Kozłowski Wojciech
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Kozáowski Wojciech PRELUDE TO THE ANGEVINS: MARRIAGES OF THE ÁRPÁDS AND PIASTS RECONSIDERED (986 - CA. 1250) MA Thesis in Medieval Studies CEU eTD Collection Central European University Budapest May 2008 PRELUDE TO THE ANGEVINS: MARRIAGES OF THE ÁRPÁDS AND PIASTS RECONSIDERED (986 - CA. 1250) by Kozáowski Wojciech (POLAND) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU ____________________________________________ Chair, Examination Committee ____________________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________________ Examiner ____________________________________________ Examiner CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2008 ii PRELUDE TO THE ANGEVINS: MARRIAGES OF THE ÁRPÁDS AND PIASTS RECONSIDERED (986 - CA. 1250) by Kozáowski Wojciech (POLAND) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU ____________________________________________ External Examiner CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2008 iii PRELUDE TO THE ANGEVINS: MARRIAGES OF THE ÁRPÁDS AND PIASTS RECONSIDERED (986 - CA. 1250) by Kozáowski Wojciech (POLAND) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU ____________________________________________ External Supervisor CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2008 iv I, the undersigned, Kozáowski Wojciech, candidate for the MA degree in Medieval Studies declare herewith that the present thesis is exclusively my own work, based on my research and only such external information as properly credited in notes and bibliography. I declare that no unidentified and illegitimate use was made of the work of others, and no part of the thesis infringes on any person’s or institution’s copyright. I also declare that no part of the thesis has been submitted in this form to any other institution of higher education for an academic degree. Budapest, 26 May 2008 __________________________ Signature CEU eTD Collection v Table of contents Introduction...........................................................................................................................................1 Chapter I: Árpáds and Piasts from a Marital Perspective, 986-1140 ........................................................7 Chapter II: Dynastic horizons of the Árpáds and Piasts, 1150-1250....................................................... 20 Methodological remarks................................................................................................................... 24 Analysis of the data.......................................................................................................................... 27 ‘Prestigious marriages’ comparison.................................................................................................. 48 Conclusion....................................................................................................................................... 51 Chapter III: The Marriage of 1239 and Its Political Context.................................................................. 52 Conclusion....................................................................................................................................... 72 Before a Conclusion: Prelude to the Angevins...................................................................................... 75 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................... 81 Bibliography........................................................................................................................................ 86 Sources:........................................................................................................................................... 86 Secondary Literature........................................................................................................................ 86 Table of Figures................................................................................................................................... 94 CEU eTD Collection vi Introduction I arrived in Budapest with a strong desire to study the Hungarian Angevins. My personal interest was to learn “as much as possible” about fourteenth-century Hungary, which should be much easier in its capital city than anywhere else in the world. This challenging goal proved too optimistic for a ten-month research period, especially when starting from ground level, and with no skills in Hungarian. After a number of discussions1 I decided to limit my study to the early period of Angevin rule in Hungary. The main interest shifted to answering the question: What was the origin of the Angevin-Piast alliance at the beginning of the fourteenth century? The problem, however, of why Charles Robert was ready to support Wáadysáaw àokietek in his struggle to unify the Polish principalities, smoothly transferred my attention to the last Árpáds, mainly Andrew III, who were the first to dispatch troops to Little Poland to help àokietek. Soon after, I realized that the military presence of Hungary in southern Poland was not exceptional under Leszek the Black, àokietek’s predecessor in Cracow. My attempts to find a justification for these northern politics of the Árpáds eventually led me to the first half of the thirteenth century and focused my attention on two dynastic Árpád-Piast marriages that took place in that period. They seemed to be an introduction to a long story with its final chapter in Amadeus Ába’s interventions in 1304 and 1311 on behalf of àokietek, and in the marriage of Charles Robert to Elisabeth, a daughter of àokietek, in the summer of 1320. During my studies my conviction has grown that an honest scholarly attempt to explain the political origins of the Angevin-Piast alliance demands putting a question to the previous Árpád-Piast coalition. That is how this particular study emerged. I realized that the second half of the thirteenth century saw nearly constant military cooperation between Hungary and Little Poland, first in fights for Halich, then battling the Mongol invasion in 1241; Later, it worked quite well and efficiently. Moreover, the close ties between the two countries not only relied on the brothers-in-arms issue, but CEU eTD Collection developed into a more complicated and intricate net of mutual connections. Culture, economy, and society were crucial factors that played a background role in a political process; they were, however, indispensable in presenting a general explanation of political decisions and events. This reflection grabbed me, a young Polish scholar, 1 I would like to express here my special thanks to the Hungarian and Polish scholars who helped me in handling this vast topic: Prof. Gábor Klaniczay, Prof. József Laszlovszky, Prof. Halina Manikowska, Prof. Marianne Sághy, and Dr. Balázs Nagy. 1 after a few months of “rediscovering” the Hungarian history. This also became a point of frustration, because the time for sitting down and writing a thesis was unforgivably approaching. Large quantities of sources and secondary literature flooded me without mercy. These were the conditions of the birth of this study. Two factors played a vital role here: a scholarly honesty and time limits. Regarding the honesty, I realized the simple truth that I would not be able to make a proper study to provide an explanation for the Angevin-Piast alliance in a more profound way than had already been done. On the other hand, I was already sure that any half-means and a limited approach would decrease my own contribution to zero and the whole work would look like copying available textbooks in a slightly different manner. Alas, the number of sources and the secondary literature were too much for a few months. It has been an important element of my learning in Budapest to find out that the political field I entered is vast and examined by other scholars hundred of times. This does not mean that there is no more space for my research, however, means absolutely that the work of the previous scholarship cannot be ignored. Moreover, a proper discussion of the topic demands a certain level of skill in the Hungarian language, which – despite my efforts – still lies ahead. For that reason, I could write a study neither on the Angevins and Piasts nor on the Árpáds and Piasts as thoroughly as I had previously intended; the limits of such a work would make it superficial. Thus, the time limit demanded that I reconsider my approach to the subject and make it manageable and scholarly acceptable. Therefore, I ultimately decided to make a study of a “big picture,” which would give me an opportunity to develop my own methodology and limit the drawbacks that derive from my lack of proper skills in Hungarian. This study attempts to reconsider the Árpád-Piast marriages from c. 986 to c. 1250. This is not, however, a genealogical re-examination. I am looking at this material from the new perspective of prestige and its political consequences. I intend to find out the essential difference between the