Vazul (-1031)
--1031 (man)
Vazul, or also Vászoly,[1] (before 997–1031 or 1032) was a member of the House of Árpád, a grandson of Taksony, Grand Prince of the Hungarians. Otherwise, the only certain information of his life, 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.
Vazul was a son[2] of Michael, who was the younger son of Grand Prince Taksony.[3] His mother's name is unknown.[3] According to the Györffy, it is "probable" that she was a Bulgarian princess, a relative of Samuel of Bulgaria.[4] Györffy also writes that Vazul was still a child around 997.[5] His name derived from the Greek Basileios which implies that he was baptized according to Byzantine rite.[6]
Györffy says that Vazul "apparently" held the "Nyitra ducate", because chronicles do not make mention of other settlements in connection with his life.[7] 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".[8][9] 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.[2] 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.[10] 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.[11]
Emeric, the only son of King Stephen who survived infancy died in a hunting accident in 1031.[12][13] 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.[14] According to the nearly contemporaneous Annals of Altaich,[15] Vazul bitterly resented his omission, but he was blinded on King Stephen's order.[12] According to the contrasting reports of later Hungarian chronicles, written under kings descending from Vazul's line,[16] Stephen initially was planning to nominate Vazul as his heir, but Vazul's enemies, including Stephen's queen, Gisela[6] hatched a plot to hinder the king's plans.[17] They sent an "evil man" to Nyitra who "put out Vazul's eyes and filled the cavities of his ears with lead"[8] before the king's envoys arrived.[17] | |
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