Principality of Hungary

The Grand Principality of Hungary, or Duchy of Hungary, was the earliest documented Hungarian state in the Carpathian Basin, established around 895 at the end of a long, pre-planned move-in carried out between 862 and 895, when the Hungarians took possession of the basin. The Hungarians were a semi-nomadic people whose tribal alliance was led by Árpád, founder of the Árpád dynasty, arriving from Etelköz, their earlier principality east of the Carpathians. Through the period the power of the grand prince seemed to wane even as Hungarian raids ranged across Europe, because the tribal lands ruled by warlords became semi-independent, as in Transylvania under Gyula the Younger, and were reunited only under Stephen. The semi-nomadic population settled down, the chiefdom society became a state society, and Christianity began to spread from the second half of the tenth century. The principality was succeeded by the Christian Kingdom of Hungary when Stephen I was crowned at Esztergom on Christmas Day 1000, with the alternative date of 1 January 1001, and Hungarian historiography calls the whole span the age of the principality.