page_title: Stephen IV of Hungary
section_title: In exile (1157–1162)
hierarchical_section_title: Stephen IV of Hungary / In exile (1157–1162)
caption_attribution_description: English: Manuscript miniature of Manuel I
context_page_description: Stephen IV was King of Hungary and Croatia, ascending to the throne between 1163 and 1165, when he usurped the crown of his nephew, Stephen III. He was the third son of Béla II of Hungary, and when his conspiracy against his brother Géza II failed, he was exiled from Hungary in the summer of 1157. He first sought refuge in the Holy Roman Empire, but received no support from Emperor Frederick I. Shortly afterwards he moved to the Byzantine Empire, where he married a niece of Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, Maria Komnene, and converted to the Orthodox Church.
  After Géza II died on 31 May 1162, Emperor Manuel attempted to assist Stephen against his nephew and namesake, Stephen III, in seizing the crown. Although the Hungarian lords were willing to leave their young monarch, they sharply opposed Stephen and elected his brother, Ladislaus II, king. Ladislaus II granted the ducatus, or duchy, which included one-third of the kingdom, to Stephen. Ladislaus II died on 14 January 1163, and Stephen succeeded him. Lucas, Archbishop of Esztergom, who remained a staunch supporter of the expelled young Stephen III, denied to crown him and excommunicated him.
context_section_description: Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, was willing to arbitrate the conflict between Géza II and Stephen, and dispatched his envoys to Hungary. In response, Géza sent delegates to the Emperor. Frederick I initially contemplated that "the dispute must be terminated either by a division of the realm or by the condemnation of one or the other", but finally "decided to defer to a more suitable time the settlement of this quarrel", because he was planning to invade Italy. As a result, with Frederick I's consent, Stephen left for Constantinople, as documented by Niketas Choniates, a contemporary historian, who wrote that Stephen fled "from the murderous clutches of his brother".
  The Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos welcomed him and arranged Stephen's marriage with his niece Maria Komnene. According to Gerhoh of Reichersberg, Stephen converted to the Orthodox Church on this occasion. Stephen's brother, Ladislaus, also arrived in Constantinople around 1160, but he refused to marry a relative of the Emperor.
  Manuel I, whose main concern was the insecurity of his empire's eastern frontier at that time, would not assist Stephen, therefore Stephen set out and again visited Emperor Frederick I in Parma, at some point near the end of 1160 or the beginning of 1161. He promised Frederick I "to pay him 3,000 marks every year" if the Emperor assisted him in obtaining Hungary. When Frederick, who was making preparations for the siege of Milan, did not promise any assistance to Stephen, he soon returned to Constantinople. (According to historian Paul Stephenson this episode happened in March 1164.)
  Géza II died on 31 May 1162. Within days, his 15-year-old son, Stephen III, was crowned king by Lucas, Archbishop of Esztergom. Emperor Manuel I sent envoys to Hungary to promote the elder Stephen's claim to the crown against the young King, however, the Hungarian lords opposed him, because "they deemed it disadvantageous to join with a man who was related to the emperor by marriage and feared that as Hungarians they would be governed by him as king while he was ruled" by Emperor Manuel. Stephen returned to Hungary accompanied by a Byzantine army under the command of Alexios Kontostephanos. The Byzantine army marched as far as Haram (now Ram, Serbia), where new negotiations were opened between the Byzantine envoys and the Hungarian lords. They worked out a compromise agreement: the Hungarian lords acknowledged the claim of Stephen's elder brother, Ladislaus, to the crown, forcing Stephen III to flee to Austria six weeks after his coronation.
caption: Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos who was willing to support Stephen in seizing the crown
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