Andrew I of Hungary

Andrew I the White or the Catholic (Template:Langx or ; Template:C. 1015 – before 6 December 1060) was King of Hungary from 1046 to 1060. He descended from a younger branch of the Árpád dynasty. After he spent fifteen years in exile, an extensive revolt by the pagan Hungarians enabled him to take the throne from King Peter Orseolo. He strengthened the position of Catholicism in the Kingdom of Hungary and successfully defended its independence against the Holy Roman Empire.

His efforts to ensure the succession of his son, Solomon, resulted in the open revolt of his brother Béla. Béla dethroned Andrew by force in 1060. Andrew suffered severe injuries during the fighting and died before his brother was crowned king.

Early life

Childhood (c. 1015–1031)

Medieval sources provide two contradictory reports of the parents of Andrew and his two brothers, Levente and Béla.Template:Sfn The Chronicle of Zagreb and Saint Gerard's LifeTemplate:Sfn write that their father was Vazul, a grandson of Taksony, Grand Prince of the Hungarians (Template:R. c. 955 – c. 970).Template:Sfn The Illuminated Chronicle and other medieval sources write of Vazul's relationship with "some girl" from the Tátony clan who bore his sons, who thus "were not born of a true marriage-bed".Template:Sfn According to a concurrent tradition, which has been preserved by most chronicles, the three princes were the sons of Vazul's brother, Ladislas the Bald.Template:Sfn Modern historians, who reject the latter report, agree that Andrew and his brothers were the sons of Vazul and his concubine from the Tátony clan.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn According to the historian Gyula Kristó, Andrew was the second among Vazul's three sons. He writes that Andrew was born around 1015.Template:Sfn

In exile (1031–1046)

According to medieval chronicles, Vazul was blinded during the reign of his cousin, King Stephen I, the first Christian monarch of Hungary (r. 997–1038).Template:Sfn The king ordered Vazul's mutilation in 1031, after the death of Emeric, his only son who survived infancy.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The contemporary Annals of Altaich contends that the king himself ordered his kinsman's mutilation in an attempt to ensure a peaceful succession to his own sister's son, Peter Orseolo.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The same source adds that the king expelled his blinded cousin's three sons from Hungary.Template:Sfn According to the contrasting report of the Hungarian chronicles, King Stephen wanted to save the young princes' lives from their enemies in the royal court and "counselled them with all speed" to depart from Hungary.Template:Sfn

Prince Emeric's funeral and the blinding of Vazul

The blinding of Vazul after the death of Emeric, the only son of King Stephen I of Hungary (Chronicon Pictum, 1358)

Exiled from Hungary, Andrew and his brothers settled in the court of Duke Oldřich of Bohemia (r. 1012–1033).Template:Sfn Here they came across King Mieszko II of Poland (r. 1025–1031, 1032–1034),Template:Sfn who likewise had found refuge in Bohemia after his enemies had expelled him from his kingdom.Template:Sfn The Polish monarch regained his crown and returned to Poland in 1032.Template:Sfn Andrew, Béla and Levente, whose "condition of life was poor and mean" in Bohemia, followed Mieszko II, who received them "kindly and honourably" in Poland.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn After the youngest of them, Béla, married Richeza, a daughter of Mieszko II, Andrew and Levente decided to depart from Poland because they "felt that they would be living in Poland under their brother's shadow", according to Simon of Kéza.Template:Sfn

Hungarian chronicles have preserved a story full of fabulous or anachronistic details of the two brothers' ensuing wanderings.Template:Sfn For instance, they narrate that Andrew and Levente were captured by Cumans,Template:Sfn but the latter only arrived in Europe in the 1050s.Template:Sfn

After enduring many hardships, Andrew and Levente established themselves in the court of Yaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiev (r. 1019–1054) in the late 1030s. The grand prince gave his daughter Anastasia in marriage to Andrew.Template:Sfn Kristó writes that Andrew, who had up to that time remained pagan, was baptized on this occasion.Template:Sfn

Return to Hungary (1046)

St Gerard's martyrdom

Pagans slaughtering priests and the martyrdom of Bishop Gerard of Csanád depicted in the Anjou Legendarium

In the meantime, King Peter Orseolo, who had succeeded King Stephen in Hungary in 1038, alienated many lords and prelates, especially when he solemnly recognized the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry III, in 1045.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn According to the Illuminated Chronicle, the discontented lords, "seeing the sufferings of their people", assembled in Csanád (Cenad, Romania).Template:Sfn They agreed to send envoys to Andrew and Levente in Kiev in order to persuade them to return to Hungary.Template:Sfn Fearing "some treacherous ambush", the two brothers only set out after the agents they had sent to Hungary confirmed that the Hungarians were ripe for an uprising against the king.Template:Sfn

