Wyszesława of Galicia

Wyszesława of Galicia (1208-1264) was Queen of Hungary between 1224 and 1264. For the first half of this period she ruled as Queen Consort of King Andrew III Poszony, and then as a very powerful queen mother for their eldest son Stephen.

Originally hailing from the Slavic principality of Galicia, Wyszesława was sent with an older cousin, Maria, to the court of King Ladislaus I of Hungary in 1214, when she was just six years old. Maria was intended to marry King Ladislaus' heir Andrew, but died shortly after Andrew's coronation. In the absence of her cousin, Wyszesława became the new lynchpin of a diplomatic alliance, despite the reluctance of the twenty year old King to marry a young girl. Nonetheless, the marriage took place in 1219, although consumation is unlikely to have happened for several years. In 1224, Wyszesława delivered an heir, named Ladislaus for his grandfather. By this point, her marriage with the king had become a happy one, although she was relatively unpopular at court due to her Uniate sympathies. In 1227, her second son Stephen was born but labour crippled Wyszesława, who never again fell pregnant.

The increasing influence of Queen Wyszesława was resented by the king's brothers Ladislaus and Béla. In 1233, Prince Ladislaus openly denounced the queen and was banished from court for three years. Béla, by contrast, was more reluctant to openly attack her, and instead waged a quiet conflict with her for influence over the young princes. This division would eventually break into the open conflict of the Queens and the Princes in the reign of Stephen II.

In 1241 Wyszesława gained an important ally in the young noblewoman Ibolya, who was to be betrothed to her elder son Ladislaus (not to be confused with his uncle of the same name). Ladislaus died soon after Ibolya's arrival, however, and she was instead married off to Stephen, in the process breaking a marriage contract Stephen already had to the daughter of an ally of Prince Béla.

With the death of her husband in 1243, Wyszesława became Queen Mother to the young Stephen II. She encouraged him to take an active role in governing the kingdom, but Stephen was temperamentally unsuited for this, and in 1246 he ceded power to his uncle Prince Béla, in the face of opposition from his wife, mother and their allies. For much of the 1250s, Wyszesława was forced into the background, although she was protected from Béla by the intercession of her son.

The death of Béla in 1260 allowed the Queens party to achieve near total dominance over Stephen II, but this came at a time of increasing trouble for Hungary, with Jurchen attacks and open revolt by the Princes. Fortunately for Wyszesława, she was spared the worst of this, dying peacefully in her bed in December 1264.