The Time of Troubles: The War between Queen Elisabeth of Luxembourg and Vladislaus I Jagiellon (1440–1442)

Albert of Habsburg, King of Hungary and Croatia (r.1438-39), fell victim to dysentery during a campaign against the Turks and died in Neszmély, Komárom County. Nevertheless, the entire country was aware of the fact that his widow, Elisabeth of Luxembourg, was pregnant. Naturally, the gender of the unborn child could not be presaged at that time, but whether a princess or a prince, an infant was hardly capable of protecting a kingdom that had been threatened by the Turks for decades and would be for many years to come.

The two coronations

For a significant part of the country and its political elite, matters were such that immediate action was required to install a new ruler on the throne, one who could lead the defense. The Dowager Queen understood this well, which is why she tried to secure her unborn child’s political position by having her lady-in-waiting, Jánosné Kottanner, steal the Holy Crown from its traditional repository, the Visegrád Citadel, on the night of February 20, 1440. Tensions increased a day later, when, on the night of February 21 – perhaps not unrelated to excitement incurred by the theft – Elisabeth gave birth to King Albert’s posthumously-born son, Crown Prince Ladislaus (László) V of Habsburg, in Komárom Castle.  

At the same time, as previously mentioned, the Hungarian nobility were well aware that Elisabeth’s child would be incapable of leading the country due to his tender age, so a list of persons who could be considered for the succession was quickly drawn up. Two names stood out: the Polish king Vladislaus (Władysław) III and the younger son of the Serbian despot George (György) Branković, but the latter was quickly eliminated as a candidate. Prudence dictated that the Dowager Queen also be included in the negotiations, and in early January 1440, even Elisabeth had seemed willing to accept Vladislaus as king – as long as she was not presented with a son.  

In late February, however, with her son by her side, Elisabeth sent a message to the Polish-Hungarian delegation to stop the negotiations because the country now had a legitimate ruler. Thus, it need hardly to be said that the resulting situation led to open political conflict.

As to be expected under the circumstances, events swiftly accelerated. In Krakow in early March, the Hungarian delegation – in the presence of the Turkish envoy – elected the Polish king Vladislaus III as king of Hungary, where he would rule as Vladislaus I between 1440 and 1444, and immediately set about occupying his new throne. During those same weeks, Queen Elisabeth – in possession of the Holy Crown in Komárom – was vigorously organizing the coronation of her newborn child, which took place on May 15 in Székesfehérvár, the then royal seat of Hungary. The ceremony was performed by the Archbishop of Esztergom, Dénes Szécsi, thus fulfilling all three customary conditions for Hungarian royal coronations.

A few days later, however, the queen and her entourage, having learned of the approach of Vladislaus’s armies, first withdrew to Győr and then hastily left the country in the latter half of June. During their flight, Ulrich of Celje, a powerful supporter and advisor to the queen, was captured by pro-Vladislaus troops. In late June, the Hungarian nobility swore an oath of allegiance to Vladislaus in Buda, annulling at the same time the coronation of King Ladislaus without any legal basis. Vladislaus’s extraordinary coronation occurred on July 17, which would subsequently play a significant role in Hungarian legal and royal history. The problem was that the Holy Crown, the symbol of royal power, was absent from the ceremony.

Although Székesfehérvár was now in the hands of King Vladislaus, and the archbishop Dénes Szécsi – following a short period of corrective incarceration – was now supporting his claim, the absence of the crown became a crucial issue. In order to surmount the problem, they used a temporary crown, stating in connection with this that “the coronation of kings always depends on the will of the people, and that the efficacy and power of the crown lies in their consent.” Thus, although temporary, this crown was endowed with the power of the Holy Crown until its return or its replacement if lost. Thus, from July 17, 1440, the Kingdom of Hungary had two crowned rulers.  

The contest between two rivals

History teaches that if a land suffers two kings, supporters of both will soon take the field, seeing their own candidate as the more likely to seize power. The military situation at the time of Vladislaus’s coronation may have seemed quite one-sided. Buda and the country’s major cities were in the hands of the Polish king, while Elisabeth and her supporters found refuge in Vienna with the then German king –and later Holy Roman Empire – Frederick. Elisabeth, however, decided upon an unexpected move: in late July/early August, she pawned her jewels and the queen’s crown to Frederick and also entrusted him with the Holy Crown and the Hungarian lands that had been placed in Austrian hands for supposed “safekeeping” since the 1447 Truce of Radkersburg.

