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The Hungarians, or Magyars, conquered the Carpathian Basin at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries. Here they found a predominantly Slavic-speaking population. From their new homeland, they launched plundering raids against East Francia, Italy and other regions of Europe. Their raids were halted by Otto I, future Holy Roman Emperor, who defeated them at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955. Hungarians lived in patrilineal families, which were organized into clans that formed tribes. The tribal confed

King St Stephen (1000–1038)

Stephen was crowned the first king of Hungary on either December 25, 1000, or January 1, 1001. He consolidated his rule through a series of wars against semi-independent local rulers, including his maternal uncle, Gyula. He proved his kingdom's military strength when he repelled

Pagan revolts, wars and consolidation (1038–1116)

Stephen I survived his son, Emeric, which caused a four-decade crisis. Stephen considered his cousin, Vazul, unsuitable for the throne and named his own sister's son, the Venetian Peter Orseolo, as his heir. After Vazul was blinded and his three sons were expelled, Peter succeede

Colonisation and expansion (1116–1196)

Unsuccessful wars with the Republic of Venice, the Byzantine Empire and other neighboring states characterized the reign of Coloman's son, Stephen II, who succeeded his father in 1116. The earliest mention of the Székelys is in connection with the young king's first war ...

Age of Golden Bulls (1196–1241)

Béla III's son and successor, Emeric, had to face revolts stirred up by his younger brother, Andrew. Furthermore, incited by Enrico Dandolo, Doge of Venice, the armies of the Fourth Crusade took Zadar in 1202. Emeric was succeeded in 1204 by his infant son, Ladislaus III ...

Mongol invasion (1241–1242)

Batu Khan, who was the commander of the Mongol armies invading Eastern Europe, demanded Béla IV's surrender without a fight in 1240. The king refused, and ordered his barons to assemble with their retinue in his camp at Pest. Here, a riot broke out against the Cumans and the mob

Last Árpáds (1242–1301)

After the Mongol withdrawal, Béla IV abandoned his policy of recovering former crown lands. Instead, he granted large estates to his supporters, and urged them to construct stone-and-mortar castles. He initiated a new wave of colonization that resulted in the arrival of a number

With Andrew III's death, the male line of the House of Árpád became extinct, and a period of anarchy began. Charles Robert was crowned king with a provisional crown, but most lords and bishops refused to yield to him because they regarded him as a symbol of the Holy See's attempts to control Hungary. They elected king the twelve-year-old Wenceslaus of Bohemia, who was descended from Béla IV of Hungary in the female line. The young king could not consolidate his position because many ...

The Kingdom of Hungary came into being when Stephen I, grand prince of the Hungarians, was crowned king in 1000 or 1001. He reinforced central authority and forced his subjects to accept Christianity. Although written sources emphasize the role played by German and Italian knights and clerics in the process, a significant part of the Hungarian vocabulary for agriculture, religion and state was taken from Slavic languages. Civil wars, pagan uprisings and the Holy Roman Emperors' unsuccessful atte

Andrew III died on January 14, 1301. His death created an opportunity for about a dozen lords, or "oligarchs", who had by that time achieved de facto independence of the monarch to strengthen their autonomy. They acquired all royal castles in a number of counties where everybody was obliged either to accept their supremacy or to leave. For instance,Matthew III Csák ruled over fourteen counties in the lands now forming Slovakia, Ladislaus Kán administered Transylvania, and Ugrin Csák ...

Charles I introduced a centralized power structure in the 1320s. Stating that "his words has the force of law", he never again convoked the Diet. Even his most faithful partisans depended on revenues from their temporary honours, because the king rarely made land grants. This practice ensured the loyalty of the Drugeths, Lackfis, Szécsényis and other families who emerged in his reign. The castle at Kremnitz, a mining town founded by German miners from Bohemia Charles I's golden forint The ...

Louis I was succeeded in 1382 by his daughter, Mary. However, most noblemen opposed the idea of being ruled by a female monarch. Taking advantage of the situation, a male member of the dynasty, Charles III of Naples claimed the throne for himself. He arrived in the kingdom in September 1385. Although the Diet forced the queen to abdicate and elected Charles of Naples king, the queen's partisans murdered him in February 1386. Paul Horvat, Bishop of Zagreb initiated a new rebellion and declared hi

Sigismund, who had no sons, died in late 1437. The Estates elected his son-in-law, Albert V of Austria, king. Albert promised not to make any decisions without consulting the prelates and the lords. He died of dysentery during an unsuccessful military operation against the Ottomans in 1439. Although Albert's widow, Elizabeth of Luxembourg, gave birth to a posthumous son, Ladislaus V, most noblemen preferred a monarch capable to fight. They offered the crown to Władysław III of Poland ...