Stephen I of Hungary

Stephen I, also Saint Stephen, (I. Szent István; Sanctus Stephanus; Štefan I. or Štefan Veľký) was the last Grand Prince of the Hungarians between 997 and 1000 or 1001, and the first King of Hungary from 1000 or 1001 until his death in 1038. He was born as Vajk in Esztergom. The year of his birth is uncertain, but many details of his life suggest that he was born in or after 975. He was the only son of Grand Prince Géza and his wife, Sarolt, who was descended from the prominent family of the gyulas. Although both of his parents were baptized, Stephen was the first member of his family to become a devout Christian. He married Gisela of Bavaria, a scion of the imperial Ottonian dynasty.

After succeeding his father in 997, Stephen had to fight for the throne against his relative, Koppány, who was supported by large numbers of pagan warriors. He defeated Koppány mainly with the assistance of foreign knights, including Vecelin, Hont and Pázmány, but also with help from native lords. He was crowned on 25 December 1000 or 1 January 1001 with a crown sent by Pope Sylvester II. In a series of wars against semi-independent tribes and chieftains—including the Black Hungarians and his uncle, Gyula the Younger—he unified the Carpathian Basin. He protected the independence of his kingdom by forcing the invading troops of Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor to withdraw from Hungary in 1030.

Stephen established at least one archbishopric, six bishoprics and three Benedictine monasteries; thus the Church in Hungary developed independently of the archbishops of the Holy Roman Empire. He ensured the spread of Christianity among his subjects with severe punishments for ignoring Christian customs. His system of local administration was based on counties organized around fortresses and administered by royal officials. Hungary, which enjoyed a lasting period of peace during his reign, became a preferred route for pilgrims and merchants traveling between Western Europe and the Holy Land or Constantinople.

He survived all of his children, which caused bitter conflicts among his relatives, lasting for decades. He died on 15 August 1038 and was buried in his new basilica, built in Székesfehérvár and dedicated to the Holy Virgin. Pope Gregory VII canonized him together with his son, Emeric, and Bishop Gerard of Csanád, in 1083. Stephen is a popular saint in Hungary and the neighboring territories. In Hungary, his feast day (celebrated on 20 August) is also a public holiday commemorating the foundation of the state.

Early years (c. 975–997)
The date of Stephen's birth is uncertain, because it was not recorded in contemporaneous documents. Hungarian and Polish chronicles written centuries later give three different years: 967, 969 and 975. The unanimous testimony of his legends and other Hungarian sources, which state that Stephen was "still an adolescent" in 997, substantiate the reliability of the later year (975). Stephen's Lesser Legend adds that he was born in Esztergom. His place of birth also implies that he was born after 972, because his father, Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians, chose Esztergom as royal residence around that year.

Hungarian chronicles unanimously report that Stephen's mother was Sarolt, a daughter of Gyula, a Hungarian chieftain with jurisdiction either in Transylvania or in the wider region of the confluence of the rivers Tisza and Maros. Many historians—including Pál Engel and Gyula Kristó—propose that her father was identical with "Gylas", who had around 952 been baptized in Constantinople and "remained faithful to Christianity", according to the Byzantine chronicler, John Skylitzes. However, this identification is not unanimously accepted; for instance, historian György Györffy says that it was not Sarolt's father, but his younger brother who was baptized in the Byzantine capital. In contrast with all Hungarian sources, the Polish-Hungarian Chronicle and later Polish sources state that Stephen's mother was Adelhaid, an otherwise unknown sister of Duke Mieszko I of Poland, but the reliability of this report is dubious. He was born as Vajk, which derived from a Turkic word baj, meaning "hero", "master", "prince", or "rich". Stephen's Greater Legend narrates that he was baptized by the saintly Bishop Adalbert of Prague, who stayed in Géza's court several times between 983 and 994. However, St Adalbert's nearly contemporaneous Legend, written by Bruno of Querfurt, does not mention of the event. Accordingly, the date of Stephen's baptism is unknown: Györffy argues that Stephen was baptized soon after birth, while Kristó proposes that he only received baptism just before his father's death in 997. He was given his baptismal name in honour of the first martyr, Saint Stephen.

Stephen's official biography, written by Bishop Hartvik, narrates that he "was fully instructed in knowledge of the grammatical art" in his childhood, implying that he studied Latin. His two other legends do not mention Stephen's grammatical studies. They only state that he "was brought up by receiving an education appropriate for a little prince". Kristó says that the latter remark only refers to Stephen's physical training, including his participation in hunts and military actions. According to the Illuminated Chronicle, one of his tutors was a Count Deodatus from Italy, who later founded a monastery in Tata.