By the time the two brothers decided to return, a revolt had broken out in Hungary.Template:Sfn It was dominated by pagans who captured many clergymen and mercilessly slaughtered them.Template:Sfn They met the rebels at Abaújvár.Template:Sfn The Illuminated Chronicle narrates how the pagans urged the dukes "to allow the whole people to live according to the rites of the pagans, to kill the bishops and the clergy, to destroy the churches, to throw off the Christian faith and to worship idols".Template:Sfn The same source adds that Andrew and Levente gave in to all their demands, "for otherwise they would not fight" for them against King Peter.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The Annals of Altaich states that Andrew "savagely raged against the flock of the Holy Church".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Even so, Bishop Gerard of Csanád and four other prelates were ready to join Andrew, but the pagans captured and slaughtered three of them (including Gerard) at Buda.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn King Peter decided to flee from Hungary and take refuge in Austria.Template:Sfn However, Andrew's envoys tricked the king into returning before he reached the frontier, and they captured and blinded him.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Reign

Coronation (1046–1047)

Most Hungarian lords and the prelates opposed the restoration of paganism.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn They preferred the devout Christian Andrew to his pagan brother Levente,Template:Sfn even if, at least according to Kristó and Steinhübel, the latter was the eldest among Vazul's three sons.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Hungarian chronicles write that Levente, who died in short time, did not oppose his brother's ascension to the throne.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The three bishops who had survived the pagan uprising crowned Andrew in Székesfehérvár in the last quarter of 1046 or in the spring of 1047.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Historian Ferenc Makk writes that Andrew was crowned with a crown that the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos had sent to him.Template:Sfn Nine enamelled plaques from this golden crown were unearthed in Nyitraivánka (Ivanka pri Nitre, Slovakia) in the 19th century.Template:Sfn Andrew soon broke with his pagan supporters, restored Christianity and declared pagan rites illegal.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn According to Kosztolnyik, Andrew's epithets (the White or the Catholic) are connected to these events.Template:Sfn

File:Coronation of Andrew I (Chronicon Pictum 060).jpg

Coronation of Andrew I (Illuminated Chronicle)

Wars with the Holy Roman Empire (1047–1053)

The contemporaneous Hermann of Reichenau narrates that Andrew "sent frequent envoys with humble entreaties" to Emperor Henry III, proposing "an annual tribute and faithful service" if the emperor recognized his reign.Template:Sfn Andrew persuaded his brother, Béla, to return from Poland to Hungary in 1048.Template:Sfn He also granted his brother one third of the kingdomTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn with the title of duke.Template:Sfn Béla's duchy comprised two regions which were centered on Nyitra (Nitra, Slovakia) and Bihar (Biharia, Romania).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Skirmishes on the frontier between Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire first occurred in 1050.Template:Sfn Emperor Henry invaded Hungary in AugustTemplate:Sfn 1051, but Andrew and Béla successfully applied scorched earth tactics against the imperial troops and forced them to withdraw.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Legend says that the Vértes Hills near Székesfehérvár were named after the armours—vért in Hungarian—which were discarded by the retreating German soldiers.Template:Sfn

Andrew initiated new peace negotiations with the emperor and promised to pay an annual tribute, but his offers were refused.Template:Sfn Next summer, the emperor returned to Hungary and laid siege to Pressburg (Bratislava, Slovakia).Template:Sfn Zotmund, "a most skilful swimmer" scuttled the emperor's ships.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn After Pope Leo IX mediated a peace treaty, the emperor lifted the siege and withdrew from Hungary.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Andrew soon refused to fulfill his promises made under duress,Template:Sfn and even allied with Conrad I, Duke of Bavaria, a prominent opponent of Emperor Henry III.Template:Sfn

Succession crisis and death (1053–1060)

Andrew's queen, Anastasia, gave birth to a son, named Solomon in 1053.Template:Sfn Andrew attempted to make his son's succession secure, even against his brother, Béla, who had a strong claim to succeed Andrew according to the traditional principle of agnatic seniority.Template:Sfn

Béla chooses the sword

The scene at Tiszavárkony depicted in the Illuminated Chronicle: the paralyzed Andrew forces his brother, Béla to choose between the crown and the sword

The brothers' relationship did not deteriorate immediately after Solomon's birth.Template:Sfn In the deed of the foundation of the Tihany Abbey, a Benedictine monastery established in 1055 by Andrew, Duke Béla was listed among the lords witnessing the act.Template:Sfn This charter, although primarily written in Latin, contains the earliest extant text—Feheruuaru rea meneh hodu utu rea ("on the military road which leads to Fehérvár")—written in Hungarian.Template:Sfn Andrew also established a lavra for Orthodox hermits in Tihany and an Orthodox monastery near Visegrád.Template:Sfn The Third Book of Law of King Ladislaus I of Hungary (r. 1077–1095) refers to an "estate survey of the judge Sarkas" under "King Andrew and Duke Béla".Template:Sfn According to György Györffy, the serfs of the royal domains were registered during this survey which took place around 1056.Template:Sfn

