Principality of Hungary
Encyclopedia
The Principality of Hungary, also Hungarian Principality or Duchy of Hungary (also Grand Principality; ), was the first documented Hungarian state, a tribal alliance in the Carpathian Basin, established 895 or 896, following the 9th-century Magyar invasion of Pannonia.
The Magyars
(Hungarians), a semi-nomadic group of people led by Árpád
formed the Principality of Hungary at the very end of the 9th century, arriving from Etelköz, their earlier principality east of the Carpathians.
The principality was succeeded by the Christian kingdom of Hungary with the coronation of Stephen I in AD 1000.
In contemporary Byzantine
sources, the territory of the Hungarian tribal alliance
was also known as in Greek
as "Western Tourkia
", because of its allegiance to the Khazar Khaganate. The Hungarian historiography also calls the entire period from 896 to 1000 "the age of principality".
On the eve of the arrival of the Magyars, East Francia, the First Bulgarian Empire
and Great Moravia
(a vassal state of East Francia) ruled the territory of the Carpathian Basin. This area had been sparsely populated, since Charlemagne’s destruction of the Avar state in 803 and the Magyars (Hungarians) were able to move in virtually unopposed, peacefully.
The freshly unified Hungarians led by Árpád settled in the Carpathian Basin starting in 895. This now highly-centralized and controlled principality, initially a warrior-state, with a new-found military force, conducted vigorous raids from Constantinople to as far away as central Spain and the periodic attacks lasted till 970.
The movement from a ranked chiefdom society
to state society was one of the most important change during this time. In the first time, Magyars retained a semi-nomadic lifestye changing pastures between winter and summer, Hungarians would migrate between winter and summer dwelling-places along a river, finding water for their livestock. According to Györffy
's theory from placenames, Árpád's winter quarters -clearly after his occupation of Pannonia in 900- were possibly in 'Árpádváros' (Árpád's town), now a district of Pécs
, and his summer quarters -as confirmed by Anonymus- were in Csepel Island
. Later, his new summer quarters were in Csallóköz in conformity with this theory, however the exact location of the early center of the state is disputed. According to Gyula Kristó the center was located between Danube
and Tisza
rivers, however the archeological findings expect the location at the region of Upper Tisza
.
Forced by changed economic circumstances, insufficient pasturage to support a nomad society and the impossibility of moving on, the semi-nomadic Hungarian lifestyle began to transform and they adopted settled life. Magyars ceased being semi-nomads and turned to agriculture. However the beginning of conversion of Hungarian society to agriculture can be dated back to the 8th century. The society began to show uniform image, the local Slavic and other populations merged with the Hungarians. The Hungarian tribal leaders and their clans established fortified centers in the country and later their castles became centers of the counties. The whole system of Hungarian villages grew up in the 10th century.
Fajsz and Taksony, the Grand Princes of the Hungarians, began to reform the power structure. They invited Christian missionaries for the first time and built forts. Taksony abolished the old center of the Hungarian principality (possibly at Upper Tisza
) and sought a new one at Székesfehérvár
and Esztergom
. Taksony also renewed the old style military attendance, changed the weaponry of the army, implemented large-scale organized resettlements of the Hungarian population.
After the battle of Arcadiopolis, the Byzantine Empire
was the primary enemy for the Hungarians. The Byzantine expansion threatened the Hungarians, because the subjugated First Bulgarian Empire were in alliance with the Magyars at that time. The situation became more difficult for the principality when the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Empire made an alliance in 972. In 973, twelve illustrious Magyar envoys, whom probably Géza had assigned, participated in the Diet held by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor
. Géza established closed ties with the Bavarian court, inviting missionaries and marrying his son to Gisela, daughter of the Duke Henry II. Géza of the Árpád dynasty, Grand Prince of the Hungarians, who ruled only part of the united territory, the nominal overlord of all seven Magyar tribes
, intended to integrate Hungary into Christian Western Europe, rebuilding the state according to the Western political and social model. Géza's first-born son, Saint Stephen I became the first King of Hungary after defeating his cousin Koppány
, who also claimed the throne.
Hungary was emerged on the frontier of Christendom
. From the second half of the 10th century, Christianity flourished as Catholic missionaries arrived from Germany. Between 945 and 963, the main office-holders of Principality (the Grand Prince (Taksony), the Gyula, and the Horka) were willing to christen.
