[ERROR: no reftable :]10 István Brodarics to Louis II 1 Rome, 1 September 1522 Manuscript used: MOL, DL 25663 Published: Iványi Béla, Adalékok a nemzetközi érintkezések történetéhez a Jagelló-korban, Történelmi Tár, 1906, 343–344. 1. The Pope has arrived in Rome but has not received Brodarics in a public audience yet. However, he and Cardinal Medici have put forward Louis II’s request to him in a private interview that a legate or nuncio be sent to the Nuremberg Imperial Diet. – 2. Brodarics assures King Louis that that he could find no Pope more suitable for his purposes than Adrian. Marsupino has returned from Florence to Rome too. Now they work together on behalf of the King. – 3. He complains that he has no money and he doesn’t get any from the Fuggers in spite of the King having instructed them to lend him some. If he does not receive money soon, he will be compelled to sell everything he has and crawl back to Hungary in shame with barely one servant. – 4. He, too, deems the diplomatic mission to France mentioned by King Louis quite useful, but he cannot travel there without money. Sacra Regia Maiestas, Domine, Domine mihi Gratiosissime. Post humillimam servitutis meae commendationem.

[1.] XXVIII huius mensis Augusti venit Sanctissimus Dominus Noster 2 ad sanctum Paulum monasterium non longe a moenibus Urbis distans. Sequenti die ingressus Urbem, postea die Dominica 3 fuit coronatus. Adhuc nihil potuit agi de negotiis Maiestatis Vestrae apud Suam Sanctitatem. Credo nos cras aut perendie habituros audientiam publicam, id est consistorialem a Sua Sanctitate. Quamvis iam in audientia [ERROR: no reftable :]8  Jacobus Piso (1480–1527), offspring of a Saxon middle class family from Medgyes, noted Humanist, poet and diplomat, friend and pen friend of Erasmus, member of the circle of László Szalkai who would become Archbishop of Esztergom. One of the tutors of the child King Louis from 1516, Royal Secretary from 1520. We have no other data about a permanent contact with Brodarics, who was roughly of the same age, but perhaps it is not just by accident that he wrote the letter on the coat of arms, which praises literature and science, in such elegant Latin. 1  Fraknói refers to this letter when he states that one of Brodarics’ tasks was to persuade the Pope to intervene so that Pál Tomori accepts arcbishopric of Kalocsa. (Compare: Fraknói Vilmos, Tomori Pál élete, Századok, 1881, 310.) Brodarics might have had such an assignment but it cannot be justified with the text of this letter. 2  Hadrian VI (1522–1523) was elected Pope on 9 January 1522. 3  On 31 August.

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privata unacum reverendissimo domino cardinale Medices, 4 deditissimo Vestrae Maiestati, satis multa cum Sua Sanctitate egerimus de mittendo illo nuntio sive legato, quem Vestra Maiestas cupit mitti ad dietam Norembergensem, 5 de quo etiam prius apud sacrum collegium egeramus. 6 Sed cum statim subsecutus fuisset adventus pontificis, omnia ad pontificem reiecta fuerunt. Pontifex dixit se quamprimum expediturum unum virum idoneum, de aliis agetur, ut praemisi, in audientia consistoriali. 7 Et in diligentia nostra nihil penitus deerit.

