In 1409, King Sigismund of Hungary bestowed Hunyad castle to a man named Voyk of Wallachia who had served as a Knight in the royal court. His eldest son Janos (adopting the family name Hunyadi) quickly became a renowned military leader trained in Hussite and Renaissance fighting techniques winning many battles and leading Crusades against the Ottomans. In 1453, the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II conquered Constantinople and dispatched 150,000 soldiers to invade Europe. Against all odds, Janos leading an army of mercenaries and poorly equipped peasants defeated the Turks in 1456. The Ottoman invasion of Hungary was set back for 70 years and Hunyadi had saved the day - unfortunately he died from a plague epidemic. His younger son Matthias I (Matthias Corvinus - aka the Raven King) became the famous King of Hungary in 1458 at the age of just 14. The monument shown here depicts Matthias.

Upon successful military campaigns against neighbours, Matthias Corvinus became the King of Bohemia in 1459, conquered Silesia in 1474 and the Duke of Austria in 1487 - conquering Vienna and declaring it the co-capital of Hungary. Most importantly Matthias established the Black Army of Hungary - the first major professional standing army in medieval Europe - which surpassed anything since the Roman Empire. The Black Army was feared worlwide and fought as well-paid full-time mercenaries devoted to the arts of warfare scoring countless victories. Matthias also patronised art and science and built the great royal library - the Bibliotheca Corviniana - which housed the largest collection of books in Europe. Hungary became the first country to the embrace the Renaissance from Italy. Matthias was a master statesman, transformed Hungary into a superpower, corrected wrongs and injustices wherever possible and was popular with the people and nobles.

Hungary was at its peak, but the Ottoman Empire remained a major threat to Europe - in nextdoor Wallachia, the ancestral home of the Corvinus line, Vlad III, also known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracula was waging a war of blood and fear. In 1462 Vlad erected a literal forest of the impaled - 20,000 stakes with the carcasses of Ottomans - at the same time exclaiming how many Ottoman men, women and children he had decapitated. His cruelty was boundless but served effective psychological warfare. Matthias seized the opportunity to capture the despised Vlad and put him under house arrest for 12 years - where rumours are he caught mice and skewered them alive on wooden sticks in his chamber. Anytime the Ottomans would visit Matthias he would wisely make sure Vlad was seated nearby - to great effect. Later Matthias released Vlad under the condition he would serve in his army and fight the Ottomans - which he did - until he was killed by a Turkish assassin.

Matthias married Beatrice of Naples in 1476 but she never bore any children - this was a critical mistake. Instead his only child was with his mistress - Barbara Edelpöck from Austria - the son was named Johannes (or Janos) Corvinus and is hilighted in this spotlight and shown here. Matthias publicly declared Johannes his successor, named him prince and gave him vast territory in Silesia - all the commandants of fortresses in the entire kingdom took an oath of allegiance to Johannes. Matthias even attempted to arrange a marriage between his son and Bianca Maria Sforza of Milan - but his Queen Beatrice interfered. Shortly before Matthias died in 1490 in Vienna, he had tried to get the Holy Roman Empire Frederick III to officially recognise Johannes as Prince Royal of Hungary - this however failed. As soon as Matthias died, the Hungarian Kingdom was in turmoil - the Prince of Poland, eldest son of Casimir IV Jagiellon, was elected King of Hungary. The young prince found himself surrounded by enemies who robbed him of his riches and forced him southwards towards Croatia.

It was said when Matthias was dead, Justice has fled. The Pollack King had no money to run the kingdom, and sold books from the Great Library to raise funds. He was forced to disband the Black Army which he could not afford - this opened the door for Suleiman the Magnificent to invade the capital Buda which was looted and razed. The Great Library was utterly destroyed with the remaining contents scattered from Istanbul to Spain. In 1496 the young Corvinus married Beatrice Frangepan, of Croatian nobility, who bore him a son Christopher the following year (also in this Spotlight). Johannes successfully defended Bosnia against a Turkish invasion but was defeated by Queen Beatrice and his other enemies. He died in 1504 at the age of just 31 along with his two children a few years later. Both Johann and Christopher are buried in the Lepoglava monastery in northern Croatia northeast of Krapina where Johann and Christopher had died. The DNA extracted confirms both the archaeological and historic information.