Showing posts with label Pope Boniface IX. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pope Boniface IX. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Sigismund's Change of Heart

Although Sigismund, King of Hungary and brother-in-law to Jadwiga of Poland, had tried to annex parts of Poland and allied himself with the Teutonic Knights (who were engaging in a Crusade against Lithuania) against Poland, he had a change of heart. While the reason for the change of heart is unknown, it is possible that a major defeat against the Ottomans at the Battle of Nicopolis depleted his military sufficiently that he no longer was confident in a potential attempt to take territory from his neighbors.

The Battle of Nicopolis in 1396 was part of a European Crusade, and incredibly demoralizing for Europe, because the Ottomans defeated an army of Hungarian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, Polish, French, Burgundian, German, English, Knights Hospitaller, Iberian, Italian, Bohemian, Serbian, and Byzantine troops. Sigismund was at their head, so it was particularly bad for him. The defeat and loss of several men angered Hungarian lords and led to instability in Hungary. It was at this point that Sigismund met with Jadwiga and Jogaila and offered to mediate between them (Poland and Lithuania) and the Teutonic Order, starting the process that would lead to cessation of the Teutonic Crusade against Lithuania.

Although Jadwiga and Jogaila had seemed to be a good match, working together now for over a decade, they had not yet produced an heir. Contemporary chroniclers claim this was a source of friction for her husband. She finally became pregnant in late 1398. The current Grand Duke of Lithuania, Jogaila's cousin Vytautas, sent a silver cradle for the child, who was predicted by astrologers to be a son. On 22 June, 1399, a daughter was born and given the name Elizabeth Bonifacia. Elizabeth was the name of Jadwiga's mother, and the second name was for Pope Boniface IX, who agreed to be godfather.

Sadly, Elizabeth Bonifacia died a few weeks later, followed four days afterward by Jadwiga. Mother and daughter were buried at Wawel Cathedral on 24 August, 1399.

What followed for Jogaila? Jadwiga had a hand in that. On her deathbed, she advised him to marry again, this time a granddaughter of Casimir III "the Great." And so Jogaila took a second wife on the advice of his first, the teenaged Anna of Cilli. I'll tell you her story tomorrow

Monday, January 15, 2024

The Marriage of Poland and Lithuania

In 1385, Lithuania was a very large territory on Poland's eastern border. Poland's throne was held by the pre-teen Jadwiga, who was supposed to marry William of Austria, then Siemovit of Poland, and finally the 30-year-old Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania. An arrangement like this takes a lot of planning and legal wrangling. In the case of Jadwiga and Jogaila, that legal wrangling was embodied in the Union of Krewo, whose document is seen here.

The prenuptial arrangements in the Union of Krewo (called so because it was signed at Krevo Castle) included a certain sine qua non: Jogaila had to convert to Christianity. Poland was a Christian country; Lithuania was exposed to Eastern Orthodoxy on its eastern border with Russian people, but still embraced polytheism. Jogaila was defending Lithuania from Teutonic Knights, who kept attacking under the pretense of a Crusade. He understood that becoming Christian would create an alliance with other countries and pull the rug out from under the Teutonic Order.

The other promises of the document:

  • Conversion of Jogaila, Lithuanian nobles and all pagan Lithuanians to Roman Catholicism
  • Paying 200,000 florins to William of Austria for terminating his engagement with Jadwiga
  • Returning all lands lost in previous Lithuanian-Polish wars
  • Release of all war prisoners of Poland (c.45,000) held by the Lithuanians
  • Attaching Lithuanian lands to the Crown of Poland

In light of these promises, Poland agreed that Jogaila could be their king. In February 1386 Jogaila was baptized by Archbishop Bodzanta. As his baptismal name, he chose Wladislaus in honor of Jadwiga's great-grandfather king Władysław I the Elbow-high.

There was a problem with William of Austria, to whom Jadwiga had been promised nearly since birth. William claimed she was officially married to him, and the marriage to Jogaila made her a bigamist. His protests carried weight with Pope Urban VI, who would not confirm the marriage of Jadwiga and Jogaila. It took a few years until Pope Boniface IX (1389-1404) confirmed their marriage. (Boniface had also similarly supported a certain English arrangement that had raised eyebrows.)

Although this union was the start of four centuries of Lithuania-Poland shared history, Lithuania did not appreciate increasing Polish influence, and Jogaila's brother Skirgaila, who had been left behind to rule Lithuania, was unpopular. This gave Jogaila's cousin Vytautas the opportunity to try to gain more power, leading to a Lithuanian Civil War (1389-92), but that was resolved by making Vytautas Grand Duke while leaving Jogaila as his overlord.

