King Mattias and the papacy in early 1472: Miklós Nyujtódi in Rome

Abstract

Relations of King Matthias Corvinus and the papacy have been studied by many historians since the nineteenth century. Uncovering and publishing sources that would elucidate this part of papal and central-European history was of prime interest. This paper tries to bring some new light to these relations thanks to a newly discovered instructions of the king to his envoy, Miklós Nyújtódi Székely, bishop of Knin, who travelled to Rome sometime in the beginning of 1472. On the basis of these instructions we can reconstruct the king’s intentions and plans in the context of the political situation of central Europe in the early 1470s. At that time, relations to Bohemia and Poland set the framework of the policies, which were influenced from the papal side by the present papal nuncios, especially Lorenzo Roverella.