After a destructive period of interregnum (1301–1308), the first Angevin king of Hungary, Charles I successfully restored royal power and defeated oligarchic rivals known as the "little kings". Charles I reigned between 1308 and 1342. His new fiscal, customs and monetary policies proved successful.
The second Hungarian king of the Angevin line, Louis the Great was crowned in 1342, he extended his rule as far as the Adriatic Sea and occupied the Kingdom of Naples several times. In 1351, the Golden Bull of 1222 was completed with a law of entail. This stipulated that the nobles' hereditary lands could not be taken away and must remain in the possession of their families. In two successful wars against Venice (1357–1358 and 1378–1381), he was able to annex Dalmatia, Ragusa and further territories on the Adriatic Sea. He retained his strong influence in the political life of the Italian Peninsula for the rest of his life.
Some Balkan states (such as Wallachia, Moldova, Serbia, and Bosnia) became his vassals while the Ottoman Turks confronted them ever more often. In 1366 and 1377, Louis led successful campaigns against the Ottomans. In 1370 Louis also became king of Poland. He had become popular in Poland because of his campaign against the Tatars and pagan Lithuanians.
King Louis died without a male heir, and after years of civil war, the future Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund a prince of the Luxembourg line, succeeded to the throne in 1387 by marrying the daughter of Louis the Great, Mary of Hungary, becoming an official co-ruler and consolidating his power. For some years, the baron's council governed the country in the name of the Holy Crown; the king was even imprisoned for a short time. The restoration of the authority of the central administration took decades.
The Ottoman Empire's expansion reached the southern frontiers of Hungary in 1390. Sigismund decided to organize a crusade against the Ottomans. A great army consisting mainly of French knights assembled, but the crusaders were routed in the battle of Nicopolis in 1396. On his return to Hungary in 1401, Sigismund was imprisoned once and deposed twice.
Sigismund campaigned against the Croatian and Bosnian nobility which culminated in 1408 with the Battle of Dobor in Bosnia. In the aftermath of this battle, in the Bloody Sabor of Krizevci, 171 members of the Croatian nobility were massacred by Sigismund's supporters. After the victory at Dobor, Sigismund founded the Order of the Dragon. The king spent more and more time abroad especially after his election King of the Romans in 1410. He summoned the Council of Constance that met between 1414 and 1418 to abolish the Avignon Papacy and end the Western Schism of the Catholic Church. In 1419 the Hussite Wars started and Sigismund was deeply involved in the anti-Hussite Crusades.
In 1428, Sigismund led another campaign against the Turks, but again with few results. In 1433 Sigismund was crowned Holy Roman Emperor and in 1436 he was crowned King of Bohemia too. In 1435, Sigismund negotiated an alliance with the Albanians and in 1436 he sent a pretender to the Ottoman throne. However, following the defeat of the rebels in 1436, plans for an anti-Ottoman alliance ended. For a half-year in 1437, there was also an anti-feudal and anti-clerical peasant revolt in Transylvania which was strongly influenced by Hussite ideas.
Sigismund, who had no sons, died in late 1437. Following Sigismund's death, the Estates elected his son-in-law, Albert V of Austria, as king however he died of dysentery during an unsuccessful military operation against the Ottomans in 1439. Although Albert's widow, Elizabeth of Luxembourg, gave birth to a posthumous son, Ladislaus V, most noblemen preferred a monarch capable to fight. They offered the crown to Wladyslaw III of Poland. Both Ladislaus and Wladyslaw were crowned which caused a civil war. John Hunyadi, a talented military leader who supported Wladyslaw, rose to prominence during these fights.
Wladyslaw appointed Hunyadi (together with his close friend, Nicholas Ujlaki) to command the southern defenses in 1441. Hunyadi made several raids against the Ottomans. During his "long campaign" of 1443-1444, the Hungarian forces penetrated as far as Sofia within the Ottoman Empire. The Holy See organized a new crusade, but the Ottomans annihilated the Christian forces at the Battle of Varna in 1444, during which Wladyslaw was killed.
Following Wladyslaw's death, the Diet of 1445 acknowledged the infant Ladislaus V as rightful monarch. He lived in the court of his relative, Frederick III. Therefore, the Estates appointed seven "captains", one of them being Hunyadi, to govern the kingdom. The Diet of 1446 elected Hunyadi sole regent, but it was also stipulated that he should convoke the Diet annually.
In preparation for another Ottoman war Hunyadi invaded Wallachia and dethroned Vlad Dracul in December 1447. In February 1448 Hunyadi sent an army to Moldavia to support the pretender Peter in seizing the throne and received the fortress of Chilia in exchange.
In 1448 large territories remain independent of the central government in Hunyadi's regency. Frederick III holds several towns along the western borders, and a Czech mercenary, John Jiskra of Brandys, administers many fortresses in the northern regions. Worst of all, Count Ulrich II of Celje refused to join Hunyadi's army at the battle of Varna and claimed the crown of Bosnia. As such, the Principality of Celje is now in open warfare with Hunyadi with several failed attempts by the regent to defeat the Count of Celje.
The Kingdom of Hungary is now in a perilous position. The country is embroiled in a civil war, it has a minor king and is facing the might of the Ottoman Empire. John Hunyadi is at the forefront of all these conflicts and has ready to strike against the Ottomans in order to strike a quick victory. The very survival of the Kingdom hangs in the balance. Will the rebellious nobles or the infidel Ottomans manage to bring the Kingdom to its knees? Or will Hunyadi use his brilliant generalship skills in order to rout the Ottomans, liberate the Balkan states under Hungarian overlordship and restore Hungary as a great power?