The Black Army of Matthias Corvinus

The Black Army (Hungarian Fekete sereg), also called the Black Band, is the name posterity gave to the mercenary army of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. The name was not used in Matthias's lifetime; it appears only after his death in 1490, and its origin is unclear – perhaps it came from the army's last commander, the "black" John Haugwitz, or from the black sashes the mercenaries wore in mourning for the king. At the beginning of his reign (1458) Matthias had to rely on the banderia of the prelates and barons and on an ineffective noble levy. He hired mercenaries gradually, as his finances allowed, began to incorporate them systematically into the royal army in the mid-1460s, and their numbers rose sharply during the Bohemian–Hungarian wars (1468–1478). The army broke up after Matthias's death, and its last remnants perished in 1492–1493.

The main strength of the army remained its cavalry, above all the heavy cavalry, which decided great battles; the light cavalry (hussars) and the infantry complemented it, and Matthias also had plenty of artillery. According to Péter E. Kovács, heavy cavalry, light cavalry and infantry each made up roughly a third of the army. Firearms played only a supporting role: in his letter of 1481 (see below) Matthias himself writes that handgunners made up a fifth of the infantry, and he considered them less capable than the other foot soldiers. There were initially 6,000 to 8,000 mercenaries; in the 1480s their number may have reached 15,000 to 20,000, but the king hired most of them only for limited periods, and the permanent mercenaries may have numbered around 10,000 to 12,000. The famous review of 20,000 horsemen and 8,000 foot soldiers with at least 9,000 wagons, described by the eyewitness Antonio Bonfini, was held by Matthias on 17 August 1487 on the plain before the captured town of Wiener Neustadt. Besides the mercenaries, however, it included the banderia of Hungarian prelates and barons and town mercenaries hired for a few months, so it does not show the strength of the Black Army alone. The mercenaries were chiefly Czechs and Poles, later also Germans and, in the 1480s, more and more Hungarians; Swiss soldiers served as well, such as the captain Hans von Hallwyl. The hussars were largely Rascians (Serbs).

In 1458 Matthias asked his future father-in-law, George of Poděbrady, for 500 heavy horsemen whom he would have had to pay – itself a sign of how little he could rely on the noble levy. The real core of the mercenary army, however, came from the Czech mercenaries who controlled northern Hungary: John Jiskra of Brandýs entered Matthias's service in the spring of 1462, and after the defeat of the Bratříci ("Brethren") at Veľké Kostoľany in 1467 many of them also entered royal service. The Czech share of the army remained high throughout its existence, and in the infantry it even predominated.

Arms of Service and Organisation

Heavy cavalry. The most important arm, the one that decided great battles, was still the heavy cavalry. It was divided into sub-units called legions, which corresponded to the later cavalry companies and consisted of 25-man detachments, called turmae in the Latin of the day. With the advent of artillery and the growing role of light cavalry, the strategic importance of heavy cavalry declined, but the great battles – although they became less and less frequent – were still decided by this arm (the Battle of the Valová River 1470, the Battle of Breadfield 1479, Leitzersdorf 1484, Thomaswaldau 1488).

Light cavalry. The hussars appeared on the South Slavic frontier at the end of the 14th century, but they became an important part of the Hungarian cavalry only under Matthias. They excelled above all in irregular warfare, raids, ambushes, screening and reconnaissance, but they also proved themselves in open battle. In Matthias's reign an older type of light cavalry still existed. Bonfini writes of the camp at Győr in 1477 that the king had three kinds of cavalry – Czech, Rascian (Serbian) and Hungarian. The distinction here does not mean only nationality but above all the type of horseman: the Czech horsemen were heavy cavalry, the Rascian horsemen were hussars, and the Hungarian horsemen were a transitional light cavalry close to the older type. By the end of the 15th century, however, the term hussars clearly meant the Hungarian light cavalry.

The light cavalry was organised in the same way as the heavy cavalry, in legions and turmae. Its importance also grew because, in line with Matthias's strategy, larger clashes with the Turks were rare, whereas small-scale fighting and raids multiplied on the frontiers, and in these the hussars were indispensable.

