Vajk-István születésének kronológiai problémái

Abstract

The study examines the exact date of the birth of the first Hungarian king, Saint Stephen (1000-1038). According to a theory based on the information of the fourteenth-century chronicle-compilation (Chronicon Pictum) and on the probable date of the baptism of Stephen's father, Duke Géza (around 972) Stephen was born in 969. Another hypothesis based on the testimony of Polish chronicles put this event at 975. Other scholars argued, that the dates provided by these medieval chronicles cannot be taken for granted; and, on the basis of indirect pieces of information referring to his very young age they fixed the birth of Stephen at around 980. The author of the study emphasizes the fact that the first Christian Hungarian ruler was born as Vajk (Waic) and he used this pagan name as grand duke (997-1000) at least up to his coronation in 1000, and afterwards his Christian name were recorded in all cases. The author maintains, that the date of Vajk's baptism might be in 972 or in 995, thus it cannot help in solving the chronological problem of his birth. The exact dates of the chronicles cannot be regarded as authentic because the early parts of the fourteenth-century chroniclecomposition do contain - with the exception of Saint Stephen - only the dates of death and the duration of the rule of the Hungarian kings in the Arpadian age. The indirect references (puer, adolescens, iuvenis) to St. Stephen's age in his legends, in the fourteenth-century chronicle-composition, and in the foundation charter of the Benedictine monastery in Pannonhalma seem too general and hard to interpret appropriately. According to the author of the study the birth of Vajk-István may be put at around 969- 983: probably at around 975 or at the second half of the '70s, since he was quite young in 997 when his opponent Koppány tried to oust him after the death of Duke Géza.