Hundred years later, Otto of Freising described Hungary, which he crossed with the German Crusaders of Emperor Conrad in 1147.^>4 He is the first Western traveler, who observed the country and its government in some detail. Otto records that the Hungarians have few stone or even wooden buildings and live during the summer in tents. The king’s power is supreme and he compares it with the conditions in the Empire, where the great men of the realm have considerable might. In Hungary, so he observed, the lords come to the king, have to bring their own chairs with them (!?) into the council – which they hold for every important decision – but have to obey the ruler unconditionally. The king is also the supreme judge and (so Otto) it is not that the peers have a say in court. Very important is his observation about the armed forces: there are many foreigners trained in knightly warfare, but the Magyars have crude weapons and are learning refined fighting from the guests. (This fits well with what we know about the advena clans listed in the chronicles.)^>5 Otto knew about the system of counties – his number 70 of them is a unique information about the age – and the office of the comites.

Several other Crusaders’ chronicles mention briefly their trip across the Carpathian Basin, but none of them goes into such details as Otto. Odo of Deuil (1117) and others, usually note only the difficulties of the terrain and the rivers. Odo – who crossed Hungary in 15 days – writes that except the Danube, the country and its rivers are marshy and flood lands. Only the banks of the Drava are steep and thus less flooded, but difficult to cross. Moreover, “the Danube carries the treasures of many lands to Esztergom.” He also added that “the country produces so much good food that it is said the Julius Caesar’s commissioners were in it.”^>6 The priest Ansbert (1189) also recorded that King Bela Ill’s residence was in Esztergom, that the king and his royal guests (Fredrick Barbarossa and his lords) went for a hunt on the Great Island (Csepel Island) and that they visited Old Buda. He also complained that they were cheated in the exchange of their Cologne marks – giving valuable information on twelfth-century coinage in Hungary. Ansbert added that they had a peaceful crossing of Hungary and were not, as elsewhere, attacked by dangerous insects or snakes.' These brief references and a few similar ones are all helpful in the reconstruction of royal itineraries and economic or social conditions of the age.^>8

The number of foreigners – mainly Germans – visiting the kingdom increased in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, especially under the reign of King and Emperor Sigismund, but wrote little about the country. Yet the most interesting and detailed travelogue was written in 1433 by the Burgundian diplomat and spy, Bertrandon de la Brocquiere, who crossed Hungary on his way back from the Holy Band. The report, presented to Philippe the Good, was aimed at encouraging a new crusade, after the defeat of the European army at Nicopolis. In the part about the Balkans, the author discussed the manners and especially the military arrangements of the Turks (Ottomans) and then his trip from Belgrade through Szeged, Pest and Buda to Austria. His description of the cities he passed through and their economy is a unique source for the early fifteenth-century conditions.^>9

The first city he visited was Szeged:

Zegedin is a large country town of a single street that seems about a league in length. It is in a fertile country with abounds in all sorts of provision. Many cranes and bustards are taken here, and I saw the market place full of them, but they dress and eat them in a filthy manner. The Theis [Tisza – JMB] abounds in fish and I have no where seen a river that produces such large ones. Many wild horses are brought tither for sale, and their manner of conquering and taming them is curious, [alas, no details! – JMB]. I have been told that should any one want three or four thousand; they could be procured within the town; and they are so cheap that a very good road horse may be brought for ten hungarian florins. […] The cordelier friars [Franciscans – JMB] have a handsome church in this town, where I heard service, but it was performed a little after the hungarian mode. [?? – JMB]