The uncrowned king of Upper Hungary (today’s Slovakia) Matthew Czak was born in about 1260. His father Peter and his uncle Matthews held the office of Marshall Palatine during the reign of the incompetent king Ladislav IV. Cuman, and as a result, they were obtaining large properties in the south-western Slovakia. The young Matthew Czak became their sole heir. In the early 1290s he acted as a loyal courtier of Andrew III who appointed him a Palatine in 1296. However, shortly after, Matthew seized the King’s castle Trenčín under unclear circumstances and he rebuilt it to his residence. At the end...