Stephen III of Hungary facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Stephen III
Stephen III's seal
King of Hungary and Croatia Contested by Ladislaus II (1162–63), and by Stephen IV (1163–1165)
Reign	1162–1172
Coronation	June 1162, Székesfehérvár
Predecessor	Géza II
Successor	Béla III
Born	Summer of 1147
Died	4 March 1172 (aged 24–25)
Burial	Esztergom
Spouse	Agnes of Austria
Issue Detail	Béla (died young) Unnamed son
Dynasty	Árpád dynasty
Father	Géza II of Hungary
Mother	Euphrosyne of Kiev
Religion	Roman Catholic

Stephen III (born in the summer of 1147, died on March 4, 1172) was the King of Hungary and Croatia. He ruled from 1162 to 1172. He became king in June 1162, soon after his father, Géza II, passed away.

However, Stephen's two uncles, Ladislaus and Stephen, wanted the crown for themselves. They had been living at the court of the Byzantine Empire. Just six weeks after Stephen III was crowned, the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos sent an army to Hungary. This forced the Hungarian lords to accept Ladislaus as their ruler instead.

Stephen III found safety in Austria. But he soon returned and took control of Pressburg (which is now Bratislava in Slovakia). Ladislaus died on January 14, 1163. Stephen's younger uncle, Stephen IV, then became king without a fight. But people did not like his rule. The young Stephen III defeated his uncle on June 19, 1163, and made him leave Hungary.

Stephen IV tried to get his throne back with help from Emperor Manuel I. But the Emperor later made peace with Stephen III. As part of this peace, Stephen III agreed to send his younger brother, Béla, to Constantinople. He also let the Byzantines take over Béla's lands, which included Croatia, Dalmatia, and Sirmium. Stephen III fought wars against the Byzantine Empire from 1164 to 1167 to get these lands back, but he could not win.

Historians believe that Stephen III created the "Székesfehérvár laws." These were the first special rights given to a town in the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1169, he made an agreement with the Holy See (the Pope). This agreement meant he would no longer control who became church leaders. Stephen III died without any children who lived to adulthood.

Early Life and Becoming King (1147–1162)

Stephen was the oldest child of Géza II of Hungary and his wife, Euphrosyne of Kiev. He was born in the summer of 1147. At that time, French crusaders were traveling through Hungary on their way to the Holy Land. King Louis VII of France even helped with his baptism.

In 1152, a woman named Lady Margaret wrote that "King Géza reigned together with his son, Duke Stephen." This shows that King Géza had officially named Stephen as his future heir. However, Stephen's position as the next king was not completely safe. This was especially true after his two uncles, Stephen and Ladislaus, left Hungary in the late 1150s. They went to live at the court of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos in Constantinople.

Before he died, Géza II gave Dalmatia, Croatia, and Sirmium to his younger son, Béla. These lands were given to Béla as a special gift.

Reign

Fighting for the Throne (1162–1164)

Stephen III is crowned king

Stephen III's uncle, Ladislaus II takes the throne

Géza II died on May 31, 1162. Lucas, Archbishop of Esztergom, quickly crowned the 15-year-old Stephen as king. When Emperor Manuel heard about Géza II's death, he hurried towards Hungary. He wanted to have power over Hungary, according to the Byzantine historian John Kinnamos. Another Byzantine historian, Niketas Choniates, wrote that the Emperor decided to help Stephen III's uncle, Stephen, become king. The Emperor hoped that if Stephen IV became king, he would give him control of Sirmium and Zimony (now Zemun in Serbia).

Emperor Manuel sent an army to Hungary. His messengers talked with the Hungarian lords. The lords were bribed by the Byzantines and feared an invasion. So, they agreed to accept Ladislaus, who was the older of Stephen III's two uncles. Stephen III's army was defeated. He fled from Hungary and found safety in Austria. This happened six weeks after he was crowned.

Archbishop Lucas was one of the few who stayed loyal to Stephen III. He refused to crown Stephen's uncle. After Mikó, Archbishop of Kalocsa, crowned Ladislaus, Archbishop Lucas even said Ladislaus was no longer part of the church. He said Ladislaus had wrongly taken the crown from his nephew.

Stephen III returned from Austria and captured Pressburg. He could not use his uncle Ladislaus's death to his advantage. Ladislaus II died on January 14, 1163. His younger brother, Stephen IV, became king. However, Stephen IV openly supported the Byzantine Empire. This made the Hungarian lords unhappy.

