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Matthias Corvinus

Matthias Corvinus (Hunyadi Mátyás; Matia/Matei Corvin; Matija/Matijaš Korvin; Matej Korvín; ; ) was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1458 to 1490, as Matthias I. After conducting several military campaigns, he was elected King of Bohemia in 1469 and adopted the title Duke of Austria in 1487. He was the son of John Hunyadi, Regent of Hungary, who died in 1456. In 1457, Matthias was imprisoned along with his older brother, Ladislaus Hunyadi, on the orders of King Ladislaus the Posthumous. Ladislaus Hunyadi was executed, causing a rebellion that forced King Ladislaus to flee Hungary. After the King died unexpectedly, Matthias's uncle Michael Szilágyi persuaded the Estates to unanimously proclaim the 14-year-old Matthias as king on 24 January 1458. He began his rule under his uncle's guardianship, but he took effective control of government within two weeks.

As king, Matthias waged wars against the Czech mercenaries who dominated Upper Hungary (today parts of Slovakia and Northern Hungary) and against Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, who claimed Hungary for himself. In this period, the Ottoman Empire conquered Serbia and Bosnia, terminating the zone of buffer states along the southern frontiers of the Kingdom of Hungary. Matthias signed a peace treaty with Frederick III in 1463, acknowledging the Emperor's right to style himself King of Hungary. The Emperor returned the Holy Crown of Hungary with which Matthias was crowned on 29 April 1464. In this year, Matthias invaded the territories that had recently been occupied by the Ottomans and seized fortresses in Bosnia. He soon realized he could expect no substantial aid from the Christian powers and gave up his anti-Ottoman policy.

Matthias introduced new taxes and regularly set taxation at extraordinary levels. These measures caused a rebellion in Transylvania in 1467, but he subdued the rebels. The next year, Matthias declared war on George of Poděbrady, the Hussite King of Bohemia, and conquered Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia, but he could not occupy Bohemia proper. The Catholic Estates proclaimed him King of Bohemia on 3 May 1469, but the Hussite lords refused to yield to him even after the death of their leader George of Poděbrady in 1471. Instead, they elected Vladislaus Jagiellon, the eldest son of Casimir IV of Poland. A group of Hungarian prelates and lords offered the throne to Vladislaus's younger brother Casimir, but Matthias overcame their rebellion. Having routed the united troops of Casimir IV and Vladislaus at Breslau in Silesia (now Wrocław in Poland) in late 1474, Matthias turned against the Ottomans, who had devastated the eastern parts of Hungary. He sent reinforcements to Stephen the Great, Prince of Moldavia, enabling Stephen to repel a series of Ottoman invasions in the late 1470s. In 1476, Matthias besieged and seized Šabac, an important Ottoman border fort. He concluded a peace treaty with Vladislaus Jagiellon in 1478, confirming the division of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown between them. Matthias waged a war against Emperor Frederick and occupied Lower Austria between 1482 and 1487.

Matthias established one of the earliest professional standing armies of medieval Europe (the Black Army of Hungary), reformed the administration of justice, reduced the power of the barons, and promoted the careers of talented individuals chosen for their abilities rather than their social statuses. Matthias patronized art and science; his royal library, the Bibliotheca Corviniana, was one of the largest collections of books in Europe. With his patronage, Hungary became the first country to embrace the Renaissance from Italy. As Matthias the Just, the monarch who wandered among his subjects in disguise, he remains a popular hero of Hungarian and Slovak folk tales.

Childhood (1443–1457)
Matthias was born in Kolozsvár (now Cluj-Napoca in Romania) on 23 February 1443. He was the second son of John Hunyadi and his wife, Elizabeth Szilágyi. Matthias' education was managed by his mother due to his father's absence. Many of the most learned men of Central Europe—including Gregory of Sanok and John Vitéz—frequented John Hunyadi's court when Matthias was a child. Gregory of Sanok, a former tutor of King Vladislaus III of Poland, was Matthias's only teacher whose name is known. Under these scholars' influences, Matthias became an enthusiastic supporter of Renaissance humanism.

As a child, Matthias learnt many languages and read classical literature, especially military treatises. According to Antonio Bonfini, Matthias "was versed in all the tongues of Europe", with the exceptions of Turkish and Greek. Although this was an exaggeration, it is without doubt that Matthias spoke Hungarian, Latin, Italian, Polish, Czech, and German. Bonfini also wrote that he needed an interpreter to speak with a POW during his Moldavian campaign. On the other hand, the late 16th-century Polish historian Krzystoff Warszewiecki wrote that Matthias had been able to understand the Romanian language of the envoys of Stephen the Great, Prince of Moldavia.

According to a treaty between John Hunyadi and Đurađ Branković, Despot of Serbia, Matthias and the Despot's granddaughter Elizabeth of Celje were engaged on 7 August 1451. Elizabeth was the daughter of Ulrich II, Count of Celje, who was related to King Ladislaus the Posthumous and an opponent of Matthias's father. Because of new conflicts between Hunyadi and Ulrich of Celje, the marriage of their children only took place in 1455. Elizabeth settled in the Hunyadis' estates but Matthias was soon sent to the royal court, implying that their marriage was a hidden exchange of hostages between their families. Elizabeth died before the end of 1455.

John Hunyadi died on 11 August 1456, less than three weeks after his greatest victory over the Ottomans in Belgrade. John's elder son—Matthias's brother—Ladislaus became the head of the family. Ladislaus's conflict with Ulrich of Celje ended with Ulrich's capture and assassination on 9 November. Under duress, the King promised he would never take his revenge against the Hunyadis for Ulrich's killing. However, the murder turned most barons—including Palatine Ladislaus Garai, Judge royal Ladislaus Pálóci, and Nicholas Újlaki, Voivode of Transylvania—against Ladislaus Hunyadi. Taking advantage of their resentment, the King had the Hunyadi brothers imprisoned in Buda on 14 March 1457. The royal council condemned them to death for high treason and Ladislaus Hunyadi was beheaded on 16 March.

Matthias was held in captivity in a small house in Buda. His mother and her brother Michael Szilágyi staged a rebellion against the King and occupied large territories in the regions to the east of the river Tisza. King Ladislaus fled to Vienna in mid-1457, and from Vienna to Prague in September, taking Matthias with him. The civil war between the rebels and the barons loyal to the monarch continued until the sudden death of the young King on 23 November 1457. Thereafter the Hussite Regent of Bohemia—George of Poděbrady—held Matthias captive.

Election as king (1457–1458)
King Ladislaus died childless in 1457. His elder sister, Anna, and her husband, William III, Landgrave of Thuringia, laid claim to his inheritance but received no support from the Estates. The Diet of Hungary was convoked to Pest to elect a new king in January 1458. Pope Calixtus III's legate Cardinal Juan Carvajal, who had been John Hunyadi's admirer, began openly campaigning for Matthias.

The election of Matthias as king was the only way of avoiding a protracted civil war. Ladislaus Garai was the first baron to yield. At a meeting with Matthias's mother and uncle, he promised that he and his allies would promote Matthias's election, and Michael Szilágyi promised that his nephew would never seek vengeance for Ladislaus Hunyadi's execution. They also agreed that Matthias would marry the Palatine's daughter Anna—his executed brother's bride.

Michael Szilágyi arrived at the Diet with 15,000 troops, intimidating the barons who assembled in Buda. Stirred up by Szilágyi, the noblemen gathered on the frozen River Danube and unanimously proclaimed the 14-year-old Matthias king on 24 January. At the same time, the Diet elected his uncle as regent.

Early rule and consolidation (1458–1464)

Matthias's election was the first time that a member of the nobility mounted the royal throne in Hungary. Michael Szilágyi sent John Vitéz to Prague to discuss the terms of Matthias's release with George of Poděbrady. Poděbrady—whose daughter Katalin Matthias promised to marry—agreed to release his future son-in-law for a ransom of 60,000 gold florins. Matthias was surrendered to the Hungarian delegates in Strážnice on 9 February. With Poděbrady's mediation, he was reconciled with John Jiskra of Brandýs, the commander of the Czech mercenaries who dominated most of Upper Hungary.

Matthias made his state entry into Buda five days later. He ceremoniously sat on the throne in the Church of Our Lady, but was not crowned, because the Holy Crown of Hungary had been in the possession of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor for almost two decades. The 14-year-old monarch administered state affairs independently from the outset, although he reaffirmed his uncle's position as Regent. For instance, Matthias instructed the citizens of Nagyszeben (now Sibiu in Romania) to reconcile their differences with Vlad Dracula, Prince of Wallachia on 3 March.

Jiskra was the first baron who turned against Matthias. He offered the throne to Casimir IV of Poland—the husband of King Ladislaus V's younger sister Elisabeth—in late March but the General sejm of Poland rejected his offer. Matthias's commander Sebastian Rozgonyi defeated Jiskra's soldiers at Sárospatak but the Ottomans' invasion of Serbia in April forced Matthias to conclude an armistice with the Czechs. They were allowed to keep Sáros Castle (now Šariš Castle, Slovakia) and other fortified places in Upper Hungary. Matthias sent two prelates—August Salánki, Bishop of Győr, and Vincent Szilasi, Bishop of Vác—to Prague to crown George of Poděbrady king. Upon their demand, the "heretic" Poděbrady swore loyalty to the Holy See.

