2012The 700th Anniversary of the Battle of Rozgony - Set

"The battle was the most important in Charles Robert’s war to unify the country. On 15 June 1312 the king defeated the army of Amade Aba’s sons in a battle by Rozgony, near Kassa. A depiction of the battle taken from the Chronicon Pictum (National Széchényi Library) can be seen on the stamp. 300,000 copies of the commemorative stamp were printed by Állami Nyomda based on the design by Barnabás Baticz. In the middle of the 13th century a process began in Hungary which resulted in a great part of the country’s territory coming under the power of a few oligarchs. By the end of 1307 there was only one candidate left from the Hungarian pretenders to the throne, Charles Robert, who enjoyed the support of the pope and some of the Hungarian aristocrats and was actually crowned king on 27 August 1310. However, the power of the oligarchs remained uncurtailed. In the period directly before the Battle of Rozgony in September 1311 the citizens of Kassa (now Košice) had killed one of the petty monarchs, the Palatine Amade Aba, to protect their municipal privileges. The king took an unambiguous stand in the conflict on the side of the citizens. The treaty signed on 3 October 1311 through the mediation of the archbishop of Esztergom and the bishops of Veszprém in practise meant the end of the oligarch family’s power. Amade’s offspring did not wish to abide by the treaty that had been signed under duress and therefore openly split away from the ruler and petitioned Máté Csák, who held sway over the north west of the country, for help, who then sent 1,700 Czech mercenaries to aid the sons of Amade. Reinforced thus the army attacked Kassa but on receiving news of the attack Charles Robert directed his army to the fringes of the town. The royal army had been suffering heavy losses in the conflict by Rozgony when infantry sent by the towns of Szepes and Kassa attacked the flanks of the Abas heavy cavalry, thus turning the tide of the battle. This was the first battle in Hungarian history in which infantry were decisively successful against heavy cavalry. After this Charles Robert’s authority grew significantly. The military strength of Máté Csák, who was regarded as the king’s arch enemy, was not broken by the lost battle but any opportunity to expand eastwards was now no longer open to him. After his death on 18 March 1321 the obstacles to a reorganisation of Hungarian feudalism were swept away."