Sophia was the eldest known child of King

Coloman of Hungary Coloman the Learned, also the Book-Lover or the Bookish (; ; ; 10703February 1116), was King of Hungary from 1095 and King of Croatia from 1097 until his death. Because Coloman and his younger brother Álmos were underage when their father Gé ...

and his wife,

Felicia of Sicily Felicia of Sicily (also Elateria) (c. 1078 – c. 1102) is the presumed name of a Queen consort of Hungary and Croatia. She was daughter of Count Roger I of Sicily and his second wife, Eremburga of Mortain. She is also called Busilla, but this na ...

. She was born between 1097 and 1100. Her son

Saul Saul (; , ; , ; ) was a monarch of ancient Israel and Judah and, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament, the first king of the United Monarchy, a polity of uncertain historicity. His reign, traditionally placed in the late eleventh c ...

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 a person with a better claim to the position in question. This is in contrast to an heir app ...

to her childless brother,

Stephen II of Hungary Stephen II (; ; ; 1101 – early 1131), King of Hungary and King of Croatia, Croatia, ruled from 1116 until 1131. His father, King Coloman, had him crowned as a child, thus denying the crown to his uncle Álmos, Duke of Croatia, Álmos. In t ...

Life

Sophia is one of the three children and the only daughter of

Coloman the Learned Coloman the Learned, also the Book-Lover or the Bookish (; ; ; 10703February 1116), was King of Hungary from 1095 and King of Croatia from 1097 until his death. Because Coloman and his younger brother Álmos were underage when their father Géz ...

whose name was recorded in the chronicles. Her mother was

, her father's first wife. As her parents' marriage took place in 1097, Sophia could not have been born before that year. According to Kristó, "it is beyond doubt" that she was named after her paternal grandaunt. Her brothers, twins

Stephen Stephen or Steven is an English given name, first name. It is particularly significant to Christianity, Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; he is w ...

and Ladislaus, were born in 1101. The only certain fact of her life is the name of her son, Saul. The ''

Illuminated Chronicle The ''Chronicon Pictum'' or ''Illuminated Chronicle'' (, , , also referred to as the ''Illustrated Chronicle'', ''Chronica Hungarorum'', ''Chronicon Hungarie Pictum'', ''Chronica Picta'' or ''Chronica de Gestis Hungarorum'') is a medieval illust ...

'' narrates that her brother, King

, who was childless, "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. According to historian Márta Font, at that timearound 1130Saul was about fifteen years old, implying that his mother must have been born in 1100 at the latest. Neither the name nor the family of her husband are known.

References

Sources

* * * *''The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle:'' Chronica de Gestis Hungarorum (Edited by Dezső Dercsényi) (1970). Corvina, Taplinger Publishing. . {{authority control Hungarian princesses House of Árpád 12th-century Hungarian women 12th-century Hungarian people Daughters of kings