Infantry. According to the report of the Venetian envoy of 1479, Matthias's infantry consisted of 6,000 Hungarians and 10,000 Czechs. Matthias described the organisation and fighting style of this infantry in March 1481, when he was sending an auxiliary force under Blaise Magyar to his father-in-law, King Ferdinand I of Naples, against the Turks who had seized Otranto. He asked Cardinal Gabriele Rangoni, Bishop of Eger, who was then staying in Naples, to explain to the king how his troops were organised:
“In tertio ordine pedites sunt, et hi quidem diversis ordinibus distincti, horum enim alii gregarii sunt, alii armigeri, nonnulli clipeati. Gregarii milites seu pedites pro qualibet angaria ad unam personam habere volunt 8 aureos. Armati vero seu clipeati, cum sine pueris et servitoribus arma et clipeos ferre nequeant, et quia hos pueros opus est illis in hunc usum pro necessitate conservare, volunt eos unusquisque ad arma singula et ad clipeos habere simul cum duorum hominum stipendio. Sunt preterea magistri pixidum, qui sciunt trahere ex sclopetis et huiusmodi minoribus instrumentis, verum non ita strenui et utiles sunt, uti pedites ad trahendum ex pixidibus; sed post clipeatos in initio conflictuum, antequam scilicet manus conferant, item ad expugnationes castrorum et defensiones maxime utiles sunt; itaque volunt et isti habere tantum, quantum pedites gregarii. Apud nos vero ista consvetudo observatur, quod quantacumque peditum summa sit, quinta pars ex pixidariis constituatur. […] Armigeri apud nos muri loco habentur, qui nunquam se loco movent, etiamsi ad unum in sua statione trucidentur. Gentes vero levis armature secundum opportunitatem excurrunt, et postquam fessi sunt vel graviora pericula sentiunt, post armatos se recipiunt, atque ibi restauratis viribus et resumpto spiritu consistunt, donec captata commoditate sursum ad pugnas excurrant; peditatumque denique omnem et pixidarios armati clipeatique milites circumsistunt, non aliter, quam si in munitione consistant; clipei namque maiores ad invicem positi per circuitum formant effigiem castelli, et parietes representant, quibus protecti gregarii pedites et omnes qui in medio sunt, velut ex propugnaculis et munitionibus pugnant, et data opportunitate erumpunt […]

(The third class are the foot soldiers, and they in turn are divided into several kinds: some are common foot soldiers, others armoured men, some shield-bearers. The common soldiers, that is the foot soldiers, want 8 gold florins per person for each quarter of a year (angaria). The armoured men and shield-bearers, since they cannot carry their armour and shields without boys and servants, and since they have to keep these boys for this purpose out of necessity, each want to have them for every armour and every shield, together with the pay of two men. There are also gun masters who know how to shoot with handguns and similar smaller weapons; with their guns they are not as hardy and useful as the other foot soldiers, but behind the shield-bearers at the beginning of an engagement, before it comes to hand-to-hand fighting, and likewise in storming and defending castles they are most useful; therefore they too want as much as the common foot soldiers. With us this custom is observed: however large the number of foot soldiers, a fifth of them are gunners. […] With us the armoured men are regarded as a wall that never moves from its place, even if they are cut down to the last man where they stand. The light-armed troops sally out as opportunity offers, and when they grow tired or sense greater danger, they withdraw behind the armoured men and stay there, recovering their strength and catching their breath, until they seize a favourable moment and run out to fight again. And finally the armoured men and the shield-bearers surround all the foot soldiers and the gunners, just as if they stood in a fortification; for the larger shields, set side by side in a circle, form the likeness of a castle and represent walls, and protected by them the common foot soldiers and all who are in the middle fight as if from bulwarks and fortifications, and when the opportunity arises they break out […])”

- Matthias Corvinus in a letter to Cardinal Gabriele Rangoni, Zagreb, 10 March 1481

