Governorship (1446–1453)
The Estates of the realm proclaimed Hunyadi regent, bestowing the title "governor" upon him on 6 June 1446. His election was primarily promoted by the lesser nobility, but Hunyadi had by that time become one of the richest barons of the kingdom. His domains covered an area exceeding 800,000 hectares (2,000,000 acres). Hunyadi was one of the few contemporaneous barons who spent a significant part of their revenues to finance the wars against the Ottomans, thus bearing a large share of the cost of fighting for many years.
As governor, Hunyadi was authorized to exercise most royal prerogatives for the period of King Ladislaus V's minority. For instance, he could make land grants, but only up to the size of 32 peasant holdings. Hunyadi attempted to pacify the border regions. Soon after his election, he launched an unsuccessful campaign against Ulrich II, Count of Celje. Count Ulrich administered Slavonia with the title ban (which he had arbitrarily adopted) and refused to renounce of it in favor of Hunyadi's appointee. Hunyadi could not force him to submit.
Hunyadi persuaded John Jiskra of Brandýs—a Czech commander who controlled the northern regions (in present-day Slovakia)—to sign an armistice for three years on 13 September. However, Jiskra did not keep the truce, and armed conflicts continued. In November Hunyadi proceeded against Frederick III of Germany, who had refused to release Ladislaus V and seized Kőszeg, Sopron and other towns along the western border. Hunyadi's troops plundered Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, but no decisive battle was fought. A truce with Frederick III was signed on 1 June 1447. Although Frederick renounced of Győr, his position as the minor King's guardian was confirmed. The Estates of the realm were disappointed and the Diet elected Ladislaus Garai—a leader of Hunyadi's opponents—Palatine in September 1447.
Hunyadi accelerated his negotiations, which had been commenced in the previous year, with Alfonso the Magnanimous, King of Aragon and Naples. He even offered the crown to Alfonso in exchange for the King's participation in an anti-Ottoman crusade and the confirmation of his position as governor. However, King Alfonso refrained from signing an agreement.
Hunyadi invaded Wallachia and dethroned Vlad Dracul in December 1447. According to the contemporaneous Polish chronicler Jan Długosz, Hunyadi had "the very man he promised to make voivode" blinded, and planned "to appropriate" Wallachia for himself. Hunyadi styled himself "voivode of the Transalpine land" and referred to the Wallachian town, Târgoviște as "our fortress" in a letter of 4 December. It is without doubt that Hunyadi installed a new voivode in Wallachia, but modern historians debate whether the new voivode was Vladislav II (to whom Hunyadi referred as his relative in a letter) or Dan (who seems to have been a son of Basarab II). In February 1448 Hunyadi sent an army to Moldavia to support the pretender Peter in seizing the throne. In exchange, Peter acknowledged Hunyadi's suzerainty and contributed to the installation of a Hungarian garrison in the fort of Chilia Veche on the Lower Danube.
Hunyadi made a new attempt to expel Count Ulrich of Celje from Slavonia, but could not defeat him. In June Hunyadi and the Count reached an agreement, which confirmed Count Ulrich's position of Ban in Slavonia. In short time Hunyadi sent his envoys to the two most prominent Albanian leaders—Scanderbeg and his father-in-law, Gjergj Arianiti—to seek their assistance against the Ottomans. Pope Eugenius suggested that the anti-Ottoman campaign should be postponed. However, Hunyadi stated, in a letter dated 8 September 1448, that he "have had enough of our men enslaved, our women raped, wagons loaded with the severed heads of our people" and expressed his determination to expel "the enemy from Europe". In the same letter, he explained his military strategy to the Pope, stating that "[p]ower is always greater when used in attack rather than in defence".
Hunyadi departed for the new campaign at the head of an army of 16,000 soldiers in September 1448. About 8,000 soldiers from Wallachia also joined his campaign. For Đurađ Branković refused to assist the crusaders, Hunyadi treated him as the Ottoman's ally and his army marched through Serbia plundering the countryside. In order to prevent the unification of the armies of Hunyadi and Skanderbeg, Sultan Murad II joined battle with Hunyadi on Kosovo Polje on 17 October. The battle, which lasted for three days, ended with the crusaders' catastrophic defeat. Around 17,000 Hungarian and Wallachian soldiers were killed or captured and Hunyadi could hardly escape from the battlefield. On his way home, Hunyadi was captured by Đurađ Branković who kept him prisoner in the fort of Smederevo. The Despot was initially contemplating to surrender Hunyadi to the Ottomans. However, the Hungarian barons and prelates who assembled at Szeged persuaded him to make peace with Hunyadi. According to the treaty, Hunyadi was obliged to pay a ransom of 100,000 gold florins and to return all the domains that he had acquired from Đurađ Branković. Hunyadi's oldest son, Ladislaus was sent to the Despot as a hostage. Hunyadi was released, and he returned to Hungary in late December 1448.
