Álmos

Coloman's father Géza I had ascended the Hungarian throne in 1074.

As Géza I's sons, Coloman and Álmos, were still minors when he died on April 25, 1077, his brother had succeeded him as Ladislaus I.

The new king had decided that Coloman should be prepared for a career in the Church.

The king's decision was unusual, because Coloman is elder than his brother, Álmos.

According to the Illuminated Chronicle, Coloman was "of mean stature, but astute and quick of apprehension", which may induced his uncle's decision.

The chronicler even states that Coloman was "shaggy and hirsute, half-blind and humpbacked, and he walked with a limp and stammered in his speech".

However, the reliability of this description is doubtful, since the chronicle was completed in the reign of kings descending from Coloman's brother.

In preparation for his clerical life, Coloman had learned to read and write and acquired a good knowledge of Latin.

His proficiency in canon law is memorialized in a letter addressed to him by Pope Urban II in 1096.

Having finished his studies, Coloman had been ordained priest and—according to Kristó, in the early 1090s—appointed bishop.

According to late medieval chronicles, he was bishop of either Eger or of Várad (Oradea, Romania).

For instance, the Illuminated Chronicle narrates that Ladislaus I wanted to appoint Coloman "bishop of Agria", but the same source also says that Coloman was "bishop of Warad".

According to the Illuminated Chronicle, both Coloman and Álmos accompanied their uncle on a military campaign against Bohemia in the spring of 1095.

Before reaching the border of his kingdom, Ladislaus I "was overcome by a grave infirmity" and decided to appoint Álmos as his heir.

However, Coloman had not wanted to respect his uncle's decision and fled to Poland, returning around July 29, 1095 when his uncle died.

According to the Illuminated Chronicle, it was his uncle who had invited him back from Poland.

The same source adds that Álmos "in the true simplicity of his heart honored his brother, Coloman, and yielded to him the crown of the kingdom", which suggests that Coloman ascended the throne without bloodshed.

On the other hand, he is only crowned king in early 1096, implying that the two brothers had been fighting for the crown before they reached an agreement.

It is also possible, as it is proposed by Márta Font, that Coloman could only be crowned after Pope Urban II had exempted him of his clerical status.

Coloman is crowned in Székesfehérvár by Archbishop Seraphin of Esztergom.

According to the Illuminated Chronicle, at the same time he "granted the dukedom with full rights" to Álmos.

This report shows that Álmos only acknowledged his brother's rule in exchange for receiving the one-time ducatus or duchy of their father and grandfather, which encompasses one-third of the kingdom.

Shortly after his coronation, Coloman has to face the problems the armies of the First Crusade cause while passing through Hungary.

The first army, which is led by Walter Sans Avoir, reaches the frontier on May 8, 1096 and proceeds through the kingdom without any disturbances.

The next arrival, who are headed by Peter the Hermit, also pass through the country without incident until they reach Zimony (Zemun, Serbia).

[Here a dispute between the crusaders and the locals causes a riot.

The crusaders besiege and take the town, where they massacre "[a]bout four thousand Hungarians", according to Albert of Aix.

They only withdraw when Coloman's troops are approaching them.

A third band of crusaders reaches Nyitra (Nitra, Slovakia) around the same time and stars to plunder the region.

They are soon routed by the locals.

A fourth army pillages the region between Moson and Székesfehérvár, but they are defeated and massacred by Coloman's troops.

Álmos, taking advantage of Coloman's absence in the south, begins to conspire against the king and musters his armies.

Coloman returns from Croatia and marches towards his brother's duchy with his troops in 1098.

The two armies encounter one another at Tiszavárkony, with only the river Tisza separating them.

However, the commanders of the two troops start negotiations and decide not to fight against each other, compelling the king and the duke to make a peace.

Coloman has his four-year-old son Stephen crowned in 1105, which causes the open rebellion of his brother, Álmos.

The duke leaves Hungary and seeks the assistance of Emperor Henry IV against Coloman.

