For the life and reign of Matthias the following works may be consulted: J. Heling, _Die Wahl des römischen Königs Matthias_ (Belgrade, 1892); A. Gindely, _Rudolf II. und seine Zeit_ (Prague, 1862-1868); F. Stieve, _Die Verhandlungen über die Nachfolge Kaisers Rudolf II._ (Munich, 1880); P. von Chlumecky, _Karl von Zierotin und seine Zeit_ (Brünn, 1862-1879); A. Kerschbaumer, _Kardinal Klesel_ (Vienna, 1865); M. Ritter, _Quellenbeiträge zur Geschichte des Kaisers Rudolf II._ (Munich, 1872); _Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Gegenreformation und des dreissigjährigen Krieges_ (Stuttgart, 1887, seq.); and the article on Matthias in the _Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_, Bd. XX. (Leipzig, 1884); L. von Ranke, _Zur deutschen Geschichte vom Religionsfrieden bis zum 30-jährigen Kriege_ (Leipzig, 1888); and J. Janssen, _Geschichte des deutschen Volks seit dem Ausgang des Mittelalters_ (Freiburg, 1878 seq.), Eng. trans. by M. A. Mitchell and A. M. Christie (London, 1896, seq.). MATTHIAS I., HUNYADI (1440-1490), king of Hungary, also known as Matthias Corvinus, a surname which he received from the raven (_corvus_) on his escutcheon, second son of János Hunyadi and Elizabeth Szilágyi, was born at Kolozsvár, probably on the 23rd of February 1440. His tutors were the learned János Vitéz, bishop of Nagyvárad, whom he subsequently raised to the primacy, and the Polish humanist Gregory Sanocki. The precocious lad quickly mastered the German, Latin and principal Slavonic languages, frequently acting as his father's interpreter at the reception of ambassadors. His military training proceeded under the eye of his father, whom he began to follow on his campaigns when only twelve years of age. In 1453 he was created count of Bistercze, and was knighted at the siege of Belgrade in 1454. The same care for his welfare led his father to choose him a bride in the powerful Cilli family, but the young Elizabeth died before the marriage was consummated, leaving Matthias a widower at the age of fifteen. On the death of his father he was inveigled to Buda by the enemies of his house, and, on the pretext of being concerned in a purely imaginary conspiracy against Ladislaus V., was condemned to decapitation, but was spared on account of his youth, and on the king's death fell into the hands of George Podebrad, governor of Bohemia, the friend of the Hunyadis, in whose interests it was that a national king should sit on the Magyar throne. Podebrad treated Matthias hospitably and affianced him with his daughter Catherine, but still detained him, for safety's sake, in Prague, even after a Magyar deputation had hastened thither to offer the youth the crown. Matthias was the elect of the Hungarian people, gratefully mindful of his father's services to the state and inimical to all foreign candidates; and though an influential section of the magnates, headed by the palatine László Garai and the