Andrew III, King of Hungary

Andrew III (1198-1243) ruled King of Hungary from 1216 until his death. Andrew was the second monarch of the Poszonian Dynasty, following his father Ladislaus I. Through his mother Matilda the German Andrew was also the grandson of the Holy German Emperor Frederick II.

Andrew's reign was marked by the consolidation of the power of the Parisian Papacy across Hungary, and Andrew himself took part in theological problems, notably persecuting the so-called "Romanists", a group of dissident priests that called for rapproachment with the Roman Papacy particularly and the Uniate Church more generally. This pro-Parisian policy dominated most of Andrew's reign, but relations cooled noticeably from the later 1230s onward, as the Parisian Popes began to support the royal power of Andrew's rival, Stephen III of Croatia, a man who Andrew considered a vassal. In 1240, Andrew's brother Béla, known as Béla the Bloody, led a succesful invasion of Croatia that did much to damage the power of the Croat King.

Through his wife Wyszesława of Galicia, Andrew had two sons, Ladislaus and Stephen. Ladislaus had been groomed to succeed his father since infancy but died in 1242 at the age of eighteen after being thrown from a horse. Andrew died soon afterwards, and the crown instead passed to his relatively unknown and unprepared second son, who took power upon his father's death as Stephen II.