Croatian nobility
Croatian nobility was a privileged social class in Croatia during the Antiquity and Medieval periods of the country's history. Noble families in the Kingdom of Croatia included high ranking populates from Slavonia, Istria and Republic of Ragusa. Members belonged to an elite social hierarchy placed behind blood royalty, that possessed more privileges or eminence than most other classes in a society. Membership thereof was hereditary. Membership in the nobility and the prerogatives thereof have been regulated or acknowledged by the monarch. Acquisition of sufficient power, military prowess or royal favour enabled commoners to ascend into the nobility; the country's royalty was influenced by France's nobility resulting members of the Royal Courts to assume French titles and practices during French occupation. The controversial assumption of French practices contributed to wide spread political and social elitism among the nobles and monarch; the nobility regarded the peasant class as an unseen and irrelevant substrata of people which lead to high causality revolts and beheadings as well as sporadic periods of intense domestic violence.
Croatian Kings and Queen consorts established Duchys culminating in the Duchy of Croatia. Dukes or Duchesses were to rule a large territories within the Kingdom. Under the rule of the country's first King, Croatia became one of the most powerful kingdoms in the Balkans. Nobles possessed unprecedented power over the governed, were one of the first members of royalty to advocate for monarchical absolutism. Many nobles were charged with the administration of numerous territories and at the height of the Kingdom's power royals ruled nearly eleven separate countries and dozens of extended domains. Croatia was elevated to the status of Kingdom around 925. and the notions of nobility followed. The nobility of the continental and island states of Croatia played a major role in shaping the history of the country, although in the present day hereditary peers have no special rights, privileges or responsibilities, except for special designations who are accorded limited rights. Select members of select noble families are given the right to an audience with the prime minister.
Tomislav was the first Croatian ruler whom the Papal chancellery honored with the title "king". The king was granted the right to award titles to high ranking members of society and direct blood decdenents. Sometime between 923 and 928, Tomislav succeeded in uniting the Croats of Pannonia and Dalmatia, each of, ruled separately by dukes, thus furthering the Croatian nobility and its primary interests; the nobles of Croatia, at the time, administered a group of one banate. Each of these regions had a fortified royal town administered by a member of the royal court charged by a noble. Croatian society underwent major changes in the 10th century. Local leaders, the župani, were replaced by the retainers of the king, who took land from the previous landowners creating a feudal system; the free peasants became serfs and ceased being soldiers, causing the military power of Croatia to fade and the noble class to assume more wealth. The rule of Krešimir's son Miroslav was marked by a gradual weakening of Croatia, thus the powers of the nobility.
Nobility marked their divine right to rule through intense violence that included setting entire villages on fire to reinforce fighting "fire with fire."As soon as Stjepan Držislav had died in 997, his three sons, Krešimir III, Gojslav, opened a violent contest for the throne, weakening the state dramatically. Each of the three brothers firmly placed in the upper tier of the country's nobility required more power than was allocated to them. All three of them took hold of the armies under their jurisdiction and began to fight the armies of one another until Gojslav and Krešimir III decided to rule concurrently, with the third taking control of the Duchy of Croatia. During the reign of Peter Krešimir IV, the medieval Croatian kingdom reached its territorial peak and more land ever was disseminated to the noble families. However, Krešimir managed to get the Byzantine Empire to confirm him as the supreme ruler of the Theme of Dalmatia. During this time nobles advocated for the Roman curia to become more involved in the religious affairs of Croatia, which consolidated the monarchcial power but disrupted his rule over the Glagolitic clergy in parts of Istria after 1060.
