Elisabeth of Pomerania

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Elisabeth of Pomerania, bust in the triforium of St. Vitus Cathedral

Elizabeth of Pomerania ( Polish Elżbieta pomorska , Czech Alžběta (Eliška) Pomořanská * to 1345 ; † 14. February 1393 in Hradec Kralove ) was the fourth and last wife of Emperor Charles IV. She was Empress of the Holy Roman Empire and Queen of Bohemia .

Life

Ancestry; early life

Elizabeth of Pomerania, whose life is not known too much, was the only daughter of Duke Bogislaw V of Pomerania from his marriage to the Polish Princess Elisabeth ( Elżbieta Kazimierzówna in Polish ). On her mother's side she was a granddaughter of the Polish king Casimir III. the Great , on the paternal side of Duke Wartislaw IV.

On July 26, 1358, Elisabeth was betrothed to Margrave Otto von Brandenburg in order to reaffirm a treaty concluded to end one of the many wars between Pomerania and Brandenburg. But since new arguments soon began, the marriage never took place. After the death of their mother in 1361, Elisabeth and her brother Casimir were taken by their father Bogislaw to Poland to the court of their grandfather Casimir III. cleverly. There their further education should take place.

Marriage to Charles IV .; Coronation as empress

In 1363, Emperor Charles IV faced a hostile coalition consisting of Casimir III, the Hungarian King Ludwig I and the Danish King Waldemar IV ; He also had tense relationships with his son-in-law, the Austrian Duke Rudolf IV. The emperor, however, established successful negotiations with Casimir III. whose granddaughter Elisabeth he wanted to take as his fourth wife. In this way he removed the Polish king from the ranks of his opponents; In addition, Elisabeth was related to the Hungarian king and Waldemar IV. The emperor had had good relations with the Pomeranian ducal house for a long time. By marrying Elisabeth, Charles IV saw the long-term option of expanding his power to the north via Pomerania and the Margraviate of Brandenburg , which he hoped to acquire, and possibly succeeding him in Poland later.

Charles IV celebrated his extremely splendid wedding with Elisabeth, who was around 30 years his junior, on May 21, 1363 in Krakow, Poland . The bride received a stately dowry of 100,000 Hungarian guilders, most of which was Casimir III. had applied. Contemporary chroniclers described her back then as a "beautiful lady". On June 18, 1363, Elisabeth was crowned Queen of Bohemia in Prague. In September 1363 the towns of Königsgrätz, Hohenmauth and Chrudim were given them as personal items, which were followed by Mělník and Kosteletz in 1371 . Elisabeth did not take part in the ceremony at which her husband was crowned King of Burgundy on June 4, 1365 in Arles . On April 2, 1368, Charles IV left Prague with his wife to go on a trip to Italy. They passed through many important Italian cities before Elisabeth was crowned Empress of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Urban V in St. Peter's Church in Rome on November 1, 1368 . In the afternoon she rode with crown and miter to the cheering of the people through the old town to the Lateran , took part in a banquet held in her honor and knighted many people. The imperial couple, who stayed in the Vatican for a few weeks after the coronation ceremony , founded a hospital in Rome to care for and receive Bohemian pilgrims . Elisabeth's stay in Italy, during which she was assisted by an entourage of about 500 people, lasted until July 1369. In that month the imperial couple moved via Bologna and Ferrara to Udine , from where Elisabeth traveled ahead and returned to Prague on August 20, 1369.

Court; To travel; Portraits; Body strength

Elisabeth, who bore six children to her husband, had her own court, headed by a court master. Among other things, young sons of noble families who were supposed to learn fine manners, as well as noble ladies belonged to the court of the empress. Elisabeth also had her own office to manage her property. She traveled frequently, always with a large retinue. So she accompanied her husband not only on his trip to Italy, but also to Aachen in 1376 , where the imperial couple took part in the coronation of Charles' son from his third marriage, Wenzel , on July 6 of this year . Elisabeth was not always on the road with her husband, but sometimes alone; it appeared in Dortmund around 1378 without the emperor. On such trips, the solemn entry of the ruling couple into a city served to represent the splendor of the empire and was therefore politically very significant. The empress thus fulfilled representative duties. In the cities she visited, she received gifts, such as precious fabrics in Aachen in 1376.

At least ten pictorial representations of Elisabeth were made during her lifetime. Five of them still exist today. In 1370/71 a mosaic was created above the southern transverse portal house of Prague's St. Vitus Cathedral , which shows the Empress wrapped in a red robe, wearing a miter and her crown, in a kneeling prayer position opposite Charles IV. A mural from 1372 in the Wenceslas Chapel of St. Vitus Cathedral looks similar. In the lower triforium of St. Vitus Cathedral you can see a bust of the empress from the mid-1370s; here she is part of a whole cycle of figures.

