Jadwiga of Poland

This article is about the 14th-century queen and saint. For the 13th-century saint of the same name, St. Hedwig of Andechs (Święta Jadwiga Śląska), see Hedwig of Andechs.

File:Jadwiga3.jpg

Jadwiga. Drawing by Jan Matejko.

Jadwiga. From Królowie Polscy (Polish Kings), Łódź, 1900.

Jadwiga (February 18, 1374? – July 17, 1399) was a Polish monarch who reigned 1384 – 1399 and is venerated in 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.

Life

Appearance

Jadwiga, who would die aged 25, was reputedly a blonde, blue-eyed beauty. An exhumation performed in 1949 showed her to have been unusually tall for a medieval woman (180 cm — about 5'11"), with no evidence of physical deformity or disability.

Childhood

Jadwiga was the youngest daughter of Louis the Great of the House of Capet-Anjou [1], King of Hungary and Poland, and of Elizabeth of Bosnia. Both Jadwiga's mother and Louis', Elizabeth (daughter of Władysław I the Elbow-high), were descended from the House of Piast, the ancient native Polish dynasty. Jadwiga was a great-granddaughter of King Władysław I the Elbow-high, who had reunited Poland in 1320.

Jadwiga was brought up at the royal court in Buda, Hungary. In 1378 she was betrothed to Habsburg scion William of Austria, and spent about a year at the imperial court in Vienna, Austria. Their engagement was broken off, and after Jadwiga's death he married her cousin, Joan II of Naples. Jadwiga's father had also made an arrangement with future Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg for the latter to marry either Jadwiga or her sister Mary (Sigismund eventually married Mary).

Jadwiga was well educated and a polyglot, 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

Until 1370, Poland had been ruled by the native Piast Dynasty. Its last king, Kazimierz III the Great [2], had had no son and considered his male relations 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 (1382), the Hungarian throne was inherited by Mary. 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 fiancé Sigismund as regent. They therefore chose as their new monarch Mary's younger sister, Jadwiga. After two years' negotiations with Jadwiga's mother, Elizabeth of Bosnia — the Dowager Queen, who was regent of Hungary — and a civil war in Greater Poland (1383), Jadwiga finally came to Kraków and, aged 10, on November 16, 1384, was crowned King (sic) of Poland — Hedvig Rex Poloniæ, not Hedvig Regina Poloniæ. 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, Władysław of Kujawy (d. 1388), Prince of Gniewkowo.

Soon after Jadwiga's coronation, new pretenders to Jadwiga's hand appeared: Duke Siemowit IV of Masovia and Grand Duke Jogaila (Jagiełło) [3] of Lithuania, the latter supported by the lords of Lesser Poland. In 1385 (when Jadwiga was eleven years old) William of Austria came to Kraków to consummate the marriage and present the lords with a fait accompli. His plan, however, failed and William was expelled from Poland while Polish bishops declared his engagement to Jadwiga invalid. 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 Władysław — were wed in March 1386 at Kraków. This was followed by Jogaila's coronation as King of Poland, although Jadwiga retained her royal rights. In 1387, Jadwiga's mother Elizabeth was strangled by Horvathy supporters of her rival in Hungary.

Jadwiga's sarcophagus, Wawel Cathedral, Kraków.

As a monarch, Jadwiga probably had little actual power. Nevertheless, she was actively engaged in her kingdom's political, diplomatic and cultural life. In 1387 she led a military expedition to reconquer the Duchy of Halych and in 1390 she began a correspondence with the Teutonic Knights. She had many Latin books translated into Polish for her. 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 Kraków, 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. Descendants of Vladislav the Short (through Silesian dukes of Swidnica) included the then Emperor Wenceslas, who died without issue in 1419, as well as Silesian dukes of Opole and Sagan. And 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 Vladislav Jagello 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.

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

Saint Hedwig the Queen
Confessor
Born	Buda, February 18, 1374
Died	Kraków, July 17, 1399
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Beatified	Kraków, August 8, 1986
Canonized	Kraków, June 8, 1997
Major shrine	Wawel Cathedral, Kraków
Feast	July 17
Attributes	Royal dress and shoes
Patronage	Queens, united Europe

Legends

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

Jadwiga often prayed in front of a large black crucifix hanging in the northern aisle of Wawel Cathedral. Christ hanging on the cross is said to have spoken to her during one of these prayers. The crucifix, often called "Saint Jadwiga's cross", is still there, with Jadwiga's relics placed below.

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

Exhumations and sarcophagus

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

On July 12, 1949 her grave was opened again. This time Jadwiga was buried in a new sarcophagus founded by Karol Lanckoroński and sculpted in white marble by Antoni Madeyski in 1902. The queen is depicted with a dog, a symbol of fidelity, at her feet. The sarcophagus is oriented with Jadwiga's feet pointing westwards, unlike all other sarcophagi in the cathedral. Next to the sarcophagus, a wooden orb and sceptre, symbols of the queen's modesty and charity, are on display.

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 her in Kraków on June 8, 1997.

See also

• History of Poland (966-1385)
• History of Poland (1385-1569)