LADISLAUS V. ( , king of Hungary and Bohemia, the only son of Albert, king of Hungary, and Elizabeth, daughter of the emperor Sigismund, was born at Komarom on Feb. 22, 1440, four months after his father's death, and was hence called Ladislaus Posthumus. The estates of Hungary had already elected Wladislaus III. of Poland their king, but Ladislaus's mother caused the holy crown to be stolen from its guardians at Visegrad, and compelled the primate to crown the infant king at Szekesfe jervar on May 15, 1440 ; whereupon, for safety's sake, she placed the child beneath the guardianship of his uncle the emperor Fred erick III. On the death of Wladislaus (Nov. 1o, 1444), the Hun garian estates elected Ladislaus king; but Frederick, despite many representations, retained him and the crown till 1452. The child was then transferred to the guardianship of his maternal grand father Ulrich Cillei, who inspired him with a jealous hatred of the Hunyadis. On Oct. 28, 1453 he was crowned king of Bohemia,
and henceforth spent most of his time at Prague and Vienna, actually trying to hinder Hunyadi's attempts to defend Hungary against the Turk. His judicial murder of Laszlo Hunyadi (q.v.) finally raised such a storm in Hungary that the king fled to Prague, where he died suddenly (Nov. 23, 1457), while making prepara tions for his marriage with Magdalena, daughter of Charles VII. of France. He is supposed to have been poisoned by his political opponents in Bohemia.
See F. Palacky, Zeugenverhor iiber den Tod Konig Ladislaus von Ungarn u. Bohmen (Prague, 1856) ; Ignacz Acsady, History of the Hungarian State (Hung.), vol. i. (Budapest, 1903).