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The Beginnings of the Hungarian ‘Queendom’ (c. 1000–1090)

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The Archaeology and Material Culture of Queenship in Medieval Hungary, 1000–1395

Part of the book series: Queenship and Power ((QAP))

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Abstract

The early years of the Hungarian kingdom saw a great deal of activity from queens. Gisela of Bavaria (d. 1065) begins with several donations and diplomatic gifts that earn her a reputation as a pious and influential woman. One of her actions is founding the Cathedral at Veszprém. Her predecessors follow her actions of both diplomatic gift-giving as well as supporting the young church in Hungary. This century closes with Adelaide of Rheinfelden (d. 1090), who imitates Gisela’s overtures to the Pope as well as her favor to the city of Veszprém. Nonetheless, with Adelaide’s death, the last of the queens imitating Gisela’s actions directly ends and a period of strong queens using material culture would not appear for another ninety years.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Her name in Slavic is recorded as Beleknegini (“white lady”) in Thietmar of Merseburg and Sar-aldy in Bulgarian-Turkish (literally “white weasel”). Wertner, Az Árpádok családi Története, 25–27; György Györffy, King Saint Stephen of Hungary (Boulder: Social Science Monographs, 1994), 45.

  2. 2.

    R. Holtzmann, ed., Thietmari Merseburgensis episcopi Chronicon, viii 4 MGH SRG, NS, ix (Berlin, 1935), 497–498; Györffy, King Saint Stephen of Hungary, 45; Bak, “Queens as Scapegoats in Medieval Hungary,” 223–224.

  3. 3.

    Bruno of Querfurt, “Brunonis Vita S. Alberti,” ed. Georg Heinrich Pertz MGH SS 4 iii (Hanover, 1891), 607; Györffy, King Saint Stephen of Hungary, 45.

  4. 4.

    Wertner, Az Árpádok családi Története, 25–31; C. A. Macartney, The Medieval Hungarian Historians (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953), 173, 179; Györffy, King Saint Stephen of Hungary, 45–47; Jan Długosz, The Annals of Jan Długosz (Chichester: IM Publications, 1997), 1–6.

  5. 5.

    Györffy, King Saint Stephen of Hungary, 163; Ildikó Hankó, A magyar királysírok sorsa: Géza fejedelemtől Szapolyai Jánosig (Budapest: Magyar Ház, 1987), 131.

  6. 6.

    Dercsényi, ed., The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle, 105; Györffy, King Saint Stephen of Hungary, 83.

  7. 7.

    The generally accepted date of Sarolta’s death is 1008. Györffy, King Saint Stephen of Hungary, 99; Klaniczay, Holy Rulers and Blessed Princesses, 435.

  8. 8.

    Gerevich, “The Rise of Hungarian Towns Along the Danube,” 31.

  9. 9.

    Gergely Buzás, “Az Esztergomi vár románkori és gotikus épülétei” [The Buildings of Esztergom Castle in Romanesque and Gothic], in Az Esztergomi Vármúzeum kőtárának katalógusa [The Esztergom Castle Museum Lapidary catalog], ed. Gergely Buzás and Gergely Tolnai (Esztergom: Esztergom Castle Museum, 2004), 7; István Horváth, “Esztergom,” in Medium Regni: Medieval Hungarian Royal Seats, ed. Julianna Atlmann et al. (Budapest: Nap Kiadó, 1999), 11.

  10. 10.

    Emese Nagy, “Reconstitution de la Topographie de la colline d’Esztergom a l’haute epoque arpadienne,” Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 34 (1982): 52–53; Buzás, “Az Esztergomi vár,” 9.

  11. 11.

    Analogies to this setup can be seen in contemporary Paderborn, Magdeburg, and Speyer. Buzás, “Az Esztergomi vár,” 9, 28; László Gerevich, “The Rise of Hungarian Towns Along the Danube,” in Towns in Medieval Hungary, ed. László Gerevich (Boulder: East European Monographs, 1990), 31; István Horváth, “Esztergom,” in Medium Regni: Medieval Hungarian Royal Seats, ed. Julianna Atlmann et al. (Budapest: Nap Kiadó, 1999), 11, 16.

  12. 12.

    István Horváth, Marta Kelemen, and István Torma, Komárom megye régészeti topográfiája: Esztergom és a dorogi járás [Komárom County Archaeological Topography: Esztergom and Dorog Tourism] (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1979), 91.

  13. 13.

    Gárdonyi-Csapodi, “Description and Interpretation of the Illustrations in the Illuminated Chronicle,” 74.

  14. 14.

    Györffy, King Saint Stephen of Hungary, 151; Miklós Komjáthy, “Quelques problèmes relatifs à la charte de fondation du couvent des religieuses de Veszprémvölgy,” in Mélanges offerts à Szabolcs de Vajay à l’occasion de son 50e anniversaire (1971), 371–372, 379–380; Nora Berend, “Przemysław Urbańczyk, Przemysław Wiszewski,” in Central Europe in the High Middle Ages: Bohemia, Hungary and Poland, c. 900-c. 1300 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 357.

  15. 15.

    Éva Révész, “A keleti kereszténység: szerep, hatás vagy jelenlét?: A veszprémvölgyi monostor” [Eastern Christianity: Role, Impact or Presence?: The Veszprémvölgy Monastery], Belvedere 21 (2009): 52–56.