His defeat and his humiliating treaty with the Despot weakened Hunyadi's position. The prelates and the barons confirmed the treaty and assigned Branković to negotiate with the Ottomans, and Hunyadi resigned from the office of Voivode of Transylvania. He invaded the lands controlled by John Jiskra and his Czech mercenaries in the autumn of 1449, but could not defeat them. On the other hand, the rulers of two neighboring countries—Stjepan Tomaš, King of Bosnia, and Bogdan II, Voivode of Moldavia—concluded a treaty with Hunyadi, promising that they would remain loyal to him. In early 1450 Hunyadi and Jiskra signed a peace treaty in Mezőkövesd, acknowledging that many prosperous towns in Upper Hungary—including Pressburg/Pozsony (present-day Bratislava, Slovakia) and Kassa (present-day Košice, Slovakia)—remained under Jiskra's rule.
Upon Hunyadi's demand, the Diet of March 1450 ordered the confiscation of Branković's estates in the Kingdom of Hungary. Hunyadi and his troops departed for Serbia, forcing Branković to release his son. Hunyadi, Ladislaus Garai and Nicholas Újlaki concluded a treaty on 17 July 1450, promising each other assistance to preserve their offices in case King Ladislaus V returned to Hungary. In October Hunyadi made peace with Frederick III of Germany, which confirmed the German monarch's position as guardian of Ladislaus V for further eight years. With the mediation of Újlaki and other barons, Hunyadi also concluded a peace treaty with Branković in August 1451, which authorized Hunyadi to redeem the debated domains for 155,000 gold florins. Hunyadi launched a military expedition against Jiskra, but the Czech commander routed the Hungarian troops near Losonc (present-day Lučenec, Slovakia) on 7 September. With the mediation of Branković, Hungary and the Ottoman Empire signed a three-year truce on 20 November.
The Austrian noblemen rose up in open rebellion against Frederick III of Germany, who governed the duchy in the name of Ladislaus the Posthumus at the turn of 1451 and 1452. The leader of the rebellion, Ulrich Eizinger sought the assistance of the Estates of Ladislaus's two other realms, Bohemia and Hungary. The Diet of Hungary, which assembled in Pressburg/Pozsony in February 1452, sent a delegation to Vienna. On 5 March the Austrian and Hungarian Estates jointly requested Frederick III to renounce the guardianship of their young sovereign. Frederick, who had been crowned Holy Roman Emperor, initially refused to satisfy their demand. Hunyadi convoked a Diet to discuss the situation, but before the Diet made any decision the united troops of the Austrian and Bohemian Estates forced the Emperor to hand over the young monarch to Count Ulrich of Celje on 4 September. In the meantime, Hunyadi had met Jiskra in Körmöcbánya (present-day Kremnica, Slovakia) where they concluded a treaty on 24 August. According to the treaty, Jiskra retained Léva (present-day Levica, Slovakia) and his right to collect the "thirtieth"—a custom duty—at Késmárk (present-day Kežmarok, Slovakia) and Ólubló (present-day Stará Ľubovňa, Slovakia). In September Hunyadi sent envoys to Constantinople and promised military assistance to the Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI. In exchange, he demanded two Byzantine forts on the Black Sea, Silivri and Misivri, but the Emperor refused.
Hunyadi convoked a Diet to Buda, but the barons and the prelates preferred to visit Ladislaus V in Vienna in November. At the Diet of Vienna, Hunyadi renounced the regency, but the King appointed him "captain general of the kingdom" on 30 January 1453. The King even authorized Hunyadi to keep the royal castles and royal revenues that he possessed at that time. Hunyadi also received Bistritz (present-day Bistrița, Romania)—a district of the Transylvanian Saxons—with the title "perpetual count" from Ladislaus V, which was the first grant of a hereditary title in the Kingdom of Hungary.
