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 Caesars commissioners were in it.6 The priest Ansbert (1189) also recorded that King Bela Ills 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]
After a few days ride altogether seven from Belgrade (making more than 60 km/day) across the Hungarian Plain, Bertrandon arrived in Pest. During his trip he noticed the great number of wild horses, the source of the rich market in Szeged. (Actually, he also heard that Pest can also supply thousands of horses; there they were sold by stables, i. e., ten for 200 florins, which he found very cheap, once again.) Having crossed the Danube there, he came to Buda.
Buda is the capital of Hungary, situated on an eminence and is larger than broad. To the east is the Danube, to the west a valley and to the south a palace which command the gate of the town: it was begun by the present emperor [Sigismund JMB] and when he shall finished it, will be extensive and strong. On this side, but without the wall are very handsome hot baths. []The town is governed by Germans, as well to police and commerce, and what regards the different professions. Many Jews live there who speak French well, several of them being descendants of those driven formerly from France.
De la Brocquiere then went back to Pest (on the east side of the river) where he met French craftsmen, invited there by Sigismund, who after his travels in France wanted to establish royal manufactures in Hungary. Nothing came of the plan. There he heard the rumor that the king-emperor planned to have a chain built across the Danube to control the traffic, but Bertrandon found this unrealistic, the river being too wide there. (He was wrong; at the narrowest point the Danube is less than 400 meters wide and thus the chain would have been half as long as that across the Golden Horn.) Reporting about the mineral wealth of the country, he praises the quality of the salt, which he, correctly, lists as the basis of the queens income. He also described the kind of cart in which several people travel in Hungary, drawn only by one horse. His detailed picture of them is a unique source for the special Hungarian kocsi (hence: couch!), with tall wheels on the rear, now (and probably then, too) called sandrunner (homokfuto). Finally, Bertrandon describes a tournament, held a propos the marriage of the young Count of Cilje, which he found very different from what he was used to in France. This paragraph is a unique source for such tournaments in Hungary.10