Doomed Queens (23 page)

Maria of Hungary. A damsel in distress.

In 1382, six months after his henchmen had killed Joan, Louis died of natural causes. Queen Maria was only ten, so her mother, Elisabeth of Bosnia, served as her regent. Nonetheless, Maria’s marriage to Sigismund was solemnized in 1385. Elisabeth’s reign was unnaturally truncated—she was strangled in front of her daughter in 1387. Though the murder occurred during a kidnapping by a cartel of rebellious nobles, word on the street was that the assassination was ordered by Sigismund, who didn’t want a mother-in-law to interfere with his quest for power.

Maria was appropriately freaked. Afterward, the unhappy couple led separate lives with separate courts. Maria allowed Sigismund to rule as he wished.

A decade later, Maria died after a suspicious riding accident while heavily pregnant—take a guess whom most people believed ordered the hit. Since the queen was estranged from her husband, one wonders if Sigismund was the father. Because Maria conveniently died before giving birth, there was no surviving issue to complicate Sigismund’s one-man rule.

The crown Sigismund won at Maria’s expense brought him more trouble as the decades passed. The king by coup ruled Hungary for fifty very long years, most of which were filled with cheerless fighting, dynastic conspiracies, and copious bloodshed. By dint of survival, Sigismund expanded his powers to become king of Romans and Bohemia and, finally, Holy Roman Emperor in 1433. Four years later, Sigismund met his judgment day at the advanced age of sixty-nine.

or

Becoming the Not So Holy Emperor

Unlike a king, the Holy Roman Emperor was elected. Nor was he holy, though he did have to vow to protect the faith. Before being crowned by the pope, each emperor first served as king of Romans.

CAUTIONARY MORAL

Be wary of others’ plans
and the role you may play in them.

End-of-Chapter Quiz

or

What We Have Learned So Far

Just your basic Black Death.

1. Which of the following were a danger to medieval queens?

         a. The bubonic plague, aka the Black Death.

         b. Scary husbands, like that guy in
Sleeping with the Enemy
.

         c. Getting knocked up.

         d. God, Country, and the Crusades.

2. Theodora of Trebizond ended her reign:

         a. Dangling from the gallows.

         b. Tying the knot with Christ.