Between Two Queens

13. A Mother's Pain

Buda, August 1354

Elizabeta was alone in her chambers writing letters with her own hand.  She enjoyed writing them, 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.      

She 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.  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.  When Elzbieta's father died, her mother was objected to the coronation of Kasimir's wife, saying that as long as she lived, there could be only one crowned Queen of Poland.  Kasimir, however, managed to get his wife crowned along side him.  Lajos, however, was more willing to listen to his mother, and since he was already crowned king, he saw no need to organize a coronation for his consort.  He was just sixteen when he ascended the throne, and betrothed to the seven-year-old Margit of Bohemia.  The girl was sent to the Hungarian court soon after his accession, but the marriage did not take place yet, because of her young age.  Once she turned thirteen, the marriage was finalized, but she died a year later and never got to be a crowned queen.  For all of her short life, she was in the shadow of Elzbieta.            

Elizabeta's lady, Matilda ran into the chamber.  "There you are!" she said.  "I've been looking all over.  The elder queen wants to talk to you.  There is urgent news from Serbia."  

Elizabeta stood up anxiously, and followed Matilda to the great hall, her heart pounding.  Lajos had spent that summer at war in Serbia.  She worried something must have happened to him.  When she got to the hall, she saw Elzbieta, with tears in her eyes.  Elizabeta froze.  She felt that her worst fear was coming true.  In her head, she prayed for Lajos to be alright.  

Elzbieta looked at her daughter-in-law.  "We just got grievous news from Serbia.  Istvan was on his way home after a successful campaign." She held back a sob.  "On the road, he was thrown off his horse when he was riding on the edge of a rocky hill.  He broke many bones, and dislocated his neck.  He died hours later." 

Elizabeta crossed herself.  She did not know what to say.  She was revealed that is was not Lajos, but the news of Istvan's death was still devastating.  He was just twenty-one, and had just taken his first major role in a campaign.     

"What of Lajos?" asked Elizabeta.

"He was informed of his brother's death just a day later.  He had Istvan buried at Zagreb Cathedral.  He is currently on his way back to Buda.  He demands that the court should be in mourning for the next six weeks." said Elzbieta, trying to hold her composure.  She wiped away a tear, and then said, "I'm headed to the chapel."  She walked off, leaving Elizabeta alone with Matilda, and Lajos' men who had delivered that dreadful message.  Elizabeta walked back to her chamber with Matilda.  Once she got there, she wrote another letter, this time to Margarete, offering her condolences.  She then started to wonder what would become of Margarete and her children.  Margarete was now left with two small children, Erzsebet, who had just turned two, and Janos, who was just three months old.  These children would never know their father.