Most biographies state emphatically that Jadwiga died following the birth
of her only child Elizabeth, who did not survive her. How that makes her
a matron, I'm not quite sure. A Polish-born student in my seminar did a
paper on Jadwiga a couple of years ago, and suggested that her
canonization really had more to do with the conversion of the Lithuanians
than anything else, although it's far from clear just how much Jadwiga
herself (who was actually 15 at marriage to Jagiello) had to do with the
process of conversion. (She was probably 28 when she died.)
JCP
On Thu, 6 Mar 1997, Frank Schaer wrote:
> > On Tue, 4 Mar 1997 [log in to unmask] wrote:
> >
> > > Date: Tue, 04 Mar 1997 23:10:01 +0000 (GMT)
> > > From: [log in to unmask]
> > > To: [log in to unmask]
> > > Subject: FEAST 28 February
> > >
> > > Today, 28 February, is the feast of ...
> > >
> > > * Hedwig of Poland, matron (1399)
> > > - married at age thirteen to a non-Christian, she converted
> > > him by her example, and the two of them set off to convert
> > > many Lithuanians
> >
> > Jadwiga was the daughter of Casimir, the last Piast king of Poland. Her
> > husband, Jagiello, was ruler of Lithuania. His conversion, and that of
> > his people, deprived the Teutonic Knights of much of their claim to be on
> > crusade against the pagans. And their defeat at Tannenberg also reduced
> > the military power of the knights. The vehement polemics of John
> > Falkenberg, the apologist for the knights, were denounced by the Poles to
> > the Council of Constance as heretical.
> >
> > tom izbicki
>
>
> Whatever the political consequences of the union, the entry for 28th
> seems to present an idealised portrait of their marriage. The
> twelve-year old Hedwig/Jadwiga was already betrothed to William of
> Habsburg when the Polish lords brought her to Crakow to marry
> Iagello. Terrified at the prospect of marrying a hairy heathen much
> older than herself she pleaded with the lords and was only placated
> after a favorite knight was sent to inspect Iagello in his bathhouse
> and report favourably on the details of the barbarians body. When
> young Wilhelm turned up to claim his betrothed, he was kept away
> from her. She was locked in castle on Wawel hill, where it is
> reputed that she seized an axe and tried to break down the door of
> her chamber to get to Wilhelm. All to no avail, she was married to
> Iagello anyway. However the marriage was not fruitful, and Jadwiga
> took solace in a saintly life of charity, which included leaving her
> fortune to the Jagellonian University on her death in 1399. (All this
> in Adam Zamoyski's "The Polish Way", a very readable history of
> Poland. I should point out that a Lithuanian colleague dismisses all
> this as Polish propaganda.)
>
> Frank Schaer
>
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