Croatia under the at-the-time set up was composed of twelve counties and was larger than in the previous kingdom. It included the closest southern Dalmatian duchy of Pagania, its influence extended over Zahumlje and Duklja; as a result of this Dukedom was an popular designation by the monarch. After the 1089 revolt there was no permanent state capital, as the royal residence varied was destroyed and now varied from one ruler to another. According to the Supetar Cartulary, a new king was elected by select members of the nobility which included seven bans: ban of Croatia, ban of Bosnia, ban of Slavonia etc; the bans were elected by the first six Croatian tribes, while the other six were responsible for choosing župans. In this time the noble titles in Croatia were made analogous to those used in other parts of Europe at the time, with c
Festetics family
Festetics de Tolna or Feštetić in Croatian is the name of a historic family of Hungarian Princes and Counts of Croatian origin. During the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Known for the baroque Festetics Palace and the viennese Prince Tasziló Festetics. On 8 August 1746, Kristof Festetics added de Tolna to their surname. On 5 November 1766, Josef's eldest son Pal Festetics de Tolna was made a count by Queen Maria Theresa of Hungary. On 24 February 1772, Kristof's eldest son Pal Festetics de Tolna was made a count by Queen Maria Theresa of Hungary, Archduchess of Austria and Holy Roman Empress; the title of count was inheritable by all male-line descendants. On 21 June 1911, Count Tassilo Festetics de Tolna was made a prince with the style Serene Highness by King Francis Joseph I of Hungary, his grandson, Prince Georg is the current head of the house. In 1973 Dénes Festetics de Tolna was incorporated in the Dutch nobility with the title of count. Among the other prominent members of the family are: Antal Festetics, Austrian biologist Andor Festetics, Hungarian politician György Festetics, Hungarian politician Leo Festetics, Hungarian composer Count Sándor Festetics, Hungarian politicianFestetics may refer to: the Festetics Palace, located in Keszthely, Hungary the Festetics String Quartet, from Budapest, Hungary List of titled noble families in the Kingdom of Hungary Marek, Miroslav.
"Festetics de Tolna". Genealogy. EU. - the descendants of Lukács Festetics
Erdődy
Erdődy de Monyorókerék et Monoszló is the name of a Hungarian-Croatian noble family with possessions in Hungary and Croatia. Elevated to the Hungarian nobility in 1459, the family was subsequently raised to the rank of Count in 1485. In 1565 the family was recognised by the Habsburg Monarchy who granted them the title Reichsgraf / Gräfin; the family was raised again in 1566 to the rank of Reichfürst. The family was first raised in a document dated 1187, under the name of Bakoch de genere Erdewd, they received the title of Count in 1485.. The family origins from the town of Erdőd, in the region Szatmár, they are barons of Monyorókerék and counts of Monoszló. Monyorokerék is a small village in the south of Burgenland near the Hungarian border. Monoszló is a region in central Croatia; the Erdődy family originated from the Bakócz family belonged to the serfdom at the Drágffy estates. They acquired wealth, when Tamás Bakócz became the Archbishop of Esztergom in 1497. After his death his estates were passed down to his nephew Peter and he took the name Erdődy.
Numerous members of the family held important offices: judges of the royal court, masters of the treasury, Croatian bans, Master of the Horse and generals were among the members of the family. In 1607, because of the family's great contribution to the Croatian-Ottoman Wars, King Rudolph named the family the perpetual counts of Varaždin County, they gave 17 župans up until 1845. Notable members included: Péter "Venetianus" Erdődy Péter Erdődy Tamás Erdődy Miklós Erdődy György Lipót Erdődy János Nepomuk Erdődy Ban of Croatia, field marshal and politician József Erdődy - Knight of the Golden Fleece, patron of Haydn's Erdődy quartets Anna Maria Erdődy née Nicky, wife of Péter Erdődy, possible candidate for Beethoven’s muse, the'immortal beloved'. Sándor Lajos Erdődy joined the Batthyany and Kossuth cabinet but withdrew due to their extremist views. Politician, painter, poet István Erdődy Mediated the Austro-Hungarian compromise of 1848 Sidonija Erdődy Rubido Opera singer Ferenc Xavér Erdődy István Erdődy Politician, last owner of Jastrebarsko estate Tamás Erdődy Aide-de-camp and childhood friend of the last Emperor CharlesThe family owned many estates in western Hungary and in Croatia and were one of the largest landowners in the empire, making them magnates of the empire.
