Topics of coins
500th Anniversary of the Birth of Anna Jagiellon
The year 2023 marks the 500th anniversary of
the birth of Anna Jagiellon, the last member
of the Jagiellons. Anna, born on 18 October 1523, was
the daughter of Sigismund the Elder and Bona
Sforza. Anna was raised at the royal court of Kraków
and received comprehensive education. In addition
to learning courtly manners and womanly skills,
such as playing a musical instrument, embroidery
or gardening, she studied the literature of Antiquity,
and historical and geographical works. From her
family home, she knew Polish and Italian, and also
learnt Latin and German.
After her father’s death in 1548, a still unmarried
Anna and her mother moved from Kraków to
Warsaw. When Bona Sforza left Poland in 1556,
Sigismund-Augustus took care of his sister. Anna
established a court of her own and received
substantial revenues from vast land estates. After her
brother died without issue in 1572, Anna became
his principal heir, both financially and politically.
In view of the impending royal election, in the eyes
of the nobility the 50-year-old princess became an
obligatory candidate for a wife for any prince seeking
to run for the Polish throne.
In 1573, representatives of French Prince Henry
Valois, who was elected a Polish monarch, made
a formal pledge that he would marry Anna after
arriving in Poland. However, the young king-elect
avoided making good on the commitment. After
Henry fled Poland, another Election Sejm ended
with a double election. Anna was elected queen
by members of middle nobility. Stephen Bathory,
the Prince of Transylvania, was given to her as a spouse and a co-ruler. Emperor Maximilian II, declared
as a new Polish monarch by the pro-Habsburg faction,
which mostly consisted of senators, was his opponent.
However, he died before claiming the Polish throne.
It was Bathory who took over the real power in Poland.
Although Anna was formally the first of co-rulers, she
was effectively removed from power by her spouse.
After the death of Stephen Bathory in 1586, the Queen
renounced her rights to rule, which led to yet another
election. Sigismund Vasa, the Swedish Prince, came out
victorious, which was in line with the Queen’s plan.
Anna Jagiellon lived in Warsaw until her death in
1596. In the history of the present Polish capital, she
is mainly remembered for financing the completion
of the first permanent bridge over the Vistula River.
The construction of the crossing began in 1567 by order
of Sigismund-Augustus.
Prof. Henryk Litwin
The reverse of the coin features the image of
Anna Jagiellon, made after the miniature by an
anonymous author, the dates of birth and death of
the Queen, and the abbreviation: A. I. I. R. P. (ANNA
IAGIELLONIA INFANS REGNI POLONIAE, Eng.
Anna Jagiellon the Infanta of the Kingdom of
Poland).
The obverse shows the coat of arms of Anna
Jagiellon used in the later period of her life. The coat
of arms is from the so-called portrait of widowed
Anna Jagiellon by Marcin Kober, which is in
the collections of the Museum of King Jan III’s
Palace at Wilanów.