Ladislaus IV of Hungary (Hungarian: IV. (Kun) László, Croatian: Ladislav IV. (Kumanac), Slovak: Ladislav IV. (Kumánsky); 5 August 1262 – 10 July 1290), also known as Ladislaus the Cuman, was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1272 to 1290. His mother, Elizabeth, was the daughter of a chieftain from the pagan Cumans who had settled in Hungary. At the age of seven, he married Elisabeth, a daughter of King Charles I of Sicily. Ladislaus was only 9 when a rebellious lord, Joachim Gutkeled, kidnapped and imprisoned him.
Ladislaus was still a prisoner when his father Stephen V of Hungary died on 6 August 1272. During his minority, many groupings of barons – primarily the Abas, Csáks, Kőszegis, and Gutkeleds – fought against each other for supreme power. Ladislaus was declared to be of age at an assembly of the prelates, barons, noblemen, and Cumans in 1277. He allied himself with Rudolf I of Germany against Ottokar II of Bohemia. His forces had a preeminent role in Rudolf's victory over Ottokar in the Battle on the Marchfeld on 26 August 1278.
However, Ladislaus could not restore royal power in Hungary. A papal legate, Philip, bishop of Fermo, came to Hungary to help Ladislaus consolidate his authority, but the prelate was shocked at the presence of thousands of pagan Cumans in Hungary. Ladislaus promised that he would force them to adopt a Christian lifestyle, but they refused to obey the legate's demands. Ladislaus decided to support the Cumans, for which Philip of Fermo excommunicated him. The Cumans imprisoned the legate, and the legate's partisans captured Ladislaus. In early 1280, Ladislaus agreed to persuade the Cumans to submit to the legate, but many Cumans preferred to leave Hungary.
Ladislaus vanquished a Cuman army that invaded Hungary in 1282. Hungary also survived a Mongol invasion in 1285. Ladislaus had, by that time, become so unpopular that many of his subjects accused him of inciting the Mongols to invade Hungary. After he imprisoned his wife in 1286, he lived with his Cuman mistresses. During the last years of his life, he wandered throughout the country with his Cuman allies, but he was unable to control the most powerful lords and bishops any more. Pope Nicholas IV planned to declare a crusade against him, but three Cuman assassins murdered Ladislaus.
Ladislaus was the elder son of Stephen, son of Béla IV of Hungary, and Stephen's wife Elizabeth the Cuman. Elizabeth was the daughter of a chieftain of the Cumans who had settled in Hungary. She was born as a pagan and was baptised before her marriage to Stephen. Ladislaus was born under the sign of Mars in 1262, according to Simon of Kéza, who was his chaplain in the 1270s.
Conflicts between Ladislaus's father and grandfather developed into a civil war in 1264. Béla IV's troops, which were under the command of Ladislaus's aunt Anna of Hungary, Duchess of Macsó, captured the castle of Sárospatak, where Ladislaus and his mother were staying, and imprisoned them. Ladislaus initially was kept in the Turóc Castle by Andrew I Hont-Pázmány, but two months later, he was sent to the court of his uncle Bolesław V the Chaste, Duke of Cracow. After his grandfather and father made peace in March 1265, Ladislaus was set free and returned to his father.
Ladislaus's father made an alliance with King Charles I of Sicily in September 1269. According to the treaty, Charles I's daughter, Elizabeth, who was about four years old at that time, was engaged to the seven-year-old Ladislaus. The children's marriage took place in 1270.
Béla IV of Hungary died on 3 May 1270, and Ladislaus's father was crowned King Stephen V of Hungary two weeks later; Stephen, however, could not stabilize his rule. Béla IV's closest advisors – Duchess Anna, and Béla IV's former palatine, Henry I Kőszegi – left Hungary and sought assistance from Anna's son-in-law, King Ottokar II of Bohemia. The newly appointed ban of Slavonia, Joachim Gutkeled, also turned against Stephen V and kidnapped Ladislaus in the summer of 1272. Gutkeled held Ladislaus in captivity in the fortress of Koprivnica in Slavonia. Historian Pál Engel suggests that Joachim Gutkeled planned to force Stephen V to divide Hungary with Ladislaus. Stephen V besieged Koprivnica, but could not take it. Stephen fell seriously ill and died on 6 August 1272.
