Barbara of Cilli

Biography

Barbara was born in Celje, in the Duchy of Styria (today Slovenia), as the daughter and youngest child of Herman II, Count of Celje, and his wife, Countess Anna of Schaunberg.

Barbara was engaged in 1405 to Sigismund of Luxembourg, King of Hungary, the youngest son of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor. The marriage likely took place in December 1405.

Queen and empress

Sigismund succeeded to the rule in Germany (1410), Bohemia (1419) and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor himself in 1433, giving her the equivalent titles.

She spent most of her time on her Hungarian fiefdoms, while her spouse devoted his time elsewhere. She served as the regent of Hungary during his absences in 1412, 1414, 1416 and 1418. In 1429, she participated at the congress of Łuck. She was crowned Queen of Hungary in 1408, Queen of Germany in 1414 (being the last consort to be crowned in Aachen), Holy Roman Empress in 1433 and Queen of Bohemia in 1437, shortly before her husband's death. In 1409, Barbara gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth, Sigismund's only surviving issue and heiress, who married King Albert II of Germany.

Barbara was richer than any precedent queen. In 1409, the former estates of the Ban of Slavonia was bestowed upon Barbara. She had a difficult phase though, when in 1419, rumours reached Sigismund that she had an affair with a German knight during his stay at Konstanz. The king took away the queen's possessions, dissolved her entourage and exiled her to Oradea. During the Christmas of 1419, Bishop George of Passau and Hofmeister Louis of Oettingen tried to arrange a reconciliation. Barbara fell on her knees begging for the king's forgiveness but Sigismund refused to listen, until the 10-year-old Elizabeth intervened on behalf of her mother. She was allowed to hold her own court again in 1423 only. In 1424, her husband lavishly compensated her for her lost estates. Barbara was given, among others, the counties of Zvolen and Trenčín, as well as the revenues of Kremnica. The northern estates mortgaged to her included: Diósgyőr in 1427, Liptov in 1430, part of the Stibor inheritance in 1434. Her household became slightly more modest than her previous one. A notable feature was that the highest offices were now occupied by simple knights, instead of illustrious barons, like what had happened in the time of the Angevin rulers and Mary.

She was an energetic regent who also functioned as the head military commander in the case the country was attacked. In 1431, Hungary was beleaguered by Hussite forces twice. During the second one, they even infringed on Barbara's fiefs, notably Liptov. In October, at her castle in Old Buda, she learned of the situation in Liptov and possibly also the occupation of the Likava Castle by the Hussites. She immediately instructed Kremnica to follow the lead of Hanns Wallenroth and sent a large force to relieve Liptov. In October, she moved to Vígľaš, where she organized the defence against the Hussites led by Messenpek and planned the reconquest of Likava Castle. On 13 October 1431, Barbara sent a letter to the city of Košice, in which she informed them about loss of Likava and gave the order that their military divisions should be incorporated to her army as soon as possible. After this under the command of her military commander and main chronicler Stefan Poharnok ("Stefan the Cupbearer"), the army undertook the reconquering of Likava Castle. According to Dvořáková, "the lack of sources do not permit us to determine when Barbara got Likava back, and whether a Hussite garrison operated for several years at Likava, as some historians assume.", but "It is possible that Barbara's energetic interventions allowed her to send a strong force to the Liptov region in a short time, causing the Hussites to leave

Conflict with Albert II

Days before the death of her gravely ill husband on 9 December 1437 at Znojmo, as a pretext to confiscate her large fiefdoms in the Hungarian kingdom (where she rivaled the king himself in number of fiefdoms and castles), she was quickly accused by her son-in-law Albert II of Germany of the Habsburg dynasty and his chancellor Kaspar Schlick of plotting against Sigismund, for which she was swiftly transported to prison in Bratislava castle and later forced to relinquish most of her possessions, including her dower. Conflict with the new king was inevitable, and Barbara soon decided to find shelter in the Polish royal court, where she was in exile from 1438 to 1441. The King of Poland decided to give her financial support by granting her Sandomierz as a fief, according to the chronicle of Jan Długosz.

