mihalache holy sees intervention in the struggles for hungarina throne 1290 1310

7/25/2019 Mihalache Holy Sees Intervention in the Struggles for Hungarina Throne 1290 1310

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RO B E R T -MA R I U S M I H A L A C H E

The Holy Sees Intervention

in the Struggle for the Occupationof the Hungarian Throne (12901310)

ASSUGGESTEDby the title, this study attempts to present the major changes thatoccurred in the history of the Hungarian royal institution between 1290 and 1310.Why has this twenty-year span been chosen? After the death of King Ladislaus IV,who was also known as the Cuman and had no successor, the Hungarian royalty ex-perienced a rather difficult period. Several heirs on the maternal side expressed theirdesire to ascend the throne of Hungary. The pope followed closely the situationin this kingdom, since he was the head of the Pontifical Monarchy, an institution

known as Christianitas1or Societas Christiana,to which Hungary also belonged. Thepope made his presence felt through his legates, special envoys sent there to resolvethe matter of the continuity of the Hungarian throne. In this segment of time, fourlegatesde laterewere dispatched to Hungary, which attests the extremely acute char-acter of the Hungarian question.

In the Hungarian historiography, the theme of the continuity of the Hungariandynasty has been studied by several important historians; foremost amongst themare Sndor Szilgyi and Pl Engel. As for the Romanian historiography, this topichas scarcely been approached, which is why this article aims to present how thetransfer of royal power was made from the Arpadian to the Angevin dynasty andhow the Holy See intervened in settling the issue of monarchic continuity.

Hungary entered the sphere of influence of the Holy Roman Empire, as wellas of Christianitas, by the rules of any continental kingdom at the end of the tenthcentury, that is through the full agreement between the secular power, representedby Emperor Otto III, and the spiritual power,2headed by Pope Sylvester II.

The late thirteenth-century crisis between the kingdoms of Bohemia, Poland andHungary extended into the first decade of the fourteenth century,3 so there wereseveral pontiffs who contributed to defusing the tense situations in these kingdoms,such as Nicholas IV (12881292), Boniface VIII4 (12941303) and Clement V

(13051314).

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156 TRANSYLVANIANREVIEW VOL. XX, SUPPLEMENTNO. 2:1 (2011)

In 1290 King Ladislaus IV, also called the Cuman,5died; since he had no heirs,the situation of the Arpadian kingdom was complicated. Soon after his death, there

appeared struggles between the supporters of different factions that were eager toseize the throne of Hungary. Eventually, the aforementioned continuity was main-tained by bringing Andrew III (1290-1301), known as the Venetian, to the throne.Andrew was the illegitimate son of Duke Stephen,6who was the posthumous sonof the Hungarian King Andrew II and of Tommasina Morosini, the niece of DogeMarino Morosini.

The Neapolitan kingdom also intervened in the struggle for the throne; in Na-ples, Queen Mary, the wife of King Charles II and also sister to the murdered KingLadislaus the Cuman,7claimed the Hungarian throne by her right of inheritance.She wanted to bestow the royal dignity on her son, Charles Martel.8The rather tense

situation was defused through an agreement that included the participation of theHoly See. Rome certainly did not want the Hungarian kingdom to disappear in theaftermath of these conflicts, so the compromise method was the last viable option.How was this alternative reached? In fact, ever since the time of Pope InnocentIII (11981216), the influence of the Roman Curia on the internal matters of theHungarian Kingdom had increased considerably, which is demonstrated by the nu-merous papal bulls and letters that have been preserved in the archives of Hungary.9It appears that Andrew III fulfilled a few prerequisites before being crowned; onenecessary requirement was that the Hungarian nobility should elect and accept himas king. On 23 July 1290, he was crowned in Szkesfehrvr (Alba Regia) by the

Hungarian Primate and also born legate (legatus natus), the Archbishop of Eszter-gom. He wore the crown of St. Stephen, as tradition demanded; all Rome had todo was to accept the compromise.

