Anjou Mária, Queen of Hungary (reigned 1382-1395)
She was the first Hungarian queen who was allowed to wear the Holy Crown of Saint King István.
Mária was the third daughter of Queen Kotromanics Erzsébet, born probably in 1371, during the reign of King Lajos (Louis) I (reigned 1342-1382). Since our King Anjou Lajos (Louis) had only daughters, the question of succession made the ruler think very early, about who was the right bridegroom. There were a few high-ranking men from noble families like William Habsburg, and Zsigmond of Luxembourg, who could be good choices to make his countries (both Hungary and Poland) accept the succession of women.
After the death of Princess Catherine in 1378, Mary and her betrothed, Zsigmond (Sigismund) of Luxembourg, became the first claimants to the throne. The king’s eldest daughter had barely reached the age of 11 when her father (King Lajos) died, leaving the country in the hands of Queen Erzsébet and Palatine Garai Miklós. The country soon fell into turmoil as Mária’s mother and her supporters opposed the marriage to Zsigmond, saying it would serve Bohemian Czech and German interests (Zsigmond’s brother Wenzel von Luxemburg held the Czech crown).
The order of King Lajos the Great had envisaged was upset, partly because the Poles did not want to continue in personal union with the Kingdom of Hungary, but wanted a ruler who would rule their lands from Polish territories. The other reason was the rule of Queen Erzsébet’s League and the Palatine Garai Miklós’s League, whose political aims few people agreed with. The rebellion against Mária’s rule finally broke out when it became official that Erzsébet and her circle had chosen Louis, brother of the French King Charles VI (the “Mad” r. 1380-1422), as Mária’s betrothed instead of Zsigmond.
On the face of it, the French marriage would have been a prestigious one, as the kingdom of France was going through a more successful period of the Hundred Years’ War, and Louis was also engaged to Catherine. However, the distant ally only got as far as the betrothal in his absence, for by the time the marriage could take place the political situation had changed radically.
Maria’s engagement to Zsigmond was broken off by Pope Clement VII of Avignon, but this did not console Zsigmond, who quickly raised money and attacked the north-western regions of the Hungarian kingdom. The Hungarian elite, who were drawn to Rome, were not happy with the French marriage, which brought war and enemies, and were dissatisfied with Erzsébet’s actions, who was also forced to accept that Mária would not receive the Polish crown, and instead was crowned Hedvig, breaking her engagement to William of Habsburg.
The new king of Naples, Charles of Durazzo, was also unhappy with the political changes in Hungary, as his defeat of Joanna brought him face-to-face with the uncle of the French king, the last husband of the queen of Naples, also called Louis. The aristocratic alliance led by Horváti János, Bán (Duke) of Macsó, and Horváti Pál, Bishop of Zagreb, rebelled and invited Charles of Anjou to the Hungarian throne.
Not many descriptions of her have survived, but those that do suggest that she was not particularly pretty in the eyes of medieval men. As Süttő Szilárd notes, the descriptions of Monaci Lőrinc, who later met her, praise her spiritual greatness, her gratitude, and her inner attitude, but not her appearance. Of course, we can only conclude her personality and appearance from historical sources with extreme caution, but we do know that she made a serious and mature impression for her age and that her stature distinguished her somewhat from her contemporaries. Anthropological studies of her sister’s remains were carried out in the 19th century, and the long bones show that Hedvig was between 1.76 and 1.82 meters tall, although it should be added that the studies of the time were wrong about her actual height, which was probably less than today. And it is only a very tentative conclusion that her sister must therefore have been taller than the medieval average.
If we compare the itineraries of the Hungarian king and queen, i.e. the information about their whereabouts that we can obtain from the documents, we can see that Mária and Zsigmond, when the latter did not have to go into battle, did not avoid each other at all, they stayed in the same place.
The death of Queen Mária
In March 1395, Queen Mária stayed in Verőce and then in Pécs, while Zsigmond was fighting against the Turks at the same time. The king traveled from Brassó via Szeben to Kolozsvár, arriving at Várkony on 5 April, where he must have heard of the queen’s presence in South Transdanubia, for he interrupted his journey to Buda and hurried to Báta. From there the royal couple marched to Buda, which they reached on 16 April. On 9 May, while organizing the campaign, he visited the Pauline monks of Budaszentlőrinc. This was followed by a hunting expedition, in which the king was probably accompanied by the entire court since the courts of the Curia were simply closed during these days.
Interestingly, the Hungarian narrative sources are rather terse in their recollections of Mária’s death. Thuróczy János wrote the following in his chronicle:
“Zsigmond had not yet returned home when Queen Mary, seriously ill, left the country and life. Her death caused King Zsigmond no small amount of trouble. The queen’s sister, Jadviga, lived in the sweet company of a marriage contract with the King of the Poles, King László (Jagiełło (László / Ulászló) Władysław II). The latter, thinking that his wife might inherit the scepter of his dead sister, led a large army against King Zsigmond. And if the venerable father, Archbishop János Kanizsai of Esztergom, had not fortified the frontiers of the country with many armed troops, the ambitious monarch might have disturbed the government in the absence of King Zsigmond”. (Translation by Kristó Gyula)
According to a German chronicle:
“At a time when the king had been reigning for more than two years and Queen Mária was pregnant and was halfway through her pregnancy, it happened that one day the queen went hunting in the woods near Buda, called Vértes (Schiltberg), and she too went after the game. But the stallion fell with her: [the queen] gave birth in the woodland, and they both died immediately. The king then became very sorrowful at her death [i.e. Mária’s], of which one could write at length.” (Translation by Bence Péterfi)
The queen’s sealAccording to C. Tóth Norbert’s study, the Polish invasion of 1395 came as suddenly as it ended, probably without a major confrontation. The Poles, relying on the element of surprise, did not confront the Hungarian forces, so Zsigmond’s throne was not seriously threatened.
In addition to the fact of the Polish invasion, the chronicler Bonfini points out the childlessness and the mistake of burying Mary in Székesfehérvár, because Zsigmond, as it turned out later, buried her in Várad, next to his ideal, King Saint László. It was he who later chose to be buried next to his first wife. It is relatively easy to prove from the king’s documents that on 31 May Zsigmond was still in Buda, but on 5 June he was already in Várad, where the queen was presumably buried.
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