Hedwig
Sex: F
Individual Information
Birth: Unknown
Christening:
Death: Unknown
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Spouses and Children
1. *Sigefrid of Luxemburg , Count of Luxemburg (Unknown - 998)
Marriage: Unknown
Status:
Children:
1. St. Cunigund of Luxemburg ( -1033)
2. Henry I of Luxemburg , Count of Luxemburg ( -1026)
3. [Son] of Luxemburg ( - )
Saint Hedwig (Jadwiga) of Poland , Queen of Poland
Sex: F
Individual Information
Birth: Abt 1374
Christening:
Death: 17 Jul 1399
Burial: Wawel Cathedral, Poland
Cause of Death: Complications during child birth
Parents
Father: Louis I the Great of Hungary (1326-1382)
Mother: Elizabeth of Bosnia (Abt 1340-1387)
Spouses and Children
1. *Wladislaus II Jagiello , Grand Duke of Lithuania (1351 - 1 Jun 1434)
Marriage: 1385
Status:
Children:
1. Elizabeth Bonifacia (1399-1399)
Notes
General:
Queen Jadwiga (c. 1374-1399) was a Polish monarch who reigned from 1384 to 1399, venerated in the Roman Catholic Church as Saint Hedwig (Jadwiga) the Queen. She is the patron saint of queens and united Europe.
She is known as Hedwig in German, Jadvyga in Lithuanian, Hedvig in Hungarian, and Hedwigis in Latin.
Appearance:
Jadwiga was said to be a blonde, blue-eyed beauty, and an exhumation performed in 1949 showed that she was unusually tall for a medieval woman (180 cm), with no physical evidence of any deformity or disability.
Childhood:
Jadwiga was most probably born on February 18, 1374. She was the youngest daughter of Louis the Great of the House of Capet-Anjou, King of Hungary and Poland, and of Elizabeth of Bosnia. Both Jadwiga's mother and Louis's mother, Elizabeth Lokietkowna, were descended from the House of Piasts, the ancient native Polish dynasty. Jadwiga was a great-granddaughter of King Ladislaus the Short, who had reunited Poland in 1320.
Jadwiga was brought up at the royal court in Buda. In 1378 she was betrothed to the Habsburg scion, William of Austria, and spent about a year at the imperial court in Vienna. Their engagement was broken off and he later married, after Jadwiga's death, her cousin Joan II of Naples. Jadwiga's father had also made an arrangement with Sigismund of Luxemburg, the future Holy Roman Emperor, for the latter to marry either Jadwiga or her sister Mary (Sigismund eventually married Mary).
Jadwiga was well educated and a polyglot, interested in 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 rather recently, an independent king, Casimir III of Poland of the ancient Piast dynasty, had ruled Poland. He had arranged, sonless and deeming his own descendants either unsuitable to inherit or too young, that his surviving sister Elisabeth of Poland and her son, Louis I of Hungary, should succeed him in Poland. Louis had been proclaimed king, and Elisabeth held much of the practical power until her death in 1380.
When Louis died in 1382, Mary inherited the Hungarian throne. In Poland, however, the lords of Lesser Poland (the virtual rulers of Poland) did not want to continue the personal union with Hungary, nor to accept Mary's fiancé Sigismund as a regent. They therefore chose Mary's younger sister, Jadwiga, as their new monarch. After two years of negotiations with Jadwiga's mother, Dowager Queen Elisabeth of Hungary (Elisabeth of Bosnia) who was regent of Hungary, and a civil war in Greater Poland (1383), Jadwiga finally came to Krakow and was crowned King (sic) of Poland on November 16, 1384, Hedvig Rex Polonić, not Hevig Regina Polonić. The masculine gender in her title was intended to underline the fact that she was a 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 remained in Hungary): her mother's uncle, Vladislav of Kujavia (d. 1388), Prince of Gniewkowo. He was childless.
