Andrew II of Bohemia and Hungary

### Successor

Andrew III of Hungary(In Hungary, Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Bulgaria)

Ottokar II of Bohemia

(In Bohemia, Serbia, and Czechia)

Lothar, Grand Duke of Bosnia

(In Bosnia and Western Romania)

### Burial

C. 1189Székesfehérvár Basilica, Kingdom of Hungary

### Spouse

Lydia of Kiev(m. 1159 d. 1176)

Maria of Slavonia

(His death)

### Issue

Andrew III of HungaryOttokar II of Bohemia

Elizabeth of Bohemia

Anne of Bohemia

Lothar, Grand Duke of Bosnia

Maria of Hungary

### Religion

Roman Catholicism

**Andrew II of Hungary** known as **Andrew the Haughty** (C. July 1146 - 1189) was King of Bohemia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Albania, and Czechia as well as Grand Duke of Bosnia after inheriting it from his older brother Géza of Hungary. He was the youngest son and child of Ladislaus II of Hungary, and Blanche of France, giving him a distant claim to the French Throne. As a young man, his parents wanted his older brother to become King, and Andrew to become a churchmen, Andrew turned down the oppertunity to become Cardinal of Prauge, which many churchmen where begging for the position, and Andrew instead became Heir to the Kingdom of Bohemia. When Andrew was 13, he married Lydia of Kiev after being rejected by Isabella Stewart who was a Scottish Princess. When Andrew was 24, he became King of Bohemia and he crowned his wife Queen. Lydia wanted to stay in Hungary, not only because she was used to was calm life there, but she was having an affair with Andrew's older brother Géza of Hungary. But nevertheless, Andrew dragged Lydia to Bohemia where Lydia got used to the life there, but she still wanted to move back to Hungary. Andrew's brother died in 1174, with no male heir to his kingdom, and Andrew became King of the Hungarian Empire, Lydia was happy to move back to Hungary and raise her children there, Lydia and Andrew had 4 children, Andrew, Ottokar, Elizabeth, and Anne. But Lydia was not Queen of Hungary for long, a local Lord to Andrew's brother Géza the former king, alerted Andrew of the affair Lydia had with Géza, Andrew was heart-broken and furious. He was so mad he annulled his marriage to Lydia of Kiev, and imprisoned her, the prince of swabia reccomended Andrew marry Maria of Slavonia, the daughter of the Duke of Slavonia, Andrew married Maria while Lydia was still imprisoned, the day before the 12th Crusade, Andrew stabbed Lydia of Kiev to get rid of her for good, her body was buried in Budapest Cathedral. Andrew had good relationship with Maria of Slavonia and they had 2 children, Lothar and Maria. Maria of Slavonia though a kind and flexible Queen, forbid Lydia of Kiev's name to be spoken in the Palace, those who said her name in front of the Queen were executed. Andrew was nicknamed the haughty because of his haughtiness to people he met, he died in the 13th Crusade in battle, in his will he divided his inheritances between his 3 sons. Also even though his brother used the title king of Bohemia, Géza was never actually King of Bohemia, he used the title as a courtsey title.

## Early Life

### Childhood

Andrew of Hungary was born in Budapest in 1146, as the youngest son and child of Ladislaus II of Hungary and Blanche of France. He was handsome and indeed his mother's favorite, and his father's third favorite after Andrew's sibling's Géza of Hungary and Judith of Hungary. Andrew was mostly raised by his mother in Budapest Castle, but Andrew loved taking trips to Serbia and Bohemia, at a young age his parents always expressed there desire for Andrew to remain unmarried and take a powerful position as Cardinal of Prauge. Andrew also liked going to France to visit his grand-mother Eleanor of Aquitaine, who nicknamed Andrew, "Alexander." Andrew also liked visiting his paternal grand-mother, Ines of Byzantine. Andrew studied religion, math, politics, writing, reading, and hunting, Andrew never got bored of studying and on school days he would wake up at 12:00 in the night to begin studying, he even studied on weekends.

### Education

Andrew was tutored by the best teachers in the world at the time, one of his teachers, Eric of Svealand, the youngest child of the King of Svealand, tutored Andrew everyday, and wrote of Andrew as the smartest and handsomest man in Europe, Andrew's mother Blanche was surprised her son was smarter then Géza, and indeed intended to make Andrew a Cardinal, but Andrew did not wan't to become a Cardinal. He had attraction to woman and cardinals could not, his parents respected Andrew's wishes and did not make him become a cardinal, but the left the position unfilled just in case Andrew were to change his mind.

