Michael of Hungary

Michael (; after 960–995 or c. 997) was a member of the House of Árpád, a younger son of Taksony, Grand Prince of the Hungarians. Most details of his life are uncertain. Almost all kings of Hungary after 1046 descended from him. According to the Hungarian historian György Györffy, Michael received a ducatus or duchy from his brother, Grand Prince Géza. Slovak historians specify that he administered the "Duchy of Nitra" between around 971 and 997. However, neither of these theories have universally been accepted by historians. Life Anonymus, the unknown author of the late-12th-century Gesta Hungarorum narrates that Michael's father, Taksony, took his wife "from the land of the Cumans". However, the lands which were dominated by the Cumans at Anonymus's time had been controlled by the Pechenegs up until the 1050s. Accordingly, Györffy proposes that Taksony's wife was the daughter of a Pecheneg tribal leader. Other historians, including Zoltán Kordé and Gyula Kristó, say that Anonymous's report may refer either to her Khazar or to her Volga Bulgarian origin.