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Elizabeth A.Sackler Center for Feminist Art

Jadwiga

b. 1373/74, Buda, Hungary; d. 1399, Kraków, Poland

Jadwiga, daughter of the king of Hungary and Poland, was crowned rex (king) of Poland in 1384, at the age of ten. She married Wladyslaw II Jagiello of Lithuania in 1386, and they jointly ruled their united realms. Jadwiga sponsored several educational institutions, most importantly the restoration of the academy at Kraków which, modeled after the University of Paris, became the center of Polish culture. She died due to complications following the birth of her daughter. Long worshipped as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, she was not officially canonized until 1997.