King Jadwiga, who was not supposed to love.

Long live the king!

King Jadwiga, who was not supposed to love. The knights and barons shouted in the square in front of the main cathedral. And none of them were embarrassed that the king was a girl of twelve years old. Because they all swore to her father that they would recognize her as king, and because it was the king who should be crowned, and not the queen. Well, then she will get married and her husband will become the hope and support of the kingdom. Therefore, they shouted Rex - the king. For warriors can only be ruled by a king, who else!

And the girl in those very minutes, probably, had what we now call in complex words “cognitive dissonance”. Because all these knights, yelling "Long live the king" and "Rule us, Jadwiga" at the same time did not put her desires and dreams in the penny. Because Jadwiga loved the husband promised to her several years ago by William of Austria. And her subjects decided that for the good of the Polish kingdom, the girl-queen should marry the Lithuanian prince Jagiello. Because in this case a huge power is created from sea to sea - a thunderstorm of all the surrounding lands and even the Horde, not to mention the Teutonic Order.

They say that Jadwiga was so eager to see her beloved Wilhelm that, having learned that he was not far from Krakow, she grabbed a battle ax and began to chop down the gates. But her guardian Dimitar stopped the young queen, took away her ax and sent her to her chambers. And the boy Wilhelm was explained that it was better if he left while he was safe.

Here we must understand that this "Romeo and Juliet" was at that time 14 and 12 years old. Even less than Shakespeare's characters actually. So whether there was that story or not is a big question. And in any case, after the death of Jadwiga's father, Louis the Great of Anjou, the girl's opinion did not really bother the high nobility of the Polish kingdom. Let her rejoice that her right to the throne is not disputed. Because before that, the Polish gentry popularly explained that the Kingdom of Poland would not accept the two older sisters of Jadwiga to the throne. Only Jadwiga, and only on the condition that she lives in Poland and marries the one whom the magnates of the kingdom show her.

I must say that until the moment when the queen girl went down the aisle with a prince from an eastern country, who was at least 20 years older than her, Jadwiga had several more chances to be married. Moreover, if in the case of Jagiello she was at least persuaded to make a sacrifice for the sake of the Faith of Christ - since her fiancé promised to convert to Catholicism for the wedding, then Siemowit Mazowiecki, another contender for the Polish crown, simply tried to intercept the girl on the way to Krakow. He was going to kidnap her, bring her to church and let her out only after she agreed to marry him.

It was also quite in the spirit of the era, Eleanor of Aquitaine, at one time, during the short time between her divorce from the French king and her marriage to Henry Plantagenet, they tried to kidnap and marry under the blade of the sword several times.

So, to some extent, Jagiello was not the worst choice. At least the outward appearance of agreement was maintained.

They say that Jadwiga and her husband did not live together very well. May be so. But do not forget that they did not see each other often, to be friends or not to be friends. Firstly, Jagiello had a lot of things to do on campaigns - the then ruler simply had to constantly fight, especially when you have so many "friends" literally everywhere. Secondly, both Jadwiga and Jagiello had something to do - they, so to speak, provided a royal presence in different lands: Jadwiga where she was more respected, Jagiello where his sword was more needed.

Sometimes Jadwiga is cited as an example of a very educated queen, as she spoke four languages: Polish, Latin, French and Hungarian. True, the fact is somehow missed that she was simply OBLIGED to know these four languages. Polish - because she was a Polish queen, Latin - because Catholic services were served in Latin, French - because she was actually a princess of a noble French family, a side branch of the Capetians, who was brought to the Hungarian and Polish throne, and Hungarian - because she in fact, she was originally from Hungary, her dad was the king there.

So in a way, she was an ordinary noble lady of her time. Only she turned out to be the first among equals and in such circumstances when her own choice and opinion were of no interest to anyone. And the fate was the same as for many at that time. There were no children for a long time, but the very first birth sent her to heaven.

And even on her last journey, she was escorted not with a precious scepter and orb, but with wooden ones. It is believed that shortly before Jadwiga died, she sold jewelry to help the University of Krakow, founded by her uncle. But even Krakow University became Jagiellonian, because it was Jagiello who resumed its work with money donated by his wife.

Well, the Poles remembered a young girl, whose opinion was not taken into account for the sake of state interests. About which they remembered only that she was pious and prayed all night long, until Jesus began to speak to her from the crucifixion.

Her husband Jagiello survived his wife by many years and married three more times. The most important event of his life was Grunwald, under which the Polish, Lithuanian and Russian regiments broke off the horns of the Teutonic Order.

So in the end, her personal sacrifice for the sake of the throne and the kingdom was actually not in vain - her former subjects defeated one of their main enemies. Although Jadwiga never knew about it.