Унгария и турската опасност по времето на Сигизмунд (1387–1437)
Hungary and the Ottoman Threat in the Age of King Sigismund (1378–1437)

Summary/Abstract: The article offers a summary of the Hungarian-Turkish relation from the battle of the Kosovo Plain in 1389 the death of King Sigismund. The author stresses the unique significance of the Ottoman conquest from the point of view of Hungarian foreign policy in the long run. It namely put an end to the Hungarian kingdom as a Great Power on the Balkans, a status enjoyed in the age of the Arpads and the Anjous. From then on, Hungary was reduced to self-defence and the inherent loss of prestige caused problems of orientation among the leading elite of the country. The article attempts to give a novel interpretation to the Balkan policy of the Hungarian kingdom in the 15th century. The author maintains that after the defeat at Nicopolis in 1396 King Sigismund tried to make the neighbouring principalities on the Balkans into a king of cordon sanitaire against the Ottoman threat. This is what explains his grants of estates for the Balkan princes in Hungary and his campaigns against Bosnia in 1405-1410 when the tried to make the country part of his defence system. When his cordon sanitaire broke up in the 1420’s, the king tried to make it up with a new type of defence policy. On the one hand he had a system of border castles built, and on the other he took Belgrade and built out a unified military administration in the Southern Province under the leadership of the brothers Talloci in the 1430’s.

• Details
• Contents