Stephen's birth depicted in the Illuminated Chronicle
Tenure
before 972 – c. 997
Born
c. 950
Died
c. 1008
Burial
St. Peter and Paul Cathedral, Székesfehérvár[1]
Spouse
Géza of Hungary
Issue
Judith of Hungary Margaret, Tsaritsa of Bulgaria Saint Stephen Grimelda of Hungary Sarolt?, Queen of Hungary
House
House of Arpad
Father
Gyula of Transylvania
Religion
Eastern Christianity
Sarolt (c. 950 – c. 1008) was the wife of Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians.
She was born a daughter of Zombor (or Gyula II), gyula of Transylvania, second in rank among the leaders of the Hungarian tribal federation.[2]
Sarolt exerted a powerful influence on her husband which allowed her to also influence his government.[3] She was watched with suspicion by Catholic missionaries.[4] The chronicles accused her of drinking insatiably and even committing manslaughter.
Sarolt and her husband received baptism late in life. They raised their son as a Christian and changed his name from Vajk to Stephen as a sign of their faith.[5] After her husband's death in 997, one of his distant cousins, Koppány, who declared his claim to the leadership of the Magyars against her son, Stephen (Vajk), wanted to marry Sarolt, referring to the Hungarian tradition. Koppány, nevertheless, was defeated, and shortly afterward Sarolt's son was crowned as the first King of Hungary.
^"In these days, he [Saint Adalbert] sent [a letter] to the High Prince of the Magyars, or rather to his wife who had been holding the whole country in her power with a hand of a man, and who had been governing everything owned by her husband" (Bruno of Querfurt: Sancti Adalberti Pragensis episcopi et martyris vita altera).
^"Christian faith made its start under her direction, but the sullied religion mingled with paganism, and this idle and faint Christianity was turning worse than barbarism" (Bruno of Querfurt: Sancti Adalberti Pragensis episcopi et martyris vita altera).
^Commire, Anne, ed. (2002). "Sarolta (fl. 900s)". Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Waterford, Connecticut: Yorkin Publications. p. 806. ISBN 0-7876-4074-3.
Sarolt (c. 950 – c. 1008) was the wife of Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians. She was born a daughter of Zombor (or Gyula II), gyula of Transylvania...
arrived in Hungary. Taksony arranged the marriage of his elder son Géza to Sarolt, daughter of Gyula of Transylvania, before his death during the early 970s...
sources, she was the eldest child of Géza of Hungary by his first wife Sarolt, a daughter of Gyula of Transylvania. However, modern historians have now...
baptism is unknown. He was the only son of Grand Prince Géza and his wife, Sarolt, who was descended from a prominent family of gyulas. Although both of his...
Koppány's rebellion against the Christian king Stephen I and claim to marry Sarolt, the widow of his relative Géza, was qualified as an incestuous attempt...
French nobleman (approximate date) Rotbold I (or Rotbaud), French nobleman Sarolt, Grand Princess of Hungary (b. 950) Stenton, F. M. (1971). Anglo-Saxon England...
She was the daughter of Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians and Princess Sarolt. Grimelda married the Doge Otto Orseolo (r. 1009—1026). She followed Otto...
successor as tribal leader in Transylvania, and two daughters, Karold and Sarolt. The latter became the wife of Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians. Their...
Carinthia (approximate date) Reginar IV, French nobleman (approximate date) Sarolt, Grand Princess of Hungary (d. 1008) Soběslav, Bohemian nobleman (d. 1004)...
Ottonian dynasty Born: c. 980 Died: 2 August 1058 Royal titles Preceded by Sarolt Grand Princess of the Hungarians 997–1000 or 1001 Became queen New title...
II of Bohemia Judith of Hungary (d.988), daughter of Géza of Hungary and Sarolt, married Bolesław I Chrobry Gudit, legendary queen of the Kingdom of Semien...
king, Saint Stephen I, took up Western Christianity, although his mother Sarolt was baptized into Eastern Christianity. Hungary remained predominantly Catholic...
Géza c. 972 ┃ 997 c. 945 Son of Taksony, Grand Prince of the Hungarians Sarolt, daughter of Gyula of Transylvania Judith Stephen, Grand Prince of the Hungarians...
unknown Taksony Unnamed unknown unknown Pecheneg or Bulgar Paganism unknown Sarolt Gyula II of Transylvania c. 950 Hungarian Eastern Orthodox before 972 before...
In the foreground, Sarolt, Stephen's mother holds the naked baby in her lap, the baby Stephen has a halo around his head. Sarolt has a crown on her head...
in Romania) around 950, the ruins of the church were discovered in 2011. Sarolt, daughter of Gyula II was married to Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians...
was described as 'the Germans'. Koppány was the brother of Géza's widow Sarolt and claimed the throne by agnatic seniority; his army was described as 'the...
pagan chieftains, but contemporary sources indicate that he and his wife Sarolt (d. after 997), remained half-pagans. The chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg...
was the one who arranged the marriage between the Grand Prince Géza and Sárolt of Transylvania. The eponymous ancestor of the clan was Osli I, descendant...
closely related to Géza, because Koppány's claim to marry Géza's widow, Sarolt, was qualified as an incestuous attempt by 14th-century Hungarian chronicles...
and in fact, the young Prince Stephen, whose mother was Gyula's sister Sarolt according to the almost contemporary Annales Hildesheimenses (“The Annals...
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