Joachim Gutkeled departed for Székesfehérvár as soon as he was informed of Stephen V's death, because he wanted to arrange the boy–king's coronation. Ladislaus's mother joined him, infuriating Stephen V's partisans, who accused her of having conspired against her husband. Stephen V's master of the treasury, Egidius Monoszló, laid siege to her palace in Székesfehérvár, but Gutkeled's supporters routed him. Monoszló fled to Pressburg (now Bratislava, Slovakia); he captured the town and ceded it to Ottokar II of Bohemia.
Archbishop Philip Türje crowned Ladislaus king in Székesfehérvár on about 3 September 1272. In theory, the 10-year-old Ladislaus ruled under his mother's regency, but in fact, baronial parties administered the kingdom. In November of that year, Henry Kőszegi returned from Bohemia and assassinated Ladislaus's cousin, Béla of Macsó. Duke Béla's extensive domains, which were located along the southern borders, were divided among Henry Kőszegi and his supporters. In retaliation for Hungarian incursions into Austria and Moravia, Austrian and Moravian troops invaded the borderlands of Hungary in April 1273. They captured Győr and Szombathely, plundering the western counties. Joachim Gutkeled recaptured the two forts two months later, but Ottokar II of Bohemia invaded Hungary and seized many fortresses, including Győr and Sopron in the autumn of 1273.
Peter I Csák and his allies removed Joachim Gutkeled and Henry Kőszegi from power, but Gutkeled and Kőszegi seized Ladislaus and his mother in June 1274. Although Peter Csák liberated the king and his mother, Gutkeled and Kőszegi captured Ladislaus's younger brother, Andrew, Duke of Slavonia, and took him to Slavonia. They demanded Slavonia in Duke Andrew's name, but Peter Csák defeated their united forces near Polgárdi at the end of September. Kőszegi was killed in the battle. Peter Csák then launched a campaign against Kőszegi's son and Ladislaus accompanied him. At the end of 1274, Rudolf I, the new king of Germany, and Ladislaus concluded an alliance against Ottokar II of Bohemia.
Ladislaus contracted an unidentified serious illness, but recovered from it. He attributed this recovery to a miracle by his deceased saintly aunt, Margaret of Hungary, and approached the Holy See to promote her canonisation in 1275. In the same year, a new civil war broke out between Joachim Gutkeled and Peter Csák. Ladislaus took part in Csák's military expedition against the Kőszegis, who were Gutkeled's supporters. However, Gutkeled and his supporters removed their opponents from power at an assembly of the barons and noblemen at Buda around 21 June 1276.
Taking advantage of the war between Rudolf I and Ottokar II, Ladislaus made an incursion into Austria in the autumn of 1276. Sopron soon accepted Ladislaus's suzerainty and Ottokar II promised to renounce all towns he occupied in western Hungary. However, new armed conflicts began in Hungary during 1277: the Transylvanian Saxons captured and destroyed Gyulafehérvár (now Alba Iulia in Romania), the see of the bishop of Transylvania, and the Babonići rose up in rebellion in Slavonia.
First years of majority (1277–1278)
Joachim Gutkeled died while battling against the Babonići in April 1277. A month later, an assembly of the prelates, barons, noblemen and Cumans declared Ladislaus to be of age. The estates of the realm also authorised the 15-year-old monarch to restore internal peace with all possible means. Ladislaus then invaded the Kőszegis's domains in Transdanubia, but could not defeat them. He met Rudolf I of Germany in Hainburg an der Donau on 11 November to confirm their alliance against Ottokar II of Bohemia.
After the royal army captured the rebellious Nicholas Geregye's fortress at Adorján (now Adrian in Romania), Ladislaus held a "general assembly" for seven counties along the River Tisza in the early summer of 1278. The assembly condemned two rebellious local noblemen to death. In Transdanubia, Ivan Kőszegi attempted to play off Ladislaus's father's first cousin, Andrew the Venetian, against Ladislaus. Andrew demanded Slavonia for himself, but returned to Venice without success.