@jack steed The army was called Black Army only after Mátyás' death. Some say Hunyadi family's sigil is a black crow, that's why the black. Some say they started to wear a black armband after their king's demise. Some say it was because of the last commander's name (Black Haughwitz (CZ) ). Some say it was because they wore black armor.
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.
@John Doe Bullshit. Austria, bohemia,poland and slovakia is exactly in middle. In fact its closer to the french shores than to the uralus so its maybe even more west than east :D
@Renzo falcon The Poles were very badly crushed by the Mongols , they were also very weak against the Ottomans , the Mongols and the Ottomans were not stopped , they stopped themselves .
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.
My family keep a document from him with nobility title and kind lot of land ( most of the land i keep it even today - some was stolen by communist state and never return), my direct line ancestors were in the Black army.
Akechi Mitsuhide; Mátyás és Kinizsi is valoságos személyek voltak és nem mesehősök!, a Tokugava dinasztiábol származó japán császárók is a valoságban léteztek!, és nem mesehősök voltak?!.☝😀😉
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.
yes and Germany didn't lost WW2, just Hitler didn't care about Germany anymore! He was care about his own prestige and sensitive proudness! in this logic Germany didn't lose WW2....
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.
@Bruce Lee No it isnt. I cant even explain how wrong you are :D Ever heard about Ugrofinnic people? It was nomads from siberia, one sided with huns and went further to europe and others went north.
@Alex Al Well sayd. There quite misconconception with states and nationality. Because nationality wasnt a thing until early 19.century - people were loyal to their landlord which was loyal to the king which probably didnt even spoke common language of their people.
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.
In ancient times in eastern Europe, the word Black was used to refer to the lowest classes of society (artisans, small traders), conversely, the term Light (white) was applied to the upper class of society, therefore, the name Black Army had the meaning the People's Army or the People 's Militia
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.
thank you for your comment, wanted to write the same about the coat of arms! I wouldnt think its nitpicking, details are important, think about Pozsonyi csata :D Kubinyi
@Om Namah Shivayais it really so hard to understand that they would rather be a stable cleaner than have a split demon hole reeking of rose water serving under the Turks?
"Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." - James 4:8. You can start a relationship with God today
" 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.
@April Fool It's alright! You're right as well, the Hunyadis as a whole were well established already. I think the folklore and the modern perception of the family is to blame for that. For example, it took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that Mátyás wasn't crowned king because the crown literally fell on his head three times like in the opening of the cartoon about him. The stories make it sound like it's only logical that his father was a king as well.
@Tímea Gyenes I know, my bad; he wasn't however "an upstart" Somehow I always had this idea in my head that Hunyadi was a king, but you're right, of course, I was wrong
@April Fool János Hunyadi was never king. He was Hungary's regent, the governor for the time the king, Ladislaus V was still a minor (1446-1453). Considering how during this period, despite being one of the richest barons of Hungary and his previous military successes, a council (országtanács) was set up to oversee and limit his power as governor (gyámkormányzó), thus not even allowing him full access to every royal prerogative.
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.
@SandRhoman History CORRECT IT! Just a minimal geographic knowledge: Hungary is not located on the Balkan peninsula. Neither was part of the Oriental (semi-Asian) Orthodox civilization of Balkans.
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.
That is for hollywood. Real life is much more tactical. I like that war what was between the Germans and Hungary, the Germans collected one of their biggest army and attacked Hungary thinking they can win every battle. The hungarians burned everything in front of the german army and continously retreated to the middle of their country, when they had to stop they stopped in the best place they could with strong rested army, the germans were starving and tired, the battle was quick and the germans had to throw their shield and armor to save their life from the attacking hungarians. I love how the war started with a stronger attacked the weaker and it ended with the stronger attacked the weaker. Real life war is not about fair fight. :)
One of my ancestor was a "Bán" (govenor) at Coratia for a short time. Mathias ordered his and his army to encounter a way larger turkish battlegroup. My ancestor denied that command. That was pretty rare at that times if you know what i mean :D After that he was summoned to Buda, but hi was not executed after all. Thats how we know Matias acknowledged his courage cos he disobeyed an order to spare his mans. Btw his lost his "Bán" title.. xD
@raze83 Those where hard times. Matthias was a good king after all, but his temper was kinda "unbalanced". Might be that's comes from the Turul bloodline.
My buddy's ancestor (Jakó nemzettség) has hit the king in the face during a feud. He was not executed but all his lands have been taken away and given to the Tisza family.
Thank you for the interesting story. Fascinating personal histories or stories such as your’s are why I keep coming back to the KZclip comments section.
His father, John Hunyady, has a number of major clashes with the Ottomans, with mixed results (including some significant Ottomans wins). The last one, the battle of Belgrade was a victory against Sultan Mehmed II. During Matthias' time, the two Romanian principalities, Moldavia and Muntenia (Wallachia), led by Stephen the Great and Vlad Tepes, respectively, had some major confrontations with large Ottoman armies (also with mixed results), sometimes led by sultans. Mathias supported Stephen the Great with funds and small military contingents, and this was one of the ways to avoid direct conflict. Instead, he failed to effectively help Vlad Tepes. With several enemy countries in the area, the Ottomans probably also avoided a major conflict with the Kingdom of Hungary, which was the strongest of them.
Valal protects Valach Valach he is not a sheohed. Here overy one owns a montiin Valach Vlach is not a certain word. Cemnades wrote nonsense. You don't get the privilege for tending sheep
@homeless King K but france and england was miles away from the balkans and they never had any conflict with the ottomans infact the french had some alliances with them to kick austrias ass. So in central europe hungary was the strongest
@Darius Codreanu "being a minority in your own country imagine that" The Romani people in Romania:🗿 The whites in South Africa:🗿 Romans inthe Roman Empire:🗿
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.
@Prophetrexlexful becouse he realy didn't care about the ottomans. His main goal was to secure the holy roman empire. He was good at defeating the austrians, unlike the ottomans whom he couldn't defeat. His father could defeat them, but that's a different story....
I find this time of Hungarian history and the Black Army in particular really fascinating. I am currently even writing a fantasy manga based in the time period just prior to the passing of Matthias and the subsequent disbandment of the force. Should be interesting :)
@Csordas Levente en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Army_of_Hungary The black army was not the only large standing mercenary army of Matthias Corvinus. Meanwhile the border castles of the north, west and east were guarded mostly by the retinues of the nobility of the respective counties of the realm, these fortress/castle garrisons were financed by the counties, however the Ottoman frontier zone of southern Hungary had a large professional standing army too which was paid by the king. Unlike the soldiers of the Black army, these large mercenary castle garrisons were trained for castle defence. No other contemporary European realm would have been able to maintain two large parallel permanent forces for so long.[12]
@Péter Jánossy As I never stated that the two states were one, not in this argument and not in the older, I dont know how to reply to you. With that in mind, (and the fact, that I cannot likely change your mind) I leave the argument.
@Csordas Levente No, transylvania was against the very interest of Hungary and Hungarian people. The sad truth: Transylvanian princes often contributed the genocide of ethnic Hungarian population with the Ottomans. They also championed for the wallachian immigration to Transylvania. Hungary did not became part of Austria after Mohács (as you try to suggest) but remained a separate state. It became part of Austria only the short 1849-1867 period. Learn the basic legal history of early modern era Humgary here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Hungarian_Compromise_of_1867
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.
Much of the black army were in fact bohemian hussites. Their tactic of using firearms and fortified chariots was proved to be very effective against cavalry and infantry. Until Mohacs these merceneries was one of the most popular soldiers for hire.
@Ein Ehrenmannthe eastern powers never fought with western honor, go look at the Russian Nobel who challenged the Mongolians to a honor duel. The Nobel slaughtered the entire group, went on a rampage and was only taken down by a anti siege weapon. Even the Vikings were more honorable and typically more traditional than the ottomans or the Mongolians were.
@huntclan hunt No, landsknechts rarely used firearms before the 16th century, they were late adopter of arquebus. Matthias recognized the importance and key role of early firearms in the infantry, which greatly contributed to his victories.[3] Every fourth soldier in the Black Army had an arquebus, which was an unusual ratio at the time. The high price of medieval gunpowder prevented them from raising it any further.[4] Even a decade after the disbandment of the Black Army, by the turn of the 16th century, only around 10% of the soldiers of Western European armies used firearms.[5][6]
Yes! I remember having read about that mercerenary army with unusually high ratio of gunpowder arms in it, but couldn't find much more info about it's exploits. I also remember, that I've been searching about another mercenary unit called Black Company...
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.
Just came across this video and your info about the black army of Hungary. I believe that Frederick was a black.man myself but you stating that the army consisted of blacks from Poland, Chek, Serb and Germans make me wonder why there are no history in these countries about black people as a whole Those who control the lenses also controls the narratives from then to today but slowly, the dust is disappearing, doors are opening and narratives are being challenged more.....
@baba catalin Again, Gesta Hungarorum is only accepted reliable source in romania. Neither Hungary Czechs Slovak Croat and Serb historians suport it in the region. In Globally: English German and American historians also reject it, as unreliable source. Following your logic, according to Gesta, there were no Slavs in Eastern parts of Hungary, but there are Khazars in Transylvania, there are Jassic and Cumans before the Hungarians (nonsense) And Croatia was established by Hungary. They don't know about Frankish rulers and Byzantine rulers, neither about Great Moravia. So gesta Hungarorum goes against all older chronicles writtn by Byzantines Kievian Polish or German writers of earlier era.
@Péter Jánossy i gave like 20 sources and you speak of only one. Furthermore, you have problems with Anonymous but you use an article wich is not signed but written by an "want to be historian" probably magyar. Vlach were not nomads. Migrants and nomads is not the same thing. Have you hearth of Aurelian retreat? And yes, Dacians have ADN roots in the south of Balkans, they were part of the Thracians family so that no new thing for anybody who read an history book in his live.
There's a reason Matthias's ability when leading Hungary in Civilization 6 is a major boost to levied troops from city states. Why produce armies when you can simply hire them?