Álmos, having realized that the emperor, facing a rebellion of his own son, cannot help him, returns to Hungary in 1106.

In the same year, Álmos flees to his brother-in-law, Boleslaw III of Poland.

With Polish assistance, he takes the fortress of Abaújvár in Hungary.

Coloman has a meeting with Boleslaw III and the two monarchs "vow perpetual friendship and brotherhood".

Without the Polish monarch's support, Álmos is forced to yield to Coloman.

Coloman sends his envoys to the council of Guastalla, which had been convoked by Pope Paschal II.

In October 1106, they solemnly inform the pope of Coloman's renunciation of his royal prerogative to appoint the prelates.

According to historians Ferenc Makk and Márta Font, without this declaration the Holy See would not have acknowledged Coloman's conquest of Dalmatia.

Henry V, crowned King of Germany in 1099 by his father, Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, in place of his older brother, the rebellious Conrad, is a poor military leader who favors subtler, sometimes underhanded means of persuasion.

He had promised to take no part in the business of the Empire during his father's lifetime, but had been induced by his father's enemies to revolt in 1104, and some of the princes did homage to him at Mainz in January 1105.

Despite the initial setbacks of the rebels, Henry IV had been forced to abdicate and had died soon after.

Order had soon been restored in Germany, the citizens of Cologne had been punished with a fine, and an expedition against Robert II, Count of Flanders, had brought this rebel to his knees.

After a long-term rivalry within the ruling Piast dynasty, Boleslaw III in 1107 had finally expelled his elder half-brother and co-ruler Duke Zbigniew from Poland.

Zbigniew had fled to the Holy Roman Empire, where he shad ought help from King Henry V. The king, however, has taken no action, as he is embroiled in an inner-Hungarian rivalry, supporting the Árpád prince Álmos against his elder brother King Coloman, and has started an armed expedition to Bratislava (Pozsony) to restore Borivoj II in Bohemia, which had been only partially successful.

Svatopluk has joined Henry’s expedition in Hungary, but has to return to Bohemia, where Borivoj has made an attack with the support of Boleslaw III Wrymouth of Poland, an ally of Coloman.

Henry fails to seize Pressburg and Coloman is free to devastate Moravia (part of the lands of the Bohemian Crown).

Left alone, King Henry is forced to abandon his Hungarian campaign.

Henry invades Poland on behalf of Zbigniew, again with the support of Svatopluk, who leads a Bohemian army across the Sudetes into Silesia to join the German forces at the Battle of Głogów.

The German forces had gathered in late summer 1109 at Erfurt, crossed the Polish border near Krosno on the Bóbr river and on St. Bartholomew's Day approached the fortified town of Glogów with the support of Svatopluk, whose troops arrive in September).

Defeating a Polish army stationed near the town, and knowing that Boleslaw III is in the city, Henry decides to grant Glogów's citizens a five day ceasefire to ask their king to surrender.

Henry makes the citizens of Glogów give up their sons as hostages as a guarantee of the ceasefire and promises to give them back alive, no matter what the answer of the Polish king will be.

Receiving no reply after the time limit passes, Henry lays siege to the city and, breaking his promise, chains the hostages to his siege engines, gambling that the people of Glogów will not shoot their own children.

His cruelty only strengthens the resolve of Glogów's defenders, who repulse several attacks by the Imperial army.

During the siege, Svatopluk is assassinated on September 21, 1109 in the tent of the emperor by a member of the family of Vršovice, whose chief, Mutina, he had decapitated for the support he had given to Borivoj, who is now returned to the Bohemian ducal throne.

After many days of unsuccessful fighting, Henry is forced to abandon the siege and march south.

Borivoj is not able to succeed Svatopluk; instead, the ducal dignity passes to his younger brother Vladislaus.

Borivoj II returns from exile with the support of Prince Boleslaw III but is defeated and imprisoned by Vladislav in 1110.

He exiles him into the custody of his ally, Holy Roman Emperor Henry V.