Before we start this video which is part of the greater Project Pannonia, I want to stop
anyone angrily typing in the comments about me not using the word Magyar in the video.
This is because even though yes when they came in to Europe they called themselves the
Magyar tribes all early written sources about the Hungarians call them “Ungry” or “Ungary”.
And it is this latin name that today’s English name of Hungary comes from.
And since I am going to be dealing with only early Hungarian history it made sense to call
the people the name they use in the sources, it also makes it more simple to understand
as I wont be switching between two different names.
I hope you understand.
As I have mentioned many times in my other videos on the early Slavic History, the 9th
to 10th century Hungarian arrival in to central Europe shifted many power dynamics around
the Pannonian plain and pretty much paved the way for the creation of the medieval european
borders we are familiar with today.
However at the time the arrival of nomadic conquering people in to the Pannonian plain
was just a newsworthy as the Franks fighting another civil war.
It was nothing new and nothing unexpected, many conquering tribes have come to the pannonian
plain before the Hungarians, and many will most likely come after them.
But to the surprise of many, this did not happen, Hungarians where the last nomadic
tribe to come and settle in to the Pannonian basin.
But how exactly did the Hungarians come in to the Pannonian plane and what exactly did
they do before then, isn’t fully known.
We have some contemporary writings about them but these only present a very fragmented timeline
that doesn’t even mention any events before their arrival in to central Europe.
We also have some writings by the Hungarians themselves.
But these were mostly written two to 3 hundred years later, well after they were settled
and christianized.
Nonetheless combining all these sources together along with archeology and linguistic can give
us a still fragmented but more detailed picture of the early history of the Hungarians.
Today it is mostly agreed, although not without its opponents, that the Hungarian language
and people come from the larger Ugro-Finnic group but by this point far removed.
Far removed because it is believed that the Hungarians where one of the earliest ugro-finnic
tribes to venture out of the Ural mountains in to the Eastern European plain around 800
BCE.
Making them isolated for much of their history and significantly influenced in language and
culture by various other people groups they came in to contact with.
Where exactly the Hungarians where and went during this time starting in around 800 BCE
to 800 CE is highly debated.
But just to give you an idea one of the theories is as follows.
The Hunagrians established themselves in the vicinity of the Oka, Don and Volga Rivers
in around 800 BCE.
It was here they came in to contact with Iranian groups like Scythians and Sarmatians and also
adopted the nomadic steppe lifestyle.
This would also explain the Iranian lone words in the Hungairan language and maybe even some
borrowed Iranian folk tales.
Then after the Hunnic migration through the area around the 3rd and 4th centuries we know
that Iranian groups got mostly replaced by Turkic groups in the Europen steppes.
Such as the Avars, Sabirs, Khazars, Bulgars, etc.
It was here that the Hungarians may have gained some of their turkic cultural influences and
borrowed some of the turkic words that are in their language.
Then after the fall of the Huns followed by the subsequent migrations of the Avars, Slavs
and Bulgars in the 7th century the Hungarians were forced south in to the now Khazar Khaganate.
Here they had a complicated relationship with the Khazars probably switching between being
independent, allies, vassals and so on.
However while in contact with the Khazars the Hungarians borrowed even more turkic words
and assimilated various new people groups in to their tribe.
Then due to the push by the Varangians and slavs from the north and the Khazars and Pechenegs
from the East and South the Hunagrians slowly moved to the area known as Etelkoz by the
8th to 9th century.
Now this is only one of many theories to explain what happened to the Hungarian people during
800 BCE to around 800 CE.
There’s other theories claiming that the Hungarians migrated from the East of the Ural
mountains not west, there’s some claiming that Hunagrians first came out of the Ural
mountains south settling near the Ural river and slowly being pushed west, and even some
saying they settled all the way south near the Caucuses, etc.
We may probably never know for sure what happened to the Hungarians during this time but the
facts we know for sure are as follows.
Hungarians early on diverged from the larger Finno Ugric group around the Ural mountains.
They adopted the nomadic or semi nomadic steppe lifestyle and had at some point Iranian, Slavic
but mostly Turkic influences in their language and culture.
They were also somehow intertwined at some point with the politics of the Khazar Khaganate.
Lastly we know that when they show up in the European written records in the 9th century
coming from the area known as Etelkoz today’s South Ukraine, they were very much a polyethnic
group that wasn’t a rigidly defined close nite ethnic society, but a group of tribes
of varying degrees of ethnic similarity joined together by a common goal and or alliance
and or a leader.
This doesn’t mean they were all completely different tribes that didn’t even speak
the same language, it just means that the Hungarians that came in to central Europe
weren’t a completely homogenous group of people as used to be believed before.
Anything else about the Hungarians outside of what I just listed is very much guess work
at this point.
The first certain written record about the Hunagrians is from 836 or 37 in the Chronicle
by George the Monk.
