This article is about the 14th-century queen and saint. For the 13th-century saint of the same name, St. Hedwig of Andechs (ÅšwiÄ™ta Jadwiga ÅšlÄ…ska), see Hedwig of Andechs.

Jadwiga (1374? – July 17, 1399) was a Polish monarch who reigned from 1384, to 1399, and is venerated by the Roman Catholic Church as Saint Hedwig (Jadwiga) the Queen. She is the Patron Saint of Queens, and of United Europe.

She is known in German as Hedwig, in Lithuanian as Jadvyga, in Hungarian as Hedvig, and in Latin as Hedvigis.

Jadwiga, was reputedly a blonde, blue-eyed, tall and elegant beauty.

Childhood

Jadwiga was the youngest daughter of Louis I of Hungary and of Elizabeta Kotromanic. Jadwiga could claim descent from the House of Piast, the ancient native Polish dynasty on both her mother's and her father's side. Her paternal grandmother Elisabeth of Cuyavia was the daughter of King WÅ‚adysÅ‚aw I the Elbow-high, who had reunited Poland in 1320.

Jadwiga was brought up at the royal court in Buda and Visegrad, Hungary. In 1378 she was betrothed (sponsalia de futuro) to Habsburg scion William of Austria, and spent about a year at the imperial court in Vienna, Austria. Jadwiga's father Louis had, in 1364 in Krakow, during festivities known as the Days of Krakow, also made an arrangement with his former father-in-law Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV to inter-marry their future children:Charles' son and future Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg was engaged and married, as a child, to Louis' daughter and future Queen Mary. One of Louis' original plans had been to leave the kingdom of Poland to Mary, whose marriage with Sigismund was more relevant to this end as Sigismund was a heir in his own right to Poland and was intended to inherit Brandenburg, nearer to Poland than to Hungary. Jadwiga's destiny as Austrian consort was to fit better for Hungary, an immediate neighbor of Austria.

Jadwiga was well educated and a polyglot, speaking Latin, Hungarian, Croatian, Polish, German, interested in the arts, music, science, and court life. She was also known for her piety and her admiration for Saints Mary, Martha, and Bridget of Sweden, as well as her patron saint, Hedwig of Andechs.

Reign

Jadwiga. From KrÃ³lowie Polscy (Polish Kings), ÅÃ³dÅº, 1900.

Until 1370, Poland had been ruled by the native Piast Dynasty. Its last king, Casimir III [1], had left no legitimate son and considered his male grandchildren either unsuited or too young to reign. He therefore decided that his surviving sister Elizabeth of Poland and her son, Louis I of Hungary, should succeed him. Louis was proclaimed king, while Elizabeth held much of the practical power until her death in 1380.

When Louis died in 1382, the Hungarian throne was inherited by his eldest surviving daughter Mary, under the regency of their Bosnian mother. In Poland, however, the lords of Lesser Poland (Poland's virtual rulers) did not want to continue the personal union with Hungary, nor to accept Mary's fiancÃ© Sigismund as regent, whom they expelled from the country. They therefore chose as their new monarch Mary's younger sister, Jadwiga. After two years' negotiations with Jadwiga's mother, Elizabeth of Bosnia, who was regent of Hungary, and a civil war in Greater Poland (1383), Jadwiga finally came to KrakÃ³w and at the age of ten, on November 16, 1384, was crowned King of Poland â€" Hedvig Rex PoloniÃ¦, not Hedvig Regina PoloniÃ¦. The masculine gender of her title was meant to emphasize that she was monarch in her own right, not a queen consort.

As child monarch of Poland, Jadwiga had at least one relative in Poland (all her immediate family having remained in Hungary): her mother's childless uncle, WÅ‚adysÅ‚aw of Kujawy (d. 1388), Prince of Gniewkowo.

Soon after Jadwiga's coronation, new suitors for Jadwiga's hand appeared: Duke Siemowit IV of Masovia and Grand Duke Jogaila [2]of Lithuania, the latter supported by the lords of Lesser Poland. In 1385 (when Jadwiga was eleven years old) William of Austria came to KrakÃ³w to consummate the marriage and present the lords with a fait accompli. His plan, however, failed and William was expelled from Poland while Jadwiga declared her sponsalia invalid. William later married Jadwiga's cousin and rival, Joan II of Naples. That same year (1385), Jogaila and the lords of Lesser Poland signed the Union of Krewo whereby Jogaila pledged to adopt Latin Christianity and unite Lithuania with Poland in exchange for Jadwiga's hand and the Polish crown. Twelve-year-old Jadwiga and 36-year-old Jogaila — who had earlier been baptized WÅ‚adysÅ‚aw — wed in March 1385 at KrakÃ³w. This was followed by Jogaila's coronation as King of Poland, although Jadwiga retained her royal rights. In 1386, Jadwiga's mother Elizabeth and her sister Queen Maria of Hungary were kidnapped, probably on the order of Maria's husband and consort Sigismund.

