The series of rulers of the House of Árpád in the historical arcade concludes with András III, traditionally regarded by historians as the last Hungarian king of the Árpád dynasty. His reign began in 1290, after the death of László the Cuman, when the country was already deeply divided by the ambitions of powerful magnates and by uncertainties surrounding the succession to the throne.
András III’s father was Prince Stephen, a descendant of King András II, and his mother was Tomasina Morosini of Venice. For this reason, his contemporaries often called András ‘the Venetian’. He arrived in Hungary only after the death of László the Cuman, and a considerable part of his reign was occupied by attempts to restore royal authority. By this time, powerful provincial lords exercised effective power in many parts of the country and acknowledged the king’s authority only to a limited extent.
In Bory Jenő’s statue, the solitary figure of András III appears with dignified calm. He raises his hand to his breast and turns his gaze to one side, as though contemplating the end of an age. The restrained composition is well suited to his historical role: his reign marked the final chapter of a dynasty.
With the death of András III in 1301, the male line of the House of Árpád became extinct. This brought to a close one of the defining periods of Hungarian history, which had shaped the country’s fate for almost three and a half centuries. It is no coincidence that Bory Jenő represented his figure as the concluding point of the section of the arcade devoted to the rulers of the House of Árpád: in his person, the memory of a ruling house and a historical age is concentrated.