Helena of Rascia

Helena of Serbia,
Queen consort of Hungary
Jelena Vukanović-Árpád
Helena, as depicted in Chronicon Pictum
Queen consort of Hungary
Tenure 1131–1141
Spouse Béla II
Issue
Elisabeth, Duchess of Poland
Géza II
Ladislaus II
Stephen IV
Sophia
House House of Vukanović
Father Uroš I of Rascia
Mother Anna Diogene
Born after 1109
Died after 1146
Religion Eastern Orthodoxy
Roman Catholicism

Helena of Serbia (Serbian: Јелена Вукановић, Jelena Vukanović, Hungarian: Ilona királyné) (after 1109 – after 1146) was Queen consort of Hungary through her marriage with Béla II, who ruled 1131–1141.

Contents

Life

Helena was the daughter of Duke Uroš I of Rascia and his wife, Anna Diogene-Vukanović. Around 1129, King Stephen II of Hungary arranged her marriage with his cousin Béla, who had been blinded on the order of the king's father, King Coloman of Hungary. The king granted estates near Tolna to the couple.

Following the childless king's death, her husband was crowned King of Hungary on 28 April 1131. Helena exerted material influence over her blind husband during his reign. It was she who persuaded her husband's partisans, with her two sons in her arms, to massacre, at an assembly in Arad, 68 aristocrats they suspected of having suggested King Coloman blind her husband.

When her husband died on 13 February 1141, their eldest son Géza II ascended the throne while still a child. Therefore, Helena and her brother Beloš Vukanović, whom she had invited to the court, governed the Kingdom of Hungary till September 1146 when he came of age.

Marriage and children

# c. 1129: King Béla II of Hungary (c. 1110 – 13 February 1141)

See also

Regnal titles
Preceded by
Béla II
Regent of Hungary
with Ban Beloš

Feb 1141–Sep 1146
Succeeded by
Géza II
Royal titles
Preceded by
Adelaide of Riedenburg
Queen of Hungary[1]
c. 1131–c. 1141
Succeeded by
Euphrosyne of Kiev

References