The young Stephen III gathered an army of lords who had left his uncle. He also hired German soldiers. Stephen III defeated his uncle at Székesfehérvár on June 19, 1163. The older Stephen was captured. But Stephen III let him go, following the advice of Archbishop Lucas. The archbishop and the Queen Mother Euphrosyne remained Stephen III's main advisors. The dethroned Stephen IV first went to the Holy Roman Empire. But he soon left for the Byzantine Empire, where Emperor Manuel again promised to help him.

Wars with the Byzantine Empire (1164–1167)

Emperor Manuel sent an army to Hungary to help Stephen IV get his throne back. The young Stephen III asked Vladislaus, the King of Bohemia, for help. But the Bohemian lords refused to fight. Stephen III then sent messengers to Emperor Manuel. The Emperor continued his campaign. But he soon realized that his chosen king, Stephen IV, could not rule Hungary. So, he started talking with Stephen III.

They made a peace treaty. Emperor Manuel recognized Stephen III as the rightful ruler. Stephen III agreed to send his brother, Béla, to Constantinople. Stephen III also promised to let the Byzantines take control of Béla's lands.

After this, Stephen IV asked Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor for help. Around the same time, some Hungarian lords and church leaders wrote to Emperor Frederick. They said they would accept him as their ruler. Stephen III also sent his own messengers to Frederick. Frederick decided not to get involved. But he told his allies, like the King of Bohemia and the Duke of Austria, to watch what was happening in Hungary. King Vladislaus's son, Sviatopluk, married Stephen III's sister, Odola. Stephen III also planned to marry a daughter of Yaroslav Osmomysl, Prince of Halych.

The next year, Stephen III broke his treaty with Emperor Manuel I. He took back Béla's lands. A document from 1164 shows that at least part of Béla's lands, Central Dalmatia, was under Stephen III's rule. Meanwhile, Stephen III's dethroned uncle invaded Sirmium. Many people there were happy to see him return.

Stephen III, with help from the King of Bohemia and soldiers from Austria and Halych, started a war against his uncle. Emperor Manuel I, who was planning to fight in Armenian Cilicia, returned to the Danube River. He marched into Hungary, reaching as far as Bács (now Bač, Serbia). He contacted King Vladislaus and convinced him to make peace with Stephen III. Stephen III's most important ally left him. So, Stephen III had to give up Sirmium to the Byzantine Empire. But only after the Emperor promised he would never support his uncle again. Even so, Emperor Manuel allowed the dethroned king to stay in Sirmium.

Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos who took parts of Stephen III's kingdom

We have come, my boy, not to wage war on the Hungarians but to recover his land for Béla, your brother, not something which we have torn away by our might, but which you and your father long before granted. Also to rescue from peril your uncle Stephen, who is related by marriage to our majesty. If it is according to your will that Béla should be our son-in-law, something which was previously agreed by you, why do you quickly abandon our friendship by failing to render him the land? If you oppose the marriage, and something else seems right to you in regard to it, know that we abstain from constraining you further.

Soon after, Stephen III invaded Dalmatia. He had promised the Doge of Venice, Vitale II Michiel, that he would leave the Dalmatian towns. But when Stephen arrived, the people of Zadar forced out the Venetian governor. They accepted Stephen as their ruler.

In spring 1165, Stephen III again marched into Sirmium. He surrounded his uncle in Zimony. Emperor Manuel decided to fight back. But a rebellion by his cousin, Andronikos Komnenos, stopped him from marching to the Danube. Still, Manuel I sent messengers to the kings who had supported Stephen III. He convinced them to stay neutral in the fight. Stephen III's uncle died of poisoning during the siege of Zimony on April 11. The fortress soon fell to Stephen III.

The Byzantine counter-attack began in late June. An army led by Emperor Manuel I surrounded Zimony and took it back. Another Byzantine army invaded and took over Bosnia and Dalmatia. The Venetian fleet helped the Byzantines in Dalmatia. This forced Zadar to accept the Doge's rule again. Stephen III could only make a new peace treaty with Emperor Manuel after he gave up Sirmium and Dalmatia.

[Stephen] sent envoys to the emperor, men of the aristocracy and one who enjoyed the office of bishop, and agreed to render [Sirmium] again to the Romans, and in addition the whole of Dalmatia. When they came in sight of the emperor, they uttered what had been commanded to them and petitioned the emperor to abandon his wrath. At first he refused, saying, "It would indeed be estimable, envoys, if someone thought it proper to restore those things which he had previously stolen. We hold [Sirmium], we have regained [Zimony], we are already masters of the Dalmatians, we are lords of all those together, of which you the givers have been deprived. So then is there among you another [Sirmium]? Is there another [Zimony] and Dalmatia which you now come giving us? ..." So he first answered them, then changing his mind, he said, "But then, so that you may know that we wish to make peace as a gift to you, who are Christians, come, take the oaths."

