This article is about the queen regnant of Poland, for others with similar names, see Anna of Poland (disambiguation).

Anna Jagiellon (; ; 1523–1596), daughter of Poland's King Zygmunt I the Old, elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, wife of Stefan Batory, was one of the last members of the Jagiellon dynasty.

She became Queen of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and was an heir to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Royal titles

• Royal titles, in Latin: "Anna Dei gratia Infans Regni Poloniae."

• English translation: "Anna, by the Grace of God, Infanta of the Kingdom of Poland."

Biography

Drawing by Jan Matejko

Anna was a spinster when her brother King Zygmunt II August died. On December 13, 1575 she was elected in Warsaw King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. In 1576 she married Stefan Batory (1533?1586) at Wawel, then Reigning Prince of Transylvania, who became de jure uxoris King and Anne's co-monarch. She survived her husband and died childless.

Her heir was the only son of her youngest sister, Catherine of Poland, Queen of Sweden - Sigismund Vasa. Anna helped him, after her husband's death, gain the Polish throne as Sigismund III Vasa.

Anna died during her nephew Sigismund's reign, in her own country where she had been born and had lived.

Anna Jagiellon is one of the persons who figure in a famous painting by Jan Matejko depicting the preaching of Piotr Skarga.

Warsaw was Anna's main residence before it became the capital and she embellished the city by funding the construction of a variety of structures, many of which still exist today. She also funded several distinguished tomb monuments in the Wawel Cathedral, including the monument of her brother King Sigismund Augustus, her own monument in Sigismund's Chapel (both 1574?1575, Santi Gucci) and her husband Stefan Batory in the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1586, Santi Gucci) as well as the tomb of mother Bona Sforza in the Basilica di San Nicola in Bari (1593). In 1586 (ten years after it was painted) she ordered that a portrait of her in coronation robes be placed in the Sigismund's Chapel.^[1]

Ancestors

Gallery

<gallery> Image:Anna Jagiellonka król.jpg|Portrait of the King in coronation robes (detail) in the Sigismund's Chapel, 1576 Image:Cross_Anna_Jagiellon_Chain_Royal_Casket.JPG|Cross on Anna Jagiellon's Chain (see the King/Queen's portrait by Marcin Kober) Image:Wawel-kaplica1.jpg|The Sigismund's Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral; the roof was gilded on her order^[2] Image:View of Warsaw near the end of the 16th century.jpg|View of Warsaw near the end of the 16th century </gallery>

References

See also

• History of Poland (1569?1795)
• Royal Castle, Warsaw
• Ujazdów Castle

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