For centuries, the violent death of Duke Béla of Macsó in 1272 was known only from medieval chronicles. Now, forensic scientists have reconstructed the duke’s final moments in extraordinary detail, revealing how a group of armed nobles cornered, disfigured, and killed one of Hungary’s most powerful princes.
An international team led by Hungarian researchers has confirmed that skeletal remains discovered on Budapest’s Margaret Island in 1915 belong to Béla of Macsó, grandson of King Béla IV of Hungary and a descendant of the Rurikid princes of Kievan Rusʹ. Their results, published in Forensic Science International: Genetics, bring together anthropology, DNA analysis, and archaeology to solve a 700-year-old political murder.
A Violent End to a Dynastic Rivalry
After King Stephen V’s death in August 1272, Hungary was thrown into turmoil. His young son, Ladislaus IV, had just ascended the throne, and rival factions of nobles fought for power. Duke Béla, then in his twenties, was the kingdom’s most prominent surviving male of the royal house and a potential claimant to the throne. Invited to a council on the Island of Hares (today’s Margaret Island), he walked into a trap.
According to 13th-century sources, the meeting was orchestrated by Henrik (Kőszegi) of the Héder family and his allies. When Béla arrived, he was attacked and cut down inside the convent precinct. His body—mutilated beyond recognition—was retrieved by his sister, Saint Margaret of Hungary, and his niece Erzsébet and buried within the Dominican monastery’s sacristy.
Rediscovering the Bones
During excavations of the monastery in 1915, archaeologists uncovered three graves in the sacristy. One held a dismembered young man whose bones bore dozens of cut marks. Lajos Bartucz of Budapest University concluded in the 1930s that the remains belonged to Duke Béla, but the bones were thought lost during the Second World War.
In 2018, curators at the Hungarian Museum of Natural History rediscovered the postcranial skeleton in an unlabelled wooden box, while the skull was found in the Aurél Török Collection at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE). A new international research project—bringing together specialists from ELTE, the Institute of Archaeogenomics, Harvard University, and several European institutions—was launched to confirm the identification and reconstruct Béla’s life and death.
Evidence of a Coordinated Attack
The observed perimortem lesions on the human remains (CL=cranial lesion, PL= Postcranial lesion). The drawing of the skeleton was generated using OpenAI’s image generation tools (DALL·E) via ChatGPT.
Forensic examination revealed 26 perimortem wounds, including nine to the skull and seventeen to the rest of the body. The investigators determined that at least three assailants struck Béla simultaneously—one from the front, two from his left and right flanks—who were wielding sabres and longswords. In the article, here is how the attack was described:
The reconstruction of the assault sequence indicates the attack began with saber strikes to the head and upper body, followed by defensive injuries as the victim attempted to block further blows. The attackers eventually incapacitated the victim with further strikes from the flanks, continuing the assault as he fell to the ground, and delivering fatal injuries to the head and face.
The intensity of the attack clearly indicates an intent to kill, while the numerous blows to the face suggest intense emotional involvement, such as rage or hate (“overkill”). However, the coordinated nature of the attack implies premeditation, suggesting this was at least partly a planned assassination.
The Man Behind the Bones
Skeletal and genetic evidence portray Béla as a tall young man, about 178 cm (5 ft 10 in) in height and roughly 24 years old at death. His bones show minor muscular development and healed leg lesions, consistent with an active but privileged lifestyle.
Genetic markers indicate that Béla likely had dark, possibly curly hair, light-brown eyes, and medium-to-dark skin—traits common among individuals with mixed Northern and Eastern Mediterranean ancestry. No disease-related mutations were found in the genome.
Strontium isotopes from Béla’s teeth revealed that he was not born near Budapest, where he died. His early childhood signatures match the Vukovar–Syrmia region, corresponding to the medieval Macsó Banate (now parts of Croatia and Serbia). By adolescence, his isotopic ratios shifted toward those typical of central Hungary, showing that he moved north—likely to court—during his youth.
Radiocarbon dating at laboratories in Debrecen and Georgia yielded dates slightly older than expected (1030–1230 AD). Researchers traced this discrepancy to the “freshwater reservoir effect”: Béla’s diet was unusually rich in fish and other aquatic protein, which distorts radiocarbon ages by introducing ancient carbon into the body.
A Nobleman’s Diet
Isotopic and microfossil analyses reveal a diet befitting a duke. Stable-nitrogen values confirm heavy consumption of animal and aquatic protein, while the carbon ratios show reliance on C₃ cereals such as wheat and barley.
