Emperor Friedrich III. and the King Matthias of Hungary

The years between 1475 and 1485 of emperor Friedrich III`s reign (d. 1493) were characterized by his conflicts with King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (d. 1490) in the eastern parts of his ruling territories. Because the emperor and the king were elected by different political parties, the already strained relationship between the two princes worsened during the period under investigation. In addition, Matthias Corvinus strove to attain the crown of Bohemia, and in doing so, in 1470 he also conquered wide parts of eastern Austria, including Friedrich III`s favored residences in Vienna and Wiener Neustadt. The aim of this project is to analyse anew the relationship between the emperor, often bound by his decisions, and the more versatile king of Hungary, a perspective which has largely been ignored up to this point. Here, how both parties used certain instruments for achieving power can be brought to light. These studies correlate with those of the current international medieval studies community, who are now ardently discussing questions about "foreign policy relations" in the late Middle Ages. The tactically skillful Hungarian king, in the course of achieving his goals-the increase of his power and the expansion of this ruling territory-used, for example, interregional alliance networks to his advantage. As a result, he created allies against his enemies in Europe, such as the emperor, as well as his outside enemies, like the Ottoman Turks, who were threatening Hungary`s eastern borders. At the same time, one can also make a comparison between the royal leadership of the aged emperor and his young counterpart in Hungary, who aspired to the crown of the Roman Empire. Because of his successful reforms of administration, finance, and the military, King Matthias is often characterized in the secondary literature as a Renaissance prince. As a basis for this study, we must consult newly discovered, previously unknown and unpublished sources. This will ensure that the chronological series of Kaiser Friedrich III`s Regesta -already available in several volumes based on selected sources in the Haus-, Hof- and Staatsarchiv in Vienna-will continue. The project described here is part of the international and renowned enterprise of the "Regesta Imperii".

The project `Emperor Frederic III and King Matthias of Hungary` made it possible to continue the works on the charters related to the rule of Frederic III and preserved in the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv (HHStA) in Vienna. The recording and gathering of documents issued in the years 1470-1479, just like the compilation and publication of abstracts (regesta) took place in the frame of the international and renowned enterprise `Regesten Kaiser Friedrichs III. (1440-1493) nach Archiven und Bibliotheken geordnet`. Approximately 1700 charters were looked at and controlled, from which 620 were chosen to compile scientifically well-founded regesta. These abstracts will be published in two printed volumes; nonetheless, they will be available for the scientific community as open access publication on Regesta Imperii Online (www.regesta-imperii.de) as well. The evaluated archive stocks are of outstanding importance to the history of Frederic III`s regency. Up to now only those charters were collected from German, Czech, Polish and Dutch archives and libraries, which were issued by the ruler himself. The documents edited in this project, however, belong predominantly to the archive stocks of the House of Habsburg, which includes also a great number of manuscripts directed to Frederic III. In this way, the source base to be used by historians dealing with the history of Austria in the Later Middle Ages and that of her neighbouring countries has been considerably enlarged. The up to now mostly unknown material covers a broad variety of topics, provides a new basis for and gives new impetus to the research focusing on medieval and local history. Moreover, church, legal, economic, social and art history as well as the studies on mentality and diplomacy profit from the interdisciplinary character of these sources. The publication of this material also facilitates the research of the Later Middle Ages in general, which era gets more and more attention in the last decades, both from the scientific and the non-professional community. An important event of the studied period was, for instance, the marriage of Maximilian, the son of the Emperor, with Maria, the daughter and the only heiress of the Duke of Burgundy, by which act in 1477 the House of Habsburg seized the so-called `Burgundian heritage`. In the same year Emperor Frederic and King Matthias of Hungary made a contract - although it could not put an end to the struggle between the two rulers, the text is absolutely worth of studying, since it contains valuable information concerning the history of the late medieval Empire, but also about Frederic`s quarrel as territorial lord with the Austrian nobility. The forewords of the regesta- volumes and a study on the relations between King Matthias of Hungary and Emperor Frederic III are the results of the first scientific evaluation of this archive material. Finally, since the copies of the scanned charters were handed over to the archive, the project could also contribute to a praiseworthy initiative of the HHStA. This aims at the taking of photographs of the originals, so that the documents can be read on screen in the future instead of being used directly by the researchers, which routine causes permanently damages on the stocks.