The Jagiellons were not lucky with their faithful wives. Sonka, Anna Cylejska, Barbara Radziwiłłówna, and even Jadwiga Andegawenka - all of them were accused of giving their husbands horns. But it is about the other queen that we know for sure that she ended up in bed with the third queen. And on top of that… she didn't want to!
When Barbara Radziwiłłówna died in 1551, Zygmunt August was devastated. The 31-year-old king did not want to hear about remarrying for a long time. Only after almost two years of widowhood, at the beginning of 1553, did he assign the brother of his deceased wife, Mikołaj "Czarny" Radziwiłł, a mission to find the next queen. He left him completely free to choose his sister's successor. 
Radziwiłł thought strategically. Its aim was to secure Lithuania against a possible Moscow-Habsburg coalition. As a result, although he was not enthusiastic about this family, he insisted on the candidacy of Katarzyna Habsburg. It was ... the sister of Zygmunt's first wife!
19-year-old Katarzyna was no longer a virgin. In 1550, she was widowed after a four-month marriage to Francisco Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. The Habsburgs, however, argued that it did not matter. Katarzyna remained untouched because her spouse was impotent. Looking at the rest of this story, I think they were telling the truth.
The issue of re-marrying the king of Poland progressed quickly. A marriage contract was written, a papal dispensation was obtained and the amount of the dowry was determined. There was also an agreement on the gift given to the wife by the husband after the wedding night. The marriage itself was about to be consummated even before it happened.
On the wedding day, the happy Mikołaj replaced Zygmunt August in front of the altar. Also King Ferdinand, the bride's father, did not hide his satisfaction at having another daughter on the throne. However, when the wedding dances ended and the company was gathering to sleep, the Habsburg ordered Radziwiłł ... to lie down with the bride!
It was about keeping the custom present in many European countries. There was a wedding night before the bride saw her husband for the first time. All this to confirm the legitimacy of the relationship and avoid the possibility of dissolving it as unconsumed.
In practice, the bed scene didn't look the sexiest. Radziwiłł obediently got into bed in full clothes, but embarrassed Katarzyna did not want to lie down next to the strange man . So she was forced there by force. Her father, Ferdinand, grabbed her head, and her older brother, Maksymilian, grabbed her legs.
Radziwiłł had known the Habsburgs earlier - in 1547 he received the princely title from them. He did not expect then that a few years later he would end up in bed with a representative of this family…
It is doubtful whether there was the custom of naked thighs touching during this impromptu wedding night. As Jerzy Besala writes in his book "Uncomfortable relationships. A story about the end of the Jagiellonian dynasty ”, Katarzyna freed herself from her husband's representative at the first moment. She jumped out of bed, and Radziwiłł almost immediately followed her footsteps. And so the bizarre ceremony is over.
Unfortunately, when Katarzyna arrived in Poland, the actual wedding night went even worse than the one made by the intermediary. The young queen, in an intimate moment, became even more stressed and ... suffered an epilepsy attack. It was like a cold shower for Zygmunt. He had already grown disgusted with the disease after his relationship with her older sister. And although he tried to lead an exemplary relationship for a few more years, the relationship was written off.
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Trivia is the essence of our website. Short materials devoted to interesting anecdotes, surprising details from the past, strange news from the old press. Reading that will take you no more than 3 minutes, based on single sources. This particular material is based on:
- Jerzy Besala, Uncomfortable relationships. The story of the end of the Jagiellonian dynasty, Bellona 2017.