consort": "We
slew numberless enemies, not through the strength of Our arm, or the
multitude of Our warriors, but solely with the aid of Our Lord, who may
further us in power and virtue!" This document not only shows Jagiello's
adherence to Christianity, but also proves the respect paid to a Polish
queen, even though she was inferior to Jadwiga, who was the reorganizer
and refounder not only of a mighty realm, but also of the famous old
University of Cracow, which before her time had sunk into complete
insignificance. She had obtained in 1397 a papal bull for the foundation
of a theological faculty, and insured the existence of the university
for the future by rich legacies bequeathed on her deathbed.

One century and a half later a royal romance with a tragic ending was
enacted in Poland. King Sigismund (Augustus) II. (1547-1572), on the
death of his first wife Elizabeth, daughter of Emperor Ferdinand I.,
married secretly Barbara Radziwil, of the most illustrious Lithuanian
family. On his accession to the throne he avowed his marriage, and the
princess accompanied him to Cracow to attend the funeral of his father.
The diet of Piotrkow believing a union with a foreign princess more
profitable to Poland, demanded the annulment of his marriage with
Barbara, but the king resisted, and saw her crowned as his queen in
1550. Six months after her coronation, however, she died suddenly,
probably poisoned by her mother-in-law, the hated Italian, Bona Sforza,
who as queen had exercised a baneful influence upon Polish life. The
unfortunate Queen Barbara is idealized in Polish lays, and the portraits
preserved of her show beauty of form and features.

It may be interesting to note the relation of the great Polish king Jan
Sobieski (1674-1696), the liberator of Vienna, and in truth of Europe,
from the Turkish conquerors, to his wife, who exercised an almost
complete dominion over him. We have an admirable description of the
Polish court at the time of Sobieski; of his extraordinary wife and
daughter, and of social affairs there, in a report by a contemporary, an
anonymous French abbe, whose manuscript was found in the Bibliotheque
Mazarin, in Paris, and was published for the first time in 1858. He
describes the Polish nobility as turbulent in the Diet and at home,
tells of their luxury and their habits, the high esteem in which ladies
of high birth were held, and the scandalous treatment of peasant women,
as well as the absolute po