Andrew I of Hungary
Andrew I | |
---|---|
King of Hungary | |
Reign | September 1046 – December 1060 |
Coronation | September 1046, Székesfehérvár |
Predecessor | Peter |
Successor | Béla I |
Born | c. 1015 |
Died | before 6 December 1060 (aged 44–45) Zirc, Kingdom of Hungary |
Burial | |
Spouse | Anastasia of Kiev |
Issue |
|
Roman Catholic |
Andrew I the White or the Catholic (
His efforts to ensure the succession of his son, Solomon, resulted in the open revolt of his brother Béla. Béla dethroned Andrew by force in 1060. Andrew suffered severe injuries during the fighting and died before his brother was crowned king.
Early life
Childhood (c. 1015–1031)
Medieval sources provide
In exile (1031–1046)
According to medieval chronicles, Vazul was blinded during the reign of his cousin, King
Having his own son died in his father's life, and having no other sons, Stephen, the king of good memory, who was the maternal uncle of [Peter Orseolo], adopted and appointed him as heir to his kingdom. For his kinsman's son disagreed with him on this, [Stephen] had him blinded, even if he was worthier of the kingdom, and sent his little sons into exile.
Exiled from Hungary, Andrew and his brothers settled in the court of Duke
Hungarian chronicles have preserved a story full of fabulous or anachronistic details of the two brothers' ensuing wanderings.[17] For instance, they narrate that Andrew and Levente were captured by Cumans,[17] but the latter only arrived in Europe in the 1050s.[18]
Having received permission from [the Polish monarch, Andrew and Levente] left their brother [Béla] behind and made their way to the King of Lodomeria, who did not receive them. Since they had nowhere to lay their head, they went from there to the [Cumans]. Seeing that they were persons of excellent bearing, the [Cumans] thought that they had come to spy out the land, and unless a captive Hungarian had recognized them, they should certainly have killed them; but they kept them with them for some time. Then they departed thence to Russia.
After enduring many hardships, Andrew and Levente established themselves in the court of Yaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiev (r. 1019–1054) in the late 1030s. The grand prince gave his daughter Anastasia in marriage to Andrew.[17] Kristó writes that Andrew, who had up to that time remained pagan, was baptized on this occasion.[20]
Return to Hungary (1046)
In the meantime, King Peter Orseolo, who had succeeded King Stephen in Hungary in 1038, alienated many lords and prelates, especially when he solemnly recognized the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry III, in 1045.[6][21] According to the Illuminated Chronicle, the discontented lords, "seeing the sufferings of their people",[22] assembled in Csanád (Cenad, Romania).[23] They agreed to send envoys to Andrew and Levente in Kiev in order to persuade them to return to Hungary.[20] Fearing "some treacherous ambush",[24] the two brothers only set out after the agents they had sent to Hungary confirmed that the Hungarians were ripe for an uprising against the king.[20]
By the time the two brothers decided to return, a revolt had broken out in Hungary.[25] It was dominated by pagans who captured many clergymen and mercilessly slaughtered them.[6] They met the rebels at Abaújvár.[20] The Illuminated Chronicle narrates how the pagans urged the dukes "to allow the whole people to live according to the rites of the pagans, to kill the bishops and the clergy, to destroy the churches, to throw off the Christian faith and to worship idols".[24][20] The same source adds that Andrew and Levente gave in to all their demands, "for otherwise they would not fight"[24] for them against King Peter.[20][26]
The Annals of Altaich states that Andrew "savagely raged against the flock of the Holy Church".[26][27] Even so, Bishop Gerard of Csanád and four other prelates were ready to join Andrew, but the pagans captured and slaughtered three of them (including Gerard) at Buda.[23][28] King Peter decided to flee from Hungary and take refuge in Austria.[23] However, Andrew's envoys tricked the king into returning before he reached the frontier, and they captured and blinded him.[23][29]