[2.] Habet ex munere divino Vestra Maiestas pontificem talem, quo melior et ad negotia Vestrae Maiestatis propensior ne optari quidem posset a domino Deo. Credo et certissime credo non Maiestatem Vestram solum, sed totam Christianitatem in huius re et nomine sanctissimi viri bonitate, prudentia et sollertia conquieturam. Plura et de hoc et de aliis in proximis litteris. 8 Haec enim scripsi subitissime nuntio properante. Brevi faciam de rebus omnibus Vestram Maiestatem certiorem. Dominus Marsupinus 9 et ipse [ERROR: no reftable :]4  Cardinal Giulio de Medici was the cousin of the previous Medici pope, Leo X. After the early death of Hadrian VI he is elected Pope in the autumn of 1523 by the name of Clement VII (1523–1534). 5  There were two imperial assemblies in Nuremberg in 1522, one in the spring, and one in the autumn. The Hungarian King sent his envoys to both in order to obtain aid for the struggle against the Turks and for capturing Nándorfehérvár back. The papal envoy should have supported these Hungarian claims. 6  We do not know exactly when Brodarics arrived in Rome. He probably left Buda in the end of February, because Iván Borsa mentions in a Hungarica report that he saw in the Siena State Archives a letter of recommendation by Louis II to Cardinal Raffaello Petrucci on behalf of Brodarics, and this was dated 18 February 1522 (compare: Archivio di Stato di Siena, Particolari, Famiglie Senesi nr. 146). It is known from Mario Sanuto’s diary that he was in Venice on 26 April because that’s when he spoke in front of the council of the Signoria about the aid to Hungary. He got an answer on 2 May, and Sanuto says he continued his trip to Rome on 3 May. (Compare: Wenzel Gusztáv, Marino Sanuto világkrónikájának Magyarországot illető tudsításai III., Magyar Történelmi Tár XXV. 268–269.) Marsupino writes on 8 August 1522 that he was waiting for Brodarics to arrive in Rome but 3 months have passed since his arrival. Thus Brodarics might have reached Rome in the second half of May. 7  Brodarics and Marsupino were heard at a consistory session on 4 September. See Magyarországi pápai követek jelentései 1524–1526. Budapest, 2001. 8  Unfortunately, we have no more letters addressed to King Louis from Rome. 9  Francesco Marsupino, a cleric of Humanist knowledge, a doctor of both laws, one time secretary of Archbishop Bakócz, stayed in Rome from 1518 as a permanent Hungarian envoy. After 1526 he represented Szapolyai in the papal court. István Brodarics and Ferenc Frangepán both considered him a close friend. In 1542 he still served Ferenc Frangepán. Paul III wanted to send him on a mission to Ireland in 1541 but it did not happen (see Thomas Maccogg, The Society of Jesus in Ireland, Scotland, and England 1541–1588, Leiden–New York–Köln, 1996, 15.) His brother Joannes (Giovanni) Marsupino was Abbot of Kapornak in 1532 and entered the service of Pál Várday in 1548. Regarding the Marsupino brothers see: ETE I. 232., 309., 310.; ETE II. 186–188.; ETE III. 269., 284., 291., 350., 380., 416., 474.; ETE IV. 131.

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ex Florentia, quo eum concessisse Vestra Maiestas non ignorat, 10 rediit. Communi igitur opera et consilio omnia aguntur et agentur.

[3.] Expensas ego nullas penitus habeo. Deus immortalis scit, quod non solum vehementissime angor, sed et supra modum admiror, quod Vestra Maiestas ita me sine expensa reliquerit. Maiestas Vestra scribit 11 et item reverendissimus dominus cancellarius 12 ex voluntate Maiestatis Vestrae Fukaros 13 mihi satis expensarum daturos, ab eis ne obolum quidem habere possum. Immo derideor ab eis, qui orator Maiestatis Vestrae existens ab eis sumptus mendicem. Iam si Vestra Maiestas ad tot meas supplicationes nihil mihi suppeditat, Deus scit, nescio quid faciam, nisi forte, ut vendam omnia, quae mecum habeo, habitu mutato redeam cum uno famulo ad Vestram Maiestatem incognitus cum extrema ignominia mea et damno non parvo Vestrae Maiestatis. Videt enim Vestra Maiestas totam rerum suarum summam hinc pendere.

[4.] Nam quod Maiestas Vestra scribit mihi de legatione Gallica obeunda, ea, ut video, esset valde necessaria. Immo credo nihil magis necessarium ad res Maiestatis Vestrae et totius Christianitatis. Sed quomodo ego illuc irem, qui iam a tot mensibus ne hic quidem unicum obolum a Vestra Maiestate habere possum. 14

Me et mea servitia in gratiam Vestrae Maiestatis recommendo, quam altissimus conservare dignetur diutissime felicem et incolumem. Ex Urbe 1. Septembris 1522. 15 Eiusdem Vestrae Maiestatis servitor et capellanus Stephanus praepositus Quinqueecclesiensis

[ERROR: no reftable :]On the outer side: Sacrae Regiae Maiestati Hungariae et Bohemiae etc. domino meo gratiosissimo

[ERROR: no reftable :]10 Marsupino arrived in Florence around 8 August. He practically fled there from his creditors because he had not received money from Hungary for months. See Iványi Béla, Adalékok a nemzetközi érintkezések történetéhez a Jagelló-korban, Történelmi Tár, 1906, 341–342; and MOL DL 25313. 11  We do not know the referred letter by King Louis. 12  This may be a reference to Archbishop of Esztergom and High Chancellor György Szatmári, a long-time patron of Brodarics. Because of the title Chancellor it is possible that László Szalkai wrote the letter mentioned. 13  It is a reference to the Fugger banking house, which was one of the most important financial institutions of the era that gave credits. They had several branches in Hungary too. More on their activities: Richard Ehrenberg, Das Zeitalter der Fugger. Geldkapital und Creditverkerhr im 16. Jahrhundert, Jena, 1963. 14  Brodarics’ planned legation in France did not happen. 15  In the first part of the letter Brodarics says August is the current month, yet the date at the end of the letter is 1 September. This highlights the nature of diplomatic letters: they are summaries, and writing them often took several days as suspected here.