Ladislaus I or Saint Ladislaus , 1040–95, king of Hungary (1077–95).  He supported Pope Gregory VII against Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, but rejected Gregory's suggestion that he swear fealty to the papacy.  At the invitation of his sister, the widowed queen of Croatia, he invaded and conquered that country in 1091.  He successfully fought the Cumans, compelling those whose lives he spared to turn Christian and to settle in designated regions.  He modified the Hungarian criminal code and issued laws safeguarding private property.  In Hungarian tradition he is the model of chivalry and valor.  He secured the canonization of St. Stephen and was canonized himself in 1198.  Feast: June 27.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed.  2004, Columbia University Press.

Cumans or Kumans , nomadic East Turkic people, identified with the Kipchaks (or the western branch of the Kipchaks) and known in Russian as Polovtsi.  Coming from NW Asian Russia, they conquered South Russia and Walachia in the 11th cent., and for almost two centuries warred intermittently with the Byzantine Empire, Hungary, and Kiev.  They founded a nomadic state in the steppes along the Black Sea, and were active in commerce with Central Asia and Venice.  In the early 12th cent. the main Cuman forces were defeated by the Eastern Slavs.  The Mongols decisively defeated the Cumans circa1245.  Some were sold as slaves, and many took refuge in Bulgaria and also in Hungary, where they were gradually assimilated into the Hungarian culture.  Others joined the khanate of the Golden Horde (also called the Western Kipchaks), which was organized on the former Cuman territory in Russia.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed.  2004, Columbia University Press.