Matthias's first Diet assembled in Pest in May 1458. The Estates passed almost fifty decrees that were ratified by Matthias—instead of the Regent—on 8 June. One decree prescribed that the King "must call and hold, and order to be held, a diet of all the gentlemen of the realm in person" every year on Whitsunday. Matthias held more than 25 Diets during his reign and convoked the Estates more frequently than his predecessors, especially between 1458 and 1476. The Diets were controlled by the barons, whom Matthias appointed and dismissed at will. For instance, he dismissed Palatine Ladislaus Garai and persuaded Michael Szilágyi to resign from the Regency after they entered into a league in the summer of 1458. The King appointed Michael Ország, who had been his father's close supporter, as the new Palatine. Most of Matthias's barons were descended from old aristocratic families but he also promoted the careers of members of the lesser nobility, or even of skilful commoners. For instance, the noble Zápolya brothers Emeric and Stephen owed their fortunes to Matthias's favour.

Matthias's ordinary revenues amounted around 250,000 golden florins per year when his reign began. A decree passed at the Diet of 1458 explicitly prohibited the imposition of extraordinary taxes. However, an extraordinary tax—one golden florin per each porta or peasant household—was levied late that year. The Ottomans occupied the fort of Golubac in Serbia in August 1458; Matthias ordered the mobilization of all noblemen. He made a raid into Ottoman territory and defeated the enemy forces in minor skirmishes. King Stephen Thomas of Bosnia accepted Matthias's suzerainty. Matthias authorized his new vassal's son Stephen Tomašević to take possession of the parts of Serbia that had not been occupied by the Ottomans.

At the turn of 1458 and 1459, Matthias held a Diet at Szeged to prepare for a war against the Ottoman Empire. However, gossip about a conspiracy compelled him to return to Buda. The rumours proved to be true because at least 30 barons—including Ladislaus Garai, Nicholas Újlaki, and Ladislaus Kanizsai—met in Németújvár (now Güssing in Austria) and offered the throne to Emperor Frederick III on 17 February 1459. Even George of Poděbrady turned against Matthias when Frederick promised him to make him governor of the Holy Roman Empire. Although the joint troops of the Emperor and the rebellious lords defeated a royal army at Körmend on 27 March, Garai had by that time died, Újlaki and Sigismund Szentgyörgyvölgyi soon entered into negotiations with Matthias' envoys.Újlaki became indifferent, Szentgyörgyvölgyi joined to Matthias. Skirmishes along the western borderlands lasted for several months, preventing Matthias from providing military assistance to Tomašević against the Ottomans. The latter took Smederevo on 29 June, completing the conquest of Serbia.

Jiskra swore an oath of loyalty to Emperor Frederick on 10 March 1460. Pope Pius II offered to mediate a peace treaty between the Emperor and Matthias. Podedébrandy also realised he need to support Matthias or at least had to be indifferent. He sent his daughter to Buda also offered his assistance. The representatives of the Emperor and Matthias signed a truce in Olomouc in April 1460. The Pope soon offered financial support for an anti-Ottoman campaign. However, John Jiskra returned from Poland, renewing the armed conflicts with Czech mercenaries in early 1460. Matthias seized a newly erected fort from the Czechs but he could not force them to obey him. The costs of his five-month-long campaign in Upper Hungary were paid for by an extraordinary tax. Matthias entered into an alliance with the Emperor's rebellious brother Albert VI, Archduke of Austria. George of Poděbrady sided with the Emperor, although the marriage of his daughter—who became known as Catherine in Hungary—to Matthias was celebrated on 1 May 1461(married 1461 to 1464). Relations between Matthias and his father-in-law deteriorated because of the Czech mercenaries' continued presence in Upper Hungary. Matthias launched a new campaign against them after the Diet authorized him to collect an extraordinary tax in mid-1461. However, he did not defeat Jiskra, who even captured Késmárk (now Kežmarok, Slovakia).

The envoys of Matthias and Emperor Frederick agreed the terms of peace treaty on 3 April 1462. According to the agreement, the Emperor was to return the Holy Crown of Hungary for 80,000 golden florins, but his right to use the title King of Hungary along with Matthias was confirmed. In accordance with the treaty, the Emperor adopted Matthias, which granted him the right to succeed his "son" if Matthias died without a legitimate heir. Within a month, Jiskra yielded to Matthias. He surrendered all the forts he held in Upper Hungary to the King's representatives; as compensation he received a large domain near the Tisza and Arad and 25,000 golden florins.[It happened before peace treaty with Frederick] To pay the large amounts stipulated in his treaties with the Emperor and Jiskra, Matthias collected an extraordinary tax with the consent of the Royal Council. The Diet, which assembled in mid-1462, confirmed this decision but only after 9 prelates and 19 barons promised that no extraordinary taxes would be introduced thereafter. Through hiring mercenaries among Jiskra's companions, Matthias began organizing a professional army, which became known as the "Black Army" in following decades. The peace treaty made in Wiener-Neustadt 19 July 1463.

The Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II invaded Wallachia in early 1462. He did not conquer the country but the Wallachian boyars dethroned the anti-Ottoman Vlad Dracula, replacing him with the Sultan's favorite, Radu the Fair. The new Prince was willing to grant concessions to the Transylvanian Saxon merchants, who had come into bitter conflict with Vlad Dracula. The latter sought assistance from Matthias and they met in Brassó (now Brașov, Romania) in November. However, the Saxons presented Matthias with a letter allegedly written by Vlad Dracula to Sultan Mehmed, in which the Prince offered his support to the Ottomans. Convinced of Vlad Dracula's treachery, Matthias had him imprisoned.

In preparation for a war against the Ottomans, Matthias held a Diet at Tolna in March 1463. Although the Estates authorized him to levy a one-florin extraordinary tax, he did not intervene when Mehmed II invaded Bosnia in June. In a month, the Ottomans murdered King Stephen Tomašević and conquered the whole country. Matthias only adopted an offensive foreign policy after the terms of his peace with Emperor Frederick were ratified in Wiener Neustadt on 19 July 1463. He led his troops to Bosnia and conquered Jajce and other forts in its northern parts. The conquered regions were organized into new defensive provinces, the banates of Jajce and Srebrenik. Matthias was assisted by Stjepan Vukčić Kosača, Grand Duke of Bosnia, who controlled the area of modern and Old Hercegovina. A former vassal to the Bosnian kings, Stjepan accepted Matthias's suzerainty.

Queen Catherine died in early 1464 during preparations for her husband's coronation with the Holy Crown, which had been returned by Emperor Frederick. The ceremony was carried out in full accordance with the customary law of Hungary on 29 March 1464; Archbishop of Esztergom Dénes Szécsi ceremoniously put the Holy Crown on Matthias's head in Székesfehérvár. At the Diet assembled on this occasion, the newly crowned King confirmed the liberties of the nobility. Hereafter the legality of Matthias's reign could not be questioned.

Political reforms
Matthias dismissed his Chief Chancellor Archbishop Szécsi, replacing him with Stephen Várdai, Archbishop of Kalocsa, and John Vitéz. Both prelates bore the title of Chief and Secret Chancellor, but Várdai was the actual leader of the Royal Chancery. Around the same time, Matthias united the superior courts of justice—the Court of Royal Special Presence and the Court of Personal Presence—into one supreme court. The new supreme court diminished the authority of the traditional courts presided over by the barons and contributed to the professionalization of the administration of justice. He appointed Albert Hangácsi, Bishop of Csanád as the first Chief Justice.

Sultan Mehmed II returned to Bosnia and laid siege to Jajce in July 1464. Matthias began assembling his troops along the river Sava, forcing the Sultan to raise the siege on 24 August. Matthias and his army crossed the river and seized Srebrnica. He also besieged Zvornik but the arrival of a large Ottoman army forced him to withdraw to Hungary. The following year, Matthias forced Stefan Vukčić, who had transferred Makarska Krajina to the Republic of Venice, to establish Hungarian garrisons in his forts along the river Neretva.

Dénes Szécsi died in 1465 and John Vitéz became the new Archbishop of Esztergom. Matthias replaced the two Voivodes of Transylvania—Nicholas Újlaki and John Pongrác of Dengeleg—with Counts Sigismund and John Szentgyörgyi, and Bertold Ellerbach. Although Újlaki preserved his office of Ban of Macsó, the King appointed Peter Szokoli to administer the province together with the old Ban.

Matthias convoked the Diet to make preparations for an anti-Ottoman campaign in 1466. For the same purpose, he received subsidies from Pope Paul II. However, Matthias had realized that no substantial aid could be expected from the Christian powers and tacitly gave up his anti-Ottoman foreign policy. He did not invade Ottoman territory and the Ottomans did not make major incursions into Hungary, implying that he signed a peace treaty with Mehmed II's envoy who arrived in Hungary in 1465.