As a rule of thumb, behind the achievments of a king that has the cognomen "The Great" are hidden tremendous efforts of the state to achieve them. Those kings usually leave a bankrupted state with a multitude of problems for the descends to solve. 30 years after Matthias Corvinus' reign, the Kingdom of Hungary has lost its independence for 350 years, Edward II has lost the dominance over Scotland years after Edward I reign, the empire of Charles V has been split even during his lifetime. The kings that establish durable foundations for their countries are the ones that have the cognomen "the spider" ie those that have a balanced policy of building economy and performing small steps to avhieve thier goals. Of course sometimes this is not possible without reforming the system which is in most cases impossible. For example the Matthias couldn't change the feudal system in Hungary and become an absolutiste monarch. He could only cover the setbacks of the feudal system with great costs from the crown to finance the Black Army, but this further weaken the central authority and have given more influence to the local lords which in turn have lead to the destruction of Hungarian feudal state.
There was no bankrupcy after King Matthias. Actually he organized the tax collecting system very well. And the Habsburg king was actually inherited the kingdom after King John died and left the crown to Frederick instead of his own son.
@Péter Jánossy let's 1526-1699 - Hungary was at first divided in pashaliks and gradually the Habsburgs have conquered them from turks. 1699 - Karlowitz Treaty - the whole Hungary unde Habsburg rule 1699-1848 - Habsburg rule, 1848 - The Revolution of 1848 in which the hungarians armies where curshed by the Habsburg and Russian armies 1867 - the reform of the Habsburg domains - Austro-Hungary. The Hungarians still couldn't elect their rulles, 1914-1918 - WWI, the disolution of the Habsburg monarchy, 1919 - The Socialist revolution curshed by the Romanian Army which would retreat and the Hungarians will finally have the chanse to choose their government 1526-1867 with a grain of salt, but more likely 1919. Almost 400 years. Did I miss somthing?
It's false that it was the financial burden, Corvinus increased his treasury by 300% by taxing the nobles instead of depending on them to finance armies. After Corvinus died, the Hungarian nobles offered the crown to the Polish dynasty of Jagelovich if the new king disbands the Black Army ergo no more taxes, under the promise that the nobles will defend the land as they always had. Of course when the Ottomans attacked, other nobles failed to react and the Hungarian border defenses were taken over one by one with no professional army to rush to their aid. It was the Habsburgs after their election as rulers of Croatia and Hungary that the new military frontier was established, dedicated to the defense and subserviently only to the king - the Grancers were born.
Nobles were not taxed in Hungarian history ever, until 1848 tax exemption was one of their most basic rights. Matthias did increase taxes, but the one that made the finance of the black army possible was the extraordinary war tax (collected once/twice a year: 1 gold forint per every serf household) and the tax from silver and gold mining, also the 1/30 tax at the borders and the “smoke money” (in Hungarian) that was if I remember correctly 18 silver denars per every serf household. He also got money from the Pope. However these huge tax burdens made economic growth impossible, so it did have some serious negative consequences
A lot of the taxes came from peasants, cities and other communities. EVERYONE was taxed more during his reign. And as the video points out, the banderium and militia portalis kept existing, so the nobility was still required to defend the realm during the Black Army's time.
@mako ado Very little gold actually was imported from the Americas into Europe. Spain found more silver which it then traded in East Asia for gold at a favorable rate. It tanked Spain's economy, but unlike Spain, Hungary was a very productive kingdom. The deflation of gold/silver wouldn't have affected them as much because of the rise of price of goods. The East Adriatic and the Pannonian basin were very productive and rich for its time. Venice and Austria would have been far more affected by the devaluation of gold since they depended far more on trade and the circulation of money for their income.
@Bart Hoving The Austrians funded the defense of Croatia from only three regions, Hungary with it's control over the east Adriatic and fertile lowlands of the Pannonian basin had far better domestic production and trade. If Austria managed to fund the Military frontier for half a millennia, don't you think a bigger and wealthier nation like Hungary could manage the same for a longer border? Of course a successor could enforce them, that's how modern centralized states came into existence in the first place. King get's money, > king makes army > king forces nobles to pay him protection money through threat of force > nobles can't afford troops and depend on the king > absolutism is born. Corvinus reached step two and then died, a foreign dynasty was then offered a crown in exchange for guarantees which would stop the centralization of power with the crown. This is not a new song and dance, the kingdom was suffering under feudal anarchy for a long time. They forced king Andrew II. to give up so much power in Hungary with the "Golden Bull of 1222", he was basically king in name only. His son Bela IV. called upon the nobles to defend the kingdom from the Mongols but they ignored his call to arms. King SIgismund had to kill a bunch of them when they crowned a pretender and imprisoned his fiancé. This was the reason for Hungary's pain - the lack of unity. The lack of a strong central authority made it easy for foreign powers with an iota of cohesion to chip away at it. The same problem can be seen in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth where foreign bribes made the nobility sabotage all the king's efforts until the nation was partitioned and one of the strongest nations in Europe disappeared seemingly without a shot being fired.
Well Done! You seem to interested in the true side of the Hungarian history keep it up. It is sadly a underrated topic while in reality it's history is very high rated quality.
I love these videos, so much of new knowledge in realy understandable format. Explanation is clear, maps are nice for orientation and these arts are just amazing. They look like they were drawn by amaterish, but talented hand. Hand drawn pictures are my soft spot, they can tell more than digital art. They are original arts, or they have some kind of published predecessors? Only from time to time, some of the models do have too big heads, this is because of reusing the "body"? Otherwise *really good* job :)
Hey, thank you so much! Yeah, the artwork is produced by a few artists by hand. Well, this is true for the characters. The backgrounds are made digitally. The big heads are my own error. I photoshop all of our illustration to mix and match them, to keep everything looking as new as possible (within the constraints of our budget). Sometimes I get the proportions wrong.
Really interesting presentation! A comment on the vocabulary: if you translate the Hungarian Battle of Kenyérmező into the English "Battle of Breadfield", why don't you translate Mathias into Mathew? Especially because Mathias is Latin, in Hungarian it is Mátyás. It is common to translate the names of kings. Another comment on illustration: a few of your images present only left-handed warriors.
This was a great video! You mention that they were mercanaries in the title but don't really talk about when they were mercernaries. You mostly speak on the formation and existance within Hungary. I would absolutely love to learn more. Please make more videos. Thank you
They disbanded after Matthias's death. They looted nearby villages for food when they ran out of money, so Kinizsi Pál and other officers with a loyal group had to beat the rest to stop the pillaging. After that they went and sought for other lords or ways of living.
"Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." - James 4:8. You can start a relationship with God today
in Poland we call Vladislav III "of Varna" (Warneńczyk) he's remembered for not just losing that battle, but getting killed there in a somewhat mysterious manner (his body was never found, rumours had it that the sultan kept his head in a pot of honey)
Well in Hungary we are thought that he died attacking the personal guard of the sultan. It is said that because of his young age and being inexperienced he charged the ottomans with his cavalry, however the personal guard (who had a well-defendable position with spikes against cavalry) butchered them and after the king’s death the Hungarian army basically collapsed. But anyway, much love from Hungary!❤️
We used to say about King Mathias, that Mathias the righteus, and after he died, the justice is died with him. He was our last king. After his death Hungary remained weakened.
I was waiting for you to make a video about the "Hungarian Black Army", perhaps one of the most effective mercenary armies in history, the first time I heard about them was through Age of Empires 2. Could you also make a video of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba "the great captain" and his creation of the Colonelía, the first modern army (not that of Gustavo Adolfo, who in my opinion does not deserve to be called the father of the modern army, was not the first to introduce firearms in armies) and direct predecessor of the Tercio, I know you mentioned it in the video of the Spanish Tercios, but its history is quite interesting and its battles deserve to be better covered.
You should start a relationship with Jesus. Start fasting to increase your perception, pray for Him to intervene in your life and stop sinning to the best of your ability. You can get results
They were also called the Back Legion. From what I understand it was because of the black armor, there's depictions of many of them with black armor. Also you going to have a large army it makes sense. The blackened steel can be made from a hot forge process and just shaped, assembled, and ready to equip without polishing it making the whole process much cheaper but in turn the leftover blackening can also be corrosion-resistant.
8:20 From what I understand it was because of the black armor, there's depictions of many of them with black armor. Also you going to have a large army it makes sense. The blackened steel can made from a hot forge process and just shaped, assembled, and ready to equip without polishing it making the whole process much cheaper but in turn the leftover blackening can also be corrosion-resistant.
@MG I mean any of those could be true, but the fact is there's depiction of the time showing many with black armor or dark color armor on these guys. No, black armor wasn't that rare as one think. It was the Victorian era people that gathered all the Armor and polished off the bluing and the blacking from most armors for the museums because they thought it looks nicer that way. Also as I mentioned if you going to equip the large army or soldiers are going to buy their own armor there's hot forged armor that comes black out of the forge, it cost more money to polish it. But by default it does help against corrosion. They're also more armor that was painted then people think as well. That's why a lot of knights and Lords had their armor polish one reason is to reflect the richness. There's also tactical reasons on that to help blind the other enemy with the reflecting the sun when fighting, or it "looked nicer", and so on reasons.
There are several theories as to why they were called black army. First its important to mention the first time the black army name is used is after the death of Mátyás (Mathias) 1. Because their armor was black. This seems to be the most common reacurrance among people less versed in history but it very well might be just a myth and only present because people think its cool. Black armor was barely used historically (reiters for example used them). But yes we have a few drawings of black armored soldiers. 2. Because one of their last captains had the nickname "Black" and they adopted it 3. Because the soldiers used black ribbons on their armor after the death of Mátyás 4. Mathias had a black raven as a symbol on his coat of arms and they were simply reffered to as such after his death
There is nothing more disrespectful and disgraceful then destroying history regardless of how you feel about it. History should be left as warning/teaching moment for the future.