  16. 16.

    Gyula Moravcsik, “The Role of the Byzantine Church in Medieval Hungary,” The American Slavic and East European Review 6 (1947), 143–144.

  17. 17.

    Gisela’s sister-in-law Kunigunde was also canonized. Györffy, King Saint Stephen of Hungary, 80.

  18. 18.

    Zsoldos, The Árpáds and Their Wives, 189.

  19. 19.

    Györffy, King Saint Stephen of Hungary, 168–169; Kosztolnyik, Hungary Under the Early Árpáds, 297–298.

  20. 20.

    Simon of Kéza, Gesta Hungarorum, 105–107; Dercsényi, ed., The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle, 107.

  21. 21.

    Gárdonyi-Csapodi, “Description and Interpretation of the Illustrations in the Illuminated Chronicle,” 75; Z. J. Kosztolnyik, Hungary Under the Early Árpáds, 890s to 1063 (Boulder: East European Monographs, 2006), 301; Marosi “Das Frontspiz der Ungarischen Bilderchronik,” 370.

  22. 22.

    P. Scheffer-Boichorst, ed. “Chronica Alberici monachi Trium Fontium,” Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores, XXIII, 779; Bak, “Queens as Scapegoats in Medieval Hungary,” 225–226.

  23. 23.

    Gárdonyi-Csapodi, “Description and Interpretation of the Illustrations in the Illuminated Chronicle,” 76.

  24. 24.

    Kosztolnyik, Hungary Under the Early Árpáds, 332–333.

  25. 25.

    Bak, “Queens as Scapegoats in Medieval Hungary,” 226.

  26. 26.

    The land the queen donated to Bakonybél included fishponds, vineyards, and mills. Of the five charters attributed to Gisela, the one which refers to her donations to Pannonhalma is only known from a forged charter of King Ladislas I (r. 1077–1095). Imre Szentpétery and Attila Zsoldos, Az Árpád-házi hercegek, hercegnők és királynék okleveleinek kritikai jegyzéke (Budapest: Magyar Országos Levéltár, 2008), 44–45, 183.

  27. 27.

    Kunigunde appears crowned and with the same regalia as her husband, holding a scepter and an orb. Kathleen Nolan, Queens in Stone and Silver: The Creation of a Visual Imagery of Queenship in Capetian France (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 26.

  28. 28.

    Emma Bartoniek, “Legenda St. Stephani regis maior et minor,” 384; Zsoldos, The Árpáds and Their Wives, 21.

  29. 29.

    Z. J. Kosztolnyik, Hungary in the Thirteenth Century (Boulder: East European Monographs, 1996), 68; Arnold Ipolyi, Imre Nagy, and Dezső Véghely, Hazai Okmanytár, Vol. V (Győr, 1873), 8–9.

  30. 30.

    “scilicet coronam beate memorie Regine Gysele, duodecim marcas purissimi auri continentem. preter lapides preciosos. quam in ultra marinis partibus pro C. xl. marcis argenti expendimus,” “scilicet coronam beate memorie Regine Gysle XII Marcas purissimi auri continentem preter lapides. quam in ultramarinis partibus pro c xl Marcis argenti expendimus.” Ipoly, Nagy and Véghely, Hazai Okmanytár, Vol. V, 8–9.

  31. 31.

    These are the reliquary crown of St. Kunigunde and the burial crown of Gisela of Swabia. Herbert Brunner, “The Treasury of the Residenz Palace Munich,” in Royal Treasures, ed. Erich Steingräber (New York: Macmillan, 1968), 52–54; Twining, European Regalia, 303.

  32. 32.

    “S(tephanus) Ungrorum rex et Gisla dilecta sibi coniux mittunt haec munera Domino apostolico Johanni.” Béla Kövér, “Szent István és Gizella metzi miseruhája,” Archaeológiai Értesítő 10 (1890): 332–333.

  33. 33.

    Kövér, “Szent István és Gizella metzi miseruhája,” 332–333.

  34. 34.

    Béla Czobor, “A metzi kazula” [The chasuble of Metz], in Gizella királyné (985 k.-1060), ed. János Géczi (Veszprém, 2000), 188–189.

  35. 35.

    Kövér, “Szent István és Gizella metzi miseruhája,” 332–333; Antal Szmik, “Gizella királyné magyar hímzőiskolája” [The Embroidery School of Queen Gisela], in Gizella királyné (985 k.-1060), ed. János Géczi (Veszprém, 2000), 195–196.

  36. 36.

    Horace K. Mann, The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, Vol. V (St. Louis: B. Herder, 1910), 138–141.

  37. 37.

    Éva Kovács, “Gizella királyné keresztje” [The Cross of Queen Gisela], in Gizella királyne, 985 k.-1060 (Veszprém, 2000), 158; Béla Czobor, “A Gizella-kereszt leírása” [Writing on the Gisela Cross], Századok 35 (1901), 1018–1020.

  38. 38.

    Éva Kovács, “Gizella királyné keresztje” [The Cross of Queen Gisela], in Gizella királyne, 985 k.-1060 (Veszprém, 2000), 158; Ottó Trogmayer and Lilla Visy, Ecce Salus Vitae: íme az élet üdve; a Gizella-Kereszt [Ecce salus vitae: Here is the Salvation of the Living; the Gisela Cross] (Szeged: Agapé, 2000), 23.

