Almost none of the Polish rulers can compare with Barbara Radziwiłłówna in terms of fame and recognition. Everyone knows even an outline of its tragic story. But was Barbara more than just the heroine of a romance novel? What has it achieved and how has it influenced the history of Poland?
Barbara Radziwiłłówna sat on the throne for a very short time. Crowned at the end of her deadly disease. Earlier - the heroine of a great scandal and a prisoner locked up by her husband in a remote manor house. Personally, she did not manage to achieve much. Nevertheless, it changed the history of the country forever.
1. Thanks to her, the power of the Radziwiłł family flourished
The name of the Radziwiłł family is mentioned for the first time in the document of the Vilnius-Radom union, which handed over the rule of Lithuania to Prince Witold. Since then, this family grew in strength. A little over a hundred years later, the Radziwiłł family was one of the richest and most powerful families in Lithuania. In his youth, King Sigismund Augustus grew up with one of the Radziwiłłs, Mikołaj "Czarny", who stayed at court from 1529 to 1533 to get polished.
When the ruler came to Lithuania, he started promoting an old friend and his family. In the meantime, he had an affair with the beautiful and recently widowed Barbara. In order to facilitate his attempts with her, he even renovated the Vilnius seat of her brother Mikołaj "the Red" and began to shower him and "Czarny" with new dignities. After Barbara's wedding and coronation, the king's generosity did not diminish at all.
They were filthy rich. And yet their greed grew steadily. So much so that in the end they even wanted the crown of the Republic of Poland. The illustration shows a fragment of Aleksander Orłowski's painting "A Feast at the Radziwiłł family".
Both Nikolaevs received land titles bringing huge income, a fortune in cash, and "Czarny" even managed to wrest the position of Grand Chancellor of Lithuania and 100,000 thalers for himself.
Affiliation with the house of the Jagiellonians, confirmation by the king of princely titles granted by the emperor and huge land acquisitions strengthened the position of the Radziwiłł family. To the displeasure of the nobility and other magnates, they soon became one of the most powerful families on the continent. It probably wouldn't have happened without Barbara.
2. She contributed to the extinction of the Jagiellonian family
It is definitely an exaggeration to blame Barbara Radziwiłłówna for the extinction of one of the most powerful dynasties in Europe, but it cannot be denied that she contributed greatly to this. One of the most important duties of any king is to ensure the continuity of power, preferably by begetting a son.
Zygmunt's first wife, Elżbieta Habsburżanka, did not become pregnant. Her fragile health, epilepsy, but also the complete breakdown of her relationship with the king might have been an obstacle. The ruler decided to secretly marry a Lithuanian magnate because Barbara - who was already his mistress - was in a blessed state. It was excellent news for Zygmunt August. Ultimately, however, due to the relationship with Radziwiłłówna, no child was born, and the king did not even have bastards. Admittedly, after the death of the unhappy queen, he decided to marry a third time, but this relationship did not bring him offspring. In a way… thanks to Barbara.
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.
Mikołaj "Black", who, thanks to his cousin, was one of the monarch's closest henchmen, when he was sent to look for a suitable princess, allowed himself to be bribed by the Habsburgs and, against the king's instructions, married him to ... the sister of his deceased first wife, Katarzyna. This marriage was so unsuccessful that the Habsburgian woman left her husband, but the sacrament was not annulled, which prevented Sigismund from continuing his matrimonial search. He died childless and the male Jagiellonian line ended with him.
3. Despite her will, she successfully undermined the monarch's authority in Poland
Barbara probably did not expect what the storm would unleash after her second wedding. When the marriage of the king with the subject was announced, an avalanche of the meanest pamphlets and lampoons aimed at the new ruler broke out. The whole of Vilnius, including the palaces and the town hall, have been covered with nasty prints. The Korona also spared no paper. The whole problem was that there was no organized group behind them, but rather a grassroots initiative. Moreover, the nobility was even passionate about the court scandal.
