172-539: Béla IV (1206 – 3 May 1270) was King of Hungary and Croatia between 1235 and 1270, and Duke of Styria from 1254 to 1258. As the oldest son of King Andrew II , he was crowned upon the initiative of a group of influential noblemen in his father's lifetime in 1214. His father, who strongly opposed Béla's coronation, refused to give him a province to rule until 1220. In this year, Béla was appointed Duke of Slavonia , also with jurisdiction in Croatia and Dalmatia . Around
344-516: A crushing defeat on the Ottomans at Vienna in 1683. The Ottomans were expelled from Buda in 1686 . Michael I Apafi , the prince of Transylvania ( r. 1661–1690 ), acknowledged the suzerainty of Emperor Leopold I , who was also king of Hungary ( r. 1657–1705 ), in 1687. Grateful for the liberation of Buda , the Diet abolished the noblemen's right to resist the monarch for
516-440: A campaign against Domald of Sidraga , a rebellious Dalmatian nobleman, and captured Domald's fortress at Klis . Domald's domains were confiscated and distributed among his rivals, the Šubići , who had supported Béla during the siege. King Andrew transferred Béla from Slavonia to Transylvania in 1226. In Slavonia, he was succeeded by his brother, Coloman . As Duke of Transylvania , Béla adopted an expansionist policy aimed at
688-613: A certain Count Peter , after his return from Halych. Although Béla was a child when his mother was assassinated, he never forgot her and declared his deep respect for her in many of his royal charters. Andrew II betrothed Béla to an unnamed daughter of Tzar Boril of Bulgaria in 1213 or 1214, but their engagement was broken. In 1214, the King requested the Pope to excommunicate some unnamed lords who were planning to crown Béla king. Even so,
860-537: A charter of ennoblement, but not a single plot of land – and peasant-nobles continued to pay taxes, for which they were collectively known as taxed nobility. Nobility could be purchased from the kings who were often in need of funds. Landowners also benefitted from the ennoblement of their serfs, because they could demand a fee for their consent. The Diet was officially divided into two chambers in Royal Hungary in 1608. All adult male members of
1032-596: A company of saints. It wrote that the "blessed royal family of the Hungarians is adorned with resplendent pearls that irradiate all the earth". In fact, the Holy See sanctioned the veneration of three daughters of Béla and his wife: Kunigunda was beatified in 1690, Yolanda in 1827; and Margaret was canonized in 1943. A fourth daughter, Constance also became subject to a local cult in Lemberg (Lviv, Ukraine), according to
1204-484: A consultative body into an important institution of law making in the 1440s. The magnates were always invited to attend it in person. Lesser noblemen were also entitled to attend the Diet, but in most cases they were represented by delegates, who were almost always the magnates' familiares . Hunyadi was the first noble to receive a hereditary title from a Hungarian king, when Ladislaus the Posthumous granted him
1376-403: A dozen castles were erected on the royal demesne. Most castles consisted of a tower, surrounded by a fortified courtyard, but the tower could also be built into the walls. Noblemen who could not erect fortresses were occasionally forced to abandon their inherited estates or seek the protection of more powerful lords, even through renouncing their liberties. The lords of the castles had to hire
1548-483: A due legal process; furthermore, they were exempt from all taxes and were entitled to resist the king if he attempted to interfere with their privileges. Werbőczy also implied that Hungary was actually a republic of nobles headed by a monarch, stating that all noblemen "are members of the Holy Crown" of Hungary. Quite anachronistically, he emphasized the idea of all noblemen's legal equality, but he had to admit that
1720-454: A formal league with the aristocrats who had elected him king in early 1387. Initially, when his position was weak, he gave away more than half of the 150 royal castles to his supporters, although this abated when he strengthened his authority in the early 15th century. His favorites were foreigners, but old Hungarian families also took advantage of his magnanimity. The wealthiest noblemen, known as magnates , built comfortable castles in
1892-460: A hostage for himself. His authority ended only if he divided his estates with his sons, but the division could rarely be enforced. The "betrayal of fraternal blood" (that is, a kinsman's "deceitful, sly, and fraudulent ... disinheritance") was a serious crime, which was punished by loss of honor and the confiscation of all property. Although the Tripartitum did not explicitly mention it,
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#17327656639732064-583: A new Mongol invasion was the central concern of Béla's policy. In a letter of 1247 to Pope Innocent IV, Béla announced his plan to strengthen the Danube—the "river of confrontations"—with new forts. He abandoned the ancient royal prerogative to build and own castles, promoting the erection of nearly 100 new fortresses by the end of his reign. These fortresses included a new castle Béla had built at Nagysáros (Veľký Šariš, Slovakia), and another castle Béla and his wife had built at Visegrád . Béla attempted to increase
2236-415: A noble woman who was given in marriage to a commoner should receive her inheritance "in the form of an estate in order to preserve the nobility of the descendants born of the ignoble marriage". According to the local customs of certain counties, her husband was also regarded as a nobleman – a noble by his wife. The peasants' legal position had been standardized in almost the entire kingdom by
2408-480: A nobleman's wife was also subject to his authority. She received her dower from her husband at the consummation of their marriage. If her husband died, she inherited his best coach-horses and clothes. Demand for foodstuffs grew rapidly in Western Europe in the 1490s. The landowners wanted to take advantage of the growing prices. They demanded labour service from their peasant tenants and started to collect
2580-494: A piece of land. Unlike a conditional noble, a familiaris remained de jure an independent landholder, only subject to the monarch. From the 1270s, the monarchs' coronation oath included a promise to respect the noblemen's liberties. The counties gradually transformed into an institution of the noblemen's local autonomy. Noblemen regularly discussed local matters at the counties' general assemblies. The sedria (the counties' law courts) became important elements in
2752-446: A professional staff for the defence of the castle and the management of its appurtenances. They primarily employed nobles who held nearby estates, which gave rise to the development of a new institution, known as familiaritas . A familiaris was a nobleman who entered into the service of a wealthier landowner in exchange for a fixed salary or a portion of revenue, or rarely for the ownership or usufruct (right to enjoyment) of
2924-455: A quarter of the territory of the kingdom when Corvinus died in 1490. A further tenth of all lands in the kingdom was in the possession of about 55 wealthy noble families. Other nobles held almost one third of the lands, but this group included 12–13,000 peasant-nobles who owned a single plot (or a part of it) and had no tenants. The Diets regularly compelled the peasant-nobles to pay tax on their plots. Average magnates held about 50 villages, but
3096-503: A reference to their (actual or presumed) common ancestor with the words de genere ("from the kindred"). Families descending from the same kindred adopted similar insignia. The author of the Gesta Hungarorum fabricated genealogies for them and emphasized that they could never be excluded from "the honor of the realm", that is from state administration. The new owners of the transferred royal estates wanted to subjugate
3268-419: A reliable source. Stephen I ( r. 997–1038 ), who was crowned the first king of Hungary in 1000 or 1001, defeated the last resisting tribal chieftains. Earthen forts were built throughout the kingdom and most of them developed into centers of royal administration. About 30 administrative units, known as counties , were established before 1040; more than 40 new counties were organized during
3440-490: A second Mongol invasion. He allowed the barons and the prelates to erect stone fortresses and to set up their private armed forces. He promoted the development of fortified towns. During his reign, thousands of colonists arrived from the Holy Roman Empire , Poland and other neighboring regions to settle in the depopulated lands. Béla's efforts to rebuild his devastated country won him the epithet of "second founder of
3612-755: A significant group in the 10th century. The highest-ranking Hungarians were buried either in large cemeteries (where hundreds of their men were buried without weapons around their leader's burial place), or in small cemeteries with 25–30 graves. The wealthy warriors' burial sites yielded richly decorated horse harness, and sabretaches ornamented with precious metal plaques. Rich women's graves contained their braid ornaments and rings made of silver or gold and decorated with precious stones. The most widespread decorative motifs which can be regarded as tribal totems – the griffin , wolf and hind – were rarely applied in Hungarian heraldry in
