Jadwiga of Poland

Jadwiga (Polish:; 1373/1374 – 17 July 1399), also known as Hedwig (from German, Hungarian: Hedvig), was Queen of the Kingdom of Poland, as well as its last ruler. Crowned "King", (in regem Poloniae coronata) to highlight her sovereign status (in the Polish word królowa or 'queen' was limited to the queen consort of a reigning king), she reigned from 16 October 1384 until her death. Born in Buda, she was the youngest daughter of Louis I of Hungary and Elizabeth of Bosnia. Jadwiga was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou and had forebears among the Polish Piasts.

In 1375, Louis I of Hungary planned for Jadwiga to marry William, Duke of Austria, to whom she was symbolically married in 1378; she subsequently lived in Vienna from 1378 to 1380. Louis is sometimes thought to have regarded her and William as his favoured successors in Hungary after the 1378 death of her eldest sister, Catherine of Hungary, since the following year the Polish nobility had pledged their homage to Louis I's second daughter, Mary, and her fiancé, Sigismund of Luxembourg. However, in 1382, Louis I died and his widow, Elizabeth of Bosnia, had Mary crowned "King of Hungary". Sigismund of Luxembourg tried to take control of Poland, but the Polish nobility countered that they would only be obedient to a daughter of Louis I, provided she settled in Poland. Elizabeth then chose Jadwiga to reign in Poland, but did not send her to Kraków to be crowned. During the interregnum, Siemowit IV, Duke of Masovia, became a candidate for the Polish throne. The nobility of Greater Poland favoured him and proposed that he marry Jadwiga. However, Lesser Poland's nobility opposed him, and they persuaded Elizabeth to send Jadwiga to Poland.

Jadwiga was crowned "King" in Poland's capital, Kraków, on 16 October 1384. With her mother's consent, Jadwiga's advisors opened negotiations with Władysław II Jagiełło, Grand Duke of Lithuania, concerning his potential marriage to Jadwiga. Władysław II Jagiełło, who was a pagan, signed the Union of Krewo, pledging to convert to Catholicism and to promote the conversion of his pagan subjects. Meanwhile, William hastened to Kraków, hoping to make his childhood wedding with Jadwiga valid by consummation of their union, but the Polish nobles expelled him in late August 1385.

Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila), who took the Catholic baptismal name Władysław, married Jadwiga on 15 February 1386, after she renounced her union with William. Legend says that she had agreed to marry him only after a lengthy prayer, seeking divine inspiration. Jogaila, now styled in Polish as Władysław II Jagiełło, was crowned King of Poland on 4 March 1386 as Jadwiga's co-ruler. Władysław II Jagiełło worked closely with his wife in that role. In any case, her real political power was limited. She remained passive when the rebellious nobles of the Kingdom of Hungary-Croatia murdered her mother in early 1387. After that, Jadwiga marched into the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, which had been under Hungarian rule, and persuaded most of the inhabitants to become subjects of the Polish Crown. She mediated between her husband's quarrelling kin and between Poland and the Teutonic Order.

After her sister Mary died in 1395, Jadwiga and Władysław II Jagiełło laid claim to Hungary against the widowed Sigismund of Luxembourg, but the Hungarian lords did not support their claim. Jadwiga died four years later due to postpartum complications. As her only daughter predeceased her, the Queen was the last hereditary monarch of Poland, and with her death, the throne of Poland became elective. In 1997, she was canonised by the Catholic Church.