The kingdom reached the peak of its power under Louis the Great (1342–1382) who led military campaigns against Lithuania, southern Italy and other faraway territories.

Although written sources emphasize the role played by German and Italian knights and clerics in the process, a significant part of the Hungarian vocabulary for agriculture, religion was taken from Southern Slavic languages.

Civil wars, pagan uprisings and the Holy Roman Emperors' unsuccessful attempts to expand their authority over Hungary jeopardized the new monarchy.

[citation needed] Rich in uncultivated lands and in silver, gold, and salt deposits, the kingdom became a preferred target of the continuous immigration of mainly German, Italian and French colonists.

Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance buildings, and literary works written in Latin prove the predominantly Roman Catholic character of the culture of the Kingdom, but Orthodox, and even non-Christian ethnic minority communities also existed.

Latin was the language of legislation, administration and judiciary, but "linguistic pluralism" (János M. Bak)[5] contributed to the survival of a number of tongues, including a great variety of Slavic dialects.

They forced Andrew II to issue his Golden Bull of 1222, "one of first examples of constitutional limits being placed on the powers of a European monarch" (Francis Fukuyama).

[7] His death created an opportunity for about a dozen lords, or "oligarchs", who had by that time achieved de facto independence of the monarch[7] to strengthen their autonomy.

[28] For instance, he imposed the "thirtieth" (a tax on goods transferred through the kingdom's frontiers),[28] and authorized landholders to retain one third of the income from mines opened in their estates.

[28] However, most profits from the mines were transferred to Italian and South German merchants, because the value of imported fine textiles and other goods always exceeded the price of cattle and wine exported from the kingdom.

[citation needed] Thereafter his widow, Elisabeth of Poland transported enormous quantities of gold to Italy in order to promote the claim of their younger son, Andrew to the Kingdom of Naples.

[37] In Hungary, fewer locals fell victim to the epidemic than in Western Europe, because the kingdom was still an underpopulated territory with well nourished inhabitants.

[48] Louis I who was heir presumptive to Casimir III of Poland assisted the Poles several times against Lithuania and the Golden Horde.

[50] Along the southern frontiers, Louis I compelled the Venetians to withdraw from Dalmatia in 1358[51] and forced a number of local rulers (including Tvrtko I of Bosnia, and Lazar of Serbia) to accept his suzerainty.

[58][59] Patricians' houses unearthed at Sopron and other towns, frescoes and sculptures found at many places (including Esztergom and Nagyvárad) point at a flourishing Gothic architecture and art.

[69] Furthermore, large territories in Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia remained controlled by Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić and Ladislaus of Naples's other supporters.

[80] For six months, the barons administered the realm in the name of the Holy Crown, "the impersonal sovereign of the kingdom" (Miklós Molnár),[81] but finally restored Sigismund's rule.

[82] Since Pope Boniface IX supported his opponent, Sigismund prohibited both the proclamation of papal documents without a previous royal consent[83] and the appointment of prelates by the Holy See.

[98] For instance, Pipo of Ozora who employed the painter Masolino da Panicale and one of Brunelleschi's students introduced Renaissance architecture and arts.

[106] Although Albert's widow, Elizabeth of Luxembourg, gave birth to a posthumous son, Ladislaus V,[107] most noblemen preferred a monarch capable to fight.

[116] For instance, Frederick III held several towns along the western borders, and a Czech mercenary, John Jiskra of Brandýs, administered many fortresses in the northern regions.

[118] Ladislaus V's Austrian and Bohemian subjects forced Emperor Frederick III to hand their young monarch over to his new guardian, Ulrich II, Count of Celje in 1452.

[122] In two years, he occupied Serbia and decided to take Belgrade (Hungarian: Nándorfehérvár), the key fort at Hungary's southern frontier.

[129] The young monarch in short time removed the powerful Ladislaus Garay from the office of palatine and his uncle, Michael Szilágyi, of the regency.

[130] Led by Garay, his opponents offered the crown to Frederick III, but Matthias defeated them and concluded a peace treaty with the emperor in 1464.

[145] In the next decade, Matthias waged a war against Emperor Frederick III which enabled him to occupy Styria and Lower Austria (including Vienna).

[148][149] King "Matthias the Just" travelling in disguise throughout his realm in order to suppress corruption became a hero of popular folk tales for some years after his death.

Rural discontent boiled over in 1514 when well-armed peasants preparing for a crusade against Turks rose up under György Dózsa, a borderguard captain, and attacked estates across Hungary.

Zápolya, a Hungarian who was military governor of Transylvania, was recognized by Sultan Suleiman and was supported mostly by lesser nobles opposed to new foreign kings.

Ferdinand drew support from magnates in western Hungary who hoped he could convince his brother, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, to expel the Turks.