Battle of Kerlés

The Battle of Kerlés (kerlési csata) or Battle of Chiraleș, also known as Battle of Cserhalom, was a major engagement between an army of nomadic marauders and the united troops of King Solomon of Hungary and his cousins, Dukes Géza and Ladislaus, in Transylvania in 1068. Modern historians identify the invaders as Pechenegs or Pechenegs and Ouzes. The Pechenegs had been the dominant power of the westernmost regions of the Eurasian steppes since around 895. However, large Pecheneg groups moved to the Balkan Peninsula, not independently of the westward migration of the Ouzes and Cumans in the 1040s. The first recorded Pecheneg invasion of Transylvania occurred during the reign of Stephen I of Hungary (r. 997-1038).

In 1068, the invaders broke into Transylvania through the passes of the Carpathian Mountains. Archaeological finds suggest that they destroyed at least three fortresses made of earth and timber, including the ones at Doboka (now Dăbâca in Romania) and Sajósárvár (present-day Șirioara). They also made a plundering raid in the Nyírség region, to the west of Transylvania. After taking much booty, they planned to leave Hungary, but the Hungarians ambushed and annihilated them at a hill near Doboka. According to a popular legend, a "Cuman" warrior tried to escape from the battlefield, taking with him a Hungarian girl, but Duke Ladislaus defeated and killed him.

Background
The Pechenegs were the dominant power of the Pontic steppes between around 895 and 1055. Around 895, they defeated the Magyars, or Hungarians, forcing them to leave the steppes and settle in Central Europe. About 45 years later, the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus recorded that one of the Pecheneg "provinces" – the territory dominated by one of the eight Pecheneg tribes – bordered on the land controlled by the Hungarians. According to the same source, the Pechenegs' land was "distant ... a four days journey" from Hungary. However, nothing proves that the Pechenegs and the Hungarians were enemies in the 10th century. On the contrary, they jointly invaded the Byzantine Empire in 934, according to the contemporaneous Arab geographer, Al-Masudi.

After their settlement in the Carpathian Basin, the Hungarians initially preferred the lowlands of the Great Hungarian Plain, because Transylvania (the thickly forested easternmost region of the Basin) could not provide enough fodder for their horses and cattle. However, cemeteries attributed to Hungarian warriors were found at Kolozsvár, Marosgombás (now Cluj-Napoca and Gâmbaș in Romania) and other Transylvanian sites, proving that Hungarian groups settled in the region already in the 10th century. The 14th-century Illuminated Chronicle, which preserved texts from an earlier chronicle, says that "a great and powerful leader", Gyula, "found a great city which had been built in former times by the Romans" while on a hunting in "Erdewl", or Transylvania. Gyula gave his daughter, Sarolt, in marriage to Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians. Géza's and Sarolt's son, Stephen, who was crowned the first king of Hungary in 1000 or 1001, "led an army against King Gyula, a maternal uncle of his" and occupied his country in 1003, according to the Annals of Hildesheim.

The Pechenegs regularly invaded the Byzantine Empire from around 1026, suggesting that their significant groups had moved from the lands east of the Dnieper to the region of the Lower Danube. The Byzantine historians John Skylitzes and George Kedrenos mentioned clashes between the Pechenegs and their eastern neighbors, the Ouzes. The Ouzes had been forced to cross the Volga River by the Cumans. After being defeated in an inter-tribal conflicts, two Pecheneg clans migrated to the Byzantine Empire in the early 1040s. They were followed by a large Pecheneg groups in 1046 or 1047. Skylitzes stated the the latter groups' leader, Tyrach "crossed the Danube with all the [Pechenegs]", but other sources (including the Russian Primary Chronicle) referred to Pecheneg groups who stayed in the steppes north of the Lower Danube. Pressured by both the Cumans and the Rus' princes, the Ouzes moved to the Lower Danube region in 1060 and invaded the Byzantine Empire in 1064. The Cumans routed a Rus' force in 1061 and the united armies of the allied Rus' princes in 1068, which enabled them to took control of the western regions of the Eurasian steppes.