The Palais Erdődy in Vienna, acquired by the Erdődy family from the Esterházys, suffered bombing damage during World War II and was demolished in 1955. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Erdődys' possessions in the successor states of the monarchy were reduced through forced expropriation by the Béla Kun regime; this caused some of the family to flee west into France. During World War II, the Bavarian royal family, relatives of the Erdődy family, stayed in the castles of Somlóvár and Vép, after they had fled from the Nazis in Germany; the invasion of the Soviet Red Army forced most descendants of the family to flee to the West and resulted in their complete expropriation and the destruction of most of their goods. List of titled noble families in the Kingdom of Hungary Marek, Miroslav. "hung/erdody1.html". Genealogy.euweb.cz
King of Hungary
The King of Hungary was the ruling head of state of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1000 to 1918. The style of title "Apostolic King of Hungary" was endorsed by Pope Clement XIII in 1758 and used afterwards by all Monarchs of Hungary. Before 1000 AD, Hungary was not recognized as a kingdom and the ruler of Hungary was styled Grand Prince of the Hungarians; the first King of Hungary, Stephen I. was crowned on 25 December 1000 with the crown Pope Sylvester II had sent him and with the consent of Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor. Following King Stephen I's coronation, all the monarchs of Hungary used the title "King". However, not all rulers of Hungary were kings--for example, Stephen Bocskai and Francis II Rákóczi were proclaimed rulers as "High Princes of Hungary", there were three Governors of Hungary who were sometimes styled "regents", János Hunyadi, Lajos Kossuth and Miklós Horthy. From the 13th century a certain process was established to confirm the legitimacy of the King. No person could become the legitimate King of Hungary without fulfilling the following criteria: Coronation by the Archbishop of Esztergom.
This meant a certain level of protection to the integrity of the Kingdom. For example, stealing the Holy Crown of Hungary was no longer enough to become legitimate King; the first requirement was confirmed by Béla III, crowned by the Archbishop of Kalocsa based on the special authorisation of Pope Alexander III, but after his coronation he declared that his coronation would not harm the customary claim of the Archbishops of Esztergom to crown the kings. In 1211, Pope Innocent III denied to confirm the agreement of Archbishop John of Esztergom and Archbishop Berthold of Kalocsa on the transfer of the claim, he declared that it is only the Archbishop of Esztergom, entitled to crown the King of Hungary; the King Charles I of Hungary was crowned in May 1301 with a provisional crown in Esztergom by the Archbishop of this city, that lead to his second coronation in June 1309. In this time the Holy Crown wasn't used and he was crowned in Buda by the archbishop of Esztergom; however his third coronation was in 1310, in the city of Székesfehérvár, with the Holy Crown and effectuated by the archbishop of Esztergom.
The King's coronation was considered legitimate. On the other hand, in 1439, the dowager queen Elizabeth of Luxemburg ordered one of her handmaidens to steal the Holy Crown from the palace of Visegrád, promoted the coronation of her newborn son Ladislaus V, carried out legitimately in Székesfehérvár by the Archbishop of Esztergom. A similar situation occurred with the Matthias Corvinus, when he negotiated to get back the Holy Crown, in the possession of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III. After obtaining it he was legitimately crowned; as in all the traditional monarchies, the heir descended through the male line from a previous King of Hungary. In accordance with Hungarian tradition, this right passed to younger brothers, before passing to the son of the previous King, which caused family disputes on many occasions; the founder of the first Hungarian royal house was Árpád, who led his people into the Carpathian Basin in 895. His descendants, who ruled for more than 400 years, included Saint Stephen I, Saint Ladislaus I, Andrew II, Béla IV.