The Holy See acknowledged the coronation through the solemn letters issued byPope Nicholas IV in 1291, under the pretext that the kingdom belonged,ab antiquo

ex causamultiplici,to the Roman Church.10Although the pope recognised the coro-nation, he tried to maintain the Hungarian royalty under his control. Papal controlwas exercised through the legates dispatched from Rome.

After the death of King Ladislaus IV, the Roman Curia sent two legates to Hun-gary, by virtue of the ministry of royalty, a role that was fulfilled by the Arpadian

king. Bishops Benvenuto di Gubbio and Giovanni di Jesi, the two legates de latere,ascertained the situation in the kingdom and attempted to redress it. Interestingly,in the reports they submitted to Rome, they mentioned the fact that amongst thosewho delayed solving the problems of the kingdom there were a few noblemen, butalso several clerics. Although the Church agreed that Andrew III should be king, asthe Hungarian nobles desired, the latter were not willing to accept a redimension-ing of their right to freely elect their king, in accordance with the claims made bythe Roman Curia. Since Hungary was a vassal to the Pontifical Monarchy, the popewas entitled to oversee the evolution of the Hungarian royalty; the local nobles hadno such right. However, none of Pope Nicholas IVs letters explicitly mentioned the

clear subordination of the Hungarian kingdom to Rome. This circumstance clearly



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ROBERT-MARIUSMIHALACHE The Intervention of the Holy See 157

highlights that the pope was aware, at least formally, that he had no document evinc-ing the Holy Sees feudal sovereignty over Hungary, in any way that was reminiscent

of the expressionius antiquum. As mentioned above, the pontifical letters containedthe expressionab antiquo ex causamultiplici.11The situation seemed to have normalized. The upper classes expected12 from

the new king, above all, an acknowledgement of the newly forged power relations,while the Church awaited the restoration of public order. There were several noble-men who did not recognise Andrew III as king, the most important of whom werethose from the Kszegi family. Another nobleman, Matthew, the son of Peter Csk,who had gathered a patrimony in the North-Western counties, even rebelled in 1297and successfully withstood the kings attacks.

Meanwhile the Neapolitan house was engaged in a conflict with the Kingdom

of Aragon, which weakened the intensity of the Angevin interest in the Hungarianmatter. The Neapolitan King, who was also Prince of Salerno, was taken prisoner bythe King of Aragon, being released later in return for a colossal amount.13

To be sure of winning, Charles Martel, the son of Mary Queen of Sicily, had theaudacity to assume the title of King of Hungary.14This action was unnecessary be-cause a legal coronation had already been performed in accordance with the customsof the kingdom. To some extent, the death15of Charles Martel in 129516reassuredKing Andrew III, who had meanwhile waged war against the local barons.

After her sons death, in 1299, Queen Mary of Sicily appointed her grandsonand, implicitly, the son of Charles Martel,17as successor to the Hungarian throne.18

Pope Boniface VIII (12941303) recognised Charles Robert as king, but he acted ascautiously as his predecessors had. It is interesting that most of the Hungarian clergywere faithful to King Andrew III; this is not surprising since the king granted thearchbishops of Hungary a key role in the kingdoms governing apparatus. The linksbetween the two partiesthe royalty and the local clergybecame solid, whichmeant that Romes interventions in the Hungarian kingdom were purely formal.Although he had acknowledged Charles Robert as king, the pope could do noth-ing else in his favour. Charles Roberts waiting ended on 14 January 1301, whenAndrew III died, leaving no male heir. It seemed that the grievous situation thathad afflicted Hungary on the death of Ladislaus IV had relapsed with the demise of

Andrew III.19

The critical moment of 130120meant the collapse of the Arpadian edifice. Withthe death of the last king in this dynasty, the country had entered a crisis once again.Several kings directly expressed their willingness to occupy the throne that had re-mained vacant, on the grounds of their matrilineal kinship with the Arpadian mon-archs. Foreign kings were not the only threat to the stability of the kingdom, sincethe countrys barons had isolated themselves on their properties, where they playedthe roles of would-be kinglings.

