Sara Katanec THE PERQUISITE OF A MEDIEVAL WEDDING: BARBARA OF CILLI’S ACQUISITION OF WEALTH, POWER, AND LANDS MA Thesis in Medieval Studies CEU eTD Collection Central European University Budapest May 2014 THE PERQUISITE OF A MEDIEVAL WEDDING: BARBARA OF CILLI’S ACQUISITION OF WEALTH, POWER, AND LANDS by Sara Katanec (Croatia) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ Chair, Examination Committee ____________________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________________ Examiner ____________________________________________ Examiner CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2014 THE PERQUISITE OF A MEDIEVAL WEDDING: BARBARA OF CILLI’S ACQUISITION OF WEALTH, POWER, AND LANDS by Sara Katanec (Croatia) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ External Reader CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2014 I, the undersigned, Sara Katanec, candidate for the MA degree in Medieval Studies, declare herewith that the present thesis is exclusively my own work, based on my research and only such external information as properly credited in notes and bibliography. I declare that no unidentified and illegitimate use was made of the work of others, and no part of the thesis infringes on any person’s or institution’s copyright. I also declare that no part of the thesis has been submitted in this form to any other institution of higher education for an academic degree. Budapest, 21 May 2014 __________________________ Signature CEU eTD Collection ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Katalin Szende, for the high interest in my topic and therefore also all the help she provided, suggestions she gave, and corrections she made. Without her this thesis would have looked very differently. Secondly, I would like to thank Márta Kondor, currently a Ph.D. student, for all the knowledge she shared and the fact that she voluntarily read my thesis and gave me many suggestions. Thirdly, I would like to thank Judith Rasson, who made this bunch of words on a paper sound like proper English. Finally, I would like to thank Christian-Nicolae Gaşpar for his help with my Latin sources, and in general for teaching me proper Latin. Furthermore I would like to thank all my friends, the new ones from CEU and the old ones, for their support, emotional and intellectual. I would especially like to thank János Incze for sharing his knowledge and giving me good advice regarding my thesis. I would also like to thank my friend and colleague Mišo Petrović for scanning all the books that I needed for my thesis but that I could not reach. Moreover I would like to thank Rolanda Fugger Germadnik and all the staff of the Celje Regional Museum for generously placing their library at my disposal and helping me find bits and pieces on Barbara of Cilli. Last, but not least, I would like to thank my parents, sisters, and grandfather in particular, but other members of my family in general as well, for supporting me financially and emotionally in pursuing my dreams, and what is most important, for not asking too many CEU eTD Collection times, how many pages of my thesis I still have to write. That really speeded things up. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................... 1 Justifying the “German Messalina” (Die Keiserin Barbara ist geil un ruchlos)................ 1 Research topic .......................................................................................................................... 2 CHAPTER ONE ...................................................................................................................... 5 Research questions and methodology .................................................................................... 5 Sources ...................................................................................................................................... 5 Historiography ......................................................................................................................... 9 Queenship in medieval Europe ............................................................................................. 13 CHAPTER TWO ................................................................................................................... 15 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 15 The Cilli family and Barbara’s engagement to Sigismund ................................................ 16 Bosnia and the events of 1405 ............................................................................................... 26 The wedding: Problems with dating resolved? A charter from Krapina ......................... 29 The place of the wedding - Krapina ..................................................................................... 44 CHAPTER THREE ............................................................................................................... 52 Barbara’s properties at the time of her wedding ................................................................ 52 The estates in Slavonia........................................................................................................... 56 The gradual increase in power.............................................................................................. 65 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................... 72 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................ 78 CEU eTD Collection Primary sources ..................................................................................................................... 78 Secondary literature .............................................................................................................. 79 i LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Left: Cavalier (Konrad Kyeser, Bellifortis, manuscript 1360, folio 002v, Bibliothèque municipale de Besançon, first half of the fifteenth century, http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht5/IRHT_085827-p.jpg, [last accessed: May 2014]); Right: Barbara of Cilli as Venus, “Liber de septem signis”, Bellifortis-fragment (Rolanda Fugger Germadnik, Barbara of Celje, 10). ................................ 4 Figure 2. The family tree of Mary of Anjou and Sigismund of Luxemburg (Sara Katanec) .................................................................................................................................................. 18 Figure 3. The Cilli family tree (Sara Katanec) ...................................................................... 24 Figure 4. The Kotromanić family tree (Sara Katanec) ........................................................ 28 Figure 5. Charter from Krapina, 16 November 1405 (MNL OL DL 78655)..................... 31 Figure 6. Map of Sigismund's travel route in 1405 (Sara Katanec) .................................... 39 Figure 7. Krapina. Castle, nineteenth century (Croatian places in the collection of prints of the Croatian State Archives, http://arhinet.arhiv.hr/_DigitalniArhiv/GrafikeHrvatskihMjesta/Krapina2.htm) .................... 49 Figure 8. The castrum in Krapina (A történelmi Magyarország várai [Castles of historical Hungary], http://jupiter.elte.hu/krapina/krapinarajzok1.jpg) A – Romanesque fundament of the castle; B – workshops and economical buildings near the east wall of the castle; C – chapel of the Holy Trinity; D – gate tower of the upper castle courtyard; E – remains of the living quarters (palace); F – living space in front of the large cave (storage room for the CEU eTD Collection food); G – western wall of the castle; H – northeastern tower of the castle; I – south defense wall of the upper courtyard; J – south defense wall of the lower courtyard; K – barbican of the lower courtyard and the gate of the lower castle; L – natural rock with the remains of medieval fortification features; M – defensive ditch around the northern part of the castle. .. 50 ii Figure 9. Mali Kalnik. Approach route to the stronghold (Horvat, “Ulazi u burgove”, 61) .................................................................................................................................................. 57 Figure 10. Veliki Kalnik. Ground plan of the palace. Ground floor: ŽS – rock in the entrance hall. First floor: PI – exit into a small garden; D – communication shaft; S – vertical rock; Z – lavatory; B – wall towards the tower on the highest part of the stronghold (Horvat, “Stambeni prostori”, 39). ......................................................................................................... 58 Figure 11. Garić. Left: Ground plan of the palace. Ground floor: U – entrance; K – fireplace. First floor: P – tile stove; L – chapel, the shrine from the eastern wall is missing; II. – access to the second floor. Right: Reconstruction of the east façade of the palace