### Betrothal

Sense Andrew was not going to become a cardinal, his parents where not going to just let Andrew have a bunch on mistresses and never marry. Andrew was made heir to the Kingdom of Bohemia. After Andrew's brother Géza was rejected by a beautiful Scottish princess named Isabella Stewart, Andrew thought he may have a chance after he heard of the princesses beauty, he traveled to Edinburgh where Isabella was, there a lot of kings were trying to win the hand of the beauty. When Andrew arrived the Scottish Princess was unimpressed with the handsome king, and she told her parents "I would rather burn in a fire, then marry this Mandrake Mymmerkin." Andrew returned home and the Prince of Swabia reccomended Andrew visit Kiev, to find a bride. Andrew arrived in Kiev (Also called the Kieven' Rus) and met the Grand-Prince who was honoured to have the future King of Bohemia in Kiev, and offered him all of his daughters, the Grand-Prince was 37 daughters all by 10 wives, the daughters all fell in love with the handsome future King and acted charming in front of him. One of the daughters was Lydia of Kiev who was considered the Helen of Kiev because of her great beauty, at first the Grand-Prince was unsure if he was going to give up his most beautiful daughter to the future Bohemian King. But Andrew offered a large amount of money to marry her. Andrew Gave the Prince more money then he ever had, which was more the 50,000,000 USD today. The Grand-Prince took off with the money, and let Andrew marry his daughter. Andrew was very rich and handsome which made him beloved by his wife. His wife was very excited to move to Hungary at visit the people, she fell in-love with the Hungarian life-style, and quickly made-herself at home. She gave birth to a son named Andrew of Hungary, whom she named after Andrew. Andrew and Lydia moved to Budapest Castle while the people cheered the couple.

## 9th Crusade

When Andrew was 18, the 9th Crusade was called, the Ottoman Empire focused there way to Bulgaria and more of the Balkans where Andrew and his now 2 children and wife were living. He took his wife and children to France to be put under the protection of Louis VIII of France, his wife convinced Andre w to let her go with him, in the end Andrew agreed and they set for Bulgaria. Lydia proved herself to be a great crusader to her husband, while on crusade, Andrew wen't to Turkey, and Lydia could not go to Turkey because of how dangerous it was at the time, she wen't back to France to pick of her children and then met her brother-in-law Géza. While Andrew was in Modessa, Géza and Lydia fell in love with each-other, they had many affairs behind there spouses's backs, and they secretly wen't to bed with each-other, Andrew was very unaware about this and continued his way through Ankara, where he was nearly killed in fire started by A Romanian overlord, he met his sister Judith of Poland who was also nearly burned, Andrew grabbed his sister and took her to safety in Poland where she was reigning as Queen Consort. Lydia however was still cheating on her husband as well as raising her kids whom she adored with her lover, which was not accepted at the time. Andrew's mother Blanche suffered an injury that left her unable to crusade, Andrew offered his sister Maria of Hungary who was also Queen of Denmark a place to crusade with him, but Maria was to busy started her "Cruel Reign" which she was famous for. Géza started purposely skipping crusades just to be with Andrew's wife, after the 9th crusade, now the 22 year old Andrew left Turkey and wen't to Croatia on tour before finally reaching Hungary, unknown of his wifes affair, he embraced his wife and took her on tour to Flanders in the Netherlands.

## King of Bohemia

Andrew's mother died in 1169, her death was probably related to her injury in the crusades, Andrew's father was so in grief, he died a year later, the will stated Andrew's older brother should inherit the Hungarian Empire, and Andrew inherit Bohemia and Czechia. Andrew was very excited that he finally would become king, and started getting ready to move. Lydia was distraught to leave Hungary, she would not only be leaving a calm and warm place, but she would be saying bye to her lover Géza. Géza promised to write back to Lydia when she was beggining to leave. Lydia cried when she was placed in a carriage off to Bohemia, when Lydia arrived, she brought her 3 children to there new home in Prauge Castle which was not a calm place at all, the Bohemian court was filled with drunken nobles and laughing ministers who all bowed down to Andrew and Lydia when then arrived. A few hours later, they were crowned King and Queen of Bohemia and Czechia. Lydia missed Hungary very much, and she wrote of Géza 5 days a week. Lydia gave birth to a final child, Anne of Bohemia whom she raised by-herself. Lydia knew little Czech unlike Andrew who was reading poems in Czech. When Andrew was 23, he attended the 11th Crusade alone, while Géza snuck into Bohemia to be with Lydia. Andrew wen't to Bulgaria and defeated the mighty Abdul Abdullah de Bin Abdul. But he did lose many armymen and had to pay for armymen from the King of Frances, Englands, Scotland's, Polands, and Armenia's army many times during the crusade.

