A story of great love, sacrifice and longing? None of these things. Zygmunt August was a real scoundrel for Barbara Radziwiłłówna. And there is no justification for the way he treated her.
The novel by Magdalena Niedźwiedzka entitled "Barbara Radziwiłłówna" , dedicated to the fate of the unhappy queen. This is a great opportunity to recall one of the most famous romances in Polish history and check how much truth lies in the story of great love and devotion, repeated for centuries.
The beginnings of a close relationship between Barbara Radziwiłłówna and Zygmunt could be paraphrased with the words of a song by Marek Grechuta, who sang "Is it friendship, is it a love?". When the king and the widow of the voivode Stanisław Gasztołda were secretly married, they were undoubtedly asked:"Is this love or calculation?".
As a result of an intrigue, which we have already described in another article, the ruler was captured in Barbara's bedroom by her relatives. The Radziwiłłs knew very well how to take advantage of a situation that was compromising the monarch. They managed to bring about an immediate, clandestine wedding. Zygmunt August agreed to a peculiar ceremony, humiliating for his majesty, the more so as it had just been revealed to him that his lover was pregnant.
The woman who appeared to be the future queen could not have expected her worst nightmare. To a large extent prepared by the groom.
He locked her in a complete wilderness
In 1547, Barbara Radziwiłłówna became a royal wife. What's next? Feasts and tournaments to add splendor to the wedding? Triumphant entry into Krakow to present her to the royal parents? None of these things. Instead of collecting tributes as a monarch, Barbara became almost a "princess locked in a tower" (not the first in Polish history, by the way ...). Zygmunt August knew that the repercussions of a secret wedding would be huge. He also seemed afraid that his mother Bona Sforza ... poisoned his wife.
The king began to work hard to disarm and solve any problems, and by then he decided to hide Barbara. He ordered two Mikołaj Radziwiłł (Rudy and Czarny) to take her to a secluded place. The decision was made on Dubinki, cut off from the world, located fifty kilometers north of Vilnius.
Barbara Radziwiłłówna in a painting from the workshop of Łukasz Cranach the Younger.
Not only was the manor house surrounded by dense forests, it was also situated on an island. Perfect place to hide someone. The problem was that the road to Dubinki was simply terrible. A pregnant queen with scarred nerves, she traveled for hours, treading on the dirt road, which could not be good for her condition. The worst happened. As one of his courtiers reported to the king:
The burden that her love had in her belly was broken.
Translating from Polish to ours - Barbara had a miscarriage. When she was in Dubinki, she was completely isolated. She had no relatives or friends who would help her survive after the loss. The company of Zygmunt could not count all the more. During this extremely difficult period, she was completely alone. It is therefore not surprising that she suffered a nervous breakdown and began to decline in health.
He was neglecting her and didn't speak to her
When Zygmunt August's former spouse was still alive, and Barbara was "the other", he and she spent a lot of time together. When the king went to the forests near Vilnius to hunt (and he did it very often), the hunt quickly turned into passionate trysts in hunting mansions. It also happened more than once that a monarch, under the cover of night, would sneak into the garden, and later into his mistress's bedroom.
The article was inspired by a novel by Magdalena Niedźwiedzka "Barbara Radziwiłłówna" , which was published by the Prószyński i co publishing house in the "Twilight of the Jagiellonians" series
Now the romance turned to silence. Barbara could not find comfort even in her husband's letters. In addition, more and more disturbing rumors began to reach her. Zygmunt August openly said that he wanted to enjoy a bachelor life. And when he was asked about his alleged relationship with Radziwiłłówna, he brutally commented that it was a lie and a slander. And that God wouldn't let him fall in his mind and commit such stupidity as marrying a subordinate ...
The future of the royal wife was dark. She had reason to suspect that Zygmunt would annul the marriage and dismiss her herself.
Barbara's guardians (or prison guards) reported that she cried all day long. However, she did not remain idle. To remind her husband of her existence, she sent letters. Humble, even beseeching. She joined them with gifts, hoping that they would gain approval. Meanwhile, Zygmunt August, who, after meeting his parents, returned to nearby Vilnius ... gave his servants a firm order to keep his wife locked up and not dare to admit her to his presence.
When the news of the wedding of Barbara Radziwiłłówna and Zygmunt August finally spread throughout the country, a civil war almost broke out. Admittedly, the king himself was now defending his wife, but more to save face and to stand up to his mother than because of attachment to his new partner. He kept his wife at bay for many more months, hesitating whether to keep the marriage or get rid of the troublesome ballast.
Ruins of the Radziwiłł castle in Dubinki (photo Julius, license CC BY-SA 3.0)
Among enemies
Even when Barbara finally emerged from her solitude and found herself surrounded by the companions and servants her husband sought out for her, she did not feel stabilized at all. The court despised her, and she was well aware of the hostility. She was obedient, and she could only dream of something like royal majesty. August placed her among the she-wolves, who called her in a very indiscriminate way "mistress" - that is, a lover or a woman of light manners. There are also sources that indicate that the king himself allowed himself to make vulgar comments about his wife.
The procession of humiliation, however, was endless. As Kamil Janicki writes in the book "Ladies of the Golden Age", a brutal vivisection of the king's entire relationship was carried out at the Seym. Even the monarch's close advisers defended Barbara "reluctantly and restrained."
Bishop Maciejowski compared the royal marriage to a broken leg affected by infection. He was opposed to divorce, but only because his injured leg should be treated - not chopped off right away! Even Zygmunt August himself did not dare to give any arguments to defend Barbara. He explained that Barbara was only a woman, that she would be a royal wife and not a king, so even if she wanted to, she would not be able to destroy the Polish state from the inside. Besides, "honest wife from husband, not husband takes from wife."
Hejt in the 16th century
In marrying Barbara, the king kind of hung a shooting target on her back. He, as a monarch, was inviolable. She became the target of a real hate campaign. To disgust the character of Barbara Radziwiłłówna, even ... the term whore was popularized which have been declined in all cases in its context. The Queen was perhaps the first public figure to be called that way. The wave of hate that flooded this woman was enormous, and more and more disgusting gossip was reaching her ears.
The death of Barbara Radziwiłłówna (photo:public domain)
Uncommon stories were told about her alleged dissolute life, she was simply called a prostitute, pamphlets devoted to her and pornographic graphics were published. She was also refused official recognition as queen. Meanwhile, she was becoming more and more paranoid. It is not surprising that after months of isolation, the loss of a child and with deteriorating health, Radziwiłłówna simply felt hunted.
Zygmunt August began to show his wife affection and even care for her. But he didn't do it until she was in the last stages of a terminal illness.
A disease that may have been aggravated or accelerated by the way he treated it himself.
Inspiration:
This article was inspired by a novel by Magdalena Niedźwiedzka "Barbara Radziwiłłówna" from the series "Twilight of the Jagiellons", which was published by the publishing house Prószyński i S-ka. It is a colorful story of the tragic life of Zygmunt August's second wife.
Learn the extraordinary story of the despised queen:
