Árpád OF HUNGARY (845?-907)

	Árpád, Grand Prince of Magyars		Árpád, Grand Prince of Magyars		Grand Prince Árpád's statue in Hero's Square in Budapest

Name:	Árpád OF HUNGARY 1
Sex:	Male
Father:	Almos OF HUNGARY ( -895)
Mother:	-

Individual Events and Attributes

Birth	0845 (app)
Occupation	frm 0895 to 0907 (age 49-62)	Magyar Prince of Hungary
Group/Caste Membership		Árpáds
Child Count		5
Death	0907 (age 61-62)

Marriage

Spouse	(unknown)
Children	Zoltan OF HUNGARY ( -947)

Individual Note

Árpád (c. 845 – c. 907 or 907), the second Grand Prince of the Magyars (Hungarians) (c. 895 – c. 907 or 907). Under his rule the Magyar people settled in the Carpathian basin. The dynasty descending from him ruled the Magyar tribes and later the Kingdom of Hungary until 1301.

 

Árpád was the son of Grand Prince Álmos (Grand Prince of the Magyars), leader of the Hungarian tribal federation; his mother's name and descent is unknown[1].

 

The emergence of the Magyar tribes and their leaders is a specific period in the history of the Hungarian people that refers to the time starting from when the Magyars were considered a people separate and identifiable from other Ugric speakers (1000-500 BC) up until their occupation and settlement of the Carpathian Basin around 896 AD (Hungarian: Honfoglalás)[2].

 

In 894, Árpád and Kurszán negotiated together with the representatives of the Byzantine emperor, Leo VI the Wise the terms under which the confederation of the Magyar tribes was willing to assist the Byzantine Empire against Emperor Simeon I of Bulgaria.

 

In the spring of next year, the Magyar tribes attacked the Bulgarian Empire and defeated Emperor Simeon I, obliging him to conclude peace with the Byzantine Empire. Emperor Simeon, however, entered into an alliance with the Pechenegs, who were the eastern neighbours of the Hungarian tribal federation, and he made an attack against the Magyar troops. In the Battle of Southern Buh, Emperor Simeon I defeated their army; shortly afterwards, the Pechenegs attacked and pillaged their territories. The Magyar tribes were obliged to leave Etelköz and move to the Carpathian Basin where they settled down (Honfoglalás).

 

The circumstances of Álmos' death are unclear. The leaders of the seven Hungarian tribes proclaimed Árpád to Grand Prince of the Magyars[3]; therefore Árpád is considered traditionally to lead the Honfoglalás ("the occupation of the country")[4].

 

In 896 the Hungarian tribes occupied the Upper Tisza river, from there they undertook numerous looting raids in central and western Europe, and in 900/901 they moved to Pannonia[5]. The Magyars entering the Pannonian fields in 896 may have represented about 200,000–250,000 people. He settled in what is now Hungary in about 900, though the Hungarians continued to ravage western Europe til their defeat by Emperor Otto I in 955.

 

Based on Arabic sources, Árpád's title seems to have been kende[6] or gyula. In that time kende was the spiritual leader of the Magyar tribes, while the gyula led their military campaigns. According to legends, Árpád hold the first "parliamentary" session with 40 other "nobles" on horseback before 900 AD.

 

CHILDREN:

 

Liüntika (Levente), Prince of Hungary ?, living 895

Tarkatzus (Tarhos), the father of:

Teveli, the father of:

Tormás (Termatzus), lived in Byzantium, k.i.a. August 955, the father of:

Koppány, Duke in Somogy, k.i.a. 997/998

 

Jelekh (Üllo), "the Epicure", the father:

Ezelekh

 

Jutotzas (Jutas), the father of:

Falitzi (Fajsz), Prince of Hungary (948-955), died c. 955

 

Tas, living in 950

 

Zoltán of Hungary (? – c. 947)

 

Although the founder of the Kingdom of Hungary was not Árpád (as he lived a century earlier) - but his descendant Saint Stephen I –, he is generally thought of as the forefather of Hungarians and is often affectionally mentioned as our father Árpád (Hungarian: Árpád apánk). Árpád was the founder of the dynasty named after him, which would rule over the kingdom of Hungary till 1301.

 

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)

Kristó, Gyula: A Kárpát-medence és a magyarság régmúltja (1301-ig) (Szegedi Középkortörténeti Könyvtár, Szeged, 1993)

Magyarország Történeti Kronológiája I. – A kezdetektol 1526-ig, foszerkeszto: Benda Kálmán (Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1981)

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

 

REFERENCES:

 

Árpád Hungarian Wikipedia

1. http://arpad.org/pages.php?&menuid=55&pageid=137

2. Korai Magyar Történeti Lexikon (9-14. század) (Encyclopedia of the Early Hungarian History - 9-14th centuries). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 753. ISBN 963 05 6722 9

3. The Byzantine De administrando imperio says around 950: Prior to this Árpád, the Magyars did never have another ruling prince ('archont') and since then up to today the ruling prince of Hungary has been from that family. However, his father was probably proclaimed Grand Prince around 855.

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_VII_Porphyrogenetos

5. It is remarkable that Árpád was never mentioned by contemporary Western sources, which strengthens the idea that he was the spiritual ruler of the Magyars.

6. Some scholars consider Kende to be the name of a person.²

Sources

1	Weis, Frederick Lewis & Sheppard, Walter Lee, Jr, "Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700: Lineages from Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, Malcolm of Scotland, Robert the Strong, and other Historical Individuals". p 219, 243-1.

2	"Wikipedia". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81rp%C3%A1d.