Botond (warrior)

Botond defeats the Greek warrior at the wall of Constantinople as depicted in the Illuminated Chronicle

Botond (Bothond or Bontond) was a Hungarian legendary warrior and folk hero in the 10th century, a participant of the Hungarian invasions of Europe. According to a legend, he took part in a Hungarian campaign against the Byzantine Empire in 959. At the walls of Constantinople, he broke down the Golden Gate with an axe and defeated a Greek warrior in wrestling.

Social status

Botond's name and deeds are preserved by narrative sources only which were compiled centuries later, therefore the circumstances of his existence and military career are unclear and questionable. The anonymous author of the Gesta Hungarorum (early 13th century) writes that Botond was a tribal chieftain, thus a member of the upper elite, whose father Kölpény (Culpun) was the uncle of Tas, one of the seven chieftains of the Magyars. Anonymus claims that Grand Prince Árpád handed over the area of Bodrog along the river Vajas in the southern lands to Tas and Kölpény during the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin (late 9th century).

Contrary to Anonymus, Simon of Kéza states in his Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum (early 1280s) that Botond was a common Hungarian soldier who "was chosen to wrestle" the Greek warrior. The 14th-century Illuminated Chronicle, which derives Simon's work, also strengthens this; according to its narration, Botond says that "I am Botond, a proper Hungarian, the least of the Hungarians", while accepting the Greek's challenge.

According to Zoltán Tóth, Botond's lower social status is confirmed by the fact that his descendants (see below) were belonged to the relatively poor nobles centuries later. Tóth argued that Kölpény's name is similar to Kül-Bey, one of the tribes of the Pechenegs and this reflects his origin. His name is preserved in place names in present-day Serbia, for instance, Kulpin (Hungarian: Kölpény) and Kupinovo (Hungarian: Szávakölpény), which territory corresponds Anonymus' information. According to scholar Zoltán Tóth, Botond's name derives from a Turkic verb butan meaning "to beat, defend". However, as the word bot ("rod, stick") was also used in Hungarian for mace, a favorite weapon of the Pechenegs, and thus strengthens the theory of Botond's ethnicity; in addition, as Tóth argued, the legend itself could be of nomadic, Pecheneg origin too. Other historians argue that Anonymus fabricated a personal patronymic name from Botond's possible Kölpény or Kylfing ethnicity, who were hired as frontier guards by the Hungarian grand princes in the 10th century.

In narratives

Gesta Hungarorum

Some indeed say that they reached Constantinople and that Botond cut the Golden Gate of Constantinople with his axe. But as I have found this in no book written by historians, and have heard it only in the spurious tales of peasants, I do not, therefore, propose to write it in the present work.

— Anonymus: The Deeds of the Hungarians

Anonymus placed Botond's military career to the time of the Hungarian conquest at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries. As one of the commanders of the Hungarian army, Botond took part in the military campaign against Duke Salan, as the chronicler writes in the Gesta Hungarorum. He frequently appears in the work in the companion of chieftains Lehel (the son of Tas) and Bulcsú. They altogether crossed Sava to defeat Salan and his allies, the Byzantines. Anonymus placed the Botond legend to this period, but remained highly skeptical. Thereafter, they captured forts in Slavonia, including Zagreb, Požega and Vukovar. The Gesta Hungarorum says when the child Zolta succeeded his father Árpád as grand prince in 907, Bulcsú, Lehel and Botond – who "were warlike men, brave in spirit, whose concern was none other than to conquer peoples for their lord and lay waste the realms of others " – fought in Carinthia and Lombardy, plundering Padua. Anonymus claims that Botond participated in the Battle of the Inn in 913, where the Hungarians were defeated and, as the chronicler erroneously writes, Bulcsú and Lehel were executed. Botond survived the battle and together with his warriors he "bravely and manfully stood ground". Botond returned Hungary where Zolta decided to launch as a campaign against Otto the Great to avenge the deaths of Bulcsú and Lehel. He appointed Botond, Szabolcs and Örkény (Urkund) to lead the Hungarian armies to the Kingdom of Italy and East Francia, plundering and looting vast territories. After the victory, Botond returned home where he, "worn out by the long travail of war, began strangely to weaken, passed from the world and was buried by the Verőce River" (today Virovitica, Croatia).

