Stephen V of Hungary

Template:Short description Template:Good article Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox royalty Stephen V (Template:Langx, Template:Langx, Template:Langx; before 18 October 1239 – 6 August 1272) was King of Hungary and Croatia between 1270 and 1272, and Duke of Styria from 1258 to 1260. He was the oldest son of King Béla IV and Maria Laskarina. King Béla had his son crowned king at the age of six and appointed him Duke of Slavonia. Still a child, Stephen married Elizabeth, a daughter of a chieftain of the Cumans whom his father settled in the Great Hungarian Plain.

King Béla appointed Stephen Duke of Transylvania in 1257 and Duke of Styria in 1258. The local noblemen in Styria, which had been annexed four years before, opposed his rule. Assisted by King Ottokar II of Bohemia, they rebelled and expelled Stephen's troops from most parts of Styria. After Ottokar II routed the united army of Stephen and his father in the Battle of Kressenbrunn on 12 July 1260, Stephen left Styria and returned to Transylvania.

Stephen forced his father to cede all the lands of the Kingdom of Hungary to the east of the Danube to him and adopted the title of junior king in 1262. In two years, a civil war broke out between father and son, because Stephen accused Béla of planning to disinherit him. They concluded a peace treaty in 1266, but confidence was never restored between them. Stephen succeeded his father, who died on 3 May 1270, without difficulties, but his sister Anna and his father's closest advisors fled to the Kingdom of Bohemia. Ottokar II invaded Hungary in the spring of 1271, but Stephen routed him. In next summer, a rebellious lord captured and imprisoned Stephen's son, Ladislaus. Shortly thereafter, Stephen unexpectedly fell ill and died.

Childhood (1239–1245)

File:BelaIV-ChroniconPictum.jpg

Stephen's father, King Béla IV of Hungary (from the Illuminated Chronicle)

Stephen was the eighth child and first son of King Béla IV of Hungary and his wife, Maria, a daughter of Theodore I Lascaris, Emperor of Nicaea.Template:Sfn He was born in 1239.Template:Sfn Archbishop Robert of Esztergom baptised him on 18 October.Template:Sfn The child, heir apparent from birth, was named after Saint Stephen, the first King of Hungary.Template:Sfn

Béla and his family, including Stephen, fled to Zagreb after the Mongols had annihilated the royal army in the Battle of Mohi on 11 April 1241.Template:Sfn The Mongols crossed the frozen Danube in February 1242 and the royal family ran off as far as the well-fortified Dalmatian town of Trogir.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The King and his family returned from Dalmatia after the Mongols unexpectedly withdrew from Hungary in March.Template:Sfn

Junior king

Duke of Slavonia (1245–1257)

File:AlzbetaKumanska kralovna.jpg

Seal of Stephen's wife, Elizabeth the Cuman

A royal charter of 1246 mentions Stephen as "King, and Duke of Slavonia".Template:Sfn Apparently, in the previous year, Béla had his son crowned as junior king and endowed with the lands between the river Dráva and the Adriatic Sea, according to historians Gyula Kristó and Ferenc Makk.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The seven-year-old Stephen's provinces—Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia—were administered by royal governors, known as bans.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In a letter addressed to Pope Innocent IV in the late 1240s, Béla IV wrote that "[o]n behalf of Christendom we had our son marry a Cuman girl".Template:Sfn The bride was Elizabeth, the daughter of a leader of the Cumans whom Béla had invited to settle in the plains along the river Tisza.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Elizabeth had been baptized, but ten Cuman chieftains present at the ceremony nevertheless took their customary oath upon a dog cut into two by a sword.Template:Sfn

Duke of Transylvania and Styria (1257–1260)

