Śmierć, pogrzeb i upamiętnienie polskich królowych w późnym średniowieczu
The Death, Funeral and Commemoration of a Polish Queens in the Late Middle Ages

Author(s): Bożena Czwojdrak
Subject(s): Middle Ages, 6th to 12th Centuries, 13th to 14th Centuries, 15th Century, 16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Polish queens; the Middle Ages; burials; death; commemoration
Summary/Abstract: The funeral of Polish rulers, one of the most important royal ceremonies, is fully described with reference to the period from the late Middle Ages to the 18th century. As far as the 14th and the 15th centuries are concerned, our knowledge is limited to chronicles of that time. It was after Sigismund I the Old died, when the need to formalise the ceremony was acknowledged. Samuel Maciejowski wrote “Ordo pompae funebris serenissimi Sigismundi Regis Poloniae”, which became the model for preparing funerals of Polish rulers. Against this background, the lack or only laconic descriptions of the funerals of Polish queens are particularly striking. There was no due ceremonial until the end of the Commonwealth of Poland, the course of the funerary ceremony is not known, the annalists record deaths of the queens very shortly, not mentioning the ceremonies themselves. This is why the article analyses the deaths, burials and commemoration of late medieval queens, the wives of Władysław Jagiełło: Jadwiga Andegaweńska, Anna Cylejska, Elżbieta Granowska and Zofia Holszańska, as well as Elżbieta Rakuska, the wife of Kazimierz Jagiellończyk and Helena Moskiewska, the wife of Aleksander Jagiellończyk.

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