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#17327656639733784-680: A son of Béla, but he refused the Khan's offer. Discontented with the rule of Béla's son, the Styrian lords sought assistance from Ottokar of Bohemia. Béla and his allies—Daniil Romanovich, Boleslaw the Chaste, and Leszek the Black of Sieradz —invaded Moravia, but Ottokar vanquished them in the Battle of Kressenbrunn on 12 June 1260. The defeat forced Béla to renounce Styria in favor of the King of Bohemia in
3956-465: Is always dependent on the will of the kingdom's inhabitants, in whose consent both the effectiveness and the force of the crown reside". Vladislaus died fighting the Ottomans during the Crusade of Varna in 1444 and the Diet elected seven captains in chief to administer the kingdom. The talented military commander, John Hunyadi (d. 1456), was elected the sole regent in 1446. The Diet developed from
4128-459: Is well-documented from the 1170s. The monarchs granted immunities, exempting the grantee's estates from the jurisdiction of the ispáns , or even renouncing royal revenues that had been collected there. Béla III ( r. 1172–1196 ) was the first Hungarian monarch to give away a whole county to a nobleman: he granted Modrus in Croatia to Bartholomew of Krk in 1193, stipulating that
4300-557: The Galician–Volhynian Chronicle . He crossed the Carpathian Mountains and laid siege to Halych together with his Cuman allies in 1229 or 1230. However, he could not seize the town and withdrew his troops. The Galician–Volhynian Chronicle writes that many Hungarian soldiers "died of many afflictions" on their way home. Béla invaded Bulgaria and besieged Vidin in 1228 or 1232, but he could not capture
4472-520: The Habsburg dynasty in Royal Hungary, but prevented the Transylvanian noblemen from challenging their own authority. Ennoblement of whole groups of people was not unusual in the 17th century. Examples include the 10,000 hajdú who received nobility as a group in 1605. After the Diet was divided into two chambers in Royal Hungary in 1608, noblemen with a hereditary title had a seat in
4644-609: The Habsburg monarchy . In 1696, after dethroning Prince Michael II Apafi , Leopold I took the title " Prince of Transylvania " . In 1765, Maria Theresa elevated Transylvania to the status of Grand Principality . The " Count of the Székelys " was originally a dignitary of the Kingdom of Hungary, but the title was later used by the Princes of Transylvania. The title was revived during the reign of Maria Theresa who adopted it at
4816-656: The House of Árpád . He was buried in the church of the Franciscans in Esztergom, but Archbishop Philip of Esztergom had his corpse transferred to the Esztergom Cathedral. The Minorites only succeeded in regaining Béla's remains after a long lawsuit. King Béla IV of Hungary left to his son, to Stephen , a prosperous, a rebuilt, a fortified kingdom in 28 years. Béla successfully concluded the alliance between
4988-512: The Legend of her sister, Kunigunda. King of Hungary The King of Hungary ( Hungarian : magyar király ) was the ruling head of state of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1000 (or 1001) to 1918. The style of title " Apostolic King of Hungary " ( apostoli magyar király ) was endorsed by Pope Clement XIII in 1758 and used afterwards by all monarchs of Hungary. Before 1000 AD, Hungary
5160-784: The Mongols , who had by that time reached the Volga River and were planning to invade Europe . The Mongols invaded Desht-i Qipchaq —the westernmost regions of the Eurasian Steppes —and routed the Cumans. Fleeing the Mongols, at least 40,000 Cumans approached the eastern borders of the Kingdom of Hungary and demanded admission in 1239. Béla only agreed to give them shelter after their leader, Köten , promised to convert together with his people to Christianity, and to fight against
5332-648: The Ottoman Empire reached the southern frontiers in the 1390s. A large anti-Ottoman crusade ended with a catastrophic defeat near Nicopolis in 1396. Next year, Sigismund held a Diet in Temesvár (now Timișoara in Romania) to strengthen the defence system. He confirmed the Golden Bull, but without the two provisions that limited the noblemen's military obligations and established their right to resist
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5504-621: The Peace of Vienna , which was signed on 31 March 1261. On the other hand, Ottokar divorced his elderly wife, Margarete of Austria, and married Béla's granddaughter—the daughter of Rostislav Mikhailovich by Anna— Kunigunda . Béla had originally planned to give his youngest daughter, Margaret , in marriage to King Ottokar. However, Margaret, who had been living in the Monastery of the Blessed Virgin on Rabbits' Island, refused to yield. With
5676-549: The Saxon district of Bistritz (now Bistrița in Romania) with the title perpetual count in 1453. Hunyadi's son, Matthias Corvinus ( r. 1458–1490 ), who was elected king in 1458, rewarded further noblemen with the same title. Fügedi states that 16 December 1487 was the "birthday of the estate of magnates in Hungary", because an armistice signed on this day listed 23 Hungarian "natural barons", contrasting them with
5848-454: The borderlands . Official documents from the end of the 12th century only mentioned court dignitaries and ispáns as noblemen. This group had adopted most elements of chivalric culture. They regularly named their children after Paris of Troy , Hector , Tristan , Lancelot and other heroes of Western European chivalric romances . The first tournaments were held around the same time. The regular alienation of royal estates
6020-577: The noblemen and the prelates . The Mongols invaded Hungary and annihilated Béla's army in the Battle of Mohi on 11 April 1241. He escaped from the battlefield, but a Mongol detachment chased him from town to town as far as Trogir on the coast of the Adriatic Sea . Although he survived the invasion, the Mongols devastated the country before their unexpected withdrawal in March 1242. Béla introduced radical reforms in order to prepare his kingdom for
6192-508: The upper house , other nobles sent delegates to the lower house . After the Ottomans' defeat in the Great Turkish War in the late 17th century, Transylvania and Ottoman Hungary were integrated into the Habsburg monarchy . The Habsburgs confirmed the nobles' privileges several times, but their attempts to strengthen royal authority regularly brought them into conflicts with the nobility, who represented nearly five percent of
6364-559: The 1350s. The free peasant tenants were to pay seigneurial taxes, but were rarely obliged to provide labour service . In 1351, the king ordered that the ninth – a tax payable to the landowners – was to be collected from all tenants, thus preventing landowners from offering lower taxes to persuade tenants to move from other lords' lands to their estates. In 1328, all landowners were authorized to administer justice on their estates "in all cases except cases of theft, robbery, assault or arson" which remained under
6536-461: The 13th century. Thereafter the division of inherited property became the standard practice. Even families descended from wealthy clans could become impoverished through the regular divisions of their estates. Medieval documents mention the basic unit of estate organization as praedium or allodium . A praedium was a piece of land (either a whole village or part of it) with well-marked borders. Archaeologist Mária Wolf identifies
6708-440: The 1630s. The Calvinist princes of Transylvania supported their co-religionists. Gabriel Bethlen granted nobility to all Calvinist pastors. The kings and the Transylvanian princes regularly ennobled commoners, but often without granting landed property to them. Jurisprudence maintained that only those who owned land cultivated by serfs could be regarded as fully fledged noblemen. Armalists – noblemen who held
6880-600: The 1670s. Mercenaries replaced the Hungarian garrisons, and they frequently plundered the countryside. The monarch also supported Cardinal Leopold Karl von Kollonitsch 's attempts to restrict the Protestants' rights. Tens of thousands of Catholic Germans and Orthodox Serbs were settled in the reconquered territories. The outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1715) provided an opportunity for
7052-615: The Archbishop of Esztergom. Then the King's coronation was considered absolutely legitimate. On the other hand, in 1439, the dowager queen Elizabeth of Luxemburg ordered one of her handmaidens to steal the Holy Crown from the palace of Visegrád, and then promoted the coronation of her newborn son Ladislaus V , which was carried out legitimately in Székesfehérvár by the Archbishop of Esztergom. A similar situation occurred with Matthias Corvinus , when he negotiated for return of
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7224-716: The Banate of Macsó, a region under the rule of Béla's widowed daughter, Anna. A royal army soon routed the invaders and captured Stephen Uroš. The Serbian monarch was forced to pay ransom before being released. Béla's favorite son, also named Béla, died in the summer of 1269. On 18 January 1270 the King's youngest daughter, the saintly Margaret, also died. King Béla too soon fell terminally ill. On his deathbed, he asked his grandson-in-law King Ottokar II of Bohemia to assist his wife, daughter and partisans in case they were forced to leave Hungary by his son. Béla died on Rabbits' Island on 3 May 1270. Dying at 63, he exceeded in age most members of
