Charles I of Hungary

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Charles I, also known as Charles Robert (Template:Langx; Template:Langx; Template:Langx; 1288Template:Spaced ndash16 July 1342), was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1308 to his death. He was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou and the only son of Charles Martel, Prince of Salerno. His father was the eldest son of Charles II of Naples and Mary of Hungary. Mary laid claim to Hungary after her brother, Ladislaus IV of Hungary, died in 1290, but the Hungarian prelates and lords elected her cousin, Andrew III, king. Instead of abandoning her claim to Hungary, she transferred it to her son, Charles Martel, and after his death in 1295, to her grandson, Charles. On the other hand, her husband, Charles II of Naples, made their third son, Robert, heir to the Kingdom of Naples, thus disinheriting Charles.

Charles came to the Kingdom of Hungary upon the invitation of an influential Croatian lord, Paul Šubić, in August 1300. Andrew III died on 14 January 1301, and within four months Charles was crowned king, but with a provisional crown instead of the Holy Crown of Hungary. Most Hungarian noblemen refused to yield to him and elected Wenceslaus of Bohemia king. Charles withdrew to the southern regions of the kingdom. Pope Boniface VIII acknowledged Charles as the lawful king in 1303, but Charles was unable to strengthen his position against his opponent. Wenceslaus abdicated in favor of Otto of Bavaria in 1305. Because it had no central government, the Kingdom of Hungary had disintegrated into a dozen provinces, each headed by a powerful nobleman, or oligarch. One of those oligarchs, Ladislaus III Kán, captured and imprisoned Otto of Bavaria in 1307. Charles was elected king in Pest on 27 November 1308, but his rule remained nominal in most parts of his kingdom even after he was crowned with the Holy Crown on 27 August 1310.

Charles won his first decisive victory in the Battle of Rozgony (at present-day Rozhanovce in Slovakia) on 15 June 1312. After that, his troops seized most fortresses of the powerful Aba family. During the next decade, Charles restored royal power primarily with the assistance of the prelates and lesser noblemen in most regions of the kingdom. After the death of the most powerful oligarch, Matthew Csák, in 1321, Charles became the undisputed ruler of the whole kingdom, with the exception of Croatia where local noblemen were able to preserve their autonomous status. He was not able to hinder the development of Wallachia into an independent principality after his defeat in the Battle of Posada in 1330. Charles's contemporaries described his defeat in that battle as a punishment from God for his cruel revenge against the family of Felician Záh who had attempted to slaughter the royal family.

Charles rarely made perpetual land grants, instead introduced a system of "office fiefs", whereby his officials enjoyed significant revenues, but only for the time they held a royal office, which ensured their loyalty. In the second half of his reign, Charles did not hold Diets and administered his kingdom with absolute power. He established the Order of Saint George, which was the first secular order of knights. He promoted the opening of new gold mines, which made Hungary the largest producer of gold in Europe. The first Hungarian gold coins were minted during his reign. At the congress of Visegrád in 1335, he mediated a reconciliation between two neighboring monarchs, John of Bohemia and Casimir III of Poland. Treaties signed at the same congress also contributed to the development of new commercial routes linking Hungary with Western Europe. Charles's efforts to reunite Hungary, together with his administrative and economic reforms, established the basis for the achievements of his successor, Louis the Great.

Early years

Childhood (1288–1300)

Charles was the only son of Charles Martel, Prince of Salerno, and his wife, Clemence of Austria.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He was born in 1288; the place of his birth is unknown.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Charles Martel was the firstborn son of Charles II of Naples and Charles II's wife, Mary, who was a daughter of Stephen V of Hungary.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn After the death of her brother, Ladislaus IV of Hungary, in 1290, Queen Mary announced her claim to Hungary, stating that the House of Árpád (the royal family of Hungary) had become extinct with Ladislaus's death.Template:Sfn However, her father's cousin, Andrew also laid claim to the throne, although his father, Stephen the Posthumous, had been regarded a bastard by all other members of the royal family.Template:Sfn For all that, the Hungarian lords and prelates preferred Andrew against Mary and he was crowned king of Hungary on 23 July 1290.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn She transferred her claim to Hungary to Charles Martel in January 1292.Template:Sfn The Babonići, Frankopans, Šubići and other Croatian and Slavonian noble families seemingly acknowledged Charles Martel's claim, but in fact their loyalty vacillated between Charles Martel and Andrew III.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Charles Martel died in autumn 1295, and his seven-year-old son, Charles, inherited his claim to Hungary.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Charles would have also been the lawful heir to his grandfather, Charles II of Naples, in accordance with the principles of primogeniture.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn However, Charles II, who preferred his third son, Robert, to his grandson, bestowed the rights of a firstborn son upon Robert on 13 February 1296.Template:Sfn Pope Boniface VIII confirmed Charles II's decision on 27 February 1296, excluding the child Charles from succeeding his grandfather in the Kingdom of Naples.Template:Sfn Dante Alighieri wrote of "the schemes and frauds that would attack"<ref>The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri (Paradise, 9.3.), p. 667.</ref> Charles Martel's family in reference to Robert's alleged manoeuvres to acquire the right to inherit Naples.Template:Sfn The 14th-century historian Giovanni Villani also noted that his contemporaries were of the opinion that Robert's claim to Naples was weaker than his nephew's.Template:Sfn The jurist Baldus de Ubaldis refrained from setting out his position on the legitimacy of Robert's rule.Template:Sfn

