Taksony of Hungary

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Good article Template:Infobox royalty Taksony (Template:IPA, also Taxis or Tocsun;<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> before or around 931 – early 970s) was the Grand Prince of the Hungarians after their catastrophic defeat in the 955 Battle of Lechfeld. In his youth he had participated in plundering raids in Western Europe, but during his reign the Hungarians only targeted the Byzantine Empire. The Gesta Hungarorum recounts that significant Muslim and Pecheneg groups settled in Hungary under Taksony.

Early life

Taksony was the son of Zoltán, according to the Gesta Hungarorum (written around 1200).Template:Sfn The same source adds that Taksony's mother was an unnamed daughter of Menumorut, a local ruler defeated by the conquering HungariansTemplate:Sfn shortly before 907.Template:Sfn Its unknown author also says that Taksony was born "in the year of Our Lord's incarnation 931".<ref>Anonymus, Notary of King Béla: The Deeds of the Hungarians (ch. 55), p. 121.</ref>Template:Sfn The Gesta Hungarorum reports that Zoltán abdicated in favor of Taksony in 947,Template:Sfn three years before his own death.Template:Sfn

However, modern historians have challenged existing information on Taksony's early life. A nearly-contemporaneous source—Liudprand of Cremona's RetributionTemplate:Sfn—narrates that Taksony led a plundering raid against Italy in 947, which suggests that he was born considerably earlier than 931.Template:Sfn His father's reign was preserved only in the Gesta Hungarorum; its anonymous author lists Zoltán among the grand princes, and all later Hungarian monarchs were descended from him.Template:Sfn The Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus wrote around 950 that Fajsz, Taksony's cousin, was grand prince of the Hungarians at that time.Template:Sfn

Reign

A later source, Johannes Aventinus,Template:Sfn writes that Taksony fought in the Battle of Lechfeld on August 10, 955. There, future Holy Roman Emperor Otto I routed an 8,000-strong Hungarian army.Template:Sfn If this report is reliable, Taksony was one of the few Hungarian leaders to survive the battlefield.Template:Sfn Modern historians, including Zoltán KordéTemplate:Sfn and Gyula Kristó,Template:Sfn suggest that Fajsz abdicated in favor of Taksony around that time. After that battle the Hungarians' plundering raids in Western Europe stopped, and they were forced to retreat from the lands between the Enns and Traisen rivers.Template:Sfn However, the Hungarians continued their incursions into the Byzantine Empire until the 970s.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

According to the Gesta Hungarorum, "a great host of Muslims" arrived in Hungary "from the land of Bular"<ref name='Anonymus_127'>Anonymus, Notary of King Béla: The Deeds of the Hungarians (ch. 57), p. 127.</ref>Template:Sfn under Taksony.Template:Sfn The contemporaneous Ibrahim ibn Yaqub also recorded the presence of Muslim merchants from Hungary in Prague in 965.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Anonymus also writes of the arrival of Pechenegs during Taksony's reign; he granted them "a land to dwell in the region of Kemej as far as the Tisza".<ref name='Anonymus_127'/>Template:Sfn The only sign of a Hungarian connection with Western Europe under Taksony is a report by Liudprand of Cremona.Template:Sfn He writes about Zacheus, whom Pope John XII consecrated bishop and "sent to the Hungarians in order to preach that they should attack"<ref>Liudprand of Cremona: King Otto (ch. 6.), p. 224.</ref> the Germans in 963.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn However, there is no evidence that Zacheus ever arrived in Hungary.Template:Sfn Taksony arranged the marriage of his elder son Géza to Sarolt, daughter of Gyula of Transylvania,Template:Sfn before his death during the early 970s.Template:Sfn

Family

Taksony's marriage to a woman "from the land of the Cumans"<ref name="Anonymus_127"/> was arranged by his father, according to the Gesta Hungarorum.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Although this reference to the Cumans is anachronistic, modern historians argue that the Gesta seems to have preserved the memory of the Turkic—Khazar, Pecheneg or Volga Bulgarian—origin of Taksony's wife.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Historian György Györffy proposes that a Pecheneg chieftain, Tonuzoba, who received estates from Taksony near the river Tisza, was related to Taksony's wife.Template:Sfn The names of two of Taksony's sons (Géza and Michael) have been preserved.Template:Sfn The following family tree presents Taksony's ancestry and his offspring.Template:Sfn Template:Tree chart/start Template:Tree chart Template:Tree chart Template:Tree chart Template:Tree chart Template:Tree chart Template:Tree chart Template:Tree chart Template:Tree chart Template:Tree chart Template:Tree chart Template:Tree chart Template:Tree chart/end

*Whether Menumorut is an actual or an invented person is debated by modern scholars.
**A Khazar, Pecheneg or Volga Bulgarian woman
***Kristó writes that she may have been a member of the Rurik dynasty from Kievan Rus'.

Sources

Primary sources

• Anonymus, Notary of King Béla: The Deeds of the Hungarians (Edited, Translated and Annotated by Martyn Rady and László Veszprémy) (2010). In: Rady, Martyn; Veszprémy, László; Bak, János M. (2010); Anonymus and Master Roger; CEU Press; Template:ISBN.
• Liudprand of Cremona: Retribution and King Otto (2007). In: The Complete Works of Liudprand of Cremona (Translated by Paolo Squatriti); The Catholic University of Press; Template:ISBN.

Secondary sources

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