Chalamon

Ancestors

Early years

Shalamon's father, King Andras I of Hungary (reigned 1046-1060 ), initially intended to bequeath the throne to his younger brother Bele , but after giving birth to his son, he changed his will and forced Bela to give up his rights to the Hungarian crown. At the age of 5, Shalamon was officially proclaimed the successor of his father, crowned in advance and engaged to the daughter of the German emperor Henry III the Black Judit , who was 4 years older than him.

Taking advantage of the revolt of the Hungarian pagans against the Christianity implanted by the royal power, Bela appealed to help his nephew from his wife, the Polish Duke Boleslav II the Bold , and began a war against his brother the king and overthrew him from the throne ( 1060 ). Andrash I died from wounds received in battle in the city of Zirc ( 1061 ), and Shalamon with his mother was forced to flee to Germany .

The reign of Bela I was short lived. In less than three years, he died in hazy circumstances: according to legend, the throne fell apart under him. The death of King Bela and the marriage of the German princess allowed Chalaimon to reclaim the Hungarian crown with the help of German troops (December 1063 ). The sons of Bela I - Geza , Laszlo and Lambert (Lampert) - did not dare to go to war with their cousin and were forced to recognize him as king, being content with the status of the rulers of the Nitran Principality , located in the north of the country. On April 11, 1064, Geza himself laid the crown on the head of Shalamon in the city of Pec .

Board

Having stopped the internecine war and reconciled with his cousins, Shalamon was able to concentrate the forces of the kingdom on repelling the external threat posed by the Pecheneg nomads who invaded the country from the east. When in 1068 near Kerlash ( Transylvania , the territory of the present Romanian district Bistrica-Nasaud ) the combined Hungarian army caught up with the Pecheneg detachment returning from a predatory raid, Shalamon himself led his warriors to attack, was wounded, but the victory remained for the Hungarians.

This campaign was not the only joint military enterprise reconciled with each other relatives. For example, Shalamon participated in the war of his cousins ​​with the quarantines and the Venetians ( 1067 ), defending the interests of the Slavonian ban Dmitar Zvonimir , who was married to his sister Geza and Laslo Helen of the Beautiful .

However, despite all these joint hostilities, the trust between Shalamon and his cousins ​​did not strengthen. Conflicts flared up between them now and then, even armed ones, which were hardly settled with the mediation of the church. A decisive clash of Shalamon with the Prince of Nitra took place on February 26, 1074 on the Keme plain , north of the present-day. Kartsaga . Victory was won by Shalamon, and the defeated Geza could barely escape. The speed with which Laszlo came to the aid of his brother and, moreover, brought with him the Polish army, sent by his cousin on the maternal line, by the same Duke Boleslaw the Brave that testifies that Bela’s sons were also preparing for war with Shalamon. A large detachment also arrived from the Czech prince Otto I Handsome , who owned the northern part of Moravia, married to the sister of Geza and Laszlo Euphemia. On March 14, 1074, Geza and Laszlo defeated the army of Shalamon in the battle of Modiorod (within the limits of modern Budapest ). Chalamon was forced to flee. Geza I became the new king of Hungary.

Fight for the crown

After the defeat at Modiorod, Shalamon retained the northwestern part of the country ( Comopat Sopron , Moson and Pozhon ), where he could count on the help of his brother-in-law Henry IV , the German emperor. He made his capital Pozhon (now Bratislava ) and bravely defended it; He repeatedly called the best warriors of Geza to a duel and every time he won. However, the ongoing struggle between Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII did not allow the first to provide any substantial assistance to his son-in-law. The campaign of the imperial army in Hungary in August 1074 ended near the city of Vác : news of the uprising in Saxony forced the Germans to turn back; Shalamona's wife Judit chose to return to Germany with her brother.

Over time, Shalamon was convinced of the complete hopelessness of his position and in 1081 he capitulated, receiving in return the forgiveness of his cousin Laszlo I, who became king of Hungary after the death of his elder brother Geza I (died April 25, 1077 ). Returning to the court of Laszlo I, Shalamon did not give up hope of regaining the lost throne. He tried to plot against his cousin, but was extradited and put in prison ( 1083 ). In the same year, Laszlo again forgave Shalamon on the occasion of the canonization (August 19) of István Arpad , the first king and baptist of Hungary.

