| Byzantine–Hungarian wars | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Hungarian invasions of Europe until 970 | |||||||||
 15th-century depiction of the 1071–1072 war in Johannes de Thurocz's Chronica Hungarorum | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Byzantine Empire |
Principality of Hungary Kingdom of Hungary | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Emperors: Romanos IV Diogenes John II Komnenos Manuel I Komnenos Andronikos I Komnenos |
Kings: Solomon Stephen II Géza II Stephen III Béla III | ||||||||
The Byzantine–Hungarian wars were a series of wars between the Byzantine Empire and the medieval Hungarian states, the Principality of Hungary, then the Kingdom of Hungary. During the Hungarian invasions of Europe since the mid-10th century, the Hungarians launched a number of campaigns southward into the Byzantine Empire, especially after they took possession of the Carpathian Basin. They were defeated in the Battle of Arcadiopolis in 970, which resulted in the cessation of Hungarian invasions and the subsequent conversion to Christianity.
Under Stephen I, the first king of Hungary (r. 1000–1038), the Byzantine–Hungarian relationship was peaceful. Following the Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria (1018), in which the Hungarians also participated, the two countries became directly adjacent to each other. Stephen's reign was followed by a long period of civil wars, pagan uprisings and conquest efforts on the part of the Holy Roman Empire, while, at the same time, the Byzantine Empire fell into a period of difficulties, caused to a large extent by the undermining of the theme system and the neglect of the military. Andrew I of Hungary (r. 1046–1060) stabilized his kingdom and gradually became an ally of the Holy Roman Empire. In the Balkans, the Byzantine frontier was suffered from continuous raids of Pechenegs. A single Byzantine source reports that Isaac I Komnenos led a military expedition, in late summer of 1059, into the Balkans that had been pillaged by the alliance of the Hungarians and the Pechenegs. Solomon was the first king, who waged a large-scale war against the Byzantines from 1071 to 1072. The Hungarians captured Belgrade and Sirmium (Syrmia). For the next five decades, the relationship between the Byzantium and Hungary remained uneventful and quasi-allied, strengthened by marriage contracts between ruling houses. The alliance with the Byzantine Empire also enabled Coloman to invade Dalmatia, a coastal region nominally under Byzantine rule, in 1105.
The relationship gradually worsened, when the Komnenos dynasty in the Byzantine Empire came to power and aimed to restore the empire's old glory. When John II Komnenos took shelter to the former Hungarian pretender Álmos and his followers around 1125, Stephen II demanded the extradition of his rival without success. The Hungarian king decided to wage war against the Byzantine Empire in 1127. As a result of the war, the Byzantines were confirmed in their control of the region of Syrmia, along with Belgrade, Braničevo and Zemun. These areas remained the focus of hostilities between the two realms throughout the 12th century. Manuel I Komnenos pursued an expansionist policy, he aimed to subjugate Hungary under Byzantine sphere of interests. Over the decades, he supported more pretenders against the reigning Hungarian monarchs, and two large-scale wars against Hungary (1149–1155 and 1162–1167) took place during his reign. During the latter, Hungary suffered serious territorial losses (Croatia, Dalmatia and Syrmia), but the kingdom itself avoided the status of vassalage. Following Manuel's death (1180), internal conflicts fell the empire into political anarchy. Taking advantage of his situation, Béla III recovered the territories, which had lost in the previous wars. The Byzantines were gradually pushed out from the Balkans by the end of the 12th century, ending the hostility between the empire and Hungary once and for all. Following the restoration of the Byzantine Empire (1261), Hungary and the Byzantium no longer confronted each other, furthermore their interests became more and more similar, primarily after the rise of the Ottoman Empire in the 14–15th centuries.