Struggle for Hungary (1300–1308)

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A young man riding a horse is accompanied by two elderly horsemen

Charles's arrival in Hungary, depicted in the Illuminated Chronicle

A dozen provinces depicted in a map

The provinces ruled by the oligarchs (powerful lords) in the early 14th century

Andrew III of Hungary made his maternal uncle, Albertino Morosini, Duke of Slavonia, in July 1299, stirring up the Slavonian and Croatian noblemen to revolt.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn A powerful Croatian baron, Paul Šubić, sent his brother, George, to Italy in early 1300 to convince Charles II of Naples to send his grandson to Hungary to claim the throne in person.Template:Sfn The king of Naples accepted the proposal and borrowed 1,300 ounces of gold from Florentine bankers to finance Charles's journey.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn A Neapolitan knight of French origin, Philip Drugeth, accompanied the twelve-year-old Charles to Hungary.Template:Sfn They landed at Split in Dalmatia in August 1300.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn From Split, Paul Šubić escorted him to Zagreb where Ugrin Csák swore loyalty to Charles.Template:Sfn Charles's opponent, Andrew III of Hungary, died on 14 January 1301.Template:Sfn Charles hurried to Esztergom where the Archbishop-elect, Gregory Bicskei, crowned him with a provisional crown before 13 May.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn However, most Hungarians considered Charles's coronation unlawful because customary law required that it should have been performed with the Holy Crown of Hungary in Székesfehérvár.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Charles counted his regnal years from this coronation, but Hungary had actually disintegrated into about a dozen independent provinces, each ruled by a powerful lord, or oligarch.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Among them, Matthew Csák dominated the northwestern parts of Hungary (which now form the western territories of present-day Slovakia), Amadeus Aba controlled the northeastern lands, Ivan Kőszegi ruled Transdanubia, and Ladislaus Kán governed Transylvania.Template:Sfn Most of those lords refused to accept Charles's rule and proposed the crown to Wenceslaus II of Bohemia's son and namesake, Wenceslaus, whose bride, Elisabeth, was Andrew III's only daughter.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Although Wenceslaus was crowned with the Holy Crown in Székesfehérvár, the legitimacy of his coronation was also questionable because John Hont-Pázmány, Archbishop of Kalocsa, put the crown on Wenceslaus's head, although customary law authorized the Archbishop of Esztergom to perform the ceremony.Template:Sfn

After Wenceslaus's coronation, Charles withdrew to Ugrin Csák's domains in the southern regions of the kingdom.Template:Sfn Pope Boniface sent his legate, Niccolo Boccasini, to Hungary.Template:Sfn Boccasini convinced the majority of the Hungarian prelates to accept Charles's reign.Template:Sfn However, most Hungarian lords continued to oppose Charles because, according to the Illuminated Chronicle,Template:Sfn they feared that "the free men of the kingdom should lose their freedom by accepting a king appointed by the Church".<ref>The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle: (ch. 188.133), p. 143.</ref> Charles laid siege to Buda, the capital of the kingdom, in September 1302, but Ivan Kőszegi relieved the siege.Template:Sfn Charles's charters show that he primarily stayed in the southern parts of the kingdom during the next years although he also visited Amadeus Aba in the fortress of Gönc.Template:Sfn

Pope Boniface who regarded Hungary as a fief of the Holy See declared Charles the lawful king of Hungary on 31 May 1303.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He also threatened Wenceslaus with excommunication if he continued to style himself king of Hungary.Template:Sfn Wenceslaus, left Hungary in summer 1304, taking the Holy Crown with him.Template:Sfn Charles met his cousin, Rudolph III of Austria, in Pressburg (now Bratislava in Slovakia) on 24 August.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn After signing an alliance, they jointly invaded Bohemia in the autumn.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Wenceslaus who had succeeded his father in Bohemia renounced his claim to Hungary in favor of Otto III, Duke of Bavaria on 9 October 1305.Template:Sfn