Queen Mary sent her grandson, Charles Robert,21to Hungary. The latter arrivedin Zagreb, where he was welcomed by the Archbishop Primate, Gregory Bicskei.22

Together with their suite, they proceeded to Esztergom, where Charles Robert was



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crowned with an occasional crown, probably made specially for this event. Althoughthe coronation had taken place, the new king was disregarded by the countrys bar-

ons. The Holy See became aware of the noblemens gesture: that very year, on 13May 1301,23Pope Boniface VIII24 sent there the Bishop of Ostia, Nicholas Boc-casini, as legatede latere. The Bishop of Ostia was the third legate de laterein onlyten years.

Led by the Archbishop of Kalocsa, Gyimesi Janos,25and supported by the lo-cal barons from various historical families such as Nmetujvri, Csk, Amadeus,Kachich and others, the countrys great prelatesthe bishopsaddressed the Czechking from the Premysl dynasty, inviting him to occupy the throne that had remainedvacant again. The Czech king would have accepted the offer but he raised severalobjections, such as the fact that he was already at an age when he could no longer

learn Hungarian, which was essential for the future kings of Hungary. Another com-ment the king made was that he already had twoCzech and Moraviancrowns; athird crown would have destabilised the situation, so he suggested that the Hungar-ian party should accept his son, Venceslaus, aged only twelve.26The chroniclers ofthe time claimed that after hearing the refusal of the Czech king and his alternativeoffer, the Hungarian party wavered; however, this sign of doubt was remedied bylarge amounts of money and jewellery from the treasury of the Czech kingdom, afact also confirmed by Charles Robert.27Assuming that King Charles Robert mightoccupy the throne, the barons accepted Venceslaus s III28(13011305) as King ofHungary. He was led to Buda, where he was presented to the country. To consecrate

this moment, Venceslaus III29was taken from Buda to Szkesfehrvr, where, thistime, the Archbishop of Kalocsa crowned him with the royal insignia under thename of Ladislaus, without specifying the ordinal.

Several issues should be highlighted. In 1301, two kings were crowned by thetwo Hungarian archbishops, though only the one in Esztergom had this corona-tion right by virtue of his primacy and his position oflegatus natus. Charles Robertwas crowned by the one entrusted by the pope with this taskthe Archbishop ofEsztergomwith a crown that had been specially blessed for this event. Venceslauswas crowned by the other archbishop (who did had not have this prerogative), withthe royal insignia and in the place tradition demanded, that is in Szkesfehrvr. Thequestion is which of the two crowned kings could occupy the throne? Theoreticallyboth, but practically Venceslaus was the one who did so because he had the crownof St. Stephen.

Pope Boniface VIII sent a letter30to the Czech King Venceslaus II (12781305)Premysl to hold him accountable for his actions. The letter resorted to a rather harshmanner of address against the Czech king, reminding him that he was not entitledto intervene in such matters, especially without notifying the Apostolic See.

With the arrival of the new legate de latere,Boccasini,31the Hungarians foundthat the Holy See did not treat this matter with indifference, but with concern;

hence, after the death of the Archbishop of Kalocsa, the barons began to concede



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that bringing Venceslaus to the throne had not been a good solution. To attractmore supporters amongst the sceptical barons, the king donated various territories

in exchange for their loyalty. Those who received such benefits included MatthewCsk,32a highly influential nobleman during the reign of Andrew III.The new papal legate made his presence felt in the kingdom by convening vari-

ous synods in which he advocated the acceptance of Charles Robert, the king whohad the endorsement of the Roman Curia. Although he used various diplomatic andreligious means, the pontifical legate was not successful in his efforts; consequently,he swiftly returned to Rome the following year.

Boniface VIII summoned each party involved in this matter to appear beforehim: on the one hand, the Czech King Venceslaus II Premysl,33and on the otherhand, Queen Mary of Sicily, with her grandson, Charles Robert of Anjou. Only the

Angevin party made an appearance. The pope entrusted34the destiny of the coun-try to Queen Mary, by virtue of her right as the direct descendant of the Arpadiandynasty. Given the Holy Sees intervention, uncertainties concerning the legitimacyof Charles Roberts claim to the throne began to vanish, and to further simplify thesituation, the pope decreed that those who support the Czech king shall be pun-ished.35We may detect in this statement the rigorousness with which the PontificalCuria handled any matter inside the Pontifical Monarchy, as was, in our case, thecontinuity of the Hungarian dynasty.