By embarking upon this step, the queen – who had lost both husband and throne – suddenly acquired a large sum of money, which she used to hire the renowned mercenary commander Jan Jiskra and his army of several thousand men, appointing him royal captain in the name of Ladislaus V. In August, Jiskra’s forces advanced into the northwestern part of the kingdom – one of the country’s wealthiest regions due to the prevalence of mining towns – and eventually managed to occupy Kassa (Košice). Pozsony (Bratislava), defended by István Rozgonyi, remained Vladislau’s sole remaining base in the region, having successfully withstood a siege in the autumn of 1440.

In tandem with Jiskra’s attack, another pro-Elisabeth army, led by Jan Vitovec – the commander of Ulrich of Celje’s mercenaries – invaded the western lands in the summer of 1440 and occupied numerous castles in the counties of Vas, Zala, and Veszprém, whose lords had supported Vladislaus. Meanwhile, another army paid for by Ulrich advanced in southern Hungary, while in Transylvania, the voivode, Dezső (Desidarius) Losonci, represented the interests of Elisabeth and young Ladislaus until his dismissal at the end of summer.    

The rapid and spectacular success of the queen’s supporters took Vladislaus by surprise and prompted him to launch a counterattack as soon as possible. In August, he ordered nationwide mobilization, as a result of which he was able to deploy troops to Kassa the following month in order to restore its loyalty, but this effort was unsuccessful. In the winter, Frederick of Habsburg arrived from Vienna to Bratislava to mediate between the two parties but was unsuccessful. Nevertheless, the onset of cold weather led to a respite, and the two sides spent the months preparing for battle.

The royal contest resumed with renewed vigor early the next year and culminated with the decisive battle near Bátaszék in Tolna County. Elisabeth’s forces were defeated by Vladislaus’s army led by Miklós Újlaki (Nicholas of Ilok) and László Maróti, the bans of Macsó, and by János Hunyadi, the ban of Szörény since September 1439. It was then also that Hunyadi, who had been performing exclusively military duties since his appointment, now first appeared on the imaginary “grand stage” of Hungarian political life and military history.

Having achieved success on the battlefield, Vladislaus immediately appointed Újlaki and Hunyadi as joint voivodes of Transylvania, becoming thereby the leaders of the domain possessing the greatest military potential in the kingdom. Bátaszék turned the tide of the battle, halting the momentum which had favored Elisabeth and her supporters, even though the queen had even pledged the town of Sopron to Frederick III in exchange for his support. During the spring, King Vladislaus personally led his army to recapture the noble strongholds that had fallen the previous summer.

Hunyadi arrived in Transylvania around the same time, meaning that from that moment, the will of the Polish-Hungarian king prevailed in the domain beyond the Királyhágó Pass, in the Western Carpathians. Vladislaus’s counterattack yielded further successes: on April 19, 1441, the House of Celje – both Frederick and his son Ulrich – who had previously been loyal to the queen, pledged allegiance to Vladislaus. Thus, Elisabeth had lost her most important and likely wealthiest supporters.

The defection of the Celjes occasioned the usual domino effect as the queen’s former supporters declared themselves for Vladislaus, one after the other. Thus proceeded János Hunyadi's predecessor as voivode of Transylvania, Dezső Losonci; numerous county lord-lieutenants; the royal treasurer; and in the summer of 1441, even the Serbian despot, György Brankovics, came to terms with King Vladislaus. All this, combined with the previous military successes, allowed Vladislaus and Hunyadi to act more aggressively against their opponents than before.

