Stephen V of Hungary

Stephen V
King of Hungary and Croatia
Reign	1270–1272
Coronation	1270
Predecessor	Béla IV
Successor	Ladislaus IV
Spouse	Elizabeth the Cuman
Issue
Elizabeth, Queen of Serbia Catherine, Queen of Serbia Mary, Queen of Naples Anne, Byzantine Empress Ladislaus IV of Hungary Andrew, Duke of Slavonia
House	Árpád dynasty
Father	Béla IV of Hungary
Mother	Maria Laskarina
Born	October 18, 1239 Buda, Kingdom of Hungary
Died	August 6, 1272 (aged 33) Csepel Island, Kingdom of Hungary
Burial	Margaret Island, Dominican church

Stephen V (Hungarian: V. István, Croatian: Stjepan V., Slovak: Štefan V) (before 18 October 1239, Buda, Hungary – 6 August 1272, Csepel Island, Hungary), was King of Hungary from 1270 to 1272.

Early years

He was the elder son of King Béla IV of Hungary and his queen, Maria Laskarina, a daughter of the Emperor Theodore I Lascaris of Nicaea.

In the second year following his birth, on 11 April 1241, the Mongolian troops defeated his father's army in the Battle of Mohi. After the disastrous battle, the royal family had to escape to Trau, a well-fortified city in Dalmatia. They could only return to Hungary after the unexpected withdrawal of the Mongol forces from Europe.

Junior King of Hungary

In 1246 Stephen was crowned as junior King and his father entrusted him with the government of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia, but the three provinces were de facto governed by the Ban Stephen Gut-Keled. Stephen's father, attempting to bind the powerful but pagan Cuman tribes more closely to the dynasty, arranged for Stephen's marriage, as a youth (about 1253), to Elizabeth, the daughter of a Cuman chieftain Köten.

In 1257, Stephen demanded that his father divide the kingdom between themselves and recruited an army against the senior king. Finally, in 1258, King Béla IV was obliged to cede to his son the government of Transylvania, with the title duke.

Duke of Styria

Stephen took part in his father's military campaign against the Styrians, who had rebelled against the rule of the King of Hungary, in 1258. After the successful campaign, King Béla IV appointed him to Duke of Styria.

His government, however, was unpopular among his new subjects, who rebelled against him with the support of King Ottokar II of Bohemia. Stephen and his father started an attack against Ottokar's lands, but their troops were defeated on 12 July 1260 in the Battle of Kroissenbrunn. Following the battle, the two Kings of Hungary ceded the Duchy of Styria to the King of Bohemia in the Peace of Pressburg.

Struggles with his father

Shortly after the peace, Stephen took over the government of Transylvania again. In 1261, Stephen and his father conducted a joint military campaign against Bulgaria, but their relationship became more and more tense, because the senior king had been favouring his younger son, Duke Béla of Slavonia and his daughter, Anna, the mother-in-law of the King of Bohemia.

Finally, with the mediation of Archbishops Fülöp of Esztergom and Smaragd of Kalocsa, Stephen and his father signed an agreement in the summer of 1262 in Pozsony. Based on their agreement, Stephen took over the government of the parts of the kingdom East of the Danube. However, the two kings' reconciliation was only temporary, because their partisans were continuously inciting them against each other. In 1264, Stephen seized his mother's and sister's estates in his domains, but his father sent troops against him. Stephen's wife and son were captured by his father's partisans, and he had to retreat to the castle of Feketehalom. However, he managed to repel the siege and to commence a counter-attack.

In March 1265, he gained a strategic victory over his father's army in the Battle of Isaszeg. After his victory, he concluded a peace with King Béla IV. Based on the provisions of the peace, he received back the government of the Eastern parts of the kingdom. On 23 March 1266, father and son confirmed the peace in the Convent of the Blessed Virgin on the Nyulak szigete ('Rabbits' Island'). Shortly afterwards, Stephen V led his army to Bulgaria and forced Despot Jakob Svetoslav of Vidin to accept his overlordship.

In 1267, the "prelates and nobles" of the Kingdom of Hungary held a joint assembly in Esztergom, and their decisions were confirmed by both Stephen and his father.

