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 out. Jadwiga married Jagiełło in February 1386 after, legend holds, a long prayer. He was crowned co-ruler the following month, and her real authority narrowed. She stayed silent when rebels murdered her mother in 1387, then marched into Galicia-Volhynia and brought it under Polish rule. She mediated family feuds and border disputes, claimed Hungary after her sister's death in 1395, and found no support. She died of complications after childbirth on 17 July 1399; her only daughter died with her, ending Poland's hereditary monarchy.