Top 10 Facts about Jadwiga of Poland

A painting photo of Jadwiga of Poland by Marcello Bacciarelli – Wikimedia commons

Top 10 Facts about Jadwiga of Poland

Jadwiga also known as Hedwig was the first female monarch of the Kingdom of Poland, reigning from 16 October 1384 until her death. She was born between 3 October 1373 and 18 February 1374. She was the youngest daughter of Louis the Great, King of Hungary and Poland, and his wife Elizabeth of Bosnia.

Jadwiga was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou, but she had more close forebears among the Polish Piasts than among the Angevins. In 1997, she was canonized by the Catholic Church. In the article are the top ten facts about Jadwiga of Poland.

1. She had a planned marriage

William of Austria painting photo by Antoni Boys – Wikimedia commons

The marriage was purposively for the benefit of the two loyal families. It was in 1375 when it was planned that Jawiga would marry William of Austria, and they would live in Vienna from 1378 to 1380.

Jadwiga’s father is thought to have regarded her and William as his favoured successors in Hungary after the death of her eldest sister, Catherine in 1379. Unfortunately, Jadwiga did not marry William of Austria.

Jadwiga was the best candidate because the Polish nobility had that same year pledged their homage to Louis’ second daughter, Mary, and Mary’s fiancé, Sigismund of Luxembourg.

2. How did Jadwiga come to rule Poland?

A painting photo of Sigismund of Luxembourg by Pisanello – Wikimedia commons

Jadwiga was engaged to William of Austria to Rule Hungary. However, Louis died, and in 1382, at her mother’s insistence, Mary was crowned King of Hungary.

Sigismund of Luxembourg tried to take control of Poland, but the Polish nobility countered that they would be obedient to the daughter of King Louis only if she settled in Poland.

Queen Elizabeth then chose Jadwiga to reign Poland but did not send her to Kraków to be crowned. During the interregnum, Siemowit IV, Duke of Masovia, became a candidate for the Polish throne.

The nobility of Greater Poland favoured him and proposed that he marry Jadwiga. However, Lesser Poland’s nobility opposed him and persuaded Queen Elizabeth to send Jadwiga to Poland. Jadwiga’s second marriage proposal did not go through again.

3. Jadwiga was married to a pagan

Władysław Jogaila painting photo by an Unknown author – Wikimedia commons

Jadwiga was crowned king in Poland’s capital, Kraków, on 16 October 1384. With her mother’s consent, Jadwiga’s advisors opened negotiations with Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania, who was still a pagan, concerning his potential marriage to Jadwiga.

Jogaila signed the Union of Krewo, pledging to convert to Catholicism and to promote his pagan subjects’ conversion. Meanwhile, William hastened to Kraków, hoping to marry his childhood fiancé Jadwiga, but in late August 1385, the Polish nobles expelled him.

Jogaila, who took the baptismal name Władysław, married Jadwiga on 15 February 1386. Legend says that she had agreed to marry him only after a lengthy prayer, seeking divine inspiration.

4. Jadwiga’s coronation happened in 1384

The interregnum that followed Louis’s death and caused such internal strife came to an end with Jadwiga’s arrival in Poland. A large crowd of clerics, noblemen, and burghers gathered at Kraków to greet her with a display of affection.

Nobody protested when Archbishop Bodzanta crowned her on 16 October 1384 (according to the 15th-century Polish historian, Jan Długosz). According to traditional scholarly consensus, Jadwiga was crowned king. Thereby, as Robert W. Knoll proposes, the Polish lords prevented her eventual spouse from adopting the same title without their consent.

Stephen C. Rowell says that sources that contradict the traditional view outnumber those verifying it. This suggests that sporadic contemporaneous references to Jadwiga as king only reflect that she was not a queen consort, but a queen regnant.

5. Jadwiga had only six trusted advisors during the first years of her reign

Bodzanta, Archbishop of Gniezno, Jan Radlica, Bishop of Kraków, Dobrogost of Nowy Dwór, Bishop of Poznań, and Duke Vladislaus II of Opole were Jadwiga’s most trusted advisers during the first years of her reign.

