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Mary
Mary as depicted in the Chronica Hungarorum by Johannes de Thurocz
Queen of Hungary and Croatia
Reign	10 September 1382 – 31 December 1385 February 1386 - 17 May 1395
Coronation	17 September 1382
Born	1371
Died	17 May 1395 (aged 24) Buda, Hungary
Burial	Várad (now Oradea)
Spouse	Sigismund of Luxembourg
House	Capetian House of Anjou
Father	Louis I of Hungary
Mother	Elizabeth of Bosnia

Mary, also known as Maria (1371 – 17 May 1395), was Queen regnant of Hungary and Croatia between 1382 to 1385 and from 1386. She was the older of the two daughters of Louis the Great, King of Hungary and Poland, and his wife, Elizabeth of Bosnia, to survive childhood. Her marriage to Sigismund of Luxembourg, a member of the imperial Luxembourg dynasty, was decided already before her first birthday. A delegation of the Polish prelates and lords confirmed Mary's right to succeede her father in Poland in 1379.

Mary was crowned "king" of Hungary on 17 September 1382, seven days after her father's death. For the period of Mary's minority, her mother assumed regency.

Betrothed to Sigismund of Luxembourg in her father's lifetime, the queen married him in April 1385. She was deposed in December in favour of her agnate, King Charles II of Hungary, but his brief reign ended with his murder at Elizabeth's instigation in February 1386. In July, however, the newly restored queen and her mother were captured and imprisoned, and the latter was murdered in January next year. Released by her husband in June 1387, Mary reigned with him until her death.

Childhood (1371–1382)

Mary was born in the second half of 1371 to King Louis the Great, King of Hungary and Poland, and his second wife, Elizabeth of Bosnia. Her older sister, Catherine, had been born in 1370. Mary and Catherine gained another sibling, Hedwig, in 1374. Louis, was deteminded to bequeath his realms and his claims to the Kingdom of Naples and Provence to his daughters. Consequently, securing marriage to one of Louis's daughters became a main goal of European royal courts. Before Mary's first birthday, her father made a promise to Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, that Mary would be given in marriage to the emperor's second son, Sigismund of Luxembourg. Louis confirmed his promise in a deed in June 1373. Mary and Sigismund were closely related, because her grandmother, Elizabeth, was the sister of his great-grandfather, Casimir III of Poland. The papal dispensation which was necessary for their marriage was issued by Pope Gregory XI on 6 December 1374, but even their sponsalia de futuro was postponed, as neither Mary nor Sigismund attained the age of seven. Leading Hungarian and Polish lords also confirmed Louis's promise of the future marriage of Mary and Sigismund on 14 April 1375.

Mary's older sister, Catherine, who had been betrothed to Louis of France, died in late 1378. Louis repeated his former promise of Mary's and Sigismund's marriage to Sigismund's brother, Wenceslaus, King of the Romans, at a meeting in Zólyom (now Zvolen in Slovakia) in 1379. The two monarchs also agreed to acknowledge Urban VI as the lawful pope against Clement VII. The formal engagement of Mary and Sigismund took place in Nagyszombat (now Trnava in Slovakia) in the same year. Sigismund, who had become Margrave of Brandenburg, moved to Hungary.

Louis summoned the Polish prelates and lords to Kassa (now Košice in Slovakia) in September 1379 and persuaded them to acknowledge Mary's right to succeede him in Poland. The contemporaneous Jan of Czarnków, who was biased against Louis, recorded that the Poles only yielded to the monarch's demand after he had prevented them from leaving the town by shuting its gates. Early next year, at a meeting with Leopold III, Duke of Austria, Louis strongly hinted that he would bequeath Hungary to his younger daughter, Hedwig, who had been engaged to Leopold III's son, William. Upon Louis's demand, a delegation of the Polish noblemen did homage to Sigismund and Mary on 25 July 1382. According to historian Oscar Halecki, Louis wished to divide his kingdoms between his two surviving daughters; on the other hand, Pál Engel and Claude Michaud write that the ailing king wanted to bequeath both Hungary and Poland on Mary and Sigismund.

Reign

First years (1382–1384)

Louis the Great died on 10 September 1382. Cardinal Demetrius, Archbishop of Esztergom, crowned Mary "king" with the Holy Crown of Hungary in Székesfehérvár on 17 September, a day after her father's burial. Mary's title and her rapid coronation in the absence of her fiancé, Sigismund, show that her mother and her mother's supporters wanted to emphasize Mary's role as monarch and to prolong or even hinder Sigismund's coronation.

