Stephen V of Hungary

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

King Stephen V of Hungary (Hungarian: V. István, Slovak: Štefan V, Croatian: Stjepan VI.) (1239 or 1240 – August 6, 1272), was the son of Bela IV of Hungary, whom he succeeded in 1270.

His mother was Maria Laskarina, a daughter of Theodore I Lascaris of the Empire of Nicaea and Anna Angelina. Anna was a daughter of Alexius III Angelus and Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamaterina.

As crown prince Stephen had exhibited considerable ability, but also a disquieting restlessness and violence. He was appointed duke of Transylvania, then duke of Styria. After the loss of Styria he became duke of Transylvania again. In 1262 Stephen convinced his father Béla to give him twenty-nine counties as a reward of assistance in the war against Bohemia; hence Hungary was virtually divided into two kingdoms. Stephen was crowned junior king of Hungary. Though Hungary was de facto divided into two kingdoms the legal unity remained, because Stephen theoretically ruled by the grace of God and his father. He subsequently seized the southern banate of Macsó and defeated his father in the ensuing civil war. In 1268 he undertook an expedition against the Bulgarians, penetrating as far as Veliko Tarnovo and styling himself as king of Bulgaria.

Stephen's father, attempting to bind the powerful but pagan Cuman tribe more closely to the dynasty, arranged for Stephen's marriage, as a youth (about 1255), to Elizabeth, the daughter of the Cuman chieftain (named Koteny or Kuthens). Though Elizabeth, in preparation for the marriage, had been baptized and remained a Christian, Western Europe almost universally considered Stephen as a semi-pagan. This hostility was felt as Stephen declared himself that everyone was his enemy for his accession to the Hungarian throne.

To secure foreign support, he formed a double matrimonial alliance with the Angevins, chief partisans of the pope. The first of these was the marriage in 1270 of his daughter Maria of Hungary to Charles II of Naples (they became grandparents of Charles I of Hungary). The second alliance was the marriage of Stephen's infant son Ladislaus to Charles II's sister Elisabeth.

Byzantine Emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus married Anna, another of Stephen's daughters. Serbian king Stefan Dragutin married Katerina, yet another of Stephan's daughters.

Adversaries of Stephen, especially Ottokar II of Bohemia, believed that Stephen was too great a friend of the mighty Cumans (who could field 16,000 men) to be a true Catholic. Ottokar endeavoured with the aid of the Hungarian malcontents to conquer the western provinces of Hungary but they were utterly routed by Stephen in 1271 near Mosony. Ottokar relinquished all his conquests the same year in the peace of Pressburg.

Stephen died suddenly as he was raising an army to rescue his kidnapped infant son Ladislaus from his rebellious vassals.

Preceded by Bela IV	King of Hungary 1270–1272	Succeeded by Ladislaus IV
Preceded by Bela III	King of Croatia 1270–1272	Succeeded by Ladislaus III