55 Facts About John Hunyadi

John Hunyadi adopted the Hussite method of using wagons for military purposes.

John Hunyadi employed professional soldiers, but mobilized local peasantry against invaders.

In 1442, John Hunyadi won four victories against the Ottomans, two of which were decisive.

John Hunyadi actively took part in the civil war between the partisans of Wladislas I and the minor Ladislaus V, two claimants to the throne of Hungary in the early 1440s, on behalf of the former.

John Hunyadi was popular among the lesser nobility, and in 1445 the Diet of Hungary appointed him one of the seven "Captains in Chief" responsible for the administration of state affairs until Ladislaus V came of age.

John Hunyadi had by this time become one of the wealthiest landowners in the kingdom, and preserved his influence in the Diet up until his death.

John Hunyadi's fame was a decisive factor in the election of his son, Matthias Corvinus, as king by the Diet of 1457.

John Hunyadi is a popular historical figure among Hungarians, Romanians, Serbs, Bulgarians, and other nations of the region.

The identification of John Hunyadi's mother is even less certain.

The 16th-century scholar, Antun Vrancic wrote that John Hunyadi had been "a native" of the Hatszeg region.

Finally, Antonio Bonfini says that at the beginning of his career John Hunyadi worked either for Demeter Csupor, Bishop of Zagreb or for the Csakys.

John Hunyadi accompanied Sigismund to Italy in 1431 and upon Sigismund's order he joined the army of Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan.

Bonfini says that John Hunyadi "served two years" in the Duke's army.

John Hunyadi again joined the entourage of Sigismund, who had in the meantime been crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Rome, at the very end of 1433.

John Hunyadi seems to have studied the Hussites' tactics on this occasion, because he later applied its featuring elements, including the use of wagons as a mobile fortress.

In contrast with them, Muresanu says that John Hunyadi served King Albert in Bohemia for at least a year, until the end of 1438.

John Hunyadi mortgaged a Vlach district in Temes County to them.

Since Nicholas of Ilok spent most of his time in the royal court, in practice John Hunyadi administered Transylvania and the southern borderlands alone.

John Hunyadi set about repairing the walls of Belgrade, which had been damaged during an Ottoman attack.

John Hunyadi scored a pitched battle victory over Ishak Bey, the commander of Smederovo.

John Hunyadi was taken by surprise and lost the first battle near Marosszentimre.

John Hunyadi placed Basarab II on the princely throne of Wallachia, but Basarab's opponent Vlad Dracul returned and forced Basarab to flee in early 1443.

John Hunyadi established a vigorous offensive posture in his battles, which enabled him to counteract the numerical superiority of the Ottomans through decisive maneuver.

John Hunyadi employed mercenaries, increasing the professionalism in his ranks and supplementing the numerous irregulars mustered from local peasantry, whom he had no reservations about employing in the field.

John Hunyadi commanded the vanguards and routed four smaller Ottoman forces, hindering their unification.

An eminent representative of Renaissance humanism in Hungary, John Vitez became Hunyadi's close friend around that time.

John Hunyadi proposed King Vladislaus to confirm the advantageous treaty, but Cardinal Cesarini urged the monarch to continue the crusade.

John Hunyadi narrowly escaped from the battlefield, but was captured and imprisoned by Wallachian soldiers.

John Hunyadi was assigned to administer the lands east of the river Tisza.

John Hunyadi was planning to organize a new crusade against the Ottoman Empire.

John Hunyadi's election was primarily promoted by the lesser nobility, but Hunyadi had by that time become one of the richest barons of the kingdom.

John Hunyadi's domains covered an area exceeding 800,000 hectares.

John Hunyadi was one of the few contemporaneous barons who spent a significant part of their revenues to finance the wars against the Ottomans, thus bearing a large share of the cost of fighting for many years.

John Hunyadi's troops plundered Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, but no decisive battle was fought.

John Hunyadi accelerated his negotiations, which had been commenced in the previous year, with Alfonso the Magnanimous, King of Aragon and Naples.

John Hunyadi even offered the crown to Alfonso in exchange for the King's participation in an anti-Ottoman crusade and the confirmation of his position as governor.

John Hunyadi made a new attempt to expel Count Ulrich of Celje from Slavonia, but could not defeat him.

The prelates and the barons confirmed the treaty and assigned Brankovic to negotiate with the Ottomans, and John Hunyadi resigned from the office of Voivode of Transylvania.

John Hunyadi invaded the lands controlled by John Jiskra and his Czech mercenaries in the autumn of 1449, but could not defeat them.

The King even authorized John Hunyadi to keep the royal castles and royal revenues that he possessed at that time.

John Hunyadi accompanied the young King to Prague and concluded a treaty with Ulrich Eizinger and George of Podebrady at the end of the year.

John Hunyadi, who was well aware that the King attempted to limit his authority, demanded an explanation, but the King denied that he had knowledge of his representatives' act.

John Hunyadi made a raid against the Ottoman Empire and destroyed Vidin before returning to Belgrade.

John Hunyadi and Count Ulrich were reconciled in next month, when John Hunyadi's younger son, Matthias and the Count's daughter, Elizabeth were engaged.

John Hunyadi proceeded to form a relief army, and assembled a fleet of 200 ships on the Danube.

Processions to celebrate John Hunyadi's triumph were made in Venice and Oxford.

John Hunyadi was buried in the Roman Catholic St Michael's Cathedral in Gyulafehervar.

John Hunyadi sent a special courier, Erasmus Fullar, to Oxford with the news of the victory.

Romanian historiography adopted John Hunyadi and gives him a place of importance in the history of Romania too.

Pietro Ranzano wrote in his work Annales omnium temporum that John Hunyadi was commonly called "Ianco"'.

John Hunyadi is portrayed as an ardent supporter of the Catholicization of Orthodox peoples.

In Bulgarian folklore, the memory of John Hunyadi was preserved in the epic song hero character of Yankul Voivoda, along with Sekula Detentse, a fictitious hero perhaps inspired by John Hunyadi's nephew, Thomas Szekely.

John Hunyadi was subsidiary to Roger de Flor as the role model for the fictional character of Tirant lo Blanc, the epic romance written by Joanot Martorell, published in Valencia in 1490.

Hungarian genre author Mor Ban wrote a thirteen-part historical fantasy adventure book series about a fictionalized biography of John Hunyadi, released between 2008 and 2023.

In Rise of the Raven, John Hunyadi devotes his life to defending Europe against the Ottoman invasion.