When Stephen attained the age of majority in 1257, his father appointed him Duke of Transylvania.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Stephen's rule in Transylvania was short-lived, because his father transferred him to Styria in 1258.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Styria had been annexed in 1254, but the local lords rose up in rebellion and expelled Béla IV's governor, Stephen Gutkeled, before Stephen's appointment.Template:Sfn Stephen and his father jointly invaded Styria and subdued the rebels.Template:Sfn In addition to Styria, Stephen also received two neighboring counties—Vas and Zala—in Hungary from his father.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He launched a plundering raid in Carinthia in the spring of 1259, in retaliation of Duke Ulrich III of Carinthia's support of the Styrian rebels.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Stephen's rule remained unpopular in Styria. With support from King Ottokar II of Bohemia, the local lords again rebelled.Template:Sfn Stephen could preserve only Pettau (present-day Ptuj, Slovenia) and its region.Template:Sfn On 25 June 1260, Stephen crossed the river Morava to invade Ottokar's realm.Template:Sfn His military force, which consisted of Székely, Romanian and Cuman troops, routed an Austrian army.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn However, in the decisive Battle of Kressenbrunn King Béla's and Stephen's united army was vanquished on 12 July, primarily because the main forces, which were under King Béla's command, arrived late.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Stephen, who commanded the advance guard, barely escaped from the battlefield.Template:Sfn The Peace of Vienna, which was signed on 31 March 1261, put an end to the conflict between Hungary and Bohemia, forcing Béla IV to renounce of Styria in favor of Ottokar II.Template:Sfn

Conflicts and civil war (1260–1270)

File:Baba Vida Klearchos 4.jpg

Baba Vida, the medieval fortress at Vidin in Bulgaria: Stephen captured it in 1261

Stephen returned to Transylvania and started to rule it for the second time after 20 August 1260.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He and his father jointly invaded Bulgaria and seized Vidin in 1261.Template:Sfn His father returned to Hungary, but Stephen continued the campaign alone.Template:Sfn He laid siege to Lom on the Danube and advanced as far as Tirnovo in pursuit of Tsar Constantine Tikh of Bulgaria.Template:Sfn However, the Tsar succeeded in avoiding any clashes with the invaders and Stephen withdrew his troops from Bulgaria by the end of the year.Template:Sfn

Stephen's relationship with Béla IV deteriorated in the early 1260s.Template:Sfn Stephen's charters reveal his fear of being disinherited and expelled by his father.Template:Sfn He also accused some unnamed barons of inciting the old monarch against him.Template:Sfn On the other hand, Stephen's charters prove that he made land grants in Bihar, Szatmár, Ugocsa, and other counties which were situated outside Transylvania.Template:Sfn

File:V. István koronázása.jpg

Stephen V is crowned by his father, Béla IV (from the Illuminated Chronicle)

Archbishops Philip of Esztergom and Smaragd of Kalocsa undertook to mediate after some clashes occurred between the two kings' partisans in the autumn.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn According to the Peace of Pressburg, which was concluded around 25 November, Béla IV and his son divided the country and Stephen received the lands to the east of the Danube.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn When confirming the treaty on 5 December, Stephen also promised that he would not invade Slavonia which had been granted to his younger brother, Béla, by their father.Template:Sfn On this occasion, Stephen styled himself "Junior King, Duke of Transylvania and Lord of the Cumans".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

A Bulgarian nobleman, Despot Jacob Svetoslav sought assistance from Stephen after his domains, which were situated in the regions south of Vidin, were overrun by Byzantine troops in the second half of 1263.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Stephen sent reinforcements under the command of Ladislaus II Kán, Voivode of Transylvania to Bulgaria.Template:Sfn The Voivode routed the Byzantines and drove them out of Bulgaria.Template:Sfn Stephen granted Vidin to Jacob Svetoslav who accepted his suzerainty.Template:Sfn

