The Pretender
Around 1130, Boris appeared in Constantinople, in the court of the Emperor John II Komnenos who granted him the honorary title panhypersebastos. Boris married one of the Emperor's relatives, Anna Dukaina.
When he realised that the emperor would not give him military assistance against King Béla II, he went to the court of King Boleslaus III of Poland who promised to assist him. Some Hungarian aristocrats also joined him, although King Béla II convoked an assembly in Hungary and ordered to murder all the participants who did not declare that Boris was a bastard. Shortly afterwards, King Boleslaus III invaded Hungary together with Boris, but their troops were defeated at the battle around the Sajó River (22 July 1132).
Boris did not give up his claim for the Hungarian throne, but he could try to assert his claim only in 1146 when he occupied Pressburg assisted by mercenaries whom King Conrad III of Germany provided to him. However, King Géza II of Hungary managed to bribe his mercenaries who surrendered. On 11 September, the young king defeated the troops of Margrave Henry II of Austria who had been assisting Boris.
Read more about this topic: Boris Kalamanos
Famous quotes containing the word pretender:
“If all power is in the people, if there is no higher law than their will, and if by counting their votes, their will may be ascertained—then the people may entrust all their power to anyone, and the power of the pretender and the usurper is then legitimate. It is not to be challenged since it came originally from the sovereign people.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“Nature, hating art and pains,
Baulks and baffles plotting brains;
Casualty and Surprise
Are the apples of her eyes;
But she dearly loves the poor,
And, by marvel of her own,
Strikes the loud pretender down.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)