Hey so I've just found you Yesterday and I really like the videos you're putting. Great artwork, detail information, and source materials. I've just subscribed and I look forward to seeing more of your videos in the future.
Amazing video and very educational, even as a Hungarian! I think many people would love a video about the somewhat mysterious origins of the Hungarian nation, The Unification of the Seven Magyar Tribes and their settlement in the Carpathian Basin! A story and nation unique and resembles to none other, just like our language!
A conciseInteresting, unbiased and clear exposition, the unique style makes for a great work! I always wonder how many people work in this to make such quality documentaries
The video is very interesting as well as all of your videos. Just, I expected something else before watching it... Is there a reason why you didn't describe the black army's contribution in big battles? Did they have one commander, besides the one that you mentioned? What was his view on the wars? What happened to them after the death of the Hungarian king? Was Black Army similar to Italian mercenary armies? Too many questions. I would argue that the title raised the bar of what one might expect from this video. Good stuff, keep on making more.
"Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." - James 4:8. You can start a relationship with God today. If nothing else atleast learn and understand biblical prophecy
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.
@Wendigo It was a good excuse for Trianon. But the truth is, they weren't. And before u come with the language excuse, no, Hungarian wasn't the main language in Hungary most of time. Time for a new excuse bro.
I like the most how Hungarians cried how they are opressed by Austria, while opressing every non Hungarians on their territory, no wonder the country fell apart
Great work keep it up. You are one of if not the most reliable historical channel. 👍 Hungary was always a horse faction even the best in Europe. The Hussar soldier was a Hungarian invention it was an upgraded version of the already existing light cavarly. When they've became professional force they were partially inspired by the gussars balkanic bandit forces.
The money issue wasn't really an issue. They disbanded it because the Nobles didn't like being taxed, and preferred the older feudal levy system as it gave them more power.
Can you make a video about the nomadic Hungarian warriors from the Hungarian conquest period (895-970)? Regarding the numbers of the troops (from a couple hundreds to a couple thousands), deployed in their very long campaigns (starting from Hungary going to North to the Danish border, to the West until the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean and Central Spain; to the South until Southern Italy, Constantinopole and the Istm of Corinth) they were successfull almost every time, defeating the numerically superior European armies in battles like Brenta, Augsburg, Rednitz, Eisenach, Prezalauspurc, Puchen, W.l.n.d.r., in which they destroyed the whole enemy armies, killing also their leaders. Regarding the numbers deployed and the length of the campaigns not even Attila, Ginghis Khan, Timur, Napoleon, nobody was so successfull than them. And still almost nobody is aware of these, and nobody speaks about them. The discussion about them resumes only on the second battle of Augsburg (955), and that is all. This is a shame.
@Johnny Boy Yes, the deeds of the Hungarians from the 9-10. century, their campaigns are very important from the point of view of history. For example, if the Hungarians would have lost the battle of Pressburg, today no such nation as Hungarians would exist, and not John Hunyadi, Matthias Corvinus, Kossuth, Rákóczi would exist, nor other great Hungarian scientists, writers, musicians, etc. When the Germans attacked the Hungarians in 907, their purpose was "decretum ugros eliminandos esse" (the order is to eliminate the Hungarians). If this battle would have been lost, today no Hungarians and Hungary would exist. Is that not important in your opinion? Also, the campaigns of the Hungarians were made to consolidate their position in Europe, and frighten the European countries from attacking them. In this matter, the deeds of Árpád are much more important than any Hungarians who lived after him, because if he would have failed, in the world no Hungarian would exist. And as I see from the videos of this channel or the others, they speak also about people less important than Napoleon, Attila, Caesar, etc. Look at their videos. For example, Cossacks are more important than Napoleon? So, as I understand, the videos which are made by youtuber historians, do not pick only the greatest people or nations from history to make videos about them but try to present also the less known, so to say "less important" of them to make the international, English speaking public know about their deeds, battles etc. Why to make 1000 videos about Napoleon, every one of which repeats basically the same pieces of information, when they can make videos about lesser-known historical figures, which made great deeds, but unfortunately the Western public do not knows about them. Why? Because people are watching only what the Western culture highlight to them. About the rest they do not know anything. Look at historical movies of Hollywood. They tend to make and remake films about only a handful of personalities of History (Hannibal, Jeanne d'Arc, Robin Hood, or Vlad the Impaler - with regards to Dracula, and maybe one of two more which I forgot). How about the rest? Most of the people of today only know about them because they learn history from these movies. So such video channels should make videos about lesser known great people, soldiers, etc., to widen the knowledge about history, and not only to repeat the same thing over and over.
@Johnny Boy You know, I know much better than you the Magyar campaign of 942, or any other Hungarian campaign from the conquest period. I have in my hand both Arabic accounts about the Hungarian campaign from 942 (Ibn Hayyan and Al-Udzri), and no one of them writes about a Hungarian defeat from the Arabs. Ibn Hayyan writes, that after the Hungarians left Spain, the Caliph thanked to Allah, that this great danger departed from their land, and after that he writes indeed about a Hungarian defeat, but on their return route through the Christian countries, where they were "annihilated" by the Christians, which is quite suspicious because no Christian European source knows about such a Hungarian defeat. If no Christian (French or Aragonese) source speaks that they defeated the Hungarians, then we can accept that Ibn Hayyan only expressed his dream about that. You know how can it be: you defeat an enemy, but you do not tell anything about that, but a foreigner from a great distance, who was not there to see this says that you obtained a victory. As I said the European sources which tell about the 942 campaign of the Hungarians, do not know anything about any defeat of them, or furthermore, annihilation. Antapodosis of Liutprand says that in 942 the Hungarians went to Spain after the Italian king Hugo of Provence, paid them tribute to leave his country, and convinced them, paying even more money, to plunder Muslim lands because he considered the Arabs his enemies. He writes that the Hungarians went to Spain, and after they ventured toward Southern Spain, in a dry and semi-desertic region, they remained without water, so they killed their guide and returned to Italy, then continued their campaign toward Southern Italy, where they plundered the lands held by Byzantium. So the "annihilated" Hungarians returned to Italy, and attacked the Southern Italian regions of the Byzantine Empire, returning with great plunders. The success of their Spanish campaign is shown also by the Arabic coins in many of the Hungarian graves. So in the Arabic sources do not speak about any Hungarian defeat at their hands, but one of them writes about a hypothetic Hungarian defeat, maybe in Aragonia or Southern France, but this is refuted by the quietness of the Christian sources, and Liutprand's account that tells, from the Christian perspective the story of the 942 campaign, but he does not know anything about a Hungarian defeat. So why it matters so much to you that 5 Hungarian soldiers fell in the hands of the Arabs, and became prisoners, then the bodyguards of the caliph? Yes, they fell into the hands of the Arabs, because they probably went on plunder and they were caught by some Arabic soldiers. And the Hungarians captured the governor of the city Barbastro. In your opinion what is more important? capturing 5 soldiers or the governor of a city? It is very funny that you measure the "greatness" of military leaders in the destructions, and harms to the civilian population, women and children, that they caused. I do not consider that the greatest leader is that who killed the most civilians. This is only your criteria, but nobody else's. Attila, Genghis khan, and Napoleon conquered cities? So the Hungarians too: in 899 they took Modena, in 909 Freising, in 910 Altaich and Osterhofen, in 915 Bremen, in 917 Basel and Verdun, in 924 Pavia, in 927 Oria and Taranto, in 931 Piacenza, etc. So yes, sometimes they suffered defeats, but Napoleon didn't? Hannibal didn't? Caesar didn't? Almost every great commander suffered defeats. but it seems that you forgive to everybody their defeats, except the Hungarians. And you continue to not pay attention to what I wrote to you, that the Hungarians used in their campaigns a couple hundred, and only in exceptionally big campaigns a couple of thousands of warriors, while all the commanders you bring here to compare them with the Magyars, had tens and hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Let's see if Gehgnis khan, Napoleon, Hannibal, etc., would had go to attack their enemies not with tens and hundreds of thousands, but with a couple of hundred or a couple of thousand soldiers? You know, despite having 500 000 soldiers, Napoleon still lost the Russian campaign... You love using double standards, don't you?
@Retép Scávok my mistake, it was the Battle of Lechfeld, you can look it up and the Umayyads did defeat the Hungarians raiding and as i said even had the captured become bodyguards for the sultan, raiding isn’t that impressive, Attila destroyed Roman Cities, Genghis Khan destroyed cities and enslaved and raped all over central asia, Napoleon wasn’t born in middle ages so he wasn’t big on raiding and instead went from Paris to Moscow, even though it ended up dooming him, that’s far more distance than the Hungarians crossed
You forgot to mention that they have not been paid out at the end and they started pillaging and burning inside the kingdom after king Mathias' death and was a serious issue that they turned into bandits and established a massive bandit culture afterwards...
The Black army fought in Bosnia against the Ottoman Turks. Matthias Corvinus set up the "Banovina of Jajce" the last area of Christian Bosnia, defended mainly by Croats, which resisted the Ottoman Turks for 60 years.
His army also fought against the ruler of Moldavia, Ștefan, who was able to inflict a heavy defeat to the Hungarian army ; that particular period of history is filled with very impressive commanders among which the ruler of Moldavia ranks high also.
@Florin Stanciu But the guy still managed to make Hungary into a european superpower after that and during his reign, Hungary was probably the strongest christian European country
@Chris Wanger not reaching Moldova, changing clothes with a soldier to save his live , losing his artilery, means no defeat?? Define what victory means, please
Did you ever read the one alternate history series by Eric Grant it's called 1632 and takes place during the thirty years wars, it's takes a late 20th century American small town and teleports back in smack dab in the middle of Germany. It's good, alot of protagonist, like alot alot.
Hungarian Black Army/Black Legion was named because many had black Gothic armor and sallet Sallet helmets. African American :"Na maun dy be blacks fum Africa!" Me: Oh God...
