Coronation (1384) The interregnum that followed Louis I'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", according to the 15th century Polish historian,
Jan Długosz. Nobody protested when Archbishop
Bodzanta crowned her on 16 October 1384. According to traditional scholarly consensus, Jadwiga was crowned King. Robert W. Knoll proposes that the Polish lords wanted to prevent her eventual spouse from adopting the same title without their consent.
Stephen C. Rowell, who says that sources that contradict the traditional view outnumber those verifying it, suggests that sporadic contemporaneous references to Jadwiga as king only reflect that she was not a
queen consort, but a
queen regnant. 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 refutes this view, contending that Jadwiga matured quickly and her personality, especially her charm and kindness, only served to strengthen her position. Already in late 1384, she intervened on Duke Vladislaus's behalf to reconcile him with her mother's favourite,
Nicholas I Garai.
Refusal of William (1385) depicts Jadwiga trying to break the castle gate to join William|alt=A bearded man on his knees by a young woman who stands at a door holding an axe The Polish lords did not want to accept fourteen-year-old
William of Habsburg as Jadwiga's husband and Polish sovereign. They thought that the inexperienced William and his Austrian kinsmen could not safeguard Poland's interests against its powerful neighbours, especially the
House of Luxembourg which controlled
Bohemia and
Brandenburg, and had a strong claim on Hungary. According to Halecki, the lords of Lesser Poland were the first to suggest that Jadwiga should marry the pagan duke
Władysław II Jagiełło of Lithuania. Władysław II Jagiełło sent his envoys – including his brother,
Skirgaila, and a
German burgher from
Riga, Hanul – to Kraków to request Jadwiga's hand in January 1385. Jadwiga refused to answer, stating only that her mother would decide. Jogaila's two envoys left for Hungary and met Queen Elizabeth. She informed them that "she would allow whatever was advantageous to Poland and insisted that her daughter and the prelates and nobles of the Kingdom had to do what they considered would benefit Christianity and their kingdom", according to Jan Długosz's chronicle. The nobles from Kraków,
Sandomierz and Greater Poland assembled in Kraków in June or July and the "majority of the more sensible" Długosz also mentions that Jadwiga later in her life publicly claimed to never have consummated her union with William. During the night that William entered the queen's bedchamber, a group of Polish noblemen broke into the castle, forcing William to flee, according to Długosz. After this humiliation, Długosz continued, Jadwiga decided to leave Wawel and join William, but the gate of the castle was locked. She called for "an axe and [tried] to break it open", but
Dymitr of Goraj convinced her to return to the castle. Oscar Halecki says that Długosz's narrative "cannot be dismissed as a romantic legend";
Robert I. Frost writes that it is a "tale, almost certainly apocryphal". There is no doubt, however, that William of Austria was forced to leave Poland.
Marriage to Władysław II Jagiełło (1385–1392) , 1867|alt=A crowned young woman on her knees with her hand on the Bible, which is held by an old bearded man
Władysław II Jagiełło signed the
Union of Krewo in August 1385, promising Queen Elizabeth's representatives and the Polish lords' envoys that he would convert to
Catholicism, together with his pagan kinsmen and subjects, if Jadwiga married him. He also pledged to pay 200,000 florins to William of Habsburg in compensation. William never accepted it. Two days after the Union of Krewo, the
Teutonic Knights invaded
Lithuania. The
Aeltere Hochmeisterchronik and other chronicles written in the Knights' territory accused the Polish prelates and lords of forcing Jadwiga to accept Władysław II Jagiełło's offer. According to a Polish legend, Jadwiga agreed to marry Władysław II Jagiełło due to
divine inspiration during her long prayers before a
crucifix in Wawel Cathedral. Siemowit IV of Mazovia resigned his claim to Poland in December. The Polish lords' envoys informed Władysław II that they would obey him if he married Jadwiga on 11 January 1386. Władysław II went to
Lublin where a general assembly unanimously declared him "King and Lord of Poland" in early February. Władysław II went on to Kraków, where he was baptised, receiving the Christian name, Władysław, in Wawel Cathedral on 15 February. Soon after according to ''Cracow's Cathedral Calendar'' Jadwiga declared her union with William to be null and void: "[...] though Jadwiga had been, as people believed, wed by her parents in her childhood years to William, Duke of Austria, now, when she came of age, she publicly declared those nuptials, if there had been any, null, and renounced them". On 18 February 1386, Władysław II, who was between 23 and 35 years old, married 12-year-old Jadwiga. Władysław II styled himself as
dominus et tutor regni Poloniae ("lord and guardian of the Kingdom of Poland") in his first charter issued after the marriage. Archbishop Bodzanta crowned Władysław II king on 4 March 1386. Poland was transformed into a
diarchy – a kingdom ruled over by two sovereigns. Jadwiga and her husband did not speak a common language, but they cooperated closely in their marriage. She accompanied him to Greater Poland to appease the local lords who were still hostile to him. The royal visit caused damage to the peasants who lived in the local prelates' domains, but Jadwiga persuaded her husband to compensate them, saying: "We have, indeed, returned the peasants' cattle, but who can repair their tears?", according to Długosz's chronicle. A court record of her order to the judges in favour of a peasant also shows that she protected the poor.
