B?la IV (Hungarian: IV. B?la, Croatian: Bela IV., Slovak: Belo IV.; 1206 ? Rabbits' Island, 3 May 1270) was King of Hungary and Croatia between 1235 and 1270, and Duke of Styria from 1254 to 1258. Being the oldest son of King Andrew II, he was crowned upon the initiative of a group of influential noblemen in his father's lifetime in 1214. His father, who strongly opposed B?la's coronation, refused to give him a province to rule up until 1220. In this year, B?la was appointed Duke of Slavonia, also with jurisdiction in Croatia and Dalmatia. Around the same time, B?la married Maria, a daughter of Theodore I Laskaris, Emperor of Nicaea. From 1226, he governed Transylvania with the title Duke. He supported Christian missions among the pagan Cumans who dwelled in the plains to the east of his province. Some Cuman chieftains acknowledged his suzerainty and he adopted the title of King of Cumania in 1233. King Andrew died on 21 September 1235 and B?la suceeded him. He attempted to restore royal authority which had under his father diminished. For this purpose, he revised his predecessors' land grants and reclaimed former royal estates, causing discontent among the noblemen and the prelates.The Mongols invaded Hungary and annihilated B?la's army in the Battle of Mohi on 11 April 1241. He escaped from the battlefield, but a Mongol detachment chased him from town to town as far as Trogir on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. He survived the invasion, but the Mongols devastated the country before their unexpected withdrawal in March 1242. B?la introduced radical reforms in order to prepare his kingdom for a second Mongol invasion. He allowed the barons and the prelates to erect stone fortresses and to set up their private armed forces. He promoted the development of fortified towns. During his reign, thousands of colonists arrived from the Holy Roman Empire, Poland and other neighboring regions to settle in the lands depopulated. B?la's efforts to rebuild his devastated country won him the epithet of "second founder of the state" (Hungarian: m?sodik honalap?t?).He set up a defensive alliance against the Mongols, which included Daniil Romanovich, Prince of Halych, Boleslaw the Chaste, Duke of Cracow and other Ruthenian and Polish princes. His allies supported him in occupying the Duchy of Styria in 1254, but it was lost to King Ottokar II of Bohemia in six years. During B?la's reign, a wide buffer zone?which included Bosnia, Barancs (Branicevo, Serbia) and other newly conquered regions?was established along the southern frontier of Hungary in the 1250s.B?la's relationship with his oldest son and heir, Stephen became tense in the early 1260s, because the elderly king favored his daughter, Anna and his youngest child, B?la, Duke of Slavonia. Stephen even forced B?la to cede the territories of the Kingdom of Hungary east of the river Danube to him, causing a civil war which lasted till 1266. Nevertheless, B?la's family was famed for his piety. B?la died as a Franciscan tertiary, and the veneration of his three saintly daughters?Kunigunda, Yolanda, and Margaret?was confirmed by the Holy See.
Active years end year
1270
Birth date
1206-11-29
Birth year
1206
Death date
1270-05-03
Death year
1270
Predecessor
Andrew II of Hungary
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