Theodore of the Csanád clan (; died 1234) was an influential nobleman in the Kingdom of Hungary at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries. He led a palace coup against Andrew II of Hungary and was installed as Palatine of Hungary for a brief time in 1222. He was also ispán of at least five counties in the first decades of the 13th century. Early life Theodore was born into the ancient Hungarian gens (clan) Csanád. He was the son of Vejte Csanád, who served as Judge royal between 1199 and 1200. His two brothers were Vejte (II), who married a daughter of Pousa Bár-Kalán, and Ladislaus, who served as ispán of Csanád County in 1234. The members of his wide kinship – including Pat Győr, Pousa Bár-Kalán and his father Vejte Csanád – were considered loyal partisans of King Emeric, whose whole reign was characterized by power struggles with his younger brother Duke Andrew. In the same time, when his father Vejte functioned as Judge royal, the young Theodore held the dignity of ispán of Bodrog County from 1199 to 1200. 1222 coup d'état Following the death of Emeric in 1204 and Andrew's subsequent ascension to the Hungarian throne in 1205, Theodore lost all political influence and he has not held office for the next two decades. During that time, he gradually became a leading member of that formerly pro-Emeric opposition baronial group, who opposed the king's economic reforms, the so-called "new institutions". Theodore and his companions, were left out of the land donations, which gave rise to serious contradictions with those emerging barons, who were the chief beneficiaries of the king's policy. Andrew II faced conspiracy against his rule in several cases, for instance after his return from the Holy Land in 1218. In order to quell dissatisfaction, the king made several concessions. As a sign of this, Theodore was appointed ispán of Borsod County in 1219. The available data suggest that discontented barons led by Theodore Csanád, many of whom had held high offices during Emeric's reign, staged a coup d'état (or palace coup) against Andrew II in the spring of 1222. Taking control over the royal council and depriving the confidants of Andrew out of the government, Theodore was installed as Palatine of Hungary. Beside Theodore, for instance, his brother's father-in-law Pousa Bár-Kalán became Judge royal and Tiburtius Rosd, another former partisan of Emeric,