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HUNTSMAN, BENJAMIN (1704-1776)

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 956 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HUNTSMAN, See also:BENJAMIN (1704-1776) , See also:English inventor and See also:steel-manufacturer, was See also:born in See also:Lincolnshire in 1704. His parents were Germans. He started business as a See also:clock, See also:lock and See also:tool maker at See also:Doncaster, and attained a considerable See also:local reputation for scientific knowledge and skilled workmanship. He also practised See also:surgery in an experimental See also:fashion, and was frequently consulted as an oculist. Finding that the See also:bad quality See also:infant son, See also:Ladislaus V. (see CILLEI, See also:ULRICH; and LADISLAUS V.). He took a prominent See also:part in the ensuing See also:civil See also:war and was rewarded by W Ladislaus III. with the captaincy of the fortress of See also:Belgrade and the voivodeship of Transylvania, which latter dignity, however, he shared with his See also:rival Mihaly Ujlaki. The See also:burden of the See also:Turkish War now rested entirely on his shoulders. In 1441 he delivered See also:Servia by the victory of See also:Semendria. In 1442, not far from Hermannstadt, on which he had been forced to retire, he annihilated an immense Turkish See also:host, and recovered for See also:Hungary the See also:suzerainty of Wallachia and See also:Moldavia; and in See also:July he vanquished a third Turkish See also:army near the See also:Iron See also:Gates. These victories made See also:Hunyadi's name terrible to the See also:Turks and renowned throughout Christendom, and stimulated him in 1443 to undertake, along with See also:King See also:Wladislaus, the famous expedition known as the hosszu hdboru or " See also:long See also:campaign." Hunyadi, at the See also:head of the vanguard, crossed the Balkans through the See also:Gate of See also:Trajan, captured See also:Nish, defeated three Turkish pashas, and, after taking See also:Sofia, See also:united with the royal army and defeated See also:Murad II. at Snaim. The impatience of the king and the severity of the See also:winter then compelled him (See also:February 1444) to return See also:home, but not before he had utterly broken the See also:sultan's See also:power in Bosnia, Herzegovina; Servia, See also:Bulgaria and See also:Albania.

No sooner had he regained Hungary than he received tempting offers from the See also:

pope, represented by the See also:legate See also:Cardinal Cesarini, from See also:George Brankovic, See also:despot of Servia, and George Castriota, See also:prince of Albania, to resume the war and realize his favourite See also:idea of See also:driving the Turk from See also:Europe. All the preparations had been made, when Murad's envoys arrived in the royal See also:camp at See also:Szeged and offered a ten years' truce on advantageous terms. Both Hunyadi and Brankovic counselled their See also:acceptance, and Wladislaus swore on the Gospels to observe them. Two days later Cesarini received the tidings that a See also:fleet of galleys had set off for the See also:Bosporus to prevent Murad (who, crushed by his See also:recent disasters, had retired to See also:Asia See also:Minor) from recrossing into Europe, and the cardinal reminded the king that he had sworn to co-operate by See also:land if the western See also:powers attacked the Turks by See also:sea. He then, by virtue of his legatine powers, absolved the king from his second See also:oath, and in July the Hungarian army recrossed the frontier and advanced towards the Euxine See also:coast in See also:order to See also:march to See also:Constantinople escorted by the galleys. Brankovic, however, fearful of the sultan's vengeance in See also:case of disaster, privately informed Murad of the advance of the See also:Christian host, and prevented Castriota from joining it. On reaching See also:Varna, the Hungarians found that the Venetian galleys had failed to prevent the transit of the sultan, who now confronted them with fourfold odds, and on the loth of See also:November 1444 they were utterly routed, Wladislaus falling on the See also:field and Hunyadi narrowly escaping. At the See also:diet which met in February 1445 a provisional See also:government, consisting of five Magyar See also:captain-generals, was formed, Hunyadi receiving Transylvania and the ultra-Theissian counties as his See also:district; but the resulting anarchy became unendurable, and on the 5th of See also:June 1446 Hunyadi was unanimously elected See also:governor of Hungary in the name of Ladislaus V., with See also:regal powers. His first See also:act as governor was to proceed against the See also:German king See also:Frederick III., who refused to deliver up the See also:young king. After ravaging See also:Styria, See also:Carinthia and See also:Carniola and threatening See also:Vienna, Hunyadi's difficulties elsewhere compelled him to make a truce with Frederick for two years. In 1448 he received a See also:golden See also:chain and the See also:title of prince from Pope See also:Nicholas V., and immediately afterwards resumed the war with the Turks. He lost the two days' See also:battle of See also:Kossovo (See also:October 17th—19th) owing to the treachery of See also:Dan, See also:hospodar of Wallachia, and of his old enemy Brankovic, who imprisoned him for a See also:time in the dungeons of the fortress of Semendria; but he was ransomed by the See also:Magyars, and, after composing his See also:differences with his powerful and jealous enemies in Hungary, led a punitive expedition against the Servian prince, who was compiled to accept most humiliating terms of See also:peace.