In 1301 the last member of the House of Árpád died, Charles I was crowned, claiming the throne in the name of his paternal grandmother Mary, the daughter of Stephen V. With the death of Mary, the granddaughter of Charles I, in 1395, the direct line was interrupted again, Mary's husband Sigismund continued reigning, after being elected by the nobility of the Kingdom in the name of the Holy Crown. Matthias Corvinus was elected by the nobles of the Kingdom, being the first Hungarian monarch who descended from an aristocratic family, not from a royal family that inherited the title; the same happened decades with John Zápolya, elected in 1526 after the death of Louis II in the battle of Mohács. After this, the House of Habsburg inherited the throne, ruled Hungary from Austria for 400 years until 1918. Over the centuries, the Kings of Hungary acquired or claimed the crowns of several neighboring countries, they began to use the royal titles connected to those countries. By the time of the last kings, their precise style was: "By the Grace of God, Apostolic King of Hungary, Croatia, Rama, Galicia, Lodomeria and Bulgaria, Grand Prince of Transylvania, Count of the Székelys".
The title "Apostolic King" was confirmed by Pope Clement XIII in 1758 and used thereafter by all the Kings of Hungary. The title of "King of Slavonia" referred to the territories between the Sava Rivers; that title was first used by Ladislaus I. It was Ladislaus I who adopted the title "King of Croatia" in 1091. Coloman added the phrase "King of Dalmatia" to the royal style in 1105; the title "King of Rama", referring to the claim to Bosnia, was first used by Béla II in 1136. It was Emeric who adopted the title "King of Serbia"; the phrase "King of Galicia" was used to indicate the supremacy over Halych, while the title "King of Lodomeria" referred to Volhynia. In 1233, Béla IV began to use the title "King of Cumania" which expressed the rule over the territories settled by the Cumans at that time; the phrase "King of Bulgaria" was added to the royal style by Stephen V. Transylvania was a province of the Kingdom of Hungary ruled by a voivode, but after 1526 became a semi-independent principality subordinated to the Ot
Ban of Croatia
Ban of Croatia was the title of local rulers or office holders and after 1102, viceroys of Croatia. From earliest periods of Croatian state, some provinces were ruled by bans as a ruler's representative and supreme military commander. In the 18th century, Croatian bans became chief government officials in Croatia, they were at the head of Ban's Government the first prime ministers of Croatia. The institution of ban in Croatia persisted until the 20th century. South Slavic ban comes from the Turkic word bajan, which entered the Croatian language through the Avars. There are theories that it is an Illyrian derivative; the long form is directly attested in 10th-century Constantine Porphyrogenitus' book De Administrando Imperio as βοάνος, in a chapter dedicated to Croats and the organisation of their state, describing how their ban "has under his rule Krbava and Gacka." References from the earliest periods are scarce, but history recalls that the first known Croatian ban is Pribina from the 10th century.
In the early Middle Ages, the ban was the royal district governor of Lika and Krbava. The meaning of the title was elevated to that of provincial governor in the Kingdom of Croatia with some bans being successors to the Croatian Kingdom After the Croats elected King Coloman of Hungary as King of Croatia 1102, the title of ban acquired the meaning of viceroy. Bans were appointed by the Hungarian king as his representatives in Kingdom of Croatia, heads of the parliament and as supreme commander of Croatian Army. Croatia was governed by the viceregal ban as a whole from 1102 until 1225, when it was split into two separate regions of Slavonia and Croatia. Two different bans were appointed until 1476, when the institution of a single ban was resumed. Most bans were native nobles but some were of Hungarian ancestry. Most notable bans from this period were Pavao Šubić and Peter Berislavić. From 1225 to 1476, there were parallel Bans of Croatia and Dalmatia and of "Whole Slavonia"; the following is the list of the former, the latter are listed at the article Ban of Slavonia.