The queen mother, Elizabeth, assumed regency. Palatine Nicholas Garay and Cardinal Demetrius became her main advisors. Louis's most barons preserved their offices, the queen mother only dismissed the master of the cupbearers, George Czudar, and his brother, Peter Czudar, who was the royal governor, or voivode of Ruthenia. According to the 15th-century Jan Długosz, Peter Czudar and his brother surrendered forts to the Lithuanians who had "eavily bribed" them. Queen Elizabeth had Peter Czudar imprisoned before 1 November; her charters only stated that he "had obviously been disloyal" without specifying the reasons of his arrest.

All royal charters issued during the first six months of Mary's reign emphasized that she had lawfully inherited her father's crown. However, most Hungarian noblemen were strongly opposed to the very idea of a female monarch. They regarded Charles III of Naples as Louis the Great's legitimate heir because Charles was the last male offspring of the Capetian House of Anjou. Charles could not openly laid claim to Hungary, because his rival for the Kingdom of Naples, Louis I, Duke of Anjou – who was Charles VI of France's uncle – had invaded Southern Italy in the previous year.

Noblemen from Greater Poland offered to do homage to either Mary or Hedwig at a meeting in Radomsko on 25 November, but they stipulated that the queen and her husband should live in Poland. The assembly of the nobility of Lesser Poland passed a similar resolution in Wiślica on 12 December. On the latter occasion, the noblemen also promised that they would not do homage to anyone else than either Mary or Hedwig upon Queen Elizabeth's demand. Mary's fiancé, Sigismund of Luxemburg, who had stayed in Poland, returned to Hungary. Bodzanta, Archbishop of Gniezno, the Nałęcz family, and their allies in Great Poland favored a native prince, Siemowit IV of Masovia. To avoid a civil war, Queen Elizabeth sent envoys to the Polish noblemen's next assembly which met in Sieradz in late February 1383. Her envoys absolved the Poles from their 1382 oath of loyalty to Mary on 28 March, announcing that the queen mother would send her younger daughter, Hedwig, to Poland.

John of Palisna, Prior of Vrana, rose up in open rebellion against the rule of Mary and her mother in the spring of 1383. The queens made Stephen Lackfi Ban of Croatia. The royal army marched to Croatia and laid siege to Vrana, forcing John of Palisna to flee to Bosnia. The defenders of Vrana surrendered to Mary, who had been present during the siege along with her mother, on 4 November. To strengthen Mary's position against Charles of Naples, Queen Elizabeth sent her envoys to France and opened negotiations of the marriage of Mary to the younger brother of Charles VI of France, Louis, who had once been engaged to Mary's sister, Catherine. Mary and the queen mother only left Croatia and Slavonia early next year. Queen Elizabeth replaced Stephen Lackfi with Thomas Szentgyörgyi who used draconian measures to put an end to a conspiracy against the queens in Zadar in May 1384.

Although the last Diet was held in the early 1350s, the queens convoked a Diet to deal with the grievances of the noblemen. Mary confirmed her father's decrees of 1351 which summarized the noblemen's privileges on 22 June 1384. The negotiations of Mary's marriage in France caused a new rift within the Hungarian nobility, because the Lackfis, Nicholas Zambo and Nicholas Szécsi and other high officers, who had been appointed during Louis the Great's reign, continued to support Mary's fiancé, Sigismund of Luxemburg in accordance with Louis the Great's will. The queen mother replaced them with Nicholas Garay's supporters in August 1384. The prelates were also opposed to the French marriage, because the French supported Clement VII whom the Hungarian clergy considered antipope. Mary's sister, Hedwig, went to Poland where she was crowned on 16 October 1384. Cardinal Demetrius, who had accompanied Hedwig to Poland, remained abstent from the queens' court after his return to Hungary. The royal government could not properly function during his absent, because he was the keeper of the royal seal.

Neapolitan threat (1384–1385)

Louis I of Anjou died on 10 September 1384, enabling his rival, Charles III of Naples, to stabilize his rule in Southern Italy during the next months. The consolidation of Charles III's position in Naples also contributed to the formation of a party of noblemen who supported his claim to Hungary. John Horvat, Ban of Macsó (now Mačva in Serbia) and his brother, Paul, Bishop of Zagreb, were the leading figures of their movement. Sigismund of Luxemburg tried to persuade the queen mother to consent to his marriage to Mary, but she refused him. He left Hungary in early 1385.

