Was Hungary’s greatest king Romanian?
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Without doubt, King Mathias (1458-1490) was one of the greatest Hungarian kings. During his reign, the Kingdom of Hungary became a European superpower. Mathias kept a regular army of 9-15 thousand strong soldiers, successfully reformed state administration and introduced Renaissance and humanism in his court. Romanian history books write he was Romanian, while Hungarians insist Mathias was Hungarian. Who is right?
Nationality did not exist in the Middle Ages
King Mathias was born on 23 February 1443 as the younger son of János Hunyadi, the later defender of Nánforfehérvár (1456), where he defeated the Ottoman Empire. Bells ring at noon because of that great victory. But was he and his son Romanian or Hungarian?
24.hu talked with Richárd Horváth, a Historian of the Eötvös Loránd Research Network. He said that Mathias could not understand a question regarding his nationality. That is because the notion of ethnicity, which is related to culture, language, history, etc. did not exist back then. There was no such phenomenon in the 15th century as nationality.
People defined themselves by their religion and the lords of monarchs they served. Somewhere in that line, it would probably pop up the lingua franca they spoke, but that was not very important. But that would be an easy way to answer the question of King Mathias’s “nationality”. Let us take a look at the sources.
Mathias’s family is well documented
Thankfully, King Mathias’s family history is well documented. That is because the Hunyadi family died out with the early death of King Mathias’s grandson, Kistóf in 1505. As a result, the Crown inherited the Hunyadi estates, and King Vladislaus II of Hungary (1490-1516) gave them to George of Brandenburg, his cousin. George spent some years in Hungary, but when he realised the Jagiellonian dynasty would not be able to defend itself against the Ottoman expansion, he fled.
Perhaps it is a result of an error in translation but the term lingua franc is used incorrectly here. The literal meaning is language of the Francs but in modern usage it refers to a common language spoken by different ethnic groups in order to communicate. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/lingua-franca For example the current lingua franca is English. I think the term mother tongue is meant in this article.
According to Britannica, “János [Hunyadi – King Mathias father] was of Walachian (Romanian) ancestry, his family originating in Hateg, Transylvania, a region now in Romania.”
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Janos-Hunyadi