Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin

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Hungarian conquest (of the Carpathian Basin) – painting by Mihály Munkácsy

The Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin,[1] also known as the Hungarian conquest[2] or the Hungarian land-taking[3] (Hungarian: honfoglalás, lit.'taking/conquest of the homeland'),[4] was a series of historical events ending with the settlement of the Hungarians in Central Europe in the late 9th and early 10th century. Before the arrival of the Hungarians, three early medieval powers, the First Bulgarian Empire, East Francia, and Moravia, had fought each other for control of the Carpathian Basin. They occasionally hired Hungarian horsemen as soldiers. Therefore, the Hungarians who dwelt on the Pontic-Caspian Steppe east of the Carpathian Mountains were familiar with what would become their homeland when their conquest started.

The Hungarian conquest started in the context of a "late or 'small' migration of peoples".[1] The Hungarians took possession of the Carpathian Basin in a pre-planned manner, with a long move-in between 862–895.[5] Other theories assert that the Hungarians crossed the Carpathian Mountains following a joint attack by the Pechenegs and Bulgarians in 894 or 895. They first took control over the lowlands east of the river Danube and attacked and occupied Pannonia (the region to the west of the river) in 900. They exploited internal conflicts in Moravia and annihilated this state sometime between 902 and 906.

The Hungarians strengthened their control over the Carpathian Basin by defeating the Bavarian army in a battle fought at Brezalauspurc on 4 July 907. They launched a series of campaigns to Western Europe between 899 and 955 and also targeted the Byzantine Empire between 943 and 971. However, they gradually settled in the basin and established a Christian monarchy, the Kingdom of Hungary, around 1000.

Hungarian Conquest of the Carpathian Basin

Background

Pre-conquest Hungarians

Map of the presumptive Hungarian prehistory
Dniester River
River Dniester at Dzvenyhorod (Chortkiv Raion, Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine)

The Hungarians arrived in the Carpathian Basin, in a geographically unified but politically divided land, after acquiring thorough local knowledge of the area from the 860s onwards.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12] After the end of the Avar Kaganate (c. 822), the Eastern Franks asserted their influence in Transdanubia, the Bulgarians to a small extent in the Southern Transylvania and the interior regions housed the surviving Avar population in their stateless state.[7][13] According to one theory the archaeological evidence, the Avar population survived the time of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin.[14][7][11] In this power vacuum, The Hungarian conqueror elite took the system of the former Avar Kaganate, there is no trace of massacres and mass graves, it is believed to have been a peaceful transition for local residents in the Carpathian Basin.[14] Other scholars dismiss the continuity between late Avar and Hungarian Conquerors and/or the "double-conquest" (kettős honfoglalás) of the Carpathian basin.[15] According to historian Bálint Csanád "Not one single element (of the original theory) is tenable" and that a "compelling piece of evidence is that a genuine similarity between the Avar- and Conquest-period skeletal material could only be demonstrated in 4.5% of the theoretically potential cases".[16]

The Continuation of the Chronicle by George the Monk contains the earliest certain[17] reference to the Hungarians.[18] It states that Hungarian warriors intervened in a conflict between the Byzantine Empire and the Bulgarians on the latter's behalf in the Lower Danube region in 836 or 837.[19] The first known Hungarian raid in Central Europe was recorded in the Annals of St. Bertin,[20] which writes of "enemies, called Hungarians, hitherto unknown"[21] who ravaged King Louis the German's realm in 862.[20] Victor Spinei and other historians argue that Rastislav of Moravia, at war with Louis the German, hired Hungarians to invade East Francia.[20][22] Archbishop Theotmar of Salzburg clearly states in his letter of around 900 that the Moravians often allied with the Hungarians against the Germans.[22]

For many years [the Moravians] have in fact perpetrated the very crime of which they have only once falsely accused us. They themselves have taken in a large number of Hungarians and have shaved their own heads according to their heathen customs and they have sent them against our Christians, overcoming them, leading some away as captives, killing others, while still others, imprisoned, perished of hunger and thirst.

