Our Little Slavic Cousins: Russian, Polish, Czech-Slovak

A VISIT TO “MATTHEW’S LAND” Government showing no concern whatever in the people’s welfare.

On the way to this village, they crossed a part of what the people around call “Matthew’s Land,” because over it once ruled one of the great figures of their history, Matthew Csak, Lord of the Vah and Tatras, as he called himself.

There are many castles in the mountains, but the most interesting was that actually inhabited by Matthew in the early part of the fourteenth century.

Matthew’s career was brief but remarkable. He was a Palatine, holding the highest office in the power of the King to bestow. He ruled over what is now the greater part of Slovakia, possessing enormous wealth, of which thirty fortified castles were a small part. In these castles he held court on a scale that rivaled that of the King himself.

When the male line of the Arpad Kings of Hungary became extinct, it was largely through his influence that a Czech King, Vaclav II, was called to the throne.

Unfortunately, instead of coming himself, Vaclav sent his son, then a lad of thirteen.

To this the Pope, who had much to say in politics in those days, objected, and the King of Anjou, taking 239