ÁRPÁD(házi) Géza Johannész, Prince of Hungary

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A9za,_royal_prince_of_Hungary

Géza (1151–1210) was a Hungarian royal Prince, son of the King Géza II of Hungary. Prince Géza was brother of the King's Stephen III and Béla III of Hungary. He travelled to Holy Land during the Third Crusade with an army of 2.000 Hungarian warriors

Biography

The Prince Géza was born in 1151, as the fourth son of the King Géza II of Hungary and his wife the Princess Euphrosyne of Kiev. After several suciveory conflicts after the death of the king Géza II, his elder son was crowned as Stephen II of Hungary (Prince Géza's brother). Géza II's two brothers tried to prevail and eventually were crowned first as Ladislaus II of Hungary, and after his death his younger brother as Stephen IV of Hungary. However, Géza II's son, Stephen recovered the power, and defeated Stephen IV on the battlefield. During the reign of Stephen III, the wars against the Byzantine empire continued. The emperor Manuel I Komnenos already confronted Géza II in many occasions, thus he was determined to expand his influence over Hungary (Manuel I's mother was Saint Piroska of Hungary, daughter of Saint Ladislaus I of Hungary, so he always had a great interest on this kingdom). Manuel and Stephen II finally reached a resolution, were they signed the peace in 1163, and the Hungarian King's younger brother Béla, had to be sent to Constantinople as assurance. Meanwhile, Stephen III ruled in Hungary, keeping on his court his mother Eufrosyne and his very other younger brother, the Prince Géza.

After Stephen III's death in 1172, the Prince Béla was called back from Constantinople to occupy the throne, before the Prince Géza did it first. Few months later, the Prince was crowned as Béla III of Hungary, which was not well seen by his own mother the Queen Eufrosyne and his brother Géza. Both started conspiring against Béla III for obtaining the Hungarian crown and after a couple of failed attempts, the King arrested them both. Eufrosyne was jailed but the Prince Géza succeeded on escaping and ran to Leopold V, Duke of Austria asking for protection. However, he turned it to the Hungarian King who jailed him again.

A year later, Prince Géza escaped again, and ran to Bohemia, but Sobeslaus II, Duke of Bohemia, also turned it to Béla III who sent him to prison. Prince Géza then remained in jail from 1177 to 1189 until the preparation for the Third Crusade. In 1189, Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor arrived to the Hungarian Kingdom and was received by the King Béla III. After hearing about Prince Géza's predicament, the German emperor asked to Béla III to allow him to lead a small Hungarian army to the Crusade escorting his. The Hungarian King allowed his departure and 2000 Hungarian soldiers left to Holy Land.

After the Third Crusade, and the death of the German emperor, Béla III ordered Géza and his men to return to Hungary, but the Prince and his guard decided to remain in the Holy Land. It is known that Géza (Ioannes) took a Byzantine noblewoman as wife between 1190 and 1191. He had two sons by Princess Irene (descendant of Piroska): Geza (Alexios), a general in the Byzantine army, who is the ancestor of the Rubempre family, and Istvan (Stephen) who served on a crusade with Saint Louis IX of France in 1248. Stephen had a son, Andrew, a crusading knight based in Venice. Andrew and his sons Felix (ancestor of the Crouy-Chanel family) and Mark settled in France. Mark married Catherine Croy-Airaines, heiress to the Croy barony. From this union sprang the Croy family which is still extant.

http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/HUNGARY.htm#_Toc146273220

GÉZA II 1141-1162, ISTVÁN III 1162-1172

GÉZA, son of BÉLA II "the Blind" King of Hungary & his wife Jelena of Serbia ([1130]-3 or 31 May 1162, bur Székesfehérvár). ... He succeeded his father in 1141 as GÉZA II King of Hungary, under the regency from 1142 of his maternal uncle Beloš of Serbia during which time Hungarian ties with Serbia were strengthened[694]. ... m (1146) IEVFROSINA Mstislavna of Kiev, daughter of MSTISLAV II Vladimirovich "the Great" Grand Prince of Kiev & his second wife [Liubava] Dmitrievna ([1130]-1186 or before). ... King Géza & his wife had eight children:

• 1. ...
• 5. GÉZA (-before 1209). The Chronicon Varadiense names "primus…rex Bela, tertius…dux Arpad, quartus…dux Geysa" as the four sons of "Geysa rex" (omitting reference to the second son)[723]. The Chronicon Zagrabiense names "dux Stephanus postea rex, secundus…rex Wela, tertius…dux Arpad, quartus…dux Geyza" as the four sons of "Gexcha rex"[724]. The Chronicon Dubnicense names "Stephanum et Belam, Arpad et Geysam" as the four sons of "Geysa"[725]. The Chronicon Posoniense records that "dux Geyza" left Hungary "cum Laurencio comite" and entered Austria in 1186, in 1187 travelled on to Bohemia from where "rege fratre suo" brought him back to Hungary[726]. He and is children are shown in Europäische Stammtafeln which states that he was in Byzantium named IOANNES[727], but the source on which this is based has not been identified. m ---, from Byzantium.
  • a) ALEXIOS. He returned to Hungary after 1209. 1217.
  • b) son. He returned to Hungary after 1209.
  • c) other children.
• 6. ...