Violant of Hungary

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the Polish princess and nun, see Yolanda of Poland.

Violant of Hungary
Monastery of Santa Maria de Vallbona
SpouseJames I of Aragon
Issue
Yolanda de Courtenay

Violant of Hungary (

House of Árpád, Queen Violant was a valuable and influential advisor of her husband. She remains in folk memory in Catalonia and Valencia.[citation needed
]

Family

Violant was born at Esztergom circa 1215, the only child of King Andrew II of Hungary and his second wife, Yolanda of Courtenay.[1] Violant married King James I of Aragon in 1235.[2] James had already been married to Eleanor of Castile, but he had this marriage annulled on the basis of consanguinity in 1229. He and Eleanor had a son, Alfonso, who was considered legitimate, but who died before James.

James and Violant had ten children:

  1. Violant (1236–1301), Queen of Castile by her marriage to Alfonso X of Castile[3]
  2. Constance (1239–1269)[4]
  3. Peter III of Aragon (1240–1285)[4]
  4. James II of Majorca (1243–1311)[4]
  5. Ferdinand (1245–1250)[4]
  6. Sancha (1246–1251)
  7. Isabella (1247–1271), Queen of France by her marriage to Philip III of France[4]
  8. Maria (1248–1267), nun
  9. Archbishop of Toledo
  10. Eleanor (born 1251, died young)

Queenship

A large number of Hungarian knights escorted the queen to her new homeland with the leadership of Denis of Hungary. Queen Violant was a woman of talent and character. Next to King James I, she had an important political role in the Crown of Aragon. She was one of the most valuable advisors of the king, on whom she had a strong influence. She intervened decisively in international agreements as important as the Treaty of Almizra with Castile (1244). It was signed with the condition that Zayyan ibn Mardanish surrender of the city of Valencia, into which she triumphantly entered with her husband on 9 October 1238.

Death and burial

Violant reportedly died in September 1251.

Pozsony
) to her sons Peter, James, and Sancho (Pozsony being in the possession of her half-brother Béla IV of Hungary, but apparently left to her by her mother Queen Yolanda), and mentioned that she had 5 daughters with the king.

Violant and her daughter Sancha's remains are at the

Monastery of Santa Maria de Vallbona in Vallbona de les Monges, Catalonia. Violant chose burial in that monastery, as she was a benefactor. Her tomb, placed along the wall on the right of the chancel, is fairly simple. It is raised on two pillars decorated with individual gold crosses inscribed in red (gules) circles, and has a gabled lid of white stone. In the center of the lid is a cross with the same characteristics as those on the pillars, but larger and without color. The only ornamentations on the box itself are three depictions of her husband's royal coat of arms – one on the visible side and one at each end. The Queen's remains were moved to the tomb in 1275, as indicated by the inscription on the visible side of the box: Fuit translata donna | Violán regina | Aragonum | anno 1275. In 2002, the Hungarian government financed a restoration of her tomb, costing 12,000 euros, but the monastic community denied permission to study its interior. Violant is the only member of the Árpád dynasty
whose remains are undisturbed.

James I remarried one more time, to Teresa Gil de Vidaure, who was previously his mistress.

Posterity

Since the nineteenth century, streets have been dedicated to Queen Violant in

Saint Denis of Paris. Men typically give their partners a scarf (mocador) containing candied fruits and vegetables made of marzipan
; these candies represent the fruits and vegetables that Valencian Muslims offered James and Violant when they entered the city, according to legend.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Violant of Hungary.
  1. ^ Martin 2012, p. 1089.
  2. ^ Laszlovzky 2016, p. 91.
  3. ^ Woodacre 2013, p. 52.
  4. ^ a b c d e Smith & Buffery 2010, p. 139.
  5. ^ Widmayer 1994, p. 249.

Sources

  • Laszlovzky, Jozsef (2016). "Local tradition or European patterns? The grave of Queen Gertrude in the Pilis Cistercian Abbey". In Jaritz, Gerhard; Szende, Katalin (eds.). Medieval East Central Europe in a Comparative Perspective: From Frontier Zones to Lands in Focus. Routledge. pp. 81–98.
  • Martin, Theresa, ed. (2012). Reassessing the Roles of Women as 'Makers' of Medieval Art and Architecture. Brill.
  • Smith, Damian J.; Buffery, Helen, eds. (2010). The Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon. Ashgate Publishing.
  • Widmayer, Jeffrey S. (1994). "The Chronicle of Montpellier H119:Text, Translation and Commentary". In Kooper, Erik (ed.). The Medieval Chronicle IV. Rodopi. pp. 231–261.
  • Woodacre, Elena, ed. (2013). Queenship in the Mediterranean: Negotiating the Role of the Queen in the Medieval and Early Modern Eras. Palgrave Macmillan.
Violant of Hungary
House of Árpád
Born: circa 1215 Died: 12 October 1251
Royal titles
Preceded by
Queen consort of Aragon

1235–1253 		Succeeded by
New title
Queen consort of Majorca

1235–1253 		Succeeded by
Queen consort of Valencia

1238–1253 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Violant_of_Hungary&oldid=1218951386"