The reconciliation of Stephen and his father was only temporary.Template:Sfn Stephen confiscated the domains of his mother and sister, Anna—including Beszterce (present-day Bistrița, Romania) and Füzér—which were located in the lands under his rule.Template:Sfn Béla IV's army crossed the Danube under Anna's command sometime after the autumn of 1264.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn She besieged and took Sárospatak and seized Stephen's wife and children.Template:Sfn Voivode Ladislaus Kán turned against Stephen and led an army, which consisted of Cuman warriors, to Transylvania.Template:Sfn Stephen routed him at the fort of Déva (now Deva, Romania).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn King Béla's Judge royal, Lawrence arrived at the head of a new army and forced Stephen to retreat to Feketehalom (now Codlea, Romania).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Judge royal lay siege to the fortress, but Stephen's partisans relieved it.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Stephen launched a counter-offensive and forced his father's army to retreat.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He gained a decisive victory over his father's army in the Battle of Isaszeg in March 1265.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The two archbishops mediated a new consolidation between father and son, which confirmed the 1262 division of the country.Template:Sfn Béla and Stephen signed the peace treaty in the Convent of the Blessed Virgin on the Rabbits' Island (now Margaret Island in Budapest) on 23 March 1266.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

During the civil war in Hungary, Stephen's vassal, Despot Jacob Svetoslav submitted himself to Tsar Constantine Tikh of Bulgaria.Template:Sfn In the summer of 1266, Stephen invaded Bulgaria, seized Vidin, Pleven and other forts and routed the Bulgarians in five battles.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Jacob Svetoslav again accepted Stephen's suzerainty and was reinstalled in Vidin.Template:Sfn From then on, Stephen used the title "King of Bulgaria" in his charters.Template:Sfn

Béla and Stephen together confirmed the liberties of the "royal servants", from then on known as noblemen, in 1267.Template:Sfn A double marriage alliance between Stephen and King Charles I of Sicily—Stephen's son, Ladislaus married Charles's daughter, Elisabeth, and Charles's namesake son married Stephen's daughter, Mary—strengthened Stephen's international position in 1269.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Confidence was never restored between Béla and Stephen.Template:Sfn On his deathbed, the old King requested King Ottokar II of Bohemia to give shelter to his daughter Anna and his partisans after his death.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Reign (1270–1272)

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Kingdom of Hungary in the second half of the 13th century

File:Thuróczy krónika - V. István király.jpg

King Stephen V as depicted in the Chronica Hungarorum

The senior King died on 3 May 1270.Template:Sfn His daughter, Anna, seized the royal treasury and fled to Bohemia.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Henry Kőszegi, Nicholas Geregye, and Lawrence Aba—Béla's closest advisors—followed her and handed over Kőszeg, Borostyánkő (Bernstein, Austria) and their other castles along the western borders to Ottokar II.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Instead of leaving Hungary, Nicholas Hahót garrisoned Styrian soldiers in his fort at Pölöske, and made plundering raids against the nearby villages.Template:Sfn Stephen nominated his own partisans to the highest offices; for instance, Joachim Gutkeled became Ban of Slavonia, and Matthew Csák was appointed Voivode of Transylvania.Template:Sfn Stephen granted Esztergom County to Archbishop Philip who crowned him king in Esztergom on or after 17 May.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The Polish chronicler Jan Długosz writes that Stephen made "a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Stanisław"<ref name=Dlugosz>The Annals of Jan Długosz (A.D. 1270), p. 213.</ref> in Kraków and visited his brother-in-law, Boleslaw the Chaste, Duke of Kraków at the end of August.Template:Sfn The two monarchs renewed "the old alliance between Hungary and Poland" and entered into an alliance "to have the same friends and the same enemies".Template:Sfn<ref name=Dlugosz/> Stephen also met Ottokar II on an island of the Danube near Pressburg (present-day Bratislava, Slovakia), but they only concluded a truce.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Stephen launched a plundering raid into Austria around 21 December.Template:Sfn King Ottokar invaded the lands north of the Danube in April 1271 and captured a number of fortresses, including Dévény (now Devín, Slovakia), Pressburg and Nagyszombat (present-day Trnava, Slovakia).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Ottokar routed Stephen at Pressburg on 9 May, and at Mosonmagyaróvár on 15 May, but Stephen won the decisive battle on the Rábca River on 21 May.Template:Sfn Ottokar withdrew from Hungary and Stephen chased his troops as far as Vienna.Template:Sfn The two kings' envoys reached an agreement in Pressburg on 2 July.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn According to their treaty, Stephen promised that he would not assist Ottokar's opponents in Carinthia, and Ottokar renounced the castles he and his partisans held in Hungary.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Hungarians soon recaptured Kőszeg, Borostyánkő and other fortresses along the western border of Hungary.Template:Sfn

