St Stephen was the first Christian King of Hungary, but his father, Duke Geza, was the first governor, who decided to unite a number of tribes which became more of a confederation than a country.

King Geza made peaceful links with the West Empire of Otto the Great, whose daughter eventually married Geza’s son, Stephen, and ended hostile attitudes with the Byzantine Empire as well. Geza invited German missionary priests to help with his peaceful strategic aims. The king baptised his son, but he himself did not convert to Christianity. Before Geza came into power, the Hungarians’ sources of income were through agriculture and cattle breeding.

The Arpad dynasty ruled the 9th and 10th–century Magyar tribes, who conducted raids upon adjacent villages and towns, as well as into the Pyrenees, the Frankish Empire (present-day Poland), and Byzantium, invasions that ended near the end of 10th Century. The Carpathian region was scarcely populated when the great-grandfather of Geza conquered and ruled the territories. A war ensued against the Bulgarians, as Hungary took the side of Byzantium.

In the 13th Century, Hungary was attacked by the Mongol invasion of Europe. The army of Hungary’s King Béla IV could not stand against the Mongols in the Battle of Mohi and some one-third of the country’s population perished. The depopulation led to invasions of new settlers. The Arpad dynasty also ruled the Kingdom of Hungary until the beginning of 14th Century, when the country was at its largest. Yet, key landlords substantially increased their power, while the Ottoman Turks posed a much more dangerous threat.