7396-580: The Carpathian Basin in the 10th century, but fortresses were also rare in Western Europe during the same period. A larger log cabin – measuring five by five metres (16 ft × 16 ft) – which was built on a foundation of stones in Borsod was tentatively identified as the local leader's household. More than a 1,000 graves yielding sabres , arrow-heads and bones of horses show that mounted warriors formed
7568-491: The Chaste , Duke of Cracow in 1246. A second daughter, Margaret followed Kunigunda in about 1225; she died unmarried before 1242. The third daughter of Béla, Anna was born around 1226. She and her husband, Rostislav Mikhailovich were especially favored by Béla. Her great-grandson, Wenceslaus —a grandson of her daughter, Kunigunda by King Ottokar II of Bohemia—was King of Hungary from 1301 to 1305. Béla's fourth daughter, Catherina died unmarried before 1242. Next, Elisabeth
7740-558: The Crown's interests: only kin within the third degree could inherit a nobleman's property and noblemen who had only more distant relatives could not dispose of their property without the king's consent. Louis I emphasized all noblemen enjoyed "one and the selfsame liberty" in his realms and secured all privileges that nobles owned in Hungary proper to their Slavonian and Transylvanian peers. He rewarded dozens of Vlach knezes with true nobility for military merits. The vast majority of
7912-471: The Cumans, who had in 1241 left Hungary, to return and settle in the plains along the River Tisza . He even arranged the engagement of his firstborn son, Stephen , who was crowned king-junior in or before 1246, to Elisabeth , a daughter of a Cuman chieftain. Béla granted the privileges of Székesfehérvár to more than 20 settlements, promoting their development into self-governing towns. The liberties of
8084-593: The East and the North dares even budge if the triumphant and glorious king mobilizes his army. Most of the countries and princes of the North and East belong to his empire by kinship or conquest." Béla's wife, Maria Laskarina was born in 1207 or 1208, according to historian Gyula Kristó. She died in July or August 1270. Their first child, Kunigunda , was born in 1224, four years after her parents' marriage. She married Boleslaw
8256-546: The Golden Bull in 1318 and claimed that noblemen had to fight in his army at their own expense. He ignored customary law and regularly " promoted a daughter to a son ", granting her the right to inherit her father's estates. The King reorganized the royal household, appointing pages and knights to form his permanent retinue. He established the Order of Saint George , which was the first chivalric order in Europe. Charles I
8428-453: The Holy Crown, which was in the possession of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor . After it was returned, Matthias was legitimately crowned. As in all the traditional monarchies, the heir descended through the male line from a previous King of Hungary. In accordance with Hungarian tradition, this right usually passed to younger brothers, before passing to the son of the previous King, which caused family disputes on many occasions. The founder of
8600-683: The Holy Land in late 1218. He had arranged the engagement of Béla and Maria , a daughter of Theodore I Laskaris , Emperor of Nicaea . She accompanied King Andrew to Hungary and Béla married her in 1220. The senior king ceded the lands between the Adriatic Sea and the Dráva River — Croatia , Dalmatia and Slavonia —to Béla in 1220. A letter of 1222 of Pope Honorius III reveals that "some wicked men" had forced Andrew II to share his realms with his heir. Béla initially styled himself as "King Andrew's son and King" in his charters; from 1222 he used
8772-531: The Hungarian royal prerogative of prefection the kings could promote "a daughter to a son", allowing her to inherit her father's lands. Noblewomen who had married a commoner could also claim their inheritance – the daughters' quarter (that is one-quarter of their father's possessions) – in land. Although the Tripartitum – a frequently cited compilation of customary law published in 1514 – reinforced
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#17327656639738944-566: The Hungarians who had centuries earlier remained in Magna Hungaria , the Hungarians' legendary homeland. King Andrew died on 21 September 1235. Béla, who succeeded his father without opposition, was crowned king by Robert, Archbishop of Esztergom in Székesfehérvár on 14 October. He dismissed and punished many of his father's closest advisors. For instance, he had Palatine Denis blinded and Julius Kán imprisoned. The former
9116-473: The King's future son. Queen Gertrude showed blatant favoritism towards her German relatives and courtiers, causing widespread discontent among the native lords . Taking advantage of her husband's campaign in the distant Principality of Halych , a group of aggrieved noblemen seized and murdered her in the forests of the Pilis Hills on 28 September 1213. King Andrew only punished one of the conspirators,
9288-492: The King. Pope Gregory IX protested strongly at the withdrawal of royal grants made to the Cistercians and the military orders . In exchange for Béla's renouncing of the taking back of royal estates in 1239, the Pope authorized him to employ local Jews and Muslims in financial administration, which had for decades been opposed by the Holy See. After returning from Magna Hungaria in 1236, Friar Julian informed Béla of
9460-557: The Magyars spoke both Hungarian and "the tongue of the Chazars " (a powerful steppe people ), showing that at least their leaders were bilingual . The Magyars lived a nomadic or semi-nomadic life but archaeological research shows that most settlements consisted of small pit-houses and log cabins in the 10th century. Tents in use are only mentioned in 12th-century literary sources. No archeological finds evidence fortresses in
9632-484: The Mongols. He married three of his daughters to princes whose countries were also threatened by the Mongols. Rostislav Mikhailovich , a pretender to the Principality of Halych, was the first to marry, in 1243, one of Béla's daughters, Anna . Béla supported his son-in-law to invade Halych in 1245, but Rostislav's opponent, Daniil Romanovich repulsed their attack. On 21 August 1245 Pope Innocent IV freed Béla of
9804-460: The Mongols. However, the settlement of masses of nomadic Cumans in the plains along the Tisza River gave rise to many conflicts between them and the local villagers. Béla, who needed the Cumans' military support, rarely punished them for their robberies, rapes and other misdeeds. His Hungarian subjects thought that he was biased in the Cumans' favor, thus "enmity emerged between the people and
9976-649: The Székely and Saxon territories in Transylvania. Székelys and Saxons could only enjoy the liberties of noblemen if they held estates outside the lands of the two privileged communities. Most noble families failed to adopt a strategy to avoid the division of their inherited estates into dwarf-holdings through generations. Daughters could only demand the cash equivalent of the quarter of their father's estates, but younger sons rarely remained unmarried. Impoverished noblemen had little chance to receive land grants from
10148-587: The Székelys" . The title " Apostolic King " was confirmed by Pope Clement XIII in 1758 and used thereafter by all the Kings of Hungary. The title of " King of Slavonia " referred to the territories between the Drava and the Sava Rivers. That title was first used by Ladislaus I . It was also Ladislaus I who adopted the title " King of Croatia " in 1091. Coloman added the phrase " King of Dalmatia " to
10320-631: The Upper Hungarian "noble sons of servants" achieved the status of true noblemen without a formal royal act, because the memory of their conditional landholding fell into oblivion. Most of them preferred Slavic names even in the 14th century, showing that they spoke the local Slavic vernacular . Other groups of conditional nobles remained distinguished from true noblemen. They developed their own institutions of self-government, known as seats or districts . Louis decreed that only Catholic noblemen and knezes could hold landed property in
10492-668: The Vlach knezes (or chieftains) also endured. Neither of these hypotheses are universally accepted. Around 950, the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus ( r. 913–959 ) wrote that the Hungarians were organized into " tribes ", and each had its own "prince". The tribal leaders most probably bore the title úr (now "lord"), as it is suggested by Hungarian terms deriving from this word, such as ország (now "realm") and uralkodni ("to rule"). The Emperor noted
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#173276566397310664-456: The administration of justice. They were headed by the ispáns or their deputies, but they consisted of four (in Slavonia and Transylvania, two) elected local noblemen, known as judges of the nobles. Hungary fell into a state of anarchy because of the minority of Ladislaus IV ( r. 1272–1290 ) in the early 1270s. To restore public order, the prelates convoked the barons and
10836-433: The amount of the taxes to be collected in Hungary and demanded almost one third of the taxes (1.25 million florins) from the clergy and the nobility. The palatine, Prince Paul Esterházy (d. 1713), convinced the monarch to reduce the noblemen's tax burden to 0.25 million florins, but the difference was to be paid by the peasantry. Leopold did not trust the Hungarians, because a group of magnates had conspired against him in
