Magyars

The Magyars were a nomadic people that originated in Ural before migrating into Europe around 895. During the era of invasions (the Early Middle Ages), the Magyars were a menace from the east, while the Vikings came from the north, Moors from the west, and Saracens from the south.

History[]

Magyars in Hungary — The Magyars arriving in Hungary

The Magyars originated in the Ural Mountains of Russia, and during the 300s and 400s, the Magyars moved to Bashkiria and Perm Krai. By the 700s, some had moved between the Volga, Don, and Donets rivers. They were subjects of the Khazar Khaganate, and when a rebellion broke out in 830 in the khaganate, the Magyars and some Khazars moved to the Carpathians, fighting the Pechenegs for the first time in 854. From 862 onwards, the Magyars raided East Francia, Great Moravia, the Principality of Balaton, and the First Bulgarian Empire, and some of their raiders reached central and southern Europe.

In 895, Arpad led the Magyars to the Carpathian Basin, and founded the Principality of Hungary, a homeland for the Magyars. The Magyar raids continued, however. In 899, they crushed an army of Lombards under Berengar I of Italy at the Battle of Brenta, and in 910, Ludwig III of East Francia's army was defeated at the Battle of Augsburg in Bavaria by the Magyars. The Magyars were defeated in 933 at the Battle of Riade by Henry the Fowler when they invaded northern Thuringia in another raid. In 955 the Battle of Lechfeld permanently diminished the Magyar power, and under the rule of Stephen I of Hungary, the chiefdom society turned into a state society and the Magyars began to settle down to form the nation of Hungary.