Later life

In 1441, two years after the death of her arch-rival King Albert II of Germany, she moved to Mělník in Bohemia – a fiefdom given to her by her deceased husband. All her Hungarian fiefdoms were already lost; some of them belonged to her daughter, Queen Elisabeth. Later she reconciled with her daughter and renounced her rights to Hungarian possessions (1441). She spent the rest of her life as dowager queen in Bohemia. She seems to have retreated from political life, although the Habsburg court saw her as dangerous and tried to accuse her of heresy, alchemy, and immoral and agnostic behavior, for which she received the sobriquet "Messalina of Germany".

She died of the plague epidemic in Mělník and was buried in St. Andrew's chapel of St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague.

Cultural depictions

Recently, scholarly interest in Barbara's life and career has been increasing. Modern portrayals tend to show the late medieval ruler in a much more positive light than medieval writings. Historians pay more attention to her independent character, her notable political achievements, her shrewd administrative of her property, her versatile nature (she spoke several languages and was a practicing alchemist).

Historiography

Late medieval and early modern scholars often presented the empress in a bad light, highlighting her sexual deviancy. Daniela Dvořáková opines that the major creator of this negative image was Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, later Pope Pius II, who hated the Cillis and also worked for Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, who also harboured enmity towards the Cillis (in 1436, Sigismund raised the Cillis, who had been vassals to the Habsburgs, to princes, without the consent of Frederick, who was at that time Duke Frederick V of Austria). Later, the historian Johannes Cuspinian (1473–1529) further developed the sensual, negative image created by Piccolomini. Cuspinian was the first author who compared Barbara with the Roman empress Messalina. Later, Johann Jakob Fugger (1516–1575) associated Barbara with the enduring label "the German Messalina" (Teutsche Messalina)

Barbara returned as the focus of biographical research through two early Leipzig dissertation in 1755 and 1759. In 1908, Hans von Chilian, again in Leipzig, published the dissertation Barbara von Cilli, in which the queen-empress was recognized as a brilliantly gifted individual. Recently, together with the extraordinary development of research on Sigismund, more attention has also been paid to Barbara.

Recent research, such as those of Rolanda Fugger Germadnik ("the leading Slovene expert on Barbara of Cilli") or Daniela Dvořáková, aims at clearing the queen's name of the old disreputable accusations. She is now presented as an early emancipated, energetic, self-confident woman of profound education, who has been demonized unfairly.

Dvořáková opines that Barbara "ranks among the most fascinating female historical figures of the first half of the 15th century", although until now she has been in the shadow of her more celebrated husband. According to the researcher, "The cohabitation of Sigismund and Barbara was built not only on affection or even love, but also on their mutually beneficial cooperation. Thanks to her wealth, multiplied by good management, a well-thought-through financial policy, as well as the choice of capable people, the queen always had money available, which her husband always needed. Due to his absolute occupation in politics, he did not have the capacity to devote himself to the administration of his own properties." By the end of her husband's reign, she held 30 castles, equal to the number held by the king, while the Cilli counts held 17. Dvořáková opines that Barbara's imprisonment after or shortly before the death of Sigismund was either without her husband's knowledge or manipulation of the dying Sigismund, likely on behalf of her son-in-law, King Albert of Austria. Dvořáková points out that it was the inevitable fate of self-confident queens, without the protection of their husbands, to end up badly in that era – which can be seen in the cases of Elizabeth of Bosnia, widow of Louis I the Great; Barbara's daughter Elizabeth of Luxembourg or Beatrice of Naples, widow of Matthias Corvinus.

Legends and anecdotes

In Croatian folklore, Barbara is often identified with the figure of the Black Queen. The black queen is described as a lady with long black hair, who dressed herself in black. There are dark legends about Black Queen-Barbara that are still widely known today, including:

The queen had many lovers. When she did not like them anymore, she had them thrown over the wall of her castle.

She was a bird-whisperer who kept a pet black raven that would attack people on her command.