Matthias visited Slavonia and dismissed the two Bans Nicholas Újlaki and Emeric Zápolya, replacing them with Jan Vitovec and John Tuz in 1466. Early the following year, he mounted a campaign in Upper Hungary against a band of Czech mercenaries who were under the command of Ján Švehla and had seized Kosztolány (now Veľké Kostoľany in Slovakia). Matthias routed them and had Švehla and his 150 comrades hanged.

Economic reforms
At the Diet of March 1467, two traditional taxes were renamed; the chamber's profit was thereafter collected as tax of the royal treasury and the thirtieth as the Crown's customs. Because of this change, all previous tax exemptions became void, increasing state revenues. Matthias set about centralizing the administration of royal revenues. He entrusted the administration of the Crown's customs to John Ernuszt, a converted Jewish merchant. Within two years, Ernuszt was responsible for the collection of all ordinary and extraordinary taxes, and the management of the salt mines.

Matthias's tax reform caused a revolt in Transylvania. The representatives of the "Three Nations" of the province—the noblemen, the Saxons and the Székelys—formed an alliance against the King in Kolozsmonostor (now Mănăștur district in Cluj-Napoca, Romania) on 18 August, stating that they were willing to fight for the freedom of Hungary. Matthias assembled his troops immediately and hastened to the province. The rebels surrendered without resistance but Matthias severely punished their leaders, many of whom were impaled, beheaded, or mercilessly tortured upon his orders. Suspecting that Stephen the Great had supported the rebellion, Matthias invaded Moldavia. However, Stephen's forces routed Matthias's at the Battle of Baia on 15 December 1467. Matthias suffered severe injuries, forcing him to return to Hungary.

War for the Lands of the Bohemian Crown (1468–1479)

Matthias's former brother-in-law Victor of Poděbrady invaded Austria in early 1468. Emperor Frederick appealed to Matthias for support, hinting at the possibility of Matthias's election as King of the Romans—first step towards the imperial throne. Matthias declared war on Victor's father King George of Bohemia on 31 March. He said he also wanted to help the Czech Catholic lords against their "heretic monarch" whom the Pope had excommunicated. Matthias expelled the Czech troops from Austria and invaded Moravia and Silesia. He took an active part in the fighting; he was injured during the siege of Třebíč in May 1468 and was captured at Chrudim while spying out the enemy camp in disguise in February 1469. On the latter occasion, he was released because he made his custodians believe he was a local Czech groom.

The Diet of 1468 authorized Matthias to levy an extraordinary tax to finance the new war, but only after 8 prelates and 13 secular lords pledged on the King's behalf that he would not demand such charges in the future. Matthias also exercised royal prerogatives to increase his revenues. For instance, he ordered a Palatine's eyre in a county, the cost of which were to be covered by the local inhabitants but soon authorized the county to redeem the cancellation of this irksome duty.

The Czech Catholics, who were led by Zdeněk of Šternberk, joined forces with Matthias in February 1469. Their united troops were encircled at Vilémov by George of Poděbrady's army. In fear of being captured, Matthias opened negotiations with his former father-in-law. They met in a nearby hovel, where Matthias persuaded George of Poděbrady to sign an armistice promising that he would mediate a reconciliation between the moderate Hussites and the Holy See. Their next meeting took place in Olomouc in April. Here the papal legates came forward with demands including the appointment of a Catholic Archbishop to the See of Prague, which could not be accepted by George of Poděbrady. The Czech Catholic Estates elected Matthias King of Bohemia in Olomouc on 3 May but he was never crowned. Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia soon accepted his rule but Bohemia proper remained faithful to George of Poděbrady. The Estates of Bohemia even acknowledged the right of Vladislaus Jagiello, the eldest son of Casimir IV of Poland, to succeed king George of Poděbrady.

Matthias's relations with Frederick III had in the meantime deteriorated because the Emperor accused Matthias of allowing the Ottomans to march through Slavonia when raiding the Emperor's realms. The Frangepan family, whose domains in Croatia were exposed to Ottoman raids, entered into negotiations with the Emperor and the Republic of Venice. In 1469, Matthias sent an army to Croatia to prevent the Venetians from seizing the Adriatic coastal town Senj.

Matthias expelled George of Poděbrady's troops from Silesia. Matthias's army was encircled and routed at Uherský Brod on 2 November, forcing him to withdraw to Hungary. Matthias soon ordered the collection of an extraordinary tax without holding a Diet, raising widespread discontent among the Hungarian Estates. He visited Emperor Frederick in Vienna on 11 February 1470, hoping the Emperor would contribute to the costs of the war against Poděbrady. Although the negotiations lasted for a month, no compromise was worked out. The Emperor also refused to commit himself to promoting Matthias's election as King of the Romans. After a month, Matthias left Vienna without taking formal leave of Frederick III.

Having realised the Hungarian Estates' growing dissatisfaction, Matthias held a Diet in November. The Diet again authorized him to levy an extraordinary tax, stipulating that the sum of all taxes payable per porta could not exceed one florin. The Estates also made it clear that they opposed the war in Bohemia. George of Poděbrady died on 22 March 1471. The Diet of Bohemia proper elected Vladislaus Jagiello king on 27 May. The papal legate Lorenzo Roverella soon declared Vladislaus's election void and confirmed Matthias's position as King of Bohemia, but the Imperial Diet refused Matthias's claim.

Matthias was staying in Moravia when he was informed that a group of Hungarian prelates and barons had offered the throne to Casimir, a younger son of King Casimir IV of Poland. The conspiracy was initiated by Archbishop John Vitéz and his nephew Janus Pannonius, Bishop of Pécs, who opposed war against the Catholic Vladislaus Jagiellon. Initially, their plan was supported by the majority of the Estates, but nobody dared to rebel against Matthias, enabling him to return to Hungary without resistance. Matthias held a Diet and promised to refrain from levying taxes without the consent of the Estates and to convoke the Diet in each year. His promises remedied most of the Estates' grievances and almost 50 barons and prelates confirmed their loyalty to him on 21 September. Casimir Jagiellon invaded on 2 October 1471. With Bishop Janus Pannonius's support, he seized Nyitra (now Nitra in Slovakia), but only two barons, John Rozgonyi and Nicholas Perényi, joined him. Within five months Prince Casimir withdrew from Hungary, Bishop Janus Pannonius died while fleeing, and Archbishop John Vitéz was forbidden to leave his see. Matthias appointed the Silesian Johann Beckensloer to administer the Archdiocese of Esztergom. Vitéz died and Beckensloer succeeded him in a year.

The Ottomans had meanwhile seized the Hungarian forts along the river Nertva. Matthias nominated the wealthy baron Nicholas Újlaki as King of Bosnia in 1471, entrusting the defence of the province to him. Uzun Hassan, head of the Aq Qoyunlu Turkmens, proposed an anti-Ottoman alliance to Matthias but he refrained from attacking the Ottoman Empire. Matthias supported the Austrian noblemen who rebelled against Emperor Frederick in 1472. The following year, Matthias, Casimir IV and Vladislaus entered into negotiations on the terms of a peace treaty, but the discussions lasted for months. Matthias tried to unify the government of Silesia, which consisted of dozens of smaller duchies, through appointing a captain-general. However, the Estates refused to elect his candidate Duke Frederick I of Liegnitz.

Ali Bey Mihaloğlu, Bey of Smederevo, pillaged eastern parts of Hungary, destroyed Várad, and took 16,000 prisoners with him in January 1474. The next month, the envoys of Matthias and Casimir IV signed a peace treaty and a three-year truce between Matthias and Vladislaus Jagiellon was also declared. Within a month, however, Vladislaus entered into an alliance with Emperor Frederick and Casimir IV joined them. Casimir IV and Vladislaus invaded Silesia and laid siege to Matthias in Breslau (now Wrocław in Poland) in October. He prevented the besiegers from accumulating provisions, forcing them to raise the siege. Thereafter the Silesian Estates willingly elected Matthias's new candidate Stephen Zápolya as captain-general. The Moravian Estates elected Ctibor Tovačovský as captain-general. Matthias confirmed this decision, although Tovačovský had been Vladislaus Jagiellon's partisan.

The Ottomans invaded Wallachia and Moldavia at the end of 1474. Matthias sent reinforcements under the command of Blaise Magyar to Stephen the Great. Their united forces routed the invaders in the Battle of Vaslui on 10 January 1475. Fearing a new Ottoman invasion, the Prince of Moldavia swore fealty to Matthias on 15 August. Sultan Mehmed II proposed peace but Matthias refused him. Instead, he stormed into Ottoman territory and captured Šabac, an important fort on the river Száva, on 15 February 1476. During the siege, Matthias barely escaped capture while he was watching the fortress from a boat.

For unknown reasons, Archbishop Johann Beckensloer left Hungary, taking the treasury of the Esztergom See with him in early 1476. He fled to Vienna and offered his funds to the Emperor. Matthias accused the Emperor of having incited the Archbishop against him.

Mehmed II launched a campaign against Moldavia in the summer of 1476. Although he won the Battle of Valea Albă on 26 July, the lack of provisions forced him to retreat. Matthias sent auxiliary troops to Moldavia under the command of Vlad Dracula—whom he had released—and Stephen Báthory The allied forces defeated an Ottoman army at the Siret River in August. With Hungarian and Moldavian support, Vlad Dracula was reinstalled as Prince of Wallachia but he was killed fighting against his opponent Basarab Laiotă.

