Courtiers, diplomats, servants, merchants... Foreigners in account books of the Hungarian court of King Vladislaus Jagiellon from 1494–1495
Authors: Kozák Petr 
Published: December 2022

Courtiers, diplomats, servants, merchants... Foreigners in account books of the Hungarian court of King Vladislaus Jagiellon from 1494–1495

Account books kept at the court of the Hungarian monarchs were destroyed during the tragic events following the Battle of Mohács in 1526. The Hungarian royal archives were lost during the evacuation of the Buda residence. When it comes to records of the incomes and expenditures of the monarch and his court, very few fragments of the original varied material have survived, unfortunately. What is traditionally regarded as the most important source in this group is a register of incomes and expenditures of the Hungarian king or kingdom from 1494–1495, the original of which can be found in the Hungarian National Széchényi Library in Budapest. The manuscript contains a list of the Hungarian throne’s incomes as well as a list of the royal court’s expenditures with a balance sheet compiled by officials of the Hungarian royal treasurer. The aim of the article is to demonstrate the potential of the source with regard to research into the composition of the Hungarian and Bohemian courts under Jagiellon rule. The emphasis is on a group of people who could be described as “foreigners” in the context of the Kingdom of Hungary (or, better still, of Hungary and Croatia) towards the end of the Middle Ages. The 1494–1495 account book is not, in fact, a list of all of King Vladislaus’ incomes and expenditures. In practice, it is a record of “only” those of the monarch’s incomes and expenditures that were covered by the powers of the Hungarian royal treasurer and supervision of the Hungarian estates.
There is no doubt that the monarch’s court always included some individuals
of “foreign” origin. This is especially true of more important monarchs, who at the turn
of the sixteenth century included representatives of the Jagiellonian dynasty. In addition,
the fact that the Jagiellons ruled several monarchies in Central and Eastern Europe naturally strengthened mobility between Jagiellonian courts. After all, individuals of PolishLithuanian origin accompanied Vladislaus Jagiellon in his 1471 journey from Kraków to Prague, and some of them subsequently moved with the king to Buda in 1490. Moreover, the Hungarian metropolis became second home to many of Vladislaus’ “Bohemian” courtiers. In Buda they all met not only royal courtiers of Hungarian origin (including those from Croatia and peripheral parts of Hungary, like Transylvania or Slavonia), but also a mixture of people from Italy, German regions of the empire as well as Bohemia. That is why the crucial question is: Who was and who was not a “foreigner” at Vladislaus’ court? Research carried out by Josef Macek and Pavel Trnka has provided us with an idea of the composition of King Vladislaus’ court only for 1471–1490, when he ruled Bohemia. For the period of 1490–1516, when he ruled not only all Bohemian lands, but also Hungary and Croatia, there are no studies of the composition of his court in Czech or Hungarian historiography. Yet despite the limited knowledge of the composition of the court of King Vladislaus Jagiellon after he became King of Hungary, it is possible to formulate several partial conclusions and identify by name 45 individuals from Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia, though in reality the representation of the noblemen (from the higher and lower nobility) from the lands of the Crown of St. Wenceslas must have been larger, as some courtiers remained anonymous.