360 Huns
Schlacks, Jr., Publisher, 1989–1992); János M. Bak and
Béla K. Király, eds., From Hunyadi to Rákóczi: War and
Society in Late Medieval and Early Modern Hungary(New
York: Brooklyn College Press, 1982); Pál Engel, The
Realm of St. Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary,
895–1526,trans. Tamás Pálosfalvi and ed. Andrew Ayton
(London: I. B. Tauris, 2001); Erik Fügedi, Kings, Bishops,
Nobles, and Burghers in Medieval Hungary,ed. János M.
Bak (London: Variorum, 1986); Martyn Rady, Nobility,
Land and Service in Medieval Hungary(London: Palgrave,
2000); Géza Perjés, The Fall of the Medieval Kingdom of
Hungary: Mohács 1526–Buda 1541,trans. Mário D. Fenyö
with a foreword by János M. Bak (Boulder, Colo.: Social
Science Monographs, 1989).
Huns They were Turkic-Uighur invaders from central
Asia with a terrible reputation for brutality who set in
motion a great movement of people in the fourth and
fifth centuries. The Huns do not appear in Western
sources until the second century C.E. when they settled
between the Volga and Don Rivers. At the end of the
fourth century, they moved toward the Caucasus and
conquered the ALANS, who, allied with the Huns,
destroyed a Gothic kingdom of 375. By then they were a
confederation of various peoples.
THE HUNS AS A PEOPLEHunnic civilization has been reconstructed from Western
written sources from the late antique world and from
archaeological sites occupied by the Huns and other
nomads between the late fourth and early fifth centuries.
These sites were found from PANNONIAin the regions of
the middle and lower Danube, to the steppes north of the
BLACK SEA, and along the Volga River. They consisted
mainly of isolated TOMBS, with the cremation or inhuma-
tion of the body under mounds containing ritual offer-
ings. Funerary furnishings have been found that comprise
a great number of elements of harnesses, no stirrups or
spurs, numerous double-edged swords, bone arrowheads,
and ornaments of a clothing common among the aristoc-
racy of the barbarian kingdoms up to the sixth century.
The Huns lived by hunting, gathering, and maintaining
flocks of sheep as a mobile supply of food and hides.
The Huns were considered extremely predatory. Con-
ducting their warfare with a merciless efficiency, they
took few prisoners and showed little pity. They were
described as virtually living on horseback, dismounting
only when absolutely necessary or when engaging an
enemy more directly.
AGGRESSIONS AND CONQUESTSBy 425, the Huns had built a state in Pannonia. ATTILA,
who rose to power in 445, began regularly launching
raids from there against the Eastern Empire between 441
and 448 and obliged the emperor to pay large tributes.
Until 450, because of his friendship with the Roman
general, Aetius, he maintained good relations with the
Western emperor. In 451, however, Attila led Huns
across the Rhine near Mainz. They ravaged the province
of Belgica Prima, burned the city of Metz on April 7, and
laid siege to the town of Orléans from the end of May.
The siege was abandoned in mid June because of the
approach of troops and those of the VISIGOTHS and
FRANKS. The Huns confronted the Romans and their
allies near Troyes, on the Catalunian Plains. The Huns,
though defeated in a bloody battle, were able to return to
Pannonia without pursuit. In spring 452 they entered
northeastern Italy, sacked Aquileia, and pillaged the
whole north of the peninsula. However, Attila died after
their return to Pannonia in 453. The Hunnic empire was
disputed among the sons of Attila and disintegrated. The
Huns were soon chased back by the Gepids to the
steppes, where they reintegrated themselves with other
nomadic peoples of Turkic origin from Asia to form new
confederations of peoples.
See alsoAVARS;BULGARIA AND THEBULGARS;GALLA
PLACIDIA.
Further reading: Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen, The
World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture,ed.
Max Knight (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California
Press, 1973); E. A. Thompson, The Huns(1948; reprint,
Oxford: Blackwell, 1996); Colin D. Gordon, The Age of
Attila: Fifth Century Byzantium and the Barbarians(Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1960).hunting and fowling In the Middle Ages, hunting
could be seen as protecting human crops and livestock
from the animal world and providing humans with food
and clothing. For many of the elite it was an important
distraction or amusement. Indeed all social groups prac-
ticed it when they had an opportunity. For a PEASANTRY
seeking meat, this meant traps, snares, simple nooses,
and nets for migrating birds, pits filled with pikes, or
enclosures containing bait to attract wild animals. On
occasion the nobility practiced this lower-class form of
hunting, but they asserted their class distinctions by
devotion to hunting with hawks or falcons and dogs.
Hawking, described by FREDERICKII of HOHENSTAUFENin
the 13th century, involved the complex training of birds
of prey. Another form of hunting by the elite was done on
horseback with packs of hounds. This form demanded
luck, endurance, and skill in personal combat, mounted
or dismounted, with a dangerous wild boar. Accompa-
nied by a common feast, hunting was also a time of male
bonding and conviviality. Women were sometimes
allowed to take part in falconry.CLASS INTERESTS
From the mid-14th century, of all the animals hunted by
dogs, the stag became the most preyed upon. These royal