The queens and their supporters initiated negotiations with the representatives of the opposition, but no reconciliation was reached at their meeting in Požega in the spring of 1385. After a French delegation came to Hungary in May 1385, Mary was engaged to Louis of France. Louis of France signed his letters as "Louis of France, King of Hungary" thereafter, according to Jean Froissart. In the same month, the queen mother dismissed Stephen Lackfi, accusing him of high treason. She also sent letters to Zagreb and other places to the kingdom, forbiding the local inhabitants to support Lackfi, Nicholas Szécsi, Bishop Paul Horvat and their relatives. John and Paul Horvat and their allies formally offered the crown to Charles III of Naples and invited him to Hungary in August. In the same month, Mary confirmed Tvrtko I of Bosnia's acquisition of Kotor in Dalmatia. Sigismund of Luxemburg stormed into Upper Hungary, accompanied by his cousins, Jobst and Prokop of Moravia, and occupied Pozsony County. The queen mother replaced Nicholas Garay with Nicholas Szécsi, and made Stephen Lackfi voivode of Transylvania and Nicholas Zambo master of the treasury.

Charles III of Naples landed at Senj in Dalmatia in September 1385 and marched to Zagreb. Sigismund of Luxemburg came to Buda and persuaded the queen mother to give her consent to his marriage to Mary. The marriage took place in Buda in October, but Sigismund was not crowned king and received no governmental function. The queen mother convoked a new Diet and Mary again confirmed the noblemen's liberties, but their rule remained unpopular. Sigismund left Buda and mortgaged the territories west of the River Vág to his Moravian cousins. Charles of Naples had meanwhile left Zagreb, stating that he wanted to restore peace and public order in Hungary.

Charles's reign (1385–1386)

Many noblemen joined Charles of Naples who marched towards Buda. Mary and her mother received him ceremoniously before he reached Buda and he entered the capital in the two queens' company in early December 1385. Mary renounced the crown without resistance in the middle of December, because she feared that Charles of Naples would kill her. Charles first adopted the title governor, but the Diet elected him king. Charles was crowned king of Hungary in Székesfehérvár on 31 December. According to the conteporaneous Lorenzo Monaci, Mary and her mother who attended Charles's coronation visited Louis the Great's tomb during the ceremony and they burst into tears because of their ill fate.

Charles did not capture Mary and her mother who continued to live in the royal palace in Buda. Qeen Elizabeth and Nicholas Garay decided to get rid of Charles.{{sfn|Engel|2001|p=198} They persuaded Blaisus Forgách, the master of the cupbearers, to join them, promising him the domain of Gimes (now Jelenec in Slovakia) if he murdered the king. Upon Queen Elizabeth's request, Charles visited her and her daughter on 7 February 1386. During the meeting, Blaise Forgách attacked the king, seriously inuring him on the head. The wounded King Charles was carried to Visegrád where he died on 24 February.{{sfn|Engel|2001|p=198}

Restoration and capture (1386–1387)

Charles' reign was not to be long; after his partisans left the court, Elizabeth invited him to visit Mary at one of her palaces, and had him stabbed in her apartments on 7 February 1386. He was taken to Visegrád, where died on 24 February. Mary was restored to the throne, with Elizabeth ruling in her name. In April, Sigismund was brought to Hungary by his brother Wenceslaus and the queens were compelled to accept him as Mary's future co-ruler by a treaty signed in Győr. The Neapolitan party, however, declared Charles' underage son Ladislaus the rightful heir.

War soon broke out in Slavonia, and Elizabeth, believing that Mary's mere presence would end the conflict, set out for Đakovo, accompanied by Garay and a modest following. However, the situation was seriously misestimated. On 25 July, the queens and their retinue were ambushed en route and attacked by John Horvat in Gorjani. Their small entourage fought the attackers, but were all killed, while Mary and her mother were imprisoned in the Bishop of Zagreb's castle of Gomnec. Elizabeth took all blame for the rebellion and begged the attackers to spare her daughter's life.

For the first time in the century, the kingdom was left without a ruler and barons took over the government. They convoked a diet at Székesfehérvár and, reserving Mary's rights, offered a compromise with her captors. In her name, they promised a general pardon, but the Horvats refused to submit. The queens were soon moved to Novigrad Castle. Sigismund marched into Slavonia in January 1387, unsuccessfully attempting to release Mary and Elizabeth, who was strangled in front of her daughter on the orders of their jailer, John of Palisna. As the kingdom could no longer be without an effective ruler, Sigismund was crowned on 31 March.

Sigismund's wife (1387-1395)

Sigismund liberated Mary with the help of Venetian fleet on 4 June. Her status was then somewhat uncertain; she was supposed to reign along with her husband, and did formally exercise royal prerogatives. Mary, who had her own great seal, granted estates until 1393, but merely confirmed Sigismund's acts. She refrained from actively taking part in government. When King Sigismund took Dobor in Bosnia in July 1394, Queen Mary ordered the captured John Horvat to be tortured to death.