It states that the Hungarian warriors from Etelkoz fought alongside the Bulgarian forces
against the Byzantines, most likely being paid by the Bulgarians to do so.
This plausibly wasn’t the first Hunagrian involvement in Europe but it was the first
none disputed recorded one, and it also perfectly sets precedents for the Hungarians as mercenaries
and raiders, since that’s what they mostly did for the next 100 plus years.
The first mention of Hungarians in Western European records comes from Frankish annals
which report a devastating Hungarian raid in east Frankia during the winter of 862-63.
This raid occurred during the rebellion of Carloman who if you remember from my western
slavic video was supported by the moravian king Rastislav.
It is believed that the Hungarians came due to Carloman’s but mainly Rastislava’s
request to help aid in the rebellion.
This is further supported by the fact that in a 9th century letter from the Salzburg
bishoprick, we learn that the Hunagrians were oftentimes fighting on the side of the Moravians,
so Rastislav’s intisment of the Hunagrians to come help him and Carloman during this
time, wouldn’t be that far fetched.
… Ha, Hungarians and Moravians fighting together, who would have thought ….
Anyways, the Hungarians came back in 881 again on the side of the Moravians fighting against
the Franks.
After this event we don’t have any accounts mentioning the Hungarians up until 892, however
it is almost certain that during this time they orchestrated numerous frequent raids
in to their neighboring realms and ended their long standing alliance with the Moravians
for reasons we don’t know.
Then in 892 to 894 Hungarians allied themselves with the Franks and helped the Frankish king
Arnulf to basically cripple Moravia at the height of its power.
This two sided attack along with the death of Svetopluk destroyed any Moravian control
in the Pannonian basin and through the entire kingdom in to disarray with Svatopluks sons
fighting amongst each other over control.
This meant that even though Western Panonia was taken by the Franks, Eastern Panonia had
a powervacume.
It is plausible that during this time the Hungarians established frontier military outpost
in eastern Panonia, to cement their control in the newly conquered territory but this
is unclear.
Nonetheless in 895 the Hungarians turned their attention to the Bulgars who arrived at the
very gates of Constantinople.
The Byzantene Emperor Leo the VI asked the Hungarians for help, who took this opportunity
and started raiding the Bulgarian kingdom.
Due to this they managed to destroy any kind of remaining Bulgarian control in Transylvania
finally opening up that entire area for a plausible settlement.
The Bulgarians had no choice but to retreat from Constantinople and face the Hungarian
army head on.
The Hungarians saved Constantoniple, and to thanked them, Leo VI made a quick peace treaty
with the Bulgars and left the Hungarians out to dry.
The Hungarians where now stuck in an unfavorable war and to add to all this the Bulgars sent
envoys to the Pechenegs, asking them to destroy the Hungarian “homeland” while they deal
with the main army, it was during this time that some of the Hungarians being attacked
by the Pechengs started to migrate across the Carpathians.
The following year in 896 the Hungarians were defeated by the Bulgars and retreated back
home, where they found that “all their women and children where either killed or taken
away by the Pechenegs”.
The author of the Annales Fuldenses continues to say that after this “they decided to
seek greener pastures, as well as women to bear their children, west of the Carpathians”.
More specifically the lands they have just helped release from the Moravian and Bulgarian
control.
Whether the Hungarians already controlled the area through aforementioned military outposts
since around 892 or just returned to the area with the intention of reconquering it in 895-6
is unknown.
Nonetheless, even if that were true, the main Hungarian settlement in Eastern Pannonia and
Transilvania still started in around 895 and continued pretty much until 900.
In 898 Arnulf still having his alliance with the Hungarians used them to raid in to the
Northern Italina lands as he had lots of trouble subduing that area under his control.
However as the Hungarians returned to Pannonia in 900 they found out that Arnulf died, meaning
their alliance with the Franks ended.
With this news, when they resumed their frequent raids on the neighboring realms they also
ventured in to the Frankish Kingdom.
Due to this in 901, Franks and Moravians, bitter rivals for almost a 100 years signed
a peace treaty and started a defensive cooperate against the Hungarian incursions.
The events of the next 5 years are uncertain.
We can gather from short mentions in some annals that the Moravian, Frankish alliance
manage to defend itself until about 903 but then it's seemed like the Hungarians started
to gain an upper hand.
In the following year the Hungarians raided again in to Italy this time helping the Italian
principalities against the Frankish king, and they also managed to annex at some point
the Frankish controlled western Pannonia.
Then in 906 they took control of the remaining Moravian lands, defeated the Bohemians and
raided all the way north in to Saxony.
They also created many new settlements in these newly conquered territories moving the
center of the Hunagrian Population more westward.
By 907 the Hungarian control stretched from the rivers of Morava and Leitha all the way
down to Sava, and the Danube.
They basically controlled the entire Pannonian plain but this control was fragile at best.
They needed a clear and decisive victory against the franks to solidify these newly conquered
holdings.