According to Stephen's legends, Grand Prince Géza convoked an assembly of the Hungarian chieftains and warriors when Stephen "ascended to the first stage of adolescence", when he was 14 or 15. Géza nominated Stephen as his successor and all those who were present took an oath of loyalty to the young prince. Györffy also writes, without referring to his source, that Géza appointed his son to rule the "Nyitra ducate" around that time. Slovak historians, including Ján Steinhübel and Ján Lukačka, accept Györffy's view and propose that Stephen administered Nyitra (now Nitra, Slovakia) from around 995.

Upon his father's initiative, Stephen married Gisela, the daughter of Henry the Wrangler, Duke of Bavaria (r. 955–995) in or after 995. This marriage established the first family link between a Hungarian ruler and a Western European ruling house, because Gisella was closely related to the Ottonian dynasty of the Holy Roman Emperors. According to popular tradition preserved in the Scheyern Abbey in Bavaria, the ceremony took place at the castle of Scheyern and was celebrated by Bishop Adalbert of Prague. Gisela was accompanied to her new home by Bavarian knights, many of whom received land grants from her husband and settled in Hungary. The arrival of these heavy-armed warriors strengthened Stephen's military position. Györffy writes that Stephen and his wife "presumably" settled in Nyitra after their marriage.

Grand Prince (997–1000)
Grand Prince Géza died in 997. Stephen soon convoked an assembly to Esztergom where his supporters declared him grand prince. Initially, he only controlled the northwestern regions of the Carpathian Basin; the rest of the territory was still dominated by tribal chieftains. Stephen's ascension to the throne was in line with the principle of primogeniture which prescribed that a father was succeeded by his son. On the other hand, it contradicted the traditional idea of seniority, according to which Géza should have been succeeded by the most senior member of the Árpád dynasty, who was Koppány at that time. Koppány, who held the title of duke of Somogy, had for many years administered the regions of Transdanubia to the south of Lake Balaton.

Koppány announced his claim to the throne and rebelled against Stephen. He also decided to marry Géza's widow, Sarolt, in accordance with the pagan custom of levirate marriage. Although it is not impossible that Koppány had already in 972 been baptized, most of his supporters were pagans, opponents of Christianity represented by Stephen and his predominantly German retinue. A charter of 1002 for the Pannonhalma Archabbey even writes of a war between "the Germans and the Hungarians" when referring to the armed conflicts between Stephen and Koppány. Even so, Györffy says that Oszlar ("Alan"), Besenyő ("Pecheneg"), Kér and other place names, referring to ethnic groups or Hungarian tribes in Transdanubia around the supposed borders of Koppány's duchy, suggest that significant auxiliary units and groups of Hungarian warriors—who had been settled there by Grand Prince Géza—fought in Stephen's army. Kristó states that the entire conflict between Stephen and Koppány was only a feud between two members of the Árpád dynasty, with no effect on other Hungarian tribal leaders. Koppány and his troops invaded the northern regions of Transdanubia, took many of Stephen's forts and plundered his lands. Stephen, who "was for the first time girded with his sword", according to the Illuminated Chronicle placed the brothers Hont and Pázmány at the head of his own guard and nominated Vecelin to lead the royal army. The latter was a German knight who had come to Hungary in the reign of Géza. Hont and Pázmány were, according to Simon of Kéza's Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum and the Illuminated Chronicle, "knights of Swabian origin" who settled in Hungary either under Géza or in the first years of Stephen's reign. On the other hand, Lukačka and other Slovak historians say that Hont and Pázmány were "Slovak" noblemen who had joined Stephen during his rule in Nyitra.

Koppány was besieging Veszprém when he was informed of the arrival of Stephen's army. In the ensuing battle, Stephen won a decisive victory over his enemies. Koppány was killed on the battlefield. His body was quartered and its parts were displayed at the gates of the forts of Esztergom, Győr, Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia, Romania) and Veszprém in order to threaten all of those who were conspiring against the young monarch.

Stephen occupied Koppány's duchy and granted large estates to his own partisans. According to the interpolated deed of the foundation of the Pannonhalma Archabbey, he also prescribed that Koppány's former subjects were to pay tithe to this monastery. The same document declares that "there were no other bishoprics and monasteries in Hungary" at that time. On the other hand, the nearly contemporary Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg clearly states that Stephen "established bishoprics in his kingdom" before being crowned king. If the latter report is valid, the dioceses of Veszprém and Győr are the most probable candidates.

Coronation (1000–1001)
When sending one part of Koppány's quartered corpse to Gyulafehérvár, the seat of his maternal uncle, Gyula the Younger, Stephen demonstrated his claim to reign all lands dominated by Hungarian lords. He also decided to confirm his international position by adopting the title of king. However, the exact circumstances of his coronation and its political consequences are subject to scholarly debate.