To secure foreign support, he formed a double matrimonial alliance with the Angevins, chief partisans of the pope. The first of these was the marriage, in 1270, of his daughter Maria to the future King Charles II of Naples The second alliance was the marriage of Stephen's infant son, Ladislaus to Charles II's sister Elisabeth.

King of Hungary

Funeral Crown of Stephen V of Hungary

After his father's death (3 May 1270), Stephen inherited the whole Kingdom of Hungary, although the deceased senior king had entrusted his daughter, Anna and his followers to King Ottokar II of Bohemia in his last will, and they had escaped to Prague before Stephen arrived to Esztergom.

Before his (second) coronation, Stephen granted the County of Esztergom to the Archbishop. In August 1270, Stephen had a meeting with his brother-in-law, Prince Bolesław V of Poland in Kraków where they concluded an alliance against the King of Bohemia. In September 1270 he visited the village Miholjanec, where was discovered an unknown ancient castle and a sword, this sword he got as a gift, in which he and his priests acknowledged the "Holy War Sword of the Scythians" and he saw that he was determined to master the world. He attended the place of the find, where he met a hermit who told him: "Scourge of God". Stephen also had a meeting with Ottokar on 16 October on an island of the Danube near Pozsony where they concluded a truce for two years.

However, following smaller skirmishes on the border, the war broke out soon after and the King of Bohemia lead his armies against Hungary. Stephen was defeated in two smaller battles, but finally won a decisive victory on 21 May 1271 over the Czech and Austrian troops of Ottokar II of Bohemia. In the subsequent peace the King of Bohemia handed back the fortresses occupied during his campaign, while Stephen renounced his claim to the Hungarian royal treasury that his sister, Anna had taken to Prague after their father's death.

In the summer of 1272, Stephen left for Dalmatia, where he wanted to meet King Charles I of Sicily, when he was informed that Joachim Gut-Keled had kidnapped his infant son, Ladislaus, and hid in Koprivnica. Stephen was planning to raise an army to rescue his infant son when he died suddenly.

Marriage and children

In about 1253, he married Elizabeth (1240 – after 1290), daughter of a chieftain of the Cuman tribes, they settled in Hungary and had the following children:

• Elizabeth (1255–1313/1326), wife firstly of Záviš of Falkenštejn and secondly of King Stefan Uroš II Milutin of Serbia
• Catherine (1255/1257 – after 1314), wife of King Stefan Dragutin of Serbia
• Maria (c. 1257 – 25 March 1325), wife of King Charles II of Naples
• Anna (c. 1260 – c. 1281), wife of the Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos
• King Ladislaus IV (August 1262 – 10 July 1290)
• Andrew, Duke of Slavonia (1268–1278)

Titles

King of Hungary, Dalmatia, Croatia, Rama, Bulgaria, Serbia, Galicia, Lodomeria and Cumania; Duke of Styria (1258–1260)

Sources

• Kristó, Gyula - Makk, Ferenc: Az Árpád-ház uralkodói (IPC Könyvek, 1996)
• Korai Magyar Történeti Lexikon (9-14. század), főszerkesztő: Kristó, Gyula, szerkesztők: Engel, Pál és Makk, Ferenc (Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1994)
• Magyarország Történeti Kronológiája I. – A kezdetektől 1526-ig, főszerkesztő: Benda, Kálmán (Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1981)
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• Marek, Miroslav. "A listing of descendants of Árpád dynasty, including him and his siblings". Genealogy.EU. 
• Cawley, Charles, His listing . The project "involves extracting and analysing detailed information from primary sources, including contemporary chronicles, cartularies, necrologies and testaments.", Foundation for Medieval Genealogy, retrieved August 2012 

Stephen V of Hungary House of Árpád Born: before 18 October 1239 Died: 6 August 1272
Regnal titles
Vacant Title last held by Béla	Duke of Transylvania 2nd creation 1257–1259 1260–1270	Vacant Title next held by Stephen
Preceded by Béla I	Duke of Styria 1258–1260	Succeeded by Ottokar V
Preceded by Béla IV	King of Hungary 1270–1272	Succeeded by Ladislaus IV
Titles in pretence
Preceded by Béla IV	— TITULAR — King of Serbia 1270–1272	Succeeded by Ladislaus IV