Charles I of Hungary
Charles I, also known as Charles Robert (Hungarian: Károly Róbert; Croatian: Karlo Robert; Slovak: Karol Róbert; 1288 – 16 July 1342), was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1308 to his death. He was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou and the only son of Charles Martel, Prince of Salerno. His father was the eldest son of Charles II of Naples and Mary of Hungary. Mary laid claim to Hungary after her brother, Ladislaus IV of Hungary, died in 1290, but the Hungarian prelates and lords elected her cousin, Andrew III, king. Instead of abandoning her claim to Hungary, she transferred it to her son, Charles Martel, and after his death in 1295, to her grandson, Charles. On the other hand, her husband, Charles II of Naples, made their third son, Robert, heir to the Kingdom of Naples, thus disinheriting Charles.
"Carol Robert" redirects here. Not to be confused with Carol Roberts.Charles I
1301 / 27 November 1308 - 16 July 1342
spring 1301, Esztergom
15 June 1309, Buda
27 August 1310, Székesfehérvár
Andrew III or Otto
1288
16 July 1342 (aged 53–54)
Visegrád
- Maria of Galicia (disputed)
- Mary of Bytom
- Beatrice of Luxembourg
- Elisabeth of Poland
Charles came to the Kingdom of Hungary upon the invitation of an influential Croatian lord, Paul Šubić, in August 1300. Andrew III died on 14 January 1301, and within four months Charles was crowned king, but with a provisional crown instead of the Holy Crown of Hungary. Most Hungarian noblemen refused to yield to him and elected Wenceslaus of Bohemia king. Charles withdrew to the southern regions of the kingdom. Pope Boniface VIII acknowledged Charles as the lawful king in 1303, but Charles was unable to strengthen his position against his opponent. Wenceslaus abdicated in favor of Otto of Bavaria in 1305. Because it had no central government, the Kingdom of Hungary had disintegrated into a dozen provinces, each headed by a powerful nobleman, or oligarch. One of those oligarchs, Ladislaus III Kán, captured and imprisoned Otto of Bavaria in 1307. Charles was elected king in Pest on 27 November 1308, but his rule remained nominal in most parts of his kingdom even after he was crowned with the Holy Crown on 27 August 1310.
Charles won his first decisive victory in the Battle of Rozgony (at present-day Rozhanovce in Slovakia) on 15 June 1312. After that, his troops seized most fortresses of the powerful Aba family. During the next decade, Charles restored royal power primarily with the assistance of the prelates and lesser noblemen in most regions of the kingdom. After the death of the most powerful oligarch, Matthew Csák, in 1321, Charles became the undisputed ruler of the whole kingdom, with the exception of Croatia where local noblemen were able to preserve their autonomous status. He was not able to hinder the development of Wallachia into an independent principality after his defeat in the Battle of Posada in 1330. Charles's contemporaries described his defeat in that battle as a punishment from God for his cruel revenge against the family of Felician Záh who had attempted to slaughter the royal family.
Charles rarely made perpetual land grants, instead introduced a system of "office fiefs", whereby his officials enjoyed significant revenues, but only for the time they held a royal office, which ensured their loyalty. In the second half of his reign, Charles did not hold Diets and administered his kingdom with absolute power. He established the Order of Saint George, which was the first secular order of knights. He promoted the opening of new gold mines, which made Hungary the largest producer of gold in Europe. The first Hungarian gold coins were minted during his reign. At the congress of Visegrád in 1335, he mediated a reconciliation between two neighboring monarchs, John of Bohemia and Casimir III of Poland. Treaties signed at the same congress also contributed to the development of new commercial routes linking Hungary with Western Europe. Charles's efforts to reunite Hungary, together with his administrative and economic reforms, established the basis for the achievements of his successor, Louis the Great.
