The Hungarian Civil War of 1264–1265 () was a brief dynastic conflict between King Béla IV of Hungary and his son Duke Stephen at the turn of 1264 into 1265.
Béla's relationship with his oldest son and heir, Stephen, became tense in the early 1260s, because the elderly king favored his daughter Anna and his youngest child, Béla, Duke of Slavonia. Stephen accused Béla of planning to disinherit him. After a brief skirmish, Stephen forced his father to cede all the Kingdom of Hungary's lands east of the Danube to him and adopted the title of junior king in 1262. Nevertheless, their relationship remained tense, causing a civil war by the end of 1264. The conflict resulted in Stephen's victory over his father's royal army. They concluded a peace treaty in 1266, which failed to restore confidence between them. Béla died in 1270. The 1264–1265 civil war was one trigger for the emerging feudal anarchy in Hungary by the last decades of the 13th century.
Sources seldom mention the civil war. Letters of donation and superficial hints from Hungary, Austrian chronicles and annales briefly record some events without context. Consequently there are several historiographical reconstructions of the chronology of the civil war. This article follows the most accepted reconstruction of the events compiled by historian Attila Zsoldos in his work, the only monograph about the conflict between Béla IV and Stephen.
Background Social changes When Béla IV ascended the Hungarian throne in 1235, he declared his principal purpose was "the restitution of royal rights" and "the restoration of the situation which existed in the country" during the reign of his grandfather, Béla III. He set up special commissions, which revised all royal charters of land grants made after 1196. The monarch's annulment of former donations alienated many of his subjects from him.
The First Mongol invasion of Hungary (1241–1242) devastated much of the Kingdom of Hungary. This devastation was especially heavy in the plains east of the Danube, where at least half of the villages were depopulated. Preparation for a new Mongol invasion was the central concern of Béla's policy. In a 1247 letter to Pope Innocent IV, Béla announced his plan to strengthen the Danube with new forts. He abandoned the ancient royal prerogative to build and own castles, promoting the construction of nearly 100 new fortresses by the end of his reign. Béla made land grants in the forested regions. In return, the new landowners were obliged to equip heavily armoured cavalrymen to serve in the royal army. To replace those who perished during the Mongol invasion, Béla IV promoted colonisation. Germans, Moravians, Poles, Ruthenians and other "guests" arrived from neighbouring countries and were settled in depopulated or sparsely populated regions. He also persuaded the Cumans, who left Hungary in 1241, to return and settle on the plains along the river Tisza.
Tense relationship
King Béla's eldest son Stephen was born in 1239. A royal charter of 1246 mentions Stephen as "King, and Duke of Slavonia". Apparently, in the previous year, Béla had his son crowned as king, proclaiming him as his heir apparent. He endowed Stephen with the lands between the river Drava and the Adriatic Sea. Since 1245, young Stephen nominally ruled the provinces of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia. When Stephen attained the age of majority in 1257, his father appointed him Duke of Transylvania. Stephen's rule there was short-lived, because his father transferred him to Styria in 1258. His rule remained unpopular in Styria. With support from King Ottokar II of Bohemia, the local lords rebelled against the Hungarian administration. Although Stephen achieved important successes during the war in Bohemia, in the decisive Battle of Kressenbrunn King Béla's and Stephen's united army was vanquished on 12 July 1260, primarily because the main forces under Béla's command arrived late. Stephen, who commanded the advance guard, barely escaped from the battlefield. The Peace of Vienna, which was signed on 31 March 1261, ended the conflict between Hungary and Bohemia, forcing Béla IV to renounce of Styria in favour of Ottokar II. Stephen returned to Transylvania and ruled it for the second time after their departure from Styria.
