[15][14] The Illuminated Chronicle narrates that the dying king "instructed his son and his great men" to invade Rus' in order to take vengeance for Coloman's failure in the 1099 siege of Peremyshl (Przemyśl), Poland.

[18][19] Upon his councilor's advice, Stephen initiated a meeting with Vladislaus I, Duke of Bohemia, in order to improve the countries' relations, which had deteriorated in the previous decade.

[22][23] The Hungarian people are prodigious in energy, mighty in strength, and very powerful in military arms, sufficient to fight with a king of lands anywhere.

Immediately, the Hungarian people, innumerable as the sands or drops of rain, covered the whole surface of the land in the field of Lučsko, like locusts.

Their princes, through their inborn pride in themselves, strayed from the duke's peaceful words and sent replies more to stir up strife than to bring the kiss of peace.Doge Ordelafo Faliero, who had conquered an island in the Gulf of Kvarner during the last year of Coloman's reign,[25] returned to Dalmatia at the head of the Venetian fleet in May 1116.

[26] Thereafter all towns — including Biograd na Moru, Šibenik, Split, and Trogir — surrendered to Venice, terminating Stephen II's suzerainty along the coastline of the Adriatic Sea.

[30] Historian Paul Stephenson wrote that Stephen's marriage alliance with the Normans of Southern Italy "must have been partly directed against the Venetians.

"[31] The Norman princes of Capua had been the pope's staunch supporters during the Investiture Controversy, suggesting that his marriage also continued his father's pro-Papal foreign policy.

[32][33] Stephen's cousin and the daughter of his uncle Álmos, Adelaide, whose husband Soběslav had been expelled from Moravia, arrived in Hungary in early 1123.

[34] In the same year, the young king launched a military expedition against the Principality of Volhynia in order to assist its expelled prince, Iaroslav Sviatopolkovich, regain his throne.

[36] However, according to the Illuminated Chronicle, his commanders threatened to dethrone him if he continued the aggression, forcing Stephen to lift the siege and return to Hungary.

When the King thus saw himself justly deprived of the help of his people, he returned to Hungary.Taking advantage of the absence of the Venetian fleet from the Adriatic Sea because of a naval expedition in the Levant, Stephen invaded Dalmatia in the first half of 1124.

[30] His charter confirming the liberation of Split and Trogir in July 1124 is evidence that the central regions of Dalmatia returned to his rule.

[31] According to the Historia Ducum Veneticorum, only the citizens of Biograd na Moru "dared resist the doge and his army", but "their city was razed to its foundations.

"[31] According to the Illuminated Chronicle, the blind Álmos, "fearing death at the hands of King Stephen",[41] fled to the Byzantine Empire.

[44] The Byzantine historian John Kinnamos confirmed that the emperor looked upon Álmos "favorably and received him with kindness.

[50] The Illuminated Chronicle relates that the childless Stephen "so ordered the succession to the throne that after his death the son of his sister Sophia, by name Saul, should reign.

"[51][52] The chronicle does not specify the date of this event, but Ferenc Makk says that Stephen most probably declared Saul as his heir during the first half of 1127, before attacking the Byzantine Empire.

[55] Stephen was unable to participate in the fighting because "he happened to be sickly in body and was recuperating someplace in the midst of his land",[56] according to John Kinnamos.

[60] The Hungarian troops, supported by Czech reinforcements under the command of Duke Vaclav of Olomouc, took Braničevo by storm and destroyed its fortress.

[62][64] The Illuminated Chronicle recounts that Stephen showed blatant favoritism towards the "Comans", identified as Pechenegs or Cumans by historians, who had arrived in Hungary in the 1120s.