Black Army of Hungary | Most Sought-After Mercenaries in Europe

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The Black Army of Hungary is considered one of the most effective mercenary forces of the late Middle Ages. When Hungary was under constant threat from north, south, and west, the king of Hungary, Matthias Hunyadi, known as Matthias Corvinus, found in the Black Army what he needed; a fighting force of stout discipline and dedication. In this video we explore how contemporary historiography tells the story of the Black Army of Hungary.

Bibliography:
Imber, C., The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1650. The Stuctures of Power 2002, p. 254.
Pálosfalvi, T., From Nicopolis to Mohács. A History of Ottoman-Hungarian Warfare, 1389–1526, 2018.
Sebõk, F., s. v. “Narrative 1300-1526” in: Clifford J. Rogers (editor), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology, 2010.
Szabó, J. B., s. v. «Black Army” in: Clifford J. Rogers (editor), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology, 2010.

[SandRhomanHistory]

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[ja]

The history of central Europe is fascinating because on numerous occasions the fate of the continent was decided here yet with a few exceptions it is largely overlooked.

[akechijubeimitsuhide]

King Matthias is the hero of many folk tales in Hungary, usually travelling in disguise and tricking/punishing corrupt officials. Kinizsi, one of his knights, is also something of a folk hero said to have had superhuman strength.

[EdVarkarion]

John Hunyadi is a beloved figure in Hungary, Romania, Croatia and Serbia. The fact that all 4 of these nations can agree on something is itself quite impressive.

[Grubnar]

Matthias Corvinus and his Black Army were the main inspiration for Corvus Corax and his black armoured Space marine Legion, the Raven Guard, in the popular table-top wargame Warhammer 40, 000 by Games Workshop.
The Raven Guard favored mobility, and were masters of scouting, infiltration, and hit and run attacks.

[AGS]

His conquest of Vienna was actually a quite hilarious event. The city itself was opposed to Emperor Friedrich III and always supported his dynastic and political rivals. He in returned hated Vienna, and avoided being there when ever possible (his preferred residence was in Linz).
Now, when Matthias attacked, the city surrendered without much of a fight and welcomed him as a liberator. Plans to use it as a bargain chip during negotiations with the emperor failed, because he did not care. With Vienna, he had lost not a capital, but a nuisance.
So everything stayed in Limbo, until Matthias Corvinus died.

[cmdrTremyss]

As a hungarian, your video has added new insights to my knowledge of this topic, Matthias's reign, some call it the last golden age of Hungary.

[beyhanahmed]

" Mathias The Raven" sounds so epic that it deserves to become a movie title. Must have been one of the most badass rulers in Hungarian history. Reminds me of Griffith from Band of The Falcon from the Berserk series.

[petarkardum]

As a Croatian I still can't face the fact that Matiaš Korvin is gone.

[Artur_M.]

I love your videos and your selection of topics.
It would be awesome to see you cover the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in that period and its wars with Muscovy, for example, Konstanty Ostrogski and the battle of Orsha 1514.

[Aemilius]

As someone who's family comes from Serbia and Southeastern Europe, Matthias Corvinus and his father John Hunyadi, are two of my favorite and beloved people from History! 🛡️🗡️

[anderskorsback]

Habsburgs: We are the defenders of Europe against Ottoman conquest, gib moneyz and troops plox!
Also Habsburgs: Let's claim the Hungarian crown and press our claim while Hungary is busy with the Ottomans.

[HistoryofHungary]

Hey! It’s great to see other channels paying attention to our history! As a Hungarian a personal thank you, but as a history graduate, I’d like to point out a few extra details if you don’t mind:

a, (0:02)The coat of arms on the shields, which you used is the current one, not the historical one. They likely used the hereditary symbols of the Corvinus family (like as seen on the flag at 5:56), since they belonged under the personal command of King Matthias.
b, (4:55) The cross on the Holy Crown of Saint Stephen was not slanted at the time, as we use it today on our coat of arms. The cross’s current state is due to an accident, as it was damaged during transportation after the 1620s.
c, (15:02) Yes, the 1/3rd of the royal income went towards the upkeeping of the army, but it wasn’t like the treasury was empty. Matthias was one of the wealthiest monarchs at the time, thanks to his reforms of the taxation laws. The problem was, that he used the extraordinary war-tax almost continuously, which was supposed to be used in, well, extraordinary situations. In his life he managed to get an iron grip on the nobility, so no one dared to oppose him (except for one short-lived coup). After his death the nobility elected a far more controllable king, who of course complied with their every demand (including tax cuts), thus making the black army disband.
By the way, Tamás Pálosfalvi is undoubtedly a great scholar, but I also recommend the works of András Kubinyi, who is maybe the number one expert on Matthias Corvinus.

I hope this doesn’t come across as nitpicking. I simply brought these up because you did a stellar job describing the events, and I saw your attention to detail.

[_MrPixel_]

The Ottamans: "oh god another hunyadi'

[raypurchase]

Netflix wanted to fund a TV series about the Black Army, until they realised they'd misunderstood the name.
Probably.

[Redactedredacted]

The Black Army will always be among my favorites for its innovativeness and competency.

[rws]

In Hungary, we still admire Mathias Corvinus. We actually have children's movies about him. The one thing why many people want a leader like him is that basically the country under him was "thriving". After his death, the country fell into chaos.

[clintmoor]

So, the landsknechts of the east, or of Hungary. Without the fancy clothes but with pikes as well and also with more cavalry and an awesome circle formation. Seems like these guys were pretty amazing.

[PANCAKEMINEZZ]

Imagine having such a badass title as Corvinus while in command of this exceptional fighting force. I know that's surface level fluff, but I love little things like that.

The Black Army themselves are also really neat, especially their tactic of basically being a mobile fort. I'm taking notes for any novels I write inspired this period.

I love these videos because I've always wanted to see how battle tactics were used to get a sense of scale for how I could write battles like this. I've always avoided the trope of "two armies smash into a brawl" because... Well, that just didn't happen.

[trov_]

The black army was consisted mainly of "Czechs, Germans, Serbs and Poles, in the late period from Hungarians and Croats too.
All of the viable data u can find mostly in books: "Hungary's Philosopher King-Matthias Corvinus from Valery Rees and The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military from Clifford Rogers if you are interested.

You can see it best by inspecting the names and ethnicities of black army commanders.
Most notable would be:
..John Giskra-Czech
..Pal Kinizsi-Hungarian
..Vuk Grgurevic-Serb
..Djordje Brankovic-Serb

Corvinus focus on employing mostly southern (Serbian, Walachian, and Croat) nobles into his service would be their decades-long experiences fighting Turks.
Serbs were known as the Heavy and Light cavalry powerhouse of late medieval times (Serb heavy cavalry won the battle at Nicopolis just on the Ottoman side and successfully repelled Mongolians at the battle of Ankara), Croat border guard was fighting and sabotaging Ottomans for at least 50 years at that time (Famous Uskoci and Croat border raiders) and Walachian archers were well known at that time all across Europe.