Otto was crowned with the Holy Crown in Székesfehérvár on 6 December 1305 by Benedict Rád, Bishop of Veszprém, and Anthony, Bishop of Csanád.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He was never able to strengthen his position in Hungary, because only the Kőszegis and the Transylvanian Saxons supported him.Template:Sfn Charles seized Esztergom and many fortresses in the northern parts of Hungary (now in Slovakia) in 1306.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn His partisans also occupied Buda in June 1307.Template:Sfn Ladislaus Kán, Voivode of Transylvania, seized and imprisoned Otto in Transylvania.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn An assembly of Charles's partisans confirmed Charles's claim to the throne on 10 October, but three powerful lords—Matthew Csák, Ladislaus Kán, and Ivan Kőszegi—were absent from the meeting.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In 1308, Ladislaus Kán released Otto, who then left Hungary.Template:Sfn Otto never ceased styling himself King of Hungary, but he never returned to the country.Template:Sfn

Pope Clement V sent a new papal legate, Gentile Portino da Montefiore, to Hungary.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Montefiore arrived in the summer of 1308.Template:Sfn In the next few months, he persuaded the most powerful lords one by one to accept Charles's rule.Template:Sfn At the Diet, which was held in the Dominican monastery in Pest, Charles was unanimously proclaimed king on 27 November 1308.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The delegates sent by Matthew Csák and Ladislaus Kán were also present at the assembly.Template:Sfn

Reign

Wars against the oligarchs (1308–1323)

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File:Charles I (Chronica Hungarorum).jpg

King Charles Robert as depicted in the Chronica Hungarorum

Two armies of knights on horses are fighting against each other under a fortress built on a hill

The Battle of Rozgony depicted in the Illuminated Chronicle: in this battle, Charles defeated the sons of Amadeus Aba on 15 June 1312

File:Coronation of Charles I by Virgin Mary.jpg

Coronation of Charles I. of Hungary. It was painted in 1317 by Henry Spišský cathedral provost

The papal legate convoked the synod of the Hungarian prelates, who declared the monarch inviolable in December 1308.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn They also urged Ladislaus Kán to hand over the Holy Crown to Charles.Template:Sfn After Kán refused to do so, the legate consecrated a new crown for Charles.Template:Sfn Thomas II, Archbishop of Esztergom crowned Charles king with the new crown in the Church of Our Lady in Buda on 15 or 16 June 1309.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn However, most Hungarians regarded his second coronation invalid.Template:Sfn The papal legate excommunicated Ladislaus Kán, who finally agreed to give the Holy Crown to Charles.Template:Sfn On 27 August 1310, Archbishop Thomas of Esztergom put the Holy Crown on Charles's head in Székesfehérvár; thus, Charles's third coronation was performed in full accordance with customary law.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn However, his rule remained nominal in most parts of his kingdom.Template:Sfn

Matthew Csák laid siege Buda in June 1311, and Ladislaus Kán declined to assist the king.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Charles sent an army to invade Matthew Csák's domains in September, but it achieved nothing.Template:Sfn In the same year, Ugrin Csák died, enabling Charles to take possession of the deceased lord's domains, which were situated between Požega in Slavonia and Temesvár (present-day Timișoara in Romania).Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The burghers of Kassa (now Košice in Slovakia) assassinated Amadeus Aba in September 1311.Template:Sfn Charles's envoys arbitrated an agreement between Aba's sons and the town, which also prescribed that the Abas withdraw from two counties and allow the noblemen inhabiting their domains to freely join Charles.Template:Sfn However, the Abas soon entered into an alliance with Matthew Csák against the king.Template:Sfn The united forces of the Abas and Matthew Csák besieged Kassa, but Charles routed them in the Battle of Rozgony (now Rozhanovce in Slovakia) on 15 June 1312.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Almost half of the noblemen who had served Amadeus Aba fought on Charles's side in the battle.Template:Sfn In July, Charles captured the Abas' many fortresses in Abaúj, Torna and Sáros counties, including Füzér, Regéc, and Munkács (now Mukacheve in Ukraine).Template:Sfn Thereafter he waged war against Matthew Csák, capturing Nagyszombat (now Trnava in Slovakia) in 1313 and Visegrád in 1315, but was unable to win a decisive victory.Template:Sfn

