She fascinates artists and scholars alike. A woman of flesh and blood, King of the Commonwealth…
Marek Mikos
Kraków Culture
It’s hard to believe just how much she had achieved during her short life. Member of the House of Anjou, she was born in Buda in Hungary 650 years ago, some time between October 1373 and February 1374 and died in Kraków on 17 July 1399. She lived for just over 25 years, and she became Queen (or, more formally, King) when she was just 11 years old. Aged 13, she led a campaign which brought to a conclusion the Polish-Lithuanian conflict over Ruthenia. She bequeathed her jewels to the declining Academy of Kraków, originally founded by King Casimir the Great; thanks to the Queen’s authorisation to open a faculty of theology, Kraków is now home to a thriving university, named the Jagiellonian University after Jadwiga and her royal husband’s dynastic name. It is the second oldest university in this part of Europe.
Two universities
“Of course the pretext for hosting the conference is the Year of Queen Jadwiga marking three of her anniversaries [650 years since her birth, 640 since her coronation and 625 since her death – ed]. But the papers will reach beyond anniversaries,” says Prof. Stanisław Sroka, Dean of the Faculty of History at the Jagiellonian University. Together with the Pontifical University of John Paul II, the Jagiellonian is the co-host of the International Academic Conference on Queen Jadwiga, to be held at Collegium Novum on 7 June. The event opens with speeches by Prof. Jacek Popiel, Rector of the Jagiellonian University, and Fr. Prof. Robert Tyrała, Rector of the Pontifical University of John Paul II. It’s worth noting that although the latter university now has many different departments, its roots are in the Faculty of Theology founded by Queen Jadwiga in 1397 and abolished by the Stalinist authorities in 1954.
“Jadwiga remains a fascinating subject for scholars, and not just in Poland. Alde Harmand, professor at the University of Toul in France and mayor of the city, is fascinated by the rationale commissioned by the queen. In his lecture he will compare Jadwiga’s rationale to a similar historic item from Toul,” explains Prof. Sroka.
Hungarian academics focus on the Capetian House of Anjou: Prof. Daniel Bagi (ELTE, Budapest) discusses the succession policies of the dynasty, while Dr. Judit Csákó (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) talks about the portrait of Jadwiga’s father Louis I of Hungary in Italian chronicles. Prof. Vinni Lucherini (University of Naples Federico II) talks about the queen’s splendid seal.
There will be several papers dedicated to her life and reign. Prof. Sroka asks When was Queen Jadwiga born?, while Dr. Dariusz Niemiec presents The history of Queen Jadwiga’s tomb through the eye of an archaeologist. The programme also includes lectures by Polish academics on the influence of Jadwiga’s patron, St. Hedwig of Silesia, on the queen’s personality and on the subject of her holiness, confirmed by her canonisation in 1997.
Tall and slim
Jadwiga’s father Louis I or Louis the Great, French on his Father’s side and Polish on his mother’s side, was a powerful ruler of the Kingdom of Hungary. He cared more about the interests of the dynasty than the latest throne he happened to take over from his uncle Casimir the Great. He had no sons, so he ensured that it would be inherited by one of his daughters. The fate fell on Jadwiga, who turned out to be Poland’s great king and benefactor. She took over the throne in a foreign country as a child, and passed away while she was still a young woman.
Her most memorable likeness was painted by Jan Matejko; he was present at the opening of her tomb, and based her image on the length and shape of her bones, featuring it in his Gallery of Polish Kings and Princes. The chronicler Janko of Czarnków, her contemporary, made no note of her appearance, perhaps for diplomatic reasons. In contrast, Jan Długosz, writing around a century later, stated that she was one of the most beautiful queens of her era. Was she really tall and slim? That’s how she appears on her famous seal, and that’s how she is presented by Maciej Zychowicz in his contemporary sculpture at the Cracovian church dedicated to her. The queen is shown to have a lean face, long, slender fingers and rather large feet.
Jadwiga was highly educated: she was fluent in spoken and written Latin, Italian, German and of course her native Hungarian, and she learned Polish.
In Jadwiga’s footsteps
Jadwiga’s traces also lead us to Collegium Maius – the largest building of the Academy of Kraków, funded from the jewellery she donated to the university. Legend has it that the Carmelite Church bears a physical trace of her presence in the shape of her footprint, miraculously left in stone by the queen herself. The stone now forms a part of the church’s exterior wall. The Church of St. Queen Jadwiga holds her statue, described earlier; the patron is a great source of inspiration for local young creative people.
Celebrations
As well as the two Cracovian universities which owe their existence to Jadwiga, events marking this year’s anniversaries have also been organised by the Metropolitan Archdiocese, the Kraków Cathedral Chapter, the Association for Polish Music, the Consulate General of Hungary and a few organisations dedicated to the late queen. Immediately after the end of the conference at the Jagiellonian University, Wawel Cathedral celebrates Holy Mass at 5.30 pm on 7 June including the Adoration of Queen Jadwiga by the two universities. The family picnic Jadwiga’s Birthday featuring the Hungarian ensemble Szelindek will be held on Saturday 8 June, while on Sunday 9 June the Carmelite Church presents a concert by the Hungarian organist Arpad Palmai.
As well as secular events, the anniversary celebrations will have religious dimensions: they will include a novena dedicated to St. Queen Jadwiga at Wawel Cathedral (30 May until 7 June), and the church also hosts vespers and a celebratory mass on 8 June. Just over a month later, on 12 July, the Association for Polish Music is joined by the Jagiellonian University and the Archdiocese to present a concert version of Karol Kurpiński’s opera Jadwiga Queen of Poland with words by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, performed at the Kraków Philharmonic. The performance will be conducted by Ilona Mesko from Hungary.
Held close to the date of Queen Jadwiga’s passing (she died 625 years ago on 17 July), the event closes anniversary events dedicated to the woman whose influence on Kraków’s unshakeable position as the spiritual capital of Poland cannot be overstated. And, as marked upon by the authors of the opera written in 1814, a woman who had to choose between personal happiness and the prosperity of the country given to her care.