Microscopic study of Béla’s dental calculus yielded more than a thousand microfossils, including starch grains with signs of grinding, boiling, and baking—evidence of both cooked semolina and wheat bread. Pollen grains and fungal spores point to a varied, possibly spiced diet enjoyed by the medieval elite.
The Genetic Proof of Lineage
Genealogy of Duke Béla of Macsó (the facial reconstruction of Béla, Duke of Macsó was made by Ágnes Kustár, while King Béla III’s face was reconstructed by Gyula Skultéty)
DNA sequencing from Béla’s petrous bone provided conclusive proof of identity. His Y-chromosome haplogroup N1a-L550 matches that of modern descendants of the Rurikid dynasty and the genome of Prince Dmitry Alexandrovich of Vladimir (1250–1294), a documented Rurikid relative. His mitochondrial lineage (U3b3) links him to populations of the Black Sea and Byzantine Anatolia, consistent with descent from Maria Laskarina, daughter of Emperor Theodore I Laskaris.
Genome-wide comparison confirmed that Béla was a fourth-degree descendant of King Béla III and approximately twice as distant from Saint Ladislaus, perfectly fitting the Árpád genealogical record.
Restoring a Lost Chapter of Hungarian History
Béla of Macsó’s death ended one of the last viable branches of the Árpád dynasty. His estates were seized by the victors, and his murder went unpunished, clearing the way for the chaotic minority of Ladislaus IV. Today, thanks to this multidisciplinary investigation, Béla stands alongside his ancestor King Béla III as one of only two Árpád rulers whose remains have been genetically verified. His rediscovered bones bear witness not only to a violent episode of 13th-century politics but also to the power of modern science to resurrect forgotten lives.
The article, “Murder in cold blood? Forensic and bioarchaeological identification of the skeletal remains of Béla, Duke of Macsó (c. 1245–1272),” by Tamás Hajdu, Noémi Borbély, Zsolt Bernert, Ágota Buzár, Tamás Szeniczey, István Major, Mihály Molnár, Anikó Horváth, László Palcsu, Zsuzsa Lisztes-Szabó, Claudio Cavazzuti, Barna Árpád Kelentey, János Angyal, Balázs Gusztáv Mende, Kristóf Jakab, Takács Ágoston, Olivia Cheronet, Ron Pinhasi, David Emil Reich, Martin Trautmann, and Anna Szécsényi-Nagy, is published in Forensic Science International: Genetics. You can access it from ScienceDirect or read the preprint from BioXriv.
Top Image: The skull of the investigated individual from the 13th century Dominican monastery on Margaret Island, Budapest. Illustration: Eötvös Loránd University
For centuries, the violent death of Duke Béla of Macsó in 1272 was known only from medieval chronicles. Now, forensic scientists have reconstructed the duke’s final moments in extraordinary detail, revealing how a group of armed nobles cornered, disfigured, and killed one of Hungary’s most powerful princes.
An international team led by Hungarian researchers has confirmed that skeletal remains discovered on Budapest’s Margaret Island in 1915 belong to Béla of Macsó, grandson of King Béla IV of Hungary and a descendant of the Rurikid princes of Kievan Rusʹ. Their results, published in Forensic Science International: Genetics, bring together anthropology, DNA analysis, and archaeology to solve a 700-year-old political murder.
A Violent End to a Dynastic Rivalry
After King Stephen V’s death in August 1272, Hungary was thrown into turmoil. His young son, Ladislaus IV, had just ascended the throne, and rival factions of nobles fought for power. Duke Béla, then in his twenties, was the kingdom’s most prominent surviving male of the royal house and a potential claimant to the throne. Invited to a council on the Island of Hares (today’s Margaret Island), he walked into a trap.
According to 13th-century sources, the meeting was orchestrated by Henrik (Kőszegi) of the Héder family and his allies. When Béla arrived, he was attacked and cut down inside the convent precinct. His body—mutilated beyond recognition—was retrieved by his sister, Saint Margaret of Hungary, and his niece Erzsébet and buried within the Dominican monastery’s sacristy.
Rediscovering the Bones
During excavations of the monastery in 1915, archaeologists uncovered three graves in the sacristy. One held a dismembered young man whose bones bore dozens of cut marks. Lajos Bartucz of Budapest University concluded in the 1930s that the remains belonged to Duke Béla, but the bones were thought lost during the Second World War.
In 2018, curators at the Hungarian Museum of Natural History rediscovered the postcranial skeleton in an unlabelled wooden box, while the skull was found in the Aurél Török Collection at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE). A new international research project—bringing together specialists from ELTE, the Institute of Archaeogenomics, Harvard University, and several European institutions—was launched to confirm the identification and reconstruct Béla’s life and death.