Reign
Coronation (1046–1047)
Most Hungarian lords and the prelates opposed the restoration of paganism.[21][30] They preferred the devout Christian Andrew to his pagan brother Levente,[21] even if, at least according to Kristó and Steinhübel, the latter was the eldest among Vazul's three sons.[31][32] The Hungarian chronicles write that Levente, who died in short time, did not oppose his brother's ascension to the throne.[32][23] The three bishops who had survived the pagan uprising crowned Andrew in Székesfehérvár in the last quarter of 1046 or in the spring of 1047.[23][33] Historian Ferenc Makk writes that Andrew was crowned with a crown that the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos had sent to him.[33] Nine enamelled plaques from this golden crown were unearthed in Nyitraivánka (Ivanka pri Nitre, Slovakia) in the 19th century.[34] Andrew soon broke with his pagan supporters, restored Christianity and declared pagan rites illegal.[26][30] According to Kosztolnyik, Andrew's epithets (the White or the Catholic) are connected to these events.[35]
Having now been made secure against all disturbances from enemies, Duke Andreas received the crown of kingship in the royal city of Alba. No more than three bishops who had escaped that great slaughter of the Christians performed the ceremony of coronation in the year of our Lord 1047. He made proclamation to all his people that under pain of death they should lay aside the pagan rites which had formerly been permitted to them, and that they should return to the true faith of Christ and live in all things according to the law which King St Stephen had taught them.
Wars with the Holy Roman Empire (1047–1053)
The contemporaneous Hermann of Reichenau narrates that Andrew "sent frequent envoys with humble entreaties" to Emperor Henry III, proposing "an annual tribute and faithful service"[37] if the emperor recognized his reign.[38] Andrew persuaded his brother, Béla, to return from Poland to Hungary in 1048.[39] He also granted his brother one third of the kingdom[39][40] with the title of duke.[30] Béla's duchy comprised two regions which were centered on Nyitra (Nitra, Slovakia) and Bihar (Biharia, Romania).[39][30]
Skirmishes on the frontier between Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire first occurred in 1050.
Andrew initiated new peace negotiations with the emperor and promised to pay an annual tribute, but his offers were refused.[41] Next summer, the emperor returned to Hungary and laid siege to Pressburg (Bratislava, Slovakia).[29] Zotmund, "a most skilful swimmer"[42] scuttled the emperor's ships.[29][41] After Pope Leo IX mediated a peace treaty, the emperor lifted the siege and withdrew from Hungary.[29][41] Andrew soon refused to fulfill his promises made under duress,[41] and even allied with Conrad I, Duke of Bavaria, a prominent opponent of Emperor Henry III.[43]
Because Andreas, the king of the Hungarians was less and less inclined to send envoys and to make promises concerning a peace treaty, [the emperor] laid siege to the fortress of Pressburg and for a long time attacked it with various machines of war. Since, however, God aided the besieged, who anxiously called on Him, his efforts were always frustrated and he could by no means capture it. Meanwhile the lord Pope Leo had intervened at the request of Andreas to make peace and he called on the emperor to end the siege. Since [the pope] found [the emperor] in all respects in agreement with him, while discovering that Andreas on the contrary was less obedient to his advice, he was angry and threatened the latter with excommunication for mocking the apostolic see.
— Herman of Reichenau: Chronicle[44]
Succession crisis and death (1053–1060)
Andrew's queen, Anastasia, gave birth to a son, named
The brothers' relationship did not deteriorate immediately after Solomon's birth.