— Letter of Archbishop Theotmar of Salzburg and his suffragans to Pope John IX from around 900[23]

Porphyrogenitus mentions that the Hungarians dwelled in a territory that they called "

Atelkouzou" until their invasion across the Carpathians.[24][25][26] He adds that it was located in the territory where the rivers Barouch, Koubou, Troullos, Broutos and Seretos[27] run.[28][29] Although the identification of the first two rivers with the Dnieper and the Southern Bug is not unanimously accepted, the last three names without doubt refer to the rivers Dniester, Prut and Siret.[29] In the wider region, at Subotsi on the river Adiamka, three graves (one of them belonging to a male buried with the skull and legs of his horse) are attributed to pre-conquest Hungarians.[29] However, these tombs may date to the 10th century.[30]

Illuminated Chronicle

The Hungarians were organized into seven tribes that formed a confederation.[31] Constantine Porphyrogenitus mentions this number.[32] Anonymous seems to have preserved the Hungarian "Hetumoger" ("Seven Hungarians") denomination of the tribal confederation, although he writes of "seven leading persons"[33] jointly bearing this name instead of a political organization.[32]

The Hetumoger confederation was strengthened by the arrival of the Kabars,[31] who (according to Constantine) joined the Hungarians following their unsuccessful riot against the Khazar Khaganate.[34] The Hungarians and the Kabars are mentioned in the longer version of the Annals of Salzburg,[35] which relates that the Hungarians fought around Vienna, while the Kabars fought nearby at Culmite in 881.[36] Madgearu proposes that Kavar groups were already settled in the Tisza plain within the Carpathian Basin around 881, which may have given rise to the anachronistic reference to Cumans in the Gesta Hungarorum at the time of the Hungarian conquest.[37]

The Hetumoger confederation was under a dual leadership, according to Ibn Rusta and Gardizi (two Muslim scholars from the 10th and 11th centuries, respectively, whose geographical books preserved texts from an earlier work written by Abu Abdallah al-Jayhani from Bukhara).[38][39][40] The Hungarians' nominal or sacred leader was styled kende, while their military commander bore the title gyula.[39][41] The same authors add that the gyula commanded an army of 20,000 horsemen,[42] but the reliability of this number is uncertain.[43]

Regino of Prüm and other contemporary authors portray the 9th-century Hungarians as nomadic warriors.[44] Emperor Leo the Wise underlines the importance of horses to their military tactics.[45] Analysis of horse skulls found in Hungarian warriors graves has not revealed any significant difference between these horses and Western breeds.[46] Regino of Prüm states that the Hungarians knew "nothing about fighting hand-to-hand in formation or taking besieged cities",[47] but he underlines their archery skills.[48] Remains indicate that composite bows were the Hungarians' most important weapons.[49] In addition, slightly curved sabres were unearthed in many warrior tombs from the period.[50] Regino of Prüm noted the Hungarians' preference for deceptions such as apparent retreat in battle.[48] Contemporaneous writers also recounted their viciousness, represented by the slaughter of adult males in settlement raids.[51]

[The Hungarians] are armed with swords, body armor, bows and lances. Thus, in battles most of them bear double arms, carrying the lances high on their shoulders and holding the bows in their hands. They make use of both as need requires, but when pursued they use their bows to great advantage. Not only do they wear armor themselves, but the horses of their illustrious men are covered in front with iron or quilted material. They devote a great deal of attention and training to archery on horse-back. A huge herd of horses, ponies and mares, follows them, to provide both food and milk and, at the same time, to give the impression of a multitude.

— 
Leo the Wise: Tactics[52]

Inhabitants of the Carpathian Basin

Based on extant Hungarian chronicles, it is clear that more than one (occasionally extended) list existed of the peoples inhabiting the Carpathian Basin at the time of the Hungarian landtaking.[53] Anonymus, for instance, first writes of the "Slavs, Bulgarians, Vlachs and the shepherds of the Romans"[54] as inhabiting the territory,[55][56] but later he refers to "a people called Kozar"[57] and to the Székelys.[53] Similarly, Simon of Kéza first lists the "Slavs, Greeks, Germans, Moravians and Vlachs",[58][59] but later he adds that the Székelys also lived in the territory.[60] According to Macartney, those lists were based on multiple sources and do not document the real ethnic conditions of the Carpathian Basin around 900.[61] Ioan-Aurel Pop says that Simon of Kéza listed the peoples who inhabited the lands that the Hungarian conquered and the nearby territories.[62]