Early years[edit]
Childhood (1288–1300)[edit]
Charles was the only son of Charles Martel, Prince of Salerno, and his wife, Clemence of Austria.[1][2] He was born in 1288; the place of his birth is unknown.[1][2][3] Charles Martel was the firstborn son of Charles II of Naples and Charles II's wife, Mary, who was a daughter of Stephen V of Hungary.[4][5] After the death of her brother, Ladislaus IV of Hungary, in 1290, Queen Mary announced her claim to Hungary, stating that the House of Árpád (the royal family of Hungary) had become extinct with Ladislaus's death.[6] However, her father's cousin, Andrew also laid claim to the throne, although his father, Stephen the Posthumous, had been regarded a bastard by all other members of the royal family.[7] For all that, the Hungarian lords and prelates preferred Andrew against Mary and he was crowned king of Hungary on 23 July 1290.[6][8] She transferred her claim to Hungary to Charles Martel in January 1292.[9] The Babonići, Frankopans, Šubići and other Croatian and Slavonian noble families seemingly acknowledged Charles Martel's claim, but in fact their loyalty vacillated between Charles Martel and Andrew III.[10][11]
Charles Martel died in autumn 1295, and his seven-year-old son, Charles, inherited his claim to Hungary.[12][3] Charles would have also been the lawful heir to his grandfather, Charles II of Naples, in accordance with the principles of primogeniture.[12][13] However, Charles II, who preferred his third son, Robert, to his grandson, bestowed the rights of a firstborn son upon Robert on 13 February 1296.[14] Pope Boniface VIII confirmed Charles II's decision on 27 February 1296, excluding the child Charles from succeeding his grandfather in the Kingdom of Naples.[14] Dante Alighieri wrote of "the schemes and frauds that would attack"[15] Charles Martel's family in reference to Robert's alleged manoeuvres to acquire the right to inherit Naples.[16] The 14th-century historian Giovanni Villani also noted that his contemporaries were of the opinion that Robert's claim to Naples was weaker than his nephew's.[16] The jurist Baldus de Ubaldis refrained from setting out his position on the legitimacy of Robert's rule.[16]
The Anonymi descriptio Europae orientalis ("An Anonymous' Description of Eastern Europe"), written in the first half of 1308, claims that "the daughter of the strapping Duke of Ruthenia, Leo, has recently married Charles, King of Hungary".[141][142] Charles also stated in a charter of 1326 that he once travelled to "Ruthenia" (or Halych-Lodomeria) in order to bring his first wife back to Hungary.[143][142] A charter issued on 23 June 1326 referred to Charles's wife, Queen Mary.[144] Historian Gyula Kristó says, the three documents show that Charles married a daughter of Leo II of Galicia in late 1305 or early 1306.[145] Historian Enikő Csukovits accepts Kristó's interpretation, but she writes that Mary of Galicia most probably died before the marriage.[146] The Polish scholar, Stanisław Sroka, rejects Kristó's interpretation, stating that Leo I—who was born in 1292, according to him—could hardly have fathered Charles's first wife.[147] In accordance with previous academic consensus, Sroka says that Charles's first wife was Mary of Bytom from the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty.[148]
The Illuminated Chronicle stated that Charles's "first consort, Maria ... was of the Polish nation" and she was "the daughter of Duke Casimir".[149][141] Sroka proposes that Mary of Bytom married Charles in 1306, but Kristó writes that their marriage probably took place in the first half of 1311.[150][151] The Illuminated Chronicle recorded that she died on 15 December 1317, but a royal charter issued on 12 July 1318 stated that her husband made a land grant with her consent.[152] Charles's next—second or third—wife was Beatrice of Luxembourg, who was a daughter of Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor, and the sister of John, King of Bohemia.[152] Their marriage took place before the end of February 1319.[153] She died in childbirth in early November in the same year.[153] Charles's last wife, Elisabeth, daughter of Władysław I, King of Poland,[154] was born around 1306.[154] Their marriage took place on 6 July 1320.[154]
Most 14th-century Hungarian chroniclers write that Charles and Elisabeth of Poland had five sons.[155] Their first son, Charles, was born in 1321 and died in the same year according to the Illuminated Chronicle.[156] However, a charter of June 1323 states that the child had died in this month.[157] The second son of Charles and Elisabeth, Ladislaus, was born in 1324.[158] The marriage of Ladislaus and Anne, a daughter of King John of Bohemia, was planned by their parents, but Ladislaus died in 1329.[159] Charles's and Elisabeth's third son, Louis, who was born in 1326, survived his father and succeeded him as King of Hungary.[159] His younger brothers, Andrew and Stephen, who were born in 1327 and 1332, respectively, also survived Charles.[159]
Although no contemporaneous or nearly contemporaneous sources made mention of any further children, Charles may have fathered two daughters, according to historians Zsuzsa Teke and Gyula Kristó.[159][160] Zsuzsa Teke writes that they were born to Mary of Bytom, but the nearly contemporaneous Peter of Zittau wrote that she had died childless.[160][158] Gyula Kristó proposes that a miniature in the Illuminated Chronicle, which depicts Elisabeth of Poland and five children, implies that she gave birth to Charles's two daughters, because Kristó identifies two of the three children standing on her right as daughters.[155] The elder of Charles's two possible daughters, Catherine, who was born in the early 1320s, was the wife of Henry II, Duke of Świdnica.[155] Their only daughter, Anne, grew up in the Hungarian royal court after her parents' death, implying that Charles and Elisabeth of Poland were her grandparents.[161] Historian Kazimierz Jasiński says that Elisabeth, the wife of Boleslaus II of Troppau, was also Charles's daughter.[158] If she was actually Charles's daughter, she must have been born in about 1330, according to Kristó.[158]
Charles also fathered an illegitimate son, Coloman, who was born in early 1317.[150][162] His mother was a daughter of Gurke Csák.[162] Coloman was elected Bishop of Győr in 1336.[163]