File:Funeral Crown of Stephen V Hungarian King.jpg

Stephen's funeral crown

According to the Life of Stephen's saintly sister, Margaret, who had died on 18 January 1270,Template:Sfn Stephen was present when the first miracle attributed to her occurred on the first anniversary of her death.Template:Sfn Stephen, in fact, initiated Margaret's canonization at the Holy See in 1271.Template:Sfn In the same year, Stephen granted town privileges to the citizens of Győr.Template:Sfn He also confirmed the liberties of the Saxon "guests" in the Szepesség region (present-day Spiš, Slovakia), contributing to the development of their autonomous community.Template:Sfn On the other hand, Stephen protected the Archbishop of Esztergom's rights against the conditional nobles of the archbishopric who attempted to get rid of their obligations.Template:Sfn

Ban Joachim Gutkeled kidnapped Stephen's ten-year-old son and heir, Ladislaus and imprisoned him in the castle of Koprivnica in the summer of 1272.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Stephen besieged the fortress, but could not capture it.Template:Sfn Stephen fell ill and was taken to the Csepel Island. He died on 6 August 1272.Template:Sfn Stephen was buried near to the tomb of his sister, Margaret, in the Monastery of the Blessed Virgin on Rabbits' Island.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Family

File:Marie karel2.jpg

Stephen's second daughter, Mary, with her husband, Charles II of Naples and their children

Stephen's wife, Elizabeth, was born around 1239, according to historian Gyula Kristó.Template:Sfn A charter of her father-in-law, Béla IV, refers to one Seyhan, a Cuman chieftain as his kinsman, implying that Seyhan was Elizabeth's father.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Stephen's first child by Elizabeth, Catherine, was born around 1256.Template:Sfn She was given in marriage to Stephen Dragutin, the elder son and heir of King Stephen Uroš I of Serbia, in about 1268.Template:Sfn Her sister Mary was born around 1257 and married the future Charles II of Naples in 1270.Template:Sfn Their grandson Charles Robert became King of Hungary in the first decade of the 14th century.Template:Sfn

According to historian Gyula Kristó, Stephen's third (unnamed) daughter was the wife of Despot Jacob Svetoslav.Template:Sfn Stephen's third (or fourth) daughter, Elizabeth, who was born in about 1260, became a Dominican nun in the Monastery of the Blessed Virgin on Rabbits' Island.Template:Sfn She was appointed prioress in 1277, but her brother, Ladislaus, kidnapped and married her to a Czech baron, Záviš of Falkenstein, in 1288.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Stephen's youngest daughter, Anna, was born in about 1260.Template:Sfn She married Andronikos Palaiologos, son and heir of the Byzantine Emperor, Michael VIII.Template:Sfn

Stephen's first son, Ladislaus IV, was born in 1262.Template:Sfn He succeeded his father in 1272.Template:Sfn Stephen's youngest child, Andrew, was born in 1268 and died at the age of 10.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Sources

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• Template:The Late Medieval Balkans
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• The Annals of Jan Długosz (An English abridgement by Maurice Michael, with commentary by Paul Smith) (1997). IM Publications. Template:ISBN.
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External links

• Britannica.com's article of Stephen V
• Template:Cite EB1911

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