While standing in front of the altar next to Jagiełło, Jadwiga did not find herself in a completely new situation. After all, the 12-year-old bride has already had one wedding on her account. The end of her childhood marriage to Wilhelm Habsburg reportedly broke her heart. But was the Austrian prince really the love of her life?
In August 1385, shortly before the young Jadwiga Andegaweńska - already then the king of Poland - reached the so-called The fifteen-year-old Habsburg prince, William, unexpectedly came to Krakow (that is ... 12 years, when the medieval law allowed consumption of marriage), carrying all his jewels, treasures and belongings. Jadwiga was happy to meet him. After all, Habsburg was her husband under the sponsalia de futuro act for 7 years! As noted by Jan Długosz:
She descended from the castle in the retinue of knights and her girls to the convent of Saint Francis in Kraków and in the refectory of that convent she comforted herself by dancing with the aforementioned Austrian prince, but very modestly and with the greatest moderation.
Jadwiga Andegaweńska was an extraordinary figure and, according to some, Jagiełło's favorite wife
After two weeks of such meetings, the love, the germ of which had already been born earlier, blossomed with all its strength. The ruler met the more disappointment when - according to the chronicler:
due to the efforts and orders of the Polish lords who were very reluctant to this union, he was removed in a shameful and offensive manner and expelled from both the castle and the bedroom, and the marriage with the aforementioned queen was not allowed at all.
Jadwiga herself, in order to prevent her from contacting her beloved, was locked up in the castle. The desperate girl then grabbed the ax to destroy the gate separating her from the chosen one. In the end, at the urging of Dmitri of Goraj, she put down her weapon and, mourning her youthful love, returned to her chambers. Six months later, she obediently married Jagiełło, twice her age, uncouth and not particularly beautiful , but until the end of her (not very long) life she did not stop loving Wilhelm ... So much of a romantic legend. But did the breaking of marriage plans with Habsburg really break Anjou's heart?
Scorned fiance
In the second half of the fourteenth century, the Habsburgs were not yet the powerful dynasty we know from history textbooks. However, their support was needed by the Hungarian ruler Louis the Great to win the war with the Venetian Republic and regain Naples. And since the easiest way to the alliance was through a marriage (and Ludwik had no shortage of daughters), he accepted the offer of Leopold III Habsburg, who proposed a relationship of the youngest offspring of Anjou - Jadwiga - with his then four-year-old son Wilhelm.
Wilhelm Habsburg
A few years later, the families decided to seal the contract. The meeting of the young (and how!) Couple took place in the border area of Hainburg. Jerzy Besala reports:
Ibid., in the parish church, on June 15, 1378, the Archbishop of Esztergom, Dmitri, celebrated the wedding of the children and blessed their union . Then the celebrations moved to the castle, where, according to the document in Zwolin of February 12, 1380, the couple performed a ritual "lagging".
Of course, there was no question of actual body consumption:Jadwiga was four years old, her husband was eight, but most likely the children slept together and played at wedding feasts for two weeks and, it seems, brought them closer.
Soon, however, the little spouses had to part - Jadwiga was to adopt the traditions of the Habsburg house at the Viennese court, meanwhile her husband went to Buda to learn about the customs of the Anjou. The actual consumption of the relationship had to be waited until the bride turned 12 years old. Nobody expected how much would change during this time…
Purely political feeling
In love as in war - political alliances were decisive for the final outcome of the game, especially in the case of royal unions. It is not known who came up with the idea to marry Jadwiga, crowned king in 1384, for Władysław Jagiełło, but such a marriage of the two countries was understandable - Poland, fighting with the Teutonic Order, needed a strong ally. Preferably one that also has the Teutonic Knights on its trunk. So it fell to Lithuania.
According to the Calendar of the Kraków Cathedral, Jagiełło's legation arrived in Kraków in January 1385. Prof. Maria Koczerska reports: "The deputies asked for Jadwiga's hand and announced that if the proposal was accepted, the Grand Duke would be baptized together with his subjects".
Portrait of Queen Jadwiga Andegaweńska by Marcello Bacciarelli
We know the outcome of the negotiations very well - on August 14, 1385, Lithuanians and Poles (and the Hungarian delegation) appeared in Krewo to sign an act that was to determine the fate of this part of Europe for the next 400 years. By the way, Jagiełło - as announced - issued a document in which he undertook to Christianize his country in exchange for marrying Jadwiga. Habsburg was supposed to be dismissed empty (though perhaps not entirely, because for breaking the marriage contract he was to receive a compensation of 200,000 florins).
What does the main stakeholder say? Well, she didn't have much to say. Even though she was formally the crowned ruler of Poland in the Kreva act, she was only the subject of the contract ...
A romantic lie
Contemporary historians are of the opinion, however, that the young Angevenka did not resist - even if she was not entirely convinced of the relationship with the older "barbarian" from Lithuania. After all, the first reports of the ruler's hysterical reaction to dismissing William of Wawel come from Długosz, who was born 16 years after Jadwiga's death and he knew the whole thing from stories at best. Prof. Maria Koczerska comments:
During their symbolic wedding ceremony in Hainburg, Jadwiga was four, and Wilhelm - eight. They saw each other briefly as little children. What could an eight-year-old see in a four-year-old? Could a four-year-old remember him at all?
In August 1385 Jadwiga surely did not remember much about this ceremony. She didn't actually know William, so I don't think she was fighting for her former love, because she just wasn't there. (...) There is actually only one source in historical literature that could show Jadwiga in a bad light.
The wedding of Jadwiga and Jagiełło initiated a strong political alliance
It is about the Book of proscriptions and complaints the city of Krakow, according to which, after the queen fulfilled the marriage, a group of prisoners was released from prison. The problem is that the note is dated August 23, 1385 - only nine days after the union in Kreva. There was no question of any completion with Jagiełło, so would remain William, who happened to be wandering around Wawel at that time. Does this mean that Jadwiga's first relationship has been consumed after all?
Prof. Oskar Halecki was convinced that there was no such thing, and the amnesty for the prisoners was suspended. As emphasized by prof. Koczerska:"This is evidenced by the entry of the proscribed book, which shows that only one prisoner was released". In addition, the day before the wedding with Jagiełło, Jadwiga "publicly canceled the vows, if there were any", which was meticulously noted in the Calendar of the Krakow cathedral. The story of great love and the broken heart of a young queen should therefore rather be placed among fairy tales ...