Black Army of Hungary - Funding The Army To Its Greatest Extent

Funding The Army To Its Greatest Extent

After Matthias' income increased periodically, simultaneously, the number of mercenaries increased as well. Historical records vary when it comes to numbers, mainly because it changed from battle to battle and most soldiers were only employed for the duration of combat or a longer conflict. Reckoning the nobility's banners, the mercenaries, the soldiers of conquered Moravia and Silesia, and the troops of allied Moldovia and Wallachia, the king could have gathered an army of 90,000 men. (Despite the levies formed mainly by peasants and shepherds, Wallachia and Moldavia remained vassal countries of Hungary or Poland and, later, the Ottoman Empire.) The nobility's participation in the battlefield were ignored by the time their support could have been redeemed in gold later on. The cities were also relieved of paying war levies if they supplied the craftsmanship and weapon production to equip the military.

King Matthias increased the serf's taxes; he switched the basis of taxing from the portae to the households, and occasionally, they collected the royal dues twice a year during wartime. Counting the vassals' tribute, the Western contributions, the local nobility's war payment, the tithes, and the urban taxes, Matthias' annual income reached 650,000 florins; for comparison, the Ottoman Empire had 1,800,000 per year. In contrast to popular belief, historians have speculated for decades that the actual sum altogether could circle around 800,000 florins in a good year at the peak of Matthias' reign, but never surpassed the financial threshold of one million florins, a previously commonly accepted number. In 1467, Matthias Corvinus reformed the coin system for easier accumulation of taxes and manageable disbursements and introduced an improved dinar, which had a finer silver content (500‰) and weighed half a gram. He also re-established its ratio, where one florin of gold equaled 100 dinars of silver, which was so stable that it remained in place until the mid-16th century.

The army was divided into three parts: the cavalry, paid three florins per horse; the pavisors, who received double the money; and the archers, light infantry and arquebusiers, with the latter consisting of mostly Bohemians, Germans and Poles (all paid differently). Medieval gunpowder was quite expensive, so the king preferred adapting Hussite tactics to mounted warfare (based on defense, placing infantry behind wagon blockades or tall pavises, while the cavalry constantly harassed the enemy and guarded the "middle") and placed archery in favor of fusiliers, with the latter being engaged at the very start of the battle. With firearm production being made available by local marksmen in Transylvania, especially in Braşov, these type of ranged infantry became cheaper to handle for the Hungarians.