Stephen's relationship with Béla IV deteriorated in the early 1260s. Stephen's charters reveal his fear of being disinherited and expelled by his father. In his subsequent charters, the duke claimed he "suffered severe persecution undeservedly from his parents", who wanted to chase him "as an exile beyond the borders of his land (terra)" or "country" (regnum). He also accused some unnamed barons of inciting the old monarch against him. The cause of their confrontation is highly uncertain. Historian Attila Zsoldos emphasised that Béla's youngest namesake son was made Duke of Slavonia in 1260. Traditionally, since the second half of the 12th century, the Duke of Slavonia was considered the heir apparent to the Hungarian throne. Because of the emerging tensions between the monarch and his elder son, Stephen accused his father of planning to disinherit him in favour of his younger brother, eleven-year-old Béla.
According to several historians, including Gyula Pauler and Jenő Szűcs, the young Béla's appointment as Duke of Slavonia was the reason that the relationship between father and son deteriorated. In contrast, Zsoldos considered Béla's appointment was the consequence of their tense relationship, not the root cause. Jenő Szűcs argued that Béla IV – who attempted to restore royal authority and revise his predecessors' land grants in Hungary – strongly opposed Stephen's generous donations to his own partisans (for instance, Denis Péc) in Styria, which strained their relationship. According to Szűcs, the monarch tried everything to protect the proportion of royal estates in Slavonia. Attila Zsoldos considered the defeat at Kressenbrunn one of the major reasons for the deterioration of the relationship. After initial successes, Béla arrived. His mistakes in battle led to the Hungarians suffering a major defeat. Stephen, severely injured as a result, barely escaped. Zsoldos assumed a possible fierce confrontation took place between Béla and Stephen after the battle. Throughout his reign, Béla IV was "far from the ideal of warrior-king", according to Romanian historian Tudor Sălăgean. Even the Illuminated Chronicle notes that Béla "was a man of peace, but in the conduct of armies and battles the least fortunate" when narrating Béla's defeat in the Battle of Kressenbrunn. In contrast, the ambitious Duke Stephen "possessed all the qualities needed to become an exceptional military commander" (Sălăgean). According to Sălăgean, Stephen, who represented a "late medieval chivalry", could select appropriate combat-capable accompaniment from the young members of lesser noble families (e.g. Reynold Básztély, Egidius Monoszló and Mikod Kökényesradnót). With his donations, Stephen established a new political and military elite, which opposed the old aristocratic families centred around King Béla IV and Queen Maria Laskarina. Stephen strived to establish an independent government in Transylvania, filling positions with his partisans. Shortly after his arrival, he dismissed Ernye Ákos – his father's faithful baron – as Voivode of Transylvania. Gyula Kristó emphasised the social base of the two kingdoms as the main factor behind the conflict, instead of the personal contrast between father and son. According to Kristó, Stephen turned against his father under pressure from his own confidants and supporters, who wanted to take control of the country from the old elite. Showing another aspect, Zsoldos considered Stephen was transferred from Slavonia to Transylvania because of the danger of a possible Mongol invasion at the turn of 1259 and 1260; this may show Béla actually respected his son's military abilities. Their relationship was not yet irreversibly bad in 1261: Stephen and his father jointly invaded Bulgaria and seized Vidin that year.
1262 civil war and division of the kingdom Jenő Szűcs emphasised that Stephen, as Duke of Transylvania, began using the denotation "dei gratia" (by the Grace of God) arbitrarily before the list of his titles, which was used exclusively by the reigning kings in Hungary. Stephen also extended his authority along the river Tisza beyond Transylvania at the turn of 1261 and 1262. The Cumans living there were considered his subjects. Stephen's charters prove he made land grants in Bihar, Szatmár, Bereg, Ugocsa, and other counties situated outside Transylvania. His solid position in the region was well reflected by the fact that the Diocese of Várad (Oradea Mare) saw fit to confirm a March 1261 donation letter of Béla IV with Stephen in September 1262. Several local nobles and county authorities during their acquisitions and judgments, respectively, already followed the same method before 1262. There were signs of an escalation of the conflict by that time: for instance, when the royal couple – Béla and Maria – visited the Slavonian province in the spring of 1262, the monarch confiscated Medvedgrad from the Diocese of Zagreb to transfer the crown jewels and royal treasures there from Székesfehérvár for safekeeping and to protect them from Stephen.