Kingdom · Poland, Hungary and the Adriatic · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Kingdom of Hungary

On the morning of 1 January 1200 Emeric, about 25, has been king for nearly four years and has just won the first round of his quarrel with his younger brother, Duke Andrew.

Andrew beat him at Mački in Slavonia in December 1197 with Austrian help and was given Croatia and Dalmatia; he plotted again, the plot was exposed when Emeric seized the papers of Bishop Boleslaus of Vác on 10 March 1199, and in the summer of 1199 the royal army routed Andrew's men in the valley of Rád by Lake Balaton. Andrew fled to Duke Leopold VI of Austria and is in exile that winter. Emeric holds the whole kingdom, Croatia and Dalmatia included, through his own officers: Mika of the Ják kindred is palatine, Vejte of the Csanád kindred judge royal, Benedict ban of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia (which Benedict is debated), Legforus voivode of Transylvania.

The king rules through the royal counties (vármegye), each a royal castle with its castle folk (várnépek) under an ispán (comes), while the great kindreds (nemzetség) hold their own estates scattered among them. A papal legate, Gregory, is working for peace, which comes in 1200: the brothers are reconciled and Andrew goes back to Croatia and Dalmatia. Emeric's queen is Constance of Aragon; their only son, Ladislaus, is not yet born as far as the sources show.

Who rules

Name
Emeric (Imre)
Title
King of Hungary, Dalmatia, Croatia and Rama (Hungarie, Dalmatie, Croatie, Rame rex)
Since
23 April 1196, on the death of his father Béla III; crowned junior king at Esztergom on 16 May 1182
Born
1174 (aged about 25 on 1 January 1200)
Family
Árpád dynasty. Eldest son of King Béla III (died 23 April 1196) and Agnes of Antioch (died 1184). His father had given him the government of Croatia and Dalmatia in the mid-1190s.
Confidence
high

Reign, Mački, the Vác letters of 10 March 1199, Rád, Andrew's flight and the 1200 peace from the English Wikipedia lives of Emeric and Andrew II (citing Érszegi and Solymosi, Almási, Zsoldos 2022, Kristó and Makk); officers from Zsoldos's archontology as given in the Wikipedia lists of palatines, judges royal, bans and voivodes.

Overlord

None. The king holds of no one; the pope claims a special care for the kingdom and is pressing the crusade vow on the royal house.

What the realm holds

  • The royal seats: Esztergom (palace, mint, the archbishop's see), Székesfehérvár (coronation and burial church, the crown and the royal archive), Óbuda (royal residence and provostry), with Pest across the river
  • The royal counties of Transdanubia: Moson, Sopron, Vas, Zala, Győr, Komárom, Esztergom, Pilis, Veszprém, Fejér, Tolna, Somogy, Baranya (written here)
  • The counties north of the Danube to the Carpathians and the royal forests (written by hno)
  • The counties of the Great Plain and the south, with Syrmia (written by hpl)
  • The voivodeship of Transylvania with the Saxons and the Székelys (trn)
  • Croatia and Dalmatia with Slavonia, in the king's hand since Andrew's flight (cro; the Dalmatian towns, dal)
  • Overlordship of the banate of Bosnia under Ban Kulin (Rama in the royal style; dal)
  • Zara (Zadar), under Hungarian protection since 1186 and claimed by Venice (dal)

How it was acquired

By inheritance and coronation: crowned in his father's lifetime (1182) and king alone from 23 April 1196, without rival at his accession. The brothers' war began in 1197.

Allies and rivals

Allies: King Ottokar I of Bohemia, who in 1199 put away Adelaide of Meissen and married Emeric's sister Constance; Pope Innocent III, who backs the crowned king against the rebel and wants Andrew on crusade; the bishops and lords of his party (below). Rivals: his brother Duke Andrew; Duke Leopold VI of Austria and Styria, Emeric's first cousin (son of Béla III's sister Helena), who fought for Andrew at Mački and now shelters him; the archbishop of Salzburg's men of Pettau, who beat the Hungarians at Easter 1199 and moved the Drava frontier east to Friedau and Polstrau (written by the Eastern Germany map); Venice, which wants Zara back; in the south the Serbian grand župan Stefan and his brother Vukan of Zeta, and the new Bulgarian tsar Kaloyan, whose quarrels with Hungary come later.