The Przemyśl canon, Stanisław Orzechowski, disgraced the king's wife in all possible ways and constantly incited his subjects against the royal couple. Radziwiłłówna's enemies finally succeeded - Barbara became widely hated. The threats against Zygmunt August's wife and her relatives were heard more and more loudly (there was mention of drowning in the Vistula or hanging). The overall atmosphere was so dramatic that civil war was feared.
Portrait of Zygmunt August around 1553 from the workshop of Łukasz Cranach the Younger.
When the ruler called the Seym, the nobility threatened him, the Seym chamber was demolished and, as Barbara's biographer Zbigniew Kuchowicz emphasizes, there was a tumult in the room. It was a picture of the tragic fall of the royal majesty. Until recently, no one would have dared to behave like this, and now, as Kuchowicz explained, a deep aversion spread between the throne and the nobility.
4. She killed the old king inadvertently
Zygmunt I was respected by his subjects. He was already well advanced in years and sick, and his actions were directed by the Queen, but he was still respected by the nobility and enjoyed the affection of his subjects. On April 1, 1548, after 41 years of reign, he closed his eyes, and Bona immediately seized the moment to strike at her son's marriage. The ruler announced in a letter to the members of the Lithuanian Council that the old king had been killed by ... the news of the only child's wedding to Radziwiłłówna. Jerzy Besala quotes her words:
This pain and sorrow threw J [ego] K [Różlewska] M [i] into a powerlessness in which he completed his life and gave his soul to God. [...] We have this trust in our beloved son, if he only loved his father (which we have no doubts about), that this sadness, this regret that overwhelmed him, will dissuade him. I have been married since the end of this marriage.
King Zygmunt I the Old broke down at the news of his son's secret wedding.
Although Barbara Radziwiłłówna did not press Zygmunt Stary's pillow to his face, in a way she drove him to his grave. The affair with the son's relationship completely upset the ailing ruler. He sent letters to senators and other most important people in the country, using words such as indecent, disgraceful, humiliation, and insult to describe his son's relationship. It is hard to find more stress for an eighty-year-old…
5. She buried Zygmunt's relationship with her mother
Queen Bona liked to rule. In the last years of her husband's life, which was more and more weakened, it was she who ruled the country. She believed that she had a sacred right to also manage her son's family life, so the news that after the death of the Habsburgian woman whom she dearly disliked had married her widow Gasztołdowa furious. Radziwiłłówna's biographer, Zbigniew Kuchowicz, mentions Bona's strong emotions:
She fell into despair, burst into tears, treated the marriage of her beloved only child as a catastrophe in life, the end of ambitious family and dynastic plans. After the death of the old king, she also continued vigorous action to torpedo the marriage. [...] she presented her son's act as disobedience to his parents, which could result in a divine punishment, and emphasized the harmfulness of the marriage.
Bona Sforza has never reconciled with her son.
When Barbara was to appear with the king at Wawel, Bona ostentatiously left Krakow and went to Mazovia. She obediently followed her daughters, who were always in the shadow of their mother.
Before that, the relationship between Sforza and her son had been tense. Zygmunt August even suspected that Bona would try to poison his wife. He accused her of all the worst intentions, and when meeting with her he would wear thick gloves so that she would not accidentally kill him, using a poisoned signet ring. Her son hated her, the nobility was reluctant to her, so the old queen had no choice but to leave Poland and go to her Duchy of Bari. The relationship with Zygmunt August could never be repaired. And Bona took away an enormous fortune, most of which was then seized by the Habsburgs.
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.
Information sources:
- Besala J., Uncomfortable relationships. A tale of the end of the Jagiellonian dynasty, Bellona 2017.
- Besala J., Zygmunt August and his wives, Zysk i S-ka 2015 publishing house.
- Janicki K., Ladies of the Golden Age 2014.
- Kuchowicz Z., Barbara Radziwiłłówna Wydawnictwo Łódzkie 1985.
Learn the extraordinary story of the despised queen:
