Béla IV, Margaret legend
Béla IV
He was born in 1206, as the eldest son of Andrew II. During the life of his father he was prince of Slavonia (1220-26) and Transylvania (1226-35). In 1220 he married Maria, daughter of the Nikaian Greek emperor. They had two sons (Stephen, Béla) and eight daughters (Kinga, elder Margit, Anna, Katharine, Elisabeth, Constantia, Jolan, young Margit). He died on 3 May, 1270. He was buried in the Franciscan church of Esztergom.
ZSA
The Margaret legend
A legend concerning St Margaret's life (Béla IV and Queen Maria's daughter). At the request of King Stephen V the first legend was born, then after its failure the second one was written in 1276, on the basis of the records of the investigation of her canonisation. The author, Frater Senior, is presumably identical with Margaret's confessor, the Dominican Marcellus. A Hungarian translation may have existed in the 14th century, and it must have had a German translation as well. The Hungarian version was preserved by Lea Ráskai's transcript from 1510. This legend is a significant piece of the European mysticism, and it had an influential afterlife as it contained ideas emphasising modern, lay religious forms. On the basis of the ancient original legend, new Latin versions were born at the beginning of the 14th century.
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