Hungary was exposed to raids by the neighboring nomadic peoples. Coins minted for King Stephen and his successor, Peter, were found at Torda (now Turda in Romania), Kolozsvár and other places, showing that the nearby fortresses were in use in the first half of the 11th century. The Pechenegs made a plundering raid in Transylvania during the reign of King Stephen, according to the king's legends. The chronicle of Henry of Mügeln recorded that the invasion occurred in 1028. Abbot Thierry of St Hubert-en-Ardenne, who wanted to travel through Hungary during his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1053, was forced to return because of an "incursion of barbarians" into Hungary. Historian Jonathan Riley-Smith associates the "barbarians" with the Pechenegs.

The invasion of the Kingdom of Hungary which ended with the Battle of Kerlés occurred during the reign of King Solomon of Hungary. Solomon had ascended the throne with German assistance at the age of ten in 1063. His cousins, Géza, Ladislaus and Lampert, tried to dethrone him with Polish assistance, but he made peace with them, granting Géza their father's duchy which included the parts of Hungary to the east of the river Tisza. Duke Géza's main residence was in the fortress of Bihar (now Biharia in Romania).

The battle
The Illuminated Chronicle and other 14th- and 15th-century Hungarian chronicles preserved a detailed report of the 1068 invasion of the eastern regions of Hungary. The chronicle wrote that the commander of the invaders, Osul, was the retainer of one "Gyula, Duke of the Comans". On the other hand, Simon of Kéza – who thought that the battle had occurred during the reign of Solomon's cousin, Ladislaus – recorded that the marauders were "Bessi", or "Pechenegs, arch-enemies of the Hungarians" in his Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum. The Annales Posonienses also stated that the marauders were Pechenegs, but misdated the battle to 1071. The invasion was misdated to 1059 in a west-Russian chronicle which identified the invaders as Cumans and Vlachs. Modern historians agree that the invaders of 1068 were Pechenegs or Pechenegs and Ouzes, because the ethnonym Cuni could not only refer to Cumans in medieval Hungarian chronicles. Historian István Bóna writes that the reference to "Gyula, Duke of the Comans" in the Illuminated Chronicle preserved the memory of the Pechenegs' Jula tribe who dwelled to the west of the river Dniester.

A layer of black soil and other signs of a general destruction by fire, which are dated to King Solomon's reign, suggest that the fortresses, built of earth and timber, at Doboka, Kolozsvár and Sajósárvár were destroyed in the 1060s. Alexandru Madgearu, István Bóna and other scholars attribute the destruction of the Transylvanian fortresses to the invasion of 1068. The invaders broke into Transylvania through the passes of the Carpathian Mountains. According to historian Florin Curta, the invasion shows that the province prospered in the 1060s.

The Pechenegs crossed the "Gate of Meses" and plundered the Nyírség region, reaching as far as the fortress at Bihar. After taking much booty, they returned to Transylvania along the valley of the river Szamos, planning to return to their homeland through the Borgó Pass (now Tihuța Pass in Romania). King Solomon and his cousins, Dukes Géza and Ladislaus, gathered their troops at the fortress of Doboka to give battle to the marauders near the confluence of the rivers Beszterce and Sajó (now Bistrița and Șieu, respectively). A scout from Marosújvár (now Ocna Mureș in Romania) informed the Hungarian army about the movements of the enemy. In an attempt to avoid the battle, the Pechenegs fled to a hill where the Hungarians annihilated them. The hill was named for the Hungarians' battle cry – Kyrie eleis, according to Bóna. The alternative name of the battle (Battle of Cserhalom) derrived from the mispelling of the name by Antonio Bonfini, who wrote of "Cherhelem" instead of "Kyrie eleis".

Aftermath
The most famous legend of Duke Ladislaus – who was canonized as King St Ladislaus – is connected to the Battle of Kerlés. According to the legend, a "Cuman" warrior tried to escape from the battlefield, taking a beautiful Hungarian girl with him. However, Ladislaus pursued and murdered him with the girl's assistance. The legend was obviously recorded shortly after Ladislaus's death, because it identified the girl as the daughter of the Bishop of Várad, but Ladislaus's successor, Coloman the Learned, prohibited the marriage of bishops. The legend was depicted on the walls of many Hungarian churches, especially in the 15th century.