The realm that morning

Emeric controls the kingdom and its offices. Andrew is a fugitive, most likely still at Leopold VI's court in Austria (his exact whereabouts on 1 January are not pinned). Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia are governed for the king by Ban Benedict. His partisans are disgraced or reconciling: the former palatine Mog, who went over to Andrew, is out of office; Bishops Boleslaus of Vác and Elvin of Várad, Andrew's men, are under royal and papal pressure; the archbishops Andrew put into Split and Zadar are under papal inquiry.

The western frontier with Austria and Styria is hostile but quiet: no raid or campaign is recorded for the winter of 1199-1200, and the Pettau strip lost at Easter 1199 has not been won back.

Wealth

The king is the richest landholder in his kingdom: the counties, the royal estates and forests, the salt, the mint, tolls on the Danube and the roads, the market dues and the profit of renewing the coinage. Salt is a royal monopoly: Transylvanian rock salt is carried to royal salt houses and sold under the king's officers, and grants of salt by the boat-load are a favoured gift to churches (how salt reached Transdanubia in 1200 is not pinned). Silver comes from the mountains north of the Danube, gold from Transylvanian rivers and mines (hno, trn).

The great road from Vienna through Moson and Győr to Esztergom and on down the Danube carries the German trade and the crusade traffic.

Military

No numbers survive. The king's host is raised from his household knights, the castle warriors of the royal counties under their ispáns, the retinues of the kindreds and the prelates, and the light-horse auxiliaries of the borders (Pechenegs, Székelys). Record: beaten by Andrew and Leopold VI at Mački in Slavonia (December 1197); victorious over Andrew's army at Rád in Somogy (summer 1199); beaten by the men of Pettau on the Styrian Drava at Easter 1199 (by tradition).

Stone castles are few: the royal seats and bishops' castles of Esztergom, Fehérvár and Veszprém; most county castles are earthworks with timber.

Threats

  • Andrew's return with Austrian help, or a new plot among the lords and bishops who backed him
  • Leopold VI of Austria and Styria, Andrew's protector, and Salzburg's men of Pettau on the Drava
  • The pope's pressure to send a royal crusade and to free the Dalmatian elections
  • Venice's claim to Zara
  • Serbian and Bulgarian ambitions on the southern frontier
  • No son yet: the succession rests on Andrew until a child is born

Officers in 1200

Palatine (nádor)
Mika of the Ják kindred, palatine 1199-1201: Emeric dismissed Mog (palatine 1192-1193 and 1198-1199), who had joined Andrew's conspiracy, and put Mika in his place. Mika had been master of the treasury (1198) and judge royal (1199), and was ispán of Bács (1199-1200, the palatine's county) and of Bihar (1198-1199, again 1200-1201): see Palatine Mika. Bishop Elvin of Várad, Andrew's partisan, excommunicated him for seizing a priest who carried messages for Andrew's backers; Innocent III told the Hungarian prelates not to use excommunication as a political weapon, and Mika kept his office.
Judge royal (curialis comes)
Vejte of the Csanád kindred, 1199-1200, also ispán of Nyitra (1199-1200) and of Krassó (1200); he followed Mika (1199), who followed Peter son of Töre (1198).
Master of the treasury (magister tavarnicorum)
Not pinned for 1199-1200 in the sources checked. Mika of the Ják held the office (then not a permanent post) in 1198, after Bogoslav.
Ban of Croatia and Dalmatia
Benedict, 1199-1200, for King Emeric (after Nicholas, 1198-1199, also Emeric's). Which Benedict is debated: the English Wikipedia list calls him Benedict of the Osl kindred; Kádár (2018) identifies him with Benedict son of Korlát (of the Bár-Kalán kindred by Font), styling him ban of Slavonia and ispán of Zala in 1199-1200; Zsoldos (2011) with the Benedict who was palatine in 1202-1204. During Andrew's dukedom the duke had his own ban, comes Andrew (1198). Details in the croatia record (Ban Benedict).
Voivode of Transylvania
Legforus, 1199-1200 (the earliest royal charter giving the voivode's title is of 1199). Eth of the Geregye kindred, also ispán of Fehér, appears as voivode during 1200. Details in the transylvania record (trn).
Chancellor
Not pinned for 1 January 1200 in the sources checked.
Ispáns named elsewhere
Vejte (Nyitra and Csanád), Mika (Bács and Bihar), Bánk of the Bár-Kalán kindred (Újvár, charter of 1199), Ampud II (Szolnok, 1199): see hno and hpl.
Ispáns of Transdanubia
Moson: Pat (Poth) of the Győr kindred (about 1199). Zala: Benedict son of Korlát, if Kádár's identification holds (1199-1200). The others are not pinned (see the county records).

