Ákos (chronicler)

Ákos
Seal of magister Ákos, 1266
Chancellor of the Queen
Reign	1248–1261
Predecessor	Philip Türje
Successor	Mutimir
Noble family	gens Ákos
Father	Matthew
Born	?
Died	after 24 August 1273

Ákos from the kindred Ákos (Hungarian: Ákos nembeli Ákos), better known as Magister Ákos (Hungarian: Ákos mester) was a Hungarian cleric and chronicler in the 13th century.

He was a member of the gens (clan) Ákos as the son of Matthew. He had two brothers, Philip, who served as ispán of Gömör (1244), then Veszprém Counties (1247), and Detre, who governed Győr County in 1257. Possibly Ákos, who entered ecclesiastical career, was the youngest brother among three of them.

It is possible that Ákos raised in the court of Coloman of Galicia-Lodomeria, a younger son of Andrew II of Hungary. Probably he studied abroad as his work proves that he had an excellent knowledge of the canon law of the Catholic Church and its reference method. Raymond of Penyafort compiled the Decretals of Gregory IX by September 1234, the Pope announced the new publication in a Bull directed to the doctors and students of Paris and Bologna, commanding that the work of Raymond alone should be considered authoritative, and should alone be used in the schools. Ákos was already referred to as magister in 1240, confirming that he studied arts and canon law in youth and not at peek of his ecclesiastical career.

Ákos was present at the coronation of Béla IV on 14 October 1235, as he gave a detailed account of the event in his gesta. According to his report, Duke Coloman carried the royal sword, while Daniel of Galicia led the king's horse at the head of the procession. Ákos was a vicar in Pest between 1235 and 1244, later became royal chaplain for King Béla. He was one of the crown guards from 1246 to 1251, after that he served as canon of Székesfehérvár between 1248 and 1251. Besides that he functioned as chancellor for Queen Maria Laskarina, the wife of Béla IV from 1248 until 1261. He was also provost of Buda. For the last decade of his life, Ákos functioned as caretaker and patron of the Dominican monastery in the Margaret Island. Following the death of Béla IV, he retired from public life and resided in the provost's palace at Óbuda. He wrote his gesta there.