Fice

Prince of Hungarians

Although the Acts of the Hungarians says nothing about the fact that Fais, the son of Yutash (the fourth son of Arpad), held the title of supreme ruler of the Hungarians, Konstantin Bagryanorodnyi reported about this in his treatise On Management of the Empire :

It is known, Emperor Constantine wrote, that Arpad, the Grand Duke of the Turks, had four sons: the first - Tarkatsu [Tarkachu] ( Tarkhosh ); the second is Elech [Elek] ( Yullo ); the third is Yutots [Yutocha] (Yutash) and the fourth is Zalta [Zolta] ( Zholt ). It is also known that the eldest son of Arpad Tarkatsu gave birth to Tebel [Tevela]; the other son Elech gave birth to Ezelech [Ezel]; the third son of Yutots gave birth to Falitsi [Falichi] (Faisa), who now reigns ; the fourth son of Zalt gave birth to Taxius ( Taksonya ).

Considering the fact that the Hungarians , like many other barbarian peoples of Europe, adhered to the ladder succession system , and not the majorate , it seems quite logical that Prince Zsolt, who renounced power, was succeeded not by his own son Taksony, but by his nephew Fais, as the eldest at that time representative of the genus Arpadov . By the way, the same succession system was also practiced in Russia , up to the 15th century remaining the cause of princely strife and internecine wars.

Relations with the Germans

During the reign of Fais, Hungary remained fragmented. On the contrary, the neighboring German kingdom consolidated under the rule of the Saxon dynasty , which allowed the Germans to switch from defensive actions in the war against the Hungarians to offensive. In 950, the Bavarian Duke Henry I invaded the territory of Hungary and, after making a devastating raid, returned without hindrance with prey and prisoners. This was the first time that enemy troops invaded Hungarian lands since the Battle of Bratislava , that is, from 907 . Prior to this, the attacking side in almost all cases was the Hungarians, whose raids kept the whole of continental Europe at bay ("Save us from the Hungarian arrows, God ..."). In 951, the Hungarians tried to take moral revenge by undertaking another predatory raid on the West. True, this time they prudently circled Germany from the south, ravaged northern Italy and marched across Aquitaine to the Atlantic Ocean. But on the way back, their army was intercepted and utterly defeated by the German king Otton I the Great .

Relations with the Byzantines

Failures in the wars in the West prompted the Magyars to pay more and more close attention to their southern neighbors. And it was not just the interest of the robbers in the potential victims of their robbery. The German danger aroused centripetal tendencies in the Hungarian environment, accelerated the process of creating a single Hungarian state, and at the same time laid the foundation for the process of Christianization, for the unification of the Hungarians (again, like the other barbarian peoples of Europe) took place under the slogan of introducing the new faith. In 948, a Hungarian embassy arrived in Byzantium under the leadership of the “Bloody” Bulču (Vérbulcsú), who bore the title of kharka - voivode, who took fourth place in the Hungarian hierarchy after the Grand Duke (“ suprafedele ”), dyula (Supreme Commander-in-Chief) ( kendo status is not exactly defined). Bulchu returned from this trip as a Christian baptized in the Orthodox rite. Subsequently, under the influence of Bulczu and the returning Byzantine Embassy ( 950 ), Fais himself adopted Christianity. There is also information about a visit to Constantinople and the baptism of the Hungarian leader Gyula there in 952 . But there was no talk of the mass baptism of the Magyars yet.

Battle of Augsburg (Battle of Lech)

In 954, a huge army for Hungary at that time invaded Bavaria in order to finally resolve the dispute about hegemony in Central Europe with the German kingdom . Hungarians besieged Augsburg . The German king Otto I came to the aid of the Bavarians, and on 10 August 955 a decisive battle took place on the Lech river. The Hungarians suffered a crushing defeat. The leader of the army of Harka Bulchu died. The era of the Hungarian raids on Western Europe is over. And although Prince Fays most likely did not take a personal part in the battle, it was with this rout that the next change of the supreme Hungarian ruler was usually associated. Fys was probably either deposed or even killed by his own. The new ruler of the Hungarians was the son of Zsolta Taksony .

• Pauler Gyula és Szilágyi Sándor (szerk.): A magyar honfoglalás kútfői (Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, Bp., 1900)
• Kristó Gyula: Falicsi In: Kristó Gyula - Makk Ferenc: Az Árpádok - fejedelmek és királyok (Szukits Könyvkiadó, Szeged, 2003) ISBN 963-9278-48-3
• Györffy György: István király és műve (Gondolat Kiadó, Bp., 1977) ISBN 963-280-360-4
• Dümmerth Dezső: Az Árpádok nyomában (Panoráma Kiadó, Bp., 1987) ISBN 963-243-343-2
• Kristó Gyula: Szent István király (Vince Kiadó, 2001) ISBN 963-9323-21-7
• Kristó Gyula - Makk Ferenc: A kilencedik és a tizedik század története (Pannonica Kiadó, 2001) ISBN 963-9252-38-7
• Konstantin Bagryanorodny. About managing an empire. Ch. 40. On the birth of the Cavars and Turks. [one]