Stephan III. (Hungary)

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Coronation of Stephan III. in the picture chronicle
Stephan III. Lithograph by Josef Kriehuber after a drawing by Moritz von Schwind , ca.1828.

Stephan III. , Hungarian III. István , Croatian Stjepan III. (kralj Hrvatske i Ugarske) , (* 1147 ; † March 4, 1172 ) from the house of the Árpáden , was king of Hungary , Croatia and Dalmatia from 1162 to 1172. He was the son of Géza II. and Eufrozina , a Kiev princess .

His way to the throne

Stephan III. was born in 1147. The French King Louis VII , who was marching through Hungary with a crusade army, became his godfather. In 1152 Stephan was made the official heir to the throne. Géza's brothers, Ladislaus and Stephan lived in Constantinople at the court of Manuel I and pursued their own goals.

Géza died on May 31, 1162. Stephan III. was crowned a few days later. As king he had the support of his mother and the Esztergom archbishop Lukács. Princess Eufrozina maintained good contacts with the German territories. It was mainly thanks to her that Stephan was able to marry the Austrian princess Agnes , daughter of Duke Heinrich II, in 1166 .

Counter kings

The Byzantine Emperor Manuel I strove to make Hungary a vassal state. That is why he supported Prince Stephan (King Stephen III's uncle of the same name) militarily. After a successful campaign in 1162, however, his brother Ladislaus was crowned because Stephan was very unpopular among the Hungarians. This turning point led to the excommunication of the new King Ladislaus by the Archbishop of Esztergom. In return, Ladislaus had Archbishop Lukács captured.

Stephan III. fled the popular Ladislaus II with his supporters to Pozsony, now Bratislava .

Ladislaus died on January 14, 1163. The new king was his brother Stephan under the name Stephan IV. He took both the fight against Byzantium and his nephew Stephan III. on. The latter won at Székesfehérvár (Stuhlweissenburg) on ​​June 19, 1163. The fighting continued, however, until Friedrich Barbarossa on the side of Stephan III. intervention.

Stephen IV was poisoned by his own people on April 11, 1165.

His government

After the death of his uncle, there was still no rest in Stephen's life. His brother Béla was brought up at the Byzantine court, which gave Emperor Manuel the opportunity to interfere again in Hungarian affairs. Areas in Croatia and Dalmatia were disputed.

After the battle of Zimony (now Zemun near Belgrade ) on July 8, 1167, which ended in a Byzantine victory, King Stephen and Emperor Manuel made peace. They divided up the southern regions of Hungary among themselves. Tensions with the Republic of Venice , which began to spread across the Adriatic, ended when the Árpáds established dynastic contacts with Venetian patrician families.

Even during the numerous wars, Stephan III tried to reorganize the state. He was the first king to grant privileges to the citizens, in this case the residents of Székesfehérvár. He also guaranteed their property to the church, except in emergencies.

Stephan III. died at the age of 25 on March 4, 1172, possibly also as a result of poisoning. Archbishop Lukács had the king buried in Esztergom. Stephen's brother Béla III followed as king . , because Stephan's son, also named Béla, did not come of age.

literature

  • György Györffy: István III. , in: Biographical Lexicon on the History of Southeast Europe . Vol. 4. Munich 1981, pp. 185 f.
  • Királyok Koenyve. Magyarország és Erdély királyai, királynői, fejedelmei és kormányzói . Edited by Jenő Horváth. Helikon, Budapest 2004, ISBN 963-208-894-8

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Géza II. King of Hungary
1162–1172
(1162–1163 in parallel with Ladislaus II and Stephan IV )
Béla III./II.
Géza II. King of Croatia, Dalmatia and Rama
1162–1172
Béla III./II.