King István II (Stephen II) – (Székesfehérvár, 1101 – Székesfehérvár, 1 March 1131) King of Hungary and Croatia from 1116 to 1131. He was the Junior King from 1105 to 1116 and the King of Dalmatia from 1105 to 1119 and from 1124 to 1125. His father was King Kálmán the Bookish, and his mother was Kálmán’s first wife, Queen Felícia, a Norman princess of Sicily.
His reign was fraught with conflict. He lost Dalmatia, and his warfare against the Russian principalities was unsuccessful; in contrast, he was successful in the Hungarian-Byzantine War of 1127-1129 and thwarted attempts to overthrow his rule. In addition to the war conflicts, his life was made more difficult by the absence of an heir to the throne, and after his death, the crown was placed on the head of Béla the Blind, who had been made unfit to rule by King Kálmán. His later reputation was very negative as a result, although his reign was generally successful. What he could achieve as a Hungarian king in the circumstances of the time, he largely achieved.
There is no information about István’s upbringing. There is no indication that the father, known for his extensive education, provided his son with an education of a similar standard to his own. After his triumphant campaign in Dalmatia in 1105, King Kálmán crowned the 4-year-old child as a Junior King, to make it clear that he considered his son his legitimate heir against Prince Álmos.
Prince Álmos then intensified his efforts to gain the crown, which led to his and his son, the future King Béla II, being blinded around 1115. Kálmán had their main followers blinded as well. King Kálmán’s ruthless act proved effective, for a few days after his death on 3 February 1116, Archbishop Lőrinc of Esztergom crowned István king at Székesfehérvár.
King István II succeeded to power in an unfavourable foreign policy situation. In the German-Roman Empire, Henry V was still in power, having supported Prince Álmos with a campaign in 1108. The Hungarian-German relationship was aggravated by the fact that István II, like his father, sided with the Pope in the battle of the Invesitura (as evidenced by the fact that in the early 1120s István married the daughter of the Norman Prince Robert of Cappuá, who was the son of the Norman Prince of Cappuá. The marriage must have been mediated by Pope Callixtus II because the Norman principality was the Pope’s staunchest supporter in the struggle against the Empire.)
War in Bohemia
Hungarian-Bohemian relations deteriorated in 1108, when the then Prince of Bohemia took part in the campaign of Henry V. The conquest of the south, especially of Dalmatia, by King Kálmán confronted the Kingdom of Hungary with Venice. By the time István ascended the throne, there was already an armed struggle with Venice in Dalmatia, so Hungarian foreign policy sought to break out of isolation by improving Hungarian-Bohemian relations.
King István II and the Bohemian prince Vladislav I started their peace negotiations on the Hungarian-Moravian border at the Olsava River, to which both rulers marched with their armies. The events were recorded by both Bohemian and Hungarian sources. The two accounts do not overlap, but what is certain is that they did not agree because of the great distrust between them. Instead, on 13 May 1116, a bloody battle broke out in which the army of István II was defeated.
The contemporary chronicler Kozma of Prague, referring to the Battle of Augsburg, noted that as many Hungarians perished there as were not lost even along the Lech River. ‘ Thus, István’s first foreign policy action failed, and Hungarian-Bohemian relations remained hostile. Later, King István II took in the emigrants of the Bohemian throne fights that broke out soon afterward.
War for Dalmatia
Ordelafo Faliero, Doge of Venice, set out in August 1115, during the lifetime of King Kálmán, to conquer the Dalmatian territories under Hungarian rule, and he succeeded in part. His next attack, in May 1116, had already won the political support of the German-Roman Emperor Henry V and the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I. On 29 June 1116, the Venetians defeated the Hungarian armies led by Kledin Bán (Duke) near Zára, and the citizens of Spalato drove the Hungarians out of the city, leaving the whole of Dalmatia in the hands of the Doge.
The Byzantine and German support of Venice did not mean an anti-Hungarian alliance between the two empires, only that their Italian counterparts wanted to win the support of Venice. The consequence was a deterioration in Byzantine-Hungarian relations. The Kingdom of Hungary did not give up its conquests easily. In the following years, Ban Kledin led several campaigns against the Venetians with varying degrees of success.
In 1118, the Doge was also defeated in another battle near Zara, but a five-year peace with his successor, Domenico Michel, in 1119, sanctified the Dalmatian rule of Venice. In 1124, during the Byzantine-Venetian War, István II reoccupied all the territories previously under Hungarian rule except Zara, but the Venetian fleet that returned in the spring of 1125 restored Venetian sovereignty. After that, Dalmatian territories only came under Hungarian rule during the reign of King Béla II.
War with the Russian principalities
István also followed his father’s foreign policy by intervening in the internal strife of the Russian princes in 1123. In contrast to the unificationist Grand Prince Vladimir Monomakh – the former father-in-law of King Kálmán – the Hungarian king supported Prince Yaroslav of Volhynia, who had been expelled from Vladimir castle. The Hungarian armies under István had already begun the siege of Vladimir when Yaroslav died unexpectedly.
