Taksony of Hungary

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This article is about the 10th century Hungarian ruler. For information about the town of Taksony, Hungary, see Taksony.

Taksony (? – before 972), Grand Prince of the Magyars (c. 955 - before 972).

Taksony was the son of Zoltán (Zaltas), the fourth son of Árpád, the second Grand Prince of the Magyars. The Gesta Hungarorum mentions that his mother was a daughter of Menmarót, the local military leader in the region of Bihar (Romanian: Biharea) at the time of the Hungarian settlement occupation (Honfoglalás). Taksony married a Pecheneg or Bulgar woman[1].

In 947, Taksony lead a raid to Italy till Apulia, and King Berengar II of Italy had to buy the peace by paying a large amount of money to him and his followers. He might have taken part in the Battle of Lechfeld (Hungarian: augsburgi csata) where King Otto I of Germany won a decisive victory over the Magyars. After the defeat the Magyars stopped their raids (kalandozások) in Western Europe, but they began to pillage the Byzantine Empire.

Taksony became the Grand Prince of the Magyars just or shortly after the Battle of Lechfeld, but his authority must have been only nominal over some regions of the Carpathian Basin inhabited by the Magyars. During his rule a large number of Pechenegs and Khalyzians immigrated to the territory of the future Hungary.

In 963, Pope John XII ordained the first Roman Catholic missionary bishop, Zacheus for the Magyars[2], but he probably never visited them.

Taksony arranged the marriage of his son Géza of Hungary to Sarolt, the daughter of Gyula of Transylvania.

[edit] Marriage and children

# c. 945: Unnamed "of the territories of the Cumans"

[edit] Sources

  • Kristó Gyula - Makk Ferenc: Az Árpád-ház uralkodói (IPC Könyvek, 1996)
  • Korai Magyar Történeti Lexikon (9-14. század), főszerkesztő: Kristó Gyula, szerkesztők: Engel Pál és Makk Ferenc (Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1994)

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Gesta Hungarorum mentions that he married a woman "of the territories of the Cumans", but the Cumans had not crossed the Volga River before the 11th century.
  2. ^ Liutprand of Cremona: Liber de rebus gestis Ottonis magni imperatoris.
Preceded by
Fajsz		 Grand Prince of the Magyars
c. 955 - before 972		 Succeeded by
Géza