  39. 39.

    Czobor, “A Gizella-kereszt leírása,” 1018–1020.

  40. 40.

    The Gisela Cross is 45 cm high while the Matilda Crosses and the Theophanu Cross are between 44 and 46 cm. Robert Calkins, Monuments of Medieval Art (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1979), 115; Patrick De Winter, The Sacral Treasure of the Guelphs (Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1985), 8, 44–45; Hermann Fillitz, “Das Adelheid-Kreuz aus St. Blasien,” in Schatzhaus Kärntens: Landesausstellung St. Paul 1991: 900 Jahr Benediktinerstift, ed. Hartwig Pucker, Johannes Grabmayer, Günther Hödl, and the Benediktinerstist St. Paul (Klagenfurt: Universitätsverlag Carinthia, 1991), 670; Hermann Schnitzler, “Die Regensburger Goldschmiedekunst,” in Wandlungen christlicher Kunst im Mittelalter, ed. Johannes Hempel (Baden-Baden: Verlag für Kunst und Wissenschaft, 1953), 181.

  41. 41.

    Ernő Marosi, “The Székesfehérvár Chasuble of King Saint Stephen and Queen Gisela,” in The Coronation Mantle of the Hungarian Kings, ed. István Bardoly (Budapest: Hungarian National Museum, 2005), 110–113.

  42. 42.

    Györffy, King Saint Stephen of Hungary, 165; Zsuzsa Lovag, “A Short Historiography of Researching the Hungarian Coronation Mantle,” in The Coronation Mantle of Hungarian Kings, ed. István Bardoly (Budapest: Hungarian National Museum, 2005), 15–19; Marosi, “The Székesfehérvár Chasuble,” 123–124.

  43. 43.

    Therese Martin, “Exceptions and Assumptions: Women in Medieval Art History,” in Reassessing the Roles of Women as ‘Makers’ of Medieval Art and Architecture, ed. Therese Martin, Vol. I (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 2–5.

  44. 44.

    Marosi, “The Székesfehérvár Chasuble,” 133; Lovag, “A Short Historiography of Researching the Hungarian Coronation Mantle,” 18–19, 22.

  45. 45.

    Katalin E. Nagy, Enikő Sipos, Ernő Marosi, “The Picture Fields of the Mantle (1–43) Fragments of the Embroidered Band,” in The Coronation Mantle of the Hungarian Kings, ed. István Bardoly (Budapest: Hungarian National Museum, 2005), Field 6 154–155, Field 8 158–159.

  46. 46.

    Lovag, “A Short Historiography of Researching the Hungarian Coronation Mantle,” 14, 22.

  47. 47.

    Eliza Garrison, Ottonian Imperial Art and Portraiture: The Artistic Patronage of Otto III and Henry II (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012), 131.

  48. 48.

    “Que qualis erga dei cultum ornandum extiterit, quam frequens et benefica circa deo servientium congregationes apparuerit, multarum ecclesiarum cruces et vasa vel paramenta opere mirifico facta vel contexta usque hodie testantur.” Imre Szentpétery, Scriptores Rerum Huncaricarum II (Budapest: Academia Litter. Hungarica, 1939), 415.

  49. 49.

    Attila Zsoldos, The Árpáds and Their Wives: Queenship in Early Medieval Hungary, 1000-1301 (Rome: Viella, 2019), 27.

  50. 50.

    Előd Nemerkenyi, “Latin Classics in Medieval Libraries: Hungary in the Eleventh Century,” 246–247; János M. Bak et al., The Laws of the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary, 1000–1301, Vol. I (Idyllwild, CA: Charles Schlacks, Jr., 1999), 9–10.

  51. 51.

    Gárdonyi-Csapodi, “Description and Interpretation of the Illustrations in the Illuminated Chronicle,” 75.

  52. 52.

    Kralovánszky, “The Settlement History of Veszprém and Székesfehérvár,” 59.

  53. 53.

    Alán Kralovánszky, “The Settlement History of Veszprém and Székesfehérvár in the Middle Ages,” in Towns in Medieval Hungary, ed. Laszló Gerevich, 54; Györffy, King Saint Stephen of Hungary, 104.

  54. 54.

    Györffy, King Saint Stephen of Hungary, 104; Tibor Lenner, “Life in Veszprém, in the ‘Town of Queens’,” Revija za geografijo - Journal for Geography 7/2 (2012): 88, 91.

  55. 55.

    Györffy, King Saint Stephen of Hungary, 81.

  56. 56.

    Jenő Gutheil, Az Árpád-kori Veszprém [Veszprém in the Age of the Árpáds] (Veszprém: Veszprém Megyei Levéltár, 1979), 67; Kralovánszky, “The Settlement History of Veszprém and Székesfehérvár,” 57; Kosztolnyik, Hungary Under the Early Árpáds, 128, 139–140, 305.

  57. 57.

    The “Gizella chapel” was thought to be the palace chapel, and the bakery was called the “Queen’s Kitchen”; it was destroyed sometime later. Gurtheil, Az Árpád-kori Veszprém [Veszprém in the Age of the Árpáds], 67–68.

  58. 58.

    Kralovánszky, “The Settlement History of Veszprém and Székesfehérvár,” 64, Fig. 7.

  59. 59.

