Elisabeth II of Bohemia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other people with the same name, see Elisabeth of Bohemia (disambiguation)
Empress and Queen Elisabeth (1409 – 25 December 1442) was the only daughter of Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, king of Bohemia and Hungary, by his second wife Barbara of Celje. Her father was the last Luxemburg on the Imperial Throne.
[edit] Family and claims to thrones
Elisabeth was not the daughter of Sigismund's first wife Mary of Hungary, and thus not descended from Angevin kings of Hungary (but in many ways, she descended from the old Arpád kings of Hungary.)
Her paternal grandparents were Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and Elisabeth of Pomerania. Her maternal grandfather was Count Herman II of Celje, whose parents were the Slovenian ruler Count Herman I of Celje and Catherine of Bosnia (who apparently descended also from Nemanjic kings of Serbia and from Catherine of Hungary, a daughter of Stephen V of Hungary). In right of the paternal grandparents, she was, through Emperor Charles, a heiress of Bohemia, and through Elisabeth of Pomerania, a heiress of Poland, of its Kujavian Piast branch of kings. Thus, she was a leading claimant to several Slavic kingdoms and principalities.
She was also a descendant of Arpads of Hungary, through her great-grandmother Elisabeth I of Bohemia, who herself was granddaughter of Kunguta Rostislavna of Halicia, whose mother Anna was a daughter of King Bela IV of Hungary. Admittedly, this was not a very close Hungarian connection, but all the other extant descendants of Arpads were approximately as distant at that time. Additionally, she descended from Ottokar I of Bohemia's second wife Constance of Hungary, daughter of Bela III of Hungary.
[edit] Marriage
In 1422, Elisabeth married Archduke Albrecht of Austria, who then after her father became Emperor Albert II and King of Bohemia and Hungary. She was thus Holy Roman Empress, and Queen of Bohemia and Hungary.
She died two years after her husband, leaving her children minors. Her mother Barbara survived her.
Her only son Ladislas V the Posthumous of Austria, king of Bohemia and Hungary (born 1440) died a teenager without issue, leaving the remaining kingdoms of the family to be succeeded by elected rulers.
Her daughters Anna, Duchess of Thuringia (1432-1462) and Elisabeth, Queen of Poland (1437-1505) continued the family which afterwards regained some of these kingdoms.
