HUNYADI, JOHN (JANOS) (c. Hungarian statesman and warrior, was the son of Vojk, a Magyarized Vlach who married Elizabeth Morzsinay. He derived his family name from the small family estate of Hunyad, in Transylvania. The epithet Corvinus, adopted by his son Matthias, was derived from another property, Piatra da Corvo. While a youth, he entered the service of King Sigismund, accompanied him to Frankfort in 1410; took part in the Hussite War in 1420, and in 1437 drove the Turks from Semendria. For these services he received numerous estates and a seat in the royal council. In 1438 King Albert II. made him ban of Szoreny, a most dangerous dignity entailing con stant warfare with the Turks. On the death of Albert in Hunyadi supported the candidature of the young Polish king Wladislaus III. (144o), against the partisans of the Austrian candidate Ladislaus V., took a prominent part in the ensuing civil war and was rewarded by Wladislaus III. with the captaincy of the fortress of Belgrade and the voivodeship of Transylvania, which latter dignity, however, he shared with his rival Mihaly Ujlaki.
The burden of the Turkish War now rested entirely on his shoulders. He won brilliant victories at Semendria (1441), near Hermannstadt (144 2) and near the Iron Gates (1442). In he advanced across the Balkans, captured Nis, defeated three Turkish pashas, and, after taking Sofia, united with king Wladis laus' army and defeated Murad II. at Snaim. When he returned home (Feb. 1444), he had broken the sultan's power in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria and Albania. The Pope, the despot of Serbia (George Brankovic) and the prince of Albania (George Castriota) urged him on his return to resume the war and drive the Turks from Europe. All preparations were made, when Turkish envoys arrived in Hungary to conclude a ten years' truce. The pact was concluded, but broken when news arrived that a Venetian fleet had started to prevent the Sultan (who had retired to Asia Minor) from recrossing into Europe. In July the Hun garian army recrossed the frontier and advanced towards the Euxine coast to join the galleys. Brankovic, however, privately informed Murad of the advance, and prevented Castriota from joining it. On reaching Varna, the Hungarians found that the Venetian galleys had failed to prevent the transit of the sultan, who now confronted them with fourfold odds, and in Nov. they were utterly routed, Wladislaus falling on the field and Hunyadi narrowly escaping.
At the diet which met in 1445 a provisional government of five Magyar captain-generals, was formed, Hunyadi receiving Tran sylvania and the ultra-Theissian counties as his district ; but the resulting anarchy became unendurable, and in June 1446 Hunyadi was unanimously elected governor of Hungary in the name of Ladislaus V., with regal powers. His first act as governor was to proceed against the German king Frederick III., who refused to deliver up the young king. After ravaging Styria, Carinthia and Carniola and threatening Vienna, Hunyadi's difficulties else where compelled him to make a truce with Frederick for two years. In 1448 he received a golden chain and the title of prince from Pope Nicholas V., and immediately afterwards resumed the war with the Turks. He lost the two days' battle of Kosovo owing to the treachery of Dan, hospodar of Wallachia, and of his old enemy Brankovic, who imprisoned him at Semendria; but he was ransomed by the Magyars, and, after composing his dif ferences with his enemies in Hungary, led a punitive expedition against the Serbian prince. In 145o Hunyadi went to Pressburg to negotiate with Frederick the terms of the surrender of Ladis laus V. To refute the accusation made by his enemies that he was aiming at the throne, he resigned all his dignities into the hands of the young king, on his return to Hungary in whereupon Ladislaus created him count of Bestercze and captain general of the kingdom.
Meanwhile the Turkish danger had again become pressing. In 1455 Hunyadi provisioned and armed the fortress of Belgrade at his own expense, and leaving in it a garrison under his brother in-law Mihaly Szilagyi and his eldest son Laszlo, he proceeded to form a relief army and a fleet of 200 corvettes. To the eternal shame of the Magyar nobles, he was left entirely to his own re sources. His one ally was the Franciscan friar, Giovanni da Capistrano (q.v.), thanks to whose preachings Hunyadi's small mercenary army was reinforced by a host of peasant volunteers. On July 14, 1456 Hunyadi with his flotilla destroyed the Turkish fleet ; on the 21st and 22nd he routed the forces investing Belgrade, forcing Mohammed to raise the siege, return to Constantinople, and thus securing the independence of Hungary for another 7o years. On Aug. II, however, Hunyadi died of plague in his camp.
Hunyadi was one of Christendom's most glorious champions, and also a great statesman. He recognized the insufficiency and the unreliability of the feudal levies, and was one of the first to employ a regular army on a large scale. A man of average edu cation, he owed his influence partly to his natural genius and partly to the transparent integrity and nobility of his character.
See J. Teleki, The Age of the Hunyadis in Hungary (Hung.) (Pesth, 1852-57 ; supplementary volumes by D. Csanki 1895) ; G. Fejer, Genus, incunabula et virtus Joannis Corvini de Hunyad (Buda, 1844) ; J. de Chassin, Jean de Hunyad (Paris, 1859) ; P. Frankl, Der Friede von Szegedin and die Geschichte seines Bruches (Leipzig, 5904) ; R. N. Bain, "The Siege of Belgrade, 1456" (Eng. Hist. Rev., 1892) ; A. Bonfini, Rerum ungaricarum libri xlv., editio septima (Leipzig, 1771) .