Jadwiga of Poland

Born in Buda in 1373 or 1374, youngest daughter of Louis I of Hungary, she was symbolically wed at four to William, Duke of Austria, and sent to live in Vienna. When her father died in 1382, the Polish nobility demanded a resident monarch; her mother chose her over her elder sister Mary, who took Hungary. Jadwiga was crowned in Kraków on 16 October 1384. Her advisors negotiated with Władysław II Jagiełło, Grand Duke of Lithuania, who pledged to convert from paganism and bring his lands into the Catholic fold. William raced to Kraków to consummate their childhood marriage; the nobles threw him…