Royal family in 1200

Queen
Constance of Aragon, daughter of King Alfonso II of Aragon (died 1196). Married 1196 or 1198 (sources differ). Young; she will flee to Vienna with her son in 1205 and later marry Frederick II of Sicily (1209).
Children
None born by 1 January 1200 as far as the sources show. Their only son, Ladislaus (III), was born 'around 1200' (Kristó and Makk); one account puts the birth in 1200. Not pinned; treated here as not yet born.
Brother
Duke Andrew (born about 1177), prince of Halych 1188-1189 or 1190, duke of Croatia and Dalmatia 1197 or 1198 to 1199, in exile in Austria since the summer of 1199. Unmarried: his marriage to Gertrude of Merania comes between 1200 and 1203. Until Emeric has a son, Andrew is the heir by blood.
Sisters
Margaret (Maria), wife of the deposed and blinded Byzantine emperor Isaac II Angelos (she marries Boniface of Montferrat in 1204); Constance, queen of Bohemia since 1199.
Late kin
Béla III's widow, Margaret of France, left for the Holy Land and died at Acre in 1197; Béla's sister Helena, Leopold VI's mother, died in 1199.

Kindreds and sides

With Emeric: the Ják (the palatine Mika); the Győr (Archbishop Saul of Kalocsa, and the brothers Pat, ispán of Moson, and Csépán); the Csanád (Vejte, judge royal); the ban Benedict, whichever Benedict he is (the Osl by one list, son of Korlát by Kádár); the Csák (Bishop Ugrin of Győr); probably the Héder (Hencse, who in 1205 fled with Emeric's widow); the Geregye (Eth). With Andrew in 1197-1199: the palatine Mog (kindred not pinned), comes Andrew and Makarius of the Monoszló in Slavonia, the Babonić and the counts of Krk (Frankopans) in Croatia, and 'many other prelates and lords' left unnamed by the sources; the Hont-Pázmány (Alexander freed Andrew in 1204, Martin was his ban in 1202) were his men later and their stand in 1199 is not pinned. Not pinned: the Kán (Julius Kán rose under Emeric from 1201, and some historians think he favoured Andrew in secret), the Bár-Kalán (Bishop Kalán of Pécs acts for himself), the Atyusz, the Tomaj, the Buzád-Hahót and the Pok.

The Rátót (whose name-place is taken to be Rátót north of Pest; Leustach of the kindred was voivode about 1176-1196) and the Aba (the Mátra and the north-east) hold their main estates outside Transdanubia and are written by hno and hpl; no Transdanubian estate of theirs is pinned for 1200.

Bishops and sides

Church map records; per the campaign notes: with Emeric, Job of Esztergom (primate), Saul of Kalocsa (of the Győr kindred), Ugrin of Győr (of the Csák), John of Csanád and Dominic of Zagreb; with Andrew, Boleslaus of Vác (whose papers Emeric seized on 10 March 1199), his brother Elvin of Várad (under papal inquiry for simony since February 1199) and the archbishops Andrew installed at Split and Zadar. Kalán of Pécs is a power of his own, at odds with the monks of Földvár. John, abbot of Pannonhalma, was one of the 1199 conspirators (Érszegi and Solymosi).

Royal counties and castle folk

The kingdom's backbone is the royal county: a royal castle of earth and timber (Moson, Sopron, Vasvár, Zalavár, Somogyvár, Győr, Komárom, Veszprém, Fehérvár, Tolna, Baranyavár) with the lands and villages of its castle folk: castle warriors (várjobbágyok) who owe service in arms, and castle people who owe labour and dues. The ispán, the king's appointee and removable at will, leads them, takes a third of the county's revenue, judges them and musters them. Royal servants (udvarnokok) on the king's estates, the queen's people and the royal forests (Pilis, Bakony) are held apart from the counties.

On the western edge the border zone (gyepű) of wood, marsh and earthworks is kept by border guards (őrök, as at Őriszentpéter and Felsőőr), archers (lövők) and gate keepers at the gates (kapu) on the roads. There are no noble counties yet: the Golden Bull (1222) and the counties of the nobles are later.

Chamber officials

Muslims (called Ismaelites, Hungarian böszörmény) and Jews served the royal chamber as minters, salt officers and collectors of tolls and dues. No office-holder of 1200 is named in the sources checked. The Golden Bull of 1222, later, forbade them these offices, which shows how common the practice was. Pest had a community of Muslim merchants; Esztergom had Jews from the eleventh century.