The Hungarians adopted the ancient (

Olt, Száva, Tisza and Vág were borrowed from Slavs.[63][64] The Hungarians also adopted a great number of hydronyms of Slavic origin, including Balaton ("swamp"), Beszterce ("swift river"), Túr ("aurochs' stream") and Zagyva ("sooty river").[63][65][66] Place names of Slavic origin abound across the Carpathian Basin.[67] For instance, Csongrád ("black fortress"), Nógrád ("new fortress"), Visegrád ("citadel") and other early medieval fortresses bore a Slavic name, while the name of Keszthely preserved the Latin word for fortress (castellum), with Slavic mediation.[67][68]

Besides the Slavs, the presence of a German-speaking population can be demonstrated, based on toponyms.

Conversion of the Bavarians and the Carantanians from around 870 lists Germanic place names in Pannonia, including Salapiugin ("bend of the Zala") and Mosaburc ("fortress in the marshes").[70] The name of the Barca, Barót and other rivers could be either Turkic[66] or Slavic in origin.[71]

According to Béla Miklós Szőke's theory, the detailed description of the Magyars by western contemporary sources and the immediate Hungarian intervention in local wars suggest that the Hungarians had already lived on the eastern territories of the Carpathian Basin since the middle of the 9th century.[72][73] Regarding the right location of early Hungarian settlements, the Arabic geographer al-Jayhani (only snippets of his work survived in other Muslim authors' papers)[74] in the 870s placed the Hungarians between the Don and Danube rivers.[72] Szőke identifies al-Jayhani's Danube with the middle Danube region, as opposed to the previously assumed lower Danube region because, following al-Jayhani's description, the Christian Moravians were the western neighbors of the Magyars.[72]

Borderland of empires

Southeastern Europe
around 850

The Carpathian Basin was controlled from the 560s by the

Lower Pannonia around 870.[69]

The Avars were initially nomadic horsemen, but both large cemeteries used by three or four generations and a growing number of settlements attest to their adoption of a sedentary (non-nomadic) way of life from the 8th century.

Avars' power was destroyed between 791 and 795 by Charlemagne,[80] who occupied Transdanubia and attached it to his empire.[81] Archaeological investigation of early medieval rural settlements at Balatonmagyaród, Nemeskér and other places in Transdanubia demonstrate that their main features did not change with the fall of the Avar Khaganate.[82] New settlements appeared in the former borderlands with cemeteries characterised by objects with clear analogues in contemporary Bavaria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Moravia and other distant territories.[82] A manor defended by timber walls (similar to noble courts of other parts of the Carolingian Empire) was unearthed at Zalaszabar.[82]

Avar groups who remained under the rule of their khagan were frequently attacked by Slav warriors.[83] Therefore, the khagan asked Charlemagne to let his people settle in the region between Szombathely and Petronell in Pannonia.[84] His petition was accepted in 805.[84] The Conversion of the Bavarians and the Carantanians lists the Avars among the peoples under the ecclesiastic jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Salzburg around 870.[85] According to Pohl, it "simply proved impossible to keep up an Avar identity after Avar institutions and the high claims of their tradition had failed."[86] The growing number of archaeological evidence in Transdanubia also presumes Avar population in the Carpathian Basin at the eve of the 10th century.[87] Archaeological findings suggesting that there is a substantial late Avar presence on the Great Hungarian Plain, but it is difficult to determine the proper chronology.[87]

A charter issued in 860 by King Louis the German for the Mattsee Abbey may well attest that the Onogurs (another people of Turkic origin) were also present in the territory.[88] The charter refers to the "Marches of the Wangars" (marcha uuangariourum) situated in the westernmost regions of the Carpathian Basin.[89] The Wangar denomination seems to reflect the Slavic form of the Onogurs' ethnonym.[88]

