Historical story

Bad mother, bad wife… and a dwarf lover? 10 things you didn't know about Bona Sforza

She had a loser father who liked Greek love. She did not bring Italian to Poland, but she was probably the first ecologist in our country. And she owed her life to a dwarf. These are just some of the facts about Queen Bona that you won't read about in school textbooks.

As always, all TOP10 items are based on the articles we publish. This time - dedicated to Bona Sforza.

You probably didn't know Bona…

10.

She owed her life to a dwarf. In 1544, a masked bomber stormed into her hunting lodge near Piotrków at night. With his weapon drawn, he prepared to deliver the killing blow. However, he failed to get him out because he stumbled over a dwarf sleeping by the window (read more about this).

9.

She had a loser father who was a hopeless husband and a poor politician. Gian Galeazzo Sforza preferred beautiful young men to his wife, whom he tortured. As ruler of Milan, he was an ordinary puppet in the hands of ambitious relatives (read more on this).

8.

She turned out to be a degenerate mother for Anna Jagiellonka. She noticed her daughter only once - during a hastily organized baptism. Immediately after the ceremony, she put her in the care of her nurse and that was actually the end of her relationship with Anna (read more about it).

7.

She was buried in Bari, in the same Basilica as St. Nicholas. Over the next decades, each Polish monarch considered it his duty to decorate the temple with new paintings and works of art. Currently, unfortunately, there are no more traces of this Italian city's ties with Poland - the Italians tried to destroy them (read more on this topic).

6.

She caused a real fashion revolution at the Jagiellonian court. Before she appeared on the Vistula River, Polish ladies wore dresses right up to their necks, finished with a ruff . The new queen, in turn, liked the low-cut wardrobe. This "indecent" trend quickly caught on, and male courtiers began to be distracted by more than just the singing of the troubadours (read more on this).

5.

She did not bring Italian to Poland. Contrary to popular myth, the Polish court already ordered lettuce in the days of Jagiełło. Cauliflower and cabbage were brought to Poland by hundreds of immigrants from Italy. Before Bona heard about Rzeczpospolita, as many as half a thousand of her countrymen lived in Krakow (read more about it).

4.

She was probably the first eco-specialist in Poland. In each of her estates, she paid special attention to nature. She even made the lumberjacks work so that they wouldn't destroy the forest (read more about it).

3.

She paid Zygmunt August's mum a lot of money. The noblewoman taking care of the little prince received a round sum of 240 florins. By comparison, a middle-ranking government official at that time earned no more than 30, and often only 10 florins a year (read more on this).

2.

According to rumors, she betrayed Sigismund the Old to the right and left. The fruit of the queen's unrestrained lust was to be a whole group of bastards, later raised by her maids. However, similar stories are only the result of an extensive Habsburg propaganda campaign ... (read more on this topic).

1.

W inch wasn't an ugly fat witch. On the contrary, the queen, who came from the Apennine Peninsula, was considered one of the most beautiful women of the Renaissance. However, it lost to the conventions of its era and to the black PR of its opponents (read more about it).