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Based on ANTHONY ENDREY: HUNGARIAN HISTORY, The Hungarian Institute,
Melbourne
For fifteen years after the battle on the Lechfeld, the Hungarians and
the German Empire kept an uneasy truce. In the south, however, the long
era of peace with Byzantium encouraged both sides to enter into trade and
cultural relations. The appearance of Greek traders in the settlements of
the Hungarians was matched by the activities of missionaries sent from
Constantinople. Encouraged by the tolerant policies of the gyula, strong
Christian centers grew up in eastern Hungary. After Bulcsu's tragic
disappearance from the scene, the Hungarian ruler Taksony decided to
signify his peaceful intentions and settle the differences with the West.
Taksony sent emissaries to Pope John XII in 960.
Taksony died around 970 and was succeeded by his son Geza, a talented
and ambitious prince who had married the gyula's elder daughter, Sarolt.
Geza was a pagan, but his wife had a Christian upbringing. Geza soon
realized that the days of foreign conquests were over and that his people
could not forever maintain a hostile stance towards the Christian nations
surrounding them, thus he terminated all military excursions into
neighboring countries at once. This necessitated assertion of his
authority over the tribal chieftains who had grown too independent during
the reigns of Solt and Taksony. Later Hungarian chronicles observed that
Geza had "blood on his hands" as he subdued the tribe leaders.
Then Geza took a bold step to settle the differences with the German
Empire. He sent twelve noblemen to Otto the Great, offering a peace treaty
and asking for Christian missionaries for the conversion of the
Hungarians. The Hungarian envoys were received on Easter Sunday by the
ageing emperor, along with kings and ambassadors from other European
countries. On this solemn occasion the emperor concluded peace with the
Magyars (i.e. Hungarians) on behalf of the entire Christian Commonwealth.
In the same year Geza and his household received baptism, including his
four-year old son, Vajk, who then was given the name Stephen in honour of
the patron saint of the diocese of Passau that was also given the task of
converting the people of Hungary. This quickly pushed back the Byzantine
influences in the Church.
The priests arrived from Bavaria as well as from Bohemia and Italy.
Geza appointed a court chaplain and had built a church in his castle at
Esztergom which he made the new seat of the royal court. This was symbolic
of Geza's attitude of opening to the West but it also enabled him to keep
a check on the foreigners flocking into Hungary. The official capital of
Hungary remained Szekesfehervar, the ancient seat of the Arpad dynasty. To
avoid the German expansion under the cloak of religion, Geza gave
precedence to the saintly bishop of Prague, Adalbert, and his Benedictine
monks. The first Benedictine abbey in Hungary was founded after 983 at
Pannonhalma, and became an important center of religion and knowledge for
the next thousand years. Geza also founded a convent for Greek nuns in the
valley of Veszprem, the town which was often visited by the queen, Sarolt,
and later became the official residence of the queens of Hungary. Geza
encouraged the settlement in Hungary of noble knights from the West, a
step which added to his international standing and enriched the economic
and cultural life of his country.
Geza also introduced energetic measures to lay down the foundations of
the military and civil organization of the state. He erected several
fortifications on the immense royal estates and resettled the former
soldiers with their families around the castles. Geza was well on the way
to establishing a western-style government on his own tribal territory,
and probably started the minting of the first silver coinage.
Although the chieftains submitted to Geza and more or less complied
with his commands, these tribal leaders were only waiting for the day when
he was no longer on the scene to assert their independence again. Under
these circumstances, it was particularly important to strengthen his son
Stephen by a suitable marriage. Adalbert's friendship to the German
imperial house played the key role in that. Adalbert, a friend of the
Hungarian royal family and highly regarded by the young emperor Otto III
took the necessary diplomatic moves to bring such a marriage about. He
secured for Stephen the hand of Gisela, daughter of the duke of Bavaria
and second cousin of the emperor. This royal marriage was solemnized by
Adalbert himself in the Benedictine monastery at Scheyern in 996, and put
the final seal on the century-old friendship between Hungary and Bavaria.
Stephen had all the princely attributes, and with Gisela, a cultured and
devout woman they became an exemplary royal couple in every sense.
