Black Army of Hungary

Black Army
Hungary Black Legion standard
Standard of the Black legion
Active1458–1494 AD[1]
Disbanded1494[1] (due to money shortage and mercenary uprising)
CountryKingdom of Hungary
AllegianceHungarian, Czech (Bohemian, Moravian, Silesian), Polish, Croatian, Serbian, Wallachian, Bavarian, Austrian, Swiss
BranchArmy, navy
TypeCavalry, infantry, artillery, siege weapons
Sizeapprox. 28,000
HeraldryThis characteristic flag with a forked tail was reconstructed after a miniature in Philostratus Chronicle, one of the Corvinas, representing the 1485 entry of János Corvinus, son of King Matthias, into Vienna. In the Philostratus Chronicle, the apparent black colour of the flag used to be white (argent), but the argent paint oxidized. The reconstruction preserves the original colour.
Mascot(s)Raven
EngagementsHoly Roman Empire, Bohemia, Poland, Serbia, Bosnia, Moldavia, Wallachia, Italy
Commanders
KingMatthias Corvinus
Notable
commanders		Pál Kinizsi, Balázs Magyar, Imre Zápolya, John Giskra, John Haugwitz, František Hag, Vuk Grgurević, Đorđe Branković

The Black Army (Hungarian: Fekete sereg, pronounced [ˈfɛkɛtɛ ˈʃɛrɛɡ], Latin: Legio Nigra), also called the Black Legion/Regiment – were the military forces serving under the reign of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. The ancestor and core of this early standing mercenary army appeared in the era of his father John Hunyadi in the early 1440s. The idea of the professional standing mercenary army came from Matthias' juvenile readings about the life of Julius Caesar.[2]

Hungary's Black Army traditionally encompasses the years from 1458 to 1494.[1] The mercenary soldiers of other countries[which?] in the era were conscripted from the general population at times of crisis, and soldiers worked as bakers, farmers, brick-makers, etc. for most of the year.[citation needed] In contrast, the men of the Black Army fought as well-paid, full-time mercenaries and were purely devoted to the arts of warfare. It was a standing mercenary army that conquered large parts of Austria (including the capital Vienna in 1485) and more than half of the Crown of Bohemia (Moravia, Silesia and both Lusatias), the other important victory of the army was won against the Ottomans at the Battle of Breadfield in 1479.

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] The main troops of the army were the infantry, artillery and light and heavy cavalry. The function of the heavy cavalry was to protect the light armoured infantry and artillery, while the other corps delivered sporadic, surprise assaults on the enemy.

In the beginning, the core of the army consisted of 6,000–8,000 mercenaries.[7][8] In the 1480s, the number was between 15,000 and 20,000, but the figures in the great Viennese military parade reached 28,000 men (20,000 horsemen, 8,000 infantry) in 1485.[9] Thus the Black Army was far larger than the army of Louis XI of France, the only other existing permanent professional European army in the era.[10] The soldiers were mainly Czechs, Germans, Serbs, Poles[11] and, from 1480, Hungarians.

The Black Army was not the only large standing mercenary army of Matthias Corvinus. The border castles of the north, west and east were guarded mostly by the retinues of the local nobility, financed by the nobles' own revenues; however the Ottoman frontier zone of southern Hungary had a large professional standing army which was paid by the king. Unlike the soldiers of the Black Army, these large mercenary 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]

The death of Matthias Corvinus meant the end of the Black Army. The noble estate of the parliament succeeded in reducing the tax burden by 70–80 percent, at the expense of the country's ability to defend itself,[13] thus the newly elected king Vladislaus II was unable to cover the cost of the army.[7] King Vladislaus II donated most of the royal estates, régales[clarification needed] and royalties to the nobility. After the dissolution of the Black Army, the Hungarian magnates also dismantled the national administration systems and bureaucracy throughout the country. The country's defenses sagged as border guards and castle garrisons went unpaid, fortresses fell into disrepair, and initiatives to increase taxes to reinforce defenses were stifled.[14]

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference ME2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Valery Rees: Hungary's Philosopher King: Matthias Corvinus 1458–90 (Published 1994) [1]
  3. ^ Clifford Rogers (2010). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology, Volume I. New York, NY, United States: Oxford University Press. p. 152. ISBN 9780195334036. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
  4. ^ Anthony Tihamer Komjathy (1982). "A thousand years of the Hungarian art of war". Toronto, ON, Canada: Rakoczi Press. pp. 35–36. Archived from the original on 26 January 2011. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
  5. ^ Vajna-Naday, Warhistory. p. 40.
  6. ^ Courtlandt Canby: A History of Weaponry. Recontre and Edito Service, London. p. 62.
  7. ^ a b István Tringli (1998). "Military History" (CD-ROM). The Hunyadis and the Jagello age (1437–1526). Budapest: Encyclopaedia Humana Association. Retrieved 25 June 2011. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  8. ^ Clifford Rogers (2010). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology, Volume 1. Oxford University Press. p. 9. ISBN 9780195334036.
  9. ^ Caferro, William; Reid, Shelley (2010). "Zürich, Siege of". The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology: Mercenaries. Vol. 3. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 306. ISBN 978-0-19-533403-6.
  10. ^ Bérenger, Jean (2014). A History of the Habsburg Empire 1273–1700. Routledge. p. 108. ISBN 978-1317895701.
  11. ^ Nicolle, David (1988). Hungary and the fall of Eastern Europe 1000–1568. Angus McBride (illustrator). London, England: Osprey. p. 12. ISBN 0-85045-833-1. Retrieved 4 October 2009.[permanent dead link‍]
  12. ^ Pálosfalvi, Tamás (2018). From Nicopolis to Mohács: A History of Ottoman·Hungarian Warfare, 1389–1526. Brill. p. 32. ISBN 9781570037399.
  13. ^ Fukuyama, Francis (2011). The origins of political order: from prehuman times to the French Revolution. London: Profile Books. ISBN 978-1-84668-256-8.
  14. ^ Burant, Stephen R.; Keefe, Eugene K. (1990). Hungary: A Country Study. Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. LCCN 90006426.