Major Battles and Campaigns

Fighting John Jiskra of Brandýs and the Bratříci (1458–1467). When Matthias came to the throne in January 1458, much of Upper Hungary (today's Slovakia) was controlled by Czech mercenary captains. John Jiskra of Brandýs had held the mining towns, Košice and Zvolen there since 1440, first in the name of Queen Elizabeth and her son Ladislaus the Posthumous, and in 1459–1461 on the side of Emperor Frederick III, who laid claim to the Hungarian crown. Besides him there were more or less independent bands of Bratříci, whose castles and fortified camps threatened the mining towns and the collection of taxes. Matthias led several campaigns against them. After a preliminary agreement between Matthias and Frederick III, Jiskra submitted in April 1462, handed over his castles and entered royal service; in compensation he received 25,000 florins and the castles of Şoimuş (Solymos) and Lipova in Transylvania. The peace treaty concluded at Wiener Neustadt on 19 July 1463 also granted him an amnesty. Matthias finally defeated the Bratříci at the end of January 1467 at Veľké Kostoľany (Kosztolány), where he took the fortified camp of Jan Švehla; Švehla was hanged, but many of the survivors entered royal service.

The Bosnian campaign (1463–1464). In the summer of 1463 Sultan Mehmed II conquered the Kingdom of Bosnia, and the last Bosnian king, Stephen Tomašević, was executed. Although the sultan's army withdrew, it left Ottoman garrisons in the key fortresses. In the autumn of 1463 Matthias marched south with the Hungarian army and in December 1463, after a siege of several weeks, took Jajce, the key fortress on the middle course of the Vrbas. Together with dozens of other places occupied during the campaign, Jajce formed the core of the new Banate of Jajce, which held out until 1527; in 1464 the Banate of Srebrenik was added, but the siege of Zvornik that year failed. At that time the Hungarian army still consisted mainly of the nobles' banderia – Janus Pannonius, who was present at the siege of Jajce, does not mention mercenaries.

The Moldavian campaign (1467). In August 1467 the Transylvanian estates formed a league against Matthias, but the revolt collapsed without a fight in September, and the king punished its leaders with executions and confiscations. Suspecting Prince Stephen III the Great of Moldavia of supporting the rebels (Stephen had also taken the border fortress of Chilia from him in 1465), he crossed the Carpathians into Moldavia in the autumn, accompanied by the Moldavian pretender Peter Aron. The campaign ended on the night of 14–15 December 1467 with a surprise attack on the Hungarian army at the Battle of Baia: Stephen's men set fire to the small town in which Matthias was quartered and inflicted heavy losses on the Hungarians. The king himself was badly wounded and had to withdraw with his army to Transylvania. The campaign was a failure: in 1468–1471 Stephen raided Transylvania (in 1469 he caught and executed Peter Aron), and he was reconciled with Matthias only in 1475.

The Bohemian–Hungarian War (1468–1478). In December 1466 Pope Paul II declared George of Poděbrady a deposed heretic. When George's son Victor invaded Austria in early 1468, Emperor Frederick III asked Matthias for help, and on 31 March 1468 Matthias declared war on George. After driving Victor out of Austria he invaded Moravia. The Catholic towns of Brno, Olomouc, Jihlava and Znojmo were on his side; he had to take Třebíč (May 1468), the fortified monastery of Hradisko near Olomouc and, after a six-month siege, Špilberk Castle (February 1469). Uherské Hradiště, however, held out until 1474, and Matthias controlled only part of Moravia. In Olomouc on 3 May 1469 the Catholic nobility elected him King of Bohemia. The fighting spread to Silesia and both Lusatias, which mostly sided with Matthias. After George of Poděbrady's death on 22 March 1471 the war continued against his successor, Vladislaus II Jagiellon, with varying success in Moravia, Silesia and Hungary (the invasion of Casimir Jagiellon). It was ended only by the peace treaties negotiated at the end of 1478 and confirmed in Olomouc on 21 July 1479: Matthias kept Moravia, Silesia and both Lusatias, which could be redeemed for 400,000 florins after his death, Vladislaus kept Bohemia, and both rulers used the title of King of Bohemia. For the mercenary army the war was a period of rapid growth – it was then that its relatively permanent core formed around the Czech captain Franc of Háj.