According to a widely accepted scholarly theory, Jadwiga, who was still a minor, was a mere tool to her advisers. However, Halecki obliges to this view, averred that Jadwiga matured quickly and her personality, especially her charm and kindness, only served to strengthen her position.

6. Why did the Polish refuse William to be Jadwiga’s husband?

William was Jadwiga’s arranged spouse since their childhood, so Jadwiga was titled William’s childhood fiancee. Even though William tried to play his card right to win the people of Poland’s trust to be Jadwiga’s lawfully married husband.

The Polish lords did not want to accept Jadwiga’s fourteen-year-old fiancé, William of Habsburg, as their sovereign. They thought that the inexperienced William and his Austrian kinsmen could not safeguard Poland’s interests against its powerful neighbours, especially the Luxemburgs who controlled Bohemia and Brandenburg and had a strong claim on Hungary.

7. Partitioning of Poland created enmity with Sigismund

Jadwiga’s brother-in-law, Sigismund, who had been crowned King of Hungary, started negotiations with the Teutonic Knights about partitioning Poland in early 1392. Jadwiga met Mary, her elder sister, in Stará Ľubovňa in May and returned to Kraków only in early July.

Jadwiga was a skilful mediator, famed for her impartiality and intelligence. She went to Lithuania to reconcile her brother-in-law, Skirgaila, with Vytautas in October 1393. Relations between Poland and Hungary remained tense.

Sigismund invaded Moldavia, forcing Stephen I of Moldavia to accept his suzerainty in 1394. On 17 May 1395, Mary died after a riding accident. According to the 1383 agreement between their mother and the Polish lords, Jadwiga was her childless sister’s heir in Hungary. Everything was becoming tense since Mary had a husband crowned king of Hungary.

Vlad I of Wallachia, a Hungarian vassal, issued an act of submission on 28 May, acknowledging Jadwiga and her husband as Mary’s legitimate successors. The widowed king’s close supporter, Stibor of Stiboricz, expelled Vlad from Wallachia.

Władysław-Jogaila gathered his troops on the Polish-Hungarian border, but Eustache Jolsvai, Palatine of Hungary, and John Kanizsai, Archbishop of Esztergom, stopped his invasion of Hungary.

On 8 September, the most influential Hungarian lords declared that they would not support any change in government while Sigismund was far from Hungary fighting against the Ottoman Turks. Peace negotiations between the representatives of Hungary and Poland ended with an agreement. Jadwiga adopted the title Heir to Hungary.

8. Jadwiga was a wise ruler who never prioritized war in decision making

The relationship between Lithuania and the Teutonic Knights remained tense. Jadwiga and her Polish advisers invited the Grand Master, Konrad von Jungingen, to Poland to open new negotiations in June 1396.

Conflicts with Vladislaus of Opole and Siemowit of Masovia, who had not given up their claims to parts of Ruthenia and Cuyavia, also intensified. To demonstrate that the territories were under Jadwiga’s direct control, Władysław-Jogaila granted her the Duchy of Belz and Cuyavia in early 1397.

However, Jadwiga and her Polish advisers wanted to avoid a war with the Teutonic Order. In response, Władysław-Jogaila replaced most Polish starosts in Ruthenia with local Orthodox noblemen. She opened new negotiations with the Teutonic Knights, but Konrad von Jungingen dispatched a simple knight to meet her in May 1398.

10. She died of post-partum complications

Jadwiga was childless for over a decade, which, according to chronicles written in the Teutonic lands, caused conflicts between her and her husband. She became pregnant in late 1398 or early 1399.

The first horoscopes written for Jadwiga’s and Jogaila’s child predicted a son in mid-September 1398. However, a girl was delivered on 22 June 1399 at Wawel Castle. Reports of the time stated that the child was born prematurely.

The newborn princess was named Elizabeth Bonifacia after Jadwiga’s mother and Pope Boniface IX who, in a letter of 5 May 1399, had agreed to be godfather under the condition that the infant is called Boniface or Bonifacia.

She was baptised by Piotr Wysz Radoliński, Bishop of Kraków. However, the infant died after only three weeks, on 13 July 1399. Jadwiga, too, was on her deathbed. Jadwiga and her daughter were buried together in Wawel Cathedral, on 24 August 1399, as stipulated in the Queen’s last will.