Levente (between 1010 and 1015 – 1047) was a member of the

House of Árpád A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

, a great-grandson of Taksony,

Grand Prince of the Hungarians Grand Prince () was the title used by contemporary sources to name the leader of the federation of the Hungarian tribes in the tenth century.Constantine VII mentioned Árpád in his book De Administrando Imperio as ', while Bruno of Querfurt re ...

. He was expelled from Hungary in 1031 or 1032, and spent many years in

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and the

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavs, East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical At ...

. He returned to Hungary, where a pagan uprising was developing around that time, in 1046. Levente remained a devout pagan, but did not hinder the election of his Christian brother,

Andrew I Andrew I may refer to: * Andrew I of Hungary Andrew I the White or the Catholic ( or ; 1015 – before 6 December 1060) was King of Hungary from 1046 to 1060. He descended from a younger branch of the Árpád dynasty. After he spent fifteen y ...

as king.

Childhood

Hungarian chronicles have preserved contradictory information of his parentage. According to one variant, Levente and his two brothers

Andrew Andrew is the English form of the given name, common in many countries. The word is derived from the , ''Andreas'', itself related to ''aner/andros'', "man" (as opposed to "woman"), thus meaning "manly" and, as consequence, "brave", "strong", "c ...

and

Béla Béla may refer to: * Béla (crater), an elongated lunar crater * Béla (given name), a common Hungarian male given name See also * Bela (disambiguation) * Belá (disambiguation) * Bělá (disambiguation) Bělá may refer to: Places in the Cze ...

were "the sons of Ladislas the Bald"''The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle:'' (ch. 60.87), p. 113. and his "wife from Ruthania", that is from the

. On the other hand, a concurring tradition has preserved that the three brothers were sons of Ladislas the Bald's brother, " Vazul by some girl from the clan" of Tátony. Modern historians – since the research of Péter Váczy – agree that the latter report is more reliable and unanimously write that Levente was born to Vazul and his concubine from the Tátony clan. However, historians still debate whether Levente was the eldest or a younger son of his father. Late 19th-century historians – Gyula Pauler, Henrik Marczali and János Karácsonyi – considered Levente as the youngest since the contemporary chronicles unanimously name Andrew, Béla, and Levente in that order. Later historians, e.g. Bálint Hóman, Emma Bartoniek, György Györffy, Gyula Kristó and Márta Font, refer to an entry in the ''Illuminated Chronicle'' regarding the renunciation his claim to the throne and in accordance with the traditional principle of

seniority Seniority is the state of being older or placed in a higher position of status relative to another individual, group, or organization. For example, one employee may be senior to another either by role or rank (such as a CEO vice a manager), or by ...

, while arguing in favor of Levente as the oldest of the three. Gyula Kristó, who says that Levente was Vazul's eldest son, writes that he was born between 1010 and 1015. Péter Báling argues the authentic Chronicle of Zagreb explicitly says that Béla was the second son of Vazul, which rules out the possibility that Levente would have been the oldest. Báling considers Levente was born around 1020.

In exile and return

Levente, Andrew and Béla left Hungary after their father was blinded in 1031 or 1032. They first settled in

. They left Bohemia, where "their condition of life was poor and mean", according to the ''Illuminated Chronicle'', and moved to the court of King Mieszko II of Poland in 1034 at the latest. The youngest among them, Béla settled here, but Levente and Andrew moved to

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

. Andrew was baptized in Kiev, but Levente remained a devout pagan. Dissatisfied with King Peter Orseolo, who succeeded Stephen I of Hungary, Hungarian lords persuaded Levente and Andrew to return to Hungary in 1046. Meanwhile, a great pagan uprising had broken out in Hungary. The rebels captured King Peter. The Hungarian lords and prelates preferred a Christian monarch and offered the crown to Andrew, while, as historian Sándor Tóth argues, leaders of the pagan revolt supported the claim of Levente, for he was not baptized, unlike his brothers. The ''Illuminated Chronicle'' states that Levente "would beyond doubt have corrupted all Hungary with paganism and

idolatry Idolatry is the worship of an idol as though it were a deity. In Abrahamic religions (namely Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith) idolatry connotes the worship of something or someone other than the Abrahamic ...

". However, the same chronicle also writes that Levente gave the crown, in the "simplicity of spirit",''The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle:'' (ch. 65.92), p. 115. to Andrew, suggesting that Levente voluntarily renounced the crown in favor of his brother. Levente died in 1047 and was buried in a village on the Danube which was named after his great-grandfather, Taksony, who was "said to lie in a pagan grave" there, according to the ''Illuminated Chronicle''.

References

Sources

Primary sources

*''Simon of Kéza: The Deeds of the Hungarians'' (Edited and translated by László Veszprémy and Frank Schaer with a study by Jenő Szűcs) (1999). CEU Press. . *''The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle:'' Chronica de Gestis Hungarorum (Edited by Dezső Dercsényi) (1970). Corvina, Taplinger Publishing. .

Secondary sources

* * * * * * {{authority control 11th-century Hungarian nobility House of Árpád 1010s births 1047 deaths Pagans