The League of Zelená Hora and the Jagiellonian Candidacy for the Bohemian Throne

Abstract

The study deals with the development and transformation of the attitudes of the power block of the Bohemian Catholic nobility of the so-called League of Zelená Hora towards the Jagiellonian candidacy for the Bohemian throne. It first offered the throne to the Jagiellonians itself and anticipated in return the military support of Poland in the war with the present King of Bohemia George of Poděbrady. Polish mediation in fact did save the League of Zelená Hora from defeat, but the League did not want to accept the Jagiellonian tactic of neutrality. Thanks to the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus, it received military assistance, which led it to deny Polish claims by electing Corvinus as King of Bohemia in 1469. When King George began negotiations on Polish succession with the Krakow court, the League, on the other hand, tried to prevent Polish success by political means. After the election of Władysław II Jagiełło as Bohemian king, it did not recognise him, but was interested in a military confrontation and only after the pressure of Matthias Corvinus did it join the so-called War of the Three Kings with Władysław and his father Casimir IV. Nevertheless, it still preferred a diplomatic resolution of the dispute and peaceful coexistence with Władysław’s party in Bohemia.