throne
Charles I:
 stabilized the economy, agriculture and trading developed
 population reached 2 million
 left a stabilised kingdom for his son Louis the Great
 the ‘knight king’  military campaigns to Naples, Balkans
 became Polish king
THE STRENGHTENING OF THE MEDIAEVAL HUNGARIAN STATE
UNDER THE RULE OF CHARLES I
 economic boom: high agriculture production  towns, crafts and trading developed
 dies without heir  Anjou dynasty dies out