The girl king who was bowed to by the Pope and her unhappy love

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

A teenage girl chopped the Krakow gate with an ax. Outside the gates, the bridegroom promised in childhood, the young Duke of Austria, was waiting for her. The doors were heavy, strong, designed for siege. Chips flew from them. The girl was eleven, her name was Jadwiga, and she was the king of Poland. She had just been told that Poland needed another royal groom. That she had already been promised to a prince from pagan lands.

The ax was taken away. The Poles appealed to their king's sense of duty. The girl-king was in despair: married to a pagan she would die young and unhappy! The Bishop of Krakow persuaded: after becoming a Lithuanian princess, Jadviga would baptize the pagans and glorify his name for centuries. As time will show, everyone was right - both Jadwiga, who became the only woman on the Polish throne, and the bishop.

The king had three daughters

King of Hungary and Poland Louis of Anjou and his wife Elizabeth of Bosnia had no children for seventeen years. Since the absence of an heir threatened the dynasty and stability of the kingdoms of Louis, he had the right to ask the Pope for permission to divorce. But the king was very fond of his wife and preferred to wait. Seventeen years later, the expectation was justified. The queen gave birth to three girls one after the other: Catherine, Maria, Jadwiga. The problem was that only a king, not a queen, could legally rule Hungary and Poland.

Louis did not lose heart. He decided to give all three girls the same education that crown princes would receive. Dances, manners, Latin, French, Polish, Hungarian, religious and antique literature. In the meantime, the girls were studying, he fought for their future: he conducted difficult negotiations with the Hungarians and Poles in order to introduce the possibility of inheriting the crown by women.

In any case, the youngest of the daughters, Jadwiga, seemed to be out of the picture. There are two countries, and there are also two older sisters. But at the age of eight, Catherine died of an illness, and Yadviga moved forward in line to the crown. True, the Poles balked: they, they say, agreed specifically to Catherine. Negotiations began again, which ended in 1382 with a new agreement. Eleven-year-old Maria was at that time already betrothed to the fourteen-year-old Margrave of Brandenburg Sigismund, and under the new agreement it was assumed that after their wedding and the coronation of Mary, the Margrave would become part of Poland.

But nothing happened with Mary on the Polish throne. Soon after the agreement, Louis died - his health was undermined by military campaigns. The Poles instantly got their bearings and adopted a new decree: to recognize as their king only that of his daughters who will live in Poland.

Maria fell away. She was crowned in Hungary immediately after the death of her father. Of course, due to her childhood, her mother actually ruled, but this did not mean that Maria could take and simply move to Poland from the capital. Jadwig was also scared to let go: not all Poles were ready to see a foreigner on their throne and seized the moment to promote their candidate, a prince from the Piast clan, who were once the first kings of Poland. The nine-year-old princess could be at the center of a civil war.

However, the prince himself was not averse to solving the problem by marrying Yadwiga by good or by force - he and his supporters were seriously thinking about a plan to kidnap the girl.

Ultimately, the supporters of Jadwiga won, and the eleven-year-old princess left for Krakow to become king - this is how the old law was eventually bypassed. Hastened to come to Krakow and Wilhelm. He had every reason to rush to the wedding: Jadwiga with a crown on his head became a profitable commodity for the Polish nobility, she could be forcibly sold for anyone who offered a better price.

Alas, that is exactly what happened. The Poles considered that an alliance with the Lithuanians was much more profitable for Poland.

Does a heathen prince have a tail?

At that time, the young and warlike king Jagiello became a prominent figure in eastern Europe. He entered into alliances with the Germans, then with the Horde, then with the Russian princes, even tried to marry the daughter of Dmitry Donskoy, so that the alliance with the Russians was strong. This was quite possible: according to rumors, the Russian mother baptized Jagiello as a child under the name Jacob, although now he led a pagan life. But Donskoy made it a condition for the baptism of all Lithuanians under the leadership of Jagiello and the recognition by the prince of Lithuania of the power of the prince of Moscow. Jagiello did not want to recognize anyone's power. The engagement was upset, and the prince began to look for a more comfortable bride.

While Wilhelm, who arrived in Krakow, was dancing with Jadwiga in anticipation of an imminent, of course, wedding, the Lithuanian over Jadwiga reached an agreement with the Poles. The Austrian who left the city for some reason was simply not allowed back, the gates were closed.

Yadwig was crippled by the new engagement. Her father, although he looked primarily at politics, tried to select suitors for his daughters who were suitable both in age, in appearance, and in manners. Jagiello was frankly old for the girl-king, and there was no question of manners. As for her appearance, Yadviga was seriously afraid that, for example, a tail was hidden under her clothes. She even asked the ambassadors to find a way to check if the person was a pagan. Those, after steaming with Jagiello in the bathhouse, assured their ruler that the groom had a completely ordinary body. In addition, before the wedding, he will convert to Catholicism …

It is unlikely that they at the same time said that Yagailo killed his own uncle for the sake of power and, according to rumors, drowned his aunt in the river. That he had already violated the treaty with the Russian princes. That he has a cruel and lascivious disposition, he loves drinking and bloody hunting. That he does not speak any of the languages known to Jadwiga, finally.

The wedding took place on February 15, 1386. The bride - one of the most beautiful girls of her time, who loved balls and dances - came to church in dark clothes and without a single decoration. The prince got a wife and Poland. It is noteworthy that the title of king remained for Jadwige.

How long have you been waiting

The marriage did not work out. Jagiello and Yadviga baptized Lithuanians, but they did not abandon their pagan habits. The prince hunted all the time and cheated openly. Jadwiga went to visit Krakow; she loved this city, and shortly before her death, when the University of Krakow was having difficulties, she sold all her jewelry to help. Jagiello immediately reported that his wife was visiting her lover.

The prince wanted to believe. He's making charges. In response, Jadwiga demands a trial. It completely whitewashes the queen, and Jadwiga refuses to continue to fulfill his marital duty, since her husband has insulted her. Jagiello could not take her by force - yet she was a king, and the knights were loyal to her.

It's not a big deal when it comes to the joys of the flesh, but Jagiello needs a legitimate heir. He tries to please his wife, showing the depth of his remorse. Now, in her presence, he dresses in dark clothes, drinks only water, and observes church fasts. Jadwiga is just as gloomy and stern, she no longer dances at balls, although she loves to watch others dance.

In the end, Jagiello achieved the forgiveness of his young wife. She returned to the matrimonial bed and conceived. The girl who was born lived only a month. Yadwiga plunged into severe depression. Jagiello could not or did not want to look for a cure for her melancholy. The twenty-six-year-old woman withered before her eyes. Before her death, she gave all her money to the poor. Yadviga died, as she got married, in mid-February.

The people grieved, perhaps more than they loved her alive. The name of Jadwiga instantly became overgrown with legends. People assured that once, when the queen prayed all night long, Christ himself spoke to her from the crucifixion. Ordinary Poles and Lithuanians considered her a saint. But the Vatican was in no hurry. Only in 1997, Pope John Paul II, himself a Pole, came to Krakow and addressed the Queen's tombstone: “How long have you waited, Jadwiga…” He came to announce that the Vatican had recognized Jadwiga as a saint.

William married another princess from the Angevin dynasty, Giovanna. In their marriage, there was no consent, no children.

And Jagailo then married three more times. The second wife, Anna Celskaya, gave birth to a girl, whom her father named Yadviga. As if by this you can ask for forgiveness from the one who betrayed for so long.

The fate of the English princess Victoria, who lived many centuries later, was much better. Though as a child, she was literally kept on stale bread, she was able to marry the one she loved.