During the period of separate titles of ban, several persons held both titles, indicated in the notes. After the death of King Louis I of Hungary, his daughter Mary succeeded to the throne, which led to kings Charles III and Ladislaus of Naples claiming the Kigndom of Hungary. A war erupted between forces loyal to Mary, to her husband and successor Sigismund of Luxembourg, those loyal to Ladislaus. During this time, Sigismund appointed Nicholas II Garai the Ban of Croatia and Dalmatia in 1392, Butko Kurjaković in 1394, again Garai in the period from 1394 to 1397. Nicholas II Garai was at the time the Ban of Slavonia, succeeded by Ladislav Grđevački, Paul Besenyő, Pavao Peć, Hermann II of Celje. Ladislaus in turn appointed his own bans, including Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić. In 1409, this dynastic struggle was resolved when Ladislaus sold his rights over Dalmatia to the Republic of Venice. From 1476 onwards, the titles of Ban of Dalmatia and Croatia, Ban of "Whole Slavonia" are again united in the single title of Ban of Croatia and Dalmatia.
The title of ban persisted in Croatia after 1527 when the country became part of the Habsburg Monarchy, continued all the way until 1918. Among the most distinguished bans in Croatian history were the three members of Zrinski family Nikola Šubić Zrinski and his great-grandsons Nikola Zrinski and Petar Zrinski. There are two notable Erdődys: Toma Erdődy, great warrior and statesman, Ivan Erdődy, to whom Croatia owes much for protecting her rights against the Hungarian nobility, his most known saying in Latin is Regnum regno non praescribit leges In the 18th century, Croatian bans became chief government officials in Croatia, they were at the head of Ban's Government the first prime ministers of Croatia. The most known bans of that era were Josip Jelačić, Ivan Mažuranić and Josip Šokčević; the Habsburg dynasty ruled Kingdom of Croatia and Kingdom of Slavonia between 1527 and 1918. Croatia was a Habsburg crown territory during the Revolutions of 1848 and up until 1867. Croatia was returned to Hungarian control in 1867 when the Habsburg Empire was reconstituted as the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary.
Between and 1918 the following bans were appointed: Ban was the title of the governor of each province of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1929 and 1941. The weight of the title was far less than that of a medieval ban's feudal office. Most of Croatian territory was divided between the Sava and Littoral Banovina, but some parts were outside this provinces. In 1939 Banovina of Croatia was created with Cvetković-Maček agreement as a unit of limited autonomy, it consisted of the Sava and Littoral Banovinas along with smaller parts of Vrbas, Zeta and Danube Banovina's. Ivan Šubašić was appointed for the Ban of Banovina of Croatia until the collapse of Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1941. Šubašić was the last person who held the position of Croatian Ban. Following a brief period of self-rule at the end of World War I, Croatia was incorporated into the Kingdom of the Serbs and Slovenes in 1918, under the Karađorđević dynasty. In 1929, the new Constitution of the Kingdom renamed it Kingdom of Yugoslavia and split up the country into banovinas.
In 1939, the Banovina of Croatia was created with Cvetković-Maček agreement as a unit of limited autonomy wit
Croatia in union with Hungary
The Kingdom of Croatia entered a personal union with the Kingdom of Hungary in 1102, after a period of rule of kings from the Trpimirović and Svetoslavić dynasties and a succession crisis following the death of king Demetrius Zvonimir. With the coronation of King Coloman of Hungary as "King of Croatia and Dalmatia" in 1102 in Biograd, the realm passed to the Árpád dynasty until 1301, when the line of the dynasty died out. Kings from the Capetian House of Anjou, who were cognatic descendants of the Árpád kings, ruled the kingdoms. Centuries were characterized by conflicts with the Mongols, who sacked Zagreb in 1242, competition with Venice for control over Dalmatian coastal cities, internal warfare among Croatian nobility. Various powerful nobles emerged in the time period, like Paul I Šubić of Bribir and Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić, that secured de facto independence for their realms; the Ottoman incursion into Europe in the 16th century reduced Croatian territories and left the country weak and divided.
