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KING STEPHEN OF HUNGARY.   Term Paper ID:23904 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Life & career of leader crowned in 1000 A.D. Religion, politics, rise to power, national unification, canonization, succession issues.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Life & career of leader crowned in 1000 A.D. Religion, politics, rise to power, national unification, canonization, succession issues. Paper Introduction: This paper is a biography of Stephen, crowned as the first king of Hungary on Christmas Day, 1000 AD. His coronation consolidated a collection of battling tribes into a recognized kingdom, aligned with the Roman pope. His monarchy lasted more than 900 years. Stephen, known as Istvan to his countrymen, established a series of reforms that set the pattern for Hungary's government. He also aggressively turned the nation into a Catholic country, wiping out the vestiges of paganism into which he himself was born. After his death, he was canonized as a Catholic saint, cementing recognition of his lasting influence in establishing Hungary as an important European power. During the period at the end of the 10th century, Christianity had begun to take root throughout Europe. Though paganism was still strong, "the world around the Hungarians Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. In 998 AD, Koppany and his followers battled Stephen and lost. Therevolt was against Stephen's leadership and also represented a protestagainst his acceptance of Christianity and repudiation of paganism.Koppany was beheaded in battle, then drawn and quartered. He ruledthat one church be built for every 1 villages, to be located no more thana half-day journey from all the villages served; Stephen himself providedthe buildings and the land. In order to formalize their loyalty, he made nobles vassals of thecrown, welding the Magyars into a recognized group and making even thenobility servants of the crown. Gellert's Mountain. Many of the reformsinstituted by this king and saint were extraordinarily progressive fortheir time, outlining the structure the monarchy would follow until itsend, 918 years later. DuringWorld War II, loyalists smuggled the crown out of Hungary into safekeepingin the hands of the American occupation forces. The saint was the sources of spiritual power and social reform, the special receptacle of divine wonder-working energy, the mysterious citizen of two worlds, the savior-god of the benighted lower classes (Mecklin 6).St. The crown symbolizes the constitutional power of the monarchy; theimportant court office of Crown Guard was established to keep the crownunder close watch in a separate building designed for that purpose. Some parcels were made property of thecrown. He sent Stephen acrown, two gold bands bent and topped by a cross, which was later enhancedby a gift from the Emperor of Byzantium, Michael Lukas, after Stephen'sdeath. Stephen's cousin, Chieftain Koppany of Smogy County, disagreed. Peace loving monarchs rule, the rest only tyrannize. IvanVolgyes notes, "[Geza], as a good Magyar, covered his bets by both beingbaptized and continuing his homage to the pagan symbols" (3). He limited the clergy toMagyars, which slowed the process of appointing bishops since the pool ofavailable candidates was small. After his death, he was canonized as a Catholic saint,cementing recognition of his lasting influence in establishing Hungary asan important European power. He sought assistance fromother nations, importing educated foreigners to act as consultants to hisdeveloping court. Prince Geza's conversion was a nominal political gesture. A History of Hungary. Emeric's death had left Stephen without a direct heir. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1982.Walsh, Michael, ed. The most powerfulHungarian tribe was the Magyar, a Finno-Ugric tribe descended from Arpad, asemi-legendary warrior who had conquered much of the region late in the 9thcentury. Stephen made paganpractices illegal; he was also particularly severe in enforcing crimes ofblasphemy, murder, theft, and adultery. Stephen set out to create a central Hungarian state from the battlingtribes that had previously made up the region. A Christian kingdom required a Christianmonarch, and so he approached, not the German emperor, Otto III, but thespiritual leader of Western Europe, Pope Sylvester II. His first-born son took his new religion more seriously, however. Emeric was later made a saint; mapmakerand explorer Amerigo Vespucci's baptized name derives from the Latinizedform of this Hungarian prince's, Emericus, "and thus, according to somescholars, the name America is of Hungarian origin" (Lengyel 28). Emil Lengyel comments, "It is . Margaret of Scotland; Scottish families exist tothis day who are able to trace their lineage directly back to Stephenthrough Agatha. Hungary became a safe haven for noble refugees, including EdwardIronside, the last descendant of Alfred the Great. Without a clearheir, Hungary struggled to annoint a successor; nevertheless, the strengthof Stephen's rule allowed the country to survive his death and eventuallyto maintain a stable