The term hussar comes from the hungarian word "húsz" which means twenty that is the number of serf plots that needed to provide one hussar to the army each. Regardless of etymology the tactics, lifestyle, weaponry and equipment of the hussars can be traced back to the hungarian arrival in the carpathian basin in the 9th-10th century. It seems that the nomadic light cavalry of the eurasian steppes survived in the form of the hussar in Hungary long after the abandonment of nomadic lifestyle, even after that some elements remained in tradition like the culture of horsemanship, which made it easy for hungarian leaders to build armies with large numbers of cavalry. It was common even for peasants to be good horsemen, which was not the case for any other settled countries of Europe. Another shining example of this post-nomadic light cavalry is the siculi (székely) the hungarian lower nobility of transylvania. Their equipment and fighting style was basically the same as the hussars'. Even the famous polish winged hussars were established by a hungarian transylvanian prince; Stephen Báthory, when he became polish king. This was the start of sarmatianism in poland, when polish nobility started to dress sarmatian (scythian) like the siculi of the time and all of hungarian nobility in pre-settled times. The unit of the hussars spread alongside this wave of new old hungarian fashion.
@Huff_Puff A further premise notes that HUSZ means 'twenty' in Hungarian whilst ár is a unit of land measurement or acre. (ár also means flood.) Accordingly, it is suggested that Hussars are so named as they were a form of military levy introduced after 1458 whereby any landowner with twenty acres was duty bound to provide a mounted and equipped (peasant origin) soldier to the king's army at his own expense.[15]
@G M According to Webster's Dictionary, the word hussar stems from the Hungarian huszár, which in turn originates from the medieval Serbo-Croatian husar (Cyrillic: хусар, or gusar, Cyrillic: гусар), meaning brigand (because early hussars' shock troops tactics used against the Ottoman army resembled that of brigands; in modern Serbo-Croatian the meaning of gusar is limited to sea pirate), from the Medieval Latin cursarius (cf. the English word corsair). 10th-century Byzantine military manuals mention chonsarioi, light cavalry, recruited in the Balkans, especially Serbs, "ideal for scouting and raiding". Youre wrong kid, learn history.
Blackarmy on eu4 were sucks, with current mercenary system. The blackarmy have disproportional size. And mercenary expensive af for a kingdom as poor as hungary
"Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." - James 4:8. You can start a relationship with God today. If nothing else atleast learn and understand biblical prophecy
There is an error in your map. Zagreb as we know it today was made by unification of Kaptol and Gradec in 1850. Before that, as far as I can recall from what I read about the subject, Zagreb was name used for that whole area. Both instances of "J" in Jajce is pronounced same as J in Johan.
@PhoenixofPrometheus if it's great grandparents, you would be eligible for 'Simplified naturalisation' but the kicker is you have to be able to speak Hungarian. Which although it seems difficult, there are loads of Facebook groups that have people in your situation and will help you learn, there are excellent tutors that specialise in teaching you enough Hungarian to pass the exam. But for more information, look up your nearest Hungarian embassy/consulate and they will help you as best as they can. Once you have passed the language check and lineage checks you will be invited to swear an oath to Hungary and the Hungarian people.
@DaddyWaffles So both my great-grandfather and great-grandmother are full Hungarian (surnames Sich and Fazekas) meaning my Grandmother is almost certainly 100% ethnically Hungarian. I believe my great-grandparents left Hungary for Canada in the early 20th century. Do you know how I’d look into getting Hungarian citizenship? This sounds like something I’d definitely be interested in getting.
its also important to mention the extraordinary wartime taxation wich was taken several times a year to fund the mercenary army. thats an unprecedented amount of tax in that time period
Hussars were an upgraded form of earlier hungarian and cuman light cavalry built for the same hit and run tactics. New gear same tactics. Yes serbs and croats had great light cavalry (konni), but for different tactics and purposes.
A major Turkish-German historian wrote that the Ottoman wars with European powers were not different than wars between the Europeans themselves. Reading this during the writing of my master thesis made broiling. I analyzed the reception of the Battle of Lepanto in German illustrated leaflets back then. It’s a wonder when millions of Europeans make holidays in Turkey nowadays.
Why would it be so strange? Ottoman Empire had great diplomatic and trading connections with European countries even during Corvinus' time. Usually, the leaders of the Ottoman empire were civilized., educated people.
I can only imagine the kind of petty satisfaction that the Austrian monarch had having the literal crown of his geopolitical rival sitting in his hold. You wouldn't see that sort of thing nowadays, thankfully.
One example I can think of is how the British monarchy still utilizes the Stone of Scone, a part of the Medieval Scottish coronation rite, during its own coronation ceremony. The stone was first captured by Edward Longshanks in the 13th century, and up until the mid 90s, it was kept under a ceremomial throne to symbolize England's domination of the Scots.
"Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." - James 4:8. You can start a relationship with God today
The narration, cartography and art used for the video could've made clearer that Croatia was its own entity during this time, even though under personal union with Hungary. That aside, still very interesting and informative as usual!
You pronounced the Jan correctly, but then for some reason you pronounced the same sound J in Jiskra differently. It sounds more like Djiskra. The J sound is the same as the "Y" sound in Yes.
Quick question but why do the shields at 6:48 have a groove in the center of them?? I've seen it quite a bit but never really payed attention to it untill now
In ancient times in eastern Europe, the word Black was used to refer to the lowest classes of society (artisans, small traders), conversely, the term Light (white) was applied to the upper class of society, therefore, the name Black Army had the meaning the People's Army or the People 's Militia 7:45
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@Péter Jánossy lol wiki,theres museums in norhern germany of black army info
@Animal Moment's I suggest to learn: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Army_of_Hungary
all these false information utubers mainly uk narraters are just outta hand, the black army was from germany
@jack steed The army was called Black Army only after Mátyás' death. Some say Hunyadi family's sigil is a black crow, that's why the black. Some say they started to wear a black armband after their king's demise. Some say it was because of the last commander's name (Black Haughwitz (CZ) ). Some say it was because they wore black armor.
the black army probably refers to the fact rebels had black flags. they were rebels once
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.
@Kryštof Císař It's culture not geographical placement. Austria's Western Europe but the others are eastern and poor.
@John Doe Bullshit. Austria, bohemia,poland and slovakia is exactly in middle. In fact its closer to the french shores than to the uralus so its maybe even more west than east :D
@Fırat Şan true but they didn’t went past them
@Renzo falcon The Poles were very badly crushed by the Mongols , they were also very weak against the Ottomans , the Mongols and the Ottomans were not stopped , they stopped themselves .
The poles and Hungarians saved Europe from the mongols and ottomans
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.
My family keep a document from him with nobility title and kind lot of land ( most of the land i keep it even today - some was stolen by communist state and never return), my direct line ancestors were in the Black army.
Akechi Mitsuhide; Mátyás és Kinizsi is valoságos személyek voltak és nem mesehősök!, a Tokugava dinasztiábol származó japán császárók is a valoságban léteztek!, és nem mesehősök voltak?!.☝😀😉
Huns have no folklore :D nor history :D ROFL....
maTHiAs wAs RoMAnIan...romanians
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.
@Carl Klein Austria is neutral. Österreich is neutral. Stop spreading nonsense!
yes and Germany didn't lost WW2, just Hitler didn't care about Germany anymore! He was care about his own prestige and sensitive proudness! in this logic Germany didn't lose WW2....
@Carl Klein cool it with the propaganda, dude.
@Beau You think a military alliance is occupation?
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.
@Bruce Lee No it isnt. I cant even explain how wrong you are :D Ever heard about Ugrofinnic people? It was nomads from siberia, one sided with huns and went further to europe and others went north.
@Alex Al Well sayd. There quite misconconception with states and nationality. Because nationality wasnt a thing until early 19.century - people were loyal to their landlord which was loyal to the king which probably didnt even spoke common language of their people.
@Bruce Lee aha. Very intelligent
@MlLKMAN 🤣
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.
They seem more Apache to me.
Frankly i find it as a fun fact....though i am from Hungary :)
In ancient times in eastern Europe, the word Black was used to refer to the lowest classes of society (artisans, small traders), conversely, the term Light (white) was applied to the upper class of society, therefore, the name Black Army had the meaning the People's Army or the People 's Militia
So space marines like Hungarian black army? You don’t see but as a Hungarian I am happy and screaming inside, All Hail The Emperor!
So space marines like Hungarian black army? You don’t see but as a Hungarian I am happy and screaming inside, All Hail The Emperor!
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.
interesting, thanks man
What an amazing community and an amazing contribution. Thanks! 🇹🇷🇭🇺
It's a gap-filling comment on the video. I was going to write the same. Mine hadn't been so well-organised as I'm not a historian, only a layman. 🙂
thank you for your comment, wanted to write the same about the coat of arms! I wouldnt think its nitpicking, details are important, think about Pozsonyi csata :D Kubinyi
As a Croatian I still can't face the fact that Matiaš Korvin is gone.
Would Matias support what happened at camp Jasenovac?
@Ánuszbizsergetőkommentek i wasn't talking about Matias.
@Blast Furnace Mathias was not half croat/serbian he was half hungarian/insert the ethnicity you think he was cuz 100 country claims that spot.
@drazen Borsicomments like yours make me empathize with what the Serbs did . . .
@Om Namah Shivayais it really so hard to understand that they would rather be a stable cleaner than have a split demon hole reeking of rose water serving under the Turks?
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.
It really was the last one.. After his death, Hungary went into a death spiral that it is still in to this day..
"Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." - James 4:8. You can start a relationship with God today
" 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.
@April Fool It's alright! You're right as well, the Hunyadis as a whole were well established already.
I think the folklore and the modern perception of the family is to blame for that. For example, it took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that Mátyás wasn't crowned king because the crown literally fell on his head three times like in the opening of the cartoon about him. The stories make it sound like it's only logical that his father was a king as well.