11008-433: The ancestral lands. Even if they could present documents, they were to pay a fee – a tenth of the value of the claimed property – as compensation for the costs of the liberation war. Few noblemen could meet the criteria and more than half of the recovered lands were distributed among foreigners. They were naturalized, but most of them never visited Hungary. The Habsburg administration doubled
11180-657: The assistance of her Dominican confessor , she took her final religious vows which prevented her marriage. Infuriated by this act, the King, who had up to that time supported the Dominicans, favored the Franciscans in the subsequent years. He even became a Franciscan tertiary , according to the Greater Legend of his saintly sister, Elisabeth . Béla and his son, Stephen jointly invaded Bulgaria in 1261. They forced Tzar Constantine Tikh of Bulgaria to abandon
11352-532: The battlefield and two claimants, John Zápolya ( r. 1526–1540 ) and Ferdinand of Habsburg ( r. 1526–1564 ), were elected kings. Ferdinand tried to reunite Hungary after Zápolya died in 1540, but the Ottoman Sultan , Suleiman the Magnificent ( r. 1520–1566 ), intervened and captured Buda in 1541. The sultan allowed Zápolya's widow, Isabella Jagiellon (d. 1559), to rule
11524-444: The central regions to the unoccupied territories. Peasants who lived along the borders paid taxes both to the Ottomans and their former lords. Commoners were regularly recruited to serve in the royal army or in the magnates' retinues to replace the noblemen who had perished during fights. The irregular hajdú foot-soldiers – mainly runaway serfs and dispossessed noblemen – became important elements of
11696-537: The condition that they were to equip jointly a fixed number of knights. The nobles of the Church formed the armed retinue of the wealthiest prelates. The nobles of Turopolje in Slavonia were required to provide food and fodder to high-ranking royal officials. Two privileged groups, the Székelys and Saxons firmly protected their communal liberties, which prevented their leaders from exercising noble privileges in
11868-776: The conflict only after the danger of a second Mongol invasion had diminished by the end of the 1240s. In retaliation of a former Austrian incursion into Hungary, Béla made a plundering raid into Austria and Styria in the summer of 1250. In this year he met and concluded a peace treaty with Daniil Romanovich, Prince of Halych in Zólyom (Zvolen, Slovakia). With Béla's mediation, a son of his new ally Roman married Gertrude of Austria. Béla and Daniil Romanovich united their troops and invaded Austria and Moravia in June 1252. After their withdrawal, Ottokar , Margrave of Moravia —who had married Margaret of Austria—invaded and occupied Austria and Styria. In
12040-411: The consent of the owner's kinsmen who could potentially inherit them. From the early 12th century, only family lands traceable back to a grant made by Stephen I could be inherited by the deceased owner's distant relatives; other estates escheated to the Crown if their owner did not have offspring or brothers. Aristocratic families held their inherited domains in common for generations before
12212-504: The consent of the royal council. After he died in 1439, a civil war broke out between the partisans of his son, Ladislaus the Posthumous ( r. 1440–1457 ), and the supporters of the child king's rival, Vladislaus III of Poland ( r. 1440–1444 ). Ladislaus the Posthumous was crowned without election with the Holy Crown of Hungary , but the Diet proclaimed the coronation invalid, stating that "the crowning of kings
12384-452: The countryside which became important centers of social life. These fortified manor houses always contained a hall for representative purposes and a private chapel. Sigismund regularly invited the magnates to the royal council, even if they did not hold higher offices. He founded a new chivalric order, the Order of the Dragon , in 1408 to reward his most loyal supporters. The expansion of
12556-443: The county level. In 1232, the royal servants of Zala County asked Andrew II to authorize them "to judge and do justice", stating that the county had slipped into anarchy. The king granted their request and Bartholomew, Bishop of Veszprém , sued one Ban Oguz for properties before their community. The first Mongol invasion of Hungary in 1241 proved the importance of well-fortified locations and heavily armored cavalry. In
12728-424: The death of Mary , the granddaughter of Charles I, in 1395, the direct line was interrupted again, and Mary's husband Sigismund continued reigning, after being elected by the nobility of the Kingdom in the name of the Holy Crown. Later, Matthias Corvinus was elected by the nobles of the Kingdom, being the first Hungarian monarch who descended from an aristocratic family, and not from a royal family that inherited
12900-424: The defence forces. Stephen Bocskai , Prince of Transylvania ( r. 1605–1606 ), settled 10,000 hajdús in seven villages and exempted them from taxation in 1605, which was the "largest collective ennoblement" in the history of Hungary. In addition to the Székely and Saxon leaders, the noblemen formed one of the three nations (or Estates of the realm) in Transylvania, but they could rarely challenge
13072-422: The defense of their liberties. In 1688, the Diet authorized the aristocrats to establish a special trust , known as fideicommissum , with royal consent to prevent the distribution of their landed wealth among their descendants. In accordance with the traditional concept of aviticitas , inherited estates could not be subject to the trust. Estates in fideicommissum were always held by one person, but he
13244-471: The delegates of the noblemen and the nomadic Cumans who had settled in Hungary to a general assembly near Pest in 1277. This first Diet (or parliament) declared the fifteen-year-old monarch to be of age in an attempt to put en end to the anarchy. In the early 1280s, Simon of Kéza associated the Hungarian nation with the nobility in his Deeds of the Hungarians , emphasizing that the community of noblemen held real authority. The barons took advantage of
13416-410: The development of heavy cavalry in Hungary. Their descendants were labelled as newcomers for centuries, but intermarriage between natives and newcomers was not rare, which enabled their integration in two or three generations. The monarchs pursued an expansionist policy from the late 11th century. Ladislaus I ( r. 1077–1095 ) seized Slavonia – the plains between
13588-552: The development of a "supranational aristocracy" in the Habsburg monarchy . Foreign aristocrats regularly received Hungarian citizenship , and Hungarian noblemen were often naturalized in the Habsburgs' other realms. The Habsburg kings rewarded the most powerful magnates with hereditary titles such as baron from the 1530s. The aristocrats supported the spread of the Reformation . Most noblemen adhered to Lutheranism in
13760-471: The discontented Hungarians to rise against Leopold. They regarded one of the wealthiest aristocrats, Prince Francis II Rákóczi (d. 1735), as their leader. Rákóczi's War of Independence lasted from 1703 to 1711. Although the rebels were forced to yield, the Treaty of Szatmár granted a general amnesty for them and the new Habsburg monarch, Charles III ( r. 1711–1740 ), promised to respect
13932-643: The district of Karánsebes (now Caransebeș in Romania) in 1366, but Eastern Orthodox landowners were not forced to convert to Catholicism in other territories of the kingdom. Even the Catholic bishop of Várad (now Oradea in Romania) authorized his Vlach voivodes (leaders) to employ Orthodox priests. The king granted the Transylvanian district of Fogaras (around present-day Făgăraș in Romania) to Vladislav I of Wallachia ( r. 1364–1377 ) in fief in 1366. In his new duchy, Vladislav donated estates to Wallachian boyars ; their legal status
14104-594: The east of the Danube River by the end of June. Upon Duke Frederick II of Austria's invitation, Béla went to Hainburg an der Donau . However, instead of helping Béla, the Duke forced him to cede three counties (most probably Locsmánd , Pozsony , and Sopron ). From Hainburg, Béla fled to Zagreb and sent letters to Pope Gregory IX , Emperor Frederick II , King Louis IX of France and other Western European monarchs, urging them to send reinforcements to Hungary. In
14276-576: The eight-year-old Béla was crowned in the same year, but his father did not grant him a province to rule. Furthermore, when leaving for a Crusade to the Holy Land in August 1217, King Andrew appointed John, Archbishop of Esztergom , to represent him during his absence. During this period, Béla stayed with his maternal uncle Berthold of Merania in Steyr in the Holy Roman Empire . Andrew II returned from
14448-414: The estates of two noblemen, brothers Simon and Michael Kacsics , who had plotted against his mother. Béla's youngest brother, Andrew, Prince of Halych , was expelled from his principality in the spring of 1229. Béla decided to help him to regain his throne, proudly boasting that the town of Halych "would not remain on the face of the earth, for there was no one to deliver it from his hands", according to
14620-479: The first Hungarian royal house was Árpád , who led his people into the Carpathian Basin in 895. His descendants, who ruled for more than 400 years, included Saint Stephen I , Saint Ladislaus I , Andrew II , and Béla IV . In 1301 the last member of the House of Árpád died, and Charles I was crowned, claiming the throne in the name of his paternal grandmother Mary , the daughter of Stephen V . With
