natural position most strongly fortified" following the occupation of Gyula's country. According to a number of historians, including Zoltán Lenkey and Gábor Thoroczkay, Kean was the head of a small state located in the southern parts of Transylvania and Stephen occupied his country around 1003. Other historians, including Györffy, say that the chronicle's report preserved the memory of Stephen's campaign against Bulgaria in the late 1010s. Likewise, the identification of the "Black Hungarians"who were mentioned by Bruno of Querfurt and Adémar de Chabannes among the opponents of Stephen's proselytizing policyis uncertain. Györffy locates their lands to the east of the river Tisza; while Thoroczkay says they live in the southern parts of Transdanubia. Bruno of Querfurt's report of the Black Hungarians' conversion by force suggests that Stephen conquered their lands at the latest in 1009 when "the first mission of Saint Peter"a papal legate, Cardinal Azoarrived in Hungary. The latter attended the meeting in Győr where the royal charter determining the borders of the newly established Bishopric of Pécs was issued on 23 August 1009. The Diocese of Eger was also set up around 1009. According to Thoroczkay, "it is very probable" that the bishopric's establishment was connected with the conversion of the Kabarsan ethnic group of Khazar origin and their chieftain. The head of the Kabarswho was either Samuel Aba or his father married Stephen's unnamed younger sister on this occasion. The Aba clan was the most powerful among the native families who joined Stephen and supported him in his efforts to establish a Christian monarchy. The reports by Anonymus, Simon of Kéza and other Hungarian chroniclers of the Bár-Kalán, Csák and other 13th-century noble families descending from Hungarian chieftains suggest that other native families were also involved in the process. Stephen set up a territory-based administrative system, establishing counties. Each county, headed by a royal official known as a count or ispán, was an administrative unit organized around a royal fortress. Most fortresses were earthworks in this period, but the castles at Esztergom, Székesfehérvár and Veszprém were built of stone. Forts serving as county seats also became the nuclei of Church organization. The settlements developing around them, where markets were held on each Sunday, were important local economic centers. Wars with Poland and Bulgaria ( 1009–1018) Stephen's brother-in-law, Henry II, became King of Germany in 1002 and Holy Roman Emperor in 1013. Their friendly relationship ensured that the