@Tímea Gyenes I know, my bad; he wasn't however "an upstart"
Somehow I always had this idea in my head that Hunyadi was a king, but you're right, of course, I was wrong
@April Fool János Hunyadi was never king. He was Hungary's regent, the governor for the time the king, Ladislaus V was still a minor (1446-1453). Considering how during this period, despite being one of the richest barons of Hungary and his previous military successes, a council (országtanács) was set up to oversee and limit his power as governor (gyámkormányzó), thus not even allowing him full access to every royal prerogative.
@Peter Kelemen whats about Louis the great
@willyvereb No, he was son of Jan Hunyadi who was Hungary's king before Matthias
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.
@SandRhoman History CORRECT IT! Just a minimal geographic knowledge: Hungary is not located on the Balkan peninsula. Neither was part of the Oriental (semi-Asian) Orthodox civilization of Balkans.
Hey, thanks for sticking around on the channel! Yeah, we looked into Orsha. Might do it at some point, no concrete plans as of yet though.
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.
That is for hollywood. Real life is much more tactical.
I like that war what was between the Germans and Hungary, the Germans collected one of their biggest army and attacked Hungary thinking they can win every battle. The hungarians burned everything in front of the german army and continously retreated to the middle of their country, when they had to stop they stopped in the best place they could with strong rested army, the germans were starving and tired, the battle was quick and the germans had to throw their shield and armor to save their life from the attacking hungarians.
I love how the war started with a stronger attacked the weaker and it ended with the stronger attacked the weaker. Real life war is not about fair fight. :)
One of my ancestor was a "Bán" (govenor) at Coratia for a short time. Mathias ordered his and his army to encounter a way larger turkish battlegroup. My ancestor denied that command. That was pretty rare at that times if you know what i mean :D After that he was summoned to Buda, but hi was not executed after all. Thats how we know Matias acknowledged his courage cos he disobeyed an order to spare his mans. Btw his lost his "Bán" title.. xD
@raze83 Those where hard times. Matthias was a good king after all, but his temper was kinda "unbalanced". Might be that's comes from the Turul bloodline.
My buddy's ancestor (Jakó nemzettség) has hit the king in the face during a feud. He was not executed but all his lands have been taken away and given to the Tisza family.
Thank you for the interesting story. Fascinating personal histories or stories such as your’s are why I keep coming back to the KZclip comments section.
His father, John Hunyady, has a number of major clashes with the Ottomans, with mixed results (including some significant Ottomans wins). The last one, the battle of Belgrade was a victory against Sultan Mehmed II. During Matthias' time, the two Romanian principalities, Moldavia and Muntenia (Wallachia), led by Stephen the Great and Vlad Tepes, respectively, had some major confrontations with large Ottoman armies (also with mixed results), sometimes led by sultans. Mathias supported Stephen the Great with funds and small military contingents, and this was one of the ways to avoid direct conflict. Instead, he failed to effectively help Vlad Tepes. With several enemy countries in the area, the Ottomans probably also avoided a major conflict with the Kingdom of Hungary, which was the strongest of them.
Valal protects Valach
Valach he is not a sheohed. Here overy one owns a montiin
Valach Vlach is not a certain word. Cemnades wrote nonsense.
You don't get the privilege for tending sheep
@Darius Codreanu Talking about subhuman, you are not the sharpest tool in the shed.
@homeless King K but france and england was miles away from the balkans and they never had any conflict with the ottomans infact the french had some alliances with them to kick austrias ass. So in central europe hungary was the strongest
@Darius Codreanu "being a minority in your own country imagine that"
The Romani people in Romania:🗿
The whites in South Africa:🗿
Romans inthe Roman Empire:🗿
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.
@RWShat was a huge mistake. The same as today. Beware of the new Ottomans.
@Prophetrexlexful becouse he realy didn't care about the ottomans. His main goal was to secure the holy roman empire. He was good at defeating the austrians, unlike the ottomans whom he couldn't defeat. His father could defeat them, but that's a different story....
so why did he not help vlad to stop the ottomans..
I find this time of Hungarian history and the Black Army in particular really fascinating. I am currently even writing a fantasy manga based in the time period just prior to the passing of Matthias and the subsequent disbandment of the force. Should be interesting :)
Please please don’t make it a isekai or about teen/high schoolers please.
@Csordas Levente I think you repeat the rákosi era history.
@Csordas Levente en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Army_of_Hungary
The black army was not the only large standing mercenary army of Matthias Corvinus. Meanwhile the border castles of the north, west and east were guarded mostly by the retinues of the nobility of the respective counties of the realm, these fortress/castle garrisons were financed by the counties, however the Ottoman frontier zone of southern Hungary had a large professional standing army too which was paid by the king. Unlike the soldiers of the Black army, these large mercenary castle garrisons were trained for castle defence. No other contemporary European realm would have been able to maintain two large parallel permanent forces for so long.[12]
@Péter Jánossy As I never stated that the two states were one, not in this argument and not in the older, I dont know how to reply to you.
With that in mind, (and the fact, that I cannot likely change your mind) I leave the argument.
@Csordas Levente No, transylvania was against the very interest of Hungary and Hungarian people. The sad truth: Transylvanian princes often contributed the genocide of ethnic Hungarian population with the Ottomans. They also championed for the wallachian immigration to Transylvania.
Hungary did not became part of Austria after Mohács (as you try to suggest) but remained a separate state. It became part of Austria only the short 1849-1867 period.
Learn the basic legal history of early modern era Humgary here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Hungarian_Compromise_of_1867
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.
Much of the black army were in fact bohemian hussites. Their tactic of using firearms and fortified chariots was proved to be very effective against cavalry and infantry. Until Mohacs these merceneries was one of the most popular soldiers for hire.
@Ein Ehrenmannthe eastern powers never fought with western honor, go look at the Russian Nobel who challenged the Mongolians to a honor duel. The Nobel slaughtered the entire group, went on a rampage and was only taken down by a anti siege weapon. Even the Vikings were more honorable and typically more traditional than the ottomans or the Mongolians were.
@huntclan hunt No, landsknechts rarely used firearms before the 16th century, they were late adopter of arquebus.
Matthias recognized the importance and key role of early firearms in the infantry, which greatly contributed to his victories.[3] Every fourth soldier in the Black Army had an arquebus, which was an unusual ratio at the time. The high price of medieval gunpowder prevented them from raising it any further.[4] Even a decade after the disbandment of the Black Army, by the turn of the 16th century, only around 10% of the soldiers of Western European armies used firearms.[5][6]
. Without the fancy clothes, What are you even talking about lol
Yes! I remember having read about that mercerenary army with unusually high ratio of gunpowder arms in it, but couldn't find much more info about it's exploits. I also remember, that I've been searching about another mercenary unit called Black Company...
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.
Yes and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_wagon in Hussite war in black army tactic was from Czech too.
Just came across this video and your info about the black army of Hungary. I believe that Frederick was a black.man myself but you stating that the army consisted of blacks from Poland, Chek, Serb and Germans make me wonder why there are no history in these countries about black people as a whole
Those who control the lenses also controls the narratives from then to today but slowly, the dust is disappearing, doors are opening and narratives are being challenged more.....
@baba catalin Again, Gesta Hungarorum is only accepted reliable source in romania. Neither Hungary Czechs Slovak Croat and Serb historians suport it in the region. In Globally: English German and American historians also reject it, as unreliable source.
Following your logic, according to Gesta, there were no Slavs in Eastern parts of Hungary, but there are Khazars in Transylvania, there are Jassic and Cumans before the Hungarians (nonsense) And Croatia was established by Hungary. They don't know about Frankish rulers and Byzantine rulers, neither about Great Moravia.
So gesta Hungarorum goes against all older chronicles writtn by Byzantines Kievian Polish or German writers of earlier era.
@0trov_ they pick only what sources they whant to make an parallel history for themself.
@Péter Jánossy i gave like 20 sources and you speak of only one. Furthermore, you have problems with Anonymous but you use an article wich is not signed but written by an "want to be historian" probably magyar. Vlach were not nomads. Migrants and nomads is not the same thing. Have you hearth of Aurelian retreat? And yes, Dacians have ADN roots in the south of Balkans, they were part of the Thracians family so that no new thing for anybody who read an history book in his live.
The Black Army will always be among my favorites for its innovativeness and competency.
There's a reason Matthias's ability when leading Hungary in Civilization 6 is a major boost to levied troops from city states. Why produce armies when you can simply hire them?
As a rule of thumb, behind the achievments of a king that has the cognomen "The Great" are hidden tremendous efforts of the state to achieve them. Those kings usually leave a bankrupted state with a multitude of problems for the descends to solve. 30 years after Matthias Corvinus' reign, the Kingdom of Hungary has lost its independence for 350 years, Edward II has lost the dominance over Scotland years after Edward I reign, the empire of Charles V has been split even during his lifetime. The kings that establish durable foundations for their countries are the ones that have the cognomen "the spider" ie those that have a balanced policy of building economy and performing small steps to avhieve thier goals.
Of course sometimes this is not possible without reforming the system which is in most cases impossible. For example the Matthias couldn't change the feudal system in Hungary and become an absolutiste monarch. He could only cover the setbacks of the feudal system with great costs from the crown to finance the Black Army, but this further weaken the central authority and have given more influence to the local lords which in turn have lead to the destruction of Hungarian feudal state.
In Hungary he's known and most commonly referred to as Matthias the Just.
@Péter Jánossy True. I meant Ferdinand, not Frederik.
@dorzsboss King John of Hungary was born only in 1491, Emperor Frederick died in 1493. Something is wrong in your answer.
There was no bankrupcy after King Matthias. Actually he organized the tax collecting system very well. And the Habsburg king was actually inherited the kingdom after King John died and left the crown to Frederick instead of his own son.
@Péter Jánossy let's 1526-1699 - Hungary was at first divided in pashaliks and gradually the Habsburgs have conquered them from turks.
