Famous medieval women can be counted on one hand. Joan of Arc, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Julian of Norwich come to mind. Another princess deserves mention. Jadwiga of Hungary, the girl who became king in the 14th century, shines as a sovereign who mixed sweetness with political savvy.
East European Kings
Jadwiga’s father was one of the most active european kings in the fourteenth century.
Louis d’ Anjou, King of Hungary from 1342-1382, had connections with almost every royal house in Europe. In 1370 the Polish nobles elected him King of Poland. He arranged for his eldest daughter Mary to succeed him.
Instead the Poles chose his youngest daughter Jadwiga to fill her father’s shoes.
The 10 year old princess rose to the challenge. By the scanty medieval records extant, it seems Jadwiga, or Hedwig as she was known, had a healthy dose of courage as well as the royal accoutrements of language, scientific knowledge, and artistic ability.
She traveled to Krakow for her coronation. There the Polish nobles declared that she must be crowned King rather than Queen, to signify that she was the monarch and not the crown consort. So young Hedwig, at eleven years of age, became King Jadwiga I of Poland in 1384.
Alliance with Austria or Lithuania
After her coronation King Jadwiga faced a flood of marriage proposals. As a healthy young sovereign, related by birth to the royal houses of France, Hungary, Poland, and Bosnia, she was one of the most desirable matches in Europe. Only one problem presented itself.
She was already engaged.
In accordance with common medieval practice, her parents had arranged her betrothal at age five. She expected to marry William Duke of Austria. She had already spent some years at the royal court in Vienna with him. However as King of Poland her status had changed. Her royal advisers counseled closer alliances like the Duke of Masovia and the Lithuanian duke Jagiello.
The situation reached a climax when William of Austria arrived in Krakow.
King Jadwiga refused to see her former fiancé. Some historians claim she saw the necessity of an alliance with Lithuania. As a true statesman she placed the interests of her country over her own affections. Other accounts offer the more colorful picture of young Jadwiga imprisoned in her own castle and forbidden to see her Habsburg prince.
Whatever the truth, Jadwiga ultimately annulled her engagement. She ordered William to leave Poland. Later that year she accepted Duke Jagiello of Lithuania. She made only one condition. In return for her hand in marriage, the pagan Lithuanian noble must convert himself and his entire nation to Christianity. Maybe that condition assuaged the King’s conscience if the twelve year old felt remorse over her jilted Austrian lover.
Jadwiga and Jagiello married in Krakow in 1385. The newly baptized duke was three times her age. They ruled Poland well together for the next fourteen years.
Threat of the Teutonic Order on the Baltic Sea
Jadwiga stayed active as a Polish monarch even after her husband shared the crown. During their reign Poland faced the growing threat of the Teutonic Knights in northern Poland. The powerful German order controlled the Baltic Sea coast and extensive property along the Vistula river.
Jadwiga opened diplomatic conversations with the head of the Order. She informed him that he must stop stealing Polish land. During her life she would be patient, she told him, but Heaven would avenge the wrongs he did Poland. Only eleven years after her untimely death in 1399, her husband crushed the Teutonic knights in the epic battle of Grunwald. King Jadwiga had warned them but they did not take the words of the girl-king and her Lithuanian husband seriously.
Jadwiga Legends and Legacy
Medieval legend credits Jadwiga with great beauty and piety. Fact blurs with fiction. Yet two of her royal contributions are documented. She sold her crown jewels to fund the Krakow Academy. And she established a bishop in Lithuania to Christianize the region, thus rendering the Teutonic Knights’s crusade against “the pagans” as false as it was rapacious.
The young king’s greatest legacy rests in her decision to unite Poland and Lithuania at a time when neither nation could survive alone. Because of the alliance, and because of her courage, humility, and sweet character, the Roman Catholic Church venerates her as the patron saint of queens and of a united Europe.
Sources
Gardner, Monica. Queen Jadwiga of Poland. St. Louis: B. Herder, 1934.
Heinze, Karl G. Baltic Sagas: Events and Personalities That Changed the World! College Station: Virtualbookworm.com Publishing Inc., 2003. Accessed online April 20, 2010.
Heise, Jennifer A. “ The Union of Jadwiga and Jagiello.” Accessed online April 23, 2010.
Mills, Lois. So Young a Queen. New York: Lothrop, 1961.
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