King of Hungary (1235–1270) who rebuilt his kingdom after the catastrophic Mongol invasion of 1241, earning renown as the "second founder" of Hungary.
Béla IV was king of Hungary from 1235 to 1270, and is remembered as the "second founder" of the kingdom. The son of Andrew II, he set out to restore royal authority after his father's lavish grants had weakened the crown, only to face the greatest catastrophe in Hungary's medieval history.
In 1241 the Mongols invaded and destroyed his army at the Battle of Mohi, then ravaged the country; Béla fled to the Adriatic coast as Hungary was devastated. When the Mongols withdrew in 1242, he returned and threw himself into reconstruction — building stone castles, fortifying towns, and inviting settlers — rebuilding the kingdom on stronger foundations against the day the horsemen might return.
Béla was born in 1206, the son of Andrew II of Hungary. He grew up dismayed by his father's prodigal grants of crown land to the nobility, which had gravely weakened the monarchy, and on succeeding in 1235 he set about recovering the lost royal estates — a policy that alienated the great magnates whose support he would soon desperately need.
Béla IV was a serious, determined, and far-sighted king, marked by the twin experiences of his reign: the humbling struggle to rebuild royal power, and the trauma of the Mongol catastrophe. He could be stern and unbending — his early campaign to reclaim crown lands was so rigorous it cost him the loyalty he needed in the crisis — but he learned hard lessons and applied them with tenacity.
His greatness lay in his response to disaster. Where a lesser king might have been broken by the annihilation of his army and the devastation of his realm, Béla returned from exile and rebuilt with method and vision, reversing his earlier hostility to the magnates, encouraging castle-building and immigration, and refounding towns. The last years of his reign were troubled by conflict with his own son, but his reconstruction of Hungary after 1242 is his enduring monument.
In 1241 the Mongol armies of Batu Khan and Subutai swept into Hungary. At the Battle of Mohi they destroyed the royal host, and Béla barely escaped, fleeing across the country and finally to an island off the Dalmatian coast as the Mongols burned and slaughtered through the kingdom. Only the Mongols' sudden withdrawal in 1242, on news of the great khan's death, saved Hungary from lasting conquest.
Béla returned to a ruined land and devoted the rest of his reign to reconstruction. He reversed his policy toward the nobles, encouraging them and the towns to build the stone castles that had proved the only effective defence, invited German, Slavic, and Cuman settlers to repopulate the country, and refortified his realm — so that Hungary emerged from the disaster stronger than before.
Béla IV's last years were embittered by war with his son and heir, the future Stephen V, over the division of power. He died on 3 May 1270 and was succeeded by that son.
Béla IV is remembered as the "second founder of Hungary", the king who raised the kingdom from the ashes of the Mongol invasion. His programme of stone castles, fortified towns, and new settlement reshaped the country and equipped it to survive; when the Mongols raided again in 1285, the defences he had built held. His reign stands as one of the great feats of recovery in medieval European history.