In January of 1387, Elizabeth was strangled, while Maria was released in July of the same year, by the effort of future Frankopan family and Jadwiga's adopted maternal uncle King Tvrtko of Bosnia. Maria died in 1395, heavily pregnant but under suspicious circumstances.

Jadwiga's sarcophagus, Wawel Cathedral, KrakÃ³w.

As a monarch, Jadwiga probably had little actual power. Nevertheless, she was actively engaged in her kingdom's political, diplomatic and cultural life. The province of Halych had been retained by Hungary at Jadwiga's accession. In 1387 she led a military expedition to reconquer the Duchy of Halych (which was successful) and in 1390 she began a correspondence followed with personal meetings with the Teutonic Knights. She had many Latin books translated into Polish for her people. She also donated much of her wealth to charity, including the founding of hospitals. Among Jadwiga's accomplishments was the founding of a bishopric in Vilnius. Most importantly, perhaps, she donated her jewelry, dresses — even her royal insignia — to restore the Academy of KrakÃ³w, since called Jagiellonian University in honor of her and her husband.

Death and inheritance

On June 22, 1399 Jadwiga gave birth to a daughter, baptized Elizabeth Bonifacia. Within a month, both the girl and her mother had died from birth complications. They were buried together in Wawel Cathedral. Her death undermined Jogaila's position as King of Poland, but he managed to retain the throne until his death 35 years later.

It is not easy to state who was Jadwiga's heir in line of Poland, or Poland's rightful heir, since Poland had not used primogeniture, but kings had ascended by some sort of election. There were descendants of superseded daughters of Casimir III of Poland (d. 1370), such as his youngest daughter Anna, Countess of Celje (d. 1425 without surviving issue), and her daughter Anna of Celje (1380–1416) whom WÅ‚adisÅ‚aw II JagieÅ‚Å‚o married next, but who also died childless. Emperor Sigismund himself was an heir of Casimir III, as eldest son of his mother Elisabeth of Pomerania, who was since 1377 the only surviving child of Elisabeth of Poland, herself the younger but only progenited daughter of Casimir III from his first marriage with Gediminaitis Aldona of Lithuania. The family possession of the principality of Kuyavia belonged to Sigismund, who was the heir with the strongest hereditary claims. However, the leaders of the country wanted to avoid Sigismund and any personal union with Hungary.

Other descendants of WÅ‚adisÅ‚aw the Short (through Silesian dukes of Swidnica) included the then Emperor Wenceslas, king of Bohemia, who died without issue in 1419, as well as Silesian dukes of Opole and Sagan.

Male-line Piasts were represented most closely by Dukes of Masovia, one of whom had aspired to marry Jadwiga in 1385. Also various princes of Silesia were of Piast descent, but they had been largely pushed aside since the exile of Vladislas II, Duke of Cracow.

Jadwiga's husband Vladislav Jagello kept her kingdom, and mostly because no claimant with clearly better stature appeared, he was never ousted, not even after the death of his second wife. He was eventually succeeded in Poland by sons of his last wife, who were not related to the earlier Polish rulers.

Legends and veneration

From the time of her death, Jadwiga was widely considered a saint. Numerous legends about miracles were recounted to justify her sainthood. The two best-known are those of "Jadwiga's cross" and "Jadwiga's foot."

Jadwiga often prayed before a large black crucifix hanging in the north aisle of Wawel Cathedral. During one of these prayers, the Christ on the cross is said to have spoken to her. The crucifix, "Saint Jadwiga's cross," is still there, with her relics beneath it.

According to another legend, Jadwiga took a piece of jewelry from her foot and gave it to a poor stonemason who had begged for her help. When the queen left, he noticed her footprint in the plaster floor of his workplace, even though the plaster had already hardened before her visit. The supposed footprint, known as "Jadwiga's foot," can still be seen in one of KrakÃ³w's churches.

Exhumations and sarcophagus

Jadwiga's body has been exhumed at least three times. The first time was in the 17th century, in connection with the construction of a bishop's sarcophagus next to Jadwiga's grave. The next exhumation took place in 1887. Jadwiga's complete skeleton was found, together with a mantle and hat. Jan Matejko made a sketch of Jadwiga's skull, which later helped him paint her portrait (see above).

On July 12, 1949, her grave was again opened. This time she was reburied in a sarcophagus paid for by Karol LanckoroÅ„ski, which had been sculpted in white marble in 1902 by Antoni Madeyski. The queen is depicted with a dog, symbol of fidelity, at her feet. The sarcophagus is oriented with Jadwiga's feet pointing west, unlike all the other sarcophagi in the cathedral. On display next to the sarcophagus are the modest wooden orb and scepter with which the queen had been buried (she had sold her jewels to finance the renovation of the Jagiellonian University).

Veneration

Despite widespread veneration for Jadwiga in Poland, it was only on June 8, 1979, that Pope John Paul II prayed at her sarcophagus; and the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments officially affirmed her beatification on August 8, 1986.

The Pope finally canonized Jadwiga in KrakÃ³w on June 8, 1997.

Jadwiga of Poland: Encyclopedia BETA

Contents