Thietmar of Merseburg writes that Stephen received the crown "with the favour and urging" of Emperor Otto III (r. 996–1002), implying that Stephen accepted the Emperor's suzerainty before his coronation. On the other hand, all of Stephen's legends emphasize that he received his crown from Pope Sylvester II (r. 999–1003). Kristó and other historians point out that Pope Sylvester and Emperor Otto were close allies, which implies that both reports are valid: Stephen "received the crown and consecration" from the Pope, but not without the Emperor's consent. Around 75 years after the coronation, Pope Gregory VII (r. 1075–1085), who claimed suzerainty over Hungary, declared that Stephen had "offered and devotedly surrendered" Hungary "to Saint Peter" (that is to the Holy See). In a contrasting report, Stephen's Greater Legend states that the King offered Hungary to the Virgin Mary. Modern historians—including Pál Engel, and Miklós Molnár—write that Stephen always demonstrated his sovereignty, which excludes that he ever accepted papal or imperial suzerainty. For instance, none of his charters were dated according to the years of the reign of the contemporary emperors, which would have been the case if he had been the German monarch's vassal. Furthermore, Stephen declared in the preamble to his First Book of Laws that he governed his realm "by the will of God".

The exact date of Stephen's coronation is unknown. According to later Hungarian tradition, he was crowned on the first day of the second millennium, which may refer either to 25 December 1000 or to 1 January 1001. Details of Stephen's coronation preserved in his Greater Legend suggest that the ceremony, which took place in Esztergom, followed the rite of the coronation of the German kings. Accordingly, Stephen was anointed with consecrated oil during the ceremony. Stephen's portrait, preserved on his royal cloak from 1031, proves that his crown, similarly to the Holy Roman Emperor's diadem, was a hoop crown decorated with gemstones.

Besides his crown, Stephen regarded a spear with a flag as an important symbol of his sovereignty. For instance, his first coins bear the inscription LANCEA REGIS ("the king's spear") and depict an arm holding a spear with flag. According to the contemporaneous Adémar de Chabannes, a spear had been given to Stephen's father by Emperor Otto III in a token of Géza's right to "enjoy the most freedom in the possession of his country". Stephen is styled in various ways—Ungarorum rex ("king of the Hungarians"), Pannoniorum rex ("king of the Pannonians") or Hungarie rex ("king of Hungary")—in his charters.

Consolidation (1001–c. 1009)
Although Stephen's power did not rely on his coronation, the ceremony granted him the internationally accepted legitimacy of a Christian monarch who ruled his realm "by the Grace of God". All his legends testify that he established an archbishopric with its see in Esztergom shortly after his coronation. This act ensured that the Church in Hungary became independent of the prelates of the Holy Roman Empire. The earliest reference to an archbishop of Esztergom, named Domokos, has been preserved in the deed of foundation of the Pannonhalma Archabbey from 1002. According to historian Gábor Thoroczkay, Stephen also established the Diocese of Kalocsa in 1001. Stephen invited foreign priests to Hungary to evangelize his kingdom. Associates of the late Adalbert of Prague, including Radla and Astrik, arrived in Hungary in the first years of his reign.

The transformation of Hungary into a Christian state was one of Stephen's principal concerns throughout his reign. His legislative activity was closely connected with Christianity. For example, his First Book of Laws from the first years of his reign includes several provisions prescribing the observance of feast days and the confession before death. His other laws protected property rights and the interests of widows and orphans, or regulated the status of serfs.

"If someone has such a hardened heart—God forbid it to any Christian—that he does not want to confess his faults according to the counsel of a priest, he shall lie without any divine service and alms like an infidel. If his relatives and neighbors fail to summon the priest, and therefore he should die unconfessed, prayers and alms should be offered, but his relatives shall wash away their negligence by fasting in accordance with the judgement of the priests. Those who die a sudden death shall be buried with all ecclesiastical honor; for divine judgment is hidden from us and unknown.''"

- ''Laws of King Stephen I

Many Hungarian lords refused to accept Stephen's suzerainty even after his coronation. The new King first turned against his own uncle, Gyula the Younger, whose realm "was most wide and rich", according to the Illuminated Chronicle. Stephen invaded Transylvania and seized Gyula and his family around 1002 or in 1003. The contemporary Annals of Hildesheim adds that Stephen converted his uncle's "country to the Christian faith by force" after its conquest. Accordingly, historians date the establishment of the Diocese of Translyvania to this period. If the identification, proposed by Kristó, Györffy and other Hungarian historians, of Gyula with one Prokui—who was Stephen's uncle according to Thietmar of Merseburg—is valid, Gyula later escaped from captivity and fled to Boleslav the Brave, Duke of Poland (r. 992–1025).