Once free, Shalamon again tried to call for help his brother-in-law emperor, but was refused. Wife Judit did not want to see him. Then Shalamon went from Germany to the east - to the sworn enemies of the Hungarians Pechenegs . He joined the horde of the Pecheneg khan Koteshka , who roamed in the territory of present-day Moldova . Although his wife Judith was alive and still not divorced, Shalamon married the daughter of Ketyoshka. Vowing to give Khan Transylvania , Shalamon invaded Hungary from the east in 1085 , leading the Pecheneg horde behind him. Laszlo I met and crushed the horde of Ketyoshka under Kisvardoy (Northeast modern Hungary). Chalaimon again had to flee.

Death of Shalamon

Having finally lost hope of the return of Hungary, Chalamont gathered a detachment of wandering Hungarian knights and returned with them to the Pechenegs. Together with Khan Chelgu took part in the march to Byzantium . In the battle of Hariopolis (in March 1087 ) the Pechenegs were defeated. Khan Chelgu died, and Shalamon with his detachment of heavy cavalry took refuge in a ruined fortress, where he was surrounded by the Greeks. The next morning, he tried to escape from the encirclement, but was killed by the Greeks, and his squad was hacked down.

In the Croatian Pula there was a legend that King Shalamon did not die at Hariopolis, but crossed the Danube on ice and hid from the Greeks in the forest. Disguised as a wandering monk, Shalamon walked to Pula, where he truly became a monk and lived the rest of his life as a hermit. For a long time, the inhabitants of Pula kept a clay bed on which the former king allegedly slept. And during the celebration of the millennium of education in Pula, the bishopric (in 1425 ) demonstrated a headstone with the inscription: “HIC REQUIESCIT ILLVSTRISSIMVS SALAMON REX PANNONIE”.

Shalamon had no children, either from Queen Judit or from the Pecheneg wife (in any case, nothing is known about them), so the branch of King Andras I stopped him. Subsequently, the descendants of Bela I challenged each other over Hungary.

The transfer of power to Bela's sons and grandchildren, as well as the unsuccessful struggle for the throne, caused Shalamon to remain in Hungarian history as an unprincipled power-hungry who trampled on the interests of the fatherland in order to satisfy his own ambitions. There is even a legend that he was cursed by his own mother for violating the peace treaty with his cousins, although the latter also willingly resorted to the help of Poles and Czechs when it came to protecting their dynastic interests, and never recognized as legitimate the forced refusal of their father from the inheritance of the Hungarian throne. However, it is only known that at the end of her life, Anastasia Yaroslavna took the veil.

In the cinema

The Sacred Corona (Sacra Corona) ( Hungary , 2001 ). In the role of King Sholomon - Peter Horkai . The film begins with the last years of the reign of the Hungarian king András I and the proclamation of his son Shalamon as heir to the throne; then - the beginning of the reign of Shalamon, reconciled with his cousins Gezoy and Laszlo (the coronation of Shalamon in 1064 , the victorious battles of the three forces united with the Pechenegs near Kerlesh in 1068 ), then - the period of quarrels and military clashes of King Shalamon with the combined forces of the Geza brothers and Laszlo, culminating in the overthrow of Shalamon and the proclamation of Geza I king of Hungary. The rest of the film is dedicated to the events of the reigns of Geza I and Laszlo I (marriage of Laszlo to the daughter of Duke Swabiah Rudolph ; coronation of Geza I in 1075 with the crown sent by the Byzantine emperor Michael VII Duca ; life of Shalamon in exile and his imprisonment; death of the king Guezy; imprisonment; death and accession Laszlo I ; canonicalization tombs and autopsy first king Hungary Istvan , extracting it from the crown tomb; release King Laszlo I Shalamona of detention; manufacturing Holy crown Hungarian kings by connecting the extracted of the tombs Ishtavana with corona coronation crown Géza I ; crowning Laszlo I of the crown).