Church at Zalavár
Ruins of the 9th-century church at Zalavár

The territories attached to the Frankish Empire were initially governed by royal officers and local chieftains.[90] A Slavic prince named Pribina received large estates along the river Zala around 840.[91] He promoted the colonisation of his lands[92] and also erected Mosaburg, a fortress in the marshes.[91] Initially defended by timber walls, this "castle complex"[93] (András Róna-Tas) became an administrative center. It was strengthened by drystone walls at the end of the century. Four churches surrounded by cemeteries were unearthed in and around the settlement. At least one of them continued to be used up to the 11th century.[94]

Pribina died fighting the Moravians in 861, and his son Kocel inherited his estates.[95] Kocel was succeeded around 876 by Arnulf, a natural son of Carloman, king of East Francia.[96] Under his rule, Moravian troops interved into the conflict known as the "Wilhelminer War" and "laid waste from the Raab eastward" between 882 and 884, according to the Annals of Fulda.[97][98]

Europe
Europe around 900

Moravia emerged in the 820s[99] under its first known ruler, Mojmir I.[91] His successor, Rastislav, developed Moravia's military strength. He promoted the proselytizing activities of the Byzantine brothers, Constantine and Methodius in an attempt to seek independence from East Francia.[91][100] Moravia reached its "peak of importance" under Svatopluk I[101] who expanded its frontiers in all directions.[102]

Moravia's core territory is located in the regions on the

Pohansko and other areas to the north of the middle Danube point at the existence of a power center in those regions.[109]

In addition to East Francia and Moravia, the First Bulgarian Empire was also deeply involved in the Carpathian Basin in the 9th century.[110] A late 10th-century Byzantine lexicon known as Suda adds that Krum of Bulgaria attacked the Avars from the southeast around 803.[111] The Royal Frankish Annals narrates that the Abodrites inhabiting "Dacia on the Danube",[112] most probably along the lower courses of the river Tisza, sought the assistance of the Franks against the Bulgars in 824.[113] Bulgarian troops also invaded Pannonia, "expelled the Slavic chieftains and appointed Bulgar governors instead"[114] in 827.[115][116] An inscription at Provadia refers to a Bulgarian military leader named Onegavonais drowning in the Tisza around the same time.[117] The emerging power of Moravia brought about a rapprochement between Bulgaria and East Francia in the 860s.[118] King Arnulf of East Francia sent an embassy to the Bulgarians in 892 in order "to renew the former peace and to ask that they should not sell salt to the Moravians".[119] The latter request suggests that the route from the salt mines of the eastern Carpathians to Moravia was controlled around that time by the Bulgarians.[120][121]

The anonymous author of the Gesta Hungarorum, instead of Svatopluk I of Moravia and other rulers known from contemporary sources, writes of personalities and polities that are not mentioned by chroniclers working at the end of the 9th century.[122] For instance, he refers to Menumorut residing in the castle of Bihar (Biharia, Romania), to Zobor "duke of Nitra by the grace of the Duke of the Czechs",[123] and to Gelou "a certain Vlach"[124] ruling over Transylvania.[122] According to historian Ryszard Grzesik, the reference to Gelou and his Vlachs evidences that the Vlachs had already settled in Transylvania by the time the Gesta was completed, while the stories about Zobor and Menumorut preserved the memory of the Hungarians' fight against the Moravians.[125] Translating Menumorut's name as "Great Moravian", Grzesik associates him with Svatopluk I and refutes the report of Menumorut's rule in Bihar.[126] Early medieval fortresses were unearthed at Bihar and other places east of the Tisza, but none of them definitively date to the 9th century.[127] In the case of Doboka (Dăbâca), two pairs of bell-shaped pendants with analogues in sites in Austria, Bulgaria and Poland have been unearthed, but Florin Curta dates them to the 9th century, while Alexandru Madgearu to the period between 975 and 1050.[128][129]

Conquest

Prelude (862–895)