"[Duke Boleslav the Brave's] territory included a certain burg, located near the border with the Hungarians. Its guardian was lord Prokui, an uncle of the Hungarian king. Both in the past and more recently, Prokui had been driven from his lands by the king and his wife had been taken captive. When he was unable to free her, his nephew arranged for her unconditional release, even though he was Prokui's enemy. I have never heard of anyone who showed such restraint towards a defeated foe. Because of this, God repeatedly granted him victory, not only in the burg mentioned above, but in others as well."

- Thietmar of Merseburg: Chronicum

About a hundred years later the chronicler Gallus Anonymus also made mention of armed conflicts between Stephen and Boleslav the Brave, by stating that the latter "defeated the Hungarians in battle and made himself master of all their lands as far as the Danube". Györffy says that the chronicler's report refers to the occupation of the valley of the river Morava by the Poles in the 1010s. On the other hand, the Polish-Hungarian Chronicle states that the Polish duke occupied large territories north of the Danube as far as Esztergom in the early 1000s. According to Steinhübel, the latter source proves that a significant part of the lands that now form Slovakia were under Polish rule between 1002 and 1030. In contrast with the Slovak historian, Györffy writes that this late chronicle "in which one absurdity follows another" contradicts all facts known from 11th-century sources. The Illuminated Chronicle narrates that Stephen "led his army against Kean, Duke of the Bulgarians and Slavs whose lands are by their natural position most strongly fortified" following the occupation of Gyula's country. According to a number of historians, including Zoltán Lenkey and Gábor Thoroczkay, Kean was the head of a small state located in the southern parts of Transylvania and Stephen occupied his country around 1003. Other historians, including Györffy, say that the chronicle's report preserved the memory of Stephen's campaign against Bulgaria in the late 1010s.

Likewise, the identification of the "Black Hungarians" —who were mentioned by Bruno of Querfurt and Adémar de Chabannes among the opponents of Stephen's proselytizing policy—is uncertain. Györffy locates their lands to the east of the river Tisza, while Thoroczkay to the southern parts of Transdanubia. Bruno of Querfurt's report of the Black Hungarians' conversion by force suggests that Stephen conquered their lands at the latest in 1009 when "the first mission of Saint Peter"—a papal legate, Cardinal Azo—arrived in Hungary. The latter attended the meeting in Győr where the royal charter determining the borders of the newly established Bishopric of Pécs was issued on August 23, 1009.

The Diocese of Eger was also set up around 1009. According to Thoroczkay, "it is very probable" that the bishopric's establishment was connected with the conversion of the Kabars—an ethnic group of Khazar origin— and their chieftain. The head of the Kavars—who was either Samuel Aba or his father— married Stephen's unnamed younger sister on this occasion. The Aba clan was the most powerful among the native families who joined Stephen and supported him in his efforts to establish a Christian monarchy. The reports by Anonymous, Simon of Kéza and other Hungarian chroniclers of the Bár-Kalán, Csák and other 13th-century noble families descending from Hungarian chieftains prove that other native families were also involved in the process.

Stephen abolished tribal divisions and set up a territory-based administrative system, establishing counties. Each county, headed a by royal official known as a count or ispán, were administrative units organized around royal fortresses. Most fortresses were earthworks in this period, but the castles at Esztergom, Székesfehérvár and Veszprém were built of stone. Forts serving as county seats also became the nuclei of Church organization. The settlements developing around them, where markets were held on each Sunday, were important local economic centers.

Active foreign policy (c. 1009–1031)
Stephen's brother-in-law, Henry II, became King of Germany in 1002 and Holy Roman Emperor in 1013. Their friendly relationship ensured that the western borders of Hungary experienced a period of peace in the first decades of the 11th century. Even when Henry II's discontented brother, Bruno, sought refugee in Hungary in 1004, Stephen preserved the peace with Germany and negotiated a settlement between his two brothers-in-law. Around 1009, he gave his younger sister in marriage to Otto Orseolo, Doge of Venice (r. 1008–1026), a close ally of the Byzantine Emperor, Basil II (r. 976–1025), which suggests that Hungary's relationship with the Byzantine Empire was also peaceful.

