RULERS OF HUNGARY (MAGYARORSZÁG): HISTORICAL NOTE
The Magyars or Hungarians first appear to have been members of the Khazar confederacy. The ethnic composition of this people is complex and it included both Finnish (the Magyars) and Turkic (the Onogurs or Onogundurs) elements, sharing the latter with the Bulgar state. In the early 9th century the Magyars had settled somewhere in the area between the Danube and the Dnieper and acted as allies or foederati of the Bulgarians until 895, when they were enlisted by the Byzantines to attack Bulgaria. After an initial success, the Magyars were defeated by an alliance of the Bulgarians and the Pečenegs and migrated to the Middle Danube and their modern homeland. Here, under the leadership of Árpád, they destroyed Great Moravia and established a principality. A number of leaders, apparently unwilling to submit to Árpád and his heirs, may have settled under nominal Bulgarian territory along the Tisza. These were brought into submission by the first Hungarian king, István I in the years after 1000. Towards the end of István I’s reign, with the acquisition of Transylvania and the Banat, Hungary would have achieved most of its medieval territory, which comprised what is now Hungary, Slovakia, parts of Austria and Croatia, and the part of Romania that is north and west of the Carpathians. After the death of István I in 1038, Germans and then Byzantines intervened in Hungarian politics, but the Arpadian dynasty remained strong. László I and Kálmán annexed Croatia, uniting it in a personal union with Hungary in the late 11th and early 12th century. Béla III took advantage of the weakening of his Byzantine allies to advance in the Balkans, although this was only temporary. Imre followed his father’s policy without much success, but his brother András II had to concede privileges to the nobility. During the reign of Béla IV, Hungary suffered considerable devastation by the Mongol attack in the early 1240s. The extinction of the Arpadian line at the end beginning of the 14th century brought the Neapolitan Angevins on the throne in the person of Károly I Róbert. He and his son Lajos I continued the expansionist policies of their 13th-century predecessors and at times established suzerainty their Balkan and Romanian neighbors. Through the daughter of Lajos I the crown passed to the future Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg, whose daughter brought it to the Habsburgs. However, an anti-Habsburg faction invited members of the Polish-Lithuanian royal family in and elected them kings, namely Ulászló I and II. The untimely death of Ulászló II’s son in battle against the Ottomans at his sister’s marriage to the Habsburg Ferdinánd I brought the Hungarian crown back to the Habsburgs. However, these had to contend with both the Ottoman Turks and the ‘National’ anti-kings János I and János II in Transylvania. By 1570, the Habsburgs were left as the sole claimants of the crown of Hungary but controlled only parts of western and northern Hungary and Slovakia. In the 1680s and 1690s a series of Habsburg victories over the Ottomans liberated all Hungary and Transylvania except the Banat. The next Habsburg offensive in the early 18th century liberated the Banat and expanded, albeit temporarily, into northern Serbia and western Wallachia. Brewing Hungarian nationalism led to a rebellion during which the Habsburgs were deposed and a republican regime set up in 1849. With Russian support, the Habsburgs were restored but in 1867 they formally divided their empire between the crowns of Austria and Hungary. However, by doing this they failed to redress the national claims of the Slavs of Bohemia, Slovakia, Galicia, and Croatia, and Serbian irredentists. This led to the murder of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo in 1914 and the First World War. As part of the losing alliance, Hungary was stripped of Slovakia, Transylvania, the Banat, and Croatia. The Habsburg king Károly IV was exiled in 1918 and formally deposed in 1921. After several ephemeral republican regimes, Hungary was a kingdom without a king from 1920 to 1944, under the regency of general Mikós Horthy de Nagybánya, who was ousted toward the end of the Second World War.
