Ákos (chronicler)

Ákos from the kindred Ákos (Hungarian: Ákos nembeli Ákos), better known as Magister Ákos (Hungarian: Ákos mester) was a Hungarian cleric and chronicler in the 13th century.^[1]

He was a member of the gens (clan) Ákos as the son of Matthew.^[2] Probably he studied abroad. He was a vicar in Pest between 1235 and 1244, later became royal chaplain for King Béla IV. He was one of the crown guards from 1246 to 1251, after that he served as canon of Székesfehérvár between 1248 and 1251. Besides that he functioned as chancellor for Queen Maria Laskarina, the wife of Béla IV from 1248 until 1261. He was also provost of Buda.^[3]

In 1270, after Stephen V's accession to the throne, Ákos was among the members of the Hungarian delegation sent to Naples. He was the author of the gesta which later revised by Simon of Kéza in his work, the Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum. Ákos' work was aristocratic in its tone; he prepared the story of seven chieftains of the Magyars which can be found in the 14th century chronicle collection (as Anonymus' Gesta Hungarorum was lost until the 18th century).^[4] By comparison to Simon of Kéza, magister Ákos did not attach much importance to the xenophobic phenomenon. According to his gesta, he preferred the social status against ethnicity.^[5]

Ákos died after 24 August 1273.

References

Sources

• Engel, Pál (2001). The Realm of St Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 895-1526. I.B. Tauris Publishers. ISBN 1-86064-061-3.
• (Hungarian) Kristó, Gyula (1990). Magyar öntudat és idegenellenesség az Árpád-kori Magyarországon ("Hungarian Identity and Xenophobia in Árpádian Hungary"). Irodalomtörténeti Közlemények, Vol. XCIV. Issue 4. MTA Irodalomtudományi Intézete. Budapest. pp. 425–443. ISBN 978-963-9627-38-3
• (Hungarian) Zsoldos, Attila (2011). Magyarország világi archontológiája, 1000–1301 ("Secular Archontology of Hungary, 1000–1301"). História, MTA Történettudományi Intézete. Budapest. ISBN 978-963-9627-38-3