John Hunyadi

Born around 1406 to a noble family of Wallachian ancestry, Hunyadi learned war on Hungary's southern frontiers, where Ottoman raiding parties tested every defense. Appointed Ban of Szörény in 1439 and Voivode of Transylvania in 1441, he adapted Hussite wagon tactics and fielded both professional soldiers and peasant levies - innovations that delivered four victories in 1442 alone, including the first major European defeat of a full Ottoman provincial army with janissaries at Szeben. Though he lost at Varna in 1444 and Kosovo in 1448, his "Long Campaign" deep into the Balkans made his name, and by 1446 the Diet elected him sole regent for the child-king Ladislaus V. He amassed roughly four million acres - the largest landholding in Hungarian history - and spent that wealth on frontier war. In July 1456, commanding the defense of Belgrade against the sultan himself, Hunyadi broke the siege; the Pope ordered every church in Europe to ring its bells at noon in thanksgiving, a custom that persists today. Three weeks later he was dead of camp fever, but his victories had bought Hungary more than sixty years' reprieve, and his reputation secured the throne for his son