Saul ( 1114 –1131) was the

heir presumptive An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir apparent or a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question. ...

of the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen ...

from around 1127. He was the son of Sophia, the only sister of

Stephen II of Hungary Stephen II ( hu, II István; hr, Stjepan II; sk, Štefan II; 1101 – early 1131), King of Hungary and Croatia, ruled from 1116 until 1131. His father, King Coloman, had him crowned as a child, thus denying the crown to his uncle Álmos. I ...

. His childless uncle appointed Saul his heir in 1127. Although Saul survived his uncle, according to a late source, he did not succeed him and died before

Béla II of Hungary Béla the Blind ( hu, Vak Béla; hr, Bela Slijepi; sk, Belo Slepý; 1109 – 13 February 1141) was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1131 to 1141. He was blinded along with his rebellious father Álmos on the order of Álmos's brother, K ...

was crowned king in April 1131.

Life

Saul was the only known son of Sophia, the daughter of

Coloman the Learned Coloman the Learned, also the Book-Lover or the Bookish ( hu, Könyves Kálmán; hr, Koloman; sk, Koloman Učený; 10703February 1116) was King of Hungary from 1095 and King of Croatia from 1097 until his death. Because Coloman and his younge ...

King of Hungary The King of Hungary ( hu, magyar király) was the ruling head of state of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1000 (or 1001) to 1918. The style of title "Apostolic King of Hungary" (''Apostoli Magyar Király'') was endorsed by Pope Clement XIII in 1758 ...

. The name and family of Saul's father is unknown. Historian Márta Font writes that Saul was born between 1113 and 1115. According to the ''

Illuminated Chronicle The ''Chronicon Pictum'' (Latin for "illustrated chronicle", English: ''Illuminated Chronicle'' or ''Vienna Illuminated Chronicle'', hu, Képes Krónika, sk, Obrázková kronika, german: Illustrierte Chronik, also referred to as ''Chronica Hung ...

'' King

, who was childless and delicate of health, "so ordered the succession to the throne that after his death the son of his sister Sophia, by name Saul, should reign."''The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle'' (ch. 158.112), p. 135. Historian Ferenc Makk says that Saul was appointed heir in the first half of 1127. The ''Illuminated Chronicle'' does not contain any further information of Saul's life, but a later sourcethe

Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish ( ota, لِسانِ عُثمانى, Lisân-ı Osmânî, ; tr, Osmanlı Türkçesi) was the standardized register of the Turkish language used by the citizens of the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extens ...

chronicle known as '' Tarih-i Üngürüs'' or ''The History of the Hungarians''writes that he survived his uncle who died in the spring 1131. According to the latter source, Béla II, Stephen II's cousin, was only crowned king, on 28 April 1131, after Saul's death on an unspecified date.

References

Sources

* * * *''The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle:'' Chronica de Gestis Hungarorum (Edited by Dezső Dercsényi) (1970). Corvina, Taplinger Publishing. . {{authority control 1110s births 1131 deaths Hungarian nobility House of Árpád Pretenders to the Hungarian throne 12th-century Hungarian people