Mayláth István, Voivode of Transylvania (1502-1550)

Mayláth István, Voivode of Transylvania (1502-1550)

The seal of Maylath István (Ste. Maylath) from 1532

 Let us tell a few words about the second line of lords and politicians who played an important role in the Dual Kingship of Hungary after 1526. Many of us may have heard of the fate of Majláth István, Voivode of Transylvania who finished his life in the Yedikula as the captive of Sultan Suleiman. According to Gárdonyi Géza, the great Hungarian author of the 19th century, Mayláth was a positive hero but others say he wasn’t at all. The truth, as always, is sometimes in between. As it was, without Mayláth things would have taken a quite different course.

another Mayláth seal from 1532

Everything began at Mohács, in 1526. After several desperate assaults, the Hungarian cavalry could not break the Ottoman lines. Only three knights could penetrate until the sultan’s bodyguards but they were cut down before reaching Suleiman. Finally, exhausted, the heavy cavalry turned and fled the field, abandoning the pike-and-shot infantrymen whose last stand bought the knights time to save their lives. One of the runners was a young knight called Mayláth István who was fleeing to the north. Did he curse Voivode Szapolyai János of Transylvania who was late to join King Louis’ army with his 15,000 men? We will never know.

We can just assume that the 24-year-old knight had no idea that the next crowned king of Hungary would be Szapolyai who would later appoint Maylath as Voivode of Transylvania. Had he guessed it, he would not have hurried to Habsburg Ferdinand to become one of his few Hungarian supporters. The youngster did his best to serve the Habsburg usurper: he and his friends Nádasdy Tamás and Zalay János delivered him the Hungarian royal treasury along with the Castle of Pozsony (Pressburg, Bratislava). Without these, Ferdinand would not have been able to make a bridgehead in Hungary so he awarded Mayláth with the fortress of Fogaras which was a strategic fort of Transylvania: whoever owned it, was able to control Transylvania.

King Szapolyai János

 It is assumed that Mayláth István was born in Komána around 1502. His father had Wallachian roots, he settled in Transylvania in 1480 near Fogaras. We know that after Mohács he befriended Nádasdy Tamás and married his sister, Anna. (Please, note that I use the Oriental name order for Hungarians where family names come first.) It was the age when Hungarian lords often changed masters. Nádasdy left Ferdinand and joined Szapolyai, allegedly he changed sides quite unwillingly. He was returning to Ferdinand in 1530, though. However, while he was paving his way back to King Ferdinand, he persuaded Mayláth, his brother-in-law to take the side of King Szapolyai. It was not an unheard-of thing in that age: it happened in other noble families as well to secure their positions by sending one brother to Szapolyai, and another to Ferdinand.