Matthias's bride Beatrice of Naples arrived in Hungary in late 1476. Matthias married her in Buda on 22 December that year. The Queen soon established a rigid etiquette, making direct contacts between the King and his subjects more difficult. According to Bonfini, Matthias also "improved his board and manner of life, introduced sumptuous banquets, disdaining humility at home and beautified the dining rooms" after his marriage. According to a contemporaneous record, around that time Matthias's revenues amounted about 500,000 florins, half of which derived from the tax of the royal treasury and the extraordinary tax.

Matthias concluded an alliance with the Teutonic Knights and the Bishopric of Ermland against Poland in March 1477. However, instead of Poland, he declared war on Emperor Frederick after he learnt that the Emperor had confirmed Vladislaus Jagiellon's position as King of Bohemia and Prince-elector. Matthias invaded Lower Austria and imposed a blockade on Vienna. Vladislaus Jagiellon denied to support the Emperor, forcing him to seek reconciliation with Matthias. With the mediation of Pope Sixtus IV, Venice, and Ferdinand I of Naples, Matthias concluded a peace treaty with Frederick III, which was signed on 1 December. The Emperor promised to confirm Matthias as the lawful ruler of Bohemia and to pay him an indemnity of 100,000 florins. They met in Korneuburg where Frederick III installed Matthias as King of Bohemia and Matthias swore loyalty to the Emperor.

Negotiations between the envoys of Matthias and Vladislaus Jagiellon accelerated during the next few months. The first draft of a treaty was agreed upon on 28 March 1478, and the text was completed by the end of 1477. The treaty authorized both monarchs to use the title of King of Bohemia—although Vladislaus could omit to style Matthias as such in their correspondence—and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were divided between them; Vladislaus ruled in Bohemia proper and Matthias in Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia. They solemnly ratified the peace treaty at their meeting in Olomouc on 21 July.

War for Austria (1479–1487)

Emperor Frederick only paid off half of the indemnity due to Matthias according to their treaty of 1477. Matthias concluded a treaty with the Swiss Confederacy on 26 March 1479, hindering the recruitment of Swiss mercenaries by the Emperor. He also entered into an alliance with Archbishop of Salzburg Bernhard II of Rohr, who allowed him to take possession of the fortresses of the Archbishopric in Carinthia, Carniola and Styria.

An Ottoman army supported by Basarab Țepeluș of Wallachia invaded Transylvania and set fire to Szászváros (now Orăștie in Romania) in late 1479. Stephen Báthory and Paul Kinizsi annihilated the marauders in the Battle of Breadfield on 13 October. Matthias united the command of all forts along the Danube to the west of Belgrade in the hand of Paul Kinizsi to improve the defence of the southern frontier. Matthias sent reinforcements to Stephen the Great, who invaded pro-Ottoman Wallachia in early 1480; Matthias launched a campaign as far as Sarajevo in Bosnia in November. He set up five defensive provinces, or banates, centred around the forts of Szörényvár (now Drobeta-Turnu Severin in Romania), Belgrade, Šabac, Srebrenik and Jajce. The next year, Matthias initiated a criminal case against the Frankapans, the Zrinskis and other leading Croatian and Slavonian magnates for their alleged participation in the 1471 conspiracy. Most barons were pardoned as soon as they consented to the introduction of a new land tax. In 1481, for a loan of 100,000 florins, Matthias seized the town of Mautern in Styria and Sankt Pölten in Lower Austria from Friedrich Mauerkircher, one of the two candidates to the Bishopric of Passau.

Sultan Mehmed II died on 3 May 1481. A civil war ensued in the Ottoman Empire between his sons Bayezid II and Cem. Defeated, Cem fled to Rhodes, where the Knights Hospitaller kept him in custody. Matthias claimed Cem's custody in the hope of using him to gain concessions from Bayezid, but Venice and Pope Innocent VIII strongly opposed this plan. In late 1481, Hungarian auxiliary troops supported Matthias's father-in-law Ferdinand I of Naples to reoccupy Otranto, which had been lost to the Ottomans the year before.

Although the "Black Army" had already laid siege to Hainburg an der Donau in January 1482, Matthias officially declared a new war on Emperor Frederick three months later. He directed the siege in person from the end of June and the town fell to him in October. In the next three months, Matthias also captured Sankt Veit an der Glan, Enzersdorf an der Fischa, and Kőszeg. The papal legate, Bartolomeo Maraschi tried to mediate a peace treaty between Matthias and the Emperor, but Matthias refused. Instead, he signed a five-year truce with Sultan Bayezid.

Matthias's marriage to Beatrice of Naples did not produce sons; he tried to strengthen the position of his illegitimate son John Corvinus. The child received Sáros Castle and inherited the extensive domains of his grandmother Elizabeth Szilágyi with his father's consent. Matthias also forced Victor of Poděbrady to renounce the Duchy of Troppau in Silesia in favour of John Corvinus in 1485. Queen Beatrice opposed Matthias's favouritism towards his son. Even so, Matthias nominated her eight-year-old nephew Ippolito d'Este Archbishop of Esztergom. The Pope refused to confirm the child's appointment for years. The "Black Army" encircled Vienna in January 1485. The siege lasted for five months and ended with the triumphal entry of Matthias, at the head of 8,000 veterans, into Vienna on 1 June. The King soon moved the royal court to the newly conquered town. He summoned the Estates of Lower Austria to Vienna and forced them to swear loyalty to him.

Upon the monarch's initiative, the Diet of 1485 passed the so-called Decretum maius, a systematic law-code which replaced many previous contradictory decrees. The law-code introduced substantial reforms in the administration of justice; the Palatine's eyre and the extraordinary county assemblies were abolished, which strengthened the position of the county courts. Matthias also decreed that in cases of the monarch's absence or minority, the Palatine was authorized to rule as Regent.

Emperor Frederick persuaded six of the seven Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire to proclaim his son Maximilian King of the Romans on 16 February 1486. The Emperor, however, had failed to invite the King of Bohemia—either Matthias or Vladislaus Jagiellon—to the assembly. In an attempt to prevail on Vladislaus to protest, Matthias invited him to a personal meeting. Although they formed an alliance in Jihlava in September, the Estates of Bohemia refused to confirm it and Vladislaus recognized Maximilian's election.

In the meantime Matthias continued his war against the Emperor. The "Black Army" seized several towns in Lower Austria, including Laa an der Thaya, and Stein in 1485 and 1486. He set up his chancery for Lower Austria in 1486 but he never introduced a separate seal for this realm. Matthias assumed the title of Duke of Austria at the Diet of the Lower Austrian Estates in Ebenfurth in 1487. He appointed Stephen Zápolya captain-general, Urban Nagylucsei administrator of the Archdiocese of Vienna, and entrusted the defence of the occupied towns and forts to Hungarian and Bohemian captains, but otherwise continued to employ Emperor Frederick's officials who accepted his rule. Wiener Neustadt, the last town resisting Matthias in Lower Austria, fell to him on 17 August 1487. He started negotiations with Duke Albert III of Saxony, who arrived at the head of the imperial army to fight for Emperor Frederick III. They signed a six-month armistice in Sankt Pölten on 16 December, which ended the war. Matthias offered Emperor Frederick and his son prince Maximilian, the return of Austrian provinces and Vienna, if they would renounce the treaty of 1463 and accept Matthias as Frederic's designated heir and probable the inheritor of the title of Holy Roman Emperor. Before this was settled though, Matthias died in Vienna in 1490.

King Matthias was happy to be described as "the second Attila". The Chronica Hungarorum by Johannes Thuróczy published in 1488, set the goal of glorifying Attila, which was undeservedly neglected, moreover, he introduced the famous "Scourge of God" characterization to the later Hungarian writers, because the earlier chronicles remained hidden for a long time. Thuróczy worked hard to endear Attila, the Hun king with an effort far surpassing his predecessor chroniclers. He made Attila a model for his victorious ruler, King Matthias who had Attila's abilities, with this he almost brought "the hammer of the world" to life.

Last years (1487–1490)

According to the contemporaneous Philippe de Commines, Matthias's subjects feared their King in the last years of his life because he rarely showed mercy towards those he suspected of treachery. He had Archbishop Peter Váradi imprisoned in 1484 and ordered the execution of his Chancellor of Bohemia Jaroslav Boskovic in 1485. He also imprisoned Nicholas Bánfi, a member of a magnate family, in 1487, although he had earlier avoided punishing the old aristocracy. Bánfi's imprisonment seems to have been connected to his marriage to a daughter of John the Mad, Duke of Glogau because Matthias tried to seize this duchy for John Corvinus. John the Mad entered into an alliance with the Duke of Münsterberg Henry of Poděbrady, and declared a war on Matthias on 9 May. Six month later, the Black Army invaded and occupied his duchy.