Charles transferred his residence from Buda to Temesvár in early 1315.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Ladislaus Kán died in 1315, but his sons did not yield to Charles.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Charles launched a campaign against the Kőszegis in Transdanubia and Slavonia in the first half of 1316.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Local noblemen joined the royal troops, which contributed to the quick collapse of the Kőszegis' rule in southern parts of their domains.Template:Sfn Meanwhile, James Borsa made an alliance against Charles with Ladislaus Kán's sons and other lords, including Mojs Ákos and Peter, son of Petenye.Template:Sfn They offered the crown to Andrew of Galicia.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Charles's troops, which were under the command of a former supporter of the Borsas, Dózsa Debreceni, defeated the rebels' united troops at Debrecen at the end of June.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In the next two months, many fortresses of Borsa and his allies fell to the royal troops in Bihar, Szolnok, Borsod and Kolozs counties.Template:Sfn No primary source has made reference to Charles's bravery or heroic acts, suggesting that he rarely fought in person in the battles and sieges.Template:Sfn However, he had excellent strategic skills: it was always Charles who appointed the fortresses to be besieged.Template:Sfn

Stefan Dragutin, who controlled the Szerémség, Macsó and other regions along the southern borders of Hungary, died in 1316.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Charles confirmed the right of Stefan Dragutin's son, Vladislav, to succeed his father and declared Vladislav the lawful ruler of Serbia against Stefan Uroš II Milutin.Template:Sfn However, Stefan Uroš II captured Vladislav and invaded the Szerémség.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Charles launched a counter-campaign across the river Száva and seized the fortress of Macsó.Template:Sfn In May 1317, Charles's army suppressed the Abas' revolt, seizing Ungvár and Nevicke Castle (present-day Uzhhorod and Nevytsky Castle in Ukraine) from them.Template:Sfn After that, Charles invaded Matthew Csák's domains and captured Komárom (now Komárno in Slovakia) on 3 November 1317.Template:Sfn After his uncle, King Robert of Naples, granted the Principality of Salerno and the domain of Monte Sant'Angelo to his brother (Charles's younger uncle), John, Charles protested and laid claim to those domains, previously held by his father.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

After Charles neglected to reclaim Church property that Matthew Csák had seized by force, the prelates of the realm made an alliance in early 1318 against all who would jeopardize their interests.Template:Sfn Upon their demand, Charles held a Diet in summer, but refused to confirm the Golden Bull of 1222.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Before the end of the year, the prelates made a complaint against Charles because he had taken possession of Church property.Template:Sfn In 1319, Charles fell so seriously ill that the pope authorized Charles's confessor to absolve him from his all sins before he died, but Charles recovered.Template:Sfn In the same year, Dózsa Debreceni, whom Charles had made voivode of Transylvania, launched successful expeditions against Ladislaus Kán's sons and their allies, and Charles's future Judge royal, Alexander Köcski, seized the Kőszegis' six fortresses.Template:Sfn In summer, Charles launched an expedition against Stefan Uroš II Milutin, during which he retook Belgrade and restored the Banate of Macsó.Template:Sfn The last Diet during Charles's reign was held in 1320; following that, he failed to convoke the yearly public judicial sessions, contravening the provisions of the Golden Bull.Template:Sfn

Matthew Csák died on 18 March 1321.Template:Sfn The royal army invaded the deceased lord's province, which soon disintegrated because most of his former castellans yielded without resistance.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Charles personally led the siege of Csák's former seat, Trencsén (now Trenčín in Slovakia), which fell on 8 August.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn About three months later, Charles's new voivode of Transylvania, Thomas Szécsényi, seized Csicsó (present-day Ciceu-Corabia in Romania), the last fortress of Ladislaus Kán's sons.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

In January 1322, two Dalmatian towns, Šibenik and Trogir, rebelled against Mladen II Šubić, who was a son of Charles's one-time leading partisan, Paul Šubić.Template:Sfn The two towns also accepted the suzerainty of the Republic of Venice although Charles had urged Venice not to intervene in the conflict between his subjects.Template:Sfn Many Croatian lords (including his own brother, Paul II Šubić) also turned against Mladen, and their coalition defeated him at Klis.Template:Sfn In September, Charles marched to Croatia where all the Croatian lords who were opposed to Mladen Šubić yielded to him in Knin.Template:Sfn Mladen Šubić also visited Charles, but the king had the powerful lord imprisoned.Template:Sfn

Consolidation and reforms (1323–1330)

File:Coa Hungary Country History Charles I (1310-1342).svg

Coats of Arms of Charles I of Anjou, King of Hungary

As one of his charters concluded, Charles had taken "full possession" of his kingdom by 1323.Template:Sfn In the first half of the year, he moved his capital from Temesvár to Visegrád in the centre of his kingdom.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In the same year, the Dukes of Austria renounced Pressburg (now Bratislava in Slovakia), which they had controlled for decades, in exchange for the support they had received from Charles against Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1322.Template:Sfn

