Stephen V of Hungary

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Stephen V
King of Hungary
Reign 1270 – 1272
Coronation 1270
Predecessor Béla IV
Successor Ladislaus IV
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 1239
Buda, Kingdom of Hungary
Died 1272[aged 33]
Csepel Island, Kingdom of Hungary
Burial Margaret Island, Dominician church

Stephen V (Hungarian: V. István, Croatian: Stjepan VI., Slovak: Štefan V) (before 18 October 1239, Buda, Hungary – 6 August 1272, Csepel Island, Hungary), King of Hungary [1] from 1270[1] to 1272.

Contents

[edit] 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..

[edit] 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 him the government of Transylvania.

[edit] 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 Otakar II of Bohemia. Stephen and his father started an attack against Otakar II'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.

[edit] 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 repeal 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 Jakov 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[2] The second alliance was the marriage of Stephen's infant son, Ladislaus to Charles II's sister Elisabeth.

[edit] King 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 Otakar 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. Stephen also had a meeting with King Otakar II 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 Otakar II. 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 brought 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. Stephen was planning to raise an army to rescue his infant son when he died suddenly.

[edit] Marriage and children

# around 1253: Elisabeth (1240 – after 1290), daughter of a chieftain of the Cuman tribes settled down in Hungary

[edit] 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 the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
Stephen V of Hungary
Born: before 18 October 1239 Died: 6 August 1272
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Béla IV		 King of Hungary
1270[1]–1272		 Succeeded by
Ladislaus IV
Preceded by
Béla I		 Duke of Styria
1258–1260		 Succeeded by
Ottokar V

[edit] Titles

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

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Stephen V. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/565442/Stephen-V
  2. ^ Maria and Charles became the grandparents of King Charles I of Hungary, who ascended the throne, following a long struggle with his opponents, when the male line of the Árpád dinasty extinguished.
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