Henry (I) Kőszegi from the kindred Héder (, , ; died 26/29 September 1274), commonly known as Henry the Great, was a Hungarian influential lord in the second half of the 13th century who was the founder and first member of the powerful Kőszegi family. Henry was one of the most notable earlier "oligarchs" who ruled de facto independently their dominion during the era of feudal anarchy.
In his early career, Henry was the most loyal supporter of King Béla IV, who drifted into a civil war with his son and heir, Duke Stephen. After the death of Béla IV in 1270, Henry went into exile to Bohemia. Stephen V died suddenly in 1272 and so Henry was able to return to Hungary. He became a central figure in the internal conflicts between the rival baronial groups. He brutally massacred Béla of Macsó in November 1272 and later also kidnapped the six-year-old Duke Andrew in July 1274. Henry was killed in the Battle of Föveny in September 1274. Historography in the 19th century incorrectly referred to him as Henry of Németújvár (or Güssing).
Ancestry and early life Henry Kőszegi was born in the late 1210s into the gens (clan) Héder, which originated from two German knights, Wolfer and Héder, who came from Hainburg in the Duchy of Swabia to the Kingdom of Hungary during the reign of Géza II of Hungary, according to the Illuminated Chronicle, which preserved the narration of Henry's contemporary, the chronicler Ákos. Other works present different origin theories, Simon of Kéza's Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum writes that the brothers came from "Vildonia", referring to Burgruine Wildon in Styria, however the castle itself was built only after 1157 thus that identification is incorrect. Johannes de Thurocz says in his work Chronica Hungarorum that the two knights originated from Hainburg of "Alemannia", therefore the Duchy of Swabia. Majority of the historians accept the version presented by Ákos and the Illuminated Chronicle.
Henry's father was Henry (I), the grandson of the elder brother, Wolfer (died around 1157), founder of the Benedictine Abbey of Küszén (later Németújvár, present-day Burg Güssing in Austria). The landholdings of Henry, Sr. laid along the river Lendva (Ledava) near the Western border with Austria. He appears in some documents in the period between 1208 and 1212. He possessed the right of patronage of the Benedictine Abbey of Kapornak too. Henry (II) was the only known son of him. By name, he is first mentioned by a contemporary record in 1237, along with his cousins, Hencse II and Virunt (or Werenherth), when they were co-patrons of the Kapornak Abbey (thus Henry, Sr. was definitely deceased by then).
King Béla's partisan Rise to power
Henry's early career is largely unknown. According to historian Jenő Szűcs, he belonged to Béla IV's accompaniment, who fled Hungary through Transdanubia, escaping from the invading Mongols after the disastrous Battle of Mohi in 1241. It is possible that the young Henry, whose inherited lands laid in the escape route along the Austrian border, entered court service there and remained a member of the escort in Dalmatia, where Béla and his family took refugee in the well-fortified towns on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Without any doubt as to his identity, Henry first appears in contemporary documents in 1244, when he was made ispán of Vas County. He held the position at least until December 1245 (but it is plausible he served in this capacity until 1247). During his service, Béla IV entrusted him and Heimo, the bishop of Vác, to investigate and supervise previous royal land grants occurred in Vas County. Thereafter, he functioned as ispán of Somogy County from 1247 to 1260. Meanwhile, Henry became one of the most powerful barons of the realm, when he was appointed Judge royal in 1254, the second most prestigious office in the royal court. He held the dignity until June/November 1260. His deputy was vice-judge royal Nicholas Tengerdi at least from 1256. Henry participated in the royal campaign in the summer of 1260, when Béla and his allies invaded Moravia, but Ottokar II vanquished them in the Battle of Kressenbrunn on 12 July 1260. The defeat forced Béla to renounce Styria in favor of the King of Bohemia in the Peace of Vienna, which was signed on 31 March 1261.
Vas County became the centre and territorial base for his future expansions and acquisitions of landholdings in all directions throughout Western Transdanubia, which elevated into a large-scale contiguous and coherent territorial province by the end of the 13th century. It was Henry, who built the castles of Szentvid and Szalónak (present-day Stadtschlaining, Austria) in the county. Receiving large-scale personal land donations for his military career and loyalty in the upcoming decades, he was the founder and first member of the Kőszegi family (formerly incorrectly also called Németújvári or Güssingi in historiography), which had dominated the northwestern part of Vas County and their lands were arranged around significant fortresses, for instance Borostyánkő (today Bernstein in Austria) and the eponymous Kőszeg, which was developed into an advanced trading town under Henry's domination, who granted town privileges to the settlement and moved his permanent residence there after a construction of a well-fortified castle. With Béla's support and generous donations, Henry Kőszegi established his lordship independently of his kinship and did not rely on the clan's formerly acquired landholdings in the opposite parts of Vas County. Henry Kőszegi and his descendants had become the dominant power of whole Transdanubia within decades, spreading from their paterfamilias' first acquired lands in Vas County. By 1270, Henry owned the forts of Kőszeg, Szentvid, Szalónak, Borostyánkő, Kertes (Pinkakertes, today a borough of Eberau, Austria), in addition to the castles of the late "Farkas of Zagorje" and possibly Léka (today Lockenhaus in Austria). However, Henry never possessed the fort of Németújvár (Burg Güssing) in his lifetime; it was regained only by his son, Ivan for the Héder clan after almost a century, in the early 1280s. Thus the earlier Hungarian historiographical efforts to call the family as "Németújváris" or "Güssingis" (and also "Küszinis") is unfounded and anachronistic; nevertheless, they are still appear as "Güssingers" in German-language academic works. In contemporary records, they were referred to as "generacio Heyderici" (1265) or "genus Heydrich" (1279).