Royal power was only nominally restored in the lands between the Carpathian Mountains and the Lower Danube, which had been united under a voivode, known as Basarab, by the early 1320s.Template:Sfn Although Basarab was willing to accept Charles's suzerainty in a peace treaty signed in 1324, he refrained from renouncing control of the lands he had occupied in the Banate of Severin.Template:Sfn Charles also attempted to reinstate royal authority in Croatia and Slavonia.Template:Sfn He dismissed the Ban of Slavonia, John Babonić, replacing him with Mikcs Ákos in 1325.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Ban Mikcs invaded Croatia to subjugate the local lords who had seized the former castles of Mladen Subić without the king's approval, but one of the Croatian lords, Ivan I Nelipac, routed the ban's troops in 1326.Template:Sfn Consequently, royal power remained only nominal in Croatia during Charles's reign.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The Babonići and the Kőszegis rose up in open rebellion in 1327, but Ban Mikcs and Alexander Köcski defeated them.Template:Sfn In retaliation, at least eight fortresses of the rebellious lords were confiscated in Slavonia and Transdanubia.Template:Sfn

Through his victory over the oligarchs, Charles acquired about 60% of the Hungarian castles, along with the estates belonging to them.Template:Sfn In 1323, he set about revising his previous land grants, which enabled him to reclaim former royal estates.Template:Sfn During his reign, special commissions were set up to detect royal estates that had been unlawfully acquired by their owners.Template:Sfn Charles refrained from making perpetual grants to his partisans.Template:Sfn Instead, he applied a system of "office fiefs" (or honors), whereby his officials were entitled to enjoy all revenues accrued from their offices, but only for the time they held those offices.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn That system assured the preponderance of royal power, enabling Charles to rule "with the plenitude of power", as he emphasized in one of his charters of 1335.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He even ignored customary law: for instance, "promoting a daughter to a son", which entitled her to inherit her father's estates instead of her male cousins.Template:Sfn Charles also took control of the administration of the Church in Hungary.Template:Sfn He appointed the Hungarian prelates at will, without allowing the cathedral chapters to elect them.Template:Sfn

A golden coin depicting a lily

A gold forint of Charles, based on the Italian florin made popular by the Republic of Florence in the 13th century

He promoted the spread of chivalrous culture in his realms.Template:Sfn He regularly held tournaments and introduced the new ranks of "page of the royal court" and "knight of the royal court".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Charles was the first monarch to create a secular order of knighthood by establishing the Order of Saint George in 1326.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He was the first Hungarian king to grant helmet crests to his faithful followers to distinguish them from others "by means of an insignium of their own", as he emphasized in one of his charters.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Charles reorganized and improved the administration of royal revenues.Template:Sfn During his reign, five new "chambers" (administrative bodies headed by German, Italian or Hungarian merchants) were established for the control and collection of royal revenues from coinage, monopolies and custom duties.Template:Sfn In 1327, he partially abolished the royal monopoly of gold mining, giving one third of the royal revenues from the gold extracted from a newly opened mine to the owner of the land where that mine was discovered.Template:Sfn In the next few years, new gold mines were opened at Körmöcbánya (now Kremnica in Slovakia), Nagybánya (present-day Baia Mare in Romania) and Aranyosbánya (now Baia de Arieș in Romania).Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Hungarian mines yielded about Template:Convert of gold around 1330, which made up more than 30% of the world's total production.Template:Sfn The minting of gold coins began under Charles's auspices in the lands north of the Alps in Europe.Template:Sfn His florins, which were modelled on the gold coins of Florence, were first issued in 1326.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

An elderly bearded man holding a sword is stabbed in the neck by a young man

The attempt of Felician Záh on the royal family, depicted in the Illuminated Chronicle

Internal peace and increasing royal revenues strengthened the international position of Hungary in the 1320s.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn On 13 February 1327, Charles and John of Bohemia signed an alliance in Nagyszombat (present-day Trnava in Slovakia) against the Habsburgs, who had occupied Pressburg.Template:Sfn In the summer of 1328 Hungarian and Bohemian troops invaded Austria and routed the Austrian army on the banks of the Leitha River.Template:Sfn On 21 September 1328, Charles signed a peace treaty with the three dukes of Austria (Frederick the Fair, Albert the Lame, and Otto the Merry), who renounced Pressburg and the Muraköz (now Međimurje in Croatia).Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The following year, Serbian troops laid siege to Belgrade, but Charles relieved the fortress.Template:Sfn