The Hungarian Conquest
The Hungarian land-taking

Three main theories attempt to explain the reasons for the "Hungarian land-taking".[130] One argues that it was an intended military operation, prearranged following previous raids, with the express purpose of occupying a new homeland.[130] This view (expounded, for example, by Bakay and Padányi) mainly follows the narration of Anonymus and later Hungarian chronicles.[131] The Hungarians took possession of the Carpathian Basin in a pre-planned manner, with a long move-in between 862–895.[132][133][134][135][136][137][138][139][140] This is confirmed by the archaeological findings, in the 10th century Hungarian cemeteries, the graves of women, children and elderly people are located next to the warriors, they were buried according to the same traditions, wore the same style of ornaments, and belonged to the same anthropological group. The Hungarian military events of the following years prove that the Hungarian population that settled in the Carpathian Basin was not a weakened population without a significant military power.[138] The opposite view maintains that a joint attack by the Pechenegs and the Bulgarians forced the Hungarians' hand.[141] Kristó, Tóth and the theory's other adherents refer to the unanimous testimony provided by the Annals of Fulda, Regino of Prüm and Porphyrogenitus on the connection between the Hungarians' conflict with the Bulgar-Pecheneg coalition and their withdrawal from the Pontic steppes.[142][143] An intermediate theory proposes that the Hungarians had for decades been considering a westward move when the Bulgarian-Pecheneg attack accelerated their decision to leave the Pontic-Caspian steppe.[144] For instance Róna-Tas argues, "[the] fact that, despite a series of unfortunate events, the Magyars managed to keep their heads above water goes to show that they were indeed ready to move on" when the Pechenegs attacked them.[145]

In fact, following a break of eleven years, the Hungarians returned to the Carpathian Basin in 892.[34] They came to assist Arnulf of East Francia against Svatopluk I of Moravia.[34][146] Widukind of Corvey and Liutprand of Cremona condemned the Frankish monarch for destroying the defense lines built along the empire's borders, because this also enabled the Hungarians to attack East Francia within a decade.[147]

Meanwhile Arnulf…could not overcome Sviatopolk, duke of the Moravians…and – alas! – having dismantled those very well fortified barriers which…are called "closures" by the populace. Arnulf summoned to his aid the nation of the Hungarians, greedy, rash, ignorant of almighty God but well versed in every crime, avid only for murder and plunder.

— Liutprand of Cremona: Retribution[148]

A late source,[149] Aventinus adds that Kurszán (Cusala), "king of the Hungarians" stipulated that his people would only fight the Moravians if they received the lands they were to occupy.[146] Accordingly, Aventinus continues, the Hungarians took possession of "both Dacias on this side and beyond" the Tisza east of the rivers Danube and Garam already in 893.[146] Indeed, the Hungarian chronicles unanimously state that the Székelys had already been present in the Carpathian Basin when the Hungarians moved in.[150] Kristó argues that Aventinus and the Hungarian historical tradition together point to an early occupation of the eastern territories of the Carpathian Basin by auxiliary troops of the Hungarian tribal confederation.[150]

Svatopluk I of Moravia disguised as a monk in Arnulf of East Francia's court in the Chronicle of Dalimil

The Annals of Fulda narrated in 894 that the Hungarians crossed the Danube into Pannonia where they "killed men and old women outright and carried off the young women alone with them like cattle to satisfy their lusts and reduced the whole" province "to desert".[151][152] Although the annalist writes of this Hungarian attack after the passage narrating Svatopluk I's death,[151] Györffy, Kristó,[153] Róna-Tas[154] and other historians suppose that the Hungarians invaded Pannonia in alliance with the Moravian monarch.[155] They argue that the "Legend of the White Horse" in the Hungarian chronicles preserved the memory of a treaty the Hungarians had made with Svatopluk I according to pagan customs.[156] The legend narrates that the Hungarians purchased their future homeland in the Carpathian Basin from Svatopluk for a white horse harnessed with gilded saddle and reins.[153]

Then [

Illuminated Chronicle[157]

Ismail Ibn Ahmed, the emir of Khorasan, raided "the land of the Turks"[158] (the Karluks) in 893. Later he caused a new movement of peoples who one by one invaded the lands of their western neighbors in the Eurasian Steppe.[159][160] Al-Masudi clearly connects the westward movement of the Pechenegs and the Hungarians to previous fights between the Karluks, Ouzes and Kimeks.[161] Porphyrogenitus writes of a joint attack by the Khazars and Ouzes that compelled the Pechenegs to cross the Volga River sometime between 893 and 902[162] (most probably around 894).[160]

