Stephen II, King of Hungary

Stephen II (1227-1265) was the monarch of Hungary from the death of his father Andrew III in 1243 until his own mysterious demise in 1265. Though Stephen enjoyed a relatively long reign, he is widely considered to be one of the worst Hungarian kings.

A gentle and shy boy, Stephen had largely been brought up by his mother Wyszesława of Galicia. His elder brother Ladislaus was the heir-presumptative of Hungary, and Stephen seems to have entertained hopes of entering the clergy or perhaps a monastery. The unexpected death of Prince Ladislaus in the autumn of 1242 changed all of this, however, and six months later Stephen found himself being crowned as King of the Magyars in Esztergom. At the time of his coronation, Stephen was fifteen years old.

Encouraged by his domineering mother, Stephen initially tried to be an active king of the sort his brother had been groomed to be, taking personal control of the unfinished war in Croatia in 1245. This ended badly, with Stephen only just escaping with his life from one ambush at the hands of his namesake, the Croatian king Stephen III. The experience deeply traumatised the young king, who ceded most effective power to his uncle Prince Béla the Bloody and retreated into isolation with his wife Queen Ibolya, who delivered Stephen three sons and two daughters.

Stephen's reign was marked by violent feuding at court between the party of the "two Queens" (his mother Wyszesława and wife Ibolya) and his uncle Prince Béla: the factions thus became known as the Queens and the Princes. For most of the period, Béla generally held the upper hand but proved unable to decisively establish his dominance due to the reluctance of the king to take a side in the disputes and bring them to a close. The 1250s saw much disturbance as a minor civil war broke out in Hungary coupled with Polish attacks. Though initially the Poles were relatively unsucessful in 1260 they succeeded in killing Prince Béla in battle, with Jurchen assistance. Thereafter, Jurchen attacks became a regular feature.

With Béla dead, the party of the Queens took power at court, but Béla's allies remained strong. In 1264, with the death of Wyszesława, they struck, and the king himself was kidnapped. Stephen died in January 1265 in mysterious circumstances: in all likelihood, he committed suicide. He was succeeded by his eldest child, Ladislaus II.