Vazul

Vazul, or Vászoly, (before 997–1031 or 1032) was a member of the House of Árpád, a grandson of Taksony, Grand Prince of the Hungarians. The only other certain information about his life is that he was kept in captivity and blinded in the fortress of Nyitra (Nitra, Slovakia) in the last years of the reign of his cousin, King Stephen I of Hungary. Modern historians, including György Györffy, do not exclude that he had earlier been Duke of Nyitra. He is the forefather of nearly all Kings of Hungary who reigned after 1046.

Life

Vazul was a son of Michael, who was the younger son of Grand Prince Taksony. His mother's name is unknown. According to György Györffy, it is "probable" that she was a Bulgarian princess, a relative of Samuel of Bulgaria. Györffy also writes that Vazul was still a child around 997. His name derived from the Greek Basileios which implies that he was baptized according to Byzantine rite.

Györffy says that Vazul "apparently" held the " Nyitra ducate", because chronicles do not make mention of other settlements in connection with his life. According to the ''Illuminated Chronicle'', King Stephen imprisoned Vazul and held him in captivity in the fortress of Nyitra (Nitra, Slovakia) in order to urge him to "amend his youthful frivolity and folly".''The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle'' (ch. 45.69), p. 107. In contrast with Györffy, his Slovak colleague, Ján Steinhübel has no doubt that Vazul was a Duke of Nyitra, who succeeded his brother, Ladislas the Bald before 1030. Steinhübel adds that Vazul, similarly to his brother, accepted the suzerainty of King Mieszko II of Poland; he was imprisoned at his former seat when King Stephen I of Hungary occupied his duchy in 1031. The theory that the "Duchy of Nyitra" was under Polish suzerainty in the first decades of the 11th century, which is based on the '' Polish-Hungarian Chronicle'', is flatly refused by Györffy.

Emeric, the only son of King Stephen who survived infancy died in a hunting accident in 1031. Although Vazul who was Stephen's closest agnatic relative had the strongest claim to succeed him on the throne, the king disregarded him and nominated his own sister's son, Peter Orseolo as his heir. According to the nearly contemporaneous '' Annals of Altaich'', Vazul bitterly resented his omission, but he was blinded on King Stephen's order. According to the contrasting reports of later Hungarian chronicles, written under kings descending from Vazul's line, Stephen initially was planning to nominate Vazul as his heir, but Vazul's enemies, including Stephen's queen, Gisela hatched a plot to hinder the king's plans. They sent an "evil man" to Nyitra who "put out Vazul's eyes and filled the cavities of his ears with lead" before the king's envoys arrived.

Family

Information on Vazul's family is contradictory. Later Hungarian chronicles tended to hide that the kings reigning after 1046 descended from a prince who was disinherited and sentenced by the holy first king of Hungary. Accordingly, many of the chronicles write that Vazul's brother, Ladislas the Bald, was the Hungarian monarchs' forefather. However, a report recorded in the ''Illuminated Chronicle'' has preserved the memory of Vazul's paternity of three sons named Andrew, Béla, and Levente. Likewise the ''Illuminated Chronicle'' writes that Vazul's wife was a member of the Tátony clan, but his marriage lacked legitimacy. His three sons were expelled from Hungary after Vazul's death in 1031 or 1032.

Györffy and Gerics claimed that the name ''Tatun'', wife of Vazul, is the misspelling of ''Khatun'', which was a royal title among people of Turkish origins from Manchuria to Bulgaria.Gerics, József (1966): A Tátony nemzetségről. Adalékok egy krónikahely értelmezéséhez - In: Történelmi Szemle vol. 9 (1966) p. 1-24 Its meaning was "the first wife of the khagan". According to Györffy, a girl from the kindred Tatun was the daughter of Tatun, the wife of Kean (mentioned in the Hungarian chronicles), i. e. the tsar of Bulgaria, whose family fled to Hungary when Basil II, Byzantine Emperor put an end to the existence of Bulgarian state (996-1004, 1014–1018). Gerics claimed that Vazul and Tatun were still pagan at the time of their marriage, and that is the reason that the Hungarian chronicles declared that Andrew, Béla, and Levente, the sons of Duke Vazul, were not born of a true marriage-bed. Gerics also claimed that Tatun might have participated in the riot of Koppány, and subsequently lost their noble status. For this reason the Hungarian chronicles declared that the sons of Vazul derived their nobility from their father, not their mother.

The following family tree presents Vazul's ancestry and his offspring.

''*Whether Menumorut is an actual or an invented person is debated by modern scholars.''
''**A Khazar, Pecheneg or Volga Bulgarian lady.''
''***Györffy writes that she may have been a member of the Bulgarian Cometopuli dynasty.''
''****Kristó writes that she may have been a member of the Rurik dynasty from Kievan Rus'.''

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

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{{Authority control

Hungarian nobility
House of Árpád
10th-century births
1030s deaths
Year of birth unknown
Year of birth uncertain
10th-century Hungarian people
11th-century Hungarian people
Blind royalty and nobility
Blind people from Hungary