BELA III

This article appears in Volume V03, Page 662 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: BEC-BER

BELA III . (d. 1196), king of Hungary, was the second son of King Geza II. Educated at the Byzantine court, where he had been compelled to seek

refuge

REFUGE

, he was fortunate enough to win the friendship of the brilliant emperor Manuel who, before the

birth

BIRTH (a word common in various forms to Teutonic languages from the root of the verb " to bear ")

of his own son Alexius, intended to make

Bela

BELA
BELA, LAS BELA

his successor and betrothed him to his daughter. Subsequently, however, he married the handsome and promising youth to Agnes of Chatilion, duchess of Antioch, and in 1173 placed him, by force of arms, on the Hungarian throne, first expelling

Bela

BELA
BELA, LAS BELA

's younger brother Geza, who was supported by the Catholic party. Initiated from childhood in all the arts of diplomacy at what was then the

focus

FOCUS (Latin for " hearth " or " fireplace ")

of civilization, and as much a warrior by nature as his imperial kinsman Manuel, Bela showed himself from the first fully equal to all the difficulties of his peculiar position. He began by adopting Catholicism and boldly seeking the assistance of Rome. He then made what had hitherto been an elective a hereditary throne by crowning his infant son Emerich his successor. In the beginning of his reign he adopted a prudent policy of amity with his two most powerful neighbours, the emperors of the

East

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

and West, but the death of Manuel in 1180 gave Hungary once more a free hand in the affairs of the Balkan Peninsula, her natural sphere of influence. The attempt to recover Dalmatia, which involved Bela in two bloody wars with Venice (118188 and 1190-91), was only partially successful. But he assisted the Rascians or Serbs (see HUNGARY: History) to throw off the Greek yoke and establish a native dynasty, and attempted to made Galicia an appanage of his younger son Andrew. It was in Bela's reign that the emperor Frederick I., in the

spring

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger. springer, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

of 1189, traversed Hungary with roo,000 crusaders, on which occasion the country was so well policed that no harm was done to it and the inhabitants profited largely from their commerce with the German host. In his last years Bela assisted the Greek emperor Isaac II. Angelus against the Bulgarians. His first wife bore Bela two sons, Emerichyand Andrew. On her death he married Margaret of France, sister of King Philip

Augustus

AUGUSTUS (a name 1 derived from Lat. augeo, increase, i.e. venerable, majestic, Gr. Ee0avr6s)

. Bela was in every sense of the word a

great

GREAT

statesman, and his court was accounted one of the most brilliant in Europe.
For an account of his internal reforms see HUNGARY. Though the poet Ede Szigligeti has immortalized his memory in the play Bela III., we have no historical monograph of him, but in Ignacz Acs'ady, History of the Hungarian Realm (Hung.), i. 2 (Budapest, 1903), there is an excellent account of his reign. (R. N. B.)

End of Article: BELA III

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/BEC_BER/BELA_III.html">
BELA III
</a>

(Previous)
BELA

(Next)
BELA IV

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email