Between Two Queens

12. Buda, August 1354

The young queen had won the hearts of many people in the Hungarian court. Hearing about Elizabeta's occasional hot temper, they feared that she would be a frivolous young woman, who lusted after material possessions, dressed immodestly, flirted with courtiers, and would be bored by religious and state matters. To their relief, she turned out to be the exact opposite. While she did have a liking for precious jewels, she did not flaunt them. She was not one to brag either. She always dressed as a queen should, she never wore any scandalous clothes. She was completely faithful to Lajos, her eyes would never wander at the sight of a handsome young man. Like the rest of Lajos' family, she attended mass each morning and evening, and was always willing to do so. She showed an interest in politics, but for that, she could play no part. It was partially because of her youth and inexperience, and it also had to do with the fact that Elzbieta was unwilling to share her queenly duties with her young daughter-in-law. The young queen was prevented from wielding any power or making any major decisions, and her only role was to provide heirs, which so far, she had shown no sign of that happening in the near future. Overall, Elizabeta was turning out to be a convenient consort. 

It was a year and two months into her marriage. Elizabeta was alone in her chamber writing letters with her own hand. Her ladies were in the next room. Elizabeta enjoyed writing letters to those closest to her, and had no use for a scribe.  After all, right now she was writing personal letters to Maria, Anna, and Tvrtko, so she definitely preferred to write them herself.  Not all queens were literate, and Elizabeta wondered how they felt using a scribe for their personal letters to those closest to them. To Maria and Tvrtko, she wrote in the Cyrillic script of their childhood, and in their native language of Serbo-Croatian. To Anna, she wrote in Hungarian in the Latin script. 

Elizabeta's skills in the Latin script were still not great. She had learned a lot about it in these past three years, but since it was not her native script, she felt like she would never have an excellent grasp at it. Her Latin handwriting was not neat, but it was still legible. She was grateful for the education she received at home and at the Hungarian court. Not all women were so fortunate to have such a good education, not even royal ones. There was still something lacking however. Elizabeta, Maria, Anna, and the other girls at court were taught reading, writing, history, geography, religion, music, the basics of overseeing a household, and even some basics of math and science. However, they were not educated in how to handle politics and how to rule. Elzbieta obviously had an education in this herself. If Elizabeta and Anna were taught how to rule, the older queen could see that as a threat to her power.           

Elizabeta wrote to Maria congratulating her on the birth of her first child.  A month earlier Maria had given birth to a healthy girl, named Agnes.  Since Maria was still very young, and this was her first child, there was no disappointment over the child's sex.  Maria was clearly under less pressure than Elizabeta was, since her husband was much lower-ranking.     

Next, Elizabeta wrote to Anna, wishing her and her husband luck on their journey to Rome.  As German King, Karl had long dreamed of being crowned as Holy Roman Emperor.  Now that dream was about to come true, and he was to set off for Rome later that year to obtain the imperial throne, and Anna would be following him there.  She would be crowned as empress alongside her husband.  Elizabeta could not help but feel somewhat jealous of Anna.  She was already a twice-crowned queen.  A month after Elizabeta's wedding, Anna was crowned Queen of Bohemia in Prague, and then in February, Karl had taken her to Aachen to be crowned as Queen of Germany.  For Elizabeta though, there was no coronation as Queen of Hungary.  Elzbieta wanted to be the only crowned Queen of Hungary as long as she lived, an outlook that she had inherited from her own mother. Since Lajos was already crowned king, he saw no need to organize a coronation for his consort. His first wife, Margaret never got to be crowned queen either. For all of her short life, she was in the shadow of Elzbieta.