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- Feastday: July 17
Jadwiga, also known as Hedwig (Hungarian: Hedvig; Buda 1373/4 Kraków 17 July 1399), reigned as the first female monarch of the Kingdom of Poland from 1384 until her death. She was the youngest daughter of Louis the Great, King of Hungary and Poland, and his wife, Elizabeth of Bosnia. Jadwiga was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou, but she was even more closely related to the native Piast dynasty of Poland through her ancestors. She was canonized in 1997.
Her marriage to William of Habsburg was arranged in 1375. She lived in Austria between 1378 and 1380. Jadwiga and William were allegedly regarded her father's successors in Hungary after her eldest sister's death in 1379, because the Polish noblemen paid homage to Louis's second daughter, Mary, and Mary's fiancé, Sigismund of Luxemburg in the same year. However, Louis died and Mary was crowned "King of Hungary" on the demand of her mother in 1382. Sigismund of Luxemburg tried to seize Poland, but the Polish noblemen stated that they would only obey the daughter of King Louis who would settle in their country. Queen Elizabeth nominated Jadwiga to reign in Poland, but did not send her to Kraków to be crowned. During the interregnum, Siemowit IV, Duke of Masovia, became a candidate to the throne. The nobles from Greater Poland especially favored him, proposing him to marry Jadwiga. However, the noblemen of Lesser Poland hindered his election and persuaded Queen Elizabeth to send Jadwiga to Poland.
Jadwiga was crowned king in Kraków on 16 October 1384. Her title either reflected the Polish lords' attempt to hinder her future husband from adopting the same title without further act or only emphasized that she was a queen regnant. With her mother's consent, her advisors opened negotiations with Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania, who was more than 30 years old and still a pagan, about his marriage with Jadwiga. Jogaila signed the Union of Krewo, promising to convert to Roman Catholicism and to promote his pagan subjects' conversion. William of Habsburg hurried to Kraków to demand the consummation of his pre-arranged marriage with Jadwiga, but the Polish lords expelled him in late August 1385. Jogaila, who received the baptismal name Wladyslaw, married Jadwiga on 15 February 1386. Legend says that she had only agreed to marry him after long prayers, seeking divine inspiration.
Wladyslaw-Jogaila was crowned king on 4 March. As his co-ruler, Jadwiga closely cooperated with her husband. After rebellious lords imprisoned her mother and sister, she marched to Ruthenia, which had been under Hungarian rule, persuaded most local inhabitants to submit themselves to the Polish Crown without resistance. She acted as mediator between her husband's quarreling kinsmen, or between Poland and the Teutonic Knights. After her sister, Mary died in 1395, Jadwiga and Wladyslaw-Jogaila laid claim to Hungary against the widowed Sigismund of Luxemburg, but the Hungarian lords did not support them.
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1174 - 1243 (69 years)