We should signal the growing international tension between Rome and theFrench kingdom on account of the beneficial reserve and separation policy adopted

by the French King Philip IV, also nicknamed the Fair.36The tensions led to anarmed conflict in which the French king besieged the city of Anagni,37where thepope was captured. This event was criticised by many leaders of the kingdoms ofEurope. After a few days, Pope Boniface VIII died.38The popes death weakenedonce again Charles Roberts legitimate chances to the throne, that is, his odds of be-ing accepted by the people and by the nobles.

The next elected pope was Nicholas Boccasini,39none other than the former pa-pal legate to Hungary. Boccasini occupied the pontifical throne as Benedict XI.

There followed a series of events that animated the political stage in this area.The Czech king himself came with his army to Buda to witness his sons coronation.However, he was forced to return, since alarming news had reached him from thewestern part of the Czech kingdom, where the king had a conflict with Emperor Al-bert, the supporter of Charles Robert to the Hungarian throne. The Czech monarchhad to retreat with his son from Hungary to Prague, not before entrusting the fateof the country to a great baron, Ivan Nmetujvri. The head of the Czech kingdomwas attacked from two sides: on the one hand, by the armies of Albert, the Ro-man-German king, on the other, by the armies of Charles Robert, the unrecognisedHungarian king, who, by that time, had won the support of most noblemen andprelates.40In the aftermath of these conflicts, the Czech King Venceslaus II died.

The peace agreement concluded between the Czech party and the Roman-German



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emperor included a very important provision, which entailed his relinquishment ofthe Hungarian crown.41The agreement was respected by Venceslaus III, the son of

the king who had died in the war.With the surrender of the Czech King Venceslaus III before the emperor and hissurrender of the royal insignia, as a result of his defeat, the Hungarian crown wasbestowed upon the Prince of Bavaria,42Otto of Wittelsbach43(13051307) ratherthan upon Charles Robert, as the peace treatise had envisaged. On the maternal line,Otto was the grandson of King Bela IV.44

The new king came to Buda with the royal insignia. During his journey throughthe kingdom, he met with the local barons and assured them of his good intentionstowards the crown and the kingdom. Thus, in 1305, yet another Hungarian kingwas crowned.45For two years, while he was king, there was no other remarkable

event in the kingdom. Otto ran the country mostly through the local noblemen.Meanwhile, Charles Robert had conquered city after city, ensuring thus the submis-sion of regions such as northern area of the kingdom, foremost amongst which wasEsztergom.46

At the time47when the capital of the Hungarian Church was conquered, Ottowas certainly not in Buda, because if he had been in the capital, he would not havetreated the matter with indifference. In fact, he was in Transylvania, another regionwhere the royal hegemony was much diminished in favour of the local authorities.

Otto came to see the Transylvanian prince in person, demanding his help againstCharles Robert. The Transylvanian Voivode Ladislaus Kn promised he would sup-

port him although he knew he would not be able to. Behind this promise, there wasanother plan, of taking his royal insignia. The plan was carried through. Otto wasimprisoned by the voivode,48but was released before long, without the royal insig-nia, however. A German chronicler of that time said that he was released so quicklybecause the wife of the Transylvanian prince had family ties with Otto.49The latterreturned to his native country where he got married, bearing the title of Hungarianking until his death.

Although the power poles moved from Rome to Avignon, Charles Robert en-joyed the support of Pope Clement V (13051314). Aware of the situation thiskingdom was in, the pope sent another legate there. The new legate, Gentile deMontefiore,50arrived in Split at the end of May 1308, from where he proceeded toBuda. Before and even after his arrival there, Pope Clement V sent letters to thosein the Hungarian kingdom, especially to the barons51and the bishops, demandingthem to give the legate their full support,52so that he might complete the missionhe had been entrusted with53by the Roman Curiaas quickly as possible. Not allthe barons gave their support to the legate; the aforementioned Matthew Csk didnot comply with Gentile. As for the upper nobility, only the Nmetjvri familyresponded positively to the letter sent by Pope Clement V, perhaps also because oftheir opposition against the Csk family, to which Matthew belonged.