    Lenner, “Life in Veszprém, in the ‘Town of Queens’,” 88.

  60. 60.

    András Uzsoki, “Das Passauer Gizella-grab im Spiegel der neuen Forschungen,” in Gizella és kora: felolvasóülések az Árpád-korból [Gizella and Her Time: Character Reading in the Age of the Árpáds] (Veszprém, 1993), 70–71.

  61. 61.

    Antonius de Bonfinius, Rerum Ungaricarum decades quator, cum dimidia (Basel: Oporinus, 1568), Dec. II, Liber IIII, 260; Antonius de Bonfinius, Rerum Ungaricarum Decades (Lipsiae: Teubner, 1936), Decas II, Liber IV, 91; András Uzsoki, “Die Echtheit des Grabes der ungarischen Königin Gisela in Passau,” in Bayern und Ungarn: Tausend Jahre enge Beziehungen, ed. Ekkehard Völkl, 14.

  62. 62.

    Kosztolnyik, Hungary Under the Early Árpáds, 332–336.

  63. 63.

    Wolfherius Wilhelm von Giselbrecht and Edmund von Oefele, Annales Altahenses Maiores (Hanover: Impensis Bibliopolii Hahniai, 1891), 33; Richard Faas, Kloster Niedernburg, Passau: Die Geschichte von 888 bis zur Gegenwart (Oberhaching: Mogenroth Media, 2014), 245–246; Uzsoki, “Das Passauer Gizella-grab im Spiegel der neuen Forschungen,” 73.

  64. 64.

    Faas, Kloster Niedernburg, Passau, 245–247.

  65. 65.

    András Uzsoki, “Az első magyar királyné, Gizella sírja,” A Veszprém Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei XVI (1982): 160.

  66. 66.

    Uzsoki, “Das Passauer Gizella-grab im Spiegel der neuen Forschungen,” 74–75.

  67. 67.

    Uzsoki, “Das Passauer Gizella-grab im Spiegel der neuen Forschungen,” 76.

  68. 68.

    Długosz, The Annals of Jan Długosz, 38; Kosztolnyik, Hungary Under the Early Árpáds, 343.

  69. 69.

    Cosmas of Prague, The Chronicle of the Czechs (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America, 2009), Book II, 135.

  70. 70.

    “Hye leyt die hochgeporen / chünichleychis geschlechtes czu ungern genant Tuta / stifterin decz gegenwertigen / gotshaus hie czu Suben gestorben MCXXXVI Kls Maÿ.” Franz Engl, “Grabstein der Stifterin Tuta (Abguß),” in 900 Jahre Stift Reichersberg Augustiner Chorherren zwischen Passau und Salzburg: Ausstellung des Landes Oberösterreich, 26. April bis 28. Oktober 1984 im Stift Reichersberg am Inned. Dietmar Straub (Linz, 1984), 329.

  71. 71.

    Kerbl thought that she was the wife of Béla I (r. 1060–1063), but this is pure conjecture. Kerbl, “Byzantinische Prinzessinnen in Ungarn,” 12–13; Vajay, “Byzantinishe Prinzessinnen in Ungarn,” 16.

  72. 72.

    Wertner knew that the sisters were connected with the Árpád dynasty but not how they were connected. Bernhard Schütz, Stift Suben am Inn (Munich: Schnell & Steiner, 1970), 3; Wertner, Az Árpádok családi Története, 586–588.

  73. 73.

    Fritz Dworschak, “Neunhundert Jahre Stift Suben am Inn,” Oberösterreichische Heimatblätter 6/3 (1952): 298.

  74. 74.

    Dworschak, “Neunhundert Jahre Stift Suben am Inn,” 304; Schütz, Stift Suben am Inn, (Munich: Schnell & Steiner, 1970), 3.

  75. 75.

    Bak, “Roles and Functions of Queens in Árpádian and Angevin Hungary,” 23.

  76. 76.

    Andrzej Poppe, “Building of the Church of St Sophia in Kiev,” Journal of Medieval History 7 (1981): 15–66; Viktor Lazarev, “New Data on the Mosaics and Frescoes of the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Kiev: The Group Portrait of Yaroslav’s Family,” in Studies in Early Russian Art, ed. Viktor Lazarev (London: The Pindar Press, 2000), 386–426; Elena Boeck, “Believing Is Seeing: Princess Spotting in St. Sophia of Kiev,” in Dubitando: Studies in History and Culture in Honor of Donald Ostrowski, ed. Brian J. Boeck, Russell E. Martin and Daniel Rowland (Bloomington: Slavica Publishers, 2012), 167–179; Szabolcs de Vajay, “Még egy királynénk…? I. Endre első felesége” [Another of Our Queens…? The First Wife of Andrew I], Turul 72 (1999): 18.

  77. 77.

    Vajay, “Még egy királynénk…? I. Endre első felesége” [Another of Our Queens…? The First Wife of Andrew I]: 18.

  78. 78.

    Dercsényi, ed., The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle, 113; Zsoldos, The Árpáds and Their Wives, 191.

  79. 79.

    There is a precedent for Greek and Latin monks sharing space, like the monastery of St. Hippolytus at Zobor. Catherine Keene, Saint Margaret, Queen of the Scots: A Life in Perspective (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 20; Marina Miladinov, Margins of Solitude: Eremitism in Central Europe Between East and West (Zagreb: Leykam International, 2008), 158.

