56 HUNGARY of the defenders of the ancient religion was finally broken. The civil strifes were not only kept up by the undefined succession to the throne by the house of Arpad, but also foment- ed by the intervention of the popes and the emperors. The emperor Henry III. in the reign of Andrew repeatedly invaded the coun- try. The son of the latter, Solomon (1063- '74), lost his throne chiefly in consequence of his ill treatment of his gallant cousins and suc- cessors Gejza (1074-'77) and Ladislas (1077- '95), to whom he owed his elevation, and some splendid victories over invaders ; and he vainly applied for aid both to the emperor Henry IV. and his antagonist Pope Gregory VII., who each claimed the rights of suzerainty over Hungary. Solomon died in exile. Ladislas was equally brave and pious. He is a saint in the Roman calendar, and his victories over the Oumans, who invaded Transylvania and the neighboring districts, and the conquest of Croatia and Halicz (eastern Galicia), made him one of the favorite princes of his nation. His nephew Ooloman (1095-1114), surnamed the Scholar, was an enlightened and able ru- ler. He introduced various reforms, refused to accept the lead of the first crusade, closely watched the hosts which passed through his country, and routed or repulsed the more dis- orderly, though he received Godfrey of Bouil- lon as a friend. He annexed Dalmatia, but stained the close of his reign by cruelty to- ward his brother Almos, who conspired against him. His son, the profligate Stephen II. (1114 -'31), waged war against almost all his neigh- bors. Bela II., the Blind (1131-'41), the son of Almos, and like his father the victim of Ooloman, took bloody revenge on his former enemies on the occasion of the diet at Arad. Under his son Gejza II. (1141-'61) numer- ous Saxon colonies were settled in Zips and Transylvania, while their countrymen who joined the second crusade desolated the re- gions through which they passed. The dis- puted rights to Galicia and Dalmatia, and the often changing relations with the Byzantine empire, were now sources of frequent wars in the north and south. Stephen III. (1161-'73), Gejza's youthful son, who overcame the in- trigues of Manuel Comnenus and the opposi- tion of two rivals, Ladislas II. and Stephen IV., but succumbed to poison, was succeeded by his brother Bela III. (1173-'96), who, hav- ing been educated at the Greek court, and supported by it, introduced various imitations of its administrative organization, and was successful in Galicia, as well as in Dalmatia against the republic of Venice. His connection with the West in consequence of his marriage with Margaret of France induced numerous noble youths to visit the chief cities and schools of Frarooe, England, and Italy. His son Emeric (1196-1205) was tormented by the revolts of his brother Andrew, and in vain had his son Ladislas III. crowned before his death. An- drew II. (1205-'35) was successively under the influence of his unscrupulous wife, who finally was assassinated; of the pope, who compelled him to undertake a crusade; of his financiers, Christian, Saracen, and Jewish, who monopolized the revenues of the impov- erished kingdom ; of the nobility, who in 1222 extorted from him the " Golden Bull," a Hun- garian Magna Charta of freedom and privi- leges, including the right of armed resistance to tyranny ; and finally of a combined violent opposition, to which belonged his son and suc- cessor Bela (IV.). The long reign of the latter (123o-'70) commenced with salutary reforms, hut was afterward disturbed by the immigra- tion of the Cumans and the invasion of the Tartars, who annihilated the Hungarian army on the Saj6 (1241), and marked their way from the Carpathians to the Adriatic by sword and fire, famine and pestilence. Bela did his best to restore order and repeople the country by new immigrants, bestowed various rights on the cities, and promoted the culture of the vine ; but his wars with Austria, Styria, &c., and the revolts of his son Stephen, destroyed order, and promoted only the usurpations of the high nobility. Stephen V. (1270-'72) was successful against Ottokar of Bohemia. His son Ladislas IV. (1272-'90), who succeeded at the age of 10, caused violent commotions and endless misery by his Cumanian amours and predilections, and was murdered at the instiga- tion of one of his mistresses. A nephew of Bela IV., Andrew III. (1290-1301), was the last of the Arpads, and after a disturbed reign, which various diets held on the plain of Rakos near Pesth could not consolidate, died proba- bly by poison. The throne was now open for competition, and the royal dignity became purely elective. Charles Robert of Anjou, a nephew of the king of Naples, and by his mother a descendant of the extinct dynasty, being supported by the see of Rome, was the first elected ; while another party, the leader of which was the powerful count Matthias Csak, successively elected Wenceslas, son of the king of Bohemia (1301-'5), and Otho of Bavaria (1305-'8), both of whom were by a similar title descendants of the Arpads. Charles Robert's reign (1309-'42) was marked by great successes at home and abroad. The regal power was extended and consolidated, < chiefly by a new military and financial organi- zation ; western refinement and luxury made the Hungarian lords more docile, and the suc- cession to the thrones of Poland and Naples was secured to the two sons of the king, Louis and Andrew. Visegnid, however, which re- placed Stuhl-Weissenburg as the royal resi- dence, witnessed many a princely crime. Buda became a still more splendid residence under Louis, surnamed the Great (1342-'82), who further developed the regal power, but with it the oppressive feudal institutions ; and, except- ing his repeated expeditions to Italy to revenge the assassination of his brother Andrew by his own wife, Joanna, he was successful in all his