In the meantime, the citizens of Ancona, a town in the Papal States, hoisted Matthias's flag in the hope he would protect them against Venice. Pope Innocent VIII soon protested, but Matthias refused to reject the overture, stating that the link between him and the town would never harm the interests of the Holy See. He also sent an auxiliary troop to his father-in-law, who was waging a war against the Holy See and Venice. The 1482 truce between Hungary and the Ottoman Empire was prolonged for two years in 1488. On this occasion, it was stipulated that the Ottomans were to refrain from invading Wallachia and Moldavia. The following year, Matthias granted two domains to Stephen the Great of Moldavia in Transylvania.

Matthias, who suffered from gout, could not walk and was carried in a litter after March 1489. Hereafter, his succession caused bitter conflicts between Queen Beatrice and John Corvinus. Matthias asked Beatrice's brother Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, to persuade her not to strive for the Crown, stating that the "Hungarian people are capable of killing up unto the last man rather than submit to the government of a woman". To strengthen his illegitimate son's position, Matthias even proposed withdrawing from Austria and to confirm Emperor Frederick's right to succeed him, provided the Emperor was willing to grant Croatia and Bosnia to John Corvinus with the title of king.

Matthias participated in the lengthy Palm Sunday ceremony in Vienna in 1490, although he had felt so ill that morning that he could not eat breakfast. Around noon, he tasted a fig that proved to be rotten and he became very agitated and suddenly felt faint. The next day he was unable to speak. After two days of suffering, Matthias died in the morning of 6 April. According to Professor Frigyes Korányi, Matthias died of a stroke; Dr. Herwig Egert does not exclude the possibility of poisoning. Matthias's funeral was held in St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna and he was buried in Székesfehérvár Cathedral on 24 or 25 April 1490.

Renaissance king

Matthias was the first non-Italian monarch promoting the spread of Renaissance style in his realm. His marriage to Beatrice of Naples strengthened the influence of contemporaneous Italian art and scholarship, and it was under his reign that Hungary became the first land outside Italy to embrace the Renaissance. The earliest appearance of Renaissance style buildings and works outside Italy were in Hungary. The Italian scholar Marsilio Ficino introduced Matthias to Plato's ideas of a philosopher-king uniting wisdom and strength in himself, which fascinated Matthias. Matthias is the main character in Aurelio Lippo Brandolini's Republics and Kingdoms Compared, a dialogue on the comparison of the two forms of government. According to Brandolini, Matthias said a monarch "is at the head of the law and rules over it" when summing up his own concepts of state.

Matthias also cultivated traditional art. Hungarian epic poems and lyric songs were often sung at his court. He was proud of his role as the defender of Roman Catholicism against the Ottomans and the Hussites. He initiated theological debates, for instance on the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, and surpassed both the Pope and his legate "with regard to religious observance", according to the latter. Matthias issued coins in the 1460s bearing an image of the Virgin Mary, demonstrating his special devotion to her cult.

Upon Matthias's initiative, Archbishop John Vitéz and Bishop Janus Pannonius persuaded Pope Paul II to authorize them to set up a university in Pressburg (now Bratislava in Slovakia) on 29 May 1465. The Academia Istropolitana was closed shortly after the Archbishop's death. Matthias was contemplating establishing a new university in Buda but this plan was not accomplished.

Building projects and arts
Matthias started at least two major building projects. The works in Buda and Visegrád began in about 1479. Two new wings and a hanging garden were built at the royal castle of Buda, and the palace at Visegrád was rebuilt in Renaissance style. Matthias appointed the Italian Chimenti Camicia and the Dalmatian Giovanni Dalmata to direct these projects.

Matthias commissioned the leading Italian artists of his age to embellish his palaces: for instance, the sculptor Benedetto da Majano and the painters Filippino Lippi and Andrea Mantegna worked for him. A copy of Mantegna's portrait of Matthias survived. In the spring of 1485, Matthias decided to commission Leonardo da Vinci to paint a Madonna to him. Matthias also hired the Italian military engineer Aristotele Fioravanti to direct the rebuilding of the forts along the southern frontier. He had new monasteries built in Late Gothic style for the Franciscans in Kolozsvár, Szeged and Hunyad, and for the Paulines in Fejéregyháza.

The court of Matthias had a musical establishment of high quality. The master of the Papal Chapel Bartolomeo Maraschi described Matthias's chapel choir as the best he had ever heard. Composers such as Josquin Dor and Johannes de Stokem spent time in Matthias's court, and numerous Italian musicians visited it. A late remark by Várdai Pál, Archbishop of Esztergom, implies that the influential composer Josquin des Prez was active in Matthias' court for years in the 1480s, but Várdai may have mistaken him for someone else, and there no documentary evidence that places him there.

Royal library

Matthias started the systematic collection of books after the arrival of his first librarian, Galeotto Marzio, a friend of Janus Pannonius from Ferrara in around 1465. The exchange of letters between Taddeo Ugoleto, who succeeded Marzio in 1471, and Francesco Bandini contributed to the development of the royal library because the latter regularly informed his friend of new manuscripts. Matthias also employed scriptors, illuminators, and book-binders. Although the exact number of his books is unknown, his Bibliotheca Corviniana was one of Europe's largest collections of books when he died.

According to Marcus Tanner, the surviving 216 volumes of the King's library "show that Matthias had the literary tastes of a classic 'alpha male, who preferred secular books to devotional works. For instance, a Latin translation of Xenophon's biography of Cyrus the Great, Quintus Curtius Rufus's book of Alexander the Great, and a military treatise by the contemporaneous Roberto Valturio survived. Matthias enjoyed reading, as demonstrated by a letter in which he thanked the Italian scholar Pomponio Leto who had sent him Silius Italicus's work of the Second Punic War.

Patron of scholars
Matthias enjoyed the company of Humanists and had lively discussions on various topics with them. The fame of his magnanimity encouraged many scholars—mostly Italian—to settle in Buda. Antonio Bonfini, Pietro Ranzano, Bartolomeo Fonzio, and Francesco Bandini spent many years in Matthias's court. This circle of educated men introduced the ideas of Neoplatonism to Hungary.

Like all intellectuals of his age, Matthias was convinced that the movements and combinations of the stars and planets exercised influence on individuals' life and on the history of nations. Galeotto Marzio described him as "king and astrologer", and Antonio Bonfini said Matthias "never did anything without consulting the stars". Upon his request, the famous astronomers of the age, Johannes Regiomontanus and Marcin Bylica, set up an observatory in Buda and installed it with astrolabes and celestial globes. Regiomontanus dedicated his book on navigation that was used by Christopher Columbus to Matthias. The King appointed Bylica as his advisor in 1468. According to Scott E. Hendrix, "establishing a prominent astrologer as his political advisor provided an anxiety-reduction mechanism that boosted morale for the political elites within his realm while strengthening his sense of control in the face of the multiple adversities the Hungarians faced" in his reign.

Family
When Matthias was 12, his family arranged for him to marry Elizabeth of Celje who was also a child when their marriage took place in 1455. She died in September before the marriage was consummated. His second wife Catherine of Poděbrady was born in 1449. She died in childbirth in January or February 1464. The child did not survive.

Matthias approached Emperor Frederick to suggest a new bride for him among Frederick's relatives. Frederick II, Elector of Brandenburg proposed one of his daughters to Matthias but the Hungarian Estates opposed this plan. In an attempt to enter into an alliance with King Casimir IV of Poland, Matthias proposed to the King's daughter Hedvig but he was refused. During the 1470 meeting of Emperor Frederick and Matthias, a marriage between Matthias and the Emperor's five-year-old daughter Kunigunde of Austria was also discussed, but the Emperor was not willing to commit himself to the marriage.

Matthias's third wife Beatrice of Naples was born in 1457. Their engagement was announced in Breslau on 30 October 1474, during the siege of the town by Casimir IV and Vladislaus Jagiellon. Her dowry amounted to 200,000 gold pieces. Beatrice survived her husband and returned to Naples where she died in 1508.

Matthias's only known child John Corvinus was born out of wedlock in 1473. His mother Barbara Edelpöck—the daughter of a citizen of Stein in Lower Austria—met the King in early 1470. John Corvinus died on 12 October 1504.

Legacy

According to Marcus Tanner, Matthias ruled "a European superpower" at the end of his reign. His conquests, however, were lost within months of his death. The burghers of Breslau soon murdered his captain Heinz Dompnig. The Emperor's rule in Vienna and Wiener Neustadt was restored without resistance.

Stephen Zápolya said the King's death relieved "Hungary of the trouble and oppression from which it had suffered so far". Royal authority quickly diminished because various claimants—John Corvinus, Maximilian of the Romans, Vladislaus Jagiellon, and the latter's younger brother, John Albert—were fighting for the crown. Vladislaus Jagiellon triumphed because the barons regarded him as a weak ruler and he gained the support of Matthias's wealthy widow by promising to marry her. Vladislaus was elected king after he promised he would abolish all "harmful innovations" introduced by Matthias, especially the extraordinary tax. Vladislaus could not finance the maintenance of the Black Army and the unpaid mercenaries began plundering the countryside. A royal force led by Paul Kinizsi eliminated them on the river Száva in 1492.