  80. 80.

    Kosztolnyik, Hungary Under the Early Árpáds, 398, 400.

  81. 81.

    Keene, Saint Margaret, Queen of the Scots, 20–21.

  82. 82.

    Kosztolnyik, Hungary Under the Early Árpáds, 339–340.

  83. 83.

    Vajay, “Még egy királynénk…? I. Endre első felesége” [Still One More Queen…? The First Wife of Andrew I]: 18; Miladinov, Margins of Solitude, 181–161.

  84. 84.

    Anonymous and Master Roger, Gesta Hungarorum and Epistle to the Sorrowful Lament Upon the Destruction of the Kingdom of Hungary by the Tatars, trans. János M. Bak and Martyn Rady (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2010), 43–45; Péter Szabó, Woodland and Forests in Medieval Hungary (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2005), 88, 92.

  85. 85.

    Wertner, Az Árpádok családi története, 120; A. W. Leeper, History of Medieval Austria, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1941), 183.

  86. 86.

    Johann Pistorius, et al., Illustrium veterum scriptorum qui rerum a Germanis per multas aetas gestarum historias vel annales posteris reliquerunt, Vol. I (Frankfurt, 1613), 185; P.E. Schramm, “‘Atillas Schwert’, ein ungarischer Säbel des 9/10 Jahrhunderts, zum Kaiserschatz seit der Salischen Zeit gehörend”, in Herrschaftszeichen und Staatsymbolik: Beiträge zu ihrer Geschichte vom dritten bis zum sechzehnten Jahrhundert II (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1955), 489; Zsoldos, The Árpáds and Their Wives, 139.

  87. 87.

    Patrick J. Geary, Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 1994), 63.

  88. 88.

    Pistorius, Illustrium Veterum Scriptorum, 185–186; Z. J. Kosztolnyik, The Dynastic Policy of the Árpáds, Géza I to Emery (1074-1204) (Boulder: East European Monographs, 2006), 12.

  89. 89.

    Talia Zajac, “Remembrance and Erasure of Objects Belonging to Rus’ Princesses in Medieval Western Sources: The Cases of Anastasia Iaroslavna’s ‘Saber of Charlemagne’ and Anna Iaroslavna’s Red Gem,” in Moving Women Moving Objects (400-1500), ed. Tracy Chapman Hamilton and Mariah Proctor-Tiffany (Leiden: Brill, 2019), 42–46.

  90. 90.

    David Alexander, “Swords and Sabers During the Early Islamic Period,” Gladius XXI (2001): 212.

  91. 91.

    Hermann Fillitz, Kunsthistorisches Museum Schatzkammer (The Crown Jewels and the Ecclesiastical Treasure Chamber) (Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum, 1963), 38; Luc Duerloo, “Sabre d’Attila ou de Charlemagne (copie),” in Hungaria regia (1000-1800): Fastes et défis (Brussels: Brepols, 1999), 113.

  92. 92.

    Geary, Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages, 63; Schramm, “Attilas Schwert,” 489.

  93. 93.

    Kosztolnyik, Hungary Under the Early Árpáds, 376.

  94. 94.

    Dercsényi, ed., The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle, 124–125.

  95. 95.

    Ibid., 129.

  96. 96.

    Jonathan R. Lyon, “The Letters of Princess Sophia of Hungary, a Nun at Admont,” in Writing Medieval Women’s Lives, ed. Charlotte Newman Goldy and Amy Livingstone (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 58; Rodney Thomson, “Scribes and Scriptoria,” in The European Book in the Twelfth Century, ed. Erik Kwakkel and Rodney Thomson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 76.

  97. 97.

    Wertner, Az Árpádok családi Története, 121; Bak, “Roles and Functions of Queens in Árpádian and Angevin Hungary,” 23; Zsoldos, The Árpáds and Their Wives, 191.

  98. 98.

    There are several problems with this line of enquiry, since Kosztolnyik’s primary sources for this claim are silent and the Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle offers contradictory stories on Count Potho’s fate. Dercsényi, ed., The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle, 116, 125; Kosztolnyik, Hungary Under the Early Árpáds, 361–362.

  99. 99.

    “In fear of his brothers, Solomon moved his household to Styria and left them in the monastery at Admont.” Simon of Kéza, Gesta Hungarorum, 135.

  100. 100.

    Simon of Kéza states that Judith was engaged to Prince Philip, son of Henry I of France. Wertner, Az Árpádok családi Története, 130; Mechthild Black, “Die Töchter Kaiser Heinrichs III und der Kaiserin Agnes,” Vinculum Societatis: Joachim Wollasch zum 60 Geburtstag, ed. Franz Neiske, et al. (Sigmaringendorf: Glock and Lutz, 1991), 37–40; Simon of Kéza, László Veszprémy, and Frank Schaer, Gesta Hungarorum (Budapest: Central European University Press, 1999), 127–129.

  101. 101.

    The chronicles justify Salomon’s coronation as a five-year old on the excuse that the Imperial court had dictated that no princess could wed an uncrowned king. Dercsényi, ed., The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle, 115; Black, “Die Töchter Kaiser Heinrichs III und der Kaiserin Agnes,” 39; Zsoldos, The Árpáds and Their Wives, 191; Kosztolnyik, Hungary Under the Early Árpáds, 363.

