PRVI POMEN GALICIJE U INTITULACIJI UGARSKIH KRALJEVA
THE FIRST MENTION OF GALICIA IN THE INTITULATION OF HUNGARIAN KINGS

Summary/Abstract: Royal titles as an element of historiographic terminology should base their creation primarily on diplomatic sources. However, it is also possible to take into account narratives, which often directly reveal the context of certain historical events. Historiography unanimously agrees that, beginning with Andrew II (1206), Hungarian rulers continually included the title of the King of Galicia and Volhynia (Galiciae Lodomeriaeque rex) in their royal intitulation. However, a significantly more complex question is whether it was in fact Béla III who was the first Hungarian king to include Galicia in his title, as can be found in a document by Michael, the bishop of Skradin, dated 2nd May 1189. This is a controversial question since the evidence in its favour includes only a single mention recorded in a later copy of the document. The author of this paper conducts a fresh analysis of the credibility of this source, putting forth a view that in this specific case, the reference was neither a mistake, nor a forgery. One of the possible answers for the ephemeral mention of Béla III as the „rex... nec non Galacie” was that it appeared (and that it was used) before the arrival of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa ahead of the crusader army to Hungary, and his encounter with Béla III (in early June 1189). In the meantime, Galician prince Vladimir Yaroslavich, who was the reason why the Hungarian king gained power in Galicia, set free of the Hungarian oppression as he secured the protection of the Roman-German emperor. It can be assumed that it was the intervention of Frederick I Barbarossa that not only made it possible for Vladimir to safely return to the Galician throne, but also discouraged Béla III from further pressing the title of the king of Galicia and his Rus’ aspirations.

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