Koszty uroczystości pogrzebowych królowej Barbary Radziwiłłówny
The Cost of the Funeral of Queen Barbara Radziwiłł

Summary/Abstract: Barbara Radziwiłł, Sigismund II August’s second wife, died in Krakow on 8 May 1551. Fulfilling the Queen’s last wish to be buried in Vilnius the monarch first organized magnificent funeral celebrations in Krakow, and next he went, along with a numerous procession, on a four-week funeral march to the capital of Lithuania, in order to celebrate the funeral ceremonies also there, and to bury his wife. The event has an interesting fiscal documentation – the royal accounts preserved in the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw. Although the sum that is recorded there (at the end of a chapter especially singled out and devoted to the funeral expenses only), designed to celebrations of Barbara Radziwiłł’s funeral – more than 9416 florins – is well known in literature and has been quoted many times, analysis of the books of the Treasurer Office allows verifying it. The money was first of all designed for cloths, craftsmen’s services and the religious setting during the stopovers of the procession in successive places, as well as for the expenses of the members of the Queen’s court and the King’s courtiers who took part in the procession. This sum, however, has to be complemented by the sums recorded in several other parts of the same account book, spent on the King’s stopovers (1485 florins), and several expenses that were not recorded in the proper chapter (1476 florins), as well as the ones that were recorded in Tresurer Jan Lutomirski’s separate accounts (1170) – totaling more than 4130 florins. If we also take into consideration the valid suggestion that has been advanced lately that the sum of at least 2521 florins should be added that were issued from the Hospodar’s Treasury for the Queen’s court, the total costs of Barbara Radziwiłł’s funeral will reach the sum of about 16000 florins.

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