The Battle of the Valová River (12 July 1470). When George of Poděbrady marched with his main army from Bohemia into Moravia in the summer of 1470, the field army of captain Václav Vlček of Čenov, advancing from Hodonín, was to join him near Prostějov. Matthias, informed of its movements, personally attacked it on 12 July with some 6,000 horsemen along the Valová River near Kralice in Haná. Taken by surprise, the Czechs could not deploy their wagon fort, yet they put up at least partial resistance, and Vlček withdrew with the rest of his force towards Tovačov. Reports of the losses differ: Hungarian chronicles give hundreds of dead and 1,500 captured wagons, Czech sources 150 dead, 13 prisoners and 10 wagons. Matthias did not pursue the Czechs and, with George approaching, withdrew to Brno. The battle prevented Vlček from joining George, but it was not a decisive engagement of the war.

Casimir Jagiellon's invasion of Hungary (1471). The younger son of the Polish king Casimir IV, invited by the conspirators around John Vitéz, Archbishop of Esztergom, entered Upper Hungary with a Polish army in October 1471 and occupied Nitra. The conspiracy, however, had collapsed before he arrived – at the diet in September most of the prelates and barons renewed their oath of loyalty to Matthias – and Casimir eventually withdrew to Poland without a battle.

Wars with the Habsburgs (1477–1488). Disputes with Emperor Frederick III led to two wars. The first, in 1477, ended with a peace treaty on 1 December 1477. The second broke out in 1482: the Hungarians took Hainburg and Kőszeg (1482), Bruck an der Leitha in the spring of 1484, and then besieged Korneuburg. The imperial army marching to relieve the town met them at Leitzersdorf on 11 May 1484: the imperial cavalry first routed the Hungarian heavy cavalry of István Dávidházy, but when the victors began plundering the Hungarian camp, Dobeš Černohorský of Boskovice rallied the Hungarian troops and defeated them with a counter-attack. Korneuburg surrendered in December 1484. Vienna, abandoned by the emperor, capitulated after a siege of several months at the end of May 1485, and on 1 June 1485 Matthias made his ceremonial entry; he resided there until his death. After an eighteen-month siege, Wiener Neustadt also fell on 17 August 1487, and on the plain before it Matthias held the great military review mentioned above. The truce concluded in December 1487 left the whole of Lower Austria and parts of Styria and Carinthia under Hungarian control.

The Battle of Breadfield (13 October 1479). The most famous Hungarian victory over the Ottomans in Matthias's reign was won in Transylvania near present-day Șibot (Hungarian Alkenyér) in the Mureș valley. The Ottoman raid was commanded by Isa Bey, son of Hasan Bey; Ali Bey Mihaloğlu and the Wallachian voivode Basarab Ţepeluş also took part. According to a modern estimate it numbered at most about 15,000 men (contemporary sources give 35,000 to 100,000). They faced the army of the Voivode of Transylvania Stephen Báthory, the ispán of Temes Pál Kinizsi and the Serbian despot Vuk Branković. Báthory's troops came under heavy pressure and the voivode himself was wounded several times (Bonfini says six). When Ali Bey withdrew from the field with his men, Kinizsi struck the Ottoman flank from the right wing; once Isa Bey was badly wounded, the Ottoman army collapsed. Stories in which Kinizsi arrives on the battlefield only at the decisive moment are a later dramatisation. The victory strengthened the defence of Transylvania, but it did not deter the Ottomans from further raids.

Silesia and the Battle of Thomaswaldau (1488). Silesia, which Matthias retained after the Peace of Olomouc, was governed in his name by supreme captains (Oberlandeshauptmann) – from 1474 Stephen Zápolya, later John Filipec, Georg von Stein and Duke Frederick of Legnica, among others. In 1488 the Black Army waged war on Duke John II of Głogów and Żagań, who wanted to secure Głogów for his sons-in-law of the Poděbrady family, although the estates had already done homage to Matthias as their future lord. The army was commanded by Wilhelm Tettauer (Vilém Tetour of Tetov) and Georg von Stein, while a second royal force was led by John Haugwitz. On 28 June 1488 at Thomaswaldau (today Tomaszów Bolesławiecki) it ran into Czech mercenaries marching to relieve Głogów. The hard fight, in which according to Péter E. Kovács Haugwitz's horsemen broke the Czech wagon fort, was inconclusive; the Czechs, however, fell back to Szprotawa and left the road to Głogów open. Głogów surrendered in November 1488.