Pope Urban VI sent his legate,
Maffiolus de Lampugnano, to Kraków to enquire about the marriage of the royal couple. Lampugnano did not voice any objections, but the Teutonic Knights started a propaganda campaign in favour of
William of Habsburg. Queen Elizabeth pledged to assist Władysław II against his enemies on 9 June 1386, but Hungary had sunken into anarchy. A group of
Slavonian lords captured and imprisoned Jadwiga's mother and sister on 25 July. The rebels murdered Queen Elizabeth in January 1387. A month later, Jadwiga marched at the head of Polish troops to
Ruthenia, where all but one of the governors submitted to her without opposition. Duke Vladislaus of Opole also had a claim on Ruthenia but could not convince
King Wenceslaus of Germany to intervene on his behalf. Jadwiga confirmed the privileges of the local inhabitants and promised that Ruthenia would never again be separated from the Polish Crown. After the reinforcements that Władysław II sent from Lithuania arrived in August,
Halych, the only fortress to resist, also surrendered. Władysław II also came to Ruthenia in September. Voivode
Peter II of Moldavia visited the royal couple and paid homage to them in
Lviv on 26 September. Władysław II confirmed the privileges that Jadwiga had granted the Ruthenians in October. She also instructed her subjects to show the same respect for her husband as for herself: in a letter addressed to the burghers of Kraków in late 1387, she stated that her husband was their "natural lord". On William's demand,
Pope Urban VI initiated a new investigation into the marriage of Jadwiga and Władysław II. They sent Bishop Dobrogost of Poznań to Rome to inform the pope of the
Christianization of Lithuania. In his letter to Bishop Dobrogost, Pope Urban jointly mentioned the royal couple in March 1388, which implied that he had already acknowledged the legality of their marriage. However,
Gniewosz of Dalewice, who had been William of Habsburg's supporter, spread rumours about secret meetings between William and Jadwiga in the royal castle. Jadwiga took a solemn oath before Jan Tęczyński, stating that she had only had marital relations with Władysław II. After all witnesses confirmed her oath,
Gniewosz of Dalewice confessed that he had lied. She did not take vengeance on him.
Strife with Sigismund (1392–1395) 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 in
Stará Ľubovňa in May and returned to Kraków only in early July. She most probably accompanied her husband to Lithuania, according to Oscar Halecki, because she was far from Kraków till the end of August. On 4 August, Władysław II's cousin,
Vytautas, who had earlier fled from Lithuania to the Teutonic Knights, paid homage to Władysław II near
Lida in Lithuania on 4 August. Negotiations between Sigismund and the
Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights,
Konrad von Wallenrode, continued with the mediation of
Vladislaus II of Opole. However, Hungary's southern border was exposed to Ottoman incursions, preventing Sigismund from taking military measures against Poland.
Konrad von Wallenrode died on 25 July 1393. His successor,
Konrad von Jungingen, opened negotiations with the Poles. During the discussions,
Pope Boniface IX's legate, John of Messina, supported the Poles. Jadwiga was a skilful mediator, famed for her impartiality and intelligence. She went to Lithuania to reconcile her brother-in-law,
Skirgaila, with
Vytautas the Great in October 1393. Relations between Poland and Hungary remained tense. Sigismund invaded
Moldavia, forcing
Stephen I of Moldavia to accept his
suzerainty in 1394. Soon after the Hungarian troops left Moldavia, Stephen sent his envoys to Jadwiga and Władysław II, promising to assist Poland against Hungary, the
Ottoman Empire and the Teutonic Knights. 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.
