The Realm of St. Stephen

Now recognised as the standard work on the subject, Realm of St Stephen is a comprehensive history of medieval Eastern and Central Europe. Pal Engel traces the establishment of the medieval kingdom of Hungary from its conquest by the Magyar tribes in 895 until defeat by the Ottomans at the Battle of Mohacs in 1526. He shows the development of the dominant Magyars who, upon inheriting an almost empty land, absorbed the remaining Slavic peoples into their culture after the original communities had largely disappeared.

The late Pal Engel (1938-2001) was head of the Medieval Department at the Institute of History, Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. Andrew Ayton is Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Hull.