Charles IV and Elisabeth of Pomerania with two courtiers or children looking down from the parapet of St. Mary's Church (Mühlhausen)

On the south transept facade of the Marienkirche in Mühlhausen / Thuringia , the imperial couple was depicted together with a male and female member of the court at the end of the 1370s, as they can be worshiped. Finally, in the pontifical of Bishop Albrecht von Sternberg, the coronation of a queen, who is probably Elisabeth, is depicted in an initial. Further portraits of Elisabeth are lost. A manuscript of the chronicle of the Italian writer and statesman Giovanni Sercambi from the beginning of the 15th century contains, among other things, illustrations of Elisabeth, depicted with long blonde hair and a crown, during her trip to Italy; they resemble the contemporary portraits of the empress.

Elisabeth is said to have had incredible physical strength, which was probably inherited. At a banquet at Easter in 1371, for example, at the request of her husband in front of the guests present, the empress is said to have broken or bent strong horseshoes and large knives with ease; no knight was able to imitate her. This is reported by the chronicler Benesch von Weitmühl , who had often observed such events himself. In fact, Elisabeth was about 169 cm tall, a fact that came out of measurements made after the opening of the sarcophagus in the Prague Imperial Crypt in 1928.

In 1371 Charles IV suddenly fell seriously ill at his Karlstein Castle near Prague. Elisabeth made a pilgrimage with her women on foot to the Prague Castle Church to the grave of St. Sigismund, prayed fervently there and laid eight golden bowls, which were worth over 23 marks of the finest gold, to decorate the grave of the saint. Then she returned to Karlstein on foot and found her husband recovering.

Widowhood and death

Elisabeth, who outlived her husband, who died on November 29, 1378, by 15 years, spent her twilight years in Königgrätz. As a widow she led the life of a Franciscan priest, prayed a lot and practiced works of charity. At the beginning of 1381 she gave a power of attorney to negotiate the marriage of her daughter Anne to the English King Richard II. She died in 1393 at the age of about 47 and was buried next to her husband in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague .

progeny

The marriage produced four sons and two daughters:

Elizabeth's seal
  • Anne (1366–1394) - married to Richard II , King of England.
  • Sigismund (1368–1437), Holy Roman Emperor
  • Johann (1370–1396), Duke of Görlitz, Margrave of Brandenburg - married in 1388 to Richardis of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
  • Karl (1372-1373)
  • Margarete (1373–1410) - married to Johann III in 1387 . , Burgrave of Nuremberg
  • Heinrich (1377-1378)

literature

Web links

Commons : Elisabeth von Pommern  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Gisela Wilbertz: Elisabeth von Pommern - an empress in the late Middle Ages , in: Bohemia , Vol. 28 (1987), pp. 45–68, here: p. 47, on bohemia-online.de.
  2. ↑ Gisela Wilbertz: Elisabeth von Pommern - an empress in the late Middle Ages , in: Bohemia , Vol. 28 (1987), pp. 45–68, here: pp. 47–48, on bohemia-online.de.
  3. ↑ a b Dietmar Lucht: Elisabeth von Pommern , on Kulturportal-West-Ost.
  4. ↑ Gisela Wilbertz: Elisabeth von Pommern - an empress in the late Middle Ages , in: Bohemia , Vol. 28 (1987), pp. 45–68, here: p. 49, on bohemia-online.de.
  5. ↑ Gisela Wilbertz: Elisabeth von Pommern - an empress in the late Middle Ages , in: Bohemia , vol. 28 (1987), pp. 45–68, here: pp. 51–53, on bohemia-online.de.
  6. ↑ Gisela Wilbertz: Elisabeth von Pommern - an empress in the late Middle Ages , in: Bohemia , Vol. 28 (1987), pp. 45–68, here: pp. 55–56, on bohemia-online.de.
  7. ↑ a b A. Herrmann: Elisabeth (in Teutschland) 2 . In: Johann Samuelersch , Johann Gottfried Gruber (Hrsg.): Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste , 1st section, 33rd vol. (1840), p. 369.
  8. ↑ Gisela Wilbertz: Elisabeth von Pommern - an empress in the late Middle Ages , in: Bohemia , Vol. 28 (1987), pp. 45–68, here: p. 57, on bohemia-online.de.
  9. ↑ Ekkart Sauser: Elisabeth von Pommern , in: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL), Vol. 20 (2002), Col. 457.
  10. ↑ Gisela Wilbertz: Elisabeth von Pommern - an empress in the late Middle Ages , in: Bohemia , Vol. 28 (1987), pp. 45–68, here: pp. 50 and 55, on bohemia-online.de.
  11. ^ Ferdinand Seibt :  Karl IV. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , p. 188 ( digitized version ).
  12. ↑ Gerhard Hartmann: Kaiser Karl IV. , In: Gerhart Hartmann, Karl Schnith (ed.): Die Kaiser. 1200 years of European history , Verlag Styria, 1996, ISBN 3-222-12421-3 , p. 430.
predecessor Office Successor
Anna of Schweidnitz Queen of Bohemia
June 18, 1363 to November 29, 1378 		Johanna of Bavaria (1362-1386)
predecessor Office Successor
Anna of Schweidnitz Roman-German Empress
November 1, 1368 to November 29, 1378 		Barbara from Cilli
personal data
SURNAME Elisabeth of Pomerania
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pomořanská, Eliška; Pomořanská, Alžběta
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bohemian Queen and wife of Emperor Charles IV.
DATE OF BIRTH around 1345
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 1393
Place of death Königgrätz