Coloman, King of Hungary

Coloman was pushed toward the church as a boy after his father Géza I died in 1077; his uncle Ladislaus I took the throne and groomed the younger, able-bodied brother Álmos as heir. By the early 1090s Coloman had been made a bishop. When Ladislaus named Álmos his successor in 1095, Coloman fled - then returned the moment his uncle died that July and took the crown himself. He gave Álmos a duchy to keep the peace. In 1096 he let the main Crusader armies pass through Hungary but annihilated the bands that pillaged his land. A year later he invaded Croatia, killed its last native king Petar Snačić, and added that crown in 1102. Álmos tried at least five times to overthrow him; Coloman finally seized the duchy around 1107 and had both Álmos and his young son Béla blinded circa 1114. The chronicles written under their descendants call him bloodthirsty; a contemporary called him the most learned king of his age. His legal decrees stood unaltered for over a century.