mainly in Trencsén County and supported raising towns. The level of independence he had achieved together with his contacts with the Czech lands (especially with Moravia) positively influenced also the development of local Slovak speaking nobility. Regardless of his relatively short rule his (ex-)domain was called the Matthew's Land (terra Matthei) already in the 14th century. This concept had been preserved until the 15th century, when individuals still used to claim their origin from the Matthew's Land (de Terra Matthei) instead of the official administrative divisions or settlements of the Kingdom of Hungary. This was later reflected in the Slovak national revival in the 19th century. Although his personality was known to older generation of Slovak intellects (Adam František Kollár, Anton Bernolák), he became a subject of the national mythology only in the period of Ľudovít Štúr. The motive of Matthew Csák was introduced in 1836–37 by a Slovak lawyer Alexander Boleslavín Vrchovský. Thereafter, the topic was covered by numerous Slovak poets and writers like Ľudovít Štúr, Ján Kalinčiak, Jozef Miloslav Hurban, Mikuláš Dohány, Viliam Paulíny-Tóth, Samuel Ornis, Jonáš Záborský, Jozef Škultéty and others. In the romantic national discourse of the 19th century, he was perceived as a Slovak national hero, defender of Slovak interests and/or an uncrowned Slovak king. Matthew Csák and his "realm" became the symbols of Slovak independence with the purpose to expropriate his historical heritage for the emerging national state of Slovakia. Ľudovít Štúr, the most prominent personality in the period of the Slovak national revival presented Matthew Csák in his poem Matúš z Trenčína ("Matúš of Trenčín") as champion of Slovak interests who build on legacy of Great Moravia, predicting that the Slovak nation "will be free one day". However, such idealized view remained favored only by a narrow group of Slovak intellectuals and was not (in most cases) adopted by ordinary people. The idea of Matthew Csák as a Slovak national hero was already eroded by critically thinking members of the Slovak intellectuals in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century (Jonáš Záborský, Július Botto) and was finally crushed in 1923 by Slovak historian Jozef Škultéty. Similar views are also rejected by the modern critical Slovak historiography and in Slovak historic memory Matthew Csák is perceived simply as a feudal magnate, a notable regional figure and the "Lord of Váh and Tatras". See also Beckov Castle – owned and