After the death of Louis II in 1526 during the Battle of Mohács and a brief period of dynastic dispute, both crowns passed to the Austrian House of Habsburg, the realms became part of the Habsburg Monarchy. Some of the terms of Coloman's coronation and the status of the Croatian nobles are detailed in the Pacta Conventa, a document preserved only in transcript from the 14th century; the precise terms of this relationship became a matter of dispute in the 19th century. In addition, the Croatian nobles retained their titles; the diplomatic name of the kingdom was "Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia" until 1359 when a plural form "kingdoms" came to use. The change was a consequence of the victory of Louis I against the Republic of Venice and the Treaty of Zadar, by which the Venetian Republic lost its influence over Dalmatian coastal cities. However, the kingdom was still referred to as the Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia until Venice regained the Dalmatian coast in 1409; the most common Croatian language form of the name was Hrvatska zemlja.
Demetrius Zvonimir was the King of Croatia of the Svetoslavić branch of the House of Trpimirović. He began as a Ban of Slavonia and as Duke of Croatia in the service of Peter Krešimir IV. Peter declared him his heir and, in 1075, Demetrius Zvonimir succeeded to the Croatian throne. Zvonimir married Helen of Hungary from the Árpád dynasty in 1063. Helen was a Hungarian princess, daughter of Béla I, sister to King Ladislaus I of Hungary, they had a son, who died in his late teens or early twenties. After Zvonimir's death in 1089, he was succeeded by Stephen II, last of the House of Trpimirović. Stephen's rule was ineffectual and lasted less than two years, he spent most of this time in the tranquility of the monastery of St. Stephen beneath the Pines near Split. Stephen II died peacefully without leaving an heir. Since there was no living male member of the House of Trpimirović, civil war and unrest broke out in Croatia shortly afterward; the widow of late King Zvonimir, tried to keep her power in Croatia during the succession crisis.
Some Croatian nobles around Helen the Gusići and/or Viniha from Lapčani family, contesting the succession after the death of Zvonimir, asked King Ladislaus I to help Helen and offered him the Croatian throne, seen as rightfully his by inheritance rights. According to some sources, several Dalmatian cities asked King Ladislaus for assistance, presenting themselves as White Croats on his court, thus the campaign launched by Ladislaus was not purely a foreign aggression nor did he appear on the Croatian throne as a conqueror, but rather as a successor by hereditary rights. In 1091 Ladislaus crossed the Drava river and conquered the entire province of Slavonia without encountering opposition, but his campaign was halted near the Iron Mountains. Since the Croatian nobles were divided, Ladislaus had success in his campaign, yet he wasn't able to establish his control over entire Croatia, although the exact extent of his conquest is not known. At this time the Kingdom of Hungary was attacked by the Cumans, who were sent by Byzantium, so Ladislaus was forced to retreat from his campaign in Croatia.
Ladislaus appointed his nephew Prince Álmos to administer the controlled area of Croatia, established the Diocese of Zagreb as a symbol of his new authority and went back to Hungary. In the midst of the war, Petar Svačić was elected king by Croatian feudal lords in 1093. Petar's seat of power was based in Knin, his rule was marked by a struggle for control of the country with Álmos, who wasn't able to establish his rule and was forced to withdraw to Hungary in 1095. Ladislaus died in 1095. Coloman, as was the case with Ladislaus before him, wasn't seen as a conqueror but rather as a pretender to the Croatian throne. Coloman assembled a large army to press his claim on the throne and in 1097 defeated King Petar's troops in the Battle of Gvozd Mountain, killed in battle. Since the Croatians didn't have a leader any more and Dalmatia had numerous fortified towns that would be difficult to defeat, negotiations started between Coloman and the Croatian feudal lords, it took several more years. Coloman was crowned in Biograd in 1102 and the title now claimed by Coloman was
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen I at Esztergom around the year 1000. By the 12th century, the kingdom became a European middle power within the Western world. Due to the Ottoman occupation of the central and southern territories of Hungary in the 16th century, the country was partitioned into three parts: the Habsburg Royal Hungary, Ottoman Hungary, the semi-independent Principality of Transylvania; the House of Habsburg held the Hungarian throne after the Battle of Mohács until 1918 and played a key role in the liberation wars against the Ottoman Empire. From 1867, territories connected to the Hungarian crown were incorporated into Austria-Hungary under the name of Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen; the monarchy ended with the deposition of the last king Charles IV in 1918, after which Hungary became a republic.