And so the stage was set for the battle of Pressburg.
However before continuing I want to address the fact why I haven’t talked much about
internal Hungairan affairs during this video.
This is because all the contemporary sources that exist from that time don’t talk about
this.
The only two sources that do talk about this, are the Gesta Hungarorum and Chronicon Pictum,
written in the 13th and 14th century respectively.
Way after the 9th and 10th centuries conquests of the Hungarians.
Plus a lot of their accounts of early hungarian history is purely fictional like Almos the
father Arpad being related to Atila the Hun, or the whole story of the Blood Oath.
To add to all this, these two sources often times contradict each other, so at best one
of them has to be made up.
Due to all this Historians reluctantly use these sources alone when dealing with the
early Hunagrian history and try to combine them wherever possible with outside writings,
hence the historical view is mostly lacking in Hunagrian internal affairs.
With that said there are things we can tell with pretty good certainty thanks to this
approach.
For example we know that the Hungarians had a dual monarchy system with one ruler being
a religious figure and the other a military one.
We also know that these rulers during the Hunagrian Pannonia conquest where Arpad (religious)
and Kurszán (military).
However in 904 when the Hungarians started to gain the upper hand in the Pannonian conquest,
the Frankish king Louis the 3rd asked Kurszán to come to a Frankish banquet for peace negotiations.
Kurszan obliged but when he showed up the Franks quickly killed him along with his entourage.
The Frankish nobles were hoping this would cause chaos within the Hungarian tribes as
their ruler was now dead, but since there was still Arpad, he just assumed both of the
kings roles, ending the Hungarian system of dual monarchs.
And since Arpad was technically the first “King” (singilur) of the Hunagrians, he’s
the one celebrated as the leader who brought his people to Pannonia.
The date of Arpads death along with who was his successor is uncertain but we do know
for sure he didn’t live past 907.
Which brings us back to the battle of Pressburg, today’s Bratislava.
Renamed to Johannes Aventinus
Even though this battle is one of the most important Battles in Hungarian history it
is surrounded with lots of uncertainty.
For example the only complete source we have on the battle comes from a 16th century writer
Johannes Turmair.
He claims to be working from primary Frankish sources that have been since lost to time
but that hasn’t stopped some Historians doubting his writings.
With that said I am going to be presenting his version of the battle in this video but
before then here’s the list of all the things we know for sure that happened if Turmair’s
entire writings are disregarded.
The battle took place at some point in 907 most likely in Juli.
Luitpold, Margrave of Bavaria died along with much of the Bavarian nobility.
Archbishop Theotmar of Salzburg along with 2 other Bishops died.
Hungarians scored a decisive victory.
Yeah, that’s it.
Historians can’t even agree on the exact location of the battle if Turmair is disregarded.
With that said the reason for the Frankish army entering Hungarian lands in 907 was three
fold.
Defeat the Hungarian army so they will stop their raiding expeditions in to Francia.
Reconquer the lost Frankish lands of Pannonia.
Free Moravia and incorporate in to the Frankish Kingdom.
Basically the Franks looked at this expedition as a big hail mary to destroy the Hungarians
just as Charlamagne did with the Avars in the 8th and 9th century.
At the head of this Frankish army was the Bavarian duke Luitpold who continued this
idea of walking in the footsteps of Charlemagne by entering the Hungarian territory the same
way Charlamagne did.
He divided his army in to three smaller armies, one marching on the north side of the danube
of which he took command the other on the south side of the danube and the last one
sailing on the danube acting as a communication and supply bridge between the two.
However, problems started right away as the Hunagrians employed a nomadic hit and run
method, constantly harassing both sides of the Frankish army.
This resulted in a large confusion among the divided armies and due to this confusion the
army on the south bank, managed to march way ahead of the two other armies.
They decided to stop so the rest of the army could catch up but that’s when the Hungairans
attacked in full force.
Destroying the entire unprepared south bank army without the rest of the army not even
knowing about it.
When night fell Luitpold decided to make camp somewhere near Pressburg, thinking he will
catch up to the south bank army tomorrow.
However the Hunagrians under the cover of night crossed the danube and attacked the
unsuspecting Frankish camp.
Killing most of the soldiers along with Luitpold himself.
The next day the Hunagrians destroyed the danubian fleet by setting it on fire with
fire arrows.
And so the Battle of Pressburg was over.
Hungarians had their decisive victory and solidified their control over the entire Pannonian
Plain along with all the people living in it.
This battle made it clear to everyone that the Hungarians were here to stay and so the
next chapter of the Hungarian History began, the Central European chapter.
Thank you for watching my video, I hope you’re enjoying Project Pannonia, the video before
mine in the Collaboration is by Quill & Ink History talking about the Avars and the video
after mine in the collaboration is by History Time talking about the Christianization of
the now settled Hunagrians.
If you enjoyed my video, please consider subscribing and stick around for History.