In 973 Géza I and all his household were baptised, and a formal peace concluded with Emperor Otto I, however he remained essentially pagan even after his baptism. Due to Géza's fater, Taksony, Géza was educated to become a pagan prince. The first Hungarian Benedictine monastery was founded in 996 by Prince Géza. During Géza's reign, the nation conclusively renounced its nomadic way of life and within a few decades of the battle of Lechfeld
became a Christian kingdom.
). The kingship was divided between the sacral
prince Kende
and the military leader Gyula. It is not known which of the two roles were assigned to Árpád and which to Kurszán
. Possibly, after the Kende Kurszán's death, the principality changed its conformation and became a single-head principality led by Árpád
. The Byzantine Constantine Porphyrogennetos called Árpád the "ho megas Tourkias archon
" (the great prince of Tourkia
), and all of the 10th century princes who ruled the country held this title. According to the Agnatic seniority
the oldest members of the ruling clan inherited the principality. Likely, the Grand princes of Hungary did not possess superior power, because during the military campaigns to the west and to the south the initially strong princely power had diminished. Moreover, the records did not negotiate Grand Princes in the first half of the 10th century, except in one case, when they mention Taksony
as 'king of Hungary' (Taxis-dux, dux Tocsun) in 947. The role of military leaders (Bulcsú, Lél) grew more significant. The princes of the Árpád dynasty
bore Turkic
names as the majority of the Hungarian tribes.
The Magyars
Magyar tribes
The Magyar tribes were the fundamental political units whose framework the Hungarians lived within, until these clans from Asia, more accurately from the region of Ural Mountains, invaded the Carpathian Basin and established the Principality of Hungary.The locality in which the Hungarians, the...
(Hungarians), a semi-nomadic group of people led by Árpád
Árpád
Árpád was the second Grand Prince of the Hungarians . Under his rule the Hungarian people settled in the Carpathian basin. The dynasty descending from him ruled the Hungarian tribes and later the Kingdom of Hungary until 1301...
formed the Principality of Hungary at the very end of the 9th century, arriving from Etelköz, their earlier principality east of the Carpathians.
The principality was succeeded by the Christian kingdom of Hungary with the coronation of Stephen I in AD 1000.
In contemporary Byzantine
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
sources, the territory of the Hungarian tribal alliance
Magyar tribes
The Magyar tribes were the fundamental political units whose framework the Hungarians lived within, until these clans from Asia, more accurately from the region of Ural Mountains, invaded the Carpathian Basin and established the Principality of Hungary.The locality in which the Hungarians, the...
was also known as in Greek
Medieval Greek
Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, is the stage of the Greek language between the beginning of the Middle Ages around 600 and the Ottoman conquest of the city of Constantinople in 1453. The latter date marked the end of the Middle Ages in Southeast Europe...
as "Western Tourkia
Tourkia
Tourkia may be:*the modern Greek name of Turkey*in medieval Greek , the name of the Khazar Khaganate and of the Hungary...
", because of its allegiance to the Khazar Khaganate. The Hungarian historiography also calls the entire period from 896 to 1000 "the age of principality".
Magyar invasion
First Bulgarian Empire
The First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state founded in the north-eastern Balkans in c. 680 by the Bulgars, uniting with seven South Slavic tribes...
and Great Moravia
Great Moravia
Great Moravia was a Slavic state that existed in Central Europe and lasted for nearly seventy years in the 9th century whose creators were the ancestors of the Czechs and Slovaks. It was a vassal state of the Germanic Frankish kingdom and paid an annual tribute to it. There is some controversy as...
(a vassal state of East Francia) ruled the territory of the Carpathian Basin. This area had been sparsely populated, since Charlemagne’s destruction of the Avar state in 803 and the Magyars (Hungarians) were able to move in virtually unopposed, peacefully.
The freshly unified Hungarians led by Árpád settled in the Carpathian Basin starting in 895. This now highly-centralized and controlled principality, initially a warrior-state, with a new-found military force, conducted vigorous raids from Constantinople to as far away as central Spain and the periodic attacks lasted till 970.
Transition
The movement from a ranked chiefdom society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
to state society was one of the most important change during this time. In the first time, Magyars retained a semi-nomadic lifestye changing pastures between winter and summer, Hungarians would migrate between winter and summer dwelling-places along a river, finding water for their livestock. According to Györffy
György Györffy
György Györffy was a Hungarian historian, and member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences .-Biography:...
's theory from placenames, Árpád's winter quarters -clearly after his occupation of Pannonia in 900- were possibly in 'Árpádváros' (Árpád's town), now a district of Pécs
Pécs
Pécs is the fifth largest city of Hungary, located on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the south-west of the country, close to its border with Croatia. It is the administrative and economical centre of Baranya county...
