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 (, ). They were the ruling dynasty of the Principality of Hungary in the 9th and 10th centuries and of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1000 to 130 ...

, was Duchess of Austria from 1177 and

Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

from 1192 to 1194 by her marriage with the

Babenberg The House of Babenberg was a noble dynasty of Austrian Dukes and Margraves. Descending from the Popponids and originally from Bamberg in the Duchy of Franconia (present-day Bavaria), the Babenbergs ruled the imperial Margraviate of Austria fr ...

duke Leopold V of Austria.

Biography

Helena was the daughter of King

Géza II of Hungary Géza 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 he started ruling under the guardia ...

and his wife, Euphrosyne of Kiev, a daughter of Grand Prince

Mstislav I of Kiev Mstislav I Vladimirovich Monomakh (; Christian name: ''Fedor''; February 1076 – 14 April 1132), also known as Mstislav the Great, was Grand Prince of Kiev from 1125 until his death in 1132. After his death, the state began to quickly disin ...

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 known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

emperor

Manuel I Komnenos Manuel I Komnenos (; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Latinized as Comnenus, also called Porphyrogenitus (; " born in the purple"), was a Byzantine emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history o ...

. Leopold's sister Agnes had already married King

Stephen III of Hungary Stephen III (, ; ; 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 uncles, Ladislaus and Stephen, who ...

, 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 () is a Cistercian monastery in the village of Heiligenkreuz, Lower Austria, Heiligenkreuz in the southern part of the Vienna Woods, Vienna woods, c. 13 km north-west of Baden bei Wien, 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 or Friedrich 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 ...

(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 consorts House of Babenberg Year of birth uncertain 12th-century Hungarian people 12th-century Hungarian women 12th-century Austrian people 12th-century Austrian women Daughters of kings Mothers of Austrian monarchs