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 I from Wallachia. Władysław II gathered his troops on the Polish-Hungarian border, but ,
Palatine of Hungary, and ,
Archbishop of Esztergom, stopped his invasion of Hungary. In September,
Konrad von Jungingen told the
prince-electors of the
Holy Roman Empire that the union of Poland, Lithuania, and Hungary under Władysław-Jogaila's rule would endanger Christendom. However, most of Sigismund's opponents, who were especially numerous in Croatia, supported the claim of
Ladislaus of Naples, the last male member of the Capetian House of Anjou. 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. Before the end of the year, peace negotiations between the representatives of Hungary and Poland ended with an agreement. Jadwiga adopted the title "heir to Hungary", but she and her husband took no further action against Sigismund.
Conflict with the Teutonic Knights (1395–1399) 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 II of Opole and Siemowit IV 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 II granted the
Duchy of Belz (in Ruthenia) and
Cuyavia to her in early 1397. However, Jadwiga and her Polish advisers wanted to avoid a war with the Teutonic Order. In response, Władysław II replaced most Polish "starostas" (aldermen) in Ruthenia with local Orthodox noblemen. According to German sources, Władysław II and Vytautas jointly asked
Pope Boniface IX to sanction Vytautas' coronation as king of Lithuania and Ruthenia. Jadwiga and Jungingen met in
Włocławek in the middle of June, but they did not reach a compromise. The Teutonic Order entrusted Vladislaus of Opole with the task of representing their claims to Dobrzyń against Jadwiga. Jadwiga and her husband met
Sigismund of Hungary, who had returned there after his catastrophic defeat in the
Battle of Nicopolis, on 14 July. They seem to have reached a compromise because Sigismund offered to mediate between Poland, Lithuania and the Teutonic Knights. On Jadwiga's request, Wenceslaus of Bohemia granted permission for the establishment of a college for Lithuanian students in Prague on 20 July 1397. Jadwiga, who had spent "many sleepless nights" thinking of this project, according to herself, issued a charter of establishment for the college on 10 November. She opened new negotiations with the Teutonic Knights, but Konrad von Jungingen dispatched a simple knight to meet her in May 1398. Władysław II's cousin Vytautas, also entered into negotiations with the Teutonic Knights because he wanted to unite Lithuania and Ruthenia under his rule and to receive a royal crown from the Holy See. According to the chronicle of
John of Posilge, who was an official of the Teutonic Order, Jadwiga sent a letter to Vytautas, reminding him to pay the annual tribute that Władysław-Jogaila had granted her as
dower. Offended by Jadwiga's demand, Vytautas sought the opinion of the Lithuanian and Ruthenian lords, who refused Jadwiga's claim to a tribute. On 12 October 1398, he signed a peace treaty with the Teutonic Knights, without referring to Władysław II's right to confirm it. Oscar Halecki says that Posilge's "sensational story" is either an invention based on gossip or a guess by the chronicler.
Pregnancy and death (1399) ,
Kraków 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. Sigismund, King of Hungary, came to Kraków in early March to negotiate for a campaign to defend
Wallachia against the Ottoman Turks. Vytautas, in order to bolster his authority over the Rus' principalities, decided to launch an expedition against
Timur, who had subdued the
Golden Horde. According to
Jan Długosz's chronicle, Jadwiga warned the Polish noblemen not to join Vytautas' campaign because it would end in failure. Halecki says that the great number of Polish knights who joined Vytautas's expedition proves that Długosz's report is not reliable. On the occasion of the expected birth to the royal couple, Jogaila's cousin
Vytautas,
Grand Duke of Lithuania, sent expensive gifts, including a silver cradle, to the royal court on behalf of himself and his wife,
Anna. The first horoscopes written for Jadwiga's and Władysław II'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. According to the horoscope, she was actually born slightly late. However, a due date of 18 June would rule out the suspicion of pregnancy as early as mid-September. 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 be named after him. 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.
Stanisław of Skarbimierz expressed hope that she would survive, describing her as the spiritual mother of the poor, weak, and ill of Poland. She advised her husband to marry
Anna of Cilli, Casimir the Great's granddaughter — which he did — and died on 17 July 1399, four days after her newborn daughter. She was the last hereditary ruler of Poland; her husband and his descendants retained the crown as elective monarchs.
Burial Jadwiga and her daughter were buried together in
Wawel Cathedral, on 24 August 1399, as stipulated in the Queen's last will. On 12 July 1949, 550 years later, their tomb was opened; as the Princess's remains were not found, it was back then incorrectly believed that nothing remained of the child's soft cartilage. However, new research suggests that Elizabeth's body had been exhumated in 17th century and buried separately in a bowl which was placed under Jadwiga's coffin. The bowl was subsequently destroyed and eventually glued back together after being found by archeologists; if the Princess was indeed reburied within it, her remains were not located there during rediscovery of the item in the modern times. == Family ==