The burden of Matthias's wars and splendid royal court mainly fell on the peasants, who paid at least 85% of the taxes. The Chronicle of Dubnic, written in eastern Hungary in 1479, says "widows and orphans" cursed the King for the high taxes. However, stories about "Matthias the Just", who wandered in disguise throughout his realm to deliver justice to his subjects, seem to have spread during Matthias's reign. The saying "Dead is Matthias, lost is justice" became popular soon after his death, reflecting that commoners were more likely to have received a fair trial in Matthias's reign than under his successors. Matthias is also the subject of popular folk tales in Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, and Slovenia. For instance, King Matjaž is one of the sleeping kings of Slovenian folklore.

In popular culture

 * Matthias Corvinus leads the Hungarian civilization in the Gathering Storm expansion of the 4X video game Civilization VI.

title: Matthias Corvinus


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Talk:Princess Ruto

Redirect
This article should remain a redirect to the main article concering Ocarina of Time characters, as Ruto only appears in this game of the series. --Tryforceful 02:53, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Princess Ruto


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Gainesville Regional Airport

Gainesville Regional Airport is a public airport three miles northeast of Gainesville, in Alachua County, Florida, United States. It is owned by Gainesville-Alachua Co. Auth. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a primary commercial service airport (more than 10,000 enplanements per year).

Gainesville Regional Airport had 177,282 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2011 and 159,499 enplanements in 2010. They also had 217,355 passenger boardings (enplanements) in 2015, more than 2% higher than 2014.

Gainesville Regional Airport had 558,246 passengers in 2019.

The airport annually hosts the Gator Fly In at the general aviation facilities. The event includes military aircraft displays, a classic car show, food trucks, live music, and aircraft rides aboard a Ford Tri-motor, a Cessna 172, and on helicopters.

History
Construction of the airport began in April 1940 as a Works Project Administration project. In 1941 initial construction was completed. Upon conclusion of the construction by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the facility was known as the Alachua Army Airfield and was used by the Army Air Corps and the Army Air Forces.

The airfield was declared surplus in September 1945 and turned over to the Army Corps of Engineers on October 1, 1946. The War Assets Administration deeded the facility to the city of Gainesville in 1948 as a civil airport. The field was known as John R. Alison Airport or Gainesville Municipal Airport; the city operated, maintained, and improved the airport, which was renamed the Gainesville Regional Airport in October 1977. The airline terminal was dedicated to John R. Alison in 1979.

Eastern Airlines served Gainesville beginning in the 1950s, with flights to Tallahassee, Jacksonville and Ocala, eventually offering nonstop flights to Atlanta and Miami by the 1970s. Eastern served Gainesville until its bankruptcy in 1991 and was consistently a profitable destination for the company. Air Florida served Gainesville in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with flights to Miami, Tampa and Ocala.

In 1986 the State Legislature passed a bill that established the Airport as the Gainesville-Alachua County Regional Airport Authority. The Airport Authority has nine board members, five selected by the City of Gainesville, three by the Governor and one by Alachua County, and continues to oversee the Airport.

On October 31, 2004 Gainesville Regional Airport hosted Air Force One during George W. Bush's re-election campaign. 17,000 people attended the event.

In recent years the Airport has substantially completed several projects: the refurbishment of its primary runway (11/29), piping of an open ditch parallel to that runway, and completion of two phases of the Terminal Renovation project. Three passenger boarding bridges have been installed.

Eclipse Aviation, maker of the Eclipse 500, operated its first factory service center in Gainesville until the company declared bankruptcy in 2009. In 2012 Silver Airways moved its maintenance facilities from Ft. Lauderdale into the existing Eclipse Aviation facility. Silver provides commercial airline service to several destinations around Florida and Bahamas. In April 2015 Silver airways moved its maintenance to Orlando International.

The control tower operates 645a to 1030p daily. After the passing of Gainesville native Tom Petty on October 2, 2017, a change.org petition was started to have the airport renamed "Tom Petty - Gainesville Regional Airport".

In 2021 Gainesville Regional Airport added a 15,200 square-foot expansion onto their terminal. The new expansion adds a mother lactation room, a pet relief area, two new gates, hundreds of new seats with charging ports, a departure and arrival board, and an area for a food/store vendor. In addition to the expansion, the existing terminal was given a renovation. The project cost $16 million dollars that was funded by a $12 million dollar grant from the FAA. Plans to add a parking structure are currently in discussion, with immediate plans to construct a temporary parking lot to alleviate capacity issues.

Facilities
The airport covers 1,650 acre and has two asphalt runways: 11/29 is 7,504 by 150 feet (2,287 x 46 m) and 07/25 is 4,158 by 100 feet (1,267 x 30 m).

In the year ending September 30, 2022 the airport had 68,032 aircraft operations, average 186 per day: 78% general aviation, 6% air taxi, 7% military and 9% airline. 173 aircraft at that time were based at the airport: 98 single-engine, 18 multi-engine, 51 jet and 6 helicopter.

Gainesville Regional Airport has one full service FBO, University Air Center. There were two, Gulf Atlantic Airways and Flight Line. Flight Line's contract with the airport authority expired and Gulf Atlantic became University Air Center. University Air Center has a pilots lounge with TV, snack machines, aircraft rentals and charters, flight instruction, and fuel. Gainesville Regional Airport's terminal has 5 gates. Gates 3, 4, and 5 are used by American Eagle. Gates 1 and 2 are used by Delta Air Lines and Delta Connection. The airport terminal has a snack bar and a gift shop, operated by Tailwind. The airport's ground transportation is served by taxis; rental car companies; an RTS bus stop serving routes 25, 26, and 39; and hotel shuttle buses. Renovations that were completed in 2021 added 2 additional gates to the facility, in addition to a larger baggage screening area, and additional parking spaces. The terminal expansion and improvement project was completed July 29, 2021, and also added additional restrooms, additional food and beverage areas, a lactation room, an airport chapel, and a pet relief area, in addition to 2 additional gates

In August 2021, the Gainesville City Commission approved FAA grants to cover engineering costs for improvements to the apron and taxiway and costs incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Accidents and incidents

 * On May 31, 2018, Allegiant Air Flight 1304 made an emergency landing due to a medical emergency involving the pilot. On the flight from Cincinnati to Punta Gorda, the pilot had a seizure, and the flight diverted to Gainesville. The pilot was immediately brought to the hospital. There were no other injuries or deaths.

title: Gainesville Regional Airport


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User talk:Lafayette

Greetings! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. If you have questions or doubts of any sort, do not hesitate to post them on the Village Pump, somebody will respond ASAP. Other helpful pages include: Have fun! --Jiang 06:33 19 Jul 2003 (UTC)
 * Welcome, newcomers
 * How does one edit a page
 * Manual of style
 * Naming conventions

Your edits to EMU of the EU
Sweden does not have an opt-out, technically. They're cheating by not joining ERM II, which is not explicitly forbidden. — Nightstallion (?) 22:58, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

 * Every day one learns something new. The sad thing about this is that I'm preparing for an exam on this topic right now...

--Lafayette 10:42, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

 * Good luck with it, then. ;) And welcome to Wikipedia! — Nightstallion (?) 11:02, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Project European Union
Hello, you are member of the project European Union. I try to create a new project page for the project. You can see it at here Because this should be the project page for all it´s members, please tell me, what you think about it. Please leave your comments on the talkpage of the project.--Thw1309 11:19, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Lafayette


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Survey methodology

Survey methodology is "the study of survey methods". As a field of applied statistics concentrating on human-research surveys, survey methodology studies the sampling of individual units from a population and associated techniques of survey data collection, such as questionnaire construction and methods for improving the number and accuracy of responses to surveys. Survey methodology targets instruments or procedures that ask one or more questions that may or may not be answered.

Researchers carry out statistical surveys with a view towards making statistical inferences about the population being studied; such inferences depend strongly on the survey questions used. Polls about public opinion, public-health surveys, market-research surveys, government surveys and censuses all exemplify quantitative research that uses survey methodology to answer questions about a population. Although censuses do not include a "sample", they do include other aspects of survey methodology, like questionnaires, interviewers, and non-response follow-up techniques. Surveys provide important information for all kinds of public-information and research fields, such as marketing research, psychology, health-care provision and sociology.

Overview
A single survey is made of at least a sample (or full population in the case of a census), a method of data collection (e.g., a questionnaire) and individual questions or items that become data that can be analyzed statistically. A single survey may focus on different types of topics such as preferences (e.g., for a presidential candidate), opinions (e.g., should abortion be legal?), behavior (smoking and alcohol use), or factual information (e.g., income), depending on its purpose. Since survey research is almost always based on a sample of the population, the success of the research is dependent on the representativeness of the sample with respect to a target population of interest to the researcher. That target population can range from the general population of a given country to specific groups of people within that country, to a membership list of a professional organization, or list of students enrolled in a school system (see also sampling (statistics) and survey sampling). The persons replying to a survey are called respondents, and depending on the questions asked their answers may represent themselves as individuals, their households, employers, or other organization they represent.