1699 - Karlowitz Treaty - the whole Hungary unde Habsburg rule
1699-1848 - Habsburg rule,
1848 - The Revolution of 1848 in which the hungarians armies where curshed by the Habsburg and Russian armies
1867 - the reform of the Habsburg domains - Austro-Hungary. The Hungarians still couldn't elect their rulles,
1914-1918 - WWI, the disolution of the Habsburg monarchy,
1919 - The Socialist revolution curshed by the Romanian Army which would retreat and the Hungarians will finally have the chanse to choose their government
1526-1867 with a grain of salt, but more likely 1919.
Almost 400 years. Did I miss somthing?
It's false that it was the financial burden, Corvinus increased his treasury by 300% by taxing the nobles instead of depending on them to finance armies. After Corvinus died, the Hungarian nobles offered the crown to the Polish dynasty of Jagelovich if the new king disbands the Black Army ergo no more taxes, under the promise that the nobles will defend the land as they always had. Of course when the Ottomans attacked, other nobles failed to react and the Hungarian border defenses were taken over one by one with no professional army to rush to their aid.
It was the Habsburgs after their election as rulers of Croatia and Hungary that the new military frontier was established, dedicated to the defense and subserviently only to the king - the Grancers were born.
@Zsombor Fapal Zsombor, you are wrong. Matthias collected exceptional war taxes from Hungarin nobility.
Nobles were not taxed in Hungarian history ever, until 1848 tax exemption was one of their most basic rights. Matthias did increase taxes, but the one that made the finance of the black army possible was the extraordinary war tax (collected once/twice a year: 1 gold forint per every serf household) and the tax from silver and gold mining, also the 1/30 tax at the borders and the “smoke money” (in Hungarian) that was if I remember correctly 18 silver denars per every serf household. He also got money from the Pope. However these huge tax burdens made economic growth impossible, so it did have some serious negative consequences
A lot of the taxes came from peasants, cities and other communities. EVERYONE was taxed more during his reign. And as the video points out, the banderium and militia portalis kept existing, so the nobility was still required to defend the realm during the Black Army's time.
@mako ado
Very little gold actually was imported from the Americas into Europe. Spain found more silver which it then traded in East Asia for gold at a favorable rate. It tanked Spain's economy, but unlike Spain, Hungary was a very productive kingdom. The deflation of gold/silver wouldn't have affected them as much because of the rise of price of goods. The East Adriatic and the Pannonian basin were very productive and rich for its time. Venice and Austria would have been far more affected by the devaluation of gold since they depended far more on trade and the circulation of money for their income.
@Bart Hoving
The Austrians funded the defense of Croatia from only three regions, Hungary with it's control over the east Adriatic and fertile lowlands of the Pannonian basin had far better domestic production and trade. If Austria managed to fund the Military frontier for half a millennia, don't you think a bigger and wealthier nation like Hungary could manage the same for a longer border?
Of course a successor could enforce them, that's how modern centralized states came into existence in the first place. King get's money, > king makes army > king forces nobles to pay him protection money through threat of force > nobles can't afford troops and depend on the king > absolutism is born. Corvinus reached step two and then died, a foreign dynasty was then offered a crown in exchange for guarantees which would stop the centralization of power with the crown.
This is not a new song and dance, the kingdom was suffering under feudal anarchy for a long time. They forced king Andrew II. to give up so much power in Hungary with the "Golden Bull of 1222", he was basically king in name only. His son Bela IV. called upon the nobles to defend the kingdom from the Mongols but they ignored his call to arms. King SIgismund had to kill a bunch of them when they crowned a pretender and imprisoned his fiancé.
This was the reason for Hungary's pain - the lack of unity. The lack of a strong central authority made it easy for foreign powers with an iota of cohesion to chip away at it. The same problem can be seen in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth where foreign bribes made the nobility sabotage all the king's efforts until the nation was partitioned and one of the strongest nations in Europe disappeared seemingly without a shot being fired.
Well Done! You seem to interested in the true side of the Hungarian history keep it up. It is sadly a underrated topic while in reality it's history is very high rated quality.
I love these videos, so much of new knowledge in realy understandable format. Explanation is clear, maps are nice for orientation and these arts are just amazing. They look like they were drawn by amaterish, but talented hand. Hand drawn pictures are my soft spot, they can tell more than digital art. They are original arts, or they have some kind of published predecessors? Only from time to time, some of the models do have too big heads, this is because of reusing the "body"? Otherwise *really good* job :)
@SandRhoman History
Never fix it, we like.
Hey, thank you so much! Yeah, the artwork is produced by a few artists by hand. Well, this is true for the characters. The backgrounds are made digitally. The big heads are my own error. I photoshop all of our illustration to mix and match them, to keep everything looking as new as possible (within the constraints of our budget). Sometimes I get the proportions wrong.
Thank you for this video, as a hungarian I am very proud of this :)
Really interesting presentation! A comment on the vocabulary: if you translate the Hungarian Battle of Kenyérmező into the English "Battle of Breadfield", why don't you translate Mathias into Mathew? Especially because Mathias is Latin, in Hungarian it is Mátyás. It is common to translate the names of kings. Another comment on illustration: a few of your images present only left-handed warriors.
This was a great video! You mention that they were mercanaries in the title but don't really talk about when they were mercernaries. You mostly speak on the formation and existance within Hungary. I would absolutely love to learn more. Please make more videos. Thank you
They disbanded after Matthias's death. They looted nearby villages for food when they ran out of money, so Kinizsi Pál and other officers with a loyal group had to beat the rest to stop the pillaging. After that they went and sought for other lords or ways of living.
"Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." - James 4:8. You can start a relationship with God today
Hunyadi and Sobieski, Europe needs you again!
rainbows invading you or what?
lmao what for
@Ákos Marádi When you get tired of him, you'll still have a country to go home to.
We have a discount Hunyadi at home :D
in Poland we call Vladislav III "of Varna" (Warneńczyk)
he's remembered for not just losing that battle, but getting killed there in a somewhat mysterious manner (his body was never found, rumours had it that the sultan kept his head in a pot of honey)
Augustus propaganda? cause it has no other explanation why would a sultan waste time on a head in a pot of honey
Well in Hungary we are thought that he died attacking the personal guard of the sultan. It is said that because of his young age and being inexperienced he charged the ottomans with his cavalry, however the personal guard (who had a well-defendable position with spikes against cavalry) butchered them and after the king’s death the Hungarian army basically collapsed.
But anyway, much love from Hungary!❤️
We used to say about King Mathias, that Mathias the righteus, and after he died, the justice is died with him. He was our last king. After his death Hungary remained weakened.
Netflix wanted to fund a TV series about the Black Army, until they realised they'd misunderstood the name.
Probably.
@afrancba All true, but I click on "Replies" and yours disappears.
Skynet's algorithms dislike the ugly truth.
😂😂😂😂
Lmao
I was waiting for you to make a video about the "Hungarian Black Army", perhaps one of the most effective mercenary armies in history, the first time I heard about them was through Age of Empires 2. Could you also make a video of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba "the great captain" and his creation of the Colonelía, the first modern army (not that of Gustavo Adolfo, who in my opinion does not deserve to be called the father of the modern army, was not the first to introduce firearms in armies) and direct predecessor of the Tercio, I know you mentioned it in the video of the Spanish Tercios, but its history is quite interesting and its battles deserve to be better covered.
@ꤼꥉꤳꥈꥀꥋ ꤰꥉꤹꥇꤰ꥓ He fulfilled all the prophecies written of the messiah He was a prophet but He was also the son of God
@Savannah Masha Allah, Yesus a.k.a Isa Ibn Maryam, one of the greatest prophet to ever exist 😄
You should start a relationship with Jesus. Start fasting to increase your perception, pray for Him to intervene in your life and stop sinning to the best of your ability. You can get results
Thanks for all the info and the amazing work you put in these videos!
Afro-centrists on social media: « Was the black army made up of africans? »
No. They're the Hebrew Israrlites and Egyptians.
We Wuz Kangz 😂
@Landsknecht 86 shhh, thats to much info for the bbc dude lmao
They were also called the Back Legion.
From what I understand it was because of the black armor, there's depictions of many of them with black armor. Also you going to have a large army it makes sense.
The blackened steel can be made from a hot forge process and just shaped, assembled, and ready to equip without polishing it making the whole process much cheaper but in turn the leftover blackening can also be corrosion-resistant.
😆😂🤣😂🤣 So true
8:20
From what I understand it was because of the black armor, there's depictions of many of them with black armor. Also you going to have a large army it makes sense.
The blackened steel can made from a hot forge process and just shaped, assembled, and ready to equip without polishing it making the whole process much cheaper but in turn the leftover blackening can also be corrosion-resistant.
@MG I mean any of those could be true, but the fact is there's depiction of the time showing many with black armor or dark color armor on these guys.
No, black armor wasn't that rare as one think. It was the Victorian era people that gathered all the Armor and polished off the bluing and the blacking from most armors for the museums because they thought it looks nicer that way.
Also as I mentioned if you going to equip the large army or soldiers are going to buy their own armor there's hot forged armor that comes black out of the forge, it cost more money to polish it. But by default it does help against corrosion. They're also more armor that was painted then people think as well.
That's why a lot of knights and Lords had their armor polish one reason is to reflect the richness. There's also tactical reasons on that to help blind the other enemy with the reflecting the sun when fighting, or it "looked nicer", and so on reasons.
There are several theories as to why they were called black army. First its important to mention the first time the black army name is used is after the death of Mátyás (Mathias)
1. Because their armor was black. This seems to be the most common reacurrance among people less versed in history but it very well might be just a myth and only present because people think its cool. Black armor was barely used historically (reiters for example used them). But yes we have a few drawings of black armored soldiers.
2. Because one of their last captains had the nickname "Black" and they adopted it
3. Because the soldiers used black ribbons on their armor after the death of Mátyás
4. Mathias had a black raven as a symbol on his coat of arms and they were simply reffered to as such after his death
They call black army cuz when mathias died he's soldiers placed black tape on he's coffin
There is nothing more disrespectful and disgraceful then destroying history regardless of how you feel about it. History should be left as warning/teaching moment for the future.