monarchic rule. This group consisted of slaves, freed slaves,immigrants, or nobles who had been stripped of their noble privileges.Most were serfs; they paid taxes directly to the king and gave part of eachharvest to the landowners as a rental fee. Sisa calls him "a far-sighted king of iron resolve with trueMagyar features" (15) as evidenced by statues carved in his honor.Historians agree, however, that, whatever modern evaluations of his methodsor motives, Stephen was responsible for creating a unified kingdom, layingthe groundwork for a monarchy that lasted more than 9 years. Their advantageous geographical positionmade the area important to both branches of the Catholic church, separatedas they were between two different views of both dogma and ritual. Rebuffed by the princessand by Stephen, Koppany banded with a group of nobles that includedchieftains Ajtony of Marosvar in the south and Gyula of Transylvania. The pontiff was a learned man, tutored in theology, mathematics, andnatural science. . This paper is a biography of Stephen, crowned as the first king ofHungary on Christmas Day, 1 AD. He had introduced the use of Arabic numerals to replacethe cumbersome system of Roman numerals in use until that time. They had once been the Romanprovinces of Dacia and Pannonia but had been conquered by Germanic tribesat the end of the 2nd century. Stephen seized lands held by rebel tribes anddivided them among loyal subjects. This was not the firsttime efforts were made to keep the crown out of the hands of rival forces;one such mission during the 14th century bent the cross on top out ofshape. Some of thenonbelievers were blinded or had hot lead poured into their ears.Stephen's practices effectively eliminated pagan worship throughoutHungary, though it was a difficult struggle; Lengyel observes, "To many ofthe chieftains the Magyars' tradition was the traditional way to worshipand Christianity was an outlandish abomination" (24). He alsorealized the wisdom of conferring the kingship himself. The crown symbolizes the spiritual and mystic power of the ruler.It also signifies that, as there is only one crown, so there can be onlyone ruler. likely thatthe decision of the Chief reflected the wishes of the Hungarian 'creativeminority,' the people who in turn mirrored the views of effective publicopinion" (24). Some give his date of birth as early as 969.Stephen married Gisella, sister to the Duke of Bavaria, Emperor Henry II.The marriage reiterated the decision of the Magyars to align with theWestern church and strengthened Hungarian political alliances. A local joke runs, "'Who was the stupidest Magyar ever?' 'OurFounding Father, Arpad. Stephen's monarchy provided the first extended period of stabilityand consolidation that made the kingdom of Hungary possible. Stephen realized, however, that the Hungarianterritories must to be bound together even more tightly. The day continues to be an important nationalholiday, though the Communist takeover after World War II changed the nameof the holiday to Constitution Day. He also had Astrik petition the pope to anointStephen the first king of Hungary. Some historians suggest, however, that the prince's death wasactually an assassination by members of the Thonuzoba family, instigated byVazul, the next in line for the throne, since Thonuzoba means wild boar inthe Petcheneg (bessenyo) language. These events helped to unify the country as much as didthe creation of new laws and a new system of government. Leaders of the pagan tribes were being pressured by the growing powerof the Catholic movement to convert to Christianity. Stephen established the office of the hador ispan, the centralmanager of estates. Works CitedBurant, Stephen R., ed. Nobles paid tithes and wererequired to serve in the military as requested but paid no taxes. Although Stephen had great hopes for his son, Emeric was killed in1 31 at 24; his death was attributed to an attack by a wild boar whilehunting. Stephen was ruthless in his enforcement of religious decrees. . Eachstruggled with the other for an upper hand, and adding the Hungarianterritories would strengthen the power of whichever pope could claim them. Stephen died on the feast of the Assumption in 1 38. The hill is now known as St. Stephen alsoallowed two Orthodox Basilite abbeys, who owed allegiance to the Easternchurch, to remain in operation. Later, he enacted laws requiring burial sitesto be established around these churches. He built achurch to honor the Mother of God at Szekesfehervar, along his newlyestablished pilgrimage route to Jerusalem through Constantinople. Hungary needed tobecome a single nation in order to achieve international importance and avoice in the European community. The four piecesof his body were sent to the four corners of the Hungarian territories toserve as a warning to others who might consider organizing an uprising. Canonizing Stephen helped subsequentmonarchs and Catholic priests to secure their position in the new kingdom. Thischurch became the place where subsequent monarchs were both crowned andburied, and the city itself eventually became Stephen's usual residence andsite of his legislative meetings. He sent