A Hungarian army, led by Ispán Denis, attacked Sirmium again in spring 1166. The Hungarians defeated a Byzantine army. They took over the whole area, except for Zimony. Emperor Manuel sent three armies against Hungary. The first army, led by Alexios Axuch and Stephen III's brother, Béla, stayed by the Danube. This was to distract attention from the other two armies. These two armies raided Transylvania.

The Byzantine attacks caused a lot of damage in eastern Hungary. This made Stephen III want to make peace. He asked Henry Jasomirgott, Duke of Austria, to help arrange a ceasefire. Henry's wife was Emperor Manuel's niece. At the end of the year, Stephen married Henry's daughter, Agnes. Around the same time, a Hungarian army invaded Dalmatia. They captured Nikephoros Chalouphes, the Byzantine governor there. Stephen confirmed special rights for towns in Biograd na Moru and Šibenik in 1166 and 1167. This shows that these towns accepted his rule after the war.

Emperor Manuel sent an army to Sirmium and his fleet to Zimony after Easter 1167. The Hungarians gathered their troops. They also hired many allied soldiers, especially Germans. The writer Rahewin said that Stephen III "made war on the emperor of the Greeks" because the emperor had helped his brother, Béla. Stephen also received help from his father-in-law, Duke Henry Jasomirgott.

However, the Byzantine army, led by Andronikos Kontostephanos, completely defeated the Hungarians. The Hungarians were led by Ispán Denis. This important battle was fought near Zimony on July 8. Kinnamos wrote that "the war on the Hungarians" ended on that battlefield. According to Henry of Mügeln, Stephen signed a peace treaty. He gave up the lands that their father had given to his brother, Béla. He also made peace with Doge Vitale Michiel. Stephen gave his niece, Mary, to the Doge's son, Nicholas, on December 17, 1167.

Important Decisions and Legacy (1167–1172)

There is evidence that Stephen III used money from the Church to pay for his war with the Byzantine Empire. Letters from Thomas Becket and John of Salisbury show that Church rules were not fully followed in Hungary. This was because of "tyranny by the seculars against the apostolic institutions" in the late 1160s. Stephen moved Prodanus, Bishop of Zagreb, from his church area without asking the Pope.

Pope Alexander III sent his representative, Cardinal Manfred, to Hungary in 1169. He talked about the problems with the king, the queen mother, and the church leaders. They reached an agreement. This agreement stopped the king from removing or moving church leaders, or taking their property, without permission. The Pope supported Stephen against Archbishop Lucas of Esztergom. The Archbishop tried to stop the King's chosen bishop, Andrew, from becoming Bishop-elect of Győr. The Archbishop said Andrew's election was not proper.

The Knights Templar came to Hungary during Stephen's rule. Historians Ferenc Makk and Pál Engel say that Stephen III gave special rights to the Walloon settlers of Székesfehérvár. These rights included not having to pay customs duties anywhere in the kingdom. In the 13th century, these same rights, called the "Székesfehérvár laws," were given to other towns. This helped those towns grow and develop.

Stephen died on March 4, 1172. Arnold of Lübeck, who was in Hungary at that time, wrote that a rumor spread in the country. People said the 25-year-old king's sudden death was due to poisoning. Stephen was buried in Esztergom.

Family

Stephen's planned marriage to the daughter of Yaroslav Osmomysl of Halych was canceled in 1166. He married Agnes of Austria at the end of that year. They had a son named Béla in 1167, but the child died that same year. Agnes was pregnant when her husband died. Her father, who was in Hungary when Stephen III passed away, took Agnes back to Austria. Agnes gave birth to a second son, but we do not know what happened to him. She later married Herman, Duke of Carinthia.

Sources

Primary sources

• Deeds of John and Manuel Comnenus by John Kinnamos (Translated by Charles M. Brand) (1976). Columbia University Press. ISBN: 0-231-04080-6.
• O City of Byzantium, Annals of Niketas Choniatēs (Translated by Harry J. Magoulias) (1984). Wayne State University Press. ISBN: 978-0-8143-1764-8.
• The Deeds of Frederick Barbarossa by Otto of Freising and his Continuator, Rahewin (Translated and annotated with an introduction by Charles Christopher Mierow with the collaboration of Richard Emery) (2004). Columbia University Press. ISBN: 0-231-13419-3.

Secondary sources

• Fine, John V. A. Jr. (1991). [Stephen III of Hungary at Google Books The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century]. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-08149-7. Stephen III of Hungary at Google Books.

• Treadgold, Warren (1997). [Stephen III of Hungary at Google Books A History of the Byzantine State and Society]. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-2630-2. Stephen III of Hungary at Google Books.