Hey so I've just found you Yesterday and I really like the videos you're putting. Great artwork, detail information, and source materials. I've just subscribed and I look forward to seeing more of your videos in the future.
Best history channel! Thanks so much for all your work.
proud to be hungarian
Fantastic video. As a history lover you are a treasure trove
Yes yes!
I have been waiting for years for someone to cover this topic, Matthias Corvinus's black army always fascinated me
Amazing video and very educational, even as a Hungarian! I think many people would love a video about the somewhat mysterious origins of the Hungarian nation, The Unification of the Seven Magyar Tribes and their settlement in the Carpathian Basin! A story and nation unique and resembles to none other, just like our language!
A conciseInteresting, unbiased and clear exposition, the unique style makes for a great work!
I always wonder how many people work in this to make such quality documentaries
Just the two of us!
The video is very interesting as well as all of your videos. Just, I expected something else before watching it... Is there a reason why you didn't describe the black army's contribution in big battles? Did they have one commander, besides the one that you mentioned? What was his view on the wars? What happened to them after the death of the Hungarian king? Was Black Army similar to Italian mercenary armies? Too many questions. I would argue that the title raised the bar of what one might expect from this video. Good stuff, keep on making more.
"Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." - James 4:8.
You can start a relationship with God today. If nothing else atleast learn and understand biblical prophecy
Having just palyed EU4 as Hungary and wondered what this black army was Im so lucky you made this video.
Thank you so much for doing content about Hungarian history. Love u bro
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.
@Karobahuz Hungarian was the language of 80% of the kingdom before the Ottoman conquest.
@Wendigo It was a good excuse for Trianon.
But the truth is, they weren't.
And before u come with the language excuse, no, Hungarian wasn't the main language in Hungary most of time.
Time for a new excuse bro.
@Wendigo opress? Learn what opressing means and then comment
I like the most how Hungarians cried how they are opressed by Austria, while opressing every non Hungarians on their territory, no wonder the country fell apart
I just started fighting the Black Army in Civ6. Great timing to learn about the enemy.
Great work keep it up. You are one of if not the most reliable historical channel. 👍 Hungary was always a horse faction even the best in Europe. The Hussar soldier was a Hungarian invention it was an upgraded version of the already existing light cavarly. When they've became professional force they were partially inspired by the gussars balkanic bandit forces.
The money issue wasn't really an issue. They disbanded it because the Nobles didn't like being taxed, and preferred the older feudal levy system as it gave them more power.
Can you make a video about the nomadic Hungarian warriors from the Hungarian conquest period (895-970)? Regarding the numbers of the troops (from a couple hundreds to a couple thousands), deployed in their very long campaigns (starting from Hungary going to North to the Danish border, to the West until the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean and Central Spain; to the South until Southern Italy, Constantinopole and the Istm of Corinth) they were successfull almost every time, defeating the numerically superior European armies in battles like Brenta, Augsburg, Rednitz, Eisenach, Prezalauspurc, Puchen, W.l.n.d.r., in which they destroyed the whole enemy armies, killing also their leaders. Regarding the numbers deployed and the length of the campaigns not even Attila, Ginghis Khan, Timur, Napoleon, nobody was so successfull than them. And still almost nobody is aware of these, and nobody speaks about them. The discussion about them resumes only on the second battle of Augsburg (955), and that is all. This is a shame.
Kovacs Peter 😀👍
@Johnny Boy Yes, the deeds of the Hungarians from the 9-10. century, their campaigns are very important from the point of view of history. For example, if the Hungarians would have lost the battle of Pressburg, today no such nation as Hungarians would exist, and not John Hunyadi, Matthias Corvinus, Kossuth, Rákóczi would exist, nor other great Hungarian scientists, writers, musicians, etc. When the Germans attacked the Hungarians in 907, their purpose was "decretum ugros eliminandos esse" (the order is to eliminate the Hungarians). If this battle would have been lost, today no Hungarians and Hungary would exist. Is that not important in your opinion?
Also, the campaigns of the Hungarians were made to consolidate their position in Europe, and frighten the European countries from attacking them. In this matter, the deeds of Árpád are much more important than any Hungarians who lived after him, because if he would have failed, in the world no Hungarian would exist.
And as I see from the videos of this channel or the others, they speak also about people less important than Napoleon, Attila, Caesar, etc. Look at their videos. For example, Cossacks are more important than Napoleon? So, as I understand, the videos which are made by youtuber historians, do not pick only the greatest people or nations from history to make videos about them but try to present also the less known, so to say "less important" of them to make the international, English speaking public know about their deeds, battles etc. Why to make 1000 videos about Napoleon, every one of which repeats basically the same pieces of information, when they can make videos about lesser-known historical figures, which made great deeds, but unfortunately the Western public do not knows about them. Why? Because people are watching only what the Western culture highlight to them. About the rest they do not know anything. Look at historical movies of Hollywood. They tend to make and remake films about only a handful of personalities of History (Hannibal, Jeanne d'Arc, Robin Hood, or Vlad the Impaler - with regards to Dracula, and maybe one of two more which I forgot). How about the rest? Most of the people of today only know about them because they learn history from these movies. So such video channels should make videos about lesser known great people, soldiers, etc., to widen the knowledge about history, and not only to repeat the same thing over and over.
@Johnny Boy You know, I know much better than you the Magyar campaign of 942, or any other Hungarian campaign from the conquest period. I have in my hand both Arabic accounts about the Hungarian campaign from 942 (Ibn Hayyan and Al-Udzri), and no one of them writes about a Hungarian defeat from the Arabs. Ibn Hayyan writes, that after the Hungarians left Spain, the Caliph thanked to Allah, that this great danger departed from their land, and after that he writes indeed about a Hungarian defeat, but on their return route through the Christian countries, where they were "annihilated" by the Christians, which is quite suspicious because no Christian European source knows about such a Hungarian defeat. If no Christian (French or Aragonese) source speaks that they defeated the Hungarians, then we can accept that Ibn Hayyan only expressed his dream about that. You know how can it be: you defeat an enemy, but you do not tell anything about that, but a foreigner from a great distance, who was not there to see this says that you obtained a victory. As I said the European sources which tell about the 942 campaign of the Hungarians, do not know anything about any defeat of them, or furthermore, annihilation. Antapodosis of Liutprand says that in 942 the Hungarians went to Spain after the Italian king Hugo of Provence, paid them tribute to leave his country, and convinced them, paying even more money, to plunder Muslim lands because he considered the Arabs his enemies. He writes that the Hungarians went to Spain, and after they ventured toward Southern Spain, in a dry and semi-desertic region, they remained without water, so they killed their guide and returned to Italy, then continued their campaign toward Southern Italy, where they plundered the lands held by Byzantium. So the "annihilated" Hungarians returned to Italy, and attacked the Southern Italian regions of the Byzantine Empire, returning with great plunders. The success of their Spanish campaign is shown also by the Arabic coins in many of the Hungarian graves. So in the Arabic sources do not speak about any Hungarian defeat at their hands, but one of them writes about a hypothetic Hungarian defeat, maybe in Aragonia or Southern France, but this is refuted by the quietness of the Christian sources, and Liutprand's account that tells, from the Christian perspective the story of the 942 campaign, but he does not know anything about a Hungarian defeat. So why it matters so much to you that 5 Hungarian soldiers fell in the hands of the Arabs, and became prisoners, then the bodyguards of the caliph? Yes, they fell into the hands of the Arabs, because they probably went on plunder and they were caught by some Arabic soldiers. And the Hungarians captured the governor of the city Barbastro. In your opinion what is more important? capturing 5 soldiers or the governor of a city?
It is very funny that you measure the "greatness" of military leaders in the destructions, and harms to the civilian population, women and children, that they caused. I do not consider that the greatest leader is that who killed the most civilians. This is only your criteria, but nobody else's. Attila, Genghis khan, and Napoleon conquered cities? So the Hungarians too: in 899 they took Modena, in 909 Freising, in 910 Altaich and Osterhofen, in 915 Bremen, in 917 Basel and Verdun, in 924 Pavia, in 927 Oria and Taranto, in 931 Piacenza, etc. So yes, sometimes they suffered defeats, but Napoleon didn't? Hannibal didn't? Caesar didn't? Almost every great commander suffered defeats. but it seems that you forgive to everybody their defeats, except the Hungarians. And you continue to not pay attention to what I wrote to you, that the Hungarians used in their campaigns a couple hundred, and only in exceptionally big campaigns a couple of thousands of warriors, while all the commanders you bring here to compare them with the Magyars, had tens and hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Let's see if Gehgnis khan, Napoleon, Hannibal, etc., would had go to attack their enemies not with tens and hundreds of thousands, but with a couple of hundred or a couple of thousand soldiers? You know, despite having 500 000 soldiers, Napoleon still lost the Russian campaign... You love using double standards, don't you?
@Retép Scávok my mistake, it was the Battle of Lechfeld, you can look it up and the Umayyads did defeat the Hungarians raiding and as i said even had the captured become bodyguards for the sultan, raiding isn’t that impressive, Attila destroyed Roman Cities, Genghis Khan destroyed cities and enslaved and raped all over central asia, Napoleon wasn’t born in middle ages so he wasn’t big on raiding and instead went from Paris to Moscow, even though it ended up dooming him, that’s far more distance than the Hungarians crossed
You forgot to mention that they have not been paid out at the end and they started pillaging and burning inside the kingdom after king Mathias' death and was a serious issue that they turned into bandits and established a massive bandit culture afterwards...
The Black army fought in Bosnia against the Ottoman Turks. Matthias Corvinus set up the "Banovina of Jajce" the last area of Christian Bosnia, defended mainly by Croats, which resisted the Ottoman Turks for 60 years.
His army also fought against the ruler of Moldavia, Ștefan, who was able to inflict a heavy defeat to the Hungarian army ; that particular period of history is filled with very impressive commanders among which the ruler of Moldavia ranks high also.
