Géza II (Hungarian: II. Géza; Croatian: Gejza II.; Slovak: Gejza II.; 1130 – 31 May 1162) was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1141 to 1162. He was the oldest son of King Béla the Blind and his wife, Helena of Serbia. When his father died, Géza was still a child and he started ruling under the guardianship of his mother and her brother, Beloš. A pretender to the throne, Boris Kalamanos, who had already claimed Hungary during Béla the Blind's reign, temporarily captured Pressburg (now Bratislava in Slovakia) with the assistance of German mercenaries in early 1146. In retaliation, Géza who came of age in the same year, invaded Austria and routed Henry Jasomirgott, Margrave of Austria, in the Battle of the Fischa.
Although the German–Hungarian relations remained tense, no major confrontations occurred when the German crusaders marched through Hungary in June 1147. Two months later, Louis VII of France and his crusaders arrived, along with Boris Kalamanos who attempted to take advantage of the crusade to return to Hungary. Louis VII refused to extradite Boris to Géza, but prevented the pretender from contacting his supporters in Hungary and managed to shepherd him to Constantinople with the rest of the crusaders. Géza joined the coalition that Louis VII and Roger II of Sicily formed against Conrad III of Germany and Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos.
Géza intervened at least six times in battles for control of Kiev on behalf of Iziaslav II either by sending reinforcements or by personally leading his troops to the Kievan Rus' between 1148 and 1155. He also waged war against the Byzantine Empire numerous times on behalf of his allies, including his cousins who ruled over Serbia, but could not prevent the Byzantines from restoring their suzerainty. Conflicts eventually emerged between Géza and his brothers, Stephen and Ladislaus, who both took flight from Hungary and settled in Emperor Manuel's court in Constantinople. Géza supported Frederick I between 1158 and 1160, against the Lombards by providing auxiliary troops. After the cardinals who supported Emperor Frederick I elected Victor IV as pope, Géza acknowledged his legitimacy in 1160, but within a year he had changed sides and concluded a concordat with Victor IV's opponent, Pope Alexander III. Before his death, Géza organized a separate appanage duchy for his younger son, Béla.
The ancestors of the Transylvanian Saxons came to Hungary during Géza's reign. Western European knights and Muslim warriors from the Pontic steppes also settled in Hungary during this period. Géza supposedly even allowed his Muslim soldiers to take concubines.
Géza was born the eldest son of Béla the Blind, a cousin of King Stephen II of Hungary, and Helena of Serbia in 1130. Géza's father had been blinded, together with his rebellious father, Álmos, in the 1110s on the order of Stephen II's father, King Coloman, who wanted to ensure Stephen's succession. When Géza was born, his parents lived on an estate that King Stephen had granted them in Tolna. Géza's father succeeded King Stephen in the spring of 1131. In the same year, Queen Helena took Géza and his younger brother, Ladislaus, to an assembly held at Arad, where she ordered the massacre of sixty-eight noblemen "by whose counsel the King had been blinded", according to the Illuminated Chronicle.
King Béla died on 13 February 1141 and Géza succeeded him without opposition. The eleven-year-old Géza was crowned king on 16 February. His mother and her brother, Beloš, ruled as regents in the first years of his reign.
One of Géza's first charters, issued in 1141, confirmed the privileges of the citizens of Split in Dalmatia. In the charter, Géza is titled by "By the Grace of God, King of Hungary, Dalmatia, Croatia and Rama". According to historian Paul Stephenson, the towns of central Dalmatia—including Šibenik and Trogir—accepted Géza's suzerainty after a Hungarian invasion around 1142. Hungarian troops assisted Prince Volodimerko of Halych—who had been the ally of Géza's father against the pretender Boris—when Great Prince Vsevolod II of Kyiv invaded Halych in 1144. Although the Hungarian auxiliaries "were of no use whatsoever", according to the Hypatian Codex, the grand prince could not occupy Volodimerko's principality.
Boris was the son of Eufemia of Kiev, King Coloman of Hungary's second wife, whom the king expelled on the charge of adultery before Boris's birth. According to the chronicler Bishop Otto of Freising, Boris approached Conrad III of Germany to seek his assistance against Géza at the end of 1145. Upon the recommendation of Vladislav II of Bohemia, the German monarch authorized Boris to muster an army of mercenaries in Bavaria and Austria. Boris stormed Hungary and took the fortress of Pressburg (present-day Bratislava in Slovakia). The royal forces soon imposed a blockade on the fortress and convinced Boris's mercenaries to surrender without resistance in exchange for compensation.
The Hungarians blamed Conrad III for Boris's attack and decided to invade the Holy Roman Empire. Before crossing the river Lajta (now Leitha in Austria), which marked the western border of Hungary, the sixteen-year-old Géza was girded with a sword in a token of his coming of age. In the Battle of the Fischa on 11 September, the Hungarian army under the command of Géza and Beloš routed the German troops led by Henry Jasomirgott, Margrave of Austria.
Crusaders' march across Hungary (1146–1147)
Géza married Euphrosyne, sister of Grand Prince Iziaslav II of Kiev, in the second half of 1146. German–Hungarian relations remained tense as Boris attempted to take advantage of Conrad III's decision to lead a crusade to the Holy Land through Hungary. However Géza, who knew that "he could conquer more easily by gold than by force, poured out much money among the Germans and thus escaped an attack from them," according to the chronicler Odo of Deuil. The German crusaders marched across Hungary without major incident in June 1147.
The Illuminated Chronicle relates that some Hungarian noblemen promised Boris "if he could make his way into the kingdom, many would take him for their lord and, deserting the King, would cleave to him." Boris convinced two French noblemen to assist by hiding him among the French crusaders who followed the Germans towards the Holy Land. King Louis VII of France and his crusaders arrived in Hungary in August. Géza learnt that his opponent was with the French and demanded his extradition. Although Louis VII rejected this demand, he held Boris in custody and "took him out of Hungary," according to Odo of Deuil. Having left Hungary, Boris settled in the Byzantine Empire.
Active foreign policy (1147–1155)
Disputes among European powers led to the formation of two coalitions in the late 1140s. One alliance was formed by the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos and Conrad III against Roger II of Sicily who had invaded Byzantine territories. Géza sided with Roger II and his allies, including the rebellious German prince, Welf VI and Uroš II of Serbia. Géza sent reinforcements to his brother-in-law, Grand Prince Iziaslav II, against Prince Vladimir of Chernigov in the spring of 1148. The Grand Principality of Serbia rebelled in 1149, forcing Emperor Manuel I to interrupt his preparations for an invasion of Southern Italy and invade Serbia in 1149. According to the emperor's panegyrist Theodore Prodromus, Hungarian forces supported the Serbs during the emperor's campaign. The Hypatian Codex says that Géza referred to his war against Emperor Manuel when excusing himself for refusing to send reinforcements to Iziaslav II whom Yuri Dolgorukiy, Prince of Suzdal, expelled from Kiev in August 1149. Hungarian auxiliaries supported Iziaslav II to reoccupy Kiev in the early spring of 1150, but before long Yuri Dolgorukiy expelled Iziaslav from the town. In autumn, Géza led his army against Volodimirko of Halych, who was Yuri Dolgorukiy's close ally. He captured Sanok, but Volodimirko bribed the Hungarian commanders, who persuaded Géza to leave Halych before November.