Tartaric raids, feudal anarchy - Trenčín of the 13th century

Onset of the 13^th century was characteristic for the struggle between the gentry and the king. It was the expansive military politics carried on by the king Andrew II that drained the royal treasury. His successor, Belo IV was trying to bring back into the king’s chamber the lands that his father had given out. Belo IV began his reformatory attempts while his royal father was still living. Later, being king himself, he did not turn away from the begun course. Belo IV encountered difficulties when the Tartars invaded Hungary in 1241 and penetrated as far as the central Europe. Since the gentry were reluctant to fight the enemy, the army Belo sent out to meet the Tartars was weak and could not stand up to the invaders. The king himself fled for life to the Dalmatian islands. The Tartars left behind themselves a country which was utterly ransacked and burned. The only things that survived were fortified castles like that of Trenčín. Fields were left untilled and a famine broke out. Meanwhile, the western part of Slovakia, including Bratislava, was taken by the Austrians. The next Hungarian king Andrew III, with the help of Matthew Czak of Trenčín and other important nobles, could drive them out; however, we was unable to complete the consolidation of Hungary due to his untimely death in 1301 (most likely due to being poisoned). Since he was the last of the Arpad dynasty, his death was followed by wars with the Czech kingdom over the weakened Hungarian kingdom. Trenčín, being a strategic border town, was to face tumultuous times again.