@Florin Stanciu But the guy still managed to make Hungary into a european superpower after that and during his reign, Hungary was probably the strongest christian European country
@Chris Wanger not reaching Moldova, changing clothes with a soldier to save his live , losing his artilery, means no defeat?? Define what victory means, please
No, he was not able to defeat Hungarian army. Black army did not exist yet in the era of battle of Baia.
Did you ever read the one alternate history series by Eric Grant it's called 1632 and takes place during the thirty years wars, it's takes a late 20th century American small town and teleports back in smack dab in the middle of Germany. It's good, alot of protagonist, like alot alot.
i know its not a siege but could you cover the 1500's battle of lepanto its an amazing naval batttle
Yes, probably this fall.
The Black Army name might come from the name of their king Matthias Corvinus aka The Raven
@Laughing Man 😆🤣😂😂😂😆🤣😂
Hungarian Black Army/Black Legion was named because many had black Gothic armor and sallet Sallet helmets.
African American :"Na maun dy be blacks fum Africa!"
Me: Oh God...
It was actually named Black Army after the death of Matthias and it originates from one of its leader, Jan Haugwitz
NAH! DEY WAZ BLACK
@Clint Moor No, his coat of arms is a raven
I love that you add " in contemporary histeriography" adds a lot to your view of credibility of literature etc, shows that you actualy looked into it
At 5 min I have to say:
I'm Hungarian.
I'm historian.
It is f..unky correct.
RESPECT.
The term hussar comes from the hungarian word "húsz" which means twenty that is the number of serf plots that needed to provide one hussar to the army each.
Regardless of etymology the tactics, lifestyle, weaponry and equipment of the hussars can be traced back to the hungarian arrival in the carpathian basin in the 9th-10th century.
It seems that the nomadic light cavalry of the eurasian steppes survived in the form of the hussar in Hungary long after the abandonment of nomadic lifestyle,
even after that some elements remained in tradition like the culture of horsemanship, which made it easy for hungarian leaders to build armies with large numbers of cavalry.
It was common even for peasants to be good horsemen, which was not the case for any other settled countries of Europe.
Another shining example of this post-nomadic light cavalry is the siculi (székely) the hungarian lower nobility of transylvania. Their equipment and fighting style was basically the same as the hussars'.
Even the famous polish winged hussars were established by a hungarian transylvanian prince; Stephen Báthory, when he became polish king.
This was the start of sarmatianism in poland, when polish nobility started to dress sarmatian (scythian) like the siculi of the time and all of hungarian nobility in pre-settled times.
The unit of the hussars spread alongside this wave of new old hungarian fashion.
@Huff_Puff A further premise notes that HUSZ means 'twenty' in Hungarian whilst ár is a unit of land measurement or acre.
(ár also means flood.)
Accordingly, it is suggested that Hussars are so named as they were a form of military levy introduced after 1458 whereby any landowner with twenty acres was duty bound to provide a mounted and equipped (peasant origin) soldier to the king's army at his own expense.[15]
@AnotherHistoryEnthusiast Noblemen did not use arrows in Christian Hungary.
@G M According to Webster's Dictionary, the word hussar stems from the Hungarian huszár, which in turn originates from the medieval Serbo-Croatian husar (Cyrillic: хусар, or gusar, Cyrillic: гусар), meaning brigand (because early hussars' shock troops tactics used against the Ottoman army resembled that of brigands; in modern Serbo-Croatian the meaning of gusar is limited to sea pirate), from the Medieval Latin cursarius (cf. the English word corsair). 10th-century Byzantine military manuals mention chonsarioi, light cavalry, recruited in the Balkans, especially Serbs, "ideal for scouting and raiding".
Youre wrong kid, learn history.
@Huff_Puff hungarians seen used sabers and horses way earlier than Serbs so u ate wrong
@Huff_Puff saber Brough to Europe by the Hungarians
Huszar is hungarian
Nyet gusar lol
Was thinking about them yesterday after getting their event in EU4 (Europa Universalis 4). That's crazy!
Blackarmy on eu4 were sucks, with current mercenary system. The blackarmy have disproportional size. And mercenary expensive af for a kingdom as poor as hungary
@Savannah I reported you for spam
"Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." - James 4:8.
You can start a relationship with God today. If nothing else atleast learn and understand biblical prophecy
Fellow EU4 enjoyer
not a good representation in that game. myth.
There is an error in your map. Zagreb as we know it today was made by unification of Kaptol and Gradec in 1850. Before that, as far as I can recall from what I read about the subject, Zagreb was name used for that whole area.
Both instances of "J" in Jajce is pronounced same as J in Johan.
Great material, thank you for sharing!
I think you will find that the most sought-after mercenaries were the Gallowglass Scots/Picts/Vikings from Scotland.
I’d love to see a video on the Siege of Szigetvár
Your artwork is amazing much love from Turkey. Please make siege of Otranto
Lovely upload, what a beautiful way of introducing the sponsors ☺️🙏
The coat of arms on the shield is an anachronism, it appeared in this form half a century later.
Thank you so much for this video! i never knew about them before 😮
Most sought-after mercs were the Varangian Guard
Also can you please do a video on the black knight Zawisza czarny, and the battle of grunwald?
Can you please go over the battle of Varna and Kosovo?
Might go into that at some point, yeah.
You should do more unit/organisation videos
Liked this
At someone who is 1/4 Magyar, I find this fascinating. It’s interesting to think that my ancestors potential fought in the black army.
@PhoenixofPrometheus glad I could be of some help.
@DaddyWaffles man, thank you for the information! I really appreciate it. I’m going to look into it.
@PhoenixofPrometheus if it's great grandparents, you would be eligible for 'Simplified naturalisation' but the kicker is you have to be able to speak Hungarian. Which although it seems difficult, there are loads of Facebook groups that have people in your situation and will help you learn, there are excellent tutors that specialise in teaching you enough Hungarian to pass the exam.
But for more information, look up your nearest Hungarian embassy/consulate and they will help you as best as they can. Once you have passed the language check and lineage checks you will be invited to swear an oath to Hungary and the Hungarian people.
@DaddyWaffles So both my great-grandfather and great-grandmother are full Hungarian (surnames Sich and Fazekas) meaning my Grandmother is almost certainly 100% ethnically Hungarian. I believe my great-grandparents left Hungary for Canada in the early 20th century. Do you know how I’d look into getting Hungarian citizenship? This sounds like something I’d definitely be interested in getting.
If you have documents to prove your lineage, you can become a full Hungarian citizen, I'm guessing your grandfather left shortly after the revolution?
Another bit of history I was unaware of and interesting to find out about
its also important to mention the extraordinary wartime taxation wich was taken several times a year to fund the mercenary army. thats an unprecedented amount of tax in that time period
Love this channel and your voice and your art your gonna go so far !
Hussars were an upgraded form of earlier hungarian and cuman light cavalry built for the same hit and run tactics. New gear same tactics. Yes serbs and croats had great light cavalry (konni), but for different tactics and purposes.
@Nutridrink That was not their main weapon.
@AnotherHistoryEnthusiast Hussars carried early flintlock pistols and carbines with various melee.
Hussars were not the development of the earlier missle cavalry. Their main role was the opposite. One was a missle faction, the other was meele.
great video with well researched facts
Yes, a new video! You guys are awesome.
A major Turkish-German historian wrote that the Ottoman wars with European powers were not different than wars between the Europeans themselves. Reading this during the writing of my master thesis made broiling. I analyzed the reception of the Battle of Lepanto in German illustrated leaflets back then. It’s a wonder when millions of Europeans make holidays in Turkey nowadays.
Why would it be so strange? Ottoman Empire had great diplomatic and trading connections with European countries even during Corvinus' time. Usually, the leaders of the Ottoman empire were civilized., educated people.
Lead by Mátyás király our Hungarian hero 🇭🇺
You should make a video of the hussars history.
I can only imagine the kind of petty satisfaction that the Austrian monarch had having the literal crown of his geopolitical rival sitting in his hold. You wouldn't see that sort of thing nowadays, thankfully.
@Tom L Oh I can imagine that plays grand in the modern day.
One example I can think of is how the British monarchy still utilizes the Stone of Scone, a part of the Medieval Scottish coronation rite, during its own coronation ceremony. The stone was first captured by Edward Longshanks in the 13th century, and up until the mid 90s, it was kept under a ceremomial throne to symbolize England's domination of the Scots.
"Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." - James 4:8. You can start a relationship with God today
Excellent video! If you ever have in mind making a video about Vlad the impaler/Wallachia please let us know and we will gladly help you with that!
Extremely impressive for sure but let’s not forget about the Worlds greatest Calvary the Hussars!
🇭🇺 stronges army!!!
The narration, cartography and art used for the video could've made clearer that Croatia was its own entity during this time, even though under personal union with Hungary.
That aside, still very interesting and informative as usual!
@Blast Furnace no, more like 10%
half of modern day croatia was part of Venice.
pls do black army of ukraine and the atamansha! its very interesting
The Ottamans: "oh god another hunyadi'
Who else wants a Total War game set in this era? I certainly do!
You pronounced the Jan correctly, but then for some reason you pronounced the same sound J in Jiskra differently. It sounds more like Djiskra.
The J sound is the same as the "Y" sound in Yes.
5:02 At this point in history, the cross on the crown was not yet slanted.
I have no idea what happened to the legendary Hungarian archers.
They stopped archery
Great video. Why haven't I found your channel earlier. Thanks you have a mew subscriber.
Quick question but why do the shields at 6:48 have a groove in the center of them?? I've seen it quite a bit but never really payed attention to it untill now
As a Civ6 fan, I enjoyed this video a lot.
In ancient times in eastern Europe, the word Black was used to refer to the lowest classes of society (artisans, small traders), conversely, the term Light (white) was applied to the upper class of society, therefore, the name Black Army had the meaning the People's Army or the People 's Militia 7:45
Ohh man the vidro is amazing and the finishing touch with the Hungarian dance by Brahms👌