Alliance with his father-in-law, Władysław I the Elbow-high, King of Poland, became a permanent element of Charles's foreign policy in the 1320s.Template:Sfn After being defeated by the united forces of the Teutonic Knights and John of Bohemia, Władysław I sent his son and heir, Casimir, to Visegrád in late 1329 to seek assistance from Charles.Template:Sfn During his stay in Charles's court, the nineteen-year-old Casimir seduced Clara Záh, who was a lady-in-waiting of Charles's wife, Elisabeth of Poland, according to an Italian writer.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn On 17 April 1330, the young lady's father, Felician Záh, stormed into the dining room of the royal palace at Visegrád with a sword in his hand and attacked the royal family.Template:Sfn Záh wounded both Charles and the queen on their right hand and attempted to kill their two sons, Louis and Andrew, before the royal guards killed him.Template:Sfn Charles's revenge was brutal: with the exception of Clara, Felician Záh's children were tortured to death; Clara's lips and all eight fingers were cut before she was dragged by a horse through the streets of many towns; all of Felician's other relatives within the third degree of kinship (including his sons-in-law and sisters) were executed, and those within the seventh degree were condemned to perpetual serfdom.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Active foreign policy (1330–1339)

File:Chronicon Pictum - Battle of Posada.png

Battle of Posada: Wallachian (Romanian) warriors ambushed and defeated the Hungarian mounted knights in a narrow valley.

In September 1330, Charles launched a military expedition against Basarab I of Wallachia who had attempted to get rid of his suzerainty.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn After seizing the fortress of Severin (present-day Drobeta-Turnu Severin in Romania), he refused to make peace with Basarab and marched towards Curtea de Argeș, which was Basarab's seat.Template:Sfn The Wallachians applied scorched earth tactics, compelling Charles to make a truce with Basarab and withdraw his troops from Wallachia.Template:Sfn While the royal troops were marching through a narrow pass across the Southern Carpathians on 9 November, the Wallachians ambushed them.Template:Sfn During the next four days, the royal army was decimated; Charles could only escape from the battlefield after changing his clothes with one of his knights, Desiderius Hédervári, who sacrificed his life to enable the king's escape.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Charles did not attempt a new invasion of Wallachia, which subsequently developed into an independent principality.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

In September 1331, Charles made an alliance with Otto the Merry, Duke of Austria, against Bohemia.Template:Sfn He also sent reinforcements to Poland to fight against the Teutonic Knights and the Bohemians.Template:Sfn In 1332 he signed a peace treaty with John of Bohemia and mediated a truce between Bohemia and Poland.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In 1332 Charles allowed the collection of the papal tithe (the tenth part of the Church revenues) in his realms only after the Holy See agreed to give one third of the money collected to him.Template:Sfn After years of negotiations, Charles visited his uncle, Robert, in Naples in July 1333.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Two months later, Charles's son, Andrew, was betrothed to Robert's granddaughter, Joanna, who had been made her grandfather's heir.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Charles returned to Hungary in early 1334.Template:Sfn In retaliation for a previous Serbian raid, he invaded Serbia and captured the fortress of Galambóc (now Golubac in Serbia).Template:Sfn

In summer 1335, the delegates of John of Bohemia and the new King of Poland, Casimir III, entered into negotiations in Trencsén to put an end to the conflicts between the two countries.Template:Sfn With Charles's mediation, a compromise was reached on 24 August: John of Bohemia renounced his claim to Poland and Casimir of Poland acknowledged John of Bohemia's suzerainty in Silesia.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn On 3 September, Charles signed an alliance with John of Bohemia in Visegrád, which was primarily formed against the Dukes of Austria.Template:Sfn Upon Charles's invitation, John of Bohemia and Casimir of Poland met in Visegrád in November.Template:Sfn During the Congress of Visegrád, the two rulers confirmed the compromise that their delegates had worked out in Trencsén.Template:Sfn Casimir III also promised to pay 400,000 groschen to John of Bohemia, but a part of this indemnification (120,000 groschen) was finally paid off by Charles instead of his brother-in-law.Template:Sfn The three rulers agreed upon a mutual defence union against the Habsburgs, and a new commercial route was set up to enable merchants travelling between Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire to bypass Vienna.Template:Sfn

File:Molnár József Carol Robert fleeing from Posada Battle.jpg

Romantic painting Charles' army wear hussar clothes of the 17th century, by József Molnár

The Babonići and the Kőszegis made an alliance with the Dukes of Austria in January 1336.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn John of Bohemia, who claimed Carinthia from the Habsburgs, invaded Austria in February.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Casimir III of Poland came to Austria to assist him in late June.Template:Sfn Charles soon joined them at Marchegg.Template:Sfn The dukes sought reconciliation and signed a peace treaty with John of Bohemia in July.Template:Sfn Charles signed a truce with them on 13 December, and launched a new expedition against Austria early the next year.Template:Sfn He forced the Babonići and the Kőszegis to yield, and the latter were also compelled to hand over to him their fortresses along the frontier in exchange for faraway castles.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Charles's peace treaty with Albert and Otto of Austria, which was signed on 11 September 1337, forbade both the dukes and Charles to give shelter to the other party's rebellious subjects.Template:Sfn