The kingdom was nominally restored during the "Regency" of 1920–46, ending under the Soviet occupation in 1946. The Kingdom of Hungary was a multiethnic state from its inception until the Treaty of Trianon and it covered what is today Hungary, Slovakia and other parts of what is now Romania, Carpathian Ruthenia, Vojvodina and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders. From 1102 it included Croatia, being in personal union with it, united under the King of Hungary. Today, the feast day of the first king Stephen I is a national holiday in Hungary, commemorating the foundation of the state; the Latin forms Ungarie. The German name Königreich Ungarn was used from 1784 to 1790 and again between 1849 and the 1860s; the Hungarian name was used in the 1840s, again from the 1860s to 1946. The unofficial Hungarian name of the kingdom was Magyarország, still the colloquial, the official name of Hungary; the names in the other native languages of the kingdom were: Polish: Królestwo Węgier, Romanian: Regatul Ungariei, Serbian: Kraljevina Ugarska, Croatian: Kraljevina Ugarska, Slovene: Kraljevina Ogrska, Slovak: Uhorské kráľovstvo, Italian, Regno d'Ungheria.
In Austria-Hungary, the unofficial name Transleithania was sometimes used to denote the regions of the Kingdom of Hungary. The term Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen was included for the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary, although this term was in use prior to that time; the Hungarians led by Árpád settled the Carpathian Basin in 895, established Principality of Hungary. The Hungarians led several successful incursions to Western Europe, until they were stopped by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor in Battle of Lechfeld; the principality was succeeded by the Christian Kingdom of Hungary with the coronation of St Stephen I at Esztergom on Christmas Day 1000. The first kings of the kingdom were from the Árpád dynasty, he fought with Bavarian help, defeated him near Veszprém. The Catholic Church received powerful support from Stephen I, who with Christian Hungarians and German knights wanted a Christian kingdom established in Central Europe. Stephen I of Hungary was canonized as a Catholic saint in 1083 and an Orthodox saint in 2000.
After his death, a period of revolts and conflict for supremacy ensued between the royalty and the nobles. In 1051 armies of the Holy Roman Empire tried to conquer Hungary, but they were defeated at Vértes Mountain; the armies of the Holy Roman Empire continued to suffer defeats. Before 1052 Peter Orseolo, a supporter of the Holy Roman Empire, was overthrown by king Samuel Aba of Hungary; this period of revolts ended during the reign of Béla I. Hungarian chroniclers praised Béla I for introducing new currency, such as the silver denarius, for his benevolence to the former followers of his nephew, Solomon; the second greatest Hungarian king from the Árpád dynasty, was Ladislaus I of Hungary, who stabilized and strengthened the kingdom. He was canonized as a saint. Under his rule Hungarians fought against the Cumans and acquired parts of Croatia in 1091. Due to a dynastic crisis in Croatia, with the help of the local nobility who supported his claim, he managed to swiftly seize power in northern parts of the Croatian kingdom, as he was a claimant to the throne due to the fact that his sister was married to the late Croatian king Zvonimir who died childless.
However, kingship over all of Croatia would not be achieved until the reign of his successor Coloman. With the coronation of King Coloman as "King of Croatia and Dalmatia" in Biograd in 1102, the two kingdoms of Croatia and Hungary were united under one crown. Although the precise terms of this relationship became a matter of dispute in the 19th century, it is believed that Coloman created a kind of personal union between the two kingdoms; the nature of the relationship varied through time, Croatia retained a large degree of internal autonomy overall, while the real power rested in the hands of the local nobility. Modern Croatian and Hungarian historiographies view the relations between Kingdom of Croatia and Kingdom of Hungary from 1102 as a form of a personal union, i.e. that