hisemissary, Astrik, who he planned to make the country's first archbishop, torequest the pope's approval for the proper ecclesiastical organization ofthe country's churches. Healso understood timing. Had he gone three hundred miles further west, wewould now live in Switzerland'" (Volgyes 93). Edward later returnedto England in 1 57 as pretender to the throne. Martin; his son completed the establishment. Stephen Sisa observes, "Due to a misrepresentationof the Bible, rumors spread far and wide that Doomsday, the Day ofReckoning, would occur on New Year's Eve" in the year 1 AD (16).Stephen seized the opportunity to be crowned just before this momentousdate; the coronation took place on Christmas Day, with Astrik performingthe ceremony. The Passing of the Saint: A Study of a Cultural Type. Be patient toward all, influential and destitute alike (Sisa 17). Within a few years, hehad founded the central see at his first capital at Esztergom. By that time, he hadmarried Stephen's daughter Agatha. Though paganism was still strong,"the world around the Hungarians either had embraced or was embracing theChristian creed" (Lengyel 23). He suffered through these disputes while battling a painfulillness. The first reliable record of hisestablishment of an episcopal see was at Vesprem. Asthe oldest able-bodied descendant, he believed he was entitled to theoffice. During the period at the end of the 1 th century, Christianity hadbegun to take root throughout Europe. Hungary: A Nation of Contradictions. These included foreign monks to serve as teachers andforeign farmers to teach modern agricultural techniques. Upon Geza's death, Stephen found himself struggling to succeed hisfather. The territories of the tribes that were tobecome known as Hungary rested roughly halfway between the great centers ofCatholicism in Constantinople and Rome. Morristown, NJ: Vista, 199 .Sugar, Peter F., ed. swore by sippingfrom a cup of their commingled blood to accept Arpad's male descendants asthe Magyars' hereditary chieftains" (Burant 4). Because ancestor worship was animportant component of paganism, reverence for burial sites now became tiedin the minds of the people to Christian houses of worship. Stephen expected to pass on his throne to his son, Prince Emeric(Imre), and dedicated his code of laws to the boy. Stephen, known asIstvan to his countrymen, established a series of reforms that set thepattern for Hungary's government. With the crown, Sylvester named him "Apostolic Majesty," a titlewhich continued to be borne by Hungarian monarchs until the monarchyfinally ceased at the end of World War I. Stephen understood political significance and symbolic gestures. By aligninghimself with the nations of the West, in religion, politics, and culture,he forged the kingdom's identity as a Western power. . The Spirit of Hungary: A Panorama of Hungarian History and Culture. Geza had begun establishment of a greatmonastery at St. It smacked of foreign influence"(Sisa 15). Now,with clear boundaries, each county was administered by a count or ispan,who served as judge for the region, collected taxes, and organized armedforces when directed by the crown. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1941.Sisa, Stephen. With conversion, Stephen and his followersdecided that adopting the Christian system of primogeniture, in whichleadership is passed to the firtsborn son, was a more appropriate method ofdetermining the new chieftain. Lengyel calls Stephen "the first of the great Hungarian rulers" (24),though Volgyes concedes, "To the modern mind, he was a single-mindeddespot" (3). (Another of Stephen's daughters, Maria,married Otto Orseolo of Venice, encouraged by her father's notions ofenriching the Magyar stock with outside bloodlines.) Edward and Agathawere the parents of St. Mecklin notes,"Through the lives of the saints the medieval man learned all that he knewof history or geography" (29). Until this time, the Magyars had practiced the system ofsenioratus, in which the oldest and most able warrior of the Arpad lineacquired the succession. According to Hungarianlegend, "Tradition holds that the Magyar clan chiefs . The Magyar king put the burden for most of the taxes andmost of the work on the non-Magyar population, reserving most of thetrappings of nobility for members of his clan. He announced that all adults,except priests, monks, and nuns, should be married, though Christians wereforbidden to marry nonbelievers. Stephen's Day is celebrated on August 2 in Hungary (elsewhere, itfalls on August 16). Stephen received a scholarly Christian education, being tutoredin Greek, Latin, and German, as well as politics, theology, and the laws ofCharlemagne, by Saint Adalbert of Prague; he "received a Christian knightlyeducation and took it very seriously" (Sugar 17). Thosewho opposed Christianity were hunted down and often killed (though he didnot attempt to convert Muslim or Jewish merchants). Magyar society at the time was divided into two classes: freemannobles (nobiles), who were direct descendants of Arpad and his followers ornobles who had knighted by the king, and the "unfree," or peasants.Peasants could not hold office or present grievances at court and, in