|
Dukes of Hungary |
|
895–907 |
ÁRPÁD |
Son of Álmos; led migration into Hungary |
907–947 |
ZOLTA |
Son of Árpád |
947–955 |
FAJSZ |
Son of Jutas, son of Árpád |
955–972 |
TAKSONY |
Son of Zolta |
972–997 |
GÉZA István |
Son of Taksony |
997–1001 |
ISTVÁN I (Saint) |
Vajk, son of Géza; King from 1001, died 1038 |
|
Kings of Hungary |
|
1001–1038 |
ISTVÁN I (Saint) |
= Duke István I of Hungary; King 1001 |
1038–1041 |
PÉTER |
Son of Ottone Orseolo of Venice by Mária, daughter of
Géza; deposed |
1041–1044 |
SÁMUEL Aba |
Married Sarolta, daughter of Géza; murdered |
1044–1046 |
PETER |
Restored; deposed, died 1047 or 1059 (?) |
1046–1060 |
ANDRÁS I |
Son of Vazul, son of Mihály, son of Taksony |
1060–1063 |
BÉLA I |
Brother of András I |
1063–1074 |
SALAMON |
Son of András I; deposed, killed 1087 |
1074–1077 |
GÉZA I |
Son of Béla I |
1077–1095 |
LÁSZLÓ I (Saint) |
Son of Béla I |
1095–1116 |
KÁLMÁN the Booklover |
Son of Géza I |
1116–1131 |
ISTVÁN II |
Son of Kálmán |
1131–1141 |
BÉLA II the Blind |
Son of Álmos, son of Géza I |
1141–1161 |
GÉZA II |
Son of Béla II |
1161–1173 |
ISTVÁN III |
Son of Géza II |
(1162–1163) |
LÁSZLÓ II |
Son of Béla II |
(1163–1165) |
ISTVÁN IV |
Son of Béla II; murdered |
1173–1196 |
BÉLA III Elek |
Son of Géza II |
1196–1204 |
IMRE |
Son of Béla III; co-ruler1185 |
1204–1205 |
LÁSZLÓ III |
Son of Imre; co-ruler 1204 |
1205–1235 |
ANDRÁS II |
Son of Béla III |
1235–1270 |
BÉLA IV |
Son of András II; co-ruler 1214 |
1270–1272 |
ISTVÁN V |
Son of Béla IV; co-ruler 1245 |
1272–1290 |
LÁSZLÓ IV the Cumanian |
Son of István V; murdered |
1290–1301 |
ANDRÁS III the Venetian |
Son of István son of András II |
(1290–1295) |
KÁROLY MARTELL |
Son of Charles II of Naples by Mária daughter of István
V; claimant in Croatia |
1301–1305 |
VENCEL of Psemyšl |
Son of Václav II of Bohemia son of Otakar II of Bohemia
by Kunigunda daughter of Rostislav of Mačva by Anna daughter of Béla IV;
abdicated, murdered 1306 |
1305–1307 |
OTTÓ of Bavaria |
Son of Heinrich I of Bavaria by Erzsébet daughter of
Béla IV; deposed, died 1312 |
1307–1342 |
KÁROLY I Róbert |
Son of Károly Martell |
1342–1382 |
LAJOS I the Great |
Son of Károly I |
1382–1385 |
MÁRIA |
Daughter of Lajos I; deposed |
1385–1386 |
KÁROLY II the Short |
Son of Louis of Durrazo son of Jean of Gravina brother
of Károly Martell; murdered |
1386–1395 |
MÁRIA |
Restored |
1387–1437 |
ZSIGMOND of Luxemburg |
Son of Karel I of Bohemia; married Mária |
1438–1439 |
ALBERT of Habsburg |
Son of Albrecht IV of Austria; married Erzsébet
daughter of Zsigmond |
1440–1440 |
LÁSZLÓ V the Posthumous |
Posthumous son of Albert |
1440–1444 |
ULÁSZLÓ I of Varna |
Son of Władysław V of Poland; elected king;
killed against the Ottomans at Varna |
1444–1457 |
LÁSZLÓ V the Posthumous |
Restored |
1458–1490 |
MÁTYÁS I Corvin |
Son of János Hunyadi |
1490–1516 |
ULÁSZLÓ II |
Son of Kazimierz IV of Poland brother of Ulászló I |
1516–1526 |
LAJOS II |
Son of Ulászló II; co-ruler 1508; killed against the
Ottomans at Mohács |
1526–1564 |
FERDINÁND I of Habsburg |
Son of Felipe I of Castile; married Anna daughter of
Ulászló II |
(1526–1540) |
JÁNOS I Szapolyai |
Son of István Szapolyai |
(1540–1571) |
JÁNOS II Zsigmond |
Son of János I |
1564–1576 |
MIKSA |
Son of Ferdinánd I; co-ruler 1563 |
1576–1608 |
RUDOLF |
Son of Miksa; co-ruler 1572; abdicated, died 1612 |
1608–1619 |
MÁTYÁS II |
Son of Miksa |
1619–1637 |
FERDINÁND II |
Son of Karl II of Styria son of Ferdinánd I; co-ruler
1618 |
1637–1657 |
FERDINÁND III |
Son of Ferdinánd II; co-ruler 1625 |
|
FERDINÁND IV |
Son of Ferdinánd III; co-ruler 1647–1654 |
1657–1705 |
LIPÓT I |
Son of Ferdinánd III |
1705–1711 |
JÓZSEF I |
Son of Lipót I; co-ruler 1687 |
1711–1740 |
KÁROLY III |
Son of Lipót I |
1740–1780 |
MÁRIA TERÉZIA |
Daughter of Károly III |
1780–1790 |
JÓZSEF II |
Son of Mária Terézia by Franz I of Germany |
1790–1792 |
LIPÓT II |
Son of Mária Terézia by Franz I of Germany |
1792–1835 |
FERENC I |
Son of Lipót II |
1835–1848 |
FERDINÁND V the Goodly |
Son of Ferenc I; abdicated, died 1875 |
1848–1916 |
FERENC JÓZSEF |
Son of Ferenc Károly son of Ferenc I (temporarily
deposed by republic in 1849) |
1916–1921 |
KÁROLY IV |
Son of Ottó son of Károly Lajos brother of Ferenc
József; deposed, died 1922 |
1920–1944 |
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya |
Regent; deposed, died 1957 |