Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
they began referring to themselves as Magyars (from the Finno-Ugric words mon, to speak
and er, man).
After several centuries, another group split away and moved south to the Don River under
the control of the Turkic Khazars. Here they lived under a tribal alliance called onogur ('10
peoples'), thought to be the origin of the word 'Hungary'. The Magyars' last migration be-
fore the so-called conquest (honfoglalás) of the Carpathian Basin brought them to what
modern Hungarians call the Etelköz, the region between the Dnieper and lower Danube
rivers and north of the Black Sea.
In about 895 seven Magyar tribes under the leadership of Árpád, the chief military com-
mander ( gyula ), struck out for the Carpathian Basin while under attack. They crossed the
Verecke Pass in today's Ukraine some three years later.
Being highly skilled at riding and shooting, the Magyars plundered and pillaged in all dir-
ections, taking slaves and amassing booty. Their raids took them as far as Germany, Italy
and Spain, but in 955 they were stopped in their tracks by the German king Otto I at the
Battle of Augsburg.
This and subsequent defeats forced them to form an alliance with the Holy Roman Em-
pire. In 973 Prince Géza, Árpád's great-grandson, asked the Emperor Otto II to send Christi-
an missionaries to Hungary. Géza was baptised in his capital city, Esztergom, 46km upriver
from Budapest, as was his son Vajk, who took the Christian name István (Stephen). When
Géza died, Stephen ruled as prince, but on Christmas Day in the year 1000 he was crowned
'Christian King' Stephen I.
If you'd like to learn more about the nomadic Magyars, their history, civilisation and art,
go to http://ancientmagyarworld.tripod.com , which also offers a number of useful links.
King Stephen I & the House of Árpád
Stephen set about consolidating royal authority by expropriating the land of the clan chief-
tains and establishing a system of counties (megyék) protected by castles (várak) . Shrewdly,
he transferred much land to loyal (mostly German) knights. He also sought the support of
the Church and established 10 episcopates. By the time of his death in 1038, Hungary was a
nascent Christian nation, increasingly westward-looking and multiethnic.
The next two and a half centuries - the lifespan of the Árpád dynasty - would test the
new kingdom to the limit. The period was marked by dynastic intrigues and relentless
struggles among pretenders to the throne, which weakened the young nation's defences
against its more powerful neighbours. In the mid-13th century the Mongols, who had raced
 
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