14792-506: The following centuries. Defeats during the Hungarian invasions of Europe and clashes with the paramount rulers from the Árpád dynasty had decimated the leading families by the end of the 10th century. The Gesta Hungarorum , a chronicle written around 1200, claimed that dozens of noble kindred flourishing in the late 12th century had been descended from tribal leaders, but most modern scholars do not regard this list as
14964-470: The following decades, Béla IV of Hungary ( r. 1235–1270 ) gave away large parcels of the royal demesne , expecting that the new owners would build stone castles there. Béla's burdensome castle-building program was unpopular, but achieved his aim: almost 70 castles were built or reconstructed during his reign. More than half of the new or reconstructed castles were in noblemen's domains. Most new castles were erected on rocky peaks, mainly along
15136-581: The fortress. Around the same time, he set up a new border province, the Banate of Szörény (Severin, Romania), in the lands between the Carpathians and the Lower Danube . In a token of his suzerainty in the lands east of the Carpathians, Béla adopted the title "King of Cumania" in 1233. Béla sponsored the mission of Friar Julian and three other Dominican friars who decided to visit the descendants of
15308-480: The freemen, castle warriors and other privileged groups of people living in or around their domains. The threatened groups wanted to achieve confirmation of their status as royal servants , emphasizing that they were only to serve the king. Béla III issued the first extant royal charter about the grant of this rank to a castle warrior. Andrew II's Golden Bull of 1222 enacted royal servants' privileges. They were exempt from taxation; they were to fight in
15480-464: The government of the eastern territories was taken over by Stephen, the king-junior. The relationship between father and son remained tense. Stephen seized his mother's and sister's estates which were situated in his realm to the east of the Danube. Béla's army under Anna's command crossed the Danube in the summer of 1264. She occupied Sárospatak and captured Stephen's wife and children. A detachment of
15652-404: The grantee was to equip warriors for the royal army. Béla's son, Andrew II ( r. 1205–1235 ), decided to "alter the conditions" of his realm and "distribute castles, counties, lands and other revenues" to his officials, as he narrated in a document in 1217. Instead of granting the estates in fief , with an obligation to render future services, he gave them as allods , in reward for
15824-441: The grantee's previous acts. The great officers who were the principal beneficiaries of his grants were mentioned as barons of the realm from the late 1210s. Donations of such a large scale accelerated the development of a wealthy group of landowners, most descending from a high-ranking kindred. Some wealthy landowners could afford to build stone castles. Closely related aristocrats were distinguished from other lineages through
15996-430: The high officers of state, who were mentioned as "barons of office". Corvinus' successor, Vladislaus II ( r. 1490–1516 ), and Vladislaus' son, Louis II ( r. 1516–1526 ), formally began to reward important persons of their government with the hereditary title of baron. Differences in the nobles' wealth increased in the second half of the 15th century. About 30 families owned more than
16168-435: The high officers of the realm, whom he mentioned as "true barons", were legally distinguished from other nobles. He also mentioned the existence of a distinct group, who were barons "in name only", but without specifying their peculiar status. The Tripartitum regarded the kindred as the basic unit of nobility. A noble father exercised almost autocratic authority over his sons, because he could imprison them or offer them as
16340-518: The highest-ranking royal official. The kings from the Árpád dynasty appointed their officials from among the members of about 110 aristocratic clans. These aristocrats were descended either from native (that is, Magyar, Kabar , Pecheneg or Slavic) chiefs, or from foreign knights who had migrated to the country in the 11th and 12th centuries. The foreign knights had been trained in the Western European art of war, which contributed to
16512-485: The hope of military assistance, he even accepted Emperor Frederick II's suzerainty in June. The Pope declared a Crusade against the Mongols, but no reinforcements arrived. The Mongols crossed the frozen Danube early in 1242. A Mongol detachment under the command of Kadan , a son of Great Khan Ögödei , chased Béla from town to town in Dalmatia. Béla took refugee in the well-fortified Trogir . Before Kadan laid siege to
16684-486: The houses of Árpád and Anjou with a mutual marriage contract. In the last year of his life, in December 1269, Abbot of Monte Cassino Bernhard Ayglerius visited Hungary as the envoy of King Charles I of Anjou . He reported enthusiastically to his lord, the foreign, impartial contemporary envoy saw Béla's court as follows: "The Hungarian royal house has incredible power, its military forces are so large that nobody in
16856-417: The idea that all noblemen were equal, the monarchs granted hereditary titles to powerful aristocrats, and the poorest nobles lost their tax exemption from the mid-16th century. In the early modern period, because of the expansion of the Ottoman Empire , Hungary was divided into three parts: Royal Hungary , Transylvania and Ottoman Hungary . The princes of Transylvania supported the noblemen's fight against
17028-480: The invaders, defeated a small Mongol troop near Pest . He seized prisoners, including Cumans from the Eurasian Steppes who had been forced to join the Mongols. When the citizens of Pest realized the presence of Cumans in the invading army, mass hysteria emerged. The townsfolk accused Köten and their Cumans of cooperating with the enemy. A riot broke out and the mob massacred Köten's retinue. Köten
17200-411: The jurisdiction of the sedria . The kings started to grant noblemen the right to execute or mutilate criminals who were captured in their estates. The most influential noblemen's estates were also exempted of the jurisdiction of the counties' law courts. Royal power quickly declined after Louis I died in 1382. His son-in-law, Sigismund of Luxembourg ( r. 1387–1437 ), entered into
17372-595: The king to be defeated so that they would then be dearer to him", according to Roger of Torre Maggiore's account. The Hungarian army was virtually annihilated in the Battle of Mohi on the Sajó River on 11 April 1241. A great number of Hungarian lords, prelates and noblemen were killed, and Béla himself narrowly escaped from the battlefield. He fled through Nyitra to Pressburg (Nitra and Bratislava in Slovakia). The triumphant Mongols occupied and ravaged most lands to
17544-450: The king", according to Roger of Torre Maggiore. Béla supported the development of towns. For instance, he confirmed the liberties of the citizens of Székesfehérvár and granted privileges to Hungarian and German settlers in Bars (Starý Tekov, Slovakia) in 1237. Zadar , a town in Dalmatia which had been lost to Venice in 1202, acknowledged Béla's suzerainty in 1240. The Mongols gathered in
17716-476: The kings, because they were unable to participate in the monarchs' military campaigns, but commoners who bravely fought in the royal army were regularly ennobled. The historian Erik Fügedi noted that "castle bred castle" in the second half of the 13th century: if a landowner erected a fortress, his neighbors would also build one to defend their own estates. Between 1271 and 1320, noblemen or prelates built at least 155 new fortresses. In comparison, only about
17888-463: The lands bordering Hungary and Poland under the command of Batu Khan in December 1240. They demanded Béla's submission to their Great Khan Ögödei , but Béla refused to yield and had the mountain passes fortified. The Mongols broke through the barricades erected in the Verecke Pass (Veretsky Pass, Ukraine) on 12 March 1241. Duke Frederick II of Austria , who arrived to assist Béla against
18060-522: The lands east of the river Tisza on behalf of her infant son, John Sigismund ( r. 1540–1571 ), in return for a yearly tribute. His decision divided Hungary into three parts: the Ottomans occupied the central territories ; John Sigismund's eastern Hungarian Kingdom developed into the autonomous Principality of Transylvania ; and the Habsburg monarchs preserved the northern and western territories (or Royal Hungary ). Most noblemen fled from
18232-481: The last male member of the Árpád dynasty, died in 1301, about a dozen lords held sway over most parts of the kingdom. Ladislaus IV's great-nephew, Charles I ( r. 1301–1342 ), who was a scion of the Capetian House of Anjou , restored royal power in the 1310s and 1320s. He seized the oligarchs' castles mainly by force, which again secured the preponderance of the royal demesne. He refuted
18404-409: The legitimate King of Hungary without fulfilling the following criteria: This meant a certain level of protection to the integrity of the Kingdom. For example, stealing the Holy Crown of Hungary was no longer enough to become legitimate King. The first requirement (coronation by the Archbishop of Esztergom) was confirmed by Béla III , who had been crowned by Archbishop Berthold of Kalocsa , based on
18576-414: The limitation of military obligations. From the 1220s, royal servants were associated with the nobility and the highest-ranking officials were known as barons of the realm. Only those who owned allods – lands free of obligations – were regarded as true noblemen, but other privileged groups of landowners, known as conditional nobles , also existed. In the 1280s, Simon of Kéza
