Hungarian-Russian Alliance of Matthias Corvinus and Ivan III (a contribution to the establishment of relationship between the courts of Buda and Moscow in the 15th century)
Abstract
In the second half of the 15th century, a power struggle over the hegemony in Central Europe occurred. Its participants were most of all the dynasties of the Habsburg and Jagiellon and from the end of the 1460s also ambitious Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus.
Whilst the main aim of Emperor Frederick III and Polish king Casimir IV was to seize the Kingdom of Hungary, Matthias instead struggled to acquire the title of the King of the Romans and assert himself in the Lands of the Czech crown, where he contended with Casimir’s son Vladislaus II. His final objective was to conquer the hereditary Habsburg domains.
In order to achieve this grand scheme, Matthias sought allies in Europe and beyond and among others he found one in the person of the Grand Prince of Muscovy, Ivan III, with whom he concluded a treaty of alliance and assistance against mutual enemies, in other words primarily against Casimir IV.