Evidence of a Coordinated Attack
Forensic examination revealed 26 perimortem wounds, including nine to the skull and seventeen to the rest of the body. The investigators determined that at least three assailants struck Béla simultaneously—one from the front, two from his left and right flanks—who were wielding sabres and longswords. In the article, here is how the attack was described:
The reconstruction of the assault sequence indicates the attack began with saber strikes to the head and upper body, followed by defensive injuries as the victim attempted to block further blows. The attackers eventually incapacitated the victim with further strikes from the flanks, continuing the assault as he fell to the ground, and delivering fatal injuries to the head and face.
The intensity of the attack clearly indicates an intent to kill, while the numerous blows to the face suggest intense emotional involvement, such as rage or hate (“overkill”). However, the coordinated nature of the attack implies premeditation, suggesting this was at least partly a planned assassination.
The Man Behind the Bones
Skeletal and genetic evidence portray Béla as a tall young man, about 178 cm (5 ft 10 in) in height and roughly 24 years old at death. His bones show minor muscular development and healed leg lesions, consistent with an active but privileged lifestyle.
Genetic markers indicate that Béla likely had dark, possibly curly hair, light-brown eyes, and medium-to-dark skin—traits common among individuals with mixed Northern and Eastern Mediterranean ancestry. No disease-related mutations were found in the genome.
Strontium isotopes from Béla’s teeth revealed that he was not born near Budapest, where he died. His early childhood signatures match the Vukovar–Syrmia region, corresponding to the medieval Macsó Banate (now parts of Croatia and Serbia). By adolescence, his isotopic ratios shifted toward those typical of central Hungary, showing that he moved north—likely to court—during his youth.
Radiocarbon dating at laboratories in Debrecen and Georgia yielded dates slightly older than expected (1030–1230 AD). Researchers traced this discrepancy to the “freshwater reservoir effect”: Béla’s diet was unusually rich in fish and other aquatic protein, which distorts radiocarbon ages by introducing ancient carbon into the body.
A Nobleman’s Diet
Isotopic and microfossil analyses reveal a diet befitting a duke. Stable-nitrogen values confirm heavy consumption of animal and aquatic protein, while the carbon ratios show reliance on C₃ cereals such as wheat and barley.
Microscopic study of Béla’s dental calculus yielded more than a thousand microfossils, including starch grains with signs of grinding, boiling, and baking—evidence of both cooked semolina and wheat bread. Pollen grains and fungal spores point to a varied, possibly spiced diet enjoyed by the medieval elite.
The Genetic Proof of Lineage
DNA sequencing from Béla’s petrous bone provided conclusive proof of identity. His Y-chromosome haplogroup N1a-L550 matches that of modern descendants of the Rurikid dynasty and the genome of Prince Dmitry Alexandrovich of Vladimir (1250–1294), a documented Rurikid relative. His mitochondrial lineage (U3b3) links him to populations of the Black Sea and Byzantine Anatolia, consistent with descent from Maria Laskarina, daughter of Emperor Theodore I Laskaris.
Genome-wide comparison confirmed that Béla was a fourth-degree descendant of King Béla III and approximately twice as distant from Saint Ladislaus, perfectly fitting the Árpád genealogical record.
Restoring a Lost Chapter of Hungarian History
Béla of Macsó’s death ended one of the last viable branches of the Árpád dynasty. His estates were seized by the victors, and his murder went unpunished, clearing the way for the chaotic minority of Ladislaus IV. Today, thanks to this multidisciplinary investigation, Béla stands alongside his ancestor King Béla III as one of only two Árpád rulers whose remains have been genetically verified. His rediscovered bones bear witness not only to a violent episode of 13th-century politics but also to the power of modern science to resurrect forgotten lives.
The article, “Murder in cold blood? Forensic and bioarchaeological identification of the skeletal remains of Béla, Duke of Macsó (c. 1245–1272),” by Tamás Hajdu, Noémi Borbély, Zsolt Bernert, Ágota Buzár, Tamás Szeniczey, István Major, Mihály Molnár, Anikó Horváth, László Palcsu, Zsuzsa Lisztes-Szabó, Claudio Cavazzuti, Barna Árpád Kelentey, János Angyal, Balázs Gusztáv Mende, Kristóf Jakab, Takács Ágoston, Olivia Cheronet, Ron Pinhasi, David Emil Reich, Martin Trautmann, and Anna Szécsényi-Nagy, is published in Forensic Science International: Genetics. You can access it from ScienceDirect or read the preprint from BioXriv.
Top Image: The skull of the investigated individual from the 13th century Dominican monastery on Margaret Island, Budapest. Illustration: Eötvös Loránd University
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