Ladislaus the Posthumous, known as Ladislaus V (; ; ; ; 22 February 1440 – 23 November 1457), was Duke of Austria and King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia. He was the posthumous son of Albert II of Germany with Elizabeth of Luxembourg. Albert had bequeathed all his realms to his future son on his deathbed, but only the estates of Austria accepted his last will. Fearing an Ottoman invasion, the majority of the Hungarian lords and prelates offered the crown to Władysław III of Poland. The Hussite noblemen and towns of Bohemia did not acknowledge the hereditary right of Albert's descendants to the throne, but also did not elect a new king.
After Ladislaus's birth, his mother seized the Holy Crown of Hungary and had Ladislaus crowned king in Székesfehérvár on 15 May 1440. However, the Diet of Hungary declared Ladislaus's coronation invalid and elected Władysław III of Poland as king. A civil war broke out, which lasted for years. Elizabeth appointed her late husband's distant cousin, Albert VI, Archduke of Austria, as her child's guardian. However, as a representative of the interests of the Austrian and Hungarian estates, he could not defend himself against his older brother and rival, Frederick III, King of the Romans, who in turn took over his role as guardian of Ladislaus. Albert had to renounce his guardianship and, in return, received the mighty Hungarian border Forchtenstein Castle, including a principality in the Hungarian-Styrian-Carinthian area. Ladislaus lived at Frederick's court (mainly in Wiener Neustadt), where Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (later Pope Pius II) wrote a treatise on his upbringing.
After his mother died in late 1442, Ladislaus' interests were represented by a Czech condottiere, John Jiskra of Brandýs, in Hungary, and by the Czech Catholic lord, Oldřich II of Rosenberg, in Bohemia. Ladislaus' rival in Hungary, Vladislaus, fell in the Battle of Varna in November 1444. The next year, the Diet of Hungary offered to acknowledge Ladislaus as king if Frederick III renounced his guardianship. After Frederick III rejected the offer, the Diet of Hungary elected John Hunyadi regent in 1446. In Bohemia, the head of the moderate Hussites (or Utraquists), George of Poděbrady, took control of Prague in 1448. The Estates of Austria forced Frederick III to resign the guardianship and hand over Ladislaus to them in September 1452. Royal administration was formally restored in Hungary after Hunyadi resigned the regency in early 1453, but he continued to control most royal castles and revenues.
Ulrich II, Count of Celje (his mother's cousin) became Ladislaus' main advisor, but an Austrian baron, Ulrich von Eytzinger, forced Ladislaus to expel Celje from his court. Although Ladislaus was crowned king of Bohemia on 28 October 1453, Poděbrady remained in full control of the government. During the following years, Eytzinger, Hunyadi and Poděbrady closely cooperated to mutually secure their positions. Ladislaus was reconciled with Ulrich II in early 1455. With the support of the leading Hungarian barons, Ladislaus persuaded Hunyadi to withdraw his troops from most royal castles and renounce the administration of part of the royal revenues.
After the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II decided to invade Hungary, Ladislaus and Ulrich II left the kingdom. The sultan laid siege to Belgrade. Hunyadi relieved the fortress on 22 July 1456, but he died two weeks later. Ladislaus and Ulrich II returned to Hungary and tried to force Hunyadi's son, also named Ladislaus, to renounce all royal castles and revenues, but Ladislaus Hunyadi murdered Ulrich II on 9 November, forcing Ladislaus to grant an amnesty to him. However, most Hungarian barons were hostile towards Ladislaus Hunyadi. With their support, Ladislaus captured him and his brother, Matthias Corvinus. After Ladislaus Hunyadi was executed in March 1457, his relatives stirred up a rebellion against Ladislaus, forcing him to flee from Hungary. Ladislaus died unexpectedly in Prague. He was the last male member of the Albertinian Line of the House of Habsburg.
Life
Parentage and birth
Ladislaus was the posthumous son of Albert II of Germany and Elizabeth of Luxembourg. Albert II was the hereditary duke of Austria, while Elizabeth was the only child of Emperor Sigismund, who was also king of Bohemia and Hungary. Sigismund had mortgaged the Duchy of Luxembourg to his niece, Elizabeth of Görlitz. He wanted to secure his realms for both his daughter and her husband, but the Estates of Bohemia and Hungary did not acknowledge the couple's hereditary right to rule. After Sigismund died in December 1437, Albert was elected the sole king of Hungary. In Bohemia, Albert was unanimously elected king only after he defeated Casimir IV Jagiellonthe younger brother of Władysław III of Polandwho was supported by a group of Hussite lords and burghers.