Andrew suffered a stroke which paralyzed him.Template:Sfn In an attempt to strengthen his son's claim to the throne, he had the four-year-old Solomon crowned in the one-year-long period beginning in the autumn of 1057.Template:Sfn For the same purpose, Andrew also arranged the engagement of his son with Judith—a daughter of the late Emperor Henry III, and sister of the new German monarch, Henry IV (r. 1056–1105)—in September 1058.Template:Sfn Thereafter, according to an episode narrated by most Hungarian chronicles, the king invited Duke Béla to a meeting at Tiszavárkony.Template:Sfn At their meeting, Andrew seemingly offered his brother to freely choose between a crown and a sword, which were the symbols of the kingdom and the ducatus, respectively.Template:Sfn Duke Béla, who had previously been informed by his partisans in Andrew's court that he would be murdered on the king's order if he opted for the crown, chose the sword.Template:Sfn

However, Béla, who actually had no intention of renouncing his claim to succeed his brother in favor of his nephew, fled to Poland and sought military assistance from Duke Boleslaus II of Poland (r. 1058–1079).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn With Duke Boleslaus's support, Béla returned to Hungary at the head of Polish troops.Template:Sfn On the other hand, the Dowager Empress Agnes—who governed the Holy Roman Empire in the name of her minor son, Henry IV—sent Bavarian, Bohemian and Saxon troops to assist Andrew.Template:Sfn

The decisive battle was fought in the regions east of the river Tisza.Template:Sfn Andrew suffered injuries and lost the battle.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He attempted to flee to the Holy Roman Empire, but his brother's partisans routed his retinue at Moson.Template:Sfn The Annals of Niederaltaich narrates that wagons and horses trampled him in the battlefield.Template:Sfn Mortally wounded, Andrew was captured and taken by his brother's partisans to ZircTemplate:Sfn where "he was treated with neglect", according to the Illuminated Chronicle.Template:Sfn Andrew died in the royal manor there before his brother was crowned king on 6 December 1060.Template:Sfn Andrew was buried in the crypt of the church of the Tihany Abbey.Template:Sfn

Family

Two boys, one of the wearing a crown

The two sons of Andrew by his wife, Anastasia of Kiev, King Solomon of Hungary (r. 1063–1074) and Duke David

Andrew's wife, Anastasia, was the daughter of Grand Duke Yaroslav I the Wise of Kiev by his wife, Ingegerd, who herself was the daughter of King Olof Skötkonung of Sweden.Template:Sfn Andrew married Anastasia, who was born in about 1020, around 1038.Template:Sfn Their first child, Adelaide, was born around 1040.Template:Sfn She became the wife of Vratislaus II of Bohemia, who was initially Duke and, from 1085, King of Bohemia.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Andrew and Anastasia's first son, Solomon, was born in 1053, their second son, David, some years later.Template:Sfn Neither Solomon nor David fathered sons; the male line of Andrew's family died out with their deaths by the end of the 11th century.Template:Sfn

Medieval chronicles write that Andrew had a natural son, named George, "by a concubine" from the village of Pilismarót.Template:Sfn Since his name was popular among Orthodox believers, Gyula Kristó says that his mother may have been a Rus' lady-in-waiting of Andrew's queen.Template:Sfn The story that the Clan Drummond in Scotland are descended from George and his son Maurice is not accepted by some scholars.Template:Sfn

The following family tree presents Andrew's ancestry, his offspring, and some of his relatives mentioned in the article.Template:Sfn Template:Tree chart/start Template:Tree chart/end *A Khazar, Pecheneg or Volga Bulgarian lady.
**Györffy writes that she may have been a member of the Bulgarian Cometopuli dynasty.

Gallery

• Plaques of gold depicting people
  The plaques of gold from the crown found at Nyitraivánka (Ivanka pri Nitre, Slovakia) – Andrew I was crowned with this crown, according to historian Ferenc Makk.
• A crowned man and two other men on a boat, with two men on a nearby boat
  The sinking of the imperial ships at Pressburg by Zotmund, depicted in the Illuminated Chronicle
• A church with a walled courtyard
  The Benedictine Tihany Abbey founded in 1055 by Andrew
• Andrew's tomb
  Andrew's tomb in the crypt of the church of the Tihany Abbey

Sources

Primary sources

• "Herman of Reichenau, Chronicle" (2008). In Robinson, I.S. Eleventh-Century Germany: The Swabian Chronicles. Manchester University Press. pp. 58–98. Template:ISBN.
• Simon of Kéza: The Deeds of the Hungarians (Edited and translated by László Veszprémy and Frank Schaer with a study by Jenő Szűcs) (1999). CEU Press. Template:ISBN.
• The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle: Chronica de Gestis Hungarorum (Edited by Dezső Dercsényi) (1970). Corvina, Taplinger Publishing. Template:ISBN.
• "The Laws of King Ladislas I (1077–1095): Book Three". In The Laws of the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary, 1000–1301 (Translated and Edited by János M. Bak, György Bónis, James Ross Sweeney with an essay on previous editions by Andor Czizmadia, 2nd rev. ed., In collaboration with Leslie S. Domonkos) (1999). Charles Schlacks, Jr. Publishers. pp. 15–22. Template:ISBN. Template:OCLC. Template:OCLC. Template:LCCN. Template:OL. (ISBN may be misprinted in the book as 88445-29-2).

Secondary sources

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