Originally, the Pechenegs had their dwelling on the river [Volga] and likewise on the river

Constantine Porphyrogenitus: De Administrando Imperio[163]
Tzar Simeon I of Bulgaria
Seal of Simeon I of Bulgaria

The relationship between Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire sharpened in 894, because Emperor Leo the Wise forced the Bulgarian merchants to leave Constantinople and settle in Thessaloniki.[164] Subsequently, Tzar Simeon I of Bulgaria invaded Byzantine territories[165] and defeated a small imperial troop.[166] The Byzantines approached the Hungarians to hire them to fight the Bulgarians.[165] Nicetas Sclerus, the Byzantine envoy, concluded a treaty with their leaders, Árpád and Kurszán (Kusan),[167] and Byzantine ships transferred Hungarian warriors across the Lower Danube.[165] The Hungarians invaded Bulgaria, forced Tzar Simeon to flee to the fortress of Dristra (now Silistra, Bulgaria) and plundered Preslav.[166] An interpolation in Porphyrogenitus's work states that the Hungarians had a prince named "Liountikas, son of Arpad"[104] at that time, which suggests that he was the commander of the army, but he might have been mentioned in the war context by chance.[168]

Simultaneously with the Hungarian attack from the north, the Byzantines invaded Bulgaria from the south. Tzar Simeon sent envoys to the Byzantine Empire to propose a truce. At the same time, he sent an embassy to the Pechenegs to incite them against the Hungarians.[166] He succeeded, and the Pechenegs broke into Hungarian territories from the east, forcing the Hungarian warriors to withdraw from Bulgaria.[169] The Bulgarians, according to Constantine Porphyrogenitus, attacked and routed the Hungarians.[165][170]

The Pechenegs destroyed the Hungarians' dwelling places.[165] Those who survived the double attack left the Pontic steppes and crossed the Carpathians in search of a new homeland.[165] The memory of the destruction brought by the Pechenegs seems to have been preserved by the Hungarians.[171] The Hungarian name of the Pechenegs (besenyő) corresponds to the old Hungarian word for eagle (bese). Thus the 14th-century Hungarian chronicles' story of eagles compelling the Hungarians' ancestors to cross the Carpathians most probably refers to the Pechenegs' attack.[171]

The Hungarians were (…) driven from their home (…) by a neighboring people called the Petchenegs, because they were superior to them in strength and number and because (…) their own country was not sufficient to accommodate their swelling numbers. After they had been forced to flee by the violence of the Petchenegs, they said goodbye to their homeland and set out to look for lands where they could live and establish settlements.

— Regino of Prüm: Chronicle[172]

[At] the invitation of Leo, the Christ-loving and glorious emperor [the Hungarians] crossed over and fought Symeon and totally defeated him, (…) and they went back to their own county. (…) But after Symeon (…) sent to the Pechenegs and made an agreement with them to attack and destroy [the Hungarians] And when [the latter] had gone off on a military expedition, the Pechenegs with Symeon came against [them] and completely destroyed their families and miserably expelled thence [those] who were guarding their country. When [the Hungarians] came back and found their country thus desolate and utterly ruined, they settled in the land where they live today (…).

— 
Constantine Porphyrogenitus: De Administrando Imperio[104]

Passing through the kingdom of the

First phase (c. 895–899)

Illuminated Chronicle
Verecke Pass (Ukraine)

The date of the Hungarian invasion varies according to the source.[174] The earliest date (677) is preserved in the 14th-century versions of the "Hungarian Chronicle", while Anonymus gives the latest date (902).[175] Contemporaneous sources suggest that the invasion followed the 894 Bulgarian-Byzantine war.[176] The route taken across the Carpathians is also contested.[177][2] Anonymus and Simon of Kéza have the invading Hungarians crossing the northeastern passes, while the Illuminated Chronicle writes of their arrival in Transylvania.[178]