István wanted to continue the siege afterward, but the members of the royal council decided to stop fighting if the monarch did not retreat, return home, and elect a new king. István was forced to retreat. The event foreshadowed that the failures in foreign affairs would soon lead to domestic difficulties for King István.
Domestic political problems
A significant number of Hungarian lords were dissatisfied with the king’s rule and, in the absence of any other candidate, sided with the blind Prince Álmos. István II was also unpopular among church leaders because, continuing his father’s policy, he did not make any significant foundations. As a result, around 1125-26, Álmos felt his supporters were strong enough to make a renewed attempt to seize supreme power. However, after unclear events, this time, the prince’s campaign was not accompanied by luck, and Álmos fled to Byzantium, Béla to Pécsvárad. The events convinced István and his supporters that a major change was needed to maintain their rule, especially in foreign policy.
Turning point in Hungarian foreign policy
The Concordat of Worms, signed on 23 September 1122, put an end to the struggle between the Papacy and the Empire for a long time. This had a beneficial effect on the prospects for Hungarian foreign policy because it enabled Hungary to maintain equally good relations with both powers. In the autumn of 1126, King István II met personally with the Bohemian prince Sóbeslav I and settled relations between the two countries. Hungarian-Bohemian relations remained good for several decades afterward. Around 1126, the Archbishop of Salzburg brokered a reconciliation between Hungary and Austria. However, in parallel with the reconciliation in the West, Hungarian-Byzantine differences became increasingly acute.
War with Byzantium
Relations between Byzantium and the Kingdom of Hungary deteriorated in 1116, when Alexios I supported Venice in the Dalmatian War. From that time onwards, Byzantium also made the work of Hungarian merchants more difficult. The immediate cause of the war was the reception of Prince Álmos by the Byzantine Emperor Ioannes II. King István expected Álmos to invade his kingdom at the head of Byzantine armies and was determined to see him expelled from Greek territory. The king tried to mediate between the emperor and the king through the daughter of St. László, Piroska. Unsuccessfully.
The aim of the Anglo-Byzantine War of 1127-1129 was not to gain territory but to impose their will on each other by raiding each other’s territory. The first attack was by István in the summer of 1127. Before that, because his child had not yet been born, he made Saul, his sister’s son, his official heir. After capturing and destroying Nándorfehérvár / Belgrade, he advanced through Sofia to Plovdiv. In the meantime, on 1 September 1127, Prince Álmos died, but this did not mean a ceasing of hostilities, for in 1128, the emperor marched against Hungary with a huge force. The Hungarian troops suffered a heavy defeat near Haram Castle. The Byzantines then devastated and completely sacked the Szerémség (Sirmium) Region and retreated.
At the end of 1128, István allied with the Serbian prince Urosa I, who was fighting for independence against Byzantium. In 1129, the emperor put down the Serb uprising, but he did not fight against the superior numbers of Bohemian and Hungarian troops appearing behind him. The war thus ended in a peace treaty at the end of 1129, which marked a return to the territorial and political situation before the war.
More domestic problems, the death of István
The Hungarian-Byzantine War was already underway when the nobles dissatisfied with the reign of István – according to the sources, in the persons of Comes Bors and Iván (presumably two groups of nobles) – elected counter-kings. However, the king, with the help of his remaining supporters, ruthlessly crushed the rebellion.
It was around 1128-29 that the king learned that his blinded cousin was alive. István reconciled with Béla, settled him in Tolna, provided him with a pension worthy of a royal kinsman, and asked him to marry the daughter of Uros I, Ilona, to seal the alliance with the Serbs. The claim of our chroniclers that he made Bela the heir of Stephen is not confirmed; the appointed heir to the throne was Prince Saul.
István was only hoping to reassert his shaken power by winning over the supporters of Béla. He succeeded, for his reign was no longer threatened by rebellion. The successive failures also took their toll on his health. According to some speculations, based on the chronicles of Thuróczy János, the king abdicated the throne a few weeks before his death.
After a long illness, he died of dysentery at the age of barely thirty on 1 March 1131. He was buried, as he wished, in the Premontrian monastery he founded in Várad, which was destroyed in the storm of time, and his tomb and remains are not yet identifiable.
His possible resting place
The most important information about the burial of István II is provided by the Chronicon Pictum – even if it does not specifically name the Premontrian Abbey of Várad-Hegyfok. This complex of buildings was burnt down during the Tatar invasion, then rebuilt, but in time, it was deserted again.
At the end of the 15th century, it was taken over by the Carthusians and then by the Franciscans, but was finally destroyed by the Turks. The site is now a family housing area, where no systematic research has ever been carried out, but medieval wall remains have been found during the works, which could have belonged to a church or a monastery.
The last time a probe was opened in this way was in 2008, when, in addition to building remains, burials identified as 13th-14th century were found. According to reports, the Premontrian Order had been negotiating to buy the site, which covers an area of around 1,000 square metres, but they were unable to purchase the land because of the high purchase price.
The exact extent of the abbey is currently unknown due to the scarcity of archaeological information, and the remains of the king’s burial (if still identifiable) will only be found with great luck on the privately owned, developed plots.
Source: Hungarian Wikipedia and https://archeologia.hu/ii-istvan-halatlan-utokor-elveszett-sirhely
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