Infanta of Poland - The Life of Anna Jagiellon (1523 - 1596)

Anna Jagiellon was the Queen of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania in her own right between 1575 and 1587, co-rulling with her husband, Hungarian Stephen Bathory who was absent from her personal life, being preoccupied with the Livonian War against the Tsardom of Russia and its vassal states. Anna instead spent a majority of her time in Warsaw. After her husband’s death, Anna had the chance to claim the throne for herself but did not even attempt at doing so – and instead promoted her nephew Sigismund III of the House of Vasa to the throne of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth.

How did this notable noble woman live her life, and what good did her reign bring to the lands of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth?

Bona Sforza was a member of the powerful House of Sforza which ruled over the Duchy of Milan since 1447. In the late 1510s she became the second wife of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Sigismund I the Old. Their marriage lasted for 30 years, until her husband’s death in 1548. Bona was heavily involved in the politics of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, implementing numerous economic and agricultural reforms to increase the state’s revenue – including the Volok Reform which established a strict three-field system for crop rotation, and along with the Third Statute of Lithuania fully established serfdom until the emancipation under Tsarist Russia in 1861. While reducing social mobility and drawing a fine line between peasants and the nobility, Bona’s reforms made her the richest land owner in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

So how did this all start, and how did this great, influential and powerful Queen of Poland lead her life, until its brutal end in 1557 – with King of Spain, Phillip the Second’s involvement in the matter.

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