Andegaven Kings
Louis of Hungary / Louis I / Louis the Great
Ludwik Węgierski, 1370 - 1382
When Kazimierz Wielki died in 1370 without a male heir to his throne, it was the Angeven king, Ludwik Węgierski (Louis of Hungary) who was crowned King of Poland. He was the son of Elżbieta, Kazimierz Wielki’s (Casimir the Great’s) sister. The Polish nobility welcomed him for they believed that his being the king of Hungary would leave him with little time to reign in Poland. What followed, though, was that Louis sent his mother to govern Poland and she did just that till she was almost 80!
Jadwiga (Hedwig)
of Anjou
Jadwiga Andegaweńska, 1384 – 1399
Jadwiga, a ten year old girl, the daughter of Louis (Ludwik Wegierski), King of Poland and Hungary, arrived in the Wawel Castle in Kraków on the 13th of October, 1384. Just three days later, on the 16th of October, she was crowned the King of Poland. The king? Yes, she was the first female in Poland who was given the full status and position of a king. Although she did not have a chance to rule as the king, for she was too young, she held the title till the end of her short life, when she died at the age of 25. During her funeral, when the whole of Poland grieved for the death of their beloved queen, the Chancellor of the Kraków Academy spoke of her wisdom, her kindness and exceptional ability to be queen for all of the people. He called her, …’ the mother of the poor’, ‘the defender of orphans’, ‘the protector of all her subjects.’