18748-636: The lowlands along the Middle Danube , annihilated Moravia and defeated the Bavarians in the 900s. According to some scholarly theories, at least three Hungarian noble clans were descended from Moravian aristocrats who survived the Magyar conquest . Historians who are convinced that the Vlachs (or Romanians ) were already present in the Carpathian Basin in the late 9th century propose that
18920-412: The meantime become King of Bohemia , ceded Styria to Béla. Béla appointed his son-in-law, Rostislav Mikhailovich Ban of Macsó (Mačva, Serbia) in 1254. Rostislav's task was the creation of a buffer zone along the southern borders. He invaded Bosnia already in the year of his appointment and forced Tzar Michael Asen I of Bulgaria to cede Belgrade and Barancs (Braničevo, Serbia) in 1255. Béla adopted
19092-570: The mining towns in Upper Hungary were also spelled out in Béla's reign. For defensive purposes, he moved the citizens of Pest to a hill on the opposite side of the Danube in 1248. Within two decades their new fortified town, Buda , became the most important center of commerce in Hungary. Béla also granted privileges to Gradec , the fortified center of Zagreb , in 1242 and confirmed them in 1266. Béla adopted an active foreign policy soon after
19264-404: The monarch if he ignored its provisions. Most provisions of the Golden Bull were first confirmed in 1231. The clear definition of the royal servants' liberties distinguished them from all other privileged groups, whose military obligations remained theoretically unlimited. From the 1220s, the royal servants were regularly called noblemen and started to develop their own corporate institutions at
19436-476: The monarchs. The Diet obliged all landowners to equip one archer for every 20 peasant plots on their domains to serve in the royal army. Sigismund granted large estates in Hungary to neighboring Orthodox rulers to secure their alliance. They established Basilite monasteries on their estates. Sigismund's son-in-law, Albert of Habsburg ( r. 1438–1439 ), was elected king in early 1438, but only after he promised always to make important decisions with
19608-572: The negotiations between Béla and his son. Their agreement was signed in the Dominican Monastery of the Blessed Virgin on Rabbits' Island ( Margaret Island , Budapest) on 23 March 1266. The new treaty confirmed the division of the country along the Danube and regulated many aspects of the co-existence of Béla's regnum and Stephen's regimen , including the collection of taxes and the commoners' right to free movement. The "nobles of all Hungary, who are called servientes regis " from both
19780-456: The newly established Zselicszentjakab Abbey in 1061. The establishment of monasteries by wealthy individuals was common. Such proprietary monasteries served as burial places for their founders and the founders' descendants, who were regarded as the co-owners, or from the 13th century, co-patrons , of the monastery. Serfs cultivated part of the praedium , but other plots were hired out in return for in-kind taxes. The term "noble"
19952-404: The next centuries. Each county was headed by a royal official, the ispán . The royal court provided further career opportunities. As the historian Martyn Rady noted, the "royal household was the greatest provider of largesse in the kingdom" where the royal family owned more than two thirds of all lands. The palatine – the head of the royal household – was
20124-435: The number of the soldiers and to improve their equipment. He made land grants in the forested regions and obliged the new landowners to equip heavily armoured cavalrymen to serve in the royal army. For instance, the so-called ten-lanced nobles of Szepes (Spiš, Slovakia) received their privileges from Béla in 1243. He even allowed the barons and prelates to employ armed noblemen, who had previously been directly subordinated to
20296-559: The oath of fidelity he had taken to Emperor Frederick during the Mongol invasion. In the following year Duke Frederick II of Austria invaded Hungary. He routed Béla's army in the Battle of the Leitha River on 15 June 1246, but perished in the battlefield. His childless death gave rise to a series of conflicts, because both his niece, Gertrude , and his sister, Margaret , made a claim to Austria and Styria . Béla decided to intervene in
20468-424: The peasant war were tortured and executed, but most rebels received a pardon. The Diet punished the peasantry as a group, condemning them to perpetual servitude and depriving them of the right of free movement. The Diet also enacted the serfs' obligation to provide one day's labour service for their lords each week. The Ottomans annihilated the royal army at the Battle of Mohács . Louis II died fleeing from
20640-448: The period preceding the establishment of the kingdom around 1000; others were descended from western European knights who settled in Hungary. The lower-ranking castle warriors also held landed property and served in the royal army. From the 1170s, most privileged laymen called themselves royal servants to emphasize their direct connection to the monarchs. The Golden Bull of 1222 established their liberties, especially tax exemption and
20812-748: The population. Reformist noblemen demanded the abolition of noble privileges from the 1790s, but their program was enacted only during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 . Most noblemen lost their estates after the emancipation of their serfs, but the aristocrats preserved their distinguished social status. State administration employed thousands of impoverished noblemen in Austria-Hungary . Prominent (mainly Jewish) bankers and industrialists were awarded with nobility, but their social status remained inferior to traditional aristocrats. Noble titles were abolished only in 1947 , months after Hungary
20984-494: The princes' authority. In Royal Hungary, the magnates successfully protected the noble privileges, because their vast domains were almost completely exempt from royal officials' authority. Their manors were fortified in the "Hungarian manner" (with walls made of earth and timber) in the 1540s. Noblemen in Royal Hungary could also count on the support of the Transylvanian princes against the Habsburg monarchs. Intermarriages among Austrian, Czech and Hungarian aristocrats gave rise to
21156-399: The principle of "one and the selfsame liberty" of all noblemen, but legal distinctions between true noblemen and conditional nobles prevailed. The most powerful nobles employed lesser noblemen as their familiares (retainers) but this private link did not sever the familiaris ' direct subjection to the monarch. According to customary law , only males inherited noble estates, but under
21328-441: The region of Vidin. Béla returned to Hungary before the end of the campaign, which was continued by his son. Béla's favoritism towards his younger son, Béla (whom he appointed Duke of Slavonia) and daughter, Anna irritated Stephen. The latter suspected that his father was planning to disinherit him. Stephen often mentioned in his charters that he had "suffered severe persecution" by his "parents without deserving it" when referring to
21500-400: The regular division of inherited landed property could lead to the impoverishment of aristocratic families. Strategies applied to avoid this – family planning and celibacy – led to the extinction of most aristocratic families after a few generations. The Diet ordered the compilation of customary law in 1498. The jurist István Werbőczy (d. 1541) completed
21672-446: The request of the Székelys. Nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary held a noble class of individuals, most of whom owned landed property , from the 11th century until the mid-20th century. Initially, a diverse body of people were described as noblemen, but from the late 12th century only high-ranking royal officials were regarded as noble. Most aristocrats claimed ancestry from chieftains of
21844-633: The river Drava and the Dinaric Alps – in the 1090s. His successor, Coloman ( r. 1095–1116 ), was crowned king of Croatia in 1102. Both realms retained their own customs, and Hungarians rarely received land grants in Croatia. According to customary law , Croatians could not be obliged to cross the river Drava to fight in the royal army at their own expense. The earliest royal decrees authorized landowners to dispose freely of their private estates, but customary law prescribed that inherited lands could only be transferred with
22016-549: The roots of his conflict with his father. Although some clashes took place in the autumn, a lasting civil war was avoided through the mediation of the Archbishops Philip of Esztergom and Smaragd of Kalocsa who persuaded Béla and his son to make a compromise. According to the Peace of Pressburg , the two divided the country along the Danube: the lands to the west of the river remained under the direct rule of Béla, and
22188-430: The royal army without proper compensation only if enemy forces invaded the kingdom; only the monarch or the palatine could judge their cases. According to the Golden Bull, only royal servants who died without a son could freely will their estates, but even in this case, their daughters were entitled to the daughters' quarter . The final article of the Golden Bull authorized the bishops, barons and other nobles to resist
