János Hunyadi

János Hunyadi (born 1407?, Hunyad, Transylvania—died August 11,1456, Belgrade) was a Hungarian general and governor of the kingdom of Hungary from 1446 to 1452, who was a leading commander against the Turks in the 15th century.

Early career

Hunyadi is first mentioned, probably as a small child, in the diplomas by which King Sigismund transferred possessions of Hunyad castle (now at Hunedoara, Romania) to one of his knights, Woyk (or Vajk), who was Hunyadi’s father. János was of Walachian (Romanian) ancestry, his family originating in Hateg, Transylvania, a region now in Romania.

According to the usage of Hungarian noblemen of the time, János took his family name after his landed estate. The royal donation had elevated the Hunyadi family to the top ranks of the lesser (nonbaronial) group of Hungarian nobility. Proprietors of a domain containing 40 villages, they were considered as well-to-do as but ranked far below the great magnates who formed the king’s council and exercised the real power in the country.

Young János followed the normal career of his class. As a knight leading troops of up to 12 mounted warriors, he offered his services to more influential members of the ruling class. Through the influence of Stephan Lazarević, prince of the northern Serbs, and Philippo Scolari, one of Sigismund’s best soldiers, Hunyadi found his way to the royal court. Soon after, he married Erzsébet Szilágyi, daughter of a nobleman who had distinguished himself in military actions along the borders. The young knight accompanied the King to Italy and other foreign countries. In Milan he made the acquaintance of the condottiere (mercenary captain) Francesco Sforza and studied the new military art of Italy; he later studied the techniques of warfare developed by the Hussite insurgents in Bohemia.

On his return home, Hunyadi was considered the best warrior in southern Hungary. He was still without high office, but he commanded 50 to 100 armed men against the increasing wave of Turkish attacks. His victories, though of local importance, attracted wide notice. With Ottoman troops occupying Serbia in 1439, the peril of a direct invasion of Hungary became imminent. Thus, Hunyadi was appointed bán (military governor) of Severin (now in Romania), a district exposed to continual attacks. His success in that command brought him rapid advancement and higher honours, including gifts of landed properties and other income. He was made voivode (governor) of Transylvania, count of Temes (now Timiș, Romania), captain of Belgrade, and military leader of the whole defense system on the southern borders. He soon reached and surpassed the level of the wealthiest old baronial families. In the years that followed, he was able to repel the Turks not only from the borderlands of Hungary but from neighbouring Walachia as well.

After the death of the Habsburg German king Albert II—who, as Sigismund’s son-in-law, was also the king of Hungary—Hunyadi supported the election of the young Polish king Władysław III (Ulászló I in Hungary) in the hope of active and powerful support for a Crusade against the Turks.

The “Long Campaign”

The famous “Long Campaign” took place in the autumn and winter of 1443–44. The preparations needed time. Internal troubles in Hungary and the hostility of the Habsburgs were mollified with papal help. Venice and the papacy supported Hunyadi’s army financially and diplomatically. Poland and other neighbouring countries sent troops, and in Hungary the king levied an “extraordinary” tax for the Crusade. Hunyadi himself recruited some 10,000 to 12,000 well-trained soldiers, including Czech veterans of the Hussite wars. Hunyadi recognized the inefficiency and unreliability of feudal levies and was one of the first European commanders to employ a regular army on a large scale. The whole army, after having penetrated into Serbian territories under Turkish occupation, reached a total in excess of 30,000 men. The combined forces crossed the Danube in October and occupied Niš (now in Serbia), Sofia (now in Bulgaria), and some fortified Turkish garrisons. Hunyadi’s troops, advancing ahead of the rest of the army, prevented the Turks from unifying their forces and dispersed them in a series of battles. The Crusader force reached the Balkan Mountains in December, but frost and difficulties of supply forced its retreat. They returned to Buda at the beginning of February, having broken the sultan’s power in Bosnia, Hercegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Albania.

The success of the campaign was unprecedented in the history of Turkish wars in Europe and evoked great enthusiasm in the Christian world. Sultan Murad II sued for peace. A 10-year truce was concluded but was broken when it was learned that a Venetian fleet was sailing to the Dardanelles to prevent the sultan from recrossing into Europe. In July the Hungarian army went on the offensive to drive the remaining Ottoman forces from Europe. When the Venetian fleet failed to reach the Dardanelles, however, the sultan crossed over with a large army and overwhelmed the outnumbered Christian forces in the Battle of Varna on November 10, 1444. Although Hunyadi’s troops were able to disperse the Turkish cavalry, King Ulászló I’s attack on the sultan’s camp miscarried. The king was killed, and Hunyadi narrowly escaped.

Governor of Hungary

The renewal of feudal anarchy in Hungary after the death of Ulászló demanded exceptional measures, and in 1446 Hunyadi was elected to rule the country as a governor during the minority of the young king Ladislas V (László V in Hungary). Hampered internally by the jealousy of the magnates and harassed externally by Emperor Frederick III, Hunyadi nevertheless restored order and tried to reorganize the economic, political, and military base of the country for a counterattack against the Turks. In 1448, before he could make contact with his Albanian allies, he met the Turkish army at Kosovo, where he lost a hard-fought battle. After that defeat his influence in Hungary waned, though he remained captain general of the kingdom with the right to administer royal incomes. He was unable to launch a counterattack against the Turks and could not go to the aid of Constantinople during the Turkish onslaught in 1453. A few years later, Sultan Mehmed II, conqueror of Constantinople, mounted a new offensive and in 1456 laid siege to Belgrade. Hunyadi provisioned and armed the fortress of that city, collected a considerable army of mercenaries, and was joined by a poorly equipped and ragged army of peasants. This untrained army, with the aid of Hunyadi’s troops, won one of the most remarkable victories in the history of Turkish wars, on July 22, 1456. Not only was the siege raised, but the relieving forces actually made sorties into the enemy camp. A few days later Hunyadi died of an epidemic that had broken out among the troops. The military success remained unexploited, though not without consequences; Hungary was saved from Ottoman conquest for 70 years.

Though he never realized the dream of contemporary humanists of driving the Turks from Europe, Hunyadi earned a glorious name by his considerable successes and by the mere fact that he succeeded in stopping the supposedly invincible Turkish armies: hence, his characterization in contemporary sources, “the only fear of Turks” or—with an expression of Turkish origin—“war’s lightning and thunderbolt”—an appraisal rarely granted by Turkish warriors even to their own leaders. His younger son became king of Hungary in 1458 as Matthias I.