Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/50

36 the castle at Visegrád, calling it a paradise on earth. Another ambassador declared that the castle had no equal in Europe, that only the Palais de Justice in Paris could be compared with it.

But the Renaissance also brought great changes into the habits of every-day life. People began to pay more attention to cleanliness, houses were better venti­lated, and in Italy clean linen and good manners at table became the hall-mark of the gentleman. All his foreign guests spoke of Matthias as exemplary in such matters.

There is one more point of similarity between Matthias and his great Italian contemporaries, in that he established a new kind of title to the occupancy of a throne. At the beginning of the Renaissance period, the Italian thrones were in the possession of men who were not of royal descent, but were either successful generals, or their sons. Such monarchs had no family traditions to lean upon, no inherited claim upon the people's loyalty; that had to be won. They therefore occupied themselves with affairs of State more than members of the old dynasties had been accustomed to do; and in their anxiety to acquire dignity they also displayed greater luxury. In default of an ancient name they had recourse to their wealth, and they loved to surround themselves with eminent men in order to add splendour to their court. Such a monarch was Matthias, himself sprung from no royal race, but a son of the great general John Hunyadi.

It is consonant with the opinion of their time that the monarchs of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, autocrats, men of strong personality and of sensual tendencies, should try to secure their thrones to their