On the other hand, the alliance between Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire brought her into a war with Poland lasting from around 1014 until 1018. The Poles occupied the Hungarian posts along the river Morava. Györffy and Kristó write that a Pecheneg incursion into Transylvania, the memory of which has been preserved in Stephen's legends, also took place in this period, because the Pechenegs were close allies of Boleslav the Brave's brother-in-law, Grand Prince Sviatopolk I of Kiev (r. 1015–1019). However, 500 Hungarian horsemen who accompanied Boleslav the Brave to Kiev already in 1018 indicate that Hungary had been included in the Peace of Bautzen between Poland and the Holy Roman Empire. The historian Ferenc Makk says that the peace treaty obliged Boleslav the Brave to hand over all the territories he had occupied in the Morava valley to Stephen.

"For some night suddenly awakaned by some revelation, [Stephen] ordered a courier to hasten in one day and night to Alba in Transylvania, and gather all those living in the country within the fortifications of the city as fast as he could. For he foretold that the enemies of Christians would come upon them, the Pechenegs, who then threatened the Hungarians, in order to plunder their estate. Scarcely had the messenger completed the orders of the king, when behold the unexpected onslaught of the Pechenegs devastated everything by burning and plundering. Through the revelation of God, which was granted because of the merits of the blessed man, the souls of everyone were saved by the shelter of the fortifications."

- Hartvic, Life of King Stephen of Hungary

According to Leodvin, the first known Bishop of Bihar (r. c. 1050 – c. 1060), Stephen allied with the Byzantines and made a military expedition in order to assist them against "barbarians" in the Balkan Peninsula. The Byzantine and Hungarian troops jointly took "Cesaries", a town identified with Ohrid by Györffy and other historians. Here, Stephen collected relics of a number of saints, including Saint George and Saint Nicholas of Myra. Leodvin's report suggests that Stephen intervened in the war ending with the Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria in 1018. However, the exact date of his expedition is uncertain. Györffy argues that it was only in the last year of the war that Stephen led his troops against the Bulgarians, because in the previous years he had fought against the Poles. Stephen donated the relics acquired in Cesaries to his triple-naved, new basilica dedicated to the Holy Virgin in Székesfehérvár. He also set up a cathedral chapter here. Stephen transferred his seat from Esztergom to Székesfehérvár. His decision was not independent of the opening, in 1018 or 1019, of a new pilgrimage route, connecting Western Europe and the Holy Land through Hungary, while bypassing his old seat. Stephen often met the pilgrims, contributing to the spread of his fame throughout Europe. Abbot Odilo of Cluny, for example, wrote in his letter to Stephen that "those who have returned from the shrine of our Lord" testify to the king's passion "towards the honour of our divine religion". Stephen himself also established four hostels for pilgrims in Constantinople, Jerusalem, Ravenna and Rome.

"[Almost] all those from Italy and Gaul who wished to go to the Sepulchre of the Lord at Jerusalem abandoned the usual route, which was by sea, making their way through the country of King Stephen. He made the road safe for everyone, welcomed as brothers all he saw and gave them enormous gifts. This action led many people, nobles and commoners, to go to Jerusalem."

- Rodulfus Glaber: The Five Books of the Histories

In addition to pilgrims, merchants often used the safe route across Hungary when travelling between Constantinople and Western Europe. Stephen's legends also write of 60 wealthy Pechenegs who travelled to Hungary, but were attacked by Hungarian border guards. The king sentenced his soldiers to death in order to demonstrate his determination to preserve internal peace. Regular minting also began in Hungary in the 1020s. Stephen's silver dinars bearing the inscriptions STEPHANUS REX ("King Stephen") and REGIA CIVITAS ("royal city") were popular in contemporary Europe, as demonstrated by their conterfeited copies unearthed in Sweden. Stephen convinced some pilgrims and merchants to settle in Hungary. Gerard, a member of the Sagredo or Morosini family, who arrived in Hungary from the Republic of Venice between 1020 and 1026 initially planned to continue his journey to the Holy Land, but decided to stay in the country after his meeting with the king. Stephen also established a number of Benedictine monasteries—including the abbeys at Pécsvárad, Zalavár and Bakonybél—in this period.

Stephen's brother-in-law, Emperor Henry, died on 13 July 1024. He was succeeded by a distant relative, Conrad II (r. 1024–1039), who adopted an active foreign policy. Conrad II expelled Doge Otto Orseolo—the husband of Stephen's sister—from Venice in 1026. He also persuaded the Bavarians to proclaim his own son, Henry, as their duke in 1027, although Stephen's son, Emeric had a strong claim to the Duchy of Bavaria through his mother.

Emperor Conrad planned a marriage alliance with the Byzantine Empire and dispatched one of his advisors, Bishop Werner of Strasbourg, to Constantinople. The bishop seemingly travelled as a pilgrim, but Stephen, who had been informed on his actual purpose, refused to let him enter into his country in the autumn of 1027. Conrad II's biographer, Wipo of Burgundy narrated that the Bavarians incited skirmishes along the common borders of Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire in 1029, causing a rapid deterioration in relations between the two countries.