Soon after her coronation, new pretenders to Jadwiga's hand appeared: Duke Siemowit IV of Masovia and Grand Duke Jogaila (Jagiello) of Lithuania, the latter supported by the lords of Lesser Poland. In 1385 (when Jadwiga was eleven years old) William Habsburg came to Krakow to consummate the marriage and present the lords with a fait accompli. His plan, however, failed and William was expelled from Poland. Polish bishops declared his engagement to Jadwiga invalid. In the same year Jogaila and the lords of Lesser Poland signed the Union of Krewo in which Jogaila pledged to adopt Latin Christianity and unite Lithuania with Poland in exchange for Jadwiga's hand and the Polish crown. Jadwiga (12) and Jogaila (36) - who had earlier been baptized Ladislaus - were wed in March 1386 in Kraków. This was followed by Jogaila's coronation as King of Poland, although Jadwiga retained her royal rights. In 1387, the Horvathy supporters of her rival in Hungary strangled Jadwiga's mother, Elisabeth.
As a monarch, Jadwiga probably had very 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 re-conquer the Duchy of Halych and in 1390 she began to correspond with the Teutonic Knights. She had many Latin books translated into Polish for her ow personal reading. She also donated much of her wealth to charity, including the foundation of hospitals. Among Jadwiga's accomplishments was the founding of a bishopric in Vilnius. Most of all, she donated her jewelry, dresses - and 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. Jadwiga died on July 17, 1399. She was buried together with her baby 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 accedded by some sort of election. Descendants of Vladislav the Short (through Silesian dukes of Swidnica) included the then Emperor Venceslas, 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 a 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 Kujavia 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 because no claimant with better stature appeared, he was never ousted, not even after the death of his second wife. Sons of his last wife, who were not related to the earlier Polish rulers, eventually succeeded him in Poland.
Medical:
Mother and Child both died.
Helgi the Keen
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: Unknown
Christening:
Death: Unknown
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Spouses and Children
1. *Aslaug Sigurdsdottir (Unknown - Unknown)
Marriage: Unknown
Status:
Children:
1. Private
Helias of Maine , Count of Maine
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 1060
Christening:
Death: 11 Jun 1110
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Spouses and Children
1. *Agnes of Aquitaine(?) (Unknown - 1097)
Marriage: 1109(?)
Status:
Children:
1. Ermengard of Maine (Ermentrude) (Abt 1090-Abt 1126)
2. Matilde De Chateau De Loire (1055 - 1099)
Marriage: Unknown
Status:
Helias of Mayenne
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: Unknown
Christening:
Death: Unknown
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Fulk V the Younger of Anjou , Count of Anjou ( -1143)
Mother: Ermengard of Maine (Ermentrude) (Abt 1090-Abt 1126)
Spouses and Children
1. *Phillipa du Perche (Unknown - Unknown)
Marriage: Unknown
Status:
Duke Henry I of Brabant
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 1160
Christening:
Death: 5 Sep 1235
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Spouses and Children
1. *Maud d'Alasace (1163 - 1211)
Marriage: 1179
Status:
Children:
1. Mary of Brabant (1191-After 1260)
2. Matilda of Brabant (1200-1267)
2. Maria de France (Unknown - Unknown)
Marriage: 22 Apr 1213
Status:
Henry I of Luxemburg , Count of Luxemburg
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: Unknown
Christening:
Death: 1026
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Sigefrid of Luxemburg , Count of Luxemburg ( -0998)
Mother: Hedwig ( - )
Notes
General:
Acceded: 998
Duke of Bavaria 1004-1009 and 1017-1026.
Henry I the Liberal of Champagne , Count of Champagne and Brie
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 1127
Christening:
Death: 1181
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Theobald III of Blois 4th Count of Blois (Abt 1088-1152)
Mother: Maud of Carinthia ( - )
Spouses and Children
1. *Countess Mary of France Capet (1145 - 1198)
Marriage: Unknown
Status:
Children:
1. Scholastica of Champagne ( -1219)
2. Henry II of Champagne, Palatine of Champagne ( - )
Notes
General:
Acceded: 1152
Henry II of Bar , Count of Bar
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: Unknown
Christening:
Death: Abt 13 Nov 1239
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Spouses and Children
1. *Philippa de Dreux (Unknown - 17 Mar 1240)
Marriage: 1219
Status:
Children:
1. Margaret von Bar Countess of Bar ( -1275)
Henry II of Champagne, Palatine of Champagne
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: Unknown
Christening:
Death: Unknown
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Henry I the Liberal of Champagne , Count of Champagne and Brie (1127-1181)
Mother: Countess Mary of France Capet (1145-1198)
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