Albert was planning to launch a military expedition against the Ottoman Turks, who had been making plundering raids in the southern regions of Hungary, but fell seriously ill during the preparations. The dying king, who knew that his wife was pregnant, willed Austria, Bohemia and Hungary to his posthumous child if his wife gave birth to a son. He also put the potential heir under the guardianship of his widow and his cousin, Frederick of Austria Albert II died on 27 October 1439.
Fearing a new Ottoman invasion of Hungary, the majority of the Hungarian lords and prelates refused to accept the deceased king's last will. They offered the crown to Władysław III of Poland and wanted to persuade the pregnant queen dowager to marry the new king. In Bohemia, the assembly of the Estates passed decrees in January 1440 to avoid having a new civil war break out between the Hussites and the Catholics before a new king was elected. The Estates of Moravia passed a similar decree.
Although the 31-year-old Elizabeth seemingly agreed to marry Vladislaus, who was only 16, she made preparations for the coronation of her son after her physicians predicted that she would have a son. She ordered her chambermaid, Helene Kottanner, to steal the Holy Crown of Hungary from the castle of Visegrád. Before long, Helene Kottanner and her accomplice seized the crown. They handed it to the queen on the very day she went into labour, which was considered a miracle by both the queen and her courtiers. Elizabeth gave birth to Ladislaus in Komárom (now Komárno in Slovakia) on 21 February 1440, almost four months after his father's death. He was named for King St Ladislaus. Dénes Szécsi, Archbishop of Esztergom, baptised him.
Inheritance and civil war
thumb|Ladislaus's parents, [[Albert II of Germany and Elizabeth of Luxembourg pray|alt=A crowned man with a moustache and blonde crowned lady on their knees, surrounded by other men and women on their knees]]
The Estates of the Duchy of Austria acknowledged Ladislaus' right to rule and made Frederick of Austria, who had been elected King of the Romans, regent in accordance with the last will of Ladislaus' father. In Bohemia, only the Catholic lords, who were under the leadership of Oldřich II of Rosenberg, were willing to accept Ladislaus' hereditary right to rule. Soon after the birth of her son, Queen Elizabeth sent envoys to Poland to persuade the delegates of the Hungarian Estates to break off their negotiations with Władysław III of Poland. However, the Hungarian lords refused and elected Władysław III king on 8 March 1440. Before his election, Władysław III had pledged that he would marry Queen Elizabeth and protect her infant son's interests in Austria and Bohemia.
The queen refused to give her consent to the project and decided to have her son crowned king before Władysław III came to Hungary. She hastily took Ladislaus from Komárom to Székesfehérvár, which was the traditional place of the royal coronations in Hungary. After a young lord, Nicholas of Ilok, symbolically knighted the infant Ladislaus, Archbishop Dénes Szécsi anointed and crowned him king on 15 May. During the lengthy ceremonies, his mother's cousin, Ulrich II, Count of Celje, held the crown over the head of Ladislaus, who burst into tears while the coronation oath was being read out on his behalf. Six days later Władysław III entered Buda. Queen Elizabeth fled first to Győr, and from there to Sopron, taking the infant king with her.
The most powerful lordsincluding Ladislaus Garai, Đurađ Branković, Frederick II, Count of Celje and Ulrich II, Count of Celje and most towns remained faithful to the child-king, but most noblemen preferred Władysław III's rule in the hope that he would be able to lead the defence of the kingdom against the Ottomans. A civil war broke out between the partisans of the two kings, which would last for years. The Diet declared Ladislaus's coronation invalid on 29 June 1440, stating that "the crowning of kings is always dependent on the will of the kingdom's inhabitants, in whose consent both the effectiveness and the force of the crown reside". On 17 July, Archbishop Dénes Szécsi crowned Władysław III king with a crown taken from the tomb of King Saint Stephen, the first king of Hungary.
In need of financial resources to continue the war against Władysław III, Queen Elizabeth signed a treaty with Frederick III, King of the Romans, in Wiener Neustadt on 22 November. She not only mortgaged Sopron to Frederick III, but also appointed him as her son's guardian and gave the Holy Crown of Hungary to him. Thereafter, Ladislaus lived in Frederick III's court, mainly in Wiener Neustadt.