Descendants

Botond's descendants, the namesake Botond (Bochond) clan possessed lands in the region between the rivers Drava and Sava, which corresponds to the information of Anonymus. By the mid-13th century, they were relatively poor belonging to the lesser nobility.

Sophia, the widow of Matthew from the clan demanded her daughters' quarter – the estate Ködmen or Kudmen in Virovitica County (near present-day Široko Polje) – from Thomas and Peter, the brothers of the late File Miskolc, who was granted the land from Duke Coloman prior to that. Lack of territorial jurisdiction, Palatine Roland Rátót passed the case on to the Slavonian nobles, who dismissed Sophia's claim. In 1255, Sophia and her two sons Csépán and Mynkus demanded a portion from the land Kudmen, which they believe the late Matthew had previously purchased. The litigants agreed before the cathedral chapter of Pécs, Thomas and Peter Miskolc bought the portion for 10 marks from Sophia and her sons.

It is possible that a certain noble named Botond, who lived in Bács and Valkó counties in 1231, was also a descendant of the 10th-century warrior. His mother owned a portion in Szond (today Sonta, Serbia) in that year.

Sources

Primary sources

• Anonymus, Notary of King Béla: The Deeds of the Hungarians (Edited, Translated and Annotated by Martyn Rady and László Veszprémy) (2010). In: Rady, Martyn; Veszprémy, László; Bak, János M. (2010); Anonymus and Master Roger; CEU Press; ISBN 978-963-9776-95-1.
• Simon of Kéza: The Deeds of the Hungarians (Edited and translated by László Veszprémy and Frank Schaer with a study by Jenő Szűcs) (1999). CEU Press. ISBN 963-9116-31-9.
• Bak, János M.; Veszprémy, László; Kersken, Norbert (2018). Chronica de gestis Hungarorum e codice picto saec. XIV [The Illuminated Chronicle: Chronicle of the deeds of the Hungarians from the fourteenth-century illuminated codex]. Budapest: Central European University Press. ISBN 978-9-6338-6264-3.

Secondary sources

• Karácsonyi, János (1900). A magyar nemzetségek a XIV. század közepéig. [The Hungarian genera until the middle of the 14th century] (in Hungarian). Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
• Kordé, Zoltán (1994). "Botond". In Kristó, Gyula; Engel, Pál; Makk, Ferenc (eds.). Korai magyar történeti lexikon (9-14. század) [Encyclopedia of the Early Hungarian History (9th-14th centuries)] (in Hungarian). Akadémiai Kiadó. p. 125. ISBN 963-05-6722-9.
• Marczali, Henrik (1916). "A Botond-monda történeti kapcsolatai [The Historical Relations of the Botond Legend]". Akadémiai Értesítő (in Hungarian). 27. Hungarian Academy of Sciences: 90–100. ISSN 1588-2721.
• Moravcsik, Gyula (1953). Bizánc és a magyarság [Byzantium and the Hungarians] (PDF) (in Hungarian). Budapest, Hungary: Akadémiai Kiadó.
• Tóth, Sándor László (2015). A magyar törzsszövetség politikai életrajza [A Political Biography of the Hungarian Tribal Federation] (in Hungarian). Belvedere Meridionale. ISBN 978-615-5372-39-1.
• Tóth, Zoltán (1988). "A Botond-monda eredete s az anonymusi Botond-hagyomány [The Origin of the Botond Legend and Anonymus' Botond Tradition]". Hadtörténelmi Közlemények (in Hungarian). 101 (3). Hadtörténeti Intézet és Múzeum: 467–483. ISSN 0017-6540.