  102. 102.

    Dercsényi, ed., The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle, 125; Zsoldos, The Árpáds and Their Wives, 139, 141.

  103. 103.

    Kosztolnyik, Hungary Under the Early Árpáds, 385.

  104. 104.

    Black, “Die Töchter Kaiser Heinrichs III und der Kaiserin Agnes,” 39, 57; Gallus Anonymous, Gesta Principum Polonorum, 117.

  105. 105.

    She died on March 14 according to the Necrologium Weltenburgense. Wertner, Az Árpádok családi története, 134; Black, “Die Töchter Kaiser Heinrichs III und der Kaiserin Agnes,” 37, 57; Hankó, A magyar királysírok sorsa, 132; Zsoldos, The Árpáds and Their Wives, 191; Jonathan R. Lyon, “The Letters of Princess Sophia of Hungary, a Nun at Admont,” in Writing Medieval Women’s Lives, ed. Charlotte Newman Goldy and Amy Livingstone (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 58.

  106. 106.

    H. E. J. Cowdrey, The Register of Pope Gregory VII 1073-1085: An English Translation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 133–134.

  107. 107.

    Oscar Halecki, W. F. Reddaway, J. H. Benson, The Cambridge History of Poland, from the origins to Sobieski (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1950), 71.

  108. 108.

    Archives of the Cracow Cathedral Chapter, MS 208. Jerzy Strzelzcik, “Emmeramer-Evangeliar,” in Europas Mitte um 1000, Vol. 3, Katalog ed. Alfried Wieczorek and Hans-Martin Hinz (Stuttgart: Theiss, 2000), 526.

  109. 109.

    József Laszlovszky, “Angolszász koronázási Ordo Magyarországon” [Anglo-Saxon Coronation Ordo in Hungary], in Angol-Magyar Kapcsolatok a középkorban, ed. Attila Bárány, József Laszlovszky and Zsuzsanna Papp, I (Máriabesnyő: Attraktor, 2008), 91–113; Zbigniew Dalewski, “Vivat Princeps in Eternum: Sacrality of Ducal Power in Poland in the Earlier Middle Ages,” in Monotheistic Kingship: The Medieval Variants, ed. Aziz Al-Azmeh and János M. Bak (Budapest: CEU Medievalia, 2004), 217–219, 223–224.

  110. 110.

    Magda Bárány-Oberschall, Konstantinos Monomachos császár koronája—The Crown of the Emperor Constantine Monomachos (Budapest: Magyar Történeti Múzeum, 1937), 49; Etele Kiss, “The State of Research on the Monomachos Crown and Some Further Thoughts,” in Perceptions of Byzantium and Its Neighbors (843-1261), ed. Olenka Z. Pevny (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001), 62–64.

  111. 111.

    Bárány-Oberschall, Konstantinos Monomachos császár koronája, 56, 94–95; Nicolas Oikonomides, “La Couronne dite de Constantin Monomaque,” Travaux et Mémoires, Centre de Recherche d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance 12 (1994), 246–262; Kiss, “The State of Research on the Monomachos Crown,” 65–76.

  112. 112.

    The crown had a circumference of just 32 cm while the circumference for an average woman’s head is somewhere around 54 cm. Bárány-Oberschall, Konstantinos Monomachos császár koronája, 81; Kiss, “The State of Research on the Monomachos Crown,” 65; Timothy Dawson, “The Monomachos Crown: Towards a Resolution,” BYZANTINA ΣYMMEIKTA 19 (2009): 184–186.

  113. 113.

    Dawson, “The Monomachos Crown,” 187–190.

  114. 114.

    Bárány-Oberschall, Konstantinos Monomachos császár koronája, 54–56; Kiss, “The State of Research on the Monomachos Crown,” 64.

  115. 115.

    A third possibility is that the crown came to Hungary through Anastasia of Kiev, wife of Andrew I. Vajay, “Még egy királynénk…? I. Endre első felesége” [Still One More Queen…? The First Wife of Andrew I], Turul 72 (1999), 18; Wertner, Az Árpádok családi története, 120; Kosztolnyik, Hungary Under the Early Árpáds, 890s-1063, 344; Długosz, The Annals of Jan Długosz, 39.

  116. 116.

    Kiss, “The State of Research on the Monomachos Crown,” 64–65.

  117. 117.

    Dercsényi, ed., The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle, 124–125; Wertner, Az Árpádok családi története, 120.

  118. 118.

    Tuzson states that they were married around 1070. Szabolcs de Vajay, “Byzantinische Prinzessinnen in Ungarn,” 16–17; Bak “Roles and Functions of Queens in Árpádian and Angevin Hungary,” 23; John Tuzson, István II, 43.

  119. 119.

    The enamels on the lower part are in Greek while those on the upper part are in Latin. Endre Tóth, “A magyar koronázási jelvényekről” [About the Hungarian Coronation Insignia], in Koronák, koronázási jelvények: Crowns, Coronation Insignia, ed. Lívia Bende and Gábor Lőrinczy (Ópusztaszer: Nemzeti Történeti Emlékpark, 2001), 41; Bak, “Holy Lance, Holy Crown, Holy Dexter,” 59.

  120. 120.

