Béla I

Béla I (born c. 1020—died September 1063) was the king of Hungary (1060–63) who fought a successful war against the Holy Roman emperor Henry III to defend his country’s independence.

His father, Prince Vazul (also called Basil or Vászoly), was a nephew of King Stephen I. On the death of his son Imre, Stephen declared not Vazul but another nephew, the Venetian Peter Orseolo, to be his successor. Vazul rose in revolt, and Stephen had him blinded in 1031. Vazul’s three sons fled, first to the Czech lands and then to Poland, where Béla was baptized. After deposing and executing Peter in 1046, the Hungarian nobles called back Vazul’s sons, and Andrew (Endre) took the throne. He made Béla duke of one-third of the realm and also heir to the throne.

While Béla was away on various military campaigns, Andrew had his four-year-old son Salamon named heir. This broke the Hungarian custom of seniorate, by which the heir was the eldest brother or nephew within the extended family. Béla raised an army in Poland and led it back to Hungary in 1060. Andrew died in this internecine struggle. Béla was crowned king in Székesfehérvár. It was during his reign that János, son of the tribal chief Vata, led the last pagan rebellion in Hungary, which Béla crushed in 1061. Béla was preparing for a military campaign against emperor Henry IV, who supported Salamon’s claim to the throne, when he died as a result of injuries that he sustained when the wooden structure of his throne collapsed.

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