, and his summer quarters -as confirmed by Anonymus- were in Csepel Island
Csepel Island
Csepel Island is the largest island of the River Danube in Hungary. It is 48 km long; its width is 6–8 km. Its area comprises 257 km². The word Csepel is pronounced CHE-pel....
. Later, his new summer quarters were in Csallóköz in conformity with this theory, however the exact location of the early center of the state is disputed. According to Gyula Kristó the center was located between Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
and Tisza
Tisza
The Tisza or Tisa is one of the main rivers of Central Europe. It rises in Ukraine, and is formed near Rakhiv by the junction of headwaters White Tisa, whose source is in the Chornohora mountains and Black Tisa, which springs in the Gorgany range...
rivers, however the archeological findings expect the location at the region of Upper Tisza
Tisza
The Tisza or Tisa is one of the main rivers of Central Europe. It rises in Ukraine, and is formed near Rakhiv by the junction of headwaters White Tisa, whose source is in the Chornohora mountains and Black Tisa, which springs in the Gorgany range...
.
Forced by changed economic circumstances, insufficient pasturage to support a nomad society and the impossibility of moving on, the semi-nomadic Hungarian lifestyle began to transform and they adopted settled life. Magyars ceased being semi-nomads and turned to agriculture. However the beginning of conversion of Hungarian society to agriculture can be dated back to the 8th century. The society began to show uniform image, the local Slavic and other populations merged with the Hungarians. The Hungarian tribal leaders and their clans established fortified centers in the country and later their castles became centers of the counties. The whole system of Hungarian villages grew up in the 10th century.
Fajsz and Taksony, the Grand Princes of the Hungarians, began to reform the power structure. They invited Christian missionaries for the first time and built forts. Taksony abolished the old center of the Hungarian principality (possibly at Upper Tisza
Tisza
The Tisza or Tisa is one of the main rivers of Central Europe. It rises in Ukraine, and is formed near Rakhiv by the junction of headwaters White Tisa, whose source is in the Chornohora mountains and Black Tisa, which springs in the Gorgany range...
) and sought a new one at Székesfehérvár
Székesfehérvár
Székesfehérvár is a city in central Hungary and is the 9th largest in the country. Located around southwest of Budapest. It is inhabited by 101,973 people , with 136,995 in the Székesfehérvár Subregion. The city is the centre of Fejér county and the regional centre of Central Transdanubia...
and Esztergom
Esztergom
Esztergom , is a city in northern Hungary, 46 km north-west of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom county, on the right bank of the river Danube, which forms the border with Slovakia there....
. Taksony also renewed the old style military attendance, changed the weaponry of the army, implemented large-scale organized resettlements of the Hungarian population.
After the battle of Arcadiopolis, the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
was the primary enemy for the Hungarians. The Byzantine expansion threatened the Hungarians, because the subjugated First Bulgarian Empire were in alliance with the Magyars at that time. The situation became more difficult for the principality when the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Empire made an alliance in 972. In 973, twelve illustrious Magyar envoys, whom probably Géza had assigned, participated in the Diet held by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor
Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor
Otto I the Great , son of Henry I the Fowler and Matilda of Ringelheim, was Duke of Saxony, King of Germany, King of Italy, and "the first of the Germans to be called the emperor of Italy" according to Arnulf of Milan...
. Géza established closed ties with the Bavarian court, inviting missionaries and marrying his son to Gisela, daughter of the Duke Henry II. Géza of the Árpád dynasty, Grand Prince of the Hungarians, who ruled only part of the united territory, the nominal overlord of all seven Magyar tribes
Magyar tribes
The Magyar tribes were the fundamental political units whose framework the Hungarians lived within, until these clans from Asia, more accurately from the region of Ural Mountains, invaded the Carpathian Basin and established the Principality of Hungary.The locality in which the Hungarians, the...
, intended to integrate Hungary into Christian Western Europe, rebuilding the state according to the Western political and social model. Géza's first-born son, Saint Stephen I became the first King of Hungary after defeating his cousin Koppány
Koppány
Koppány was a Hungarian nobleman of the tenth century. Brother of the ruling prince of Hungary, Géza of the Árpád dynasty, Koppány ruled as Prince of Somogy in the region south of Lake Balaton...
, who also claimed the throne.
Christianization
Christendom
Christendom, or the Christian world, has several meanings. In a cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community of Christians, adherents of Christianity...
