21. The Real Life Raven King
The Raven King’s Mercenary Black Army sounds like something from George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. It actually refers to a real-life monarch and military unit, who became Europe’s most formidable warriors in the second half of the 15th century. To wit, king Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (1443 – 1490), whose name translates as “Matthew the Raven“, and a mercenary army he assembled to hold back the Ottoman Turks.
When Hungary’s king Ladislaus V died childless in 1457, the Diet of Hungary convened in January 1458 to elect a new king. It eventually chose 14-year-old Matthias Corvinus as a compromise candidate to avert a civil war between rival factions. The plan was for Matthias’ uncle to rule as regent until the new king came of age, but the teenager surprised everybody by administering state affairs independently from the start.