Charles I of Hungary

Charles was the grandson of Mary of Hungary, who transferred her claim to the throne after her brother Ladislaus IV died in 1290, though the Hungarian nobles chose Andrew III instead. Invited to Hungary by a Croatian lord in 1300, Charles was crowned with a provisional crown in 1301 after Andrew's death, but most nobles rejected him for Wenceslaus of Bohemia, then Otto of Bavaria. The kingdom had fractured into a dozen provinces ruled by oligarchs, one of whom imprisoned Otto in 1307. Charles won decisive victory at Rozgony in 1312 and spent the next decade reclaiming fortresses and power with help from prelates and lesser nobles, finally becoming undisputed ruler after the last great oligarch died in 1321. His defeat at Posada in 1330, which allowed Wallachia's independence, was seen by contemporaries as divine punishment for his brutal retaliation against a family that tried to kill his own. He rebuilt the kingdom through "office fiefs" that kept officials loyal, opened gold mines that made Hungary Europe's largest producer, minted the first Hungarian gold coins, and at the 1335 Visegrád congress brokered peace between Bohemia and Poland while opening new trad