Nevertheless, there were still setbacks. The summer until the first half of September 1441 saw an unsuccessful attempt to capture the besieged Kassa – a town with major geostrategic significance. Since his arrival in Buda, Vladislaus had been attempting to forge a corridor between his two domains – Hungary and Poland – for which Kassa, occupied by Jiskra’s mercenaries, presented the largest obstacle. While Vladislaus was focused on the north, Hunyadi invaded Serbia, where he began to establish his reputation as a Turk-beater by scoring victories over the local beys. As in the previous year, the arrival of cooler weather subsequently led to a decrease in military activity, with both Vladislaus and Elisabeth focusing on the tasks of the following year.  

The year 1442 began in a truly eventful manner. That year, the papal legate, Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini, arrived in Hungary, having been given two tasks by Pope Eugene IV. On the one hand, he was tasked with mediating peace between Elisabeth and Vladislaus, and on the other, he was expected to organize a crusade against the Turks and to do so as soon as possible. To understand the relevance of the cardinal’s appearance, it should be noted that matters were far from sanguine at the moment of his arrival, as Vladislaus’s troops were pursuing an unsuccessful siege of Pozsony, which had remained loyal to Elisabeth and King Ladislaus. Vladislaus’s forces were more successful on the “northern front” against Jiskra and his mercenaries. There, an army of about 4000 Hungarian and Polish cavalry led by Bishop Simon of Eger and László Cseh of Lévai attacked and plundered the town of Selmecbánya and then advanced all the way to Körmöcbánya, which they declined to besiege as the number of defenders was about the same as that of the attackers. Nevertheless, in order to cause greater damage to Jiskra’s forces, they systematically destroyed the mines before withdrawing. Thus, the situation of King Vladislaus and his supporters had not improved much in the north and northwest, while it had also become clear that there was almost no possibility of further success for Elisabeth and her party. Overall, it had become increasingly clear that a stalemate had developed.

Peace in a wink of the eye

The military deadlock, coupled with Legate Cesarini’s persistence, eventually brought the opposing parties to the table. The cardinal had already begun pursuing matters in June, and in the following month, he obtained the symbolic declaration in the Diet that those of Elisabeth’s supporters who pledged allegiance to King Vladislaus by July 25 would be granted pardon. Cesarini’s next success came in August, when Elisabeth finally appeared willing to negotiate. Elisabeth’s decision may have been further influenced by news that Bishop Rozgonyi had launched another attack on her supporters, this time laying siege to the fortress church in Korpona (Krupina), although we know very little about this action.   

It was hoped the conflict could begin to be resolved in August 1442 with a planned meeting in Esztergom, but this fell through; thus, the actual peace process could only begin in September. On the 21st of that month, Elisabeth’s envoys in Buda agreed to a truce with Vladislaus until the middle of the following year, with both sides committed to continuing peace negotiations. The latter undertaking did not come easily, as the Papal legate had to intercede numerous times between the dowager queen and the young Polish-Hungarian king. Cesarini’s efforts were not in vain, however, as he convinced Vladislaus that even if he was unwilling to go to Elisabeth, who was currently in Győr, he should at least travel to Szentmárton Abbey (now Pannonhalma). In the second week of November, Vladislaus arrived at the monastery with his entourage of Hungarian and Polish nobles.   

This marked the beginning of three weeks of intense negotiations with Cesarini continuously commuting back and forth between Győr and Szentmárton Abbey, informing the rival parties of the latest developments. The main sticking point concerned who would be bestowed with the royal title. Elisabeth quickly asserted that the crown should be conferred on her son, while Vladislaus was equally adamant not to give up his royal title under any conditions. The legate continued to hope for a solution but finally resolved upon a clever move and simply removed the question of the royal title from the peace terms. Thus, the last obstacles were removed, and the rival parties signed the peace treaty on December 13, 1442. Two days later Vladislaus and his regal entourage arrived in Győr, where they personally confirmed the treaty in the presence of the dowager queen. At the same time, Elisabeth reaffirmed her son’s claim to the throne, while Vladislaus confirmed his, which was reinforced during a mass celebrated in the Győr Cathedral.