Survey methodology as a scientific field seeks to identify principles about the sample design, data collection instruments, statistical adjustment of data, and data processing, and final data analysis that can create systematic and random survey errors. Survey errors are sometimes analyzed in connection with survey cost. Cost constraints are sometimes framed as improving quality within cost constraints, or alternatively, reducing costs for a fixed level of quality. Survey methodology is both a scientific field and a profession, meaning that some professionals in the field focus on survey errors empirically and others design surveys to reduce them. For survey designers, the task involves making a large set of decisions about thousands of individual features of a survey in order to improve it.

The most important methodological challenges of a survey methodologist include making decisions on how to:
 * Identify and select potential sample members.
 * Contact sampled individuals and collect data from those who are hard to reach (or reluctant to respond)
 * Evaluate and test questions.
 * Select the mode for posing questions and collecting responses.
 * Train and supervise interviewers (if they are involved).
 * Check data files for accuracy and internal consistency.
 * Adjust survey estimates to correct for identified errors.
 * Complement survey data with new data sources (if appropriate)

Selecting samples
The sample is chosen from the sampling frame, which consists of a list of all members of the population of interest. The goal of a survey is not to describe the sample, but the larger population. This generalizing ability is dependent on the representativeness of the sample, as stated above. Each member of the population is termed an element. There are frequent difficulties one encounters while choosing a representative sample. One common error that results is selection bias. Selection bias results when the procedures used to select a sample result in over representation or under representation of some significant aspect of the population. For instance, if the population of interest consists of 75% females, and 25% males, and the sample consists of 40% females and 60% males, females are under represented while males are overrepresented. In order to minimize selection biases, stratified random sampling is often used. This is when the population is divided into sub-populations called strata, and random samples are drawn from each of the strata, or elements are drawn for the sample on a proportional basis.

Modes of data collection
There are several ways of administering a survey. The choice between administration modes is influenced by several factors, including Different methods create mode effects that change how respondents answer, and different methods have different advantages. The most common modes of administration can be summarized as:
 * 1) costs,
 * 2) coverage of the target population,
 * 3) flexibility of asking questions,
 * 4) respondents' willingness to participate and
 * 5) response accuracy.

 * Telephone
 * Mail (post)
 * Online surveys
 * Mobile surveys
 * Personal in-home surveys
 * Personal mall or street intercept survey
 * Mixed modes

Research designs
There are several different designs, or overall structures, that can be used in survey research. The three general types are cross-sectional, successive independent samples, and longitudinal studies.

Cross-sectional studies
In cross-sectional studies, a sample (or samples) is drawn from the relevant population and studied once. A cross-sectional study describes characteristics of that population at one time, but cannot give any insight as to the causes of population characteristics because it is a predictive, correlational design.

Successive independent samples studies
A successive independent samples design draws multiple random samples from a population at one or more times. This design can study changes within a population, but not changes within individuals because the same individuals are not surveyed more than once. Such studies cannot, therefore, identify the causes of change over time necessarily. For successive independent samples designs to be effective, the samples must be drawn from the same population, and must be equally representative of it. If the samples are not comparable, the changes between samples may be due to demographic characteristics rather than time. In addition, the questions must be asked in the same way so that responses can be compared directly.

Longitudinal studies
Longitudinal studies take measure of the same random sample at multiple time points. Unlike with a successive independent samples design, this design measures the differences in individual participants' responses over time. This means that a researcher can potentially assess the reasons for response changes by assessing the differences in respondents' experiences. Longitudinal studies are the easiest way to assess the effect of a naturally occurring event, such as divorce that cannot be tested experimentally.

However, longitudinal studies are both expensive and difficult to do. It is harder to find a sample that will commit to a months- or years-long study than a 15-minute interview, and participants frequently leave the study before the final assessment. In addition, such studies sometimes require data collection to be confidential or anonymous, which creates additional difficulty in linking participants' responses over time. One potential solution is the use of a self-generated identification code (SGIC). These codes usually are created from elements like 'month of birth' and 'first letter of the mother's middle name.' Some recent anonymous SGIC approaches have also attempted to minimize use of personalized data even further, instead using questions like 'name of your first pet. Depending on the approach used, the ability to match some portion of the sample can be lost.

In addition, the overall attrition of participants is not random, so samples can become less representative with successive assessments. To account for this, a researcher can compare the respondents who left the survey to those that did not, to see if they are statistically different populations. Respondents may also try to be self-consistent in spite of changes to survey answers.

Questionnaires
Questionnaires are the most commonly used tool in survey research. However, the results of a particular survey are worthless if the questionnaire is written inadequately. Questionnaires should produce valid and reliable demographic variable measures and should yield valid and reliable individual disparities that self-report scales generate.

Questionnaires as tools
A variable category that is often measured in survey research are demographic variables, which are used to depict the characteristics of the people surveyed in the sample. Demographic variables include such measures as ethnicity, socioeconomic status, race, and age. Surveys often assess the preferences and attitudes of individuals, and many employ self-report scales to measure people's opinions and judgements about different items presented on a scale. Self-report scales are also used to examine the disparities among people on scale items. These self-report scales, which are usually presented in questionnaire form, are one of the most used instruments in psychology, and thus it is important that the measures be constructed carefully, while also being reliable and valid.

Reliability and validity of self-report measures
Reliable measures of self-report are defined by their consistency. Thus, a reliable self-report measure produces consistent results every time it is executed. A test's reliability can be measured a few ways. First, one can calculate a test-retest reliability. A test-retest reliability entails conducting the same questionnaire to a large sample at two different times. For the questionnaire to be considered reliable, people in the sample do not have to score identically on each test, but rather their position in the score distribution should be similar for both the test and the retest. Self-report measures will generally be more reliable when they have many items measuring a construct. Furthermore, measurements will be more reliable when the factor being measured has greater variability among the individuals in the sample that are being tested. Finally, there will be greater reliability when instructions for the completion of the questionnaire are clear and when there are limited distractions in the testing environment. Contrastingly, a questionnaire is valid if what it measures is what it had originally planned to measure. Construct validity of a measure is the degree to which it measures the theoretical construct that it was originally supposed to measure.

Composing a questionnaire
Six steps can be employed to construct a questionnaire that will produce reliable and valid results. First, one must decide what kind of information should be collected. Second, one must decide how to conduct the questionnaire. Thirdly, one must construct a first draft of the questionnaire. Fourth, the questionnaire should be revised. Next, the questionnaire should be pretested. Finally, the questionnaire should be edited and the procedures for its use should be specified.

Guidelines for the effective wording of questions
The way that a question is phrased can have a large impact on how a research participant will answer the question. Thus, survey researchers must be conscious of their wording when writing survey questions. It is important for researchers to keep in mind that different individuals, cultures, and subcultures can interpret certain words and phrases differently from one another. There are two different types of questions that survey researchers use when writing a questionnaire: free response questions and closed questions. Free response questions are open-ended, whereas closed questions are usually multiple choice. Free response questions are beneficial because they allow the responder greater flexibility, but they are also very difficult to record and score, requiring extensive coding. Contrastingly, closed questions can be scored and coded more easily, but they diminish expressivity and spontaneity of the responder. In general, the vocabulary of the questions should be very simple and direct, and most should be less than twenty words. Each question should be edited for "readability" and should avoid leading or loaded questions. Finally, if multiple items are being used to measure one construct, the wording of some of the items should be worded in the opposite direction to evade response bias.

A respondent's answer to an open-ended question can be coded into a response scale afterwards, or analysed using more qualitative methods.

Order of questions
Survey researchers should carefully construct the order of questions in a questionnaire. For questionnaires that are self-administered, the most interesting questions should be at the beginning of the questionnaire to catch the respondent's attention, while demographic questions should be near the end. Contrastingly, if a survey is being administered over the telephone or in person, demographic questions should be administered at the beginning of the interview to boost the respondent's confidence. Another reason to be mindful of question order may cause a survey response effect in which one question may affect how people respond to subsequent questions as a result of priming.

Translating a questionnaire
Translation is crucial to collecting comparable survey data. Questionnaires are translated from a source language into one or more target languages, such as translating from English into Spanish and German. A team approach is recommended in the translation process to include translators, subject-matter experts and persons helpful to the process.

Survey translation best practice includes parallel translation, team discussions, and pretesting with real-life people. It is not a mechanical word placement process. The model TRAPD - Translation, Review, Adjudication, Pretest, and Documentation - originally developed for the European Social Surveys, is now "widely used in the global survey research community, although not always labeled as such or implemented in its complete form". For example, sociolinguistics provides a theoretical framework for questionnaire translation and complements TRAPD. This approach states that for the questionnaire translation to achieve the equivalent communicative effect as the source language, the translation must be linguistically appropriate while incorporating the social practices and cultural norms of the target language.

Nonresponse reduction
The following ways have been recommended for reducing nonresponse in telephone and face-to-face surveys:
 * Advance letter. A short letter is sent in advance to inform the sampled respondents about the upcoming survey. The style of the letter should be personalized but not overdone. First, it announces that a phone call will be made, or an interviewer wants to make an appointment to do the survey face-to-face. Second, the research topic will be described. Last, it allows both an expression of the surveyor's appreciation of cooperation and an opening to ask questions on the survey.
 * Training. The interviewers are thoroughly trained in how to ask respondents questions, how to work with computers and making schedules for callbacks to respondents who were not reached.
 * Short introduction. The interviewer should always start with a short introduction about him or herself. She/he should give her name, the institute she is working for, the length of the interview and goal of the interview. Also it can be useful to make clear that you are not selling anything: this has been shown to lead to a slightly higher responding rate.
 * Respondent-friendly survey questionnaire. The questions asked must be clear, non-offensive and easy to respond to for the subjects under study.