Small war on the Ottoman frontier. Apart from the great campaigns, for most of Matthias's reign his army was engaged in small war on the southern frontier: it defended the banates of Jajce and Srebrenik, Šabac (taken in 1476 after a long siege) and other border fortresses, and retaliated against the raids of the Ottoman akıncı. Great field battles were the exception; raids, ambushes and the carrying off of captives were the rule. The hussars, largely of Serbian origin, excelled in this under commanders such as Vuk Branković or the Jakšić brothers. In the autumn of 1480 Hungarian forces raided Bosnia and Serbia, where they penetrated as far as Kruševac; the expedition was repeated in 1481, and according to contemporary, probably exaggerated, reports tens of thousands of Serbs were resettled in Hungary.

The death of Matthias Corvinus (6 April 1490). The king died suddenly in Vienna at the age of 47; judging by contemporary descriptions of his symptoms it was probably a stroke, although there were also rumours of poisoning. With his death the mercenary army lost its only real patron – it rested on the king's personal will and on the revenue of his extraordinary tax. Matthias's illegitimate son John Corvinus sought the throne without success, and the crown went to Vladislaus II Jagiellon, who promised the estates to abolish the extraordinary tax. Royal revenue fell to a fraction of its former level, and regular payment of wages became impossible.

Commanders and Captains

John Jiskra of Brandýs. A Czech soldier who from 1440 controlled Upper Hungary in the name of Ladislaus the Posthumous and in 1459–1461 sided with Emperor Frederick III. In April 1462 he submitted to Matthias, handed over his castles and received in compensation 25,000 florins and the castles of Şoimuş and Lipova in Transylvania. He then fought in Matthias's service, in Bosnia in 1463, and in 1468 he led a Hungarian embassy to the sultan.

Pál Kinizsi (c. 1432 – 1494). A Hungarian nobleman and commander, according to legend the son of a miller, but according to more recent research probably of petty noble origin. His strength and fearlessness made him a legend in his own lifetime; Bonfini writes that he fought with a sword in each hand, and tradition has it that he never lost a battle. From 1479 he was ispán of Temes and captain-general of Lower Hungary (capitaneus generalis partium inferiorum). He decided the Battle of Breadfield in 1479. After Matthias's death he remained loyal to Vladislaus II and in 1492 scattered the remnants of the Black Army. He died on 24 November 1494 during a campaign against Smederevo and was buried in the Pauline monastery he had founded at Nagyvázsony.

Imre Zápolya (died 1487). A member of the powerful Hungarian Zápolya family and a close confidant of Matthias. In 1486–1487 he held the office of Palatine of Hungary.

Stephen Zápolya (died 1499). Imre's younger brother. From 1474 he was supreme captain (Oberlandeshauptmann) of Silesia, in 1489–1490 governor of the Austrian lands conquered by Matthias, and in 1492–1499 Palatine of Hungary.

Stephen Báthory of Ecsed (died 1493). A Hungarian magnate, Judge Royal (iudex curiae regiae) and from 1479 Voivode of Transylvania. He commanded the Hungarian army at the Battle of Breadfield, where he was badly wounded. After Matthias's death he served Vladislaus II, but in 1493 he was removed from the office of voivode for his harsh rule over the Székelys and died shortly afterwards. The Polish king Stephen Báthory came from a different branch of the family, that of Somlyó.

Franc (František) of Háj (died 1475 or 1476). A Czech mercenary captain, also called "the terrible Franc", known in Hungarian sources as Hag. He probably took his name from the manor of Háj near Radonice in the Žatec region (Veszprémy considers him a native of Silesia). In 1466 he was captured as one of the leaders of the Bratříci in Upper Hungary and entered Matthias's service. In the Bohemian–Hungarian War he was one of Matthias's leading captains: in 1468 he won at Zvole, in 1469 he occupied Broumov, from 1470 he was captain of the duchies of Świdnica and Jawor, and later he held Trenčín in pledge. In these years the permanent core of Matthias's mercenary army formed around him. He fell at the siege of Šabac, and Matthias had him buried with honours at Székesfehérvár. His widow married Vilém Tetour of Tetov.