Another complication came from an unexpected source: Jadwiga's sister, Mary, whose husband had become King of Hungary and had his own ideas of what should happen to Poland. I'll go into that next time.

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Bridget of Sweden

Sweden's most celebrated saint was Birgitta Birgersdotter, the daughter of a magnate, knight, privy councilor, and the first law speaker of Uppland, Birger Persson, and Ingeborg Bengtsdotter, who was connected to the family of the kings of Sweden. Birgitta was born in 1303, and was married at 13 to Ulf Gudmarsson, with whom she had four sons and four daughters.

In her 30s, she was made the chief lady-in-waiting to Blanche of Namur, the new queen of Sweden, wife of King Magnus IV.

Birgitta was known for her charitable works and her piety. In 1341 she and Ulf went on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Ulf died shortly after their return; Birgitta then joined the Third Order of St. Francis, devoting herself to caring for those less fortunate.

She also, as was common for many devout and wealthy women at the time, decided to found a religious order, the order of the Most Holy Saviour. Their monastery at Vadstena was supported by King Magnus and Queen Blanche. This was a double monastery, with accommodation for both men and women (although they lived separately). A requirement for joining was to give to the poor all your surplus income, but you were allowed to keep any and all books you owned.

In 1350 she went to Rome with her daughter Catherine to seek permission from the Pope to make her new order official. Rome, however, was no longer the seat of the papacy, it having been removed to Avignon some years earlier. Birgitta stayed in Rome, waiting for a pope, and continuing to perform good works, making herself so beloved that when Pope Urban V tried to restore the papacy to Rome, his confirmation of her new order was a foregone conclusion. She stayed in Rome until her death in 1373, making the occasional pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

Her directions sent to Sweden to set up the monastery was for an abbess symbolizing the Virgin Mary to rule over both men and women.

She was canonized in 1391 by Pope Boniface IX, confirmed by the Council of Constance in 1415.

There is more to the story of how Birgitta Birgersdotter became Saint Bridget, including visions and prophecies. We'll look at the mystical side of her life tomorrow.

Friday, October 13, 2023

Katherine Swynford, Royal Bride

The love affair between John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford could hardly be a secret, especially when she started bearing his children while he was married to his second wife, Constance of Castile. Even before that his gifts to her of estates and castles and money could hardly be explained simply because of the care she gave to the daughters from his first wife, Blanche of Lancaster.

Katherine's increased social and economic status began in autumn of 1372, so that is likely when the affair truly began (although there must have been some attraction prior).

Katherine and Gaunt had four children between 1373 and 1381. The English chronicler Thomas Walsingham wrote of an event in March 1378 when Gaunt and Katherine were seen in public together:

...casting aside every shame of man and the fear of God, allowed himself to be seen riding through the Duchy with his concubine, a certain Katherine Swynford. [Chronicon Angliæ]

Supposedly Gaunt's family also warned him about the affair's consequences. His legitimate children might well have been concerned about their step-siblings and whatever favors might have been shown to them instead of to the "originals." In 1381, after the Peasants Revolt, Gaunt accepted that his behavior was partially to blame for the public unrest, and broke with Katherine.

After the death of Constance in 1394, however, Gaunt decided to take Katherine as his third wife and Duchess of Lancaster; this would also legitimize his children by her. They were married in Lincoln Cathedral on 13 January 1396. Gaunt had oral permission from Pope Boniface IX, so he wrote to the pope on 1 September 1396, confessing his affair and that it began while he was married but Katherine was not, laying out the details of her importance to the royal family. Boniface wrote a papal bull, declaring the marriage valid. He also legitimized the Beauforts, their four children born before the marriage.

With the papal blessing, everything changed. While Gaunt lived, no one could accuse Katherine of inappropriate behavior. They were free to be a couple in public. The illustration is of a poetic reading at court at the time, and there is speculation that the audience is meant to represent real people and that Katherine is probably one of them. Gaunt only lived another five years, however. Life as Duchess of Lancaster started well, and worked out well for the Beauforts later, but things changed after Gaunt's death. I'll tell you how next time.

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

The Western Schism

When Pope Clement V decided he wanted to live in his home country, France, he moved the papal offices from the Vatican in Rome to Avignon in 1309. The papacy returned to Rome in 1377 by Gregory XI—who was French himself, but was persuaded that the papacy should reside in its original home, perhaps through the efforts of Catherine of Siena—but French cardinals were not happy with that. When Gregory died a year later, Romans were determined that they would have an Italian pope who would stay in Rome and never move the papacy again, so they started a campaign of pressure. Cardinals in Rome elected the Archbishop of Bari, the well-respected Bartolomeo Prignano, to become Pope Urban VI, on 8 April 1378.