Stephen's conflict with Ajtony, a chieftain in the region of the river Maros—which is narrated in the Long Life of Saint Gerard—is also dated by many historians to the very end of the 1020s, although Györffy and other scholars wrote that it happened at least a decade earlier. The conflict arose when Ajtony, who "had taken his power from the Greeks", levied tax on the salt transported to Stephen on the river. The king sent a large army led by Csanád against Ajtony, who was killed in a battle. His lands were transformed into a county and the king set up a new bishopric at Csanád (Cenad, Romania), the former seat of Ajtony, which was renamed after the commander of the royal army. According to the Annales Posonienses, the Venetian Gerard was consecrated as the first bishop of the new diocese in 1030.

Emperor Conrad personally led his armies to Hungary in June 1030 and plundered the lands west of the River Rába. However, as the Annals of Niederalteich reported it, the emperor, suffering from consequences of the scorched earth tactics applied by the Hungarian army, returned to Germany "without an army and without achieving anything, because the army was threatened by starvation and was captured by the Hungarians at Vienna". The peace was restored after Conrad had ceded the lands between the rivers Lajta and Fischa to Hungary in the summer of 1031.

"At this same time, dissensions arose between the Pannonian nation and the Bavarians, through the fault of the Bavarians. And, as a result, King [Stephen] of Hungary made many incursions and raids in the realm of the Norici (that is, of the Bavarians). Disturbed on this account Emperor Conrad came upon the Hungarians with a great army. But King [Stephen], whose forces were entirely insufficient to meet the Emperor, relled solely on the guardianship of the Lord, which he sought with prayers and fasts proclaimed through his whole realm. Since the Emperor was not able to enter a kingdom so fortified with rivers and forests, he returned, after he had sufficiently avenged his injury with lootings and burnings on the borders of the kingdom; and it was his wish at a more opportune time to complete the things he had begun. His son, King Henry, however, still a young boy entrusted to the care of Eigilbert, bishop of Freising, received a legation of King [Stephen] which asked for peace; and solely with the counsel of the princes of the realm, and without his father's knowledge, he granted the favor of reconciliation."

- Wipo: The Deeds of Conrad II

Last years (1031–1038)
Stephen's biographer, Hartvic, narrates that the King, whose children died one by one in infancy, "restrained the grief over their death by the solace on account of the love of his surviving son", Emeric. However, Emeric was wounded in a hunting accident and died in 1031. After the death of his son, the elderly King could never "fully regain his former health", according to the Illuminated Chronicle. Kristó writes that the picture, which has been preserved in Stephen's legends, of the holy king keeping the vigils and washing the feet of paupers, is connected with Stephen's last years, following the death of his son.

Emeric's death jeopardized his father's achievements in establishing a Christian state, because Stephen's cousin, Vazul—who had the strongest claim to succeede him—was suspected to incline toward paganism. The Annals of Altaich narrated that Stephen disregarded his cousin's claim and nominated his own sister's son, the Venetian Peter Orseolo as his heir. The same source adds that Vazul was captured and blinded; his three sons, Levente, Andrew and Béla, were expelled from Hungary. A report, preserved in Stephen's legends, of an unsuccessful attempt upon the elderly king's life by members of his court indicate that Vazul was mutilated for his participation in the plot. That Vazul's ears were filled with molten lead was only recorded in later sources, including the Illuminated Chronicle.

Provisions in Stephen's Second Book of Laws on the "conspiracy against the king and the kingdom" implies that this book was promulgated after Vazul's unsuccessful plot against Stephen. However, historians have not universally accepted this view. Györffy wrote that the law book was issued, not after 1031, but around 1009. Likewise, the authenticity of Stephen's decree on the tithe is debated: according to Györffy, it is duly attributed to Stephen, but Berend, Laszlovszky and Szakács wrote that it "might be a later addition".

"Ten villages shall build a church and endow it with two manses and the same number of bondmen, a horse and mare, six oxen, two cows, and thirty small animals. The king shall provide vestments and altar cloths, and the bishop the priests and books."

- Laws of King Stephen I

Stephen died on 15 August 1038. He was buried in the basilica of Székesfehérvár. A long period of instability followed his reign, which was characterized by civil wars, pagan uprisings and foreign invasions. The period ended in 1077 when Ladislaus, a grandson of Vazul, ascended the throne.

Family
Stephen married Gisela, a daughter of Duke Henry the Wrangler of Bavaria—himself a nephew of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor—and his wife, Gisela of Burgundy, a member of the Welf dynasty. Born around 985, Gisela was younger than her husband, whom she survived. She abandoned Hungary in 1045 and died as Abbess of the Niedernburg Abbey in Passau in Bavaria around 1060.

