Barbara of Celje
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Barbara of Celje (Croatian and Slovenian Barbara Celjska; Hungarian Cillei Borbála) or Barbara of Cilli (c. 1390/1395 – 11 July 1451) was Holy Roman Empress. She received the sobriquet Messalina of Germany, and was instrumental in creating the Order of the Dragon.
Barbara was the daughter of Herman II, Count of Celje and Countess Anna of Schaunberg.
Both Barbara and her cousin and adopted sister Anna married ruling Kings whose recently deceased wives were sisters and relatives of the Celje family. Anna married Władysław, King of Poland and Lithuania in 1402 after the death of Jadwiga of Poland, while Barbara married Sigismund, King of Hungary in 1408 after the death of Mary of Hungary.[1] This marriage was to strengthen Sigismund's grip on the Hungarian throne, as through her father Barbara could trace her descent not only to the Slovenian rulers of Celje and the Kotromanic of Bosnia to the Šubić noble family from Croatia.
Sigismund, a younger son of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor later succeeded to the rule in Germany (1410), Bohemia (1419) and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor himself in 1433.
Barbara gave birth to a daughter, Elisabeth, Sigismund's only surviving issue and heiress, who married Albrecht of Habsburg, Archduke of Austria. Barbara lived to see her three grandchildren, Anna, Elisabeth and Ladislas. She is one of the ancestresses of modern European royal families, her blood flowing in the veins of most of today's dynasties.
Barbara's father Hermann II, as the father-in-law of both feuding Sigismund and Jagiello, played a crucial role in the 1410 pre-Battle of Tannenberg politics by helping prevent Sigismund, who was in alliance with the Teutonic Knights, to attack Jagiello. Jagiello with his Slavic allies defeated the Knights who led the combatants provided by 22 western states, including the Pope.
[edit] Genetics
Barbara of Celje is a direct matrilineal ancestor of Nicholas II of Russia. Provided the genealogy is correct, this implies that she and all her matrilineal relatives were members of mitochondrial haplogroup Haplogroup T. This includes her many female-line descendants among European nobility. Her great-grandfather was Vladislav Kotromanić, and her great-grandmother was Croatian countess Jelena Šubić, mother of Bosnian King Tvrtko I of Bosnia.[2]
Barbara's most distantly recorded maternal ancestor is Adelheid von Alpeck (died 1280), daughter of Witegow Von Alpeck.[3]
Her great-great-great-great-great granddaughter was Anne of Denmark, the wife of James I of England and mother of Charles I of England, and of Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Jadwiga and her sister Mary were the daughters of Louis I, King of Hungary and his wife Elisabeth Kotromanic, whose elder sister Katarina Kotromanic was the wife of Herman I, Count of Celje and mother of Herman II.
- ^ Pedigree for Barbara von Celje
- ^ Rootsweb genealogy. Accessed January 29, 2008.
| Royal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Anna von Schweidnitz |
Holy Roman Empress 1433-1437 |
Succeeded by Eleanor of Portugal |
| Preceded by Elisabeth of Nuremberg |
German Queen 1411-1437 |
Succeeded by Elisabeth of Bohemia |
| Preceded by Sofia of Bavaria |
Queen consort of Bohemia 1419-1437 |
Succeeded by Elisabeth of Luxemburg |
| Preceded by Sigismund of Luxembourg |
Queen consort of Hungary 1406–1437 |
|
| Queen consort of Croatia 1406-1437 |
||
| German nobility | ||
| Preceded by Agnes of Opole |
Electress of Brandenburg 1411–1417 |
Succeeded by Elisabeth of Bavaria-Landshut |
