Géza II of Hungary

Géza II (Hungarian: II. Géza; Croatian: Gejza II.; Slovak: Gejza II.; 1130 – 31 May 1162) was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1141 to 1162. He was the oldest son of King Béla the Blind and his wife, Helena of Serbia. When his father died, Géza was still a child and he started ruling under the guardianship of his mother and her brother, Beloš. A pretender to the throne, Boris Kalamanos, who had already claimed Hungary during Béla the Blind's reign, temporarily captured Pressburg (now Bratislava in Slovakia) with the assistance of German mercenaries in early 1146. In retaliation, Géza who came of age in the same year, invaded Austria and routed Henry Jasomirgott, Margrave of Austria, in the Battle of the Fischa.

Although the German–Hungarian relations remained tense, no major confrontations occurred when the German crusaders marched through Hungary in June 1147. Two months later, Louis VII of France and his crusaders arrived, along with Boris Kalamanos who attempted to take advantage of the crusade to return to Hungary. Louis VII refused to extradite Boris to Géza, but prevented the pretender from contacting his supporters in Hungary and managed to shepherd him to Constantinople with the rest of the crusaders. Géza joined the coalition that Louis VII and Roger II of Sicily formed against Conrad III of Germany and Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos.