The Hungarian invasions of Europe (Hungarian: kalandozások, German: Ungarneinfälle) occurred in the 9th and 10th centuries, during the period of transition in the history of Europe of the Early Middle Ages, when the territory of the former Carolingian Empire was threatened by invasion by the Magyars (Hungarians) from the east, the Viking expansion from the north, and the Arabs from the south.
The Hungarians took possession of the Carpathian Basin (corresponding to the later Kingdom of Hungary) in a planned manner, with a long period of settlement between 862 and 895, and launched a number of campaigns both westward into former Francia and southward into the Byzantine Empire. The westward raids were stopped only with the Magyar defeat at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955, which led to the revival of the Holy Roman Empire in 962, producing a new political order in Western Europe. The raids into Byzantine territories continued throughout the 10th century until the eventual Christianisation of the Magyars and the establishment of the Christian Kingdom of Hungary in 1000.
History
Before the conquest of Hungary (9th century)
The first supposed reference to the Hungarians in war is in the 9th century: in 811, the Hungarians (Magyars) were in alliance with Krum of Bulgaria against Emperor Nikephoros I possibly at the Battle of Pliska in the Haemus Mountains (Balkan Mountains). Georgius Monachus' work mentions that around 837 the Bulgarian Empire sought an alliance with the Hungarians. Constantine Porphyrogenitus wrote in his work On Administering the Empire that the Khagan and the Bek of the Khazars asked the Emperor Theophilos to have the fortress of Sarkel built for them. This record is thought to refer to the Hungarians on the basis that the new fortress must have become necessary because of the appearance of a new enemy of the Khazars, and no other people could have been the Khazars’ enemy at that time. In the 10th century, Ahmad ibn Rustah wrote that "earlier, the Khazars entrenched themselves against the attacks of the Magyars and other peoples".
In 860–861, Hungarians attacked Saint Cyril's convoy, but the meeting is said to have ended peacefully. (Saint Cyril was traveling to the Khagan at (or near) Chersonesos Taurica, which had been captured by the Khazars.)
Muslim geographers recorded that the Magyars regularly attacked the neighboring East Slavic tribes in this period, and took captives to sell to the Byzantine Empire at Kerch. There are descriptions of Hungarian raids into the eastern Carolingian Empire in 862.
In 881, the Hungarians and the Kabars invaded East Francia and fought two battles, the former (Ungari) at Wenia (probably Vienna) and the latter (Cowari) at Culmite (possibly Kulmberg or Kollmitz in Austria). In 892, according to the Annales Fuldenses, King Arnulf of East Francia invaded Great Moravia, and the Magyars joined his troops. After 893, Magyar warriors were conveyed across the Danube by the Byzantine fleet and defeated the Bulgarians in three battles (at the Danube, Silistra, and Preslav). In 894, the Magyars invaded Pannonia in alliance with King Svatopluk I of Moravia.
After the conquest of Hungary (10th century)
Around 896, probably under the leadership of Árpád, the Hungarians (Magyars) crossed the Carpathians and entered the Carpathian Basin (the plains of Hungary, approximately).
In 899, these Magyars defeated Berengar's army in the Battle of Brenta River and invaded the northern regions of Italy. They pillaged the countryside around Treviso, Vicenza, Verona, Brescia, Bergamo and Milan, defeating Braslav, Duke of Lower Pannonia. In 901, they attacked Italy again. In 902, they led a campaign against northern Moravia and defeated the Moravians, whose country was annihilated. In almost every year of the 10th century, they conducted raids against the Catholic west and Byzantine east. However, in 905, the Magyars and King Berengar formed an amicitia, and fifteen years passed without Hungarian troops entering Italy.
The Magyars defeated three large Frankish imperial armies between 907 and 910, as follows. In 907 they defeated the invading Bavarians near Brezalauspurc, destroying their army, successfully defending Hungary and laying Great Moravia, Germany, France and Italy open to Magyar raids. On 3 August 908 the Hungarians won the Battle of Eisenach in Thuringia; Egino, Duke of Thuringia was killed in this battle, along with Burchard, Duke of Thuringia, and Rudolf I, Bishop of Würzburg. Finally, the Magyars defeated Louis the Child's united Frankish imperial army at the first Battle of Lechfeld in 910.
Smaller groups of Magyars penetrated as far as Bremen in 915. In 919, after the death of Conrad I of Germany, the Magyars raided Saxony, Lotharingia, and West Francia. In 921, they defeated King Berengar's enemies at Verona and reached Apulia in 922. Between 917 and 925, the Magyars raided through Basel, Alsace, Burgundy, Provence, and the Pyrenees.
Around 925, according to the Chronicle of the Priest of Dioclea from the late 12th century, Tomislav of Croatia defeated the Magyars in battle; others question the reliability of this account, because there is no proof of this interpretation in other records.
In 926, they ravaged Swabia and Alsace, campaigned through present-day Luxembourg, and reached as far as the Atlantic Ocean. In 927, Peter, brother of Pope John X, called on the Magyars to rule Italy. They marched into Rome and imposed large tribute payments on Tuscany and Tarento. In 933, a substantial Magyar army appeared in Saxony (the pact with the Saxons having expired) but was defeated by Henry I at Merseburg. Magyar attacks continued against Upper Burgundy (in 935) and against Saxony (in 936). In 937, they raided France as far west as Reims, Lotharingia, Swabia, Franconia, the Duchy of Burgundy and Italy as far as Otranto in the south. They attacked Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire, reaching the walls of Constantinople. The Byzantines paid them a “tax” for 15 years. In 938, the Magyars repeatedly attacked Saxony. In 940, they ravaged the region of Rome. In 942, Hungarian raids on Spain, particularly in Catalonia, took place, according to Ibn Hayyan's work. In 947, Bulcsú, a chieftain of Taksony, led a raid into Italy as far as Apulia, and King Berengar II of Italy had to buy peace by paying a large amount of money to him and his followers.
The Battle of Lechfeld in 955, in which the Magyars lost approximately 5,000 warriors, finally checked their expansion although raids on the Byzantine Empire continued until 970. (Lechfeld is south of Augsburg, in present-day southern Germany.)
Between 899 and 970, according to the contemporary sources, the researchers count 45 (according to Nagy Kálmán) or 47 (according to Szabados György 38 to West and 9 to East) raids in different parts of Europe. From these campaigns only 8 (17.5%) were unsuccessful (901, 913, 933, 943, 948, 951, 955, 970) and 37 ended with success (82.5%).
We ask you, even though we are your humble servants, Lord save us from the arrows of the Hungarians!
— Hymn from Modena, around 900
Timeline of the Hungarian invasions
Before the Hungarian Conquest
- 811: The Hungarians were in alliance with Krum of Bulgaria against Emperor Nikephoros I at the Battle of Pliska in the Haemus Mountains (Balkan Mountains).
- 839: The Hungarians, who then lived east of the Carpathians, in Etelköz, fought in the Lower Danube at the request of the First Bulgarian Empire against Byzantine insurgents.
- 861: Saint Cyril was attacked in Crimea by Hungarians "screaming like wolves", but seeing him praying, they became peaceful.
- 862: First raid of the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin at the request of Rastislav of Moravia against East Francia.
- c. 870: al-Djayhani and Ahmad ibn Rustah wrote that the Hungarian tribes attacked the Slavs who lived near their borders, winning many small battles, and took many of them to Kerch in Crimea to sell to the Byzantines as slaves.
- 881: Hungarian troops, helping the Moravians, fought two battles against the Germans.
- 882: The Hungarian ruler met with Saints Cyril and Methodius on the Lower Danube.
- 892: Hungarian troops attacked Great Moravia in alliance with the East Francian king Arnulf of Carinthia.
- 894
- In alliance with Svatopluk I of Moravia, the Hungarians attacked the East Francian province of Pannonia. Svatopluk died during this war.
- The Bulgarians, led by Simeon I of Bulgaria, attacked the Byzantines, who asked for Hungarian help. A Hungarian army, led by Liüntika, defeated the Bulgarian army in three battles (at the Danube, Silistra and Preslav), and forced Simeon to retreat to Silistra.