Charles continued the reform of coinage in the late 1330s.Template:Sfn In 1336, he abolished the compulsory exchange of old coins for newly issued coins for villagers, but introduced a new tax, the chamber's profit, to compensate the loss of royal revenues.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Two years later, Charles ordered the minting of a new silver penny and prohibited payments made in foreign coins or silver bars.Template:Sfn

John of Bohemia's heir, Charles, Margrave of Moravia, visited Charles in Visegrád in early 1338.Template:Sfn The margrave acknowledged the right of Charles's son, Louis, to inherit Poland if Casimir III died without a son in exchange for Charles's promise to persuade Casimir III not to invade Silesia.Template:Sfn Two leading Polish lords, Zbigniew, chancellor of Cracow, and Spycimir Leliwita, also supported this plan and persuaded Casimir III, who lost his first wife on 26 May 1339, to start negotiations with Charles.Template:Sfn In July, Casimir came to Hungary and designated his sister (Charles's wife), Elizabeth, and her sons as his heirs.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn On his sons' behalf, Charles promised that they would make every effort to reconquer all lands that Poland had lost and that they would refrain from employing foreigners in Poland.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

File:Bačka tvrđava - panoramio (10).jpg

Bač Fortress, founded by Charles I

Last years (1339–1342)

Charles obliged the Kőszegis to renounce their last fortresses along the western borders of the kingdom in 1339 or 1340.Template:Sfn He divided the large Zólyom County (now in Slovakia), which had been dominated by a powerful local lord, Donch, into three smaller counties in 1340.Template:Sfn The following year, Charles also forced Donch to renounce his two fortresses in Zólyom in exchange for one castle in the distant Kraszna County (in present-day Romania).Template:Sfn Around the same time, Stephen Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia, invaded Sirmium and captured Belgrade.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Charles was ailing during the last years of his life.Template:Sfn He died in Visegrád on 16 July 1342.Template:Sfn His corpse was first delivered to Buda where a Mass was said for his soul.Template:Sfn From Buda, his corpse was taken to Székesfehérvár.Template:Sfn He was buried in the Székesfehérvár Basilica a month after his death.Template:Sfn His brother-in-law, Casimir III of Poland, and Charles, Margrave of Moravia, were present at his funeral, an indication of Charles's international prestige.Template:Sfn

Family

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The Anonymi descriptio Europae orientalis ("An Anonymous' Description of Eastern Europe"), written in the first half of 1308, claims that "the daughter of the strapping Duke of Ruthenia, Leo, has recently married Charles, King of Hungary".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Charles also stated in a charter of 1326 that he once travelled to "Ruthenia" (or Halych-Lodomeria) in order to bring his first wife back to Hungary.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn A charter issued on 23 June 1326 referred to Charles's wife, Queen Mary.Template:Sfn Historian Gyula Kristó says, the three documents show that Charles married a daughter of Leo II of Galicia in late 1305 or early 1306.Template:Sfn Historian Enikő Csukovits accepts Kristó's interpretation, but she writes that Mary of Galicia most probably died before the marriage.Template:Sfn The Polish scholar, Stanisław Sroka, rejects Kristó's interpretation, stating that Leo I—who was born in 1292, according to him—could hardly have fathered Charles's first wife.Template:Sfn In accordance with previous academic consensus, Sroka says that Charles's first wife was Mary of Bytom from the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty.Template:Sfn

The Illuminated Chronicle stated that Charles's "first consort, Maria ... was of the Polish nation" and she was "the daughter of Duke Casimir".<ref>The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle: (ch. 197.139), p. 145.</ref>Template:Sfn Sroka proposes that Mary of Bytom married Charles in 1306, but Kristó writes that their marriage probably took place in the first half of 1311.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The Illuminated Chronicle recorded that she died on 15 December 1317, but a royal charter issued on 12 July 1318 stated that her husband made a land grant with her consent.Template:Sfn Charles's next—second or third—wife was Beatrice of Luxembourg, who was a daughter of Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor, and the sister of John, King of Bohemia.Template:Sfn Their marriage took place before the end of February 1319.Template:Sfn She died in childbirth in early November in the same year.Template:Sfn Charles's last wife, Elisabeth, daughter of Władysław I, King of Poland,Template:Sfn was born around 1306.Template:Sfn Their marriage took place on 6 July 1320.Template:Sfn

