Editing History of Slovakia (section)

===Late Middle Ages (14th–15th centuries)===
King Charles I strengthened the central power in the kingdom following a 20-year-long period of struggles against his opponents and the oligarchs.{{sfn|Kristó|1994|pp=330–331}} He concluded commercial [[Congress of Visegrád (1335)|agreements]] with Kings [[John of Bohemia]] and [[Casimir III of Poland]] in 1335 which increased the trade on the commercial routes leading from Košice to [[Kraków]] and from [[Žilina]] (hu. [[Zsolna]]) to [[Brno]].{{sfn|Kristó|1994|p=389}}

The king confirmed the privileges of the 24 "[[Carpathian Germans|Saxon]]" towns in Spiš, strengthened the special rights of [[Prešov]] and granted town privileges to [[Smolník, Gelnica District|Smolník]] (hu. [[Szomolnok]] ) The towns of present-day Slovakia were still dominated by its German citizens. However, the ''[[Privilegium pro Slavis]]'', dated to 1381, attests notably to [[nation-building]] in the wealthy towns: King [[Louis I of Hungary|Louis I]] gave the Slavs half of the seats in the municipal council of Žilina. Many of the towns (''e.g.'', Banská Bystrica, Bratislava, Košice, Kremnica and Trnava) received the status of "[[free royal cities]]" ''(liberæ regiæ civitates)'' and they were entitled to send deputies to the assemblies of the [[Estates of the realm|Estates of the Kingdom]] from 1441.{{sfn|Bán|1989a|p=42}}{{sfn|Bán|1989b|p=159}}
[[File:Mátyás király országai.png|thumb|The territories of [[Matthias Corvinus]]]]
In the first half of the 14th century, the population of the regions of the former "forest counties" increased and their territories formed new counties such as Orava, Liptov, [[Turiec]], [[Zvolen]] in the northern parts of present-day Slovakia.{{sfn|Kristó|1988|pp=380–383}} In the region of Spiš, some elements of the population received special privileges: the 24 "Saxon" towns formed an autonomous community, independent of [[Szepes county|Spiš county]], and the "nobles with ten lances" were organised into a special autonomous administrative unit ("seat").{{sfn|Kristó|1994|pp=393, 619}} In 1412, King [[Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor|Sigismund]] mortgaged 13 of the "Saxon" towns to King [[Jogaila|Władysław II of Poland]] so they ''de facto'' belonged to Poland until 1769.{{sfn|Bán|1989b|pp=174-175}}

From the 1320s, most of the lands of present-day Slovakia were owned by the kings, but [[prelate]]s and aristocratic families (''e.g.'', the [[Drugeth]], [[Szentgyörgyi]] and [[Szécsényi]] families) also hold properties on the territory.<ref name='Magyarország története (1301–1526)'>{{cite book | last1 = Engel | first1 = Pál | last2 = Kristó | first2 = Gyula | last3 = Kubinyi | first3 = András | title = Magyarország története - 1301–1526 ''(The History of Hungary—1301–1526)'' | publisher = Osiris | year = 1998 | location = Budapest | isbn = 978-963-379-171-4}}</ref> In December 1385, the future King Sigismund, who was Queen Mary of Hungary's [[prince consort]] at that time, mortgaged the territories of present-day Slovakia west of the Váh River to his cousins, the [[Jobst of Moravia|Jobst]] and [[Prokop of Moravia]]; and the former held his territories until 1389, while the latter could maintain his rule over some of the territories until 1405.{{sfn|Benda|1981|pp=228-241}} King Sigismund (1387–1437) granted vast territories to his followers (''e.g.'', to the members of the [[House of Cilli|Cillei]], [[Rozgonyi]] and [[Perényi]] families) during his reign; one of his principal advisers, the Polish [[Stibor of Stiboricz]] styled himself "Lord of the whole Váh" referring to his 15 castles around the river.{{sfn|Fügedi|1986|pp=314–323}}

Following the death of King [[Albert II of Germany|Albert]] (1439), civil war broke out among the followers of the claimants for the throne.{{sfn|Benda|1981|pp=259-270}} The Dowager Queen [[Elizabeth of Luxembourg|Elisabeth]] hired Czech [[Mercenary|mercenaries]] led by [[Jan Jiskra]] who captured several towns on the territory of present-day Slovakia (''e.g.'', Kremnica, [[Levoča]] and [[Bardejov]]) and maintained most of them until 1462 when he surrendered to King [[Matthias Corvinus of Hungary|Matthias Corvinus]].{{sfn|Benda|1981|p=279}}