GEDICHT VON PETRUS BONOMUS TERGESTINUS GEGEN DEN WORTBRUCH DES BÖHMISCHEN KÖNIGS

This work is one of Bonomo's main poems with a political theme, which was probably circulated at the time of the Imperial Diet of Nuremberg in 1491. The aim of the poem is to condemn the behaviour of an enemy of the Habsburgs, Vladislaus II, (1456-1516), who was King of Bohemia (1471-1516), and King of Hungary and Croatia (1490-1516). Vladislaus II had ascended the throne of Bohemia with the support of Frederick III after a long dispute with the King of Hungary Mathias Corvinus. When Mathias Corvinus died (6 April 1490), Vladislaus had himself elected as his successor and crowned king of Bohemia, thus violating the treaties of Sopron (1463). According to this treaty, stipulated between Frederick III and Mathias Corvinus, who had contended for the throne of Hungary, the throne would return to the Habsburgs after Corvinus' death. Due to Vladislaus's behaviour, Maximilian I invaded Hungary in the summer of 1490, but without achieving significant success. The conflict ended in 1491 with the peace treaty of Bratislava, which on the one hand confirmed the election of Vladislaus II as king of Hungary, on the other hand established the Habsburgs' right of succession in case Vladislaus did not leave male heirs. Since there is no mention in the poem of some events of the conflict (the reconquest of Vienna and Wiener Neustadt in 1490 and the 1491 peace treaty), scholars argue that the composition of the poem dates back to the first stage of the conflict in 1490 (for a detailed analysis and the relevant bibliography, see Di Brazzano 2005, 389).