Return to the Eyrie
Medieval Hungary
by Katerina Dunne
Honour, revenge, and the quest for justice.
Belgrade, Kingdom of Hungary, 1470
Raised in exile, adolescent noblewoman Margit Szilágyi dreams of returning to her homeland of Transylvania to avenge her father's murder and reclaim her stolen legacy. To achieve this, she must break the constraints of her gender and social status and secretly train in combat. When the king offers her a chance at justice, she seizes it - even if it means disguising herself as a man to infiltrate the vultures' nest that now occupies her ancestral 'eyrie'.
Plagued by childhood trauma and torn between two passionate loves, Margit faces brutal battles, her murderous kin's traps and inner demons on her quest for vengeance. Only by confronting the past can she reclaim her honour - if she can survive long enough to see it through. Return to the Eyrie is an epic coming-of-age tale of a young woman's unwavering pursuit of justice and destiny in 15th century Hungary.
* Find our 5* Editorial Review of Return to the Eyrie HERE! *
The political background in the Kingdom of Hungary during the reign of King Mátyás Hunyadi – nicknamed Matthias Corvinus (1458-1490)
Although the plot of Return to the Eyrie is a personal story of the heroine, it takes place against a complicated political background in the Kingdom of Hungary.
Right from the start of his reign in early 1458, King Mátyás faced massive challenges to his rule. He found the country bitterly divided after a brief civil war and almost bankrupt. Mátyás was only enthroned at that time but not crowned because the Hungarian Holy Crown was in the hands of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III.
 |
| The regalia of the Hungarian Kingdom at Visegrád citadel ((c) Katerina Dunne) |
In addition, the fact that he was a member of the higher nobility rather than a royal relative, posed a question of legitimacy. Both Frederick III (a distant relative of the deceased King László V of the Habsburg line) and the Polish King Casimir IV (who was married to one of László’s sisters) vied for the Hungarian throne and opposed Mátyás’ election. At the same time, the Bohemian Hussites occupied large parts of Upper Hungary, especially areas that were rich in minerals such as silver. Last but not least, the Ottoman threat was never too far away.
Mátyás needed to deal with one problem at a time.The first thing he did when he sat on the throne was to push aside his uncle, Mihály Szilágyi, and any other barons who wanted to rule in his stead due to the King’s young age.
Those barons rebelled in 1459 and offered throne to Frederick, which led to various skirmishes with the forces of the Emperor and also the Hussites of Bohemia in the early 1460s. Mátyás made peace with both. After securing the loyalty of a major Hussite commander, he incorporated his soldiers into the professional army that he had started to build (later named The Black Army).
 |
| Armour and weapons of Black Army soldiers at the Visegrád citadel museum ((c) Katerina Dunne) |
Following his treaty with the Emperor, he managed to buy back the Hungarian Holy Crown for the huge sum of 80,000 gold florins and get crowned with the appropriate ceremony in March 1464.
After a campaign in Bosnia against the Ottomans with mixed results during the same year, Mátyás knew not to expect any significant assistance from the Pope and the Christian world.
His taxation reforms caused a rebellion in Transylvania in 1467, which he crushed violently. Then, he invaded Moldavia, on the suspicion that its prince, Stefan, had incited the rebellion. But he lost a major battle and had to retreat.
The early 1470s were spent in campaigns to the north, where he conquered Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia, but did not succeed to get the Bohemian throne because the Bohemians elected his rival, Wladyslaw (the son of the Polish king) instead.
In the winter of 1475-76 he succeeded in wresting the fortress of Szabács from the Ottomans, and in the autumn of 1476 he sent troops from Transylvania to support the Moldavian Prince Stefan (with whom he had now become allies) and the Wallachian Prince Vlad Dracul III against the Ottomans.
After lengthy negotiations, he signed a peace treaty with Wladyslaw in 1477. In the following years, Mátyás got involved in campaigns literally everywhere, supporting various candidates for the thrones of neigbouring principalities and also assisting other allies, such as his father-in-law, Ferdinand of Naples, to recapture Otranto from this Ottomans in 1481.
Eventually, his peace with Frederick collapsed, and they were at war again. Mátyás conquered Vienna in 1485, where he moved his court. He was negotiating his possible future designation as Holy Roman Emperor when he died in April 1490.
Even his death was a controversial event, with many historians believing that he was poisoned by his wife, Beatrix of Naples. Leaving only an illegitimate son but no legitimate heir from his marriage to her, Mátyás’ death plunged the Kingdom of Hungary into a new era of internal conflict.
Despite his turbulent reign, his heavy taxation and his wars, his legacy has remained in the Hungarian national conscience as the rule of Mátyás the Just. As some historians have pointed out, this was possibly the result of his conquests to the north and west and his suppression of the barons who opposed him. In sharp contrast to the decline of the Kingdom of Hungary during the following century, Mátyás’ era was viewed by the later generations of Hungarians as a period of glory, creating a sense of nostalgia for a time of successes and fuelling the national pride.
As for the question why he kept a rather defensive stance against the Ottomans despite his formidable professional army, an interesting historical opinion is that he realised that in order to defeat the Ottomans completely, he needed to unite the Christian powers of Central Europe first and face the Ottomans from a position of strength.
In the below map, one can see the full picture of the military activity during the reign of Mátyás in Hungary and abroad:
.png) |
The campaigns of King Mátyás (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Corvinus#/media/File: The_wars_of_Matthias_Corvinus_of_Hungary_(1458-1490).png) |
Katerina Dunne
Katerina Dunne is the pen-name of Katerina Vavoulidou. Originally from Athens, Greece, Katerina has been living in Ireland since 1999. She has a degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Athens, an MA in Film Studies from University College Dublin and an MPhil in Medieval History from Trinity College Dublin.
Katerina is passionate about history, especially medieval history, and her main area of interest is 13th to 15th century Hungary. Although the main characters of her stories are fictional, Katerina uses real events and personalities as part of her narrative in order to bring to life the fascinating history of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, a location and time period not so well-known to English-speaking readers.
Return to the Eyrie (published April 2024) is the second book in the Medieval Hungary series, a sequel to Lord of the Eyrie (published in February 2022).
Connect with Katerina:
No comments:
Post a Comment