Queen Elizabeth hired a Czech condottiere, John Jiskra of Brandýs, who took control of Kassa (now Košice in Slovakia) and a dozen other towns in Upper Hungary during the next months. However, Władysław III's two military commanders, Nicholas of Ilok and John Hunyadi, defeated the united army of the child Ladislaus's supporters from the central and southern parts of Hungary in the Battle of Bátaszék in early 1441. During the next months, Władysław III and his commanders took control of the western and eastern territories of Hungary, but John Jiskra of Brandýs and Queen Elizabeth's other supporters continued to control Upper Hungary, along with Esztergom, Győr, Pressburg (now Bratislava in Slovakia) and other important towns. Negotiations began and Queen Elizabeth and Władysław III signed a peace treaty in Győr on 13 December 1442. The queen recognised Władysław III as king, but preserved her son's claim to the throne. Three or four days later the queen suddenly died and Ladislaus became an orphan before his third birthday.
Wardship
thumb|left|Ladislaus the Posthumous
After the death of Ladislaus' mother, his claim to rule in Hungary and Bohemia was primarily protected by John Jiskra of Brandýs and Ulrich of Rosenberg, respectively. Most parts of Hungary remained under the rule of Ladislaus's rival, Władysław III. In Bohemia, the moderate Hussite lord, Hynce Ptáček of Pirkštejn, administered the eastern territories, and the towns dominated by the radical Taborites were united in a league. The Hussite Ctibor Tovačovský of Cimburk, who had assumed the title of governor after Albert's death, continued to administer Moravia, closely cooperating with the towns and the Catholic Bishop of Olomouc. Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, whom Elizabeth of Görlitz made her heir, invaded Luxembourg on her behalf in 1443. Frederick III authorised the Estates of Luxemburg to pay homage to Philip the Good, but he also stipulated that Ladislaus could buy back the duchy after Elizabeth of Goerlitz's death. During Ladislaus's lifetime, the Luxembourgeoise Estates did not recognise Philip the Good as their legitimate sovereign.
Ladislaus' rival, Władysław III, presumably died fighting against the Ottomans in the Battle of Varna on 10 November 1444. At the Diet of next year, the Hungarian Estates agreed that they would acknowledge the child Ladislaus as king if Władysław III, whose fate was still uncertain, did not come back to Hungary before 1 June 1445. However, they stipulated that they would elect a new king if the child king's guardian, Frederick III, did not release both the king and the Holy Crown of Hungary. The Estates also elected seven "Captains in Chief"John Hunyadi, Nicholas of Ilok, George Rozgonyi, Emeric I Bebek, Michael Ország, Pancrace Szentmiklósi, and John Jiskra of Brandýsto administer the kingdom. Frederick III stormed into Hungary and captured a dozen fortresses along the western frontiers of Hungary, including Kőszeg, by the end of July. The Counts of Celje, who were related to Ladislaus through his mother, invaded Slavonia and took control of the province before the end of the year. As Frederick III refused to release Ladislaus, the Diet of Hungary elected John Hunyadi regent for the period of Ladislaus' minority on 6 June 1446. John Hunyadi, who adopted the title governor, ruled most of Hungary, but could not expand his authority over the regions under the rule of Frederick III, John Jiskra of Brandýs and the Counts of Celje. The envoys of the Hungarian Estates and Frederick III signed a truce on 1 June 1446, which confirmed Frederick III's guardianship over Ladislaus.
In Bohemia, George of Poděbrady took up the leadership of the moderate Hussite lords after the death of Hynce Ptáček of Pirkštejn. He captured Prague on 3 September 1448 and imprisoned Meinhard of Neuhaus who had started negotiations of the moderate Hussites' union with the Catholic Church. Early the next year, Oldřich II of Rosenberg and other Catholic lords entered into a formal league against George of Poděbrady.
Ladislaus had a good education in Frederick III's court. A Latin grammar was completed especially for him. Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (the future Pope Pius II) summarised his advice on education in a letter that he addressed to the ten-year-old Ladislaus in 1450. Piccolomini suggested that Ladislaus should read both classical authors (including Archimedes, Cicero, Livy and Vergil) and the Bible.
| 5 = 5. Joanna Sophia of Bavaria
| 7 = 7. Barbara of Cilli
| 9 = 9. Beatrice of Nuremberg
| 11 = 11. Margaret of Brieg
| 13 = 13. Elizabeth of Pomerania
| 15 = 15. Anna of Schaunberg