22360-419: The royal army, under the command of Béla's Judge royal Lawrence forced Stephen to retreat as far as the fortress at Feketehalom (Codlea, Romania) in the easternmost corner of Transylvania. The king-junior's partisans relieved the castle and he started a counter-attack in the autumn. In the decisive Battle of Isaszeg , he routed his father's army in March 1265. It was again the two archbishops who conducted
22532-414: The royal style in 1105. The title " King of Rama " , referring to the claim to Bosnia , was first used by Béla II in 1136. It was Emeric who adopted the title " King of Serbia " . The phrase "King of Galicia" was used to indicate the supremacy over Halych , while the title "King of Lodomeria" referred to Volhynia ; both titles were adopted by Andrew II in 1205. In 1233, Béla IV began to use
22704-620: The same time, Béla married Maria , a daughter of Theodore I Laskaris , Emperor of Nicaea . From 1226, he governed Transylvania as duke . He supported Christian missions among the pagan Cumans who dwelled in the plains to the east of his province. Some Cuman chieftains acknowledged his suzerainty and he adopted the title of King of Cumania in 1233. King Andrew died on 21 September 1235 and Béla succeeded him. He attempted to restore royal authority, which had diminished under his father. For this purpose, he revised his predecessors' land grants and reclaimed former royal estates, causing discontent among
22876-589: The seigneurial taxes in kind. The Diets passed decrees that restricted the peasants' right to free movement and increased their burdens. The peasants' grievances unexpectedly culminated in a rebellion in May 1514. The rebels captured manor houses and murdered dozens of noblemen, especially on the Great Hungarian Plain . The voivode of Transylvania , John Zápolya , annihilated their main army at Temesvár on 15 July. György Dózsa and other leaders of
23048-580: The senior and the junior king's domains assembled in Esztergom in 1267. Upon their request, Béla and Stephen jointly confirmed their privileges, which had first been spelled out in the Golden Bull of 1222 , before 7 September. Shortly after the meeting, Béla assigned four noblemen from each county with the task of revising property rights in Transdanubia. King Stephen Uroš I of Serbia invaded
23220-457: The situation which existed in the country" in the reign of his grandfather, Béla III . According to the contemporaneous Roger of Torre Maggiore , he even "had the chairs of the barons burned" in order to prevent them from sitting in his presence during the meetings of the royal council. Béla set up special commissions which revised all royal charters of land grants made after 1196. The annulment of former donations alienated many of his subjects from
23392-493: The small motte forts , built on artificial mounds and protected by a ditch and a palisade that appeared in the 12th century, as the centers of private estates. Most wealthy landowners' domains consisted of scattered praedia , in several villages. Due to the scarcity of documentary evidence, the size of the private estates cannot be determined. The descendants of Otto Győr , the ispán of Somogy County remained wealthy landowners even after he donated 360 households to
23564-425: The southern frontier of Hungary in the 1250s. Béla's relationship with his oldest son and heir, Stephen , became tense in the early 1260s, because the elderly king favored his daughter Anna and his youngest child, Béla, Duke of Slavonia . He was forced to cede the territories of the Kingdom of Hungary east of the river Danube to Stephen, which caused a civil war lasting until 1266. Nevertheless, Béla's family
23736-735: The sovereign, in their private retinue (banderium). Béla granted the Banate of Szörény to the Knights Hospitaller on 2 June 1247, but the Knights abandoned the region by 1260. To replace the loss of at least 15 percent of the population, who perished during the Mongol invasion and the ensuing famine, Béla promoted colonization. He granted special liberties to the colonists, including personal freedom and favorable tax treatment. Germans, Moravians, Poles, Ruthenians and other "guests" arrived from neighboring countries and were settled in depopulated or sparsely populated regions. He also persuaded
23908-406: The special authorisation of Pope Alexander III . After his coronation he declared that this coronation would not affect the customary claim of the Archbishop of Esztergom to crown the king. In 1211, Pope Innocent III refused to confirm the agreement of Archbishop John of Esztergom and Archbishop Berthold of Kalocsa on the transfer of the claim, and he declared that only the Archbishop of Esztergom
24080-575: The state" ( Hungarian : második honalapító ). He set up a defensive alliance against the Mongols, which included Daniil Romanovich , Prince of Halych , Boleslaw the Chaste , Duke of Cracow and other Ruthenian and Polish princes. His allies supported him in occupying the Duchy of Styria in 1254, but it was lost to King Ottokar II of Bohemia six years later. During Béla's reign, a wide buffer zone—which included Bosnia , Barancs (Braničevo, Serbia) and other newly conquered regions—was established along
24252-460: The summer of 1253, Béla launched a campaign against Moravia and laid siege to Olomouc . Daniil Romanovich, Boleslaw the Chaste of Cracow , and Wladislaw of Opole intervened on Béla's behalf, but he lifted the siege by the end of June. Pope Innocent IV mediated a peace treaty , which was signed in Pressburg (Bratislava, Slovakia) on 1 May 1254. In accordance with the treaty, Ottokar, who had in
24424-533: The task, presenting a law-book at the Diet in 1514. His Tripartitum – The Customary Law of the Renowned Kingdom of Hungary in Three Parts – was never enacted, but it was consulted at the law courts for centuries. It summarized the noblemen's fundamental privileges in four points: noblemen were only subject to the monarch's authority and could only be arrested in
24596-670: The territories over the Carpathian Mountains . He supported the Dominicans ' proselytizing activities among the Cumans , who dominated these lands. In 1227 he crossed the mountains and met Boricius , a Cuman chieftain, who had decided to convert to Christianity. At their meeting, Boricius and his subjects were baptized and acknowledged Béla's suzerainty. Within a year, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cumania
24768-417: The title "King of Cumania" which expressed the rule over the territories settled by the Cumans (i.e., Wallachia and Moldavia ) at that time. The phrase " King of Bulgaria " was added to the royal style by Stephen V . Transylvania was originally a part of the Kingdom of Hungary ruled by a voivode , but after 1526 became a semi-independent principality vassal to the Ottoman Empire , and later to
24940-619: The title " by the Grace of God , King, son of the King of Hungary, and Duke of all Slavonia". Béla separated from his wife in the first half of 1222 upon his father's demand. However, Pope Honorius refused to declare the marriage illegal. Béla accepted the Pope's decision and took refuge in Austria from his father's anger. He returned, together with his wife, only after the prelates had in the first half of 1223 persuaded his father to forgive him. Having returned to his Duchy of Slavonia, Béla launched
25112-427: The title "King". However, not all rulers of Hungary were kings—for example, Stephen Bocskai and Francis II Rákóczi were proclaimed rulers as "High Princes of Hungary", and there were also three Governors of Hungary who were sometimes styled "regents", János Hunyadi , Lajos Kossuth and Miklós Horthy . From the 13th century on, a process was established to confirm the legitimacy of the King. No person could become
25284-414: The title of King of Bulgaria, but he only used it occasionally in the subsequent years. The Styrian noblemen rose up in rebellion against Béla's governor Stephen Gutkeled and routed him in early 1258. Béla invaded Styria, restored his suzerainty and appointed his oldest son, Stephen, Duke of Styria . In 1259, Batu Khan's successor, Berke , proposed an alliance by offering to marry one of his daughters to
25456-416: The title. The same happened decades later with John Zápolya , who was elected in 1526 after the death of Louis II in the battle of Mohács . After this, the House of Habsburg inherited the throne, and ruled Hungary from Austria for almost 400 years until 1918. Admiral Horthy was appointed regent in 1920, but Charles IV of Hungary's attempts to retake the throne were unsuccessful. The monarchy of Hungary
25628-631: The titled noble families had a seat in the Upper House. The lesser noblemen elected two or three delegates at the general assemblies of the counties to represent them in the Lower House. The Croatian and Slavonian magnates also had seats at the Upper House, and the sabor (or Diet) of Croatia and Slavonia sent delegates to the Lower House. Forces from the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth inflicted
25800-466: The town in March, news arrived of the Great Khan's death. Batu Khan wanted to attend at the election of Ögödei's successor with sufficient troops and ordered the withdrawal of all Mongol forces. Béla, who was grateful to Trogir, granted it lands near Split , causing a lasting conflict between the two Dalmatian towns. Upon his return to Hungary in May 1242, Béla found a country in ruins. Devastation
25972-511: The true noblemen. They held their estates conditionally, as they were required to provide well-defined services to another lord, hence their groups are now collectively known as conditional nobles . The noble Vlach knezes who had landed property in the Banate of Severin were obliged to fight in the army of the ban (or royal governor). Most warriors known as the "noble sons of servants" were descended from freemen or liberated serfs who received estates from Béla IV in Upper Hungary on