    Magda Bárány-Oberschall, Die Sankt Stephans-Krone und die Insigniien des Königreichs Ungarn (Vienna: Herold, 1961), 43–44, 63–76; Josef Deér, Die Heilige Krone Ungarns (Vienna: Hermann Böhlaus, 1966), 62, 79.

  121. 121.

    The images of secular rulers on this crown are Michael VII Doukas, Constantine Doukas, and Géza I of Hungary. Cecily Hilsdale, “The Social Life of the Byzantine Gift: The Royal Crown of Hungary Re-invented,” Art History 31/5 (2008): 614–615, 617–618.

  122. 122.

    These claims allege that the pinnacles and some enamels were added at different times. Vajay, “Corona Regia,” 47–48, 56.

  123. 123.

    Erik Fügedi, “Coronation in Medieval Hungary,” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History III (1980): 179; János M. Bak, “Holy Lance, Holy Crown, Holy Dexter: Sanctity of Insignia in Medieval East Central Europe,” in Studying Medieval Rulers and Their Subjects: Central Europe and Beyond, ed. Balázs Nagy and Gábor Klaniczay (Burlington: Ashgate, 2010), 60.

  124. 124.

    Bak, “Holy Lance, Holy Crown, Holy Dexter,” 58.

  125. 125.

    Hilsdale, “The Social Life of the Byzantine Gift,” 621–622.

  126. 126.

    The diameter of the corona graeca of Synadene and the funeral crown of Béla III are similar (20.9 cm for the former, 20.7–21.2 cm for the latter). Béla Czobor, “III. Béla és hitvese halotti ékszerei” [The Funerary Jewels of Béla III and His Wife], in III. Béla magyar király emlékezete, ed. Gyula Forster (Budapest: V. Hornyánszky, 1900), 208; Endre Tóth, “A magyar koronázási jelvényekről” [About the Hungarian coronation insignia] in Koronák, koronázási jelvények: Crowns, Coronation Insignia, ed. Lívia Bende and Gábor Lőrinczy (Ópusztaszer: Nemzeti Történeti Emlékpark, 2001), 39; Bak, “Holy Lance, Holy Crown, Holy Dexter,” 59–60.

  127. 127.

    Makk, The Árpáds and the Comneni, 125, n. 1; Kerbl, “Byzantinische Prinzessinnen in Ungarn,” 55.

  128. 128.

    Géza I had two sons, Coloman ‘the Book-Lover’ (r. 1095–1116) and Prince Álmos, though it is not exactly clear who their mother was. The most likely explanation based on the discrepancy in ages between the two is that Coloman was the son of Géza’s first wife, Sophia of Looz, while Álmos was the son of Synadene. Font, Koloman the Learned, King of Hungary, 13; Tuzson, István II, 44.

  129. 129.

    Raimund Kerbl, “Byzantinische Prinzessinnen in Ungarn,” 25.

  130. 130.

    John Julius Norwich, A Short History of Byzantium (New York: Vintage Books, 1997), 244–248.

  131. 131.

    In particular the cases of Eudokia Makrembolitissa and Anna Dalassene, mother of Alexios I. Lynda Garland, Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium, AD 527-1204 (London and New York: Routledge, 1999), 177, 192.

  132. 132.

    Garland, Byzantine Empresses, 186.

  133. 133.

    Ken Dark, “The Byzantine Church and Monastery of St Mary Peribleptos in Istanbul,” in The Burlington Magazine 141/1160 (November, 1999): 656.

  134. 134.

    Imre Szentpétery, ed. “Legenda Ladislai,” Scriptores Rerum Hungaricarum ii (Budapest, 1938), 507–527.

  135. 135.

    Wertner, Az Árpádok családi Története, 203; Carlisle A. Macartney, The Medieval Hungarian Historians (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953), 179, 182.

  136. 136.

    Adelaide’s mother was the sister to Bertha of Savoy, wife of Emperor Henry IV. Ian S. Robinson, Henry IV of Germany, 1056-1106 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 34.

  137. 137.

    Ladislas also was married before Adelaide, but nothing is known about her. Wertner, Az Árpádok családi Története, 203; Zsoldos, The Árpáds and Their Wives, 192–193.

  138. 138.

    Wertner, Az Árpádok családi Története, 190–191, 210–214; Gyula Moravcsik, Szent László leánya és a bizánci Pantokrator-Monostor [The Daughter of Saint Ladislas and the Byzantine Pantokrator Monastery] (Budapest and Constantinople, 1923), 7–8; Christopher Mielke, “The Many faces of Eirene-Piroska in the Visual and Material Culture,” in Piroska and the Pantokrator: Dynastic Memory, Healing and Salvation in Komnenian Constantinople, ed. Marianne Sághy and Robert Ousterhout (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2019), 153–170.

  139. 139.

    The Liber constructionis says 3 May 1090 while the Bertholdi Chronicon states that she died the same month as her brother Berthold. “Soror quoque praefati ducis, regina Ungarorum, eodem mense obit.” G. H. Pertz, ed., “Bertholdi Chronicon,” Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores, Vol. 5 (Hanover, 1854), 450; Franz Josef Mone, “Liber constructionis monasterii ad S. Blasium,” in Quellensammlung der badischen landesgeschichte, Vol. 4 (Karlsruhe: G. Macklot, 1867), 136.

  140. 140.

