Stephen I of Hungary

Born around 975 in Esztergom to a baptized grand prince and given the pagan name Vajk, Stephen was the first in his family to embrace Christianity with real conviction. After his father's death in 997, he fought off his relative Koppány — backed by pagan warbands — with the help of foreign knights and loyalist lords, then took a crown from Pope Sylvester II on Christmas 1000 or New Year's 1001. Over the next decade he crushed semi-independent tribes, including the Black Hungarians and his own uncle Gyula the Younger, knitting the Carpathian Basin into a single kingdom. He forced out Conrad II'…