Benedict Makrai

Benedict Makrai
Noble family	gens Szentemágócs
Father	Blaise
Born	1360s Szatmár County (?), Kingdom of Hungary
Died	after 1421

Benedict Makrai (Latin: Benedictus de Macra, Hungarian: Makrai Benedek, Polish: Benedykt Makrai; 1360s – after 1421) was a well-educated Hungarian noble and diplomat in the service of Sigismund of Luxemburg, King of Hungary and later Holy Roman Emperor. He is best known for his 1412–13 mission to Poland–Lithuania to mediate their territorial dispute with the Teutonic Knights over Samogitia and Masovia in the aftermath of the Battle of Grunwald (1410). His mission did not resolve the dispute and only heightened the tensions.

Makrai was probably born in the second half of the 1360s. His birthplace is not known, but speculated to be in the Szatmár County now split between north-western Romania and north-eastern Hungary. He came from the Gacsalkér branch of the Szentemágócs kindred as the son of Blaise. His brothers were Sebastian, who served as ispán of the chamber of salt (Hungarian: sókamaraispán, mentioned in this capacity in 1397 and 1403), and Stephen, the vice-ispán of Baranya County under Nicholas Garai (around 1388).

After receiving education in Hungary, he attended the Charles University in Prague where he earned master's degree in arts in 1387 and was an examiner in 1388. He soon moved to the University of Vienna where he taught astronomy, one of the arts of the classical quadrivium curriculum, based on Arabic scholar Alchabitius until 1391. He earned licentiate in canon law from the University of Paris by April 1398 and likely a doctorate soon after. He continued his studies and earned the doctorate in civil law from the University of Padua in 1401.

...
Wikipedia