Coinage

Silver denars struck at the royal mint, which by the town's tradition worked at Esztergom from St Stephen's time to the early thirteenth century; the coin was called in and re-struck at intervals for the king's profit. Béla III also struck copper coins on Byzantine and Islamic models. In the west the Friesach penny of Salzburg circulates widely. Emeric was the first king to put the red and silver stripes (the 'Árpád stripes') on his seal.

Relations

Rome
Innocent III backs the crowned king, pressed Andrew in 1198 to fulfil his father's crusade vow and respect his brother's rights, and has sent the legate Gregory to make peace (which cardinal Gregory is not pinned, GM ruling 3). Open cases: Andrew's archbishops at Split and Zadar; the simony charge against Elvin of Várad; Kalán of Pécs and the Földvár monks; Vukan's charge (1199) that Ban Kulin shelters heretics in Bosnia.
Austria and Styria
Hostile. Leopold VI, Emeric's first cousin, fought for Andrew in 1197 and shelters him now. The Leitha and Lafnitz frontier is quiet that winter; the Drava frontier was moved east by Salzburg's men of Pettau at Easter 1199.
Bohemia
Allied: Ottokar I married Emeric's sister Constance in 1199. Ottokar and Leopold both stand with Philip of Swabia in the German throne war, in which Hungary takes no recorded part.
Poland and Galicia
No quarrel recorded. Andrew lost Halych in 1189 or 1190 when the boyars, with Duke Casimir II's help, drove him out; Roman Mstislavich of Volhynia took Halych in 1199. Emeric's dealings with Roman that winter are not pinned (hno, mlp).
Venice
Unfriendly. Zara has stood under Hungarian protection since 1186 and Venice wants it back (dal).
Serbia and Bulgaria
Andrew fought the Serbs in 1198 and took Hum. The grand župan Stefan and his elder brother Vukan of Zeta are rivals; Emeric will back Vukan in 1201 or 1202 and call himself king of Serbia from 1202 (later). Beyond the Sava and the lower Danube, Belgrade and Braničevo are not Hungarian that winter: Braničevo was most probably taken by the Bulgarian tsar Kaloyan (since 1197) in 1199, and who holds the ruined Belgrade, Byzantium or Kaloyan, is not pinned; Hungary seizes Belgrade only in 1202 and loses both to Kaloyan in 1203-1204 (hpl).
Byzantium
At peace. Emeric's sister Margaret is the wife of the deposed Isaac II. Syrmia (Szerém) is Hungarian; the Morava frontier beyond it is written by hpl.

Military threats note

No raiding belt is drawn on the Austrian or Styrian frontier: no raid is recorded for the winter of 1199-1200 (the Eastern Germany map draws the Pettau strip on its side).

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

  1. January to summer 1200 (dates not pinned)The legate Gregory negotiates between the brothers. The Hungarian accounts give the terms: both brothers vow to go to the Holy Land, Duke Leopold VI of Austria governs Hungary while they are away, Andrew gets his duchy back, and the survivor inherits the other's lands. The crusade never happens.Depends on: Andrew's need of terms in exile, Leopold's willingness to broker them, the pope's pressure, Emeric's readiness to buy peace. Stopped by: Andrew raising a new army with Austrian help, Emeric refusing, the legate's withdrawal, or either brother's death.
  2. Summer 1200Emeric again grants Croatia and Dalmatia to Andrew, who returns as duke with reduced power; Nicholas serves as ban for the duke (1200-1201) and Benedict leaves the banate.Depends on: The peace being made. Stopped by: A breakdown of the talks; Emeric keeping the duchy in his own hand.
  3. About 1200 (not pinned)Queen Constance bears a son, Ladislaus, Emeric's only child; once he is born Andrew is no longer the next heir by blood.Depends on: The queen's health and fertility; a natural event. Stopped by: Death or miscarriage; the date may fall in 1201.
  4. During 1200 (not pinned)Bernard of Perugia, Emeric's old tutor, becomes archbishop of Split with the king's backing (campaign notes: archbishop during 1200; GM ruling 7 on who holds the see on 1 January).Depends on: The papal inquiry going against Andrew's appointee and the chapter electing the crown's man. Stopped by: Rome confirming Andrew's man, or Andrew's restoration in Dalmatia changing the electors' minds.
  5. During 1200 (not pinned)Eth of the Geregye kindred, ispán of Fehér, replaces Legforus as voivode of Transylvania (trn).Depends on: Royal appointment. Stopped by: The king's choice.
  6. 11 October 1200Innocent III writes to Emeric urging him to drive the heretics out of Bosnia, following Vukan's complaint against Ban Kulin.Depends on: The Bosnian case staying open at Rome. Stopped by: Kulin's earlier submission.