. From the second half of the 10th century, Christianity flourished as Catholic missionaries arrived from Germany. Between 945 and 963, the main office-holders of Principality (the Grand Prince (Taksony), the Gyula, and the Horka) were willing to christen.
In 973 Géza I and all his household were baptised, and a formal peace concluded with Emperor Otto I, however he remained essentially pagan even after his baptism. Due to Géza's fater, Taksony, Géza was educated to become a pagan prince. The first Hungarian Benedictine monastery was founded in 996 by Prince Géza. During Géza's reign, the nation conclusively renounced its nomadic way of life and within a few decades of the battle of Lechfeld
Battle of Lechfeld
The Battle of Lechfeld , often seen as the defining event for holding off the incursions of the Hungarians into Western Europe, was a decisive victory by Otto I the Great, King of the Germans, over the Hungarian leaders, the harka Bulcsú and the chieftains Lél and Súr...
became a Christian kingdom.
Organization of the state
Until 907 (or 904), the Hungarian state was controlled by joint rule (shaped from the KhazarsKhazars
The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...
). The kingship was divided between the sacral
Sacral
Sacral may refer to:*sacred*sacrum...
prince Kende
Kende
The kende was one of the kings of the dual-monarchy of the early Magyars, along with the gyula or war-chief. The function of the kende is believed to have been a religious one. At the time of the Magyar migration to Pannonia, the Kende was named Kurszán...
and the military leader Gyula. It is not known which of the two roles were assigned to Árpád and which to Kurszán
Kurszán
Kurszán , the Magyar sacral prince, was a partner ruler besides Árpád till his death. He had a crucial role in the Hungarian Conquest . In 892/893 together with Arnulf of Carinthia he attacked Great Moravia to secure the eastern borders of the Frankish Empire. Arnulf gave him all the captured...
. Possibly, after the Kende Kurszán's death, the principality changed its conformation and became a single-head principality led by Árpád
Árpád
Árpád was the second Grand Prince of the Hungarians . Under his rule the Hungarian people settled in the Carpathian basin. The dynasty descending from him ruled the Hungarian tribes and later the Kingdom of Hungary until 1301...
. The Byzantine Constantine Porphyrogennetos called Árpád the "ho megas Tourkias archon
Archon
Archon is a Greek word that means "ruler" or "lord", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem ἀρχ-, meaning "to rule", derived from the same root as monarch, hierarchy, and anarchy.- Ancient Greece :In ancient Greece the...
" (the great prince of Tourkia
Tourkia
Tourkia may be:*the modern Greek name of Turkey*in medieval Greek , the name of the Khazar Khaganate and of the Hungary...
), and all of the 10th century princes who ruled the country held this title. According to the Agnatic seniority
Agnatic seniority
Agnatic seniority is a patrilineal principle of inheritance where the order of succession to the throne prefers the monarch's younger brother over the monarch's own sons. A monarch's children succeed only after the males of the elder generation have all been exhausted...
the oldest members of the ruling clan inherited the principality. Likely, the Grand princes of Hungary did not possess superior power, because during the military campaigns to the west and to the south the initially strong princely power had diminished. Moreover, the records did not negotiate Grand Princes in the first half of the 10th century, except in one case, when they mention Taksony
Taksony
Named after the last pagan ruling prince, Taksony of Hungary, Taksony is a village of roughly 6,000 inhabitants roughly 23 kilometers south of Budapest, on the bank of the Ráckeve branch of the Danube known as Kisduna...
as 'king of Hungary' (Taxis-dux, dux Tocsun) in 947. The role of military leaders (Bulcsú, Lél) grew more significant. The princes of the Árpád dynasty
Árpád dynasty
The Árpáds or Arpads was the ruling dynasty of the federation of the Hungarian tribes and of the Kingdom of Hungary . The dynasty was named after Grand Prince Árpád who was the head of the tribal federation when the Magyars occupied the Carpathian Basin, circa 895...
bore Turkic
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...
names as the majority of the Hungarian tribes.
Titles
- Megas archon or Magnus princeps, the Grand Prince of Hungarians (first rank)
- Gyla or djila, Gyula, the military leader (second rank)
- Horca, Kharkhas, the judge (third rank)
- KendeKendeThe kende was one of the kings of the dual-monarchy of the early Magyars, along with the gyula or war-chief. The function of the kende is believed to have been a religious one. At the time of the Magyar migration to Pannonia, the Kende was named Kurszán...
, the sacralSacralSacral may refer to:*sacred*sacrum...
prince, (until 907 CE)