The peace agreement was essentially based on the status quo: Elisabeth would keep the castles and cities she currently held, while Vladislaus would marry Elisabeth’s then ten-year-old daughter, Princess Anna of Habsburg. Finally, the agreement confirmed a standing element of all medieval peace treaties, according to which estates unlawfully confiscated and bestowed upon others must be returned to their original owners. However, events took an unexpected turn within hours. The ink had not yet dried on the parchment the agreement was written on when Elisabeth of Luxembourg died unexpectedly in Győr, most likely on December 18 or a day later. It remains an open question whether the health of the widowed queen played any role in bringing about the peace agreement.

The queen’s death completely altered the situation. Not only did her death render the agreement invalid by removing one of the signatories, but more importantly, with the Holy Crown and the two-and-a-half-year-old King Ladislaus in Vienna under the protection of the German King Frederick, it meant that the chief representative guarding the interests of the infant monarch now resided beyond the country’s borders. This fact gained special significance a few days later when Jan Jiskra and the towns under his authority declared their loyalty to Ladislaus V, followed by several of the landed nobility in western Hungary, who promptly asked Frederick for support in their continued resistance. Thus, the civil war was far from over, it had merely entered its second act. In subsequent months, the supporters of Vladislaus and Ladislaus V were in constant conflict in major and minor engagements; nevertheless, Vladislaus need no longer fear – at least for the time being – that Ladislaus may rule Hungary or that his mother may seize power in his name. Frederick, the protector of little Ladislaus, did not contemplate such a course of action – either then or later; his interests lay in Austrian territory and exercising power in the child-king’s name. Thus, Vladislaus was able to withdraw from the “civil war front” and devote far more attention to the Turks.  

Hunyadi on the periphery

Vladislaus owed much to the efforts of John Hunyadi, the voivode of Transylvania, that he was able to devote the greater part of his time, energy and money to the civil war, employing countermeasures against Elisabath and her followers or forcing them to pledge loyalty. Appointed voivode in 1441, Hunyadi devoted all his time to shoring up the Turkish front, in accordance with his ruler’s orders. Although his successful defense of Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade) in 1440 had averted the most pressing danger, the situation remained tense. Hunyadi and Vladislaus’s first task in the summer of 1441 was to make peace with the Serbian despot György Brankovics and return his confiscated estates. Two months later, the Transylvanian voivod and his troops were already fighting in Serbia before quickly returning to their native domain to prepare and gather strength. 

The year 1442 was noteworthy in the early history of the Turkish-Hungarian wars. Taking advantage of Vladislaus’s absence and his troops being engaged elsewhere, Turkish forces led by Mezid Bey invaded Transylvania in March. A Hungarian army, led by the bishop of Transylvania, György Lépes, confronted them but was defeated at Szentimre on March 18, Lépes having been killed in the encounter. Hunyadi and his men were already on their way from Temesköz, the low plain just west of the Carpathians, and four days later forced the Turkish army to give battle near the Iron Gate and defeated it. As with Lépes, the Turkish commander Mezid Bey died on the battlefield. Albeit at a heavy price, the Hungarian defenders had sent a clear message to the Ottoman military leadership that they could not invade the country with impunity. Hunyadi, however, was not finished, as he planned a counterattack to prevent further Turkish incursions. His decision was also beneficial for his king, as Vladislaus was greatly concerned about the Turkish border during negotiations with Elisabeth, which were just beginning at that time; not to mention that a possible victory over the Turks would improve his negotiating position.

Hunyadi launched his counterattack in late August/early September 1442, striking deep into Wallachia, where he drove out the pro-Turkish voivode, Vlad II, and appointed the latter’s cousin, Basarab II, to replace him. Upon being informed of this, the Turkish army sprang into action since a deep Hungarian incursion was injurious to the Turks’ prestige as the Turkish invasion of Transylvania had been for Hunyadi. The Turkish attack was led by Şehabeddin, the Beylerbey of Rumelia, the name given to the European part of the Turkish Empire. The battle took place near the mouth of the Ialomița and resulted in a victory for Hunyadi. Thus, the punitive campaign was successful; the voivode of Transylvania returned home in triumph, and Vladislaus now need no longer fear the Turkish threat during the peace negotiations in Győr and Pannonhalma. A further consequence of the victory was that its success would lead to plans for a large-scale incursion, which history records as a “successful winter campaign.” 

(translated by John Puckett and Andrea Thürmer)