The Origin of Hungarians
When the Magyars first appeared in history, they were a tribe from different Finno-Ugric and Turkish-speaking groups in Eastern Europe. In the second half of 9th century CE, they became a nomadic state, headed by a Grand Prince, supported by other public dignitaries and justices. According to Hungarian traditions, the elite came from somewhere in the East, perhaps Central Asia, while the Hungarian-speaking commoners probably lived west of the Ural Mountains. The early community of Magyars must have separated, with only one part migrating westward, eventually settling in the Carpathian Basin. Another part remained in the Volga-Ural region.
The group that migrated west first settled in Etelköz, present-day Ukraine and Moldova, where they stayed from the mid to late 9th century. It was here that the first Grand Prince, Álmos, was elected, which led to the closer organization of the community. The ruling family, the House of Árpád, remained in power for more than 400 years and, among other things, orchestrated the move to the Carpathian Basin.
Most of the Magyars crossed the northeastern passages of the Carpathians in 895. The conquest of the Carpathian Basin took place in several steps: they most likely reached the Danube in 895, occupied Transdanubia in 900, and conquered Moravia in 906. The conquest of Transylvania took place in the 10th century. The Conquest ended in 907, when the Magyars successfully defended their new country from the Kingdom of the East Franks seeking to regain their lost territories.
Over the next half-century, the Magyars led several campaigns throughout Europe, primarily to the Frankish territories and northern Italy, but also reached the Iberian Peninsula, Apulia, and Byzantium. These campaigns were ended by the consolidation of the Holy Roman Empire in 955, and as a result, the power of the Grand Prince was weakened. It was not until the late 10th century that Grand Prince Géza was able to consolidate it again. His work was completed by his son, King St. Stephen, who integrated Hungarians into the Christian world of Europe.
The Árpád dynasty
When King St. Stephen set out to establish his Christian monarchy, the memory of the pagan Magyars’ forays into Europe was still very much alive. At the end of the era, during the reign of Andrew III, who had been raised in Venice, the beginnings of a Western European-style system of estates had already begun to manifest, while after the king’s death (1301), foreign relatives of the Árpáds, known as the “dynasty of holy kings,” came forward successively to claim the Kingdom of Hungary that had integrated into the European monarchies; from this competition, the House of Anjou of the French Capetian dynasty from Naples emerged victorious.
The fact that Hungary seemed a most desirable fruit at the beginning of the 14th century is due to the work of numerous rulers of great stature of the Árpád dynasty. St. Stephen’s sense of state organization and commitment to the Church was continued by Kings László and Könyves Kálmán (Coloman the Learned), who also laid the foundations of the Croatian-Hungarian state union – which had existed for 800 years – by occupying Croatia and Dalmatia. In addition to the consolidation of external authority, this period also brought with it the colonization of the untouched regions of the Carpathian Basin and the birth of cities: although Western European settlers showed up in the heart of the kingdom and in Transylvania as early as the 12th century, colonization really accelerated during the reign of Béla IV, especially in the tremendous forest estates of northern Hungary.
These successes were achieved by the kings of the Árpád dynasty despite the fact that the said three centuries were not short of crises; unquestionably, the 1241–42 Mongol invasion was the worst, resulting in the depopulation of the prosperous eastern part of the country. Additionally, a motif of family feud also ran through the history of the dynasty, which led to the division of the country more than once since the 11th century.
“Without a male heir:” Hungary between 1301 and 1526
With the reign of Charles I of Hungary (1301–/1308/–1342), a new chapter in the life of the post-Árpád dynasty Hungarian Kingdom began. Hungary became the central power of the region and one of the most important gold and silver mining sites in Europe, introducing valuable gold coinage for the first time in the Central European region. Political stability and economic development made it possible for the son of Charles I, Louis I (the Great) (1342–82), to also enter the scene of European diplomacy, leading several campaigns to Italy, during which he occupied Naples.
Louis’ tragedy was that he did not produce a male heir, so the husband of his daughter (Queen Mary /1382–87/), Sigismund of Luxembourg (1387–1437), came to the throne of the Kingdom of Hungary. He was the first in Hungarian history to face the impending Ottoman threat (1396: Battle of Nicopolis, defeat), and began building border forts to protect the country. He died without a male heir, which led to protracted civil wars, during which János Hunyadi rose to become the Regent-Governor (1446–52) of the country, leading several military campaigns against the Turks, but his greatest success came with the defense of Nándorfehérvár in 1456, by defeating the Sultan’s army.
Hunyadi’s son, Matthias (1458–90), was a prominent Hungarian ruler of the late Middle Ages. He consolidated domestic politics, stabilized the Turkish front with smaller military campaigns and several armistices, and made successful western conquests (occupying parts of Moravia, Silesia, and Austria). Sigismund, being his role model, wanted to make Hungary a Central European power. After he died without a legitimate heir, the Jagiellonians emerged victorious from the battles for the throne: the reign of Vladislaus II (1490–1516) and Louis II (1516–26) was overshadowed by the growing Ottoman pressure and the resulting social and political tensions. Although both rulers made extraordinary efforts to avert the danger, on August 29, 1526, the medieval army of the Kingdom of Hungary was vastly overwhelmed.
