Elisabeth of Habsburg

This article deals with the Queen of Poland in the 15th century, for other people see Elisabeth of Austria .

Elisabeth of Habsburg

Elisabeth von Habsburg ( Elżbieta Rakuszanka in Polish ; * 1436 or 1437 in Vienna ; † August 30, 1505 in Cracow ) was Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania from February 10, 1454 to June 7, 1492 by marriage .

Life

Elisabeth was born in 1436 or 1437 as the daughter of Duke Albrecht V of Austria (from the Habsburg dynasty , since March 18, 1438 as German King Albrecht II) from his association with Elisabeth of Luxembourg , the daughter of the Roman-German Emperor Sigismund , born. Her father died in 1439, and since 1440 she grew up with her brother Ladislaus and her sister Anna in Vienna and Wiener Neustadt at the court of King Friedrich III, who was related to her . on. There she met artists and poets. Friedrich III. did not care much about Elisabeth, but gave her a solid education at his court, which was shaped by early humanism.

In 1453 a contract was negotiated in Wroclaw for the marriage of Elizabeth to the Polish King Casimir IV Jagiełło . This marriage contract was then signed by Casimir in Krakow and by Elisabeth's brother Ladislaus, meanwhile the Hungarian-Bohemian king, in Vienna. This led to a marriage alliance between the Habsburgs and the Jagiellonians . Elisabeth was to receive 100,000 Hungarian guilders as a dowry , the payment period extending to three years. Land in Austria, Hungary and Bohemia served to secure the dowry. In return, Kasimir promised his future wife an annual income of 5000 guilders to be drawn from the salt mines in Wieliczka and Bochnia , as well as a personal asset consisting of the income from the cities of Koło , Opoczno and Przedecz to guarantee her livelihood if she were to become a widow. Elisabeth had to give up her claims to her inheritance in Austria.

On February 2, 1454, Elisabeth set out for Poland with a retinue of 900 horsemen. At the border in Cieszyn she was received by the Polish ambassadors. After two days of rest, they continued via Oswiecim and Skawina, where the group was instructed by a royal messenger to wait 3 days. Officially, it was said that the preparations for the wedding were still ongoing. Elisabeth feared that Casimir had changed his mind. Finally, she was received by her bridegroom, his mother Sophie Holszańska , three Piast princes from Silesia, two archbishops, three bishops and numerous other dignitaries at the gates of the city. The next day, February 10, 1454, the 18-year-old Habsburg woman married the 27-year-old Casimir. The wedding should first be carried out by Giovanni Capistrano . However, he could neither speak Polish nor German and was therefore unable to ask the bride and groom the relevant questions. The task was thus taken over by the Cardinal and Primate of Poland Zbigniew Oleśnicki . He also ultimately crowned Elisabeth on the Wawelberg.

Meanwhile, the payment of her dowry was delayed. As compensation for these outstanding amounts of money, Casimir transferred many royal goods to his wife after the death of his mother in December 1461, the income of which significantly improved Elisabeth's financial situation.

Elizabeth's 38-year marriage to Casimir was a happy one, and the queen also had some political influence. Elisabeth had 13 children to her husband and therefore went down in history as the mother of the Jagiellonians and mother of kings . She was enterprising, took care of the upbringing and marriage of her daughters and, despite her numerous pregnancies, often accompanied her husband on his travels through Poland. As Queen, she donated many works of art and had a magnificent tomb in honor of Kasimir IV made by Veit Stoss . She died in Krakow on August 30, 1505, at the age of 69, and found her final resting place in Wawel Cathedral .

The Habsburg lower lip

Elisabeth should not have been particularly beautiful. It is possible that her appearance was the reason why Casimir IV had sent the messenger to stop the entourage with his future wife. When Elisabeth's remains were examined in 1973 on the initiative of Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, later Pope John Paul II, these rumors were confirmed. Using the latest technology, it was possible to reconstruct their appearance based on the bones. It was hunched over, bent sharply to one side, had a misshapen head, the right side of which was less developed than the left, and its face was long and narrow. Her incisors stood far forward and lay almost flat on her lower lip. The last attribute was known as the Habsburg lower lip. However, the king was convinced that the most important thing was not appearance, but the well-being of the kingdom and its subjects.

children

• Władysław (1456–1516), King of Bohemia and Hungary
• Hedwig (1457–1502), married to George the Rich , Duke of Bavaria-Landshut
• Casimir (1458–1484), saint and patron saint of Poland and Lithuania
• John I (1459–1501), King of Poland
• Alexander (1461–1506), Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland
• Sofia (1464–1512), married to Margrave Friedrich II of Brandenburg-Ansbach , mother of Duke Albrecht of Prussia
• Elisabeth (1465–1466)
• Sigismund (1467–1548), Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland
• Friedrich (1468–1503), Archbishop of Gniezno (Gnesen) , Primate of Poland, cardinal
• Elisabeth (1472–1480 / 81)
• Anna (1476–1503), married to Duke Bogislaw X. of Pomerania
• Barbara (1478–1534), married to Duke Georg the Bearded of Saxony
• Elisabeth (1482–1517), married to Duke Friedrich II of Liegnitz

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Habsburg, Elisabeth von Oesterreich (Queen of Poland) .  No. 67. In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 6th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1860, p. 167 ( digitized version ).
• Elisabeth , in: Brigitte Hamann (Ed.): Die Habsburger , 1988, p. 86.
• Edward Rudzki: Polskie Królowe. Żony Piastów i Jagiellonów, Warszawa 1990, pp. 131–156.

Web links

Commons : Elisabeth von Habsburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Biography ( Memento of March 11, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) (Polish)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Elisabeth , in: Brigitte Hamann (Ed.): Die Habsburger , 1988, p. 86
2. ↑ Andrea Langer, Georg Michels (Ed.): Metropolis and Cultural Transfer in the 15th / 16th. Century. Prague - Krakow - Danzig - Vienna , Stuttgart 2001, p. 124
3. ↑ Edward Rudzki: Polskie Królowe. Żony Piastów i Jagiellonów . 2nd Edition. tape 1 . Instytut Prasy i Wydawnictw Novum, Warszawa 1990, p. 131 (Polish).
4. ↑ Andrea Langer, Georg Michels (Ed.): Metropolis and Cultural Transfer in the 15th / 16th. Century. Prague - Krakow - Danzig - Vienna , Stuttgart 2001, p. 123 ( online on Google Books )
5. ↑ Edward Rudzki: Polskie Królowe . Żony Piastów i Jagiellonów. 2nd Edition. tape 1 . Instytut Prasy i Wydawnictw Novum, Warszawa 1990, p. 131-132 (Polish).
6. ↑ Edward Rudzki: Polskie Królowe. Żony Piastów i Jagiellonów . 2nd Edition. tape 1 . Instytut Prasy i Wydawnictw Novum, Warszawa 1990, p. 131 (Polish).
7. ^ Elisabeth von Habsburg on thepeerage.com , accessed on September 11, 2016.
8. ↑ Antoni vladyka: Elisabeth Habsburg. Mother of the Jagiellonian Kings. November 8, 2017. Retrieved November 13, 2017 . 

predecessor	Office	Successor
Sophie Holszańska	Queen of Poland 1454–1492	Helena of Moscow