Later, on the likely course

  1. Later (for reference)Mika is palatine to 1201; Emeric's Serbian war for Vukan and the title king of Serbia (1201-1202); the crusaders take Zara for Venice on 24 November 1202; Andrew's marriage to Gertrude of Merania (between 1200 and 1203); his second revolt and arrest near Varaždin (October 1203); Ladislaus crowned 26 August 1204; Emeric dies 30 November 1204.Depends on: Nothing in play changing their conditions. Stopped by: Play.

Places of note

  • Esztergom: the royal palace and the mint: The king's chief seat, palace rebuilt under Béla III, archbishop's see.
  • Székesfehérvár: the coronation and burial church: Where the kings are crowned and buried; Béla III lies here (1196).
  • Óbuda: royal residence and provostry: Royal residence on the Danube, opposite Pest.
  • Rád: Andrew's defeat, summer 1199: The valley of Rád in Somogy by Lake Balaton, where the royal army routed Andrew's men.
  • Vác: the papers seized, 10 March 1199: Emeric made Bishop Boleslaus hand over the proof of the conspiracy.

Where the sources disagree

  • Queen Constance's marriage: the assignment gives 1198; the English Wikipedia life of Constance says the wedding took place in 1196 while dating her queenship from 1198; the life of Emeric says only between 1196 and 1200. Not pinned; 1196 or 1198.
  • Ladislaus's birth: Kristó and Makk say 'around 1200'; the English life of Constance says 1200; the Hungarian life of Emeric implies he was five when crowned in August 1204 (so born about 1199) but also speaks of a newly born heir in 1203. Ruled here: not yet born on 1 January 1200, not pinned.
  • The grant of Croatia and Dalmatia to Andrew is dated early 1198 in the English life of Emeric and 1197 in the life of Andrew.
  • The ban of 1199-1200: the English Wikipedia ban list names him Benedict Osl; Kádár (2018) makes him Benedict son of Korlát, ban of Slavonia and ispán of Zala; Zsoldos (2011) the palatine Benedict of 1202-1204. Not pinned.
  • The campaign notes list Andrew's bishops as Vác, Várad, Split and Zadar. Érszegi and Solymosi (via the English life of Andrew II) also make John, abbot of Pannonhalma (a Church map record), a leader of the 1199 conspiracy, and Zsoldos (2022) has the sitting palatine Mog going over to Andrew. Worth adding to Part 9.
  • Andrew's marriage to Gertrude of Merania: the assignment says about 1203; the English life says between 1200 and 1203; the Hungarian life's table gives 1201. All later than 1 January 1200.
  • campaign notes Part 8 case 8 has the legate Gregory already mediating on 1 January; the sources checked confirm a legate Gregory came to make peace but give no arrival date.

Evidence: The brothers' war and the 1200 peace are well attested in the chronicles, papal letters and modern lives. The great officers come from Zsoldos's archontology through the Wikipedia office lists and are pinned to charter years, not days. Most Transdanubian ispáns of 1199-1200 are not named in the sources checked. The queen's estates, the treasurer and the chancellor are not pinned.

On the map: The frontiers are drawn on later lines where the 1200 line is not known: the Austrian frontier on the Leitha and the Lafnitz, the Styrian one on the Mur below the Pettau strip of 1199, the Polish and Galician on the Carpathian crest (thinly settled border forests in 1200), the Transylvanian line roughly on the Meszes and the Bihor hills. The border zone (gyepű) was a belt, not a line.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

Sources and studies

  1. Emeric, King of Hungary (English Wikipedia)
  2. Andrew II of Hungary (English Wikipedia)
  3. Ladislaus III of Hungary (English Wikipedia)
  4. Constance of Aragon, Holy Roman Empress (English Wikipedia)
  5. Imre magyar király (Hungarian Wikipedia)
  6. II. András magyar király (Hungarian Wikipedia)
  7. List of palatines of Hungary (English Wikipedia, after Zsoldos)
  8. Judge royal (English Wikipedia, list after Zsoldos)
  9. Ban of Croatia (English Wikipedia, list)
  10. Voivode of Transylvania (English Wikipedia, list)
  11. Ják (genus) (English Wikipedia)
  12. Esztergom (English Wikipedia: the mint)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.