Stibor of Stiboricz

King's advisor

Stibor was granted the ius indigenatus (the right to hold offices) and became head of the Counties Pozsony (1389), Trencsén and Nyitra (1392). In 1390 he received castles and properties in Vigvar, Torbag and Modor and in 1392 Stibor was granted the possession of land and castles of Csejte, Holics, Berencs, Detrekő, Éleskő, Jókő, Zavar and Korlátkő respectively, in the Kingdom of Hungary. A few years later he expanded his small empire with castles and properties in Dioś, Szomolya, Szent Vid, Suran, Maniga, Baganya, Zuk, Kreesztes, Rarkov, Bary, Koszonic, Rakovitz, Tatkolch, Ratkolch, Ilkaman, and Dévény in Nyitra and Presburg counties. Altogether Stibor of Stiboricz was in possession of 31 castles and over 400 towns and villages which at the time was half of western Slovakia of today.

Again, in 1403, there was uprising against Sigismund led by Archbishop John Kanizsai of Esztergom that offered the Hungarian crown to King Ladislaus of Naples. Stibor recruited then mercenaries, invaded the north-western parts of the Kingdom and defeated the rebels' troops. Again, with the support of Nicholas II Garai and his army that defeated rebels' troops in other part of the Kingdom. The parties made an agreement under which the rebels accepted the King's rule and they were granted a royal pardon on 29 October 1403. Shortly afterwards, the King appointed Stibor to the head of Nyitra county and entrusted him to govern the possessions of the Archdiocese of Esztergom and the Diocese of Eger (1405). Stibor himself entrusted those possessions to close family and members of the Clan of Ostoja.

Diplomacy

The genius of Stibor of Stiboricz's diplomacy is shown in the work of Wenzel and on this ground, in that of Antoni Prochaska and Daniela Dvorakova. As Sigismund wished to sell Neumark (Brandenburg) in order to reinforce the economy, Stibor set up a plan to make the Teutonic Knights to pay a much higher price than expected, keeping in mind that they would not then be able to finance a bigger army against Poland. Neumark at this time was a troubled land as there was no order and the land was well known to have robber barons terrorizing the population and making the land dangerous to visit. To buy Neumark was to buy problems, a fact of which the Teutonic Knights were very well aware. It is also the reason why they did not hurry to buy the property. On the other hand, Neumark would surround Poland and give the Teutonic Knights protection from being attacked from that side. A problem for the Teutonic Knights arose when they were notified that Stibor was to be in charge of selling Neumark to Poland for a much smaller amount of money. The price was low and not realistic to accept for King Sigismund. But it would be surely to be understood to put pressure on the Teutonic Knights to buy the property since they could not afford to be surrounded by Polish forces from the west.

Agreement was made between Stibor and two powerful Lords in Poland to sell Neumark to Poland. The agreement states that if selling Neumark to Poland would fail, all the properties of those three Lords who signed the agreement would go to the Polish Crown as compensation for the loss. A loss such as that would be remarkably high keeping in mind that Stibor owned almost half of present-day western Slovakia at the time of negotiations. As the Teutonic Knights were forced to buy the land, they also had to pay all the penalty for breaking the agreement with Polish Lords. It is noted in Teutonic books that Stibor was one of their top expenses at the time. The price of Neumark was not just three times higher than its value; the penalty that Stibor took from the Knights was astronomic. Added to this, the problems inside Neumark made it very costly for the Knights to organize the territory. This was the beginning of the end of the power of the Teutonic Knights.

After losing the war in Grunwald year 1410, they had to pay an additional penalty to the Polish Crown to survive. It is significant that all those penalties that had been paid to the Polish Crown as compensation for losses in the Grunwald war, ended in Hungary and the treasury of King Sigismund on the basis of diplomatic work by Stibor of Stiboricz and Zawisza Czarny. In return, Poland gained Spiš that was in the hands of Poland to the time of partition. However, the most significant and amazing information in the documents are about those two Lords that signed the agreement to sell Neumark to Poland. They were Sędziwuj de Szubin, the Duke of Kalisz and Mostko de Staszow, Lord Castellan of Poznan.

Last years

In 1409, Sigismund signed a treaty with Teutonic Knights which was seen as direct action against Poland and in 1410, Scibor was in charge of the negotiations between Poland and Teutonic Knights on the behalf of Sigismund where Polish side was asked to not attack the Teutonic side. On behalf of Sigismund, Stibor sold Neumark to the Teutonic Knights for a remarkably large sum. This reinforced Sigismund's finances and made it more difficult for the Teutonic Knights to hire mercenaries to fight on their side against the Poles-Lithuanians in Grunwald-Tannenberg.

The Battle of Grunwald took place, with almost all of the Ostojas leaving Hungary to join Polish forces. However, Stibor and his brother Andrzej (Andrew) together with their sons, remained loyal to the Emperor. Instead, Stibor led small the Hungarian army to attack Poland from the South. Because of the diplomatic work of Stibor of Stiboricz, Sigismund abandoned hostile actions against Poland and turned to support the wealthy and mighty Teutonic Knights by signing never executed agreements in to order to gain financial benefit to protect his own Empire for the Ottoman threat. Leading King's army against Poland was mostly marking the support to the Teutonic Knights rather to do any serious damage. Few places have been burned down but Stibor's army did not siege of any stronghold, which Stibor easily could do leading elite army forces and well equipped. After burning down the land of Stary Sącz, Stibor ordered a retreat and headed toward Hungary. Meanwhile, the Polish commander, Jan of Szczekociny, gathered all available forces and set out in pursuit of the enemy. The Polish troops, divided into two groups, crossed the Polish-Hungarian border at Sromowce and Stropków, aiming to encircle the fleeing Hungarians. Soon they caught up with Stibor near Bardejov in Slovakia. Among their ranks was Stibor’s own brother, Mikołaj of Ściborzyce. The Poles routed and slaughtered the Hungarian troops. Stibor fled the battlefield and took refuge in Bardejov.

Stibor's own army included 1,000 well equipped Knights compared to King Sigismund's army of 3,000 Knights, he also was in command of entire army in Transylvania and, as he was one of the richest Lords of the Hungarian empire he could also afford to hire mercenaries if needed.

At the end of 1411, Stibor, his brothers and other members of the Clan of Ostoja were in charge of leading troops to fight against the Republic of Venetia in Friuli. In 1412, Stibor was meeting with Zawisza Czarny (The Black Knight) in his Castle of Lubló (today Stará Ľubovňa), preparing the negotiation between Sigismund and Polish King Vladislav Jogaila, which ended with the Treaty of Lubowla.

Family

With his wife, Dobrohna Stęszewska, he had a son, also named Stibor (Stibor de Beckov), who inherited his land and castles, and added to them with additional properties in Moravia and Germany. They also had a two daughters, Rachna, who married the Polish Lord Andrew Ossoliński and Anna - Jachna who married to the ban László Újlaki. Jachna was a mother of last Bosnian King, Nicholas of Ilok.

Stibor of Stiboricz's two brothers, Andrew and Nicholas, and their sons, also held high offices, land and castles in the northern region of the Kingdom of Hungary, as well as lesser holdings in Poland. Son of Nicholas, Nicholas Szarlejski was one of the most powerful and wealthy Lords in Poland, leading the Polish army in Prussia.

The majority of the Clan of Ostoja lived in Poland. It is not established which lines of the Clan are blood related to Stibors in Hungary.

Legend

Stibor is featured in a what appears to be an historically counterfactual narrative regarding the origins of Beckov Castle at the request of a legendary jester, named Becko, and Stibor's sudden death, falling from the castle walls after being startled and blinded by a snake.