Hedwig Jagiellon, Duchess of Bavaria

Hedwig Jagiellonica (Polish Jadwiga Jagiellonka; * September 21, 1457 in Krakow, † February 18, 1502 in Burghausen), also known as Hedwig von Burghausen, was from 1479 to 1502 Duchess of Bavaria -Landshut as the wife of Duke George the Rich.

She was the daughter of the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Casimir and his wife Elisabeth of Habsburg, daughter of the Roman-German King Albrecht II Her brother Władysław was king of Bohemia since 1471.

In the spring of 1474, the negotiations between the courts began in Landshut and Krakow about a marriage between Hedwig and Duke George, the eldest son of the reigning Duke Louis IX. the Rich of Bavaria- Landshut. Since her groom was related through his grandmother with the Austrian ducal house, the couple needed for a papal dispensation marriage.

On November 14, 1475 wedding took place in Landshut. With the presence of the Emperor and two electors, the celebrations lasted six days and went as one of the most glamorous weddings of the Middle Ages in history. Even today, the town of Landshut celebrates every four years, the so-called Landshut Wedding.

Duchess Hedwig lived after the wedding as their predecessors on the Burghausen Castle, where she allegedly gave birth to five children, of whom remained only two girls, Elizabeth and Margaret alive. The marriage was regarded as not particularly happy. The opinion, however, that she had been banished right after her wedding to Burghausen, does not correspond to the facts. Hedwig died in Burghausen in 1502, a year before her husband. It was in the church of the Cistercian monastery Raitenhaslach, the burial of the deceased in Burghausen Wittelsbach, buried. There are also her wedding grave was to be seen until the secularization. Recently a commemorative inscription was admitted to the floor in its place with the support of sponsors ( the Landshut Wedding ).

After the death of Duke George came in 1504 because of the lack of a male heir to the Landshut War of Succession.