Charles I of Hungary
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Charles I of Hungary |
Charles I of Hungary (
Naples Italy 1288 -
Visegrád ,
Hungary July 16,
1342), also called
Charles Robert,
Carobert and
Charles I Robert, was the king of Hungary from
August 27,
1310. He was the grandson of King
Charles II of Naples and
Maria of Hungary, son of
Charles Martel d'Anjou and Clemencia, daughter of the
Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph I.
Known as
Charles Robert prior to his enthronment as King of Hungary in
1309, Charles claimed the Hungarian
crown as the great-grandson of King
Stephen V of Hungary and under the banner of the
Pope. Travelling in August
1300 from
Naples to
Dalmatia, he was crowned at
Esztergom after the death in
1301 of the last
Árpád king Andrew III of Hungary but was forced in the same year to surrender the crown to
Wenceslaus II of Bohemia.
His failure only made
Pope Boniface VIII still more zealous on his behalf, and support from his
Hungarian adherents was observed at the Diet of
Bratislava in
1304. In the meantime Wenceslaus transferred his rights to Duke
Otto III of Bavaria in
1305, who in his turn was taken prisoner by the Hungarian rebels. He was enthroned at
Buda on
June 15,
1309. His installation was not regarded as valid until he was crowned at
Székesfehérvár on
August 27,
1310 with the sacred crown, which was at last recovered from the rebellious barons. For the next three years Charles had to contend with rebellion after rebellion, and it was only after his great victory at
Rozhanovce(Hungarian Rozgony; today in Slovakia) on
June 15,
1312 that he was the real master of his own land.
Charles married three times. His first wife was Maria, daughter of Duke
Casimir of
Cieszyn, whom he married in
1306. She died in
1315. They had a daughter:
* Catherine (d. c.
1355), married in
1338 Henry II, Duke of
ŚwidnicaOn
June 24,
1318, he married Beatrice, daughter of the
Emperor Henry VII. Beatrice and her only child died at its birth on
October 11,
1319.
On
July 6,
1320 he married
Elisabeth of Poland, daughter of king
Wladyslaw I Lokietek of Poland. They had five sons:
* Charles (
1321)
* Ladislaus (
Belgrade,
November 1,
1324 –
February 24,
1329)
*
Louis I of Hungary (
1326–
1382)
*
Andrew, Duke of Calabria (
1327–
1345)
*
Stephen, Duke of Slavonia (
1332–
1354)
Charles died on July 16, 1342, and was laid beside the high altar at Székesfehérvár, the ancient burial place of the
Árpáds.
Charles restored order by absolute rule. The Diet was still summoned occasionally at very irregular intervals, but the real business of the
state was transacted in the royal council, where able men of the
middle class, 70 percent of them Italians, held trusted positions. To impose limitations on the barons, the lesser gentry were protected against the tyranny of the magnates, encouraged to appear at court and taxed for military service by the royal treasury so as to draw them closer to the crown. The
court was famous throughout Europe as a school of
chivalry.
Charles also carried out numerous important reforms. He was a born financier, and his reform of the currency and of the whole fiscal system greatly contributed to enrich both the
merchant class and the treasury. Towns grew and crime reduced owing to Charles's fiscal care. He encouraged
trade and imposed
taxes to support his army, which he used to expand his territory, making Hungary into a major European
power. His achievements were continued by his son King
Louis the Great.
Charles's foreign policy largely stemmed from dynastic alliances. His most successful achievement was the mutual defense union with
Poland against the
Habsburgs and
Bohemians, accomplished by the convention of
Trenčín in
1335, confirmed the same year at the brilliant two-month congress of Visegrad. Not only did all the princes of central Europe compose their differences and enjoy splendid entertainment during the months of October and November: the immediate result of the congress was a combined attack by the Hungarians and Poles upon the
Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV and his ally the Habsburg Duke
Albert II of Austria, which resulted in favour of Charles in
1337.
Charles's desire to unite the kingdoms of
Hungary and
Naples under his eldest son
Louis was dashed by
Venice and by the Pope, who both feared Hungary might become the dominant
Adriatic power. Nevertheless he was more than compensated for this disappointment by his compact in
1339 with his ally and brother-in-law,
Casimir III of Poland, whereby it was agreed that Louis should succeed to the Polish throne on the death of the childless Casimir.
Deterioration of the southern frontier
The Árpád kings had succeeded in encircling their whole southern frontier with six military colonies or banates, comprising, roughly speaking, Little
Wallachia (southern part of present-day
Romania) and the northern parts of present-day
Bulgaria,
Serbia and
Bosnia. Charles redistributed these territories and proselytized the residents of the region to consolidate his reign.
Although he managed to expand his kingdom, the adverse effect was converting most of the old banates into semi-independent and violently
anti-Hungarian principalities. The predominant religion of the area was Greek-
Orthodox, and forceful
proselytization to
Catholicism provoked rebellion. Natural dynastic competition with the Orthodox Serbian and Bulgarian tsars and the emergence of a new Wallachian State also contributed to the upraising.
Prior to
1320, Western Wallachia (
Oltenia) was regarded by the Hungarians as part of the banate of Szörény (Severin). When the Wallachian ruler,
Basarab I showed signs of disobedience, Charles lead his army toward Wallachia, but on
November 9,
1330, it was ambushed on entering Wallachia, in the
Battle of Posada. King Charles barely escaped, by exchanging clothes with one of his knights. This incident marked the beginning of Wallachia as an independent state.
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Posada Battle |
Unknown to Charles, the
Ottoman Turks had already secured
Asia Minor under the sultans
Osman I and
Orhan I and planned to invade south-eastern Europe to consolidate their realm. The south-eastern European sovereignties were keener on securing their regimes than on co-ordinating their defences. With Charles' policy added into the equation, the Turks could annihilate them one by one. Nevertheless these events happened years after Charles' death, over the course of numerous
Ottoman wars in Europe.
*
* Hungarian:
I. Károly / Károly Róbert,
* Slovak:
Karol I. / Karol Róbert,
* Romanian:
Carol Robert* Latin:
Karolus / Carolus*
His picture on the Hungarian 200 forint banknote*
Armorial of the House Anjou-Sicily*
House of Anjou-Sicily
