Taksony of Hungary

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Taksony of Hungary
Grand Prince of the Hungarians
Taksony in Chronicon Pictum
Reign c. 955 – before 972
Predecessor Fajsz
Successor Géza
Issue
Géza of Hungary
Michael, Duke between Morava and Esztergom
Father Zoltán
Mother Unknown daughter of Menumorut
Died before 972

Taksony (c. 905 – bef. / c. 972), Grand Prince of the Hungarians (c. 955 or 955 – bef. / c. 972).[1]

Taksony was the son of Zoltán (Zaltas), the fourth son of Árpád, the second Grand Prince of the Hungarians. The Gesta Hungarorum mentions that his mother was a daughter of Menmarót, the local military leader in the region of Bihar (Romanian: Biharea) at the time of the Hungarian settlement occupation (Honfoglalás). Taksony married a Pecheneg or Bulgar woman.[2]

In 947, Taksony led a raid to Italy as far as Apulia, and King Berengar II of Italy had to buy the peace by paying a large amount of money to him and his followers. He might have taken part in the Battle of Lechfeld (Hungarian: augsburgi csata) where King Otto I of Germany won a decisive victory over the Hungarians. After the defeat the Hungarians stopped their raids (kalandozások) in Western Europe, but they began to pillage the Byzantine Empire.

Taksony became the Grand Prince of the Hungarians just or shortly after the Battle of Lechfeld, but his authority must have been only nominal over some regions of the Carpathian Basin inhabited by the Hungarians. During his rule a large number of Pechenegs and Khalyzians immigrated to the territory of the future Hungary.

In 963, Pope John XII ordained the first Roman Catholic missionary bishop, Zacheus for the Hungarians,[3] but he probably never visited them.

Taksony arranged the marriage of his son Géza of Hungary to Sarolt, the daughter of Gyula of Transylvania.

[edit] Marriage and children

He married an unnamed woman # c. 945: "of the territories of the Cumans"

[edit] References

  1. ^ Miklós Molnár, A concise history of Hungary, Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 17
  2. ^ The Gesta Hungarorum mentions that he married a woman "of the territories of the Cumans", but the Cumans had not crossed the Volga River before the 11th century.
  3. ^ Liutprand of Cremona: Liber de rebus gestis Ottonis magni imperatoris.

[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)
Taksony of Hungary
Born: unknown Died: before 972
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Fajsz
Grand Prince of the Hungarians
955–972
Succeeded by
Géza
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