Béla IV of Hungary

Béla IV Árpád is king de Hongrie October 21st 1235 with the May 3rd 1270. It succeeds his father André II on October 21st, 1235.

Alerted by the invasion of the Russia by the Tartar , it dispatches several Dominican monks charged to seek of the Hungarians who had remained “in the fatherland of the ancestors” during the migration of 895. In 1237, it accommodates in Hungary forty thousand Coumans, people of pastors driven out Turkish the low Danube by the Mongols, and establishes them in the marshy zone between the the Tisza and the the Danube. He thus hopes to have at his disposal of the troops against oligarchy peerage-book.

Mongolian Invasions

The Mongolian chief Batu Qân enters in Moravie and Hungary where it takes Pest at the conclusion of a great victory with Mohi on banks of the Sajó (April 11th 1241) on the troops of Béla IV. The Mongols plunder the country and massacre part of the population. Béla must take refuge near prince Frederic of Austria, which instead of helping it, benefits from the occasion to tear off three counties to him. It takes then the way of the Dalmatie and settles in Trau (Trogir), while waiting for the assistance of the Occident.

In March 1242, the avant-garde of Batu reached the Adriatique and the king Béla IV had his safety only while embarking on a ship in roads of Trogir. With the advertisement of died of Ögödei (December 11th 1241), the Mongolian chief and his troops ebb towards the East to take part in the Quriltay organized for the election of his successor. The Central Europe was thus saved.

The Rebuilding

Béla IV, of return in Hungary, finds a country devastated and must all rebuild. Among the royal residences, it privileges the fortress of Buda and leaves Esztergom at the disposal of the archbishop. It repopulates the country devastated by calling upon German colonists established like hosts ( hospites ), who enjoy a particular status. It authorizes the large ones to build strong stone castles. The comitats (counties) become comitats peerage-book: the ispan , named by the king, is assisted judges chosen by the local nobility. The comitats obtain the right to send their representatives to the diet. The system of the orders begins, which characterizes thereafter Hungary, which becomes an oligarchy of barons.

The Transylvania, devastated by the Mongolian , is subjected to the same feudalization as Hungary. It is divided into comitats around stone castles from now on. The chiefs Valaques are integrated in the nobility of the ispans. The privileges of the Saxon and the Szeklers are renewed. The first can elect their count, who depends directly on the king; the seconds appoint their judges who manage the seven seats ( Stühle ) which they form.

Béla IV grants a new municipal statute to Székesfehérvár (royal Alba) which becomes the model of the urban development in Hungary. It founds the fortress of Buda, the surviving population to it Pest transfers and makes the principal shopping mall of the country of it. A score of other cities are built, profiting from royal privileges, an ordered topology and construction of enclosures.

The king has many domanial and kingly incomes like the mines, salt, the taxes and tolls, as maintains it the court. He increases his incomes by the striking of silver money, entrusted to the archbishop of Esztergom, who leases it with a Juif from Vienna, Henel. This sour currency stimulates the economic activity, commercial and the tax re-entries. Hungary exports oxen, wine, salt, imports cloths, silk, spices, of Venice, Germany and Moravie. The regalities coming from the mines (money, gold, salt) are shared between the tax department, the new contractors (in particular German) and the middle-class of the mining cities which takes part in the exploitation. These activities provide as much or more incomes that the old taxes in kind. The economic recovery is carried out by the development of the outlying areas or depopulated, particularly in North (Slovakia current), where new cities or villages are founded. The kingdom counts two million inhabitants then and is populated of a mosaic of people of any source: Germans, Walloons, Latin, of the “refugees” of the steppes, Petchenègues, Coumans, Iazygues, of the Jewish and Ismaélites, the “Russian” peasants of Galicie, of the Roumanians, the Poles, the Moravian and another Slavic.

The Revolt of Istvan

In 1262 and 1265, his/her son Istvan (the future Etienne V of Hungary), which controls in Transylvania, turns the weapons against his/her father. It profits from the support of the Coumans (it married a princess coumane) and troops of the barons félons that it attracts in its camp Excellent military chief, contrary to his father, it guerroie successfully against Ottokar II of Bohemia and against the Bulgaria. It ends up beating his father and is made proclaim “king-junior” of the Eastern half of Hungary in 1265.

With died of Béla IV the May 3rd 1270, the problem of the succession arises again and feudal anarchy triumphs in Hungary.

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