Henry Kőszegi had four sons from his unidentified wife.Engel: Genealógia (Genus Héder 4. Kőszegi [and Rohonci] branch) Nicholas I and the aforementioned Ivan were also elevated into high dignities during the age of the late Árpáds, while Peter served as the Bishop of Veszprém from 1275 till his murder in 1289. They were born roughly in the 1240s. Historian Attila Zsoldos argues, the fourth son, Henry II was much more younger than his brothers (thus born possibly in the second half of the 1250s); he first appeared in contemporary records more than a decade after the first mention of his brothers, who exerted active political and military activity by then. Zsoldos considers Henry II was born from a potential second marriage of his father. Henry also had a daughter whose name has been lost, who married Demetrius Csák, Count of Bakony and was the mother of Dominican friar, Blessed Maurice Csák. She later entered the Dominican nuns of Margaret Island.Engel: Genealógia (Genus Csák 7., Ugod branch)
Palatine of Hungary Henry Kőszegi replaced Béla's another faithful partisan, Roland Rátót as Palatine of Hungary and ispán of Pozsony County in the autumn of 1260. During his tenure, Henry performed his judicial powers in the western part of Hungary. Pursuing his predecessor activity in Northwest Hungary, he judged over lawsuits in Pozsony, Győr and Zala counties in 1260 and 1261. He also became the owner of Modor (present-day Modra, Slovakia). During that time tensions emerged between King Béla IV and his eldest son Stephen. Béla's favoritism towards his younger son, Béla (whom he appointed Duke of Slavonia) and daughter, Anna irritated Stephen, who was proved to be more skilled and capable military leader than his father. Their deteriorating relationship caused a civil war lasting until 1266. After a brief conflict, Béla IV and his son divided the country and Stephen received the lands to the east of the Danube in 1262, who also adopted the title of junior king. Because of the war conditions, Henry was not able to exercise his judicial powers and only four known charters were preserved during the remaining period of his term as Palatine.
The relationship between father and son remained tense, and the reconciliation of Stephen and his father was only temporary. The junior king seized and confiscated the domains of his mother and sister, Anna, which were located in the lands under his rule. Béla IV's army crossed the Danube under Anna's command sometime after the autumn of 1264, which marked the beginning of the civil war between father and son. Henry Kőszegi was one of the staunchest supporters of Béla during the conflict and gradually rose to prominence in the royal council thereafter. Historian Attila Zsoldos considers Henry acted as actual general of the royal troops under the nominal command of Duchess Anna, which consisted the northern corps of Béla's royal army during the civil war. Nevertheless, Anna's army occupied the fort of Patak (ruin near Sátoraljaújhely) and captured Stephen's wife, Elizabeth the Cuman and children, including the future Ladislaus IV. Thereafter, Henry and his troops began to besiege and occupy Stephen's castles one after another in the eastern parts of Upper Hungary, while a small unit recovered Anna's formerly confiscated estates in Bereg County. After the fall of Patak, Duke Stephen sent his faithful soldier Peter Csák to the northern parts of the junior king's realm, who successfully besieged and regained the fort of Baranka (today ruins in Ukraine) from Henry's troops.
Simultaneously, a detachment of the royal army, under the command of Béla's Judge royal Lawrence, son of Kemény forced Duke Stephen to retreat as far as the fortress at Feketehalom (Codlea, Romania) in the easternmost corner of Transylvania. The king-junior's partisans relieved the castle and he started a counter-attack in the autumn against Henry's army in Northern Hungary, who presumably received no news of the defeat of Lawrence's besiegers. Because of the prolonged siege of Feketehalom (which, in fact, failed by then) Henry Kőszegi sent a skillful military general Ernye Ákos with an army of Cuman warriors to Tiszántúl, in order to support the besiegers and, later, to hinder Duke Stephen's counter-offensive. The battle took place somewhere west of Várad (present-day Oradea, Romania) in February 1265. Ernye suffered a serious defeat and was himself captured by the enemy, Peter Csák's army. Henry's main army was forced to retreat to the center of the kingdom thereafter, as Stephen's army crossed the Tisza at Várkony and marched into Transdanubia.