She asked the Devil to protect Medvedgrad against invading Turks, offering her own life to him. Later she tried to trick the devil but failed. A version recounts that she offered 12 buckets of gold to anyone who could bring her around the fortress of Medvedgrad twelve times. But nobody managed to do this due to all the hidden traps around the fortress. She was turned into a snake. But once every hundred years, on a certain day, it is possible for a man who, if he encounters her in the form of a snake, to remove the curse by a kiss.

Barbara supposedly had many lovers. Dvořáková says that these adultery stories are based on very shaky ground. For example, the German knight Johannes de Wallenroth (whose involvement with Barbara is written down by the Bavarian historian Enoch Widmann, who lived two centuries after Barbara) actually served in her court and possibly later boasted about the queen's favour when he retired to Germany, but it is hard to imagine that Sigismund would tolerate him to the degree that he could continue to work for her many years after the alleged uncovering of infidelity.

She has even been portrayed as a lesbian vampire – a beautiful (one of the traits older chroniclers and historians agreed about her) but nefarious creature. She allegedly kept a female harem during her exile in Melnyk and had orgies with young girls. The vampiristic stories originated at least partly from Piccolomini's account, which claims that, after the death of Albrecht, Barbara (who did not believe in the afterlife according to Piccolomini) and Elizabeth used to desecrate the Holy Communion by drinking real human blood. This would, even by modern medical standards, qualify Barbara as a "living vampire" (a person who drinks human blood). McNally comments that, "So, how can one evaluate the role of Barbara von Cilli? During a time when royalty in both western and eastern Europe could barely sign their names, Barbara knew German, Hungarian, Czech, Latin, and even a little Polish. She lived a comparatively free life in the manner of the Italian Renaissance with emphasis upon individual freedom. In fact, Barbara appears to have been an early example of an emancipated woman, who probably frightened her male contemporaries and led to her nefarious reputation as a lesbian vampire."

Depictions in arts

She was present in the Reminiscences of Helene Kottanner, a lady-in-waiting to Barbara's daughter Queen Elizabeth and one of the first known female memoirist.

Slovenian artist Rudolf Španzel created a depiction of hers.

In 2020, Renáta Fučíková pays tribute to Barbara with an illustration in a series about Czech heroines.

In 1941, Ján Greža wrote the novel Barbora Cellská about Barbara.

She is a character in Das Lächeln der Imperia by Antje Windgassen. The main character is Gabriella Cognati, a courtesan who calls herself Imperia and is the mistress of Sigismund. The relationship between Barbara and Gabriella is friendly. The story is tied to the 1414 Council of Constance.

Mircalla, Countess Karnstein (the female vampire Carmilla), the title character of Carmilla, a 1872 Gothic novella by Sheridan Le Fanu, is likely based on the legendary image of Barbara as a vampire.

Barbara is featured as the main character in the wraparound narrative of the story collection Waggish Tales of the Czechs. Referred to as "Queen Barbota," Barbara is portrayed as a somewhat ribald character who, bedridden and bored during her pregnancy, engages her women-in-waiting in telling her moral tales. According to the book's foreword, these are "lusty, uproarious, sometimes cruelly brutal yarns, recited with the coarse gusto and abounding virility of a healthy outdoor people". Queen Barbota takes great delight in them.

In August 2023, the German horror fiction author Markus Heitz will publish the novel Die Schwarze Königin. The story is about a young man named Len (a Drăculești and the last descendant of Vlad II Dracul) going to Prague and Banat, assisted by his friend Klara (an ex-history professor) via the internet. He comes into contact with the world of the past, in which Barbara von Cilli and Vlad II fought against vampires living underground in Transylvania and Wallachia.

Commemoration

In 2014 (the 600th Anniversary of the Council of Constance and Barbara's coronation as Queen of Germany), the Provincial Museum of Celje organized the Year of Barbara of Cilli. Also in 2014, a €2 commemorative coin depicting the queen hold a sceptre was issued on behalf of Slovenia, designed by Matej Ramšak.

On 19 November and 10 December 2022, Konstanz will organize the event Barbara von Cilli – Kaiserin, Alchemistin, Vampir.