Known in Hungarian as Hunyadi Matyas, Matthias Corvinus (February 23, 1443 - April 6, 1490) is one of the most important monarchs in the history of Hungary due to having reigned over their golden age and making it one of the most powerful states of Europe. Matthias was the youngest son of John Hunyadi, a prestigious nobleman that engaged in a long campaign against the Ottoman Empire which stalled their invasion for many decades. As such, he enjoyed much privilege and popularity from his peers. This didn't stop then-reigning king, Ladislaus, from arresting him and his older brother as result of court intrigue and later executing the latter. Hunyadi supporters triggered a rebellion as response which forced Ladislaus V to flee, and later dying in exile. Since Ladislaus was childless, the Hungarian nobility elected the 14-year old Matthias as king, citing his father John's prowess as good reason.
Matthias' ascension to the throne marked the first time an noble ascended to the crown and caused unrest that resulted in revolts among some Hungarian nobles and other European rulers who considered him illegitimate. Being surrounded by enemies everywhere - including the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire as well as nobles of Saxony, Moldavia, Bohemia, Poland and within Hungary - not to mention his kingdom's geographical position made it extremely vulnerable to the shifting politics of the region, ended up molding Matthias to be inclined towards warfare in order to secure his rule.
His greatest achievement was the establishment of the Black Army, one of the earliest examples of a standing professional army in Medieval Europe. At that point in time, mercenary armies were extremely common since conscripted armies from couldn't be completely and safely relied on by monarchs (especially when their vassals are in revolt like in Matthias' case) and the profession was not looked down as it was today, but rather extremely sought from places like Switzerland and Albania. The Black Army started out in this manner, but became full-time employees after being secured with paid salaries. This however came at the cost of Matthias having to increase taxes on his peasants to unbearable degrees to keep his Elite Mooks.
Nevertheless, the Black Army became the most formidable force in Europe, gaining several victories and expanding Hungarian borders. As a devout Roman Catholic, he saw himself as a defender of Christianity like his father was, and provided aid to those resisting the Ottoman Empire like Stephen III of Moldovia in the Battle of Vaslui, which secured one of the most devastating defeats for the Ottoman Empire. He also engaged in the Hussites, a Christian sect from Bohemia that broke away from the Catholic Church that was near impossible for crusaders to put down and rivaled his own Black Army as The Dreaded. With that said, he wouldn't hesitate to confront his fellow Catholics like when wrestled the crown of Hungary from Emperor Frederick III to secured his realm's independence from the Holy Roman Empire, and managed to gain control of several territories taken from his defeated enemies like Austria or Poland.
It may seem like Matthias was devoted completely to war, but he was also a man of culture with the honor of being the first non-Italian to embrace and promote The Renaissance to his realm. He patronized several artists and scholars and raised one of the greatest libraries in the world which became known as the Bibliotheca Corviana. At the same time, Matthias was extremely autocratic and unpopular among many of his people due to his taxing policies, which resulted in rebellions that he did not hesitate to put down violently. It only got worse during his final years when he became ever more paranoid of treachery, provoking fear among his subjects. Matthias died in 1490 due to natural causes related to gout. Even though he was married three times, he failed to produce an heir and his illegitimate son John Corvinus was expected to be his heir. Instead, the nobility elected Vladislaus II as the new king who promised to undo Matthias' reforms like his over-bearing taxes which resulted in the Black Army's collapse. Unfortunately, this left them extremely vulnerable to the Ottoman Empire and two generations afterwards, the Hungarian state collapsed in the Battle of Mohacs when it was divided between the Austrian Habsburgs and the Ottomans and it wouldn't be until 20th Century that it would gain its full independence in an extremely reduced form than under Matthias' reign.
The legacy of Matthias Corvinus is a very complex one. He could be regarded as an glory-seeking war-hawk whose military campaigns burdened the peasantry heavily and by the end of his reign, he became so disliked that his court wasted no time in undoing his reforms. On the other hand, Hungary reached the zenith of its power during its whole history with some saying it was a superpower at the time of his death. He introduced many modernizing reforms in both civil and military sense, and he could be considered an pioneer in modern warfare for setting up a precedence to a standing army that is loyal to the state rather than it's feudal lord. His conquests were virtually undone shortly after his death, but it did have an unintentional side-effect of being fondly remembered by his people with the saying "Dead is Matthias, lost is justice" being frequently evoked to mourn his passing.
Tropes associated with Matthias Corvinus in media
- The Ace: There are very few fields he didn't dominate and managed to accomplish quite impressive feats:
- He managed to cower the Hussites, who were at that point one of the most unstoppable and hard to put down forces in Europe (though admittedly, while he didn't manage to destroy them).
- Matthias achieved one thing that his Ottoman enemies failed to do twice: successfully besiege and take Vienna.
- Animal Motifs: His family crest is a raven holding a ring in it's beak. His personal coat-of-arms after becoming king, also includes a lion.
- Appropriated Appellation: "Corvinus" comes from his family coat-of-arms, depicting a raven (corvus in latin) holding a ring. He's real name was Hunyadi, and he only started to use Corvinus, after Antonio Bonfini, an italian poet, who was practically worshiping him, connected the crest to an ancient noble House of the same name from the Roman Empire. However, the actual story behind the crest only goes back one generation, and is far less flattering: it was supposedly given to John Hunyadi, Matthias's father by King Sigismund, who as a small child shot down a raven that stole a ring from his mother. According to the legend, the ring also came from Sigismund, as proof of her child's parentage.
