Ladislaus IV of Hungary - The Friend of The Cumans

The Friend of The Cumans

On 23 May 1277 the assembly of the 'prelates, barons, nobles and Cumans' in Rákos declared Ladislas of full age and he theoretically began to govern the kingdom. On 11 November 1277, Ladislas IV met King Rudolph I of Germany in Vienna and they entered into an alliance against the King of Bohemia. In the next year he joined forces with King Rudolph and they defeated Ottokar II of Bohemia on 26 August 1278 in the Battle on the Marchfeld.

Meanwhile, Ladislas IV alienated his Angevin kinsfolk and the Hungarian nobility by favoring the society of the semi-pagan Cumans, from whom he was descended through his mother. He wore Cuman dress as his court wear, surrounded himself with Cuman concubines and neglected his Angevin consort, Elizabeth of Anjou.

In the beginning of 1279 a papal legate arrived in Hungary to inquire into the conduct of the king, who was accused by his neighbors and many of his own subjects, of undermining Christianity. The papal legate summoned an assembly to Buda, where Ladislas IV ordered the Cuman tribes to settle down in limited areas of the kingdom. However, he was not able to (or did not want to) enforce the fulfillment of his order; as a result, the papal legate excommunicated him. Ladislas IV managed to escape from the court and joined to the Cuman tribes, and with their help imprisoned the legate. He was shortly captured by the Voivode of Transylvania, Finta de genere Aba who enforced him to reconcile with the papal legate.

Afterwards, the royal government, led by Finta and his allies, tried to force the Cuman tribes to settle down, which resulted in the revolt of the Cumans who were planning to leave the country, but Ladislas IV defeated them in a battle near Stari Slankamen (Szalánkemén). In 1281 Ladislas IV replaced Finta and his allies with the members of the Kőszegi family; therefore the formers rose against him, but he managed to overcome them. In the next year some Cuman tribes decided again to leave Hungary; Ladislas IV won a decisive victory over the Cumans, but some of them managed to escape to the Balkans.

Ladislas IV, however, could not strengthen the royal power; therefore several factions of the barons governed the kingdom in the next years. All Hungary was convulsed by civil war, during which the young king was driven from one end of his kingdom to the other. The magnates and lower nobility were able to establish their power at the expense of the monarchy during the prolonged political unrest.

In February, 1285 troops of the Golden Horde, led by Nogai Khan, invaded and sacked the Eastern part of the country, but they retreated soon. The king's popularity was by now so low that many of his opponents claimed he had invited them. These rumors seemed to be justified when Ladislas employed some of the Mongol captives as members of his personal guards.

In September, 1286 Ladislas IV arrested his wife and began to live together with his Cuman mistress, Édua. One year later he broke into the Convent of the Blessed Virgin on the Nyulak szigete ('Rabbits' Island'), where his sister Elisabeth had been living as a nun, and married her to a Czech magnate, Zaviś z Rozenberka. Having informed on these events, Archbishop Lodomer of Esztergom excommunicated the king and asked the pope to proclaim a crusade against him.

Afterwards, the anarchy became total in the kingdom, whose parts were practically governed by the great oligarchs, the members of the Babonić (Babonics), Kőszegi, Aba, Kán and Csák families, while Duke Albert I of Germany occupied several Western counties. On May 26, 1289, the King issued a writ, to state that he had oppressed the revolt. In June 1289, Ladislas IV reconciled temporarily with the Archdiocese of Esztergom and his wife, but he did not have enough power to rule over the barons, so he joined his Cuman followers again.

In the beginnings of 1290 he appointed Mizse, a Muslim converted to Christianity, to Palatine. He was shortly slain in his camp at Körösszeg by Cuman assassins.

He died heirless. His successor, Andrew III of Hungary, issued from another branch of the Árpád dynasty.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.