Private tours in Transylvania, Romania. Experienced tour guide. Family company.
    E-MAIL us: gelutrandafir [at] yahoo.com, CALL us +40-723.303.310
    Private tours in Transylvania, Romania. Experienced tour guide. Family company.
      E-MAIL us: gelutrandafir [at] yahoo.com, CALL us +40-723.303.310

      The ancestry of John Hunyadi (Corvin): facts, legends and suppositions.

      Worth reading: The Noon Bell and the Feast of Transfiguration – two legacies of John Hunyadi’s victory over the Turks

      John Hunyadi noon bell corvin castle

      The Raven, the Ring, the King

      Facts, legends and suppositions about John Hunyadi's ancestry

      One of the suppositions claims that John Hunyadi, the medieval hero and Hungarian regent, was in fact the illegitimate son of the King Sigismund of Luxembourg with Elisabeth Morzsinay (Hunyadi's mother). Then, at King's request, Hunyadi's father, a faithful Wallachian knight, married Elisabeth in order to save the honor of Elisabeth. John Hunyadi himself might have kept this rumor. For sure, a royal descendance was a better to play among Hungarian nobles, than a Wallachian ancestry.

      Facts. But, let us start from what we know for sure. For example, that the father of John Hunyadi was a man named Voicu (or Voyk). Voicu was a Wallachian boyar. He served in the army of Sigismund of Luxemburg John Hunyadi RatiuSigismund of Luxemburg, King of Hungary, Holy Roman EmperorSigismund of Luxembourg , King of Hungary for 50 years (1387–1437), and Holy Roman Emperor (1433-1437). So, for his loyal services, Voicu was ennobled in 1409 (his son, John, was then two years of age). Voicu received from Sigismund of Luxembourg the castle of Hunedoara – therefore the name Hunyadi.

      Voicu’s wife (the mother of John Hunyadi) was Erzsebet (Elisabeth) Morzsinay, from a noble Hungarian family. These are the facts.

      Suppositions. Now, let us explore the suppositions. One of them claims that John Hunyadi was in fact the illegitimate son of the King with Elisabeth. Being the King’s devoted knight, Voicu, the Wallachian boyar, was asked to marry Elisabeth in order to save her honor.

      Legends.Finally, the legends. A princely ring was given to the new-born John Hunyadi in order to prove his royal descent at a later stage. A raven stole the ring, tells the legend, and the young John killed the raven with an arrow and recovered the precious artefact.

      This legend would explain the origins of The Raven, the Ring, the King: Legends of John HunyadiHunyadi / Corvin House coat of arms : the mysterious raven [corvus in latin] with a ring in its beak. The same symbol is to be found on the coat of arms of some noble Polish families during the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (16th-17th century).

      Suppositions again. Some Romanian historians also highlight that John Hunyadi’s grandfather (Voicu’s father) was a Wallachian named Serb. By the end of 14th century, we know that Serb -the grandfather- had three sons, all of them in the service of King Sigismund of Luxembourg.

      The Serb family –the grandfather, the father and the uncles of John Hunyadi - owned properties in Wallachia (south of Transylvania). Among these properties was the scenic village of Corbi (meaning Ravens) in the shadow of Fagaras Mountains. This also might be at the origins of the family name and symbol on the coat of arms of Hunyadi House.
      Visit Corvin (Hunyadi) Castle
      Siege of Belgrade (1456) noon bell corvin john hunyadi castle
      John Hunyadi was one of the greatest military commanders of the Middle Ages. In 1456, three years after the fall of Constantinople, during the Siege of Belgrade, he defeated the Ottoman army of Sultan Mehmed II, renowned as ”the Conqueror”.
      The Raven, the Ring, the King: Legends of John Hunyadi
      The son of John Hunyadi, Matthias Corvinus, became King of Hungary in 1458. Matthias Rex reigned for 32 years, until his death in 1490, being one of the greatest Hungarian kings. His birth house is in Cluj-Napoca.
      The Raven, the Ring, the King: Legends of John Hunyadi
      We visit the Hunyadi / Corvin Castle of Hunedoara, the Catholic Cathedral of Alba Iulia, where John Hunyadi was buried, and the birth house of Matthias Rex in Cluj-Napoca during our 6-days and 7-days private tours in Transylvania.