26144-402: The weakening of royal authority and seized large, contiguous territories. The monarchs could not appoint and dismiss their officials at will anymore. The most powerful barons – known as oligarchs in modern historiography – appropriated royal prerogatives, combining private lordship with their administrative powers. When Andrew III ( r. 1290–1301 ),
26316-704: The western and northern borderlands. The spread of stone castles profoundly changed the structure of landholding, because castles could not be maintained without proper income. Lands and villages were legally attached to each castle, and castles were thereafter always transferred and inherited along with these " appurtenances ". The royal servants were legally identified as nobles in 1267. That year "the nobles of all Hungary, called royal servants" persuaded Béla IV and his son, Stephen V ( r. 1270–1272 ), to hold an assembly and confirm their collective privileges. Other groups of land-holding warriors could also be called nobles, but they were always distinguished from
26488-482: The western regions of Royal Hungary, but Calvinism was the dominant religion in Transylvania and other regions. John Sigismund promoted Unitarian views, but most Unitarian noblemen perished in battles in the early 1600s. The Habsburgs remained staunch supporters of the Catholic Counter-Reformation and the most prominent aristocratic families converted to Catholicism in Royal Hungary in
26660-474: The withdrawal of the Mongols. In the second half of 1242 he invaded Austria and forced Duke Frederick II to surrender the three counties ceded to him during the Mongol invasion. On the other hand, Venice occupied Zadar in the summer of 1243. Béla renounced Zadar on 30 June 1244, but Venice acknowledged his claim to one third of the customs revenues of the Dalmatian town. Béla set up a defensive alliance against
26832-475: Was accused of having, in King Andrew's life, an adulterous liaison with Queen Beatrix , the King's young widow. Béla ordered her imprisonment, but she managed to escape to the Holy Roman Empire , where she gave birth to a posthumous son, Stephen . Béla and his brother Coloman considered her son a bastard. Béla declared that his principal purpose was "the restitution of royal rights" and "the restoration of
27004-460: Was born in 1239. He succeeded his father. Béla's youngest daughter, Margaret was born during the Mongol invasion in 1242. Dedicated to God by her parents at birth, she spent her life in humility in the Monastery of the Blessed Virgin on Rabbits' Island and died as a Dominican nun. The King's youngest (namesake) son, Béla was born between around 1243 and 1250. The Greater Legend of Saint Elisabeth of Hungary (Béla's sister) described Béla's family as
27176-499: Was born; she was given in marriage to Henry XIII, Duke of Bavaria in about 1245. Her son, Otto was crowned King of Hungary in 1305, but was forced to leave the country by the end of 1307. Béla's sixth daughter Constance married, around 1251, Lev Danylovich , second son of Prince Daniil Romanovich of Halych. Béla's seventh daughter, Yolanda became the wife of Bolesław the Pious , Duke of Greater Poland . Béla's first son, Stephen
27348-490: Was either slaughtered or committed suicide. On hearing about Köten's fate, his Cumans decided to leave Hungary and destroyed many villages on their way towards the Balkan Peninsula . With the Cumans' departure Béla lost his most valuable allies. He could muster an army of less than 60,000 against the invaders. The royal army was ill-prepared and its commanders—the barons alienated by Béla's policy—"would have liked
27520-463: Was entitled to crown the King of Hungary. King Charles I of Hungary was crowned in May 1301 with a provisional crown in Esztergom by the Archbishop of that city; this led to his second coronation in June 1309. At that time the Holy Crown was not used, and he was crowned in Buda by the Archbishop of Esztergom. However, his final third coronation was in 1310, in Székesfehérvár , with the Holy Crown and by
27692-478: Was especially heavy in the plains east of the Danube where at least half of the villages were depopulated. The Mongols had destroyed most traditional centers of administration, which were defended by earth-and-timber walls. Only well-fortified places, such as Esztergom , Székesfehérvár and the Pannonhalma Abbey , had successfully resisted siege. A severe famine followed in 1242 and 1243. Preparation for
27864-406: Was established in their lands. Béla had long opposed his father's "useless and superfluous perpetual grants", because the distribution of royal estates destroyed the traditional basis of royal authority. He started reclaiming King Andrew's land grants throughout the country in 1228. The Pope supported Béla's efforts, but the King often hindered the execution of his son's orders. Béla also confiscated
28036-528: Was famed for his piety: he died as a Franciscan tertiary , and the veneration of his three saintly daughters— Kunigunda , Yolanda , and Margaret —was confirmed by the Holy See . Béla was the oldest son of King Andrew II of Hungary by his first wife, Gertrude of Merania . He was born in the second half of 1206. Upon King Andrew's initiative, Pope Innocent III had already appealed to the Hungarian prelates and barons on 7 June to swear an oath of loyalty to
28208-583: Was formally abolished on 1 February 1946 on the establishment of the Second Hungarian Republic . Over the centuries, the Kings of Hungary acquired or claimed the crowns of several neighboring countries, and they began to use the royal titles connected to those countries. By the time of the last kings, their precise style was: "By the Grace of God, Apostolic King of Hungary, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Rama, Serbia, Galicia, Lodomeria, Cumania and Bulgaria, Grand Prince of Transylvania, Count of
28380-418: Was not yet recognized as a kingdom by the Pope and the ruler of Hungary was styled Grand Prince of the Hungarians . The first King of Hungary, Stephen I. was crowned on 25 December 1000 (or 1 January 1001) with the crown Pope Sylvester II had sent him and with the consent of Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor . Following King Stephen I 's coronation, all the monarchs of Hungary and the Árpád dynasty used
28552-518: Was proclaimed a republic . The Magyars (or Hungarians) lived in the Pontic steppes when they first appear in written sources from the mid-9th century. Muslim merchants described them as wealthy nomadic warriors, but they also noticed the Magyars had extensive arable lands. The Magyars crossed the Carpathian Mountains after the Pechenegs invaded their lands in 894 or 895. They settled in
28724-532: Was rarely used and poorly defined before the 13th century: it could refer to a courtier, a landowner with judicial powers, or even to a common warrior. The existence of a diverse group of warriors, who were subjected to the monarch, royal officials or prelates is well documented. The castle warriors , who were exempt from taxation, held hereditary landed property around the royal castles. Lightly armored horsemen, known as lövők (or archers), and armed castle folk , mentioned as őrök (or guards), defended
28896-511: Was required to hold his own banderium (or armed retinue), distinguished by his own banner. In 1351, Charles's son and successor, Louis I ( r. 1342–1382 ) confirmed all provisions of the Golden Bull, save the one that authorized childless noblemen to freely will their estates. Instead, he introduced an entail system, prescribing that childless noblemen's landed property "should descend to their brothers, cousins and kinsmen". This new concept of aviticitas also protected
29068-499: Was responsible for the proper boarding of his relatives. The liberation of central Hungary continued, and the Ottomans were forced to acknowledge the loss of the territory in 1699. Leopold set up a special committee to distribute the lands in the reconquered territories. The descendants of the noblemen who had held estates there before the Ottoman conquest were required to provide documentary evidence to substantiate their claims to
29240-412: Was similar to the position of the knezes in other regions of Hungary. Royal charters customarily identified noblemen and landowners from the second half of the 14th century. A man who lived in his own house on his own estates was described as living "in the way of nobles", in contrast with those who did not own landed property and lived "in the way of peasants". A verdict of 1346 declared that
29412-435: Was the first Hungarian monarch to grant coats of arms (or rather crests ) to his subjects. He based royal administration on honors (or office fiefs), distributing most counties and royal castles among his highest-ranking officials. These "baronies", as the historian Matteo Villani (d. 1363) recorded it in about 1350, were "neither hereditary nor lifelong", but Charles rarely dismissed his most trusted barons. Each baron
29584-463: Was the first to claim that noblemen held authority in the kingdom. The counties developed into institutions of noble autonomy, and the nobles' delegates attended the Diets (parliaments). The wealthiest barons built stone castles allowing them to control vast territories, but royal authority was restored in the early 14th century. In 1351, King Louis I introduced an entail system and enacted
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