Although the Illuminated Chronicle narrates that Stephen "begot many sons", only two of them, Otto and Emeric, are known by name. According to Kristó, Otto was born before 1002 and was named after Emperor Otto III. He died as a child.

Emeric who received the name of his maternal uncle, Emperor Henry II, was born around 1007. His Legend from the early 1100s describes Emeric as a saintly prince who preserved his chastity even during his marriage. According to Györffy, Emeric's wife was a kinswoman of the Byzantine Emperor Basil II. His premature death caused the series of conflicts leading to Vazul's blinding and civil wars.

"Be obedient to me, my son. You are a child, descendant of rich parents, living among soft pillows, who has been caressed and brought up in all kinds of comforts; you have had a part neither in the troubles of the campaigns nor in the various attacks of the pagans in which almost my whole life has been worn away."

- Stephen's Admonitions to his son, Emeric

The following family tree presents Stephen's ancestors and his relatives who are mentioned in the article.

*A Khazar, Pecheneg or Volga Bulgarian lady.
 * Samuel Aba might have been the son of Stephen's sister instead of her husband.

Founder of Hungary
Stephen has always been considered one of the most important statesmen in the history of Hungary. His main achievement was the establishment of a Christian state which ensured that the Hungarians have survived in the Carpathian Basin, in contrast with the Huns, Avars and other peoples who had before them controlled the same territory. Stephen, as Bryan Cartledge emphasizes, also gave his kingdom "forty years of relative peace and sound but unspectacular rule".

His successors, even those who were descended from Vazul, were eager to emphasize their devotion to Stephen's achievements. Vazul's son, Andrew I of Hungary (r. 1046–1060), although he acquired the throne due to a pagan uprising, prohibited pagan rites and declared that all of his subjects should "live in all things according to the law which King St. Stephen had tought them" following his coronation. In medieval Hungary, communities which claimed a privileged status or attempted to preserve their own "liberties" often declared that the origin of their special status was to be attributed to King Saint Stephen. In a letter of 1347, for example, in their grievances against the Pannonhalma Archabbey to the king, the people of Táp stated that taxes levied upon them by the Abbot contradicted "the liberty granted to them in the time of King Saint Stephen".

The Holy King
Stephen's cult emerged after the long period of anarchy characterizing the rule of his immediate successors. His tomb at Székesfehérvár became a popular shrine where healing miracles were said to have occurred. King Ladislaus I of Hungary (r. 1077–1095)—although himself a grandson of Prince Vazul, who had been blinded on Stephen's orders—initiated his canonization, which was permitted by Pope Gregory VII. The ceremony started at Stephen's tomb, where masses of believers spent three days fasting and praying from 15 August 1083. Legend says that Stephen's coffin could not be opened until King Ladislaus held his dethroned cousin, Solomon, in captivity in a prison at Visegrád. Stephen's "balsam-scented" remains were elevated from the coffin, which was filled with "rose-colored water", on 20 August. On the same day, Stephen's son, Emeric, and the holy bishop of Csanád, Gerard, were also canonized.

Stephen's first legend, the so-called Greater Legend, was written between 1077 and 1083. It provided an idealized portrait of the king, who dedicated himself and his kingdom to the Virgin Mary. However, Stephen's Lesser Legend—which was composed around 1100, under King Coloman (r. 1095–1116)—emphasized Stephen's severity, with Györffy's words, "in an unlegendary way". Stephen's third legend was composed, also in King Coloman's reign, by Bishop Hartvik, who based his text on the previous two legends. Sanctioned in 1201 by Pope Innocent III, Hartvik's work served as Stephen's official legend.

Gábor Klaniczay writes that Stephen's legends, suggesting that a monarch can achieve sainthood through actively using his royal powers, "opened a new chapter in the legends of holy rulers as a genre". Stephen was the first triumphant miles Christi ("Christ's soldier") among the canonized monarchs. He was also a "confessor king" whose cult was sanctioned, in contrast with earlier holy monarchs, even though he had not suffered martyrdom.

Stephen's cult spread beyond the borders of Hungary. Initially he was primarily venerated in Scheyern and Bamberg in Bavaria, but his relics were also taken to Aachen, Cologne, Montecassino and Namur. Upon the liberation of Buda from the Ottoman Turks, Pope Innocent XI expanded Stephen's cult to the entire Roman Catholic Church in 1686. He declared 2 September as King Saint Stephen's feast day. As the feast of Saint Joachim was moved, in 1969, from 16 August, the day immediately following the day of Stephen's death, the latter's feast was moved to that date. Stephen is venerated as the patron saint of Hungary. He also protects kings, masons, stonecutters, stonemasons and bricklayers. He is the protector of children suffering from serious illnesses menacing their lives. The canonization of Saint Stephen was recognized by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople in the year 2000. In the calendar of the Hungarian Roman Catholic Church, the feast is observed on 20 August, the day on which his relics were translated. In Hungary, a separate feast day (30 May) is dedicated to Stephen's "Holy Dexter".