fact,had no political voice. Stephen organized the nation into 45 specific counties; before him, a"county" was the designation for a vaguely defined section of land. The king decreed that villagers tithe 1 percent of all theirearnings for the establishment and maintenance of parish churches, supportof church priests, and relief of the poor throughout the kingdom. Thegroup resolved to dethrone Stephen. New York: John Day, 1958.Mecklin, John M. Historians disagree on the year of Stephen's birth. He quicklyrecognized the political importance of Stephen's petition. . Vajk was given theChristian name of Stephen, Stephanos in Greek, Istvan in Hungarian; thechange in names, a common gesture in conversions, nevertheless "createdmisgivings among the traditionalists. Washington, DC: Department of the Army, 199 .Lengyel, Emil. Stephen'sattempts to establish a system of government were accomplished "on a basisas modern as any state administration at the time" (Volgyes 3). He wasburied beside his son at the church in Szekesfehervar. He also prepared a bookof Adminitions filled with advice for the young prince. He demanded both the throne and the duke's widow, PrincessSarolta (Sharolt), as his rightful inheritance. Pagan fervor still continued during Stephen's reign, however. . Csanad helped Stephen defeat the other upstartsand consolidate his power. Oneparticularly zealous missionary, a Venetian named Gellert, so enraged agroup of pagans he was attempting to convert that they threw him into abarrel lined with spikes and rolled him down a hillside into the DanubeRiver. Sainthood also assured Stephen's position in the memories of thepopulace and, in a sense, perpetuated his reign: The medieval saint was a specialist with social functions as definite as those of king, knight, guildsman, butcher, baker, or candlestick-maker. The lastyears of his life were taken up with bitter family arguments about thesuccession. Ispans were recruited both from thenobility and from the ranks of foreign knights. Becauseattendance at Sunday mass was obligatory, many villages also began toschedule Sunday markets and fairs; the Hungarian word for Sunday, Vasarnap,means market day. Rule over all without anger, pride, or hatred, but with love, tenderness, humanity. Sainthoodserved a valuable social purpose in medieval life; John M. . For the firsttime, individuals were able to own land, and ownership was conferred basedon loyalty to the crown. His reign was notable for the reforms he enacted. His monarchy lasted more than 9 years. He was the conserver of values, the chosen and sacrosanct representative on earth of the vita contemplativa [the contemplative life] that was to be consummated in paradise. Butler's Lives of the Saints. The mostcommonly accepted date is 975 AD, though some accounts place Geza'sconversion two years earlier and insist that Stephen was baptized at thesame time as his father. Stephen was able to recruit Ajtony's former chief of staff, Csanad,to join the winning side. By maintaining direct control over thecommon people, rather than maintaining a feudal division of the population,he prevented any one noble from gaining too much individual power orseverely mistreating the commoners. Stephen set about establishing Christianity as the state religion,making Catholicism mandatory among all citizens. In 1 83, Stephen became the first Hungarian to be canonized by theCatholic church, in recognition of his services to the faith. Hungary: A Country Study. He also aggressively turned the nationinto a Catholic country, wiping out the vestiges of paganism into which hehimself was born. Late in the 1 th century, the duke of the Magyars was Arpad's great-grandson, a chief named Geza, who understood the political necessity of theexpanding religion and decided that conversion was the expedient choice.He, his family, and a group of his nobles were baptized as Christians.Geza chose the Western rite of conversion, thereby aligning his fortuneswith the Roman church. Remember always that each one of us has the same standing: nothing exalts a man but humility; nothing humiliates more than haughtiness and hatred . Stephen's own choice, his nephewPeter, son of the Doge of Venice, ascended to the throne briefly but wasdriven out by factions that temporarily threw the monarchy into turmoil.Stabilization ultimately came with the help of the pope in Rome. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 199 .Volgyes, Ivan. At Geza's death, Koppany stormed into the palace during thefuneral feast. San Francisco: Harper, 1985.----------------------- 14 One of the moststriking passages follows: If you wish honor of kingship, be peace-loving. 1, Years of Hungary. His coronation consolidated acollection of battling tribes into a recognized kingdom, aligned with theRoman pope. This position grew into the Paladine, or nador, andeventually became the second most powerful office in the country, after theking himself. The ceremony acknowledged him as "King by the Grace of God,""to emphasize the fact that his royal power was independent of men - bethey foreign rulers or his own chieftains or subjects" (Sisa 16). 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