Helena (Ilona) of Hungary ( – 25 December 1199), a member of the royal

Árpád dynasty The Árpád dynasty, consisted of the members of the royal House of Árpád (), also known as Árpáds ( hu, Árpádok, hr, Arpadovići). They were the ruling dynasty of the Principality of Hungary in the 9th and 10th centuries and of the King ...

, was Duchess of Austria from 1177 and

Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered ...

from 1192 to 1194 by her marriage with the

Babenberg The House of Babenberg was a noble dynasty of Austrian Dukes and Margraves. Originally from Bamberg in the Duchy of Franconia (present-day Bavaria), the Babenbergs ruled the imperial Margraviate of Austria from its creation in 976 AD until its ...

duke Leopold V of Austria.

Biography

Helena was the daughter of King

Géza II of Hungary Géza II ( hu, II. Géza; hr, Gejza II; sk, Gejza II; 113031 May 1162) was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1141 to 1162. He was the oldest son of Béla the Blind and his wife, Helena of Serbia. When his father died, Géza was still a child ...

and his wife,

Euphrosyne of Kiev Euphrosyne of Kiev (also ''Euphrosine of Novgorod'';Jirí Louda and Michael MacLagan, ''Lines of Succession: Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe'', 2nd edition (London, U.K.: Little, Brown and Company, 1999), table 89. hu, Eufrozina; 1130 ...

, a daughter of Grand Prince

Mstislav I of Kiev Mstislav I Vladimirovich Monomakh (Russian: Мстислав Владимирович Великий, uk, Мстислав Володимирович Великий; February, 1076 – April 14, 1132), also known as Mstislav the Great, was t ...

by his second wife, Liubava Dmitrievna. Little is known of her life or character. The only clear facts about her life are that at Pentecost 1174 she was married to Leopold V of Austria. The marriage reflected the westward orientation of the Hungarian House of Árpád in view of the expansionist politics of the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

emperor

Manuel I Komnenos Manuel I Komnenos ( el, Μανουήλ Κομνηνός, translit=Manouíl Komnenos, translit-std=ISO; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Latinized Comnenus, also called Porphyrogennetos (; " born in the purple"), was a Byzantine empero ...

. Leopold's sister Agnes had already married King

Stephen III of Hungary Stephen III ( hu, István, hr, Stjepan, sk, Štefan; summer of 11474 March 1172) was King of Hungary and Croatia between 1162 and 1172. He was crowned king in early June 1162, shortly after the death of his father, Géza II. However, his two un ...

, Helena's elder brother who had died in 1172. Helena and Leopold had issue; he died on 31 December 1194 as a result of a horse accident. Helena died five years later in 1199 and was buried beside her husband in

Heiligenkreuz Abbey Heiligenkreuz Abbey (german: Stift Heiligenkreuz; en, Abbey of the Holy Cross) is a Cistercian monastery in the village of Heiligenkreuz in the southern part of the Vienna woods, c. 13 km north-west of Baden in Lower Austria. It is the ol ...

Marriage and children

By her marriage to Duke Leopold V, Helena had at least two (possibly as many as four) children: *

Frederick I Frederick I may refer to: * Frederick of Utrecht or Frederick I (815/16–834/38), Bishop of Utrecht. * Frederick I, Duke of Upper Lorraine (942–978) * Frederick I, Duke of Swabia (1050–1105) * Frederick I, Count of Zoll ...

(d. 16 April 1198) * Leopold VI (d. 28 July 1230) * ?Agnes * ?Bertha

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helena of Hungary 1150s births 1199 deaths Hungarian princesses House of Árpád Austrian royal consorts Babenberg Year of birth uncertain 12th-century Hungarian people 12th-century Hungarian women 12th-century Austrian people 12th-century Austrian women Daughters of kings