His Holy Dexter
Stephen's intact right hand (Szent Jobb) became the subject of a cult after it was miraculously found when his tomb was opened in 1083. In Bihar County, an abbey was dedicated to its veneration and named Szentjobb (Sâniob, Romania) after the relic. The relic was kept for centuries in the monastery with the exception during the Mongol invasion of 1241 and 1242, when it was transferred to Ragusa (Dubrovnik, Croatia). The Holy Dexter was taken to Székesfehérvár around 1420. Following the occupation of the central territories of the Kingdom of Hungary by the Ottoman Turks in the middle of the 16th century, the relic was kept in many places, including Bosnia, Ragusa and Vienna. It was returned to Hungary in 1771 when Queen Maria Theresa (r. 1740–1780) donated it to the cloister of the Sisters of Loreto in Buda. The relic was kept in the St. Sigismund Chapel in the Buda Castle between around 1900 and 1944, in a cave near Salzburg in Austria in 1944 and 1945, by the Sisters of Loreto in Buda between 1945 and 1950, and in the St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest since 1950. An annual procession has celebrated the relic since 1938, but in the period between 1950 and 1987 its celebration was forbidden by the Communist authorities.

"Why is it, brothers, that his other limbs having become disjointed and, his flesh having been reduced to dust, wholly separated, only the right hand, its skin and sinews adhering to the bones, preserved the beauty of wholeness? I surmise that the inscrutability of divine judgement sought to proclaim by the extraordinary nature of this fact nothing less than that the work of love and alms surpasses the measure of all other virtues. ... The right hand of the blessed man was deservedly exempt from putrefaction, because always reflourishing from the flower of kindness it was never empty from giving gifts to nourish the poor."

- Hartvic, Life of King Stephen of Hungary

His Admonitions
Stephen's Greater Legend writes that the King "himself compiled a book for his son on moral education". This work, now known as Admonitions or De institutione morum, was preserved in manuscripts written in the Late Middle Ages. Although scholars debate whether it can actually be attributed to the King or rather to a cleric, most of them agree that it was composed in the first decades of the 11th century.

The Admonitions underlines that kingship is inseparably connected with the Catholic faith. Its author also emphasizes that a monarch is required to make donations to the Church and regularly consult his prelates, but he is entitled to punish clergymen who did wrong. One of the basic ideas expressed in this work was that a sovereign has to cooperate with the "pillars of his rule", meaning the prelates, the aristocrats, the ispáns and the warriors.

"My dearest son, if you desire to honor the royal crown, I advise, I counsel, I urge you above all things to maintain the Catholic and Apostolic faith with such diligence and care that you may be an example for all those placed under you by God, and that all the clergy may rightly call you a man of true Christian profession. Failing to do this, you may be sure that you will not be called a Christian or a son of the Church. Indeed, in the royal palace, after the faith itself, the Church holds second place, first constituted and spread through the whole world by His members, the apostles and holy fathers, And though she always produced fresh offspring, nevertheless in certain places she is regarded as ancient. However, dearest son, even now in our kingdom the Church is proclaimed as young and newly planted; and for that reason she needs more prudent and trustworthy guardians less a benefit which the divine mercy bestowed on us undeservedly should be destroyed and annihilated through your idleness, indolence or neglect."

- Stephen's Admonitions to his son, Emeric

Artistic representation
King Stephen of Hungary has been a popular theme in art, especially since the 19th century, with the development of Romantic nationalism. Paintings, such as The Baptism of Vajk by Gyula Benczúr from 1875), and many statues representing the King throughout Hungary and the neighboring countries testify to Stephen's importance in Hungarian national thought. Ferenc Erkel's last complete opera from 1885, István király ("King Stephen"), was named for him.

Stephen I is also represented in a number of musical compositions. His best known representation in music was Ludwig van Beethoven's King Stephen Overture. In 1938, Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály wrote a choral piece titled Hymn to King Stephen (Ének Szent István Királyhoz). Levente Szörényi and János Bródy composed a rock opera, István, a király ("Stephen, the King"), of the early years of his reign in 1983. A sequel to it, Veled, Uram! ("With You, Lord!"), was composed in 2000 by Szörényi.