Geza died less then a year after the royal wedding. Stephen was girt
with a sward in the royal chapel at Esztergom. One of his cousins,
Koppany, however, by his seniority claimed the throne and the hand of the
dowager queen, Sarolt. Koppany laid a siege to the castle of Veszprem to
fill his claim. Stephen collected the Hungarian troops his father
organized so carefully, and also asked help from the foreign knights who
had settled in Hungary. Stephen raised the siege of Veszprem, administered
a crushing defeat to Koppany, and sent the pieces of Koppany's body to the
gates of the larger cities of Veszprem, Esztergom and Gyor, as well as the
fourth quarter to the gyula in Transylvania to warn him not to engage in
fight against him.
Stephen continued his father Geza's work. Applying the decimal
organizational system of his pagan ancestors, he set up ten dioceses in
Hungary, and decreed that every ten village erect a church and maintain a
priest. He began the construction of the cathedral of the Virgin Mary at
Szekesfehervar and enacted that people give one-tenth of their produce to
their bishop. By the year 1000, Stephen felt sufficiently advanced with
his work to receive a crown, the mark of kingship. He also sought the
elevation of the diocese of Esztergom to the rank of archdiocese, as
confirmation of the independence of the Church of Hungary. Even though the
relations with Otto III of Germany were cordial at that time, Stephen sent
his confidant, Bishop Asherik, to Pope Sylvester II in Rome to ask for
these. Stephen wanted to avoid that Hungary become a vassal to the
emperor, so he addressed his request for a crown to the pope who at that
time did not yet assume feudal pretensions. Pope Sylvester granted Stephen
the crown, an apostolic cross, and a letter of apostolic blessing. Stephen
was crowned on New Year's day in 1001 with loudly proclaimed unanimous
approval.
To complete his administrative reorganization of the kingdom, Stephen
established some fifty counties. He put a royal official called ispan in
their charge who were civil as well as military administratives and
enforced Stephen's law. Stephen issued two lawbooks to safeguard royal and
private property and provide penalties for major crimes. He regulated the
status of women, including protection for widows and orphans. The
punishments were considerably more humane than those found in contemporary
Europe. Stephen also carefully observed the custom of holding annual "law
days" at Szekesfehervar in the octave of the Feast of Assumption (August
15). Through establishing a system of tolls and taxes, he ensured revenues
for his vast constructions. The silver coinage minted by him was so well
regarded in Europe that it displaced the German imperial currency in a
number of surrounding countries and was widely used even as far as
Scandinavia. One third of the land was his own, thus creating royal
estates to grant his followers for their loyal services. Another third
belonged to the control of the ispans, and the remaining part laid the
foundations of private ownership as it belonged to the Hungarian clans.
Eventually Stephen set out to subdue the two remaining major
dissidents, the gyula and Ajtony. He first moved against the gyula, his
maternal uncle, and defeated him. The gyula escaped to Poland, and was
followed by his wife. The sons did not follow their father and received
large tracts of land in western Hungary. Ajtony reigned in his seat
Marosvar, being backed by Samuel, Tsar of Bulgaria. Ajtony often stopped
the vital salt supplies coming down the Maros from Transylvania. Stephen
sent one of his relatives, Csanad to capture Marosvar. Ajtony was killed
in the battle and Csanad was rewarded with a substantial share in his
possessions and the command of Marosvar.
Stephen regarded his royal crown as an embodiment of virtues which were
the essential prerequisite for both the reservation of royal power on
earth and the gaining of a crown in eternity. He affirmed this philosophy
with his entire life and brought up his son Emeric in a similar spirit.
Stephen even wrote down his teaching to him in his Admonitions around
1015. Stephen was highly trained in warfare yet he preferred to live in
peace. The religious and political reforms carried out by him also had
profound cultural consequences for the Magyars. The official language of
the royal court became Latin, the language of the western Church marking
the beginning of a strong Latin literature which lasted for over eight
hundred years.
To Stephen's deep grief, most of his children died at a young age, and
his only surviving son, Emeric was killed in a hunting accident in 1031.
Stephen himself passed from the life on August 15, 1038, the Feast of the
Assumption and was buried in the cathedral built by him at Szekesfehervar.
Thirty-five years later, Stephen was canonized a saint of the universal
Church.
(Compiled and entered by Ferenc Pinter.)
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