IT IS NOT known where exactly in Hungary Coloman went after his release from capture in Halych by Mstislav. Conceivably Coloman may have spent time in Scepus, if we assume the existence of a royal curia there; but we lack any supporting information. Coloman, as a royal prince—regardless of his current status in Galicia—must have had personal estates in the realm; perhaps Scepus was one since he also initiated the construction of the castle in the 1230s. Residence in Scepus was probably driven by its security and not by the geographical closeness to Galicia, since the Scepus adjoined Lesser Poland as opposed to the principality of the Rus’. From the Carpathians to Galicia by saddle was a great distance; nor was the location ideal for a ride to Galicia. We assume that Coloman possessed a princely curia in Scepus but no territorial rule which contradicts Slovak historians who read the situation of the second half of the thirteenth century back into the 1210s and 1220s.

If Coloman indeed stayed in Scepus from 1222 onwards (for which theory we only have indirect evidence), then he probably left there for Slavonia in 1226. 1224–25 must have been a turning point for Prince Andrew's situation in Galicia, since that year he was given his own land in Peremyshl. King Andrew probably believed his third son's place to be stable enough, one assumes, which is why he decided to shuffle his sons’ positions in Hungary. Coloman lost his lands in Galicia for good and was sent to Slavonia, where he took over from his older brother, Béla, who was ordered to Transylvania. The deci-sions were made by Andrew II, since he did not involve his sons in the preparations for these changes. The difference between royal and ducal decision-making is shown by the case of Prince Béla, who had to seek papal support in order to investigate the legality of earlier royal benefactions. Each son of Andrew II was a minor when they were each engaged for marriage, so probably had no say whatsoever.