Andrew suffered a stroke which paralyzed him.[45] In an attempt to strengthen his son's claim to the throne, he had the four-year-old Solomon crowned in the one-year-long period beginning in the autumn of 1057.[45] For the same purpose, Andrew also arranged the engagement of his son with Judith—a daughter of the late Emperor Henry III, and sister of the new German monarch, Henry IV (r. 1056–1105)—in September 1058.[52] Thereafter, according to an episode narrated by most Hungarian chronicles, the king invited Duke Béla to a meeting at Tiszavárkony.[53] At their meeting, Andrew seemingly offered his brother to freely choose between a crown and a sword, which were the symbols of the kingdom and the ducatus, respectively.[54] Duke Béla, who had previously been informed by his partisans in Andrew's court that he would be murdered on the king's order if he opted for the crown, chose the sword.[54]
However, Béla, who actually had no intention of renouncing his claim to succeed his brother in favor of his nephew, fled to Poland and sought military assistance from Duke
The decisive battle was fought in the regions east of the river Tisza.[45] Andrew suffered injuries and lost the battle.[45][54] He attempted to flee to the Holy Roman Empire, but his brother's partisans routed his retinue at Moson.[45] The Annals of Niederaltaich narrates that wagons and horses trampled him in the battlefield.[57] Mortally wounded, Andrew was captured and taken by his brother's partisans to Zirc[45] where "he was treated with neglect",[58] according to the Illuminated Chronicle.[57] Andrew died in the royal manor there before his brother was crowned king on 6 December 1060.[59] Andrew was buried in the crypt of the church of the Tihany Abbey.[60]
Family
Andrew's wife,
King Salomon and David, his brother, never had children, and the seed of King Andreas perished with them. We believe that this was by an act of God; for on his first return with Levente, his brother, to Hungary, Andreas with the purpose of gaining the kingdom permitted the ungodly
Vatha and other most evil men to kill the saintly Gerard and many Christians.
Medieval chronicles write that Andrew had a
The following family tree presents Andrew's ancestry, his offspring, and some of his relatives mentioned in the article.[73]
Taksony | a "Cuman" lady* | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Géza | Michael | a Bulgarian princess** | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stephen I of Hungary | a lady of the Tátony clan | Vazul | Ladislas the Bald | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
concubine from Pilismarót | Andrew I of Hungary | Anastasia of Kiev | Levente | Béla I of Hungary | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Kings of Hungary (from 1074) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Solomon of Hungary | Judith of Swabia | David | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
*A Khazar, Pecheneg or Volga Bulgarian lady.
**Györffy writes that she may have been a member of the Bulgarian Cometopuli dynasty.
Gallery
-
The plaques of gold from the crown found at Nyitraivánka (Ivanka pri Nitre, Slovakia) – Andrew I was crowned with this crown, according to historian Ferenc Makk.
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The sinking of the imperial ships atIlluminated Chronicle
-
TheBenedictine Tihany Abbeyfounded in 1055 by Andrew
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Andrew's tomb in the crypt of the church of the Tihany Abbey
References
- ^ a b c d e Györffy 2000, p. 378.
- ^ Kristó & Makk 1996, pp. 68, Appendices 1-2.
- ^ The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle: (ch. 60.87), p. 113.
- ^ Kristó & Makk 1996, pp. 77, Appendix 2.
- ^ a b c d Kristó & Makk 1996, p. 68.
- ^ a b c d Engel 2001, p. 29.
- ^ a b c d Steinhübel 2011, p. 23.
- ^ a b Györffy 2000, p. 377.
- ^ Engel 2001, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Györffy 2000, pp. 377–378.
- ^ Simon of Kéza: The Deeds of the Hungarians (ch. 2.44), p. 107.
- ^ Kristó 1999, p. 240.
- ^ Manteuffel 1982, p. 81.
- ^ Manteuffel 1982, p. 82.
- ^ a b The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle (ch. 53.78), p. 110.
- ^ Simon of Kéza: The Deeds of the Hungarians (ch. 52.), p. 121.
- ^ a b c d e Kristó & Makk 1996, p. 69.
- ^ Curta 2006, p. 306.
- ^ The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle (ch. 55.80), p. 111.
- ^ a b c d e f Kristó & Makk 1996, p. 70.
- ^ a b c Kontler 1999, p. 59.
- ^ The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle (ch. 55.81), p. 111.
- ^ a b c d e f Kristó & Makk 1996, p. 71.
- ^ a b c The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle (ch. 56.82), p. 111.
- ^ Engel 2001, p. 59.
- ^ a b c Berend, Laszlovszky & Szakács 2007, p. 339.
- ^ Kristó 1999, p. 256.
- ^ Engel 2001, pp. 29–30.