Mary was heavily pregnant when she decided to venture out alone on a hunt in a Buda forest on 17 May 1395. Her horse tripped, threw her and landed on top of her. The trauma induced labor and she gave birth prematurely to a son. The injuries the queen sustained were fatal; being far from any kind of assistance, her son died as well. The two were found together in the woods. Mary's sister claimed the crown, but Sigismund retained it without much difficulty.

Ancestors

Footnotes

1. ^ Csukovits 2012, p. 120.
2. ^ Süttő 2002, p. 67.
3. ^ Engel 2001, p. 169.
4. Halecki 1991, p. 56.
5. ^ Engel 2001, p. 170.
6. Solymosi & Körmendi 1981, p. 222.
7. Halecki 1991, p. 55.
8. ^ Solymosi & Körmendi 1981, p. 224.
9. ^ Süttő 2002, pp. 67–68.
10. Halecki 1991, p. 69.
11. Süttő 2002, p. 68.
12. Halecki 1991, p. 71.
13. Halecki 1991, pp. 57, 71.
14. Halecki 1991, p. 73.
15. Halecki 1991, pp. 74–75.
16. Halecki 1991, p. 75.
17. Michaud 2000, p. 742.
18. ^ Bartl et al. 2002, p. 40.
19. ^ Engel 2001, p. 195.
20. Halecki 1991, p. 98.
21. ^ Fügedi 1986, p. 37.
22. The Annals of Jan Długosz (A.D. 1382), p. 339.
23. Fügedi 1986, p. 43.
24. Fügedi 1986, pp. 43–44.
25. Fügedi 1986, p. 32.
26. ^ Engel 2001, p. 196.
27. Tuchman 1978, p. 399.
28. ^ Halecki 1991, p. 99.
29. ^ Fügedi 1986, p. 52.
30. ^ Halecki 1991, p. 101.
31. ^ Solymosi & Körmendi 1981, p. 226.
32. ^ Fine 1994, p. 394.
33. Fügedi 1986, p. 63.
34. Engel 2001, pp. 195–196.
35. ^ Solymosi & Körmendi 1981, p. 227.
36. Fügedi 1986, p. 67.
37. Engel 2001, pp. 196–197.
38. ^ Engel 2001, p. 197.
39. Süttő 2002, p. 69.
40. Halecki 1991, p. 109.
41. ^ Süttő 2002, p. 70.
42. Tuchman 1978, p. 409.
43. Fine 1994, p. 395.
44. Fine 1994, pp. 395–396.
45. Halecki 1991, p. 125.
46. Süttő 2002, pp. 70–71.
47. Csukovits 2012, pp. 120–121.
48. ^ Fügedi 1986, p. 62.
49. ^ Fügedi 1986, p. 68.
50. Magaš 2007, p. 63.
51. ^ Fine 1994, p. 396.
52. Fügedi 1986, p. 94.
53. ^ Fügedi 1986, p. 96.
54. Fügedi 1986, p. 97.
55. ^ Fügedi 1986, p. 98.
56. Solymosi & Körmendi 1981, p. 228.
57. ^ Fügedi 1986, p. 99.
58. Fügedi 1986, pp. 103–104.
59. Fügedi 1986, p. 106.
60. Csukovits 2012, p. 121.
61. ^ Fügedi 1986, p. 107.
62. Halecki 1991, p. 157.
63. ^ Grierson, 236.
64. ^ Engel 2001, p. 198.
65. ^ Fine 1994, p. 397.
66. Bak 1997, p. 231.
67. ^ Engel 2001, p. 199.
68. Halecki 1991, p. 164.
69. ^ Engel 2001, p. 201.
70. Engel 2001, p. 202.
71. Halecki 1991, p. 220.
72. Halecki 1991, pp. 366–367.

Sources

Primary sources

• The Annals of Jan Długosz (An English abridgement by Maurice Michael, with commentary by Paul Smith) (1997). IM Publications. ISBN 1-901019-00-4.

