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.

 

RULERS OF HUNGARY (MAGYARORSZÁG): LIST

 

 

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