2 Reign

Charles restored order by absolute rule. The Diet was still summoned occasionally at very irregular intervals, but the real business of the state was transacted in the royal council, where able men of the middle class, 70 percent of them Italians, held trusted positions. To impose limitations on the barons, the lesser gentry were protected against the tyranny of the magnates, encouraged to appear at court and taxed for military service by the royal treasury so as to draw them closer to the crown. The court was famous throughout Europe as a school of chivalry.

Charles also carried out numerous important reforms. He was a born financier, and his reform of the currency and of the whole fiscal system greatly contributed to enrich both the merchant class and the treasury. Towns grew and crime reduced owing to Charles's fiscal care. He encouraged trade and imposed taxes to support his army, which he used to expand his territory, making Hungary into a major European power. His achievements were continued by his son King Louis the Great.

Charles's foreign policy largely stemmed from dynastic alliances. His most successful achievement was the mutual defense union with Poland against the Habsburgs and Bohemians, accomplished by the convention of Trencín in 1335, confirmed the same year at the brilliant two-month congress of Visegrad. Not only did all the princes of central Europe compose their differences and enjoy splendid entertainment during the months of October and November: the immediate result of the congress was a combined attack by the Hungarians and Poles upon the Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV and his ally the Habsburg Duke Albert II of Austria, which resulted in favour of Charles in 1337.

Charles's desire to unite the kingdoms of Hungary and Naples under his eldest son Louis was dashed by Venice and by the Pope, who both feared Hungary might become the dominant Adriatic power. Nevertheless he was more than compensated for this disappointment by his compact in 1339 with his ally and brother-in-law, Casimir III of Poland, whereby it was agreed that Louis should succeed to the Polish throne on the death of the childless Casimir.

2.1 Deterioration of the southern frontier

The Árpád kings had succeeded in encircling their whole southern frontier with six military colonies or banates, comprising, roughly speaking, Little Wallachia (southern part of present-day Romania) and the northern parts of present-day Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia. Charles redistributed these territories and proselytized the residents of the region to consolidate his reign.

Although he managed to expand his kingdom, the adverse effect was converting most of the old banates into semi-independent and violently anti-Hungarian principalities. The predominent religion of the area was Greek- Orthodox, and forceful proselytization to Catholicism provoked rebellion. Natural dynastic competition with the Orthodox Serbian and Bulgarian tsars and the emergence of a new Wallachian nationality also contributed to the upraising.

Prior to 1320, Western Wallachia ( Oltenia) was regarded by the Hungarians as part of the banate of Szörény. When the Wallachian ruler, Basarab I showed signs of disobidience, Charles lead his army toward Wallachia, but on November 9, 1330, it was ambushed on entering Wallachia, in the Battle of Posada . King Charles barely escaped, by exchanging clothes with one of his knights. This incident marked the beginning of Wallachia as an independent state.

Unknown to Charles, the Ottoman Turks had already secured Asia Minor under the sultans Osman I and Orhan I and planned to invade the Balkans to consolidate their realm. The Balkans sovereignties were keener on securing their regimes than on co-ordinating their defences. With Charles' policy added into the equation, the Turks could annihilate them one by one. Nevertheless these events happened years after Charles' death, over the course of numerous Ottoman wars in Europe.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911 Britannica

3 Other names

• Hungarian: I. Károly / Károly Róbert,
• Slovak: Karol I / Karol Róbert,
• Romanian: Carol Robert

Preceded by: Otto III

List of Hungarian rulers

Succeeded by: Louis I

Hungarian monarchs

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