The two members of Hungary’s exiled Árpád dynasty, András and Levente, only set out after the agents they had sent to Hungary confirmed that the Hungarians were ripe for an uprising against the king.

Fearing ambush and accompanied by Russian troops from Kiev, they enter the still-pagan portion of Hungary.

In Újvár (today Abaújvár, after the Aba family), they immediately gain the support of the pagan and other factions opposed to Peter’s rule, despite the fact that András is Christian (Levente had remained pagan).

On their return, a rebellion begins that András and Levente initially support.

During this rebellion, a pagan noble named Vata (or Vatha) gains power over a group of rebels who wish to abolish Christian rule and revert to paganism.

According to legend.

Vata shaved his head in the pagan fashion, leaving three braids remaining, and declared war on the Christians.

King Peter plans to flee again to the Holy Roman Empire, but András invites him to a meeting at Székesfehérvár.

Soon realizing that András's envoys actually want to arrest him, the deposed king flees to a fortified manor at Zámoly, but his opponent's supporters seize it and capture him three days later.

All fourteenth-century Hungarian chronicles attest that Peter was blinded, which caused his death.

However, the near-contemporary Cosmas of Prague relates that Judith of Schweinfurt, widow of Duke Bretislaus I of Bohemia who was expelled by her son, fled to Hungary and married Peter about 1055 "as an insult to" her son "and all the Czechs".

If the latter report is reliable, Peter survived his mutilation and died during the late 1050s.

He is in any case buried in the cathedral of Pécs.

András, as the oldest brother, pronounces himself king.

The bishops Gellért (Italian: Gerard), Besztrik, Buldi, and Beneta gather to greet them András and Levente's men as they move towards Pest.

The bishops are attacked in Pest on on September 24 by Vata's mob, who begin stoning the bishops; Buldi is stoned to death.

Gellért repeatedly makes the sign of the cross as the pagans throw rocks at him, which further infuriates the pagans.

Gellért is allegedly taken up Kelenhegy hill, where he is put into a cart and pushed off a cliff, onto the banks of the Danube; then, found still alive at the bottom, he is beaten to death.

Other unverified tales report him as being put in a spiked barrel and rolled down the hill during a mass revolt of pagans.

Besztrik and Beneta manage to flee across the river, where Besztrik is injured by pagans before the pair can be rescued by András and Levente; only Beneta survives.

Gellért will later be canonized for his martyrdom and the hill from which he had been thrown will be renamed Gellért Hill.

The hill, in modern central Budapest, has a monument on the cliff where Gellért, today a patron saint of Hungary, was killed.

Most Hungarian lords and the prelates oppose the restoration of paganism, and prefer the devout Christian András to his pagan brother Levente, even if, at least according to Kristó and Steinhübel, the latter was the eldest among Vazul's three sons.

The Hungarian chronicles write that Levente, who shortly dies, did not oppose his brother's ascension to the throne.

The Vaa uprising marks the last major attempt at stopping Christian rule in Hungary.

While András has received assistance from pagans in his rise to the throne, he has no plans to abolish Christianity in the kingdom.

Once in power, he distances himself from Vata and the pagans.

However, they are not punished for their actions.

Andrew initially remains allied with the pagan movement as a means of resisting the German Empire.

Having soon broken with his pagan supporters, he restores Christianity and declares pagan rites illegal.

Bretislaus I, Duke of Bohemia, is the author of decrees concerning the rules of Christianization, which include a ban on polygamy and trade on holidays.

It was in 1030 that Bretislaus had married Judith of Schweinfurt.

In 1054, Bretislaus organizes the succession and issues the famous Seniority Law, introducing agnatic seniority for order of succession.

Younger members of the dynasty are supposed to govern fiefs (technically, parts of Moravia), but only at the Duke's discretion.

The result of this institution will be the relative indivisibility of the Czech lands, but also the alternation of rules of stronger (or perhaps more political) dukes with periods of bitter fraction wars of members of the dynasty.

It will be effectively ended by the elevation of Bohemia to kingdom under Ottokar I of Bohemia, when primogeniture will become the ruling principle.

Bretislaus’s eldest son Spytihněv is to succeed him as Duke of Bohemia with control over that territory.

Moravia is incorporated into the Bohemian duchy, but divided between three of his younger sons.

The Olomouc Appanage goes to Vratislaus; the Znojmo Appanage goes to Konrád; and the Brno Appanage went to Otto.

The youngest son, Jaromír, enters the church and becomes Bishop of Prague.

Bretislaus, who in a short war has expanded Bohemia-Moravia’s borders beyond the Carpathians into Silesia and as far as Kraków, dies at Chrudim on January 10, 1055, during his preparation for another invasion of Hungary.

Spytihnev II succeeds his late father in March 1055 as Duke of Bohemia.

His coronation is celebrated with the first known rendition of Lord, Have Mercy on Us.

After succeeding to the throne, he goes at once to Regensburg to receive imperial confirmation.

This loyalty to the Holy Roman Empire does not prevent him from expelling all Germans from his lands.

This new anti-German policy will continue to his death.

Bretislaus’s younger children are left the region of Moravia.

Otto and Vratislaus are shut out of the government by Spytihnev, but after his death both will gain control of Moravia and Bohemia, respectively.