- ^ a b c d e Bartl et al. 2002, p. 26.
- ^ a b c d e f Engel 2001, p. 30.
- ^ Kristó & Makk 1996, pp. 68, Appendix 2.
- ^ a b Steinhübel 2011, p. 25.
- ^ a b Makk 1993, p. 71.
- ^ Buckton 1984, p. 46.
- ^ Kosztolnyik 1981, p. 74.
- ^ The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle (ch. 60.86), p. 113.
- ^ Herman of Reichenau, Chronicle (year 1047), p. 82.
- ^ Kristó & Makk 1996, pp. 72–73.
- ^ a b c Steinhübel 2011, p. 26.
- ^ Kristó & Makk 1996, p. 72.
- ^ a b c d e f Kristó & Makk 1996, p. 73.
- ^ The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle: (ch. 61.89), p. 114.
- ^ Robinson 1999, p. 22.
- ^ Herman of Reichenau, Chronicle (year 1052), pp. 92–93.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Kristó & Makk 1996, p. 75.
- ^ Engel 2001, pp. 30–31.
- ^ a b Kristó & Makk 1996, p. 80.
- ^ Engel 2001, p. 39.
- ^ Kristó & Makk 1996, pp. 74–75.
- ^ Laws of King Ladislas I (Ladislas III:2), p. 1.
- ^ a b Györffy 1994, p. 134.
- ^ Robinson 1999, p. 23.
- ^ Kontler 1999, p. 60.
- ^ a b c d Engel 2001, p. 31.
- ^ Manteuffel 1982, p. 92.
- ^ a b Robinson 1999, p. 35.
- ^ a b Kosztolnyik 1981, p. 77.
- ^ The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle: (ch. 66.93), p. 116.
- ^ Kristó & Makk 1996, pp. 75, 81.
- ^ Berend, Laszlovszky & Szakács 2007, p. 348.
- ^ Wertner 1892, p. 117.
- ^ Kristó & Makk 1996, pp. 69–70.
- ^ a b Kristó & Makk 1996, p. Appendix 2.
- ^ Wertner 1892, p. 123.
- ^ The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle (ch. 71.100), p. 118.
- ^ The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle (ch. 61.88), p. 113.
- ^ a b Kristó & Makk 1996, p. 86.
- ^ The Peerage of Scotland by Peter Brown, Edinburgh, 1834, p.98.
- ^ Systems of Heraldry by Alexander Nisbet, Edinburgh, 1722, vol.1, p.60.
- ^ The Baronage of Scotland by Sir Robert Douglas, Bt., et al, Edinburgh, 1798, p.571.
- ^ The Scottish Nation by William Anderson, Edinburgh, 1867, vol.iv, p.60.
- ^ Wertner 1892, p. 136.
- ^ Kristó & Makk 1996, p. Appendices 1-2.
Sources
Primary sources
- "Herman of Reichenau, Chronicle" (2008). In Robinson, I. S. Eleventh-Century Germany: The Swabian Chronicles. Manchester University Press. pp. 58–98. ISBN 978-0-7190-7734-0.
- Simon of Kéza: The Deeds of the Hungarians (Edited and translated by László Veszprémy and Frank Schaer with a study by Jenő Szűcs) (1999). CEU Press. ISBN 963-9116-31-9.
- The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle: Chronica de Gestis Hungarorum (Edited by Dezső Dercsényi) (1970). Corvina, Taplinger Publishing. ISBN 0-8008-4015-1.
- "The Laws of King Ladislas I (1077–1095): Book Three". In The Laws of the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary, 1000–1301 (Translated and Edited by János M. Bak, György Bónis, James Ross Sweeney with an essay on previous editions by Andor Czizmadia, Second revised edition, In collaboration with Leslie S. Domonkos) (1999). Charles Schlacks, Jr. Publishers. pp. 15–22. OL 12153527M. (ISBN may be misprinted in the book as 88445-29-2).
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- ISBN 978-0-521-87616-2.
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- ISBN 0-8143-1682-4.
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- ISBN 978-0-521-80253-6.
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