KING LOUIS I. OF HUNGARY CONFIRMS, ON DECEMBER 11, 1351, THE GOLDE
ANDREAS II. OF THE YEAR 1222, AND INTRODUCES THE RIGH

(From the original document of the Hous

N BULL OF FREEDOM (NO LONGER EXISTING IN THE ORIGINAL) OF KING
IT OF AVITICITAS, WHICH REMAINED IN FORCE UNTIL 1848

se, Court, and State Archives in Vienna)

Muall

Eufemia, who had been divorced for adultery. Borics was supported by the Polish duke Boleslav III, who was put to flight by the German troops of the king. On the death of Béla II his son Géza II, who was a minor, came to the throne (1141 to May, 1161), and Borics then attempted to secure the help of the Crusaders, who were passing through Hungary. However, the emperor Conrad and King Louis VII declined to support this hazardous project. Borics now fled to the Byzantine emperor Manuel (p. 95). This ruler had inspired further life, about the middle of the twelfth century, into the decaying Byzantine Empire, and was attempting to make Greek influence once more preponderant in the Balkan Peninsula. As Hungary stood in the way of his plans, he attempted to undermine her independence by every means in his power. At the instigation of Borics he invaded the south of Hungary, but was driven back by Géza II and forced to make peace. Borics afterwards met his death at the head of Greek troops in a conflict with the Kumanians. The emperor Manuel now took the duke Stephan and Ladislaus under his protection; they had sought refuge with him after revolting against their brother Géza in 1158. Under this ruler took place the first great immigration of the Germans to Northern Hungary and Transylvania (see below, p. 403). On the death of Géza the Hungarian throne naturally fell by inheritance to his son Stephan III (1161–1172), but Manuel by means of bribery secured the election of his favourite Ladislaus II in 1162. After his early death (January, 1163 ?), the emperor Manuel brought forward Stephan IV, the other brother of Géza, as an opposition king; Stephan, however, was speedily abandoned by his supporters and overthrown by Stephan III in 1164, in alliance with the Přemyslid Vladislav II (p. 240). Manuel concluded peace with Stephan III and took his brother Béla to Constantinople to be educated. The danger which Byzantium threatened to the Hungarian Empire came to an end in 1180, with the death of the emperor Manuel; shortly before that date he had given Hungary a king in the person of Béla III (1172 to April 20, 1196), who used his Greek education solely for the benefit of the people. Béla III recovered the Dalmatian districts and Syrmia from the Venetians, and occupied Galicia (Halicz) for some time. By his marriage with Margaret, the sister of Philip II Augustus of France, French customs were introduced into Hungary.

Andreas II, the son of Béla III (1205-1235), overthrew his brother Emerich (died in the middle of September, 1204), and also his son Ladislaus III (died May 7, 1205, in Vienna), and undertook a crusade on his own account in 1217. On his return home he lived in a continual state of dissension with his nobles. After a long struggle, in which the malcontents, under the leadership of Benedict Bor, otherwise Bánk bán (Banus Bánk), had killed the queen Gertrude in 1213, Andreas II issued the "golden bull,"-a piece of legislation of the first importance to the Hungarian constitution. By this measure he broke the power of the counts and gave extensive privileges to the ecclesiastical and secular nobility of lower rank, securing to the latter a permanent influence upon government legislation and administration.1

Under the government of his son Béla IV (1235-1270) the Mongols of Batu invaded the country in March, 1241 (Vol. II, p. 175), and spread appalling devastation for a year. The Austrian duke Frederick II the Valiant, the last of the Babenbergs, meanwhile occupied the West and plundered the treasures of Queen

1 See the plate facing this page, "King Louis I confirms the Golden Bull of Freedom of the Year 1222 on December 11, 1351," with its legend and explanatory translation.

Maria, who had taken refuge with him. After the departure of the invading hordes (spring of 1242) the king returned home from Dalmatia, and with the help of the Knights of St. John (cf. p. 349) soon restored prosperity (p. 300) and undertook a campaign against the Austrian duke, who fell, leaving no issue, in the battle of Vienna Neustadt (June 15, 1246). Béla IV now occupied his valuable heritage, but in July, 1260 (cf. above, p. 244), was forced to divide it with the Bohemian king Premsyl Ottokar II, and finally to renounce it entirely, since the power of Bohemia extended to the Adriatic Sea, and in Germany the "dreadful period without an emperor" of the interregnum had begun.

Ladislaus IV (1272-1290), the son of Stephan V (1270-1272) and a grandson of Béla IV, helped the Hapsburg ruler to win a victory for Ottokar at Dürnkrut on August 26, 1278, and then wasted his time in dissipation and feasting with the Kumanians, to whom he was related through his mother, the daughter of a Kumanian chief. He was hardly able to expel the Tartar invaders. On August 31, 1290, he was murdered by a company of his dearest friends, the Kumanians. Rudolf of Hapsburg made an unjustifiable attempt to hand over Hungary to his son Albrecht, as a vacant fief of the empire; his real object, however, was to secure concessions in that quarter.

The male line of the house of Árpád became extinct after Andreas III. He was recognised only by Dalmatia and Croatia (1290 to January 14, 1301), being opposed by Charles Martel of Anjou (died 1295), a step-son of Rudolf of Hapsburg and a protégé of Nicholas IV. Under the government of the Árpáds the Hungarian nation had imbibed the spirit of Christian civilization, though without sacrificing their natural interests on the altar of religion. The general policy of the Árpáds had been to connect the development of the Hungarian nationality with Western civilization, and to put down infidelity and barbarism with the sword. The country was covered with churches, monasteries, and schools, of which latter the high school at Vessprim soon became a scientific and artistic centre. No less obvious is the influence of Christianity in the most ancient remains of Hungarian literature. The first book written in the Hungarian language at the outset of the thirteenth century is the "Funeral Service with Proper Prayers" (Halotti beszéd); this service clearly reflects the spirit of the nation which had so long wandered upon the stormlashed plains and only a short time before had buried its dead with their horses.

(b) The Consolidation of the Permanent Kingdom by the House of Anjou.Upon the extinction of the male line of the Árpáds, several members of the female line came forward with claims to the vacant throne.1 Charles Robert, the grandson of Maria, daughter of Stephan V, was a member of the Neapolitan Anjou family, and had secured a considerable following from 1295, even during the lifetime of Andreas III; however, the Hungarians, if we may believe the somewhat questionable traditions on the point, elected the king Wenzel II of Bohemia (p. 246), whose mother, Kunigunde (Kinga) of Halicz, was descended from the family of the Árpáds. He, however, did not accept the election, but handed over the Hungarian crown to his son Wenzel III, who assumed the name of Ladislaus V, as king in 1302. However, the party of Charles Robert caused Ladislaus so much trouble during his stay in the country that he returned to Bohemia in 1304. The

1 Cf. genealogical tree facing page 384, "The Last Árpáds and the Neapolitan Members of the House of Anjou in Hungary."