Medieval and Manuscripts

Assassination of Gertrude of Merania

Gertrude of Merania, the queen consort of Hungary as the first wife of King Andrew II (r. 1205–1235), was assassinated by a group of Hungarian lords on 28 September 1213 in the Pilis Mountains during a royal hunting expedition. Leopold VI, Duke of Austria and Gertrude's brother Berthold, Archbishop of Kalocsa were also wounded but survived the attack. The assassination became one of the most high-profile criminal cases in the history of Hungary, and caused widespread astonishment across Europe in the 13th century. Despite a relatively diverse and large number of domestic and foreign sources, the motivation of the killers is unclear. According to contemporary sources, Gertrude's blatant favoritism towards her German kinsmen and courtiers had stirred up discontent among the native lords and prompted her murder. Later tradition says that Gertrude's brother Berthold raped the wife of Bánk Bár-Kalán, one of the lords, who, along with his companions, took revenge for the grievance. This story inspired many subsequent chroniclers and literary works in Hungary and the rest of Europe.

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See also

• ▸Gorton Monastery
• ▸Asepsis
• ▸Immanuel Presbyterian Church (Los Angeles, California)

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