Black Army of Hungary

Black Army Of Hungary

The Black Army (Hungarian: Fekete sereg, pronounced ), "Black Legion" or "Regiment"—possibly named after their black armor panoply, see below) is, in historiography, the common name given to the military forces serving under the reign of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. The ancestor and core of this early standing mercenary army appeared in the era of his father (John Hunyadi) in the early 1440s. The idea of the professional standing mercenary army came from Matthias' juvenile readings about the life of Julius Caesar.

Hungary's Black Army traditionally encompasses the years from 1458 to 1494. The mercenary soldiers of other countries in the era were conscripted from the general population at times of crisis, and soldiers worked as bakers, farmers, brick-makers, etc. for most of the year. In contrast, the men of the Black Army fought as well-paid, full-time mercenaries and were purely devoted to the arts of warfare. It was a standing mercenary army that conquered parts of Austria, Vienna (1485) and parts of Moravia.

The core of the army originally consisted of 6–8 thousand mercenaries. Later in the 1480s the number was between 15,000 and 20,000, however the figures reached to 28,000 men (20,000 horsemen, 8000 infantry) in 1487. The soldiers were mainly Bohemians, Germans, Serbs, Poles and, from 1480, Hungarians. Every fifth soldier in the Black Army had an arquebus in the infantry, which was an unusual ratio at the time. The high price of medieval gunpowder prevented them from raising it any further. The main troops of the army were the infantry, artillery and light and heavy cavalry. The function of the heavy cavalry was to protect the light armored infantry and artillery, while the other corps delivered random, surprise assaults on the enemy. One important victory of the Black Army of Hungary was at the Battle of Breadfield, where the Hungarians defeated the Ottomans. The death of Matthias Corvinus meant the end of the Black Army, since Vladislaus II was not able to cover the cost of the army.