Taksony OF HUNGARY (905-972)

	Taksony in Chronicon Pictum

Individual Events and Attributes

Marriage

Individual Note

Taksony (c. 905 – bef. / c. 972), Grand Prince of the Hungarians (c. 955 or 955 - bef. / c. 972).

Taksony was the son of Zoltán (Zaltas), the fourth son of Árpád, the second Grand Prince of the Hungarians. The Gesta Hungarorum mentions that his mother was a daughter of Menmarót, the local military leader in the region of Bihar (Romanian: Biharea) at the time of the Hungarian settlement occupation (Honfoglalás). Taksony married a Pecheneg or Bulgar woman[1].

In 947, Taksony lead a raid to Italy till Apulia, and King Berengar II of Italy had to buy the peace by paying a large amount of money to him and his followers. He might have taken part in the Battle of Lechfeld (Hungarian: augsburgi csata) where King Otto I of Germany won a decisive victory over the Hungarians. After the defeat the Hungarians stopped their raids (kalandozások) in Western Europe, but they began to pillage the Byzantine Empire.

Taksony became the Grand Prince of the Hungarians just or shortly after the Battle of Lechfeld, but his authority must have been only nominal over some regions of the Carpathian Basin inhabited by the Hungarians. During his rule a large number of Pechenegs and Khalyzians immigrated to the territory of the future Hungary.

In 963, Pope John XII ordained the first Roman Catholic missionary bishop, Zacheus for the Hungarians[2], but he probably never visited them.

Taksony arranged the marriage of his son Géza of Hungary to Sarolt, the daughter of Gyula of Transylvania.

CHILDREN:

# c. 945: Unnamed "of the territories of the Cumans"

Géza of Hungary, Grand Prince of the Hungarians (c. 945 – 997)

Michael (Mihály), Duke between Morava and Esztergom (– ca 978 or bef. 997), married Adelajda of Poland (– aft. 997), daughter or sister of Mieszko I of Poland, and had:

Vazul

László (Ladislas "the Bald"), Duke between March and Gran (d. 1029), married c. 1000 Premislavna (d. c. 1015), daughter of Great Prince Vladimir I of Kiev, and had:

Bonuslo, Duke between March and Gran (d. 1048)

NOTES:

1. The Gesta Hungarorum mentions that he married a woman "of the territories of the Cumans", but the Cumans had not crossed the Volga River before the 11th century.

2. Liutprand of Cremona: Liber de rebus gestis Ottonis magni imperatoris.

SOURCES:

Kristó Gyula - Makk Ferenc: Az Árpád-ház uralkodói (IPC Könyvek, 1996)

Korai Magyar Történeti Lexikon (9-14. század), foszerkeszto: Kristó Gyula, szerkesztok: Engel Pál és Makk Ferenc (Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1994)

http://genealogy.euweb.cz/arpad/arpad1.html²

Sources