John (Hanuš) Haugwitz of Biskupice, called the Black. A mercenary captain probably of Silesian origin. He got the nickname "black" from his liege lord, Duke Konrad the Black, and the whole army may have been named after him. From an insignificant captain he rose during the Głogów war of 1488 to supreme commander of Matthias's mercenary army. After Matthias's death John Filipec won him over to Vladislaus II for 100,000 florins. At the end of 1492 he was defeated by Kinizsi at Halászfalva and went with the rest of the army to Austria, where his troops were destroyed in 1493.

Dobeš Černohorský of Boskovice (died 1493). A Moravian magnate and one of Matthias's most important commanders. In 1469 he took Špilberk; in the Austrian campaigns he occupied Mautern and St. Pölten (1481) and Klosterneuburg (1483), and his counter-attack decided the Battle of Leitzersdorf (1484). Matthias granted him Nový hrad near Brno in pledge. After the execution of his kinsman Jaroslav of Boskovice in December 1485 he went over to Frederick III and, as an imperial field captain, retook St. Pölten in 1490. He died in Vienna on 20 December 1493.

Vilém Tetour of Tetov (Wilhelm Tettauer, died 1498). A Moravian nobleman, lord of Zlín and Malenovice, who fought in Matthias's service against George of Poděbrady and against the Habsburgs. In the 1480s he was one of the supreme commanders of the Black Army; in 1488 he commanded in the Głogów war, and in 1490 he built a fortified line on the River Enns. His wife was the widow of Franc of Háj. After Matthias's death he served Vladislaus II.

Blaise Magyar (Magyar Balázs, died after 1490). A Hungarian captain, several times Ban of Croatia (1470–1472, 1473–1474, 1482–1483) and in 1472–1475 Voivode of Transylvania. In 1481 he led the auxiliary force that Matthias sent to King Ferdinand of Naples against the Turks at Otranto. After Matthias's death he supported the candidacy of the Polish prince John Albert.

Nicholas Csupor of Monoszló (died 1474). A Hungarian baron, Voivode of Transylvania in 1468–1472. In 1470 he commanded the royal army in the campaign against George of Poděbrady. He died of his wounds in early 1474.

Demeter Jakšić (died 1487). A member of the exiled Serbian Jakšić family in Hungarian service. He fought with his hussars at Breadfield in 1479 and was killed near Smederevo in June 1487. The Serbian light horse of the Jakšićs belonged to the southern border defence rather than to the mercenary army proper.

Nicholas of Ilok (c. 1410 – 1477). A powerful Hungarian magnate and from 1471 titular King of Bosnia. His offices and private troops formed an important part of Matthias's southern defence system against the Ottomans.

Melchior Löbel (Loebel). A mercenary captain mentioned in the sources at the defence of Wrocław in 1474 and at the siege of Šabac in 1475–1476. He may be identical with Melchior von Loeben (died 1479), commander of the Silesian estates' troops against the Poles and from 1476 administrator of Lower Lusatia.

The Break-up of the Army (1490–1493)

After Matthias's death John Filipec won the army's commander John Haugwitz over to the new king, Vladislaus II, for 100,000 florins. The mercenaries then helped Vladislaus keep his throne: they drove the troops of Maximilian of Habsburg out of Hungary and defeated the Polish prince John Albert, who also claimed the Hungarian crown. Because of his promise to abolish the extraordinary tax, however, Vladislaus had no money to pay them, and the barons did not want a standing army.

In 1492 the army was sent south against the Ottomans. The unpaid mercenaries lived by plundering the countryside, and so, on the barons' orders, Pál Kinizsi attacked them at the end of 1492 at Halászfalva on the Sava near the town of Szegedinc (today in Serbia) and scattered them in a bloody two-day battle. Of some 8,000 men, Haugwitz escaped with about 2,000 to Austria, where the remnants of the army were destroyed in the course of 1493.

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