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Béla IV (1206-1270) was the king of Hungary between 1235 and 1270.
Béla was the son of King András II and Gertrude of Meran. His mother was murdered by Hungarian magnates in 1213, when he was a boy. His father having failed to avenge Queen Gertrude, it was left to Béla to track down and punish his mother's murderers, a campaign which he finally completed some thirty years after her death.
In 1218 he was married to Maria Laskarina, the daughter of Emperor Theodore I Lascaris Nicaea. Their children were:
- Kinga, married King Boleslaus V of Poland
- King István V
- Erzsébet, married Duke Henry XIII of Lower Bavaria
- Margit, later canonized as St. Margaret in 1943. She lent her name to Margaret Island.
In 1238, Hungary was invaded by Kuman tribes fleeing the advancing Mongol hordes. Béla sought to ally with the Kumans, and so he granted them asylum and betrothed his son and heir Stephen to the daughter of a Kuman khan named Kuthen. The Kumans (originally a pagan shamanist people) converted to Christianity and were baptised. They fought beside the Hungarians against the Mongols.
Béla tried with little success to reestablish royal preeminence by reacquiring lost crown lands. His efforts, however, created a deep rift between the crown and the magnates just as the Mongols were sweeping westward across Russia toward Europe. Aware of the danger, Béla ordered the magnates and lesser nobles to mobilize. Few responded, and the Mongols routed Bela's army at Mohi on April 11, 1241. His ally Kuthen had been killed by mistrustful Hungarian lords in Pest just prior to the invasion.
Béla fled first to Austria, where Duke Frederick of Babenberg held him for ransom, then to Dalmatia. The Mongols reduced Hungary's towns and villages to ashes and slaughtered half the population before news arrived in 1242 that the Great Ögedei Khan had died in Karakorum. The Mongols withdrew, sparing Béla and what remained of his kingdom.
Sources
- Parsons, John Carmi. Medieval Queenship, 1997
| Preceded by: Andrew II | King of Hungary 1235–1270 | Succeeded by: Stephen V Template:End boxde:Béla IV. (Ungarn) ja:ベーラ4世 sk:Belo IV. sv:Bela IV av Ungern |