Barbara Radziwiłł
| Barbara Radziwiłł | ||
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| Noble Family | Radziwiłł | |
| Coat of Arms | Trąby | |
| Parents | Jerzy Radziwiłł Barbara Kola |
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| Consorts | Stanislovas Goštautas Sigismund II August |
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| Children | none | |
| Date of Birth | December 6, 1520 | |
| Place of Birth | Vilnius | |
| Date of Death | May 8, 1551 | |
| Place of Death | Kraków | |
Barbara Radziwiłł (Polish: Barbara Radziwiłłówna, Lithuanian: Barbora Radvilaitė) (1520-1551), was Queen of Poland and the Grand Duchess of Lithuania, and was the consort of King Sigismund II August.
Biography
Barbara was the daughter of a powerful magnate of the Radziwiłł family, castellan, voivode and hetman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Jerzy Radziwiłł, and Barbara Koła.
According to the writings of her contemporaries, Barbara was one of the most beautiful women in Europe. She was tall for her times (162 cm), had a slim, well shaped body, blonde hair and even white teeth. Moreover, Barbara had an interest in fashion and cosmetics; she used perfume and face powder. Her parents had educated her well, and she spoke Lithuanian and Polish, was able to write in both languages, and most likely in Latin as well.
She was married on May 18, 1537, to Stanislovas Goštautas, Voivode of Nowogrodek and later Voivode of Trakai, who died on December 18, 1542.
Her romance and later marriage in 1547, in
Vilnius, to King Sigismund II August, the last
king of the Jagiellonian dynasty, greatly increased the power of Radziwiłł family in Poland and Lithuania, as can be seen by the rise to power of
There was substantial opposition towards her marriage to the King from many of the szlachta (nobles), as the marriage was carried out without regard to the laws governing royal marriages. It was pursued by the King, who seemed to have disregarded the political liabilities and consequences and to be truly in love with Barbara. A divorce was demanded by the Sejm, and many political games took place around the issue of this marriage, and were further inflamed by the machinations of the King's mother Bona Sforza. This resulted in conflicts between the King and many magnates and lesser szlachta. A deadlock lasting two years, ensued. The opposition finally acquiesced, and Barbara was crowned Queen, on December 7 1550.
She died on May 8, 1551, in Kraków, five months after her coronation. Her death was a severe loss to the King and there was an unproven suspicion that she had been poisoned by the Queen Mother, Bona. It was her wish to be buried in Lithuania, and a funeral cortege took her body to Vilnius. Her crypt is in the Cathedral of Vilnius.
Cultural legacy
The life and death of Barbara has inspired several works of literature and film, one of the first being tragedy by Alojzy Feliński from 1817. A film ("Epitafium dla Barbary Radziwillowny" or "An Epitaph For Barbara Radziwill") about Barbara's romance with King Sigismund II August, her death and her posthumous return to Vilnius has been beautifully made in 1983 by the director Janusz Majewski with Anna Dymna as Barbara and Jerzy Zelnik as The King, Sigismund II August. She was also a major character in Telewizja Polska television series, Królowa Bona (Queen Bona). According to a popular legend, her ghost was summoned by Pan Twardowski.
In Lithuania 1972 Juozas Grušas wrote a play Barbora Radvilaitė. The play, directed by Jonas Jurašas in Kaunas State Drama Theatre was very popular during Soviet times, as he had a sense of intellectual resistance to the occupying regime.
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