On the Manifold Identities of John Corvinus: The Question of Origins in Political Power Play at the End of the Fifteenth Century

Abstract

According to the wishes of his father, King Matthias, John Corvinus should have become king of Hungary (the ideal dynastic case) or at least king of Bosnia (and maybe Croatia), in agreement with the House of Habsburg. Nothing came of it, as it is well-known. The co-king of Bohemia, Ladislaus II Jagiellon, was elected king of Hungary and John had to concede defeat and, gradually, “make a living” at the borders of the Ottoman Empire. By mid-1497, John Corvinus had reached agreements with Maximilian I of Habsburg, king of the Romans and co-king of Hungary, and with the Republic of Venice, becoming a citizen and a noblemen of the “strange ally” of late Matthias. John, however, did not renounce his allegiance to Ladislaus II, as the rightful ( de iure ) king of Hungary. As a result, for the final seven years of his life (1497–1504), John Corvinus seemingly had three “masters”: Ladislaus, Maximilian and Venice. The presentation aims to explore the impact of these political ties on the (royal) territories under the administration of John Corvinus and on his “other family”, by marriage (since 1496), the Frankopans (the Frangepans).