- Sarolt
Sarolt (c.
950 – after997 ), wife of Géza,High Prince of the Magyars .She was a daughter of
Gyula ofTransylvania , and was probably educated in the Eastern Orthodox faith. She was married to Géza, the son of Taksony,High Prince of the Magyars , who succeeded his father before972 .Sarolt exerted a powerful influence on her husband and through him on the government ["In these days, he" [Saint Adalbert] "sent" [a letter] "to the High Prince of the Magyars, or rather to his wife who had been holding the whole country in her power with a hand of a man, and who had been governing everything owned by her husband" (
Bruno of Querfurt : Sancti Adalberti Pragensis episcopi et martyris vita altera).] . The Catholic missionaries were watching her suspiciously ["Christian faith made its start under her direction, but the sullied religion mingled with paganism, and this idle and faint Christianity was turning worse than barbarism" (Bruno of Querfurt : Sancti Adalberti Pragensis episcopi et martyris vita altera).] . The chronicles accused her of drinking insatiably and even of commiting manslaughter.After her husband's death, in
997 , one of his distant cousinsKoppány , who declared his claim to the leadership of theMagyars against her son, Stephen (Vajk), wanted to marry Sarolt, referring to the Hungarian tradition.Koppány , nevertheless, was defeated, and shortly afterwards Sarolt's son was crowned as the firstKing of Hungary .Her name "(šar-oldu)" is of Turkic origin and means "white weasel". She was also called "Beleknegini" by her Slavic subjects that means "white queen" [
Thietmar of Merseburg : "Chronicon"] .Marriage and children
"# before 972:" Géza,
High Prince of the Magyars (c.945 –997 )
* Judith (? – after 988), wife of the future KingBoleslaw I of Poland
* Margareth (? – after 988), wife of the future TsarGavril Radomir of Bulgaria
* KingStephen I of Hungary (967 /969 /975 – 15 August 1038)
* Unnamed daughter (? – after 1026), wife ofOtto Orseolo ,Doge of Venice
* Gizella (? – ?), wife of the future KingSamuel Aba of Hungary Sources
* Kristó Gyula - Makk Ferenc: "Az Árpád-ház uralkodói" (IPC Könyvek, 1996)
* "Korai Magyar Történeti Lexikon (9-14. század)", főszerkesztő: Kristó Gyula, szerkesztők: Engel Pál és Makk Ferenc (Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1994)References
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