Matthias Corvinus place of burial Székesfehérvár Basilica
Last years (1487–1490)
According to the contemporaneous Philippe de Commines, Matthias's subjects feared their King in the last years of his life because he rarely showed mercy towards those he suspected of treachery. He had Archbishop Peter Váradi imprisoned in 1484 and ordered the execution of his Chancellor of Bohemia Jaroslav Boskovic in 1485. He also imprisoned Nicholas Bánfi, a member of a magnate family, in 1487, although he had earlier avoided punishing the old aristocracy. Bánfi's imprisonment seems to have been connected to his marriage to a daughter of John the Mad, Duke of Glogau because Matthias tried to seize this duchy for John Corvinus. John the Mad entered into an alliance with the Duke of Münsterberg Henry of Poděbrady, and declared a war on Matthias on 9 May. Six month later, the Black Army invaded and occupied his duchy.In the meantime, the citizens of Ancona, a town in the Papal States, hoisted Matthias's flag in the hope he would protect them against Venice. Pope Innocent VIII soon protested, but Matthias refused to reject the overture, stating that the link between him and the town would never harm the interests of the Holy See. He also sent an auxiliary troop to his father-in-law, who was waging a war against the Holy See and Venice. The 1482 truce between Hungary and the Ottoman Empire was prolonged for two years in 1488. On this occasion, it was stipulated that the Ottomans were to refrain from invading Wallachia and Moldavia. The following year, Matthias granted two domains to Stephen the Great of Moldavia in Transylvania.Matthias, who suffered from gout, could not walk and was carried in a litter after March 1489. Hereafter, his succession caused bitter conflicts between Queen Beatrice and John Corvinus. Matthias asked Beatrice's brother Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, to persuade her not to strive for the Crown, stating that the "Hungarian people are capable of killing up unto the last man rather than submit to the government of a woman". To strengthen his illegitimate son's position, Matthias even proposed withdrawing from Austria and to confirm Emperor Frederick's right to succeed him, provided the Emperor was willing to grant Croatia and Bosnia to John Corvinus with the title of king.Matthias participated in the lengthy Palm Sunday ceremony in Vienna in 1490, although he had felt so ill that morning that he could not eat breakfast. Around noon, he tasted a fig that proved to be rotten and he became very agitated and suddenly felt faint. The next day he was unable to speak. After two days of suffering, Matthias died in the morning of 6 April. According to Professor Frigyes Korányi, Matthias died of a stroke; Dr. Herwig Egert does not exclude the possibility of poisoning. Matthias's funeral was held in St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna and he was buried in Székesfehérvár Cathedral on 24 or 25 April 1490.
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