Secondary sources

• Bak, János M. (1997). "Queens as Scapegoats in Medieval Hungary". In Duggan, Anne (ed.). Queens and Queenship in Medieval Europe. The Boydell Press. pp. 223–234. ISBN 0-85115-881-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bartl, Július; Čičaj, Viliam; Kohútova, Mária; Letz, Róbert; Segeš, Vladimír; Škvarna, Dušan (2002). Slovak History: Chronology & Lexicon. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Slovenské Pedegogické Nakladatel'stvo. ISBN 0-86516-444-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Cartledge, Bryan (2011). The Will to Survive: A History of Hungary. C. Hurst & Co. ISBN 978-1-84904-112-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Csukovits, Enikő (2012). "Mária". In Gujdár, Noémi; Szatmáry, Nóra (eds.). Magyar királyok nagykönyve: Uralkodóink, kormányzóink és az erdélyi fejedelmek életének és tetteinek képes története (in Hungarian). Reader's Digest. pp. 120–121. ISBN 978-963-289-214-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Engel, Pál (2001). The Realm of St Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 895–1526. I.B. Tauris Publishers. ISBN 1-86064-061-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Fine, John V. A (1994). The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. The University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-08260-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Fügedi, Erik (1986). "Könyörülj, bánom, könyörülj ..." . Helikon. ISBN 963-207-662-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Grierson, Philip; Travaini, Lucia (1998). Medieval European coinage: with a catalogue of the coins in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Volume 14. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-58231-8. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Halecki, Oscar (1991). Jadwiga of Anjou and the Rise of East Central Europe. Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America. ISBN 0-88033-206-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Magaš, Branka (2007). Croatia Through History. SAQI. ISBN 978-0-86356-775-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Süttő, Szilárd (2002). "Mária". In Kristó, Gyula (ed.). Magyarország vegyes házi királyai (in Hungarian). Szukits Könyvkiadó. pp. 67–76. ISBN 963-9441-58-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Michaud, Claude (2000). "The kingdoms of Central Europe in the fourteenth century". In Jones, Michael (ed.). The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume VI: c. 1300-c. 1415. Cambridge University Press. pp. 735–763. ISBN 0-521-36290-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Solymosi, László; Körmendi, Adrienne (1981). "A középkori magyar állam virágzása és bukása, 1301–1506 ". In Solymosi, László (ed.). Magyarország történeti kronológiája, I: a kezdetektől 1526-ig (in Hungarian). Akadémiai Kiadó. pp. 188–228. ISBN 963-05-2661-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Tuchman, Barbara W. (1978). A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century. Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-34957-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

v t e Monarchs of Hungary
Family tree
House of Árpád	Grand Princes Álmos (c. 850–c. 895) Árpád (c. 895–c. 907) Zoltán (c. 907–c. 947) Fajsz (c. 947–c. 955) Taksony (c. 955–c. 972) Géza (c. 972–997) Stephen (997–1000) Kings Stephen I (1000–1038) Peter (1038–1041; 1044–1046) Samuel (1041–1044) Andrew I (1046–1060) Béla I (1060–1063) Solomon (1063–1074) Géza I (1074–1077) Ladislaus I (1077–1095) Coloman (1095–1116) Stephen II (1116–1131) Béla II (1131–1141) Géza II (1141–1162) Stephen III (1162–1172) Ladislaus II (1162–1163) Stephen IV (1163–1165) Béla III (1172–1196) Emeric (1196–1204) Ladislaus III (1204–1205) Andrew II (1205–1235) Béla IV (1235–1270) Stephen V (1270–1272) Ladislaus IV (1272–1290) Andrew III (1290–1301)
House of Přemysl	Wenceslaus (1301–1305)
House of Wittelsbach	Otto (1305–1307)
Capetian House of Anjou	Charles I (1308–1342) Louis I (1342–1382) Maria (1382–1385; 1386–1395) Charles II (1385–1386)
House of Luxembourg	Sigismund (1387–1437)
House of Habsburg	Albert (1437–1439) Ladislaus V (1440–1457)
House of Jagiellon	Vladislaus I (1440–1444)
House of Hunyadi	Matthias I (1458–1490)
House of Jagiellon	Vladislaus II (1490–1516) Louis II (1516–1526)
House of Zápolya	John (1526–1540) John Sigismund (1540–1570)
House of Habsburg	Ferdinand I (1526–1564) Maximilian (1564–1576) Rudolph (1576–1608) Matthias II (1608–1619) Ferdinand II (1619–1637) Ferdinand III (1637–1657) Ferdinand IV (1647–1654) Leopold I (1657–1705) Joseph I (1705–1711) Charles III (1711–1740) Maria Theresa (1740–1780)
House of Habsburg-Lorraine	Joseph II (1780–1790) Leopold II (1790–1792) Francis (1792–1835) Ferdinand V (1835–1848) Francis Joseph (1848–1916) Charles IV (1916–1918)
Debatable or disputed rulers are in italics.

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• 1371 births
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