Papal authority went to Urban's head, and his attempts at reform and his outbursts of temper did not sit well with the college of cardinals, who soon began to regret their decision. In an extraordinary move, several of them met in Anagni in central Italy and had a second election on 20 September. They claimed that the election of Urban was illegitimate because it was due to threats of intimidation and violence, and so they justified themselves in electing Robert of Geneva as Pope Clement VII. Unable to reside at the Vatican due to Urban's presence, Clement and the supporting cardinals returned to Avignon.

Thus was born the Western Schism, also called the Papal Schism or the Schism of 1378. The world had no choice but to take notice, and to take sides. Rome had the support of the Italian states, the Holy Roman Empire, England, and much of Eastern Europe and the Scandinavian countries. Avignon was supported by France, the kingdoms on the Iberian peninsula, Scotland, and several Mediterranean countries. Some nations shifted their allegiance over timeNaples, Bohemia, Flanders and Portugal (among others), started with Avignon and later switched as Rome seemed to be a safe, traditional choice.

Urban vs. Clement was only the start. Urban was succeeded by Boniface IX, then by Innocent VII, then by Gregory XII. Clement was replaced by Benedict XIII.

Now we come to Peter of Candia: had been made a cardinal by Innocent VII in 1405, and his greatest desire was to reconcile the schism. When Innocent was succeeded by Gregory, Gregory made a move that shocked both Avignon and Rome, and would lead to the next step: a solution put forth in Pisa.

By 1409, the Italian city-state of Pisa had had enough of the controversy. They decided that 30 years of papal confusion and chaos needed to be resolved, and the only way they could think of to do so was . . . (wait for it) to elect another pope!

And that story will have to wait until tomorrow.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Thomas Arundel

Thomas Arundel, Lambeth Palace Collection
Let us talk about the "Worst Briton" of the 15th century, according to a 2005 poll of historians, and the man who may have been Chaucer's greatest enemy.

Thomas Arundel (1353-19 February 1414) was a well-born lad of 20 at Oxford when he was made Bishop of Ely. He showed no particular proclivity to the religious life (or the scholarly life, for that matter), but his father—who had considerable financial standing at the court of the increasingly feeble-minded Edward III—arranged it for his son. Ely was a very lucrative position, and Arundel might have been comfortable with it, but good and bad fortune were to follow.

The reign of Richard II, starting in July 1377, was tumultuous. The Peasants' Revolt, waves of the Black Death, financial excesses of the Crown, continuing tensions with France, and maybe just the fact that a France-raised child was now king—all these and more contributed to a general unrest in England. Parliament took steps to curb Richard's authority, creating several political crises as loyalists faced off against the elements of the aristocracy that wanted to increase their own power.

One of the elements that opposed the Crown was Arundel's brother, John FitzAlan, the 1st Baron Arundel. He helped get Thomas promoted to the prestigious position of Archbishop of York in 1388, and eventually pulled Thomas into the political intrigue, getting Thomas' support during a crisis of 1386-88. Thomas did his best to stay on Richard's good side, and succeeded to an extent: Richard even made him Archbishop of Canterbury in 1396, but then exiled him to Florence within a year when Richard had apparently regained enough power to take revenge against those who had opposed him in the 1380s. Richard got Pope Boniface IX to make Arundel the Bishop of St. Andrews in Scotland, a huge demotion.*

But how did any of this make Arundel into Chaucer's enemy?

In 1399, Henry Bolingbroke invaded England and attacked his cousin, Richard II, with the intent to take the throne from him. Arundel joined him, and upon Henry's ascendance to the throne as King Henry IV, Arundel once again became Archbishop of Canterbury, the most powerful prelate in the land. While Henry worked to reverse many of the political works of Richard's reign, Archbishop Arundel set about to change the moral climate of the realm, which he felt had become very slack.

To do that, he had to undo the damage to society perpetrated by two of his countrymen: John Wycliffe and Geoffrey Chaucer.

More on that tomorrow.

*And a huge problem, since the Avignon Crisis was going on at the time, and Scotland recognized the Avignon pope, not the Roman pope, who had already put his own Avignon-loyal bishop in St. Andrews. Boniface needed England's support against Avignon and was happy to help him in the Arundel matter.