Duke of Transylvania

[1] Exposed to attacks by the Cumans and other neighboring nomadic tribes, a high-ranking official especially assigned to this task by the monarch, styled voivode administered the province from the last decades of the 12th century.

[3] First King Andrew II of Hungary (1205–1235) considered to employ the Teutonic Knights both to defend the remote province of his kingdom and to stimulate the conversion of the pagan Cumans.

[7][9] Having noticed the Teutonic Knights' attempt to get rid of royal authority by accepting the suzerainty of the Holy See, King Andrew II expelled them by force from his kingdom in 1225.

[7] Sometime Duke Béla acted independently of his father, as it is demonstrated by his grant of tax exemption to Transylvanian knights in 1231 and by his donation of lands situated in Wallachia in 1233.

[16] Pope Gregory IX also urged Duke Béla to protect the interests of bishop of Cumania against Eastern Orthodox prelates who offered the Sacraments not only to the Romanian, but also to the German and Hungarian believers in his diocese.

[23] From the same period, no charter issued by King Béla IV in relation with Transylvania has been preserved, implying that Duke Stephen run the administration of his territories without any royal interference.