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The 1335 Meeting of Kings in Visegrad

The 1335 Meeting of Kings in Visegrad

By Sławomir Gawlas

The Visegrad Group: A Central European Constellation, ed. by Andrzej Jagodziński (Bratislava, 2006)

Introduction: For the entire month of November 1335 in Visegrad the meeting of the Central-European kings took place: the Hungarian king Charles Robert, king of Bohemia John of Luxembourg, his son Charles, the margrave of Moravia and actual governor of the Kingdom, Polish king Casimir the Great and the plenipotentiary of the Great Master of the Teutonic Order in Prussia, as well as a number of dukes.

The choice of place was not accidental. In 1335, Visegrad was a main seat of Charles Robert, the place where his court stayed and actual capital city of the kingdom. It was not a typical situation in those times. As a matter of fact, the manner of governing was changing and the rulers gradually abandoned regular travelling around the country under their control and instead spent more and more time at their main residence, which provided the suitable setting for the comfortable life of the court. Thus his seat was located in the most important town. In the kingdom of Hungary it was Budapest. Its traditions as the capital city, however, did not have old roots, whereas the burghers at the beginnings of Charles Robert’s reign were trying to carry on the independent politics. After defeating the oligarchic opposition in 1323, Charles Robert chose Visegrad for his abode. It was a centre with a long, going back to Roman times history, majestically situated on the Danube on the edge of the prominent range of hills.

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