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The legates most important and most difficult mission was that of ensuring therecognition of Charles Robert; to this end, the legate summoned all the noblemen

in the regions, most of whom answered affirmatively. The coronation ceremonyof 8 May 1309 was sumptuous; many of those invited attended it, but there werealso a few absentees. Amongst those who did not attend it was the TransylvanianVoivode, Ladislaus Kn. All those present solemnly swore faith and allegiance toCharles Robert, who became Charles I.54Although the whole ceremony went asplanned, one big problem was still unsolved. Charles Robert was not crowned atSzkesfehrvr with the crown of St. Stephen, as had all the kings before him.

The legate de latereknew that although the great barons had pledged their al-legiance, they could, at any moment, rebel against the king on account that theceremony had not complied with the tradition of the Arpadian kings.

Gentile Montefiore negotiated with the Transylvanian voivode hoping that hewould convince the latter to cede the royal insignia. Gentiles attempts were unsuc-cessful. The prince was not concerned about this issue. All these troubles vexed thelegate, who was obliged, eventually, to threaten the voivode with excommunica-tion.55

The sentence of excommunication against the voivode was read on December25, Christmas Day, 1309. This document was a clear expression of the legates help-lessness and frustration. The legate had certainly not intended to distance himselffrom the voivode by this action, but to make him change his attitude. This he suc-ceeded in. The voivode responded with interest to the legates demands, provided

that his excommunication be withdrawn.56The meeting between the two parties took place in Szeged,57where the voivode

returned the crown and the royal insignia in exchange for having his excommunica-tion lifted. Also at this time, Ladislaus Kn probably swore his oath of allegiance toCharles Robert. Although he had been annoyed by Kns actions, the king did notpunish him, constrained as he was by the legates kindness.58

The return of the royal insignia to Buda opened the way for Charles Robertsthird and final coronation: after having waited for nearly a decade, he was anointedon 20 August 1310. The ceremony was administered by the Archbishop of Eszter-gom in the basilica from Szkesfehrvr,59under the careful supervision of the legate

de latereGentile Montefiore. Charles Roberts third and final coronation sealed thereplacement of the Arpadian with the Angevin dynasty, the first foreign house in thehistory of medieval Hungarian.

As we have seen throughout this text, the institution of the royalty had sufferedmost from these switches between the various kings who succeeded one anotherat the helm of the country. The royalty was an institution that was subordinatedto Rome and that, at least in terms of its temporal power, was seen as the meanswhereby the pope could arbitrate and coordinate the evolution of the regalities inChristianitas.



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At the end of the thirteenth century, Hungary had entered a crisis of royal conti-nuity, a problem that would only be settled by papal intervention two decades later.

During this time, several popes attempted to solve the crisis of the Arpadian king-dom by sending special legates there, known as legatesde latere. Over the course oftwo decades four pontifical legateswere present in Hungary, but only one of themwas successful in his activity: Gentile Montefiore. Of the aforementioned popes,Clement V was the only one who managed to settle the matter of the Hungarianroyalty through the institution of the legate.

The pontifical legates dispatched to Hungary during this period had to resolvepolitical rather than religious issues, proving once again the force of the Roman Cu-ria, which held not only spiritual power, but also temporal might. By virtue of this,Rome was entitled to intervene in the kingdoms that formed Societas Christianaand

to oversee the evolutions of these regalities; this was made possible by the ministryof royalty, a role that each European regality assumed on acknowledging the pon-tifical suzerainty, as Hungary also did in the late tenth century.

q

Translated into English by Carmen Borbely

Notes

1. Lat. Christianitas = Christianity, erban Turcu, Sfntul Scaun i romnii n secolul al

XIII-lea, 2001, Bucureti, p. 17. 2. Ibid,p. 8385. 3. Ioan-Aurel Pop, Romnii n secolele XIVXVI: de la Republica Cretin la Restaura-

rea Daciei,inIstoria Romniei (Compendiu), Ioan-Aurel Pop i Ioan Bolovan (eds.),Cluj-Napoca, 2004, p. 213.

