After he spent fifteen years in exile, an extensive revolt by the pagan Hungarians enabled him to take the throne from King Peter Orseolo.

[1] The Chronicle of Zagreb and Saint Gerard's Life[1] write that their father was Vazul, a grandson of Taksony, Grand Prince of the Hungarians (r.  c. 955 – c.

[2] The Illuminated Chronicle and other medieval sources write of Vazul's relationship with "some girl" from the Tátony clan who bore his sons, who thus "were not born of a true marriage-bed".

[1] Modern historians, who reject the latter report, agree that Andrew and his brothers were the sons of Vazul and his concubine from the Tátony clan.

[8][9] The contemporary Annals of Altaich contends that the king himself ordered his kinsman's mutilation in an attempt to ensure a peaceful succession to his own sister's son, Peter Orseolo.

[1] According to the contrasting report of the Hungarian chronicles, King Stephen wanted to save the young princes' lives from their enemies in the royal court and "counselled them with all speed"[11] to depart from Hungary.

[14] Andrew, Béla and Levente, whose "condition of life was poor and mean"[15] in Bohemia, followed Mieszko II, who received them "kindly and honourably"[15] in Poland.

Seeing that they were persons of excellent bearing, the [Cumans] thought that they had come to spy out the land, and unless a captive Hungarian had recognized them, they should certainly have killed them; but they kept them with them for some time.

After enduring many hardships, Andrew and Levente established themselves in the court of Yaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiev (r. 1019–1054) in the late 1030s.

[20] Fearing "some treacherous ambush",[24] the two brothers only set out after the agents they had sent to Hungary confirmed that the Hungarians were ripe for an uprising against the king.

[35] Having now been made secure against all disturbances from enemies, Duke Andreas received the crown of kingship in the royal city of Alba.

He made proclamation to all his people that under pain of death they should lay aside the pagan rites which had formerly been permitted to them, and that they should return to the true faith of Christ and live in all things according to the law which King St Stephen had taught them.The contemporaneous Hermann of Reichenau narrates that Andrew "sent frequent envoys with humble entreaties" to Emperor Henry III, proposing "an annual tribute and faithful service"[37] if the emperor recognized his reign.

[41] Emperor Henry invaded Hungary in August[29] 1051, but Andrew and Béla successfully applied scorched earth tactics against the imperial troops and forced them to withdraw.

[29][41] Andrew soon refused to fulfill his promises made under duress,[41] and even allied with Conrad I, Duke of Bavaria, a prominent opponent of Emperor Henry III.

[43] Because Andreas, the king of the Hungarians was less and less inclined to send envoys and to make promises concerning a peace treaty, [the emperor] laid siege to the fortress of Pressburg and for a long time attacked it with various machines of war.

Meanwhile the lord Pope Leo had intervened at the request of Andreas to make peace and he called on the emperor to end the siege.

Since [the pope] found [the emperor] in all respects in agreement with him, while discovering that Andreas on the contrary was less obedient to his advice, he was angry and threatened the latter with excommunication for mocking the apostolic see.Andrew's queen, Anastasia, gave birth to a son, named Solomon in 1053.

[47] In the deed of the foundation of the Tihany Abbey, a Benedictine monastery established in 1055 by Andrew, Duke Béla was listed among the lords witnessing the act.

[53] At their meeting, Andrew seemingly offered his brother to freely choose between a crown and a sword, which were the symbols of the kingdom and the ducatus, respectively.

[54] Duke Béla, who had previously been informed by his partisans in Andrew's court that he would be murdered on the king's order if he opted for the crown, chose the sword.

[56] On the other hand, the Dowager Empress Agnes—who governed the Holy Roman Empire in the name of her minor son, Henry IV—sent Bavarian, Bohemian and Saxon troops to assist Andrew.

We believe that this was by an act of God; for on his first return with Levente, his brother, to Hungary, Andreas with the purpose of gaining the kingdom permitted the ungodly Vatha and other most evil men to kill the saintly Gerard and many Christians.Medieval chronicles write that Andrew had a natural son, named George, "by a concubine"[66] from the village of Pilismarót.