Matthias Corvinus

Matthias was fourteen when his uncle rallied the Hungarian Estates to crown him in January 1458, two years after his father - the powerful regent John Hunyadi - had died and one year after his brother was executed on a king's orders. Within two weeks he'd seized real control. He spent the next three decades at war: first against Czech mercenaries and a Holy Roman Emperor who claimed Hungary for himself, then against the Hussite King of Bohemia, carving out Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia while Catholic lords proclaimed him their king in 1469. The Hussites wouldn't bend, so the crown of Bohemia stayed split. He turned south against the Ottomans, reinforced Stephen the Great in Moldavia, took the border fort of Šabac in 1476, then pivoted back west to occupy Lower Austria by 1487. At home he raised taxes to extraordinary levels, put down a rebellion in Transylvania, broke the barons' grip, and promoted talent over blood. His Black Army was one of the first professional forces in medieval Europe; his library in Buda held more books than almost any collection on the continent. He died in April 1490 with no legitimate son, and the state he'd willed into being didn't su