4. Andreas Kiesewetter, Lintervento di Niccolo IV, Celestino V e Bonifacio VIII nellalotta per il trono ungherese (1290-1303), in Bonifacio VIII. Ideologia e azione politica,Atti del Convegno organizzato nellambito delle Celebrazioni per il VII centenario della morte,Citta del Vaticano-Roma, 2004, p. 139.

5. Ioan-Aurel Pop,Romnii i maghiarii n secolele IX-XIV, Cluj-Napoca, 1996, p. 178187. 6. Andreas Kiesewetter, Lintervento di Niccolo IV, Celestino V e Bonifacio VIII nella

lotta per il trono ungherese (1290-1303), p. 142. 7. Chronicum Pictum Vindobonense,http://konyv-e.hu/pdf/Chronica_Picta.pdf, p. 129,

accessed on 8. 06. 2010. 8. Andreas Kiesewetter, Lintervento di Niccolo IV, Celestino V e Bonifacio VIII nella

lotta per il trono ungherese (12901303), p. 143. 9. rszegi Gza,Eredeti ppai oklevelek Magyarorszgon (11991417), Budapest, 1989,

passim.10. Andreas Kiesewetter, Lintervento di Niccolo IV, Celestino V e Bonifacio VIII nella

lotta per il trono ungherese (1290-1303), p. 150.11. The papal formulas do not state clearly and concisely that Hungary belonged, in feudal

terms, to the Roman Curia, but one may assume that Romes interventions were made



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by virtue of the agreement concluded at the beginning of the eleventh century, when theArpadian kingdom recognised the papal suzerainty.

12. Tudor Slgean, Transilvania n a doua jumtate a secolului al XIII-lea. Afirmarea regimu-lui congregaional, Cluj-Napoca, 2007, p. 228233.13. Caroline Bruzelius, The Stones of Naples, Church Building in Angevin Italy 1266-1343,

New Heaven, 2004, p. 75133.14. Andreas Kiesewetter, Lintervento di Niccolo IV, Celestino V e Bonifacio VIII nella

lotta per il trono ungherese (12901303), p. 153.15. Jen Szcs, Az utols rpdok, Budapest, 1993, p. 7475.16. Isabelle Bonnot,Marseille et ses rois de Naples - La diagonal angevine 12651382,Marseil-

le, 1988, p. 13.17. Michael Jones, The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. VI, (13001415), Cambridge,

2000, p. 892.

18. Blint Hman, GliAngioini di Napoli in Ungheria, 1290-1403, Roma 1938, p. 317351.19. Engel Pl,Regatul Sfntului tefan. Istoria Ungariei Medievale 895-1526, Cluj-Na-

poca, 2006,p. 136.20. Hermann Egyed,A katolikus egyhz trtnete Magyarorszgon 1914-ig, Mnchen, 1973,

p. 122.21. Chronicum Pictum, p. 131.22. Hermann Egyed,A katolikus egyhz trtnete Magyarorszgon 1914-ig, p. 123.23. Sndor Szilgyi,A magyar nemzet trtnete, Budapest, 1895, vol. III, chapter I, p. 7.24. Ottfried Neubecker, Heraldry Sources, Symbols and Meaning, London, 1976, p. 132

236.

25. Hermann Egyed,A katolikus egyhz trtnete Magyarorszgon 1914-ig, p. 123.26. ndor Szilgyi,A magyar nemzet trtnete, p. 9.27. Ibid., p. 10.28. Chronicum Pictum, p. 132.29. Claude Michaud, The Kingdoms of Central Europe in the 14th Century, in Cambridge

Medieval History, Cambridge, 2002, p. 735736.30. Documente privind Istoria Romniei, sec. XIV, C, Transilvania, vol. I. (1301-1320), doc.