In 1450 Hunyadi went to See also:

Pressburg to negotiate with Frederick the terms of the surrender of Ladislaus V., but no agreement could be come to,whereupon the Cilleis and Hunyadi's other enemies accused him of aiming at the See also:throne. He shut their mouths by resigning all his dignities into the hands of the young king, on his return to Hungary at the beginning of 1453, whereupon Ladislaus created him See also:count of Bestercze and captain-See also:general of the See also:kingdom. Meanwhile the Turkish question had again become acute, and it was See also:plain, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, that Mahommed II. was rallying his resources in order to subjugate Hungary. His immediate See also:objective was Belgrade, and thither, at the end of 1455, Hunyadi repaired, after a public reconciliation with all his enemies. At his own expense he provisioned and armed the fortress, and leaving in it a strong See also:garrison under the command of his See also:brother-in-See also:law Mihaly Szilagyi and his own eldest son Laszlo, he proceeded to See also:form a See also:relief army and a fleet of two See also:hundred corvettes. To the eternal shame of the Magyar nobles, he was See also:left entirely to his own resources. His one ally was the Franciscan See also:friar, Giovanni da See also:Capistrano (q.v.), who preached a crusade so effectually that the peasants and See also:yeomanry, See also:ill-armed (most of them had but slings and scythes) but full of See also:enthusiasm, flocked to the See also:standard of Hunyadi, the See also:kernel of whose host consisted of a small See also:band of 'seasoned mercenaries and a few banderia of See also:noble horsemen. On the 14th of July 14.56 Hunyadi with his flotilla destroyed the Turkish fleet; on the 21st Szilagyi See also:beat off a fierce See also:assault, and the same See also:day Hunyadi, taking See also:advantage of the confusion of the Turks, pursued them into their camp, which he captured after a desperate encounter. Mahommed thereupon raised the See also:siege and returned to Constantinople, and the See also:independence of Hungary was secured for another seventy years. The Magyars had, however, to pay dearly for this crowning victory, the See also:hero dying of See also:plague in his camp three See also:weeks later (I 1th See also:August 1456). We are so accustomed to regard llunyadi as the incarnation of Christian See also:chivalry that we are See also:apt to forget that he was a See also:great captain and a great statesman as well as a great hero. It has well been said that he fought with his head rather than with his See also:arm.

He was the first to recognize the insufficiency and the unreliability of the feudal levies, the first to employ a See also:

regular army on a large See also:scale, the first to depend more upon See also:strategy and See also:tactics than upon See also:mere courage. He was in fact the first Hungarian general in the See also:modern sense of the word. It was only See also:late in See also:life that he learnt to read and write, and his Latin was always very defective. He owed his See also:influence partly to his natural See also:genius and partly to the transparent integrity and See also:nobility of his See also:character. He is described as an undersized, stalwart See also:man with full, rosy cheeks, long See also:snow-See also:white locks, and See also:bright, smiling, See also:black eyes. See J. Teleki, The See also:Age of the Hunyadis in Hungary (Hung.), (Pesth, 1852–1857; supplementary volumes by D. Csanki 1895); G. See also:Fejer, Genus, See also:incunabula et virtus Joannis Corvini de Hunyad (Buda, 1844); J. de Chassin, See also:Jean de Flunyad (See also:Paris,. 1859); A. Per, Life of Hunyadi (Hung.) (See also:Budapest, 1873); V. Fraknoi, Cardinal Carjaval and his See also:Missions to Hungary (Hung.) (Budapest, 1889) ; P.

See also:

Frankl, Der Friede von Szegedin and See also:die Geschichte seines Bruches (See also:Leipzig, 1904) ; R. N. See also:Bain, " The Siege of Belgrade, 1456," (Eng. Hisi. Rev., 1892); A. Bonfini, Rerum ungaricarum libri xlv, editio septima (Leipzig, 1771). (R. N.

End of Article: HUNTSMAN, BENJAMIN (1704-1776)

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