Magyar raids (~800–970) edit
The Hungarians (or Magyars) first encountered the Christian world through the Byzantine Empire in the early 9th century. Byzantine authors usually referred to them as Turkics (or Turks), in addition to Savards or Scythians. By that time, the Hungarians lived in the steppes north of the Black Sea, called Etelköz. The Hungarians emerged from the obscurity of history when they began with their involvement in the Byzantine–Bulgarian wars.[1] According to linguist Péter Király, it is possible that the Magyars were in alliance with Krum of Bulgaria against Emperor Nikephoros I at the Battle of Pliska, which took place in 811 in the Balkan Mountains. Other historians attributed this data to the Pannonian Avars.[2] Symeon Logothete's world chronicle mentions that around 837 the Bulgarian Empire hired the Hungarians, after the population of Adrianople, who were transferred to Bulgarian territory north of the Danube more than two decades earlier after Krum took the city, rebelled against the Bulgarians and requested help from Emperor Theophilos. The Byzantines sent their river fleet to transfer the people into the empire, but the Hungarians arrvied the area of Lower Danube too. They offered the people not to prevent their return if they handed over their chattels, who refused this, so a clash took place. The Byzantines repulsed the Hungarians' attacks, and the people of Adrianople (including the future emperor Basil I) were able to return to Thrace.[3] There is also an argument that, instead of Magyars, this nomadic group is identical with those Onogurs, who migrated west after the dissolution of Old Great Bulgaria.[4]
References edit
- ^ Diószegi Szabó 2022, pp. 89–90.
- ^ Bollók & B. Szabó 2022, pp. 27–28.
- ^ Moravcsik 1953, p. 39.
- ^ Bollók & B. Szabó 2022, pp. 38–39.
Sources edit
- B. Szabó, János (2013). Háborúban Bizánccal. Magyarország és a Balkán a 11–12. században [War with the Byzantium. Hungary and the Balkans in the 11–12th Century] (in Hungarian). Corvina. ISBN 978-963-13-6150-6.
- Bárány, Attila (2019). "Diplomatic Relations between Hungary and Byzantium in the Eleventh-Twelfth Centuries". In Sághy, Marianne; Ousterhout, Robert G. (eds.). Piroska and the Pantokrator Dynastic Memory, Healing and Salvation in Komnenian Constantinople. CEU Medievalia, Central European University. pp. 63–96. ISBN 978-963-386-297-1.
- Bollók, Ádám; B. Szabó, János (2022). A császár és Árpád népe [The Emperor and the People of Árpád] (in Hungarian). BTK Magyar Őstörténeti Kutatócsoport, Források és tanulmányok 8., ELKH Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont. ISBN 978-963-416-304-6.
- Curta, Florin (2006). Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-89452-4.
- Diószegi Szabó, Pál (2022). "Hungarian–Byzantine Relations in the Árpád Era". In Horváth-Lugossy, Gábor; Makoldi, Miklós (eds.). Kings and Saints – The Age of the Árpáds (PDF). Budapest, Székesfehérvár: Institute of Hungarian Research. pp. 89–114. ISBN 978-615-6117-65-6.
- Fine, John Van Antwerp Jr. (1991). The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-08149-7.
- Györffy, György (2013). István király és műve [King Stephen and his work] (in Hungarian). Balassi Kiadó. ISBN 978-963-506-896-8.
- Makk, Ferenc (1989). The Arpads and the Comneni: Political Relations between Hungary and Byzantium in the 12th Century. Budapest, Hungary: Akadémiai Kiadó. ISBN 978-9-63-055268-4.
- Moravcsik, Gyula (1953). Bizánc és a magyarság [Byzantium and the Hungarians] (PDF) (in Hungarian). Budapest, Hungary: Akadémiai Kiadó.
- Obolensky, Dimitri (1974) [1971]. The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe, 500-1453. London: Cardinal. ISBN 9780351176449.
- Stephenson, Paul (2000). Byzantium's Balkan Frontier: A Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 900–1204. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-77017-0.
- Treadgold, Warren (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-2630-2.