14, p. 9-10.31. Ibid.,doc. 13, p. 8-9.32. Gyula Krist, Csk Mt, Budapest, 1986, p. 127143.33. DIR,sec. XIV, C, Transilvania, vol. I, doc. 24, p. 1819.

34. Georges Digard,Les registres de Boniface VIII, Paris, 1884,doc. 5367, p. 890.35. Szilgyi Sndor,A magyar nemzet trtnete, p. 17.36. Ioan-Aurel Pop, Geneza medieval a naiunilor moderne (secolele XIII-XVI), Bucureti,

1998, p. 2425.37. Bernhard Schimmelpfennig,Il Papato - Antichita, medioevo, rinascimento, Roma, 2006, p.

187221.38. Bruno Bernard Heim, Heraldry in the Catholic Church: Its Origins, Customs and Laws,

Buckinghamshire, 1981, p. 25.39. Chronicum Pictum, p. 135.40. DIR,sec. XIV, C, Transilvania, vol. I, doc. 35, p. 29.41. Ibid,p. 33.



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42. Engel Pl,Regatul Sfntului tefan,p. 156157.43. Chronicum Pictum, p. 134.

44. Szilgyi Sndor,A magyar nemzet trtnete,p. 41.45. Jnos Bak, Pl Engel, Decreta Regni Mediaevalis Hungariae, Vol. II, (13011457), Bu-dapest, 1993, passim.

46. Szilgyi Sndor,A magyar nemzet trtnete,p. 4344.47. Krist Gyula,Az Anjou-kor hborui, Budapest, 1988, passim.48. Tudor Slgean, Un voievod al Transilvaniei: Ladislau Kn 1294-1315, Cluj-Napoca,

2007, p. 135137.49. Szilgyi Sndor,A magyar nemzet trtnete,p. 45.50. Chronicum Pictum, p. 136.51. DIR, sec. XIV, C, Transilvania, vol. I, doc. 76, p. 54.52. Gyula Krist, Anjou-kori Oklevltr (Documenta Res Hungaricas Tempore Regum Andega-

vensium illustrantia),vol. II (1306-1310), Budapest-Szeged, 1992, doc. 202, p. 95.53. DIR, sec. XIV, C, Transilvania, vol. I, doc. 75, p. 54.54. Ibid.,doc. 82, p. 58.55. Tudor Slgean, Un voievod al Transilvaniei, p. 157.56. DIR, sec. XIV, C, Transilvania, vol. I, doc. 111, p. 164169.57. Ibid.,doc. 118, p. 172173.58. Ibid.,doc. 121, p. 174175.59. Charles DEszlary,Histoire des institutions publique hongroises, vol. II, Paris, 1962, p. 188194.

Abstract

The Holy Sees Intervention in the Strugglefor the Occupation of the Hungarian Throne (1290-1310)

This study attempts to present the major changes that occurred in the history of the Hungarianroyal institution between 1290 and 1310. After the death of King Ladislaus IV, who was alsoknown as the Cuman and had no successor, the Hungarian royalty experienced a rather difficultperiod. Several heirs on the maternal side expressed their desire to ascend the throne of Hungary.

The pope followed closely the situation in this kingdom, since he was the head of the PontificalMonarchy, an institution known as Christianitas or Societas Christiana, to which Hungary alsobelonged. The pope made his presence felt through his legates, special envoys sent there to resolvethe matter of the continuity of the Hungarian throne. In this segment of time, four legates de

laterewere dispatched to Hungary, which attests the extremely acute character of the Hungarianquestion. The pontifical legates dispatched to Hungary during this period had to resolve politi-cal rather than religious issues, proving once again the force of the Roman Curia, which held notonly spiritual power, but also temporal might. By virtue of this, Rome was entitled to intervenein the kingdoms that formed Societas Christianaand to oversee the evolutions of these regalities;this was made possible by the ministry of royalty, a role that each European regality assumed onacknowledging the pontifical suzerainty, as Hungary also did in the late tenth century.

KeywordsLegatus de latere, Hungarian Throne, Charles Robert of Anjou, excommunication.

mihalache holy sees intervention in the struggles for hungarina throne 1290 1310

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