Most Hungarian lords and the prelates opposed the restoration of paganism. They preferred the devout Christian Andrew to his pagan brother Levente, even if, at least according to Kristó and Steinhübel, the latter was the eldest among Vazul's three sons. The Hungarian chronicles write that Levente, who died in short time, did not oppose his brother's ascension to the throne. The three bishops who had survived the pagan uprising crowned Andrew in Székesfehérvár in the last quarter of 1046 or in the spring of 1047. Historian Ferenc Makk writes that Andrew was crowned with a crown that the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos had sent to him. Nine enamelled plaques from this golden crown were unearthed in Nyitraivánka (Ivanka pri Nitre, Slovakia) in the 19th century. Andrew soon broke with his pagan supporters, restored Christianity and declared pagan rites illegal. According to Kosztolnyik, Andrew's epithets (the White or the Catholic) are connected to these events.
