Funerals and Funeral Ceremonies of the Hungarian Nobility in the Late Middle Ages

Abstract

HOMOĽA, Tomáš. Funerals and funeral ceremonies of the Hungarian nobility in the Late Middle Ages. Funeral ceremonies of the Hungarian nobility in the late medieval Kingdom of Hungary are the central focus of this study. Due to the relative lack of reports pre-served from the Hungarian environment, the current paper is centred on three specific noble funerals that took place in late medieval Hungary. The funeral cer-emonies of John Pongrác of Dengeleg, Ulrich of Cilli and Hedwig of Cieszyn were duly reported by contemporary authors and therefore comprise the knowledge base for this text. The aim of this study is to investigate the course of funeral cer-emonies, the symbolic level of mourning towards the nobility and observe any common and varying elements. The current paper also discusses the purpose of several customary features of the burials (processions, clothes, colours etc.), as well as how they were prepared and organised. Moreover, the idea of what a proper nobleman’s funeral should look like according to contemporaries as well as the intentions of the scribes as to how to inform about the death or burial of the members of Hungarian nobility are also presented.