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3. Matthias’ Accession to the Throne
In March 1457, the fourteen-year-old Matthias Hunyadi, together with his elder brother László and the nobles loyal to the family, was arrested by King Ladislas V. A few days later, his brother was executed for the murder of Ulrich von Cilli, and Matthias was to stay in captivity for ten months. Ladislas V took him with him first to Vienna and then to Prague. An attempt to seize the family’s estates was unsuccessful, however, because Matthias’ mother Erzsébet Szilágyi and his uncle Mihály Szilágyi held off the troops of the King’s party. Ladislas V died on 23 November 1457, and since he had no children, the country’s magnates had to elect a ruler.
Erzsébet Szilágyi made a contract with the Garai family, one of the most powerful in Hungary, under which the Garais would support Matthias’ election in exchange for Matthias marrying Anna Garai, as his queen. On 24 January 1458, the Rákos Diet elected Matthias king and made Mihály Szilágyi governor of the realm for five years.
In the meantime, Matthias, still in captivity, had made a pact to marry the daughter of the governor of Bohemia, George of Poděbrady, in return for his freedom. The Hungarian envoys to the Bohemians consented to the new bargain. Kunigunde of Poděbrady (known as Katherine in Hungary) arrived in 1461, but the marriage was cut short in 1464 by the death of the fifteen-year-old queen in her first childbirth.
Matthias arrived in Buda on 14 February 1458, but since the Holy Crown had been in the possession of Emperor Frederick III for fifteen years, the coronation could not take place. The event was substituted by spectacular processions, the making of promises analogous to the coronation oath, and symbolic judgments. A few days later, George of Poděbrady, who sided with the Hussites, was crowned King of Bohemia by two Hungarian bishops sent for the purpose. Matthias rid himself of Mihály Szilágyi’s guardianship the same year. The crown was retrieved from Frederick in 1463 and the coronation took place on in Székesfehérvár on Holy Thursday, 29 March 1464.
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