- 895: Simeon allied with the Pechenegs to attack the Hungarians, forcing them to retreat west towards the Carpathian Basin. The Hungarians then conquered the eastern parts of the Carpathian Basin (those east of the river Danube). Then, the Hungarians defeated the Bulgarians in Southern Transylvania and Tiszántúl, ending their power in the Carpathian Basin.
After the Hungarian conquest
- 899: The Hungarians attacked the Italian Kingdom, and defeated the army of Berengar I of Italy on 24 September, in the Battle of Brenta, burning Modena, and attacking Venice. Berengar agreed to pay them tribute.
- 900: The Hungarians conquered Pannonia, after their proposal of alliance to the East Francians was rejected. This was another step in the Hungarian Conquest.
- 901
- The Hungarians attacked Carinthia and Northern Italy.
- April 11 or 18: The Magyar army from Carinthia was defeated by Margrave Ratold at Laibach.
- 902: The Hungarians conquered the eastern parts of Great Moravia, completing the Hungarian Conquest of the Carpathian Basin, and began forcing the Slavs west and north of this region to pay tribute to them.
- 903: A Hungarian force raiding in Bavaria was defeated near the river Fischa.
- 904
- The Hungarian political and military leader Kurszán (kende, gyula or horka) was invited to a feast and then assassinated by the Bavarians.
- early summer: Hungarian armies march to Lombardy.
- 905
- King Berengar of Italy made alliance with the Hungarians against his enemy, Louis of Provence, who had declared himself emperor of Italy.
- early summer: The Magyars defeat Louis of Provence, who is then blinded by Berengar.
- 906: Two successive Hungarian armies devastated the Duchy of Saxony. The Magyars were asked to come by the Slavic tribe of Dalamancians, which had been threatened by Saxon attacks.
- 907
- July 4–6: An East Francian army led by Luitpold, Margrave of Bavaria, which aimed to expel the Hungarians from the Carpathian Basin, was annihilated by the Hungarian army in the Battle of Pressburg. Luitpold, Dietmar I, Archbishop of Salzburg, Prince Sieghard, 19 counts, 2 bishops, and 3 abbots were killed in the battle, along with most of their soldiers. This battle is considered the conclusion of the Hungarian Conquest.
- July–August: The Hungarians assailed Bavaria, causing great destruction and occupying many towns. Returning home, they defeated a Bavarian army at Lengenfeld. The Hungarian-Bavarian border was then fixed on the Enns river.
- 908: Hungarians attacked Thuringia and Saxony, and on 3 August defeated in the Battle of Eisenach the army of Burchard, Duke of Thuringia. Burchard, Egino, Duke of Thuringia, and Rudolf I, Bishop of Würzburg, were killed in the battle.
- 909
- Spring: Hungarians raided in Bavaria and Swabia.
- August 4: Hungarians burned the two churches of Freising in Bavaria.
- August 11: The returning Hungarians were defeated at Pocking by a Bavarian army led by Arnulf, Duke of Bavaria.
- 910
- June 12: The Hungarians crushed the army of the German king Louis the Child, led by Count Gozbert of Alemannia, in the first Battle of Augsburg. Gozbert and Managolt, count of Alemannia, were killed in the battle.
- June 22: The same Hungarian army entered Franconia, and defeated a united army of the duchies of Franconia, Lotharingia, and Bavaria in the Battle of Rednitz. The German commander Gebhard, Duke of Lorraine and Liudger, Count of Ladengau, were killed in the battle.
- King Louis the Child sued for peace and agreed to pay a tribute.
- The returning Hungarians plundered the outskirts of Regensburg, sack Altaich and Osterhofen, but one of their cavalry units was defeated by Arnulf, Duke of Bavaria at Neuching.
- 911: Hungarian troops crossed Bavaria and attacked Swabia and Franconia, plundering the lands from Meinfeld to Aargau. After that, they crossed the Rhine, and attacked Burgundy for the first time.
- 912: Hungarians attacked Franconia and Thuringia, hoping to force the new East Francian king, Conrad I of Germany, to pay them tribute.