    The charter states that the queen donated the village of Merenye as well as several plots of arable land and forests to Veszprém. A charter of Ladislas I from 1082 mentioning this transaction has been proven to be a forgery, but a later charter of Imre from 1203 confirming this donation seems to be genuine. Szentpétery and Zsoldos, Az Árpád-házi hercegek, hercegnők és királynék okleveleinek, 184.

  141. 141.

    Cowdrey, The Register of Pope Gregory VII 1073-1085: An English Translation, 396.

  142. 142.

    Mone, “Liber constructionis,” ch. 18, 94; Ginhart, “Reliquienkreuz der Königin Adelheid,” 220.

  143. 143.

    At present, there are only 147 stones that survive, including 24 antique gems and 3 Egyptian scarabs. Gerbert, Historia Nigrae Silvae I, 386–387; Karl Ginhart, “Reliquienkreuz der Königin Adelheid,” in Die Kunstdenkmäler des Benediktinerstiftes St. Paul im Lavanttal und seiner Filialkirchen, ed. Karl Ginhart et al. (Vienna: Schroll, 1969), 217.

  144. 144.

    Franz Josef Mone, “Liber constructionis monasterii ad S. Blasium,” in Quellensammlung der badischen landesgeschichte, Vol. 4 (Karlsruhe: G. Macklot, 1867), 94–95, 136; Martin Gerbert, Historia Nigrae Silvae ordinis Sancti Benedicti Coloniae, Vol. I (St. Blasien: Typis San Blasianis, 1783), 385–387.

  145. 145.

    Mone, Liber constructionis, 94–95; Fillitz, “Das Adelheid-Kreuz aus St. Blasien,” 665–668.

  146. 146.

    One copy was made in 1688, the other in 1810. Fillitz, “Das Adelheid-Kreuz aus St. Blasien,” 668–669; Ginhart, “Reliquienkreuz der Königin Adelheid,” 220.

  147. 147.

    De Winter, The Sacral Treasure of the Guelphs, 8; Calkins, Monuments of Medieval Art, 115.

  148. 148.

    For example, a triple-mask with a medieval identification of it as the Holy Trinity. C. W. King, Antique Gems: Their Origin, Uses, and Value (London: John Murray, 1860), 301.

  149. 149.

    Christopher Mielke, “Lifestyles of the Rich and (in?)Animate: Object Biography and the Reliquary Cross of Queen Adelaide of Hungary,” in Queenship, Gendered, and Reputation in the Medieval and Early Modern West, 1060-1600, ed. Lisa Benz St. John and Zita Rohr (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 25–27; Gerbert, Historia Nigrae Silvae, 385–387.

  150. 150.

    Mielke, “Lifestyles of the Rich and (in?)Animate,” 6–11, 16–18.

  151. 151.

    Ian Robinson, Henry IV of Germany 1056-1106 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 204.

  152. 152.

    Matilda of Flanders (d. 1083), Queen of England, and Bertrade de Montfort (d. 1118), Queen of France, were buried in this manner. Bertrade’s tombstone had copper writing on the surface. Nolan, Queens in Stone and Silver, 39–41.

  153. 153.

    The plural is used as evidence that Ladislas was married before Adelaide. Kralovanszky words the inscription in Bonfinius differently, claiming that it reads “Ladislai sanctissimorum Pannoniae regum consortium hic ossa quiescent.” Antonius de Bonfinius, Rerum Ungaricarum Decades (Lipsiae: Teubner, 1936), Decas II, Liber IV, 91; Kralovánsky, “The Settlement History of Veszprém and Székesfehérvár in the Middle Ages,” 57; Zsoldos, The Árpáds and Their Wives, 193.

  154. 154.

    Uzsoki, “Die Echtheit des Grabes der ungarischen Königin Gisela in Passau,” 14–15; Árpád Mikó, “D. O. M. All’antica feliratok és a reneszánsz stílus a Jagelló-kori Magyarországon,” in “Nem sűlyed az emberiség!”: Album amicorum Szörényi László LX. születésnapjára, ed. József Jankovics (Budapest: MTA Irodalomtudományi Intézet, 2007), 1195–1198.

  155. 155.

    D(eo) OP(timo) MAX(imo S(anctifi catus est)

    HVIVS SACRI TEMPLI CONDIT

    RICI GESLAE STEFANI ET OLAY

    THI LADISLAI SANCTOR(um) PANNO

    NIAEREGVM DIVIS CONIVGIBVS

    AMPLISS(imus) PATER D(omi)N(u)S PETRVS T(iT(ularis)

    SAN(c)TI CYRIACI S(anctae) R(omanae) E(cclesiae) P(res)B(ite)R

    CAR(dinalis) (R)IEGYNVS EP(iscopu)S VESPRIMIEN(sis)

    AP

    MEMORIAE VENER(ationi)

    Uzsoki, “Die Echtheit des Grabes der ungarischen Königin Gisela in Passau,” 14–15.

  156. 156.

    Mikó, “D. O. M. All’antica feliratok és a reneszánsz stílus a Jagelló-kori Magyarországon,” 1196.

  157. 157.

    Ibid., 1195–1198.

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Mielke, C. (2021). The Beginnings of the Hungarian ‘Queendom’ (c. 1000–1090). In: The Archaeology and Material Culture of Queenship in Medieval Hungary, 1000–1395. Queenship and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66511-1_2

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