Most 14th-century Hungarian chroniclers write that Charles and Elisabeth of Poland had five sons.Template:Sfn Their first son, Charles, was born in 1321 and died in the same year according to the Illuminated Chronicle.Template:Sfn However, a charter of June 1323 states that the child had died in this month.Template:Sfn The second son of Charles and Elisabeth, Ladislaus, was born in 1324.Template:Sfn The marriage of Ladislaus and Anne, a daughter of King John of Bohemia, was planned by their parents, but Ladislaus died in 1329.Template:Sfn Charles's and Elisabeth's third son, Louis, who was born in 1326, survived his father and succeeded him as King of Hungary.Template:Sfn His younger brothers, Andrew and Stephen, who were born in 1327 and 1332, respectively, also survived Charles.Template:Sfn

Although no contemporaneous or nearly contemporaneous sources made mention of any further children, Charles may have fathered two daughters, according to historians Zsuzsa Teke and Gyula Kristó.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Zsuzsa Teke writes that they were born to Mary of Bytom, but the nearly contemporaneous Peter of Zittau wrote that she had died childless.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Gyula Kristó proposes that a miniature in the Illuminated Chronicle, which depicts Elisabeth of Poland and five children, implies that she gave birth to Charles's two daughters, because Kristó identifies two of the three children standing on her right as daughters.Template:Sfn The elder of Charles's two possible daughters, Catherine, who was born in the early 1320s, was the wife of Henry II, Duke of Świdnica.Template:Sfn Their only daughter, Anne, grew up in the Hungarian royal court after her parents' death, implying that Charles and Elisabeth of Poland were her grandparents.Template:Sfn Historian Kazimierz Jasiński says that Elisabeth, the wife of Boleslaus II of Troppau, was also Charles's daughter.Template:Sfn If she was actually Charles's daughter, she must have been born in about 1330, according to Kristó.Template:Sfn

Charles also fathered an illegitimate son, Coloman, who was born in early 1317.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn His mother was a daughter of Gurke Csák.Template:Sfn Coloman was elected Bishop of Győr in 1336.Template:Sfn

A crowned woman, surrounded by two bearded men, meets a crowned man while two young men are blowing trumpets

The betrothal of Charles to Elisabeth of Poland depicted in Illuminated Chronicle
A crowned woman with two crowned children on her right and three children on her left

Charles's wife, Elisabeth of Poland and her five children depicted in Illuminated Chronicle

Legacy

File:HUF 200 1998 obverse.jpg

King Charles Robert on the 200 forint Hungarian banknote (1998–2009)

File:Charles I (Millennium Monument).jpg

Charles's statue on Heroes' Square in Budapest: the king holds his coat-of-arms which units the Árpád stripes with the Capetians' fleurs-de-lis

Charles often declared that his principal aim was the "restoration of the ancient good conditions" of the kingdom.Template:Sfn On his coat-of-arms, he united the "Árpád stripes" with the motifs of the coat-of-arms of his paternal family, which emphasized his kinship with the first royal house of Hungary.Template:Sfn During his reign, Charles reunited Hungary and introduced administrative and fiscal reforms.Template:Sfn He bequeathed to his son, Louis the Great, a "bulging exchequer and an effective system of taxation", according to scholar Bryan Cartledge.Template:Sfn Nevertheless, Louis the Great's achievements overshadowed Charles's reputation.Template:Sfn

The only contemporaneous record of Charles's deeds were made by a Franciscan friar who was hostile towards the monarch.Template:Sfn Instead of emphasizing Charles's achievements in the reunification of the country, the friar described in detail the negative episodes of Charles's reign.Template:Sfn In particular, the unusual cruelty that the king showed after Felician Záh's assassination attempt on the royal family contributed to the negative picture of Charles's personality.Template:Sfn The Franciscan friar attributed Charles's defeat by Basarab of Wallachia as a punishment from God for the king's revenge.Template:Sfn Template:Clear

References

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Sources

Primary sources

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The Divine Comedy: The Inferno, the Purgatorio, and the Paradiso – Dante Alighieri (Translated by John Ciardi) (2003). Penguin Books. Template:ISBN.
The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle: Chronica de Gestis Hungarorum (Edited by Dezső Dercsényi) (1970). Corvina, Taplinger Publishing. Template:ISBN.

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Secondary sources

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External links

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Template:S-start Template:S-hou Template:S-reg Template:S-bef Template:S-ttl Template:S-aft Template:S-end Template:Hungarian kings Template:Croatian kings Template:Authority control

Early years

Childhood (1288–1300)

Struggle for Hungary (1300–1308)

Reign

Wars against the oligarchs (1308–1323)

Consolidation and reforms (1323–1330)

Active foreign policy (1330–1339)

Last years (1339–1342)

Family

Legacy

References

Sources

Primary sources

Secondary sources

Further reading

External links