## King of Hungary

In 1174, Andrew wen't with Géza on a crusade, even though he would have rather been with Lydia of Kiev, Géza thought he did not need the help of his younger brother and ended up dying in battle after being knocked off his horse. When Andrew heard he was the next King, he raced to Budapest with Lydia of Kiev, and they were crowned King and Queen of Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, and Macedonia, along with the title of Prince of Western Romania and Grand-Duke of Bosnia. Lydia was more than happy to move back to Hungary with there children, but sad Géza was dead. Andrew hired a Local Lord as an advisor who had been an advisor to Géza, but this Lord was Lydia of Kiev's downfall. The Local lord knew Géza and Lydia had a romantic relationship that Andrew had no idea about, so the Local Lord told Andrew that Lydia had been cheating on him for more then 11 years. Andrew at first did not believe the local lord, but with enough evidence Andrew found out it was true after-all, the wife he had loved so much loved Géza more. Andrew cried in his bedroom for a day before he finally got out and wen't to the Local Lord, he told the Local Lord (Named Béla Szabó) that if he helped him divorce Lydia of Kiev, he would give him the Bishop-rick of Prauge, a title Andrew was suppose to have, Béla agreed and showed all the evidence to the Pope who was in-charge of royal divorces, Lydia cried for days knowing she would be imprisoned and striped of her title as Queen if she lost, Andrew's children were put in the care of Andrew, and he became a more loving father out of guilt to his children. A the end Lydia lost the case, she was removed from her title as Queen, and taken prisoner in Bosnia. Andrew was under-pressure to remarry, he asked a child-hood friend, the Prince of Swabia for advice, the Prince recomended he marry the sister of his wife, the Prince was married to Catherine of Slavonia, Catherine had an unmarried sister named Maria of Slavonia. Maria was 23, and her father the Duke of Slavonia was keen on marrying her to the divorced Andrew. Andrew arrived in Slavonia and met Maria, he did not feel as romantically connected to her as he had formerly been with his ex-wife, but he chose to marry her anyways, Maria was very keen and excited to become a Queen, she was about to become the only Queen in her family. Andrew took his wife to Hungary and crowned her all the titles Lydia of Kiev once had.

## Murder of Lydia of Kiev

Maria of Slavonia now Queen, had a harsh relationship with her step-children, Maria thought she was supierior and she and her husband were often nicknamed "The Haughty." The day before the 12th Crusade, Maria demanded her husband slay Lydia's throat and bring her body in a wooden basket, Andrew listened to his Queen, and left her in charge on the kingdom of Hungary, Andrew wen't to Lydia's prison, he was going to ask a captor to slay Lydia's throat, but Andrew decided to do this by himself, when he arrived in Lydia's prison a guard in the room wrote down Lydia was begging for mercy when he saw Andrew's knife, Andrew grabbed Lydia's wrist, screamed Maria of Slavonia's name, and then slit Lydia's throat, it took 8 swings to the throat to kill Lydia, Andrew ordered guards to wrap Lydia in a dark cloth and but her in a wooden basket on the boat, when Maria was presented the body she smiled and strangled the dead body, then buried the body in Budapest Cathedral. Maria was given all Lydia's jewels and palaces, which Maria redecorated. Maria then gave birth to a son named Lothar, who became her favorite for his charm.

## Will

At the time, it was quite common for mideval kings to write there will early on, even before they were in there 70's, Andrew who was only in his early 30's, he did not wan't only 1 son to have all the power, so he wanted to do it the way his father had, he gave his oldest son the Hungarian empire, his second son Ottokar in Serbia, Bohemia, and Czechia, and his youngest son Lothar was set to inherit Bosnia and Western Romania, and for his 3 daughters, his eldest Elizabeth of Bohemia became a nun and was later cannonized, but she was set to inherit 5,000 euros which she would spend on charity. And his second daughter Anne of Bohemia was set to marry Leo XI of Armenia and inherit 3,000 euros, and his youngest child and daughter would marry Fulk III of Jerusalem, and inherit 1,000 euros. The will was dictated in Budapest Palace, which none of the son's were happy except Lothar, the son's wanted more, and Andrew gave each son 16,000 euros to stop trying to kill each other, each son took the money, but unsurprisingly they did not keep the promise, Ottokar who was 15 and Andrew of Hungary who was 16 argued there age differences on who should take what, Ottokar said sense he was younger he was more active and energetic then his brother who argued he was older and wiser, despite the fact they only had a 1 year age difference.

## Death

Andrew only reigned for 16 years, while attending the 13th Crusade with Maria of Slavonia, he was struck with an arrow to the heart and collapsed on his horse, his wife was appointed regent for Lothar's territories as the will stated if Andrew were to die when Lothar was under 18, Andrew died on his horse, all though he may have actually died in his bed, his 2 son's the future kings rushed to there new territories to be crowned King. Maria of Slavonia would remarry the Count of Verona and Ragusa and they would go on to live in Italy with Lothar and Maria whom Maria became Queen of Jerusalem. Andrew's reign did not accomplish much other then blood-shed, he was buried Székesfehérvár Basilica where Maria of Slavonia would be buried when she died.