Brevity is also often cited as increasing response rate. A 1996 literature review found mixed evidence to support this claim for both written and verbal surveys, concluding that other factors may often be more important. A 2010 study looking at 100,000 online surveys found response rate dropped by about 3% at 10 questions and about 6% at 20 questions, with drop-off slowing (for example, only 10% reduction at 40 questions). Other studies showed that quality of response degraded toward the end of long surveys.

Some researchers have also discussed the recipient's role or profession as a potential factor affecting how nonresponse is managed. For example, faxes are not commonly used to distribute surveys, but in a recent study were sometimes preferred by pharmacists, since they frequently receive faxed prescriptions at work but may not always have access to a generally-addressed piece of mail.

Interviewer effects
Survey methodologists have devoted much effort to determining the extent to which interviewee responses are affected by physical characteristics of the interviewer. Main interviewer traits that have been demonstrated to influence survey responses are race, gender, and relative body weight (BMI). These interviewer effects are particularly operant when questions are related to the interviewer trait. Hence, race of interviewer has been shown to affect responses to measures regarding racial attitudes, interviewer sex responses to questions involving gender issues, and interviewer BMI answers to eating and dieting-related questions. While interviewer effects have been investigated mainly for face-to-face surveys, they have also been shown to exist for interview modes with no visual contact, such as telephone surveys and in video-enhanced web surveys. The explanation typically provided for interviewer effects is social desirability bias: survey participants may attempt to project a positive self-image in an effort to conform to the norms they attribute to the interviewer asking questions. Interviewer effects are one example survey response effects.

The role of big data
Since 2018, survey methodologists have started to examine how big data can complement survey methodology to allow researchers and practitioners to improve the production of survey statistics and its quality. Big data has low cost per data point, applies analysis techniques via machine learning and data mining, and includes diverse and new data sources, e.g., registers, social media, apps, and other forms digital data. There have been three Big Data Meets Survey Science (BigSurv) conferences in 2018, 2020, 2023, and a conference forthcoming in 2025, a special issue in the Social Science Computer Review, a special issue in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, and a special issue in EP J Data Science, and a book called Big Data Meets Social Sciences edited by Craig A. Hill and five other Fellows of the American Statistical Association.

title: Survey methodology


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Subcarrier

A subcarrier is a sideband of a radio frequency carrier wave, which is modulated to send additional information. Examples include the provision of colour in a black and white television system or the provision of stereo in a monophonic radio broadcast. There is no physical difference between a carrier and a subcarrier; the "sub" implies that it has been derived from a carrier, which has been amplitude modulated by a steady signal and has a constant frequency relation to it.

FM stereo
Stereo broadcasting is made possible by using a subcarrier on FM radio stations, which takes the left channel and "subtracts" the right channel from it — essentially by hooking up the right-channel wires backward (reversing polarity) and then joining left and reversed-right. The result is modulated with suppressed carrier AM, more correctly called sum and difference modulation or SDM, at 38 kHz in the FM signal, which is joined at 2% modulation with the mono left+right audio (which ranges 50 Hz ~ 15 kHz). A 19 kHz pilot tone is also added at a 9% modulation to trigger radios to decode the stereo subcarrier, making FM stereo fully compatible with mono.

Once the receiver demodulates the L+R and L−R signals, it adds the two signals ([L+R] + [L−R] = 2L) to get the left channel and subtracts ([L+R] − [L−R] = 2R) to get the right channel. Rather than having a local oscillator, the 19 kHz pilot tone provides an in-phase reference signal used to reconstruct the missing carrier wave from the 38 kHz signal.

For AM broadcasting, different analog (AM stereo) and digital (HD Radio) methods are used to produce stereophonic audio. Modulated subcarriers of the type used in FM broadcasting are impractical for AM broadcast due to the relatively narrow signal bandwidth allocated for a given AM signal. On standard AM broadcast radios, the entire 9 kHz to 10 kHz allocated bandwidth of the AM signal may be used for audio.

Television
Likewise, analog TV signals are transmitted with the black and white luminance part as the main signal, and the color chrominance as the subcarriers. A black and white TV simply ignores the extra information, as it has no decoder for it. To reduce the bandwidth of the color subcarriers, they are filtered to remove higher frequencies. This is made possible by the fact that the human eye sees much more detail in contrast than in color. In addition, only blue and red are transmitted, with green being determined by subtracting the other two from the luminance and taking the remainder. (See: YIQ, YCbCr, YPbPr) Various broadcast television systems use different subcarrier frequencies, in addition to differences in encoding.

For the audio part, MTS uses subcarriers on the video that can also carry three audio channels, including one for stereo (same left-minus-right method as for FM), another for second audio programs (such as descriptive video service for the vision-impaired, and bilingual programs), and yet a third hidden one for the studio to communicate with reporters or technicians in the field (or for a technician or broadcast engineer at a remote transmitter site to talk back to the studio), or any other use a TV station might see fit. (See also NICAM, A2 Stereo.)

In RF-transmitted composite video, subcarriers remain in the baseband signal after main carrier demodulation to be separated in the receiver. The mono audio component of the transmitted signal is in a separate carrier and not integral to the video component. In wired video connections, composite video retains the integrated subcarrier signal structure found in the transmitted baseband signal, while S-Video places the chrominance and luminance signals on separate wires to eliminate subcarrier crosstalk and enhance the signal bandwidth and strength (picture sharpness and brightness).

Private audio
Before satellite, Muzak and similar services were transmitted to department stores on FM subcarriers. The fidelity of the subcarrier audio was limited compared to the primary FM radio audio channel. The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also allowed betting parlors in New York state to get horse racing results from the state gaming commission via the same technology.

Many non-commercial educational FM stations in the US (especially public radio stations affiliated with NPR) broadcast a radio reading service for the blind, which reads articles in local newspapers and sometimes magazines. The vision-impaired can request a special radio, permanently tuned to receive audio on a particular subcarrier frequency (usually 67 kHz or 92 kHz), from a particular FM station.

Services like these and others on broadcast FM subcarriers are referred to as a Subsidiary Communications Authority (SCA) service by the FCC in the United States, and as Subsidiary Communications Multiplex Operations (SCMO) by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in Canada.

Datacasting
The RDS/RBDS subcarrier (57 kHz) allows FM radios to display what station they are on, pick another frequency on the same network or with the same format, scroll brief messages like station slogans, news, weather, or traffic—even activate pagers or remote billboards. It can also broadcast EAS messages, and has a station "format" name ALERT to automatically trigger radios to tune in for emergency info, even if a CD is playing. While it never really caught on in North America, European stations frequently rely on this system. An upgraded version is built into digital radio.

xRDS is a system with which broadcasters can multiply the speed of data transmission in the FM channel by using further normal RDS subcarriers, shifted into the higher frequencies of the FM multiplex. The extra RDS subcarriers are placed in the upper empty part of the multiplex spectrum and carry the extra data payload. xRDS has no fixed frequencies for the additional 57 kHz carriers.

Until 2012, MSN Direct used subcarriers to transmit traffic, gas prices, movie times, weather and other information to GPS navigation devices, wristwatches, and other devices. Many of the subcarriers were from stations owned by Clear Channel. The technology was known as DirectBand.

FMeXtra on FM uses dozens of small COFDM subcarriers to transmit digital radio in a fully in-band on-channel manner. Removing other analog subcarriers (such as stereo) increases either the audio quality or channels available, the latter making it possible to send non-audio metadata along with it, such as album covers, song lyrics, artist info, concert data, and more.

Telemetry and foldback
Many stations use subcarriers for internal purposes, such as getting telemetry back from a remote transmitter, often located in a difficult-to-access area at the top of a mountain. A station's engineer can carry a decoder around with them and know anything that's wrong, as long as the station is on the air and they are within range. This is the essence of a wireless transmitter/studio link.

On wireless studio/transmitter links (STLs), not only are the broadcast station's subcarriers transmitted, but other remote control commands as well.

Interruptible foldback, such as for remote broadcasting, is also possible over subcarriers, though its role is limited.

MCPC satellites
Analog satellite television and terrestrial analog microwave relay communications rely on subcarriers transmitted with the video carrier on a satellite transponder or microwave channel for the audio channels of a video feed. There are usually at frequencies of 5.8, 6.2, or 6.8 MHz (the video carrier usually resides below 5 MHz on a satellite transponder or microwave relay). Extra subcarriers are sometimes transmitted at around 7 or 8 MHz for extra audio (such as radio stations) or low-to-medium-speed data. This is referred to as multiple channel per carrier (MCPC).

This is now mostly superseded by digital TV (usually DVB-S, DVB-S2 or another MPEG-2-based system), where audio and video data are packaged together (multiplexed) in a single MPEG transport stream.

title: Subcarrier