- Archnemesis Dad and Antagonistic Offspring: In a "Wicked Stepmother" fashion, due to accepting each other as father and son in the Peace Treaty of Wiener Neustadt, he formally had this dynamic with his main rival Fredrick III. Holy Roman Emperor.
- Arranged Marriage: Three times.
- While still a child, he got symbolically married to Elizabeth of Celje, daughter of his father's arch-rival Ulric of Celje, to end the feuding between the two richest aristocratic families in the country. However she died long before they were old enough to fulfill the marriage.
- While in Bohemian custody, shortly before his election, he made a deal with George of Podjebrady, King of Bohemia, to marry his daughter Catherine. She died giving birth to his son, who also died soon after.
- His second marriage to Beatrice of Naples started off as a Perfectly Arranged Marriage, but their inability to produce an heir, along with her jealousy of his illegitimate son (born before their marriage) put such a strain on it, that conspiracy theories sprung-up immediately after Matthias's death, speculating that she had had him poisoned.
- A Child Shall Lead Them: He became king at the age of fourteen and even though he had a regent to look over his affairs until he came of age, he was proactive enough to settle his affairs with dissenting nobles like Vlad the Impaler.
- Cool Crown: In virtually all of his depictions, he is portrayed using a crown of laurels.
- Folk Hero: Regarded as the greatest one in Hungary, where he passes around the kingdom carrying out justice and being referred to as Matthias the Just. He is also revered as one in Croatia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: His abusive taxing of his subjects to pay for the Black Army will probably be omitted in fictional portrayals.
- Kavorka Man: Most descriptions of him are rather unflattering, the most common point being his supposedly disproportionately large nose. Despite that, he had at least one mistress, and got married to Beatrice of Naples, supposedly the most beautifully woman of her generation.
- King Incognito:
- Most folkstales about him are about how he roamed the realm in disguise to find out if the common folk are mistreated, and punish the lords responsible.
- Notably, there're at least two recorded cases, when he actually did go undercover, albeit for military, rather than altruistic reasons:
- Once he almost got caught by Bohemian soldiers, while riding with a small garrison doing reconnaissance.
- During the Siege of Sabac he took to a small boat to personally examine the fortress from the Sava river.
- King in the Mountain: There is a Slovenian legend who is presumably based on Matthias known as King Matjaž, a legendary hero who sleeps with his army in the mountain called Peca in the Karawanks. When his beard grows nine times around the table, he will awake from his sleep and bring a golden era to his people.
- Knight Templar: Matthias was very similar to Vlad Tepes in this regard when it came to rebelling nobles or peasants.
- Polyglot: He was fluent in Latin and Greek by the age of 6, and in his later life learned to speak Italian, German, at least one of the Slavic languages (likely Bohemian/Czech, since his first wife was the daughter of the Bohemian king George Podjebrad) and possibly Romanian, in addition to his Hungarian mother-tongue.
- Offered the Crown: He was elected by the nobility, after his predecessor died childless. Notably, he was the first "national" king, as in the first who did not come from a royal bloodline.
- Off on a Technicality: When the Pope tried to dissuade him from continuing his war against Fredrick III. Holy Roman Emperor, he responded he's at war with Fredrick Archduke of Austria, who's broken the peace and ravaged his country, not the Holy Roman Emperor. It just so happened that the same person held both titles.
- Private Military Contractors: What the Black Army essentially was in a long-term. As long as they were paid by Matthias,
- Real Men Love Jesus: He was a Warrior Prince and such devout Roman Catholic that some alleged he was more pious than the Pope.
- Renaissance Man: Quite literally since he was the first non-Italian to embrace the Renaissance when it started. But he fits due to being an skilled politician, commander, intellectual, patron of the arts and speaking multiple languages.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: He was taking his responsibilities as king very seriously, from personally organizing and leading military campaigns, to overseeing the administration, taxation and legislature.
- The Siege: Although his capture of Vienna is his most famous achievement, more than a decade earlier he pulled-off the reverse: in the fall of 1474, he successfully starved out the joint Polish-Bohemian army besieging him in Wroclaw, capital of Silesia, by scorching his own countryside before they arrived (thus preventing them from acquiring supplies by doing so themselves), and leaving strong garrisons in every fortification in the area, (thus leaving the enemy out in the open, and without reliable supply lines, since the garrisons could easily capture caravans).
In popular culture:
- Matthias Corvinus is a recurring character in Vlad Drăculea by Akiyo Ohkubo.
- He appears in several episodes of Hungarian Folk Tales, typically as a benevolent king but with a mischievous trickster streak, challenging commoners to mind games.
- The Corvinus clan in Underworld (2003) are named after him as historical reference.
- In the The Conquerors Saga, he is portrayed as The Evil Prince and antagonist to Lada, a Gender Flipped version of Vlad the Impaler.
- Mathias Cronqvist from Castlevania: Lament of Innocence is named and bsed on him. Like Corvinus, Cronqvist was also a deeply religious man, a crusader in fact, and a good friend of the protagonist and fellow crusader Leon Belmont. Until Mathias' beloved wife Elisabetha died from illness while he was "fighting in God's name" causing him to lose his faith in the Almighty and devised a plan to become a vampire and archive immortality purely to spite Him.
- In the Civilization series, he appears in the sixth entry representing Hungary.
- In the fourth entry of the Europa Universalis series, he appears as a potential King of Hungary. Much of the content for Hungary revolves around Matthias' reforms and innovations, including the Black Army, the Bibliotheca Corviniana, and his attempted conquest(s) of Bohemia and Austria.
